Confessions of an Ex Non-Runner

Fargo 1/2 marathon recap.... "urine" for a treat!

2014-05-10T21:21:00.003-05:00

So, time to dust off the ol blog again for a recap of today's race!

This year I decided to step back into my comfort zone and run the half marathon at the Fargo Marathon events. My training went pretty well, but I didn't have a strong feeling either way whether I would PR or not. For a PR, my time would have to be Sub 2:14. My secret goal for the race was 2:10, but I never really said that out loud, as that would have required me to run a 9:55 pace for the entire 13.1, and I didn't REALLY think I could pull that off unless I had a pretty perfect day of running.

So the location changed this year, and we ALL lined up on the bridge between Fargo and Moorhead, kind of a throwback to the first Fargo Marathon 10 years ago. It was a GORGEOUS, sunny morning. Crisp, cool air, bright blue sky, and so much excitement in the air.

There was a group of us who met beforehand and stood together before the start. We started the race with the 2:10 pace group, but again, I didn't think I'd be running 9:55 pace for very long.

So, mile 1 felt glorious! And then, I realized that my long sleeve shirt was going to be waaaay too warm (it was 35 degrees at 7am... but the sun warmed things up quickly). I did not have a tank underneath, so I was going to have to suck it up with the warm shirt.

And then, something strange happened. At mile 1.5 I realized I already had to pee. I figured if I ran a bit more, that feeling would go away as it usually does. It.did.not.

In spite of this, my pace was clicking along quite nicely- somewhere in the 9:46 range for each of the first 4 miles. My body was feeling GREAT, but my mind was already distracted.... by my giant, pee-filled bladder.

Side note: there was NOT a porta potty to be found during those first 4 miles. Perhaps that accounts for my fast pace as I was trying to get to a can as quickly as possible.

Guys... this is the moment where I'm gonna start dropping some major truth on you. What I haven't mentioned till now, is during that 4 mile quest for a porta potty... I was peeing in my pants. And I'm not even talking a tiny dribble here and there. I'm talking about a significant amount of pee.

THIS HAS NEVER EVER HAPPENED BEFORE. I have never even had to step foot inside a porta potty during a half marathon, let alone peeing my pants. And then peeing my pants some more. And then some more. And then when I was just 20 feet away from the porta potty.

Thank GOD for the decision to wear black capris. This would have been an incredibly public display of pants pissery had I worn shorts or something not of the color black.

I lost a couple of minutes off my time due to my brief pee-tour at the porta-potty. I got back out there, hoping the worst was behind me. My pace slowed to somewhere in the 10:20 range for the next couple of miles, but I was still feeling okay.

Water stop somewhere around mile 6- I grabbed a cup of water, started to drink and PEED again. I'm going to spare you a broken record, but this happened several other times during water stops later in the race. Luckily, there was less...uh... volume, than the 4 mile pants pissing.

I know I'm not the first to pee myself during a race, but this was so out of the ordinary for me and SO distracting. It took me out of my game big time. I stopped enjoying a large part of the race, and really, after mile 6 I was feeling hot, pissy (ha!), and super thirsty.

My thirst was out of control today! Again, this is something out of the ordinary. Usually I take one cup at a water station and am good to go. Today I double fisted each water stop and still felt like I was parched. I took a 20 oz bottle of water that a spectator was handing out and I drank that gone too.

So now, I was hot and thirsty, but had like a gallon of liquid sloshing around in my stomach. I took my time and walked through every water stop and I took a couple of other walk breaks as well. I think the last 5 miles all fell into the 11:00-11:30 range because of my breaks. At this point, I saw the 2:20 pace group and felt totally defeated, knowing I lost 10 minutes off my goal.

But the end was near and I did my best to finish strong.

Final time: 2:21:11. 10:47 overall pace.

Not every race will be a PR, and I'm just happy I got to run today. It really was a fun race when I wasn't peeing myself or melting in my long sleeved shirt! The crowds were amazing as always and the weather was perfect.

So, there's my embarrassing race recap. Let's hope for dry pants for future endeavors, okay?

A blog re-appearance

2013-06-21T09:09:00.003-05:00

So, actually I'm pretty terrible at keeping up with blogging.

But you knew that, didn't you?

I've been meaning to get restarted with blogging, but there has been so much running related stuff that's happened in the last 6 months, that it felt like an overwhelming task to try to get everything caught up in a blog post shorter than a novel.

Thankful for bullet points- because that's how we're rolling! A quick bulleted month-by-month synopsis of all that has transpired so we can get up to speed!

January 2013: Fresh off my meningitis vacation, I began to contemplate my goals for the year. Decided an even 1000 miles of running and 1000 miles of biking was going to be my lofty 2013 goal. Planned on training for the 1/2 marathon in May, but halfway through the month, I accidentally decided to train for the full marathon instead. I couldn't wait till Summer to start another marathon training. Began training for Fargo Marathon around the second week of January. Since we were deep into the Winter season, lots of treadmill running took place (barf).
February 2013: Running, running, running. The roads and weather were uncooperative for outdoor running. Short runs took place on the 'mill, and long runs took place at a local indoor track. 8 laps= 1 mile..... Let's just say that 11, 12, 13 mile runs were... not exciting. Glad for the lap button on my Garmin because, let's face it, I'd SO lose count of laps without it.
March 2013: The beginning of Spring, right? WRONG. Weather continued to be awful and some overwhelming apathy and frustration began to set in. Started to move some of the long runs outdoors, but they were definitely not ideal. Several runs involved jumping over piles of snow, stepping in massive icy puddles, and lots of frozen eyelashes. Body was holding up well with the training though and I felt good. Paces were starting to get faster (not blazing fast, but fast for me). March was my heaviest mileage month- ran about 130 miles!
April 2013: Annnnnd the weather was STILL awful. Like, seriously??? It was cold, snowy (!!!), and just overall a terrible month for running. Started to sub one shorter run per week with a spin class, just to preserve my legs and to avoid the treadmill. As a result, my April mileage went down a little, but was still feeling strong when it counted. The longest of the training runs took place this month and they went surprisingly great! The dreaded 20 miler was done in conjunction with a half marathon that we (Stacie and I) ran in St Cloud. It was the Earth Day Half Marathon- a smallish, but well-organized race. Originally when we registered, we assumed it would be a nice Spring-time race. Instead we enjoyed 18 degree temps that eventually climbed all the way into the 30's. On April 20th! Oof. We ran 7 miles, had a short break to get to the starting line, and then ran the half marathon. There were some hills that surprised us, but the race was great! It was probably the best run I've ever had. Our average pace for the 20 miles was 10:45. Our typical long run pace is 11:30. Started to think that a 4:50 time goal for Fargo Marathon was a definitely possibility. A huge confidence boost!
May 2013: Marathon Month! Taper Time! STILL COLD! I don't know how many times I made the bold statement "this is the LAST time I'm going to wear my lined running tights!" Enjoyed some early morning runs with friends and tried to finish out my training strong.
Fargo Marathon- May 18th. I'm losing steam here, and won't give a fantastic race report, but I'll try to sum it up in very brief fashion. Weather forecast 10 days out was okay, but each and every day the forecast seemed to decline. By race morning the forecast called for 60 degrees, rainy, and humid at the start and maybe some sunshine and 70ish degrees by the end of the race. Let's remember that not ONE of my training runs occurred in anything warmer than 50 degrees. Every long run was 40 degrees or cooler. Not ONE run was done in humidity. Great. Race time temp was about 58 degrees and it had just stopped raining. It was indeed humid, but manageable. Goal pace was 10:45-11:00. First 15 miles were pretty good. Pace was on target. Could feel some blisters forming on my feet by mile 8, thanks to the humid conditions. Felt strong though. The temps started to creep up and my energy started to fade a little. Mile 15 happened and the sun came out... and it ALL fell apart for me. Pace started to drop with every mile and by mile 20, I was D.O.N.E. I saw a medical drop-out station and seriously contemplated quitting. Stacie ran by my side the whole time and she was still looking strong. She probably could have blazed on at the faster pace, but she ran with me instead. My mile splits started to dip into the 12:00 min/mile pace and then into the 13:00's. I SWEAR it still FELT like I was running 11:00's, but I'd look down at the Garmin and would be super discouraged to see that I was barely slogging a 13:00ish pace. It was HOT. I was getting dehydrated in spite of drinking lots of water and powerade. I ran through sprinklers often and shoved ice cubes in my bra. It was a huge mental struggle and it sucked. Lots of walk breaks during those last 6 miles. Knew my goal of 4:50 was WELL out of reach, but now it was a very real possibility that I'd finish slower than Twin Cities Marathon. I didn't though. Finished in 5:15:43 (TCM was 5:17-something). So... still a PR, but it didn't feel like it. I was pretty disappointed with how the race turned out, but after talking with a lot of other people who ran the race, they had similar experiences (good first half, bad bad second half). Weather is SUCH a wild-card in running, and it's totally out of my control. I'm proud that I stuck it out and finished it and I know that I have plenty more marathons in my future to try to nail a better pace. (Although around mile 20 I SWORE that there would NOT be another marathon in my future!)
June 2013: And here we are, caught up to present time. And presently, things are rough in the running department. I began officially training for Twin Cities Marathon on June 3rd. Decided to switch things up with training and try a more aggressive plan that incorporated more speed work and more of the really long long runs. I *really* want to improve my speed and the only way to do that is to start doing faster runs. The first couple of weeks of training have been difficult. Weather has been humid and rainy, I had a bout of food poisoning that made me miss a run or two, and this week I've been sidelined completely with shin troubles. I'm trying to be smart about it as the marathon is still 16 weeks out and I have plenty of time to train still. So I'm TRYING to be patient and give my shin the appropriate amount of rest. I hate skipping runs, but I'm doing lots of spinning and outdoor biking to compensate for the missed runs. I know that the speed work is probably what is contributing to my injury and will have to re-evaluate my speed work once I'm able to run again. I might have to scale back the pace a little. This is a huge bummer because I've run virtually injury-free for the last year and a half, but I know that sometimes injury is a part of running too. I'm skipping my long run this weekend and will continue to ice and stretch and will see where I'm at on Monday. If there is still pain, I'm going to go to the sports chiropractor next week and see if that helps.

SO! That's the "quick" recap of the last 6 months. MAYBE I'll do a better job of blogging on a regular basis? That remains to be seen!

Have a great weekend! :)

2012 by the numbers! Holy cow!

2012-12-26T13:38:00.003-06:00

I may as well do my end of the year review today, even though there is still 6 days left of 2012! Why now, you ask?
*sigh*

My fitness goals have been sidelined until January 2nd due to a bout with Viral Meningitis! What the, what????

Yep, after years and years of only getting minor illnesses like colds and such, I got hit with the double whammy of illness. First a 3 day bout with pretty severe Strep Throat followed immediately after with viral meningitis that landed me in the hospital for 5 days. For the sake of brevity, I'll leave out most of the details, but basically, though I'm feeling pretty well physically now and feel like I *could* run or do some other type of workout, I'm saddled with a picc line in my arm and have to do twice daily IV antibiotics till January 2nd. I'm not allowed to get the dressings wet or sweaty, which means no workouts for me.

The timing of these illnesses is incredibly poor. I have been working on making my goal of 800 miles of running for the year, and am THISCLOSE to reaching it... and will not make it because of recent events. How close was I?

Running total for 2012:
782.7

SO frustrating. My last run was a 6 miler on December 16th. I would have easily crushed the 800 mile goal by 12/31.

Oh well, I have even bigger and better goals for 2013, and will go into more detail in my next blog post. Let's look back at the stats for this year now, shall we?

Cycling
This was my first year of going out on my road bike. I was super fearful and skeptical at first, as it just seemed scary to ride with others on a bike that seemed so fast! I had no real "goals" related to cycling, but for fun, I set a goal of 500 miles for June-August. Mostly though the goal was that I just wanted to go out on a long ride at least once a week this summer. Now that Summer is long gone, I have been going to spin class at least once a week for crosstraining. I DID end up meeting that 500 mile goal and then spin classes have continued to add to my total!

Cycling total for 2012:
818.1 miles!

Best month:
June - 226.1 miles

Farthest ride:
June 24th- 53.8 miles

Running
Like I mentioned earlier, I had been working on an 800 mile goal... and came close. It wasn't a goal I had set out early in the year, it was really only a goal that I've technically been working on since after the marathon. I needed motivation to keep running even though I wasn't in training for something, so the 800 miles was just something I felt was achievable after looking at my numbers midway through October. And even though I didn't technically reach 800, that was one of the few goals I DIDN'T make. As it turns out, 2012 was a fantastic year for me! Let's review!

Running total for 2012:
782.7

Average miles per week:
15

Best Months:
August- 112.4 miles
September- 107.5 miles

Best Weeks:
August 19th- 35.1 miles
September 9th- 35 miles

Races
I ran quite a few races this year.... and I got a PR in each and every race, with the only exception being the Filthy 5k at the end of September as it was a slippery mud race that took place one week before Twin Cities Marathon! A recap:

3/16/12- St Patrick's Day 5k: 32:16 PR!
5/19/12- Fargo 1/2 Marathon: 2:28:59 PR!!
6/9/12- Lindenwood 10k: 1:06:13 PR!
7/19/12- Scheel's Run for the Red 5k: 30:26 PR!
9/1/12- Women Rock MN 1/2 Marathon: 2:18:51 PR!!!
9/29/12- Filthy 5k: 41:44
10/7/12- Twin Cities Marathon 5:17:46 PR (first full marathon!!!)
10/20/12- Fargo Mini Marathon (1/2 marathon): 2:14:09 PR!!!
11/3/12- Sandy's Donut Run 5k: 28:32 PR!!!!

Improvements since I started running in 2011:
Since I started running:
-Shaved 51 minutes off my 1/2 marathon time
-In Nov 2011, I ran a 5k in 36:49 (PR). In Nov 2012, I ran a 5k in 28:32 (PR)- over 8 minute improvement!
-In 2011, my average pace for long runs was 13:30 or more. In 2012, my average pace for long runs was 10:45-11:30
-In 2011, my average pace for short runs was 12:30 or more. In 2012, my short runs were somewhere between 9:50-10:30
-In 2011, 4 miles felt like a long run. In 2012, 5 miles felt like a short easy run.
-When I started running In January 2011, my weight was 180 and I wore a size 14. At the peak of my marathon training in October, I was 150 lbs and wore between a size 6 and 8. (I'm up about 5 lbs since the marathon due to holidays, etc).

So there you have it! Apparently if you keep at it, you keep getting better! 2012 was a GREAT year for me! I have run this year totally injury free, and the only hiccup took place in the past couple of weeks with my stupid illnesses.

Hope everybody has a GREAT rest of the holiday season and I will post soon about next year's goals!

a return to Spring!

2012-12-03T21:08:00.001-06:00

Oh hiiiiii there!

Remember when it was wintry for a minute? And remember when we were all like "wahhhhh SNOW!"

And then suddenly, it was as if we time warped right past Winter and jumped right into March.

And oh, I love March. I love March fiercely. So on Saturday in the 46 degree sunshine, I ran a spectacular 8 mile with my friend Michele. For the 90 minutes we were out splashing in the melty puddles, I pretended it was mid-March. I pretended that we were out on a training run for a Spring race. I thought about grilling and iced coffee and driving with windows down.

Call it losing touch with reality if you must, but oh it was a wonderful 90 minute vacation in my brain. It was a nice break from treadmill running and all the joysuck that entails.

And the following day was beautiful as well. And so was today. And really, the 10 day forecast calls for cooler temps, but NO snow! And it's December!!

Now, I know it's coming. I know that we won't have another super mild winter like last year. I know that I'm going run on the 'mill or freeze my bunsies off in the frigid Winter air. But for now, it's nice to pretend!

Other running updates and fun little tidbits:
At the end of October, I looked at my running stats for 2012 and realized that I could probably hit 800 miles of running for the year, so that's been a new goal that I've been working on. I have about 40 miles left to run by month's end to reach goal. NO problem. Why?

Because I'm doing the "Holiday Running Streak!" I read about this in a Runners World article and thought it would be a good way to keep motivated and moving over the super fattening holiday season. Run or walk at least 1 mile a day between Thanksgiving and New Years. So far, so good!

Last week I clocked my FASTEST EVER one mile runs! 8:03 followed by a 7:47 the next day. Holy cow. I thought my treadmill was going to explode into a zillion pieces. I thought my heart might do the same.

Speaking of treadmills... our warranty expired a few weeks ago. About 2 weeks ago I started running on it more regularly again. And then I noticed the belt started doing some weird slipping thing. Of course. Lucky lucky for us, someone suggested we call Sears and see if we can still take them up on an extended warranty. Yay! They said yes. $69 to renew the warranty and now we have someone coming out this weekend to fix er up. Without warranty, that would have likely cost us $400 for a house call.

Speaking of boobs. Oh, we weren't speaking of that. But speaking of it NOW- total wardrobe malfunction during my Springtime Saturday run. One second, the sisters were safe and secure in their super supportive home and the next second BAM! Explosion! Front zippered sports bra somehow came unzipped somewhere around mile 3. Whattheheck?? Almost ALMOST flashed some fisherguy who was hanging down by the river. Luckily I think I rezipped quickly enough to get things back under wraps. Whew.

So... with that piece of over-sharing.... I think we'll call this one done for the night!

Sandy's Donut Run 5k race report

2012-11-03T19:41:00.001-05:00

I've become that person.

You know, the really obnoxious one who says things like: "I hate 5k's. I'd rather run a half marathon than run a 5k."

Let me explain.

I'm not built for speed. Not.at.all. Endurance I'm good with. Speed, not so much. This is why I think I'm in love with the half marathon. It's not as painful as a marathon, but it's still a nice test of endurance. It's long enough where I don't feel like I have to go crazy fast to feel satisfied. And, silly as it sounds, long races are kind of relaxing. It's long enough where you have some time to just enjoy yourself and settle into a pace.

So this is why I found myself cursing myself at the starting line of a 5k yet again this morning.

I always forget HOW much I don't like 5k's until I walk up to the start. And then I remember. And then I think, how come every 5k I run is in stupid weather? The last one I ran was in 95 degree heat and this one was in 30 degrees (though, given the choice I'd take 30 degrees every single time).

So there I was, donning my sexxxxxxxy black winter running tights, FUH-REEEEEZING my buttocks off, thanking god that I at least had a good handful of friends who were also running the race with me. And I mean, it's a DONUT run! DONUTS!!!! There were donuts promised to us at the end of the race, along with hot chocolate and coffee. YES!

For the brave brave souls, there was a "donut aid station" at the midway point of the 5k and 10k. If you stood there and ate a donut, they shaved a minute off your finish time. I knew I wouldn't be able to stomach that. But it's a nice thought anyway!

My goal for this race was to finally go under 30 minutes. I was *thisclose* to doing that at the Scheels 5k in July- rolled in at 30:26 in that race and was MAD that I didn't suck it up and keep running during those couple of moments when I thought I needed to walk.

The only problem is that I have really not done a ton of running in the past month. I have run a marathon, a half marathon, and a 1.5 mile run since October 1st. Sure, two very long runs in there, but no consistency with my running at all. The other problem was that I'd been battling a head cold all week and still wasn't feeling 100%.

But with nothing to lose, I decided to give it my best shot to break 30 minutes. I figured the worst that could happen is that I couldn't maintain the pace and would have to slow down.

I was glad that my friend Erin was going to run with me and hoped that would keep me accountable to my pace.

We lined up AT THE FRONT of the starting line. NO, not because we are super speedsters, but because this race wasn't chip timed, and I wanted the clock at the end to be my actual time rather than having it be off due to starting in the back. Not that the back was all that far back... there was maybe.... 200? 300 runners? Dunno.

And the "gun" (there was no gun. just a guy that yelled GO!) went off! And the next part of my report will mimic the frenetic pace of a 5k:

omigod this hurts so bad. ow ow ow ow ow ow ow. my ankle! my ankles! they hurt! wtf??? am I injured? should I have warmed up? ow ow! okay I feel better. whew. omigosh we're running an 8:15 pace! crap that's too fast! oh no! should I just keep running this pace? don't look at the watch! just run! run fast! holycrap it's cold out. my lungs my lungs!! they're on fire! is it bad that I can hear myself breathe? I hate this song! I hate this song too! where did all of these crap ass songs come from? JOCK JAMS! THAT'S MY JAM! Wheezing! Wheezing! OW OW OW! Woo hoo! 2 miles! wait! Watch says 1.6 miles! DARN! That was the 10k sign. WOO HOO! There's 2 miles! HOLYCRAPHOLYCRAP my lungs my LUNGS! Have to walk. NO NO NO run! just run slowly for a minute instead of walking! OW OW OW! I HATE THIS I HATE THIS! I'm gonna PR! but I still kind of hate this! my stomach hurts! my lungs hurt! I want to barf! HOLYCRAPHOLYCRAP. There's the finish line. runrunrunrunrunrunrun!!! HOLYCRAP 28:32.

STOP.

Wheeze.

Grab donut.

Throw donut away.

Wheeze some more.

Feel pretty gangsta for taking 1:56 off my last PR and breaking that mythical 30 minute 5k mark. For a girl who struggles to run a 10:00 mile, this 9:13 pace felt like an all out sprint.

That race hurt like a mother. And it was awesome. And I still hate 5k's. And I'm sure I'll run more because I'll forget the pain until I toe the next start line.

And I think that might be a month from now at the Jingle run. Glutton for punishment.

Fargo Mini Marathon (1/2 marathon) race report!

2012-10-20T15:07:00.001-05:00

I've been hearing this phrase a lot lately by other running bloggers:

"Leave it all on the course" The idea of coming across the finish line with your gas tank on empty.

And today, I think I did that... or at least almost did.

Remember when I was all like "oh yeah, just gonna run this for funsies. Just gonna run a nice relaxed pace"

And then, remember when I was like "oh, well, maybe I'll try for a PR... will see how my body feels."

My last PR was at the Women Rock MN 1/2 marathon on September 1st. A time of 2:18:51 (10:36 pace).

So, I had my doubts today. At the Women Rock race, I was in prime cardio condition as I had been doing a ton of biking and running. I also ran that race with a pace group, which made it easy to just settle in and let them do all the hard math.

Trying to PR is a lot harder if you're only going to PR by a tiny bit (had no faith that I would get a monster PR even IF I was able to beat my last time). There is also the variability when you're running a race because the Garmin isn't usually right on with the mile markers (due to weaving around people, etc). So the average pace on my Garmin might not be a true indication.

So, I printed off handy dandy little pace bands to wear that would also help me out. I of course forgot them.

Anyway, so I was just not feeling super confident that I could make that PR goal. I made the plan to run with my friend Diane who had a similar previous PR time and was wanting to beat that. I was glad to have someone to push me and keep me a little accountable today since I didn't have the luxury of a pace group.

I woke up this morning feeling pretty nervous actually! I had my usual breakfast of 2 slices of peanut butter toast and a cup of coffee. I was feeling a little barfy, but I think it was just nerves. I haven't had this long a break from running since last December! It's been 13 days since the marathon and I had NO idea how my legs would hold up.

Got to Scheels Arena around 7am, even though the race wasn't set to begin till 8:45. Always like to be nice and early for races. Hung out with friends, took some pictures, and nervously awaited the start.

The weather was... meh. Okay I suppose. I was hoping for some sunshine, but it was overcast. The temp was around 44 degrees and the wind was... kind of ugly. South wind, maybe 10 mph, but the course we ran had us running into the wind quite a bit.

The 1/2 marathon was a pretty small race- maybe 800 runners? Much smaller than the Fargo Marathon events that I'm used to running. The course was.... interesting. No, not really interesting. More like... pretty boring. We basically ran through neighborhoods. Some nicer developments, so we got to see some nice homes... but still. We ran through cul-de-sacs and on bike paths. We twisted and turned A LOT.

Jay and my kiddos and a few friends were out at mile 5. Was so excited to see them! This was the first time that Max and Bea have been able to come out for a race. They made me signs. It was awesome. Other than that, not a ton of people were out on the course. It was kind of lonely at times out there in the 'hood.

My body felt great though. A little foot crampage for the first couple of miles and my knee bothered me for a mile or so around mile 6 (I think because of all the turns).

Had some breathing room with our pacing as we ran mile 1 in 10 minutes. We slowed down into a pretty even pace of around 10:25 or so and walked through the water stations.
And I'm not sure what kicked in for me, but I started picking up the pace around mile 5 or 6. I think what it was was that I was sick of looking at my watch all.the.time. So I found this couple that was running together and seemed to be running the pace I wanted to run... and then I just kind of ran right behind them for most of the rest of the race. Sometimes I looked down and saw that I was running 9:45 pace, sometimes we were running 10:30... but slowly my average pace was creeping down and down.

And I was scared. I was pretty scared that I would burn myself out and not have anything left for the last miles. But I got to mile 10 and was still feeling like I had gas in the tank. And then mile 11.. still good! Mile 11 1/2 or so... I felt a little sluggish. Took one more GU (a chocolate one). BAD move. I NEVER do 3 GU's on a 1/2 marathon- usually 2 is sufficient. But I thought I'd give it a shot and it made me feel pretty pukey for a few minutes!

The last mile was pretty tough. Not gonna lie. I kept telling myself- go. go. go. Leave it all out on the course. Leave it all on the course. you're not gonna die. yes you are. no you're not. leave it out there.

I had to walk twice in the last mile for 30 seconds or so, but by this time I KNEW I had my PR, so I felt okay with the quick little walks. And then I powered through that last 1/3 mile or so.

And then I finished. And then I saw my finish time: 2:14:10!!!!!! A pace of 10:15!!!!

A PR of 4:41!

And then my medal.

And then my bottle of water.

And then my.... beef stick? what a weird thing to have handed to you after running a half marathon.

And then some hugs and some photos and some noodle soup. Oh and potato chips. Why do potato chips taste SOOOOO amazing after a long run?

Pretty proud of this race because I really pushed myself. I wasn't sure I had this pace in me. Especially since my body is still technically recovering from Twin Cities Marathon.

No more big races now for awhile, and that's a good thing. May will be the next race- probably the 1/2 marathon. Until then, some small, fun races and trying to PR shorter distances.

Could I have pushed any harder? Maybe.... but I think I came close to "leaving it all on the course" today.

Diane and I!

Sue and I

Mel and I

My cousin Tracy KILLED her first 1/2 marathon!! 2:07! What a rockstar!

Julie and I!

Me, Mel, Erin, and Jesse

Me and my bling!

Mel PR'd too, by like 20 minutes! We didn't match on purpose. :)

I think I'm kind of nervous!

2012-10-18T16:07:00.002-05:00

I wasn't feeling worried at all about running the half marathon this Saturday, until the irrational thought just crossed my mind...

"What if I have lost my fitness since the marathon??"

I mean, it's only been 2 weeks since the marathon... it's not possible that I've fallen out of shape that quickly, right? I maybe wouldn't feel that worried, but I did have a good week and a half right before the marathon in which I hardly ran at all either.

Totally irrational to think I suddenly can't handle 13 miles, right?

My trouble with authority

2012-10-16T19:46:00.002-05:00

Okay, I have something I'd like to say. Don't take this the wrong way, please.

You're not the boss of me.

No, really, I mean it. In the nicest way possible, of course.

You're probably confused now, so I'll explain.

I have trouble with authority... I mean, if it comes to legit laws and such, obviously I'll do my best to abide.

But when it comes to my life and my decisions and whatnot, I tend to buck authority. It's as if I've always had this need to prove something to myself and others that I can succeed.

One time when I was a lazy 9th grader, I had a teacher tell me that he didn't think I was going to be able to do well in the class because of my work ethic. I showed him by turning around my lazy ways and aced the class.

When I was looking at colleges to attend, my asshole high school counselor gently suggested community college because my class rank was in the bottom half (of a 600+ person class) She thought this would affect ability to succeed in a 4 year college. I told her thanks, but no thanks to that very unhelpful suggestion and set out to prove otherwise. I pictured her stupid face every time I stayed up late writing a paper or studying for a test. Ended up on the deans list my entire Freshman year of college.

Once during a summer break, I decided I was going to work two jobs to save extra money. Some wise person told me I shouldn't work so much. I ended up working even more. P.S.- working 80 hours a week really is a stupid idea. But I did it.

See a pattern here? My stubbornness and need to prove that I can handle having a lot on my plate has caused me some unneeded stress at times, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love pushing myself and seeing what I can handle. Admittedly there were instances over the years in which I couldn't handle everything, but for the most part, I was able to push through and reach my goals.

This mindset I believe has been instrumental in helping me to train for races and reach my goal to finish a marathon. People said it was crazy and some thought I was pushing myself too hard. But I think that only I can *really* determine what is too much, right?

Sometimes I bristle when well intending friends try to give me wise advice about how much I should or should not run, or telling me to take X number of days off because that's what research says to do. And it's not that I don't appreciate the care and concern. And I feel like an unappreciative a-hole sometimes when I don't take the advice- especially since some of my friends are seasoned, successful runners.

But it still all comes down to me knowing my body. It comes down to me knowing my limits and knowing what I can handle. It comes down to me being stubborn as hell and having to learn from experience- even if experience means falling flat on my face. I love to push the limits though and wouldn't have it any other way.

So this all stems from running this half marathon this weekend. And I know that some eyebrows raise when I say I am running a half just two weeks after running a full. And I know that "they" say it's not the wisest idea. But I really want to run it and my legs feel great! So why WOULDN'T I give it a shot, right? And, lets be real here- I'm not some speedy superstar. I'm not running at intense injury provoking speeds. I'm a turtle at best! And if I somehow injure myself, then I give all the critics permission to tell me "I told you so!" But lets hope there's no injury. :) I feel great. I feel strong. I feel like I want to get one more race out of the months of effort I put into training before I dial down the running in lieu of strength training.

So, humor me here and just tell me "good luck! have fun!" even if you think I'm the dumbest person alive. :)

so what's next?

2012-10-14T18:25:00.003-05:00

So now the dust has settled on the marathon training. I was feeling a little depressed for a few days after the race. Besides my wedding, I have never put so much time and heart and energy into a one day event. And in terms of actual hours of effort, I don't even think I put THAT much time into my wedding!

I feel proud of myself for following through with 18 weeks of training. I feel proud that I hardly missed any training runs. I am surprised and grateful that I made it through without a single injury. Considering I spent the better part of the first 9 months of my running career nursing some type of injury, I was nervous I was going to be destined to be an injury prone runner. I think my weight loss and building my running muscles has made me a stronger runner.

Now that I am stronger, I think the next task is to get faster. I know I will never be a super speedy runner, but I think I can still make some big improvements.

I have some ideas about this. And I have some plans for the future.

Short term goals:

I have a couple of races to run before the snow flies!

Next Saturday (October 20th), I am going to run the Fargo Mini Marathon (a half marathon). I know it's not the *best* idea to run another distance run just two weeks out from the marathon, but my legs are feeling 100% and I think I have it in me. No lingering pain, and if I was able to make it through training strong, I'm not worried about injury. I am going to run the race smart, and if there is any hint of pain, I will back off my pace and run for fun. If I am feeling good, I might just shoot for a PR (2:18 or faster).

Saturday November 3rd, I am going to run the Donut Run 10k. Because...well... DONUTS. No brainer. I want to gauge my speed on a 10k to see where I am at for that distance.

Other races I might run: Turkey Trot 5 mile on November 17th and Jingle Run 5k on December 1st.

Medium term goals:

Between now and March my goal is to focus on strength training and improve my 10k speed. I am going to work with a trainer to figure out a strength training routine- preferably using free weights rather than machines. I am going to use a Runkeeper training program to work on a Sub-55 minute 10k (current 10K PR around 1:06?). I think the 10k training program is about 16 weeks long.

Will also do cross training by going to spin class and maybe try some lap swimming?

Long term goals:

Fargo Marathon- 1/2 marathon in May. Not sure of time goal for that yet- it will depend on how much speed I've built in the previous months. Ultimate half marathon time goal? Under 2 hours. But I think under 2 hours is a SOMEDAY goal. Doubt I can get there by May.

Marathon- I definitely want to run another marathon. Aiming for something next Fall. Since Twin Cities Marathon and Chicago Marathon generally happen on the same weekend, I would probably choose one of those. I would love to do TCM again, but it would be SO awesome to do Chicago. This decision will probably be based on budget. Chicago would obviously be more expensive.

So, there it is! Making myself accountable again for some more goals. Excited to keep working at being a better runner and seeing how far I can push myself!

This probably also means another year of me blabbing on and on about running and oversharing my workouts on my blog and on Facebook! To some it's probably too much info, but I know that for myself, I am motivated by reading people's workouts and successes. If I can help to motivate some of my friends to take up running or work on personal goals, then I feel like it's worth it. I can name more than a handful of my friends who have told me that I have inspired them to run. I don't say this because I'm trying to be all full of myself, I say it because I think it's crazy awesome how Runkeeper and Facebook and other social networky things can help others to create change in their lives.

Here is to another year of hard work and doing this together!

Twin Cities Marathon race report

2012-10-13T11:34:00.000-05:00

So, here it is- I apologize in advance that this might end up being awfully long!

Here is how race day all shook out.

Sunday, October 7

5am- Alarm sounds and I burst out of bed! My sleep overnight was spotty, but not terrible. I DID, however, sweat a significant amount overnight. Gross. But, who takes a shower before running 26.2 miles? Not this girl. Still, not a nice feeling to start my morning feeling all grimy.

I puttered around the room, grabbed my two slices of wheat bread nicely packed away in a ziplock baggie, and went downstairs in search of coffee and a toaster. Score, I found both. Slightly surprised the toaster wasn't made in the mid 1980's. Surprisingly modern for the 80's hotel. I do have a sneaking suspicion, though, that the coffee had been brewed in approximately 1987, based on the fact that it tasted like total shit. Just a guess though. (Let me be clear, this didn't stop me from drinking 2 cups of that sludge).

Sludge coffee in hand, I am ready to head to the Dome!

Got dressed and checked over everything about 50 more times. Made Jay take several photos of me. Slowly made my way outside, dreading the 28 degree temps. Crossed paths with a bunch of marathoners who stayed at the hotel and exchanged "good lucks" with each other.

Started walking towards my meeting spot with Stacie. We chose an intersection that was about halfway between each of our hotels. I was all turned around and went the wrong direction for a few blocks, but after realizing my error I turned around and found Stace. Because she's awesome and adventurous, she was donning a bright green tutu. Because I am not adventurous, I was simply wearing pants. She did, however, supply me with the rockinest pair of neon green fishnet 80's gloves. Sweet.

Brr!

It was still only about 7am, and the race didn't begin till 8, so we went into the Metrodome to try to relax and warm up. I expected it to be a madhouse in there, but it was actually pretty low-key. The lines for the bathrooms were even moving quickly!

We took a few nervous self-portraits and I realized that I was hungry again- so I took a chance and ate a Clif Bar, hoping that wouldn't screw up my tummy.

Around 7:30a we made our way to corral 3 and tried our best to get up close to the 5:00 pace team that we planned on running with during the race. For a 5:00 finish, we would have to average 11:27 pace. We had no concerns about being able to run that pace as we had comfortably done that pace for all of our long runs. My experience with pace teams for half marathons is that we run a little bit faster than the average pace so we could walk through water stations. I figured it would be a similar scenario for the full marathon.

The gun went off and about 10 minutes later we finally made our way to the starting line. And we were off! It was about 30 degrees, but I think my adrenaline warmed me up, so I was able to shed the throw away cotton hoodie I was wearing. The air was cold in my lungs and it felt like we were keeping a pretty quick pace. The first mile went quickly... wanna know why? Because we ran mile one in 8:02. Yes, you read that right. 8:02.

Uhhh..... enter in my first sliver of doubt about this pace group. Miles 2 and 3 were slower, but our 5k split was 33:33 (a 10:47 pace). Between that fast pace and a pretty significant hill in that first 5k, I was still feeling *good*, but not *great.* Oh and somewhere around mile 2ish, Danny (the pace leader) announces "okay! walk for 1 minute!" Stacie and I were like... um, huh? There was no aid station, it was just a random order to walk. This is when I realized that the pacing was going to be one of those run/walk deals. NOT how we trained, but I had heard from some people that they really like run/walk. I tried to be positive about it and keep trusting the pace group. But I was feeling some doubts.

The course was absolutely GORGEOUS. The trees were colorful and we ran through piles of crunchy leaves. It smelled like a beautiful Fall morning. When I wasn't distracted by weird pacing, I was trying my best to take in the scenery and the experience.

The first aid station was kind of a cluster because there were soooo many people on a narrow street and then I couldn't tell right away if we were running through the aid station or if we were walking it. The communication coming from Danny was poor. My irritation level was on the rise, but I was trying my best to shake it off.

Mile 11

The miles ticked away and was excited to see my hubby at mile 4, my friend Amanda at mile 7ish, my friend Kori around mile 8, and Jay again around mile 11! Was still feeling pretty solid and there weren't a ton of hills during this stretch. According to my watch, we were still keeping a pretty quick pace, and as I got more fatigued, I was feeling more and more annoyed with the pace group.

We crossed the half-marathon point at 2:27.

Around mile 15, I couldn't deal with feeling irritated any more. I purposely fell back from the pace group and just decided to run even splits at this point. I planned on trying to run 11:20ish and walk through water stops. I figured it was time to just go with what had worked for me through all of our training runs. Stacie was looking great still and I told her I was just going to do my thing. She ran ahead and I was going solo.

I wasn't too far behind the pace group and for the next couple of miles I was able to see them a block or two ahead of me. Just because I wasn't running with them anymore, I still hoped to keep them in sight to know I was still somewhat on track for a 5:00ish finish.

Then mile 17 happened. I think there was a hill? Or maybe there wasn't... but I started to fade fast. It started to feel hard. I took a little walk break and when I started running again, it hurt. I stopped to pee at a port-o-potty. I was starting to lose momentum. I was really happy to see Amanda again soon after and I shouted to her "I feel like shit!" and she shouted something encouraging. :)

Mile 19! Still trying to smile!

I kept on going, saw my friend Nancy at mile 19 and I stopped to say hello for a second and take a quick picture. I needed to have a break anyway again, and seeing Nancy cheered me up.

Around mile 20ish or 21 I hit the wall for realz. I was sooooo tired. My legs were starting to feel like lead. The thought of GU was making me gag.

My longtime friend (and former Subway boss) Howard came out on his bike and he actually rode on the path alongside the course from mile 20 all the way to the end. It was awesome to know that there was a friendly, familiar face nearby during those last 6 miles.

And it was seriously the LONGEST 6 miles of my life. I had to take what felt like a million walk breaks and I was feeling absolutely discouraged. My 5:00 pace group was long gone and I spent some time in my head feeling disappointed in myself that I was going to finish so far behind my goal time. I felt embarrassed and had a lot of negative self talk happening. I was feeling pissed off that I felt like I burned up my energy too much in the beginning by running with the pace group and wished I could go back in time and just done my OWN pacing for the marathon. I now know what they mean when they say not to do things different on race day than you did on your long runs. If I were more experienced, maybe I would have figured this out early on and broke away from the pace group right away (like after we ran an 8 minute mile in mile 1).

and OHHHH the hills in those last 6 miles. RIDICULOUS. It felt like I was climbing mountains. At this point, when I DID run, the pace was more like a 12:00 pace. I would run for a few minutes, walk for a few minutes. I never had any doubt that I would finish, but I knew that my time was going to be really impacted.

And then something magical happened at mile 25. Something magical called Carly Rae Jepsen happened. Call Me Maybe was a last minute addition to my iPod Shuffle when I made my marathon playlist. I don't know why I love this song so much, but I had a brief moment of joy and suddenly I was running a 9:00 pace and was smiling and mouthing the words and felt light as air. Call it a moment of delirium? I don't know, but it was a bright spot for sure. As soon as the song ended, I was back to walk/running.

I knew I was close to the end and I tried to do as much running as possible (it felt more like shuffling) and suddenly we rounded a corner and the State Capitol was in sight. I teared up a little and knew it was almost over.

Jay was on the sideline at mile 26 and I probably would have cried, but I was too tired.

And then I crossed the finish line. 5:17:46.

Not the time I hoped for, but I finished!!!

I hobbled over and got my medal.

I hobbled through the lines for food. Nothing really sounded good. I grabbed a bag of chips and a chunk of bread.

I hobbled over and got my weird mylar blanket.

And then I saw Stacie and her family. I realized how lonely I was without her over the last 11 miles. The rockstar told me that she actually finished BEFORE the pace group (4:53). We hugged and I cried. I was so glad to be done but kind of sad that it was over. We said our goodbyes and I hobbled over to get my finishers shirt.

I met Jay at the Caribou tent. Coffee never sounded so good!

And so it was done. I wish we would have had time to hang around the Capitol for awhile and celebrate, but we had a Vikings game to get to! We slowly made our way to the car that was a few blocks away. Weaved our way through traffic, and headed back to the Metrodome!

I was exhausted, but the Vikings game was awesome. I didn't have time or opportunity to change my clothes, so I wore my marathon clothes the whole time. Gross, huh? Luckily for me my sweat glands aren't stinky, so I honestly didn't smell bad. I wore my medal to the game and didn't take it off till we got home.

We hit the road after the game and finally made it home a little after 10pm.

And then I took the BEST.SHOWER.EVER.

And then I went to bed.

And I was so sore that it hurt to even lay in my bed.

And now I end the longest blog post ever.

Can't wait for my next marathon!

Here are my stats, if you're interested.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/231557359#.UHNn7zrJVVU.blogger

Mile 26! Almost done!!!

Sweaty, salty, and proud as hell!

So tired.

At the Vikings game!

Twin Cities Marathon race weekend

2012-10-10T12:58:00.002-05:00

I am tempted to just jump to the good stuff and write up the race report, but rather than give away the ending, how about a little post about the few nerve-wracking days leading up to the big day?

Thursday
I was feeling anxious much of the week, but on Thursday the nerves really amped up. It was seriously ridiculous how limited my attention span was. I was twitchy and bouncing off the walls and couldn't focus for more than a few minutes at a time. I got up and walked around my office like every 10 minutes for no reason. I kept looking at the marathon website and obsessively eating every carbohydrate in a 50 mile radius. My coworkers noticed how anxious I was, and took every opportunity to laugh at how ridiculous I was being.

Friday
I took Friday off work, even though we weren't leaving town till early evening. I used Friday to pace around a lot, clean up my playlist, charge up the Garmin, and pack.... and check, re-check, re-re-check the separate "marathon stuff only" bag I had packed. Seriously, even though I KNEW I had packed everything I needed, I still had a moment of near panic when we were halfway to Mpls that I had forgotten my Garmin (I had not. duh). I was glad I took the day off to get things done and get the house ready for my awesome mother in law who would be wrangling the dynamic duo all weekend. We took off for Mpls around 6:30 and were surprised how quickly we made it! It had been quite awhile since we had taken a road trip without two young'ns.

Side note:
We scored a last minute hotel room in Downtown Minneapolis, only about 3 blocks from the Metrodome. SCORE!

Side side note:
Said hotel was like straight up 1985 fabulous. Don't believe me? ZENITH TELEVISION. For rizzles. Don't believe me again? PASTEL SEASHELL DECOR. STILL need more proof? Arcade with Ms Pac-Man. BOOM.

Saturday
Was SO excited to sleep in.... but my stupid body woke up at 7am anyway. Lamesville. Enjoyed a fairly legit breakfast (the usual fare of thin bacon, subpar scrambled eggs, toast, yogurt, etc... BUT there was a made-to-order omelet station. YES!)

Oh, speaking of breakfast, I am SO glad my pre-race neurosis helped me remember to plan ahead a breakfast strategy. When we arrived at the hotel, I learned that breakfast on the weekends did not begin till 7am.... which would be too late for me on race morning. Lucky for me, I packed two slices of wheat bread and a jar of Skippy Super Chunk in my marathon bag. I was not going to risk not having my usual race meal. Double lucky for me, the breakfast nook had a toaster available for me to use so I didn't have to try to chew on chewy non-toasted bread. (People, there IS a difference, despite what my naysayer hubby might tell you). Jay, ever supportive hubby, told me I was being ridiculous about the breakfast thing. I say not.

Anywhooooo, the expo opened at 10am and we arrived pretty much right at 10. Picked up my race stuff and walked around the expo, drooling over new running gear, but showing a great deal of self-control! Ate random free samples of stuff, grabbed some GU free samples, and of course, a few bags of Old Dutch potato chips (how come they give away chips at every expo I've ever been to?). The authors of my FAVORITE running books "Run Like a Mother" and "Train Like a Mother" had a table at the expo and I was super excited to meet them! I took a photo with them and bought a shirt that said "It's fine, I ran today." The only other thing I purchased was a 26.2 magnet for my car (which, by the way, if you have a plastic car, don't expect a magnet to stick to it... durh), and a pair of TCM Fitsoks (the BEST running sock).

After the expo, hubby and I struggled to think of something to do. Funny that we had a weekend free from children and we couldn't figure out what to do with ourselves. When in doubt, go to the best/worst place in the world: Mall of America! We grabbed a yummy Asian stir fry lunch, some gelato for dessert, and did a little shopping. Since it's 1990 all over again, I bought myself a sweeeet pair of turquoise cords from Gap! We also hit up a movie, which was nice because it was cheap, and it didn't require me to walk around all afternoon.

And of course, we had to pasta it up for dinner! We met up with my friend Amanda (a kick ass runner and the person who told me I could totally run a marathon) and went for dinner in Uptown at this place called Rinata. It was fantastic! A little pizza and bread for appetizers and an amazing butternut squash ravioli for my main course. Great food and lots of laughter helped me to feel a little less anxious about the next day.

We got back to the hotel by 9pm and I paced around for a good hour getting my bib pinned to my shirt and setting out all of my biz for the next morning. Texted back and forth with Stacie about our plans for meeting up in the morning, and then a little more pacing. I took two melatonin because I REALLY wanted to sleep that night. And actually, I got okay sleep... a few wake ups, but not awful.

Oh, and during one of those wake ups, just before midnight, Jay told me that he was able to get us FREE Vikings tickets and did I want to go? Um, DUH. Bad idea to go directly from running a marathon to a Vikings game? Probably. Didn't care- was SO excited!

To be continued... up next, Race Report!

anxiety

2012-10-02T16:39:00.001-05:00

5 more sleeps.

Okay, here's the dilemma of the day. I was going to just put this all out on a status update on Facebook, but then I realized that 95% of my friends have got to be TOTALLY sick of reading about running and marathoning and carb-loading, and blah blah blah.

My dilemma is this:

Reeeeeemember how super crazy I was over the past couple of months with my waking up early and my running before work? Reeeeeeemember how I was like super duper motivated and followed Hal Higdon's training plan to the T?

Tapering has effed that up. BIG time.

Now some sort of switch has flipped in my brain and I'm in total "rest and recovery" mode. Which.... is kind of the point of tapering... but I have a hard time getting up early now because I'm all like "oh... the rest and sleep are good for me!"

So every morning that I'm supposed to run over the past week and change has been a fight between running and resting. Resting keeps winning the battle. And then I feel all guilty and anxious and paranoid that I am totally screwing myself. I haven't dropped out of running totally, so I shouldn't feel SO bad?

Here's how last week looked:

Tuesday- 4 miles scheduled. 4 miles ran. (go me!)
Wednesday- 6 miles scheduled. SKIPPED IT. Told myself I'd do it on Thursday.
Thursday- Skipped yesterday's 6 miler again.
Friday- Was going to run 3 miles.... skipped it. Figured I would make up for it on Saturday because I was going to run my long run and a 5k.
Saturday- 8 miles scheduled for the long run. Ran 6. A couple of hours later ran in a 5K race... well... more like ran/walked

It felt like a huge fail of a week.... but I guess I still logged 13. AND I got some good rest and feel like I am caught up on sleep.

This week:

Today I was supposed to run 3 and have not yet run it. Now my problem is if I am going to run, I will have to do it tonight at like 9pm. I KNOW if I run late at night, I will be tired for TOMORROW's run.

So, my question is:
Is today's 3 miler THAT big of a deal? Do I have permission to stop feeling guilty? Can I just run my 4 mile tomorrow and stop feeling terrified that I've screwed my training over the past week or so?

My anxiety is THROUGH THE ROOF! AAACCCKKKK!!!!!

10 more sleeps!

2012-09-27T12:56:00.004-05:00

HOLYCRAP.

Okay, this is going to be the worlds fastest blog post in the history of blog posts full of run on sentences and poor grammar. I have been blog neglectful again and busy as heck! I am on my lunch break right now obsessing about the coming marathon and taking a break from my to-do list to do a super efficient quick blog.

Bullet points, here we come!

I am already obsessively checking the extended weather forecast for Mpls, MN. Weather.com probably judges me for checking so much. Eeeek- some days the extended forecast says it's gonna be sunny.... some days it says rain. Please please please please no rain. please.

So tired of early waking. So ready for training to be done.
Taper. It's weird, yo. I carry this weird guilt.... and feel like I'm carrying extra poundage because my appetite still makes me eat like I'm running 35-40 miles a week and this week I think I'm supposed to run 21?
Is it bad that I'm tempted to go tanning a couple of times before the race so I'm not a pasty gangsta?
What am I going to wear??
Have I mentioned how I'm SO ready for training to be done?
Did my 20 mile run 1 1/2 weeks ago and it went GREAT! So surprised! BUT, at the end of the run I thought, um.... how in the world will I run another 6 on top of this? UPHILL??
Just checked the weather again. 54 and "a couple of showers."
Yes, I know, extended forecasts are wildly inaccurate.
I had lots more to say......... but I'm about as scattered as they come right now.

OH! I am running the "Filthy 5k" on Saturday morning. It's gonna be fun fun fun! I am going to run it very slowly and very carefully so I don't slip in mud and injure myself!

I hope to sit down with my little blog here in the next handful of days and write a legit blog post. This one was just to clear my brain of all the marathon clutter.

Oh! I forgot I was going to blog about all the marathon related dreams/nightmares I've been having. Too late for this post though. Next time.

TEN MORE SLEEPS! AAACCCKKK!.

Finally Fall!!

2012-09-09T20:43:00.000-05:00

Ahhh...... Fall is in the air and I am a happy happy girl! I used to think that Spring was my favorite season, but over the years Fall has become my numero uno. Let's just say that I would date Spring, but I would straight up marry the Fall.

Wait, that's a weird analogy.

Whatever.

What do I love so much about Fall?

Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks, jeans, scarves, hoodies, crisp air, FOOTBALL, crunchy leaves, Honeycrisp apples, boots, chili, low humidity (which equates to good hair days), and THE MOST PERFECT RUNNING WEATHER.

My Beloved Pumpkin Spice Latte

The running as of late has been glorious. After a hot, humid Summer of running in the thick steamy air and sweating upon walking outdoors, the cool, crisp air of Autumn is refreshing. I feel like I can truly breathe and enjoy my runs now rather than just survive it.

This past weekend I went on a weekend retreat to the Brainerd area (to those unfamiliar, it is a gorgeous tree and lake filled wonderland in MN). I have attended this retreat for the past 10 years and love catching up with old friends and making new friends. I love being in nature (but having comfortable modern cabins in which to sleep). Most importantly, I was beyond thrilled that I was going to be able to run there this year! Last year I was trying to shake off injury and could only manage 2 miles. This year I had a 12 mile to do and I couldn't wait!

I felt at such peace during that run. I loved to take in the scenery, stop every so often and snap a picture, and just breathe in the cool Fall air. My friends Laura and Olivia joined me for the first few miles of my run and then I finished the last 9 solo. I missed my training partner Stacie, but through the joys of iPhone, we snapped the occasional photo and shared them with one another while we were doing our runs in different cities.

Sorry I have been neglectful of the blog over the past handful of weeks. I find it's much harder to keep up the blog now that I am back at work full time and the miles are getting longer and longer. The updates may be sparse, but I'll do my best to keep you all updated on the rest of training!

One month till the big day! This week is going to be my highest mileage week of the whole training and then the taper begins.... ALREADY??

Upcoming: 5 Tuesday, 10 Wednesday, 5 Thursday, and 20 FREAKING MILES on Saturday! Lord help me!

Oh and I still need to write a race report for the Women Rock MN 1/2 marathon I ran over Labor Day weekend. No promises, but that should happen... soon? Hopefully this week?

Happy running my friends!!

A sampling of the scenery during my 12 mile run in Crosslake, MN!

Almost getting blown away by gale force winds!

Minnesotans LOVE their Honeycrisp apples.

Happy for scarf season!

Some bad ass hills

a catch up post

2012-08-21T21:01:00.000-05:00

Whooops!

Not sure where the past 2.5 weeks have gone, but I seem to have lost steam on the ol blog. I am sure my 16 followers are WAY bummed about this! :)

A super quick catch all blog, filled with lazy bullet points and random punctuation.

The past two weeks I have done my longest runs to date! 15 and 16 miles! They really don't feel a lot different than 12 and 13 mile runs- what a huge relief. I have a feeling that 26.2 WILL feel different. I have a feeling the next big runs (18 and 20) will feel a little tougher.
Carb loading should be a sport of its own. I would win a gold medal for sure.
I'm watching Teen Mom right now. Is anyone else totally OVER this show? Farewell Maci, Farrah, Amber, and Caitlin. I'm done!
I've never ever ever been a morning person. I've never ever ever successfully been a morning exerciser. The past few weeks, however, I've been up between 4 and 430am to finish my run before work. Woo hoo! It sucks so much!
My midweek runs are starting to get long. This week I run 4, 8, 5. 8 is hard to squeeze in before work (hence, the 4am wakeup!)
Fun fact: The Real World is STILL A SHOW. (this is what happens when I try to blog with MTV on in the background)
We got YMCA memberships! After this marathon is done-zo, I'm going to have a little cooling off period with the running and focus some more time on strength training and short speedy runs.
I went to my first spinning class since 2006. I remembered it being a terrible experience last time I went, which is why it took me 6 years to try it again. This time around was an awesome experience! Since last time they have new bikes, a new cycling studio, and I am just overall more accustomed to biking. I can't wait to have more time to do spinning!
I think I might just be really tired tonight, but in this moment I am feeling kind of burnt out from my training.
Also I think people might be getting tired of me posting about running all the time on Facebook!
The hubster continues to be very accommodating when it comes to my training. It DOES take up a lot of time. He is great about not complaining *too* much :) In turn, I try to run as early as possible so I don't dip into family time as much.

This was a super crappy blog post!

I hope to keep caught up now :)

Till next time!

8 weeks done- almost to the halfway point!

2012-08-01T14:28:00.003-05:00

What day is it? I'm all confuzzled and discombobulated today as I try to get myself oriented to the real world of work! Today I am back at work again full time (the beauty of a 10 month position is having June and July off of work!) and I am trying to figure out how to adjust my training schedule now that I have 45 less hours a week available for running! Buuut, I'll let you know what I figured out in the next recap post.

For now, here's how week 8 shook out!

Hal Higdon told me to run this:
Monday- Rest
Tuesday- 3 miles
Wednesday- 6 miles
Thursday- 3 miles
Friday- Rest
Saturday- Rest
Sunday- Half marathon

This is what actually happened:
Monday- shopping all day in Minneapolis (this MUST count for some sort of exercise, right? trying on clothes all day long sure felt like a lot of work!). One of the upsides to doing all of this running and biking is that I am working on exchanging my old wardrobe for SMALLER sizes! Woo hoo!

Tuesday- 3.12 miles at 9:36 pace. Great run that morning- I decided to go the extra .10 mile to make it a 5k and see if I *could* run a sub 30 minute 5k. And I did! Woo!!

Wednesday- 6 miles at 10:22 pace. A humid, rainy run. Felt good though! It was my birthday and I turned the big 3-4 that day. A great start to a new year!

Thursday- ......... **crickets** ...... *hello? anybody there?*..........
Um, oops? Nah, I didn't do a damn thing that day. I also decided to continue the birthday eating binge this day as well. What happened was I had an early meeting at work this day and wasn't going to be able to squeeze in the 3 mile run. I rationalized it because I had every intention of doing my Thursday night bike ride that evening. Well, it was just a busy day and the weather was spotty. Off and on rain, coupled with wind and I just didn't feel it. Instead I went to Buffalo Wild Wings and binged on subpar wings.

Friday- Rest, in the form of sitting on my butt in a car for 13 hours (though it felt more like 1300 hours). First day of our family vacation to Chadron, NE. There was a whole lotta SD to cover first though! I never realized how BIG South Dakota was, until I had to seemingly drive through every square mile of it. Yes, I'm exaggerating, but I'm just saying, long road trips plus small children= frazzled parents.

Saturday- 2.08 miles at 10:04 pace. My sister in law warned me that running at higher elevation might be a little tough. I was also aware that this area of Nebraska was MUCH more hilly than flat Fargo. So, still feeling a little guilty for skipping my 3 mile on Thursday, and feeling a little curious about what it's like to run in higher elevations before I embarked on my 13 miler the next day, I went out for a quick 2 mile trial run.... holy cow! That felt like a very hard 2 miles. Hills and elevation are no joke. Granted, I wasn't running on a mountain in Colorado or anything, but there are some pretty significant hills to climb in Chadron, NE.

Sunday- 12.86 miles at 11:38 pace. I was shocked that this run went as well as it did! After my tough 2 mile the previous day, I fully anticipated dying during this run... either that or having to run way slow. Usually my long runs are around a 11:30 pace, but I fully expected to do 12:00 or even slower. To run almost my usual pace is pretty shocking! The route we took was gorgeous, as we ran along a really scenic highway. We ran early (5am) to beat the heat, and we were lucky to have overcast skies during much of the run. Lots of scenery to look at and we even encountered some wildlife. We saw a large snake coiled up on the side of the highway, we saw a large turkey meet its unfortunate death when it was hit by a semi (said turkey was hit and then almost hit US!), and we saw a handful of deer. Overall we had a loss of elevation, so I think that definitely contributed to my faster pace, but there was still some hills to climb along the way. I was proud of myself after finishing that run- great to push myself to run in conditions to which I'm unaccustomed and fun to see new sights!
EDIT:
My WONDERFUL husband pointed out to me that I made very little mention about him in this run (though the photos below prove he was there). It was a lot of fun to get to run together, which is something we rarely get to do. We were even awesome enough to take self portraits WHILE running. We did wait until after the run to post them on Facebook though :)

So, that's the week! After I finish this week of training, I am officially at the halfway point! So excited!

Happy Wednesday!

Scheels Run for the Red 5k- race recap

2012-07-24T20:37:00.000-05:00

This was THE.HOTTEST.RUN.I.HAVE.EVER.DONE.IN.MY.LIFE.

95 degrees or so at race time (6pm). Humid as a mofo. Sunny sunny sunny.

Sounds like a great evening for a race, yes? No, not really... but it had been a couple of months since I'd gotten a "free" race shirt, and I was jonesing for a new one! My scheduled training run for the day was 3 miles, so I thought I may as well sign up.

As I like to do, I ~~encouraged~~ forced a couple of friends to join in on the fun... since misery loves loves loves company!

I went about the earlier part of my day as normal, but realized around 2pm that I hadn't really had a drop of water all day. Ooops! Sista needs to hydrate for running in 973% humidity and 432 degree temperatures! It was a busy day- I worked and then I donated plasma. Sometimes people ask me if I should be donating on days I workout, because it might not be safe or it might deplete my energy. I don't have any scientific evidence, but from all I have read, it IS safe to donate. I have never had any ill effects from it, and I always feel fine after donation.

I got to Scheels about an hour before the race to pick up my packet and meet up with Angie and Beth. Suddenly I was overcome with the thought of "I SO don't want to run this." Great positive attitude. I think I also repeated about 50 times something about HATING 5k's. It was just so hot out, I was getting cranky. OH and it was windy too!

Anyway, we made our way to the starting line, I grumbled a bit more, and it was time to run!

So I ran. And it was hot. And it felt hard! And about 1/2 mile in to my run, I realized WHY it felt so hard- my Garmin showed that my average pace thus far was UNDER 8 min/ miles. It was somewhere around 7:50 something. What the WHAT?!?! I don't DO THAT. This might have been great and awesome if this was a low-pressure training run, but I knew that I couldn't maintain such a pace, and I had a feeling I was draining ALL of my energy and might have some struggles near the end of the race.

I slowed down, but still ended up finishing that first mile in under 9 minutes. Holy cow! And I was still feeling pretty good after mile one. I knew there was going to be a water station somewhere between mile one and two, and I figured I would just keep running till the water station and then let myself have a quick walk break (since I haven't really mastered the art of running and drinking).

Started to run out of steam before I even hit the water station, so I took a quick 15 second walk break and made my way to the water. I drank half and dumped half on my head. And suddenly this felt like the longest 3.1 miles ever. Starting up again felt tough and from here on out, I really struggled.

I finished mile 2 with about a 9:30 pace (I don't have exact stats and will tell you why soon).

The last mile of the race was a mental battle. I was tired and hot and zapped. I took several walk breaks and slowly watched my "average pace" on the Garmin creep higher and higher. I forgot to do the exact calculation prior to the race to know what pace I needed to run under 30 minutes, and I really wish I would have! In my mind I was thinking I needed around 9:42 pace to go Sub-30 (it's really like 9:37). So as I was run/walking the last mile, I was just trying to keep my average pace under that 9:42 mark.

I crossed the finish line in 30:26.

Okay, BEFORE I complain about how I didn't meet my sub-30 minute goal, let me say how excited I am that I PR'd like CRAZY in this race! I ran the St Patty's Day 5k in 32:17, so I PR'd this race by 1:51. Not too shabby to slice that much time off a 5k!

But COME ON, I was THISCLOSE to going Sub-30. Perhaps if I would have known a more exact pace to keep, I could have mentally got myself to run that. My own fault.

For the next half hour after the race, I focused my energy on not passing the hell out. On more than a few occasions, I started to get dizzy and see spots (I'm no "doctor" or anything, but friends, I think that's no good!). After I finally cooled myself to the point where I wasn't literally bursting into flames, I felt a little better.

I checked the race results when I got home and it turns out I was 5th out of 43 in my age group! I finished 83 out of 273 runners! That might not sound super duper impressive, but to finish in the top half is HUGE for me! Especially since speed is SO not my strength. I'm much more comfortable running 10 easy miles than I am running 3 fast miles.

So, overall, I'm really proud of myself! I feel like my hard work is paying off and it's a huge motivator to keep pushing myself.

One sad note about the race is immediately following the race, my poor poor Garmin locked up on me. It got all sorts of wonky and wouldn't let me upload my run to my computer. OF COURSE. The ONE run I really wanted to look at stats and upload it to Runkeeper, and I couldn't.

I had to call Garmin and they were super nice and helpful and even though I think the problem was fixed after doing a master reset, I opted to have it sent in and replaced with a new one since it was still under warranty. This was the first issue I'd had with it, so I'm not saying it's not still a great watch... just unfortunate that it had to konk out on me after a great race! Lucky for me I can borrow my hubby's Garmin till my new one arrives!

7 weeks!

2012-07-24T17:07:00.001-05:00

A quick and dirty recap
Hal said:
Monday- Rest
Tuesday- 3 miles
Wednesday- 6 miles
Thursday- 3 miles
Friday- Rest
Saturday- 12 miles
Sunday- cross train.

I said:
Monday- Biked 9.12. Family ride. Fun times.
Tuesday- 3.01 at 9:36 pace
Wednesday- 6.01 at 10:40 pace.... 6.49 mile bike ride later that day.
Thursday- 3.1 miles at 9:49 pace (Scheels 5k. Race report yet to come!)
Friday- Rest!
Saturday- 12 miles at 11:26 pace
Sunday- Nada.

It was a really good week of training! If I count the miles back from last Sunday, I racked up 27 miles for the week! By far the most miles I've ever run in a week and I felt good at the end!

1/3 done with training!

2012-07-16T08:55:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I'm already in the 7th week of training! This has really been flying by and so far I am still feeling great! A little soreness here and there, but overall I really can't complain! The Summer continues to be hot and humid, but I have managed to avoid indoor running because I am trying to convince myself that I am forcing my body to adapt to the ridiculous conditions. This week also marked the first of many upcoming weekends where I have to do training runs while traveling. Looking ahead, we are going to be out of town several times in the next couple of months, so I am making sure I will have time to fit in long runs during those trips! This past weekend we were in the Twin Cities, so finding a place to run was no problem. Finding friends to run with was also no problem! One of my oldest and most awesome friends, Rachel, recently started running and she and I are going to be running the Women Rock MN 1/2 marathon over labor day weekend. It just so happens that her long run for 1/2 training and my long run for TCM training were the same, since this was a step down week. My old college roommate Sharon also lives in the cities and is also training for Women Rock, so she joined us as well! It was so fun to run together!

On to the recap!

Hal told me to do this:
Monday- Rest
Tuesday- 3 miles
Wednesday- 5 miles
Thursday- 3 miles
Friday- Rest
Saturday- 7 miles
Sunday- Cross train

So I did THIS:
Monday- 3 bike rides, totaling 29.21 miles. Okay, Monday sounds a little ridiculous when I say I went on 3 bike rides. But I did. The first ride was over to the bike shop to have cleats put on my new cycling shoes. Then I had to bike around for awhile to try to get used to clipping in and out of my pedals. In the afternoon I went out for another short practice ride, and in the evening we did the family bike ride!

Tuesday- 3 miles at 9:41 pace. I almost skipped this run because I was pretty tired on Tuesday morning, but I'm so glad I ran anyway! Can't believe I was able to run this pace! It has to be pretty close to being my fastest 3 mile run ever!

Wednesday- 5 miles at 11:01 pace. Ran this with Nicole and we ran along the river. I've been doing a lot of very very flat runs lately, so running along the river, while not necessarily "hilly," it does feel more difficult. It just felt like a tough run and my legs felt heavy. Was glad to have Nicole there to pull me along :)

Thursday- 3.02 miles at 10:42 pace. Ran with Angie and she chatted my ear off, which helped distract me from my very tired legs.

Friday- Rest

Saturday- 6.98 miles at 11:12 pace. Did this run along the Medicine Lake Regional Trail in Maple Grove. Got up at 6am and tiptoed quietly around my hotel room, trying not to wake Jay and the kiddos as I got ready to run. Went down to the hotel lobby and sucked down a coffee, trying to shake off the travel sleepies. Rachel and Sharon showed up at 7am and we were off! It was about 73 degrees, sunny, and very humid. It was so much fun running somewhere different! The trail we ran went on for miles and was full of trees and bunnies and ponds and loveliness. Much more hilly than I am used to, but I felt great the whole time. I swear I have never sweat so much in my entire life though! Great start to a busy day. We spent 5 hours at Mall of America, went to a park, went to dinner, and went swimming when we got back to the hotel. A fun, but exhausting day!

My alarm clock is very bossy.

Rach and I after our 7 mile! This was Rach's longest run ever!!

Sunday- 3 miles at 10:21 pace. I ran for my cross training! The hotel had a fitness room, but I just couldn't help but get back out on the trails. I wasn't even originally going to run, but I wanted to take advantage of the change of scenery! Got up early again and this time was out the door by 6:15am. It was already 76 degrees- ick! Another soupy but great run!

It was a great week of training!

Heatwaves and near-fainting fun. Week 5 summary!

2012-07-09T09:01:00.000-05:00

5 weeks behind me and 12 ahead of me. Training is just zipping along!

Hal told me to do THIS:
Monday- rest
Tuesday- 3 miles
Wednesday- 5 miles
Thursday- 3 miles
Friday- rest
Saturday- 10 miles
Sunday- Cross train

This is what I did:
Monday- mostly rested. I did ride my bike about 4 miles. Hubby had his gall bladder removed that day and he had driven himself to the hospital, so I rode my bike over there and drove him home. It was about 95 and humid that day, so even 4 miles felt gross! No Monday night bike ride because it was way too hot!

Tuesday- 3.02 miles at a 10:20 pace. Was up early to try to run before it got too hot, but it was already 74 degrees around 7am. It was still a pretty good run though!

Wednesday- 5.05 miles at a 10:26 pace. The heat continued. I woke up at 6am and it was already almost 80 degrees. At 7:30 when I started my run it was about 82 degrees, sunny, and humid. It was a hard run, but I managed to keep a good pace.

Thursday- 3.01 miles at a 9:48(!!!) pace. Glorious run in 60 degree weather. Amazing how great 60 feels after choking on the humidity for a few days in a row. I intended on taking this run easy, but my run started fast and since I was feeling good, I just kept it up! My first mile was a 8:59 pace!

Thursday night I did my usual bike ride. 36.04 miles. I think the heat and training caught up with me, because I was tired before the ride even began. We took a longer route than normal and I struggled. I think I was a little dehydrated because I drank both of my bottles of water well before the ride was over. The weather wasn't overly hot- maybe about 90 degrees, but not humid at all. Anyway, I was tired, but otherwise I felt okay. Weirdly though, when we finished our ride, we were all standing outside the bike shop and all of a sudden I felt the blood rush out of my head, I got really woozy and started seeing spots. I was sweaty but cold. For a second I thought I was going to fall over. In hindsight, I probably should have sat down, but instead I stood there straddling my bike and trying not to pass out. It was crazy! I drank some Gatorade and felt a little better. We biked a mile over to Erika's house and had some snacks and I felt much better!

Friday- "rest." I use quotations because I took the kiddos to a water park in Grand Forks and spent the afternoon chasing them around and going down waterslides. It did not feel very restful! It was fun, but was I ever tired by the end of the day!

Saturday- 10:01 miles at a 11:25 pace. The plan was to meet Stacie at 7am... so I had set my alarm the previous night for 5:45a. My usual Saturday long run routine is to wake up early, relax, drink coffee, eat some toast, and get my brain ready to run long. That SO didn't happen this week! I set my alarm incorrectly and it didn't go off when it was supposed to...so I WAY overslept till 6:45a! I frantically texted Stacie and let her know I was going to be late and then ran around the house like a crazy woman trying to get ready to go. I hate hate hate oversleeping and it throws off my entire day. I was nervous that it was going to screw with my run because I was in a crabby mindset!
It actually ended up being a fantastic run!! It was about 65 degrees at the start of the run and very little wind. We went out with the plan to keep a similar pace to last week (last week we did our 9 miles at a 11:35 pace). I felt great through the entire run and really the only complaint I had by the end was a blister on my right big toe and a little chafing on my shoulder from a bra strap. By the end it was pretty warm (around 75 degrees), but it didn't bother me much. We even ran the last two miles at 11:04 and 10:56, which was faster than the 11:30 we were aiming for. It was definitely a confidence-boosting run!

Sunday- Absolutely nothing. Sat around most of the day. I probably needed that. :)

It was a great week of training! This week is a step-down week, so the long run is only 7 miles! Woo!! We will be in Minneapolis for the weekend, so I will get to do my long run there! Can't wait!

Fuel, nutrition, and whatnot

2012-07-05T07:31:00.001-05:00

Every once in awhile, people ask me what I eat/drink before/ during/ after runs, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to post it. Obviously take all of this with a grain of salt, as every person is different and what works for me might not work for you. There are no less than a kazillion articles, blogs, etc out there in the interwebz that address fueling for runs. If you are new at running, you might want to do your research and try a few things out to see what works for you!

This is what works for me:

Short run (4 miles or less)
Before: Nothing special. A little glass of water perhaps. If it's a morning run, I don't typically eat anything before I go out, but I DO drink a cup of coffee if it's right away in the morning. I can hardly put together a sentence without coffee, much less move my body in a forward fashion. If it's later in the day, I don't eat anything above what I would normally eat.

During: Nothing. I don't eat or drink anything during short runs- though the other day it was about 734% humidity during a morning run, so I did bring a handheld water bottle.

After: This is new. I used to finish up a run, drink some water, and hit the shower. Since I've started training for a full marathon, I've been trying to be more aware of how I am feeding my body. I have always hated drinking calories unless it's coffee... but I kept hearing about how helpful protein shakes are for helping your muscles recover from a run. So for the past couple of weeks, I have followed up my run with a protein shake. I'm a huge fan! I've been playing around with different combinations of things to find the right consistency and taste, but still keep the calories relatively low. Depending on how you make your shake/smoothie, calories can add up quickly! At the end of the post, I'll share a couple of my protein shake recipes.

Medium run (4-7ish miles)
Before: If it's a morning run, I of course have my cup of coffee. For these mediumish runs, I also have a piece of peanut butter toast- typically on some type of whole grain bread.

During: Depends. If it's extra hot out or I'm feeling dehydrated, I may carry water with me. If I am feeling extra lazy but thinking I might need to drink something, I may plan my route so I can swing by my car. It also depends on the day if I eat a GU or not. If it's closer to 6 or 7 miles, I may eat a GU later in the run. If it's closer to 4 or 5, I probably won't. Speaking of GU, that's generally my gel of choice. Jet Blackberry 2X caffeine is my favorite. I also like Tri-berry. We just bought a couple of boxes of the GU Roctane- blueberry pomegranate flavor, and also wasn't too bad. **When I say "wasn't too bad," I mean, wasn't too bad for thick, weirdly textured gel. I don't particularly like gel, but it does the job.** Sometimes I also like gummies. Powerbar Energy Blasts are pretty tasty- it's just like eating gummy bears. I don't buy them as often because they are a little spendy. We can usually find good deals on boxes of GU, but not so often with the chews. Also the chews come in packs that have enough for 2 servings, and the packaging doesn't fit as easily into my ~~belt~~ fanny pack.

After: Water and a protein shake.

Long run (7+ miles)
Before: Same drill. Coffee and peanut butter toast. I haven't gotten into the really long runs yet (longer than half marathon), but then I may have 2 pieces of toast instead of one... or add a piece of fruit. I don't know yet!

During: Water with a NUUN tablet (lemon tea is my favorite), take my first GU around 6 miles, and then a GU every 4 miles or so. As marathon training continues, I might experiment with other things, just to switch it up on the long runs.

After: Protein shake... and whatever else is within reach to shove in my face. Kidding... I try not to eat every single calorie I burned immediately after I finish running :) Plus, after long runs my stomach gets a little funky.

Strawberry-blueberry protein shake
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup strawberries
1/4 cup fat free plain yogurt
1/2 cup vanilla almond milk
1 scoop Vanilla Whey powder
ice

I blend mine up in the Magic Bullet (my new favorite product). Delicious smoothie. I also like banana, mango, and peaches in my protein shakes. At first when I started using protein powder, I was um... a little gassy from it. I think I've adjusted now that I've been using it for a couple of weeks.

Well, that's about it for now! It's been a HOT week for running here. I hope all this hot weather running is going to make me some sort of badass....

OH- Update! The other day I complained at length about my new handheld water bottle (the Nathan Quickdraw Plus) leaking. Turns out it must have been user error. I must have threaded the lid wrong or didn't get it tight enough? I have run two more times with the bottle with NO leaking. Yay!

4 weeks DONE.... 13 to go!

2012-07-02T09:13:00.001-05:00

Can't believe I've already completed 1 month of training! So far I'm still feeling great! A few aches and pains here, but nothing terrible. With the exception of two weeks following the half marathon, I've basically been on a training schedule since sometime in February! I hope my body holds up till October 7th!

So this is what HH told me to do last week:
Monday- Rest
Tuesday- 3 miles
Wednesday- 4 miles
Thursday- 3 miles
Friday- Rest
Saturday- 9 miles
Sunday- Cross train

This is what I really did:
Monday- Biked 12.77 miles with the fam. Did the regular Monday night family group ride with Great Northern, and since it was a beautiful night, there were nearly 40 people who showed up. Because of this, it was a slowwww ride. So even though I rode 12.77 miles, it required very little physical exertion. So... I guess I'm saying, it was like a pesudo rest day. :)

Tuesday- 3.05 miles at a 10:22 pace. 20 MPH winds and super humid! I'm continuing to push through my wimpiness and run in whatever condition the weather hands me. A few months ago, there would be NO way you'd see me running in wind or heat. I *think* I'm starting to adapt.

Wednesday- 3.98 at a 11:00 pace. If I thought Tuesday was humid, Wednesday was doubly awful. 74 degrees and sunny at 7am- it felt like running in Florida. This was actually a pretty awful run- I weighed myself afterward and had lost 2 lbs during that run- just from sweat! My thigh cramped up in the last mile and I had to run/walk the last half mile.

Thursday- 3.04 miles at a 10:27 pace. Better weather. Tired legs. Oh and I also biked 19.69 miles that evening during my usual Thursday night bike ride. I love Thursdays!!

Friday- REST! It was wonderful! Well.... except I chased my crazy kids around all.day.long.... so I don't know if it really felt like rest!

Saturday- 9.01 miles at 11:35 pace. It was a GREAT run! This week it was just Stacie and I as Emily was home nursing some swollen ankles (boo!!). We switched up the route and met up at Caribou (so we could immediately dump iced coffee in our faces upon finishing the run). It was about 65 degrees and sunny- so a little humid, but not awful. We ran a nice even pace and both of us felt great all the way to the end of the run. Going to try to keep doing long runs at this pace! The following detail is just so I can make note of fueling (for future reference): Had a piece of peanut butter toast and a cup of coffee for breakfast. Had a GU Roctane right before we started running, and then another at mile 6. Carried water during this run.

Sunday- Skipped cross training. Husband was still out of town and I was on day four of solo parenting. That's gotta count for some sort of exercise! Plus it was 90+ degrees and humid- it would have been terrible weather to take the kids out in the Burley. Played in a pool all afternoon instead!

Okay, so I mentioned that I carried water on the 9 mile run... maybe I should have said that I splashed water all over the place on my 9 mile run! I was SO annoyed with my new handheld water bottle. This was the first time I had taken it out on a run and it kept leaking. I'm glad the NUUN didn't make my water super sticky, otherwise I would have been really ticked off. I don't know if I have a faulty bottle or if there is just bound to be some leakage? It's a Nathan Quickdraw Plus... I should read the reviews to see if this is just a common thing. I bought the handheld because I don't like wearing belts, but I don't know if this felt like a better option!

The coming week is supposed to be super hot and humid... hooray? Have a wonderful 4th of July!

The barista at Caribou thought we were strange when we asked her to take our picture. Post 9 mile run and ready for some iced coffee!

Gear I am loving these days

2012-06-30T11:58:00.003-05:00

My how times have changed... it used to be that I'd have a few extra dollars laying around and I'd be shopping at Gap for new jeans. In the past year though I more often find myself browsing workout gear at Scheels or Beyond Running (my fave local running store).

I LOVE finding new clothes/gadgets/etc to compliment my running addiction. Here are a couple of the latest things I have added to my collection!

Normally when it comes to clothes, I have always preferred Under Armour tops. They fit well and are great quality.... BUT, recently Gap has expanded their selections to include active wear (GapFit). One day I was shopping with my kiddos and a series of events involving 2 rowdy children, the stroller, a 90% full Grande Skinny Vanilla Latte from Starbucks, and my white shirt, took place... thus requiring a quick shirt purchase.

And so I found the GapFit Breathe V-neck T for $24.95! It is fantastic! It is ridiculously comfortable and pretty flattering. I've worn it during two pretty sweaty runs and it stays dry. I haven't had any chafing issues and so far in the couple weeks I've had it, it doesn't seem to hold on to the stink. There are lots of fun colors too! I've worn this shirt once or twice just as a regular t-shirt, and it doesn't look like I'm just running around in workout clothing (not that there is anything wrong with that- I do it quite often)! Below is a photo from the Gap website and below that is what it looks like on me (a non-model!)

This Gap model looks quite happy to be wearing this shirt.


Don't mistake me for a Gap model.

The other shirt I am going to rave about is the updated version of the Under Armour Women's UA Tech Sleeveless Tank
I have a couple of the old style of UA Tech tanks and love them, so I was a little hesitant at first about the new style. It's a bit of a different cut than the old style, so I didn't know if I liked it at first. I tried it on and fell in love with it! The best thing about this tank is that they have done something different with the material- it is SO soft! That is one gripe I have about the old style- it gets a little rough feeling after time. So far this one feels wonderful! I love how it hangs and even though it hangs loose, there are no chafing concerns. When I'm not wearing my new Gap shirt, I am wearing this tank! The price is reasonable (about $23) and there is a pretty good selection of colors! Highly recommend this one!

This model does NOT look happy to be wearing this awesome tank.

What the tank looks like on a real person

The post in which I have a number of possible titles

2012-06-25T10:14:00.000-05:00

Saturday morning I ran a small 10K race.

I couldn't settle on one title, so I'll share all of the possible titles with you.

The race in which I had a sketchy calf muscle
After my 3 three mile training runs this week, my right calf muscle was feeling a little questionable. Friday I started to worry that I wouldn't be up for keeping up a good pace for my 10k. I spent all day Friday rubbing my calf with "the stick" and icing the hell out of it. Luckily, it felt much better by race time!

The race in which I ran my first run with my new marathon training partners
I had been worrying before I started my marathon training that I wouldn't have people to train with me. I am a pretty social being and part of the fun of running for me is having people to run with and talk training with.
Because of the wonders of Facebook, two friends of mine from a past job had voiced interest in training for TCM. A few Facebook posts later, and all taking the plunge by actually registering for the race, and we were SET! Emily, Stacie, and I made the plan to run as many of our long runs together. This week worked perfectly as we had 6 on our schedule and the Lindenwood 10k was taking place on our long run day. Worked even better because the race was right on the route I always run at the time I always run it! It was awesome to see the ladies and think we are going to have a great 18 weeks of training!

The race in which humidity kicked my ass
Woah momma. It was steamy and gross. I am no friend of humidity. I choked on the air I was trying to breathe. Brutal.

The race in which I started too fast and ran out of steam
I need to learn to pace myself better. I am able to run faster speeds than I used to, but have been trying to figure out a comfortable, sustainable pace. Ran the first mile in 9:16. WAY.TOO.FAST. Couple that with the humidity and I was feeling out of gas by mile 2. Note to self for future long runs. Slow down.

The race in which I had to build mental toughness
Oh I wanted to quit. Humidity and a brief calf cramp made me crazy in my head. I had to keep repeating to myself: "keep going. you're building mental toughness." Sometimes after I said it in my head, I told that voice to shut up. I basically fought back and forth in my brain. I think mental toughness is harder than physical toughness.

The race in which my main goal was to not finish DFL
Small races are terrifying in that the chances of coming in dead f---ing last are much much greater. I've been there before, and my ego tells me to never be in that position again. Yes, I know, I know- I should just be competing with myself and yada yada bladda. But still. I've done the last place thing before. I don't care to be there again. I checked last year's results from this 10k and saw that only TEN people last year ran this race at 10:00 pace or slower. TEN! I was thinking I'd be running this at 11:00 at BEST. Eeek!

The race in which I PR'd by about 10 minutes
I have only run one other 10k- it was last June around this time. I ran that race in 1:16 (a 12:20 min/mile pace)
I finished this race in 1:06:17!! (a 10:44 pace).

And I did NOT finish DFL. There was at least 2 or 3 who came in behind me. Ha!

The race in which I peed myself
Yes literally. Just a little bit. Right after I finished the race. TMI, I know. This happens to people sometimes. Just trying to keep it honest. Surprising because I thought I had sweat literally every ounce of fluid out of my body.

So, there it is. It wasn't pretty, but it was a pretty spectacular PR for me. My splits were: 9:16, 10:34, 10:33, 11:15, 11:25, 11:28, and 9:53 (for the last .2).

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Emily, Stacie, and me before the 10K!

All sweaty and gross!

Week 3 training recap

2012-06-25T10:12:00.000-05:00

3 weeks of marathon training done and 15 left to go!

Last week, my good friend Hal told me to do this:
Monday- Rest
Tuesday- 3 miles
Wednesday- 4 miles
Thursday- 3 miles
Friday- Rest
Saturday 5 miles
Sunday- Cross train

And what I REALLY did:

Monday- 2 bike rides with the kiddos. 7.96 miles and 10.33 miles. I know, it's not a rest day, but I also didn't do a long run the previous Saturday. And Monday nights are the family bike ride night. Both of the rides were done at a pretty relaxed pace- and I only pulled the Burley for the 8 mile ride :)

Tuesday- 4.01 miles at a 10:54 pace. My first run in my new shoes- felt terrific!

Wednesday- 4.05 miles at a 10:27 pace. Pace felt comfortable in spite of the humidity- ran in the afternoon, so it was pretty warm out there.

Thursday- Biking: 32.01 miles (two rides), Running: 2.04 miles at a 10:07 pace. Biked to work in the morning, did my run after my work meeting, and then I biked home. Cut the run short by one mile because I was feeling pretty tired and I had done an extra mile on Tuesday. Thursday night did my regular bike ride that totaled around 26 miles.

Friday- RESTED!!

Saturday- 5.01 miles at a 10:39 pace. A great 7am run with Emily. A tad on the humid side, but I felt great the whole time!

After our 5 miler!

Sunday- 53.82 mile bike ride. WHAT?!?! Yeah, I didn't realize the ride was going to be that long! I went with a group and thought we were going for a 30-40 mile ride... turns out the route was much further than that! This ride was double the length of my previous longest ride. It actually wasn't so bad- there were moments at the beginning where we were riding into the wind and going at a pretty fast pace that I felt totally discouraged. I was feeling a little bit in over my head- and pretty intimidated because it was mostly experienced bikers. Around the halfway point I was able to relax and the rest of the ride was great! I was surprised how NOT sore I was afterward. Really the main complaint I had was that my hands and shoulders were a little achy- and otherwise I felt good!