July In Review (already??)

Wow, that month flew by! Maybe it was all that running...

Here are the totals for a record breaking month!

Miles Run: 125.2! (PR of 21.2 miles!)
Miles Biked: 35 (eh, no time with all the running!)
Miles Swam: Big Fat 0! Unless few laps in my parents small pool counts. Oh well!
BodyPump Classes: 4
Annnd a 2.5 mile walk.
Grand total of: 1642 minutes of exercise!

Longest run: 16 miles. Another PR!
Races: 2 5ks. Worst races I've ever run due to horrible record heat/humidity both days! At least they were for good causes.

I also had a weekly mileage PR of 33 miles (previously 31)!

Marathon training is really tiring me out! I'm looking forward to October 9th more and more! ;)

Looking ahead to August, I have a 35 mile bike ride for charity on Aug. 21st. That should be tough considering my longest ride to day has been 20 miles. Oops! I should also have another monthly mileage PR and certainly a weekly PR too.

In non-running news, I leave for South Carolina early Friday morning and my birthday is on Saturday! Wooohooo!

Trail Running vs. the Clutz

As a part of my marathon training, Wednesdays are supposed to be hilly runs. Conveniently I live a half mile from a state forest so I decided to start running my hill runs on the trails! So for the past three Wednesdays I ventured into the woods! They were all going along well until this past week I tripped and fell over a tree root and scrapped my leg, knee and hands. I also have a few random bruises all over my limbs. Not fun! Here is a lovely picture of my leg:

After seeing the damage over the holiday weekend, my family got really worried about me running alone in the woods and just alone in general. While I appreciate their concern, I refuse to sit inside or run on the treadmill everyday out of fear. So to ease their minds, I invested in the Jogger Pepper Spray. At first I wasn't sure if I would go back to the trails, but I think I may keep adding just a bit to my weekly mileage. It's a fun way to mix it up a bit and just because I'm a clutz, doesn't mean I can't conquer the trails! :o)

Hello There Again! June In Review!

Well, I was away for far too long! My last post was May in Review and here we are with another month over! This is what my June totals looked like:

Ran 80.53 miles
Biked 79.5 miles
Swam 3.5625 miles
4 BodyPump classes
Total of 1514 minutes exercise!
6 full rest days

I increased in everything from last month! Interesting that I biked almost as much as I ran, definitely didn't try to do that!

Here are my totals for the first half of 2010!
Ran 450 miles
Biked 187.14 miles (starting on March 27th)
Swam 14.5 miles (starting on March 29th)
Total of 7929.5 minutes! - This also includes BodyPump, Spinning, Yoga, Weights, etc

I'm very happy that I started crosstraining so much more! Last year I mostly just ran, but now I feel so much stronger and more fit! Love it!

Looking ahead to July, I should have a new running monthly mileage PR as I plow full steam ahead into marathon training! I'm currently in week three of my 17 week training program. It is going well, although I am still at mileage where I am comfortable. This week's long run is 10 miles, which I have run many times. The next long run is 14, which is a PR for me and it just keeps on going up from there! I'm excited for this!!!

I am also hoping to be better about blogging this month!

May in Review

Well May was quite a month for me! I am no longer a single lady, I got married to the love of my life! :) The wedding was absolutely fabulous and the honeymoon was even more fabulous! With so much going on in my personal life and the hip still healing, exercise took a back seat. But here are my month's totals:

Ran 32.47 miles
Biked 59.54 miles
Swam 3.125 miles
2 body pump classes
Total of 834 minutes of exercise

Eh, hopefully June is better! Actually, it better be since I start marathon training on the 14th! I need to get my butt in gear!!! :)

Pain Free Run!

After over 3 weeks off of running, I'm back! I went for a mile "test" run on Friday to see how I felt and though I had some twinges, it was mostly pain free, so I decided to start a building plan today. For the next 2 weeks, I'm going to run for 20 minutes/2 miles every other day. Then I will increase that to 30-40 min (3-4 mile) runs for another week. I will continue building from there.

So I went out for my first 20 minute run today and finished feeling really good! I definitely lost a little bit of fitness since I've mostly just been able to swim and biked only a few times. But not too bad for 3 weeks off.

I'm really hoping to be able to build my mileage slowly, but quickly enough to begin marathon training on June 21st. This gives me 6 weeks to get my mileage up. I hope I can do it but if not, I can always find a later marathon, or wait until next spring. I hope I don't have to though as after I ran in the Hartford Marathon Relay 1.5 years ago, I decided to try for the half marathon the next year (which I did) and the full the year after that (this year). It would be so cool if I reached that goal!!

Mostly, I'm just really excited to be back on the road! I have so missed the stress relief as we are in the home stretch of wedding planning! Tonight we got our marriage license, which makes it seem all the more "real" that I will be a married woman in 12 days! I am also excited to be back on the roads so I can get some runs in on the beaches of Playa del Carmen, Mexico! So excited!!! :)

Anyways, I'm officially back on my sprint tri plan and although the running has been cut back, it's still pretty full:

M: 20 min run (check!)
T: 30 min swim, BodyPump
W: 20 min run, 30 min bike
Th: Rest
F: 20 min run, 25 min swim
Sa: 45 min bike
Su: 20 min run

We'll see if I can get it all in! :)

Back in the Saddle + Month in Review!

So, after 2 weeks of just swimming, I am finally not feeling any hip pain! So today I decided to try for a bike ride. I went 6 miles in 30 minutes and had no pain!!! If anything it loosed things up and feels better! Tomorrow I am going to run a really slow mile and see how I feel after. If I have no pain, I will create a new schedule for me to follow to build back up to my regular mileage. Luckily, I have swimming and biking to keep me working out!!

April in Review:

Ran 37 miles in 339.5 minutes (9:10 average)
Biked 37.95 miles in 182 minutes (4:48 average)
Swam 7.5625 miles or 12.1KM in 297 minutes
Spinning: 2 classes/120 minutes

Clearly my running suffered, but that's to be expected since I had to take half the month off and was recovering from a half marathon the first half! But I'm super happy with my swimming progress and feel confident that I am going to be fine with the sprint tri in July! Good news!!

Goals for May:

• Stay healthy and build my mileage back to where it was, sensibly and slowly!
• Continue to work on biking, which is now my weak point in tri training!
• Run on my Wedding Day!
• Get married and have a fantastic time on the honeymoon (and get some runs and open water swims in!!)

Hope everyone else had a fabulous April and have great goals for May!!!

Mile-stone

I did it! I swam a whole mile today! It did take me 37 minutes, but I'm not complaining! :)

While I've been sidelined with this hip pain, I haven't been able to run or bike, so I've been hitting the pool more! The first few swims I had were pretty terrible. I had trouble breathing and couldn't swim more than half a lap without stopping for a breather. Now, just over 3 weeks and 4 miles in the pool later, I am more confident in my breathing technique and I swam 150 meters without stopping today! Granted, after that I was breathing heavy for a few moments, but I recovered pretty quickly and kept going! I am consistently swimming 100 meters without stopping too. I'm really amazed at how easily my running fitness translated into the pool. I thought it would be much harder to get into it!

As for my hip pain, it hasn't really been feeling much better. I went to the chiro for the second time today and got adjusted. I came home and iced it twice before hitting the pool. Now, it's feeling pretty good!! *knock on wood* Hopefully that is good news! If not, I will be going to the nearest sports doc in a few days. I want this gone!

Hip Pain

Well, maybe I shouldn't have aimed SO high! Ugh.

On Thursday, as I got up from my desk at work to use the bathroom, I felt pain in my hip. Each step was really painful. I found a spot that I could push on my bone and feel sharp pain. This scared the heck out of me! I went to my chiropractor on Friday and she said my hip was locked up and adjusted it. She also told me to not get ahead of myself when I said I hope it's not a stress fracture! Now, 3 days after the pain started, I don't feel it while I'm moving, but I can still press on that spot on the bone and feel pain. I haven't tried running or biking, but swimming doesn't hurt.

This is what I was able to accomplish of the first week of my tri training:

M: 6 miles (in 56 min) and spinning
T: 30 min/1100m swim
W: 5 miles w/ 5X800 (3:50, 3:50, 3:46, 3:49, 3:46) and 35 min/7.33 mile bike ride
Th: Scheduled Rest Day (SRD)
F: Unscheduled Rest Day (USRD)
Sa: 25 min/1000m swim
Su: USRD

Dissapointing, but obviously I had to give myself some rest! Tomorrow I'm going to try for a bike ride and see if that bothers the hip. If not, I'll alternate swimming and biking this week and hope that a run next Monday works! I will definitely miss running though!

Run/Bike/Swim

I've been away for 11 days. Why you may ask? Well, I've been busy being a TRIATHLETE!!! (ha not quite!) My goodness it's exhausting!

Here is what my last week looked like:

M - 6 miles, spinning
T - 20 minute/800m swim
W - 5 miles w/ 3 @ 8:20 pace
Th - Rest
F - 25 minute/1000m swim
S - 9 miles
Su - 12.56 mile bike ride

It was probably optimistic of me to think I would have gotten another 6 mile run and 30 min bike ride in there, but those were the workouts I skipped this week.

Here is what my schedule should look like next week, for the first official week of my beginner tri training plan:

M - AM: 6 miles, PM: Spinning
T - AM: 30 min swim, PM: Bodypump (if I'm up for it)
W - AM: 5 mile speedwork, PM: 35 min bike ride
Th - Rest!
F - AM: 6 miles, PM: 15 min swim
Sa - 10 miles
Su - Long bike ride

Optimistic? Absolutely! Doable? We'll see! I like to aim high!! :)

1Q 2010 and March in Review!

Another month, done!!

First, totals for March:
Running - 104 miles (New PR!!!), 997 minutes
Spinning - 4 classes, 240 minutes
BodyPump - 3 classes, 180 minutes
Yoga - 30 minutes
Walking - 120 minutes
Elliptical - 20 minutes
Biking - 125 minutes
Swimming - 20 minutes
Total Time Exercising: 1692 minutes, aka 28.2 hours!! Whoa!
Races: Half Marathon: 1:52:50 (PR!), 10K
Rest days: 5!

I am veryyyy happy with my March!!! My goals were to cut down on rest days, and I cut them in HALF, and to add more crosstraining, which I clearly did! Meeting goals makes me very happy!!! So I will make a goal for April: add more swimming!!! I plan to run my first sprint tri in July, so I need to start improving on my swimming.

1st Quarter 2010:

I ran exactly 300 miles in the first 3 months of 2010! Awesome! I am overall just really happy with my fitness level right now. I am probably in the best shape I've ever been, including my high school track years. I just didn't care back then like I do now!

Happy April!

My Second Half Marathon!

Ok, here is my RR:

Pre Race: Woke up around 8am and my stomach was in knots! I had DF go get me a wheat bagel from DD so I could get some food in my stomach. I ended up clearing my entire system out (gross sorry lol) and still felt so nervous!! I don't know why I'm always so nervous before races, must be all the pressure I put on myself. Anyways, so I had my bagel around 9 and then go ready and left around 10. I was going by myself, which I was kinda sad about but oh well. I found the place pretty easily and got my bib and really nice technical long sleeved t! Then I went to the bathroom, twice and just nervously wandered around and warmed up a bit lol We lined up at the start around 10:45 and then stood around until 11:12 according to my garmin, when we were finally off!

Race: I started pretty much on my goal pace, which was under 9mm. I knew there were some crazy miles coming up so I wanted to conserve, but also stay on pace for the parts that weren't hilly. So my first mile was 8:59, hows that for on goal pace! lol the second mile started to incline a bit but I still managed to stay on pace with an 8:55 mile. The next mile was the hardest by far. It was pretty much a constant climb, and not just a slow climb, one part was probably the steepest hill I've ever run up and I even had to stop and walk a few steps twice. I was pretty worried at that point, thinking how was I going to make it!! I still finished that mile at 9:36, which made me feel a little better because I hadn't lost that much time and I knew I could make it up on the downhills I was promised! Mile 4 continued the uphill climb, with a few more steep hills but nothing like mile 3! I finished that mile at 8:56, feeling pretty good since the tough part was over!

The next few miles flew by for me as they were mostly downhill. I was careful not to take it too fast, but felt really comfortable at an 8:30 pace. I slowly started passing people who had worked too hard on the hills, which felt good!
Here were my splits miles 5-10:
Mile 5: 8:30
Mile 6: 8:15 (lots of downhill if I remember!)
Mile 7: 8:30
Mile 8: 8:27
Mile 9: 8:32
Mile 10: 8:34

At this point I was ecstatic! I knew I only had a 5K left and was for sure smashing my previous PR, just was a matter of how much!! At mile 11 we started up the last hill and I decided to pass the girl I was hanging behind for most of the race, which was a good move because I finished the mile at 8:34 and was ahead of her by a bit so I'm glad I didn't stay where I was. Mile 12 I decided to pick up my pace a bit. I was tired, but I wanted to finish with nothing left in the tank and do the best I could! There were a few downhill places so it seemed pretty easy to finish the mile at 8:17. The last mile I felt awesome. I started passing people left and right! I passed a group of three guy and they pushed me to go faster and pass the next girl I could see. Not only did I pass her, but I passed a few other guys and started after the next girl. I finished mile 13 at an unbelievable (for me) 7:44!!! Seriously that is better than my 5K PR pace and after 12 other fast miles!! I sprinted the last .1 at a 7:36 pace and definitely did finish with nothing in the tank!! I finished with an 8:37 pace at 1:52:50, a PR by 7 minutes and 36 seconds. I couldn't beleive it!!! I wondered around with a huge smile on my face. Everyone was probably wondering who this crazy limping happy lady was! lol

What I learned from this race is: I am a lot stronger and faster than I ever thought I was and I can surely push myself beyond what I think my body is capable of!!

Now seriously, how can I get a faster 5K time?? lol I definitely think it's a mind block thing...

Bike!

I finally bought a bike tonight! Here it is:

It's a Specialized Vita in Dark Blue!! It's a pretty blue, looks almost purple :) They had to get one in my size from another store, so we pick it up at noon tomorrow! Can't wait to get it on the road!!!

Taper Madness!

The past 2 weeks have been rough running. Last week I only ran 14.2 miles because I was having some knee pain and my half was only 2 weeks away. This week is taper week, so I only have 11 miles before the half Sunday.

On Saturday I ran a 10K, slowly. After that, the outside of my knees were killing me and I found out that was my IT band. So I went and got a foam roller and have been using that religiously since! Must not have pain on race day!

I ran 3 miles yesterday after 2 days off and my legs were actually sore after 3 miles! I thought it was insane! Especially since I took them so easy. Today I ran another 3 miles and ran a bit faster and I'm not feeling sore now, but we'll see how I feel in the morning!

I feel like all of this is related: Taper Madness. I'm paranoid that the few miles I'm running is not enough and I'm going to run horribly on Sunday. I'm paranoid that I'm hurt/will get hurt and therefore EVERYTHING is hurting!

I guess the only thing I can do is CALM DOWN and hope that everything works out! I did my training. I ran most of my long runs. Clearly, I put wayy too much pressure on myself!!

4 days left!

St. Patrick's Day 10K

Ran my second 10K today. My goals for this race were to use it as a training run, not to run fast and to have fun. Sounds like that should be easy, but I have a hard time slowing down sometimes!! My "A" race, a half marathon, is in 8 days, so I wanted to stay injury free for that!

The race didn't start until 1pm, so my SIL came over around around 9:30 and we took our time getting there. There were 5K people running so we wanted to find a parking spot early! I had a wheat bagel when we got there around 10. We went and picked up our race number and t-shirts and then just walked around for a few hours. Got a free donut whole from the Dunkin Donuts truck and just enjoyed the amazing weather!!

We lined up at the starting line around 12:30. It was hot. 70 degrees on March 20th, when it was just in the 40s a week earlier is definitely way too warm when your not used to it!! I was sweating before we even lined up and being surrounded by 5K people made it even worse! Plus, I could feel the sun beating down and felt thirsty before we started. Not a good thing!!

The gun went off at 1 and we were off! Well sorta. lol we all started running and then stopped abruptly lol not sure what that was all about! We started at an easy pace and it felt nice to just relax. Usually I would have been weaving all over the place trying to pass people. Thankfully my SIL reminded me that I was taking it easy :)

After mile 1, it all went uphill.. literally! The first hill wasn't TOO bad, but the heat just made it so much worse! The sun was beating down since it was at the top of the sky. We missed the first waterstop and saw a ton of cups everywhere and were really upset since we were so thirsty! We slowed down a bit and hoped for a downhill soon. HA! It flattened out a bit, only before turning into another huge hill! The hill was deceptive because it took a turn, where you couldn't see past and we thought that was the end, but it just kept on going! SIL needed to stop and walk a bit so we did. Finally we got to another water stop, but had to STAND IN LINE for water!! I have never had to do that before!! I don't think they realized how thirsty everyone would be.

We kept on trucking up hills and on short flat parts. Then came the mile long down hill at mile 4. About halfway through, my knee started hurting so we walked a bit until another water stop, where we had to wait in line again!! The last 1.2 miles was pretty flat and fast. We were so tired and overheated that we were so thankful to see the finish line as we turned the last corner to run the last .2!! I won't even say how long the race took us lol

We both walked out of there saying we would never run the race again, but I'm sure that will change next year :)

Cross Training

I love running. That's no secret! A few months ago, I only ran. I ran 4 days a week and took 3 full rest days every week. CRAZY!

When I got a gym membership at the beginning of the year, I made a goal to see how many days in a row I could work out. Now obviously I can't suddenly go from running 4 days a week to 7, so I started crosstraining. Although I finally had to give myself a full rest day after 3 weeks, I fell in love with crosstraining as well as running!

Now, I'm a huge fan of double workout days! On Monday, I ran 4 miles in the morning and took a spinning class in the evening. Today I walked for 30 min (2 miles) on my lunch break and took a BodyPump class tonight. It's amazing how much my body can handle now. After BodyPump, I even felt like I hadn't really done enough working out for the day! Ha!

Anyways, next I want to try swimming. I have horrible stamina in the water but I'd like to do something about that! I may even need a few swimming lessons! The goal will be to be able to do a sprint tri this summer (since I always need a goal!). The one I have in mind only has a 1/4 mile swim so I feel like this goal is reasonable. This also means I need a road bike!

For now, I'm having fun piecing together a training plan! I'm still going to maintain the amount of running I'm doing, but build on the swim and bike portions using beginner tri plans I have found.

P.S. I like researching/creating training plans almost as much as executing them! haha :)

February and First 2010 Race

Well, here is my month in review for February:

• 93 Miles run
• 180 minutes of weights
• 40 minutes of biking
• 60 minutes of BodyPump
• 1 5k race!
• 10 rest days

I'm pretty happy with this month! It's a short month, so even though I didn't get to 100 miles (last month I had 103), I would have if I had those 2-3 more days :) Next month, I hope to cut down to only 1 rest day a week and add more spinning/bodypump/bodyflow.

Now onto my 5K race report:

Since Thursday night I had done my first BodyPump class, I was still sore when I woke up on Saturday morning for the 5K. I decided to go out for a mile when I woke up to get the legs moving and see how they felt. I felt pretty good so I knew I would at least be able to run a tempo run for the 3 miles, but wasn't sure how fast they would be!

The 5K was at a park just a few miles from my house. It had snowed about an inch Friday night so it was beautiful, but the roads were quite slushy, which concerned me a little. The race was only $4 and we didn't have bibs or anything and the course wasn't even marked out. So I was hoping the people around me would know where they were going!!

The bell was rung at 9:35 and we were off! The race started by going up a really steep hill. Luckily that was the only steep incline. After the hill, the first mile went through the main roads of the park. I felt pretty good and managed to finish the first mile in 7:51. As the second mile came, I felt myself slowing down a bit and couldn't speed up! I hate when that happens. We made a turn out of the park and on the sidewalk of the main road around 1.5 miles. We then turned into a side street where I decided to start picking up the pace since we were halfway through. I ended up passing the guy in front of me and felt myself getting stronger. Mile 2 was 8:02 and I was not happy with that! I realized if I wanted to get near 24 minutes, I would have to go all out on the last mile. Luckily we rounded a corner into the park and went downhill. I passed another woman and knew we were in the home stretch! My 3rd mile was a super speedy 7:20! I got to the last .1 and knew I wasn't going to PR, but gave it all I had.

I finished in 24:17. Just 12 seconds from my PR. I was really happy with that considering all the conditions! I also finished 2/21 in my AG, 5/36 females and 30/95 overall. Not too shabby! :)

Pump it up!

Tuesday and Thursdays are my strength training days. I usually run a mile or 2, do a boring machine routine for about 45 min, and run another mile or 2. I am SO bored with this. So much so that I didn't even go to the gym Tuesday because I dreaded it (and because I was being a lazy arse).

The solution? BODYPUMP! I was super nervous to try something new (as I always am...) but it was so fun! And a greattt workout! I felt like a wimp with such small weights I was using, but was told that I didn't want to overdo it my first time, or I'd never come back!! I definitely had some issues with the pushups and the plank, but I can't wait to keep improving and get stronger!

I just have to say that I love my gym. Everyone is SO welcoming and nice. The teacher has the woman next to me "coach" me through everything and give me some tips before we started each part. That helps so much!

I'm VERY excited because every T/Th there is a BodyPump class from 5:30-6:30, which just happens to be when I'm at the gym on those days! Woohooo!


In other news, I'm supposed to be running a 5K on Saturday. It should be interesting because it hasn't stopped snowing/sleeting/raining here since Tuesday morning! I went to the store after the gym and there are huge puddles everywhere! We are under a flood warning. So we'll see if it stops in time for the 5K! The website says they have never cancelled a race, so it will be me being a wimp if I don't end up running it! lol Come onnnn weather!

Tequilla = Success?

So last night was the gathering with my bridesmaids to put together the invitations. It was great time!! I even had a margarita! I usually don't drink the night before running days (esp long runs), but I was craving a yummy drink!

Well, today I had an amazing run. 12 miles in 1:46:05. Which is a PR for me annnd an 8:50 pace, which is my goal for my half in 5 weeks! I had negative splits for every mile, except the mile with crazy hill that is almost the whole mile (at mile 11 mind you), which I ran in 8:50!

So, maybe I should have tequilla EVERY week before my long run! I'm willing to give it a shot ;)

Love, Birthday and Invitations!

This week has been/is a busy one! Not only is work CRAZY and I haven't worked just 8 hours in who knows how many days, but this week was Valentine's Day and my Lovely Fiance's birthday!

Valentine's day was packed full of LOVE, hehe. We spent the day together, cooking, eating and watching a movie. What could be better :) I'm one of those sappy girls who supports the greeting card companies on Vday! lol

Fiance's birthday was yesterday. It was a snowyyy day and he had to work (who works on thier bday?? I always take mine off!). After work, we went to dinner with DF's dad and his GF. It was fun! I got a delicious pulled pork sandwich. mmm! I hope he enjoyed his day! :)

Of course I have been running between it all! DF looked at me a little crazy when I hopped on the treadmill while he was showering before his bday dinner. Hey I'll take any 18 min to fit 2 miles in that I can! Tonight we went to the gym and I got in my tempo run for the week - 7 miles with 5 at HMP (8:49). Felt glorious! I love speedwork. Saturday is a big 12 miler!

Also on my brain constantly is the wedding that is now 93 days away!!! Friday a bunch of us are meeting at my mom's house to put the invitations together and address them! Should be a fun night! I also keep remembering things to add to my registry and got my first shower gift, even though the shower is still a month away!!

And that is what's on my mind tonight! Night all!!

Perservering through a "hard" run

On tap for today was a lovely 11 miler. For some reason this distance was intimidating me. I have run plenty of 10 milers, an 11 miler, a 12 miler and heck even a half marathon, but as I got ready to run this morning, I was nervous! Go figure!

Like any other long run day, I woke up and had a whole wheat bagel. While I waited for my food to digest a bit, I mapped out my run and had decided to try a new route to mix things up a bit. The forecast said 20 with NO wind and I thought 'heck that's better than 30 with wind'! So off I went!

The first 2 miles were blissful. The 9:30 pace felt easy, legs were loose and ready to go. I thought wow these next 9 miles are gonna be great! Then came mile 3. I turned onto another road and saw a steep hill up ahead. I am awful at hills, but I thought I was doing great, what's a hill gonna do? Well a hill caused me to start panting, which caused a bit of phlegm to get caught in my throat, which caused me to try hacking it up for the next mile. While hacking, I came to an intersection, saw where the sidewalk continued and went ahead, only to realize that I had taken the wrong turn.

Still hacking (and running), I started stressing about whether this run was actually going to happen and where the hell was I running to?? I decided to keep going until the sidewalk ended and turn around unless I knew where I was. Then, I looked down at my garmin and saw 2.93. How was this STILL mile 3? I look down again and realize my watch wasn't moving! I forgot to start it at the stoplight. Who knows how long I had been running! Felt like a mile but probably wasn't (turns out it was only .34 miles!!). Finally I hacked up the phlegm and was faced with another long hill.

Reaching the top of this hill I realized where I was, just a mile from home and I seriously considered turning back home, but decided to go the other way. Back into familiar territory, I relaxed a bit and the next 2 miles weren't too bad. I kept a 9:30 pace despite the long slow hill climb. Soon I got to where I was going to turn around originally and realized I could still do that since I was just over 6 miles and the spot I knew was 4.8 from home from previous runs, or so I thought! The climb back down the long slow hill was BRUTAL. I was going to stop for my clif shot at the DD at the bottom of it, and the wind was making sure that came slooowly! My face was ready to fall off from the cold and I needed to put my gloves back on.

Finally I got to DD, quickly took my clif shot (mmm vanilla - but not as good as vanilla hammer gel!) got some water and was off again. As soon as I started again my legs felt like bricks. I didn't know how I was going to make it through the next 3 miles. Speaking of 3 miles, I realized I was wrong. At the turnaround I was only 3.8 miles from home (not 4.8) and so I was 2 miles from home with 3 miles left! I spent the next mile deciding if I should turn back home or go another way and get that last mile in.

The wind was back in full force as I made my way up the last big hill on the way home. I kept going by "competing" with a little boy riding his bike on the other side of the road. lol I won that battle since the boy decided to walk his bike up the steeper part of the hill! When I got to a mile from home, something deep inside me said "It's just an extra mile, what's that when you just ran 7 hell miles?" Ok I thought, here I go!

Well, little did I know, the next mile's sidewalks were FULL of snow and ice. I was swerving all over the place trying to avoid it and slowing down to a crawl when I couldn't. Seriously people, why don't you shovel your sidewalks??? Anyways, I got through that mile and when I realized I only had one mile, I picked up the pace (as I usually do) and I realized that I had just pushed my body so far, and yet I still had speed and energy left in me. That made me speed up even more, and I finished my last mile at a respectable 8:49. Exactly my secret goal pace for my half marathon!

I was ecstatic. Still am really, almost 12 hours later. I can't believe that I made it through when all the odds were against me. It was at that point that I realized how dedicated I was to running. A year ago something like phlegm stuck in my throat would send me walking home, but now it's just another obstical to overcome.

Finishing this run means so much more than just crossing another training run off the list. It's about pushing through the pain, realizing that even when my mind is telling me that I should turn back, take a short cut or take a break, I CAN perservere.

I guess it's true: We're all stronger than we know.

Now PLEASE running gods, let me NOT have a "hard" run like this on race day!!!! lol :)

And with that, I'm off to bed!

Is it all in my head?

So I had a very speedy speedwork tonight! 8 miles with 4X1600 at 8:00 pace! I split it up because it's snowy out so I wanted to go to the gym with my lovely fiance since his 4wd truck is more reliable than my car. Anyways, that's not my point.

So I ran the first 5 miles with 3 of the speedy miles at the gym and felt awesome! I felt strong, fast and felt like I even had more speed in me! But I kept with my pace. Then we drove the 2 miles home and I hopped onto my treadmill for the last interval/3 miles. I felt so so so slow! The 8:00 mile I had to run felt torturous and like it was 3 miles long itself!! Then, even at 10mm I was breathing heavier, even though it's my "easy" pace!

I have always thought that I was so much slower on the treadmill than outside. But now that I'm thinking about it, maybe it's just MY treadmill? Maybe it is calibrated wrong? Or maybe it's the fact that it was $350 at walmart, while the treadmills at the gym are probably $1500! Or maybe it is all in my head and I am imagining this issue since at home I'm in a stuffy office.

I have no idea, but I thought it was interesting.

Anyways, the important thing is... I ROCKED MY SPEEDWORK! I'm beginning to LOVE speedwork! I love the feeling of getting my heart rate pumping and reaching the goal paces. I can't wait for my 10k and half marathon so I can put this speed to good use! I am also going to look for a local 5k because I'm interested to see if I can get a PR (currently 24:05). If I can do speedwork at 8:00 and feel like I have more speed in me, on the treadmill no less, then maybe I can break the 7:45 barrier in the 5k! :)

So basically I love running. That is all.

Resting is for runners! Well, sometimes!

Well, I'm officially a bit less angry about my shin splints! Lol my previous post's rant was a titch overdramatic! Oh well.

I am on day 3 of the 4 day running hiatis I gave myself to get rid of these shin splints! And I'm thinking more than just my shins are happy about it! I feel pretty good, even if I'm itching to hit the roads!! I suppose sometimes the body just needs some rest and I'm sure my shins acting out was my body's way of telling me that!!

Here's to listening to your body and giving it a rest now and then!

Now hurry up Monday afternoon so I can RUN! :D

Are you kidding me?

Well. Seems I have shin splints. It hurts to flex my foot up, which after reading a bit is a sign of shin splints. UGH. This upsets me because I know the only way to get rid of them is rest rest rest! Doesn't my shin know that I am running a half marathon in less than 2 months???

I'm confused as to how I got them though, since I have only been running 25-30 miles per week, with a cutback week every 4 and only increasing by 1 mile a week! Seems pretty smart to me...

What also sucks, is that it hurts to shift. And I drive a standard. Sooo how am I going to get better if even driving is irritating them??

I'm even more upset because I had a great run tonight!! 7 miles, with 5 @ 8:49 pace. Felt so great and was one of those runs where you feel like you can go forever! GAH!

Welp, that's my rant for the night.

My First Post!

Well, here I go! I'm not much of a writer, but figured why not give this a try!

Let's see, a little intro: I am 23, living in MA with my soon to be husband. We will be married on May 22, and I can't wait! I am a runner, training for my 2nd half marathon on March 28th! I plan to be a marathoner by the end of the year, but I'm trying not to jinx it! I am a financial consultant, but I'm not too thrilled about it. I'm searching for what I really want to be when I grow up!

I mainly plan for this blog to focus on running. But who knows where it will take me!

I have been running since high school. At first it was because I wanted to do a sport in the spring, but softball wasn't my thing, tennis required too much hand-eye coordination and the only other option was Track. Ok, let's try that one out! Well, I tried to join the sprinters, that didn't work out too well. I came in last. I figured ok well maybe I can run longer than anyone else! Seemed to work ok, definitely was the fastest at the 32oo on my team, out of the 2 girls running distance! lol

I never really LOVED running though. I did it because it was something to keep me busy after school and active/in shape for soccer. It wasn't until years later, after high school and college, and taking some time off running, that I literally fell in love with running. I remember back in high school complaining about the 3.7 mile run we had to do several times a week, and that 7 mile run our coach once made us do! Now, when I run 3 miles, I think "That's it? Can't I keep going?" It's amazing how perspective changes when you aren't "forced" to do something!

I love running because it gives me a goal, something to strive for. And when I obtain that goal, I can reach for another, be it a new distance, a new speed, etc. I love the numbers, watching the times drop, analyzing pace, watching the mileage rack up. That probably comes from my inner Math dork - I do have a Math degree! Most of all, I love running for the freedom it makes me feel. Going out for a run is a wonderful stress reliever! There is nothing like coming home from a stressful day at work and letting your mind escape on a run, think about whatever comes to mind, if anything at all!

Ok, that's it for now! Hope I didn't bore everyone away :)