gearing up

Since I ran such a blistering fast pace on Wednesday night, I decided that I would take my five mile run easy tonight. It was C-O-L-D out there, but I suppose that is good practice for the half-marathon. Tonight I ran wearing what I will most likely wear at the race. Capri length running pants (tights?), sleeveless shirt made of wicking fabric under a long sleeved shirt of the same material (with built in mittens!), and a down-alternative vest. I felt pretty comfortable, but still a little bit chilly. This weekend I plan to look for a warm ear wrap headband thingie (that's the technical term) and also a neck wrap thingie - like this. What can I say, I like to be warm.

I am guessing that the temperature on race day will be............OH CRAP..............I don't have to GUESS the temperature. The race is next weekend. Which means the weather forecast is available! Oh my gosh, I can't believe it's that close. OK, so I just checked the weather forecast and so far it looks good. The high the day before is 65 and the low the night before is only 51 - that is freaking awesome! Back when I was guessing, I thought we would be running in the 30's to 40's, so the idea of the 50's is absolutely fab!! So it looks like I might not need the ear and neck warmer thingies. I'll probably buy them anyway "just in case." Plus, I just like to buy stuff. That is how I ended up with a brand new pair of running shoes in my car - oh wait, make that TWO new pairs of running shoes - that I'm not even wearing. Gah. That is a story for another day.

My next run (and last long run before the race) is a ten-miler on Sunday. It's a group run (yay!) and afterwards we are going out for second breakfast! I think the thought of pancakes will be an inspiration for us all!

i'm superfast

I had no idea how much better it is to run in a group than alone. After my group long run on Sunday, I met up with everyone again on Tuesday for a five miler. Something about being with a group makes the cold more bearable and the distance feel shorter. And I run faster! We started off running about a 9-minute mile and my nike+ipod says that we averaged 10:09 per mile once we were done.

Alas, the past two days I have run alone. Yesterday I did three miles and I really tried to push myself because of my recent paces on the group runs. I knew that my body was capable of going faster so I decided that it needed to work up to its potential. So I pushed and ran like the wind - while I was running I was thinking, "damn, I'm probably burning it up, running a sub-10 minute mile. Go me!" So yeah, when I finished, I found out that it was 10:11 per mile. I'm not saying that's bad AT ALL, but I'm just saying that I expected it to be better because of how much I "felt" like I was pushing myself. I guess I should have expected that because it's always the case. It still makes me wonder about the calibration of my nike+ipod. I think that when I push myself harder, my stride gets longer, BUT because the nike+ works as a pedometer, it thinks that I am just taking less steps, therefore shorter distance than I really am covering. Therefore my pace is not as ...............shit, I am not even making sense to myself at this point. Summary - nike+ is a big fat liar and I most likely run at a 7:00 per mile pace - HA!

what i've been up to

I know I've been a slacker (on posting!) again. To make it up to you, here's an extra post for today.

The day after my 9.5 mile run I did a 5K walk - why, you ask? Well, because I'm crazy. No really, sort of. I participated in the 20th Annual Walk for Hope. The walk benefits the Foundation of Hope, an organization with the following mission statement: "To promote scientific research aimed at discovering the causes and potential cures for mental illness in order to develop a more effective means of treatment. Additionally, the Foundation is committed to raising community awareness and supporting effective treatment programs." I've wanted to participate for a couple of years now, but the timing never worked out. It's a cause that is very near and dear to me (for reasons which I may go into eventually) and I'm glad that we were able to take part.

The walk was officially a 10K, but you had the option of turning around at the halfway point to make it a 5K. We (D & I) planned on doing the full 10K, but I was still so sore and exhausted from my run the day before that we had to cut it short. I was OK with that, but I wasn't OK with being just a walker. I think I can really classify myself as a runner now because I was SO JEALOUS of the the people who were running the event as a 10K! I just have to sit and shake my head at myself because that is never something that I thought I would say. It is still kind of unbelievable to me that I have gotten this far with my running. The night before the walk, also the night after my craptastic 9.5 mile run, I told D that I was definitely going to run a marathon. There may or may not have been margaritas involved :-) But I have no doubt that I will run a marathon one day. Running has given me so much self-confidence that I've never had before. (That sounds so super lame, but it's true.) That also brings me back to the crazy - I think running has helped me with a lot of my "issues" and I will always be thankful for that.

1.1 miles to go

Yesterday morning I finished my longest run yet - 12 miles!! I had a hard time deciding what distance to run because I have gotten so much different information about training. I was originally following Hal Higdon's novice half-marathon training plan, but since I started it early I ended up finishing it early. In my revised plan, I had decided to run 11 miles yesterday, 12 miles next week, and then the half the following week. Well...........then I learned about "tapering" before a race and that I really shouldn't run 12 miles the week before the half-marathon. BUT, in Hal Higdon's intermediate training plan there is a 12 mile run the week before the half-marathon. Confused yet? So was I. I understand that the idea of tapering is to give you a rest before your race so that you can run your best, but if I'm not worried about my time, does that really matter? If I was training for a marathon, wouldn't I run 12 miles one week and then 13 the next? What's the difference, really?

In the end, I decided to take bits and pieces of everyone's advice and information and form my own plan. When I started out yesterday I set my nike+ipod for 11.5 miles. That was a good compromise and I knew that if I went that far, I could finish out 12 if I felt like it. I ran the first 8 miles with a great group of ladies (hi!) and then went on to finish the last 4 on my own - well, with my audiobook :-) I really felt good for the entire run and when my ipod congratulated me on finishing 11.5 miles, I already knew that I was going to push for 12. I had to keep checking the distance on my ipod for the last .5 miles because NO WAY was I going further than 12! When you check your status using the ipod, it announces your distance, total time, and pace. By doing this, I realized that I was *very* close to running 12 miles in under 2 hours. I pushed it as hard as I could and finished in 1 hour, 59 minutes, and 30 seconds. Only once I was done did I realize that I had run 12 miles with just under a 10 minute per mile pace. I haven't run under 10 minutes per mile in quite a while! I owe a lot of thanks to the group for that!

I'm feeling good about the half, knowing that I only have to go 1.1 miles further than my longest run. Could I physically do it with 10 miles as my longest run? Probably. Could I mentally do it? Not sure. Knowing what I know now, about how much of a mental sport running is, I'm glad I went the extra distance. Now I have no excuses come race day.

postscript - i have plenty of excuses for why i haven't updated my blog though! none of them are very good, but hey, i'm not getting paid for this :-)

so, 9.5 miles...............

This morning I went out and ran 9.5 miles - my longest run yet. And it.kicked.my.ass. Literally. It is now 4:00pm and my legs and butt are still hurting. I don't think that I have felt this bad during or after a run up to this point. In fact, things have been going so well that last night as I was reading about marathons in Runner's World, I actually had the thought in my stupid head, "THAT WOULDN'T BE TOO HARD." OMG, what? Has running fried my brain cells? This morning was a real wake-up call for me. I finished it though and didn't walk a bit, even though I contemplated it.

After a run, and after the half-marathon, I want to be able to say that I "ran" it, not "finished" it. That may be silly, but it's what I've gotten in my head as the goal that I want to accomplish. I have gotten past fretting over my ever slower pace and I don't have a time-goal in my head at all for the half-marathon. I haven't even tried to figure out what an average time is or what my time would be if I ran a certain pace per mile. Right now I'm just concentrating on running, one foot in front of the other, for 13.1 miles.

T minus one month!

Holy cow y'all!!!!!!!! (insert laughter here) The 1/2 marathon is one month from today! I feel good, I feel like I'll be ready. I had a great run last night - 3 miles at 10:10 per mile. Unfortunately, you'll just have to take my word on that because my stupid piece of crap effing ipod lost my run. Bastard. Of course it just had to be the best pace I've run in a looooong time. Oh well, at least it didn't crap out during my run. We'll see if it holds up tonight on my 4-5 mile run - I haven't decided on the distance yet.

I am trying to figure out my training plan for next week. We are going out of town Friday morning and we'll get back on Monday evening. So next week I'll probably run Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. I am signed up for a point-to-point 5K on Saturday morning - which will be my 2nd race ever! I can't decide if I want to run just 5K that morning or if I want to try to stretch it out to a 15K - running the distance back and forth 3 times. I hate to miss my long run, and that will be my only opportunity to get one in next weekend. Does anyone have any advice for me? How bad is it to miss a long run this close to the 1/2?

up to speed

So, yes..........I am a little behind on my posting. Let me get you up to speed:

9/22: ballet workout
9/23: 2 miles (I had to take Casey to the vet that afternoon and I could only get in 2 miles before it got dark. Better than nothing!)
9/24: 5 miles
9/25: elliptical
9/26: rest
9/27: rest/slacker
9/28: rest/slacker
9/29: 8.5 miles
9/30: upper body workout
10/1: 4.5 miles
10/2: 3 miles
10/3: 4 miles
10/4: rest
10/5: 9 miles (group run)
10/6: upper body workout
10/7: 5 miles

Ahhhhhhhh, now I'm all caught up - maybe, just maybe I'll be able to keep this updated for one more month until I've completed the 1/2 marathon!!!! I am not nervous about it at all and I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not. My runs have been going so well lately, it's kind of hard to believe. Last night I did 5 miles with no problem at all - not even the knee pain that I usually experience when I start out. I also added a steep hill to my run last night and it was a lot easier than the last time I attempted it. I guess that means I'm getting better? No faster though - meh.

My training schedule for the rest of the week is tentative because of the weather. I will probably try to run today and tomorrow and then take Friday off. I'll do my long run (9.5 or 10 miles) Saturday morning because I am doing a charity 10K walk on Sunday morning. After that, I'll take a well deserved rest! For a few hours, at least................