Notes:
What can I say, I sucked at this run. There was something different about today and I kind of felt it less than half a mile into my run. Was it the weather? It was somewhat warm when we (Irene and I) started at the wall and it kind of got warmer as we "parted ways" 4 miles into the run — I actually was slowing down and told her to go ahead. After that, it just basically went downhill; downhill in a sense that I stopped running and just began to walk more. This unplanned run/walk would go on for another 2 miles when I finally turned around, knowing I'd only have 12 miles by the time I get to the wall and would have to run to Redondo Beach to complete the 17. Well, when I turned around, I hardly ran anymore — I was just walking!! I wasn't having difficulty breathing or anything like that, sure my feet hurt* but that's because I had been walking most of the time. I literally just walked the entire way back and then for one reason or another, was able to convince Irene to walk with me to complete the mileage! LOL.

So yeah, 17 miles; 4 miles doing fine; at 6 miles struggling with unscheduled walks and the final 11 miles at walking pace!!!! AHHHHH. It didn't help that I was wearing a long sleeved shirt and yoga trousers. I knew I should've worn shorts; iono what came over me this morning.

It was really a dismal training run but I have to thank Irene publically for pushing me to at least walk to complete the mileage cos I wanted to give up. Today was just not my (running) day. Ugh. I really have to do my mid-week training and do some resistance training on the odd days because at this rate, I'm going to have my first "DNF" at Camp Pendleton.

Anyway, running stats are below… I think I have to calibrate Garmin cos it didn't count the mileage much when I was walking! LOL.

Garmin connect; Nike+:

p.s.,

*I have these really nasty (and painful) blisters at the base of my foot and by my heel. LOL Sheryl, it's not "Run Fat Boy Run" huge but you get the picture… gross! hahahahaha…

Notes:
There were to be technology-related shenanigans in this run and it started with my Garmin foot pod not properly connecting to the Forerunner 50. I should’ve known better (i.e., prep my technology just as I do prep my nutrition before walking out the front door) but I ran into these errors at the run site. It also didn’t help that my (also Garmin) heart-rate monitor failed on me — it wouldn’t send the correct heart-rate and thus, kept beeping the entire time I was out. I was at least able to depend upon my Nike+ to keep me relatively on-track in terms of distance but that eventually failed, too and I didn’t notice until like, 10 minutes after the music stopped playing! LMFAO. By that time, I had already made the half-way point and turned around.

Here were the finer points in my training run, though:

• I shaved off a good 6 1/2 minutes with the whole refilling my water bottle and dropping a tablet of Nuun process. See my Surf City USA race report for that blunder. I’m still figuring out the best way to pack my Nuun into separate tablets so it’s easier to drop in the water bottle though. Opening that little tube takes a bit of effort, especially when you’re 9 miles into a run and kinda don’t have hand-eye-coordination! LOL
• Considering I had only ran 4 miles during the week, this turned out to be a great run regarding pace and effort. Then again, I don’t have the stats to back it up (did I mention my Garmin watch ran out of memory? Hahah it couldn’t even keep track of the time).

Again, no stats but I swear I did my 15-miler.

Notes:
It should actually be a training run (and the distance, according to my schedule is 7 miles), I did 5 miles doing the 6/1-interval and will run 9 miles this weekend (instead of the scheduled 14). I will do the 15 on the 14th, though. Hahahah. I’m confusing myself.

The run itself was ok; it was rather warm despite running on the Hermosa Beach strand — no ocean breeze until 4 miles into my run. Silly me; I didn’t really hydrate much the entire day so I was parched. Luckily, HB has water fountains so that kinda saved me (I’m trying not to think about the water purity or anything like that… Too late. >_<)

Anyway, stats! Garmin website. Nike+ (see below):

Notes:
I PR’d! I think it’s rather good because I had barely run the month before this race; had exactly 5 training runs. LOL. Still, I’m treating this race as a training run for my bigger event in April — the Camp Pendleton Hard Corps Marathon. Before I forget, here’s what went right (in no particular order):

• Had proper nutrition: Every 30 minutes or so, I had 3 Jelly Belly SportBeans
• Stuck fairly close to the Intervals: Every 6 minutes, walked 1 minute
• Kept going on the gradual inclines/hills: I didn’t stop even if it hurt! LOL
• Ran with my sis! It’s amazing running with someone; you both push yourselves. I’ve raced with Bridget and her sis in the past and it helped so naturally, this helped, too. Come to think of it, I have done well running with other people I know. Sheryl — I’m deffo not leaving you at the SD marathon! I promise!

What went wrong (yes, there were stuff that I can improve upon):

• Train. LOL! Simple enough. Do the mileage. I’m letting myself off a bit easy for this one because as mentioned earlier, I’m counting this as a training run.
• Less accoutrements or plan better what to do with them; I lost a good 5 to 8 minutes with my running sleeves (removing them from my arms, keeping them in my running belt!) and refilling my water bottle whilst dropping a tablet of Nuun into it. Yep, that’s a maximum of 8 minutes I could’ve shaved off! I’m going to figure out a more optimal way to do so considering the Hard Corps Marathon (HCM) will have an aid/water station every 2 miles and not the usual one every mile
• Blazing sun and inclines; despite being rather cold, the sun got to me mid-race. That coupled with the “gradual” inclines makes for a rather laborious climb. I might want to incorporate some hill work and at least doing one run when it’s hot (HCM starts at 8:00AM; that’s a rather late start for a marathon with a 6-hour time-limit).

And now the numbers: Garmin results; Nike+ Results (see below)

N.B.
I should add that my average heart rate was 163 bpm. That’s not too bad considering it’s in the 70-80% zone with the benefits of improved aerobic capacity; optimal cardiovascular training… According to my watch’s manual, anyway! hehehehe.