Ah.....

What a great feeling. A nice 6 mile jog (a little windy and hot) on a Wednesday night. No pressure. This week has been awesome so far. Monday was nice day off, followed by beautiful (windy) weather on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I feel a little like a slacker. Not only was my 4 miles yesterday got cut short but I also shorted Saturday's run by about 2 miles. Supposed to do 12, ended up somewhere around 10. It was a busy day and I had no idea how far I was running. I ran on the bike path at home which ended up being only 3.5 out so I added a bit mid way and at the end to come as close to 10 miles as I could. Based on time, i think that was about right.

Yesterdays run was cut short becuase I took Casey with me and he wasn't in the mood to run I guess. I pretty much pulled him for 2 miles and then took the shortest route home. Today, a little more of the same thing but I'm wondering now if maybe he is trying to herd me??? What do you think, he is a herding dog so it's his nature. He stayed right at my heal the whole time unless we came up on another runner/walker then he chased them a bit and ran a bit faster.

Speaking of other runners, twice tonight I had to come to a complete stop to pass someone who wouldn't move over when I said "excuse me" or even acknowlege I was there. I then ran in the street to pass them as soon and there were no cars coming. The nice weather has brought out so many people which is nice but now the streets are busy with walkers and joggers. Having the dog, I normaly move to the street so that we are out of the way but this is happening way more recently.

Evan and I are off to PF Changs for their "marathon menu". They have a menu designed for marathoners. We'll see how I like it. I was in such a foul mood earlier and that run made it all better. It's amazing how that works.

It's a 3 day weekend!

I did what I do best, altered the schedule I carefully drafted last night. However, it actually WORKED!!! I’ve been craving a day off lately. I figured it out last night I’m the only one in my office that has not had a day off this year yet, (vacation day, not scheduled holiday’s) I hate to waste days off for no reason, so I’ve not taken any. So…..today I took a 1 hour vacation and put in 8 miles this morning. Impressive huh! I got up early to run, take out the garbage, clean out the fridge and was at work by a little after 9am.

This would be my ideal situation if time permitted. I like to have my work out over first thing in the morning for several reasons….I only have to shower once, it frees up the night in case I want to do something spontaneous, like go to Houlihans for an emergency happy hours (yes I deliberately put in the ‘s’ because how many times is it ever just 1 hour?), or cook a fantastic dinner and spend some time at home. OK so the happy hour is a more likely option but fantastic evenings at home used to be much more common. I have been slacking off in the creative, good dinner department for the last couple of months. If it can’t be made in less than 40 minutes, total prep and cooking time, it won’t happen. By the time I’m done running either a) Evan is too hungry to wait or b) I am too tired to do anything much. I wish I could alter my work schedule to 9-5:30 with a half hour lunch…….Or I could just try to get myself out of bed earlier.

I also am starting interval training tomorrow. I’ll only do it once a week, so it’s a little late to benefit me for THE race but maybe it will help on my next race. Here’s how it works (for me anyway, I’ve combined numerous programs)
2 mile jog as a warm up, about 10 minute miles I’m thinking. I’ll run to the gym
About 1/25 of a mile or less of strides. Done on the treadmill to warm up after I run to the gym. (it has to be done on the treadmill because I don’t have a heart rate monitor and the tread mill has one built in)
Run 20 minutes at “interval pace”. This 85-90% of my maximum heart rate. My interval rate is going to be between 159.6 and 174.6. I’m going to start with a larger range till I get used to it.
The first 3 to 4 weeks are supposed to be pretty difficult. I plan to do this 2 times before the race and then make it part of my weekly work out. My “post race” plans are getting a little busy now….I signed up for a spinning class through STLCC for one night a week. This training will be at least an hour a day. Therefore I will probably only work out 3 days a week and once on the weekends.

We’ll see how it goes. In the past, I’ve not been able to hold a work out schedule with out some sort of “goal”. Perhaps if I throw in a run or 2 here and there it will keep me motivated enough to stick it out.

Blah, sick!

I've somehow managed to "find" a cold. All season I stayed relatively healthy, and I'm going to say it's because of the working out, but this weekend I got sick. Just that pesky nose, throat, head stuff but it makes for less than exciting work outs. Last night I traded in my sweats and sweatshir and headed to the gym. The cold rainy weather would have probably made the health problems worse.

I "cross trained" 5 miles. Is this like running? Felt like it for sure. The only difference was my feet didn't leave the ground. I then lifted for 45 minutes. I'm tryin to increase my work outs for the last 2 weeks. I know it sounds crazy but in my head it works. If I work out longer, I'll be less tired, right? Lat night I felt great. More importantly today I felt great. My legs weren't sore or tired (not that they normaly are on Wednesdays, the normaly are on Thursdays). I lifted legs after running because I read that it helps to strengthen them to build endurance. I'm going this direction for the next few days. Tonight I will only run because it's 8 miles so I will be working out over an hour already. I'm taking tomorrow off and then running 4 miles (peice of cake) and lifting hopefully at the new Bettendorf Y. Then I'll do my long run on Saturday morning. 12 miles this week.

So that's the plan kids. It's still icky outside. I hope it's not as cold as it looks. I don't know if rain is actualy falling or not. I'll find out real soon when I go outside though!

Good Decisions

I have successfully completed 15 weeks of training for the St. Louis marathon. During which, I have run 376 miles. By no means am I considered a "marathoner" as I barely finished 20 miles and still need to stop and walk, stretch and drink, but that is not my goal for this first marathon. I know now that if I were to run a half marathon, I would run it all with out stopping. I might even have enough energy to kick it in the last few minutes. I would probably run for time and not just "to finish". 7 weeks ago, that was not the case.

So, what this tells me is that if I were to stick to this, the next marathon I run will be for more than just the finisher’s metal. I will never run to compete with anyone other than myself but even that competition is healthy. I desperately craving another sort or fitness activity but will stick out my finally 3 weeks of training and then switch gears. I cannot complain about 29, 21, and get this 9 mile weeks I have coming up. It's going to a breeze and I plan to enjoy every minute of it. If I don't, please remind me.

I did not even get to running until after 5 last night. Every piece of me told me I was making a big mistake. My stomach was still bothering me, I was tired from a busy exciting weekend and I hadn't eaten in 6 hours. I was in the midst of a huge decision. One likely to weigh on my mind for awhile as I've proven a lot to myself in this process and will be looking back on these lessons for many other trials in life. Here were the choices I'd given myself:

• Do it get it over with and be happy knowing you completed your goal. If you can't finish, you know you tried. If you do finish, you'll feel that much better
• Skip it. Try to squeeze it in sometime this week, maybe on Good Friday and alter the rest of the schedule. You will feel bad if you try and fall short of the 20 miles. You had a busy weekend and should have planned better.
• Skip it completely. My training program was designed with an 18 and a 20 (which I already did 2 weeks ago) and some are only designed with an 18. You'll be fine without. Just go to bed.
  

I chose option number 1. It didn't end there however. I was faced through the whole race with many decisions, most of them pertaining to how far and how long I was actually going to run. The original plan was to run 16, stop by home and drop off the dog and then finish with a 4-mile loop. Somewhere around mile 10 I knew that I did not want to stop at home and then have to keep going. I was going to try to avoid that. Decision number 1: Should I stop at 16, still impressive but not within my threshold of mile to skip on a run? When I got to the home stretch, Casey was still hanging on pretty well. So I decided to extend the loop by 3 miles (so I was going to do more than 16 by this point. Good decision) If I quit after this, I would be leaving my total goal shy about 1 mile. Decision number 2: Should I call it at 19 miles? Only 1 mile short, well within my threshold. No one would have to know. Rounding up, I ran 20 miles, right? Two blocks from home, I added on another mile (approximately).

The running had certainly gotten to me and I’d gone crazy. That’s the only logically explanation. I have no idea where that energy came from. There was NO WAY I could make it another mile. I was having some issues with my nose (and the lack of Kleenex), the bathroom at the park closed 20 minutes before I got there (already 2 hours ago) and I was so thirsty I would have stopped to alleviate any of those problems with out a second thought. The only thing that kept me going was the disappointment I would have felt if I shorted myself even 1 mile. It’s hard to consider 16 or 19 miles anything but an accomplishment but when you had 20 in mind; it’s just shy of the perfect feeling of success.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; 90% of this is a mental game. With the race so close, I don’t have time to get discouraged or to look at what I’ve done as anything less than I could have, should have or would have done under different circumstance. I may not have stuck to the plan to a T and I did miss some runs. I even shorted myself on miles on several occasions BUT I ran 20 miles last night and in 19 days, I’ll run 26.2.

biking

I like biking. It's sad to say but today was probably the first time I've riden a "real bike", one that actualy is designed to move, in over 8 years!!!! It tooke me a little time to get comfortable and get my balance set OK. I almost fell once. How embarrasing! A 26 year old woman falls off her bike. Oh wow. That would have been something.

I took a nice relaxing 16 mile bike ride today. The park was swarming with runners which only made me feel more guilty at first but hey, I was still out there doing something so decided guilt was going to get me no where. It was cold and windy on the bike. I hardly broke a sweat.

Today was a nice cross training day, preparing me for tomorrows long run.

Did anyone REALLY think I would get up this morning? Let's be serious....

I didn't start at 7am. I had a feeling that would be my decision somewhere around midnight when I decided on 1 more glass of Sangria but didn't officialy decide until I was still up at 3:45 trying to sleep through Casey chewing on his bone, which I had already taken away from him twice but gave up when he wouldn't go to sleep. I figured chewing was much better than whining. I have been batteling this week with eating enough "good for me" food. With Evan gone, cereal, and fruit bars were much easier than a good meal. Thursday I finaly had a peice of fish, borcoli and some bread, but that didn't make up for the rest of the week. I think my body has been rebelling against this lack of good nutrition. My stomach was so mad at me last night and still a bit this morning. Reason number 2 I'm still sitting here instead of running.

I'm trying to stop feeling guilty abou it. It really would not have been a good idea though. My sister and her kids will be here in 2 hours and we have a jam packed day full of exciting St. Louis tourist activities, none of which would have been any fun for me if I'd run my intended 20 miles. (reason number 3)

SO.....tomorrow I'll run 20 miles. After they leave I have nothing on my plate and will (hopefully) feel much better about the idea of 20 miles and the excitement that follows it.

I'm off on the bike for a quick go around the park, then take Casey quick to the DP to let off some steam before he's crated all day.

First Injury....don't panic

The irony of it all is one of the reasons I passed on the Vail trip was avoid injury so close to the race.

On Wendsay I was running down the road and 2 girls were walking side by side. As I got closer to them I realized that they weren't going to move. As I made a quick movement to the side I tripped over Casey, and stumbled to my knees. Somewhere in the hustle I twisted my foot. To make matters worse, the girls didn't even turn around!

I finished the run OK and didn't really notice much pain because my legs in general were in pain. However I woke up Thursday morning to a swollen, bruised left foot. I took yesterday off for ice and tylenol.

Today I noticed the pain the whole run, but it didn't bother me enough to stop. I'll continue more of the same tonight so I'll hopefully be healed tomorrow.

Speaking of which....I'm starting to get nervous! I need to get running early. My plan is to start at 7am, which is race time, so that I'll know what to expect on race day. Breakfast will include a Luna bar, banana, and peice of toast with peanut butter. So, it's up at 5:30 to get it all in and get everything moving before I hit the road.
Again, this is the plan, who knows if I'll stick to it.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

ugh

Ugh. That's about all I have to say about tonights run. Yesterday and Saturday went so well it's discouraging to have a run like tonight. 10 miles. The longest non-long-run to date. Meaning, it's the longest I've run with out that being THE long run for the week.

I was able to run the whole thing though. No stops except for stop lights (8 of them)

Here are the factors I've decided led to this feeling:

• My sugar intake today was higher than it's been in MONTHS. Food day at work coupled with the need for caffine, which I found in the form of pop, twice.
• I hardly slept at all last night
• I was in horrible spirits today about most things. I'll just leave it at that and spare you the details.

I finished in 1h 38 minutes, less than the 10 minute miles I allowed myself but my hip is still bothering me as well as my knees. I couldn't have run another mile if someone offered to pay me $1000. In 3.5 weeks I have to run 16 more than I ran tonight. Let's face it....I'm a big grouch today. I'm taking some tylenol, a hot shower and calling it a night.

and it begins

Well, I gave up a vacation for this week, I should probably get it started. 43 degrees with no wind.

And we're off!

4 weeks to go (till actual race day)

Only 3 more weeks of training!!!
Today's run was the best in recent memory. I walked into the house and yelped I was so excited about it. I ran 14 miles in 2 hours, 14 minutes which is about 9 m 30 sec a miles. Awesome! That 2+ hours included 2 breaks for water/stretching, 2 poop breaks (for Casey not me) and 5 red lights. Evan asked what I did differntly this week to have such a good run. If I knew I would do it more often because when I realized I MIGHT break 2 hours 6 mintues, what is normaly the worst part of the run (the end) was MUCH more fun.

The weather was georgous. A little above 50 with a bright sun and almost no wind. When I was starting to feel too hot, the sun would go behind a cloud and a breeze would pick up to cool me off nicely.

I did my typical over 10 mile course....some random arrangement of streets to the park, to total what ever I have to get my mileage in, and then around the park. I'm starting to prefer this. It breaks the run up nicely into 3 sections....to the park, around the park, and back home. Once in the park, there is a walking/running trail for most of it which, I feel, is much easier on my knees. The only draw back is it is less flat (do to rocks, ground shifting ,ect...) and I'm still having some blister troubles so when I hit unflat surfaces, it bothers my inner foot a little bit. Other than that, I've been feeling fine. My back was pretty sore when I got home. Nothing a little tylenol couldn't handle. I'm also starting to get what we called in highschool, runners tan. The nice ankle sock line, shorts line, and Tshirt lines. I hope to improve the runners tan as the weather gets nicer!

After my run, Evan and I experimented with some stuff I read on a PT site. Lay on your back, relax, and see how your hips, knees, and feet lie. I was quite surprised! Evan's feet pointed straight up, knees straight up, and his hips were completely aligned with each other. Exactly how it should be (can't say I'm surprised, he always does everything right). But mine, mine were ALL OFF. My hips were uneven. My knees fell out, and my left foot pointed away from my body while my right foot pointed towards my left foot. Based on the information I read, I should be sore on my left hip, knee and inside my left foot. Go figure. Next step is to work on improving all of these things.

This week is the week I've been waiting for (or dreading) all winter....my peak week at 40 miles. I'm ready. I've done 20 mid week miles 2 weeks now and I know I can run 20 on Saturday because I accidently did it last weekend. Evan will be gone most of the week so I don't mind not having much free time. I'm off to the New Balance store to talk to them about the blisters thing. I'm hoping it's only my inability to tie my shoes correctly because other than the blisters (which I've had consistantly on my left foot since we started this training) I love my shoes. I don't recall ever having issues like this when I ran in high school either. I'm also trying a new theory with bubble gum. I like to chew gum when I run and I am thinking that the sugar in bubble gum will help give me a boost of energy. I'm going to pop a new peice in when I feel that I can't make it anymore. I'll let you know what I find out.

The Govenor

Did you know Vilsak ran a marathon over the weekend? It was his first one and he ran to kick start a campaign for a healthier Iowa.

This week is a long week. 20 mid-week miles. This is how it's gonna be until the end, so I've accpeted it and moved on. Tonights run was good. Uneventful.

We've decided that Casey probably should not run more than 12 miles. The poor boy was sore on Saturday. I was so upset, I thought I hurt him but he was back to normaly on Sunday. Saturday night he was just moving really slow. He wouldn't jump up on the couch or bed at all. He would slowly walk to what ever room we were in and then imediatly plop down. He definatly had a limp too.

It's cold again here. The weather cannot make up it's mind. I don't like switching back and forth. Looks like it's going to stay cool all week and then (0f course) warm up on the weekend!

No complaints here!

ouch!

SORE today. I never want to walk again.

I'm seriously thinking about getting a massage tomorrow like they say you should do after the race. If not I'm not sure I'll be recovered by Tuesday!

WOO HOO

I RAN 20 MILES TODAY!!! OK so I was only supposed to run 18. I only intended on running 18. I had a nice path mapped out from Weldon Springs to Augusta on the Katy Trail. It was supposed to be 10 miles out and 10 miles back and I planned to stop 1 mile shy of Augusta.....I never found Augusta. I discovered about half way through the run that there were mile markers. I knew that the Augusta stop should be at about mile 65. I got to mile marker 65, no such luck. Then mile marker 66, still no sign of it up ahead either. So, I turned around at mile 66. I figured that I would run until I hit 9 miles and if I needed to I would run past the car and then trun around and run back, because 9 miles each way would be 18 miles. When I got to mile 59, 7 miles later, I knew that I still had 6 miles left! So, that puts my total mileage to 22 if I ran back to the car! I ran 4 more miles, total of 20 and then walked the last 2 to the car. Total time was 3 hours 48 minutes!

There was a high route and a low route for about 3 miles and I stayed on the low route because it looked the most like what I was already running on. I assume that Augusta was on the high route and that's why I missed it.

The coures was scenic and flat. The weather was perfect. There was a breeze but it kept me cool. The temp was about 50 degrees and I actually got a sun burn on my arms.

I probably should have eaten a little more before. I was really nervous all morning and couldn't eat because of it. The extra energy would have been very helpful. But I'm done now and I don't feel horrible so I'm going to focus on the positives and REST tonight.

Current Conditions

It's approx 40 and 15 MPH winds. The winds are supposed to die down. I really hope so because out in the middle of no where, it's bound to be worse. I've got my course ready which includes water/batroom stops at miles 4.6, 9, 15 and the end.

I'm wasting time because I'm nervous and I don't want to do this run today. The wind is frightening me. I hope they are wrong!

Tomorrow run, The Katy Trail

The Katy trail is an old railroad track converted into a bike/run/hike trail. I've seen it only in passing while driving out to beautiful wine country but this weekend I'm going to run it. The path (not concrete) should be nice on my legs. Since it's an old rail road track, it's very flat with low grade inclines. And it's supposed to be beautiful. I'm pretty excited about it.

Check out the link for more information. http://www.bikekatytrail.com/default.asp

Sacrafices

Tired legs today mean early morning tomorrow to get a quick 5 miles in before work.

Evan and the BHS crew are going skiing in 2 weeks. I decided not to go because that is my peak week at 40 miles and A) I will have NO FUN trying to ski on sore tired legs B) I don't want to run 40 miles at that altitude when I'm not used to it and C) what if I were to get hurt 3 weeks before the race? That would suck!

I'm really jealous and I wan to go. As my mother alwasy say, life is not fair. But if it were, the weather in Colorado in April would still be acceptable to ski. I'm going to miss the skiing but I'm also going to miss our friends!

My decision, I chose to do this. I'm happy I'm doing this. It will be worth it in the end. I hope they all have a great. I hope Evan doesn't miss me at all.

Week 13

So far this week I've felt pretty good. The weekend run was a good smooth sailing (it's about time I had one of those) with nicely paved the path for a good week. And boy did I need it for a confidence booster.

At this point making time for my 9+ mile weekday runs has been the challenge. I did it last night and I think I'm going to have to succumb to the fact that this is going to be my top priority for the next 5 weeks. I felt good yesterday. I ran the entire 9 miles which is only surprising because it's the longest week day run I've done and normally on the weekend LR, I try to fit in at least 1 walk break to help conserve energy. The last time I ran 9 miles (only 9 miles) was at week 4 and I’m sure I took a walk break. Little things like these are encouraging for me. See how far I’ve come!

Last night, of my 9 miles, 4.5 of it was on the race day course. I didn’t totally hate it which is good because it is one of the areas I considered “problem areas”. The course I ran last night was VERY hilly. Pretty typical for St. Louis being as we are in the river valley. Two river valleys in fact. All of the reviews I’ve read of the St. Louis Marathon claim the same thing, pretty course, lots of low-grade hills. Hopefully I will be able to handle them OK. I was really tired on the last hill and was having some breathing problems so I know that they get to me. However, I like the feeling you get when the hill is over and your flat run is nice and easy for about a minute! I hope there is a nice aren’t TOO many hills and that they are appropriately spaced out.
I’m starting to get really nervous. I’ll feel better after Saturday (hopefully).