Running Journal ~ 4th Saturday

Today marks the fourth week of "official" training. My team met at the Ruston Way waterfront to practice. That is a beautiful place to exert yourself. I could have stayed all day... Anyway, started out with cramps in my legs again, even with a bit of stretching and rolling my ankles around to loosen the muscles up prior to setting out. A couple of theories prevail as to the cause of these FRUSTRATING cramps. One, not enough potassium in my system. Two, dehydration (quite possible though not always present) A little dehydrated today because I didn't drink enough yesterday. We ran out of bottled water at work and so I was parched most of the day. Three, lack of calcium. Four, blood rushing to muscles because it's demanded by the exertion, but muscles not used to it being there in such quantity, so...tension. And five, (my theory) I start out walking too fast and tense up those particular muscles because of it, instead of using the quad muscles like I should, hence cramping. I shall try to rectify all possibilities in hopes that it will QUITE SOON! =0) It's very hard to run when your foot feels like a dead weight. Almost took a tumble because of it (not lifting my foot high enough to clear the ground), but God is good and karate paid off with a quick reaction and recovery. Got to what I thought was my turn around point (the 20 minute mark), bid adieu to Captain Meg, and headed back, only to run into Coach Eileen and Tammy. They told me I was supposed to turn around in another 3 minutes because I was supposed to do 50 minutes, not 40 like I thought! Oops. So i walked with them a few more minutes and then Tammy and I turned around and headed back (again). Tammy is training to walk the Portland Marathon. She walks at a slower pace than I do normally, but that allowed my muscles to stop cramping!!!!!!! No complaints here. I did some "high stepping" and other stuff to keep my legs happy as we walked the 20 minutes back to the starting point. It seemed a lot farther to go back than to go out, and at the slower pace I got to enjoy the scenery more ~ wishing the whole time that I had my camera with me! It's in my blood I think. Bitten by the shutterbug. Alas, no camera so I just have to enjoy the beauty while it's there. There were a lot of divers out this morning suiting up as we walked by. I kept wanting to ask what they were diving for, but just kept walking instead. Perhaps there is buried treasure under our coast line. =0)
Well, It's WAY past my bed time and my battery won't last much longer, so buenas noches everyone.
P.s. If you would like to help me with my fundraising goal of $1500 check out the link on the right. It should take you right to my fundraising page and you can donate online. I learned this past Wednesday at our fundraising clinic that $36 dollars pays for one chemo treatment for someone! WOW! That's like dinner for two with desert at the Olive Garden. Amazing. I don't remember the other figures, but know that whatever amount you want to give will be a HUGE blessing to someone. You might just save their life. =0) Okay really, good night.
eryn

Question

You have surely noticed the spinning tshirt to the right.
Here's my question ~ would you buy that shirt? for how much?
I'm considering it (or something like it) for a fundraiser for my marathon training goal, so I want to know if the design is appealing.
Post a comment to let me know what you think.
Gracias mis amigos.
Eryn

UPS Practice

I went up to UPS tonight for practice. The coaches had us run around the track 4 times and they tracked our "splits." Mine are a little inconsistent, mostly because my legs were cramping again!!!!!! That is VERY frustrating, but Anna (one of our mentors) told me that she used to get that and it will go away. She said it happens because of the mass of blood that rushes to the muscles when you start running and the muscles just can't handle it so they cramp up. She said hers went away after about 3 miles of walking! Oy! Tonight, as soon as I finished my 4th lap (at 15:29 min [SLoOOoOWWWWW]) my muscles let go!!! Nice timing. =0) Anna also said that I should stop and massage the muscles when that happens and she showed me a good stretch that will help too. Yea...some answers. I'm just happy to know that it will go away.

I was late when I got to the track because of TRAFFIC! One tow truck on the right side of the road and the WHOLE FREEWAY comes to a crawl. The mystery is why the LEFT lane is the only one that comes to a dead halt! I have never figured that out, but it seems to be a law of freeway travel whenever something happens off to the right. =0)

Anyway, I finally figured out how to get in to the track area and apparently they had already warmed up, so Coach Eileen told me to jog one lap around the track and then she would tell me what we were going to do that night. Turns out we were going to run around the track 4 more times (a mile) and they would track out times (if you hadn't figured that out already from the previous paragraph). I, however, ran too fast round the track the first time, so I think my time could have been better. I need to learn how to pace myself better. When I run around my neighborhood I kind of know where I should be when, but I guess i haven't learned how to feel it yet. That's why I'm in training!! =0) I don't think it helped that I had already walked (and run some) for 45 minutes or so earlier today. That's a story unto itself. Oh alright, I'll tell you. I took my car in to have the right front cv joint/half shaft/axle (chose one) replaced was told it would take a few hours, so I rode the bus home and it takes about 10 minutes to walk to my house from the closest stop. I get in the door and check for messages on the phone, only to find out that my car is now done!! OY! He actually called while I was still on the bus. Had he called my cell phone I would have just ridden it back around to the shop. Oh Well. The dog, in the meantime, is going nuts because he has wanted to go out for a walk since I got up this morning. "Okay, I'll take you out now and then go get my car," I tell him. Short 15 minute walk (because I knew I was going to practice tonight), hook him up outside, and walk back to the bus stop to go get my car. So I think I was really truly already warmed up when I got to practice, plus the jount around the UPS campus to find the entrance to the track, but you don't argue with your coach, so one time around the track it is. Perhaps next time we do the split time thing, I will not have anymore cramping and plan my day better. Se la vie!

My bed is calling me, so are my pictures, but they will have to wait until tomorrow, the bed wins.

Oh yeah, just a running tip from a newbie/wannabe...not a terrific idea to wear running shorts under jeans while running on a track in the sun. The sweat tends to travel down your legs under the pant and since the wind is not blowing on it, or the sun evaporating it, it just stays there. Very weird feeling. Just in case you wanted to know. =0)

Night y'all.

Running Journal

Okay, I have about 5 minutes, so here is a quick run down of my training.
Officially started training on Saturday (I missed the first one last weekend) and we who are training for the Bellingham or Nike Half went out for 40 minutes on the Cushman Trail in Gig Harbor (though I think it was more like and hour really). Then we had a fabulous "shoe clinic" afterward at Route 16 running store, where I learned a lot about the mechanics of walking and running, and bought a new pair of shoes that work better for my foot and running shorts. Now I am stylish when I go out and run, though I felt a little silly at first. They do breath better than jeans and don't retain your moisture, so that's a good thing.

Rested yesterday, though you wouldn't know it if you asked my legs, since I was on them all day; walking around downtown Olympia in the morning at the Capital City Marathon, and then inventory at the west side FCS! Oh yeah and I took the pooch out for a quick walk to make him happy (no running though, just walking).

Then today, I went out all stylish in my new gear for my daily run/walk. Still having cramping in my legs, but got some tips from Coach Eileen on Saturday of possible causes and solutions. The new shoes helped some, but I think I am just going to have to stretch out those muscles more for better flexibility. First run was great (about 2-3 min), second run good (2 min), third and fourth runs, not so good. Contributing factors: didn't use inhaler before starting and probably ran too fast from the beginning. Also, tense muscles cause feet to fall heavier than normal. Is it normal for your big toe to go numb periodically when running? Perhaps my shoes were too tight. Will look into that.

Okay, gotta go to work now.
Happy day to you.
eryn

Homeward Bound

We're home after 11 HOURS of travel. Rush hour in Seattle when there is a Mariners game that night is AWFUL!!!! I would hate to do that every day. Marathon training in the morning in Gig Harbor, so off to bed I go. Will fill in all the details tomorrow.
Night.

Right now we are trying to decide what to have for dinner. Poor Brianna has a massive headache from something she did to her neck muscles yesterday. Apparently they are extremely tight, and no amount of pain killer/muscled relaxers or massaging will help now. Part of it may be from shopping most of the day. We had High Tea at the Empress Hotel today. Oh my goodness is that expensive, but nice. Then we went to the museum where they have artifacts from the Royal British Museum on display. You start in Africa, at the beginning of man, and work your way through history to the modern day. Pretty neat display, but we had to zoom through the last part because they were closing in 15 minutes, but the coat check closed in 10!!! That's a good way to get people to leave on time. Okay, Mom is waiting for me to quit so we can get something to eat. More later,
eryn

Day in Review

5/13/09 ~ 7 AM
After a very early alarm (5:02 am) and an early continental breakfast, we are sitting here on the Coho ferry waiting to cross to Victoria., They loaded us first, which in this case means we get to be off first too. Sweet! The car deck has no windows and it’s such a long ride (about an hour and a half) that everyone gets out of their cars and goes up to the upper deck area. We don’t go by any of the San Juan Islands, so all you see is coastline, then open sea, and soon B.C. It’s kind of overcast today too, so the sky and the water are that Washington shade of grey-steel blue. The seagulls and water birds seem to be having a good time though.
Wow! They have a gift shop and galley area for snacks if you are hungry (just like at a baseball game, same kind of food little bit cheaper prices). I wasn’t expecting that. The WSF from Anacortes does not have any of that. I bought myself a sweatshirt that says VICTORIA on it, because I, for some unknown reason, did not bring a very warm jacket! I don’t planned ahead well sometimes. =0) The nachos are pretty good…nice and saltly…yum!
We are now arriving in Victoria’s harbor and they have asked us all to go back to our cars. Most of us with cameras are standing by the opening where the cars will disembark taking photos of the neat buildings the ship is passing. Oh, now the attendant told us all to go to our cars for real this time. =0)
Interestingly, the couple in the car beside us to the right has not come down to their car. That is going to make it VERY difficult for most of the other passengers to get off, especially the semi-truck. I don’t think he will be able to swing around that car. The rest could get out if they unload just right; kind of like that game where you have to shift everything to get the red colored block down to the lower right hand corner. I hope they return soon, we are leaving the ship now and the rest of the people will be very unhappy if the crew had to search for them.
Ccustoms was a breeze. “Identification please” and a bunch of questions about where you’re from and how you know each other, do you have and alcohol or tobacco, etc.. and now we are off to find Vancouver street.
Well, after touring around some of the little side street, and going down a residential street LINED with cars on BOTH sides so there is really only one lane to travel through (we almost ran into a man emptying the bag on his mower, or should I say he almost ran into us, since he was looking the other way as he stepped into the street!), we finally pulled the map out and got ourselves to the right place.
The Scholefeld House is a beautiful Victorian era Bed & Breakfast, just off the beaten path, but not so far that you couldn’t walk to everything downtown that you wanted to see. It has lovely white wallpaper with black filigree swirls in the lobby and running up the stairs. Our room (which is actually made for 2) is a beautiful blue-grey with a hint of sea green color and chocolate brown accents (Gloria, it’s kind of like the color of your bed spread) and an en suite bathroom. It’s just lovely. Right now we are s in the “sitting room.” Mom and Brianna are reading magazines and I am doing something, but I can’t remember quite what it is…………….OH Yeah, typing! =0)
20 minutes left on my battery life and no internet connection, but ~ We made it! I think the plan is to go to the Gardens today and we have tea at the Empress tomorrow. I’ll, of course, tell you all about that later.
Gonna try for internet one more time.
Nope.
Guess you’ll know this was posted after the fact when I finally get it posted. =0)
See ya.

Victoria or Bust...

Okay, so for all of you who have never been to Port Angeles before ~ DO NOT go up WA-16 ~ you will not get there that way!!!! Oh man. We got to the point where you are supposed to turn to cross the Hood Canal Bridge (not knowing it was the Hood Canal bridge) and saw that it was blocked off, so we went down the road a bit and found a gas station and decided to stop there for information. Thankfully they had a ferry schedule and MAPS of the Peninsula. As it turns out, we should have taken the road through Shelton, but the google map I printed out showed Hood Canal around Shelton, so I thought that was not the right way to go. EEEIINHH!!! That was the RIGHT WAY to go!! Oy! So, the gal at the gas station told us we had to take the Kingston to Edmonds ferry and then take another ferry to Port Angeles...well, she was sort of correct. It was either that or go back to Tacoma/Lakewood area and cut across to HWY 101 from there. That just felt like admitting defeat, so we chose to go to Edmonds, but in looking at the map (which has the ferry routes on it) there was NO ferry from that area to Port Angeles. We stopped at the park next to the ferry dock and I ran in and asked the attendant if there was a ferry to PA or any other way to get there from here. He said "Nope" and promptly gave me a map telling me we had to go back to the Shelton area!!! AAAHHHH!!!!! NO WAY! There HAS to be a way! So we looked a bit closer at the map and saw that if we took the Clinton to Mukilteo ferry and drove all the way across Whidbey Island to get to the Keystone to Port Townsend ferry we could then drive to Port Angeles. YES!!! Success! It took a bit longer than going back to Shelton and going up that way, but well worth it not to admit defeat. =0) Beautiful drive though. We learned a lot about ferry travel. It's very interesting to watch the people in the other vehicles. You can definitely tell who is new (like us) and who rides the ferry all the time. Anyway, we found our way...stopped at a great little family restraunt called Traylors (if you're ever up this way. Their menu has a little bit of everything...seriously) and are now staying at the Quality Inn Uptown. We got the last room that will hold 3 people! SWEET! And there is this beautiful building from the 1800's right down the street (which of course I had to take photos of). It is used as their courthouse, sheriff's dept., police dept., and city hall, as well as a WSU extension. If you walk 50ft. from here you SEE the ferry. There is NO WAY we are missing the 8:20 sailing. Victoria is calling...but right now the bed is calling.

Night everyone.

off to Victoria for a few days.
Will fill you in on the details when I get back.
Have a super week y'all.
=0) ec

Where in the world...?

I am trying to figure out where in the US this is? Has anyone ever flown over this part of the States before? I think it is somewhere between Wyoming and Colorado. Leave me a comment if you think you know.

Thanks. =0)

eryn

Inspiration

One of our fairly regular customers came in yesterday. As I was ringing her out, we started chatting and she told me that her husband had just died on Saturday! He was told about 3 weeks ago that he had acute leukemia (the fast growing kind) and that he had two choices; to have chemo 24/7 and maybe get a few extra weeks, or no chemo with a pronosis of 3 weeks. That is what he chose. He wanted to enjoy the last days of his life. I told her that my dad died of leukemia 3 years ago and I was running a half marathon in his honor and to help raise funds to find a cure someday. So now I have another person to run for...In honor of Mr. Duffy ~ I run.

Pray for her family if you think about it. She told me when she left she was going to go home and unplug the phone for a while. So many people had been calling to talk with her that she just needed some quiet time. Lord, wrap her up in your comforting arms tonight. It's the wee hours that are the hardest. The hours of no distraction ~ when all you do is think before (if) sleep finally comes. Thank you Father, for the way you carry us through the valley of the shadow of death. There is no fear there, only sorrow and longing...longing for the day when there is no more sorrow or fear or death or pain; but, while we are on this journey...thank you that you walk with us there.

Love you Lord.
Good night everyone.
eryn

Photo of the Day

NW Trek

Tacoma Marathon

Three of my favorite photos from the Tacoma Marathon on Sunday.

Running Journal

Monday ~ Felt a little strange to run without my furry partner today. (He was trying out doggie day care.) Walked 2 minutes, then jogged for about 3. Probably could have gone longer, but didn't have the breath control. Walked for about 3 min. then jogged about 2. For some reason I had cramping up the sides of my calves, which made my footfalls heavy and awkward, but I pressed on walking about 5 min with a sad 1.5 minute jog in there somewhere. Then more walking trying to work the kinks out. Stopped for a minute to stretch those muscles (didn't help much) before jogging another minute the heavy feet. My body didn't feel very good either after that short jog, so i decided to walk for a while at a slower pace which usually allows everything to settle a bit; but it never really did, so i just walked the rest of the way home. About the time I felt recovered I was about 45 sec. away from my house. No sense in running the last bit, so I just finished the walk. Hung my heels off the porch step for a bit and went in to forage for lunch.

It's late and my eyes are droopy.
Tomorrow I cross train. Then Wednesday is the OFFICIAL kick off day!! I can't believe it's already here. Wow!
Night everyone.
Eryn

running journal ~ day ?

Wow, you don't run for a week and your body thinks it's allowed to rebel!!! =0)
I don't think any of my runs were over two minutes today!!!!!!!!!!! And my muscles act as if they have not done this before! I think I am either coming down with something or the pollens in the air are affecting me. My asthma has been acting up the last two days which is usually a sign I am catching something. Hopefully not. I have no fever so I doubt it's the swine flu. Good news for all of you that I have exposed since I got back. =0)

Gotta sort through pictures and choose 10 out of 1164 that tell the whole story! Wow what an assignment. Thanks teach! =0)
Later,
eryn

Mexican Journal

This is what I would have written on here had I had access to a computer last week. =0)

Day One ~ THE FLIGHT

Have you been to SeaTac lately? I don't think I am such a big fan of the change to all self serve kiosks with a few agents running around behind them. It takes you at least twice as long if you have a problem because you have to flag someone down and then wait until they are free to help you, instead of just waiting in line and having their full attention when it's your turn. Perhaps they should have half the kiosks and put back a few dedicated agents for those of us who KNOW we are going to have to talk to someone! Just a suggestion. =0) I had to talk to someone because my flight had an overnight in Houston, so I needed to make sure they took off the second bag charge and gave me a receipt to show in Houston. Next time I think I will request the RED EYE! It is sooooo much easier, but this was a good learning curve.

So I arrived at Houston International Airport with about 130 lbs. of luggage and just me to carry it!!! The cart machine was not working!!! Oy! I asked at the info desk where I needed to go to catch the shuttle to my hotel and was told I needed to go down one level to Terminal E, so I got on the elevator (me and my 130lbs. of stuff. too bad there was no one there to take a picture of that ) and noticed they had a plaque next to one of the buttons that said Terminal E which I pushed. Oops! that button took me up to level 2 NOT DOWN!!! Thankfully, the Lord is gracious to those who are LOST and he sent a lady and her daughter onto the elevator. She was headed back down to the baggage claim level, so I asked her if she was familiar with the airport (which she was) and where to catch a shuttle. She told me that behind the elevators (which is RIGHT BEHIND THE INFO DESK) are signs that direct you out to them and that I should ask the person at the "gate" where to go/what to do to get my shuttle. The guard at the gate told me to stand in the middle of the road where all the buses and shuttles were coming and going and wait for the one coming from Comfort Suites. Do you know it was already there! I stood there for a minute or two looking to my left ('cause that's the direction they were coming in) and then I turned to my right just to look and VIOLA ~ there it was right in front of me! God is SOOO good. I noticed there was someone sitting in side so I opened the door and asked him if we are just supposed to put or stuff in the back and get in. He told me the driver would be back in a minute and he would help me. The driver came just at that moment and I asked him the same question, we clarified that I was going to the right hotel and he told me it was my "lucky day" because apparently I was supposed to call ahead for the shuttle, but there were a few people whose flight had been cancelled so they were on their way back to their hotel and that's why he was there at that moment. God is such a great orchestrator. HE IS SOOO AMAZING!!

I have arrived at my hotel hoping they would have fresh baked chocolate chip cookies (you never know) only to find out that the room was not paid for, just held for me. Surprise! I'll be reimbursed, but I wasn't expecting that. Thankfully they have a baggage cart so I don't have to lug my stuff up to the 2nd floor! Small Mercies. It's warm here, and a little bit humid, but not bad. Preparation for Mexico right? =0)

The flight was uneventful (the way a flight should be). I had the aisle seat. A nice young Korean man next to me (he could have been Japanese; the girls he appeared to be with looked Japanese to me) and a gal, who slept most of the trip, by the window. The in-flight movie was BEDTIME STORIES (well worth the $1 for the earbuds), a cute family movie starring Adam Sandler and the gal from "Felicity". Right now I am reading a great book by Rick Joyner about the things that God is preparing in His church for the near future called "Visions of the Harvest", but I am now going to feast on God's word. I am seriously behind in my reading!!

So Ciao! til later.

Eryn

Now you know what happened on day one ~ time to go run. More later. =0)