My New Garmin 305!!!

My husband picked the best Valentine's gift for me, ever!!! I know I had mentioned in my blog after my first 5K that I needed a sports watch. I hadn't even mentioned it to my husband and the next thing I know, he had already bought me the Garmin for Valentine's Day! He's a techie nerd and was actually excited to do the research and find a good sports watch for me.
I'm still getting used to how to use it, but the basics, I've got down. I am most excited about the fact that I no longer need to drive in my car on Saturday nights to map out my long runs for the next day. I was also using Map My Run online, but learned from another fellow blogger that the distances are quite off on those maps.
Now, I can just hit start on the Garmin and go. I'm also excited to hopefully work on my pace and improve faster than I would without the Garmin. I have already begun to push my self a little harder when I can see how I'm doing with a quick glance during my runs. Another huge plus, is the fact that when I travel for vacation or whatever, it will be much easier to get a run in, knowing I can track my distance without guessing.
The only drawbacks are that you have to wait a while for it to find it's location sometimes and it is rather large and clunky. I think I'm already used to these two drawbacks and the pros really do outweigh the cons.
Training is going well, although, I've been a little sore in my glutes and hamstrings over the past few days. I think this is due to my recent interest in doing On Demand Jillian Michaels total body shred workouts. Those things totally kick my ass!! Especially the lunges!
I ran 6 miles on Sunday and it was pouring rain the entire time, oh well, at least it wasn't snow!! I was supposed to be at 7 miles according to Hal's half-marathon schedule, but like I said, my glutes and hamstrings were killing me on Sunday morning. Plus, I have plenty of extra time in my training before the half, so that I can double up on mileage weeks if needed.
Have a great week, everyone!!!

It's Really Official Now!!!

I learned that the Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon is sold out now. I got a little nervous because I hadn't booked a hotel room for my husband and I for the weekend yet. I headed over to the website to check out the deals they had for marathon runners and to my dismay all of the special rates reserved at the list of recommended hotels for the runners were all sold out!!! I did a little more research and found a place called the Pea soup Anderson's Inn that was available for both nights. The outside looks a little tacky, but when I clicked on the pictures, it seems like a cozy little find. They claim that they offer Danish Style accommodations, which is fitting because Solvang, which is the race location, is supposed to be the Danish capital of America. And an extra bonus is the hot tub for me to relax in after the race!!! Should be a nice weekend. My Mother and Father-In-Law are going down with us on Friday morning and we are going to check out some wineries. Not too much for me the day before the race, though. I'm sure Ross (my husband) and I will be celebrating at the post-race wine tasting and party on Saturday afternoon. I'm really excited that I will have my mother and father-in law and Ross there to cheer me on!!!

I wanna be in Vancouver right now!!

Yay! The winter Olympics started tonight!!! I'm enjoying the opening ceremony celebration while I'm typing. I haven't seen Sarah Mclaughlin in forever! I don't think she has come out with a new album, other than a Christmas album in a long time. I used to love her and went to all of the Lilith Fairs just to see her play. I'm now inspired to pull her up on my i-pod collection and have a listen. And after quickly looking up Lilith Fair online, I just realized they are bringing it back for 2010!! Luck for me (my husband not so much), it is coming to San Francisco!! Yeah, come to think of it, I'll make it a girl's event!!
Seriously, as I'm watching the opening celebration, I'm totally amazed at all the work that they must put into this event. Everything is beautiful, precisely choreographed and downright entertaining.
Training is going well this week. I've logged in the 5K on Sunday, 4 miles on Wednesday, 2 miles on Thursday and another 4 miles today. I'm running the most I've ever one at one time, 6 miles on Sunday!! I'm ready!!!
Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays!! We are staying in this year. I'm making my husband a nice V-Day brunch of mimosas, waffles and eggs after my run. And then, I'm making a nice dinner (haven't decided what yet, any ideas?) with a good red wine.

And All the Little Ants are Marching....

Yesterday was great! I ran in my first ever 5K, The San Francisco Kaiser Permanente Half Marathon and 5K. There was supposed to be rain, but it was sunny and beautiful. My husband ran/walked in it also. Poor guy has what he thinks to be torn ligament in his knee, so he had to walk some of it when the pain was getting to be too much. Both of us were there at the start line with 10,000 other people. I mean, this race was WAY BIGGER than I expected when I registered for it.
So, we were waiting at the start line (err, well behind the start line because of the mass of people). They played Dave Matthews Under the Table and Dreaming and then did a count down from 10 to the start. After the gun sounded, we were off, or rather we were slowly walking to get to the start line. Once I passed the start line, I was ready to set my personal record, or maybe not. WTF! is all I can say about the mobs of people and strange lost people wandering around right after the start line, walking and getting in the way. I felt like I was bobbing and weaving for at least 5 minutes and I was annoyed. I mean, I don't mind if you want to walk halfway through b/c you need a rest, but the race was not a run/walk race, it was a running race. I believe these people were in the middle of the crowd, not because they were in the race, but because they had no idea what they were supposed to do and stepped somewhere they shouldn't with a pack of over 2,300 5K runners nipping at their heels. It was like once I felt like there was a clear pathway for me to get started, there stood someone else, blocking my way. I had a long and encouraging chat with my big sis after the race to talk about it, since she is my go-to source, she says that I better get used to this if I'm running in larger races. She ran the Chicago Marathon a while back and she said she was bobbing and weaving for like 5 miles into that race. That sucks!!!
At any rate, after the first couple of minutes, the crowd thinned out and I was able to get moving. I set my i-pod to AFI album, Crash Love and I was off. Golden Gate park is just beautiful! I spent a lot my running time, just taking in all of the scenery. There were actually a few hills, which I wasn't really prepared for. My calves are sore today, which is normally not the case after my much longer than 5K runs on Sundays. I think the downhills were what my muscles weren't used to. It was still fun to work my butt off, huffing up a hill and then to be able to almost glide downhill. I think I'm going to get a sports watch after this. I had no idea how I was tracking or anything the entire race and I wish I would have known, so that I could have maybe sped it up a little bit. I loved all of the people that we passed on the sidelines cheering, that was really fun!!
I finished with a chip time of 30:38 and a pace of 9:53. I was kind of irked. I would have liked to run it at a pace of 9:30. But those damn people in the beginning screwed me up a bit!! My overall place was 483 out of 2322, my gender place was 219 out of 1584 females and I finished 165 out of 911 in my age division, so not bad!
I'm glad I did the race, it was experience to help me move ahead in my journey as a new runner. I'm thinking of signing up for a 10K. It's recommended in Hal's training plan to run a 5K and a 10K. I think it is beneficial to get the experience before I run the half.

Veggies Rule!!

Ahh, it truly is amazing how willing I am to procrastinate doing my schoolwork just so I can write about my day on my blog!!! It is just so hard to motivate myself to work on Cash Flow problems for my Health Care Budget and Finance class.
So, I'm on a mission to eat more veggies. I love to cook and try new recipes so I did a search on AllRecipes.com for some veggie recipe options. I found a really good one for Farmer's Market Vegetarian Quesadillas and I tried it out today. Really tasty and relatively low calorie, but more important was the fact that I got my fill of great veggies while eating it!!! It's not that I don't enjoy vegetables because I really do, I just have the hardest time figuring out quick and easy ways to make them besides the boring way of steaming them which I do all the time. What about you? What are your favorite ways to get in your veggies??
Training has been going very well and I ran my two miles today the fastest I have ever run!!
Sunday- 5.2 miles at (what was on Sunday) my fastest pace EVER of 9:41!!
Monday--Ab Core training and some Yoga
Tuesday--TOUGH 4.3 mile run outside pace of 9:51, my ABS were killing me from the day before!!
Today--2 mile treadmill run, 9:35 pace
OK, OK! I'm signing off to do homework now.