FAIL

So that pretty little plan I typed out last week?? Yeah, totally fail on my part. I got in about 2 miles while in Michigan and that's IT for exercise last week. Pretty pathetic.

In my defense (or just another excuse) I woke up with a pretty gnarly head cold Monday morning. Knowing that we had a busy, fun, exciting weekend coming up - I decided rest and medication were more important to me than running myself ragged. I know some people think exercise helps when they are sick, but I couldn't breathe out of my nose and I didn't want to chance being even more sick over the weekend.

Just tonight I have made the decision to sign up for the Rock the Parkway half marathon in KC April 14th, 2012. It seems to be a fairly challenging course described as having "gentle rolling hills." That's pretty similar to the description in Nashville, which I found to be VERY hilly. So, we'll see.

I would like to use the next 27 weeks (I think that's what I counted) to really concentrate on speed, hill work, and long runs away from the trail (think super flat trail). Assuming I can stick to a training plan that incorporates all of that then I should be blogging about a pretty significant PR next spring. But, I'm not going to get too cocky as I know I absolutely suck at following a plan.

I should have time to do Hal Higdon's intermediate training program pretty much each week twice...or some sort of combination of that program, just doubled. The unfortunate part is that this is another spring time half so that puts me training through the winter. I don't mind running in the cold, but it gets trickier when there is snow on the ground, it's dark outside, and the runs get longer.

I hope to blog a bit more leading up to this half, but anyone who has stuck around saw how that went for me last time around. Wish me luck, cheer me along my training, and please keep me accountable. Thanks in advance. :)

Accountability

I am happy to report that my 5:30am wake up call followed by a run was successful last Saturday. I may or may not have hit snooze a couple of times, but I did make it out the door by a little after 6. Not bad considering I was seriously doubting myself to even get out of bed that early.

Since I was getting started a little later than I would have liked - I knew that I was going to have to cut my mileage shorter than I had planned. I ended up running a little over 3 miles. Not a great distance, but at least I made it out there.

The first mile of my run was pretty darn dark. It was a new experience for me. My eyes and mind were playing tricks on me. I really wasn't a fan of it all. I will definitely be asking for a head lamp for Christmas...along with reflective gear. I pointed all of this out to Justin last weekend when we were at a sporting goods store. :)

I am also happy to report that Mizzou won their first game. It was a close one, but they pulled it out.

Justin and I made the trip to Tempe, AZ this past weekend to watch Mizzou play at Arizona State. We weren't quite so fortunate there. We lost in overtime. It was disappointing, but they rallied to come back in the 4th quarter so I don't think it was a complete loss.

I got up fairly early in Tempe to go for a run as well. Our hotel was very close to the campus so I did a few miles around their campus. I know people mention that Arizona is a dry heat....I'm sorry, but 90* is 90* regardless of the "type" of heat. It was only 7am at the point, mind you. I think it got up to 113* that day before a little bit of rain came through.

I don't have much more to report at this point. Mizzou is back at home this weekend and it's a 6pm game. We will probably start tailgating around noon so a morning run should not be that hard to manage. There is a Susan G Komen 5k this Sunday, but I haven't signed up just yet. I know Saturday will be a long night so a race the next day may not go so well. I will probably still do the race just because of the cause, but I don't anticipate good results.

A lot of the blogs I read post their weekly training plan and then follow up with how they did later in the week. I think this is something I may have to try out around here. I know there for a while this blog was a way to keep me accountable and I would feel guilty missing runs because I knew I would report back here that I missed them. So, I think if I post my weekly plan then I might stick to it more. At this point I am not training for anything in particular. I have a half in mind for the spring so I am loosely training for that, but it's still 6 months away so it's not a major deal right now.

I hope everyone is enjoying the break in the crazy hot temps (at least around here). If you are not, I'm sorry. I hope relief comes soon. I know my pace has dropped a few seconds with the temperature drop. I can only hope that continues...in a big way.

Later, y'all!

Back in action!

Wow, I haven't blogged since early may. And, get this, I GAINED follower. Thank you guys for not ditching me. I want to get back in the saddle of blogging.

I did, as I said in my last blog, finish the Nashville Country Music Half Marathon at the end of April. It was a wonderful experience and a lot of fun. I will touch on it more (when I FINALLY finish my race recap, ha....3-4 months later!), but I felt a bit "blah" soon after the race. That's a feeling I never would have expected. There was no doubt in my mind that I could finish, but the time I finished in was a bit slower than I would have liked. I actually raced slower than many of my training runs....you will find out about all of this when I finish my race recap.

My dad (fasha) is doing the Roots 'n Blues half marathon in less than two weeks. I had originally planned to run this with him. And by with him - I mean we were going to run the same course. He would definitely kick my arse. Dude is speedy! I am so incredibly excited for him and even more proud of him. This will be his first half. I would have loved to have run his first half "with" him. Unfortunately, football season calls. Mizzou plays at Arizona State so Justin and I are heading southwest for the game. I have enjoyed sharing training stories, trials, and tribulations with my fasha. I know he is going to rock this half marathon and totally kill my official time in Nashville. It's all good - that gives me a time to beat when I run my next half (which I hope to be in the Spring).

I want to jump back on the blogging bandwagon because it seems to go hand in hand with my running schedule. This summer has kicked my ass as far as running goes. The humidity has absolutely killed me. My pace has been a good 1.5-2 minutes slower per mile. When I do get out to run - my mileage has been poor. I have, honestly, run 3-4 six mile runs since Nashville...and nothing longer than six miles. In conclusion for this paragraph - F YOU, heat and humidity!!

It's all good though. Football season starts this week (college, WOOT!) so that means the air is about to get a bit more crisp...and hopefully my pace will return with the turning of the leaves.

So to my trusty followers who haven't "unfollowed" in my hiatus...please, show me some love. I need the motivation and support as I go after my goal to run a sub 25 5k for 2011. I definitely thought I posted a 2011 goal post, but I guess not. So to fill you in (8 months later, from what I remember)....I had a goal to blog more (fail), run a sub 25 5k (fail by 8 seconds, UGH!), and run a half marathon (winning!).

In closing - keep following my blog. Show some love. I hope to recap my runs, live, and the like as time goes by. Enjoy, y'all! :)

We did it!

Three of my great friends and I finished the Country Music 1/2 marathon in Nashville this weekend. I hope to have a full recap with pictures up tonight or tomorrow.

The course was hilly (we thought, anyway) and tough - but it was such a fun and rewarding experience.

It was so much fun that I am already looking for another half to do in the future. I will probably do one this fall...as long as it doesn't interfere with football season. :)

Last long run

Today I ran my last long run before I tackle 13.1 in a week. Most of the training plans called for 6-8 miles as sort of a taper. I knew that I needed one more 10 miler under my belt for some confidence. Have I mentioned that running is incredibly mental??

I have had a little bit of trouble updating music on my iphone since the hard drive on my computer crashed a few weeks ago. We had to get a new hard drive and it has been a PITA losing everything off of the old one. I attempted to update my music last night. Apparently I did just the opposite. I erased it all. Fantastic! Imagine my anger when I tried to play my "running" playlist just before I started my run and it wouldn't work. Not cool. So, I went with the next best thing....Ke$ha on pandora. Bwahaha! I am not sure why Ke$ha was the first "artist" (if you call her that) who popped in my head. It worked out just fine though. I kind of liked not knowing what the next song was going to be. I might have to try this more often.



I felt really really good during this run. I was trying out some new things that I want to implement in the race.

I wore a spi-belt. I am on call this weekend so I needed somewhere to hold my pager in case I got called in. This is basically just a fancy fanny pack. It definitely did its job. I didn't even notice it was there. I wanted to test this out because I really want to carry my camera along during the race next weekend. I think it would be cool to take a few pictures along the way. It might slow me down a bit, but I will never run my first half marathon ever again.

I have also been experimenting with fuel options. I notice that a few miles into runs I seem to run out of gas a little bit. I did some research and found information on Gu, Shot bloks, and sports beans. I actually purchased all three a few weeks ago. I tried them out before running with them. I could not stand the consistency of the Gu. Ick. And the sports beans had a weird salty taste to them. Luckily, I LOVED the shot bloks. They are like amazingly helpful fruit snacks. They are delicious. So I decided to test them out during a run today and I think it went well. I ate 3 of them about 20-30 minutes before my run. I ate 2 more about 5 miles into my run. I probably could have eaten 2 more at about 8 miles. But, now I know. That's why I was doing this little experiment. :)


I also purchased some new dri-fit socks this last week. I had heard that cotton socks weren't great for running. I have a couple of blisters so I thought I would try out some dri-fits. I have to say that they didn't make a difference to me. I couldn't really tell the difference as I was running and they didn't prevent my blisters from getting worse. Oh well...maybe a different type or brand of sock.

And finally, I had also heard that compression sleeves were great for recovery after a long run. I am all about it. So I bought some of those on Thursday. I never realized how expensive running was until I heard about all this cool stuff that could help me! :) I have to say that I have totally been missing out by not having compression sleeves until now. They are amazing. I popped them on pretty quickly after my long run and my legs are loving me for it. I really do think they will help with recovery. I do have to say that my feet are a little jealous. I might have to find a good deal on some compression socks too.


I hope you are having a great weekend. And now with that being 2 posts in 1 day - you probably won't hear from me for about a month. Ha! :)

Hi

I suck at this blogging thing. Woops.

I enjoy reading other blogs that have daily (sometimes more than once a day) updates, but I can't seem to get myself in a blogging routine.

A little update....

My first half marathon is ONE.WEEK.FROM.TODAY. Holy cow! Time has flown by since we signed up in October (?). My running has been near non-existent this week. You would think with the race being so close that I would have the motivation to lace up my shoes and hit the road. Not so much.

I am feeling extremely nervous and anxious. I am not sure why. I really wish I could go into this race with the attitude of "just finish with a smile and enjoy yourself." I can't seem to wrap my mind around that. I am, apparently, too competitive and tough on myself. Competitive might not be the right word. There is NO way I will win this race or even come close. It's more competitive with myself. I know the time that I am able to achieve and now it's just a matter of doing it so I don't let myself down. Stupid mental side of running getting to me.

I have had 3 (and hopefully 4 after today) 10-11 mile long runs in the course of my training. I feel like if I can run 10 or 11 miles then I can run 13.1. I want to save that 13.1 for the race. I want to have that feeling of miles 12 and 13 to be the longest I have ever run to be in this race situation. Hopefully I don't eat my words and the wheels won't fall off after 10 or 11 miles.

My long runs have ranged from a 9:20-9:33/mile pace. That 9:33 pace came on a long run after a night out the night before. It was pretty miserable. So I like to scratch that pace out of my mind. 9:20/mile or faster is what I will be shooting for. Again, I wish I could just ignore the numbers and just run to run. It won't happen so I might as well share my goals with other people. More pressure does me good. No? Oh.

I am so excited for the trip to Nashville. As I have mentioned before - I am going with 3 of my very good friends from college. This will be the first half marathon for all 4 of us. I can't wait to experience this major accomplishment with these girls. And I REALLY can't wait to celebrate said accomplishment next Saturday night. :)

I am starting to make lists for packing. It's a little overwhelming doing a race so far away and being gone for 4 days. That's a lot to pack. I tend to over pack anyway...add a race to the situation and I can only imagine what my suitcase is going to be like next week.

I have been stalking weather.com for the next Saturday's forecast. It looks like a high of 78 and partly cloudy. That 78* could be a bit balmy, but with an 8AM start time I hope it's more low 60s to begin with. Missouri weather hasn't been that warm just yet so I am hope I am able to deal with that minor detail of heat.

So to the runners who read this blog:
Any advice, tips, etc. for my first half marathon?
How do I shut off my brain and just enjoy the experience?

What's 1 more day?

I have had an absolutely horrible month on the training front. An entire MONTH. 4 weeks. That is a solid bit of time when you consider I am training for a half marathon. It started with me getting sick, then we moved, then we got 6-8 inches of snow, then we got another 18 inches of snow...and I just haven't picked things back up on a consistent basis since. It all boils down to excuses. One after the other. And in my head I kept saying to myself, "what's one more day going to hurt?"

I proved to myself today what all those extra days off really do hurt. On my training plan I had 4 miles scheduled yesterday. I had planned to go after work, but it was so cold and I didn't bring appropriate clothes for the treadmill (another effing excuse). So today I was determined. I was determined to go before work. I work at 1pm so it's not like I have to get up at a crazy time to get this done. I lounged around for 30 minutes longer than I originally planned...and you guessed it...thinking of another excuse not to go to the gym this morning.

Well, I went. And it was miserable. I horrible 4 miles. In all honesty - the first 1.5 miles were good. I was feeling confident that I had not lost everything I had worked so hard for before. Well, that confidence was kicked straight to the curb and in a hurry. My run when down hill very quickly. At the 2.25 mark I had to stop to get some water. I didn't bring a water bottle for me. This was almost my excuse to quit for the day. The good news - every time that I wanted to quit, I thought about my blog. I knew I didn't want to blog about falling short. For that, I am thankful to anyone reading this because even if you don't know it - you are keeping me accountable.

Most of my run was at 6.5mph (9:15/mile pace, I think). Occasionally I would bump it up to 7mph (8:35/mile pace). And for the last half mile I did bumped it up to 7.5mph (8:00/mile pace). An 8 minute mile pace was pushing it for me a month ago. So that 8 minute pace for even just a half a mile kicked my butt. I knew I needed to kick my own ass for even just a half mile as a small extra punishment for all my time off.

I took a post run pic of myself in the gym bathroom. I have named this the "huff and puff face." How ridiculous do I look? My face was beet red. I don't think that's captured in this pic very accurately. I am, however, wearing one of my favorite running shirts. If I am going to have a horrible run - I would like it to be in my pink and yellow livestrong shirt.

Back at it....

So, the last week has not been the most successful training week for me. I was sick last Wednesday, I was recovering Thursday and Friday, and we began moving on Saturday.

The good news is that we have moved back into our own place. We really appreciated the opportunity to live with Justin's parents and save money while living there...the time has come for us to live on our own again. January 1 marked one year that Justin lived with his parents. I moved there at the end of February/first of March...so my one year mark was quickly approaching.

We moved this past weekend into a duplex. And, quite honestly, it is in my in law's back yard. We are literally .4 of a mile from my in law's house. I know this from running the loop in their neighborhood often, ha.

We are slowly, but surely finding a place for everything. We got rid of a lot of furniture when we moved from Kansas City because we didn't have space in our storage unit for everything. So, needless to say, we are in the market for some new furniture. We have hand-me-down couches...which we are ok with for now. We have our master bedroom set which we love (until we move again...and we will get a king). And we have 2 beds for spare bedrooms. We need: a tv stand, end tables, coffee table, computer desk, and some bookcases. Once we get all of that furniture - we will be complete. :)

On the training front - with everything going on, I have not done much. AKA I have not run since my awesome work out last Tuesday. I really need to get after it and get back to my training plan. Based on my plan - I am at week 4. So I feel like as long as I get back on track Sunday with my long run (5 miles) then I am good. I have got to hit these long runs at an absolute minimum. Of course I want to get all of my work outs in, but I feel like as long as I am upping my mileage each week then I will be ok. But, I want to be more than ok. I want to rock this 13.1 I have a lot of work to to do. I have exactly 3 months, 1 week, and 4 days to go before Nashville.

Side note: the 5k that I was recently talking about...it got cancelled. It was supposed to be this past Sunday. Thankfully - it was cancelled due to ice/snow on a major hill of the course. By cancelled...I mean postponed. It's going to be the end of January instead. I am cool with that. I was feeling very run down on Sunday morning so this works better for me. The cool thing about this race? I paid $25 as an entry fee (pretty normal around here) and I get $20 back in gift certificate form to a local running store. SCORE! I got a fabulous gift card from my in law's for Christmas to this store. So add $20 to that and I should be able to get fitted and new running shoes without much out of pocket. Holla!

Here's to getting back on track this weekend. *tink*tink*

Half marathon training

In an effort to be a bit more accountable for my training - I thought I would share a little bit about my training plan. I figure this might help someone considering something similar.

If you research half marathon training programs - you might become a bit overwhelmed with the many different options. Everyone and their brother has come up with the "perfect" training program. I discovered this very quickly. Every one of these programs has a disclaimer that is something along the lines of, "may not be suitable for everyone." And this is so very true. A training program that works for me may not work for you. Great, more to ponder and research!

I had heard many good things about Hal Higdon's training programs. They were definitely the most tried and true of the people that I talked to. His programs are about 12 weeks long and assume you have a decent running base (i.e. run 3 miles 3-4 times a week). This wasn't a problem for me, except that I had way more than 12 weeks to train.

I considered starting that program and just repeating weeks as I felt necessary. That, to me, was still not structured enough. I wanted to know what I was going to do on each day. That would keep me engaged and motivated.

I continued my research and finally found a 18 week half marathon training based on Hal Higdon's program. Perfect!! At the time - I had just about 18 weeks until our half* in Nashville. Prior to this discovery (about 2-3 weeks ago), I was randomly training and following a couple of different programs. This lack of structure and discipline was keeping me from really progressing in my training (i.e. beyond a 3 mile run).

I have to admit that I have yet to follow this program exactly. I almost followed week 3** perfectly last week...aside from the cross training on Wednesday and Saturday. I did play the xbox kinect for like 3 hours on Saturday so that has to count for something. I feel great that I was able to get the mileage in, but I know that strength training and cross training are going to be very important for my overall fitness level come race day.

Today was a rest day so I have knocked that out. :) I will pound out 3 miles tomorrow. Unfortunately those 3 miles will most likely be on the treadmill because we have gotten a few inches of snow today. I will be bound to the treadmill unless I get a pair of Yaktrax. In all seriousness, I might have to get those for a race I am signed up for on Sunday.


*Justin laughs when I say "half" instead of "half marathon." I don't think he thinks I am in it enough to use the lingo. :)
**I discovered tonight that last week should have been week 2, but I followed week 3. Oh well, right?