End of the Year Thoughts

Looking back over the past year 2010 brought so many changes in my life. The first half of the year was spent preparing both at work and at home for the transfer to Cleveland: Looking for a place to live, figuring out how to transfer to a new school, packing up at work, packing up at home, trying to figure out how two people could survive on a student stipend while Dan looked for a job. There have definitely been a lot of ups and downs and a lot of change for us over the past year. The move eventually came and went and overall I think we have finally settled into life in a new city. It's amazing how long it can take for a new place and actually feel at home, but I think we're getting there. With all of the move preparations, and then the move itself I raced MUCH less than I have in years past, BUT I also had some big accomplishments in the races I did run. At the Colfax 1/2 Marathon in May I finally got back under 2 hours (something I have not been able to do since my very first 1/2 Marathon). Perhaps the most important accomplishment: Running my first Full Marathon. It's a goal that's been on my bucket list for a while and i'm extremely happy to have done it. I don't know that there will be any more Full marathons in my near future. I find the 1/2 Marathon to be much more enjoyable to fit into my life, but someday.... maybe another Full.

This is the first year i've blogged about my running and kept track of my milage, so I don't know how it compares to years past, but running over 1000 miles this year sounds good to me :-).

2010 Yearly Milage Total: 1073.41 Miles

See you next Year!

Is Winter cold better than the Heat and Humidity of Summer?

Grudgingly, I think yes. Although, Cleveland cold is much more bitter than Colorado cold and I have learned that I need to modify a few things:

1. I need a second layer over my tights.

2. I need some sort of face protection.

3. Why don't people shovel here??? Seriously??

4. I need some new snow routes where I can run in the street because of #3.

Looks like a shopping trip to stock up on more cold weather running clothes is in order, as well as some map questing for some new routes. My weekly milage for the last couple of weeks has been kind of low. Last week we were in Colorado visiting family, so I got to do some beautiful mountain running. The altitude got me a little and my pace was slow, but the scenery was so worth it! The reason I complain about Cleveland winters:

This is what I got to look at on my runs last week in Colorado. This is the kind of winter i've had the luxury of experiencing. Beautiful weather and BLUE skies. It was 30 degrees, but so much less depressing than the gray skies here in Cleveland. Yes, I have been spoiled.

Weekly Update 12/20-12/26:

Sunday - off

Saturday - 3.23 miles

Friday - 4.14 miles

Thursday - off

Wednesday - 4.09 miles

Tuesday - off

Monday - off

Weekly Total: 11.46 Miles

Weekly Update 12/13-12/19:

Sunday - off

Saturday - off

Friday - 5.00

Thursday - 6x 800 with 400 rests. With warmup and cooldown 5.5 miles total.

Wednesday - upper body weights and core

Tuesday - 5 mile tempo run.

Monday - total body Weights/cardio circuit workout.

Weekly Milage Total: 15.5 Miles

Winter has arrived in Cleveland

Well I think I may have spoken a little too soon... I was starting to feel better, but I seem to have this horrendous sore throat that will not go away. I'm not congested anymore, so getting back to exercise this week felt good after being pretty much in bed for 2 weeks, but my energy levels are still pretty low. I made my third trip to the doctor, where they confirmed that my lymph nodes are very swollen and my tonsils are inflamed. Duh.... I already knew that. I was really pissed off that they didn't seem to think it was worth doing any type of throat culture or test for mono considering i've been sick for 3 weeks, but I guess i'm just going to have to wait this one out.

Winter has officially arrived in Cleveland. As far as I can tell this means its going to snow pretty much every day... which i'm sure will get tedious and depressing after a few months, but so far it hasn't prevented me from running outside on the weekends. I do like to keep those dreadmill miles to a minimum in the winter.

Sunday - 5.38 miles

Saturday - 6.11 miles

Friday- 6X800 w/ 400 jogs. With warmup and cooldown 5 miles total

Thursday - off

Wednesday - off

Tuesday - 4 miles easy

Monday - Spinning Class

Weekly Milage Total: 20.49 Miles

Finally! I'm Well!

Alleluia! After literally spending a week and a half in bed sleeping I seem to finally be recovering from the God awful bug I had. Unfortunately my sickness caused me to miss out on the last of the beautiful fall running weather. It seems to be winter now. 30 degrees and snow flurries for the foreseeable future. 30 degrees is still far better than 90 (or even 80) degrees in my mind though! This is our first Ohio winter.... so I'm still not sure exactly what to expect, but I have a feeling the sunny winter days we saw in Colorado wont be happening here. Saturday morning I ventured out for my first post sickness run. I kept it short and I think the cold air actually made me cough up some of the lingering flem.... hmm gross. I can't believe it's only a few weeks until Christmas. If my calculations are correct i've already hit 1,000 miles for this year. It wasn't exactly a goal.... but it still seems impressive to me!

Weekly Recap 11/29 - 12/5

Sunday - 6.01 Miles

Saturday - 3.10 Miles

Friday - sick

Thursday - sick

Wednesday - sick

Tuesday - sick

Monday - sick

Weekly Total: 9.11 Miles

Weekly Milage Recaps

Well I've been sick all week so no running for the past week and no turkey trot unfortunately. I'm hoping to sneak a reindeer run 5K in in the beginning of December as a fun race. Hopefully I am feeling better by then. For now i'm off to rest some more and drink more fluids to get rid of this crud. Spending a week in bed sick is no fun.

Weekly Recap 11/22- 11/28

0 miles

Weekly Recap 11/15- 11/21

Sunday - 5.94 miles

Saturday - 6.31 miles

Friday - off

Thursday - off

Wednesday - 5 miles

Tuesday - weights

Monday - 4.5 miles with 2x (400, 800, 1200) speedwork

Weekly Total: 21.75 miles

Weekly Recap 11/8-11/14:

Well, I was finally able to motivate myself into fitting weights in twice a week. Yay! I have a feeling next week wont go as well.... I'll be traveling and I just don't see it happening.

Sunday - 5.11 miles

Saturday - 4 miles

Friday - weights

Thursday - 5.35 miles

Wednesday - weights

Tuesday - 6 miles

Monday - rest

Weekly Total: 20.46 miles

I really need to update...

Well, not to much is going on with my running. I'm trying to keep milage between 15-20 miles per week, but not really worrying to much about it. Ideally, i'd also like to get myself back into some sort of weights/strength routine, but I just can't seem to get really motivated to do more than 1 day a week - not much better than during marathon training. Really, i'm just trying to enjoy the flexibility of not training for anything specific right now! I'd thought about doing another half, but registration was full for the race I had my eye on.... so whatever. The last track workout of the season was last week (a little sad). I'd still like to work on some speedwork this winter on my own. I think i'll sign up for the Cleveland Turkey Trot and some other fun winter races. Can I just say I LOVE COLD WEATHER RUNNING! (it's not really that cold yet) Cold is so so so soooooooo much better than 90 degree heat and humidity (oh.... and can someone please remind me of this when I start complaining about how cold it is later this winter?). That's all of my random ramblings for now.

11/1 -11/7

Sunday - 6.46 miles

Saturday - 3.01 miles

Friday - weights

Thursday - 4 mile tempo

Wednesday - rest

Tuesday 5 miles speedwork

Monday - rest

Weekly Total: 18.47

10/25-10/31

Sunday - 7.3 miles

Saturday - rest

Friday - rest

Thursday - rest

Wednesday 5.5 miles

Tuesday -rest

Monday - rest

Weekly Total: 12.8 miles

10/18-10/24

Sunday- 6.1 miles

Saturday- 3 miles

Friday - weights

Thursday 5 miles

Wednesday- rest

Tuesday 4.02 miles

Monday - rest

Weekly Total: 18.12 miles

Recovery

This week was all about recovery from the marathon, so not much running.

Sunday night, after the marathon, my legs were so sore that I had a little trouble sleeping. Monday, I was really sore. Walking down stairs... well really just walking in general was hard, but walking down stairs was impossible. I walk around at work a lot and am on my feet a lot of the day, so by the end of the day monday I was ready to get home and rest my legs. I wore my new neon green compression socks (hot!) that I picked up at the race expo all day monday and tuesday. I have to say Tuesday was worse than monday. In addition to soreness my legs really hurt. Being sore and in pain was also starting to make me a little cranky. Luckily, Wednesday morning I woke up and finally felt pretty normal again. I was able to walk down stairs! HORAY! I thought about trying to take a short recovery jog, but decided to give it another day. Thursday I felt pretty good, so I went to the gym and ran on the dreadmill (mainly because I wasn't quite sure how far i'd make it!) for 2.5 miles easy. My legs were still very tired, but it felt good to use them again and I got a good stretch in after my run, then I walked 1.5 miles home, which also felt good. Friday, I decided just walking home from work would be enough. Saturday, I felt like I could have run, but really just wanted to take the opportunity to sleep in as late as I wanted and lay around all day reading. I did manage to drag myself out of bed to go and get a massage (life is rough). It was a very lazy day. Today I felt like a "real" run was in order. I went out for 6 miles and tried to just let my legs run at whatever pace they wanted (yes, they do have a mind of their own). It felt good, but it became apparent around mile 4 that my hamstrings and butt are still very sore. All in all, recovery is going well. Although in doing day to day activities I feel all the way back to normal, running still isn't quite there yet. Supposedly, it take 1 day for every mile of the marathon, so I guess this is normal. This next week i'm going to shoot for 15-20 miles, but basically just try to pay attention to how my body is feeling.

I'm toying with the idea of running a half-marathon in early november... I think i'm in shape for what could be a half-marathon PR... but we'll see how my legs feel over the next few weeks. Other than that I don't think i'm really going to train for any race in particular over the next few months. I've been searching for some fun shorter distance 5Ks and 10Ks to do. Over the winter I'd like to work on some speed, but for now I'm just going to give myself some time to enjoy running without a schedule.

Weekly update for 10/11 - 10/17

Sunday - 6.22 miles

Saturday - nothing

Friday - nothing

Thursday - 2.5 miles

Wednesday - nothing

Tuesday - nothing

Monday - nothing

Weekly Total : A measly 8.72 miles and some well deserved rest!

I am a Marathoner!

Well, I finished the marathon! It didn't go exactly as I had hoped, but i'm happy to have finished and I definitely learned some things from the experience.

(Pretty fall colors at the start)

The weather was absolutely perfect at the start of the race, in the 50's I think. The air felt nice and crisp and refreshing. The race started well. The first 10 miles flew by, easily. The path was beautiful with the fall colors and I was was just enjoying running and looking around at the scenery. I started too fast. Shocking (not!). I had planned on trying to run 9:30 minute miles then slowing down if I needed to. Instead, I ran 9 minute miles and hit the wall at around mile 18. Rookie mistake. I knew I was going too fast, I had been told not to go out too fast, I had been told about the infamous wall. I knew better. Why didn't I run slower at the beginning? For the first 10 miles, a 9 min. mile pace just felt good. It felt comfortable and easy. Around mile 14 I started feeling a little tired and did slow down to the pace I should have been running at the beginning. I think I ran about a 2 hour half.... too fast. The course was two out and back loops with the start and finish in the middle. The first loop went out 9 miles, so when I started feeling fatigued I just thought about getting to mile 17ish to see Daniel cheering for me.

(Just before mile 17....starting to feel tired)

Once I crossed through and started the second out and back loop I really started struggling. The last 8 miles felt 3 times as long as the first 18. At about mile 20 I threw all pace goals out the window and just tried to keep running/jogging/moving forward at whatever pace possible. Around mile 21 I almost broke into tears my legs were so tired and achy. I started telling myself to just work on one mile at a time and I started walking through the water stops. Mile 26 I broke down into 800's in my head. I just kept telling myself 3 800's to go, just like a track workout. I came through the finish line in 4:32:54, much slower than either of my pace goals, but I was so happy to have finished that it didn't even matter.

(coming towards the finish line, looking very tired)

(Finished. I couldn't figure out if I should eat something or drink something. So I grabbed everything. Haha.)

I didn't really even want to post this.... but maybe it can serve as a warning to other first time marathoners about what happens if you go out too fast. If the goal was to run progressively slower each mile I definitely accomplished that.... unfortunately that wasn't the goal.

Here it is, the garmin splits.

Mile 1 - 8:55 (umm too fast!)

Mile 2 - 9:05 (okay... I ran a little bit slower)

Mile 3 - 9:06

Mile 4 - 9:07

Mile 5 - 9:09

Mile 6 - 9:04

Mile 7 - 9:15

Mile 8 - 9:13

Mile 9 - 9:17 (at this point i'm thinking okay this pace feels pretty good)

Mile 10 - 9:22

Mile 11 - 9:28

Mile 12 - 9:38

Mile 13 - 9:46

Mile 14 - 9:59

Mile 15 - 10:05 (my muscles start to hurt and I think okay, i'll just hold 10min/mile for the rest of the race no prob.)

Mile 16 - 10:03

Mile 17 - 10:02

Mile 18 - 10:50

Mile 19 - 11:07 (I want to cry and be done with the race, my legs hurt and are all crampy..oh and I also realized the consequences of going out too fast)

Mile 20 - 11:22 (I throw out all pace goals and just try to propel myself forwards)

Mile 21 - 12:16

Mile 22 - 12:36

Mile 23 - 11:44

Mile 24 - 12:08

Mile 25 - 11:57

Mile 26 - 11: 36

The last bit: 3:49 (11 min mile pace)

overall average: 10:15 min/mile - not great, but i'm still happy to have finished a marathon!

And the weekly milage recap:

Sunday - 26.2 miles! Yea!

Saturday - 1.05 miles (really? I put running clothes on to do this?)

Friday - rest

Thursday - 3.01 miles

Wednesday - Ab workout

Tuesday - 4.12 miles

Monday - off

Weekly total: 34.38 miles

Revisiting my Goals

Well, the day has come (almost!). The marathon is about 1 day away. Tasks for tomorrow include picking up my race packet, getting some power bars (my pre-run breakfast), finishing my ipod playlist, and trying to stay off my feet as much as possible. According to my marathon training plan i'm also supposed to do a 10 minute run. It almost doesn't even seem worth it to change into running clothes for something that short, but I do always like to get a short jog in the day before a race to loosen my muscles up and stretch afterwards.

When I began training for this marathon I had some training goals:

- Complete as many runs as possible. Check.

- Not get injured. Check

I also had some marathon goals:

- Finish alive and uninjured

- Run 10 minute miles or under

- Try to run a 4 hr 10 min marathon.

Now, at the end of training, my goals really haven't changed. My 20 milers were at about 10:50 min/mile pace.... so i'm definitely going to kick it up, but my experience has been that my race pace is much faster than my training pace, so I think 10 min miles are definitely possible. As for a 4hr 10 min marathon... we will see. My plan is to try to keep my pace at about 9:30/mile for as long as possible. I always go out to fast, so i'm really going to try not to do that.

I'm definitely feeling nervous!

I'll try to do a short blog tomorrow before the race. If not, i'll do a race recap after the race!

Last weeks recap

The race is less than a week away, I'll blog more about that as it gets closer... for now:

Weekly milage recap:

Sunday : 6.41 miles

Saturday: 4.04 miles

Friday: Pilates

Thursday: 5.33 miles

Wednesday: Core

Tuesday: Speedwork. 400/800/400/1200/400/1600/400 (200 rest interval after 400s, 400 rest interval all others) for 5.25 miles total

Monday: off

Weekly milage total: 21.03 miles

Holy Shit, this is real.

Well, this week was fairly uneventful running wise. It's taper time. I was expecting to feel a little stir crazy, but actually this week felt really good. Compared to running 20 miles last week running only 10 for the long run felt really really good and I was able to keep my pace/mile a full minute faster than my 20 mile run average. I've mainly been focusing on how happy I am to be running less, feeling a little less tired and having a little more time to relax (although i've still been spending way too much time in the lab!), then it hit me: "oh my god, in a few weeks I will be running a marathon!". This is real. Duh right? At this point I actually am looking forward to running the marathon!

The weather has been SO MUCH nicer. Cooler temperatures, less humidity. I love fall. It is the best running weather. He's a shot of the path that has become one of my favorites.

Here's the weekly recap:

Sunday- 10.01 miles

Saturday - 6.25 miles

Friday - off

Thursday - 7.01 miles

Wednesday - weights

Tuesday 5.26 miles. No speedwork this week, I couldn't get out of work to make it to the track. It's probably best, my legs were feeling like lead weights still from sunday's 20 miles.

Monday - off

Weekly Total: 28.53 miles

Taper Time!

Whew! Last week was rough. It was my highest weekly mileage, and Thursday afternoon I came down with a cold. Ugh. I had planned on breaking up my planned 10 miler into 6 in the morning and 4 in the evening. I managed to get the 6 in the morning, but by thursday afternoon there was no way I was putting in 4 more. I went straight to bed, slept for 12 hours and actually felt better when I woke up, so Friday evening I put in 6 more miles. Sunday's 20 miles didn't go quite as easily as the first 20 miler, but I made it through taking a couple of walk breaks.

Now, it's taper time. I'm a little torn. On the one hand i'm excited to be running less milage, to hopefully be less tired, and to have a little more time to do other things. On the other hand, I know i'm going to start to feel restless and crazy.

I have myself a new pair of shoes and a new race day shirt! Don't worry, I wore them both on Sunday's 20 miler with no problems. I got the shirt off the clearance rack for $10 and was wondering why it was so cheap since there were others that I thought were just like it on the regular rack for $40. Turns out, there is a blue dot on the front of the shirt which i'm fairly sure is supposed to be in the middle, but it's way off to one side. Oh well. It's a race, not a beauty pageant and the shirt is super comfy :-)

My task for the next week: put together a playlist for the race.

It's strange, I have always been very against running races with music, but so many people have recommended it for this race in particular (due to lack of crowd support), and its not against the race rules.... so I figure I'll give it a go.

Here's the weekly update:

Sunday - 20.01 miles

Saturday - off

Friday - 6.11 miles

Thursday - 6.15 miles

Wednesday - weights

Tuesday - 3.05 miles in the morning

6 x 800 with 400 rests for a total of 4.77 in the afternoon

(total of 7.82 for the day)

Monday - off

Weekly total : 40.09 miles

One week until taper

I've been a bad blogger lately. I got through my first committee meeting at the new school! Yay! It feels good to have that off my plate, but i've been working like a mad women, weekends, nights, etc, to try to get out a publication by November. Oh yea, and i've been training for the marathon! It's been tiring. I have to say i'm feeling better about the training than I was a few months ago when all of these super long runs were looming over my head. It's crazy to think that my "short" runs during the week have become the distance that my "long" runs were at the beginning of training. The truth is that they really do feel "short" at this point! I have been noticing that my body seems to bounce back a little quicker than it did after that first 15 miler, or even the first 20 miler. This is the last week of building milage (and the highest week of milage) before taper. I'm looking forward to taper, but i'm also a little leery of how strange i'm going to feel not running much after all of this running!

Here's my missing weekly recaps for the past few weeks:

Sunday: 18.31 miles

Saturday 6.01 mile tempo run

Friday: off

Thursday: 8.14 miles

Wednesday Weights

Tuesday: 5.0 miles total. Speedwork 400/400/800/800/400/400/800/800 (200 recovery after 400s, 400 recovery after 800s)

Monday: 14.21 miles

Weekly total: 51.67 miles

Sunday: In Niagara Falls for labor day :-)

Saturday: off vacationing

Friday 4.01 miles

Thursday 8.10 miles

Wednesday: weights

Tuesday 4.0 miles

Monday: off

Weekly Total: 16.11 miles

Sunday: 3.16 miles. It felt worse than running the 20!

Saturday: 20.0 miles

Friday: off

Thursday 7.0 miles

Wednesday off

Tuesday 6.24 miles

Monday off

Weekly Total 36.40 miles

My First 20 miler

A milestone in marathon training, the 20 miler. When I began my training it seemed really daunting.... and now that i've completed the first of two that I will do over the course of training, I can't say the second one is any less daunting. I downloaded "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" onto my ipod last night. I think I probably missed some important points of the book as my mind started to wander throughout the run, but I was super excited to start listening to the book, which helped motivate me to get out the door. I woke up early to hit the road while temperatures were still cool. I tried some new margarita flavored cliff shot blocks with some added salt since i've been having some muscle cramping on my 15 mile and 16 mile runs. Who gets to say they had a margarita while they were running? I joke. They weren't quite as good as the real thing, but I didn't have any leg cramps, so I do think the added salt helped. Somehow I managed to get lost despite the fact that I was doing an out and back run. Doh! I think I took a wrong turn off of a roundabout at about mile 12. After about a mile I realized that things weren't really looking familiar. A biker that I flagged down was kind enough to point me in the right direction to get me back on course. A big thanks to him!

On my 16 mile run I drank nearly all of the water from my fuel belt, so I was concerned that I would run out on this 20 miler. I realized that there is a library on my route, so I stopped there at about mile 14 and refilled my bottles. Getting lost actually helped miles 12-15 go by fairly quickly, as I was focusing on finding my way back to my planned route than on how much I still had to run.

Looking back to the beginning of training, one of the reasons I chose the intermediate training program was that it had two 20 milers in it and so many of my marathon running friends have said that their first 20 miler was awful, so it was nice to have a second for the mental confidence boost. I don't want to jinx myself too much by saying this, but, the first one wasn't bad. It was long, it was hard, I am really sore now, but was I surprised at how well it went. I almost can't believe that I went that far! I also can't believe that I have to do it again in a few weeks.... and then of course do the marathon itself! I will be very glad when the marathon is over, so that I can have some weekends that are purely relaxing rather than built around my long run schedule, but finishing out this training is feeling a lot less overwhelming than it was a few weeks ago.

16 miles!

Another record. The farthest I have ever run. I'm going to get to say that a lot in these next few weeks :-)

Between marathon training and school I don't seem to have time for anything else! I'm getting ready for my first committee meeting at the new school. Monday. Yikes! So, i'm going to keep this update short so that I can get back to work.

Last weeks temperatures were much cooler (Finally!!), which made running feel good for the first time in a while. I think me fitting weights workouts into my week has become somewhat of a lost cause as it did not happen once again this week.

Here's last weeks recap:

Sunday - 16.01 miles. The weather was overcast and in the 70's, perfect for running long. The last two miles or so were rough and my legs were feeling pretty tight, but I definitly felt like I recovered much faster than my 15 miler, which left me sore and tired for the whole week, which I'll take as a good sign.

Saturday - 3.01 miles.

Friday - off

Thursday - 6.12 miles

Wednesday - off

Tuesday - 3X (4 X 400 meters) speedworkout. With warmup and cooldown 6.06 miles total.

Monday - off

Weekly Milage Total: 31.2 miles

It IS possible.

To have a nice refreshing run here in Cleveland! Thank God! I was beginning to thing that after marathon training was over i'd never ever run again.

I went out on my 6 miler this morning and it was almost cold. It was actually nice and I didn't come home looking like i'd been on a swim rather than a run. I actually enjoyed my run for the first time in a long while. Maybe fall is coming after all, with a break from this awful heat/humidity mix! One can only hope. The forecast is not so good for the weekend, but maybe by next weeks 20 miler it will be cooler? I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Weekly Recap 8/9 -8/15

After my long run yesterday i'm actually feeling pretty good! During the run I felt terrible, but I take it as a good sign that the day after soreness is minimal today. I think my mood about running is totally dependent on the weather and i'm really trying to get used to humidity and not be so negative about it. I've also not been so good about getting my weights workouts in. Long days at work lead to me pushing the snooze button in the morning and making excuses in the evening. It was definitely easier when I had the scheduled gym classes. I'm going to try to be better about it this week.

Sunday - 12 miles. I slept in... my own fault, so running in the hot sticky evening was my only choice. I slogged through 12 long, slow, soggy miles at 2 min/mile slower than my usual long run pace... but at least I got it in.

Saturday - skipped my planned 3 miles due to a sore IT band. I think it was a good decision... it's feeling better.

Friday - off

Thursday - 5 miles at the Twilight Trail 8K. A fun race! I'll definitely do this one again.

Wednesday - off

Tuesday - 3X (600, 1000). I think I pushed stop on my garmin instead of lap.... so we'll call it 4 miles total.

Monday - off

Weekly total: 21 miles.

Burnout and Soreness

Despite the fact that i've skipped a few of my planned short runs these past two weeks, i'm sore. Really sore. I'm also starting to feel a little burned out. Maybe training for a marathon after moving to a new city and transferring to a new school was not the best decision. I'm feeling very cranky about everything. I have my first committee meeting for grad school coming up in a few weeks, so that is weighing on me as well. This past week I decided to sign up for a short race for one of my weekly runs to try to fight this burnout. It was definitely fun! It was a trail run, complete with a river crossing. I haven't done "real" cross-country running in a while, plus the soreness I mentioned, so I took the race pretty easy and still managed to finish in under 10 minute miles. I think maybe i'll try to find a half-marathon that I could incorporate into my long run schedule in september as well.

(I was going to post a race pic...but now i've lost the cord to transfer pics from my camera...grrr)

I never posted the weekly recap for last week, so here it is. Last weeks schedule was a little messed up. I was out of town over the weekend for a wedding, so I split my long run in half and did it on friday.

Weekly Recap 8/2-8/8:

Sunday - off

Saturday - off

Friday - 5.0 miles in the morning and 7.1 in the evening for a total of 12.1 miles.

Thursday - 5.0 miles

Wednesday - off

Tuesday - Speedwork. 5 X 1000 with 400 meter rests. 5.23 miles total

Monday - off

Weekly total: 22.33 miles

15 MILES!

I'm a bit delayed in posting this, but I made it! 15 miles!

I was very nervous about this run, it being the farthest I have EVER run, but I made it and it wasn't even THAT bad. It was definitely tough, but I feel like a major milestone in training has been reached. Although those 20 milers are still looming, they are looking a little more possible.

It was a good day to run, not quite as cool as saturday, but not too hot. I loaded up my fuel belt with 4 bottles of water (2 more than usual) and headed out a little later than i'd wanted, but still early enough to beat the heat. I even saw a deer crossing the road at about the 5 mile mark. This was the first run where I think i've really needed "fuel". I used Gatorade and some cliff chews (1 package) which seemed to go over well with my stomach. I think I might try some other Gu's and things in these next few likes to figure out what I like best for race day. The last two miles of the run were definitely the toughest, both mentally and physically and I started having cramps in one leg, but I made it home and an ice bath has never felt so good.

I was not so good at fitting weights into this weeks schedule.

Here's the weekly milage recap 7/26- 8/01:

Sunday - 15.13 miles!

Saturday - 3.01 miles easy

Friday - rest

Thursday - 5.01 mile tempo

Wednesday - rest

Tuesday - 1600, 2 x 800, 2 x 400, 4 x 200 (400 rests for the 1600 & 800's , 200 rest for the 400's and 200's). This was by far my favorite interval workout thus far! 6.11 miles total with warmup and cooldown.

Monday - rest

Weekly total: 29.26 miles

Inspiration

I worked as a volunteer for a race for the first time today. I volunteered for the Burning River 100 mile endurance run. I was at mile 39.6 handing out food and fluids... wow, it was amazing to see all of the runners. It was really inspiring to see people who had run 40 miles (close enough!) and still had 60 to go smile and joke as they refueled and went on their way.

Running 100 miles is not something I ever aspire to do and I have enormous respect for those athletes out there who do these races.

I myself have been nervous all week for my measly (in comparison!) 15 mile run scheduled for tomorrow. The longest I have ever run up to this point in my life is 13.1 miles. I'm still nervous, but watching the runners today has definitely inspired me!

Finally. A good long run!

It was not 90 degrees this past sunday! It was in the upper 70's and it was a stepback week! For the first time during marathon training my long run felt good!

Weekly Recap:

Sunday - 9.01 miles. An excellent long run.

Saturday - 4.01 miles. It was 90 and humid.... at least it was only 4 miles.

Friday - Weights

Thursday - 4.08 mile tempo run

Wednesday - Weights

Tuesday - 4.06 miles. I skipped my weekly speed workout in favor of an easy 4 miles, which seemed to help my sore legs.

Monday - rest

Weekly Milage:

21.16 Miles

Sweat vs Rain

I've determined that no matter what time of day I run, the humidity results in me arriving home soaking wet with sweat. Last night I went for a short tempo run in the rain... well at least it was raining when I left. The rain felt soooo good! Half way through my run it stopped raining, and the sun came out, and I started to sweat. That felt bad. I definitely prefer being soaked by rain to being soaked in my own sweat. The rainy part of my run was the best i've felt on a run all month. I'm hoping for some showers on my run tonight!

I miss Colorado weather!

Ugh. This humidity stuff sucks! I managed to wake up early sunday to get my 12 miles in before the 90 degree heat set in. Despite the fact that it was somewhat cooler than 90, i'm guessing in the upper 70's, it was so FREAKING HUMID that i'm not even sure it was better than running in heat. I miss those crisp Colorado mornings, when no matter what the high for the day is going to be a morning run feels cool and refreshing. I guess I might have to wait until winter to get that refreshing cool feeling here.

Workouts this week went fairly well. I was feeling sore and burned out, so I took the week off from speedwork and skipped my saturday run in favor of a day of canoeing, which actually felt good. Next week is a stepback week, which i'm excited about. I'm feeling a little burned out.

Here's the weekly breakdown:

Sunday: 12.05 miles. It felt tough! See my above rant about the overall awfulness of humidity.

Saturday: skipped all planned workouts and went canoeing. Does that count as cross training? Who cares, it was fun!

Friday: off

Thursday: 5.01 miles

Wednesday: Weights

Tuesday: Skipped the usual speedwork in favor of an easy 4.01 miles

Monday: off

Weekly Milage: 21.03 Miles

Blog Neglect

Yes, i've been neglecting my blog these past few weeks. Truth be told i'm feeling a little burned out (already!?) with marathon training and just haven't felt like blogging. I'm not sure what exactly it is, maybe it's the combination of trying to adjust to a new city and stick to a rigid training schedule. It feels kind of pathetic because right now i'm not really doing any more running than I was for my half-training. Maybe it's because it's been so hot? (90+ degrees and muggy all last week). As much as I bitch about having to run in sleet/snow during the winter, I really like running in cold sooooo much better than running in heat. Ugh. Maybe I should have picked a spring marathon? Ah well, I need to catch up on some weekly updates for the past few weeks

7/5 - 7/11

Sunday - 10.02 miles. It wasn't as hot as last week... that's about all I can say.

Saturday - 4 miles

Friday - off

Thursday - 5 miles

Wednesday - off

Tuesday - 4.38. A tough speed workout (made tougher by 93 degree temps). 400, 1600, 800, 800, 1600 with 400 jogs in between.

Monday - off

Weekly Total: 23.4 Miles

6/28-7/4

Sunday - 8.04

Saturday - 4.01

Friday - off

Thursday - 5.01

Wednesday - Weights.

Tuesday - 5.78. Speed workout. I'm still the slowest one, but I ran a mile in 7:30, which is awesome for me, so i'm trying to feel good about that! 400, 800, 400, 1200, 400, 1600 (400 rest intervals in between)

Monday - off

Weekly Total: 22.84

Weekly Recap 6/21 - 6/27

I feel like I keep saying this, but it's been a busy week, so for now just a quick recap of workouts:

Sunday - 8 very hot (90 degrees) and humid miles. I managed to squeeze in my run between rainstorms. It was very gross and muggy out. I'm very glad it was only 8 miles!

Saturday - 3 miles

Friday - 4.1 miles

Thursday - Weights. I only managed to get in one of the two weight workouts... but it's still and improvement. I have a feeling this is going to be much harder now that I don't have the gym classes to motivate me to do the workouts.

Wednesday - 4 miles.

Tuesday - No workout. Mom was in town so we did some sight seeing.

Monday - off

Total Weekly Milage: 19.1 miles

New Shoes and pre-marathon training thoughts

I got a new pair of shoes! Yay! This has been long overdue, as I think my last pair was purchased in December. I took them for a little test run tonight and they feel nice and cushy. That should be all I need to be ready for marathon training, right? :-)

Marathon training starts this week. I will be using the training plan from the book Marathon Method by Tom Holland. I used the advanced half-marathon training plan for the Colfax Half and was very pleased with it. I really like how he incorporates some strength training into his plans. I enjoy doing other types of exercise, besides running, so I like the fact that I don't have to wonder how i'm going to squeeze it into a running plan. The plan includes 4 days a week of running. I've gone back and forth on whether or not I should do the beginner or intermediate marathon plan. I think i've settled on the intermediate plan. The beginner plan only goes up to 30 miles/week as the highest milage, which is what I did for my half-marathon. I feel like for a marathon I should get up a little higher. The intermediate plan may be a little bit of a stretch for me, but I figure I can just listen to my body and if I need to take a few easy days I will still at least be getting in the milage prescribed for the beginner plan.

As for goals...
I'm hesitant to really set a goal time as I have never run a marathon and really have no idea what I should be shooting for. Based on my 1/2 marathon time it seems like most predictions should put me around 4 hours and 10 minutes. Personally, I would be happy running 10 min miles, so that would put me around 4 hours and 22 minutes.

As for training my only goal is to complete as many of the training runs as possible, without injury, and to get all of my long runs in.

I'm definitely nervous about a few things. First, I have never run longer than 13.1 miles, so even some of the training runs seem a bit daunting to me. Second, I'd really like to continue to go to some of these running club runs, but the runs are tough and i'm not sure i'll be able to do it once I get into the longer distances. Last, I'm nervous that life or injury will get in the way of me completing the training.... but I guess that's something all marathoners just have to learn to deal with and I'll take it as it comes.



Weekly Recap:
I was definitely sore this week. Tuesday's track workout, followed by a running club run on wednesday left me very sore. Additionally, now that I walk or bike to and from work I think i'm putting more overall miles on my legs. I tried to take it a little easy this weekend to get ready to start training next week. I still didn't manage to get strength training in this week.

Sunday - 6 miles. Humid, but not too hot. Got to try out my new shoes.
Saturday - a very hot and humid 3 miles
Friday - off
Thursday - off
Wednesday - 4.58 miles with running club. I didn't think I was sore from tuesday's track workout until about 2.5 miles in...then it sunk in.
Tuesday - Track workout. 1000, 600 X 3 (200 rest between the 1000 and the 600, 400 rest between sets). 4.26 miles total with warmup and cooldown.
Monday - off

Total Weekly Milage: 17.84 miles.

I am officially slow.

I tried out a different running club yesterday. It was a track workout. Now, I know that i'm not fast by any means, but man did yesterday's workout make me feel slow! We did 1000/600 x 3 (400 rest interval between sets, 200 rest after each 1000). I managed to hold about a 7 min mile pace for the 1000's, but I was the slowest person there. It's probably good for me, as I could use a little more speediness :-).

Weekly Update 6/7 - 6/13

It's been a busy week! I wish I'd had time to update during the week, but i'll just squeeze it all into my weekly milage update. It was a very successful week of running. Wednesday I went and tried a new running group. I really like it! It seemed like a really supportive group of runners and a nice group of people in general. I don't generally like to run on Wednesday's, but i'm definitely going to try to make it to some more of the group runs. Plus, its a good way for me to meet new people, being new to the area. I've actually never been part of a running club before and going made me realize just how much I miss the commodore of a "team", like back in my high school days when I ran cross-country. My co-worker and I also got invited to attend a Tuesday night running group on the campus we work at, so I think i'm going to try to check that one out next week.

I did get lost again this week. Ugh. I have a horrible sense of direction! Now that I don't have mountains to tell me which direction is west i'm even worse (sad I know)! I mapped out a brand new 7 mile course for myself this morning....and well, that 7 miles turned into 9.25 miles. I got lost, thought I had found a street I was familiar with, then proceeded to run over a mile in the wrong direction before calling Dan and having him look at a map to tell me which way to go to get home. Prior to getting lost I did enjoy my new course though!

While running was very good this week, I neglected to fit my usual 2 weight lifting sessions back into the schedule, so i'm going to try to do a better job with that next week.

Here's the recap:

Sunday : 9.25 miles. I'm still getting used to the humidity here and being soaking wet when I come back from running, but it was nice temperature wise (in the low 70's) and I enjoyed the scenery at the park I was running around, before I got lost that is :-)

Saturday: off

Friday: 5 miles.

Thursday: off

Wednesday: 5 miles with the running club. Fun!

Tuesday : 3 miles.

Monday: off

Weekly Milage Total: 22.25

5/31 - 6/6 Weekly Update

Well, nothing too big to report this week. Marathon training does not start until June 21, so i'm just trying to keep to a somewhat normal running schedule until then, so that getting back into training isn't too much of a shock to the system. Speaking of shock, my May milage was shockingly low! I guess that's what happens when you taper, then move across the country. I did not make it to a running club this week, but I am starting to feel a little bit more comfortable picking out runs in my neighborhood and learning the lay of the land. I am also happy to report that I have not gotten lost again.... at least not yet :-) I also lifted weights again this past week for the first time since before tapering for the Colfax 1/2..... WOW has it been a while. I am SO sore! I also thought that I could re-create Body Pump class on my own by downloading the playlist. I figured it'd be pretty easy to figure out what the counts were supposed to be based on the music and my memory. That definitely did not turn out to be the case. I managed to do each body part for the right songs, but I definitely didn't have any memory of which parts of the songs were supposed to be 4 counts, 3, or 2...or 1. I think next time I'll just try to do 3 sets of 15 reps or something.

Anyway here's the recap:

Sunday - 6.21 miles. It was the first cool day since we've moved here, so for the first time I wasn't completely drenched in sweat (humidity is a killer, I will take high altitude any day over humidity!)

Saturday - 3 miles.

Friday - My own strange version of Body Pump

Thusday - 5 miles

Wednesday - off

Tuesday - 5 miles

Monday - off

Weekly Total: 19.21 miles

The comfort of a familiar run.

As fun as it is to map out new runs there's something to be said about the comfort of a run that you know like the back of your hand. The streets are not very grid-like here and trying to map out a 5-6 mile loop that doesn't involve too many turns (so that I don't get lost) has been challenging! I tried an out and back run a few days ago and (1) it was boring, (2) I think I may have been heading into a sketchy area had I run further. I did I little better today, although I did get lost and had to backtrack a bit until I could get my bearings. I'm going to try out a running club this week, so hopefully I can meet some people who can give me advice on where the good places to run are. I must say, I do enjoy all the trees here and the shade they provide on runs that would otherwise be really hot. My running this week has been very inconsistent, but i'm trying not to be to hard on myself. In the next few weeks before marathon training starts i'd like to keep my milage between 15-20 miles/week. That definitely didn't happen this week, but now that we are unpacked (for the most part) and starting to settle in it should be easier to keep to a schedule.


Weekly Recap:

Sunday - 5.56 miles
Saturday - no running
Friday - no running
Thursday - 4.2 miles
Wednesday -no running
Tuesday - no running
Monday - 2.91 miles

Weekly Total - 12.67

Ohio

Well, we made it to Cleveland. I didn't run at all last week and unfortunately I seem to have come down with a cold so i'm pretty sure this will be a very light week of running as well. I'm going a little stir crazy from not running for so long. The 3 day drive from Denver to Cleveland wasn't as bad as I expected after running the half. My gas pedal leg started to cramp the first day of driving as I was still feeling pretty sore, but days 2 and 3 of driving felt perfectly fine. We are in our apartment now, but unfortunately none of our stuff has arrived yet, so we're still camping out on an air mattress and living out of suitcases, which is starting to get a little old. There has been far too much eating out and I definitely feel like a slug. As you can probably tell, i'm getting a little cranky about all of this.

I went for a short 3 mile run yesterday, hello humidity, I'm definitely going to have to adjust to that!

Colfax 1/2 Marathon Race Report

I got under 2 hours!!!! It's not a PR, but I am incredibly thrilled with this for several reasons: (1) I have not been able to do a 1/2 in under two hours since my very first half marathon and (2) I have gotten progressively slower times in every half-marathon (until now!). Woo Hoo! I broke my "slow streak" and got back under two hours.

The race went off without any hitches. I'd say the weather was pretty perfect. It was cold at the start and I started off in pants and a long sleeve shirt. The first 3 miles felt really easy and I was able to keep under 9 minute miles easily. For some reason, mile 4 was rough for me and I slowed down quite a bit, I think it may have been the first "hill" of the race (really it was all pretty flat- only slight inclines). Miles 5-7 flew by. I ate a bit of my Cliff shot block and had some water and felt like I got a little burst of energy. Around mile 8 I looked at my time and realized that it actually would be possible for me to PR if I really pushed it. At this point I knew I could get under two hours though and decided regardless of the PR that was what I was going for and decided to just concentrate on trying to keep a steady pace and enjoying the scenery. Miles 9-10 were nothing special. Around mile 11 my IT band started feeling really sore (which is the issue I always seem to have), so I just tried to keep the pace as close to 9 min miles as possible. The last mile was rough and I really wanted to just be at the end already, but the crowd support was great at this point and really got me through to the end. I looked at the clock as I was crossing and saw 1:59 and some change and was really happy, both to be done and to have gotten the time I was shooting for.

Here's the breakdown:
Unofficial Garmin time: 1:59:27
Official Race Time: 1:59:07

Mile 1 - 8:36
Mile 2 - 8:24
Mile 3 - 8:43
Mile 4 - 9:20 (what happened?!)
Mile 5 - 8:45
Mile 6 - 9:08
Mile 7 - 9:32
Mile 8 - 9:02
Mile 9 - 8:53
Mile 10 - 9:17
Mile 11 - 9:42
Mile 12 - 9:16
Mile 13 -8:49
Some change - 2:02

I could not be happier with the race. Now, off to finish last minute packing/cleaning and saying goodbye to friends. We drive to Cleveland tomorrow, so this will be my last Colorado post (sad).

Pre-Race Thoughts and Weekly milage

Well, we did have some snow earlier this week. Race day looks like good weather though! It looks like it will be 40's at the start and probably into the 50's by the time I finish. Now comes my decision of shorts vs. pants. I'm thinking i'll probably end up going with pants and hoping not to be to hot at the end of the race (Yes, I do get hot running when it's only 50 degrees!). I went and picked up my race packet this morning, so everything is set for the race.

As far as moving, all of our stuff was boxed and packed onto the moving truck friday, so things are all set to go there! We're sleeping on an air mattress for the next week or so. That should feel good after the race (hmmm).

This weeks running was very light. My legs are feeling rested and I think it's a definite possibility that I could run under 2 hours tomorrow, but I don't want to jinx myself too much, so if I don't i'm just hoping it's a good race for my last day in Colorado.

This weeks running:
Saturday - 2 miles easy
Friday - rest
Thursday - 3 miles
Wednesday - rest
Tuesday - 4.45 miles
Monday - rest

Total milage: 9.45 miles

Snow?

Today was my longest run this week leading up to the 1/2. A measly 4 mile run. My legs felt really strong and holding a 9-9:30 min mile pace felt very comfortable, which makes me feel like a 2 hour half marathon could be possible this weekend. It is supposed to snow tonight (really?!), but during my run it was still just spitting rain, so we shall see.

Things with moving are ... happening. The Lab was supposed to be moved Monday and Tuesday, but it seems they way underestimated the amount of time it would take and packing alone took up both days. Movers are supposed to be coming to our place Thursday and Friday and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will actually be completed in those two days so that I can have somewhat of a down day Saturday before the race.

Weekly Recap 5/3 - 5/9

Sunday - 5 miles. Nothing to exciting. I was getting over a stomach ache, but it was a really nice spring night to run.

Saturday - 3 miles

Friday - off

Thursday - 4.21 miles

Wednesday - Pilates DVD

Tuesday - 4.2 miles with 5 X 1 min speed intervals. Last speed workout before the half. The intervals were so short they felt really easy.

Monday - Off

Total Weekly Milage - 16.41 miles

Tapering

Well, this week has been fairly uneventful running wise. It almost feels as if I'm not running at all, my runs have been so short, just 4 miles tuesday and thursday and no strength training. Mostly I'm just preparing for moving. The lab has closed down and I'm working on packing stuff we will take in the car from home. We have a going away party with some friends tomorrow. Then, next week is moving madness. Monday and Tuesday movers are coming to the lab, Thursday and Friday movers are coming to the apartment. The reality that we're leaving is starting to set in and I'm a little sad.

Weekly Recap 4/26-5/2

Well, I'm in taper. This is by far the longest taper i've ever done for a 1/2 marathon, but i'm trying to trust that the training plan i'm following knows what it's talking about. I definitely felt a lot better on my runs this week. I felt like I was starting to get some speed back and my legs didn't feel so heavy and tired this week.

Sunday - A pleasantly rainy 7 mile run. It was raining, but not windy or cold, so the rain felt very nice and 7 miles felt super easy after last weeks 12.

Saturday - 5 mile tempo with 6 30 second hill repeats (which should have gone with Thursday's workout)

Friday - Rest

Thursday - 4.45 miles. I was supposed to do some hills, but I literally found myself caught in a blizzard with awful wind and sleet, so I decided to cut it short.

Wednesday - My last Boot Camp class, which was sad. This is by far my favorite class at the gym and I am definitely going to miss it!

Tuesday - 5.24 miles with 5 X 2 min intervals.

Monday - Body Pump

Total Weekly Milage - 21.69 miles

Moving Forward

Well, things are starting to move forward, so I don't have to have a complete nervous breakdown :-)

We have movers. Still no date, but at least a company. Hopefully the dates which they will be packing will come later this week.
I have been accepted at Case Western, but still waiting on my transfer credits to be accepted or declined.

Still a lot of things up in the air, but at least some progress.

I run how I feel

In light of my day yesterday I thought my runners world quote of the day was quite fitting today:

"Everyone who has run knows that its most important value is in removing tension and allowing a release from whatever other cares the day may bring."
-President Jimmy Carter

I did my 5 miles with some speed intervals yesterday, which did help me somewhat de-stress. I think I'm going to have some sort of nervous break down if at least some things surrounding this move are not resolved at some point this week though!

I'm really bad at pacing myself and I just tend to run at whatever pace feels good on any particular day. Even back in high school running track and cross country when I was the only senior on the team my coach never put me as the "pack leader" so to speak because of my inconsistency with pace. Yesterday made me realize that anger/stress = fast Molly. My intervals were supposed to be at 5K pace, which for me is about 8 min miles. Definitely ran them at about 6:55-7 minute miles. So I guess the good thing about all of this stress..... It makes me run really really fast.

This morning was a little sad. I canceled my gym membership, so it was my last morning going to boot camp with my workout buddy. It's sad to be wrapping things up and ending things here.

I. Am. Stressed.

Warning. I'm in a cranky mood and I just want to complain. Moving is always stressful. Moving in to a new state in the middle of graduate school is a whole lot more stress than I ever imagined. We are making this move because my Mentor for my PhD dissertation took a job in Cleveland and had I decided to stay in Colorado I would have lost 3 years of work and had to start over in a new lab. That being said, then came the decision of which school to actually be a student at (either way I would have physically been in cleveland... confusing I know). After looking through my options it seemed that transferring to Case Western was going to be the best decision. However, having already completed all of my course work here in colorado, I really did not want to have to re-take anything once I got to Case. My transcripts have been "under review" since March! Colorado needs a resignation from me by the end of the week and I still don't know #1. IF i've been accepted at case or #2 what classes (if any) I will need to take from Case. Grrrr.

We also don't have movers yet. Case Western is paying for the move (Awesome!), but they have yet to tell us which company they are approving to move us. The move is 18 days away and I still don't feel like anything is any more in place than it was 6 months ago.

To top it off, Dan is having no luck on the job front. He's applied for over 70 jobs and received only 1 interview. I'm not really entirely sure how we are going to pay the bills on my graduate stipend.

I just want some good news on something. Anything!

Hopefully my 5 miler tonight will help me burn off some of this stress.

Weekly Recap 4/19-4/25

This past week was my highest weekly milage for 1/2 training. It went fairly well, but I am definitely excited for the taper! My legs have been feeling sluggish and sore for the past few weeks, so i'm looking forward so some lower milage and some stretching and hopefully feeling more refreshed come race day. I've also been feeling slow lately. It's been really difficult to keep up my pace on my long runs. This week was no different for the long run, but I did manage to do my shorter runs at a pace I felt happy with.

Sunday - 12 miles. This was a miserable run. I'm tempted to say my most miserable run of training. I think some of the long runs I did in snow were more enjoyable. The weather was terrible! I did an out and back route and yet somehow I was running into what felt like a 30 mile wind THE ENTIRE TIME. The first half of the run I managed to run at about a 9:20 to 9:30 pace that I was happy with. The second half, in addition to the wind, it started pouring rain and my pace definitely started to slow. The last two miles of the run I was just praying for the wind to stop and trying to keep moving my feet forward. I was exhausted afterwards, but at least it's done.

Saturday - 6 mile tempo. Beautiful spring weather to run in and I felt pretty conformable keeping my tempo pace up.

Friday - Rest

Thursday - 6 miles with 6 X 1 min hill repeats.

Wednesday - Boot Camp.

Tuesday - 6 miles with 3 X 5 min at 5K pace. The speed hurt, but I was able to keep up a 5K pace for all of the intervals, which I was happy with.

Monday - Body Pump.

Total Weekly Milage - 30 miles

Weekly Recap 4/12-4/18

Despite the fact that last week was a stepback week, my legs have been feeling really sore and sluggish this week. I'm hoping that it's just part of the final build phase of training and that the long taper will have me refreshed and ready to run fast come race day. I've noticed my mile times for my long runs have gotten slower, which is a little discouraging. Earlier in training I was running 11 miles at 9:30 min/mil and feeling very comfortable, this past weekends 10 miler I could barely hold 10 min miles. Maybe it's just an off week.

Sunday - 10 miles. Beautiful day. Ran at one of my favorite spots. I felt a little sick when I got home though, I think I was out in the sun a little too long. I am super sensitive to sun/heat and probably should have gone a little earlier or later in the day, my own fault.

Saturday - 5 mile tempo. My legs actually felt really good for this run and I was able to hold 8:30 min miles for a full mile.

Friday - rest

Thursday - 6 miles with 6 x 1 min hill repeats.

Wednesday - Boot Camp class at the gym.

Tuesday - 6 miles with 2 x 5 mins at 5K pace.

Monday - Body Pump at the gym.

Total weekly mileage: 27 miles

Favorite Runs

As we prepare to move i've been thinking about how many things i'm going to miss about Colorado. We've lived in several places around the Denver metro area over the past few years and in each place we live it seems I have a favorite running place nearby. In Lakewood it was Green Mountain, in denver it was the Highline Canal trail, and now it's the Big Dry Creek Trail in Westminster. I have no doubt that I will find a favorite run in Cleveland, but man am I going to miss the mountain views!

I did my 10 mile today on the big dry creek trail. Coming up to Sloans lake there was a beautiful view of snow capped mountain peaks. A picture just doesn't do it justice. But here is one anyway:

Does it get any better than that?

Goals

Retrospectively I probably should have written this at the beginning of my training, but better late than never! With the Colfax 1/2 marathon just about a month away I thought it might be time to formalize some goals for myself. Writing these things down makes me very nervous because there is always that chance that I will fall short.

This will be my fifth 1/2 marathon and i'm following a new training plan that i've never done before (it's the Advanced 1/2 Marathon training plan from The Marathon Method by Tom Holland for anyone that's curious). The start of my training was a little crazy in that I had originally planned to train for the full marathon. Trying to be a successful student on top of getting ready for this move to Cleveland i'm completely satisfied with the decision to drop down to the 1/2 marathon. Trying to do a Full would have been too much at this point. Overall i've liked the training program. I'll be the first to admit i've skipped a few of the runs here and there, but overall I think i've done a good job of following it. This is the first time i've incorporated speedwork into a 1/2 marathon training plan, which i've enjoyed and it has made the longer miles seem less monotonous. This plan has a longer taper (almost 3 full weeks after my 12 miler) than i've ever done before.

Now for my Goals for the 1/2:
1. Obviously I want to finish
2. Ideally I would like to run it under 2 hours. However, I have only ever accomplished this once before. With the speed work I think that it could be a possibility.
3. If I can't finish under 2 hours, i'd like to run under 10 minute miles.

Weekly Recap 4/5- 4/11

This was a step back week. It felt nice to have a little bit lighter week.

Sunday - 8.5 miles. I felt good the whole run, it was nice to have a shorter long run.

Saturday - 4 miles. I think I ate some bad food and was having horrible stomach cramps the whole run. I think this 4 miles felt worse than sunday's 8! At one point I stopped and bent over and a woman driving on the street stopped and asked me if I was alright, which was so nice, I must have looked bad.

Friday - off

Thursday - 5 miles

Wednesday - Boot Camp. It was the start of a new routine, which was a welcome change!

Tuesday - 4.2 miles

Monday - Body Pump

Total Weekly Milage: 21.7

A whole new kind of speed workout. Avoiding Hail.

Tuesday morning I had a 4 mile Fartlek planned (Fartlek for those of you that don't know means "speed play", its kind of a create your own speedwork, doing intervals between trees or whatever rather than prescribed distances).

My legs were feeling really sore and sluggish from the 12 miler on Sunday and my weight workout on monday. About half way through I decided I was done and was just going to run slowly the rest of the way home.... mother nature had other plans. It started thundering and before I knew it hail was slowly starting to fall. I started running faster, thinking that I could probably make it before it really started to get bad. Wrong! About 1/2 mile from home It really started pelting down, so I took shelter under an overpass until it started to lighten up, then I sprinted the rest of the way home.

Mother nature forced me to finish my speedwork! :-)

Weekly Recap 3/29 - 4/4

Sunday - 12 miles. Today was a great day for running. The sun was shining and the temperature was just perfect. I felt much better than my 10 miler last week where I felt like my legs were made of led.

Saturday - I was supposed to do a 5 mile tempo run, but started out and my calves were killing me, so I just went back home and decided to take an extra day of rest.

Friday - Rest

Thursday - 6.1 miles with 6x 1min hill repeats afterwards.

Wednesday - Boot Camp class in the morning then a 5.3 mile with some speed intervals after work (to make up for my choice of happy hour over running!)

Tuesday - Happy hour.

Monday - Body Pump

Total Weekly Milage - 23.4

The battle between happy hour and running...

In the battle between happy hour and running, happy hour always wins! This is part of the reason I started running in the morning. This week my sleep has been bad. As some of you may know my husband manages a freshman dorm at a University that, for the time being, will remain nameless. With spring in the air the students have begun to literally go crazy. Monday night they were screaming (not words, just ahhhhhhhhh) and running through the halls at midnight. Anyhow, in an effort to get more than 4 hours of sleep a night I've been sleeping in and trying to fit my runs in the afternoon.

Tuesday afternoon I had a 5 mile run scheduled. Instead, I went to happy hour after a long day in the lab.
Happy hour was just what I needed, but I always feel guilty about skipping a run.
I was so proud of myself for squeezing it in yesterday afternoon.

Hopefully next week i'll be back to running in the morning, so that happy hour and running wont have to compete!

Weekly Update 3/22-3/28

I'm feeling stressed and busy....as always it seems these days. Papers for grad school have been cutting into my sleep. Anyhow, here's a quick update of last weeks workouts.

Sunday - 10 miles. It was a beautiful day for a run. I even got to wear shorts! For some reason my legs were feeling really fatigued and this 10 mile run felt much tougher than the 11.5 mile run a few weeks ago, i'm not really sure why.

Saturday - 5 mile tempo run. Crazy weather. It was super windy and I think I had a little bit of every kind of weather at some point during the run... Sun, then a brief snow, then a little rain, then sun again.

Friday - off

Thursday - 5.5 miles with 2 hill repeats. I was supposed to do a few more hill repeats, but had to cut things a little short since I didn't get out of bed quite early enough to get the whole workout in.

Wednesday - Got to the gym to find that boot camp class was canceled (it was kind of blizzarding outside), so I stayed and did about 45 mins on the elliptical, some sit ups and push ups.

Tuesday - 5 mile run with 5 x 3 min speed intervals during the run. This was an increase in speed intervals from the last few weeks, but it didn't feel as tough as I expected!

Monday - Body Pump at the gym

Weekly Milage Total - 25.5

Back from Cleveland and last weeks update

We were in Cleveland last week looking for apartments. It was busy, but a good trip. Dan got to interview for some jobs, I got to see Case Western and talk to some students from the program there, and of course we looked at lots of apartments. We found one and put a deposit down, so its nice to have at least one thing for the move settled! I even managed to get most of my running in last week, luckily it was a step back week.

Sunday - 7 miles
Saturday - 4 miles
Friday - 4 miles
Thursday - off
Wednesday - off
Tuesday - 5 miles
Monday - Body Pump

Weekly Total - 20 miles

Cleveland Tomorrow

This is not really running related. We are heading out to Cleveland tomorrow to look for apartments and get a tour of Case Western (where I will be transferring to). I'm nervous. I'm nervous that we wont find an apartment we like this trip and we'll have to try and squeeze in another visit to find one before the move. I'm sure it will be fine, but there is just so much uncertainty at this point in time. I am however looking forward to actually seeing the city we will be moving to, since I have never been there before!

Weekly Recap 3/8 - 3/14

Sunday - 11.3 miles (see post below)
Saturday - 4 miles with 10 min tempo run in the middle
Friday - 6 miles with 6 hill repeats
Thursday - off
Wednesday - Boot Camp class at the gym.
Tuesday - 5 miles with 3, 3 min intervals at 5K pace
Monday - Body Pump at the Gym

Total Weekly Mileage: 26.3

A very cold wet run today

I had an 11 mile run planned today. If I would have been smart I'd have checked the weather and possibly switched my runs this weekend and done my long run yesterday when it was 50 degrees and sunny. I was very surprised when I woke up to a rain/snow mix this morning! I waited until the snow let up and it was a light drizzle and headed out. The first half of the run was actually pretty pleasant. I do enjoy running in the rain. The second half of the run was much less enjoyable, it was more of a downpour. The last two miles home were the worst. It was sleeting and I was running into the wind, so little bits of ice were pelting me in the face. I actually debated ducking into a coffee shop and calling Dan to come and get me at one point, but since I was only about a mile from home at that point I decided to stick it out and actually ended up running about 11.5 miles.

I've been listening to Born to Run in audiobook form on my long runs. Today the contrast between my run and the runs they were describing in the book were funny. Obviously I was running nowhere near the ultra-marathon distances the book talks about, but they happened to be describing the run through Death Valley and the heat. It was funny to listen to when I was cold and wet, maybe mentally it helped me feel warmer! The book also started getting into the barefoot running phenomenon and how great barefoot running is for your feet. All I could think of, while running through puddles was, thank God for my Gor-tex Nikes!

Speed work

Today was the first time I have done my speed intervals outside in a while. I always forget how bad I am at pacing! I have never been any good at running a specific pace. When I go out for a run I tend to just run how I feel. If I feel like going fast, I do, if I feel fatigued I go slow. My plan today was to run 3, 3 minute intervals at 5K pace (8:00 min miles). I was all over the place! Part of the problem was that I didn't realize that I don't have my watch set to display both pace and time at the same time, so I had to keep switching between screens, but my pace was around 7 min miles. I tried to slow down a "little" and end up around 8:30 min miles. I could definitely use some work on running a consistent pace!

Weekly Recap 3/1 - 3/7

It wasn't the most consistent running week. This only reaffirms for me that I made the right decision in not training for a full marathon this spring. Life is just too busy right now! Why so busy this week? I was at a conference in Washington DC Sunday through Tuesday. It was intense! Monday was 7:30am - 9pm of talks, then going out to socialize and meet new people afterwards. I didn't get to bed until probably around 1am. Needless to say I didn't wake up early to get a run in before the talks started back up at 7:30 the next morning. Getting back into the swing of things at work left me completely exhausted, so I gave myself saturday off to sleep in and try to recover a little. I did manage to get my long run in, which is what I think is most important for training.

Sunday - 9 miles. It was a beautiful day to run! 50 degrees and cloudy, so the temperature was perfect. I managed to average about 9:40 min miles. I was pretty pleased with that, considering I don't try to push at all for speed on long runs.

Saturday - no working out, just sleeping in!

Friday - 24 SET class at the gym.

Thursday - 6 miles with 6 30 second hill repeats.

Wednesday - Boot Camp class.

Tuesday - skipped my planned 5 mile run.

Monday - off

Total Weekly Milage: 15 miles

Weekly Recap 02/22 - 2/28

It was nice to have a stepback week this first week back to training after being sick. This was the first week of adding speed training, which was exciting!

Sunday - I was leaving for a conference so I woke up early to do 6 miles outside before heading to the airport.
Saturday - 4 miles with 10 minutes of tempo.
Friday - 24SET
Thursday - 5 miles with 6 hill repeats
Wednesday - Boot Camp Class
Tuesday - 4 miles with 3X3 minutes at 5K pace with 1 minute of rest. I did 8:30 min/mile for the speed intervals, which might be a little slower than 5K. I wasn't quite ready to push it after being sick. It felt really good to get back to running though!
Mon- Off.

Total Weekly mileage: 19 miles

What I love about Colorado

I went for my run today in shorts and a t-shirt. By tomorrow morning it is supposed to be 30 degrees and snowing! As crazy as it may sound I love this about Colorado weather! The random, nice 50 degree days make it so much easier to get through the cold wintery weather.

Excited to Run again.

After about 4 days in bed i'm finally feeling like i'm getting over this sinus infection. I'm heading to the gym after work to try 4 miles on the treadmill. I'm excited to get back into things! I think its a good thing this is a step back week though!

Sick :-(

I've been sick since Tuesday. Whatever cold I seem to have picked up seems to have morphed into a sinus/ear infection and shows no sign of disappearing or even improving anytime soon. I think i'll need to take myself to the doctor tomorrow. Needless to say, not much running has happened this week.

Sunday - Sick
Saturday - Sick
Friday - Sick
Thursday - Sick
Wednesday -Sick
Tuesday - 4 miles
Monday - Body pump at 24 hour fitness

Total Weekly Mileage: 4 miles

Weekly Recap 02/08 - 02/14

It's been a rough week, not running wise, but life wise! As some of you will know we found out we will be moving to Ohio in May for me to finish graduate school. Graduate school itself is seeming overwhelming right now. I've been in the lab at least 10 hours/day during the week and working every weekend, plus working on papers when i'm at home. ugh. We're also trying to start interviewing movers and figure out the paperwork for me to transfer to Case Western. Whew, I feel like I need a vacation!

Running this week has been good though! It's week 3 of 1/2 marathon training.

Sunday - 8.5 miles outside. It snowed last night, so it was a little chilly, but the sun was shining and I felt great on the run. It also felt good to increase distance from last week!

Saturday - 5 miles outside. Beautiful weather, 40 and sunny! A great day to run!

Friday - 24SET class at the gym. I decided to go ahead and do the class this week since I skipped the Wednesday weights class.

Thursday - 6 miles outside. It was freaking cold! I was still happy it was light enough outside that I didn't have to use the treadmill though!

Wednesday - I was just to exhausted to get out of bed and go to the gym, so I took the day off.

Tuesday - 4 miles on the treadmill. I guess I lied last week, it wasn't my last treadmill run. It had snowed monday and the sidewalks were still really icy, so I figured i'd better not chance it outside.

Monday - 24Lift class at the gym.

Total Weekly Mileage: 23.5 miles

Weekly Recap 02/01 - 02/07

Sunday - A very snowy 6 mile run! There wasn't actually too much snow on the ground, so despite the fact that the snow was coming down, the running conditions were pretty good, plus it gave me a chance to try out my new waterproof running jacket, which worked great!

Saturday - 4 miles outside.

Friday - 24Set weights and cardio class at 24 hour fitness. I think next week i'm going to skip this one since I was definitely very sore for my weekend runs.

Thursday - 6 miles on the treadmill.

Wednesday - Boot Camp class at 24 hour fitness.

Tuesday - 4 miles on the treadmill.

Monday - Body Pump at 24 hour fitness.

Total weekly miles: 20 miles

Last Dreadmill run

This week was my second week of 1/2 marathon training for the Colfax Half Marathon, which included a 6 mile run last night. Running on the treadmill during the week, when it is to dark to run outside, has become just painful! According to the sunrise times for next week, it will be light out at 6:33, meaning I can run outside, when its light and still get to work on time! This is unbelievably exciting!

January Milage

Well, one of my main purposes for starting this blog was to have a record of my milage. Several of my friends were discussing how many miles they'd logged in 2009 and I realized that although I have some miles logged with my Polar watch, I didn't have it on every run, so I have no idea! I'm determined to keep track of my miles in 2010. January has been a busy month so for now, i'll just log in my milage for the month, with some more interesting blogging to come. Miles this month: 81.5.