Friday, May 11, 2007

Schemes and Machinations

Five months until the Twin Cities Marathon. Probably about time that I start running regularly again.

Today I went on a glorious early morning 3 mile run. Considering it took me 38 minutes to run 3.5 miles on Tuesday, I was happy with the 29 minutes it took me today.

I was not as happy with my new running apparel. Being a seasoned veteran of racquet sports, I am quite used to athletics in a skirt. I like the freedom of it all. But the compression shorts under this number don't do much in the way of compressing and rode up waaay too easily. Not so bad that a wedgie was inflicted, but enough that it felt like there was a cool breeze on the tops of the back of my thighs. But the material was comfortable and actually running was comfortable, but I personally was not so comfortable with that level of exposure. The skirt does cover up somewhat, but it sort of kicks up as you run. Since I bought it, I will probably wear it again, but only when running in less populated areas :-)

In other news, I had enough fun last weekend that I think I am going to sign up for an Olympic distance tri nearby in August. The sprint was fun, but I was never afraid of the sprint distance, since I knew I could finish it. I am sufficiently afraid of the Olympic distance that I will actually stick to a training plan. I picked the Big Creek Tri because the water is usually too warm for a wetsuit. I am not quite committed enough to this triathlon thing to shell out the big bucks on a wetsuit. At the same time, I don't want to be at a disadvantage because I don't have one, so this is perfect!

So the plan is to only run three days a week until August with extensive crosstraining and then crank up the miles in the two months between Big Creek and Twin Cities. I don't know if this is a stupid plan or not. I am hoping to avoid aggravating the hamstring again, which I think was an overuse injury.

So now the end of the summer looks like this:

July 27-28 100 mile bike on RAGBRAI
Aug 3-4 Wild West Relay
Aug 12 Big Creek Tri (I am totally giving myself an easy running position at the WWR :-))
Aug 25 Great River Relay

(plus a sprint distance or two before that so I can get used to swimming in open water with other people)

Good times!

5 comments:

Tammy said...

I haven't tried the skirts yet, but Tim & Nicole DeBoom are coming out here this weekend to pimp her running skirt line... If they have some, I may buy one and give it a try.

Laurie said...

I just bought the same running skirt on Wednesday! It's purplish and I really like it. The shorts did bunch somewhat though.

Looks like you have a rather ambitious plan for the summer. I am sure you will do well!

It was good to see you last night.

Danielle in Iowa in Ireland said...

T - Make sure you post a review! I haven't totally given up on the running skirt thing - I am just not sure this is the right one for me :-)

L - I thought about the purple but had Jax order the black instead, solely because my main long distance running shirt is fluorescent green and I didn't want to clash :-) (Sorry you got acosted by psycho-environmentalists last night! :-))

Anonymous said...

Dude, I got a running skirt but I'm still too scared to wear it. Do you KNOW how many people are on the Charles?? Actually, I'm sure you do. I'm afraid people are going to be like: why is she trying to look cute while she's running? What kind of athlete is she?? But I did buy it to look cute while I'm running so I'm not sure why I'm freaking out people will think that...

Anyway, I was drunk and talking about your blog to my science/law geek friend (I only mean that with affection since I am a public health/law geek) who just started running a bunch.

-Audrey-

Jessica DeLine said...

Hmm interesting. I actually like the Hind skirt the least because it is soo long :) I've tried about 4-5 different brands so far as I'm working on a big running skirt review!