Update to my resolutions

Man, I totally suck at blogging consistently. Since it's almost the end of the year, let's take a look at how we did with our New Year's resolutions we made at the start of the year. And by we, I mean me.

1. Work towards a 9:30 mile.
* Well, I know I did get faster, at least with my long runs. I have yet to see if I can hold a 9:30 mile pace for 3 miles. I'll test myself next week.

2. Strength-train at least twice a week. Okay, that sounds like too much to expect from me. Let's go with once a week.
* Except for the times I've been sick, I've actually been pretty good with this one. Most times I've actually strength-trained 3 times a week.

3. Drink at least 3 bottles of water a day. An old trainer of mine told me I should be drinking 6-7 bottles of water a day. And I used to. But I have been slacking majorly. So 3 sounds like a doable goal for now.
* I think I managed this one, too. What helped a lot was eating tons of cookies and cake. I get very thristy eating those and hence, down a lot of water.

Ugh, I think I'm 10 pounds heavier from the start of the year. Ah, well, I'm working on it.

I had my wisdom teeth pulled last Monday and took a complete week off from all exercise. It kind of sucked since I have double halves coming up this weekend, and last week was supposed to be my peak training week. Oh, well.

So I headed out and did a ten miler today and plan on a six miler tomorrow. I felt a bit tired, but good on today's run. I managed an 11:08 pace. I told myself not to go fast today and the goal was to take it easy and finish, which I did. But even when I tell myself that and stick to it, I always am disappointed when I don't set a personal record. I know, I'm an idiot.

H.I.I.T.?

We joined a new gym earlier this week, and when I looked over their class schedule I saw a H.I.I.T. (High Intensity Interval Training) class that fits into my schedule. I tried recruiting some people to come with me, because I'm a wuss and am scared to try new things alone, but no go.

So I summoned up my courage, told myself that in order to change you need to step outside of your comfort zone and headed out to the gym yesterday at a little after 5 am to get there for the 5:30 am class (the reason no one wanted to come with me).

The class wasn't that big, maybe about 15 - 20 other people. I copied everyone and got all the equipment they had and set myself up in the back. I was expecting Insanity with weights. With the exception of some starfish jacks and jumping lunges with shoulder presses, my heart rate didn't really get too high for the duration of the class. I was a bit disappointed.

I came back later to the gym with Martin to do more weights and a 3 mile run and the instructor saw me and yelled, "You didn't get enough from this morning?" I smiled and told her no.

I'm pretty sure I'll go back to give it a few more shots. I like that there were several lateral exercises that would be good for me. And I like how sore my abs are today (it hurts when sneeze).

I'm just craving something more intense. Maybe I'll go back to Insanity.

To sum it up- underwhelmed

I've been putting off writing this post for a while. I've just been feeling meh about the marathon. And it's not the post-marathon blues. I've been feeling this since the marathon.

I was expecting an epiphany when I crossed the finish line, a life-changing moment. A "Yeah, I ran a marathon! I can do anything!" feeling. The only thing I felt when I crossed that line was relief, relief that I could stop running.

So yeah, underwhelmed completely sums up the whole experience for me.

Some things I learned:

* The energy of the crowd WILL NOT carry you. It might for some. But it annoyed the shit out of me. I hated running with a ton of other people. It pissed me off. I vowed to myself that my next marathon will be a small race.

* Yes, that's right. I will be doing another marathon. As much as I complained about this one, the run itself wasn't that bad.

* Hills are fun for runs that are 6 miles or less. It is torture for anything over that. I ran my neighborhood 3 mile hilly route on Saturday and it was a piece of cake. I even ran it easy and still came in at one of my fastest times for this route. I kept thinking about that horrible 26.2 miles of hills and was so happy and grateful to just be doing 3.

* My phone kicks ass. It lived off and on in my sweaty back pocket for 5+ hours and came out like a champ.

* I am beyond grateful the support of my family and friends. Martin drove me there in the morning. And drove back to come get me. And even though I fell asleep on the way back, I know that traffic was horrendous. My friend, Lisa was super awesome in sending me messages to get through my long runs. And it was fun meeting her and hashing out all our fears and excitement the night before the race.

So this time, the rainbow was definitely worth so much more than the pot of gold.

Nike Women's Marathon - Race Report

The race started at 7am. I went to bed around 11:30 pm (whoops) and woke up at 3 am. I had already gotten all my stuff ready two days prior

I ate my usual breakfast of cereal and tried and tried going to the bathroom, and even though I've been regular for the past few months, my body just didn't want to do its business.

5 o'clock rolled around and it was time to go. I was so nervous and excited! Martin drove me into the city and dropped me off a few blocks away from the start. I immediately hit the porta-potties and dropped off my bag at the bag check.

There were so many people there already and this was an hour before the start.

I thought it was going to be cold, so I wore an old hoodie. I wish I would have checked it in with my bag, but after sitting around with a for a bit before the start, I just left it there since it was pretty warm already.

I met some nice people from Utah and we chatted a bit. One of the ladies had run this race last year. I was concerned about the hills, but she said she didn't even remember them so they couldn't have been that bad. They were really nice and even offered to take a pic of me.

How loser-ish do I feel with no friends?

Finally, the national anthem was sung and I got into my corral. It took 12 minutes to cross the start line.

The first couple miles went through the Financial District. There were so many walkers it was ridiculous. And not just single ones, but huge groups forming walls, which were hard to move past. What the hell were they doing in the faster corrals? I think my splits for the first few miles were well over 12:00 min/mile paces because of them. I wanted to start out slow, but this was a bit much.

My garmin started going wacko because of the buildings, so I discounted anything it said after. I started getting a stitch in my side at Mile 2. WTH? This never happens. I knew right then that this was not going to be a good running day.

I tried pushing all negative thoughts aside and finally turned on my iPod to tune all the people out. We ran along the piers and it was quite pretty. Most of the course was very scenic. My plan was to walk the hills to save energy for the whole race. There were so many hills!

At the top of one of the first big ones.

I was pretty mad at this point, with myself and all the people, but my faith in humanity was restored when a really nice lady saw me and offered to take the pic for me.

We ran down this hill and then along Fort Mason.

And then it was time for the hill. A solid one mile 300 foot climb for Mile 6. Ugh! Yeah, I walked it. The run down was pretty fun, though. I love running down hills. I almost took a couple of guys out. We all laughed and I apologized.

Around Mile 8 or 9 there was another hill by some pretty houses. I was hating life by now and I actually posted something on facebook to try to distract myself. They had orange slices at this mile and they were so sweet and delious! I wanted to eat nothing but oranges for the rest of my life after having eaten these.

More smaller hills followed and then we were headed into Golden Gate Park. The half-marathoners split up at Mile 11. As miserable as I was this early on in the race, I knew without a doubt I was going to finish the full.

The course map showed we had a chocolate mile at Mile 12. I looked everywhere for folks handing out chocolate, but nothing. I was mad. This part of the course had us going into Golden Gate Park and then doubling back. I saw runners coming back and started looking for my friend, Lisa. Immediately I saw her. I was so happy! She put her hands out and gave me the biggest smile. I was just going to high-five her because I was all gross and sweaty, but she gave me a hug. I felt so much better after I saw her. I continued on with a smile on my face because of her. I saw a lady put her hand out for a high (or low) five and I slapped it. Then I saw a lady right behind me do the same thing and ran past me smiling. Ooh, I guess that wasn't meant for me. Whoops. Haha.

I texted Martin letting him know I was at Mile 12. Initial plans were for him and the kids to cheer me on at Mile 17 and then again at Mile 25 when I doubled back. They were all up late the night before so I wasn't really expecting them to make it.

Around Mile 15, I was surprised that I wasn't feeling too bad. I mean 15 miles is pretty damn far. Finally we ran out of Golden Gate Park and along the Great Highway. Now I was starting to feel super tired. I saw the pacer for the 5:00 group pass me. I knew I wasn't going to make that time, so I just mentally said bye and trudged along at my own pace. By this time I figured I would try and run a mile, walk a minute. But sometimes I would keep running and sometimes I would need to take a walk break earlier or longer so that didn't really stick.

Most of the Great Highway was flat. But then more hills came. Gah! Right before Mile 19 we went up a hill and came down to Lake Merced. It was such a pretty sight going towards.

The course runs around this lake for a little over 4 miles and back to the Great Highway a few more miles for the finish back at Golden Gate Park.

Well, running around this lake was ugly, both asthetically and physcially. We didn't run right next to the lake. Instead, we had a chain link fence to our right, couldn't even see the lake, and cars and ugly apartments and gas stations to our left. Oh, and jacked up roads underneath our feet.

It was during this part of the race that my legs started acting weird on me. I would run and my left foot started to roll in on me. WTH? My left shin also started to cramp. I think they were related. I would walk and it would feel better after a while. But then I would start to run again and it would do it again. I couldn't walk the rest of the way to the finish! But I also didn't want to accidentally land on my ankle and break it. This was a miserable, miserable time.

And then I saw them right before Mile 22! People handing out chocolate! Hooray! Spirits lifted!

I ate three of these suckers and wanted to go back for more. I felt much better and started an easy jog.

Finally we were back on the Great Highway for the final stretch. I was trying to figure out my splits and figured that if I could do the last three miles at a 12:00 min/mile pace, I could still make 5:30. My shins started cramping again and my foot started doing that weird thing again, so there was a lot of walking done for Miles 24 and 25. My head and lungs wanted to run, but my legs weren't having any of that. I was pretty upset, but I realized there really wasn't anything I could do about it.

At the Mile 25 mark, I just told my body that it was going to run and it was not going to cramp or roll its foot in on me. Goddamnit, I was going to run that last mile. And my body listened.

I thought I saw the finish line up ahead and picked up my pace. Haha, turns out it was a Ryder truck. I wanted to slow down and walk a bit, but there were so many spectators at this point that I couldn't lose face. Instead, I just picked up my pace, and ran through the finish, arms up.

Hooray! Marathoner!

Final time: 5:30:31. Close enough! Yay!

A hottie fireman gave me my Tiffany's necklace. They gave you a safeway bag and some water and wrapped a warming blanket around you. Nice. I grabbed a bagel and started my way around the finish area. I hopped in line to take a finisher's pic with two cute firemen. I hope that pic comes out nice. I apologized for being so sweaty, but they were super nice and put their arms around me anyway in the pic and told me congratulations.

I picked up my bag and called Martin to see where he was at.

I napped in the car on the way home. Ate a Big Mac, fries and a Coke once we got home. Napped again. Ate. Napped. Ate. Then went back to sleep for the night.

Not too bad of a day.

4 much needed miles

Wow, how much do I suck on the blogging front. My recent posts have been quite sporadic.

I went to the gym today to knock out 4 easy miles. I was feeling pretty good and I had a lot on my mind. That combo always leads to me pushing myself.

I've been doing all my runs on the treadmill at a 1.0 incline for maybe the past month. It sucks that I can't get out on the road, so I figure I better make treadmill running a wee bit harder.

Mile 1: 5.5 (11:00/mile)

Mile 2.0 - 2.5: 5.8 (10:40/mile)
Mile 2.5 - 3.0: 6.0 (10:00/mile)

Mile 3: 6.2 (9:40/mile)

Mile 4.0 - 4.75: 6.5 (9:20/mile)
Mile 4.75 - 5.0: don't remember, but it was just under a 9 minute mile pace

Total was 4 miles in about 40:10.

When I'm done with my marathon, I'm going to have a take a crack at trying to run 3 miles at 9:30 pace to see how close I am to the New Year's goal I made back in January. I know a few weeks ago I did 3 miles at 9:40 pace.

Tomorrow is my last longish run before NWM. 8 or 10 miles, I haven't decided yet. Wow, I can't believe it's so close!

Taper madness

I used to think folks who got antsy during their taper were just nutso. How hard can it be to cut back on your mileage? When you're going down from 20 mile long runs to 10 mile long runs I would think that would be cause one to jump up and down with joy.

Well, I've become a nutso.

I don't miss the 20 milers. No siree, bob! I did two of those SOBs and neither were pleasant. The first one I did on the treadmill. The second I did on the road. I was running in a groove for the second one... for the first 15 miles. And then I wanted to die. I walked most of the 16th mile. And trudged the rest of the miles back home.

I was doing good with watching my diet, too. Until two days ago when I ate 4000 calories. Yikes! Fresh baked brownies and Red Vines are my kryptonite. I was down to 123 a few days ago. 128 this morning. Sigh.

I am terrified and excited!

Swiss ball planks are impressive

I'm on Stage 2 of The New Rules of Lifting for Women. One of the exercises is holding a plank for 60 seconds. Since that's a bit easy for me, I've been doing a harder version. I'll hold a plank with my toes on a bench and my forearms on a stability ball.

I did this on Saturday and a lady saw me. She came up to me all impressed and asked, "Other than having amazing balance, what does that exercise do for you?" So I told her it was a great exercise for the core and I showed her the normal plank that she can do on the floor.

Heh. That made me feel good about myself. I'm actually going to try the next harder version (lifting one leg up) the next time I do them.

In other news I've been tracking my calories since I would really like to get down to the one-teens by marathon day. I have been eating close to if not exceeding 3000 calories a day! Yikes! So I've been trying to keep it down to 2000 calories s day and I can see the scale starting to move. Hooray!

30 days!

In 30 days I will be toeing the line to run the farthest distance I have ever run in my life - 26.2 miles.

Up to this point, that was all I could think about - crossing the finish line, getting my Tiffany necklace, being able to say, "I am a marathoner."

However, it's more than that, much more. If I complete that distance, kudos to me. But the thing is, I love everything I already am doing. I have love training for it - planning out a training schedule, testing various fuels, dreading long runs, looking forward to long runs, training races with a friend, scribbling on my now wrinkled schedule runs and workouts completed.

I was talking to Martin on the phone earlier, telling him that I was only going to run 10 miles tomorrow. Heh. Never before would I have put "only" and "10 miles" together in the same sentence.

It's the rainbow, kiddies. The pot of gold will be nice, but I am seriously loving this rainbow.

20 lovely miles

I think the treadmill is spoiling me. Easy to keep pace, nice fan right above me, water at my fingertips. Ah, well, I'll deal with the road when I come to it

I took the past three days off because I was feeling under the weather and wanted to make sure I'd be better for my scheduled 20 mile long run today. How sick is that? It was actually all I was looking forward to yesterday. And when I look forward to my runs, that's when I know it's going to be a good one.

There were plenty of things to keep me distracted while I ran at the gym today.

Miles 1-5
Incline: .5
Speed: 5.1 (11:45/mile pace)

No Galloway method for me today. I wanted to see if I had it in me to run the whole way, well, except for the short breaks I'd need to gobble some gummy things and drink my water every 30 minutes.

About 2 miles into my run, I felt something on my butt. I thought maybe I had something in my back pocket and it was falling down. Turns out it was just a friend tapping my butt to say hello. That cracked me up. Is it weird that I want to ask her how my butt felt?

Miles 6-10
Incline: .5
Speed: 5.1 (11:45/mile pace)

My friend finished up her run on the treadmill and returned with 5 other ladies who all hopped on a treadmill each in front of me. I guess my friend was teaching some kind of class and each lady would sprint for a little and then slow down. The lady closest to me was doing 5:45/miles and making it look so easy! She was really pretty and thin, too. I hate her.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a lady on my right watching them, too. The interesting thing about her is that she was running on an incline and her boobs were damn near hitting her face with each bounce. It was hard not to stare. It looked pretty painful. It almost made me glad that I'm flat-chested. Almost.

Miles 11-16
Incline: .5
Speed: 5.1 (11:45/mile pace)

There is this super hot guy whom I always seeing doing various weights when I strength train. I am in love with this man's arms. For the first time ever, I saw him on the treadmills. He was walking on an incline, something crazy like 15. I secretly commanded him in my mind to run, because I don't think there is anything sexier than a guy running and I wanted to watch this man move. But alas, I guess I still need to work on my ESP skills, because he didn't run. He did take his cap off, though. And I noticed he had a little bald spot on top of his head. Oh. So I forced myself to concentrate on his arms and what little of his back was peeking through his tank. I didn't care if other people saw me blatantly eye-raping this guy for the 20 minutes he stayed on his treadmill. Love me some muscles in motion.

Miles 17-20
Incline: .5
Speed: 5.3 (11:19/mile pace)

That's right, world, make way for The Flash! Hehe. I wanted to do my last 4 miles at marathon pace. Man, just tiny changes in speed makes a world of difference in effort, but not too much in time. It still felt doable, but it required me to focus.

A lady walked over to me around Mile 17. I thought she was going to make a comment on how long I've been on the treadmill. Instead, she asked me if my name was Coco. WTF? I smiled and told her no. That was random. Maybe it was her pick-up line. She did seem to linger for a bit on her treadmill. But I still had about 40 minutes left. She eventually left.

20 miles
Approximately 3:54:30
Average pace about 11:44/mile

I actually felt pretty good for the whole run. It was something I knew I needed, and a great challenge for me.

My legs feel a bit tired. And my left foot, left knee and right hip flexor are screaming at me right now. But I'm feeling good!

The quickest gym visit in the history of mankind

I went to the gym around 11 am this morning, because I had 5 hard miles on tap for the day. I was feeling super tired before I left the house. I could feel the exhaustion in my shoulders. That's when I know it's bad. But I figured maybe I would feel better if I ran.

I set the incline to .5 and the speed to a nice 5.8 to warm up. Yeah, no. I made it to .35 miles before I had to stop and walk. I forced myself to walk to at least the half mile mark before calling it quits and leaving. I think the treadmill read 6 minutes.

When I got home I felt all achy and yucky. Aha. The flu!

Summer Breeze Half Race Recap

The nitty gritty:
Chip time: 2:19:41
17/27 - Age group (Females, 35-39)
251/339 - Overall

My friend, Steph, ran with me on this one. It was her very first half-marathon. I went by her house around 6:15 am. She was still asleep!

We made it there about 30 minutes before the race started, hit the restrooms, picked up our bibs and checked in our stuff with zero time to spare. I ate a Snickers as we made our mad dash around getting all that done. Yum.

At the start line!

I love this course because it's all flat, no hills. Hooray! Beforehand, I wasn't sure if I was going to try to run the whole way through or Galloway it (run/walk). As we started, I figured I would try the Galloway method to see what kind of results I would get.

I used a 9:1 ratio (run 9 minutes, walk 1 minute) to take any kind of thinking out of it. Every time my Garmin's time ended in a 0 minute (e.g. 0:10, 0:20, 1:40, etc.), I would walk for one minute. It was kind of funny at first. I would run, then pull over to walk and watch all kinds of people pass me by. Then when my minute was up, I'd start running again and catch up or pass the people who went by me earlier. They probably thought I was annoying. I know I would have.

Steph spotted the first photographer up ahead around the 3 mile mark maybe, and we started giggling like crazy as we checked out clothes to smooth out any muffin tops.

This one cracks me up because you can see us behind these ladies laughing and trying to look for the camera. I swear, you'd think we were 8 years old.

I ate about 4 Powerbar gummy things every 3 miles and sipped from my handheld, which had Nuun in it. I was feeling pretty good for the first half of the run. The walking breaks were doing me good and I felt energized when it came time to run again.

Things changed after the halfway point. :(

I started feeling tired and was trying to keep pace with an older gent (he's 64 and finished about a minute after me! How kick ass is that!). I would catch up to him, then it was time for my walk break and I'd watch him pull away, then it would be time for me to run again, then by the time I caught up to him, it would be time for my walk break again. Ad naseum.

After a few miles of that, I realized that I wasn't really pushing myself. I was just trying to keep up with him and cursed myself for not doing what I knew I was capable of. I passed the older gent and tried to step up my pace.

Going from focused...

to cheeseball at the sight of a photographer.

This was probably around Mile 10. The lady in the pink tank behind me eventually passed me. I remember seeing her and thinking, "Whoa! Where did she come from?!" I guess I'm pretty oblivious when I run.

I pushed through and managed not to veer off the 9:1 ratio, even though I really wanted to.

About a mile or two left.

I was actually starting to feel okay towards the end of the run, tired, but felt like I could still run more miles if I had to. I was a bit scatter-brained, though. During the very last corner before the finish, I saw a photog who pointed that I should run to his left. I nodded at him and continued to run straight. What the hell, me! When I realized I was stupid, I curved around him and just watched him stare at me. How embarrassing. Yeah, there was no pic of me there because I went the wrong way.

And the sprint to the finish.

 

I thought it was awesome that there were fellow runners cheering and clapping at the finish line for those still finishing. It totally made me smile. I will have to do that, too, at my next race.

Steph, and her no-training ass, finished in less than a minute after me. I think I hate her.

With the run/walk method, I finished in my best time ever for this course and just a minute over my all-time half-marathon PR. How crazy is that?

My splits from last year, when I ran the whole way.

My splits for this race doing a run/walk.

Looking at my pacing, I saw that I was walking super slow for my walk breaks in the middle of the run. I think this is when I was pacing the older gent and just had a "just keep moving forward" attitude, instead of the "Go!" attitude that I needed and got later.

Anyway, I think I really like the run/walk method. Sure it's not running non-stop (or actually "cheating" like my husband says, insert stink-eye at him here). But my splits are more even, my overall pace was faster and I wasn't as fatigued towards the end like I normally am.

I'm excited to see how this will pan out for my marathon next month. Yikes!

51 days!

Argh! A friend just posted "51 days" on my facebook. That is 51 days until the Nike Women's Marathon. 51 days until my first marathon. 51 days until I will be out there joining all the other 20,000 crazies running a ridiculous amount of miles.

I want to throw up just thinking about it.

In other news, it sucks major ass being poor. We are super-duper poor right now, and to cut some costs, my husband is going to cancel our gym membership. When he told me this last night over the phone, I started crying. Yes, I know. I am a big baby. But the gym is my me time. Unlike tons of other folks, I actually go to the gym. And I go pretty frequently, 3 to 6 times a week. And not just to use the treadmill, but I use a lot of their weights machines and dumbbells and barbells and ellipitical machines and bikes.

We talked about it some more this evening, and I started crying again. I don't know. It is what it is, and if we can't afford it, we can't afford it. We pretty much have everything I need at home, and I can modify a lot of the exercises to make do with the things we don't have.

My main concern is that I will go bat-shit crazy at home.

Planks, no, not the stupid planking craze

A few months ago, I made a goal to be able to hold the plank position for 5 minutes. When I first started, I was able to hold it for 2 minutes.

I haven't been doing any real core exercises to focus on being able to hold it for longer. I've just been doing my regular strength training in addition to my running.

Well, I timed myself today, and I was able to hold it for 3.5 minutes today. I have to be able to do it twice in order for it to count. (I know. I'm a bit psycho.) I kick ass. Maybe in a few more months I'll be able to meet that 5 minute goal.

I've got a half marathon this Saturday. I've been doing a run/walk method for my previous long runs because I was dying doing runs longer than 10 miles. It's been going pretty well.

I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do for the half. Part of me wants to try to run the whole thing. The other part of me wants to try the run/walk method to see what kind of results it will yield during a race. We'll see.

Bring it, river!

I woke up this morning and started getting ready to go to the gym. However, I could still feel some soreness in my right hamstring from the weekend. I took an extra rest day on Monday. And well, it truly was hard, but I forced myself to take another rest day today. Better safe, than sorry, right? I'm thinking I might give it another rest day tomorrow as well. And possibily even another one on Saturday if it's still feeling iffy. I've got 16 miles (yikes!) scheduled for my long run, and I could always push it off til Sunday.

Since I was up early with nothing to do, I figured I better go and vacuum out my car before it got too hot. I have no idea when the last time I vacuumed my car was. It was pretty gross. It took me about an hour to thoroughly vacuum my car. But it was pretty satisfying to hear stuff flying through the vacuum hose at the speed of nastiness.

Martin got me this pretty nifty tool free from AAA. You know those tools. The ones you can use to slice through your seat belt and break your window out if you ever find yourself trapped in a sinking car. For the longest time, it's been kept in its box in my center console buried behind a bunch of crap.

There was a ton of stuff in front of it. Wipies, tissue, McDonald's receipts, gloves, beanies, etc. (Don't worry. I vacuumed all those crumbs/dead leaf particles (?) later.) I figured if my car and I ever started going underwater, I would be a goner trying to get handy tool out from beneath all that crap, much less still have time to take it out of the box, pull it out of it's bubble wrap and read the instructions.

So in order to be more prepared I took it out. Whadaya know, it's a flashlight, too! Unfortunately, when I pushed the button to turn it on, it didn't work. I also saw that the pointy window-breaking part looked pretty soft, like red rubber. How that would be able to break a car window beats me, but, hey, I'm no engineer.

Before I tossed the box, I figured I should give the instructions a once over. Hey, it's a manual flashlight! You turn a lever for a few minutes and it works! And what's this?! Always keep the protective cover on the the sharp pointie thing (if you can't tell, I'm paraphrasing here) when not in use.

Ooooooohhhhhhhh! Now that makes sense! However, it took me several minutes trying to remove that red thing. It was on there pretty good. So when I put it back, I left it off partially so it would be easier to rip off. I would imagine every second counts when icy cold waters are rapidly rising over your body.

I put the tool back in the bubble wrap and placed it in the driver side door. I am now prepared if my car ever plunges into a body of water. Or if I need a flashlight to find my bank card that slipped out of my pocket during a midnight run to Jack in the Box.

New Rules, Sub 9 Mile and Run/Walk

I got The New Rules of Lifting for Women. The author comes off sounding like an asshole with his "I'm right and everyone else is wrong attitude," which is pretty annoying. However, I've been following the workouts (designed by another guy), and I am quite pleased. I've done them 3 times this week. And my arms are usually sore the next day. You only do five exercises, and they go pretty quick. I was able to finish each workout in under 30 minutes. I think I can stick with this.

This Thursday was supposed to be a rest day, but I actually felt like running, so I headed to the trails to work on some hills. A half mile into my run, which starts off with a one mile hill, elevation gain of almost 300 feet, I saw a guy flying down. I was feeling miserable wondering how I managed to run up this hill nonstop in the past. I gave my usual smile and wave to the guy. And then he started CLAPPING for me. How kick-ass is that?! That totally boosted my morale, and I managed to make it up that hill. I hope that guy wins the lottery.

On the same run, in my last mile, I actually ran an 8:43 mile! Yes, it was going down that same hill I spoke of above, but still! Other than on the treadmill, I've never run a sub 9 mile. I'll take it.

I had been feeling down about my past couple sucky long runs and posted on the NWM facebook page for advice. A few people recommended the run/walk method. I had to get it out of my head that walking = failure. With a new mindset, I headed out on my ten mile run this morning. I took a one minute walk break after every ten minutes. And guess what? It turned out to be my best time ever for this route! Crazy! And when I was done, I still felt like I could still do a few more miles. (10.36 miles in 1:54:11, 11:01/mile avg pace)

I fueled on fun-sized Snickers. After I ate one on my walking break (how sad must that have looked?), I saw two beautiful runners coming towards me. Not wanting to look like a complete loser, I started running again. Both guys gave me a huge smile and in sync raised their hands high at me. I returned the smile and raised my hand, too...clasping the Snickers wrapper. Nice.

Survived 14 miles...barely

We went to REI yesterday and I got this handheld.

It's a little too bright for my liking, but it was between this and a Nathan hand-held, and the hand grip on the Amphipod was tons more comfortable.

So I thought I was going to kick ass on my long run today since I now had some liquid on me, unlike last week's long run. I also packed a couple of fun-sized Snickers in the handheld for fuel. Oh, and I ate a regular sized Snickers pre-run. Sooooooo much tastier than a Clif bar. I also dropped a Nuun tablet (fruit punch flavor) in my water.

Well, the run sucked.

There were many a walking breaks. I don't remember at which mile they started, but it was way before Mile 9, unlike last week, maybe Mile 6. Sigh.

I ran out of water at the halfway point. And I was so thirsty and so dying that this time I actually went inside the Community Center at the start of Mile 10 to refill my bottle. I didn't care that the receptionist looked at my sweat-drenched self all weird. Their cold water from the water fountain was heaven!

I actually paused my garmin before I went in the Community Center, which is why Mile 10 probably doesn't read 15 minutes. Then I trudged the rest of the way back home.

I saw my neighbor walking her dog at the bottom of my last hill. I said hello to her and then proceeded to run up the hill. Thank goodness for her, because I think I didn't want to lose face by her seeing me crawling up that thing, hence the decent (for me) last mile at 12:12.

I'd like to run the marathon at an 11:30-12:00/mile pace. I'm wondering if my Insanity work-outs are interfering with my running times. I think they did during my February half earlier this year. I was doing Insanity in conjunction with my half training and my half turned out to be slower than I had hoped. I stopped doing Insanity and my half in June was much better. I started Insanity again this week. Maybe I'll just try and cut back.

Anyway, that was my long run today. 16 miles next week. Oy!

How the f@#! am I gonna run 26.2 miles?!

Yesterday morning I headed out to do my long run. My schedule called for 10 miles, but I figured I would do 12. My gramin died when I went to turn it on. I added a few tangents to my regular 10 mile route, so I thought I had a rough idea of which mile I was on. I mapped it last night, and I actually did 12.5 miles. In a slow, agonizing 2:31.

Miles 1-4: I felt good, strong, invincible.

Miles 4-7: Felt okay, neither good nor bad.

Miles 8-9: Hard. Felt like stopping, but pushed myself to continue to run.

Miles 10-12.5: Wheels feel off. Walked on and off.

My mantra throughout this run was, "You don't have to go fast. You just gotta go forward." That helped me get through some rough spots.

I think I need to carry water with me. I was soooooo thirsty. I thought about stopping inside the comminity center midway in my run because I knew they had water fountains inside. But I didn't know if they were open already. And I would've been too embarrassed anyway to go inside anyway.

I had a couple of fig newtons during the run. Don't know if they gave me more energy. But I do know they made me super thirsty.

I was so tired during the last few miles of this run. How am I supposed to run more than double this?! What the fuck!

Upping the mileage

I hopped on the scale this morning. 131.2. And morning is when I'm at my lightest. Sigh. Instead of getting better about what I'm eating, I had deep fried sweet potato fries, rice, beans, tamales, orange soda, cookies, frosted flakes, etc. Nice, huh?

Several months ago I was able to eat like a horse and still lose weight. So what's up with now? Well, I still eat like a horse. I'm just not exercising as much.

Now this is where it (i.e. me) gets ridiculous. This is roughly my training schedule:

Monday - 45 minutes weights, easy run (4-6 miles)
Tuesday - 45 minute weights, cross-train (usually pilates)
Wednesday - hard run (3-4 miles speedwork)
Thursday - 45 minutes weights, easy run (4-6 miles)
Friday - cross-train (usually pilates)
Saturday - long run
Sunday - rest

Plenty of exercise, right? Well, in order for me to lose weight I either need to watch my food intake or exercise more. And I know I can't stop eating sweets. So it looks like I need to tack on more exercise.

I was flipping through an old Runner's World magazine earlier today and glanced over a marathon training plan for a newbie marathoner. The weekly mileages from the get go were a lot more than the weekly mileages in my plan. Not couning cut-back weeks, my mileages have been in the 20-25 range, and I'm already in Week 8 of my training. The Runner's World plan starts off the first week of training at 25 miles.

Looks like I might need to revise my training.

Who am I?

I had a decent 6 mile run this morning. However, on the last huge hill at the end of my run I felt myself starting to fade.

When my kids don't listen to me or tell me no, I ask them, "Who am I?" They know to answer "Mama," which means they have to do as I say.

On the hill I thought of all the training I've done, all my strength-training, all my runs. Then in my head I said to myself, "Who are you?" And I answered, "I am a bad-ass mutha-fucka! I got this!" And repeat.

I made it up that hill with energy left to sprint all the way to my house.

Who am I?

Hehe.

Feeling old as dirt and completely out of modern day times

The neighborhood kids were over our house today. The ten year old girl was cracking me up and showing me dances, dances I had never heard of. Cat-daddy. Stanky leg. Spongebob. It made me feel so, so old. Her eight year old brother was showing me videos on YouTube. Yeesh, I haven't watched music videos in a long, long time. I promptly left and went to Target because I had to buy dental floss.

I got a new phone yesterday. I have to ask Martin how to do anything on it, because I'm a spaz. It has a front facing camera! Now I can see what I look like while I take my own self-portrait!

Can you see how impressed I am?

***Marathon training

06/27/11
Plan: Weights and easy 4.5 miles

Warm-up: .5 miles

Weights:
Back exer on Tricep machine. 100 lb. 3 x 20
Wide grip push ups in assist machine. 60 lb. 3 x 15
Tricep dips on assist machine. 60 lb. 3 x 15
Leg push down thingamajigs on assist machine. 60 lb. 3 x 15 each leg
High mountain rows. 30 lb. 3 x 15
Leg extensions (quads). 40 lb. 2 x 12
Hamstring curls. 30 lb. 2 x 12
Back rows. 45 lb. 2 x 12
Calf presses. 100 lb. 3 x 15
Rotator cuff exer. 2.5 lbs. 3 x 15 each side

I tried doing 3 sets instead of my usual 2 of most exercises to try to get myself to get stronger. I was able to do it except for a few exercises where I struggled with just 2 sets.

Run:
Incline: .5
I started at 5.3, but I was just feeling really good and kept upping it. I think I did most of the run at 5.8, but I know I went faster than that towards the end.

4.5 miles in about 47:20.

06/28/11
Plan: 30 minutes cross-training

Pilates, 30 minutes


06/29/11
Plan: 4 miles hard, strides

Incline: .5
Mile 1: 5.8 (10:21)
Mile 2: 6.0 (10:00)
Mile 3: 6.2 (9:41)
Mile 4: 6.4 (9.23)

4 miles in about 39:25

Strides:
8.5 and 4.0

Ran rest of run at 5.8 to make an even 5 miles in about 50 minutes.

A guy hopped on the treadmill next to me and started running at 8.5 (7:04 pace). It totally inspired me and I turned my run into a progression run feeling strong throughout the whole run. I actually felt like I could go faster at the end, but wanted to save energy for my strides.

The strides were totally challenging at 8.5. It was a sprint for me. I don't know how that guy managed to hold that pace.

I am actually starting to see improvements in my speed and it's making me happy. :)

Put on a shirt, lady!

Hehe. Today was my scheduled long run (just 6 miles since it's a cut-back week), and I decided to hit the trails. And well, why not work on my tan while I'm at it? So, I bit the bullet and ran in just a sports bra, shorts and my shoes and socks. Now, don't get me wrong, I would never wear this while running on the streets or the gym. But it's so common to see males running sans shirt and women in a sports bra on the trails. Why not be one of them?

Me on the trails in all my flat-chested glory.

Now to be honest with you, I did bring a shirt with me in the car to wear if I chickened out. I felt pretty fine in what I had on until I started running. Then it was not a pretty sight. All that belly jiggling around made me think of jello being pounded. However, pulling my shorts up slightly made all the difference in the world and contained the jiggling. Perfect!

I was pretty happy with this run. I felt good and strong through the whole thing. I was surprised to see the 10:54 average pace. Miles 3 and 4 were on dirt trails where I was jumping over a lot of weeds and dodging around uneven ground. I hurt my right ankle a few times.

Check out the elevation in the first mile! Crazy! But other than the time when I walked for a few minutes to readjust my shorts, I actually ran the whole way up. Okay, sometimes I was seeing a 14:36 pace (isn't this walking pace?), but I was still running nonetheless. And I did it in 12:36.

The fun thing about starting all uphill, is you finish going downhill. I love this part about this run. It totally makes me feel like a kid and that I'm fast. Hehe.

I wish I lived right next door to these trails so I could run here everyday. It's just so different from running on the streets.

06/24/11 Weigh-in: 127.0, 26%

So while it's not exactly the greatest numbers, at least I've been able to maintain it. It would be awesome if I could lose five pounds. But I don't know.

This damage was done singlehandedly in one day.

That is 1680 calories of iced oatmeal cookies consumed in one day.

P.S. - I swear I'm not 76.

It's Thursday?!

I just checked my calendar and was surprised to find that today is Thursday. For some reason I thought it was earlier in the week. Not working really throws me off.

I've had all kinds of aches and pains in the past few years from running - piriformis syndrome, runner's knee, bursitis (which I thought was peroneal tendonitis or plantar fasciitis, although my left arch is starting to hurt, too), crazy hip flexor pains, pulled hammies, pulled groin, toe nail falling off, etc.

Yesterday, I was able to add to the list. Iliotibial band syndrome, IT band syndrome for short. Sigh. I got up in the morning, walked to the bathroom sink and felt this sharp stabbing pain just above and to the outside of my right knee. It was super painful and nothing like I had felt before. It went away, but every now and then yesterday it would return, while I was sitting, while I was walking, there wasn't a specific pattern. Wonderful.

This week is a cut back week in my training so I get an extra rest day this week, today. Hooray! I'm actually thinking of not doing my "long run" this Saturday, a cut back 6 miler, to let my IT band rest.

Oh, and our ac went out yesterday. It was 98 degrees in my town. Thank goodness a guy is coming today to take a look at it. The good thing about sitting in the heat was that it killed my appetite.

***Marathon training
06/20/11 - Monday
Plan: Weights and an easy 4.5 miles

.5 mile warm up

Wide grip pull ups on assist machine. 55 lbs. 2 x 12.
Tricep dips on assist machine. 55 lbs. 2 x 12.
Leg presses. Mid. High. Mid together. 20 lbs. 2 x 12 each position.
High mountain rows. 30 lbs. 2 x 15.
Single leg hamstring curls. 20 lbs. 2 x 12 each side.
Back rows. 45 lbs. 2 x 12.
Calf presses. 90 lbs. 2 x 15.
Shoulder/back cross pull. 2.5 lbs. 2 x 12.
Rotator cuff exercise. 2.5 lbs. 2 x 20 each side.
Ab/knee raise. Front, left, right. 2 x 12 each position.

4 miles
1-3 @ 5.3
3.0-3.5 @ 5.5
3.5-4.0 @ 5.7
4.0-4.5 @ 6.0

Little less than 45 minutes.

06/21/11 - Tuesday
Plan: 30 minutes cross-train

Tae Bo Amped
50 minutes

I haven't done Tae Bo in years. It was pretty fun. But I'm not sure if I'll be doing it again. It didn't seem like it worked me out hard enough.

That's right. Be afraid. Be very afraid. I do Tae Bo. And apparnetly I don't clean my room or mirror.


06/22/11 - Wednesday
Plan: Hard 4 miles and strides

Incline: 0.5

Mile 1: 5.7
Miles 2-4: 6.0

I didn't feel like dying during this run. It was hard, but okay from the start. Usually I start out feeling ready to give up in the first mile or two. This run today wasn't that bad.

Strides - 8.0 and 4.0 x 4. The 8.0 is starting to feel a little easy now, at least for the 30 seconds I'm doing them for. Maybe I'll up it a little next week.

Total run was about 4.75 miles in maybe 50 minutes. I don't remember anymore.

My legs are killing me!

Note to self - For future reference, it's probably not a good idea to strength train your legs the day before your long run.

I woke up this morning feeling fine, but then when I got out of bed and started walking around my inner thighs we're feeling a tad bit sore. It made me happy though, because I love that feeling. I knew it was from all the leg presses I did the day before, leg presses I haven't done in like a million years. The pain wasn't horrible, and I figured my planned long run of 7 miles for the morning would shake out the soreness.

I cranked out the 7 miles outside loving life (Well, except for the first two or three miles, I always hate those.) and breathing in the fresh air. I got home stretched, ate a bowl of frosted flakes, showered, then climbed back into bed with Martin and fell back asleep.

Two hours later, I tried getting out of bed and started screaming because my legs were so sore and it hurt every time I moved them. Ugh! I've been limping around all day and cannot even squat down low enough on the ground to pick things up. I hurt this much!

What great workouts!

***Marathon training

06/17/11 - Friday
Plan: 45 minutes weights (lower body), 30 minutes cross train (elliptical)

Weights
Side, reverse lunge. 8 lb DBS. 2x15
Step ups w knee raise. 8 lb DBS. 2 x12
Back exerc on Tricep machine. 100 lb. 2 x 20
Lunge on bosu and bench w bicep and hammer curls. 8 lb DBS. 2 x 12 each side
Leg press Machine. Mid. High. Mid together 20 lb. 2 x 12 each position
Calf raises. 90 lb. 2 x 15
Quad extension. 40 lb. 2 x 12. ( 2nd set, break after only 7)
Prone hamstring curl. 30 lb. 2 x 12.
Rotator cuff. 2.5 lb. 2 x 20 each side.
Back row. 50 lb. 2 x 12

Cardio
30 minutes on the elliptical. Level 10. Random. Reverse mode every 5 minutes for 2 minutes.
A little over 3 miles. Boring, but I worked up a pretty good sweat.

06/18/11 - Saturday
Plan: Long run - 7 miles

7.09 miles, 1:15:58, avg pace 10:43.

3 more days!!!

I am so excited! Only 3 more days of work and then I am free! I actually think I might head to work early today to get a jump start on the ton of filing I want to get done before I go. Seriously, who am I?

I love fried eggs! Over medium? I'm not sure what they're called, but I have my mom make them for me. Because I suck whenever I have tried to make them for myself. When my mom makes them the edges are all nice and crispy and the yolk is just perfectly done and runny. When I make them I can't get the edges to crisp. The whole thing, whites and yolk, come out looking and tasting raw. And I'm lucky if the yolk doesn't pop while I'm cooking it. I am so grateful for my mom.

***Marathon training
Plan: Weights (upper body), 4 miles - hard, strides

Warmup: .5 miles, 5.5.

Weights:
* Back exercises on tricep machine. 100 lb. 2 x 20.
* Shoulder exercises (tap in front of you, press and tap above) with dumbbells on bosu. 8 lbs. 2 x 12. *Note to self. Do not do these again. I felt my left shoulder, which is prone to injury, start to hurt while doing these.
* Chest fly on bosu. 8 lb dumbbells. 2 x 12.
* Back row. 50 lb. 2 x 12.
* Shoulder/back cross exercise on cable machine. 2.5 lb. 2 x 12.
* Rotator cuff exercise on cable machine. 2.5 lb. 2 x 20 each side.
* Pushups with toes on medicine ball. 2 x 12.
* Wide grip pull ups on assist machine. 55 lb. 2 x 12. *Haha. I had to grunt during the last 3 of the second set. These got hard!
* Tricep dips on assist machine. 55 lb. 2 x 12.

Run:
I was feeling super tired from the get go so I thought I would take it easy and try doing a semi-hard 5.7 instead of my hard 6.0 for the whole run. I wound up feeling better as the run progressed and did a progression run.
Mile 1: 5.7
Mile 2: 5.8
Mile 3: 5.9
Mile 4: 6.0

By the time I got to Mile 4 I was feeling happy and bouncy and wanted to go faster, but knew I had to save some energy for my strides.

Strides:
30 seconds at 8.0, 1 minute at 4.0. Do 4 times.
The first interval was hard. But the ensuing ones were much easier. I guess my body just needs to warm up to things.

The treadmill read 4.8 miles by the time I finished. Combine that with my half mile warm up and that's 5.3 miles for the day and weights. Awesome!

The return to pilates

Today's plan was 30 minutes of cross-training. I figured I would do some pilates to give my body a break.

OMG! I forgot how tough pilates is!

I tried this video first.

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?v=lMnY5jAlp6Y

I couldn't even make it through the first exercise.

So I quit that and tried her "beginner" video.

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?v=lCg_gh_fppI

Easier, but I still had to take a ton of breaks and could not keep up. I felt so out of shape! I used to be able to do the leg circles. God, now I can do it for about 5 seconds before having to put my leg down and wanting to scream in pain. Pathetic.

I guess I know what I'll be doing on my cross-training days.

That wonderful next day soreness feeling

I love waking up feeling sore from the previous day's work-out. It let's me know that I accomplished something. I can almost hear my muscles repairing themselves and getting stronger!

My friend Steph texted me this morning asking if I was going to go to the gym. I thought about it briefly. But I already did weights yesterday. My training plan seems to be getting good results and I didn't want to stray from it too much. Good thing. Because when I got out of bed, I felt the soreness in my shoulders and biceps. And those are areas I never feel sore in.

The kids and I went to Target yesterday to buy milk, eggs and oj. We got those items ... in addition to a boatload of candy. I swear, I should not be allowed to go to Target without another adult to keep me in check.

I weighed myself last night. 127. Yikes. And then I weighed myself this morning, because usually I'm a little lighter. 126.4. Oh, no. Damn all that candy! And all the other yummy, delicious crap I've been stuffing my face with.

My kryptonite. I used to do really well eating peanut butter toast and a protein shake for breakfast everyday. But for about the past couple of months I've been grubbing on some frosted flakes. It's become my crack.

The countdown to freedom is on!

I gave my notice to my job on Friday. I gave them a one week notice. This Friday will be my last day. I am so stoked!

I've got all these wonderful plans in my head. I'm going to make a meal schedule for the family. I'm going to make a cleaning schedule for my house. I'm going to work on our yard and tackle home projects. I'm going to sign my kids up for all these activities.

More than likely I'll probably wind up just sitting on my couch all day with my iPad neglecting my kids and the house.

***Marathon training
Plan: Weights and 4 easy miles

Warm-up: .5 mile on the treadmill, 5.5

* Back exercises on tricep machine. 100 lb. 2 x uh, 12? 15? 20? Can't remember.
* Single leg squats with shoulder press and oblique twist on bosu. 10 lb. 2 x 15 each leg.
* Push-ups with toes on medicine ball. 2 x 12.
* Single leg Russian dead lifts with back row on bosu. 10 lb dumbbells. 2 x 12 each leg.
* Russian dead lift with hamstring extension with upright row on bosu. 10 lb dumbbells. 2 x 15.
* Squats with bicep curls on bosu. 10 lb dumbbells. 2 x 15.
* Spiderman push-ups on bosu. 2 x 12.
* Rotator cuff exercise on cable machine. 2.5 lb. 2 x 20 each side.
* Shoulder/back cross exercise on cable machine. 2.5 lbs. 2 x 12.

4 miles on treadmill.
Miles 1-3 - Speed: 5.3, Incline: .5
Mile 4 - Speed: 5.7, increased incline .5 with every tenth of a mile. Ended with a 5.0 incline. Hard!

4 miles in under 45 (44?) minutes.

Wha? Running slower helps you run faster?

A lot of the reading I've done on running promotes easy running on the majority of your runs (Kara Goucher, John Bingham, Hal Higdon). The marathon plan I'm following only has one hard run a week. The other three runs are supposed to be done at a nice easy pace. So far I've been following it. Yesterday was my long run of 6 miles. It was tough and horrible and slow due in part to 3 hours of sleep and eating popcorn for dinner the night before. But I did it.

Today was supposed to be a rest day, but I just felt like running. There is no hill training in my training plan, and my masochistic ass actually misses it. So I woke up this morning and headed out.

I just felt really good. Nikki Manaj's "Superbass" came on my iPod, and it's just such a fun song that my feet picked up on their own. I would check my Garmin periodically and saw sub 9 mile paces from time to time while the song was playing during the first mile. And I wasn't even trying to go fast. I was just having fun. True, the first mile is mostly all downhill, but still.

Anyway, it turned out to be a great run!

I think that's my fastest mile to date outside on the road.

And check out the crazy elevation on this route.

 

It makes me wonder what I can do on level ground when conditions are ideal.

***Marathon training
06/10/11, Friday
Plan: 30 minutes cross-train

Well, I did jack on this day. I was going to do pilates later that night, but Martin suggested we take the kids to the drive-in since it was such a nice night.

06/11/11, Saturday
Plan: 6 miles

I did it. All but the last mile felt hard and sluggish. I ran wondering how I was ever going to find enough energy to run up the last hill, when I already wanted to stop and walk during the first mile. Somehow though, I started feeling good during the last mile and made it up the hill with no problems.

Mile 1   11:02
Mile 2   11:50
Mile 3   11:03
Mile 4   11:38
Mile 5   11:29
Mile 6   11:17
Last .03 9:58

6.02 miles
1:08:35
11:23 average pace

This actually surprised me, since I was expecting to see 12:00+ miles/minute paces.

Skank undercover

Today was my daughter's last day of school. Her friend was having a pool party to celebrate so we went. I bought a new bikini this morning and was excited to wear it. Well, none of the other mothers were wearing anything remotely resembling a swim suit. None had plans to get in the water. Oh. I didn't want to look like a skank by parading around in my two piece so I just stayed under wraps in my tank and shorts. I did, however, sit in the sun to tan my legs at least. Of course, I was the sole adult in the sun, while the rest of them discussed cancer and melanoma. Awkward. My legs are looking quite nice. Hehe.

***Marathon training
Plan: Easy 4 miles and weights

My knee is still hurting so I decided to forego the run altogether. I figured it would be the wise thing to do.

5 mile warm-up on the elliptical.

* Back exercise on tricep machine. 100 lb. 2 x 20.
* Wide-grip pull-ups on pull-up assist machine. 55 lb. 2 x 12.
* Tricep dips on pull-up assist machine. 55 lb. 2 x 12.
* Leg extensions (quads). 40 lb. 2 x 12.
* Hamstring curls on prone hamstring curl machine. 30 lb. 2 x 12.
* Seated row. 45 lb. 2 x 12.
* Calf presses. 70 lb. 1 x 15. 75 lb. 1 x 15.
* Ab exercises/ knee raises. Front, left, right. 2 x 12 each.

Ow, my knee!!!!!

My left knee really hurts. It's been off and on for the past few weeks, but never this bad. I iced it this morning after my run and it felt better. Then when I went to go take off my shoes, when I put all my weight on my left leg and bent over to untie my right shoe, I felt this shooting pain. Horrible. I hope it gets better. I will cry if I get too injured to run my marathon.

***Marathon training
Plan: Hard 4 miles and strides

Mile 1: 5.8 (10:20)
Mile 2-4: 6.0 (10:00)
Total: 4 miles in 40:20

I really struggled with the 10:00 pace today for the first mile and a half at this pace. But then I felt my body sink into it and then I felt fine. I wish this would happen all the time.

Strides
4.0 and 8.0. Challenging, but easy.

Planks

I read somewhere that holding a two-minute plank is pretty good. So I tried it. I can do two minutes! I did 2 minutes and held on for another 10 seconds for a buffer. And then I tried it again and made it to 2:15. But that was pretty freakin hard. My goal will be to work up to 5 minutes!

Warning - boring marathon training post ahead. Feel free to skip.

***Marathon training
Cross-training today. Hit the gym this morning.

Did a half mile warm-up on the treadmill. .05 incline, 5.5 pace.

Then weights.
* Back exercises on tricep machine. 1st set of 15 at 90 lb. 2nd set of 15 at 85 lb.
* Pull-ups on pull-up assist machine. 65 lb. 2 x 15.
* Tripep dips on pull-up assist machine. 65 lb. 2 x 15.
* Back rows on machine. 45 lb. 2 x 15.
* Rotator cuff exercise on cable machine. 2.5 lb. 2 x 20 each arm.
* Ab excercises. 2 X 12 each - front, left, right.
* High mountain row machine. 30 lb. each side. 2 x 15.

30 minutes on elliptical. 
I set it to random and reverse mode to try to decrease the boredom factor. Level 10 out of 25. Finished a little over 3 (miles?) in 30 minutes.

I was sweating buckets on this thing today. I tried keeping my speed over 6.0. It's so weird. I have no idea what is good or not. That's why I hate the elliptical. I also found myself in the 7.0-8.0 range for periods of a time.

But when I finished, I didn't feel like my body had gotten beaten up, like I usually do after the treadmill. I guess all that lack of pounding can be a good thing.

Work

I was this close to giving my notice today. It's just so hard showing up at a place that has zero regard for you. My hours and my salary have already been cut. They're selling off the furniture like there's no tomorrow. Files are being boxed up. There's only a shell of us left. And yet, we haven't been officially told when our last day will be. As a matter of fact, we haven't been told anything. It's infuriating. I'm just so ready to be done with it all.

I've worked at this place for the past five years. I loved it. It sucks that everything is going down like this. Sigh.

***Marathon training
Today's plan was an easy 4 miler. I was a tad bit sore from yesterday's half. The first two miles felt like torture even though I was doing them at a slow 5.3. At the start of Mile 3 I felt better and upped it to 5.5, still trying to keep it easy. I felt pretty awesome so at Mile 4 I upped it again to 5.7 and kept upping it and somehow finished at 6.5. Oops, so much for easy. But I felt great after this run. 4 miles in about 43:35.

See Jane Run - I Run For Chocolate & Champagne Half-Marathon - Race Report

It was cold and raining and horrible the day before the race. Rain was forecasted for race day. I briefly thought about just not doing it. But I can't have a DNS on my record due to wussiness.

I left my house around 5:15 am after shoveling down a small bowl of frosted flakes with skim milk down my throat. The race didn't start until 8 am, but they recommended you get there by 6:30 to allow time to find parking. And since I can't parallel park to save my life, I intended on getting there early.

By the time I got there, the rain had stopped. Yay!!!! I found a spot a couple blocks from the start and headed out to pick up my bib and chip. Then I hit the porta-potties (Hurray for being early! I was the first one who used my porta-potty of choice). As I started to walk back to my car, I couldn't find my keys! Two thoughts immediately crossed my mind - Either I left them in the porta-potties or I locked them in my car! It was only 6:30 by then and if I called Martin he would make it to me in time for me to get into my car so I could get my iPod and cap out. And then I briefly remembered setting my keys down on the bib table and reminding myself to not forget them. D'oh! I went back to the bib table and sure enough there they were. Thank God!

Back to my car, where I hung out staying warm munching on a Clif bar and getting the rest of my stuff together. I headed back to the start at 7:30 am to take in the activities. The line for the porta-potties were a mile long. I had to pee again, but was pretty sure I could hold it. They had music going on and someone on a stage leading everyone through dance warm-ups. It was pretty entertaining.

Before I knew it, we were all set to start. I felt pretty good for the first few miles.

I kept having to remind myself to run my own race and to slow the f down and quit following the crowd. Unfortunately that didn't work. But I was feeling pretty strong. I stopped to take a gel and some water at the 4 mile aid station. I remember at the 6 mile mark I was still feeling good and remember thinking at my previous two halfs how exhausted I felt at the halfway point.

I stopped again at the 8 mile aid station for another gel and water. And then by Mile 9, the wheels started to fall off. I started talking walking breaks.

Another stop at the 10 mile aid station for another gel and water. I told myself that I had only 3 more miles left. I could do this. And then I walked more. Ugh! I was so on target prior!

Mile 12 was the worst. Walk - jog - walk - jog - walk - walk - walk.

Finally I saw the finish, which helped me out a lot mentally and I was able to pick it up again.

The awesome thing about this race was that there were a lot of people out there supporting the runners. I saw tons of little kids with their dads along the course holding up signs supporting their moms. And there were tons more at the finish line. It made me smile to high five all the little kiddos holding up their hands.

I felt a bit dejected as I saw the clock read 2:20:XX when I crossed the line. But my Garmin read 2:17, which made me feel a tad better. We'll see what my official time is tomorrow.

Garmin splits:

1    10:23
2    10:22
3    10:24
4    10:06
5    10:36
6    10:23
7    10:18
8    10:16
9    10:39
10   10:45
11   10:37
12   11:11
13   10:38
.10   8:54 pace

2:17:55
10:30 average pace, which was exactly what I was aiming for.

I still have problems pacing. Either I go too slow or too fast. I really need to work on this. I was trying to find someone who was running a 10:30 pace, but I guess, like me, we all go up and down.

Another race for the books. I really liked this race. I can't wait to do it again next year!

Edited to add:
The official results came out.
Official time (gun time): 2:20:22 (Booooo!!!!) (10:43 pace)
Net time (chip time): 2:18:39 (Yay!!!!!!)
Age group: 142/275 (Man, women in my age group are fast!)
Overall: 694/1519

Thank you Rain Gods for taking a break this morning

Today was See Jane Run's I Run For Chocolate and Champagne Half. Yay! I PR'ed! Garmin read a moving time of 2:17, but the total time was 2:18:55 or something like that. The official race results will be posted tomorrow. The clock read 2:20:xx when I crossed. And if that turns out to be my official time I'll be a bit bummed as my PR was 2:20 on the dot. I'm hoping that that's just the gun time.

After the race I met a really cool girl. She was stretching and I told her congrats and she wished me the same. And then I asked her if she knew where the chocolate was and then she and I went in search. Hehe. I felt like I was in pre-school again making friends. Her name is Allison and she's actually thinking of or maybe doing the Nike half in October! The one where I'm doing the full. As we were walking to our cars my shins starting tightening up. It was horrible and I wanted to die. Thank God for Allison because she had us do some stretches and it totally made my legs feel much better.

Then I drove to my friend Claudia's house just a few blocks away. She and I have been friends since the fifth grade. What is that? 10 or 11 years old? Yeah, we're 37 now. She and I havent hung out in about a year so it was fun just talking and catching up. I think I put the racing seed in her mind and told her that if she ever wants to do a 5K that I'd do it with her.

I'll write a full race report soon. For now I just plan on grubbing on tons of food for the rest of the day.

Cotton Candy and Kettle Corn (aka Carbo-loading)

Today my daughter had a field trip to the county fair. Like most county fairs, it was pretty boring. The kids had fun looking at all the animals there. They had some kind of animal exhibit with red kangaroos and opossums and other animals. They also had your standard 4h animals, too, with tons of pigs and goats.

Our favorite part, and no county fair experience would be complete without, was all the yummy crap food - cotton candy (and more cotton candy we bought again later to bring home, we're huge fans here), kettle corn, soda, nachos, hot dogs, ice cream, shaved ice. Ugh, my stomach hurts remembering it all. But come on, when in Rome, right?

For someone who has to run 13.1 miles the day after tomorrow, I sure haven't been making the wisest decisions in regards to my fueling. Hm, perhaps I should try and drink some water today.

Martin and I saw The Hangover 2 last night. Then we snuck in to see the midnight showing of X-Men First Class. Eye candy galore! Unfortunately I didn't get to bed until 3 am this morning and had to wake up at 7 to get myself and the kiddos ready for the field trip. Needless to say, I hit my bed some time in the early afternoon when we got home and didn't wake up until a little past 5 pm feeling disoriented and groggy as naps often make me feel. Ugh.

***Marathon training
I understand that reading about my marathon training can be boring as hell, so I thought I'd just put it at the bottom of my posts. It's just so easy to keep track of it here as opposed to writing it down in my journal. Today I'm supposed to do 30 minutes of cross-training. I think I'll do Insanity's Core Cardio Conditioning and Balance, or whatever the hell it's called. It's been so long I can't remember. It's the one you do on recovery week. Or is it the one you do to recover midweek? Whatever. I'll do it tonight. I just need something easy because my hammies are sore from yesterday's strength-training. Yay! They're getting stronger!

Staying on track

Today's plan was an easy 4 miles. I still want to strength train because I'm vain like that, so I figured I would do weights on the easy run days.

Warmed up on the treadmill at 5.5 for a half a mile. And even that felt hard.

Then did an hour of weights. There are so many exercises I want to do and it's hard for me to choose which I should fit in for the hour. I originally planned to do just 45 minutes, but wanted to squeeze in a few other moves.

* Single leg squats with shoulder press and oblique twist on bosu. 8 lb dumbbell. 2 x 15 on each leg.
* Single leg push-ups on bosu. 2 x 12.
* Single leg Russian dead lifts with back row on bosu. 8 lb dumbbells. 2 x 12 each leg.
* Squats with upright back row on bosu. 8 lb dumbbells. 2 x 20.
* Lunges with one foot on bench, other foot on bosu. Bicep curl when right leg forward. Hammer curl with left foot forward. 2 x 15 each leg.
* Wide pull-ups on pull-up assist machine. Weight set to 60 lb. 2 x 12.
* Tricep dips on pull-up assist machine. Weight set to 60 lb. 2 x 12.
* Ab exercises (knee lifts?). 2 x 12 for front, left side and right side.
* Back row. 40 lb. 2 x 15.
* Rotator cuff exercise. 2.5 lb. 2 x 20 each side.

I love doing the first few exercises because I know I'm working several muscles in each exercise. I hate doing weights, so I try to mulit-task as much as possible. And I love working on the bosu, because it automatically works my core.

After strength training I headed back to the treadmills. The plan was 3.5 easy miles. Unfortunately even running at 5.5 felt difficult for me. I tried 5.0 but that just felt so slow for me. So I did most of the run at 5.3, sometimes upping it, sometimes lowering it. It just felt so long and labored and boring. At about 2.75 miles when I turned my head to my iPod on my arm to skip a song, I noticed a cute guy behind me on a treadmill. Well, I couldn't really see what he looked like, but I told myself that he was cute. Right away my posture straightened and I felt stronger. Hehe. I finished the last .75 miles starting at 5.7 and kept upping it and finished at a nice fast 7.0.

Yeah, I got a good look at the guy after I finished my run. He wasn't cute.

Making strides

Yesterday's training plan called for a half hour of cross-training. So I did Jillian Michaels' Banish Fat Boost Your Metabolism. And just like last time, my left knee started hurting after doing back kicks. I think I might have to put that DVD up for awhile.

Today's plan called for a 40 minute hard run plus strides. I did the first mile at 5.8 (10:20/mile) to warm up and finished the last three miles at 6.0 (10:00/mile). 4 miles in about 40:30. Steph came by during the end of the run and asked if I wanted to do weights with her. I went and kind of half-assed did some tricep exercises while I showed her other moves. But since it really wasn't my weight day I mostly hung out with her showing her what to do and caught up on some girl talk.

Then she went to go tan and I went back to the treadmill to try out these strides thingamajigs in John Bingham's plan. Accelarate to a controlled fast past for 30 seconds, walk for a minute. Repeat 4 times. I warmed up at 5.5 (11:00/mile) for about 2 minutes, then put it up to 8.0 (7:30/mile). I wouldn't say that staying at that pace for 30 seconds was a piece of cake, but it wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be. 30 seconds goes by quick! And that I can manage. I actually have no idea how a ton of folks can sustain that pace for more than a minute though, much less 26.2 miles. But 30 seconds! Sign me up! Hehe. I alternated between 8.0 and 4.0. Done! Not too bad! Next!

First day of marathon training

I'm following John Bingham's plan, and the first day calls for an easy 40 minute run. I'm a fan of full miles so I made it an easy 4 miles. My legs felt like lead, and I wanted to stop so many times during the first three miles, but we can't start training off like that, can we? So I soldiered through. Surprisingly the last mile was better and I even ran strong up the hill. 4 miles in 45 something minutes.

Day 1 of marathon training done! Even at my heavy weight! This calls for ice cream!

05/29/11 Weigh-in: 130.0

See that number after the one? Yep, that's a three. No denying it now. I am back in my 130's.

Ugh, I put on my fat pants today. And they fit me perfectly. Actually, after the barbecue at my mom's house they even started feeling a little tight.

This is a pivotal moment. Either I get serious and get disciplined and get that number down. OR I half ass it and the number goes spiraling up. I've been there before. Several times. Up and down. Up and down.

I need to do damage control now. Before it gets too out of hand.

"Discipline is remembering what you want." David Campbell

So remember. And put down the chocolate already!

Awesome 10 miler

I threw on my running clothes this morning to take Katie for our usual walk. I figured if she did well, we'd go for a run. Yeah, no. About a half mile into our walk she started jumping on me. I know that's her way of telling me, "Hey! Let me go run free, lady!" So, I quelled my anger, turned around and took her back home.

Then I told Martin that I was going for a run, and I'd be back in two hours. I actually had a plan for this long run. Usually with long runs I just get out there and try to finish them without dying. My plan for this ten miler was to take it slow and easy for the first seven miles (11:00-12:00/miles), and then run at race pace, or what I'm hoping will be my half-marathon race pace next week (10:30/mile), for the last three miles.

While things didn't go exactly as planned, I did finish feeling super good and happy and pleased as punch with myself. I finished 10.31 miles in 1:54:58, average pace was 11:09/mile. This was almost as fast as my personal record for this route from 08/14/10 - 10.21 miles, 1:52, 11:03/mile. The difference was that today, I actually held myself back for the first seven miles!

Mile - 08/14/10 - 05/28/11

Mile 1 - 10:42 - 10:54 - I forced myself to go slow up the first hill so as not to burn out.
Mile 2 - 10:51 - 11:19
Mile 3 - 10:36 - 10:54 - It sucked holding back, because I was just feeling really good. I thought I was going slow, but then looked at my Garmin and saw 9:XX times. Whoops.
Mile 4 - 11:08 - 11:08 - I would trot along and noticed that my comfortable pace was mainly 11:06.
Mile 5 - 10:58 - 11:46 - My slowest mile on this run. I stopped at this time to take a GU.
Mile 6 - 11:20 - 11:28 - I told myself to make sure to keep it slow and enjoy this nice slow pace for this mile and the next one.
Mile 7 - 11:04 - 11:22 - I was starting to feel tired and was wondering how and if I could manage a 10:30 pace for the last three miles.
Mile 8 - 11:06 - 10:43 - I had a really hard time finding the 10:30 pace. Either I was going too fast or too slow. I got tired towards the end of this mile and walked with a tenth of this mile left to go.
Mile 9 - 10:59 - 10:29 - My average pace may have been on target, but I was up and down with this mile. Again, I was going too fast. I was seeing sub 9:00 miles. I walked the last .15 of this mile.
Mile 10 - 12:02 - 11:33 - And more trouble with pacing. But I knew this mile was going to be wonky because of the giant hill at the end.
Last .31 miles - 9:56 - 10:44 - Finished nice and even going down the last hill.

I had a really hard time finding that 10:30/mile pace. I need to go out on the road again to find it so I can remember what it feels like. Either I was going too slow or way too fast.

However, I am quite pleased with what I've accomplished. During the first seven miles, I kept telling myself to take it easy, "to bank energy" for the end when I would need it. And it worked! The last few miles on long runs have ALWAYS sucked for me. I always peter out and get tired. But today's strategy worked. I just have to force myself to take it easy in the beginning.

Now if I can just keep this feeling and energy for next week's half, I'll be all set!