Surf City 2013 race report: Getting salty

This past Sunday I ran the Surf City half marathon for the second year straight. Located in beautiful Huntington Beach, CA this is a half I really enjoy. The weather is great, the sights of the ocean divine and the surf board bling at the finish line an adorable addition to the medal rack.

Of-course, despite it being a race I look forward to, I was filled with all sorts of worry.

After the issues at Ragnar and the calf pain I've been experiencing lately, I have to admit I was nervous.  On top of the issues, I didn't feel as trained as I would like to have been. I knew I wouldn't come anywhere close to PR'ing but deep down I prayed, "just let me finish." "Just let me have a race I don't hate and get to the finish line."

At the start of the race I felt good and as ready as I'd ever be. I concentrated on hydrating as well as I could (considering I flew in the day before) and I finally remembered to wear compression socks on the flight to help.

Cute LogHeads t-shirt: shamelessly plugging the new show
I'm producing for DIY network! ;-) 

I also rolled the dice and made a deliberate, usually, "no-no" game day decision. I decided to try something new. I found SaltStick at the expo and bought some. SaltStick is a product that combines sodium, potassium, magnesium, and Vitamin D to help you replace electrolytes - you can take it every 20 to 30 mins when you are sweating or exerting yourself - it has gotten a lot of great reviews from athletes saying it's helped reduce cramping. Since sports drinks usually upset my delicate tummy (it's always something with me! Right?) I have been using coconut water - but it just hasn't been quite enough.

So when I saw them at the expo, I remembered that people had recommended them to me along the way but kept forgetting to check them out. When I saw them, I figured I would give them a shot - even tho I was rolling the dice with my tummy I thought the risk would be worth the reward.

During the race, I felt good. I worked at keeping my spirits up. I remembered the people who can't run when I felt doubt creeping in. I kept my pace comfortable. I usually ran somewhere between 11:20 - 12:00. I just didn't want to hate the last few miles so kept it conservative. I slowed thru water stops to hydrate (it was warm) and would walk for a second or two but did very little real walking, which made me happy. Although for the last 4 or 5 miles I did have to stop several times for a minute here and there to keep stretching my legs - they were getting tight, though didn't cramp! (HURRAH!)

Right around the 7 mile mark, I saw a familiar face! Caroline! I can't believe I saw her - I was barely glancing that way and it was such a great moment. I shouted her name and she saw me - we stopped and hugged quickly. It was an awesome pick-me-up and it really put a smile on my face for the next mile. Finally we met!! :-)

So between the water stop strolling, the stopping to stretch and a potty break - I ran this race a full 20 minutes slower than last year! Last year my average pace was a 10:59 and this year - 12:30 - (tag time - actual running time if I don't count all the stops and stuff was 11:45 or something - Garmin automatically pauses.)

VICTORY!! 

And I'm sooooo OK with that.

Not for one second did I hate this race. I had fun. I enjoyed the day.

I think the SaltStick worked - which I took every 30 mins more or less... (I also took 2 1/2 gels -  1 every 45 minutes - the last was a half) - nutrition overkill? Probably but whatever keeps those god awful cramps away!

I think that with better training (more medium length runs and long runs), yoga, stretching, foam rolling - combined with a little more experimentation with nutrition and hydration and I'll be back in a place of aiming for better pace, eventually. But for right now. I'm happy that I had a good run.

foam rolling with a friend the day after Surf city...

I needed to take a few steps back in order to get myself going forward again. I've learned it's not how fast you get to the finish line it's getting to the finish line that is most important to me -- and getting to the finish line and still being in one piece.

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And in other news…

We premiered our first documentary film yesterday at the GRAMMY® museum at downtown LA yesterday. It was a red carpet premiere and very exciting! It's GRAMMY® week so it's pretty exciting. The film is called "Happy on the Ground: 8 Days at GRAMMY® Camp" and you can now rent or own it at iTunes and Amazon! Too cool. Click on either link to check out the trailer.

On the red carpet with my producing partners, Dan - Me - Angela

XO
Jen

Running in the snow and a pain in the leg

Today was a first for me - I ran in the snow!

Snowy Moms In Motion I am bottom left with white hat/brown jacket

I would've NEVER elected to run in the snow on my own. I mean, that's what my gym membership is for! lol but it was the first day of the new season of the Moms In Motion and I didn't want to wimp out so I sucked it up and went.

It was actually a fun experience and I was surprised by how much I didn't hate it. The only worry was keeping an eye on my footing the white coating made it tougher to know where the pavement was uneven or rocky but I made it thru.

Since getting the calf pain, it was my fastest run too. 3 miles @ an average of 10:30 pace. I think the splits were 11'15, 10'30 and 9'59 or something. I'm happy to have picked up the pace but it's also a funny thing to note how much weight and stuff affects my running. I'm up a good few pounds (I'm guilty of eating too much and having one or two extra glasses of wine or martini) so it's no shocker. But I swear I felt like I was running my little heart out. I would've rated my exertion as a 10'30, 10'00 and 9'30 pace instead. Oh well. I'm counting calories again will peel off the few.

I am unfortunately still dealing with the very strange calf pain. I mean thank God it's not a clot but it's still a mystery.  It's in the middle-ish towards the left of my right calf and almost feels like a mini little charley horse has moved in and it always feels on the verge of getting worse. Maybe it's a nerve thing? Over the weekend I really slowed my running down on Saturday and Sunday to make sure running wouldn't further aggravate it. The good news is it doesn't seem like running isn't making it any better or worse. I guess that's a good thing. Should be interesting trying to go 13.1 this coming Sunday :/ I'd be lying if I didn't admit I'm a lot little nervous. I have a super busy week ahead. Maybe I'll try to see a doc on Friday if it's still nagging at me. Just not even sure what kind of doc to see. A PT? A orthopedist? My regular doc? Anyone?

I have been foam rolling which is interesting. I am not sure it's doing anything yet but going to keep rolling - I think practice makes perfect.

And tonight I have another yoga class at a different studio. This should be interesting. Will keep you posted!

Ever have a weird calf or leg pain? Did it 'just go away' like I'm desperately hoping for?

Have you ever run in the snow or rain? Do you love or hate it?

XO
Jen

Yoga, foam rolling, Surf City and Lance Armstrong

So this is what we all get when Jen doesn't blog for more than a week.

A whole bunch of stuff crammed into one blog posting.

This post will be much like the rest of my day, an A.D.D. cocktail of different thoughts on different subjects...

Anyway.

Where to start?

I took the plunge on Jan. 10th and signed up for the Surf City half marathon - which happens on Feb. 3.  Trained? Eh. Not as much as I would like to be. With less than a month to go at sign-up time, I started to cram/train immediately. My first week was a  3 - 2 - 8 mile week of miles. (um.) and last week I did 4 - 2- 4 - 10.  A twenty mile week. And it felt pretty good. I made sure to take my 10 miles slowly, hydrate tremendously and even stopped to stretch around five miles in. It all paid off. I managed to do it with no cramping. I will not be PR'ing this half but I am looking forward to enjoying it.

I'm coming back! 

This past week's ten mile long run was important and significant for me. The last time I attempted 10 miles it wasn't a good experience at all - as you might remember from this Ragnar Race report. Conquering those miles felt really good. I will do another 8 - 10 miles this weekend and then use the rest of the week to taper with smaller 2 or 3 milers.

It sucks that I'm traveling the day before the race - 8 hours of travel with my layover. I'm going to really have to super hydrate somehow and try to remember to wear compression socks on the plane.

BTW did you catch this? I was voted some sort of "Top Health and Fitness blogger!" -->

In other news -- I've been taking a very serious approach to trying to fix my leg issues. I suffer from tight hamstrings and frequent cramping on runs over 6 miles and it's starting to bum me out. So I've been playing with hydration/potassium/magnesium and other nutrition approaches.

I've also invested (freaking $40 bucks!) in a foam roller (they say it's a great way to work those muscles) and am attempting yoga and strength training. Anything to become a better runner. I swear - who is this person I've become?

Kinda liking this thing

As a person who's pretty impatient, sort of has trouble with balance and is the most unflexible person on the planet, yoga is (haha) kind of a stretch for me. I mean it's uncomfortable for me to even sit cross legged and when bending, my hands go just below the knees when trying to touch my toes. It's really bad. It's probably also why I really need yoga.

Yoga was kind of annoying. I didn't care for the instructor who just kept telling the newbies to "look at others if you don't know what you're doing." and I didn't get a nice zen vibe there. I didn't love it but I'm going to give it a few shots before I give up. I didn't like coffee, beer or running at first either and now I am a fan of all three of those things. So there you go. Maybe it's an acquired taste! I'm trying a different studio this Friday.

And then there's Lance.

Oh Lance.

I think doing Oprah was a mistake. I felt zero sincerity from him and I felt so much like the only reason why he was doing it was because his big ego made him believe that it was all he would need to do to win back some affection from fans and possibly pave the way to be eligible to compete. Uh. I don't think so. I think I liked him even less after the interview. The whole thing just seemed pathetic to me.

So... Any races coming up? Do you do yoga? Do you foam roll? Do you have thoughts about Lance?

Inquiring minds!!

XO
Jen

Surf City Race Recap

First of all, I was super excited to run Surf City.

In fact, in a small way, I owe the Surf City half marathon a huge debt of gratitude because it was one of the prime movers in getting me to take up running in the first place.

You see it was right around this time in 2010 that my friend Angela posted about her medal and accomplishment in running 13.1 in this race.

Angela talked about the medal and her accomplishment on FB and I marveled how it would be cool to be able to do such a thing someday.  At that point I was about 40 pounds into my weight loss journey (with still having 50 to lose) and thought it was an impossibility. I mean, me run? Not for 13 seconds, never mind 13 miles. Ha.

But it was the perfect storm - between her pictures, my kind of wanting to do it and my making a "life long bucket list of goals" more about the back story here… and in any case, just a few days later (my bloganiversary is tomorrow in fact) I was signed up for my very first half.

So back to Surf City.

I wasn't sure I'd ever run this one even tho it looks awesome and beautiful.  Primarily the issue was that it happens on Super Bowl Sunday every year and that's pretty much a holiday in my family. Being away on Super Bowl Sunday is worse to hubby than being away for his birthday or our anniversary but somehow I was able to finagle it this year. (If the Jets were in the big game, however, that would be grounds for divorce… unluckily/luckily, the Jets remain tried and true - and out of the Superbowl…)

Anyway I made it happen and got out here for it.

The day before we went to the Free Wheelchair Mission dinner. Angela raises money for them every year and they are the main charity tied to the race. It was a beautiful dinner. The Free Wheelchair Mission raises money to provide wheel chairs for people around the world. Their mission is to literally "lift" people up and off the ground. In poorer countries, if you have a disability that affects your mobility you are literally forced to drag along on your hands. It's quite touching what these folks do.

Lin, one of the recent wheel chair
recipients.

At the dinner Josh George, a primo wheel chair racer athlete who's taken the gold in event after event for the USA was the key note speaker. He's heading to London in August.

He was awesome and even let me take a picture with him:

with big time athlete Joshua George - awesome guy

I can't think of anything more motivational or inspiring pre-race than remembering how lucky we are that we GET to run and use our feet, legs, and heart to move.  These healthy legs are such a gift!

After dinner, I careful laid out my race-day clothing and we hit the sack.

4:45 AM rolled around quickly and we were up and raring to go - we strolled downstairs, waited for the shuttle and off we went.

Ready to go!!

As we shuffled around the starting line - I had to pee a million times - but I'm glad I got it out of my system pre-race because this was the first race that I didn't have to stop at all for a porta-visit during the run! Yay. I'm a big girl now!

So we were off. I felt good and I was rarin' to go. I kept trying to pace myself as to not start to fast.  The first two miles - i felt a little stiff. Probably from the traveling and I was on my feet a lot leading up to race day, unfortunately. By mile four, I was in a groove and feeling great. I definitely was feeling awesome.

It was a pretty place to run.  I kept my pace, enjoyed my music, and had my gels and beans in a good rhythm.  I skipped the sports drink they were serving because I'd never had it and didn't want to risk a San Diego repeat.  I grabbed water thru every stop but ran thru them - never walking.

I couldn't remember my Jersey Shore half time but wasn't thinking I was gonna beat it. That was my previous PR race. I was mid-marathon training at that point and long runs were 16 -18 miles. In any case, my goal this time was to finish this one under 2:30.

So I ran, and pushed, and ran. Around mile 6 or 7 I started to get annoying side stitches.  Nothing too terrible but annoying - eh, I've run thru worse - I shook it off and kept going. The 10th and 11th miles I was definitely starting to feel tired and my legs  were starting to feel pretty fatigued.  But I was in the homestretch!  I like to pour it on in the last mile and did all I could to pick up the pace.

I love the finish chute - the crowds, the excitement, that big beautiful "FINISH" sign. Ahhhh - I crossed the mat. I thought I came in around 2:24 or so - Yippee! I well beat my 2:30 goal. I couldn't exactly remember my Jersey Shore half time so I looked it up: I did the Jersey Shore in 2:24:47 (11:01 min mile…)   Another medal on the books!  :) 

sweetest medal

As far as PR, it was going to be close. My Nike + was a little off (actually was reading 13.3 miles for a 10:48 min mile… it's kinder than my mother) so I was going to have to hold my breath and wait for the chip time results… When I went online I was psyched to see:

HELLO PR!

YIPPEE! 2:23:47 A PR by mere seconds… And I broke out of the 11min mile avg - something so pretty excited about 10:59 ;) I'm also pretty proud of the split time as you can see on the bottom left.

A great race overall.

Me and Ang after the race!

I would definitely recommend Surf City and hope to do it again next year (that is if the Jets don't make it to the Super Bowl. Hey. Stop laughing. It could happen… ;) 

XO

Jen