Memorial Park Run

Well, these last few weeks have been the worst for my training. It's been hot, we can't coordinate schedules, and my thigh injury acts up. My last run was the 10K, which was 2 weeks ago. Needless to say, I'm out of shape...big time. All that progress I made to get my endurance up has taken a step back, but this week was going to change. MaloRee (who hasn't ran since before she left for Africa), Jodi, and I decided to meet up at Memorial Park. We just love this park even though it's far away, because it's so great on the knees and one lap is 3 miles long.

We did some stretching (mostly me) and set off on the walking. Just passed the quarter mile, we started running. I was really trying to spend the time working on my stride, while still keeping up the conversation. We made it to the 1 1/2 mile marker when Mal said she had to stop for a walk. I was trying to make it to the stoplight, which was alittle over 25 feet away, but I was super happy she wanted to stop. We started running again, but I had to make another stop for walking. And the walking lasted longer and longer. I was so disappointed with myself, because the last time we ran Memorial Park, I made it to way passed the 2 mile marker without stopping and our walking was quick short stops. I just couldn't continue on, because I could feel it in my legs. We ran and walked, ran and walked, ran and walked (all because of me).

The plan was to do 6 miles (2 laps around the park), but I knew that 3 miles was going to be it. By now, my thigh injury was hurting something fierce. I didn't even do any stretching when I got done, which I am paying for today.

After our run last night, I have realized that I have to rebuild my endurance up back to what it was before. I was running 6 miles without many issues, but I have been slacking. However, I will say that when I got done with the 3 miles, I felt like I only did 1 mile. I didn't even feel like I worked all that hard, which is great news for me. I also worked on my stride, which was better on my legs. I still have a long way to go though before I'm ready for the half marathon, but I have a lot of months left for training.

Tunnel Time with Skyventure Colorado

I haven't ran since the Sand Crab 10K run in Galveston for a couple of reasons. It has been really really hot, but mostly I was saving my leg for my tunnel trip (pictures to come soon) this past weekend at Skyventure Colorado. I nursed it all week so that I would not go through the same thing I went through last time I went to the tunnel. However, I am starting to feel the fact that I haven't been running.

Once again, I found myself getting tortured in this addictive thing they call the tunnel from August 20-21, 2010; however, this time I went with the SDH Outlaws. Jon and I flew in to Denver on Friday morning at about 7:30 a.m. (Shannon came in about 3:30 p.m.). We were in the tunnel by 10:30 a.m. working on our headdown stuff with mostly Jordan. On the first session, I got beat up by the excess strap on my helmet. It really did a number on my chin and neck. Ouch! I was learning how to get stable and really come up off the net. With Derek V in hand, I was finally able to lose the second spotter, which was a big step for me. We were going to work on transitions from sit to headdown (with spotter, of course), but Jon and I were tired. We decided to move our last 15 minutes to Saturday (not a recommendation to do). Each session was 7 minutes long (7 skydives, 2 skydives in one tunnel entry). Our bodies were exhausted. My butt, hips, and legs hurt, which was awesome, because I was totally exercising my body and I was using my legs more than my arms. In fact, the only time I hurt in the arms was after I worked on sitflying. I really need to get my arms out of the equation.

Our next session started on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and we went all day until 8 p.m. Most of our sessions were in 5 minute intervals each instead of 7 minutes, which I liked alot better. I know you are thinking that it's only 2 minutes more and to quit whining, but 2 extra minutes is just enough to tire you out for the rest of the day.

Shannon was there this time and she worked on her headdown, as well. Jon worked on eagles and everything under the sun. He's a natural and sometimes it makes me mad, but I love him for that. I still worked on my headown; my goal was to get off that net and be controlled. And that is exactly what I did! I was able to get off the net on my head, while not assisted. It was an awesome feeling. Jordan, the second spotter left and then Derek P. started to move away from me. The next session, he didn't even come into the tunnel and let me do it all on my own without any hand signals. And I did it. I could hear Jon, Shannon, and Jordan just yelling and clapping for me. On the next entry, I did the same thing, but this time, I saw a hand signal from Derek P. to turn. So, I did. Although very very slow, I turned a full 360 hoping to God I didn't crash out right in front of these kids that were glued to the glass. I got all the way around and flew for a second before I had to end it. I was tired mentally and physically. I only had 20 seconds left and decided to go to my sit. Unfortunately, this was the last time I did the headdown. I tried again, but I was so tired that I ping ponged out of it quick and hit every wall I could find. I tried one more time on our last session and almost the same thing. I just couldn't do it anymore. But it's okay, because I got cleared to do headdown in the tunnel. YAY ME!

I finally got it!!! Even Jordan is in the back giving me thumbs up.

See, no one is even in the tunnel with me. I'm totally unassisted at this point. Big day!

Even though we weren't officially training at Skydive Houston, we did train. Jon and I got in the tunnel together and worked on a few freefly moves, such as Knee Dock, Foot Dock, and Joker. It was hard with him in the tunnel and we were trying to figure out everything. We weren't rockstars turning 50,000 points, but we were able to make a few happen. At the end of our tunnel (me completely exhausted), we tried our belly moves. This was probably the worst belly flying that I have ever done. I couldn't turn correctly on axis and even hit Dan in the face a few times (with a big apology from me as he was laughing at me). I couldn't help but laugh, because we were that awful. I swear we won't be like that in the sky.

All in all, I had the best tunnel time ever. I got to hang out with my friends afterwards and that was a good time. I hurt all over on my body, which means that I did a major workout. Who needs running when you have the tunnel to torture you. I also want to note that Colorado thinks 95 is a scorcher and that was their record heat. Pfft in their general direction. We are at 102 (and that's not including heat index).

Quote for this trip: We are huge in Japan!

WE GOT IN!!!

It's official, Team Skydive Houston was selected to do the Chevron Half Marathon on January 31, 2011. Potter and IT will be doing the marathon, while Jodi, Amy, and I will be doing the half marathon.

Below is my email notification:
Registration Confirmation for:
2011 Aramco Houston Half Marathon
Dear Kristi Wiley-Bell:
Congratulations!
You have been selected in the lottery and you are now registered for the 2011 Aramco Houston Half Marathon.

My First Official 10K Race

I didn't post about this, but I did the 40 minute YogaWorks Beginners video on Friday morning. It felt great to do the stretching at a slower pace and it was not as difficult as the other yoga videos I have done. It was just right and I will do this one again. I did this on the On Demand Free Workout Thing.

On Saturday evening, we headed to Galveston for the First Annual Galveston Sand Crabs 5K and 10K Run. This race was 6 miles on the sands of Porretto Beach at 9 p.m. Yes, that's right, I said 9 p.m. I had to go buy a headlamp, which is cool to wear at first, but not cool when you have been sweating like a pig racing on a hot August night. We got there really early to get our packets, but also so that Amy could actually register for the event. She wasn't going to do the race with us, but she changed her mind on Friday evening (yay for us).

At about 8 o'clock, we got in the long line to get our 10K packets (the 5K was much longer). I started to get super exciting seeing the big finish line thingy like what I have seen on the Biggest Loser or at other race events. After we got our numbers (yay, 1460, my first race number), we stood around waiting, did some stretching, walked around, and just people watched. It was fun, but at 9:07, they still hadn't started the race. The lines for registration were still long.

The line at 8 p.m. Imagine what it was like later on.

Jodi and I waiting for the race to start.

Jodi looking poised for her trophy win...I'm not sure, we were bored.

I'm supposed to be looking confused. Did I get it?

Jodi, Amy, and I waiting for the race to start. Notice how we already have our shirts off...that's how freaking hot it was and we haven't even started the race. I bet you can only imagine how worst it got when we started to run.

Finally, the organizer guy told us that the race would be starting in 10 minutes and then about a couple of minutes before start, he told us what was going to happen when the siren does go off, but I was still confused. There was something about the faster racers somewhere and the 10K people starting. People were starting to pack it in. Sometime between 9:45 p.m. and 10 p.m., the siren blasted out to signal that the race has started. Luckily , we were standing by the entrance and could just easily filter in with the people. Amy didn't have a headlamp, but we just put her in the middle of us. Between Jodi and I, she had enough light to see the ground. And boy did she need to see the ground. There were holes everwhere. It was nice, because everyone would yell out "HOLE", "BIG WOOD IMPALING STICK", "SEAWEED", "BIG TARP HOLDER THINGY." It wasn't as dark as I thought it was going to be, but it was still dark enough.

The race was hot and not hot as in it was super fine like Claudia Schiffer. It was just flat out hot and humid like this whole month has been (core of the earth hot). I figured that a run at night on the beach would cool it down, but I was wrong...so very wrong. In fact, when we went passed the 5K turnaround point, it got even hotter. I am not sure how that happened, but it did. Also, running in sand is alot harder than running on asphalt. Within a mile, I was tired due to a couple of factors: 1.) The Heat, 2.) Lack of running the last 2 weeks, and 3.) Injury on my upper thigh. At the mile marker and first drink station, my thigh was hurting. We had just ran through deep sand, which I'm guessing infuriated it. I decided that I would make it to the 3 mile marker (the 10K turnaround point) before taking a rest. However, when I got to the 2 mile marker, it was getting harder and harder to keep up the pace. Finally, Amy said that she just couldn't run anymore and we stopped to walk. THANK GOD. Walking on sand with tennis shoes is not what it's cracked up to be since big clumps of sand would get kicked up into my shoes. On a side note, Jodi bought those new toe shoes just for this event. She seemed to love them for sand running. If I do this event again or maybe any sand running, I might consider getting them. They looked really comfortable. Plus, they looked easy to clean since they are made out of wetsuit material; I still have to clean all the sand off of my tennis shoes.

Anyhoo, back to the race. There were people cheering us on throughout the run (mostly locals confused by this mass herd of stupid people running in the sand at night). On our way, we saw a dead crab, a sand crab (drawn out in the sand), trash, people smoking weed, and some weird dude burying himself. The sky was beautiful. It was totally clear and you could really see the stars out. Plus, we had a crescent moon lighting up this mystical (yes, I used that word) sky. Someone had mentioned that it would have been cool to get an aerial shot of all of us running at night with our headlamps. I think I might put that in the suggestion box for next year.

We finally made it to the turnaround point and I swear that thing was never going to show up. We picked up the run, but my thigh was inflamed by now. As we treached along, I got slower and slower, even when I was walking. And we did some walking. I tried to run as much as I could, but it was hard. There were times when the girls would stop to wait on me to catch up even when I was walking. Jodi would get scared when she couldn't see my light anymore. We hit up both of the drink stations on the way back to the finish line. In our opinion, Gatorade is not that great when running; the water was better. It just seemed like the Gatorade was too much fruitiness or something.

Amy and I on the final stretch.

We decided to run at the last marker (signifying that we had 1 mile to go) until the finish line. I tried, but I had to do a quick stop to walk off my thigh. At first, Jodi thought we were going to walk until we got to the very end and then we would run. However, I had no intentions of showing that we weren't running at all. About a half of mile (maybe a quarter of a mile) left, we picked up the run all the way to finish line. People were cheering us on. Jodi wanted us to sprint, but I had nothing left. So, she took off in a sprint, which was good for her since Amy and I pretty much held her back during this run. We saw Amy's family at the finish line taking pictures and she stopped to hug them; I continued on. Jodi got 1:28:27.5, I got 1:28:41.9 (the tag says 1:26:22.5 and I'm not sure what the difference is), and Amy got 1:28:50.7 (she wanted Zany and Aiden to finish with her, which I thought was so cute). Race results can be found here. The top female got it done in 47 minutes. Who cares, we high-fived eachother for a job well done.

The girls at the end of the race looking like death has rolled us over three times.

Afterwards, they had BBQ ready to go, but I just didn't feel like eating. I more wanted the beer. Jodi and I stood in that long line for beer, while weathering out the huge fire they started (very smokey and gassy). But once we got close to the front of the line, they told us that the beer was done. They were waiting for ice or something, but it never came back. We were a little disappointed about that, but Jodi and I headed to a bar for a couple of beers and it was great. We looked like complete dorks with our shirts and numbers still attached to our shorts. So what if we didn't want to take them off...dammit, this was my first race number and I want to wear it with pride. Thank God, Jodi was feeling the same way.

Unfortunately, we drove back and didn't get to Houston until probably 3 a.m. Next time, I will probably just stay the night down there.

Bring Your Doggie To Training Day

Let me preface this post with the lack of actual running Jodi and myself have been doing for these last couple of weeks. In fact, I haven't seen her in forever. I should be running alone sometimes, but August is beyond Africa hot right now in Houston. It's more like the core of the earth hot. When I get home from work (early in the 5 hour), it's just too hot to run. If I wait out the heat to maybe Africa hot for a couple of hours, I have basically molded myself to my couch. It's a vicious cycle. I should do more in home workouts, but I have also gotten lazy. I want to run. God, I can't believe I just typed that. Yesterday, was our big 6 mile run in preparation for my first 10K on Saturday (so not prepared at all). Jodi and I weren't going to let anything stop us from running, until Jodi got sick. She was blabbing on about how she was going to still run, while coughing and sneezing. She sounded awful and I just couldn't do that to her. Well, I'm not going to be responsible for making her even more sick. I want her healthy for Saturday. So, we canceled our run. But I decided that I would at least do a quick run in my neighborhood to get the juices flowing. It had rained earlier and surprisingly, the temperature was cooler than usual.

My husband suggested that I take our Demon Spawn, Cali with me, because she needs to tire out. She managed to eat my husband's wallet (with a buttload of money we won at the Casino, ID, Social Security Card, Credit Card, etc.) and destroyed a bathroom hand towel. And I have actually thought about bringing my super hyper 1 year old Labrador Retriever puppy on some of runs/walks just so she can let out some of that energy, but we never seem to have a leash here for her. I decided to look in one place and viola, it was there albeit, alittle torn up. I did some stretches and then hooked her up to the leash for our run/walk. She nearly torpedoed me out the door and I thought, maybe this was a bad idea.

After a few "Heels", she got the hint and walked slightly without pulling my arm out of socket. A couple of times, I would walk past her when she stopped suddenly nearly yanking me back off my feet. You would think that someone would be prepared for that, but it happens quicker than you think. I took a longer way than my usual so that we could go by the pond. I figured Cali would love that and she did. She moved from side to side smelling everything. I began running and she followed one lap around the pound. I stopped running and decided to walk the rest of the way, because she has too many jolts of speed running that nearly knocks you down.

We walked some more and then got on my usual path. I noticed that she was breathing heavy, her drool was all over, and her pants were high. We got about halfway to the first stop sign when I noticed that my dog was heading to all the shaded areas. When she reached the end of the shade, she rejoined me on the sidewalk. Then, she got to the really long shaded bushes area and just let out some serious diarrhea. I realized that more poor Cali was overheating or in the first stages of it. So, I turned back around and headed home. She got slower and slower; however, when we reached our main street, she knew we were on our last stretch to home. She began picking up the speed more and more. When we got into the driveway, she nearly knocked me over trying to get inside the house.

The other two dogs were jealous, but they don't have as much energy as her and I can only take one dog at a time. We did what I hope was a mile, but I am not sure. I think I am going to try this again. It's a great arm workout, as well.

Today, we are trying to run. I hope it happens otherwise, I may die in Galveston.

A 5K in a Hotel Gym

I haven't been running much this week for two reasons: the heat (heat index of 105-110, which means that it feels like those temps) and Jodi and I couldn't synchonize our schedules. When I got off work, it was just too hot to run and by the time it was somewhat decent, I was so not even in the mood anymore. Sitting on the couch can surprisingly make you dorsel. But Jodi was pretty much the same way. Shoot, at 9 p.m., it was still hot.

For Todd's birthday, we went on a spontaneous trip to Louisianna at L'auberge Dulac. This is a very beautiful hotel with a great staff and also is the closest thing you will get to Las Vegas in the South. Jodi and I had scheduled running time that we both were actaully going to make. Since Todd and I left on Thursday at about 2 p.m., I had to cancel. I even took off work to go have fun with my husband. We also brought Potter, Nate, and Amy (my running girl) with us for a 2 day partyfest.

However, by Friday, I was feeling the disgust and flab everywhere. I had already told Amy that I was bringing my shoes to run and that she should, as well. She did, but then she had a little too much to drink and was too hungover to run. I was still going to go regardless and Potter decided he wanted to go.

We decided on the gym since it was air conditioned and Potter needed a trash can close by in case of vomiting. It was a nice gym with free water and TVs all around. The treadmills had their own personal TVs. After I did some stretching, I selected the 5K run option and got about running. The treadmill automatically adjusted your run speed, which was fine at the beginning. However, I was not in the mood to run at 6.6; I wanted to run at 5.5 (or maybe even 6.0). That was really hard when you are running and then it just switches to 6.6, which catches you off guard and you almost slip. My leg started to hurt, which is another injury I'm dealing with right now. I pushed through it, but it was not easy. When I got to 3 miles, the thing kept going; I forgot a 5K is actually 3.3 miles. Finally, I got to the end and boy was I tired. Potter did 6 miles on the treadmill.

I do like running on the treadmill, because I can see all of my mileage, calories burned, distance average, etc. However, we both felt like we weren't going anywhere. It's not always fun to run long distances on a treadmill.

Afterwards, I did some weight lifting. I used the dumbbells, stability ball thing, and the ab ball thing (which I never seem to make that thing work right). I was glad to have the opportunity to do other things besides running, while keeping fairly cool. I felt so good afterwards and I was so ready to go to the pool and just relax.

On a side note, I did some training (7 jumps total) with the Outlaws on Saturday. Those are always good leg workouts. I was going to run on Sunday, but my leg was hurting way too much. I have my first 10K next Saturday evening in Galveston and I need to keep me not injured.

Running with a Machine

Somewhere, sometime on Friday, I agreed to run with Ryan "Mr. Abs" on Saturday morning at the dropzone. Now, I know he runs faster than myself (a whopping 5.5 minute miles), but he assured me that he will "dumb it down" for me. It was either the alcohol talking or the fact that I really just wanted to run, but I said yes to him (especially since he ran without a shirt on). Our agreed time was set for 6:30 a.m. and at 6:30 a.m., I was waking him up. He was hoping I forgot. I didn't. If I got my unhappy butt out of bed at 6:25 a.m., then by God, we are going to run.

I did my stretching, while waiting for him to get ready (he doesn't stretch or need to stretch). We did a very quick warmup walk, which I hated, but whatever. I was committed now to this run. I looked at my new Nike running watch (thanks Jodi) and the time read 6:57. As we started to run, immediately, I was having trouble breathing. I thought maybe it was the alcohol, the humidity, anything that I can think of to use as an excuse. I just couldn't get in a rhythm at all.

Earlier, I had posted that I thought Jodi wasn't human until we did that lunchtime death run a couple of weeks ago. I was wrong. Ryan is not human. He didn't breath. He didn't even seem like he was running. He's a machine and truly is a runner perfect for marathons. For every step he took, I took like 3 steps. And to make matter's worse, my hard and erratic breathing was VERY noticeable in the silent morning. It made me feel like my first time running with Jodi. Eventually, I was slowing down and told him that it was time to ease up alittle bit. That's when I realized what my excuse was...this was a much faster pace than I had ever done. We only did a mile (maybe a mile and a half) and that was the plan from the night before (not because I was dying).

At the turnaround point, I took off my shirt. I was soaked in sweat and the shirt just made it worse. However, I forgot that I was wearing my short shorts that I usually sleep in (kept falling). As I'm running (behind Ryan full-time by now), I notice that he's just looking around and really enjoying himself (showoff and for that, I posted the ab picture that he hates). He doesn't even seem phased by the fact that we are running, while I'm heaving my way to the finish line.

We got back to our run start point and we walked the rest of the way back to the building. The time on my clock...7:04 a.m. That means I just ran a 7 minute mile. Normally, I do 10-11 minutes. No wonder I couldn't breathe. Ryan told me that I need to work on my stride and making it longer. Once I get that, my breathing will be easier. Also, he told me that I need to run alone sometimes to get my pace. Otherwise, I'm just going to run whatever pace the other person is running.

By the way, when I told Jodi about our 7 minute run, that little evil fairy's eyes lit up. I told her, "UH UH. NO WAY. That was it for me on going that fast." Now, she's threatening me with 8 miles. We just did 6 last week.

On a side note, I did 9 training jumps with the Outlaws on both Saturday and Sunday. My body is sore. I also like to point out that I'm not going to run on the mornings of training days. My body was already feeling the run I did on the first jump and it was not fun.