Our mission for this week’s Take it and Run Thursday is to shared the best lesson we have learned from running.  So here it goes: 

Few things in life will feel as long as 26.2 miles in 6:59:50.

If you want to read about what others have learned check it out here.

This week’s Take it and Run Thursday topic is Building Miles and Going Long.  When it comes to going long I have always been one to end up with my foot in my mouth.  I started out saying I was just going to train for a 5K to say I did it.  Before I knew it I had done several 5Ks but I was never going to go any longer.  Then I saw an advertisement for the Zoo Zoom 5 miler.  Maybe just this once…  Before I knew it was registered for the Minnie Marathon 15K.  Again I was just going to do it once to say I did it, but I would never run further than that.  The story continues and before I knew it I was training for my one and only full marathon. 

I am not a very fast runner, but I am competitive by nature.  I think that drive is what made me turn towards distance races.  It is one way for me to challenge myself and compete with myself without trying to beat the clock.  Increasing my mileage was a slow and natural progression in my training.  I started with one goal and then once I reached it I set my eyes on the next prize making sure it was far enough out for me to slowly build my mileage.  Increasing too fast or adding in things like hill or speed workouts without building up to them can lead to overuse injuries, which can be long and frustrating to recover from.  A good guideline is not to increase your mileage by more than 10% a week.

I am a 3 day a week runner.  This typically involves 2 tempo workouts during the week and a long run during the weekend.  If my weekend log run is over 7 miles I try to bring some hydration and nutrition along with me.  I used to be a Jelly Belly Sports Bean girl, but when I was training for my full marathon I found the sweetness got to me after mile 14, so recently I started using Clif Shot Bloks. 

Your body isn’t the only thing that will be feeling the strain of you new found distances.  Keep an eye on your shoes.  as you increase your mileage you will be putting more wear and tear on your soles.  Personally the first place I feel a worn shoe is in my knees, so I always make sure to keep an eye on my mileage and change them around ever 250 to 300 miles.  Some people can go as long as 500 miles, but it all depends on your weight, stride, and shoe.

I have a feeling that my worn out shoe will end up stuck in my mouth again.  My competitive nature doesn’t want to stop at a full marathon with a time of 6:59:50, but until my body completely forgives me for the training I put it through for this full marathon this will have to do. 

To read what others have to say about Building Miles and Going long head on over to the Runner’s Lounge.

Ode to my Garmin Forerunner 205

How do I love the Garmie? Let me count the ways.
I love Garmie to the end of my street and back
My soles carry me left and right
For the finish line of every race.
I love thy beeps that encourage my pace.
I love thy beeps that tell me to take it easy.
I love thy maps that show me where I’ve been.
With my last miles — I love thee virtual trainer.
(Parody of Sonnet XLIII by Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Unfortunately I have missed the past couple of Take It and Run Thursdays, so I thought I would start this one off with style.  The topic for this week Gear, Gadgets and Equipment.  Since I just returned from dropping my Garmie off at the FedEx place so he could make his return trip to GARMIN International I thought I would write about him.  Oh how I miss them. 

So I am not the best poet, but I do truly love my Garmin.  Despite being constantly strapped to my arm and dictating my pre-running routine it really brings a new freedom to my running.   My routine goes as follows:

1. After an 8 minute warm-up on the treadmill.
2. Adorn any extra layers needed to gaurd against the elements.
3. Step onto the back porch and turn on my Garmin. 
4. Stretch while Garmin finds his friends the GPS satellites and I encourage the dog to “do her business”.
5. Venture back through the house to the front door while verifying that I have the correct distance alert set.
6. Exit the front door locking it behind me.
7. Descend the first step.
8. Descend the second step.
9. Hit the START button.
10. GO!

These 10 simple steps are where Garmies control ends.  After that I tell him where were going.  I will be honest that often my running route goes the same way, but it doesn’t have to.  If I am running down the street and find that there is a tractor trailer in the way then there is no problem.  I simply turn around and make up the distance by looping one of the courts more than once.  There is no guess work here, not driving the car around the neighborhood to make sure I covered the correct distance.  No boring tracks or trails with miles markers needed.  I go where I want to go when I want to.

One of my favorite features of my Garmin is www.motionbased.com.  When returning from my run I simply snap my Garmin into its little craddle and send its data up to the motion based website.  It then gives me a map of my run.  Information on my splits.  Temperature readings from while I was out.  I also go to use the Player and watch a little red dot run the route root I ran.  How fun is that???  For a sample here is the Superbowl 5K I ran a few weeks ago.

Unfotunately my Garmin had an accident.  Luckily Garmin has a great warranty program, so my Garmie is snugly wrapped in bubble paper making his way back to the company to have his arm reattached.  In the meantime I am using his older cousin Garmin 201 that I had retired and given to my mother to use for her walks.  Hopefully he will be back to me soon and I garuntee you I will be watching his tracking number like my life depended on it.

I was going to say Ankle!  Get your head out of the gutter.  Seriously though, the past couple days my ankle has felt a little tender so I have been taking it easy.  Still hoping to get out for 10 miles tomorrow, but I am playing it by ear.  My ankle feels much better today than it did yesterday, so that is a good sign.

In the meantime I am looking forward to August when I make another trip out to Anaheim for the Disneyland Half.  I am hoping to do better time wise this year.  That will be up to mother nature though.  If she sends another humid 108 degree day at me there is only so much I can do.  I will also get a bonus medal for participating in the Disney Marathon and the Disneyland Half in the same year.  Yay!  More Bling!

You may have noticed there was not Take it and Run Thursday yesterday.  The topic was music and podcasts.  I used to run to music all the time, but with my full marathon training I actually started leaving my iPod at home.  I found that my long runs went by faster without having my music with me.  I don’t listen to Podcasts.  I just didn’t feel like there was anything I could contribute so I didn’t.  If you want to read about music and podcasts I would go check out what the others had to say.  Next week’s topic is Strength and Flexibility.  I definitely have some things to say about that.  😉

Since I was suffering from tired legs yesterday I opted to concentrate on the upper body again today.  I dusted off an older FIRM workout that I have owned for several years and never done.  It was appropriately titled “Upper Body”.  After I got past the porn like music in the warm up I was greated by a very intense upper body workout.  I am going to be so sore tommorrow, but in a good way.  I must have done a hundred military presses and lat rows by the end of it.  I was surprised by the small amount of bicep work, but I think I got them covered between the several sets of push-ups.

Tomorrow is long run day.  I didn’t feel like the 6 miles from two weeks ago really counted as a long run, so I am looking forward to this.  It is actually part of Nancy’s 9 on the 9th virtual race amongst the blog running friends and folks over at Runner’s Lounge.  I plan on just taking my time and enjoying the run.  I believe I will set my goal to have it done in under 2 hours.  That is a pace of 13:20 and totally appropriate for me for a long run.

For WAA today I am giving myself 2 miles for the light aerobics of my Upper Body workout this morning.  I also walked the dog for 1 mile and plan to take her out for another 1.1 when I get home from work tonight.