change in mileage

today i just got an email from my coach and it looks like they are changing our running schedule so that our team will run less mileage than before. so rather than this weekend being the one that will break my running record, it looks like that won't happen until august 12th. instead this weekend, we will be running a 12 mile run! no new distances to conquer yet...

are you fit enough for the army?

yesterday regis and i took a field trip out to ballston, virginia. why, you ask, would such urbanites take the metro out to the suburbs? well...

when regis was doing his 1 year military service (which was a required part of his engineering university at ecole polytechnique) they used to get tested regularly for physical fitness. one of the tests the army used was the cooper test, which tests how far you can run in 12 minutes. then, depending on the distance, your physical condition is categorized as one of the following: very good; good; average; bad; or very bad. regis wanted to test himself again (he likes to take the test about once a year) so we trekked out to the only track that i know of, out in virginia.

our results? in order for regis to be classified as very good, he needed to run more than 2800 meters in 12 minutes (which equals 7 laps around the track -- each lap is 400 meters). he did it and ran 3125 meters in 12 minutes!

and how did i do? not as well. i needed to run 2700 meters in 12 minutes (6.75 laps) to be classified as very good. instead, i did 2500 meters in 12 minutes, which puts me at good! (good ranges from 2200-2700 meters in 12 minutes). considering that i'd never done the test before and "practice is required" for doing well on the test, i was quite happy with my results. maybe next time i'll hit the very well classification!

when talking to regis about yesterday's success (all the other times he's tried it, he's never done as well as he did yesterday) he hypothesized that the success might have been in part due to my new timex ironman running watch. this watch has a split function so that once you start the timer, at each lap you can hit the split button and it will record your total time and also your time for that lap. this then allows you to see how you are doing at every lap so that you can speed up or slow down accordingly. pretty neat huh?

anyway, i've got some photos from this run, which i'll try to remember to post up later! until saturday's 14 mile...

the big apple

this past weekend, regis and i took a trip to new york city to visit some friends, and of course we had an excellent time, as who doesn't love new york city? some of my bestest friends are there, and you can't beat the shopping, the food and the activity! i even had shanghainese food on sunday, yum! being in new york city meant that i had to do my long run there, so on saturday morning, my friends leslie and mark, and i embarked on a 8 mile run.

starting in the east village, we ran west on 13th street until we hit the west-side highway and ran along the water. it was beautiful. i really like running there! first off, there's a pedestrian pathway, which means that you don't have to stop for cars. and you run right next to the water. both of those things are great. also, for me, i really like running through cities. i love seeing buildings, and checking out how a city is laid out. this pathway is great for that too, as you've got the city on one side of you and the hudson river on the other side. and you don't have the downside of running through the city and stopping at lights. i'd suggest everyone to either go run through there or, if you are not a runner, to take a walk along the pathways, because it really is lovely. (below are some photos that i borrowed from another internet site)!

i've been hydrating for our next big team run this weekend, 14 miles on saturday, which will be the longest i've ever run in my entire life (current record is 13.1 miles). i'll keep you posted...

learning experiences...

on wednesday, i went on a mellow 4 mile run, my first run after my somewhat scary running experience on sunday.

you're probably thinking, what happened on sunday? well, since i opted to run a 4 mile race (oops i mean 5 mile race) on saturday instead of run 12 miles with my team, i had to make up the long run on sunday. so on sunday evening, i set off for my 12 mile run. because saturday's race was more strenuous than normal, since it was a race and i was running much faster that normal, my plan was to run, see how i felt and stop when i got tired. at 9 miles, my legs were sore and my body was tired, so i stopped running and walked the rest of the way home. not sure whether it was because i was dehydrated or because i didn't have any other substances/food with me besides water (when you run more than 6 miles you're supposed to drink/eat something else besides water, such as gatorade, gu, jelly beans, powerbar) but when i got home, i felt really bad and later on, threw up! my lesson from all of this? that for the rest of my long runs, i will drink plenty of water also take gu/jelly beans/gatorade!

as i was saying, yesterday's run was much more pleasant and it was nice to get back out there, after taking monday and tuesday to recuperate.

running in the dark

saturday night regis and i ran in the rockville twilight festival race, which is a 8k race (5 miles). considering that i never run really fast, i did quite well for me, placing 229 out of 747 in the women's category, with a total time of 44 minutes and 16 seconds which averages out to 8 minutes and 55 seconds per mile. regis ran it much faster than me, finishing at 37 minutes and 11 seconds and averaging 7 minutes and 29 seconds per mile! (if interested in checking out the results, click here and then go to the race results for july 15's rockville rotary twilight run.) the run itself was lots of fun, and since it's at night, they give each runner a little glow in the dark bracelet. plus after you finish the run, they have all kinds of goodies for runners, like powerbars, bananas, watermelon, oranges, pound cake, donuts, pizza, and beer! i was very excited about the watermelon. yum!

as for the run i did well up until i got to mile 4. that last mile was a killer for me though, as i developed the worst cramp ever and even had to walk about 15 seconds and i HATE walking during a run! 2 hours before the race, regis and i decided to eat a bowl of pasta for dinner, as i thought the carbs would do really well for energy. but maybe a better idea would have been to have pasta for lunch! anyway, i managed through the last mile but it definitely slowed down my time.

below are some photos that regis and i took at the event. someone commented that we were the world cup team, as i wore my france jersey and regis wore his italy jersey. kind of crazy since when regis bought the jerseys, france and italy hadn't even advanced to the quarter finals yet!

speaking of the world cup, not sure if you all have been following what happened with zidane but he went on french television to talk about the incident of the headbutt and pretty much said that materazzi said some very harsh words about his mother and sister, most probably a racial slur. if you ask me, good for zidane! i'm a total believer that violence shouldn't be used to solve problems and think that sportsmanship is very important. however, we're all human, and i know for me, in the heat of the moment, i do rash things! and if someone insults you, sometimes you can't hold back!

team world cup at the twilight festival

regis and i on the way to the race riding metro. he's got italy's jersey and i've got france's!

me after the race with my watermelon, water, and banana in hand.

regis as a track runner

regis and i after the race; you can tell we look much more tired (and sweatier) here.

les bleus, nous vous aimons toujours et bonne anniversaire tai shan

as you all must know, yesterday was a sad day, as les bleus lost to italy during penalty kicks in the world cup final. it was such a sad thing to watch, especially since zidane was given a red card only minutes before. in reading articles today in the press, some have been criticizing him for his actions, but if you ask me, he probably only did it because he was provoked. i mean, seriously, no one is going to head-butt someone else for a silly comment like, "you look ugly in your white jersey." my heart went out to french team and to all the fans. even after the game, when regis and i took a walk around the neighborhood, i still wore my france jersey with pride (even though i'm just a wannabe frenchie!)

enough of the aside, back to the running. saturday's 6 mile run was pretty good! after you run 10 miles, 6 miles just seems so much easier! regis, being such a great supporter, came with me to saturday's run, which is quite a feat seeing as how we left the house at 6:15am! he even started the run with me, but after about 15 minutes, he left me and my group in the dust and ran on ahead. sigh... how is it that i've been training for 2 months and he still manages to run faster than me?!

sundays are supposed to be a chill running day, so regis and i did a quick 40 minute run. in celebration of tai shan's 1st birthday (the baby panda at the national zoo), we headed to the zoo. i never run good on sundays and running around on a hot day at 11am certainly didn't make it any easier. however, we managed. i would have loved to have seen tai shan, but alas, the line was way too long. as to be expected, there were tons of people so rather than making a pit stop to see the panda, we turned back around and ran home.

upon yesterday's run, i've decided to keep to running either in the early morning or in the late evening. otherwise it's just too darn hot. this weekend should be interesting, as i'll have to skip saturday's 12 mile run with the team. instead, i will be running in the rockville twilight festival run that evening (4 mile race)... which means i'll have to do the 2 hour run on my own time... but don't worry i'll keep you posted. until then...

allez les bleus!!!

totally unrelated but france is in the finals of the world cup!
ALLEZ LES BLEUS!!!

tomorrow i've got another bright and early run at 7am, but this weekend is a cut-back in training (normally during your long runs each week you add 1 to 2 miles per run; however, during some weekends you cut back in your mileage, to help recuperate). anyway, this is a cut-back weekend, so it's only 6 miles tomorrow! i'm assuming they'll go well because the 10 miles went well last week. but you never know, some days you are on and some days off.

so much to say...

upon checking out one of my friend's blogs, i realized that when one only writes about one's training, there really isn't that much to say! oh well, i'll try my best!

quick update. ran 10 miles last saturday, and the run went well. although i got tired at miles 6 and 7 and was fine for the rest of it. this was also the case when i ran my first half marathon in april 2005. not sure why those miles always seem to be the toughest, but i just get so tired! after that i get a 2nd wind and all seems to be okay.

i'll try to remember to bring my camera this weekend so that i can capture the fanny pack look for you all to see! until then, keep happy.

oh and by the way, france plays portugal today in the world cup semi finals. allez les bleus!!!