Another Running Week Down

Today officially marks 4 weeks until Disney Princess, and with that I wrapped up my 8th week of training, although it was really only my third complete week, even though I've trained over the last 8 weeks, before the last 3 weeks I had been skipping at least one run per week, and it was usually my scheduled long weekend run, I would just find myself too busy to complete it and life would get in the way. But, with crunch time and no more distractions, I've been able to really focus and just run. This week my training plan had me doing 16 miles, two easy 4 milers and a long run of 8 miles, but I decided I needed to add in some speedwork to make up for some lost time, so I turned the second easy 4 miler into a speedwork 5 miler, and ended the week with 17 miles.

Wednesday I began the week with an easy 4 miler on the treadmill, it was still pretty cold out, so I retreated indoors. I played my usual game of increase the speed at every mile and then go all out and sprint at the end. It works well for me and keeps the run interesting.

Thursday, the weather decided to become warmer, 50 and sunny and I just had to run outside. I miss running outside so much. As much as I am making peace with the dreadmill, and trying to keep it interesting, nothing beats being outdoors and having the fresh breeze on your face and seeing the trees and grass. I knew I had to go outside for my speed repeats. I was supposed to do 1 mile warm up, 1 mile at 9:45, 0.5 mile recovery, 1 mile at 9:45, 0.5 mile recovery, and 1 mile cool down. Well as you can see from my splits, I decided to go all out and ignore the recoveries and cool down. I tried, I really did, I slowed down, but I just had so much, momentum I had to keep going. And holy moly do you see that second mile split?! 9:14! What?!

Saturday it was 67 degrees, sunny and downright warm for running, I almost wish I had worn my shorts and tank top instead of capris and tshirt. But alas, I had an 8 miler on tap and there was no better way to get it done than outside in such awesome weather. When I got in my car it said it was 67, and the sun was bright and high in the afternoon, by the time I finished the run my car thermometer said it was 71 outside, which I believe, it was quite warm, like I said, shorts weather! Glad I had the sense to take my handheld water bottle with a Powerade/water mixture in it, I still downed it all and had to refill at about 6 miles, I was just so hot. I also refueled with my favorite Chocolate Outrage GU at mile 4, which is why you see that mile 5 split is so high, because I decided to walk to eat my GU and drink my drink, that was my only walk break, which I really didn't want to take, but at that point I was just so hot and my legs were getting really heavy/tired.

I had some weird potty issues going on too, I desperately needed to pee 1.5 miles in, which considering I always drink a ton of water, especially the morning before I run, but I always make sure to empty my bladder before beginning, but I guess it wasn't enough, so I had to stop, luckily I run in a place with plenty of public restroom facilities.  When I started back up again I restarted the Nike+ but forgot to unpause the Garmin, I realized after I had gone about .35 miles that it wasn't ticking along and finally unpaused it. But I know that I'm stubborn and I wouldn't be quitting until the Garmin said 8 miles, so I would have to run that extra 0.35 mile. I kept along my merry way going along and sipping on my Powerade/water mix when I needed it, even though it was warm and not very thirst quenching. Finally at about 6.10 miles according to Nike+, 5.75 miles according to Garmin, I stopped again because I needed to pee again, plus I was having some left sided abdominal/ovary pain, no doubt caused by my endo, and my bottle was empty and I wanted to refill it with some water. So I ducked into the restroom and also refilled my bottle with some cold water from the fountain and then kept going. I ran another 1.25 miles without incident while chugging down the water, finally when I hit the last mile I decided I was going to push my limits and go all out. I've heard it's good to practice sprinting, especially at the end, that this can help you power through to the finish line, so I've really been trying to incorporate this into my runs lately, to finish strong instead of finishing feeling dead like I used to. So I turned on some fast paced music and just ran as fast as I could. You can see from the split, this strategy worked, as it was my fastest of all the 8 miles at 9:47. All in all I think it was a great run. I just wish I didn't have to stop those two times for restroom breaks and that my left side abdominal hadn't have been bothering me during the run, then I think it would have been perfect. Pacing was great though, if I can just go a couple seconds faster on race day, I will meet my goal of PRing the race at 2:15:xx.

So wrap up for the week:
Wednesday: 4 miles, 41:34, 10:18 av pace
Thursday: 5 miles (speed repeats), 48:49, 9:46 av pace
Saturday: 8 miles, 1:23:25, 10:25 av pace

20 Mile Week Wrap Up

I did it, I ran my highest mileage week so far during training and I feel invincible! I began the week making up the 6 mile long run that I missed on Sunday on Monday, it was a really rough day for me for various reasons that I won't go into on here, but I found it incredibly cathartic to "run it out." The treadmill hasn't been easy for me lately, in fact it's been pretty rough, but Monday it was all clicking and I felt like I could just go for miles and miles and that I did as the miles kept clicking by on that red treadmill screen. To break up the monotony I played a game with myself, every mile I increased the speed by 0.1, worked well for the most part, except the last mile I was exhausted and decided to cool down by mostly speed walking. Only downside? I got some chaffing in a pretty painful/unmentionable area thanks to my shorts. I'm telling you, running is not the sport for the faint of heart or those easily embarrassed.

Wednesday I got back at it and tacked an easy 2 miles, this time to break up the monotony again I started off the first mile at a slower pace, and then increased my speed by 0.2 when I hit the first mile, then another 0.2 when I hit 1.5 miles, I held that pace until 1.75 miles, and then increased my speed by 0.1 every 100 meters until the end. It was quick and fun and I felt like I could keep going, but I didn't want to overdo it.

Thursday was tempo day. I usually suck at tempo runs. A tempo run is where you start off slow and build your pace into the run, which come to think of it, I guess that's kind of what I've been doing the last few days with my little "games" on the treadmill, but then you are supposed to hold the pace for a set number of miles, according to my training plan, today I was supposed to do 5 miles, 1 mile warm up, 3 miles at 10:19, and then a mile cool down. So that's what I did. Holding the pace for the third mile was tough, I wanted to quit, I wanted to walk for a second, just a second. I was hot and sweaty and the snow was coming down outside and I knew the roads were going to be getting bad to go home, but I pressed on, and I fought the "wall" and I won.

Today wrapped up my week with a long run. My training plan always tells me my long run pace should be something like 11:56, which I think is ridiculous, if I'm supposed to run the race in 5 weeks at a 10:23 pace, how the heck am I supposed to train doing long runs at 11:56?! It's absurd. So I always decide to go faster and push myself more. I again decided to go to the gym and get on the treadmill, but I wish I would have checked the weather outside first, because it was a balmy 47 degrees, perfect for running, I never thought in a million years this Florida girl would think 47 degrees was warm to run in, but seriously, 47 is like awesome, 55 is ideal though, but oh well, I was already dressed for the gym and I didn't have my Garmin or my hand-held water bottle, so off to the gym I went.  I started off slow and steady, clicked off 3.5 miles and then took a break to eat my Chocolate Outrage GU, drink some water, refill my water bottle, stretch a little, use the bathroom, and reset the machine since I knew it would reset at an hour anyway and I was already at a little over 38 minutes. Then I started back up and increased the speed for the second half. I hit the wall somewhere around 4.5 miles. I wanted to walk so bad. I wanted to quit, 4.5 miles was enough right? Who cares that I was supposed to do 7? I had already run 13 miles this week, plus the 4.5 I had just done, why should I keep going? It was so hard, my legs were fine, physically I was fine, but mentally, I was struggling. I decided to distract myself with thoughts of a baby and creating a nursery in my head even though this is still months and months away for Hubs and I, that lasted for about half a mile and got me out of the slump and then I had a mile to go, and usually when I hit the last mile I can power through. I hit that last mile and decided to start cooling down, so I lowered the speed back down to about 5.6, but then I had to walk for a second. I didn't want to walk. I felt a brief twinge for having to walk for a sec. I kept telling myself "you're a runner, not a run/walker" but then I hit 5.5 miles, so with half a mile left I kicked the speed back up and decided I was going to finish strong. I played the same game I played the other day, when the voice on the Nike+ told me I had 400 meters left, I bumped the speed up 0.1, and I kept increasing it every 100 meters until I was flying at the end and it worked, I was up to an 8:12 pace at the end, that's sprinting for me! I'm glad I finished strong. 

I came home and noticed the top of my second toe on my right foot is incredibly bruised, and the same toe on the left ended up with a giant blister, which is odd considering I wear special running toe socks to prevent blisters. My quads and hamstrings were incredibly tight too, so I stretched and foam rolled and feel so much better now.  But I am so proud of myself for getting in 20 miles this week! And I am really happy that next week is only a 16 mile week ;-)

Monday: 6 miles, 1:07:33, 11:14 average pace.
Wednesday: 2 miles, 20:50, 10:22 average pace. 
Thursday: 5 miles (tempo), 52:27, 10:29 average pace.
Sunday: 7.09 miles, 1:15:51, 10:41 average pace.

Running Updates

I haven't updated in a while, mostly because I was slacking, badly, on my training plan for my upcoming half marathon. I was slacking so bad, I began to question if I would in fact be able to run the race, let alone PR it. When I registered back in October, I designed myself an 18 week training plan, but thanks to procrastination, weeks came and went and I wasn't sticking to my mileage goals. Soon enough I was 12 weeks out and decided it was time to get serious, worst timing ever though, right before the holidays, let's just say, I skipped out on quite a few runs in those first 3-4 weeks. Now, the race is less than 6 weeks out, and I have finally found my groove again these last couple weeks. Between the cold, snowy weather, and coming down with a nasty cold, I never thought I'd get my running legs back, it's been such a struggle, but this week was definitely the turning point. This week I found my renewed motivation. I'm even running with ease on the "dreadmill." So far this week I'm up to 13 miles, including a 6 miler on Monday, a fast 2 miler on Wednesday, and a 5 mile tempo run today, still on tap is a 7 mile long run this weekend, and my speeds are finally creeping back up and getting back up to where they need to be on race day. I'm feeling confident and renewed. I can totally do this! I'll be back at the end of the week with a full week recap.

2010 Running Recap

I debated doing this post or not, but since 2010 really was my year of running, I decided to go ahead with it. As most of you who read this blog regularly know, I love analyzing numbers when it comes to my runs, so it should be no surprise that at year's end I had to know where I stood numbers-wise. Unfortunately, my iPod had been having some battery issues for the last several months, it would die about 10-15 minutes into a run, making it difficult to keep track with the Nike+, which even though I use my Garmin on all outdoor runs, I was still using the Nike+ as well since that's how I kept track throughout the year prior to September. But have no fear, Santa, brought me a brand new iPod Nano for Christmas, so I'm all set for 2011 in utilizing both Nike+ and Garmin in all my running adventures! Anyway, thanks to my awesome Garmin, plus using the data from January through June (since I took the summer off and resumed running in September after I got my Garmin) from Nike+, and some simple math, I was able to come up with some totals, yay!

Distance: 271 miles
Average Pace: 10:48 min/mi

January

 January was a pretty strong month, lots of half marathon training, and the fastest month pace wise.

February

February was my highest mileage month, almost 87 miles! It was also the height of half marathon training and my knee began acting up, signaling overuse and the reg flag that I probably needed to be professionally fitted for shoes. Which I did the next month and haven't looked back since! 

March

March led me to my first half marathon, I finished in 2:21:53 in brutal conditions, pouring down driving rain and about 40 degrees the whole time, not fun, but I did it! And I felt like a rock star after crossing that finish line!

April

 April was another pretty strong month, I began training for the Inaugural Navy Ten Nautical Miler but also began working, so trying to find a balance became a bit of challenge. I also ran the Spring Stampede 5K and set a new PR for that distance which I was unable to beat the rest of year, it still stands at 29:05.

I didn't run at all in May =(

June

 June brought with it the Inaugural Navy Ten Nautical Miler, which was about 11.5 statute miles. I was severely undertrained for this race. After I began working in late April and the flood our town experienced at the beginning of May which shut down the gym, and then traveling, it was difficult for me to get back on track, it was a huge regret of mine that I did not do better in this race. Granted it was hot out, but if I had trained better I think I could have come in sub 2 hours on this one, but alas, I finished in 2:24:20, 12th out of 15 in my age group, pitiful. I walked so much of this race it's embarrassing, and I ended up with a nasty blister and my first ever black toe nail thanks to this race. Still, the medal was awesome and I hope to PR it in 2011.

I took the summer off, what a mistake that was. Life just seemed to get in the way, plus my endo pain always seemed to derail my good intentions of wanting to run, and physically did not allow me to. September came and brought with it my Garmin and new motivation to get back on track, but I only seemed to have run 2 miles in September according to my Garmin.

October

October I got back into the swing of things, but still wasn't full steam. I also registered for the Disney Princess Half Marathon and began running with my Garmin and compared it to the Nike+ and learned the joys of negative splits.

November

 
November was a tough month, I got my endo diagnosis and didn't feel much like running. I did run one disastrous race, a Turkey Trot 5k, which has been my worst race to date. It was also cold and rainy and not very conducive to running outside, and I hate the treadmill.

December

December was a busy month, like it usually is. Unfortunately it wasn't filled with as much running as it should have been. I'm already slacking on my Disney Princess training plan. But alas, I closed out the year with 15 miles for the month and a super hilly 3 miler on the 30th.

All in all I'm satisfied with my running accomplishments in 2010. I would have loved to have seen a higher total mileage for the year and a faster pace, but then again, I know I didn't put forth my best effort, especially after taking off the entire summer and not being as dedicated as I was the first half of the year. So what's the plan for 2011? I plan to increase my mileage, I'd like to at least see that total for the year doubled. I also want to work on getting faster, and the only way to do either of these things is to truly dedicate myself to running more. Here's to setting some new PRs and wearing out a couple pairs of shoes in the next 365 days!

1-1-11

Happy 2011!! I know I haven't updated in a while, but new year, new start I suppose. I'm very happy 2010 is gone now, it was one of the worst years of my life and I am hoping 2011 brings with it much better things, but we shall see. I guess it's time to look back though and see how did on my goals for 2010, they were:

1. Lose these last 10 lbs and be the fittest, healthiest I can be.  Well, I gained, lost, gained again, and then lost again, right now I am down about 3 lbs from where I was last year, about 7 from my ultimate goal weight, but it's the lowest I have been all year, so I guess I'll take it. I really need to work on this better! 

2. Eventually work up to running 15-20 miles per week. I did this! I was running more than 20 miles a week at the height of half marathon training. Right now I'm back up to about 5-10 miles a week.

3. Run a half marathon. I did this also, you can read about it here

4. Eat healthier, get back on track (I have been bad and off track the last month or so). Overall, I did better this year, we ate much less processed food, I cooked at home most of the time, although we did eat out about once a week, and I ate a whole bunch of fruits and veggies, I'm calling this one a win. 
 
5. Get pregnant (although Hubby's work schedule may push this one into 2011, but we'll see) Nope, and may not be happening anytime soon thanks to my recent diagnosis

6. Travel as much as possible Yes! Hubs and I went to FL and VT twice, Cleveland, New Orleans, Nashville, and Hawaii this year. 

7. Find a job I love or start my own business. I started my own business, however right now it's kind of stalled at the moment as I deal with cutting through the red tape of permitting.

So, on to the goals for 2011, this year it's a short list:

1. Save as much money as possible
2. PR the Disney Princess Half Marathon, hopefully coming in around 2:15:xx
3. Get Pregnant before 2011 is over
4. Get to goal weight
5. Keep running, no taking the summer off like I did this year.
6. Blog more

Hopefully I can meet my goals this year, I think I can, they aren't too lofty or unattainable. I hope everyone out there has a great 2011, Happy New Year!! 

Time For Christmas Cards

As Thanksgiving approaches this week, and officially marks the beginning of the holiday season, it's time to start thinking about sending out Christmas cards to family and friends. Last year was our first year sending out photo cards, I debated the idea for a while, but in the end found it to be the easiest option. This year, I again began to debate, especially given that I am not finding a photo I particularly like of the two of us together, but alas, it is the easiest option and my favorite photo site ever, Shutterfly has got some great options this year and has a great promotion for bloggers going on this year!

I adore Shutterfly! They have everything you need for all your card and stationary needs, check them out! I have used them a million times, okay maybe I exaggerate a little, but seriously, I have used them quite a bit to make the most stunning photo books. Our photo guestbook for our wedding using our engagement pics was ordered from them and turned out exquisite! I also used them to make each of our moms photobooks of wedding pictures, which they too adored.

There are so many awesome options this year on Shutterfly for Christmas cards, I'm having such a hard time deciding. Do I like this one better?

 

Or how about this one?

Or what if I skip the Christmas cards and went straight into New Year's with these New Year's cards?

As you can see, I think I'm going to be here a while trying to decide on my favorite and then selecting my favorite photo of Hubs and I taken this year. If you're a blogger and want in on this promotion to get 50 free photo cards from Shutterfly, go here: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Week 3 Training Complete

I'll admit, it's been hard getting back on track with training. Between my constant asthma, and the darn ovarian cyst, running hasn't been the most enjoyable lately. The first two weeks of this training plan, running was sparse and I didn't meet my mileage goals. But this week, I was bound and determined to meet them, one way or another. The weather has been pretty nice out, in the high 50s and 60s, and sunny, perfect for running. Plus, it helped that Hubs was able to do 2 or my 3 runs with me this week.

I've pretty much decided I hate our neighborhood for running for two reasons, dogs and hills. I went out alone on Wednesday, and right off at a little passed the half mile mark, a huge white dog was in the middle of the road growling viciously at me ready to attack. I've mentioned it before, but I'm terrified of big dogs, especially mean ones that growl and threaten. Anyway, I had to stop and spent about two minutes according to the Garmin deciding what to do, I did stop the timer, but it still measures it as "elapsed time"  but doesn't effect the average pace or anything like that. Luckily, a neighbor was out in his garage and I asked him if it was his dog, he said no, but knew who the dog belonged to and said it wouldn't bite and told it to go home, and by the time I finished talking to him, the dog has returned home and left me alone. Two miles logged for Wednesday in 22:01.

 

 Friday's run was a three miler. Hubs and I set out just before sundown and again set out to conquer the hills in the neighborhood. This time, only one dog attacked, but it licked me to death as I was walking up the super hill at the mile mark. I think he likes to play, but I still wish people would learn to keep their pets put away, it's not safe to let them roam, and it makes me feel unsafe to run when I'm constantly worried that a dog is going to come after me. The first mile was pretty good, I only took one short walk break up monster hill. Mile 2 was about the same. Mile 3 was where I fell apart. I was tired, out of breath, and just felt like walking. Overall, we did 3 miles in 34:53.

Today's four miler was the best of the week, I'm attributing it to changing it up and going to base to run. First off, it's flat, secondly, there are no dogs to worry about. We cranked out four steady miles in 40:44, we pretty even splits of 9:55, 10:19, 10:30, and 9:57. I didn't walk once. I slowed down at the 2 mile mark when we passed a water fountain to take a sip, and the silly thing didn't work, and then we had to stop at 3.70 miles for a minute because Retreat came on and everyone outside on base has to stop and face the flag. It felt so good to get in a solid run. 

Overall, I completed 9.01 miles this week, right on target with my training plan. Here's hoping I can stick with it for this next week!