San Francisco Half Marathon

yesterday was great. The overall experience was pleasant and i had fun.
in short, it was nothing like my last half marathon where it was COLD and RAINY and i was pretty sure i was going to die at about mile 11.
but back to the good stuff.
I woke up at 4 am, had breakfast (even though my body was really confused about eating at 4 am without being super-drunk), got dressed and was out of the house by 5. five in the morning might be the only time when there is no traffic on the 101 or through downtown. so, i got to the embarcadero by 5:15. Due to the high number of people and to avoid bottlenecks through the race, they assign people to waves based on their estimated finish times. clearly, i was in the last wave and did not start until 6:20.
the weather was perfect for the run and was one of the few times i was not complaining about the fact that SF has had a cold summer.
the first 5 miles were surprisingly easy. i was just singing along to my ipod and smiling. (so my pictures wont look like im crying this time)
miles 6-10 were an out and back on the golden gate and went by so quickly bc i was distracted by the scenary.
the SF Marathon provides professional pacers (people who can run at a specific pace for hours straight... i like to think of them as robots) and i ran with the 12:30 min/mile pacer all the way until mile 11 where the hills began.
these are not slight inclines, they are more like mountains, and i just saw the pacer get farther and farther ahead of me as we were running up the first one. the running turned into shuffling and then walking as my knee started to feel the pressure.
but other than that obstacle, the rest was great. i came in at 2 hours and 48 mins (12:48 min/mile pace) and was pretty happy since that was about 47 seconds/mile faster than the last half marathon in February.
I am actually super-exited for the San Jose Rock N Roll Half Marathon on October 5th. San Jose is FLAT and i have a good 2 months of training left until then. so, my goal is to keep the 12:30 pace the whole time and come in at about 2:44.
as for how i felt today, my hamstrings are sore from the damn hills, but i feel physically fine otherwise. (i also havent been able to stop eating since i stopped running yesterday. hoping that will go away soon, cause its kinda ridiculous. )

Thats all for the update here. i will post pics in a few days when they are up.

To see the course map, click on the "first half marathon map" on the link below
http://www.runsfm.com/events/maps.html

i'm back in the game

after weeks of being banned from running and suffering through 7am physical therapy, i am finally running again. i've done some shorter runs for the past 2 weeks and had a 7-miler on both weekends.
my knee is dealing rather beautifully with this and we are on track to run a half-marathon in 2 weeks.
i think i've finally moved past the disappointment of not being able to run the marathon and am actually starting to get super-excited to do the half. most of all, im looking forward to running on the Golden Gate Bridge. (they close the bridge for the event)

anyway, thats my short update for now. i will get back in the habit of posting here more as i get used to training again.

non-running life

i might have to change the name of the site since "narges is running" is just not true anymore.

but aside from the bitterness, my knee is getting a little better. I have been doing all the exercises i was told to and have physical therapy scheduled for the near future.

as for my marathon dreams, the race is just delayed, not canceled. I will be running the half-marathon on Aug 3rd since they would only let me downgrade and would not refund my $100 race fee. In addition, I just signed up for the Silicon Valley Metro Marathon on October 26th. and there is the BBBS fund-raising half on October 5th.

With all the races a few months away, I feel like i have enough time to get better and put this whole thing behind me. I also feel much better knowing that I have all those races coming up and I'm not going to be sitting on my butt for too long.

meanwhile, i will take advantage of all this newfound free time and enjoy all the fun/injuries that await me in Jujitsu class.

my knee and I are in a fight

i went to the doctor today for the knee situation and i apparently got patellar tracking disorder. PTD is when the knee-cap shifts off track when the knee bends and straightens.

though my right knee is why i went in, it turns out that i got this in both knees, right knee is just a lot worse than the left.
this is really common in women runners bc of the way our weight is distributed and it also happens when the quad and hamstring are too tight all the time. they are basically pulling on my knee-cap and getting it off track. the tightness can happen when there is not enough variation in work-outs. running makes those muscles tight and since i havent been doing too much other than running and weight training, they havent had a chance to loosen up. so, they stay tight even when im sitting at work. NOT GOOD.

to fix it, i need to significantly reduce my training for weeks and add a lot of swimming and light yoga to my routine to elongate the muscles and make them not so tight. as of now, the doctor was unsure if the marathon in August was realistic.

thats pretty much the update right now

freaking out a little bit

so, my knee got a little better during the week since i stayed clear of running all together. but 2 days of walking the Vegas strip and pretending to know how to do Irish dances were not exactly helpful. so, now it even hurts to walk, which wasnt the case originally.
i'm gonna have to go see a doctor tomorrow since this is prime training time and having to take over a week off is certainly a setback with 8 weeks to go. i'm just hoping it's not as bad as it feels.

what happened to my knee?

i was supposed to do 18 miles yesterday, but had to settle for 12 because at about mile 9, my right knee felt like someone stuck a knife through it. I have never been stabbed, but i imagine thats what it would feel like.
i iced and took some advil and am just waiting it out.

general recovery

i haven't been posting cause i haven't done anything particularly exciting in my training. I had a pretty chill week last week since "recovery is as important as running." and who am i to argue with the experts.

I had a pretty fast 5-miler on Friday. five miles in 55 mins. I was super excited and had to double-check the time and mileage when i was done. i am also always amazed at the fact that my "fastest" is really super-slow compared to most runners. but we will ignore that fact.

And then on Saturday, I went out for a 4-miler with my mom. It was the second week we went to the track together. We go first thing in the morning and I'm usually against anything first thing in the morning, but I like how she is getting into a consistent run/walk schedule. I like to think that my new obsession has something to do with it. Also, it's reassuring to know i have good genes. ;)

other than that, this week and the next should be pretty intense as i'm trying to pack in a lot of mileage before i head to Vegas on the 6th.

twenty miles... just the facts

distance:20 miles
total time: 4hr 35 mins
pace: 13:05 mins/mile
weather: 50s with lots of fog and moderate winds

miles 1-6: i was mostly thinking about how i probably should have started this thing before 2pm, cause its never going to end. i sang some shania. right after the sixth mile, my ipod ran out of battery. I was about a mile away from the car and luckily i had my running radio in my gym bag. the no music thing could have really made this day more painful, so it was a bullet dodged.

miles 7-12: went pretty well. i am making that assumption based on the fact that I have no memory from those 5 miles.

mile 13: I realize that i ran the equivilant of a half marathon in much less time that it took me to do the half in February. this was a nice moment since im never quite convinced that im getting faster.

mile 14-15: the high from the previous discovery carried me for about 2 miles before it was replaced with pain.

miles 16-18: at this point, everything hurt. all joints, muscles, and fat cells were ready to enter the horizontal position. meanwhile, the fog got so low that i was gross and wet and breathing felt a little weird. it would be an under-statement to say that this was uncomfortable. I forgot about these conditions momentarily when a couple in their 70s wearing matching lime-green track suits jogged by.

miles 18-20: if there was any part of the run i was mentally prepared for, it was the last two miles. i had already done 18 last week, so i had repeatedly reminded myself that today is all about these two miles. i told myself that its just two miles, i can run two miles any day of the week, anytime, no problem. I stopped looking at my watch and tried to just drag my ass along. one tiny problem is that my body was fully aware of the fact that this wasn't just two miles. this was two miles after having run 18. but i clearly dont listen very carefully to my body, or we would have gone home a long time ago. so, i ignored it and instead thought about what i was going to eat for dinner. that was a great finishing strategy and i'm gonna have to use that one again in future runs... food is definitely something all my body parts can always agree on.

blisters suck

saturday's 18-miler left me with my first blister since i started running. this thing is huge and painful and seems to not go away. i read up on runner's world about how to drain a blister and i did as i was told, but the next day, it was back. ew!
needless to say, this paired with my super-sore quads made yesterday's 5-miler uber-shitty.

other than that, the count-down to vegas is keeping me sane at the moment. i am trying to not think about it too much... so i have something to think about during my long run over the weekend.

12 weeks to go

word on the street is that the 12 weeks before a marathon are when the real training happens. apparently, the hundreds of miles i've been running are called "pre-training."
now that we got the terminology straight, i put in 41 miles on asphalt during my last week of pre-training. granted, i did 18 of those yesterday, the week still contained solid runs outdoors.
i did the 18 by running lake merced 4 times. i was afraid it was going to get boring, and it did, but it was nice to run where i didnt have to worry about staying on the mapped route. also, the trail has mile-markers which makes timing and pacing easier.

details:
--the run took a few minutes over 4 hours.
--I ran out of things to think about after the first 2 hours. this meant that i analyzed the lyrics of songs like p-diddy's "i need a girl (part II)" and the theme song from Captain Planet.
-- miles 7-10 were miserable for no particular reason at all.
--at mile 17, i broke into a sprint after seeing 2 rats chase each other.

while stretching, i met a woman ultra-marathoner training for her first 50-mile race. she was in her 50s and i was definitely inspired by her endurance and dedication to training. she said she decided to run an Ultra because marathons were no longer a challenge... (WHAT?)... she is telling me this as im convinced i might need knee-replacement surgery after an 18-miler.

the important thing is that i finished without wishing for the MUNI to hit me and put me out of my misery... its about the small improvements. next week is TWENTY.

"stop trying to race me"

i've been running Lake Merced pretty regularly for a few weeks now and i am basically starting to recognize the regulars.
there is this one guy who i have seen a bunch of times and today after i ran my first lap, i saw him stretching. i smiled and was surprised when he actually talked to me, "hey, you should stop trying to race me, its hurting your pace."
upon hearing that, i was way too curious to keep going and stopped to see what he was talking about. apparently, he had noticed me trying to pass him a bunch of times. he went on to let me know that my problem was that i sped up too much for a short distance and was then forced to walk. this makes sense since he always ends up kicking my ass in the run overall.
to get to the point, he asked what speed i was going for and volunteered to pace me for a lap around the lake (4.5 miles). the challenge was that no walking was allowed at all. regardless of how many miles i have racked up during my training, there has always been walking integrated with the running. but i couldnt quite pass up the free coaching.
fast-forward to the end of the story, i ended up running the whole thing without walking. this kid was genius. my goal now is to try and keep up that pace for longer periods of time.

but the most amusing part of this encounter has nothing to do with running. at some point along the run, he asked me "what school do you go to?" i figured he must mean college and just told him that i graduated a few years ago. turns out he is a junior in HIGH SCHOOL and is going to be the captain for the varsity cross country team next year. i almost tripped when he told me that. he seemed almost as shocked when i informed him how old i was. the obvious was stated and he informed me that he was in middle-school when i was in college.
believe me, if i could have possibly run any faster, i would have, to get that lap over with as fast as possible. needless to say, the last 20 minutes was run pretty much in silence.
it was the ultimate awkward moment, but the running lesson learned was well worth it.

ten-mile tuesday

running outside beats running at the gym any day, and it was great to be able to get out today and get a solid mid-week workout at the lake.
i had my shuffle (filled with music... thanks to Derek) and just bounced along and had fun. i even smiled at other runners as opposed to my usual forced nod when they smile and say hi.
now if i can only figure out a way to get out of work at a reasonable time a few days a week, it would be great to just get some sun and fresh air and not have to deal with the smelly crowds at the gym.

running on the track is for hamsters

this morning started with me snoozing my alarm a few times... then i was too lazy to go to the trail to run, so i settled for the track across the street from my parents' house. this was not a very good idea since running on a track means that there is an exit opportunity after each lap. you also need to understand that this track is really right across the street from where i could have been in bed like a normal person would be before 9 am.
with that kind of positive attitude, i was really surprised when i didnt make it for the scheduled 10 miles. i actually have no clue how far i did run, because i kept losing track of my laps. based on how long i managed to circle around that thing, i would estimate somewhere between 6-7 miles.
also, i was unaware of how many families with small children like to come out that early. the kids were all sooooo excited to be out and running around and bouncing balls on the track, that they were literally screaming. these sights and sounds got annoying pretty quickly as you could imagine.
i was pretty bummed out about my complete lack of motivation this morning, but i went on a walk/hike with sara this afternoon for another 3.5 miles and that was super fun and definitely made me feel better.
other than that, im buying an ipod shuffle tomorrow and am excited to take it out for a big fat 18-miler next weekend.

I want my money back

i had been reading this marathon training book a few weeks ago and just loved the authors perspective and could totally relate. the book was written in a journal format and went in chronological order. i found the book very inspiring and wanted to save the actual marathon day part for closer to my marathon, so she can get me all pumped up.
but last night, i caved and decided that i couldnt wait and just wanted to hear read about how she nailed the marathon. what i didnt see coming was that she fails. what kind of fu**ing self-help/training book is that?
her goal was to run a marathon in about 5 hours. she did all the training and she ended up walking the last 11 miles and finished in 7:30... what?
I was so angry at how she gave up. she actually sat down at one point.
there was no lesson at the end of the book. the only comment was that it was still really awesome finishing a marathon, even though she didnt make her goal time.
i cant believe someone actually gave this girl a book deal with that ending. there are plenty marathoning books out there where you can read about a training program and see how it can be successful... why would anyone want to read the one about how this girl didnt make it?

My Super Sweet Seventeen!!

Super-sweet might be pushing it, but i did complete 17 miles today.
i was looking at the schedule and realized that i will only have 3 more mileage increases, 18, 20, and 22. after that, i'll keep rotating through them to get faster. and getting faster will be important since i was SLOW today. you could have probably watched a whole season worth of reruns on tv during the time it took me to finish the run. i had put too many hills in the mileage and just kicked my own ass. what was interesting was that it was harder to come down the hills, than it was to go up them. that was an unexpected twist.
to see the map of the run, click here.
other than that, it was hot and super-sunny. i ran out of water twice and had to go on little detours to get some. once my saturday class is over, i'll definitely make sure to get the runs in during the early morning hours on either saturday or sunday. its just hard to try and push harder and harder and try and not pass out from the heat at the same time.
lastly, i discovered a $50 ticket upon my return to the vehicle. apparently, my tags are expired. i look into my glove compartment and i had the new ones in there. blah... i did not know they could give you a ticket for that when the car is parked. now i have to go to the SF traffic authority and show them that i did have my tags and they will reduce the ticket. just blah.

i am gracefully stepping off the wagon

as the topic suggests, i am officially ending my attempt at making it to race day "on the wagon." i have cheated so many times (including last night) since the half, that i might as well get off the damn wagon all together and find an alternate form of transportation. i also figured its best to step off by choice, rather than fall off.
the whole not drinking thing worked great during the 3 months i was training for the half. it was actually pretty easy to do and it helped me stay focused and put my mind in training mode. but i feel like after months of running, my mind is not gonna get off training mode just because ive had a few drinks. i'll still have to be careful to not get drunk on the nights before long runs, but who says i cant drink on a random thursday... my hangover at the moment is not affecting my running one bit.
most important of all, im going to vegas in june and the whole city is a "no wagon" zone. AND i cant go to vegas without proper training. it always comes down to training.

ps. i have always been curious about the origin of the expressions involving the metaphorical wagon, so i looked it up.
http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20001215
Muy interesante!

Happy Patriots' Day

The Boston Marathon was today and I was following the action at work to see which Kenyan will win. (a Kenyan did win. Robert Cheruiyot won for the fourth time and finished in 2:07)
But aside from all the pros who come year after year from all over the world, there are a lot of regular runners who train to qualify for boston for years. boston marathon got so popular that runners need to qualify by finishing another marathon in a set time. for my age group, women need to finish in 3hr40mins... thats running roughly 8 minute miles. men in the 18-35 group need to run a 3:10 marathon... roughly 7 minute miles.
not to compare myself, but just to put things in perspective, a lot of armatures run to finish - which means they train just so they can physically drag themselves for 26.2 miles. The SF Marathon has a time-limit because it is run on city streets and the course will be closed after 6 hours... about 13:30 mins/mile is the pace for finishing in just under 6 hours.
The Boston Marathon has been going on Patriots' Day (3rd Monday of April) since 1897. This officially makes it the oldest road race since it started one year after the first marathon event at the 1896 Olympics. women weren't allowed to run in boston marathon and in 1967 a women registered with her initials and got a race number. race officials tackled her and tried to take her out of the race once they noticed her, but she finished. It wasnt until 1972 that women were officially allowed to race in Boston and subsequently other long-distance road races.

if you are intrigued by all these facts, there is plenty on info on www.bostonmarathon.org/

"Our short runs used to be our long runs"

i saw this quote the other day on an Adidas Women banner ad online and it definitely applied to a day like today when i put off the running till pretty late since there was only a "short run" (8 miles) on the schedule. whats funny is that only a few months ago i had to run 8 for the first time and was pretty ready to pass out afterward.
I ran around lake Merced in SF and then around the surrounding neighborhood to hit the 8. i really like that area - most of the run was along the SF State perimeter. I would love to live down there, a few blocks from the ocean. (putting that on the to-do list)
It was a beautiful san francisco day and i even got to see the sun set at the end of my run. there was also a nice breeze that turned into a bit of a tornado when i got closer to the ocean. overall, it was quick and painless and just nice to have an easy week before next weekend's looooong run.

One down, one to go

"one down, one to go" almost always has a positive tone. like, i took one final and got one to go. i won one game, and got one to go. in my case, its not so good. i injured one ankle and got one good one left.
lets start from the beginning. i was getting out of bed Wednesday morning when i put my foot down on the latest issue of "runner's world" and my ankle did a twisty thing. (another reasons i hate getting up in the morning) i didnt think much of it and just cursed the day and moved on. i had a pretty inactive day and though the ankle did not feel great, it wasnt too bad either.
fast-forward to thursday morning when i woke up with a swollen ankle that was now hurting every time i put my foot down. i iced all day and had to skip the running last night and just stuck to the bike to avoid impact. the swelling has gone down significantly today, so im taking this as a sign that i should be good to go again over the weekend.
its just amazing that ive run hundreds of miles over the past months and i hurt myself getting out of bed by stepping on a magazine on the floor. blah.
but aside from the general tone of this post, im actually in a good mood today. i felt like i needed to say that since the posts make me sound like a huge negative nancy.

active recovery

i got up this morning and checked my training calendar to see what kind of mileage i have to look forward to and was amazed to find the word "active recovery" there. upon further inspection, i learned that since the long weekend runs are growing kinda crazy, i get more days off from running during the week. granted active recovery is telling me im supposed to do an alternate physical activity today, i am going to make an executive decision and rule that attending a baseball game counts.
i really did need a day off... when i was at the gym yesterday bouncing on the treadmill just fast enough that i dont fall off, i realized that i was still hella sore from sunday. what i dont understand is how my abs are sore. im pretty sure i would remember if i had done a few hundred crunches on top of running 15 miles. but its nothing that a nice ball-park hotdog can't fix.
speaking of the gym, the tangerine lady was back yesterday. this woman brings 2-3 tangerines and peels and eats them as she sits on the stationary bike watching TV. i saw her for the first time last week and she was there again yesterday. its just so weird and the smell really spreads and it takes a few minutes for ppl to realize where its coming from. i guess there are worse smells than tangerine... i just dont get why she has to eat in the main work-out room as everyone else is trying to sweat off their lunches.

way too early, way too hot

i got up at 6:30 this morning and was on the road at 7. that's SEVEN on a sunday. I'm glad anyone potentially reading this knows me, so i dont have to spend time explaining my extreme dislike for the a.m. hours. I was clearly bitter about this, especially since i had ignored the original plan of staying out only until midnight last night (try 1:45). but the important thing is i actually got up as opposed to throw my alarm out the window.
why so early? because it was supposed to get pretty hot and i was trying to avoid passing out. and this was a good decision on my part, cause by 9:00 when i was running back, it was HOT.
the highlight of the whole day was that i actually completed 15 miles. this is a bigger deal than it may look cause this was my 4th try at breaking 14. the other 3 attempts had ended with my body's decision to no longer participate in my running.
also, this was my first time running down in the south bay, so it was nice to have a change of scenery. the trail goes from campbell to los gatos... along a creek. the creek could at times be credited for the soothing sound of water along the run (kinda like those fake home fountains). but what the creek really contributed to my run was BUGS. lots and lots of them. i ate so many i lost count and also my shirt looked like the car windshield when you go on a road trip. hella bugs had run into me and stuck to my shirt. i hope my words are painting the picture.
other than the bugs, and the heat, and the fact that my arm-band radio running device stopped working at mile 2, i would say the run went pretty well. i ran at or close to my goal pace almost the whole time. this is with the exception of mile 10, when i was going so slow that i was almost running in place.
i think that about covers my morning adventure. now that i have updated this, i have to go find another excuse to not work on my paper for tomorrow.

post numero uno

I'm pretty sure that i've hit "a wall" if not "the wall" in my training. this imaginary wall refers to when your feet feel like they are made of lead and your lungs feel like they are the size of a pea. but apparently its all mental and has nothing to do with the fact that after running 14 miles, one might actually be tired.
So, I've resorted to reading a lot of on-line marathon coaching pages as well as 2 books on marathon training in order to figure out what happened to my full-proof plan to run further and/or faster every week.
Most of these coaches believe in keeping track of training obstacles and a bunch of them recommended blogging as a way to just get out the frustrations that are hard to avoid during months of training. This is what i call "internet therapy" and it's much cheaper than actually getting a running coach to yell motivational things at me.
i've never been one of those people who kept an online diary or live-journal or xanga, or any of those things, so ... this has a lot of awkward potential.