Blog Slacker Finishes Shamrock

Justine taking advantage of the beer tent shelter minutes before she heads to the starting coral

I have not updated this blog since I ran the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle on March 29th! I feel so guilty! Well enough dwelling and let me spend my letters getting you up to speed on my running as of lately.

First off lets briefly discuss the Shamrock. What a slush fest but I am SO glad I did it! My time was not as great as I had hoped, I ran it in 52:12.

You can see results from my race here

Race photos taken by Marathonfoto can be seen here
(Enter Race: Shamrock Shuffle 2009, Last Name:  Shaw, Bib Number: 26118)

I did not expect some of the hills on the course especially the one near the finish line which totally killed me. I almost came to a screeching halt up that hill, but I refused to walk. I ran the entire course, butt kicking hill and all! In summary I would have to say that the worst part of the race was waiting in the start corral for over 40 minutes in 1.5 inches of ice water with mesh toed running shoes. For the first mile I thought I was running with brick feet which I could not feel from the ankles to my toes! After the first mile my body de-thawed and toes warmed up nicely!!! All in all it was a great experience and I beleive I am a better girl because of it!!

On to even better news……

Yes, I am continuing my training, yup, going right into training for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Chicago following  Hal Higdon’s Novice training schedule for the half. I am ahead of schedule by about 6 or 8 weeks, but I like to have buffer weeks in case of unforeseen injures and/or illness.

After the Shamrock my runs have been sort of sucky. Up until this Tuesday, I made a PR running a 5K @ a 9:34/mi!!!! I am so happy with that!! It certainly beats my previous PR a 5 mile at 10:00/mi!

Even better news, I signed up for a charity team for the half.   I will run with Team Challenge for The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA) .

My sister and my good friend both have Crohn’s Disease.  I will run in their honor and raise $600 for research for the disease!  I can’t wait to start doing training runs with Chicago Area Runners Association (CARA) as part of the Charity Team program!!! I will give everyone  more information about where to donate $$$$ for my half once I set up my fund raising web page.

**UPDATE** Actually I have a pilot fund raising page set up right now where you can donate to support my 13.1 mile  race  in my sister’s honor here: http://www.active.com/donate/kona09illinois/justineshaw

WHOO HOOO, what a week so far!!!

I will go back to resting my body from my 1 mile thrashing swim fest.

Toodles!!

Hamstring Woes, Chest Cold Disappears, and a New PR!

OK, I forgot to blog about my Sunday long run on Sunday when I returned from my run, but I was so glowing in my new PR that it slipped my mind.  I will just tell you about it now!

First of all, I started my run a little nervous after discovering that my left hamstring felt a little sore.  I decided to run on it anyways.  My chest cold was waning, I had a significant morning cough though,  that kept me concerned about weather or not I would have the lung capacity to carry me the full 5 miles (the longest run I have ever run) that I had planned for that day.  Well I went out running , despite my worries,  at about 1:00 PM Central time,  approximately 2 hours after my breakfast.

Wow, what a run!  The weather was fantastic.  I ran the full 5 miles with my new Garmin Forerunner 305 strapped to my wrist, and I was keeping pace like I never have before!!!!  I was a happy running camper to say the least!  I averaged  a 10 minute mile which has been my goal since I started running again.  I was totally elated when I finished the run !

I went up stairs to my house,  after the awesome run to do the usual shower ritual,  to find that my left hamstring was screaming in pain.  It is still sore today and I am very worried about it,  since I read it could take a full 2-6 weeks to heal, my race is on SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!  eeeeeeeKKK!

Below are my stats and my route  for my Sunday 5 Mile Long Run:

5 Mile Long Run - A NEW PR

5 mile route from house to campus loop

Chest cold progressing :(

So I *need* to take a break No running (or any cardio) for a while until this chest cold clears up. I thought it would be OK if I rode my bike to school and back today, but on the way home I htink it was a bit much for my lungs to handle. I came home after the ride and blew my nose to find a ton of yellow/green mucus. Up until now my mucus has been very clear. This was alarming! My chest was also tight and I had somewhat labored breathing. I called a physician on call for my school and she said that it sounds like bronchitis and I should go see a doctor tomorrow AM.

So that is the plan. I hope this clears up soon. I was doing great with my running until this cold snuck up on me. I thought I would shake it in < 3 days, now it is turning into a 2 week saga! The race is in 10 days!!!! EEEEeeeeeeeeKKK!!!

My Weight Loss Progress as of March ’09

Crappy Run! Grrrr..

The cold has migrated to my upper chest. I know what the sage advice is: If you are going to run while sick only run when the cold is from the neck up, never run when the cold is below the neck or if there is a fever. Obviously I have a difficult time following directions. For some crazy reason I convinced myself that I am only coughing because the cold is in my throat, what a bunch of BS I told myself.

As I was walking out of the office to go on my run my astute coworker says, “Justine, are you really going to go running when you are sick like that?”. Of course I brushed his comment off and went running. What a mistake!

I became Murphy’s Law’s next victim. I had to return to my office not once but twice to recover certain critical items that I “forgot”. First it was my iphone which I need to listen to tunes and to GPS track my run, I went all the way to the gym, got a locker and towels, to realize that I have no running top! I am not going to go running topless, it is warm out today but my neighborhood is not some Hedonistic over-forty-something’s resort in the Caribbean . I opted against running topless and went back to my office for yet a second time.

I returned to the gym geared up and went outside. I tried to load the GPS Mapmyrun application on my iphone to track my run and I spent 5-6 minutes trying to get it to load. Apparently their server must have been jammed, I never got the application to finish loading. I started my run just tracking it with my half-a$$ calibrated nike+. The next thing to go wrong, which I would fail to realize until AFTER my run, is that I set the distance units by mistake to read in km, so every time I checked how far I have run I thought I was reading the distance in miles but in fact it was km. So when I finished my run I thought I had gone 60% farther than I actually did! Basically I ran a gruesome, gory, hillacious, 2 mile run which I thought was a 3 mile run. The run was pretty painful; I was running with a chest cold and my breathing was off which I believe caused my side cramps. I kept gasping for air every so often and found it difficult to swallow. I am kind of thankful that the run was cut short. The original plan was to do 3 miles. Please tell me you all have had runs like these!

Now I am not sure what I should do about my training schedule. Tomorrow I am supposed to do some x-training. Maybe I should skip out and just rest so that MAYBE I can do my short run, 2 miler, on Thursday. The race is in 11 days!!!!!

My Running Armband for iPhone

Tuneband, Grantwood Technology’s Armband, Silicone Skin, and Screen Protector for iPhone 1G and new 3G, Black: Apparel.

My Running Shoes -Saucony Women’s Pro Grid Hurricane 9: Apparel