Garmin-topia! I ordered the 405!!!

I've had this dream for over a year now....

I've wanted to be one of the fancy pant runners at the races with the Garmins.  The ones that beeped at each mile marker.  The racers that said things like "we're right on pace" or "I'm pretty sure the course was long".  (haha.)

I've been kind of jealous, but tried to play it off. 

I told myself that it didn't matter.   That I could still get faster without a Garmin.
That all the 80s and 90s superstars never had pace monitors and they trained just fine.  I was ...keeping it simple.  But secretly I'd look at the fancy uploaded workout reports of exact paces on other blogs and feel just a touch of envy.

And now...I'M JOINING THE GARMIN CLUB!!!!!!!!  AND JOINING THE 21ST CENTURY!!!

I'll tell ya what finally broke me.  

A danged 6x1600m with 800m jog workout.  34 laps!!  It was too much.  Too boring.   I've been casually researching Garmin's for months, but that day, I really started looking.

The 305?  Too big for my weak and twice broken wrist.  (seriously...I tried wearing it and my wrist nearly died)

The 610?  Way too fancy and expensive for this girl!

The 405?  

PERFECT!!!! I think....

Honestly, I'm a little scared of all the functions this thing has. Basically I just want something to tell me how fast I'm going and how far I've gone.   And hopefully it'll subtract about 20 seconds from my mile pace. :).

I'm also scared of being able to push myself on roads rather than just on the track / treadmill!  Is it hard?  Will the people walking down the trail look at me like I'm a crazy person for killing myself in a workout on a lazy Sunday morning?

These are the things that keep me up at night.  But...I CAN'T WAIT FOR IT TO COME!!!!  

I'm still pretty sure I won't wear it on easy runs.  I love not knowing how slow I'm going...it's glorious and takes the stress out of easy days.  But doing a workout down a beautiful trail rather than around a track just sounds amazing.

This mornin', I did a treadmill workout...  
And...I PRd (44:25 10k)!
Well...kind of...as the resident world's biggest stickler on racing times, I am sure someone will call me out for claiming a workout treadmill PR (as well you should :) ).  However, I may have sped up the treadmill just a tad around 6 miles to make sure I ran under my last 10k time....

Here was the workout:  
Warmup
2 miles at 10k pace (6:58, 1% incline)...into ...
...5 miles at goal half marathon pace (somewhere around 7:15ish, 1% incline)...
...800m at 5k pace (6:34, 1.5% incline).  
No rest, just a steady run of varying paces.
Cool Down

I listened to a crapload of Tinie Tempah during it.  I think he might make the best music for running ever.

The workout wasn't too bad, and this made me feel a little more confident that all these long and hard workouts are making a difference and that I am improving!

And it made me even more excited for the arrival of my little bundle of Garmin joy!

I won't play, I love the Bay just like I love LA

I know these quick photos I took walking to my hotel don't do it justice, but San Francisco, you are one beautiful city.

I think I love every city I've ever been to.  Or every place.  But San Fran almost feels like a wonderful foreign country to this adopted So Cal girl. The buildings, the bridges, the weather, the really aggressive people soliciting you on the street....

Although I realized as I was riding the BART that I was being a bit snooty in the way only someone who lives in Orange County can be. 

While this extremely high quality photo on the right doesn't do it justice I'm was wearing a pink Lacoste polo with a leather jacket.  I almost called myself a D-bag.  

Why am I in San Fran?

I'm up here for a Search Engine Marketing conference so that I can learn how to better Stalk market to you online!  I am nervous about it!!  If these one thing that stresses me out, it's talking to strangers without safety net of The Faster Bunny blog.  And sadly, I don't think these people will be impressed that I'm on the Hood To Coast relay team.   Maybe if I offer them some Nuun.... 

But surely they will find me just as charming as you all do, righhhtttt?

Marjorie, Alyssa, and I are meeting for a blogger dinner tonight so if you're a Nor Cal. blogger, email me and COME!!! 

Travel workouts are always interesting.   I am looking forward to a nice outside exploratory run tomorrow, today I treadmill workouted it.   I am completing all of these really hard workouts (yay) but I still feel a bit out of my league.  But maybe one day, 19:59 5k you will be mine. 

5x1000, 400m rest, 1.5% incline, 6:00 Mi pace.  

I was sweating up a storm.  While the workout room was pretty full, surprisingly no one wanted to get next to this stampeding sweaty buffalo as I grimaced through my 1000s.  Hopefully no one from the conference was there and will recognize me today.  

"Heeyyyy!  You're that sweaty girl!!"

I will leave you with my favorite workout song, "No Hands".  Pop rap, I love you.  In my mind, Waka saying "I'ma make it thunderstorm" refers to the sweat beads flying off my body as kill myself on the 'mill.  It's wonderful. 

Waka Flocka Flame

How Mental Is Running? + Hippie Festival Pics

Oh Heeeyyyyy.  Sorry to my five six readers for not posting for four days.  

The lovely BF was in town, and somehow I feel like writing posts when he traveled 800 miles to see me would just come off as rude...

I want to post pics of my weekend but let's start with the running portion first.  

Do you feel like you haven't run to the best of your ability because of something going on in your head?  

I didn't used to think so.  But this morning, I started to be a believer.  

I've been doing treadmill tempo workouts lately because since the marathon, I haven't been capable of running decently on the track.  Last time I went to the track, I ran a 7:02 mile, got frustrated, and ran home.  I don't own a Garmin, so the 'mill is my only good alternative.  

This morning, I did my little treadmill "game o death" (as detailed a couple posts ago) and stayed on for 6 miles at .5 incline.  Mile 1 was 7:24 and Mile 6 was 6:58.  The middle miles were gradually faster.  I was pretty happy with this.  It was pretty darn close to my 10k PR with only the feeling of 85% effort.  In fact, my treadmill performance has been so different from my track performance lately, it led me to question whether my usual treadmill was just wrong.  Fortunately, I hopped to treadmill #3 at the gym and it felt the same.  Phew. 

So what gives?  

Is the treadmill easier?  Sure, .5 incline should be simulating a pretty easy race course, but the difference shouldn't be so drastic.  

I came to the conclusion that I'm crazy.  Or that there's something mentally going on.  This led me to this awesome article Why I Sucked In College earlier posted by WashingtonRanHere. 

While the whole article is amazing great advice, the points that most spoke to me were to Run By Feel and To Believe in Yourself.  

"A lot of people work hard, put in the work, but feel like they are not ready to reach the next level or are not sure they can reach it. Well racing is a hugely mental thing. And if there is any doubt in your mind as to how you're going to do, when it starts to hurt, you'll start questioning yourself and that will be it."

Is it belief in myself that I'm lacking?  Or just the lack of drive to push myself when an apparatus isn't forcing me to do so on penalty of falling off the moving belt? 
 I'm honestly not sure...maybe both treadmills in the gym are broken/slow (god I hope not) but I'd love to hear about any similar issues with motivation or confidence you've had.    

THIS CONCLUDES THE SERIOUS PART OF THIS POST....


This weekend, I went to a hippie electronica festival, Lightning In A Bottle..no no...I'm not the hippie you are 

thinking, but my boyfriend is one in a consultant's body so he wanted to go get down like Woodstock.

Lightning In A Bottle Stage

Here are the rules:  

Trunk being searched.







#2...Make the experience educational.

 #1) No smuggling extra hippies in your trunk...

Hippies Expanding Their Knowledge...

#3)  Dress the Part

I was so cold, I bought my own festival pants...you can't see them too well in the pic, but they are blue and purple horizontally striped.  Don't be jealous of my style.  

The next day, we spent some time at the Newport Beach Pier...

It was a pretty freaking beautiful Memorial Day...

It was windy...I am still wearing the Boston Jacket.  

Why spend money on new clothes when you can wear the exact same thing every day?  

I thought you'd agree. 

Treadmill Speed Game o' Death + Mariachis

I've been told that I have eccentric running habits.  

Stuff like avoiding runs over 7 miles, never following a training plan, wearing rabbit ears to the Boston marathon...ya know...the usual....

To keep the eccentricity going, here's a game I'd like to introduce to the blogging world...

THE TREADMILL SPEED GAME O' DEATH!!!

Ok fine...it's more like a tempo run...here are the rules:

After a mile warmup, you start your treadmill at goal half marathon pace.  Each mile, you increase speed .1 MPH.  The goal is to stay on the treadmill as long as possible (until you're 90% spent...I'm not trying to recommend overtraining here!).

So for example, if your GHMP is 8:30 it would be:

Uncombed hair o' death

Mile 1:  7.0--> Mile 2 --->7.1....etc etc. etc. 

I made it to 5.15 miles today starting at GHMP of 7:24 (8.1 mph) for mile 1.  And because I stupidly drank chocolate milk before the run, I was cramped up until mile 4.
Chocolate milk is so delicious though I'm pretty sure it was still worth it!

One thing...if you play the TSGOD, be prepared for bad hair.....or maybe that's just me...?


So after that informative training segment, I gotta tell you about the second half of my day.  

I work for REVOLVEClothing.com, a fashion retailer, and it was my brother's birthday today.  He's a co-owner of the company. This led to my intern asking me if it was true that people as old as me just stopped counting birthdays...(if you're reading this, Lyn, sorry ...I had to blog this...). 

For birthdays at work, we generally pass around a card and get cake.
But my brother is the much loved El Jefe so he got subdued celebration...you know...just a few things....a...

....MARIACHI BAND!

Cheering Crowds.....

LUNCH!!!

Dancing...

....And the most beautiful part of all.

All in all, I think he had a pretty fun day....=)

So....

What did you do last birthday?  Did you have a Mariachi Band?

I did very little last birthday...just went to eat with family...this year's going to be EPIC though!!

Does anyone want to try the treadmill speed workout o' death with me????

You know you want to....