5 More Weeks

Only 5 weeks left. Hard to believe? I will feel a lot better when the next 3 weeks are over and I get to taper down one last time. I know at this point that I CAN do it, but I still get worried before every long run. I only have 2 more "I've never ran that far before" runs and I'm pretty darn excited about it.

Last week I took it easy, shorting myself 4 miles total. I don't regret it after how good I felt on Saturday but I've got to kick it back into high gear for this weekend. 18 miles! A co worked tells me I should alter my schedule to do 20 this weekend and 23 the final weekend. But I don't think I will. I know it's only 2 more miles but I'm not ready for 20 yet. I need to know that I can do 18 first. Than maybe MAYBE I'll do more than 20 the last long week.

I've found myself lately wondering what I'm going to do with my self aftet this is over. It's still too far away to think that way but if I were to think that way, I would probably keep up the running, just not so many miles. I'd probably decide that I would stick with the 13 mile and under races and work on time instead of the "just finishing" goal. But I'll go down that road again in a few short weeks!

I'm now taking volunteers for who wants to jump in and commit 1 or more miles to keeping me company and keeping my feet moving. I already have identified my "problem" areas of the course so you will be assigned a place to jump in and keep me going. I also need a kick A&% outfit for race day. Any ideas? It has to be comfortable but the funkier the better. I'll probably put my name on my shirt and something with bright colors. Send your ideas and your mile commitment my way!

Nothing exciting new

I guess you could fairly say that I cheated this week. After not finishing my 16 miles on Sunday I was pretty sore so my original intention was to take a few days off. I ran 4 miles on Tuesday, and swamped my 8 miles on Wednesday for 5 miles. It was snowing and I wasn't even ready to run till after 9 so I didn't want to be out that late. So I should have done 8 yesterday. I ran about 4 in the am yesterday and never went back out for the other 4.

I feel guilty which sucks. Hopefully tomorrow's 12 miles in Bettendorf will go well and get me back on track. I only have 2 more "longer than I've ever run before" runs so I'm really close!

My legs feel better today than they have in weeks. I've been having knee problems but only when I'm NOT running. Today they feel pretty good so maybe the rest was good for me!

I'm excited for the change of pace this weekend, running in Bettendorf not St. Louis!

Total Miles

I've run over 240 miles since this thing began.

Pretty cool huh!

A typical Tuesday

I'm picking up the pace a bit either out of desire to be done or desire to prove to myself that I can do it, I finished about a minute and a half average per mile faster than last week.

I needed the confidence booster too.

Today was more of the "good stuff in good stuff out" eating. I felt hungry. Maybe I'll add a little bigger lunch tomorrow to see if that helps.

I resolve to eat better

Maybe eating better will help me to have more energy when I need it (like to run 16 miles). I'm embarassed to admit that up to this point I have hardly altered my eating habits. Probably not the best idea with the amount of activity I'm doing every week. So it started today. High protein meals and I'm monitoring what else I put into my body so if something doesn't feel right, I'll know why.

Today I had 4 little meals at work and I feel pretty good.
Hard boiled eggs, rice cakes with peanut butter, yougert with banana's, and cottage cheese. It all fit in to my day nicely and I felt satisified. So, tomorrow it's more of the same!

What is the opposite of feeling accompolished???

I'm not a big fan of that word but that's how I feel right now.

GOAL: 16 miles
ACCOMPLISHED: 11 miles running, 2.5 walking (if I'm lucky)
so, not 16 miles.
I ran less than 70% of my goal. Not only that but I couldn't even walk the remaining 5 miles.

I ran 5 miles to the park, around the park and then walked the most direct route back home. I was sore, cold, and pretty on edge about the dark and the type of people that were out tonight. That's all I'll say about that.

The last 3/4 mile there was a police woman who kept driving from one corner to another 2 or 3 streets down. She did this like 3 times. I felt much more safe even though I'm sure she was just looking for a better position to place her car to pull people over for speeding, I felt like she was watching me!

Lets see if I can find the positives about today's run.....I ran something, and I didn't die doing it. Oh and Holly told me about a bathroom in the park (that I used just to see if they would let dogs in and they do) so that's pretty cool. The weather was georgous when I started (3 hours ago) but now a storm is blowing in so there is a cool breeze and it's picked up a bit.

I've heard rumors of taking cold/ice baths to help heal sore legs. I'm trying that tonight. I don't think tomorrow will be ANY fun if I don't! I'll let you know how it does

FYI: Casey is PASSED OUT on the floor now and he has been since about 3 minutes after we walked in the door. Apparently today was hard on him as well.

Weather

It's rain/snow/icing right now. I SHOULD have gotten up and run early this am but did not because sleeping sounded like a much better plan. So I'll wait till tomorrow when hopefully the weather forcast will be wrong and it won't thunderstorm all day. (although I won't mind if it's not off on the 60 degree temp forcast)

Friday I took an hour lunch break and got in a quick 4 miles. It was nice to have the break in the day and if I had the ability to shower and get cleaned up, I'd do it more often. It's still an option for sometimes when I have things to do during the week.

Short update today. Not much new on the running front. Most likely I'll have a 16 mile to update on tomorrow!

Things that annoy me.....

• Forest Park/Metro Link construction. Prior to this running thing I was only mildly effected by the Forest Park/Metro link construction. There is no way I can stay in a farily safe neighborhood and not have to cross the construction site at least once.
• The 'popcorn ball' trees. I don't know their official name but they look like spikey popcorn balls and they are all over our neighborhood and they HURT when you step on them. It's like a cartoon when you they are trying to run on marbles
• People who try to get through the green/yellow light and pay no attention to the woman running through the crosswalk, nor her dog. You'd be surprised how often this happenes. Running with Holly one time we saw some lady flip off a car in the park that cut her off. We laughed but now I know how she feels!

I spent a total of 12 mintes at crosswalks last night. Not something I want to be doing when I'm trying to finish a run.

On a positive note, I finished 8 miles in 1 hour and 17 minutes. The last 2 miles I sprinted (as fast as I can spint having just run 6 miles) because I had to go to the bathroom SOO BAD and there was no where along my run that would let both me AND Casey in. Something to think about in the future....dog friendly bathroon stops.

Our week begins

Do you like the pic of Casey and I? We were ready to start our run. Today I was very disapointed. It was 70 today! However, not when I ran. I didn't get out till after 8pm. The sun went down, a cold front was coming in which brought with it rain and wind. When I turned onto Kingsland and into the wind, flash backs from our run in St. Charles hit me. It wasn't nearly as bad but it was cold, windy, and some sort of precipitating. I only was wearing the wind braker and a tank top because I thought it would be warm out. Silly me! That only made us run faster. It was a nice run. I ran on a few new streets which is always nice. Tomorrow, 8 miles. I need to get creative tomorrow....I'm getting bored with the neighborhood.

Sorry Holly, you've been replaced! Meet my new running partner.

And the training continues.....

Well, I did it. I’ve not accomplished everything I wanted to in this process. On Sunday afternoon, I made it out of the house, head to toe in running gear and ran 15 miles, by myself with no one telling me I had to keep going.

I carefully plotted my 15-mile course…. 4.5 miles to the park, 6.2 around the park, 4.2 miles back. (.1 miles short of my goal, but no big deal right?). I spent a majority of the day Sunday debating if I would actually make it out to run that day. It wasn’t until 4 O’clock that I finally left the house. I wasn’t certain until 20 minutes into it that I’d even make it the first 4.5 miles to the park. But I did! And then I kept going! It had rained most of the day so aside from the massive puddles it was perfect weather. About 50 degree.

It started to get dark when I was about a mile into the park. I had my cell phone “just in case” which made me feel much safer. About 5 miles later it started to down pour. I started the run with a windbreaker, which was now tied around my waist, so I put that on and the rain felt awesome. The only down fall was the MP3 player on my arm had to be shielded from the rain so it was put in the pocket of my running belt, which was also carrying my cell phone. The pocket was hardly big enough for both so the belt started to hurt my back just a bit. The rain only lasted about 20 minutes and then the MP3 player was back out again.

When running on the streets, it’s not uncommon to hear and occasional idiot hoot and hollar or a horn or two. About a mile from home I was stopped waiting for a red light and I heard both, a horn and hootin’ and hollarin’. I turned around prepared to be very angry and make an unnecessary gesture when I saw Shelley, Geoff and Tully. Casey went NUTS at this point seeing Tully in the car, but I managed to pull him home the last mile. I did cheat a bit…..In order to complete the final 4.2 miles, I had to run 2 blocks past my street, and then turn around and run back home. When I got 1 block past, I thought that was a little ridiculous, I was going to go home, so I did.

2 hours and 40 minutes after I left my house, prepared only to go as far as I could, I finished the longest run I’ve ever finished, 15 miles. I can’t say the next 2 hours were any fun, but I’m not doing it for that. I’m still a little sore today, but hope to get out and get my 4 miles in this evening with no problems. This week I step it up to 4, 8, 4 and 16 on Saturday for a total of 32 for the week. For those interested, I peak at 40 miles the week of March 14th. Only 4 weeks away!

It looks like a good week weather wise with the exception of rain for the weekend. I miss running with Holly but she was a great training partner and I would not have made it through this experience with out her. Proving to myself that I can accomplish things I didn’t think possible was the most important part. The 2 of us proved to ourselves over and over again that we can do that. Thank you Holly!!

Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adios, Until We Meet Again

I did it. I completed 10 weeks of marathon training and a 1/2 marathon! I ran farther than I ever thought I could and ran more miles than I ever thought I'd want to run. Yes, I am going to focus on what I did accomplish.

I have decided for a number of reasons to discontinue training for the St. Louis Marathon. My #1 reason is because I have mentally given up and while the last couple of weeks my legs have been going through the motions, my mind was not committed. My assessment is that running a marathon is 70% a mental game. Your body will go further if you push it, but you have to be able to hang in there mentally. As this weekend's 15 miles approached, I was really dreading the run, the pain I would feel in my knees, and the fight I would have to do with my own thoughts to try to keep my legs moving.

I have learned so much and accomplished a lot of mini goals. I'm really glad Sarah tricked me into training with her and I don't regret any of it. I wish Sarah the best of luck in continuing her training and am very proud that she is carrying on. I know she can do it and will kick butt. I'll be there to cheer her on!

So for now I am saying goodbye. I may be back one day in the future to attempt running a marathon again, and while I might not have crossed the finish line, I did enjoy the journey.

Getting Faster!

I again modified the schedule. I got up early to run 4 on Friday and barely made it 3. I was tired and not feeling 100% so I decided if I was up to it I would try to get another 2 or 3 in last night....didn't happen. Because of scheduling conflicts, I'm running my 15 tomorrow so this AM I wanted to get in 3 miles.

I was incredible dissapointed because I was really tired when I got to what was the end of my run. I'd only been running 26 minutes. So, I figured, there was no way I got in 3 but I did get out and get my legs loose and Casey got some exercise so I was OK.

I just mapped my run with our newly acquired MS maps (thanks Evan!) 3.1 miles!!! Not much of an accompolishment for most people but I've been consistanly at 10 minutes or a little under for most of my training runs so to go out and casualy do 3 miles in under 30 minutes, I was pretty excited. I guess this is paying off after all!

MP3 Player

I’m trying to keep this exciting with out boring you all with meaningless chatter. Holly was traveling for work this week so we were each on our own.

We got a new MP3 player, which I've now used 2 nights in a row. Tuesday was a short run and it worked well for my purposes. I was satisfied. This is meant to be shared by Evan and me so we both have our own selection of songs. Long story short, Wednesday I got stuck with Guns N Roses for 7 miles. I had a very difficult time maneuvering the play list away from it. I’m hoping for more luck tonight. (GNR is not typically my style of music, Evan had it on there, although I’m still not sure why)

The run was fine. I make Casey wear a white T-shirt now to run because his dark coloring makes it hard for people to see him (in my mind). Evan thinks the fact that he is a foot and a half off the ground makes it hard for people to see him. I still think the T-shirt helps.
I opted for a Thursday rest day instead of a Friday rest day. I’ve determined that allowing ourselves more flexibility during the week will make this process more tolerable. I was starting to feel a little bit tied down to this schedule and felt like it left no room for spontaneity. So I decided that I can make adjustments as necessary to fit my schedule. The marathon police will not come after us. We’ve done really well at sticking to it, missing a few, if any runs. So tonight I’ll do 4 miles and then (gulp) 15 this weekend. We’ll keep you posted how the 15 goes on Saturday! The weather looks decent actually!

My new shoes!! 

It's been slow so here are some random thoughts

I got new shoes finaly! Nothing special about them but there is an interesting story to tell.

The man that helped me was very nice. Overly friendly probably. Said please for EVERYTHING (pleas sign here, please give me your zip code, please try this shoe) He was older than I, (over 50 most likely) thin man. He had a runners build so I'll go out on a limb and say he was a runner (prior to any conversation I had with him). We'll call him Albert (that might have been his name, I'm not sure)

I knew the shoes I wanted. After the last experience I was not prepared to take chances so I wanted to buy what I already knew I was comfortable with. Albert went to get my shoes and helped me try them on. He asked me if I was training for something and how many miles I would need these shoes for. I told him about 300 miles before the race. He said "St. Louis Marathon, huh"

Our conversation continues like this:
Albert: "did you run today?"
Me: "yes"
Albert: "did you run in the park"
(assuming since I was in Clayton he was refering to Forest Park which most people that live in the area refer to as "the" park)
Me: "yep"
Albert: "you ran the whole 6.2 didn't you"
Me: " ....yeees..... " (a little hesitant)
Albert: "Did you run further than that? To the loop or anything?"
Me: "yes, we ran to the park around the park, and back home so we could get 10 in"
Albert: "and then you got coffee at the Bread Company after didn't you"

Apparently Albert recognized me from the morning. He also was running in the park (can't say I remember seeing him) and then walked to Bread Co, where Evan and I went for breakfast/coffee after I got home. Weird!

I got a letter from St. Louis Track Club, who sponsored the "race" we did in Forest Park and read all about it. They have organized "mile runs" on Wednesday nights at 6:30. Different people run different miles. I'm thinking about maybe meeting there sometime. Wednesday's from here on out get progressively longer, peaking at 10 miles (during the week, Yikes!!) so maybe someone there is on a similar training plan and can help us come up with a path. I will have to say that finding a course that fits our needs has proven more complicated than I would like. We try to have a variety but are only familiar with the area around our homes.

We're working on something creative for Saturday. 15 miles. Another "I've never ran that far before" run. Any ideas from anyone?

Side Effects of training for a marathon

You've heard the urban legends about what weird things your body goes through when you make it run over 20 miles each week. We're here to tell you, it's not all rumors. You can't fully appreciate it until you've experienced it for yourself but in case anyone in our audience is considering training for a marathon, here are some things you can expect:

• Good thing it's winter because we aren't wearing cute sandles anytime soon
• Blisters blisters and blisters on top of blisters
• Bruised toe nails (if they haven't fallen off yet)
• Chafing of anything that touches any type of clothing or body part (you'd be surprised)
• Weird and unexpected changes in your eating habits
• "ouch" becomes a much more common word around the house. Those around you begin to ignore it thinking you are probably just walking to the kitchen again.
• Spending hours a day running interrupts your social schedule
• You start to feel the affects after one drink where it used to take you more than that
• No more sleeping in on the weekends
• Any shoes bu running shoes just won't work for things like going to work, the grocery store, ect....

More to come as we realize them. Happy running to your runners!

Why can't everyday be like today?

The weather was absolutely perfect today. Sun shine, and a cool breeze. When we left the house it was a little above freezing. We finished somewhere around 40 + degrees. The park was full of runners, walkers, bikers, rollerbladers. It was a very positive running environment. So why couldn't I get myself to that normal "high" I feel when I finished?

I was thinking of our first "oh my, there is no way I'm gonna be able to run that far" moment and it was at the first 9 mile run about 4 weeks into it. I can't belive how far we've come since then! No matter how this all turns out, we have that feeling of accomplishing something we didn't think was possible, 6 weeks in a row now. Sometimes that feeling fades but we need to work hard at trying to remember what that felt like so that we can strive to feel it again.

This whole experience is meant to teach us new things and to challenge not only our physical strength but our psychological strength. Mind over matter, sticking to it through the rough times. It sounds so cliche but it's what keeps me going each week. Once we've finished this, no one can take it away from us.

Baring serious injury, I'm gonna cross that fininsh line on April 10th if I have to do it crawling. Now off to recover from today's run and prepare for next week. Maybe I'll watch Prefontaine like we did in highschool before each major meet. I can always use a little Jared Leto to inspire me to do great things!

Official Results - 13.1 miles

THE STARTING LINE.The results are in. Our official time was 2 hours 33 minutes with an average pace of 11:43 minutes per mile. While that is our worst time, it was a huge accomplishment to even finish the 1/2 marathon race. Click here for the full list of official results. We placed 14 and 15 in our age division! We were number 77 & 78 of all the females! Ok, really we only beat 10 other people in the entire race, but that's not the point. C'mon, look at the picture, it was miserable weather.