#run 2016

  Balloon collection starts at 6.30am and flag off is 7.30am. There are 2 distances offered for this run; the 7km individual category and also 5km for family category. If you like to know more, the website is right here  . All runners will receive a sling bag and also the event tee, while finishers will be awarded a finisher medal and e-cert.

So please wish me (and the rest who will be participating in this event) all the best !!! I promise to share nice fuschia themed photos in here (since that’s the colour theme).

Just in case you have no clue where Avenue K is, its just across KLCC on Jalan Ampang.

  Yours in writing,

missjewelz

   I have a lot to cover since I last wrote. I went on a short trail run to stay loose on Saturday. I had my long run on Sunday with Skagit Runners. I also ran on Monday with the running group again. I also want to update you on my stats for the year along with my weekly weigh in. It was a great weekend and Monday wasn't to bad either.

   Saturday Rachel and I decided we wanted to do a short 3 to 4 mile trail run to stay loose for the next days run. We also wanted to feel less guilty about sitting on our butts for the rest of the day. We decided to run on the Little Mountain trails. it was good weather, but the trails were rather muddy. It was slow going and we both don't know those trails to well. Overall it was a good casual run. It was my slowest of the year coming in at a 13:30 pace if I remember correctly. I know we went 3.45 miles which was perfect. I did manage to take us on the wrong trail which was super muddy and steep. It caused me to fall twice and scrape my knees up. Other than a little blood I was fine though. I learned my lesson. Invest in trail shoes for trail runs.

    Sunday was my longest attempted run since my failure at the Seattle Marathon. I though it was a 20 mile run, but it turned out to be 21 miles. I had Haylee drop me off at the trail-head off Fruitdale Road in Sedro Woolley so I could run to Annie's Pizza in Concrete. Rachel met me there to join me on the long run. It was nice because running for that distance can get lonely and boring sometimes. It is a win for her too because she gets some company and much needed training for her race she is training for. Rachel also brought her dog Willow. The nice part about this run was the fact that there was good company and pizza at the end.

    All three of us took off around 10:30 AM. It was tough going slower than we usually like to. We were trying to hold a 9:30/mile pace, bu that turned out to be a bit to slow for our liking and we ended up hovering around an 8:50/mile pace. Around mile four the trail was flooded and we had no choice but to run through it. Yay to squishy shoes for 18 miles! We stopped in Lyman to meet up with Chris and Craig. That gave us about a 5 minute break at 7.5 miles in. at that point I believe our average pace was 7:46/mile. now with a larger group we set off on our journey to Concrete. We all stuck together at about an 8:45/mile pace for about 4 to 6 miles. After that Chris and Craig fell into their target pace and Rachel and I kept our pace up. It was really smooth sailing for the rest of the run. I would say around mile 16 to 17 Rachel and I were both feeling the distance, but we held up really well. Willow made both of us look slow and lazy. Kevin met us at about mile 18. He had run a race the Orcas Island 25k the previous day so he was doing a 6 mile out and back as a recovery run. He naturally made Rachel and I pick up the pace and Rachel had to remind him every so often to slow it down. It was good entertainment. Around mile 20 we were averaging a 8:50/mile. Around there Steve and Analisa caught up to us from their 16 or 18 mile out and back. This caused me to pick up the pace for the last mile to push myself a bit. I kept up with them despite the pain from exhaustion and Rachel kept it consistent and finished strong not to far behind me. It was nice rounding the corner and seeing Haylee waiting for me taking pictures. It is nice having her support me with my hobby. My overall stats were 3:05:13 for 21.00 miles at a 7:48/mile average pace. That run made the pizza and company amazing. in an effort to keep it short though I will leave it at we had a great time hanging out with everyone afterward.

    Monday was a good run as well. I wasn't as sore as I predicted I would be, but I was definitely feeling the previous days run. I ran 5.45 miles with Luis and Kevin at a 7:38/mile pace. The course was pretty flat except for the little hill on Fir St. Needless to say I was extremely happy the run was over with when I finished. My legs were definitely telling me that I have done plenty of running by the time I finished.

    Another week has come and gone. Last week was a good week. I met my goals I set out for myself and surprised myself a couple of times. I also decided I will talk a little bit about some of the gear I have for running. I have found some things that I won't run without as well as some things I need for certain types of runs. I also want to update you on my totals for the year so far.

    Today's run was a good one. we ran a route that had some minor hills and minor downhills. it was about a 50/50 split between the two. I am pretty sore form yesterdays 14 mile run still, but I managed to have an average pace of 7:20/mile over 5.69 miles. Part of it was thanks to the downhill and the other part is Lyosha making me sped up to keep up with him. The route was called the sandwich run. I found out that the name comes not from the shape of the route, but rather that a while ago when a fellow runner was running the route a car driving by threw a sandwich at them. Its a funny story that helps give insight on the weird names we have for certain routes we run. Overall the run went well and I went faster than I expected to.

    I have a variety of things I like to use for my runs. Some things are for the weather and other things are for the type of distance being run. I always try and run with my Garmin 310XT GPS watch. I honestly love the thing. It gives me the pertinent data I need to track my progress and to make adjustments mid run. I have it set up to tell me my average pace, distance run, and time spent running. It also came with a heart rate monitor I can wear around my chest. I don't often wear the heart rate monitor even though I really should. The only downside to the watch is it is a bit bulky, but since I am a bigger person it works out. I can't imagine doing the amount of running I am doing without it and because of that I would give it 1 on a scale of 1 to 5 in importance to me.

    The other item I always run with are my Hoka One One Clifton 2 running shoes. I have had a knee surgery in the past and prefer the heavy cushioning the shoe offers. The great part is they are still light. I think they come in at 9 ounces a shoe which isn't to bad for the amount of cushion they offer. I have tried running with more traditional shoes and it causes to much pain in my knee so I stick with the Hoka One One brand. There is almost no way I could put the miles I do in without these shoes. i give them a 1 on the scale of importance as well.

    For clothing I typically run in tradition gym shorts, and a shirt that is made of polyester. I do have a pair of running shorts for my races and longer training runs which can come in handy. The polyester shirts whisk moisture away really well as well as reduce chaffing. For colder weather I have a thicker long sleeve shirt and a pair of Reebok play warm compression pants. They are kinda like male yoga pants. Overall the clothes are important, but if I had to I could run in a regular cotton T-shirt and shorts so the clothing falls around a 2.5 on the importance scale.

    For my long runs I have two running belts to choose from, I have an Amphipod belt and a Nathan belt. The Nathan belt has a small pouch for running gels and electrolyte pills and two water bottles that can carry a total of 18 ounces of water. The Amphipod belt holds 4 bottles for a total of 32 ounces of water. It comes in handy for my really long training runs that are associated with marathon training. I tend to use the Nathan belt for shorter runs in hotter weather. for my runs that are over 16 miles I will start to carry gels and electrolyte pills. I have had success with the honey stinger gummy drops and the cliff gels for my mid run fuel needs. I prefer the gummy drops a bit more because they are more convenient to eat on the run. The electrolyte pill I current use is called  S!Caps. They are great for the long runs where I sweat a lot and need to worry about possible cramping.

    The last item I use for long runs is called body glide. Let me tell you something about this miracle item. I experienced some horrible chaffing on my first ever long run that left me unable to walk right for a week. I quickly discovered this item and have never had chaffing on any part of my body I apply it to on my long runs. If you have a chaffing problem when you work out I highly recommend this product. It is a 1 on my scale of importance.

    It has been a while since my last update. This week had been busy and my long run got postponed until today. I have four runs I need to write about. Tuesdays run was a hilly distance run. Wednesday was a speed run with the running group. Thursday was slow medium distance. Today's run was long relatively fast and pretty flat. It was a good week of running so lets dive into the runs.

    Tuesday was an interesting run. I decided I wanted to do my weekday distance run on Tuesday instead of Thursday this week and the results were very nice. I did need to motivate myself to run in it since it was raining and a little chilly. I got myself out there and moving and it ended up going great. I averaged a 7:53/mile pace over 9.23 miles and I ran up several hills along the route with a nice rewarding downhill during the last mile. I felt great during the whole run and managed to control my breathing and heart rate during the hills. I have been working on controlling my heart rate and breathing and Tuesdays run was great training in getting better at that. I finished the run very wet and feeling very accomplished when I looked at my watch and saw I averaged under 8 minute miles.

    Wednesday was a good run with the Skagit Running club. We did the bridge route which is a pretty flat 5.16 mile route. The only hill comes around mile 4 and it is about a .25 mile long and not to steep. I ran with Jason for the first 3.5 miles before I kicked up the pace to keep up with Brennan (I think that's his name I could be wrong).  I averaged a 7:09/mile pace and was quite happy considering I ran over 9 miles the previous day. I met up with Haylee after the run went to the Skagit River Brewery with our friends from the running group. It was a great dinner and the beer was flowing generously. It was a good time and its a fun tradition to do with my friends in the running group.

    Thursdays run was tough even though it was an easy route. By Thursday I had run everyday since Saturday and my muscles were starting to loudly let me know they needed a break. I couldn't give in to the temptation to sit on the couch and forced myself to move for the needed miles. If anything I would call them garbage miles, but I did push myself and It will likely pay off down the road when I am sore and want to quit. The run ended up being 5.8 miles and I averaged 8:21/mile. It was my only run this week above the 8 minute mark. It didn't have any hills, but my legs loudly protested moving at any fast pace. It was a humble reminder that I need rest days still, but at the same time it teaches my body I can still push even if it is at a slower pace. All in all I was very glad when the run was over.

    I ended up taking the next two days off from running. Friday was a designated rest day, but Saturday was so rainy that I didn't want to run 14 miles in it. So my distance run got pushed to Sunday. Today was a beautiful day to run. It was partly cloudy with some nice sun breaks and it was about 45 degrees with no wind. It was a great decision to push my run to today. Haylee tagged along today as my support. She rode her bike and carried my water for me. She also kept me company and encouraged me when she saw I was hurting. I ran exactly 14 miles on the centennial trail today with an average pace of  of 7:28/mile. That is some great news to me. I was pushing myself because I had two rest days and I wanted to see what I could do. I only need to shave 28 seconds more off my average pace over the next 2 months to accomplish my goal. While it wont be easy it is doable. The other good news is I got fast as the run went on. I finished the first mile in 7:59 and my last mile was finished in 6:54. A lot of the middle miles hovered around the 7:30 mark which was nice. I personally like to push my speed up in the last 3 miles. I feel it trains my mind that I have more energy left and can push faster. Also I like to start slower to prevent bonking towards the end. I would rather have enough energy to pick the pace up than no energy left and have my pace slow down.

    It's Monday! It's the beginning of a new training week and it is a time to check on my weight and mileage progress. I have to tally the previous week as a victory in the books. I listened to Bill Burr's podcast and while he was doing his weight loss he looked at each week as training for the game and weigh in as the game. If you met your weeks goal weight you won and if not you lost. in the end what matters is having a winning percentage. I really liked his analogy there and I try to incorporate it into my mindset. With that being said onto my progress report.

    Since January 1st I have been tracking my numbers. My total year to date mileage is 90.16 miles in a total time of 11:48:53.  To put that into another perspective, if you take that on average you burn 100 calories per mile of running, I have burned an extra 9,016 calories. each pound of fat is equivalent to 3,500 calories. So if I had burned nothing but fat for those calories it would be equivalent to burning 2.576 lbs of fat. The miles I have put in have been perfect and i am well ahead of schedule for achieving 1,400 miles run this year. Also this morning I stepped onto my scale. Monday mornings are my weekly weigh in and I try to stay honest to only getting on the scale once a week. I was bad and checked a few times this week, but I am getting better at not constantly checking my weight. I came in at a solid 193.4 lbs this morning. I was really happy with that. By tracking my calories I have been able to maintain a deficit at a high enough level to lose around 2 pounds this week.  I don't think every week can be like that, but I have been eating around 2,000 calories a day so the added exercise is really helping the weight come off.

    I also had my Monday run with the Skagit Running Club. We did the up the hill and down the hill run tonight. It was a 5.83 mile run and I finished it with a 7:23/mile pace. The first mile was flat and I did it in around 7:35. We then hit the first hill which was of medium length and steep. It dropped my next mile to an 8:00 average. The next mile was an 8:21 pace up a medium grade hill that went on for around .75 miles. then it was downhill and flat the rest of the way. It made all that uphill feel worth it because of how easy the downhill felt. no to mention the wind was finally at our back. Kevin, Luis, and I all picked up our pace and I remember our 5th mile was at a 6:35 pace, but that can be attributed in part to running down the hills we had just ran up. The last .83 miles is what makes me really happy, I was able to run the last bit at a 6:31/mile pace! I was able to run faster on the flat part than the downhill.