2010

Post last published on November 1st, wow that's pretty awful! While I'm not one to make excuses (who am I kidding?), the month of December was anything BUT an opportunity for extra time to squeeze running into the picture. So I took a month hiatus (I believe the last time I ran was on Dec 3rd?) In addition to preparing for the holidays, which included shopping, wrapping, baking, cooking, and hand-making 43 unique Christmas cards, each one different, I packed up my entire life and moved in with my boyfriend. I will tell you right now that the worst possible time for you to move in Wisconsin is in the winter, but worse is during Christmas. I seriously don't know what I was thinking. On moving day--December 26th--of course it had to snow...of course it did. And the cleaning, my God the cleaning. I lived in my old apartment for four years and that is four years of dirt in places you never knew existed. In any case, I am currently as snug as a bug in a really large, gorgeous, Arts and Crafts style second floor apartment, a block from Lake Michigan, with two cats, and a seriously amazing boyfriend.



Now that I'm settled, I can restart my life back up again, and that includes my life as a runner! So with that said, here are some goals for 2010.

-Overcome my fear of running in Wisconsin winters.

I do perfectly well with cold runs, in fact, I really enjoy them because I "run hot," in other words, I run in a t-shirt and shorts when it's 40 degrees outside, and I'm still sweaty. But in the winter it isn't 40. Oh no my dears. Right now it's 12 degrees outside and that's actually not bad. The low for Sunday is supposed to hover right around zero. Now I got a pair of nice cozy running gloves for Christmas. For my birthday, which is Wednesday, my stepdad is taking me to a running store for a little spending spree! So I'll pick up some running tights and a hoodie, and perhaps look into a face mask of some kind because the worst part about winter running is breathing zero degree air into your lungs. Another negative to running in the winter is the darkness. I wake up, it's dark. I get out of work, it's dark. And while Milwaukee isn't the worst crime-ridden city...oh wait, yeah it is! We rank Number 9 so that's awesome and really makes me want to venture out into the darkness.

Now, I thought about joining a gym for two months (January and February are rough here, but March isn't bad at all, that's when I started running, and it was mostly 35-45 degrees, very handle-able!), but a. I don't know if I really want to shell out the money for a gym, and b. you just don't get the same workout on a treadmill that you do in the outdoors (and it's definitely REALLY boring too!) So this winter thing is a biggie, and I truly hope to find the motivation to get out there.

-More races!

I have a really good friend at work who seriously kicks major ass at running. She did 18 races this past year and wants to surpass that goal big time this year. We're not competitive with one another per se because she's clearly a more established runner than I am ;) However, she gives me a lot of motivation to kind of "keep up" with her abilities! So I'd love to sign up for more races and keep my running spirit alive that way.


-Run a half marathon questionmark???

And speaking of running in more races, I recently read on a running blog I follow, a fellow beginner runner is going to try a half marathon in the spring. She recently ran her first 5K, so this is a pretty huge goal! But she set up shop with a trainer and, while it's a huge goal, it's also a realistic goal if she truly puts her mind, spirit, and energy into it! Well this got me thinking: There's a half marathon literally right in my new neighborhood this April. It's SO tempting, but originally my "big running goal" for 2010 was just a 15K in the fall. Now that would be 9 miles vs 13 miles, so slapping an extra 4 miles onto my original goal...and then moving it up six months...is no big deal at all right? Right??

I definitely need a kick in the ass, in regards to the aforementioned winter blahs putting a kink into my routine. I had a good thing going back there and was up to 7 miles, and a pretty easy 7 miles at that! When I was in my prime, around November, reaching the 9 mile mark was going to be a piece of cake. Now maybe not so much, but I don't think a month off put me too far off track. So with that said, I think waiting for my "giant goal" of a 9 mile race waaaaaay off in October isn't as exciting AND we all know that Katie needs exciting goals to keep herself motivated. So with this said, I'm just going to keep my options open. The Half barely costs anything and I can sign up day of, no big deal.

Alright, so that's 2010 for you! This is the year I spend being 30 years old, so it's a red letter year for sure. I'd love to make it count.

Lakefront Discover 5K

Done and done! And done it was!! It was about 42 degrees with like 100mi/hr wind gusts. Ok that second part was an exaggeration, but seriously, it was windy. So like I said, I was hoping to break 27 and did I ever!! I hauled major A the first mile with 7:45...what the?!?!? Well let me just tell you that I seriously paid the price for that. The two miles after that were a real dooze. I was huffin' and puffin' more than I ever have during a run. They offered little cups of beer at the 2.75ish mile mark and I couldn't even look at the stand haha! I think my biggest issue was--and please excuse the mild disgust--crazy major phlegm happening. I swear I thought I was going to choke!! Ok end disgust ;) Anyway! I seriously gave it all I had in the last two blocks. I could see the finish and I was like, omg, how am I ever going to get there...TWO BLOCKS! But I passed this chick on my left and just plowed through the pain. I saw my sister cheering me on to my right, and straight ahead, right after the finsih was my sweet boyfriend, camera-ready, to take what I'm sure is THEE ugliest photo of me ever!! THank GOD it's film so I don't have to see it for a few weeks ;)

So after finishing, I seriously told everyone to just HOLD on while I leaned over my knees trying to make my lungs work again. After a minute I regained my composure, had an Oreo and a couple mini Special Dark bars, washed them down with a whole water bottle, and began the freezing cold search for my bag. I tossed it in the Uhaul right at the last minute so it wasn't in an organized box with my name on it. Dumb. I was like "I wish I could look for this thing with CLOTHES on!!!" I mean not only was I wearing shorts and a tshirt in 42 degree 100mi/hr wind gusts, but the sweat (yes I sweat in 42 degree weather haha!) had now turned to icicles all over my body. Anyway, I found the thing and my sis, Chris, and I headed over to the Ale House for my well earned FREE BEER! I enjoyed several cups of that, but did not enjoy the frigid temps inside the Ale House. After a little visit to Starbucks with Chris to warm up, we parted ways, and I actually ran most of the way home? Oh Katie.

So yep! Run number three under the belt! Oh, so what was my time? Oh that'd be 25:30. WHAT??? Totally didn't expect it. Not at all.

Not. at. all.

The official stats breakdown:
bib number: 1721
age: 29
overall place: 41 out of 367
division place: 4 out of 45 (what?!)
gender place: 14 out of 230
time: 25:30
pace: 8:13
~link to my stats

Next up MAYBE the Turkey Trot on Sunday??? I'll have to switcharoo my church situation though, so we'll see. I wanna win a free turkey!!!

light month

So since the 8K, I've taken it REAL easy. It was kinda nice though resting my knees. After that race, they were really killing me. Now they feel almost 100% normal! Tomorrow I have the Lakefront Discovery 5K! After I ran Al's, I looked up the participation and times for last year's Lakefront Discovery and a. like 100 people run it (because most do the 15K), and b. the fastest times in my division are like 24/25 minutes! In Al's I did the first three miles in like 25 and half!! But for some reason I don't think I'll be able to crack that tomorrow. I think I'll be lucky to do it in 27. My first 5K was 27:53 I think? In any case, people keep saying I'll surprise myself, so we'll see. I did a test run earlier this week and it wasn't good at all. I had a side ache the entire time. But I think I'll be better off tomorrow morning with rest and food in my stomach (I was so hungry during Tuesday's trial run!)

After the race though, I really have to step it back up. While I did really need the rest, I have to get up to my three runs a week again and start building my mileage.

Al's Run!!

I DID IT!!!!!!!!

Ok, so in keeping with my race posts, here's a summary:

I went to bed at 9:30pm, ON A FRIDAY NIGHT, so I could get up well rested at 6am this morning. I made coffee immediately. For breakfast I had a peanut butter, banana, milk, protein smoothie and a granola bar. I was pretty nervous. Not really giant flapping birds just yet, but it wasn't your typical Saturday morning (because when am I up before 8am?!?) I iced my knees and watched a Dog Show on Animal Planet. At 8am I walked over to my office to grab my ipod (I had left there accidentally WHOOPS!) GOOD because it gave me a mile and a quarter warm up :) On my way there the giant flapping birds began their dance in my stomach. Guh!

After grabbing my ipod and going to the bathroom for the 9348025th time, I headed to the shuttle area, and I heard "Want a ride??" It was my parents in my mom's bright yellow Cobalt :) I hopped in, we drove *AH* block, parked, and headed to the shuttles. I gave my mom my jacket and yoga pants, she handed me my ipod (almost forgot JEEZ), and my stepdad and I boarded the bus. We spent the next hour chatting about running and life in this Marquette building...I was trying not to think TOO hard about everything! At 10:15, and after ONE more bathroom break, we got in the very back of the 7min mile section which I didn't agree with but David convinced me just to go with it. "3 minutes" "90 seconds" "5...4...3...2....." It's finally here!!!!!!

In a few words: the race was definitely difficult! The whole reason I wanted to run with my stepdad, aside from the comradery (!!), was so he could keep me at a good pace. He's the one who recently finished SECOND in his division at the Cudahy Classic 8K! So I was definitely doing a pretty jaunty pace! The first song on my quick playlist was "All Over the World" by Pet Shop Boys and I immediately got all misty!! I was like: holy hotdogs, I'm REALLY in this thing!! A seemingly lofty goal just a few months ago...is totally happening! From that point on, I kicked some ass. Yep, not gonna lie, there were a couple times I felt kinda rough...but not so bad that it was debilitating...mostly my legs hurt, as a good majority of the first half is uphill. But I never experienced one cramp or side ache :)

Then the magic happened.

So my original goal for this race, around 4-5 months ago, was under 50 minutes. As you know, a couple weeks ago I adjusted that to 44 minutes. You may also remember that I completely freaked out after my bad run and figured 44 minutes was TOO lofty. Well......as I was rounding the 4 mile marker, I looked at my watch. At 4 miles I was at 34:40. What????? Totally unbelievable! So in the final mile stretch, in order to make my 44 minute goal, I could basically slowly jog to the finish line and make it. This rocked!! But of course I didn't slow down...I really pushed through. It was hard. I mean I had basically been running 8:40 min miles which is pretty crazy for slow little me!!

Right before rounding the last corner, I put on The Hives' "Supply and Demand" and went...to...town. With the finish line in my sights, I scraped the bottom of my energy barrel and seriously sprinted to the end. As I crossed the finish, I did this crazy arms rockin out "look at me I'm AWESOME" move and then basically wanted to throw up :) But I didn't!!! David was behind me and I turned around and said, "ok give me a minute"...after that I turned back and said "Seriously David, that was AWESOME!!!" I can't even describe how elated I was!!! I just couldn't believe I did it. I really accomplished my goal, and in "only" seven months of "beginner running."

In the next minute, I ran into a couple dudes from work...one of whom I chat with a ton about running :) We all finished relatively close to one another so that was pretty exciting too! Then my mom and sister ran up to us and that made me even MORE excited!!! We all chatted about the race, I got water, my free snicksnacks (pita chips!!!), and scarfed down a half of a banana. We capped off the event by going to one of my favorite local restaurants Buckleys and I celebrated with a Guinness ;) I used my mom's Blackberry to discover the following SUPER FREAKING AWESOME info:

Katie Nelson
bib number: 2690
age: 29
gender: F
overall place: 1134 out of 3185
division place: 86 out of 367
gender place: 280 out of 1444
***time: 42:41***
~link to my stats

42 freaking minutes and 41 seconds?!?!

Totally NUTS. So basically I was in the top 23% of my age division 25-29 (which, BY THE BY, I'm at the END of!!!) and in the top 19% of my gender. And, roughly, in the top third overall. (hopefully my math isn't totally off...my brain is tired??) For only running for SEVEN months, I think that's pretty damn awesome.

...

Now how about a piece of humble pie, huh Katie??

I could NOT have done this without all the friends and coworkers behind me, well aware of this race and well aware of me racing this race. Talk about motivation!! I also could not have done this without the knowledge that my mom and sister were waiting for me at the finish. Especially considering that just ONE YEAR AGO I was waiting for my SISTER at the end of her first race...JEALOUS of the fact that she could run and I couldn't!!! And finally, I couldn't have done this *WELL* without David at my side keeping my pace. I really don't have any words to describe...such a milestone, and such an experience.

Ok I think I'm done with this novel of a post. My legs kinda hurt and I might need more beer ;)

Next stop??? My Halloween 5K in three weeks!!!

THANK YOU EVERYONE! Running is AWESOME :) :) :)

Day before Jitters

Alright so the day is almost here. You'd think I have a marathon to run tomorrow. It's "just" 5 miles guh!! I just never got over that bad run from last week, AND my knees are totally shot. I don't know what I did, but my left one hurts SITTING DOWN. It's seriously lame. In more ways than one? Anyway! So I mapped out the gist of the route:



And for the heck of it, here are my mile markers:
Mile 1: Milwaukee
Mile 2: A little after Knapp
Mile 3: Roughly the end of Lafayette Hill
Mile 4: Almost to the Mason Bridge
Mile 5: FINISH! Start haulin' once I hit VB though.

"During Al's Run in Milwaukee, I'd like to take a Knapp, but at the End of the Hill and Under the Bridge I must Finish!"

Ok that helped! I broke down the route, so it seems way easier to handle. NOT that it wasn't easier to handle in the first place, but for some reason, I'm a little more excited now :) I can almost see all the people and hear the crowd! Alright, good stuff, I'm golden now! My knees should break in heading into mile 3 per usual and after 3.5 I should be able to really bust outta the box!

Well wish me luck internet friends who may or may not read this blog :)

minor set back

So I'm usually gushing about how friggin rad my runs are, hey? Well I'm not superwoman afterall. My run last night was atrocious. All I was going to do was a ~2.25 mile fartlek/interval type run right? Oh man. So right when I started I felt some pain in my right shin. And after my second speed-up, I felt like I just couldn't breathe right. So after barely a mile and a half, I just had to stop. (I had ONLY been running 14 freaking minutes!!) I caught my breath for five minutes and ran the rest of the way home (not even a half mile) like three times slower than when I started. It was very disappointing. And for the rest of the night my knees and shins hurt pretty bad AND my exercise-induced asthma kicked in. Something I haven't suffered from at all since I first started running. My knee was even worse this morning.

SO! Apparently I must not have waited enough time to run since my 6.6mi on Tuesday?? But c'mon two days? So bizarre. I guess my body just needs rest. And of course I seriously don't want to overdo anything before the race. So lesson learned: just take it easy this week. I got a bunch of long distance in this past month, so I'm good there. I'll run once, maybe twice in the next week, but real easy. Hopefully I didn't mess up my knee or anything somewhere back there :(

Al's Run goal

Alright, so I really didn't want to set a goal time for my 8k race next weekend. Mostly because I didn't want to accidentally suck and disappoint myself. Originally I wanted to run it in under 50 minutes. At first that actually looked challenging because I was running my long distance routes averaging like 10:30 minute miles. But for some reason, recently I've just been blowin' it out the box. Last night I ran 6.6 miles averaging 9:04 min miles. That's unbelievable. That means that I could run Al's in 45 minutes. That's crazy talk. And with it being race day and all? With the adrenaline? We're talkin' like 44 minutes possibly. Like if I ran even 8:54 min miles? Done. And that blows my mind.

But like I said, am I setting myself up for disappointment if I really set that goal? The whole point of doing Al's Run was to DO it! To actually run an 8K which I never in a million years thought I could do. But what if I have a bad running day? What if it's unseasonably warm and sunny? What if I have a really bad side cramp and just absolutely have to slow down to regain my composure? It's hard dealing with the unknown. And speaking of the unknown, I've never even run this route before. What if that trips me up? Bah...this is just week-before-the-race jitters, that's all. I guess at the end of the day I'm going to hope for something like 47-48 minutes (9:30min mi avg), but push really really hard for under 45. I mean you need a lofty goal to get that extra push at the end of the race right??

In any case, I have like three runs left before the big day: a fartlek one tomorrow, 3-4 mile quick paced run over the weekend, and a light jog or two early next week as I don't want to do anything drastic before the race. I find that my body really gains ground when I have more than just a couple days between runs. For example, I had about four days in between last night's and Thursday's run and I could seriously feel a ton of progress, like my body is rewarding me for resting :)

One final note: God bless fall. The absolute, without a doubt, ultimate BEST WEATHER to run in. October in Wisconsin is a gift from above for runners :)