Tag Archives: running

Five for Friday

20 Apr

1. I ran 7.88 miles last night after work, which I haven’t done in a long time. Despite it threatening to rain and the wind blowing me around, it was actually a pretty good run. I averaged a pace of 10:46, which I’m pretty excited about.

And right now is my favorite time of the year to run because of all the beautiful flowers. Especially the lilacs. They’re at their peak:

I’m pretty impressed that my phone took that picture.

I’m willing to bet that the Russian Olive trees are out in full force up in Boulder too, which has me contemplating a run around my 9 mile loop again tomorrow.

2. My parents are flying to Mexico tomorrow and conveniently, they have a layover in Denver! So Travis and I will trek out to the airport early tomorrow morning (like 7 am!) to have breakfast with them. It’ll totally be worth it though. Maybe I can convince them to squeeze me in their carry-on and take me to Mexico too? Work has been incredibly busy this week so I am feeling very in need of a vacation.

3. On my run last night, I discovered the secret to making gels easier to eat: heat them up in your pocket. When the gel is warm, it’s a lot more liquid-y and less gel-y so it’s easier to eat. I think this will be my strategy for future runs – store a gel in a pocket until I use it, then replace it with another gel until I need that one. (And a big THANK YOU to Lisa for hosting a giveaway that gave me lots great, free running fuel!)

I received my package from Lisa last Saturday, which was perfect timing because I was out of fuel and had forgotten to go to the store. I packed a Chocolate Cherry and a Chocolate gel.

4. I think I may have solved my blister problem by using different socks and slathering on the Body Glide. We’ll see how things go tomorrow on my 10-miler!

5. I tried out a new frozen yogurt shop on Wednesday with some friends from church. It’s called Zinga! and I really enjoyed it.

They had fewer flavors than Yogurtland but every flavor I tried was delicious. I loaded up my bowl with Raspberry, Cake Batter, Cherry Amaretto, and Mocha Latte, and loaded on the toppings.

Flavored wafers = score.

M&M’s = fail.

The M&M’s got all hard from the frozen yogurt, which made they really crunchy. I will not make that mistake again.

That’s all I got.

Have a great weekend!

Tags: , , , , , ,

Running Shirt Dilemma

19 Apr

I got my new running duds in the mail last week. I absolutely love the skirt. It’s the perfect (modest) length, it’s nice fabric but not too heavy, the pocket on the back is big enough to actually be useful, and it’s pink.

I also really like the shirt – it’s soft and actually an extremely light teal, which makes it even cuter. Here’s my dilemma though – the medium I ordered is tighter than I’d like in the stomach. So I had the thought of exchanging it for a large. But the other issue is that the shirt is 50% polyester, 50% cotton (it says that on the website so I wasn’t surprised). I’ve never had a running-specific shirt involving cotton but Travis doesn’t think that would be good for running long distances. And since the whole point was buying a cute shirt for the marathon, I’m torn.

And I’m turning to my lovely readers. Do you have a 50/50 running shirt? Would you return the shirt for a bigger size or look for another cute, 100% polyester shirt to wear with my pink skirt?

I also just got some new sports bras. Doing a quick Google search for good running bras, I’m sure you’d come up lots of raves about Moving Comfort bras. I had ordered some last year when I was looking for a good bra to wear in my Olympic triathlon. I bought a couple of Moving Comfort bras but to be honest, I wasn’t all that impressed. Just recently, it dawned on me that I might have ordered the wrong size. And since I’m still wearing sports bras that I had in college (doubled up with others I bought more recently), I thought I’d test out my theory.

So I ordered the Fiona and Helena bras from Sierra Trading Post in one cup size smaller than I normally wear. My theory was correct. These bras actually did hold the girls down. I’m not a huge fan of the Helena (so I’m going to exchange it for another Fiona) because the band size is too small (even though it’s technically the same as the Fiona?) and is doing my underarm fat no favors. It also has very thin fabric across the front, which is not good news if you tend to get cold, ahem, after running.

But the Fiona is wonderful. It’s comfy, supportive and has thicker fabric to minimize the, ahem, coldness.

It’s also cute. That’s the main reason I have refused to try Enell bras – they look like something my grandma would wear. (Sorry, but it’s true). The other thing I like about both bras is that they fasten in the back like a regular bra. The other Moving Comfort bra I bought (the Juno) still goes over your head like a regular sports bra and fastens in the back – which is sometimes tricky to do when you’re already wearing it. I use my Juno bra for shorter distances – 10K or less – but I think that’s more because I didn’t buy the right size, than anything to do with the bra itself. I definitely plan to use my new Fiona bras for marathon training.

Short story long, if you’re looking for a supportive sports bra, Moving Comfort bras are great – you just might have to experiment with sizes.

Please give me advice about my running shirt dilemma! And if you have any ideas about where to find cute running shirts, you get bonus points!

Tags: , , , , ,

Training Recap: 4/9 – 4/15

16 Apr

Last week, I didn’t do any strength training or speed work in preparation for the half marathon and I actually missed it! So I’m excited to get back into the swing of things this week, just in time to enter the second half of marathon training next Monday. Because I don’t believe in the idea of jinxing things or knocking on wood, I’m going to boldly say that I have gotten farther in this training plan than I did in 2010 when I injured my IT band. From here on out, it’s uncharted territory for this girl. Which is pretty exciting, if you ask me! (It still boggles my mind that during my highest mileage week, my mid-week run will be the same length as my longest long run in half marathon training – 10 miles. On a Thursday night!)

Because of my shiny new Half Marathon PR, I’m going to say that this past week was a fabulous training week, even though my runs were kind of meh.

Monday: 3.04 mile easy run (34:22, 11:18/mile)

Tuesday: 3.15 mile easy run (33:15, 10:33/mile)

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: 6.19 mile easy run (1:07:33, 10:54/mile)

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: Platte River Half Marathon (2:24:34, 11:03/mile)

Total Running Miles = 25.48

……………………..

While my legs felt great for the entire race yesterday, my feet are a sight for sore eyes. Poor little feet. I ended up popping a water blister on my right foot last night with a (hand)sanitized push pin because it was so tender that I couldn’t stand to put my feet under the covers to go to bed. Operation De-Blister-ation has commenced. (Sort of.) I will spare you the pictures of my ugly feet because let’s honest… no one wants to see that. But something needs to change because I don’t know if I could even put my feet into running shoes right now.

In other news, my appetite finally returned today. Not with a vengeance (surprisingly), just at its usual level. But I’m extremely thirsty. And warm. I can barely stand to keep my blazer on over my tank top. Which is so strange, since I’m usually inhumanly frigid all the time. Travis says that I have cadaver hands. And actually, even though I’m warmer than normal, my hands are still cold. Go figure.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Race Recap: Platte River Half Marathon

15 Apr

Welp, third fourth time’s the charm. I finally beat my previous PR of 2:30:52 by coming across the finish line at 2:24:34 (unofficial), an average pace of 11:03!

I am beyond thrilled that I achieved my goal and am surprised at how well this race went mentally, but it was a tough race. I think my mental game is what saved me and turned this into my new PR. But I’ll start at the beginning.

And by beginning, I mean last night, because I think my dinner might have had something to do with how things went today. I got home from the Women of Faith conference around 6:30 (I’ll post about that later) and was starving. Travis was too and of course, his first suggestion was Mexican (always is!). After my less than enthusiastic reception of that idea, he mentioned that he’d like a steak so we went to Texas Roadhouse. Except everyone and their grandma was there, so we ventured over to Lonestar Steakhouse, which was much less crowded.

We ordered their 2 for $25 deal, which included an appetizer, 2 entrees + 1 side each, and a dessert. In short, a lot of food. The appetizer was spinach and artichoke dip (delicious!), I ordered the Bourbon salmon for my entree with a baked sweet potato (Travis got steak with green beans), and cheesecake for dessert. Everything was delicious… as was my $4 GIANT margarita. It was pretty weak as far as margaritas go (which was good because I’m totally a lightweight) but I left the restaurant feeling a bit more full than I wanted to (and I even took 1/2 of my meal home with me!).

When we got home, I checked the weather report and it said 40 degrees, rain and 25 mph winds from the NW. We would be running north so this was simply perfect weather (ha, not!). I was trying to stay positive as I grabbed my winter and spring running jackets, my 2XU compression tights, a long-sleeve shirt, a t-shirt, my running hat, and Smart Wool socks. I got everything else ready – race directions, course map, gels, Camelbak, coffee for the morning – and went to bed around 9:30.

Usually on race morning, I get up right when my alarm goes off because I’m nervous or I realize that I’m not going to get any more sleep anyway. Not this morning. I thought through what I had to do and calculated how long it would take me, so that I could stay in bed as long as possible. I reset my alarm clock and went back to sleep (kind of). Finally, I got up at 6:30.

I looked outside to this:

A little snow, but SUN! Maybe the weather wouldn’t be as bad as they said…

I got dressed, did my hair and makeup, packed my bag (makeup remover wipes which are great for wiping all the salt off my face after the race, flip-flops and a tangelo for post-race), and made my breakfast. I had eaten our last blueberry bagel yesterday morning so I ended up making an unconventional combination of asiago cheese bagel and peanut butter (maybe another contributor to how the race went?).

Pooches were all cute and cuddly:

We left around 7:20 and I drank my coffee as we drove down to the race. Packet pickup went very smoothly and I was in and out in about five minutes… leaving us with over an hour to kill. We used the bathroom 3 times. I ate my bagel. We observed a water spillway (Travis is always interested because that’s what he works on at his job) and a mural painting of historic Littleton.

Finally, it was time to go.

There were 3 waves, starting a minute apart – the first was for runners expecting to finish under 1:50, the second for those finishing under 2:10, and the third for the rest of us. The first 2 miles were through downtown Littleton and then we made our way to the greenway trail that follows the Platte River (the same trail that we ran on for the Snowman Stampede).

My legs felt strong and I couldn’t really tell whether or not I was running too fast or right on pace. I didn’t catch the first mile marker but I heard Garmins around me beeping, so I clicked my watch. 10:48. Maybe a little fast, but not crazy.

I felt the same for Mile 2 but then, my stomach started hurting. It didn’t go away at Mile 3 or Mile 4. At Mile 4.5, I decided to take my first gel to see if it would help. It made things worse by giving me a horrible side stitch.

This is where my mental game changed. I repeated to myself:

I refuse to walk. I have worked so hard to get here, and I will not let my stomach, my foot, the weather, or anything keep me from a PR.

My pace slowed,  but I kept running. The pain didn’t go away. So I prayed, Lord, please take away this stomach pain so that I can run this race.

He didn’t answer immediately but by Mile 6.5, the pain had subsided considerably. I picked the pace back up and passed a bunch of people.

That’s also when the wind started to pick up. By Mile 9, the wind was whipping. The mile marker signs were blown over, cups and sand were blowing everywhere, my hat almost flew off several times. But I was determined, even though my stomach was acting up again. I took my second gel and powered on.

The miles kept ticking down. My legs felt fantastic the entire race. There wasn’t any point in the race that they, or my lungs, felt like the limiting factor. It was all my stomach.

Finally, we got to the big hill. The wind was so strong that it almost blew us into the fence as we ran up and over the railroad yard. I didn’t stop running on the hill, and once I got to the top, I knew the end was near so I kicked it. We ran down and turned the corner… there was the finish. I was SO elated. I was going to make it. I was going to PR. Finally!

I kicked it a little too eagerly and felt like I was going to puke as I made my way down the finish chute. I glanced at my watch. I could even beat my unofficial PR from last weekend! So I kept running, toeing the line of running as fast as I could without puking.

Victory!

That was me trying to not throw up as I waited to have my chip removed (and being thrilled that I PR’ed!)

Poor Man GPS Splits:

1 – 10:44
2 – 10:38
3 – 10:41
4 – 10:58
5 – 11:12
6 – 11:29
7 – 7:03 + 4:03 (11:06)
8 – 10:50
9 – 11:18
10 – 11:22
11 & 12 – 22:37 (11:18 avg)
13 – 11:35

1st half = 1:12:46
2nd half = 1:11:48

Unofficial Time = 2:24:34

Even though the course was a net 120 feet loss, the course has quite a few underpasses, meaning downhill and uphill. Those hills weren’t too bad, but the overpass at mile 12 was a doozy.

After I got my medal, I met up with Travis and Heidi (who also ran the race) and we went in search of food. The post-race food was spread around the block… literally. Down one street were apples, bananas, fruit strips, and mini Clif bars. Down the other was the lunch, which I heard included hamburgers, breakfast burritos, fish tacos, and other stuff.

Honestly, absolutely nothing sounded good. I didn’t feel hungry. The wind was still whipping while the temperature cooled off. And the lunch line seemed to be several hundred people long and not moving an inch (what was up with that?). Standing in line, in the cold, for a lunch that I wasn’t even sure I wanted (usually I give it to Travis but he had picked up McDonald’s…naughty) wasn’t particularly appealing. So we ended up just leaving. Part of me wanted to get the lunch just so I could say I had gotten my money’s worth for the race.

I wasn’t hungry when I got home either. I took a long, hot shower, drank an Athlete’s HoneyMilk protein drink, and knew I should eat something else, and actually felt hungry, but everything sounded unappealing. I forced myself to eat a bowl of cereal, called my mom and then finished reading The Tipping Point (great book!).

After a trip to Sports Authority, a walk with the pooches, and some other hodge-podge eating, I’m now blogging and will enjoy a glass of red wine shortly. I wish tomorrow was Sunday instead of Monday!

………………………..

Overall, the Platte River Half Marathon was very well-done. They were very organized, started on time, the aid stations were well-stocked (though I didn’t use any of it), had lots of volunteers and portapoos and the t-shirt and medal are cute.

The shirt is a long-sleeve too, which I’m excited about.

The only small complaint I have is about the lunch line – I don’t know why the line was so long, or what we were waiting for, but it seemed kind of ridiculous for tired, hungry runners to have to stand in such a long line for their food. Otherwise,  I would definitely recommend this race!

……………………

Are you hungry after long runs/races? 

Tags: , , , , , , ,

TGIF! and Weekend Plans

13 Apr

I’m so happy today is Friday. Not only do I not have to go to work tomorrow, I get to go to the Women of Faith One Day conference in Loveland:

The website description: You’ve seen Women of Faith before . . . but you’ve never experienced it like this! Women of Faith ONE DAY is a brand-new event unlike anything we’ve ever done before. New format, new focus, new depth . . . you’ll connect on a whole new level. This empowering event could set your life on a new course or give you additional tools to continue what God has already started. What if one day could make all the difference? Find out at Women of Faith ONE DAY.

I’ve been thinking about going to a conference like this for a while, so when my friend Sheri talked about going, I told her I was in. And it just happened to fall on the one and only Saturday in my 4.5-month-long training plan that I wasn’t planning on running (since I’m racing on Sunday) – talk about God’s providence! My other good friend, Cathy, is going too, so I’m really looking forward to having a girls’ day.

The fun continues with a celebratory dinner tomorrow night – Travis is taking his Professional Engineer exam today! We won’t find out whether he passes until the middle of June (the bureaucracy of education continues) so we’ll just be celebrating No More Studying! And hopefully we’ll get to celebrate again next weekend, since he’s planning to defend his Masters Report this coming Tuesday (I say planning because his advisor hasn’t gotten back to him – which has been a major source of frustration through this whole process). Anyway, I’m going to let Travis choose the restaurant we go to (although I would definitely prefer something not Chinese or Mexican – they’re my least favorite food to have when we eat out. I guess I just like my own Americanized version better?)

Then Sunday morning, I will be up bright and early to head down the race site, pick up my race packet and prepare for what I hope will be a new Half Marathon PR. I’m a little bummed about the weather forecast though:

Although that’s better than what I had been hearing (high in the 30s and possible rain/snow). Bah! I just might be running another race in my obnoxiously bright yellow jacket…

On the bright side (no pun intended), I am feeling a lot more confident going into this half than I was before my last one – then, I felt like I had done everything wrong leading up to race day. Even though my runs this week haven’t been the best ones ever (just feeling tired and out of breath), I’m still maintaining an average pace that will let me easily PR – my 6 mile run yesterday had an average pace of 10:54 (I need to run 11:30/mile or faster to PR).

And I’ve been really thirsty this week so I’ve been drinking water like its my job (good). But I’ve been so tired that I refuse to get up and go to the bathroom during the night (bad).

Anyway, my strategy for the race is to just do exactly what I have been doing in my long runs – run comfortably but strong, stay hydrated, fuel around miles 5 and 9, and enjoy the experience.

Oh, and FYI, I discovered the secret to making coffee do its house-cleaning trick: drink it on an empty stomach. Because race mornings are generally so much different than my normal mornings, I have tended to drink my coffee with breakfast or on the way to the race instead of right away when I wake up like I normally do. Now I know better. Empty stomach = gears churning. Sorry if that’s TMI for you non-runners. Runners are kind of a gross bunch.

Just like my feet right now. I’m starting to think that my new Nikes are too narrow in the toe box because I’m getting blisters on the outsides of my big toes and balls of my feet. Does anyone have any tricks to prevent this from happening? I do wear drifit socks (Nike or Smart Wool brands) and put Body Glide on those areas to prevent rubbing so I’m kind of at a loss of what to do besides getting new shoes. And finding shoes wider than my Nikes will be a challenge, since I already tried on 15 or so pairs before I found these. Do you think using something like Nu-Skin would work?

I’ll be back on Sunday with hopefully a very positive report! Enjoy your weekend.

Tags: , , , , , ,

My Marathon Outfit

10 Apr

I may have found my marathon racing outfit…

This shirt from Oiselle:

The bars represent the most common race distances, from 5K to Ultra:

And then this skirt (in the pink) from Skirt Sports (I bought it on Team Estrogen’s website):

I am LOVING that it has a place to attach your running bib, and a giant pocket on the back, to make my butt look even bigger store gels in:

I bought this particular skirt because it’s 15″ long and I like a more modest cut. I also liked that it is just a cover skirt and doesn’t come with built-in shorts. I feel like shorts are something that you need to try on in the store to make sure that they don’t ride up or fit weird. And I have 2 pairs of spandex shorts (one compression and one not) already, plus 3 pairs of tri shorts.

I was thinking about buying a Sparkle Skirt for the marathon but I think I’ve decided against it because I don’t think I’ll get enough use out of it to justify the money. (I mean, how often is it socially appropriate for an almost-30-year-old to wear a sparkly skirt in public?)

Anyway, I am crossing my fingers that the pink in the shirt is the same pink as the skirt. The pictures suggest otherwise but I’m staying optimistic.

I have also decided that my “blow money” for May (money that I can spend on whatever I want according to our budget) will be going toward a Garmin Forerunner 405. So long, Poor Man’s GPS.

Do you have a running skirt? Why or why not?

Tags: , , , ,

Training Recap: 4/2 – 4/8 & Unofficial Half PR!

9 Apr

This morning, I was so exhausted from the weekend and the past 5 days that I didn’t get up until 7:15. Picture me lying in bed with my battery-powered alarm clock resting on my chest under the comforter, my hand sitting on the snooze button, ready for the alarm that goes off every 3 minutes. Now picture that scene from 5:30 to 6:45, at which time I finally wised up and reset my alarm clock for 7:15. Apparently, even in a half comatose state, I’m stubborn and refuse to give up trying to get up early.

I was so tired because last week, I went straight from work to church functions Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (and rearranged my schedule to fit in runs). Saturday, I ran 13.1 miles with Heidi (more on that later), then proceeded to:

  • buy a salad spinner and steamer basket from Bed, Bath and Beyond
  • buy this skirt and these pants from Old Navy
  • go to Sports Authority (I had a 20% off coupon and found nothing to buy, what’s up with that? Travis is going to use it for new shorts)
  • go to the post office and grocery store
  • do laundry
  • make watergate salad for Easter lunch
  • walk the pooches

Yesterday, I walked the dogs before church, went to church, came home and got lunch stuff, went to Easter lunch, read Vogue for 2 hours (my sliver of relaxation), walked the dogs again, cleaned the house, made banana bread, and then relaxed with Travis and 2 glasses of Cab Sav. While I was walking the dogs, I realized that I still have a productivity complex – I cannot relax. Some people play now and work later. Others (like me) work now and play later. Only I never actually get to the later because the work is never done. There is always something more to do, something that catches my eye, “Oh I’ll just do this and then I’ll go relax.” Or if I go relax, I sit there bothered either mentally or visually by something that “needs to be done.”

So I’m pondering the idea of truly observing the Sabbath. Taking a day off. I’ll save the details for another post, but I’m thinking that I might need to “force” myself to relax a bit (which honestly, I never thought I would say).

Anyway, here’s what last week’s training looked like:

Monday: Rest (traveling back from Evansville)

Tuesday: 3.04 mile tempo run (30:52; 10:09/mile) + 20 min strength/physical therapy exercises

I ran the first mile in 9:42!

Wednesday: 6.09 mile hilly run (1:08:40, 11:16/mile)

Thursday: 20 min Pilates video + 3.04 mile easy-ish run (35:15; 11:35/mile)

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 13.1 mile long run in 2:24:59 – an Unofficial Half Marathon PR! (personal record, for those of you who don’t speak Runner)

Sunday: Total of 4 miles walked with pooches (@ approx. 20:00/mile)

Total Miles Ran = 25.27

…………………..

So about that Unofficial Half Marathon PR… it was awesome.

The wonderful Miss Heidi joined me at Cherry Creek State Park for what was planned to be 12 miles (mapped out as 12.4). But then the run went so well (and quick with someone to talk to!) that she talked me into running a full 13.1. Not going to lie, the last 4 miles or so – and especially the last 2 – were challenging. I was very much over the rolling hills and my big toes were crying out for mercy. But as always, pushing myself past those mental hurdles is in the end totally worth it. Because I ended up dominating my official half marathon PR of 2:30:52 by almost 6 minutes! Might I also mention that that PR was set on the Colorado Half Marathon course, which kindly features an elevation loss of 1353 feet. This run was most definitely not that kind:

It’s actually only a difference of 100 feet elevation either way, but it looks impressive, no?

Heidi and I met up at 8:30 and probably got running around 9:00. No clouds in the sky, the sun was shining, and there was a nice little breeze that kept things from getting too hot out there (as there was no shade where we were running).

{Thanks for the pics Heidi!}

We met this big guy around mile 4.5:

And decided it was a good time to take pics, in case we forgot like we did last time:

A little after that, I took a Triberry Gu and decided that I definitely like the consistency of Clif Shots better. The Gu is too thick (even though it was tasty!).

Since we were running on new-to-us trails, we got a little lost and ended up turning around on our dog leg a little early (sorry about that Heidi!). We had to be a little creative at the end but it worked out okay. And because Heidi brought a real Garmin, I didn’t have to use my Poor Man’s GPS (which is good because I would’ve been really off!)

Here are our splits:

1 – 10:34
2 – 10:56
3 – 11:00
4 – 11:01
5 – 11:25 (hill!)
6 – 11:09
7 – 10:55
8 – 10:51
9 – 11:08
10 – 11:37 (hill!)
11 – 11:28 (dying!)
12 – 11:01
13 – 10:44
.1 – 1:05

13.1 miles in 2:24:59, average pace of 11:04

I am completely ecstatic about this pace and it gives me hope of running an Official Half Marathon PR in the Platte River Half this coming Sunday!

Anywho, I am convinced that the best way to recover from a long run is to keep moving. I kept myself busy after this run and have had very minimal soreness and stiffness. Being productive on Saturdays, even after long runs, will also hopefully help me reserve Sundays for rest and relaxation.

Tonight I have to burn through the rest of The Tipping Point because it’s due at the library tomorrow and I can’t renew it (for a second time) because someone else has it on hold. I just might be incurring a few more library fines so that I can finish it…

So much to do and so little time. The story of my life.

Are you more prone to relaxation or productivity?

Tags: , , , , , ,

So incredibly sore.

6 Apr

After work on Wednesday, I decided to get my 6 mile hill run in. I had my women’s group with church friends at 7, which is only about 15 minutes from my work, and there are lots of hills around my office, so it worked out well. I always feel slightly weird leaving work wearing running clothes, but I actually get the weirdest looks in the bathroom. I change in the big stall because I’m too lazy to walk over to the locker room. Apparently, changing in the bathroom isn’t normal?

Anyway, I grabbed my Poor Man’s GPS (piece of paper with mile splits), tucked it into the waistband of my capris, and headed out. The whole day, my stomach had been hurting and it hadn’t completely disappeared as I started on the initial downhill of my run. But I’m stubborn and refused to quit.

I’ve ran the first 2 miles of this course before and biked the rest (after the killer hill on Simms) but no matter how you get to the top, this hill is a doozy.

On paper, this run doesn’t seem all that much more difficult than my hilly 8 mile and 9 mile long runs. But in practice, it. kicked. my. butt.

The first couple of miles, I felt great. Legs felt light and fast. Lungs felt strong. My stomach was still hurting, so I ate my Chocolate Cherry Clif Shot at Mile 3 to see if that would help. At the very least, it didn’t make things worse. And it tasted exactly like Dark Chocolate covered Pomegranate:

Mmmm… chocolate.

Running up the hills of Miles 2 and 3, I was still feeling pretty good – even smug about how all my hill training has made running hills so much easier (go figure).

Then I saw The Hill. 250 feet of elevation gain in 1 mile. I wasn’t feeling so smug then.

But I ran the entire thing. Even when I could barely breathe. Even when I thought I was going to puke going downhill. Even when I was tempted to call it quits at Mile 5 because my stomach hurt.

I got back to my car exhausted.

Splits:

1 – 9:58
2 – 10:46
3 – 11:23
4 – 11:40
5 – 11:54
6 – 11:43
.09 – 1:13

6.09 miles in 1:08:40, average pace of 11:16/mile.

I discovered later that my legs were ridiculously sore.

Pilates and a 3 mile run yesterday morning didn’t help. If you’re looking for a good hip flexor strengthener (or destroyer), Pilates leg circles are where it’s at.

Today, the following body parts are sore:

  • Back
  • Neck
  • Abs
  • Hip flexors
  • Hamstrings
  • Quads/IT bands
  • Calves

I am a hurtin’ unit. I’m running 12 miles tomorrow morning with Heidi so I’m going to make sure I do some foam rolling and stretching after church tonight.

What do you do when you’re ridiculously sore from a workout? Any magic tricks I can do before tomorrow?

Tags: , , , , , ,

Memory Book and Goals

4 Apr

As I was driving to work yesterday, I realized that March was over and I had not yet completed my goal of trying Bikram yoga. Whoops. So I penciled it onto my training schedule for Sunday, April 22. (Next Sunday is Easter and the next Sunday is the Platte River Half Marathon!)

Since April is here, I need to start working on my April goal – finishing a memory book of our first 5 years of marriage.

Just last Thursday on our way to the airport, Travis and I were trying to remember the last time my parents had been out to visit us in Colorado. It took some digging around in our brains but little by little, we pieced it together. I had shown them our new bedroom curtains… we had Charlie… we spent a lot of time cooking and baking… Travis and my dad thought about fixing the car but decided against it… oh, they were out here for last Thanksgiving!

That happens often. Holidays and vacations blend in to one another and it’s hard to remember what you did one year. Or if you do remember what you did, you can’t remember which year it was!

Enter the memory book. I envision this being similar to the race memory book I created. I don’t have a picture but it’s pretty straightforward: I print out my race report from the blog, three-hole punch it, and stick it into a binder labeled “Race Memories”. I slide my race bib into a sheet protector and stick that in after each race report. Easy.

For the memory book, I’m going to include all of the big holidays – Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, 4th of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day – plus other special times like our wedding anniversaries, Valentine’s Day, birthdays, vacations, etc.

Once I copy the blog posts, I’m going to read through each blog post and add any extra details I can think of, then go through my boxes of sentimental keepsakes and add any that pertain to the specific holiday/trip/day.

After all that hard work is done, the trick will be to keep updating the book. I am already failing on this account for my race memory book so the odds aren’t good. But that’s why having a blog is so handy! All those fun trips and times are recorded here on the interwebs, just waiting for me to put them in my book.

………………..

On another note altogether, I have decided that after the marathon is over, I am going to free my weekends up from workouts. I have so many projects and things that I want to do around the house, and to the house, that it’d be nice to not have weekends dominated by running and recovering. I do still want to keep running and biking (have to, if I want to accomplish my goals of climbing a 14er and biking 50 miles at once!) but I’ll try to confine that to after work during the week, so I can get stuff done on the weekends.

Running is fun, but it takes up so much time!

………………….

Quickly, an update on my other goals:

…get pregnant.

…run 700 miles.

  • As of March 31, I was at 179 miles. With marathon training, I think this is totally doable.

…finish writing my nonfiction book.

  • I’m still slowing chipping away at writing my book. It’s hard to get up early because I’m so tired in the mornings but I’m really trying to go to bed sooner.

…read 27 books (one more than in 2011).

  • I’ve been really slacking on the book reading (I’m only up to 5 completed, thanks to copious re-runs of NCIS) but I am still listening to Harry Potter audiobooks and am about halfway through the fourth book. I am also currently reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, which is really interesting. I want to read Blink too!

…consistently track my workouts so I have accurate totals on 12/31/12!

  • I have been obsessively tracking my workouts on MapMyRun.com but am contemplating switching over to RunningAhead.com. MMR has been stupid lately with not loading or mapping courses correctly so I’m kind of over them. But… I want all of my training records to be in one spot. So what I’ve been doing is continuing to track my workouts on MMR but mapping courses using RA. Whatev. It works for now.

…grow in being a loving, supportive wive to my amazing husband.

  • I helped Travis with yardwork the past two weekends so I think that counts as being a loving, supportive wife. 😉

{Sidenote: I also realized yesterday that I was quite ambitious when making my goals at the beginning of the year. Especially with wanting to get pregnant, I need to be open to the fact that some of these may or may not happen (ahem, 50 mile bike ride and 14er hike). I’m going to give it the ole college try but I’m also aware that things change and I need to adapt.}

Are you sticking with your 2012 goals/resolutions?

Happy Hump Day!

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Training Recap: 3/26 – 4/1

2 Apr

We’re back from Evansville! The weather was absolutely gorgeous while we were there – sunny and 80s. We spent a lot of time outside on the patio enjoying the sun. But we arrived home to 40 degrees and clouds. It should warm up later this week but it made today feel like a good day to take a nap. (Sadly, I didn’t get to.)

I did get to complete all of my runs this week though. Since we were going to be gone, and I wanted to spend as much time with family as possible, I piled all but my long run into the beginning of the week.

Monday: 5.15 mile run (56:23; 10:57/mile) + physical therapy exercises/strength

Tuesday: 3.15 mile fartlek run (31:52; 10:06/mile)

Wednesday: 3.04 mile run (33:37; 11:03/mile) + Self workout

Thursday: Rest (travel to IN)

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 6.5 mile run in Evansville (1:09:36; 10:41/mile)

Sunday: Rest; 1 hour of yard work

Total Running Miles: 17.85

……………………….

Saturday morning, we woke to 55 degrees (instead of the 65 it had been in the mornings) and overcast skies. It felt muggy, yet cool – almost perfect running weather. (It would’ve been perfect with less humidity.) Jeremy and Jen told us about a bike trail near the river, so Travis, my mom and I drove down there around 9:30. My mom walked my brother’s two dachshunds while Travis and I ran.

This WWII memorial was down by the riverfront. We had to stop and look at all the state seals.

And take a picture by the Minnesota seal.

I was looking forward to running at the low elevation (360 feet above sea level!) but just like in Minnesota, I’m pretty sure the humidity canceled out most of the benefit. But I think this run was also a little challenging because I thought “Oh 7 miles, that’ll be over quick.” But then it wasn’t over quick and the run felt extra long because I had expected it to be short. (This is exactly why I hate 5Ks.)

The step back week was convenient for our trip but I’m looking forward to a 12 miler this coming Saturday!

I’ll try to post about our trip tomorrow night. Now it’s time for bed.

Tags: , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →