Hello Summer.

On Saturday morning, we met at 8 am in Concord to do a 4-8 mile run on the Iron Horse Trail. By 8 am it was already 80 degrees, and there is no shade on this section of the trail. So by the time we finished around 9 am, it felt like it was around 90 degrees in the sun. I decided to do 7 miles and was able to keep up a 8:51 pace despite the incredible heat. I guess summer has officially arrived.

Daily Mile

I just found a great website for tracking my workouts - dailymile. You create a profile and then track your workouts by entering the type of workout, amount of time, number of miles (it calculates your pace if you are running), and location. For runners, it's nice because it breaks out your weekly, total and average pace, miles, distance, calories burned, etc. You can also challenge your friends who sign up, look up running routes that other people in your area have posted, and get motivation and advice from other runners. It isn't the most user-friendly website, but it's pretty cool.

Here is a screenshot of the page where you post your workouts:

You can track my training progress here - http://www.dailymile.com/people/krothermel

We're not breaking up, we're just taking a break

Diet Coke has been my bff for many years and has gotten me through many late nights, early mornings, and sluggish afternoons. For at least the past 5 years, I have faithfully cracked open a can every day. In the back of my mind, I've always known that it isn't good for me, but I've always convinced myself that among all of the things in the world that I could be addicted to, Diet Coke isn't all that bad. It's not like I smoke a pack a day or anything (and mom, believe it or not, I have never even tried a cigarette. That should win me some kind of child-of-the-year award). But I do realize that it's just a bunch of chemicals, and those fizzy bubbles that I love so much continue to party long after they enter my mouth and sit in my stomach. And since I've already committed to a healthy lifestyle for the next 4 months while I train for a marathon, I guess now is as good of a time as ever to take a break from my intense relationship with Diet Coke. We're not breaking up, we will still be friends. We just won't see each other every single day.

While I might be taking a break from Diet Coke, I still need a little energy boost every now and then to help get me through the day. So in place of Diet Coke, I'm experimenting with other caffeine-laced goodies. I picked up a few packs of some yummy Jelly Belly sports beans with caffeine the other day while at my favorite store, The Sports Basement. I had a pack before my track workout on Tuesday night and I think that they did the trick. 1 pack has the same amount of caffeine as a diet coke and the Watermelon flavor was delish:

I will also, for the first time in my life, try drinking coffee. I am probably one of the only people out there who has never had coffee before. Ever. I think that it's because I grew up in a coffee-free house. Instead, my mom would have her morning coca-cola (can't imagine where my addiction to diet coke comes from). And yes, this will probably lead to me replacing one addiction with another, but I feel like coffee is probably better for me than diet coke because it's more natural. Plus, in the nutrition presentation by our running coach, coffee/caffeine was listed as something that can be beneficial for runners. In talking with coffee-drinking friends who understand my shall we say delicate palate, it has been recommended to me that I start with something that tastes as little like coffee as possible. So last weekend I got a skinny vanilla latte from the Starbucks stand in our local Target store. I had a few sips on the drive home, but then put it down and forgot about it as we were unloading the car. When I finally found it about an hour later it was definitely past its prime. I think that next time I will go to an actual Starbucks cafe and sit down with a latte and a yummy treat and get the full experience. Although, I doubt that our running coach meant for me to replace my diet coke habit with a 600 calorie muffin habit....

Today's Running Quote

"Running is a big question mark that's there each and every day. It asks you, 'Are you going to be a wimp, or are you going to be strong today?'"

-Peter Maher, two-time Olympic marathoner

I'll keep that in mind as I'm running tomorrow morning's 7 mile coached run at the (hilly) Lafayette Reservoir:

New running shoes

After 6 months of running in my beloved Asics 2130s, it was finally time to trade them in for a new pair. It got to the point where running in the old shoes was causing my knees to hurt. Plus they smelled like a dead animal. Since I will be doing some serious training, I wanted to go to professionals and make sure that I pick the magic pair that will get my across the finish line.

I decided to go to Road Runner Sports in Concord, CA because they have a bunch of cool toys that will analyze your feet and stride and then the helpful workers will recommend shoes for you to try. The first thing that you do is walk across a mat on the floor that identifies your points of pressure, your arch, etc. Then they put you on a treadmill and video tape you running. From this, I learned that I run toe to heel, instead of heel to toe. Apparently that is what they teach sprinters to do. But I promise that I don't sprint anywhere. For me, it is more like a shuffle. Maybe it is because I grew up playing tennis, so for that sport, you are always taught to bounce around on your toes?

Based on my results, the shoe lady recommended a Stability Plus shoe for me. Stability based on my arch and pressure points, and the Plus because I run am such a severe toe-to-heal runner. After trying on a few pairs, I decided on the Asics Gel Kayano 15s - the most expensive pair of shoes there, of course. So now that I own the best, most expensive shoes out there, there is no reason why I can't run 26 miles!

My pretty new shoes (they have a pretty design on the inside too!):

Track Workout #1 - Benchmark

The first track workout was held on Tuesday evening at the Diablo Valley College track.  And as an extra treat, we had a little eye candy compliments of the DVC football team that was practicing on the field inside the track.  But back to the workout.  Because this was the first track workout, we didn't have to do the circuit training, which my body is thankful for.  Instead, we did a benchmark run so we can see how much we improve later in the season.  We had a choice of running 1 or 2 miles, so I ran 2.  I made sure to run a nice, steady 9 minute pace, so I have more room for improvement!  Now I've got 9 weeks of practice to get faster.  

Coach Gary teaching us about proper running form:

TNT Summer 2009!

I'm back! The Summer season for the Diable Valley Team in Training has officially started! The countdown to the Nike Women's Marathon in SF on October 18th is on! We had our Bay Area kick-off meeting 2 weeks ago and Marathon University last Saturday at the Clif Bar headquarters in Berkeley.

Kick-off was a great way to meet my teammates and get fired up for the season. Because most of the people in the summer season are training for the Nike Women's marathon, the majority of my teammates are women. But there are a few brave men who will be training with us. We were also introduced to some of our team's honorees. I'll be sharing their inspirational stories over the course of my training, but needless to say, it was a great reminder of why we shouldn't complain about giving up our Friday nights for early Saturday morning runs, or complain about the blister on our toe.

Here are 2 of our team's honorees (Bill and Maddie) who have battled, and are continuing to battle cancer:

Our first official group run was last Saturday. It was short and sweet. Only 4 miles. But afterwards we had about 3 hours of seminars on nutrition, injury prevention and gear. Marathon U was held at Clif Bar headquarters, which was fun to see. Plus there were free Clif Bars. Yum.

Here is crazy ultra-marathoner Coach Tim giving us a talk about nutrition. I was sad to learn that Diet Coke is not actually good for me...

Let the training and fundraising begin! GO TEAM!