Top Ten Running Songs

Here's my top ten on my running playlist.  I need new ideas...

#1- Sweet Caroline by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
#2- I Want You To by Weezer
#3- The Rock Show by Blink 182
#4- Young Blood by The Naked and Famous
#5- Jolene by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
#6- Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World
#7- Hey Ya! by OutKast
#8- Jump by FloRida
#9- Young, Wild & Free by Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa
#10- Untouched by The Veronicas

I'd love to see some other top 10 lists.  I know some people don't listen to music or listen to podcasts.  I need my music loud and fast.

Top Ten Reasons I Run

#1 - I started to run because I hated it so much.  Weird I know.  But I was doing Crossfit and all of the WOD's involving runs always made me so mad.  So I took a year off and learned to run.  And I fell in love with it!

#2 - No excuses- Six months before I really decided to become a runner we were in Hawaii.  I didn't want to lose my fitness, so I made a conscious decision to run every day before the family woke up.  I ate & drank a ton while I was there and only gained one pound.  You can run anywhere, anytime!

#3 - Friends- I have met some great people through running.  Some on social networks that I've never met in person, some I've met or become closer to from running.

#4 - Food- I love food and have never been able to eat like good girls are supposed to eat. I eat a lot.  I try to make good food choices, but running lets me eat those extra calories without too much guilt.

#5 - Tech Tops- I've gotten some fun new tops at races along the way.  I love the conversations that start when I wear one of my tops out in public.

#6 - Shock Factor- I love that look when someone asks how far I went and I either say, "10 miles today" or "it was just a short 6 today".

#7 - Pride- I am so proud of myself when I look at how far I've come after only having been running for 13 months.  3 miles used to seem like such an accomplishment.  Now I would only run that distance if it was for a race.  Not because I HAVE to, but because I CAN.

#8 - Bling- I'm not one that picks races for the bling.  But I do have all of my medals on display in my closet.  Every day when I get dressed, I look at those medals and think about how far I've come.

#9 - Gear- I'm a technology junkie, so any excuse to buy something new to help me become a better runner, I'm there.  I love hitting my mileage limit and getting to go buy a new pair of shoes.  I love trying new ways to fuel.  I love it all!

#10 - Solitude- After about 6 months of running, I thought I should find a running group.  I wasn't able to find one in our area that ran at the times I wanted to run.  I did find time to go out on runs on several occasions with other runner friends.  And you know what I found, I prefer to run alone.  I love my friends, and even my hubby, but when I run I like to be alone.  I like to crank up my music and zone out.  I don't want to worry about talking to someone or pacing them.  I just want to run and let my thoughts wonder.

Training high school athletes

Today I'm going to post about someone other than myself.  My post today is about my 16 year old son, who is a junior in high school.  He's always been involved in competitive sports, and we've always kept a very rigorous schedule with those sports.  I'm just wondering if there is a line and how you go about coming back from it with the pressures of getting into college right around the corner.

Here's the lowdown:  He had played competitive ice hockey for 8 years before entering high school.  Upon entering high school, he decided to try water polo.  He knew if he stuck with hockey, he'd have to go to boarding school on the East coast and he didn't want to do that.  So he started a sport he'd never played in his life going up against boys who'd played for years.  He made the Freshman team and enjoyed the lower key schedule.  By the end of the season, he was being pulled up for some JV games.  At this point, he felt like he'd made the best decision ever.  He loved having teammates nearby and loved being home for dinner.  Along with water polo in the fall came the requirement to swim in spring.  Again he'd never swam competitively but he was willing to try.  He wasn't the fastest but found he had stamina, so he swam the 500m.  He was also warned that to advance, he needed to join the local club water polo team.  Being new to club he was on the B team, so the schedule was still fine.

The following year, he made Varsity!  He wasn't a starter, but played in every game including the CIF finals.  On varsity thought the schedule got pretty tough.  He was also on the A team for club, which included 3x/week practices from 6:30-9:00 after having swam from 3-5.  Plus they did weight training 3 mornings a week before school.  He barely made it through.  We allowed him to skip a club practice if he had a lot of homework and somehow he did it.

Now it's his junior year and we're back in the time of year that is overwhelming.  Add to that, we had him go out for the ODP (Olympic Development Program) team and he made it!  It's such a great accomplishment but one that adds all day practices a couple of weekends a month.  His club team is now practicing 3x/week from 6-9 with no excuses for homework.  His schedule right now looks like this:

Mon: AM weights 6:20-7:20
          PM swim 3:00-5:00
Tues:  PM swim 3:00-4:00
           Club crossfit workout 6:00-7:00
           Club pool training 7:00-9:00
Wed:  PM swim 3:00-4:00
           Club crossfit workout 6:00-7:00
           Club pool training 7:00-9:00
Thurs: PM swim 3:00-4:00
           Club crossfit 6:00-7:00
           Club pool training 7:00-9:00
Fri:      PM swim 3:00-5:00

Plus tournaments for club, swim meets for swim and ODP weekend training.  Although right now it's pre-season for swim.  When the season begins he may not get some of the breaks he's getting right now from training.  My question is this, is this normal?  In my opinion there are some really great things he's gained from working this hard, but I've also seen a lot of kids burn out.  So I'd love to hear what you think and if it's too much, where do you cut back?

10k Completed!

Today my fourteen year old daughter and I completed our first 10k!  We'd done a 5k before, but it was a difficult course and didn't leave us feeling very accomplished.  We're signed up for the RNRLV half in December so I wanted to run something prior to that race just to be sure she'd be able to complete the half.  The Beach Derby 10k seemed like a great idea.  They also had a 10 miler, but I was afraid if it was too hard, she wouldn't want to do the half in December.  So I decided to give this a shot.

We headed out at 6AM, arriving in Huntington Beach at 7AM.  We parked about a half mile from the starting line and walked over.  It was perfect timing.

We took a couple of pictures, then jumped in the starting chutes.  A boy from the local high school sang the National Anthem and off we went.  Unfortunately my Runkeeper didn't start when we did.  It turned out to be a good thing, because I was able to let my daughter pace us without worrying about going faster.  She did great!  She had to "pull over" twice to tie her shoes and needed a walk break twice.  But both were brief and we finished in 56:40.  The experience was positive, despite the weather.  I loved that it was a cool 50 degrees, but I DON'T run in the rain...ever.  Luckily it was just cool but beautiful when we began.  Then about mile 3 the drizzle started.  Ok I'm not that big of a wimp, I can run in drizzle.  But by mile 4, it was RAINING!  Hello, I don't run in rain!  At that point, if I'd been alone I would've sprinted just to get it over with.  But my daughter didn't have any sprint in her at that point and was just wanting to keep it at a slow jog.  So we continued along, trying to joke around as we went.  Finally we were close to the finish and were able to give a push to get there.  We were going to wait at the finish to cheer on a friend, but it was freezing.  We grabbed an apple and water and headed the half mile back to the car.  That half mile seemed like another 3 miles!  It was pouring, we were freezing and just wanted to get warm.  We stopped briefly to take a photo and then got to the car and stripped off our wet clothes! 

All in all it was a fun race and I think my daughter was happy she did it.  Now it's the wait for Vegas!  I hope that turns out to be just as great of an experience for her too.  Let's just hope for good weather!!

What did you do this weekend?  Have you run any longer races with your children or parents?  What was your experience?

How many races?

In my last post I said I need races to keep me motivated.  I guess it's karma...I now am registered for:

9/24/11-Megan Savage Memorial 5k
9/25/11-Susan Komen 5k
10/23/11-Race For The Rescues 5k
12/4/11-Rock N Roll Half Marathon

Plus I have two more halfs scheduled in 2012.  I'm not sure about doing two 5k's in one weekend? I think it'll be fine, but wanted some feedback.  How many races have you run in a month and is doing back to back short races a good idea?

Upcoming Races

I did my first and only half marathon on June 5, 2011.  It was the Ojai to Ocean (O2O) and I couldn't have asked for a better first half.  The only other race I'd participated in was a 5k with my husband and two daughters.  The next race I had scheduled wasn't until December.  It is the Rock N Roll Vegas Half Marathon.  So I had several months of running without any scheduled races.  And guess what?  I completely lost my mojo!  I've had no desire to run any long distances.  I blamed it on the heat, but I think it really came down to the fact that I wasn't training for anything specific.  So I had to find some races!

I found a 5k in Pasadena benefitting animal rescues.  My 10 year old daughter wants to be a vet and would do anything for animals.  She ran the first 5k with us and swore she'd never run one again.  She really struggled to get through it and hated it.  But when I told her this was a flat course, benefitting animals, she agreed to do it.  So now we've got a 5k scheduled for October!  Woo hoo!

Then the next day my 14 year old brought home a flyer from school for a 5k in Newport Beach for Susan B. Komen.  A huge group from her and my son's school run it together.  So I told her we were all in and just like that, I have another 5k on my calendar for September!

Why is it just knowing I have some races coming up motivates me to get running?  Is it because I'm still a newbie to running?  I've only been running since January of this year.  Or do veteran runners feel this way too?

Breaks from Running?

I've been running since January.  I've never been a huge fan of running.  I would do it as required in a crossfit workout, but have never in my life thought it'd be fun to just "go out for a run".  While in Hawaii the summer of 2010,  I didn't want to lose my fitness so I got up every morning before anyone else and went for a run of at least 5 miles.  Well of course the scenery combined with the fact that I came home without gaining any weight had me hooked.

I continued with my crossfit workouts through December.  Then in January, I decided to focus only on running.  I trained and ran my first half marathon in June.  It was great!  I thought I'd be hooked forever.  But then I experienced the letdown of no race to train for.  My next race isn't until December.  I continued to run, but haven't been motivated to do any longer distances.

We took our family vacation at the beginning of August.  I knew I wouldn't be able to get any runs in as we were going to the lake, where the low was 90-95 degrees, and we wanted to get out on the lake early.  So I gave myself the two weeks off and didn't worry too much about it.  Now that I'm back, I'm having such a hard time.  I ran 4 days this week, but only went 3 miles each day.  I couldn't believe how sore I was after the first day!  My quads were sore, my knee hurt, my hip was tight and my endurance was in the toilet.  What the heck?!  I figured since I have plenty of time to train for my next half, I can get back to my usual mileage slowly.  But I'd love to hear from some of you experienced runners.  Do you ever take breaks from running?  How do you stay motivated when you aren't training for a race?  How do you get your mojo back after a break?