My Blog List

Friday, March 9, 2012

Gasparilla and treadmills

Whew. What a week. I decided to do one long week post rather than short everyday ones...although Gasparilla really does deserve it's own RR.

What is Gasparilla, you may ask....well it's a huge festival in Tampa commemorating the supposed invasion of the pirate Jose Gaspar into the waters around Tampa over 100 years ago. It's turned into one big excuse for a party and fun. There are three parades (Mardi Gras-esque with bead throwing pirates), a music festival, arts festival, and a Distance Classic. Last weekend was the Distance Classic. There was a 5k and 15k on Saturday, and the 8k and 1/2 marathon on Sunday.

I ran in the 5k (second one in a week) and DH did the 15k. Because it is such a huge event, we actually had an expo to go do. As far as expos go, this one was pretty decent. Lots of different goodies, free stuff, and vendors. Coolest part was seeing my name on the competitors wall! Anyhow on Saturday (race day)....it was HOT (high 70s, low 80s, medium to high humidity) so I knew I wasn't going to be my time from the Suncoast 5k. There were also over 11,000 runners signed up for the 5k so I knew it was going to be insane. The first half mile or so I tried to run and keep up with my friend and then we walked a lot of it. We started near the back of the pack (slightly ahead of the strollers and the grannies with their walkers) and it was crowded. Since the course was a simple out and back, we saw the winner of the race cross the finish line before we even started! Anyhow, the course is beautiful....right along the bay. Downside on a hot day: no trees. There was some decent crowd support and since there were so many runners....it was like a big wave of people moving en masse. However, the aid stations ran out of cups (WTF???) and so some runners were drinking out of the misters the race people were kind enough to put up along the second half of the course. I ended up finishing 5 minutes slower than the week before because of the heat and the crowd, but I did get my first official bling! Definitely would do this again next year although I may think twice about the 5k and maybe do the 8 or 15k instead.

Oh....and it was at this race that i made a monumental (some might say crazy) decision: I signed up for my first half marathon more than 4 months ahead of schedule. The Women's Half Marathon series in going to be in St. Petersburg on November 18. My friend Vanessa  signed up for it at the Gasparilla expo and talked me into it as well. The WHM has a very nice course layout (much of it along the same area I ran my first 5k) and has a very generous 4 hour time limit (18:00 minute/mile pace). Essentially, I could walk the whole thing if I so chose. I estimate it will be more like 3 or 3.5 hours BUT now I have a major summer training goal to work towards.

Which leads me to this week. After my 5k on satruday, i decided to go out for a run/walk on sunday and ended up going 2 miles. YAY! So on Monday, I recommitted to doing the Couch to 5k (C25k) FULLY this time ( i kinda played around with it earlier but it didnt stick). I went back to week 1 day 1 (run 60 seconds, walk 1.5 minutes, repeat continually for 30 minutes). The first time through I had such a hard time with the 60 seconds at a time....seemed easy at the beginning but then i cut the runs short towards the end. This time I fought through some of the mental "wanna stop" feelings and did all but 1 60 second spurt. YAY!

Then I was besieged by some weird stomach/head issue. I had a constant sour feeling in the pit of my stomach and my head was constantly swimming. I wished I could have thrown up or something just to get it to go away. Today is the first day I have felt better. But I had to cut skating short on Wednesday and give up running Wed. and Thursday. I was worried about today but in the end, I'm glad I met DH at the gym. I got there and hopped on the treadmill for C25K w1d2. I did my runs at anywheres from 5.5-6 mph and my walks around 3.5 or 3.7 and the running pace felt decent and even. I turned the personal TV to baseball and just went with it. I had some moments where I thoguth I wanted to quit but I went through the whole workout. Many times I was surprised when the 60 seconds were up....felt like i was just getting going. I went through the whole workout with no pain and felt great (other than sweaty and stinky). I added another 10 minutes on the elliptical and 2 or so on the bike for good measure.

Now I feel exhausted and achy....God I hope I'm not getting sick...I am on break from school next week and would like to actually enjoy my time off...

Planning on last day of week 1 on sunday and then tuesday start week 2. Wednesday I am doing a power conditioning class at the ice rink....essentially aerobics on skates skating lots of laps around the ice....my coach estimates that 10 laps around the ice is a mile and they usually get 3-4 miles in during a class. whew! i think that class will help both my skating and my running.

Ok time to find a blanket and my pillow...and some aspirin for the aches....

2 comments:

  1. I hope it's not the sickies for you. Good job picking your next goal with the WHM. When I'm on the TM, I usually listen to audiobooks. I download them from the library (yay free!) and that way I can just get lost in a book. Sometimes I'll cover the display too, but usually I try to just not look. Good luck with your training.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow! Out and backs are fun.. But kinda discouraging too when you see the faster runners on their way back and you havent even made it to the turn around yet! I remember my first 5K was similar to that.. I barely crossed over the starting line and the winners were already making their way back.

    Yay for signing up for the half!! I havent made that official committment yet, but Im so close.

    I have a very short stride, so running on the treadmill is tough for me. I have a hard time keeping up. The fastest Ive ever managed to "sprint" was 7.5mph. I have to really control myself to run at 5.5-6 so I think thats impressive. You will be faster than me before long!

    ReplyDelete