race re-cap!

The weather stayed true to the forecast, and while we had some hellacious rain Saturday afternoon, it stayed dry all morning. It was pretty good running weather - about 60 degrees & overcast. It was quite humid though, but I'll take that over rain any day.

The course was a little (ok, a LOT) hillier than I was expecting. I train on hills every time I run simply because they're on my course, but I feel like I could've been better prepared. In spite of the hills slowing me down, I met my goal and finished in under 2 hours. My official time was 1:56:34. That's about 10 minutes faster than my first half marathon back in November. I'm definitely happy with my time, but I can't help but think that I would've been faster if I could lose some weight. I feel like that is really slowing me down.

So on that note, I started the 30-day shred again yesterday. I've never done it for 30 days straight before and I'm interested in seeing the results. I'm "shredding," as the kids are calling it these days, at 6:30am. That way I can still run in the afternoons. That's right, I'm shredding and running. And probably doing ballet one day a week along with horseback riding at least once a week. I'm going to be a busy girl. Especially when July rolls around because that's when I'm starting my fall marathon training.

Yep, I said marathon, as in 26.2 miles. I'll be following Hal Higdon's Novice 2 plan. The first week starts off with a long run of 8 miles. So from now until then I'm going to keep my weekly long runs at 8 miles and over. I'll be doing 3-4 weekday runs per week, ranging from 3-5 miles each. I'll probably throw some 5K & 10K races in there as my schedule permits. It feels really good to have a plan.

half-marathon eve

My ankle is still hurting a little bit today. I thought I had an ankle brace in my arsenal of joint supports left over from my dancing days, but I couldn't find it. I did find an ACE bandage sans the clips to hold it on, so I used some safety pins to secure it. It immediately felt better with a little bit of support. I'm getting ready to make a Starbucks run and I think I'm going to run in Target and check out the ankle braces. I need something more streamlined to wear with my tennis shoes.

In other news, the weather forecast is holding steady. We're still looking at clouds in the morning and temperatures around 60. I can deal with that :) Storms are expected in the afternoon, but that should be well after we finish because we're so fast!

so..........

My ankle hurts. It has been bothering me for the past week or so, but I've basically ignored it. Today while running errands at lunch it hurt to walk. I just took some ibuprofen and when I get home I'm going to *try* to stay off of my feet and rest for a little bit. I'm hoping that it is just the shoes I wore today giving me trouble. Grrrrrr.........I see lots of wine in my future tonight.

weather update!

The F-cast has changed a little bit since yesterday. In a good way. I may even start to think of the "F" in F-cast as Fun instead of F*&$.......... Now we're looking at a high of 74, a low of 62, and only a 40% chance of precipitation! Woot! Even better news is that the hourly forecast is now available and the outlook for 8am on Saturday is cloudy and 56 - that sounds like nice running weather to me!

In preparation for the possibility of rain, I've been doing a little bit of shopping. I am currently the owner of 2 rain jackets - neither of which I really like. Mostly because I'm cheap and I bought one at TJMaxx and the other at Marshalls. Don't get me wrong, these are 2 of my favorite stores, but you don't always get exactly what you're looking for. You don't pay 3-4 times as much either :) Anyway, one jacket is an Adidas wind jacket, which is a little too small and possibly not water resistant. The other is a Marker (some ski co.) rain jacket, which is a little too big, but it's made for the rain. I'm going to check out the TJMaxx and Ross stores near my work at lunch today and see what else I can find. Hopefully I won't need any rain gear at all on Saturday (please, please) and I can take them all back!

I realized that I haven't posted my pace lately and I don't know why because it's been damn good. In an effort to be nicer and congratulatory to myself - my pace for the past 2 weeks has been under a 9:00/mile in every run, culminating with last night's 8:26/mile :)

F-cast

Forecast for Saturday, March 28, 2009: Rain/Thunder. High 73. Low 59. Precipitation chance 70%.

Dammit.

4 days and 1 run

Not too much going on around here except that there are only 4 days left until the half! I switched up my runs a little bit this week so that I could have 2 days to rest before the race on Saturday. I usually do ballet on Mondays after my long run on Sunday. This week I did 4 miles on Monday, 3 miles today, and then I'll do 2 miles tomorrow. And that's it!

Training for this race has left me a little bit drained and unexcited. (there's another word that i'm looking for but i can't think of what it is, i'm too tired) The half last November was more exciting because it was my first race. That meant that almost every week in training, I was doing something that I had never done before. This time it's not as fresh and new. It's also different this time because it's more about pace over distance. I put so much pressure on myself to go faster and I have a hard time congratulating myself when I do well. Instead, I just think that I didn't do all that great and I can do better. It's good and bad. It's good in that I have the motivation to push myself, but it's bad in that I'm worried I'm going to push myself into an injury.

I think I am going to take a break from serious training after this race and try to give myself a little bit of a break. I want to enjoy running again, just like I used to enjoy dancing and horseback riding before I effed them all up with not thinking I was good enough. Ha! - it's funny what comes out of your head when you sit down with nothing much to say.

4am.......

This is what time I wake up every.single.morning. I have no explanation as to why, except that Fresh Prince comes on at that time and maybe my subconscious really wants to see it? I'm only awake for a few minutes; just long enough to look at the clock, change the television station, and roll over. It's getting to be an annoying little quirk, and I'd really like to sleep through the night. OK? Thanks.

Aside from my bizarre sleeping habits, not much has been going on in this girl's life. The weather has been crap for the past few days, which made for a super fun 12 miler in the rain on Sunday. Annnnnnnd I made the mistake of trying something new before the run. I decided to eat a small breakfast - just 1/2 a bagel and peanut butter - about an hour prior. BAD IDEA there. I usually don't eat anything at all before a long run and now I remember why. My stomach cramped up to the point where I was gasping for breath and barely shuffling along. In retrospect, I should've just stopped, caught my breath, and then continued. But, on par with my inability to give myself a break, I kept going, albeit slowly. I finally caught up with my running partners when they stopped for a drink of water. I managed to finish the second half of the run more satisfactorily, but still felt kind of down on myself. Oh, and I ripped holes in the bottoms of my pants because I am an idiot. Lesson learned: don't wear long pants to run in the rain because they'lll get soggy and heavy and stretchy at the bottom. And will end up over and under your shoes. And it will suck.

Fast forward to yesterday - I ran 5 miles. At an 8:57 pace. It felt damn good. Maybe I will not quit running after all.......

i'm so excited!

Does the title of my post make anyone else think of the episode of Saved by the Bell when Jessi Spano gets addicted to caffeine pills? I'm too stupid to figure out how to put a video in my post, so if you want to see it go here.

Anyway, that's not why I'm excited, although that is a powerful piece of film. I'm excited because I am signing up to take riding lessons again! It's something that I've wanted to do for a while, but I hadn't found the right barn yet. Now I think I have and I'd like to start taking lessons in April - after the half-marathon of course. I'm not going to quit running for the sake of riding, don't worry. Maybe this will just turn into a running/reading/riding blog.

Speaking of running, I had a decent 3 mile run last night. It was the last day of good (aka warm) weather that we are supposed to have for a while. Meh to that. This weekend is supposed to be rain, rain, rain, rain. I'm not happy about that, but at least the temps are supposed to be in the 50's and not the 40's. Fingers crossed that we'll have good weather for the half - in just over 2 weeks!!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go eat my lunch. At 11am. Apparently my appetite has returned.

the reading runner

You may have noticed the new widget I've added over to the side. I've always been a big reader, *nerd alert* it is honestly one of my favorite hobbies. I love it so much that, as you know, I listen to audio books while I'm running!

I know that I typically read a lot of books in a year, but I've never kept track of the number. This year, I'm using Shelfari to list and rate the books I read in 2009. I think it'll be really interesting to look back at the end of the year and see what I read. If you have any suggestions for my reading list, please let me know!

tuesday already?

I did not want to go out and run tonight. I haven't felt like that in a long time, especially not when the weather was freaking gorgeous. I don't know what my problem was tonight, but I just felt so sluggish and unmotivated. I am wondering if I overdid it this past weekend after my long run. I had actually been thinking that staying more active than usual after my long run was a good idea because I haven't felt as sore or as stiff as usual. I think I need to combine that theory with a little bit of rest as well. Live and learn.

I usually do a ballet workout on the day after my long runs. I did most of the workout yesterday, but sadly I had a skip some of the grand plies and the jumps because that shit is hard on the knees. It's so funny to think back to all of the YEARS I spent in dance class hoping that we wouldn't have to do jumps in the center or that the plies would be replaced by floor work. Now I am actually sad that my knees won't allow me to do them? I guess it really is true that you don't know what you really have until it's gone. I know that's cliche and I didn't mean to spin off into a post about dancing, but I really miss it and I'm sorry I didn't appreciate it more when I had the chance. Makes you think, doesn't it?

It took me a good 2-3 miles before I was really into my run tonight. I'm usually in a pretty good rhythm after 1 mile, so I was really stuggling. I even gave myself permission to take it easy since I've trained pretty hard the past 2 weeks. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE my Garmin, but damn that thing makes it hard to back off my pace. I look at it way too much and I speed up if my pace is not what it was the previous time I ran. Which meant that tonight I finished 5 miles in 45 minutes. While I am of course thrilled with that pace, I have got to give my body some sort of rest or I'm afraid I'll be looking at an injury. To top it all off, I have no appetite, which also happened last fall towards the end of my training. Whine, bitch, moan, I know. I'm sorry. I'll do better tomorrow :-)

spring fever

It's been a really nice weekend. The weather has been wonderful - 80's and sunny both yesterday and today. D and I spent yesterday working on things around the house. He changed the oil in the cars and rotated the tires. Yay for no more roaring noise from the tires! I cleaned the house and put new bedding on the bed in the guest room. I snagged a deal at Target on a complete bed set - comforter, shams, sheets, and dust ruffle - originally $80, marked down to $20!

It was so nice to have all of the doors open and the ceiling fans on (and the dogs outside!) to air the house out. D went to a friend's house last night to play pool while I stayed home to rest up for my run this morning.

The run this morning went great! Even though I felt like my legs were going to fall out from under me a couple of times. We did a couple of BIG hills and they took a lot out of me. In spite of that, we clocked about a 9:15 pace. Most of that was thanks to A for dragging us along. She rocks! I'm lucky to have found such a good group of girls to run with and I'm looking forward to the carbfest at J's before the half!

I thought that I would be too tired when I got home to do much this afternoon, but the nice weather kept me from sitting still for too long. D and I went out to our local disc golf course. D played a round while Bodie and I cheered him on. Afterwards we went to Sonic - how is it that no one has clued me in on how great Sonic is???? We had a nice snack of tater tots (yum!) and ice cream. Well, D got a Reese's cup blast (similar to a blizzard) and I got a stupid Strawberry smoothie. The lure of the non-fat frozen yogurt that is used to make it was too hard to resist. Yes, I know that sounds crazy, but fattie here is always looking for the healthiest (read: least likely to make me fatter) option. I knew in my head that I should get what I wanted to eat instead of worrying about what had the least calories, but I couldn't stop myself. I ended up being unsatisfied and eating half of D's ice cream. I'm going to call it a lesson learned and try to do better next time. At least I'm not beating myself up over it, which is definitely progress.

Anyway, now we're home taking a quick break after getting a lasagna assembled and in the crock pot for tomorrow night. Tonight we'll be dining on salmon burgers, asparagus, and baked potatoes.

In a few minutes, we're going to go out and do a little bit of yard work before enjoying some much deserved Coronas. Hell, we may enjoy the Coronas and yard work simultaneously....

so i'm thinking........

...........of doing this. Anyone want to join me?

sub-9, baby!

Tonight I ran 3 miles at a 8:58 pace! That is the fastest I've ever run and honestly not a pace that I expected to see. I really wasn't pushing myself too hard because my ankle was bothering me a bit. Who knew that possible injury = faster pace. Ha!

Honestly, I know that's not funny and I'm concerned that I am overtraining just a bit. My right ankle has felt funny all day - just a little bit sore if I move it a certain way. It felt OK while I was running. If I thought about it, I could feel a twinge but otherwise it didn't bother me. While feeding the horses after my run though, I noticed that my right knee was a little painful. Sigh. I noticed that particular pain while I was squatting down to squeeze under a gate. I think (and really hope) that if I am careful with how I bend and move then it should be OK. Ugh. I sound freaking old having to worry about that. I hate that my aches and pains are overshadowing my excitement about my pace tonight!

edited to add: don't you think "squatting" is kind of a gross sounding word? I was reading back over my post to make sure my wine-influenced grammar wasn't too horrible and that word just bothers me. Odd, I know.

R & R: Rain & Run

Yesterday morning I ran 9 miles. In the cold. And the rain. Ugh. It went better than expected though. I was 2 miles in before the rain started so at least there was that - lol. I know it sounds crazy that I went out and did that, BUT it snowed last night and today and I had no other time in the work-week when I could get a long run in. I surprised myself with my pace because I was giving myself a break and not pushing hard with the weather conditions. My beloved Garmin told me I ran a 9:49 average mile. Not bad at all.

What should you wear on a 9 mile run in a cold rain? Here is what I wore, with the disclaimer that I like to be warm when I run!

• long cotton/lycra blend pants
• long sleeved cotton t-shirt (I highly recommend Life is Good t-shirts for under a running shirt b/c the fit is perfect)
• long sleeved close fitting fleece
• zip-up running jacket
• gloves (cheapie 2/$1 cotton stretch)
• ear warmer (crucial!)
• baseball cap
• neck warmer

I added the baseball cap over the ear warmer and the neck warmer once it started raining. The running jacket served as another layer and also as protection for my Garmin and my ipod.

It was good to get that long run out of the way and I was only semi-sore the rest of the day. Now I'm working on scheduling my runs for the rest of the week!