Huge Success!

Finished the Kirkland 1/2 Marathon at 2:18:30 (unofficial), that's a 10:35 pace. Yay me! Ok, got to take mom out for Mother's Day now.

That's a lot of hills

So the Kirkland 1/2 marathon is this Sunday and with the roommate's suggestion of checking out the course before the run, I saw a lot of hills. I was aware of the first hill in the 1st mile, I drive there to work, but I saw more hills that I would like to see. I've been running on mostly flat course and when I did do some hill on the treadmill, it was for the short runs. I feel like I should have spent some long runs on the treadmill with various hill added. Bah! Oh well, nothing I can do now, my last training run was last Thursday and all I can do now is get plenty of rest and eat the proper diet before Sunday.

So many hills...

True Sportmanship

Excellent story - Central Washington offers the ultimate act of sportsmanship

To the Pain

I am Joram and I'm in a lot of pain. After my interval run on Thursday, my legs was in some pain. I passed on pain killers since I read somewhere that they deter recovery. That idea didn't last too long though;

I had planned a 10 mile run on Sunday. About 14 minutes into the run, my legs and body just started hurting. I'm not really sure how I did it, but I ran the 5+ miles in one direction. Being over 5 miles away from my truck, I knew I had to make it back for the 10 miles. I did finally make it back and my body felt horrible. As soon as I got home, I took twice the recommended dose of Advil (OMG! - nah) and just sat down for a while. The pills eventually kicked in and it made most of the pain go away, thank god.

Monday came and I thought I was much better, except for some pain in several of my joints. Tuesday came and I felt even better, until I stood up from my chair at work. When I stood up at work, I felt sharp pains in both of my knees. OH, that's new. My hip joint and ankles were better, but my knees suddenly had some new pains. I wondered how I'd do on my planned 5 mile run later in the day.

After work, I took my run to the treadmill in the apt gym. Less than a mile into the run and I could feel the sharp pain in my knees already. I figured it is only 5 miles for the day and I should just run through the pain. Sadly that didn't last the 5 miles. I stopped running at 4 miles. After getting back home, I immediately wrapped my knees in hopes that the pain was from some swelling.

It's Wednesday and I plan to run 6 miles tomorrow with some hill workout, I'm still afraid of the condition of my knees, but if I want to run that half marathon, I will run that 6 miles. I am Joram and I need more pills.

How About a Smoothie?

While we're on the subject of goals, another goal I had was to reconnect with my old friends - well, a couple weeks ago, I got to talking over myspace with an old friend, Sarah, from UW. After a few messages, we decided to meet for a little catch up. The initial plan was for some coffee, but we realized we're not coffee drinkers. After some thought we decided to have smoothies instead. With her busy schedule (she's working weekends), we were lucky enough that there was a smoothie place right by her work.

Good deal, meet you there.

We meet up at the smoothie store and then walk around to do the whole catch up thing. She works at google, thinks the 24 fitness at Kirkland is ghetto and loves the smoothie place. I took up running and play too much warcraft. After a while, she had to go back to work and we said our goodbyes.

So, an afternoon spent with an old friend. With spring here, hopefully I can go out and spend more afternoons with more friends.

More Music!

Part of my goal this year was to listen to more music. I generally listen to these albums while on runs. I'm not much of a critic, so I'll just list the albums I've listened to since my last update;

Alicia Keys - As I am
Plain White Ts - Every Second Counts
Starsailor - Love is Here
Foo Fighters - Echoes Silence Patience And Grace
Chris Brown - Exclusive
Kanye West - Graduation
Bush - Sixteen Stone
Nirvana - In Utero
M.I.A. - Kala
Janet Jackson - Discipline
Snoop Dogg - Ego Trippin'
Sara Bareilles - Little Voice
Flo-Rida - Mail on Sunday
Howie Day - Stop All the World Now

I know a couple of those albums are really old, but since I only heard the singles and never heard the entire album, I am including them on the list. Wow, that's more that I thought!

Music on the horizon;

Jason Mraz
Taylor Swift

40 Years Later