Answers and Aches

Even though my offer of sharing my candy-scented runs with you didn't inspire a lot of people to participate in the audience participation portion of this blog, I did get a few questions. I'll get to those in a minute. But, first, my assessment of my two mile run last night:

OW!

Sadly, I did not have the euphoric run that Lindsay did on our post-skiing day. Maybe it had something to do with me being on the treadmill. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was tired and sore. Maybe I just wasn't feeling my run last night. Whatever it was, the two miles was TOUGH. My calves weren't sore when I started but they sure were sore when I was finished.

I am not looking forward to my seven mile run (with speedwork!) tomorrow night.

Okay, on to the questions (and answers).

A offline friend asked the following:

Will all of your running medals, certificates, etc., fit in your scrapbook, or will you one day have a display case?

Well, so far I've only received one medal and that one was technically a key chain. It was from my first 5K where all finishers received a medal. One of the race sponsors was Skirt Sports and the race was for women-only. So, all the women who finished got pink metal key chains in the shape of the Skirt Sports logo. I'm currently using mine for my keys. So, no scrapbook for it.

For the Nike+ Human Race 10K all finishers received a "finisher's bracelet" which was a small piece of metal on a nylon band. That one I put into my scrapbook. For all my other races I've put my race number, a map of the course, pictures of me at the race (if available) and my time.

Here are a few sample pages:






In the current book I plan to put one more race and then start a new book. That way the current book will cover 2007 and 2008 and the next book can cover the next group of years.

Next, Rob wanted to know: Do you have a goal time for the half?

I've thought long and hard about this question. Technically I guess I do: 2:30. At least, that's the time I told them I would run it in when I signed up. I honestly have no idea what to expect of myself, though. Right now I'm just planning on finishing and not worrying about time. I fear that if I choose a time I will be disappointed. Yet, I WANT to choose a time so that I can figure out how to pace myself. I think that once I do my second 10 mile run or my only 11 mile run I'll have a better idea of how long I can maintain a specific pace. My training plan has me running the 11 miler at any pace between 10:42 and 11:12 minutes/mile which, if I can maintain a pace like that, will have me finishing between 2:20 and 2:40. I'd LOVE to finish in 2:30, but I really don't want to get my heart set on it and then fail. I want to be proud that I ran the entire way and not have missing a time goal bring me down.

Finally, Oz Runner wanted to know what I thought about the YaxTrax. He'd heard mixed reviews.

My take on the YaxTrax? They are a life saver if you need to run on packed snow. I can't really speak to how well they work on ice and they definitely don't make a difference when running on powdery snow. In fact, when running on powdery snow they tend to allow snow to accumulate between the rubber strappy bits and your shoe. I could see how this might make it feel like your shoes weighed a ton. Also, I'm unsure if it was the YaxTrax, the snow getting in my shoes, or what but I did come the closest I've ever come to getting a blister on my foot after running in the YaxTrax. However, a sample size of one run isn't enough to determine what caused that. And since all our snow melted this week I don't know when I'll get a chance to up the sample size.

And that wraps up our first edition of Audience Participation. My own participation might be a little scarce for a few days. I'm taking some training courses at work, I had to skip Pilates this evening due to getting home late, and I'm just generally behind on life. But, assuming I don't die from the speework tomorrow night, I'll try to squeeze in a post and let you all know how it went.