Kinvara Stockpile

I pulled my last pair of new Saucony Kinvaras out of my shoe inventory the week before the Fargo HM half.  I stocked up on shoes during some monster Memorial weekend sales.  Without giving it too much thought, I assumed that these shoes would last me until Christmas where I could stockpile some more shoes for holiday sales.  Uh...wrong.  3 weeks later, these poor shoes already have close to 150 on them, and only get about 300-350. 

When the Angriest of Runners tweeted about running warehouse's sale on Kinvaras I was all aboard.  I found the pink shoes I've been coveting, and a yellow and green pair.  Sadly the yellow and green weren't on sale.  Until I added them both to my cart and realized that the sale vs. non-sale were only $5 different!  Come to mama.  Oh and then I managed to find an ADDITIONAL coupon code because I'm a b.a. online shopper. 

The office receptionist called me Tuesday morning to let me know I had a package.  In her message she said, "I'm guessing they're running shoes!"  Apparently I'm predictable.

Such a beautiful sight.

Behold. Their beauty.

And on to important questions:  Which pair do I wear for Philly?!?!?

New shoes...new shoes.... Jerbear's got some new shoes...

Did you guys ever sing the new shoes song in grade school?  Apparently my classmates did in kindergarten (I didn't move to the town I graduated from until 4th grade) but we still would jokingly sing the song every.single.time someone was sporting some new kicks to school/gym/games/etc.

While I was out sick with the ninja death star flu, I had a package delivered to work.  Because I live in an apartment, I tend to have everything shipped there.  The receptionist who received the package is from a different part of my agency, so I don't work very close with her so she doesn't know me very well, yet when I walked in the office after being sick, she handed me the package and said, "I didn't bother calling you because I figured it was just more running shoes."  Hahah.  Awesome.  And she was right.

Not only that but they are the exact same running shoes I'm currently sporting.  After Vegas, I had a minor running shoe snafu.  I had a pair of Mizuno Wave Rider 14s (I'm currently wearing the 13s) sent to me with a pretty swell discount (Thanks LC!) except that the shoes felt like bricks on my feet and were huge!  Of course we didn't have the shoes yet in our town, so I couldn't try another pair on to see if I just had a wonky pair or what.  Finally weeks later we got the shoes in and I realized that the shoe I had was normal and it just ran big.  And the next half size down was too small.  And both shoes felt like bricks.

No biggie, thinks my brain, I'll just find some of the 13s to tide me over.  Except..... THERE WEREN'T ANY!!!!  SWEET MOTHER OF JESUS!!!!!!!  Panic attack grand freak out would be an understatement.  First I was being picky about the color selection.  Purple and gold?  Eew.  I'd rather run on glass shards barefoot (sorry Vikings fans.... wait.... no I'm not! :p)  Blue?  Already had those.  Red... meh.  But then I quickly realized that there were zero size 8s left on the entire planet.

Luckily since I'm a super internet sleuth, I did manage to track some down from a company I had never heard of.  They were super cheap, and I got free shipping on them.  Score!  They still feel a bit rock like compared to my nice broken in pair, but they'll get the (long run) job done.  I feel a little sad retiring the blood soaked pair because they make me feel like a super b.a. so I'm still wearing them for muddy runs. :)

I was really trying to show off how much of the tread I had worn down over the last 400+ miles, but my photography skills leave something to be desired.  Ho hum.

__________
Saturday I had a 16 mile LR on deck for training for Fargooooooooo.  Based on the current weather 1 degree, wind chill 10-15 below, I opted for the treadmill.  Not to mention that our city has been a solid sheet of ice all week long and it's snowed Friday and Saturday to hide the slippery ice.  Sooooo not cool, weather.  ::shaking my fist in disgust and outrage::

Let's just say I had zero motivation to head out for my long run.  Someone woke me up by tearing my sleepmask off my face (someone else = Jerbear was furious about this FYI).  Then someone was kicked out and told to come back after I had garnered the rest of my beauty sleep.  So procrastination #1 of the day:  naptime immediately following wake up time.  From there I ate 1/3 of a bag of soft batch cookies, watched Real Housewives of Miami, Top Chef, gave myself a manicure, and created a new long run playlist.  Finally I had nothing left to procrastinate with other than cleaning (and you know that isn't happening) so I got crack-a-lackin' for my run.  "Oooh!  I want to measure how long my hair is!!"  Guess I wasn't out of things to procrastinate with.... (16 inches in case you were curious.)

Don't act like you're not impressed.  That's WITH my haircut from last week.  P.S.  Check out my manicure.  :)

Upon arriving to the gym, I was stoked to see that Tom was knocking down some mileage on the treadmill.  Yayzies!  Tom is one of my running buddies (we've only really ran together once on accident, but he runs, and he's my buddy soooooo running buddy... yup).  I plopped down on the treadmill with him and chatted away 3 miles.  As soon as he was done (after knocking out a monster 14 miles on the treadmill, heck ya!) I realized my stomach was feeling.... wonky.  I preceded to stop the run about every mile from there.  I drank some water, thinking that might help (I was sweating buckets).  I ate some sharkies thinking that might help.  I decreased the incline on the treadmill.  Finally after 6 miles I called it good.

I got in my car and I was pretty defeated.  There's a sense of pride in finishing a super long long run, and I was bummed that I had given up on it (although not without multiple attempts).  When I glanced down at my dashboard at a stop sign I perked up a bit.  This is super cheesy, but it reminded me that a botched long run is not the end of the world and to focus on the big picture:  26.2.  [cue cheesy inspirational music a la Full House]

Check out the Studly Runner Marcia's Zensah bra giveaway here!

Heartbreaker + 1000 Miles

I would like to alternately title this post as Heartbreaker:  A Soleless Tale.  Eff I'm witty.

Dearest Nimbus Running Shoes,

You and I have been together since the beginning of this long distance running shenanigans.  I remember when I first set my eyes on the much loved green Nimbus 7's.  As we both know, it was love at first sight.  We've had our shares of ups and downs, and that's only to be expected with my fiery personality.  Heck, I've even given up running in the 7 years we've been together, but still have been loyal to you.  We trained for and completed my first marathon with a smile on my face and no injuries to be seen.

But lately..... lately things haven't been going so well.  Perhaps we have ourselves a case of the 7 year itch?  It's just not working anymore.  I swear... it's not you, it's me!  Ok, honestly, I think it is you.  You keep revamping yourself and increasing your prices, and I seem to be getting less and less miles out of you.  When I went to the running store today wearing my current pair, the dude working said they were shot, and only had 275 miles on them!  What happened to the 400-450 miles we used to be able to get together?  That was the final straw.

I must admit:  there's someone else.  It's a pretty recent thing, and it's not serious, but I do see the potential for greatness.  If not, there's always a chance I'll come running back to you.  Hell, you've seen my track record with my former loves, a second (or third) shot isn't out of the question.  We have history.  You never get over your first love.  I shall think of you fondly and hope you do the same.

Love Always,

Jerbear

*

Mizuno Wave Rider 13

After my trek to the running store for my new kicks, I hit up the gym to do some biking (it's been storming all day, blech).  I biked 15 miles in 1:01.  After I was done my knee felt pretty good and I had an idea....maybe just maybe I could hit up the treadmill.  You know.... just to test out my new kicks.... make sure they were a solid investment and all.  Or maybe it was because I've been at 999.4 miles since my knee started acting up last Thursday and it's SERIOUSLY KILLING ME.  Ahem.  Anyway, I thought the worst that could happen is that it would hurt and I would stop.

I started going and holy heavy legs.  Nothing like attempting a brick your first run back, dumb dumb.  My knee was slightly twingy for the first 1/4 of a mile, but after that it (and my quads) loosened up and we had ourselves a nice little mile jog.  :)  At .6 I was one smiley fool.  1000 miles....hollar!  And despite my mini set back, I still managed to complete the number of miles 3 months sooner than in 2010.  Heck ya.

*Can we discuss the fact that these shoes have sparkles on them?  I know I may have expressed my extreme distaste for sparkles with NFL apparel, but that is sooooo not the case when it comes to running shoes apparently.  I recall taking sparkly fingernail polish to the Nike swoosh sign on my spikes in high school to jazz em up a bit.  Flyyyyyyyyy.

National Running Day + New Shoes

In honor of National Running day (June 2nd), I had my first tempo run for this round of training (or more truthfully, yay! running day falls on a day where I have a run planned!!).  After ~15 hours of freak out over my Garmin being wonky (it wouldn't upload my Tuesday night run, then the screen was fading in and out, it wouldn't Unlock itself, it changed the time to some weird time in the future [literally it was tomorrow in Garmin watch land], and the usual fixes:  plugging it in to the charger, were doing nothing to correct it.)  When I got home from work and unplugged it from the charger it went blank.  After attempting to reset it for what felt like 5 minutes, I set it down and started looking for my old school running watch.  To which it beeped back to life for me.  Unfortunately, I had to go through all my settings again, not realizing I had to set it to the autolap function that I've come to know and love (this is foreshadowing, kids).

I got ready for my run and headed outside.  Gorgeous weather, like whoa.  70 degrees, breezy bordering on windy, low humidity.  It's almost like I dialed up this weather.  I had 5 miles to do with 4 @ 8:15 tempo pace.  I started out and ran the first mile (warm up mile) at a slower pace.  I looked down at my watch around the 1 mile mark, and was bummed to see that I must've missed the "chirp" and mile time.  The first tempo mile was all over the place.  My legs are used to running 9:23 pace and 7:00-7:30 pace for speedwork.  8:15?  What the heck does that feel like??  I figured I would run what I felt like 8:15, and reassess at the 2 mile mark.  The end of the first tempo mile came and went without a chirp from the Garmin.  And then I realized, I was an idiot.  I took a couple of seconds to reset my watch.  After some quick calculations (which are always 100% wrong while running, I've come to realize) I thought my tempo mile was ~8:20.  So I sped up.

The rest of the tempo miles felt less comfortable than I remember them feeling, but my pace was all over the place, and my garmin's pace wasn't helping either.  Pretty sure I'm not running a 10-11 minute mile here.....turd.  The last 3 tempo miles were much faster than I had planned, which makes me feel good that my tempo pace doesn't hurt as much as I thought.  Also, after I got home and had time to do some simple math with oxygen in my brain, I realized that the first tempo mile was actually spot on, soooooo I should've kept going with that, instead of kicking up the pace.

I did 5 miles in 41:53 for a pace of 8:23.  Avg. tempo pace = 8:03
1. 9:40
2. 8:14
3. 7:58
4. 8:03
5. 7:57

Goal for next tempo run:  find the tempo pace and stick with it.

In other super awesome fabulous news, I got new shoooooooooooes.  I love new shoes.  After my foot was hurting post-marathon, I thought my shoes might be to blame.  Now I realize my body was still just healing up.  Regardless I only have about 2 weeks of running left in my current shoes, so I bought the same pair in a 3rd color:  blue!  They're pretty cute, and they scream, "Jeri!  Run fast in me!  Half marathon PR!  5k PR!  Now now now!!"  Demanding little b's, no?  I think I will try my damndest to oblige.

"One of these things doesn't belong...one of these things just isn't the same...."

Answer:  dirt.  And sweat.  Oh so much sweat.  All I need is the red and teal versions (made especially for zappos.com) in order to complete the Nimbus 11 family.  Loyal like whoa. :)

P.S.  Honestly, who makes a flower-like arrangement out of their running shoes???  freak.

And also, to further celebrate National Running Day (along with the fact that I got paid on Friday) I registered for all the races that have a June deadline (I only get paid once/month.  Yes it sucks royally.  Luckily I'm a credit counselor and know how to budget my $$$ [more like $] to a T!)  I signed up for a local 1 mile + 5k for 2 1/2 weeks and another 5k in 4 1/2 weeks.  With a half marathon squeezed in between.  I guess I am listening to the shoes already.  At least they seem to be a good influence so far. ;)

Retail Therapy

After finding out I was going to be Valentine-less for the Valentine's Day weekend, I could think of one thing, and one thing alone that would cheer me up:  shopping spree at my favorite running store.  After meticulously going through my budget for February, I magically found an extra $100 that wasn't spoken for.  Since this is a rarity, I figured I would put it towards new running shoes, knowing that my mileage will be up on my current loves in approximately one month.  Now that's planning ahead financially (can you tell I'm a credit counselor?)

I walked into the store and barked out my size:  7 1/2! shoe type:  Nimbus 11!! and color:  pink!!! while putzing around the store.  I perused the sale rack, but only found a couple of things, a black long sleeved Nike shirt (reasoned that if I was going to be wearing something that lightweight, it was probably warm out, and if it's warm out, why on God's earth would I be wearing black?  I don't care if you are on sale for $25.  Ok, to be honest, the $25 was a HUGE selling point.)  Moving on.  I found this gem of a t-shirt.  I've actually been eyeing it my last 5 trips into the store, but it had finally come down to the steal of a price 15 dollah.  SOLD!  I also stocked up on a case worth of Gu Roctane:  Espresso, Vanilla, and Triberry.  They were out of my fave Blueberry Pomegranate, but I'm excited to try the Triberry as I've heard good things.

The best part of the shopping trip is that I have a card that gives me 15% off of regularly priced apparel and shoes.  $125 shoes BAM $107.25.

Tonight I had an easy 7 miles to do on the treadmill (boo!).  However, all stars thoroughly aligned for treadmill-run-awesomeness.  One of my favorite bands, Angels & Airwaves, released a new CD Love yesterday on their website fo free.  New awesomely sweet tunes on the iPod?  Check!  Also, I was putzing (I should get an award for using the word putzing twice now thrice in one blog post.  Winner:  Jeri.) around my apartment prior to heading to the gym, so I got there with 5 minutes to spare before HIMYM came on.  Super awesome tv show to watch while running?  Check!  The only thing I was missing to make it a trifecta was to be chasing after the boy during the run (but let's be honest, he'd keel over loooooong before 7 miles was up).

Regardless of the super awesomeness that was to be, the run was not so super awesome.  I was hungry.  Who else is sick of me complaining about being hungry during a run?  Jeepers.  I didn't really realize that my main issue when training for a marathon wasn't going to be getting in the runs, it is definitely going to be making sure I'm eating quality food and enough of it.  Apparently I should've adjusted my grocery budget during these next three months.

Anyway, I stuck with the run, and after the first 3 miles I bumped up the speed .1 mph and that actually helped a lot, my legs no longer felt like lead.  Right around that time, a chick with legs up to my neck jumped on the t'mill next to me, and that helped immensely as well.  We had almost the same stride and pace going, so it's really easy for me to get in a rhythm with running next to people like that.  During the last 4 miles, I debated about asking her (post run of course) if she is training for something and if she is looking for a running buddy.  Now I know how nervous guys get when approaching girls at the bar.  I needed some liquid courage!  I ended up chickening out, but she'll be back.  ;)  (I'm such a loser :p)

I ended up doing 7 miles in 1:06:34 for a pace of 9:31.

Thanks for all the suggestions for pre-run fuel.  I've always had a temperamental stomach when it came to sports and especially running.  I remember in high school, I would go from noon to 8pm without eating any food because I was so concerned about it making me sick and not able to compete in my races.  This fall and winter, when training for the Sioux Falls 1/2 and Dallas White Rock 1/2 I typically ate a banana and a peanut butter sandwich before running.  At some point the peanut butter started messing up my stomach BIG TIME.  The banana works still, but I'm just not sure that is going to be sufficient once I start running 16-20 miles.  There were times when doing 11-13 mile LRs that I wouldn't eat before, and just take a Gu Roctane (which I actually like!) earlier in the run, and that seemed to work, but that's a $$$$ habit to get into.  Feel free to keep the suggestions coming, keeping in mind that I am lactose intolerant, so factor that in as well.  Also, if anyone else has stomach sensitivities to peanut butter, would almond butter be better?  I used to really like the piece of toast/bagel with PB before it started to destroy me. :)

And in closing I thought I would share the sweetest text message/compliment I have ever received:  I was actually just thinking about you.  My family told me I should be on the Amazing Race, and they asked me who my partner would be.

Seriously, this guy and I would *kill* the competition in this show.  He's the manager at my gym, and in insanely good shape (obviously).  We've gone running a couple of times, and I think we could take the show by storm.  Amazing Race 2011 here we come!! ;)

Minus the extra hour of sleep I hate you DLS

As I was patiently waiting for the clock to strike 5pm on Monday, signally time to go home, I noticed that the sun was disappearing farther and farther into the west. I checked weatherbug to see what time she would set for good, and was gobsmacked that it was 5:16pm. That's how long it takes me to get home! Instantly my motivation to run was -poof- gonzo. I sat on the couch, convincing myself that if I would just go for a run, I could go buy new shoes after. Yes, on occasion I do have to bribe myself to run....what? You don't... :s

After that did nothing I thought, well what makes you more excited about running than anything??? Running in new shoes! Heck, if I get the shoes first, there's no way I could turn down a run. I'm a GENIUS! My co-worker had a 20% off coupon for the local running store, and I was excited to use it. :) I had planned to get the Asics Nimbus 11, but wanted to try some others on just to be sure. I tried on some Nikes and Mizunos just for giggles, but I'm afraid my heart will always lie with the Nimbus. If it isn't broke, don't fix it, eh? Unfortunately, they only had purple left in stock in my size. Now, I'm not a purple hater, but during football season, I absolutely am, especially after Sunday's game. :( I texted a friend who's a big Vikes fan and confessed my purchase. His response, "I bet you look really good in purple. ;)" Well obviously! Just as long as everyone realizes I would've chosen green if given the choice. Hah.

After arriving home with my new shoes, I couldn't wait to go for a run. I grabbed my new running pants, my new (to me) white running jacket, and gloves and set out for a 6-7 mile run. This time I decided to hit up another ond 'hood: my old college! :) I knew it was going to be a hilly route, but felt like my legs could handle it. I spent the 6 miles reminiscing about my college memories, classes, friends, professors, co-workers..... I know some people hated college, but it will forever hold a big ol' chunk of my heart. It was cool to see new additions to campus and to some apartments surrounding campus. It was sad to see my two favorite party houses torn down. Sniffles.

It was especially awesome to run up the HUGE HILL I used to avoid at all costs when I first started running again the summer before my senior year. I remember whenever I would accidentally include it in my running route, I would ALWAYS have to walk up it. It was waaaaaaay too steep, and I just didn't have the strength or heart to tackle it. Not last night. I trucked right up the puppy, and was rewarded with the view of our new stadium. It was a great run, and even though it was technically supposed to be an easy run at an easy pace, I actually booked it, especially considering all the hills!

I did 6 miles in 52:51 for a pace of 8:49.

1. 9:41

2. 8:42

3. 8:38
4. 8:22

5. 8:19

6. 9:05

I just realized that this was basically a 4 mile hill tempo run.  Sweet.  :)
Sidenote:  I look like I have cankles in both of the pics of my new shoes.  Hahahha.  I just noticed that, oh well.  Gotta show off the shooooooosies.  :)

EEW! The treadmill is sweating....

oh wait...that's me.

This morning I woke up to a horrendous thunder storm. I was bummed because I was looking forward to the track workout I had planned, but was really just TIRED. So I snoozed for another hour. Gotta love coming in late on Thursdays. :) When I got up, it was still storming, so I headed to the gym. Blah. I kind of hate the gym, but it's better than being struck by lightning I guess.

Today I had my first workout with mile repeats. WHOO! For my 5k training plans, I had been doing 400 m. so I was excited to switch things up a bit. The plan called for a 1 mile warm up, 2 x 1 mile at 7:46 mm, 800 m. recovery after each, and a 1 mile cool down.

I set to work and away I went. And on came the sweat. Phew. I think this is seriously the most I've EVER sweat. I was silently thanking myself for being smart and wearing black running shorts instead of something like that would make it look like I peed myself, yikes.

The first mile felt strong, but the second mile was a struggle. Oof. It would've been interesting to see this workout on a track as I had originally planned, to see if I would've been able to maintain the pace when I was tired on the second mile, or if I would've backed off and picked it up at the end to compensate (that's usually my style).

Holy freak out. I just went on to runnersworld.com to check my running log to post some stats from my run, and my log is coming up blank. Fingers crossed that's a weird glitch in their system, or I'm going to freak out!

Okie dokie. From memory, the first warm up mile was around 9:22. First mile repeat was 7:42, followed by 4:57 1/2 mile recovery. Second mile repeat was 7:41 with the same recovery. Cool down mile was around 9:40. If you want to add those together, you would come up with my total time for 5 miles. You would then be able to calculate an average pace.

At one point in the run I looked down at the control deck (?) of the treadmill and thought the treadmill was sweating. WOW! It must be REALLY humid in here, I thought like an idiot. Look at all the sweat spots on the piece in front of the actual belt that I'm running on. Yuck. Then I looked to the treadmills to the left and right of me. Weird, they're not sweating. As I again faced forward, I saw a huge thing of sweat fly from my arm to the treadmill screen (?), drip down onto the base on the treadmill. Oh. Wow. That's me. Awesome. :)

In other news, I think I need new shoes. On one hand: YAY! I love new shoes. On the other hand: Ugh. I'm broke. Can't you wait? Right now my shoes have about 270 miles on them (I'd give you the exact amount but a certain WEBSITE appears to have lost my INFORMATION!!!) I should end up hitting about 120 miles for my training this month, and will desperately need new shoes by then. Plus, I would like to have the new shoes broken in for the Wild West Relay.

Also, I'm not sure if it's because my shoes are wearing out already, or if it's because of the increased mileage lately, but I'm starting to get callouses on my toes in places I never have before am feeling some shin pain post-runs. I had horrible shin splints in high school and do NOT want those to reappear, so shoes will apparently be fit in my budget asap.

Asap as in Saturday. :) After my long run, I think I'm going to head to the local running store to have them do that thing where they check your running style or whatever (please insert the technical much smarter sounding terminology here) to make sure I'm in the correct shoes. It's not a gait analysis because it's not with the treadmill, it's the thing you stand on that determines where your weight naturally lies....I think anyway.

Asics Nimbuses (Nimbusi? Nimbuseseses?) have always worked, but I'm just interested to see what they say. If all goes well, I should be the proud new owner of these puppies by Saturday afternoon.

They're so...pink. And I'm not really a girly-girl/pink girl. But darn it they're cute. And they don't come in green, which would've been my first choice.

Alright, I'm going to go back to checking runners world obsessively to make sure they haven't lost my running data for the last 2 years, because that would be less than awesome. :(