Sunday, September 7, 2008

13...is a magic number...

Hey Alice...where the heck ya been?

Short answer...DramaGirl turned 13 this week on Tuesday. She has soccer. Turbo plays football. I teach two night classes. The class I team-teach at State started this week (I'm doing the online portion), so I had to get that all set up. A busy week...

Last night, DramaGirl had a slumber party. They looked like they were having a fine time, what with all the pizza, and soda, and chips, and candy (and cake!) that they could possibly consume. I think several of them were up as late as 2am. I heard later this morning, that a couple were up until 4am. This is what they looked like when I left at 7am...They swore they were going to "pull an all-nighter."


This was the "snack table." I told them I was really quite disappointed in their snack consumption.


In any event, I left them all in Walter's care to run this morning. He is a much better morning person than I am. He also makes pancakes, which the girls loved....

So, I got in my weekly long-run at Harbor Island w/Betty. I had time to run only one other day this week so it wasn't pretty, but it's done. Here are the stats...



10.12 - miles
1:58:54 - total time
11:43 - pace

Like I said, it wasn't pretty. All I know is that I'm going to HAVE to get in a couple more mid-week runs every week if I'm going to be ready for the Nike Women's Half in (check countdown widget at right). YIKES.

The training plan that I've been following for 1/2 marathons in the past, never has me running either by time, or by distance, anything more than 11 miles. After the AFC 1/2 I started to wonder about this. It seems like a fine strategy for marathon training (why would anyone run a marathon other than at a marathon?) but for shorter races, I wonder if this is the best course of action for me. At the RnR marathon, when I went past the 1/2 Marathon mark, I felt great! Of course, in the weeks prior to the marathon, I'd been running 13+ miles, every weekend, for several weeks, so 13 was no big deal.

For the AFC 1/2, the farthest I'd run was 11.5 miles...and I was exhausted by then (of course, there was that heat and humidity...but still).

The training plan by Nike for the Nike Women's 1/2 recommends runs of 13 and 14 miles a month before the marathon, so with that in mind, I think for the next two weeks, I'll run 2.5 hours (at least 13 - 14 miles, depending on how fast I'm running that morning), then I'll taper to a 1.5 hour run, three weeks out, 2 hours two weeks out, an hour run one week out. I also want to get one or two good runs in on hills. Starting this week, I'm going to be able to make it to the Tuesday night workouts with the track club, so I believe there'll be some hill workouts there as well.

I should be prepared.

So that's all I got today. Sorry if I bored you silly, but I've got no funny stories to tell. It was a pretty uneventful run this morning.

We did see a washed up, eyes missing, stingray on the running path...that was new...most of the harbor area this morning just STANK...garbage and fish...not new, but smelled worse than normal, probably the humidity...there was tons of garbage from the Midway Aircraft Carrier, which is open to the public and thus has a "snack bar" at the aft (I'm SUCH a boat person you know...I can use nautical terminolgy with the best of them...musta been those two cruises I've been on...yeah, that's it). The amount of trash in the bay, which I'm pretty sure had blown off the Midway, was both surprising and dissapointing. The Midway has been there for awhile, and I've run past it several times. This is the first time I remember noticing the amount of garbage around it...sad.

My first mega-yaght, the Princess Mariana was not longer in port, but my second mega-yaght, Ice, was...not as showy as the Princess, but it'll do.

Have a great week. I've got about 50 blogs to read this afternoon, but I think I need a nap right now...you know, to recover from the slumber party.

17 comments:

  1. Slumber parties! I hope you're rested up before Monday rolls around. ;)

    Keep in mind the part about having fun at the Nike event, especially when taking on the first hill after about mile 6ish and being able to pass up a gazillion others at that point. You'll be ready!

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  2. Nike will be here before we know it! :)

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  3. OMG you are such a cool Mom! I'm going to be one of those anal Moms (ie the Mom everyone hates) that is like "OMG don't be too loud, don't make a mess, blah, blah, blah" LOL

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  4. What a great Mom to have a slumber party for the kidlettes...too cute, hey 4am is an all nighter!!

    too bad about all the crap off the vessels, that is just nasty!

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  5. DramaGirl's very lucky to have a Mom and Dad who encourages snack consumption and makes pancakes in the morning. 13 is a great age. I never connected garbage with the Midway, but I bet you're right. And, yes, it is sad.

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  6. Entirely too much food left. What is wrong with those girls? Don't they know they should take advantage of that pre-adolescent metabolism while they have it?

    Happy 13th to DG!

    Great run. Anytime we get our asses out of bed on a weekend morning and run double digits is a win, no matter how sucky it felt.

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  7. I'm still jealous you get to do Nike, but I'll be thinking of you all during the subaru tri!

    I'm not jealous of the stingray though.

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  8. I feel like a slug for only running 4 miles! And I have the long beach half in about a month-I am so not ready, but neither is my running partner-we'll slug it out together!! Hopefully now that my work has tapered down a bit I'll get more running in!!

    And yes, I have a 17 year old-scary!!! YIKES!! But he's a great kid!!

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  9. OMG I am soo looking forward to 13.

    or do I just say that because next up HERE is 3 :)


    Miz.

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  10. That slumer party looks like a hit! They are all passed out. Ahhhh the days when sleeping on the floor or love seat without an aching body body are long gone.

    Hills are a great idea for the Nike Women's. There in one really big one at mile 4 or 5 and that's really it for the half, IF the course is the same as the two years I did it. You'll be great!!

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  11. happy birthday to drama girl! good job on your 10 miler.

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  12. Sounds like you've been very busy!

    As far as HM training is concerned, I think mileage totals in training depend on your goal for the race. If you have a time goal, I think doing training runs that peak at 14 is a good idea. But, if you merely want to finish, peaking at 11 is fine.

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  13. Happy birthday to your DramaGirl! Our only girl is 13 too. I LOVE 13! (I'm pretty nervous about 14, but we LOVE 13.) Best of luck training for Nike - sounds like you are set.

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  14. You are braver than me, lol. 13 year olds scare me.

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  15. if i were invited to the slumber party, no one would have been disappointed with snack consumption!

    Great job on the training. You're doing so good.

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  16. You are the coolest mom ever! I can't believe with all those girls there were still snacks on the table. Dainty eaters you have there.

    Great job on the run!

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  17. Well, that party looked like fun. ;) Our neighbor girl just had a slumber party for her 12th bday, it was funny to watch the girls outside hanging out.

    You are an inspiration with the running! Rock on, mama!

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