Posted on Dec 07, 2009 under Race |
I know I’m a little late with this post, but with Thanksgiving dinner, Black Friday and the first week at my a new job, it has been really hard keeping up with the blog. But I can’t put this off any longer and I am way overdue on all of my product reviews. I admit I did contact some companies, but there is a good amount of stuff where companies contacted me on their own (which I am always grateful for), and it’s too hard to say no to free stuff.
Anyways, back to running: the 5K Turkey Trot was about a week and a half after my first half marathon, the Silver Strand Half Marathon. The 13th Annual Thanksgiving Day Turkey Run was a very small race for 2K, 3K & 5K distances. It pretty much was a local race, but it was the nearest one to my LA house, and cheap enough to pay the day of the race. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Nov 16, 2009 under Race |
I just completed my first half marathon, the Silver Strand Half Marathon and the main takeaway I got from running my first half marathon: it’s very hard!! While I was waiting in line to use the restroom, a guy was talking to another guy about how on his last half marathon he said, “Man this is really tough, but I’m almost done. When I finally finished, I thought to myself, wow, I would have only been HALF done if this were a full marathon.” My thoughts exactly. First let’s get to the overall results on the half marathon: 1:38 (6:52, 6:41, 6:48, 6:44, 6:46, 6:47, 7:08, 7:36, miles 10-13.1: SLOW). Placing: 14th in my age group (20-24) out of 72, 181 out of 2600+ overall. It’s sad that I was on pace to hit my goal of sub-1:30, but then just flopped at the end. I’m not going to let that discourage me from running additional half marathons and dare I say, a full marathon!
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Posted on Nov 09, 2009 under Training |
It’s been a while since I wrote a post about my half marathon training, the good thing is that I have still been running and training (for the most part). It’s not necessarily due to laziness, but I just had to attend to other very important things that were going on in my life, outside of running. It is fairly safe to say that I will be able to focus on running again (maybe even more than before) very soon, if not in the near future.
There are some cool stats in DailyMile: TVs Powered, Gas Saved and best of all, Donuts Burned!
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Posted on Aug 17, 2009 under Race |
Here are my results for the America’s Finest City 5K Run: 19:53, 1st in my age division and 13th overall (out of 1,200 runners!). Official times here. I’m a little disappointed with the time because I was hoping I would run a little faster, considering all the great workouts I have been having recently. But I am even more surprised about actually winning my age division, which I have never done before. I’m not going to ignore the fact that the main race for the AFC was the half marathon, which is probably where all the other fast runners were at. But when I was looking at last year’s times for the 5K, I thought it would have been just as competitive this year. Oh well, I’m not really going to complain about winning my race! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Jul 06, 2009 under Race |
This was the first time running a 10K, so I didn’t know what to expect coming into the race. I knew I wasn’t in shape to run it as competitively as I would run a 5K, so I took it more like a hard workout. I also wanted to try and work on my pace and make sure that I would be able to finish all 6.2 miles. Race Results: 42:29, 6:51 pace. Avg HR: 185 bpm, peak 199 bpm, total calories: 909. Splits: Mile 1: 7:04, mile 2: 6:51, mile 3: 6:50, mile 4: 7:04, mile 5: 7:00, mile 6: 6:22. Placing: 29th out of 78 in my age group, 153rd out of 1500+ overall. Some neat features of the Scripps Ranch 10K and Fun Run: USA T&F sanctioned 10K course around scenic Miramar Lake – This is where I’ve been having my ‘long runs’, so I was very familiar with this course. The 10K will use ChampionChip timing for unsurpassed accuracy – This is my first time racing with these chips, I think it can tell when you actually pass the start and finish lines, but I could be wrong. Each subsequent race I’ve been doing has gotten bigger and bigger. First race was like 2-3 hundred, and this race was over 1500! But like all previous races, men and women runners of all ages, including very young runners not even 12 years old! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Jun 22, 2009 under Race |
The Bonita 5000 5K Race is the 2nd race of my ‘season’ and I finished at 20:05 at 6:29 pace, 74th out of 387, and 9th in my age group. Looking at the finishing time, you can say that it was a pretty good run. But if you read on, you’ll see that I probably could have run a lot smarter and faster! So the last few workouts that I’ve ran before this race have not been that great. I would start off ok, but after each mile, I would just feel really tired and not be able to keep up the pace. I was afraid that I would come into this race and not run as fast as I was able to to run in the UCSD Grove Run 5K. And the fact that it was a 30 minute drive to this race would have made it even more disappointing to not run well. But I guess that didn’t really happen since I improved my time by about 15 seconds, and again, it probably could have been faster if I were a smarter runner..
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Posted on May 27, 2009 under Race |
Race Report: UCSD Grove Run 5K
Course: 5K with hills during mile 2 & 3
Time: 20:19
Splits: Mile 1: 6:06 HR: 179; Mile 2: 7:13 HR: 192; Mile 3: 6:17 HR:193
Total Calories Burned: 446
The last time I competed in an official race was during the Track & Field season of my senior year in high school…2003! That is a very long hiatus from racing if you ask me. After that last race, I ran on and off the first and second year of college, but not very often and definitely not training for any competitive races. Working out at the gym helped keep me from gaining that infamous freshman 15.
I finally started running again a couple of months ago and to keep myself from being bored running the same distance every day and alone, I decided to also compete in a race, so that I was actually training for something. So I heard about a race at UCSD, called the UCSD Grove Run 5K, which is “Socal’s First Sustainable Race”. They were trying to run the greenest race ever: by not having race bibs (just writing your race # on your hand), having appropriate recycling receptacles, and even organic fruit picked straight from local farms. They also had something called the “Greenest Athlete Award” where you get a certain number of points for doing things to help reduce your carbon footprint. For example, if you biked to the race, you would get some points. Or if you carpooled or brought your own water bottle or donated any type of running gear too. That was a pretty cool idea, too bad I did almost nothing that was green. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Apr 13, 2009 under Random |
Workout: 2 lap warm-up, 1 mile “Race”, 2 lap cool-down
Time: 6:02 Weather/Condition: Windy on the last 100 meters of the track
Best Week Ever!
I’m going to make a live post today, rather than going to my journal. The only reason for doing so is because I actually had a race-like run the other day and I really wanted to say something about the current events that are going on. Feel free to read the first part and ignore the rest, which is my little rant. 🙂
So this past week was the first time I ran 3 days in a row, which is quite an accomplishment for me, considering how I used to run so many miles 6-7 times a week back in high school. The first run wasn’t that special, I didn’t even time it because I wasn’t try to break any records or anything, just put in some miles and break a sweat and get used to waking up in the morning. During the 2nd day though, I ran the fastest time (only three laps around the block which is the only place I can run considering the time constraints) since I started doing this route. WalkJogRun says it’s a little under 3 miles, but I have a feeling it’s not, looking back at the times. The final time was about 9 seconds faster than my previous best. Why did I run so fast on this particular day?
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Posted on Mar 15, 2008 under Random |
I saw this article on Yahoo about how to choose the right pair of shoes for your sport and it reminded me of all the different running shoes I have had over the years. I can’t remember what years I had what shoes, but I have had almost every brand you can name: Nike, Adidas, Asics, New Balance, Brooks? In the beginning of the article it says that a pair of shoes will not make you better at any given sport, but it will prevent any unnecessary injuries that bad shoes will do to you. I have had quite a running few injuries in my day, including shin splints, as well as knee and hip injuries. But I never drew to the conclusion that one particular pair of shoes caused that particular injury. And that’s because I don’t think it’s true. I do believe that certain brands offer different features when it comes to running shoes. Some brands are more focused on weight so they lack a little in support and the other way around. Other shoes are made for specific types of feet shapes and sizes.
I remember back in Junior year when I got some really cheap racing flats. My feet would be burning so much that in a three mile race, my feet would be on fire by the first mile! I made the mistake of continuing to race in them, thinking, ‘oh it was a one time thing, it should be fine in the next race.’ It never was. And then one day one of my teammates offered an extra pair of flats that he had and they were also cheap too. But it felt so good running in those, it was the greatest feeling ever (in a race). He was nice enough to let me keep racing in them. The ironic thing was my other teammate raced in those same flats that burned my feet and he had no problems with it.
Every runner is different, and this story shows it. While one shoe may be terrible for one runner, it will be okay for another. This is why you test out shoes before you buy them, maybe run around in them if possible (some stores actually let you do that).
Choosing running shoes for sports is a difficult process. You want to find out what is important for each sport (support, comfort, stability, etc.) and then compare with other competitors to see how they do or do not meet those needs. It’s also a great way to find one that suits your price and personal preferences. For example, when I was younger I never tried to choose the right basketball shoe, but bought whatever was cheapest. That didn’t work out for me because I ended up getting injured and the shoes just wore out a lot sooner than expected.
Posted on Mar 12, 2008 under Race |
I’d like to briefly explain why I joined cross country in high school. You see, my brother was 3 years older than me and was a #2-3 Senior varsity cross country runner on the team. I was a freshman and didn’t really do much that first year, other than hang out with friends after school; I was in no clubs or sports. So the summer after freshman year I decided to join with another friend of mine. So we trained together and it was fun and all. Our coach was fairly young, with little or no coaching experience (although he was a very fast runner). But I’d like to emphasize that he was no coach..
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