My addiction

This blog has absolutely nothing to do about training, but I need to admit my problem to the internet world. I have a problem - a serious addiction to Lost. I had never watched it even though my friends kept telling me how great it is and that I had to watch it because i live in Hawaii. I figured, if you see the characters running around town surfing, then it takes the fun out of it. But with my relocation to Mexico and all the travel that was happening, i needed something to watch on the planes. So i decided to download all of the seasons of lost - starting from the beginning. At first I was ok. I would watch it on the plane and then that was all. But now, being in an apartment with no TV I have gotten to the point where I cant wait to get home and watch it. I have had every intention of getting up at 6 and working out before work, so I go to bed early. I have been in bed at 9 almost every night. But I pull out the ipod and my addiction starts. Last night I was up until 2AM watching it - my boyfriend even sent me an email at midnight telling me to go to bed, which I foolishly ignored, and I am paying for it today. I feel like I am training for a race - I want to get finished as quickly as possible and see what happens to my stranded friends so that I can start watching the current season and have input when everyone else is talking about it. I have 30 more episodes. If it rains this weekend I can be finished within a week and next week I can actually get some sleep.

Ash Wednesday in Mexico City

I have been slacking on the blog front lately, but I will be back at it now. I spent two weeks in Hawaii visiting Chris and the dogs, and writing blogs was not top of mind. While I am in Mexico I pretty much work, workout and try to remember the Spanish that I once knew so that I can translate the emails and conference calls I have on a daily basis. It is coming back to me. Because I am still living in an area that is not suitable for running outside, I have been back to hitting the treadmill. It was so nice to be in Hawaii and be able to run outside, but now it is back to watching season 2 of Grey's Anatomy in Spanish while I run. I have also been hit again with the altitude issue since I was at sea level for about 5 weeks, but it is definitely easier this time around. I have almost kept up the pace for the full runs and i dont get bloody noses anymore. YES PROGRESS! I just have to keep reminding myself how much better I feel racing when I train here.
Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. I was a little sad to learn that it was not an official holiday in Mexico and that I had to be at work. I actually didnt learn this until I was two cheese fondus and half a bottle of wine into dinner at midnight. I just assumed it was. Every other Catholic holiday is. We even get Semana Santa (or what I refer to as Spring Break). A national holiday for the entire Holy Week where I will be back in Hawaii again looking for fun races to do that wont have me breathing hard after my warm up.

Two runs in Hawaii

I have been in Hawaii for the past week and a half so I have been a little slacker on the blog front. I have been spending time with Chris and the dogs and getting up at 4:30AM to work on Mexico City hours and everything else has taken a back seat. I have, however, managed to get in two races this past week. The first was an 8K race that ran each side of diamond head. It was a slow time, but fast enough for a second place AG finish. I did learn that I still need some major strengh running work. The hills killed me. The uphill was a 2 minute slower pace than the rest of the race, but I am ok with it. I just need to work harder on the hill training.
In between the races was Valentine's day. Chris went to the store and got us some stuff for a sunset beach picnic.
Here is Chris preparing the wine...


And the sunset - it was so windy and cold, but beautiful...

Here are the munchkins - they were each other's Valentines.

The second race was the Great Aloha Run that attracts about 18,000 people. Chris ended up bailing on the run, so I went with Sharon and we had our own personal chauffeur. I felt pretty barfy in the morning, but really wanted to run, so I took some stomach medicine and headed down to the race. I started at a good pace (8 min miles) and then quickly went downhill. I had that whole churning stomach feeling and when the first set of port-a-potties came up i had to stop. Stopping also included a HUGE line of people. Oh well, it was worth it not to have major issues later in the race.
After I finished, I realized that I had lost about 3 minutes. So i went back to running as fast as I could without getting sick. That lasted another few miles when I had to stop again. Another long line and loss of a few minutes. I even had the guy behind me beg me not to stop because I had been pacing him, but i wanted to tell him that he would really be mad if I didnt stop and he had to witness something that noone should have to see.
After that time I realized I had about 2 miles to go. I can do two miles with a sick stomach, no problem. So i just went for it. I went way to fast on that second to last mile, so in the last mile that was somewhat uphill I had to slow way down. In spite of everything I had a great time running again. Go figure! I like to run - well I like to run in races. The results havent come out yet, so I am not sure what my exact time was since I forgot to stop my garmin, but I am guessing it was around a 9Min mile pace including the stops. I think that really comes out to an 8 min mile pace while running, but I did get some major rest in between. I am still trying to figure out my stomach. I had a banana in the AM and water and got sick. I havent found any GUs or Gels that dont make me sick during the run, so for a race of this length I had to eat something beforehand. This has been a consistent problem for me. My stomach will determine how well I race that day.

5K Run

This year has been all about running, and I am totally shocked that I am starting to like it more. After 4 weeks of living in Mexico City, I have really only spend about 5 days there. The rest of the time has been spent traveling to our other properties in the resort destinations of Mexico. I know, poor me. Because I have been traveling so much, the only thing I can really do is run. And I cant even do that consistantly. I cant run on travel days because those usually consist of waking up before 5 and getting back to bed after 10 or 11. But the other days, I am up early to run. Since I dont have a real schedule - work or training, and have been unable to really plan out my season due to the move to a new city, I have been just been racing when I am a city that has a race. For example, when I was in Houston two weeks ago I did the half marathon. When I am in Hawaii for the next two weeks I am doing an 8K and an 8 miler. And this past weekend I was in Houston I did a run till you puke (5K). It has been hard to really figure out a training schedule, but I am a HUGE planner, and this will allow me to be a little more flexible.
The 5K is such a fun distance. There is not a lot of time to be in pain and you know it will be over in about 6 songs. The course was awesome and the weather was perfect, and best of all it gave me a base to know what I think I can realistically accomplish. The actual course according to Garmin was 3.23 miles, so a little bit longer, but my miles broke down like this: 8:05 (i actually threw up in my mouth a little bit during this mile and got a little scared that if I puked it would be 100% alcohol), 7:50, 7:48. Not all that fast compared to some of you runners out there, but it is good to know where I am sitting now with my non-existant training. I was happy with the time considering I went out the night before with my wino dad and friend until 1:30 and I have not really run since the half marathon except for a couple of beach runs. Plus I will have the altitude on my side. I didnt really have that benefit for this race as I have not been in Mexico City since before the half marathon, but once I am there full time I think it will help. Especially since all of my races will be at sea level. So my goal for 2009 is to run a 5K under 23 minutes. I guess I need to really start training now since I wrote the goal down!