AR 50: The Best Day Ever *teaser*

Yesterday I ran the American River 50 Mile Endurance run. To say that it was probably the best day of my life would be sad, and cheesy. And true. But it’s ok, I’m not married yet and don’t have babies, so I’m sure one day this B.D.E. will be surpassed.

I know you all are dying to hear the details. I want to put together a post that would do the day justice, so I’m taking my time. For now, just the basics.

-I finished in 10:51:09, which is an official qualifying time for the Western States Endurance Run. It’s not the best time ever, but WAY BETTER than expected, considering my non-existent training.

-I ran for the majority of the race. I took 2 minute walk breaks occasionally, but felt SO GREAT that I ran a slow jog almost the entire time.

-I wore BRIGHT pink compression calf sleeves and through out the entire race, everyone shouted “nice socks!!” and “hey, pink socks!!”. I chose not to correct them on this technicality :)

Some photo highlights:

Have you ever heard of the phrase that a guy “got chicked?” (Urban dictionary it.) Happened a lot during this race 😉

Read about it tomorrow night (??) when I’ll hopefully have a nice, long race report.

Weird Faces and Nervous Energy

In a day and a half, I’ll be running my first ever 50 mile race. I’m scared as heck and have been acting a little kooky for the last day or so. Have you ever been SO EXCITED for something, and wanted to CRAP YOUR PANTS at the same time?? Well, that’s how I feel right now. Hopefully the latter won’t happen.

Today, Tony and I were driving around and saw this:

We drove past it too fast and I couldn’t get a pic, so Tony switched to the slow lane and I got a good shot. I’ve been on ice-cream/froyo withdrawal for the last 2 weeks, and I’m already thinking about what I want to indulge in on Sunday. If I run 50 miles, that means I can eat 5,000 calories worth of ice cream and not gain wait. (Right? 😉 ) Yessss!!

To rid myself of all this nervous energy, I’ve been doing some funky dancing. Unfortunately for you all, I have no videos, so you’ll have to just imagine it. Or ask Tony. He loves when I funky dance, and I’m sure the looks he gives me are ones of awe and admiration.

Instead, I’ll show you all my talent for making weird faces.

And your welcome.

Hope everyone has a relaxing weekend! Think of me this Saturday and send me some positive energy!!

 

Product Placement and some modeling

I just started piling up some things I’m gonna pack for the race this Saturday. Just in case ya’ll want to know what I’m bringing…

 

Most importantly: SHOES!! I best not forget these babies :)

The Saucony Guide 5 (in the middle) is what I’ll wear for the first 20 or so miles, which take place on a paved bike path. Might wear them the whole race depending on how I’m feeling. Who knows?? The ones of the left, RocLite 268 (by a brand called Inov-8) are my favorite trail shoes, and might be worn during last 30ish miles, which are on trails. Again, it’s gonna be a race-day decision. The Komodo Sport LS (by Vibram) are gonna be used as walk-around shoes the day before. Might wear them on Easter Sunday too, but I don’t want to embarrass my family more than usual.

Although there are aid stations during the race, I’ll have a lot of miles to myself and have to make sure I eat. I’ve run three 50K trail races and during each race I’ve found myself lightheaded and dizzy. This is pretty darned dangerous since some of the trails are on big mountains. Weird thing is, during these races is the ONLY TIME IN MY LIFE that I don’t want to eat. So I’m hoping to force down GUs, maybe trail mix, and stock up on PB&J’s to eat before the race.

Excuse the blurry photo. Here’s my race day outfit. It’s supposed to be pretty warm so have to remember to load up on sunblock! I’ll probably wear a sweatshirt for the first few hours since the race starts at 6 a.m.

My modeling dreams went down the drain when I stopped growing at 5'5". And when I started weighing in 3 digits.

This vest is probably my favoritist thing ever. It’s from a new company called UltrAspire. If you ever have to run a longer race or a marathon on trails, this is handy to have because you can fit EVERYTHING in here: iphone, 10 or so GU’s, tissue, headphones, pills (there’s a special sweatproof pocket for salt tabs and pills), pepper spray, you name it. It is lightweight and hardly noticeable when you’re running. For people who carry their water (rather than wearing a hydration pack–backpack with a water bladder), it’s handy to have a vest to hold all your necessities.

Shout out to ZombieRunner, my former (and possibly future) employer. They’re located in Palo Alto and have an EXCELLENT supply of running shoes and gear. They specialize in trail shoes and cater to the ultrarunner. The owners, Gillian and Don, are both ultrarunners who have run some of the baddest races out there including Western States and Badwater. If you get a chance to visit the store, make sure you stop by the espresso bar–yes, espresso bar!!–and say hi to Courtney or Don if they’re there. They also have an online store that has free shipping to the continental US.

If anyone has any questions about the products I use, feel free to email me (runningaimlessly@yahoo.com) or comment below. I would talk about each product extensively, but that’s boring to most people (including my mom and boyfriend, who are the only people I know of who read by blog <3 Love you guys!!)

Happy running! :)

 

 

 

Nice Walk and Good Music

Sometimes it’s ok to just walk. Here that, runners? IT’S OK TO WALK. Since I’m freaked out about aggravating my knee before Saturday’s AR50 I decided to walk my favorite trail. It’s a park with rolling hills right along the East Bay; it’s beautiful and smelly at the same time.

Just wanted to share a few shots:

This guy ran past me and I actually wanted to chase him down. "I can run too, ya know!" But then I realized he probably didn't care I was just walking.

Windy!

OK, time to turn around!!

I ended up walking a little over 5 miles. It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed taking it easy for once. When I run trails, I’m always staring at the ground (so I don’t trip and face plant), and I try not to run with music (I always want to change the song and I’m afraid if I do so while running, I’ll trip and face plant). Walking, however, I really got to enjoy the scenery and rock out to some good tunes on Pandora.

Some highlights from the Quick Mix:

-“Bohemian Rhapsody” Queen

-“All Right Now” The Free Story

-“Killing In The Name” Rage Against the Machine <– LOVE THEM! I was an angsty teen :)

-“Give It Away” Red Hot Chili Peppers

-“Miss You” Rolling Stones <–I just recently discovered how awesome they are. Who knew??

Most of these songs made me want to run, but I ended up just bopping my head and shaking my hips, and singing to myself like any other crazy lady going for a walk.

 

 

Goal #2: Train HARDER and SMARTER

This Saturday is my first 50 mile race. The American River 50 mile endurance run is what experienced ultrarunners consider an “easy 50.” The first 25 miles or so take place on a relatively flat bike path, and the rest is on trails, with mild changes in elevation until the last 3 miles.

Elevation Profile

(source)

For some silly reason, I was unintimidated by this course and kept thinking, Oh, easy 50! I can do it in 10 hours, no problem. What the heck is wrong with me?? My training consisted of taking it easy when my knee hurt, when I had a cold, and when I could think of any other excuse. And now, I’m FREAKING out! I’ve been a procrastinator my whole life (some of my best papers in college were written the night before), but training for a 50 mile race is NOT something you can cram in at the last minute.

This being said, I can only hope/pray/beg for the best this Saturday. I can also make sure not to make this mistake again. I’ve already signed up for my next race, the Tahoe Rim Trail 50 mile endurance run, which will take place in July. The elevation chart for that race looks like this:

50m-100mProfile.jpg

(source)

Notice how the start line is at an elevation of 7000 ft. So not only do I have to deal with 6,895 ft of TOTAL elevation gain (which is about twice as much as I’ll be climbing this Saturday), but I’ll have to do it at altitude!! So you can see why I’m already freaking out for this race too.

A few weeks back I bought a book on my kindle called Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons, by Bryon Powell. (He has a great blog, irunfar.com, that you should check out!) It gives a lot of useful advice and covers pretty much everything you’ll need to know about ultrarunning, including how to tactfully pee in the woods. He also includes several training plans, which I am ACTUALLY going to use this next time around!

The one on the left goes up to 50 miles/week and the one on the right goes up to about 70 miles/week. Ideally, I’d like to follow the plan on the right, and default to the plan on the left when I need a break. Obviously I don’t have 24 weeks to prepare (the Tahoe Rim Trail run–TRT50–is on July 21), so I will have to start somewhere in the middle of the plan. I’ll figure out the logistics after I get past the AR50.

Basically, for Goal #2 I plan on following the training plan and consistently hitting the weekly mileage and long run mileage. I also plan on resting when it says REST, because sometimes that’s what my body needs! And I also hope to incorporate some cross training and strength training to keep those joints healthy and muscles in balance. And as boring as it might be for you guys, I’ll blog about it so I can keep myself in check.

So, how am I doing on my eating healthy goal? Well, Tony and I made this amazing catfish dish last night.

Wild rice, caesar salad with light dressing, and catfish: coated in cooking spray, sprinkled with lowfat cheddar and crumbled Chex cereal. This has been our go-to healthy meal for the last few weeks. We change up the fish and type of salad, cuz we’re crazy like that.

I’ve also kept up a promise I made to myself: no froyo until after the AR50. It’s been almost 2 weeks and I’ve started having hallucinations that look like this:

 

Anyone have any go-to healthy meals that are easy to prepare? I hate fish but eat it because it’s healthy. I usually have to douse it in seasoning/sauce/cheesyChex to get it down the gullet.

Craigslist Monday

For those of you who are new to my blog, I am an unemployed 28 year old trying to find my calling in life (who also enjoys running. and is aimless). While I’m pretty dead set on getting my teaching credential, I still have to pass the CSET and if I do pass, I have a few months until I go back to school. Until then, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting jobs that might turn into promising careers. Craigslist is always sure to provide some great gems, and I like to post these opportunities on my blog so others can reap the benefits as well:

Now Auditioning Exotic Dancers (north beach / telegraph hill)


Date: 2012-04-02, 12:16PM PDT

Roaring 20’s adult nightclub, located at 552 Broadway in North Beach, is currently auditioning charming young dancers. Great money to be made – in cash. No experience necessary. Professional management team in place will train. Plus, you can make your own schedule.Call the manager at (415) 788-6765 anytime after noon for more info or to arrange an audition.Roaring 20s552 Broadway at ColumbusSan Francisco

  • Principals only. Recruiters, please don’t contact this job poster.
  • Phone calls about this job are ok.
  • Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

This job appeals in SO many was. “No experience necessary”, “Will train”, “Make your own schedule”?? And you get paid in cash-money? Almost sounds too good to be true! While part of me wants to say MAKE IT RAIN!!!, another part of me knows that deep down, I wouldn’t get the job. First of all, I’m no longer young and certainly never was charming. Secondly, I saw this add last week which means they’re probably looking for someone with real talent. Otherwise they’d have FOR SURE filled the position already. “No experience necessary” my arse!! So as great an opportunity as it is, I don’t think I’ll apply–my self esteem couldn’t take the rejection. *sigh* 

Oh, and my dad would surely kill me.

Back to the drawing board…

Goal #1: Eat more healthfully and mindfully

Since there are a lot of goals I have for myself, I thought I’d spend this week addressing my goals one day at a time. Hopefully putting my goals out there will help me stay accountable. That’s why everyone starts a blog, right?

So goal #1 is COMPLETELY BORING AND UNORIGINAL, but something that needs to be done: eat more healthfully and mindfully.

The most common fallacy of runners is that we think we can eat as much as we want. Even those of us who are somewhat aware of eating healthfully get caught up in the excitement that yes, we just ran 10 miles so we can have that ice cream/oreo/juicy burger/extra ranch on everything/etc. Or beer. Who doesn’t like beer??


I sure do. And it’s ok to drink it. Just not a 6 pack a day. If you drink enough to make a beer-amid, you’ve drank too much for the day.

I guess we were too drunk to make a taller beeramid. Best light beer ever BTW

Enough with the beer photos. You know that saying, “Don’t live to eat, eat to live”? Well, I’d like to do both, but with healthfulness in mind. It’s a hard thing to do, to find that right balance. I definitely LOVE to be able to eat yummy things and I’m proud of the fact that I have a strong and lean body, but I also know that there is room for improvement. I’m sure that at mile 48 this Saturday I’ll be saying to myself WHY??? did I eat all those Oreos?? Why?? Why didn’t I eat more yummy, healthy salads (like this one)?

So the moral of this post is not for me to start obsessing about food. I’ve been there and it’s not fun and it makes me grumpy. Rather, it’s to try to make smarter choices. Or at least ask myself this question: Is it worth it? And for sure, sometimes it is :)

Oh, and to try try tryyy to only eat cupcakes and cake on birthdays!

Redemption!!

Today I had an AWESOME ten mile trail run. The wind was at my back for the last 5 miles, the birds were chirping, there wasn’t too much animal poop on the ground, and I was flying! After the run, I thought to myself, I could sure as shoot run another 40 miles! <–Ok not quite true. But it was still a great run. It also helped solidify some logistics decisions for me for my upcoming 50 mile race. One, I will be carrying my water bottles rather than using a hydration pack:

No, I won't carrying them both in one hand. I just needed my right to take the picture, silly.

I ran the whole 10 miles carrying these babies and by the end I barely noticed they were there. I’m sure it’ll get annoying after 50 miles, and I might drop one off mid-race, but we’ll see. I’ve been doing push-ups and although I don’t have arms like Madonna (nor do I want arms like that!!), I have been getting stronger.

Next, I’ve decided which shoes I’m going to wear:

I’ve worn Saucony Guides for 3 different models. This is their newest, the Guide 5. I had switched to minimal shoes for awhile, and I think the combination of no support/no cushioning/increase in mileage has caused knee pain. So the Guide 5 is a great compromise. It is by no means minimal, but it is lightweight and has a more natural drop (8mm) than “traditional running shoes”. Although I’ve enjoyed running in Vibram Five Fingers, and other minimal models, I know I can run long in these babies and am sure I’ll appreciate the cushioning after 30 miles on pavement. Now my only decision is whether or not to change shoes for the last 20 miles, which will be on trails. I’m guessing this decision will be made mid-race because I’m CRAZY like that. :)

So this is how happy I am after my run! Faaaar from cute, but not as ugly as when I’m pouting. One of these days I’ll have to take a normal picture to prove to you all I don’t always have a weird looking face.

 

How’d you all enjoy your Sunday??