I run to be...

...fit
...free
...chased
...trendy
...a triathlete
...seen
...a role model
...a rockstar!

There are many reasons why I run, but today I ran to be a finisher at the Nike Women's half marathon.  I've gone the last few years to cheer on my friend Charlene as she ran toward the finish, but I never really thought about running THIS race/run.  Last year I was already running a half marathon the same weekend so running Nike wasn't an option, but this year a friend kindly gave me an extra bib she had won.  Anyway, most women know this race as the one event where firefighters dressed in tuxedos hand you a tiffany's necklace at the finish line, and although I like the necklace, I honestly didn't even know what Tiffany's was until a few years ago, but I had quite a few friends planning on running the event so I was excited to join them.

The festivities started on Friday when Katie, Laney, and I headed to the city to pick up our bibs and check out the wall of names outside of Niketown.  Unfortunately, I registered later than I think they printed this because we failed to find my name, but it was still cool to see.  After we found Katie and Laney's names we headed for dinner and then out of the city anxious for sunday to come.
Now this race is HUGE, thousands of people come from all over the country to run this race, especially runners with Team in Training.  The race benefits leukemia and lymphoma cancer research and gets a great crowd of charitable women and men out.

We headed out at 5:15 in the morning, stopping to pick up one other runner along the way.  After parking, dropping our sweat bags and making a pitstop at the bathroom, where I ran into my friend Nicki (Yay!), I wished her luck and we were off to the insanity that is the start line.  Now Nike is not an easy course by any means there are many hills and many of them are steep (1, 070 ft. of elevation by my garmin), but it does start with a nice gradual downhill at the beginning as you race to dodge as many people as you can (reminds me almost of bay to breakers).

Mile 1: 8:05
I tried to hold back a little because I knew a fast start without a warm-up meant much pain to come.  We came out Union Square and headed down to the water.

Mile 2: 7:42
My legs felt like crap, they were heavy, but I tried to keep up with Laney and still give myself plenty of room to breath.

Mile 3: 7:44
The weather feels great as we cruz across the embarcadero with the first few hills quickly approaching.

Mile 4: 7:46
Made it over the first two bumps and they felt awful, which means the rest is going to be painful (I have trained for hills big time, I just had nothing in my legs)

Mile 5: 7:49
Decided it was time to see if a GU would do the trick, but all the people cheering kept me going and without any piriformis pain I was going try as hard as I could to keep going.

Mile 6: 7:58
GU still not kicking in and here is the big hill up to the bridge.  I'm usually pretty confident on hills, but not today.  Fortunately, I ran into a familiar face when I ran into Amy cruising alongside Crissy Field.

Mile 7: 9:06
Survived with no walking and tried to just get the hills to pull me down

Mile 8: 7:28
I was really feeling awful by now, because my stomach decided I needed a porta potty and my piriformis decided to get pissed off at me.

Mile 9: 9:47
There were walk breaks here, my stomach and legs were killing me, but as people started passing me I knew I needed to push through, all the great cheerleaders got me going again.

Mile 10: 7:47
We started heading toward the park and back downhill.  I'm going to label this mile the Tease mile, because you get to see all the finish line festivities and then you are rerouted back uphill through Golden Gate Park.

Mile 11: 8:28
I pushed through, no pain was going to hold me back I only had 2 more miles to go.  Here I saw Nicki which really pushed me to keep going and make it to the finish.

Mile 12: 8:13
Now a little bit of an up and then down, down, down to the finish line, but not before I grabbed my Ghirardelli Chocolate and headed toward the finish

Mile 13: 7:24
I tried to push hard to the finish giving the last bit of everything in my tank.

The last .14: 7:02
Necklace, banana, bag, protein shake (which I wish was chocolate milk, but I'll take what I can get), and prayers of no GI tract issues (success!)

Despite how awful my legs felt I really enjoyed my time on the course!  My finish came at 1:47:00 which is not my best, but not my worse, but pretty awesome considering the course.  Next, we headed to breakfast at Beach Chalet and finally home after a long traffic filled car ride.  Tonight, I have a date with my trigger point roller, ice, and a cupcake.  Great job all you ladies and gentlemen that were out there today!  Now what do you run to be....?

Happily Ever After...

Watching USA v. England

Training this time of the year has been a bit rough with milestone birthdays, visits to so cal, and enjoying visitors company I'm exhausted!  My last event of this exhausting party season was probably the most exciting and the BEST!  I had the opportunity to see my friend Mary marry her longtime boyfriend Tom.

Beautiful sunset of Greece

Wildflower Fun!

Enjoying company during Marathon training #1

    Although I've had many good times and great people in my life I will never forget my senior year in college when I enjoyed the company of Ms. Mary, Ashley, and Mel as roommates and longtime friends.  Between happy hour at the Cliffs, Mary's M birthday celebration, Wing wednesdays, and OC dates, we were always having a fantastic time!

Flutag

When we were in our early 20s

   Mary was not only a great friend in college, but she has accompanied on a great many adventures, including Greece, where she became an honorary member of my family.  Tommy and Mary joined me at my first olympic triathlon and has supported me through both the Long Beach and Huntington Beach half marathons.  We've had many other adventures and I only wish I lived closer to see the newlyweds more often.

Best wishes to the Bride and Congratulations to the Groom!  I would tell you all about the wedding, but I think the pictures tell the story much better!

Of Course an English teacher has to have Scrabble

On the Guest List

And of course Madlibs

Flower Girls 

Goodbye 27...on to my late 20s...greeting 28

After a bit of a rough week last week I wasn't quite sure how I was feeling about celebrating my birthday.  Fortunately, it ended up being a fantastic day!  I woke up at the crack of dawn to get a short 2 mile warm-up run followed by a weight session in.  I tried to slide by without my students noticing it was my birthday, but this was an epic fail.  I like celebrating birthdays, but with many people having milestone birthday parties and me never being really much into planning my own birthday I figured I woudl just lay low.  But apparently, September 20th is one of the most popular days to be born, and when you share a birthday with someone you always remember their birthday.  One of my ASB students for the class of 2013 shares my birthday with me so my morning was greeted with flowers, cupcakes, and a very cute and funny card.  Of course, they wouldn't leave without making their mark, and by mark I mean all over my boards, which read, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY MS.BYLER- Love class of 2013," and "Ms. Byler you have the best birthday ever- Chevy!"  So of course I was greeted every hour by 30-40 students pleasantly wishing me a very happy birthday and even some old friends stopping by to say "HELLO!"   Later on the Chess Club realized it was my birthday and felt they too needed to leave their signature on my boards.  After a much loved day of work I raced home for a birthday dinner with Nick.
       I was running a little late so luckily I had planned my outfit for the day appropriately for dinner at Prospect in San Francisco.  We headed to BART and eventually to the city to have a fantastic birthday dinner followed by a lazy evening at home so I wasn't too exhausted from work.  The day was filled with birthday text messages and phone calls from loved ones and even some great gifts, especially my "murder button" from Ms. Andie.  Thank you everyone for thinking of me and celebrating my existence.  I have to say 27 has been fun because...
I got my first 1st place medal
I did my first olympic distance triathlon+I survived wildflower
I PRed big time in my half marathon
I tested out new races including surf city, long beach, primos, and big sur
Nick and I won bragging rights over Amy and Ryan probably for the only time in my life during the couples relay
I got to celebrate Nick's 30th Birthday and see the gold cup finals
I became a Cal student and earned A's in both of my summer courses (this is a big deal because I always felt kinda dumb in college)
I made new friends like Nicki and Laney and had a blast hanging out with frequent friends like Mary, Ashley, Melissa, and Aron
I helped my sister buy a bike and nearly killed her on her first few rides
I survived year #4 of my teaching career and had the opportunity to read names at graduation
I started trail running with Kim around Mt. Diablo and then adventured with Amy to the Dirt Dogs

The year to come brings:
Seeing one of my best friends (Mary) say I DO!
My first NIKE half marathon
My second marathon at CIM, hoping to break 4 this time
My first run through wine country at Healdsburg
Hopefully many more training runs and rides with friends
Car shopping...unfortunately the truck is a little high on miles
I'm amped for year 5 in my classroom (although I'm not amped about the grading)
And....we'll see what this year has in store

A bit of a scare...

I've been trying hard not to overtrain and risk injury this marathon cycle.  The last time I tried to run a marathon I developed what is called piriformis syndrome (pain in the butt, literally).  Although I could have developed this issue doing many other things it was still a huge bummer that took me over a year to get under control.  Unfortunately, the issue hasn't completely gone away, but is manageable for the time being.
Anyway, this week I started feeling a pain in my big toe and with so many friends having stress fractures I began to freak out, and of course, instead of turning to the doctor I turn to the internet.  I figured the pain might just be tendinitis since I've had it before, plus many people said a stress fracture in your big toe is not likely.  Finally, 3 days later I gave in with the fear that I may be making matters worse and that I would have to contact a few race directors and increase my cycling miles if I did have one.
Today I walked into the Dr.'s office, and he didn't even ask for x-rays, he moved my toe around and said it seems like a joint or tendon issue.  I breathed a huge sigh of relief and felt so glad that I don't have to bail on the upcoming events I have planned.  I'm thinking next week might have more cycling days than running days just to be on the safe side, but I'm glad I'm in the clear so far.

Back to the Grind

I haven't really managed to write much because the school year has officially begun, heck, it is already 2 going on 3 weeks deep.  Transitioning to a new group of students is always difficult and often leaves me with nightmares.  However, after 6 years of in school experience (4 of them teaching in my own classroom) I actually transitioned fairly well into this school year and I don't recall the same night terrors of years past.  I'm onto my fifth year as a high school teacher and working my way through memorizing 180 names and praying that 39 students is going to be my largest class.  Although I'm never a fan of work in general I do enjoy my job, plus there is always something new and interesting happening, even if I'm not too happy with what qualifies as "interesting."

This is the first year I've really planned my training so that it starts around the beginning of the school year.  Usually, I plan races for a bit later because exhaustion overwhelms me the first couple weeks as I get back into the routine of talking and walking all day, which is probably why I've had a few more rest days lately than I would normally have.  I am 12 weeks away from CIM and right now I've been sticking around 30 miles a week, but I'll be growing my milege and hopefully increasing my crosstraining in the next couple of weeks as my energy returns.

Oh and one more thing has been taking up my time...2 new kittens!

A Sensitive Subject...

CHAFING!!! This has been an ongoing problem of mine even before I entered the world of endurance athletics.  I tried out a variety of clothing brands thinking, "Maybe, something else will work."  Unfortunately, the problem was not the clothes, but the BODY.  However, in the last couple years I've found some wonderful solutions.
First of all, clothing could be the problem, it wasn't for me, but some clothes are more abrasive or may have a corner that isn't so friendly.  Make sure nothing is rubbing you the wrong way for shorter workouts, i.e. if you can go 6-8 miles running or last through an hour cardio class and you don't feel like screaming when you hit the shower then you probably are just fine in the clothes department.

Secondly, if you only have minor issues then this product should do the job.  Body Glide comes in a variety of options (i.e. w/spf, for her) and slides on just like deodorant.  Although I love Body Glide it just wasn't doing the job for some areas, especially my feet.

I learned about Chamois butt'r when I first started cycling.  This product is known for reducing discomfort in your nether regions.  However, I've found it to work much better for my feet and bra line than other products.  Although, I love Chamois butt'r this is not the only product of its kind and not the only one I use.  Other brands include:
Beljum Budder: This is similar to Chamois and does the job just as well

Some brands are women specific and since they cost a bit more I haven't tried them, but these include: Ho ha Ride Glide and Dznuts bliss.

Unfortunately, when it comes down to the Marathon or the wetsuit swim I have to turn to another product.  TRI SLIDE!  This product is not a cream, but a spray and has helped me avoid many uncomfortable situations.  I usually use this product for my feet and areas where my wetsuit might rub only!  Sometimes I even think about using this in my high heels for a long day or night on my feet.

Often my pre-race routine involves a combination of all 3, but I'll do anything to stay post-race pain free!

This week in training...

Last weekend started with the Folsom Sprint Triathlon where what I thought was going to be the race from hell actually ended up being a pretty good time with some pretty awful race photos.   After an early morning at Folsom Nick and I rested up and packed up to head down to southern California.






Sunday: I planned to get a long run in before we left, but that was an epic fail, I was just too tired.  Oh well, I needed a rest day anyway!  Instead we took our time traveling by stopping in San Luis Obispo and hitting up Firestone and Splash Cafe, thinking about how much everything has changed since college.





Monday: I knew I planned on getting 7 in today so I got up and headed out on the beach.  I have always loved running on the beach, but today my legs weren't too happy about it, probably seeking revenge from last week.  Plus, no garmin, so 8 horrible miles later I was finally finished and relieved.  Then we headed off to Laguna to enjoy the sun and check out the rooftop lounge.

Tuesday: Nick and I headed to Catalina and since I didn't have the motivation to wake up before I had to I decided this would be a rest day.  I haven't been to Catalina since high school and we got lucky with perfect weather.

Wednesday: My mom wanted me to try out her Zumba class and I had to get 6 miles of intervals in so Nick and I headed to the gym for some treadmill intervals (2x800, 2x400, 4x200) and then I shook my butt for an hour (oh to be a fly on those walls).  Then we visited the Aquarium of the Pacific and met up with our friends Mary and Tom for a late evening happy hour later on.



Thursday: We headed home, much faster than on the way down, and despite my exhaustion I headed out for a 5 mile very easy run, finishing at sports basement for the Walnut Festival Run registration party.

Friday: My friend Kim asked me to join her for 14 miles of Mt. Diablo trails.  Unfortunately,  the morning wasn't treating me so well.  My  car battery was dead, but luckily Kim's husband picked me up and took me to the start.  I felt real great for a while and after 7 miles we headed on the summit trail.  I walked some of the steeper hills and got a bit ahead of the other ladies so I missed the turn off.  Kim caught me, but since I had to add a 1.25 mile home after the run I ended up with 17.6 miles of running and 2,446 feet of climbing.  My long run was supposed to be 10 this week, needless to say I was walking slow the rest of the day.

Saturday: Both Nick and his roommate got sick Friday and didn't feel any better on Saturday.  I woke up early and headed out solo to volunteer for Tri for Fun #3.  Once I made it home I was stiff and exhausted.  I planned on riding a bit, but ended up just being a lazy bum occasionally running errands for the sicklys.

Sunday: My friend Laney and I met up for a ride and I was relieved she wanted to start at 9 so I could try and sleep a bit.  We met down the street and headed out to Moraga.  We had a great 33 miler on my favorite route and now my legs can retire until tomorrow.

My week ended with:
Run: ~37
Swim: none: just didn't have time
Bike: 33
Other Crosstrain: 1 hour Zumba