See Stephanie Run

Wedding Wednesday: The to-do list picks up

2011-05-18T09:40:00.000-04:00

I have a long running update tomorrow, things have been fun/busy in that department, but it is Wednesday, and what better reason to talk more about my wedding :)

Countdown:

The countdown is slowly starting to begin. We are at less than 4 months and to be very technical, 16 weeks until the wedding. For a runner who thinks of my life in terms of 16 week training cycles, we are moving into the final cycle of it all and my to-do list has certainly picked up, there is lots going on, luckily, this is all the fun stuff!

Crafting:

The crafty, do it yourself projects have begun! I am NOT a crafty, artisticly inclined person, I tend to think in solid colors, no patterns, and straight lines--> this also tends to be very boring. My fabulous craft inclined friend Heather has brought her skills to the table and we are embarqing on some fun projects!

Joann Fabric has become one of my new favorite stores! It is amazing how many random things they have than seem to fit my wedding needs, and I feel like I am starting to develop the right side of my brain a little more.

One of my favorite tasks that we are taking on is making custom water bottle labels. Lets face it, it will be hot, there needs to be water, it might as well look fun right?

We are just getting started with these, and I am very anxious to see how they turn out!

Invitations:

My invitations have come in and the stuffing process has begun...

We are keeping these a secret until they actually go out, but I was super happy how they turned out. I chose an existing design, but had them custom make our invitations to fit our color scheme and my taste, they are a little more modern than I usually go for, but I am super happy with them!

I went back and forth a lot about how I wanted to have the invitations addressed, first world problems, I know!!!! The women in my family were very quick to remind me that hand written invitations are expected in the south, but I really dislike the look of caligraphy and my own hand writing kind of blows, especially in mass quantity. I thought the easiest thing to do would be print them in a nice scripty font, but I also knew I would hear about it from our older and more traditional guests and family members. Luckily, I had a very naive volunteer with literally flawless handwriting agree to hand address the invitiations- yippee!!!

Most people use printed envelopes now, am I being too old-fashioned following tradition? I feel like the older people will care and appreciate that we made the extra effort, but my guess is most people wouldn't have noticed either way.

Shopping:

As much as I love to shop, it was about time that I finally have an excuse to get a little crazy! While we don't have a 'theme' per say, we definitely have a cohesive element/style that we are using to tie everything together, and it is going to require some shopping...

At this point, I really feel like I am going to be saying "Stephanie's wedding, brought to you by Etsy". I have always read wonderful things about Etsy, and spent time perusing their site, but have never purchase anything, I never felt I truly needed it, whereas I always needed more running shorts ;)

I have fallen in love with a zillion things on Etsy that I want to bring in to 'decorate' our wedding and gifts for all the fabulous people involved in our special day, but I am trying not to get too out of control yet.

Jewelry... I have been starting to think about my bridesmaids jewelry and what shape and color I think will look good with their dresses. While I will be giving them their wedding day jewelry, John's mom is actually making it for me (them) and I love that we can basically design it to be anything we want!

I have had lots of fun trying on different styles

And colors. I think we have a pretty good handle on what we want it to look like, and I can't wait to see the first few designs she has for me!

Shoes!!!!! I LOVE shoes, like own so many pairs I don't need just because they were pretty, but that's the fun of it!

I have had lots of fun finding shoes that I love and having an excuse (or 4) to buy them. Showers, parties, rehearsals, wedding, after parties, etc. all a good reason for new shoes! Here are a pair of my favorite recent find!

We have more things coming up soon that I am very excited about! Will have to get back to them next Wednesday!!!!

Back to Training

2011-05-09T09:28:00.000-04:00

Happy Monday! I trust everyone had a great weekend!

For the last 6-7 weeks I have been running without a plan without a pattern and without the pressure...it was nice. Mentally, I need a break, time to figure out what I wanted to do next, work on getting faster, etc.

Well my nice no plan phase has pretty much come to an end. I am 5 weeks our for my goal 5k race of the summer, and 4-5 weeks is about all I can handle focusing on the insane paces needed for an impressive 5k PR. After that race it is right into base building for the fall race season. My goal after my last spring race was to make sure that when my fall races came around, I was in a totally different pace range, so here is hoping it all worked.

I am just about finished finalizing my fall and winter race schedule, and should have all the fun details up soon.

Over the past 3 weeks, I have been getting back to my normal routine after a 2 week illness and also getting acclimated to Florida Summer.. oh yes, its already here! Between the 2, most of my runs the last 3 weeks have been pretty sub-par, average paces, plenty of struggling and frustration, but I was reminded that one day I would head out and it would all just click again. I would hit my new fast paces with ease, every step wouldn't feel like my feet were bricks, and it would all go back to being natural.

Well this weekend, it all came back

Saturday Long run:
7 Miles- 1:01:29, 8:47 average pace
Mile 1- 9:33
Mile 2- 8:58
Mile 3- 8:55
Mile 4- 8:45
Mile 5- 8:26
Mile 6- 8:25
Mile 7- 8:23

I made sure to start out super easy, especially since I had been running so slow recently, and I just kind of assumed I would hover in 9:00-9:30 the whole run, but it just kept getting faster- always a nice feeling!

This morning it was back out to the bridges, which are not my favorite workout of the week, but I have definitely seen a lot of improvement, so I always try to go. I never try and hit fast paces while doing bridges, I figure the inclines themselves are enough to get my heart rate up without me trying to kill myself, so I always just go with it. Today, it seemed to go better than usual:

5 Miles-
Mile 1- 9:32
Mile 2- 9:28
Mile 3- 9:21
Mile 4- 9:29 --> up the big beast
Mile 5- 8:56

So these might seem like a snails pace in comparison to Saturday's run, but with 4 separate inclines to tackle, that is actually quite nice to see :)

I have a fun workout planned for tomorrow morning, sort of a fun take on a progression run, and I am running for time not distance- cannot even tell you the last time I did that. I think I am anxious to see how far I can push in the time allotted, and then of course see if I can beat it next week!

Do you prefer to run for time or distance?

Wedding Wednesday

2011-05-04T13:30:00.001-04:00

So it has been quite a while since I have managed to doa wedding post, or really any post, but I have been a busy girl!

Work, running, wedding planning, Bachelorette weekend for Jaime, so yeah it has been a busy one.

So onto the wedding update: this week John and I got to do something fun... we took our engagement pictures, and it was super fun!!!! I even think John started to enjoy himself towards the end, not that he would let on to that.

At first we John was a little skeptical of the whole engagment session thing. He is not a huge fan of posed pictures, which is why so many of my race photos are all of me talking and looking dumb, but I promised I we would take the cheese factor out as much as possible, I think like everyone I wanted our pictures to look like us and how we normally interact.

We are not cheesy stare into each other's eyes touch your face kind of people, so I tried to convey that to our photographer early on. While we certainly have a few of your more traditional poses in our photos, I really loved how they turned out, for the most part we look like ourselves, and like we actually like each other :) I am so thankful that we decided to haev these pictures done as part of our wedding package, it will be nice to have non-wedding pictures of us when we were still young and pretty. Considering the only professional pictures I have ever had done were baby pictures and senior portraits in high school, I thought we deserved some nice pictures of ourselves!

Our photographer, Tonya Beaver is just fantastic! She and I clicked as soon as we began exchanging emails, and I am so excited for our wedding and all the great pictures to come out of it! It made

Check out her blog HERE to see some moe pictures from our session!

Waiting Wednesday

2011-04-27T09:57:00.000-04:00

Happy Wednesday all! I have my life back after a super busy last 2 weeks of the semester here, and life will pretty much be smooth sailing through the summer since we run at 1/3 our load all summer :)

Today is a day that I have been waiting for for weeks, no months, and yet it is already 9:30am and I am STILL waiting! Today is the announcement of the winners of the NYC marathon lottery, and while I have tried really hard to not get my hopes up since the odds are pretty crappy, it doesn't change the fact that I want in! We will just have to wait and see, I have been holding off on all of my fall plans and races until I knew whether or not I would be doing New York, I am glad my wait is now mere hours instead of days.

On to more fun news- I am back to normal! I know I mentioned it last week how sick I had been, and even though I ran 6 days last week, it was a struggle to say the least. While many of my fellow runners are excited and welcoming the beautiful days of spring and nice weather, it is officially summer here- 90+ degrees ar the highs we have seen for the last week or so. So in addition to sucking it up big time from being sick, my body is also trying to acclimate to the inferno like conditions it will be expected to run in for the next 6 months.

As much as last week was rough and this week is still leaving me a little frustrated with my times, I must say that I would rather have 2 bad weeks trying to get used to the weather AND get back from being sick then to have had 2 weeks coming back after illness followed by 2 more slow weeks of getting used to the heat- so kill 2 birds with 1 stone I suppose.

Last week I did try to get in my track workout which was 8x400, but it was literally 92* when I was supposed to go to the track at 6pm, and my coach told me that with only being back for 3 days AND the heat that I may literally die and renounce my love for running so he sent me to do it on the treadmill- it was rough, I average a 7:25 pace which is about 35 seconds slower than my usual 6:50ish pace for 400s.

This week I felt I had enough energy finally to get back to my normal workout schedule, so this is my week:

Monday AM- 4 miles bridges run (3 hills covered) 37:42 or 9:26 pace
              PM- Spin class + 10m stair climber

Tuesday AM- holy tired legs!!!   4M tempo run (2 @8:00) HA that didn't work- 35:17 (9:31, 8:00, 8:24, 9:22) average pace 8:49 + 45 min full body weights
    Lunchtime- 2M run easy (9:26 pace) this was stress induced, I was not supposed to run again! 15 minutes bike, 15 minutes stair climber

Wednesday AM- TRACK! I went to morning track today to avoid today's 94* high, and it was the most lovely thing ever- I think I will be going to morning track every week! On the schedule 4x1200

When I was out there I felt like such a slow-poke, like seriously thought my times were awful because my range that I have for 1200s is 5:15-5:30, my actual times were

5:33, 5:34, 5:42, 5:38

I went back and checked, and the last 2 times I have done 1200s my times were all ~5:40, so maybe that's not so bad, but it felt bad at the time. Hopefully by this time next week my legs and lungs feel back to normal.

Another fun waiting for: The Royal Wedding. I plan to actually watch the early morning coverage from the treadmill at the gym, I figure this may accidently turn into my long run this week just because I don't want to leave the tv coverage to go shower.

Is anyone else planning to watch the Royal Wedding Friday????

Back from the Sick

2011-04-19T09:39:00.000-04:00

Wow, so I couldn't even tell you the last time I blogged, but it has been a while.

I have been sick for the last 2 weeks, like sleeping all the time, can't breath, sore throat, on bunches of meds, kind of sick. We all know with that kind of sickness also comes 0 workouts. The first week of the sickness I would waiver back and forth between feeling awful and feeling ok. When I felt ok I would go run, and then I would begin to feel like death again. So per Doctor's orders, I have taken a full 2 weeks off- it sucked!!!!

Don't get me wrong, I guess I needed the break, and mentally I am so eager to be back, so I guess that's good, but a 2 week break is a little harder to come back from. It's not like 2 weeks of no running where you cross-trained and kept some endurance or 1 week off where you can see it as a break- after 2 weeks of nothing there is most certainly a noticible difference in my cardiovascular capabilities.

I was allowed to pick it back up yesterday, but was told to cut my normal load in half and build back up- ha! In my head I would cut my run shorter but still hit my 90 minutes for the day through some sort of cross-training combination, so I had a plan to do a 3 mile run and then go to spinning.

I knew the run would hurt a little, but was determined to hit my pace ranges for what I am working to become the new easy (8:55) and the new moderate (8:25). I took the first mile super easy, even for 2 weeks off it felt easy and then did one at each of the 2 other paces. While they were certainly tougher than they were before I got sick, I didn't feel like I was dying, so a small victory- then again, this was only 3 miles.

After I finished my 3 miles I just did not have the energy to throw into a spin class. I had enough energy to finish my workout, but not at the intensity that a spin class requires- and the revelation of how much fitness I lost sinks in. I do 35 minutes between the arc trainer and the bike and call it a day at 60 minutes, not a great feeling.

Today, was back to the weights, and I knew I would have to drop certain weights as I would not do very well with some higher weights after not lifting for 2 weeks. I made it through my normal routine and felt pretty good, I am sure I will be sore tomorrow, but I can deal with that. I did 20 minutes of cross-training and am planning an easy 4 mile run this afternoon, here is hoping that it doesn't kill me.

I have not had to take a break like this since I started running. Sure injuries kept me from running, but I could cross-train, bike, swim, etc. Doing nothing for 2 weeks has made me feel like a lazy ass and a blimp, and it seems so hard to get back into my routine, but hopefully I can pick it back up easily after a week or so, I have a big race in just 8 weeks that requires some serious attention and I need to get at it!

Hopefully regualr blogging will also resume now that I am an active and functioning human being again!

Friday Confessions

2011-04-01T10:08:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone is looking forward to their weekend as much as I am! As much as I have been MIA lately you had better bet there have been a lot of things I haven't fessed up to, so here it goes.

- I have been sick as a dog all week this week, and yet for some reason I will not let myself call in sick. In my last job you could bet your ass you would be fired if you called in sick for anything other than losing a limb, you had to go in sick and be so bad that they would send you home- I guess I still have this fear instilled in my brain.

- While out of town last weekend I did a glorious "long run" of 7 miles at an 8:43 average pace...in elevation...on hills- I know ridiculous!

-I have been sidelined all week from this lovely ailment, but refused to miss Wednesday's track workout...The Mizuno Bus was coming to let everyone test out their new shoes lines, get discounts, and a fun tshirt. Yes I should have been in bed, but I coughed, sniffled and hacked my way through 6 miles with 3x1600 (at 7:43) to get to try some fun new shoes and get my tshirt- I have issues.

-I have picked back up my addictive reading habit this week to replace my running addiction. I have finished 2 book in 5 days...and I have my eyes on another before the weekend is out :)

-I found my wedding shoes!!!!! And then someone stole my size :( My size 10 foot will not fit in a teensy little pair of 5.5 sandals that is left. FAIL!

- Bridesmaids dresses are still causing problems. We found a dress that was great, and it is not laying right on people the way it did in the pictures...hoping this issue can be resolved as the idea of finding another dress highly disinterests me.

- I think I have eluded to this a bit, but John has started doing CrossFit recently. He has been going for a little over a month and absolutely loves it. He has amended his diet some with it also which has been great for both of us too. He has urged me to come try it, and part of me is intruigued, but then I hear the word pull-up and panic...sheer panic.

-Very Serious Confession: I have never done an unassisted pull-up. Ever. No, this is not an April Fool's thing, I really can't do it. The idea of pull-ups scares me, I don't know why, but it seems so hard and taxing and diffcult, and people lash about all weird to get themselves all pulled-up. And besides, knowing I can't do one now, why would I try. Everyone at the gym would laugh at me as I haphazardly attempt to pull myself up over the bar with no success, so I figure I will stick to dumbbells at the gym and call it a day.

Is there anything strength related you struggle with?

I can handle push-ups, but talk about pull-ups and I will run away.

Have a fab weekend everyone, hope Spring has shown up where you are, it's already summer here!

2011-03-30T15:50:00.000-04:00

So I have been missing- between work, life, and running I have been busy I guess, but mostly not training= pretty boring. Here is a general update since I last left:

After a super speedy week that I mentioned here, I decided to go out and race a 5k the next day...after my fast-for-me 8 miler. Yeah, I'm real smart.
One of my very good friends has started running and I blame her for enabling me at this race. She did awesome and beat her previous 5k time. When my coach found out I was going to do the 5k, he told me to shoot for a 7:30 pace...umm don't think so,
On race day I decided to go for a new PR (old PR was 25:08) and get myself into the lower half of 24 minutes.
I now have a new 5k PR- 24:27 or 7:52 pace. While it is certainly an improvement and a testament to all my recent speedwork, I still have a ways to go to get to where I want, however I feel like I can finally call myself a real runner having broken into the 7:xx pace range- it hurt though, all 24 minutes of it.
Oh and another age group win

Weight and Cross training has been going really well, it feels good to be on a mileage break at the moment, and I actually really like the results I am seeing right now from all the weights, it has been fun for sure.
Wedding planning is actually coming along quite nicely, there have been a lot of little things we have been checking off the list like stationary, crafty projects, dresses and accessories, scheduling some of our appointments for final meetings, and some bigger things, but things are going well in this department. Hopefully next week I will have some fun details that I can actually share.
There may have been a Trader Joes raid recently also, I can away with some really yummy stuff :)

So there you have it a quick catch-up, maybe I will have some more entertaining things to regale you with soon.

Week 1: Speed Training

2011-03-19T20:43:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone is enjoying a nice Saturday. I am a hundred and five so I am at home on this lovely evening watching more basketball and eating ;)

So after an awesometastic race last weekend, I had a break coming. Now my idea of a break is not what most people would call a break. What I mean is my mileage has been cut from ~40 miles per week to about 20-25, that is a break.

I am using this break as a mental rejuvination from the exhaustingness of maintaining high mileage (for me) for 9 months, and as an opportunity to make myself faster. Late spring and summer in Florida are like running through a sauna, so they don't let you race anything longer than a 5 mile race anyways, perfect opportunity to drop the distance and pick up the speed game.

With my eyes on some major PR's this year, I knew I needed to be able to devote a couple of months to speed work, and making what I consider tempo and race paces feel only moderately uncomfortable instead of my current puke threshold- this was week 1.

Monday- 4 Mile tempo, 34:26, 8:36 average pace
Mile 1- 9:16
Mile 2- 8:00
Mile 3- 7:58
Mile 4- 9:12

I thought this tempo would be killer, and while it was definitely a tempo effort, it felt good. My tempos are usually 4 miles at tempo pace, so just 2 seemed manageable, maybe there is something to this low mileage thing.
+ 20 minutes intervals on the bike (7 miles) + 10mins stair climber

Tuesday- weights + 20 minutes steady on the bike (6 miles)

4 Miles Easy, 4
Mile 1- 9:17
Mile 2- 8:38
Mile 3- 8:36
Mile 4- 8:44

Those 8:xx miles were what we will call half marathon pace, and they felt comfortable, especially after Monday's uber-fast effort, and that would be the idea behind this whole process. I want 8-10 miles at that 8:30 pace to feel manageable, so starting at 3 miles seems about right.

Wednesday- TRACK
I was actually really excited about this week's track workout, my favorite...Ladders! I knew I was supposed to back off since I was recovering from last weekends race, but my brain was only thinking about getting faster, I spent some time on McMillan looking at goal paces for my track workouts for the race times I wanted, and I was determined to see where I was at, so I went out with everything I had.

1 Mile warm-up- 9:41
1600- 7:38
1200- 5:40 (7:35 pace)
800- 3:44 (7:29 pace)
400- 1:41 (6:50 pace)

1/2 mile cool down- 4:40

4 Miles- 33:04, 8:16 average pace

I was so thrilled that that 7:38 didn't kill me. I did not progress as much through the next 2 as I had wanted, but I rode the high from that 7:38 and took the fact that I got progressively faster as a positive.

Thursday- Weights
15 minutes stair climber
20 Minute intervals on the bike (7 miles)

2 Miles easy- 17:59 (9:08, 8:51)

Thursday was set up like a brick workout and an easy day after 3 speedy days in a row. Despite low miles, my legs felt super tired, I think the added cross training has helped to make sure I still get in my butt kicking workouts, it has been nice having to much to do, it makes the time fly.

Friday- Rest day

Saturday- "Long Run"
8 Miles- 1:09:54, 8:44 average pace
Mile 1- 8:46
Mile 2- 9:09
Mile 3- 9:04
Mile 4- 8:30
Mile 5- 8:30
Mile 6- 8:39
Mile 7- 8:48
Mile 8- 8:24

So this was a pretty stellar long run- I started my first mile at what was my goal pace for the run and then reminded myself to take it easy. 6am is A LOT darker than it was a week ago before daylight savings time, and I had to back it off down a dark road and make sure I didn't trip and kill myself.
I don't know if it was the no pressure to hit certain paces with no upcoming race, or if I am actually getting faster, but this run felt easy. Only in mile 7 did I start to feel a little sluggish, but I didn't eat breakfast, took no gu, and only had water once at mile 5.5, so I figure that was actually pretty good. I was really happy to see a run like this and to have several points where it felt great and effortless, obviously there are moments when it doesn't, but I love runs like this.

I actually have another run planned for tomorrow, so I skipped my weights today, I have been doing a super good job staying on top of them, maybe it's because I have been seeing the definition return to my arms and abs, that is always a major motivator!

I will have a fun recap of tomorrow's run once we get back!

Wedding Wednesday: Bridesmaid Dress Bonanza

2011-03-16T07:10:00.001-04:00

So this week we are talking about Bridesmaids dresses, fun right!

From day 1 I didn't have an overwhelming opinion about my bridesmaids dresses, after all, I wasn't going to be the one wearing them. I wanted to make sure my 4 girls felt classy and comfortable in whatever was chosen, especially since with different tastes and shapes, it is highly unlikely that all 4 of them will think it was the absolute perfect choice, but I have still been very active on getting their input on possible dresses because, again, I don't have to wear it, they do.

I didn't try to convince myself of the ever popular "they will wear them again" because while I *might* get lucky and have 1 that will, the odds just typically don't fall that way. Considering the above statement I wanted to make sure I found something that would be affordable and as I have already said, classy.

When the dress search began I looked at several designers, including the one who made the wedding dresses I fell in love with. I spent much of the first few weeks looking at Jim Hjelm dresses and some Priscilla of Boston.

While I certainly found some beautiful dresses, when it was time to go try them on many of them were not as elegant and flattering in person as they were in the pictures. Bummer. I found that many of the styles looked funny, bunched weird, were too low, or too preggers looking. Also, many of the fabrics were very "bridesmaids-y".

In my opinion,a bridesmaids dress should look like a great dress that 4 people happen to be wearing, I hate when something looks like a bridesmaids dress when it is just sitting on the hanger, and some fabrics just have that effect.

After a few strike outs at the bridal salons, I decided to hit up my 2 favorite stores, Ann Taylor and JCrew. Both carry bridesmaids line and I think put out an elegant and quality product.

Well apparently every other bride agrees with me, in that all of the 4 styles I liked had several sizes sold out in the color I wanted, and after a few phone calls I found out that either the style is being discontinued or my color will not be appearing in the summer line that will be re-released at the end of April :(

Next up I tried some of your nicer department stores: Macy's, Nordstrom, and Dillards, they all carry nice designers like Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren so I figured I might find one or 2 options, right...

I found like 10! Great news right, except the same situation happened there as with JCrew, all out of the sizes I needed with no hopes of getting more in, I was pretty heart broken. And once I found the one I wanted, and found out I couldn't have it, nothing else seemed to look as elegant.

I did not think picking a bridesmaids dress would require this much work, but maybe I am being too picky??

I have been very apprehensive to try a mass retail chain like David's or Alfred Angelo thus far as I feel like their fabrics kind of define that bridesmaids look I am trying to avoid, but at the same time I feel like I am running low on options with less than 6 months to go now.

Have you ever been a bridesmaid before? Did you get to be a part of picking your dress? Was it fun or work?

Do you think I should turn to the traditional bridesmaid dress stores and designers or keep looking for something a little more mainstream???

***Edited to Add: Patience pays off! I went back this morning to my favorite dress that was sold out in 2 sizes I needed and magically they were there. Bridesmaids dresses have been ordered, and I feel so relieved!!! I love them and have gotten positve reponse on them, they had over 20 positive reviews online and I am really hoping they look great and my girls like how they look and feel in them!

2011 Gate River Run

2011-03-15T10:26:00.000-04:00

So after some slacking here is this weekend's race recap.

Warning: I have not loaded the pics yet, so this will be a word heavy post.

Just some background, the Gate River Run is the largest 15k in the country with approx. 20,000 runners, and is also the US 15k National Championship.

After 2 years of wanting to do this race and not, I was beyond excited to finally get my chance at our city's biggest race. I had also never done a 15k, so it was an automatic PR, but despite that fact I was plotting out so many different race scenarios in the days leading up to the race. I had an A goal and a B goal, because I honestly didn't really know what I was capable of.

I warmed-up with my group pretty lightly, and lined up in the seeded corrals with a teammate. He was going to start out at my goal pace and then get faster, but with a neon-yellow shirt on, I knew I wanted to keep a visual on him and that would be enough.

I made sure to let him go early in the first mile so I didn't go too fast and so I didn't slow him down. My race plan was to keep a moderate pace for the first 5k and then pick it up, I think I followed instructions pretty well, but I was able to pick it up in the 2nd mile, and once I felt it out, I knew I could hold it until I hit the monster bridge at the end.

Mile 1- 8:38
Mile 2- 8:29
Mile 3- 8:30
Mile 4- 8:33
Mile 5- 8:31
Mile 6- 8:36
Mile 7- 8:30
Mile 8- 8:51
Mile 9- 8:40
9-9.4- 2:48 (7:14 pace)

So I felt super consistent throughout the whole race, I think my paces pretty much dictate that. I kept it easy in mile 1, and hit my 8:30 goal until the bridge. Now this course did have some rolling hills, it was in no way flat, not even by New England standards, so I was really pleased with my pacing on such a tough course, all the time I put in doing Monday morning bridges really did pay off.

Now...The Green Monster...

We started up the on-ramp onto the bridge at mile 7.5, so it pretty much killed my right on track mile 8 split, but I had planned for that. Once Mile 8 beeped, I still had another half mile of up to go- that's right 1 whole mile straigh up hill. My effort never dropped, but my pace dipped into the high 9:00 range, like seriously 9:50-10:00 pace up that bridge, it was just so steep and never ending. As soon as it leveled off I looked to my right and saw my dreaded Monday morning bridge and wispered sweet nothings to it about how awful I had been and how I would never take its short 1/2 mile incline for granted again, ha!

Once at the top, I just took off, I knew I still had almost a mile to go, but it was literally all.down.hill. The downhill of the bridge goes straight onto the off ramp that goes downhill straight to the stadium, and the finish line. I knew I would be well under an 8:00 pace, and I was right. I took huge strides and became almost reckless trying to see how fast I could fly down that hill. I knew I was close to a sub-1:20 which would have been great, but I was aiming for anything in the 1:20:xx range.

The downhill and reckless sprinting took its toll, my quads were absolutely trashed, and I was almost certain I was about to throw up on a bystander, but I managed to keep my breakfast down. I felt like I really had left every ounce of push I had in me out there on the course, and was beyond thrilled to stop my watch and see 1:20:13 over 9.4 miles, or an 8:33 average pace, whoa!

1:20:13, 8:33 average pace
60/786 in F20-24

In addition to an amazing time, and not puking, as I walked through the masses towards the water and medals, I had a lady hand me a hat. I told her those were only for the top 10% finishers, and she said "I know".... I had somehow managed to finish in the top 10% of the female race field, I am still not sure how that is possible, but it made my perfect race even sweeter. I have never been so happy about anything or any race performace, I had done everything right and it had all payed off.

After stumbling around and finding someone's phone to use, I managed to meet up with John and my parents.

Showing off my new hat! Seriously I am obsessed with it at the moment, I would wear it to work if they would let me ;)

Post race I grabbed a banana, water, beer, and walked over to meet our friends Jesse & Crystal who had ran the 5k and their first races ever. We stayed for a good hour or so chatting, it was an absolutely beautiful day out and they seem to have also caughten the dreaded race bug now ;)

Sunday morning I woke up...and could barely walk. My quads were screaming any time I went from sitting to standing or vis-versa, but it was a great feeling to know I had raced so well. Sunday was a lazy day for me as I knew I had big plans and a new training cycle starting Monday morning, which you will have to wait and hear about!

Birthday at the track

2011-03-10T11:02:00.000-05:00

Wednesday night's track workout was the last for many people and since almost everyone is racing this weekend, we had super short and speedy intervals to get us ready for the weekend.

My workout- 6x200, with 200 recovery, goal was :45, which for those of you who aren't mathematically inclined is a 6:02 pace...umm no pressure.

The last time I did this workout, I did well, but it was still tough. I was excited to try it again, especially since I raced well when I did it before.

A nice long warm-up and we were ready. The weather was nice, cool, low 60s, and the impending monsoon seemed it would hold off until we were done, the wind however was killer- not sure what is up with all the wind lately.

We actually ended up moving to the opposite side of the track to start so that the wind would be at our backs instead of slamming us in the face.

200s looked like this

:39, :44, :44, :44, :42, :41

I have no idea how I did that :39, my watch must be lying because that is a 5:20 pace- no way I did that. But the rest were tough and I felt myself getting used to getting that longer stride and kick that you need to finish strong at the end of a race. I am anxious to see if I can make it look as pretty at the end of my race this weekend.

After practice, we had cupcakes! A sweet ending to a nice short workout!

Now before you get all excited, this is not a normal thing we do. I wish I got cupcakes after all my workouts! Tuesday was our coach's birthday so of course we had to celebrate! These were ice-cream cupcakes, so the bottom was cake, then ice cream, then icing- yum! I had 1/2 a strawberry and vanilla combination one and it was amazing!

We also got our new race shirts in, so adding to the amazing Christmas like feeling of the night, I get cupcakes and presents! It was almost like my birthday, and now I have something new to wear this weekend, always fun!

What is your favorite track/interval distance???

I really love 400s, the are my absolute love, but I could get used to this ideal of the all out 200s!

Wedding Wednesday: The Registry

2011-03-09T09:49:00.000-05:00

So...we've registered!

We are 6 months out from our wedding, so it seemed like the right time frame to try and get the whole registry thing completed. I had heard everyone tell me how fun it is and how their fiances' got really into it, and I was really beginning to think there was something wrong with us- we weren't giddy at the idea of registering, in fact, it was stressing me out! It wasn't until after we completed our registries that people started opening up to me that I wasn't alone in realizing what a big challenge this was.

Now that it is over, I will say, it was fun, and it is nice to think about the cool things that we will hopefully be receiving for our wedding, but there was A LOT of research and work that went into putting this together that people kind of forget to tell you about. So I want to share my experience and things I learned so that hopefully someone else out there who has this on their to-do list won't be as overwhelmed as I was.

My Registry Experience:

So the first thing I did was have to decided where we were going to register. EVERYONE and I do mean everyone who spoke to me about our wedding seemed to have an opinion of where we should register, and they all usually had valid arguments for their stores, but let me tell you, there are TONS of options:

There were so many stores to pick from I had to think about which stores would have the most items we were looking for, so that I didn't look like some greedy kid registering at 5 different places. I also had to think about accessability for our guests- while there are plenty of people out there who prefer online shopping, there are also a few who will only buy something once they can put their hands on it, so I wanted to make sure there was something that everyone could easily get to.

We ended up going with 3 different stores, but were able to encompass a store we each wanted that the other didn't, plus 1 mutual location. With a guest list as large as ours we can get away with it I hope without looking too greedy.

Once we had our locations picked out, then began what I will call "pre-registering". I started by making a list of the things I thought we would need and want to make sure we wouldn't forget the important stuff. Then, I did some searching into other registries seeing what other couples have asked for, what typically got bought, how much they registered for based on the size of their wedding, etc. After I felt comfortable with the trends and my starting list, I started doing research.

I spent hours researching different items and browsing reviews. I didn't want to ask for some kitchen electric that based on all reviews would brake after a year of use, or something that was so difficult to use and clean that it would likely just collect dust rather than help me in the kitchen. I wanted to make sure that I was asking for quality products that would last and that we would use. I will tell you the one thing that I never thought about that I now can't imagine not having is a hand blender.

Obviously we have this on our registry, and I am really hoping someone buys it!

So this might seem like a lot of work for something that is supposed to just be fun and like a mass shopping spree, but to me it seemed almost reckless to walk into a store and pick things based on just price or how pretty they looked. Pots and Pans were a big one for us- I originally thought I wanted a non-stick set, I have always used non-stick, I mean how else do you cook eggs? And I really don't like cooking with excess oil, so I figured teflon was the way to go. After some reserach, I learned that even the expensive "high quality" non-stick sets still have their teflon surfaces start to flake off at some point, and the life expectancy of those pots/pans would be no more than 10 years...10 years, that's it? I wasn't about to ask someone to spend several hundred dollars on something that might last 10 years. In the end, all the work I put into researching our big ticket items and reading the reviews really paid off, and I feel confident about every.single.thing on those lists right now.

My other big stressor was space. While I know we won't be in our current apartment forever, we are now, and everything that comes into our house need a place. And since we don't know exactly how much space our next home will have, I have to make sure I have a plan to store everything. Part of this process will be getting rid of old things we are replacing, but there will also be a lot of new. This was probably the biggest thing stressing me out, but we do have a plan for storage right now that I feel goood about.

John also wasn't uber-excited about walking around a few home stores for several hours each to pick out things that he didn't necessarily care about, so we did like a pre walk-through and looked at the big things that I wanted his opinions on- electrics, dishes, silverware, sheets, and towel colors. He could have cared less about what chip and dip bowls I picked or what color kitchen towels, same with the baking dishes, so I let him off the hook and once I had his opinion on the big stuff, I went back later when the store was almost empty- I think this was a God send for us. No rushing for me, no boredom for him, and it worked great.

I walked into the store with a list already made- proper names and pictures included. I was able to breeze through the store pretty easily since I already had most of my items picked out. Sure, there was more I added, but it didn't overwhelm me and I didn't have to stand around trying to decide between 2 different options for an hour, because you know, spatulas don't get that intense. However, I did get really hung up in the shower curtains, and I was glad that John wasn't there because he would have gone crazy at how long it took me to decided between 2 for our bathroom.

The nice thing, now that the registries are complete, John and I can change anything we want online and that is amazing! At the end of it all, I did have fun, but I was glad I went about it the way I did, because if I had just walked in and started gunning things down I think it would have ended very badly.

What I learned:

-Do it your way.   Everyone told me to stop thinking and just go to the store and go nuts, I knew that wouldn't work for me. I am a researcher and a planner, and the thought of that reckless abandon gave me hives. I also knew John and I could not "shop" for multiple hours together in 1 store, so we didn't. I made 2 trips, 1 with him and 1 without, and it worked better for us. Don't let anyone tell you you have to do it one way.

-Research!   This was SO helpful! I was glad I knew what I wanted when I walked in, and had taken the time to learn what products were reputable and worthwhile.

-Consider Space.   What you want and need is great, but if you don't have anywhere to put it, its kind of a waste.

-Break it up. Break it up into multiple stores and mutiple trips. It keeps it from being overwhelming, and it allows you to keep options open for your guests.

Long Run and running updates

2011-03-08T10:12:00.000-05:00

Hello fabulous people, I have missed you!

Yesterday I came into work to discover my computer had fried over the weekend :( I was computer-less for most of the day yesterday and that made blogging not so easy. So on the running front I have lots to discuss:

Friday I did an easy 3 miles, I have not been wanting to take rest days recently, even if it is cross training or a short run, I have been craving workout every.single.day. I won't complain and have just played it smart.

Friday- 3 miles, 27:09, 9:03 average pace

Saturday = long run day
On my schedule was 8 miles, and after talking to my coach this week, we had some discrepancies over what my goal race pace should be, so we decided I would try 6 miles at his goal pace for me ~8:30s
It.Was. Rough.

8 Miles- 1:09:43, 8:44 average pace
Mile 1- 8:33
Mile 2- 8:41
Mile 3- 8:41
Mile 4- 9:07
Mile 5- 8:49
Mile 6- 8:23
Mile 7- 9:05
Mile 8- 8:33

So I hit a few (only 3 miles) in that 8:30 range. I hit what I think should be my goal pace of 8:40 pretty easily, and the bridges killed me and gave me 2 miles over 9:00. This was actually a really great run for me, like amazing overall pace, probably fastest "long run" I have ever had- but I felt like I was racing the entire time. I felt spent at the end, and honestly all day long I was exhausted- over only 8 miles. I think this showed that a sub- 1:20 is possible, but it will be really really tough, and I have not yet decided what I am going to pace myself for. We will see how Saturday starts to shape up with my legs, weather, etc. I really don't want to crash and burn from going out too fast, and especially since there is...

the "Green Monster" the last mile and half of the race. The first .8 miles is the incline, with the last .5 as a steep downhill straight into the finish line- a bad time to burn out.

So after Saturday's long run race :) I took Sunday pretty easy, did some cross-training, took the dog on a long walk, but conserved some energy. To prevent ITB flare-ups, all of those racing this weekend were banned from Monday morning bridges, so I was on my own.

I did an easy 4 mile run, since I am "tapering" for this race. All my runs except track are supposed to be easy this week, but too much easy running bores me, so I decided to try some pace recognition.

At least 1 if not 2 runs each week have included pace miles at my goal pace for Gate, just to get my legs (and lungs) familiar with the pace they should be running.

Mondays run = 4 Miles, 35:45, 8:56 average pace
9:24, 8:41, 8:34, 9:06

I threw in 1 mile at each goal pace, since my race plan is still TBA.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend, running and otherwise. I have a wedding post ready to go up tomorrow!

Friday Confessions

2011-03-04T09:59:00.001-05:00

Happy Friday all! In following a trend that seems to be popular this week in the blog world, I have some confessing to do...

Yesterday's tweet by Runner's World asking for running confessions got me feeling guilty.

1. I do not shower after lunch time workouts.
I do not even feel guilty about this one, especially after seeing that the super hard-core Emily does the same thing. Yes I dry off the sweat, even dry off the edges of my sweat-tastic hair and put on fresh deoderant. But gym showers creep me out, and to waste 10 minutes taking shower #2 of the day seems silly, especially when I can sneak another mile in.

2. I have NOT been getting up in the mornings to run...at all!
The only AM workouts I have gotten in within the last month are my long runs, and the truth...I don't hate it. Yes, it would be nice to have it done, but I have also found that even if I run in the morning, I still go back to the gym after work.

3. I rarely wash my fruit.
Ok that's a lie, I like never wash fruit unless its visibly dirty. Yeah I get it, I'm gross, but I seem to have a rocking immune system and it hasn't killed me yet.

4. Easter candy is my favorite, and absolute weakness!
Mini Cadburry eggs and sour patch kids shaped like bunnies...um, yes please!

5. Recently my brain has felt like this Cross-Training > Running
Rediculous right?!?!?! I have still been getting plenty of running in, but have been enjoying some shorter distances and the opportunity to get my heart pumping with other things. I have a mild addiction to the spin bike and stair climber at the moment.

6. I am more overwhelmed than excited about doing our wedding registry this weekend. I know it is supposed to be fun, but I haven't found that emotion in it yet.

7. My name is Stephanie, and I am a dress-a-holic.
Please tell me I am not the only one! I have procured.....5 dresses, just this week alone. Something about the emerging spring weather reminds me that it is almost dress season, I would rather wear a cute and comforable dress than anything else. Yes I have a problem, no I don't intend to seek therapy.

So there you have it, some crazy neurosis... surely I am not the only one out there?!??!?!

Have you ever registered? Fun or tiresome? I am kind of ready to be done with it. Finding enough stuff for our huge guest list to have options + not cluttering up our house took far too much research in my opinion. And I don't even get to shoot the cool gun :(

What is your favorite type of clothes??? Jeans, shorts, dresses?

Do you have anything to confess?

Killer Track workout

2011-03-03T16:19:00.000-05:00

So I skipped over yesterday's wedding update, but I will make it up to you by telling you about how cruel my track workout was.

Rewind to Tuesday...John and I went to Gainesville after work for a basketball game and got home very very late that night. While I slept in Wednesday morning, but the time last night rolled around I was dragging.

Originally on the schedule for this week was 6x800, as much as I truly do loathe 800s I felt up for it. Well the plan changed, and we were doing 4x800, 3x400, but alternating. Ok, so I got on board, I really like 400s I thought this would make it easier, right? Wrong!

Warm-up mile- 9:26
800- 3:44
400- 1:44
800- 3:42
400- 1:43
800- 3:40
400- 1:42
800- 3:39
400 (threw in 1 more for good measure)- 1:39
Cool down mile- 9:22

5 miles- 40:21, 8:05 average pace

So the goal for 800s was 3:45 and I had to make the 400s 2 minutes faster than the 800s, so 3:45 and 1:45.
Most of my laps at last weeks 12x400 workout were at or under 1:45, so I figured I was ok.

I got progressively faster with each one which is great, but I felt like death. Normally 400s feel great to me until the last 100m or so, but I felt dead after the 1st 100m, not cool! The 800s I felt good, but by the time I would finish the first lap I was ready to be done and yet had 1 more lap to go.

I can't complain because my times look great, however I felt SO out of shape during this workout. I think that was the design, because you were dragging after the 800s, but I guess it all pays off in the end.

Next week is a race week which means one thing...200s! The last time we did 200s they were tough in a good way and I am excited to try them again!

Crazy Busy Girl

2011-03-01T09:16:00.000-05:00

Hi friends, it's Tuesday, and as you might have guessed, I have been a crazy busy girl!

This weekend was back to normal with a Saturday morning long run. I realized it has been quite a while since I prepared for a long run from home with just me, it brought back memories of marathon training. Not sure I miss that.

While the temps were nice 67*, it was certainly warmer than what we have had recently, add in 97% humidity, and it was the perfect run to prepare for summer, I still can't decide if I prefer cold or hot running, I think 50* is ideal.

Long run was supposed to be 10 miles, with 7 @goal pace. Goal pace being my goal pace for gate which is kind of scary, but very doable. I gave myself a few back-off miles which helped tremendously, and overall I felt really good after this run.

11 miles- 1:37:33, 8:52 average pace
Mile 1- 9:26
Mile 2- 8:34
Mile 3- 8:31
Mile 4- 9:28
Mile 5- 8:47
Mile 6- 8:37
Mile 7- 8:11
Mile 8- 9:06
Mile 9- 8:31
Mile 10- 8:45
Mile 11- 9:37

So pretty much the most amazing long run I have ever done, actually, that had the makings of the most amazing half marathon I could have ever had if I had kept going. My goal pace for Gate is approx. 8:41, not that I've checked or anything, and while a couple miles were a little higher, I really can't complain about the performance I put up. I *hope* that another run like this this upcoming weekend will be enough to give me a good race.

After my run I had to hit the road, I had a bridal shower to go to Saturday afternoon.

We celebrated this girl who is getting married in about 6 weeks. It was a St. Patrick's Day themed party, so I did my best to get into the spirit....

We had some snacks, played a game, and then got to the good stuff....

Several times at the shower people kept reminding me that I was next, yikes! It was fun watching her get into all these fun presents, there was a lot of fun stuff in there that I made mental notes to make sure I put on our registry ;)

Sunday, John and I ran errands and decided to embrace the beautiful day and went out for a long bike ride. I gave it a little more effort than I usually do on our leisurely Sunday rides and managed to average about 15.5 mph for our 25 mile bike ride.

On to Monday...A million wedding things that I had to catch up on, phone calls and emails to return and I found myself quickly at the end of the day.

I had a hill workout planned for the afternoon, what I did not plan for was 84* and 20mph winds. It literally felt like my marathon all over again, and I was SO happy I was only doing 5 miles and not 26.2.

Like literally the same run, up and over huge bridges, lots of wind, and sun, it was like de ja vu- crazy!

Since Gate has a HUGE bridge at mile 7.5 I went to do 3 bridge repeats, the first bridge is shorter, maybe 6/10 of a mile from one side to the other, the 2nd is a solid mile, maybe a little more from start to finish, and the last has a .5 mile climb and a .15 mile downhill, so a little funky.

5 Miles- 45:23, 9:05 average pace

Mile 1- 8:40

Mile 2- 9:08

Mile 3- 8:51

Mile 4- 9:34

Mile 5- 9:10

A successful run and no itb pain, thank goodness! I didn't realize how excited I was going to get about this race, but it is such a big deal here in Jacksonville, and it is the one I have really wanted to do since I started running and I haven't, so I am excited about that, plus I have lots of friends running it too!

Is there a big race on your radar that you haven't had the chance to do yet? If so, which one???

Speed Work

2011-02-24T10:23:00.000-05:00

So back on the running front, I have been trying some new things this week. My next (and last) race for a while is a 15k, my first ever 15k, but I have something to prove after a lackluster start to this race season.

This week has been 100% focus on speedwork, and every single run so far this week has been a killer. For whatever reason I have not been able to drag my butt out of bed early enough to run in the morning, and with spring in full bloom, it has made for some interesting runs this week.

Monday: schedule 5M tempo (3 @8:40), after work
5 Miles- 44:41, 8:56 average pace
9:26, 8:34, 8:41, 8:37, 9:21

This tempo was a beast. I haven't done a good tempo run in weeks and it showed. On top of the fact that I was running in temperatures a good 20-30* warmer than what my body is used to, I was gasping for air by the end.

Tuesday: Schedule for 1M warm-up, 10x1:00 @7:30, 10x1:00 @9:00, 1M cool-down
1M warm up- 9:26
10x1:00 @7:30- 8x1:00 @7:30, 1x1:00 @7:24, 1x1:00 @7:19
10x1:00 @8:55-9:13
1M Cool down- 9:19

This made for a total of 4.5 miles, and it was not as tough as I was expecting. The middle minutes of sprinting were harder than the last few where I picked it up. I did this run on the treadmill mostly for the ease of tracking everything since it was so involved with specific paces and minutes. I knew I would have botched somthing if I tried to do this outside.

Wednesday: Track day. On the schedule 12x400, goal time = 1:48 (7:15pace)
1:00 recovery after each 400, 2:00 after every 4th

Let me start by saying I was dreading the track, not quite sure why, but I even called my mom on the way and tried to bribe her to go to the mall with me instead of to the track, but in the end I was glad I went.

1M Warm-up 9:38
12x400- I am going to break this into groups of 3 since we got a 2:00 break after each 4th lap

1st 4- 1:45, 1:41, 1:44, 1:43
2nd 4- 1:41, 1:41, 1:45, 1:45
3rd 4- 1:48, 1:42, 1:47, 1:39

Usually we run with 3 groups and I run with the middle group, but considering our middle group was really only 3 people he said only 2 groups and gave the 3 of us the choice to run with either the faster group or the slower group. A girl who is my exact speed and we usually split who beats who at the track each week opted to run with the fater group, I decided to lead the slower group- I beat all of her times by at least 2 seconds even though she ran with the fast group.

I decided I would perform best trying to lead the slower group, I should finish first every time and that was the push I needed to make sure I maintained my paces. I never started to feel tired until the last 4, but I managed to stay below my goal time, and hold sub7:00 pace for most of the intervals- I was very pleased with the outcome of this workout, and I think my coach would agree.

I have 1 more run this week (3-4 miles easy) and then my long run (10M) which has 7 miles at goal pace to see how I am shaping up for Gate. Hopefully all this speedy running pays off, it has been a little different and very exhausting for me this week, but hopefully it pays off in the end.

Do you like running fast, or nice and easy? I go through spurts where I appreciate each, but I think my ADD brain is enjoying the break-up of all these speedy runs!

Wedding Wednesday

2011-02-23T11:17:00.002-05:00

Happy Hump Day! Who is ready for a wedding update?

So this past Sunday John and I went to TPC for their 2011 Tasting Event that they had for all of their couples who have already booked their weddings for 2011 and early 2012. They really encouraged everyone to come if they could, as the prefer to utilize this event to individual tastings.

I was a little hesitant at first, but was SO glad we went. Considering the number of brides and guests in attendance, they actually set up everything as if it were a real wedding, so we got to see everything as it would be set up for 200 people.

Once we arrived, we actually started sampling after party snacks and the appetizers. These lists of passed foods are quite lengthy so we had lots of different foods to try.

We made it a point to have one of everything, that way we knew we had sampled it all and could make an informed decision as to what we liked and what we didn't. Honestly, everything was really good, there was only 1 thing that I didn't love, but it was still good, just not on the same level as everything else- it was a small pressed panini with salami, cheese, and roasted red peper aoli. Like I said it was good, but it was a little greasy for me and the flavors remind me a lot of a calzone- not quite what we had in mind.

After getting through the bulk of the passed appetizers we made our way into the next room for the stationed appetizers and wine tasting. Now I know know this all sounds like a blast, but deciding on the wines was actually a lot of work!

As much as I love drinking wine, analyzing it and deciding what will go best with the food I haven't yet tried, and what is a generally popular choice amongst most was a little difficult.

When Originally tasting we thought we only had choice of 1 white and 1 red, but we actually get 2 of each so that helped settle a few debates :) My wines of choice are typically Savignon Blanc and Shiraz which are not usually standards to most people, so I knew I probably could only fight for 1 choice, and as much as I love red wine, I highly doubt I will be consuming any in my wedding dress. John really enjoyed several of the wines, which was kind of surprising since he normally doesn't drink wine with me!

The food that was at the station in that room was food I had starred to make sure I tried as it was something that was very much in consideration as one of our choices. They had 5 different hours'devours at this station, and we wanted to try all 5, however, this was the last thing we did since the line was SO long. They took the time to assemble your selection as you requested it, which I suppose was nice since it was fresh, but it created a huge line, and that was a downer. Also, by this point, I was starting to get full, and we hadn't even had "dinner" yet.

Next up came the actual tasting. They led us into the main ballroom which was fully set up for a 200 person wedding, this made my day! Each table was adorned with differnt types of place settings and linens so that you could see a lot of the different options available.

In addition, each table had a different centerpiece to showcase the work of several different florists, and countless ideas so you could start to maybe see some of your own wedding vision.

There was one centerpiece of the 20 that absolutely stole the show. It was beautiful, in a huge vase that just displayed itself in such a grand fashion. While my mother thought it was too tall, I thought it absolutely fit with the high ceilings of the room and the gradiose stature of the venue. I was in luck, because this winner was brought in by my florist :) I am super excited to see what I can do with those vases of his! We saw a lot of really fun ideas and things that I am hoping to be able to incorporate into our decor as well

After all the oohing and aahing over the flowers it was time to sit down and get to eating. For the tasting they had almost every single station of theirs set-up and waiters also bringing around plated dinners. We opted to stay heavy at the stations. There were things I was very interested in trying- namely a few of their signiture dishes like Shrimp and Grits and macaroni and cheese in mini cast-iron skillets.

The food was all amazing! There was not one thing I didn't like, just some things I loved more than others. John and I sampled most everything they had out between the 2 of us, seafood, beef, pastas, salads, vegetables, cheese displays, bread, you name it they had it- it was like a food overload! It was all so good, that we sat there with our little note sheet actually debating between 2 dishes that we loved, as it would be redundant to serve both.

Now, as I have sat here and raved on and on about food, we have not even addressed what was by far the absolute best part of the day...

The Cake!!!!

We have a pre-set cake baker that has an exclusive with our venue and I had always heard great things, but this cake was untouchable in my opinion. I am really more of a pie girl, so for me to tell you that this cake was the best part of it all, you know I mean it! They served sheet cakes that were layered with 1/2 devils food chocolate cake and 1/2 white cake with a chocolate buttercream filling and their traditional buttercream frosting. I may have actually tried to lick the plate clean... classy.

Needless to say I am beyond excited about our wedding cake now, we set a time to meet with them one on one early this summer, but have some ideas about what we want for our cake.

After this little taste test John is pulling hard for the chocolate and I am still a vanilla/fruity girl at heart. I am still entertaining ideas of 2 cakes, or differnent flavored layers, but am not quite sure which way to take it.

Overall our tasting experience was fantastic, John and I are both SO excited about our wedding menu now it is rediculous, and it is sad that we will not be having another meal that fantastic until our wedding :( It was a pretty awesome day, and we hope everyone will enjoy the food as much as we did, I know that is a big thing for me when I go to a wedding!

Stations or sit down, do you have a preference?

Are you a wedding cake fan?

What's the best cake flavor in your opinion??

Alternatives to Running

2011-02-22T11:01:00.000-05:00

I trust everyone enjoyed their long (or regular) weekend. We celebrated John's Grandfather's 90th birthday with his whole family this weekend, it was a little crazy, but I am back, recovered, and looking forward to a super busy upcoming few weeks.

Well as the title implies I have been looking for some running alternatives recently. My mileage is getting ready to taper off hard going into the spring and summer months, and to maintain my weight and fitness base, I will need to incorporate more than just a few short runs a week. While I have done a lot of research into what I need and want to be doing, I thought I would see what other fun ideas other people have.

The Goals:

**Speed! This really is my biggest goal with going lighter on the mileage over the next couple months. I want to improve my overall speed over the next 4-5 months.

*Injury Prevention: While there are not any present injuries, I seem to be recovering from races much slower and having more frequent minor flare-ups from previous injuries. I know backing off will help to get me back to 100% so when I am ready to jump into another training cycle I will be healthy.

*Burnout: I love running, I really do, but trying to maintain a very detailed schedule with no real goal at the end is a bit difficult mentally. I don't want to burn myself out by "training through base building" so I want to bring in some other stuff to mix it up

**Wedding Bod: Yes running is the culprit that helped me lose 35lbs, but my system needs another shock factor to zap it into shape for this wedding, you won't really be able to see my legs, so the rest of me needs some work.

The Methods:

*Decrease running to 3-5 days/week and focus only on quality workouts and speed- my ideal would be 4x week (one hills, 1 tempo, 1 track day, 1 long run)

*Strength Training- I have been back into a weight lifting routine for a full 2 weeks now, which is almost unheard of for me. I have 3 days a week of weights that I would like to get in, help me get back some muscle definition and try to keep my metabolism as high as I can.

**Try more variety: Doing more spinning, yoga, pilates, and getting back outside on my bike

***Calorie Torchers: namely the stair climber and the arc trainer. Every time I hop on either of these beasts, I am so swety and winded I swear I just completed a 5k race- I know they can do some serious damage!

***Try new things: Swimming, cross-fit (maybe, this still scares me a little), hot yoga, maybe a triathalon, and anything else I haven't thought of. I know things like this will make me stronger overall and a better athlete, so I feel like this is kind of the time to jump into it.

After the Gate River Run on March 12th this is the plan for the next 4 months. Anyone have any good ideas I missed or fun things to try?????

I have a Wedding Wednesday post coming tomorrow, we've been very productive :)

Playing Catch-Up

2011-02-18T08:58:00.000-05:00

Before heading out for the weekend, I thought I would regale everyone with my week!

Wednesday: Track Day

This week's workout was...special. Most of the group who turned up had all raced either the marathon or half marathon this past Sunday, so I figured we would have a manageable workout, 800s, 400s, 1000s, but something basic, right...Wrong!!!!

So the workout....3200m alternating 200m @half marathon pace, 200m @5k race pace- no breaks.
The 200 @hmp was supposed to be the recovery which, compared to 5k pace is quite a recovery.
At first I thought this workout would be cake- 200s, yes please! When I finished I literally thought I was going to puke all over the track, I was so surprised how tough this workout was.

3200- 16:14, 8:07 average pace
I was hitting about 7:35 or so for the 5k pace and anywhere from 8:45-9:15 for the half marathon pace. I kept at 8:45 for most of the laps, but the last few I just needed more of a break so I slowed it down even more.

We finished the workout off with a 1600 (7:54) and a cool down. Complete Exhaustion! My knees (ITB) were both a little achy at different points, but by the end both seem to have resolved their issues.

Thursday: More cross-training. Since I plan to hit the ground running next week, I opted to keep this week easy and just focus on a couple quality runs and cross training. I will say this, prolonged cross-training is not for the faint of heart.

I set my own custom interval workout on the bike while watching Sports Center at the gym, and I was practically shaking by the time I was done 30 minutes later.

5 minute warm-up (level 6) moderate pace
1 minute at level 8 sprinting at 100+ rpm
1 minute at level 15 @60+ rpm recovery
Repeat previous 2 intervals 10 times
5 minute cool-down

So by sprinting the easy part and recovering on the heavier part, there was really no true break, I never felt like my heart rate came down too much, and I torched some serious calories, even I was impressed.

After my torture session on the bike, I trembled over to the stair climber- 15 minutes on fat burner level 12, Holy Jello Legs! By the time I was done, I was spent, and so disgustingly sweaty, it felt SO good!

Friday: Weights, and 30minutes between the bike and arc traininer nothing too intense before my long run tomorrow, but I will say I did some killer ab moves today. I usually ignore my core, so I think it appreciated the extra attention.

Wedding: So while this is not a day, I will go ahead and give you the wedding updates of the week.

-Music selections have been made! It was not an easy one, but at the end of the day since I did not have a strong feeling about our reception music, I went with the people that fit well with my personality and our budget, I figured no point in blowing the big bucks on something I didn't seem to have an opinion on.

-My ceremony music on the other hand....Super Excited about it! I got a nice little sneak preview last weekend and have spent a lot of time this week going through the lists of songs for all the different stuff so we can get the songs finalized and music ordered!

-Save the Dates were mailed last week and my sources tell me that all have been delivered at this point :) It feels super real now that everyone knows the date and location, like when you tell people you are training for a race and they hold you accountable. And for the 1657651 time I have compared my wedding to a race.

-Hotels: this was not as quick and easy as I thought it would be. I had to put thought into how many people would need rooms, what kind of rooms, how many nights, etc. I thought it was supposed to be cake. We ended up going with blocks at 2 hotels rather than just one, since the one I had originially preferred charges for parking and I thought it may deter some people, so I wanted to have options for them.

-Bridesmaid Dresses- This is on deck for next weekend. I have been working with 2 of my girls on getting some final dress choices together. I don't have to wear this dress, so their opinion is what really matters since they will have to wear it. I think we have come down to the final 3-4 contenders. I have been getting a lot of grief from others about picking my BM dresses so others can pick their dresses, didn't realize this would be so important.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

The Great Gym Debate

2011-02-15T10:36:00.000-05:00

Was everyone's Valentine's Day fabulous? Mine was!

John and I both had the same idea in mind: cook dinner, eat dessert and watch Watson premiere on Jeopardy. Yes, I know I am 100, but I have seen the commercials advertising the computer(Watson) that IBM built that was going to face off against the winningest people ever on Jeopardy- I wanted to see what this computer could do.

It was pretty cool, but there are 2 more nights of it still to go, and figure out how I can steal this thing to bring home and have it unload my dishwasher, fold my laundry, and pick out my clothes every day:)

On the running front: Schedule 5 mile tempo (3 @8:40)

After 20 minutes on the bike and weights yesterday, I figured I would be good to go today. I went and ran 1 mile this morning, my knee still hurt, so I stopped and did even more joyous cross-training- bike, stair climber, and arc trainer. I am not thrilled about the knee still hurting, but on a side note, that stair climber kicked my butt today- like for serious. And I tried to get on the eliptical for the first time in several years, and felt so awkward and uncomfortable after a minute of pedalling that I had to leave- makes me wonder if I was doing it wrong...

I actually have been enjoying my cross-training recently and will be adding a lot more of it in as the summer nears and my mileage backs off in favor of getting faster. Which brings me to the debate of the day....

I have been considering switching gyms for a while now, and I haven't because there are honestly pros and cons to each, and as many lists as I make I can't decide which is the best choice at this point, it's a matter of what is most important, but you know that is very subjective to me depending on where I am in a training cycle, weather, etc, so I am going to put the question to you- which you think is the best choice:

Some Background
-Both gyms are the same cost, so no change there
-Neither has a contract obligation so I could actually switch back and forth easily
-I have belonged to Bailey's since John and I moved into our apartment in August 2008 and have never had 1 negative thing to say about it, I actually really like it
-I am wanting to add swimming as cross-training and my gym does not have a pool :(

Bailey's
Pros:
-literally 1/2 mile from my front door- I can walk there (weather permitting) and it takes me no time to get there in the morning- big plus
-They have a very vast weight selection (machines, cables, and free weights)
-24 hour access--> this was a God-send when I needed to start long runs at 4am alone, I could run on the TM until it was safe to be outside

Cons:
-There is no pool :(
-Cardio equipment other than elipticals and treadmills are scarce. There are no row machines, very few stair climbers and arc trainers, and the bikes are fewer.
-Only exists in Jacksonville area- no gym access when traveling

YMCA
Pros:
-Pool
-Nicer/Newer Cardio equipment
-more cardio equipment (including row machine, Jacobs ladder, and 3 types of stair climbers)
-more class varity and time options
-All cardio equipment has individual tv with full cable
-Digital "Key" plug-in for every machine (weight&cardio) to track all stats from your workout that you can upload to your computer at home or at the gym.
-Other YMCA's I can use locally or elsewhere when traveling

Cons:
-10 mintue drive from my house :( I have been spoiled
-Hours: Mon-Thurs 5am-10p, Fri 5a-9p, Sat & Sun 7am-6p

So there you have it. Which is more important...a pool or 5am access on Saturday and Sunday??????? Although I usually do my long runs and long bike rides on Saturday and Sunday anways. But would I be less likely to go if it is that much further away?

Do you live super close to your gym or do you have to drive?

Breast Cancer Marathon/Half-Marathon 2011

2011-02-14T10:01:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I think I am officially recovered from my vacation and the illness I brought home with it, and no more blog slacking excuses- If I can race, I can blog about it right...

Ok, so this past weekend was pretty much my all-time favorite race. I have had this date circled on my calendar since running it last year and it is already circled for next year.

Penny and Jaime were both coming up for the race. Penny was registered for the full, and we had gotten a bib for Jaime to run the half as a training run since she has her goal race in 2 weeks. I was kind of bummed going into this weekend that I wasn't running the full, I had really wanted to, but the training just wasn't there, but I was still excited nontheless.

Saturday we engaged in plenty of pre-race carb-loading, and as usual, John was a saint and tagged along all weekend doing anything and everything we asked of him, including taking a zillion pictures.

Sunday morning we got up, had a few slight transportation glitches that ultimately worked out even better for us in the long run. The line for the recommended shuttles to the start was absurdly long when we arrived there at 6:05am (for a 7:30am race). By 6:30 we had not moved in the mile long line, and the buses were trickling in so slowly we decided we were better off to take our chances parking and walking (running) to the start.

Jaime and I dropped Penny off at the start, since she did not need a warm-up and we went back and parked in the Publix parking lot 1.5 miles away from the start line. We used the chance to get in a warm-up and made it to the runner's village with about 20 mintues left until the race start, it worked out fine in the end. We left our warm-ups, dropped our bags and headed to the start line.

We packed into the first corral, and I surprisingly managed to find one of the girls from my track group who was right at my pace. Even though we started together I lost her in the first 100 yards, I think I went out faster, but was just focused on doing my own thing.

My original goal for this race was sub-1:55. However, with the ski trip, being sick, and some lack-luster long runs, I didn't think I had it in me to run that race yet. But the weather was beyond perfect, my legs were so well rested, and the first 2 miles dropped like it was nothing, so I decided I would try for it and see what happened...

John had gone out to the beach ahead of us to take pictures, and managed to find all 3 of us in the crowd

I held my 1:55 pace until mile 7 when I started to faulter a bit. My legs were already getting heavy, especially my right hip that still occasionally talks when my ITB gets irritated. I kind of expected that considering the hills (bridges) in the first 3.5 miles, but I wasn't expecting it until we got back to said bridges at mile 10.

My pace didn't drop too much from mile 7 to mile 10, I was still in range of a 1:57-1:58 and a possible PR, so I just kept going. The race actually went by super fast: Miles 0-7 were over before I knew it, 7-9.5 was a little slow, but 9.5 to the finish also flew by even though I started dragging.

Climbing back up the slanted sprial on ramp to run over the bridge back to the finish put athe damper on for my legs. Cardiovascularly I had the endurance to hit that 1:55, but my legs were not ready for it after basically 2 weeks off. BOTH IT bands started hurting at mile 10 after I got up that ramp, to the point where every single step made them ache. I was actually praying for the next uphill because I knew it would give them a little reprive.

At 11.5 when the last big climb started I just kept pushing and knew it was less than a mile once I got to the top. Once I got to the mile 12 sign, one of my other team members was there, I knew to look for him, and he was SO excited and motivating! He ran with me for almos a 1/4 mile and got me pumped up again, I am so thankful for him, I had started to lose the fun of this race at that point and he got it right back in me.

Even though I could not fly down the downhill to the finish like I had wanted, I made sure to push with what I had and finish respectably.

Garmin Results 2:00:59

Official Results 2:01:39--> that was clock time, my chip didn't register at the start :(

Considering all the circumstances that is actually a good performace, no complaints here.
That is a full minute per mile faster than my time from this race last year, and I have another half in 2 weeks and I am searching for the 1:55.

After I got my medal and water, I needed some ice on my knees, I knew if I could help keep the inflamation down early, I could hopefully get back to my normal schedule this week.

Jaime and I grabbed our bags and headed back to the finish line with John to wait and watch all the other we knew come in and finish.

Once we tracked down Penny later we grabbed a beer and got to the walk back to the car.

I had a great weekend with both of these lovely ladies and am excited to run with them again soon!

Ten Things Tuesday: Welcome Back

2011-02-08T10:49:00.000-05:00

Happy Tuesday! I am back from vacation and recovering quite slowly.

Our trip was fantastic! 9 days of skiing, no stress, snow, sun, mountains, and crazy videos. We got home last Sunday evening and I had very ambitious plans to hop right back into my routine this week, being a race week after all, I have quite a lot to get to, but a cold that I have been fighting since last Thursday has pretty much kept me down for the count.

I have gotten a lot of our unpacking done, and a few other major to-do's at the top of the list, but it has been a much slower week than expected. I did attempt snow/ice/cold running while on vacation, it went well, mostly because I ran in the middle of the road where there was no snow/ice, but hey, at least I got it done.

Regular running to resume today, but until then, I figured I would show you a nice sneak peak of our trip....

Crash and Burn: Track Edition

2011-01-27T08:26:00.000-05:00

Hello all, hope all of you that are getting even more snow are hanging in there! I would be going stir crazy just sitting in my house waiting out the snow. To keep you all entertained, you can read about my episode at the track last night.

So as the title suggests, I crashed, hard. I normally do really well at the track, but this is my last real training week before my race in 2 weeks and my mileage has been up there and my legs are exhuasted. I have already run 5 days straight (since Saturday) and I have not had an easy workout at all, everything I have been doing lately has been hard and/or fast, and my legs finally spoke up to tell me I needed to back it off some. There was a 20 second difference in my times last night, and it was not pretty.

So coming in on tired legs, I went and did what seemed like and easy enough warm-up
3.57 miles- 32:17, 9:03 pace

I had 8 miles to get in for the day, and on the schedule was 4x1600. Now I really don't mind mile repeats, but I knew how much I was dragging and that I wanted to get in a vicious workout before being gone from my normal schedule for a week.

The goal was 7:45 for each 1600

My times went like this:

Warm-up: 3.57 miles- 32:17 (9:03 pace)
1600- 7:50
1600- 7:58
1600- 8:10
1600- 8:06
Cool down: .54 miles- 5:05 (9:24 pace)

8.11 miles- 1:09:26 (8:33 average pace)

So I didn't hit a single 7:45, and that 7:50 at the beginning was the only one where I didn't want to die. I felt like a zombie running, my legs had zero kick in them, my stride was awful I was practically shuffling along and it was never until the last 200 meters that I remembered what I am supposed to be running like.

My coach and I talked about my last 10 days of running and agreed that I should be tired after it all, I have put in a lot of miles and have been running hard every day, and that in the end, these awful exhausted runs will make me better, and I know he is right. He told me to hold on 2 more days and get in my long run with to only worry about doing the last 5 at goal pace, rather than 8-10, and then I have a week of extreme cross-training and low miles and then a race week, so I will have time to recover and reep the benefits of these 2 hard weeks.

I know trying to do 4x1600 faster than my 5k race pace is pretty tough, and most people will tell me know to beat myself up to much, and I'm not, but I know I can do it, I have done it before, and besides, you can't get faster if you aren't running faster.

Do you find it hard to balance mileage and speed? When I was building up my mileage during marathon training my speed improved some over shorter distances, but it never dropped too much over my longer distances. Now I have the endurance I need, and I am trying to drop my pace over those distances

How do you balance improving speed and maintaing mileage and your endurance?

Wedding Wednesday: Vendors Edition

2011-01-26T09:07:00.001-05:00

Ok, after much slacking I actually have some fun details to get into about our wedding!!!

Once we decided on a time frame that we liked, it was important to me to nail down our major vendors first, after all, you can't have a wedding without a place, right! The biggest things on my inital list were location and photographer. After all, people remember the party and the only thing that lasts is the photos, so I felt I was resonable in my top priorities.

Venue:

I have been pretty hush about our venue until now, I do really like keeping lots of things under wraps, but since it will ultimately be printed on the invitations, I figured why not.

When I was looking at venues, I wanted someplace with a wow factor, that had an air of something different, whether it be an original location or the mystic ambiance of the river. There were a few places that stood out in my mind, but after some searching it became clear that one place had the wow factor with all of the other conveniences I wanted as well....

TPC Sawgrass

Our ceremony will be held on the presentation lawn at Sawgrass

With the ceremony following in the clubhouse ballroom

I am very excited about our venue, it is beautiful, accomodating, and has the space we need for our party which was important, and everyone seemed to be in agreement that is was the best of all the places we looked at.

Photographer:

I Love Love Love our photographer! When I was first researching several photographers in the area, there was one that I just loved her style and how her pictures looked. Availability became a big question since our date is pretty popular as I later learned, but luckily she was not booked!

I could tell just by exchanging emails with her that we would get along great, and after meeting with her, I knew that was who I wanted. Most of your wedding day is spent tailed by your photographer, so I wanted to make sure I was comfortable with who we chose and that we would get along well and had the same idea about what we wanted in the end.

We are going to be scheduling our engagement photo session once we are back from our trip, and I am super excited about these pictures. John and I have never had fancy photos taken, not even for our Christmas cards, so I am really excited! A lot of the photographers I looked at weren't including engagement sessions in their packages, which majorly bummed me out, I was really looking forward to having nice photos of us that weren't from the wedding, so that was a big selling point for me!

Entertainment:

So here comes the big vendor debate that is still taking place in our household...

Band vs. DJ

While there are obviously benefits to going each way, I still find myself a little torn

Band

While a band adds a certain level of sophistication and customization to it, they are more expensive, have limited playing abilities, and sometimes get a little self-centered as to who this whole thing is really about. That being said, bands can be a lot less pushy and a little more classy and appealing to the older demographic.

When it comes to a DJ they can play just about anything you want and I think bring in more of an entertainment factor for the evening if you pick a good one. DJ's do a great job of getting the party started and keeping it going. While they are less expensive than a band, the appeal more so to the younger demographic and often annoy the older folk, and lets face it, anyone can play music in the order that you tell them to right???

SO....your opinions are needed.

Band vs. DJ??????? And why? Did you have a good experience with one? Is there some other sort of music alternative I should be looking at all together???

Ten Things Tuesday

2011-01-25T09:32:00.000-05:00

Almost halfway through my work week- getting even more excited about my vacation!

This morning was supposed to be a nice 7 mile tempo run, but I needed to head into work extra early today to get some things done, so it because a 4 mile mini progression run:
4 Miles- 35:25, 8:51 average pace (9:16, 8:58, 8:49, 8:22)

If you have witnessed my anal retentiveness in all the other aspects of my life, you can imagine that I apply the same neuroses to my traveling. There are severeal things I do to get myself ready for a trip, even if it is just a quick weekend trip, I have found it makes traveling and coming home much easier:

1. Packing Lists

I am a huge advocate of the packing list!

I use excel and tend to break my list into different categories based on my needs. This trip for exampe has a list for ski stuff, running stuff, regular stuff and things for my carry-on bag to keep me entertained for our 15 hours of traveling. When packing for a race weekend, I always separate my running stuff from everything else to make sure I don't forget anything!

2. To-Do List
As much as I wish packing was my only to-do to get ready for a trip, it is never that simple, so I also keep a running list of all the crap I need to get done before heading out- I am SO obsessive about crossing everything off my list, so it is a great way for me to get things done.

3. Packing Inventory
This may seem slightly redundant, but for something more than just a weekend trip, I usually pack a couple days ahead of time if possible. It saves me the stress of the last minute packing free for all and also keeps me from having to do last minute laundry.
With that being said, I packed most of my things for this trip on Sunday, so I always like to go back through my list the day or 2 before and make sure I didn't forget anything, or if the expected forecast changed then I can make changes. Our ski trip forecast is still going to be freezing cold, oh well, I was really tempted to throw in that bikini ;)

4. Sticky notes

Enough said. For all those last minute things you need to do or grab, I line my front door, bathroom mirror and car with sticky notes so I don't forget those last few things. I actually appreciate this google image sticky because I had forgotten that our rent will be due while we are gone- see, stickys are a life saver!

5. Doggie Arrangements

For the trips when this face cannot accompany us, we have to make plans for her too. I get really upset about leaving the dog for more than a day or 2, I always worry that she is going to feel abandoned, be too cold, hungry, lonely, or feel that she did something wrong- probably because she had a very traumatic experience the first time we left her, so I put a lot of worry into the puppy plan. While it is not always the easiest/cheapest/funnest, we always find an option that works best for Peachie and the circumstances surrounding her and the situation at the time. This will be the first trip where we have had to leave her where I won't be able to call and check in on her all the time since calling from Europe is like $512874 per minute.

6. Clean the house
I don't know about you, but I hate coming home from vacation thinking about everything I need to do to get caught up and then realizing my house is a disaster the minute I walk in the door. I always make it a point to do at least a light cleaning before a trip. This week's cleaning will be a bit more intensive.

7. The Kitchen!!!
A lot of thought goes into preparing my kitchen for a long trip. I have to make sure all the dishes are clean and put away, kind of following the clean your house thing. Most importantly though, I clean the sink and disposal, make sure the fridge and counter are rid of all produce, leftovers, and anything else that can spoil (read: smell) and take the trash out is the last thing I do before we leave. I hate coming home to bad food, or even worse a bad smelling house!

8. Wash the sheets & make the bed
After being away from my bed I so look forward to a good night sleep at home. I sleep better with clean crisp sheets, oh, and I'm neurotic!

9. Laundry
Besides wanting my favorite clothes clean to bring with me, I also don't want a moutain of laundry to tend to immediately upon my return. Also, stinky running clothes left too long make the house smell all sweaty!

10. Have a schedule
I prefer to have a plan for D-day (leaving day) that way I can make sure I have time to get it all done without being stressed about it. So yes, my Leaving day is already planned

-15 mile long run
-stretch, ice bath, shower
-breakfast, finish packing
-get ready
-leave!

Do you have anything you HAVE to get done before going on vacation??? As you can see I have quite a bit!

Are you an ahead of time packer or do you wing it at the last minute???

Matanzas 5k & Playing Catch-Up

2011-01-24T09:33:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday and T-4 days until my Crazy European Ski Vacation!

I have been uber-busy getting ready for our trip, but I seemed to be in a good spot with everything so hopefully all my work this weekend payed off and I don't have to play catch-up all week.

Heading back to Saturday, I raced, a 5k, worst distance ever invented. After the marathon and the injury I began to doubt my knack for distance running, that is of course until this race. I can say with extreme confidence that I am a distance girl, I can take moderate amounts of discomfort for prolonged periods of time, although if you pace race, it isn't even discomfort, it just feels normal...5k's do not feel normal, at all!!!!!

Last Year this race was good and bad, I broke 30 minutes for the first time in a 5k, but I over-dressed and started too fast, and lets just say that it was a less than pleasant feeling by mile 3. I was determined this year to nail this race, the course is so pretty all through old St. Augustine and the weather was expected to be perfect 46* and sunny.

So John took me down there and we got the start area about an hour before the start, there was bunches of people already there and it ended up being a little cooler and windier than anticipated. I did a 2 mile warm up, and my quads were still oddly sore from the 200's I had done on Wednesday, apparenly my legs cannot handle the stride length that comes with paces that fast.

I ditched my warm clothes and lined up right at the 8:00 pace marker. I wanted a new PR (the old was 25:59 from August) and I really wanted to hit 25:00 or sub-25:00 but I wasn't sure if I had it in me with sore legs, but I figured I would give it a shot and either nail it or crash and burn. A 25:00 5k is an 8:02 pace, so I was prepared to go out at 8:00 and hold on for dear life.

Mile 1- 7:58
So pretty much right on target, I tried to keep it under control and I think I did. I never felt tired and my HR
never got too high during mile 1, and I felt great and enjoyed the scenery.

Mile 2- 8:07
At about 1.5 we were turning to head back towards the finish and the sharp turns threw me off a tad and after the last turn to head back north we were met with a bit of a headwind. Nothing compared to the winds in Apalachicola, but enough to make an 8:05 pace feel like a 7:55, and to send my heart rate climbing a little early.

Mile 3- 8:08
The congestion at the water station and the slight wind just threw me, I let it, I lost the edge to just push through the pain and couldn't keep in under 8:05 no matter how hard I tried. I would hit it for a few seconds and then lose some gas and it would drop. Looking back now, I am glad I kept it consistent in the last 2, put you can't deny positive splits- I don't know if I have ever run a 5k without positive splits.

Mile 3-3.13- :54 (6:57 pace)
I laid out everything in the last tenth or .13 since I did a decent amount of weaving during the race. I felt like I was running so hard at the end I seriously thought I may hurl on the girl collecting the time chips at the finish line- lucky for her, she was spared.

3.13 Miles- 25:08, average pace 8:02

...8 seconds, I missed that 25:00 by 8 seconds! I know if I could have run a perfect 3.10 that would have been the 8 seconds right there because my average pace was right where it needed to be, but it is still a PR by almost a minute, and to be honest I didn't even think I would come close to that 25:00 goal on Saturday, I thought I was looking at a 25:30ish, so I was very pleased with the race and my effort. Although I passionately hate 5ks, I will put myself through the suffering at least once more this spring in the hunt for that sub-25:00, it's so close now I can taste it, just a couple more track workouts :)

I was supposed to do a recovery run on Sunday, but I decided shopping was more appropriate ;) Made even funnier by the fact that I ran into my coach while I was out doing said shopping exercise! I spent most of yesterday (and actually the whole weekend) getting our lives together for this trip. Packing had commenced, it appears as of this moment that all of my things will fit into my 1 alloted suitcase, I am just hoping I can stay under the 50lb limit. Last time I nailed it at 49.3lbs, its just a skill I have!

Something about a busy week and an upcoming trip really motivates me, I already have my whole week planned out, including my workouts. I have double workouts every day this week except Friday, it may seem a bit much, but I will be sedentary for almost 18 hours while we travel to our destination, and who knows if I will actually be able to run once I get there. I have packed the warmest clothes I own in attempts to get in 3 runs over our 8 says in Austria, but I don't know how this Southerner with fair in snow and altitude, so I may just have to look at it as a week of cross-training since we will be skiing every day.

Today, I started my beautiful schedule off with an 8 mile bridges run. I know hills are important, but starting the week with a slow run always kind of blows, I miss tempo Monday's, but my tempos rock because I have been doing hills recently so I will just keep trudging through them.

I did the standard 3 bridge 4 mile loop, I did a 2 mile warm-up before hand along the (flat) riverwalk and added an extra loop at the end.

8 miles- 1:15:06, 9:23 average pace
9:27, 9:11, 9:29, 9:44(the beast), 9:25, 9:23, 9:22, 9:05

I told myself that every bridge needed to be under 9:45, and actually all of them except the big beast were under 9:30 so that was good. Even though that was fast for a bridges run, I still felt a little slow, but tempo run tomorrow will make it all better. This evening has weights, core, and some much needed cross-training on deck. See everyone with a big Tuesday update!

Afternoon Running

2011-01-20T09:34:00.000-05:00

1 day away from the weekend!!! It has been CRAZY in my little world this week. That may actually be an understatement, it has been so rediculously busy that there have been times when I stop for a second and realize I forgot to eat- that never happens!!!!!

Due to above noted craziness my schedule has been all over the place, and I have taken to running after work every day this week (that will also include today).

Monday-8 Miles
Tuesday - 6 miles easy

What was supposed to be an easy run, went a little crazy. I needed to get all the stress out and running faster is the only way I know how to do that. I made sure I kept my warm-up and cool-down in the easy range and told myself to not force it the rest of the time, I know I would naturally run a little faster that day but as long as I wasn't forcing a certain time I would be fine.
6 miles- 54:32, 9:05 average pace, still pretty easy

Wednesday was actually supposed to be a calm day at work and I was excited for that, but by 10am it was clear it was going to be another rediculous day, and as exhausted as I was from all of this chaos, I knew I would feel better once I got to the track. Since I have a race this weekend, my normal 6-8 mile track day was cut in half, so I had plenty of energy to get out in these short fast miles. On the schedule: 8x200

I have NEVER run anything shorter than a 400, that is about as short as seems useful, and I LOVE 400s! I think they are great, you can go fast and I can usually do 6-8 before I really start to feel it- so I was a little confused about 200s- just an all out sprint??? But even 8 of them will only equal 1 mile, thats like nothing???

I am here to tell you my friends, 200s are a special kind of demon. I thought this workout would be cake, SO short that I couldn't possibly get fatigued from it, and I would be able to soar through all 8- wrong!

Warm-up- 1.25 Miles- 11:13 (8:58 pace)
8x200 with 90 seconds rest in between:
:39 (5:20)
:38 (5:11)
:41 (5:40)
:40 (5:24)
:42 (5:43)
:45 (6:13)
:41 (5:42)
:41 (5:40)
Cool Down- 1.75 Miles- 16:55 (9:40 pace)
Total: 4 Miles- 33:35

So I was anticiapating the 200s taking about 45 seconds each, my coach told me to shoot for 40-45 seconds. I did the first one and was a little surprised, I mean I sprinted, but I didn't feel exhausted until about #6 when I started to lose that kick you have I felt like I was flailing out there. I did manage to stay right on the heels of the fast guys. This was a fun workout, but I was surprise how jello-like my legs felt by the end.
A successful track workout and some confidence going into this weekend's race. I am hoping for a new PR and the weather should be in my favor, so let's hope I can pull some fast miles out on Saturday.

I have an easy run on tap for tonight, so here's hoping I can keep it easy and stay loose going into the weekend. Since my Wednesday was crazy, I have a "Wedding Wednesday" post still coming this week!

Ten Things Tuesday

2011-01-18T09:34:00.000-05:00

Happy Tuesday y'all! It feels like a Monday since we were all off yesterday for MLK day. Since the 3 day weekend put me majorly behind on blogging, hopefully this does a good job of catching up:

1. Today is the start of a 4 day week, followed by another 4 day week, and then a whole week off for vacation- go ahead and hate me, I would!

2. Running- has been going, still fast, feeling good, no ITB/hip pain, and I feel like my stride has changed, has gotten longer, I think maybe that is why I have been running faster without too much effort.

3. Sunday- 6 Miles super easy- 54:55, average pace 9:09

4. Monday- scheduled 6 miles tempo (4 miles at hmp ~8:55)
I felt so good at mile 6 I decided to add more and make it 8 for the day- seriously felt amazing!
8 miles- 1:10:55, 8:51 average pace (9:22, 8:57, 8:49, 8:41, 8:34, 9:07, 8:27, 9:13) 5M @hmp

5. I registered for a 5k this weekend that most of my group is running and my coach really wanted me to run. I am really nervous about said 5k, while I feel more in shape than the lask 5k I did, I also recognize that I don't really like 5ks. They hurt, they whole time, and while they are over fast, that's still a lot of hurting. I hope I can push through the hurt for the ~25 minutes it will take to finish.

6. I actually did this 5k last year, it is really nice, all through historic downtown St. Augustine and along the water. Last year I started out waaaaay too fast and got super hot since I over-dressed, so I am hoping to really be able to make it an excellent race experience this year.

7. Looking back at that race recap, I had forgotten that this was the first 5k I aimed to do in under 30 minutes (finished in 28:55) what a difference a year makes. I finished that race with an average 9:18 pace, and I am hoping to do it this year a full minute/mile faster- wow rediculous!

8. We are planning a little trip to NYC for the first weekend in November...

9. Not for me, for Penny. Her guaranteed entry for the NYC marathon was accepted and we will all be heading to the big apple this fall to spectate! Yay! I actually think I am more excited to spectate this race that I would be to run it. I almost hope I am not picked in the lottery for this year, I am like beyond excited to be able to watch for once!

10. More Wedding Wednesday coming tomorrow, I have been busy busy since last week!

Speediness

2011-01-13T09:44:00.000-05:00

I hope all the rest of you are surviving the snowpocalypse of 2011! I am sure everyone heard that yesterday our lovely Florida was the only state without snow on the ground, and really that is only because it melts once it actually hits the ground.

Now last week I talked about some speedy runs I had, I thought maybe it was just because I was well rested going back into my first week of my normal routine, but the speediness continues!

As mentioned in my 2011 goals I want to focus on getting faster- across the board. Especially with my marathon being pushed to the back burner this spring, I figure the best way to focus on getting faster is start small and build up. So I have been running a bit shorter than usual, but really trying to run fast so my body can get used to those speeds.

Monday- Cross Training, not sure why but my hip was still achey from my long run, so I swaped Friday for Monday and took it easy.

Tuesday- 5 mile "tempo run" While this was supposed to be a tempo, I basically just ran hard the whole time, but it was the fastest 5 miles I have ever run- ever!
5 Miles- 41:51, 8:22 average pace
(8:47, 8:24, 8:13, 8:11, 8:16)

8:22 was my average pace from my 5k PR race I did in August, so I am actually really excited to do another 5k soon and see what I can do!

Wednesday- Track. On the schedule was 7 miles and 4x1000. I honestly don't mind 1000, I kind of hold back and start at 1200 pace and then speed up the last 200 or so because the end is so much closer!

7 Miles- 59:04.--->8:26 average pace...insane!!!
Warm-up: 3.75 miles- 32:26 (8:29, 8:50, 8:40, 6:37...8:39 pace)
4x100 with 200 RI: 4:49 (7:45pace), 4:51 (7:48 pace), 4:53 (7:51 pace), 4:47 (7:41 pace)
cool-down: 1/4 mile @ 9:31 pace

So while the day and total overall is great, it wasn't a super stellar workout. I felt like I was lacking some serious kick after a hard day on Tuesday and a fast warm-up before we started our intervals. Honestly I was happy to have them all under 8 minutes since we basically weren't even resting.

It was 39* at 6:30pm last night when we started our intervals!! I was ok when I was running, but the second I would stop I would be freezing, I knew that was awful for my muscles, so once I did my 200 RI jog back to the start line I would hope right in with whatever group was going and take off, because if I stood and rested for even a minute I would be shivering and then leave. So a solid effort, but I would definitely like to see the number in the 7:30 range consistently.

It has been FREEZING here all week, highs from 45-48* and lows from about 20*-34*, so running has mostly been in the afternoons, but still in the cold. I really think the freezing has a lot to do with my fast times, but I am hoping as the warm weather returns that my body will have become adapted to these 8:xx paces and I can still see them stick around!

Post-work run again today, it will be all of 45*, crazy!

Wedding Wednesday

2011-01-12T11:41:00.000-05:00

So here is Edition 1 of Wedding Wednesday!

I actually am loving the blog platform to talk about some of the details of our upcoming wedding! It seems like such a great place to get all of the jumbled thoughts in my head out, and hopefully get a few opinions in return.

So as I mentioned last week, I have gotten started on the whole wedding planning pretty quickly. We did not want a long engagement, we have already dated for 6 years, not much else to figure out, so why wait another year. I always thought I would love the whole "planning a wedding" thing, but truth be told, not loving it as much as I thought. I am most excited to have it all get here so we can be Married! It is SO crazy to say that!

Probably the biggest thing for me is to have much of our wedding details remain a secret until the actual wedding day. I think it's so boring when you know what everything will look like and what to expect when you go to a wedding, so I hope to maintain an aire of surprise. You may wonder how I plan to do that when I intend to gab about our wedding to the entire world wide web, but fear not, many of things I throw up will not be the exact details of our wedding, just the general ideas. Currently, we are about 8 months from our wedding, so while we just got started there are some things that are requiring our attention:

Save the Dates

Now while save the dates aren't a requirement, we are going to be doing them. There are a lot of out of town guests that will need time to make arrangements, not to mention it will be around the time when school starts back for kids, teachers, and adults like me who prefer to live off of academic calendars pretending we are still in college.

My great save the date debate is...

Picture

or no picture...

I have seen several save the dates I really like that do not include a picture, or our last names as many save the dates do not. Probably my biggest concern with lack of picture is what if people don't recognize our names, but would recognize our faces (note: these people are most likely family friends and distant relatives) we aren't just inviting a bunch of strangers.

Last names I have the same feeling about, I feel like we either need to have our last names OR our picture on the save the dates.

Colors

Another one of my current debates reigns over colors, I have a color scheme in mind that I really love. Do I incorporate my colors into my save the dates and invitations, or should I use that opportunity to introduce other colors that will not be visible at the wedding?

Time
How late is too late?

We are planning an evening wedding, and it is intended to be a formal event. In the interest of our guests (and my groom) we are trying to have the wedding at a time when the temperatures will be...less brutal. Let's face it, we live in Florida, and are getting married in Florida, any month except December and January are likely to have at least a few days of temps in the 80* range, and actually it was 80* here on 1/1 and 1/2 so even that isn't a fair claim- it's always hot!

I would like everyone to be able to utilize the additional outdoor spaces that come with the venue we have chosen if they would like to, and in my opinion the best way to do that is to push the wedding into the evening hours. While there will be some children and older people, the bulk of my guest list is of the 'have a good time' mindset, so I don't feel like I lose my key demographic if I push the time back a smidge. Not to mention people who do Friday weddings always have them start late, right???

So here is the question I pose to you:
Would you be annoyed to be a guest at a wedding if the ceremony started at 6:30pm...
The coctail hour (with snacks) would start at 7pm...
and dinner service would be started by 7:45pm????

My thought thus far has been, while it is a tad late for a usual dinner time, it is meant to be an evening affair and a night out. Guests will be aware of the start time and expected dinner time so they will be able to plan meals and snacks that day accordingly to make sure they are prepared to wait until 7:45pm for dinner.

So I ask for your brutally honest input- I would give it...

-Save the dates: do they require a happy pic/last names/ both/ neither/ or pick one?????

-Do I keep all std's and invitations in my wedding color scheme or can I get a little crazy with the stationary?

- Start time: How late is too late????

Ten Things Tuesday

2011-01-11T14:31:00.000-05:00

Back from the blog slacking again, maybe I can blame the cold!

So I used to be a big 10 things Tuesday person, but as the summer came and went I didn't seem to have much to say, well now I have a ton to say, so 10 things coming at ya:

1. My long run this past weekend was great and sucky at the same time- does anyone else have these runs? I felt pretty good since I kept it easy, but it seemed to drag on forever and I didn't enjoy it the way I used to love long long runs.

2. I did 13.1 Miles in 2:02:27 or 9:20 pace, that is actually pretty spot on for an easy long run.

3. This was my longest "long run" in months- so sad! I have raced several halfs and even added mileage, but just going out to do a long run, it has been a while, I think that is what was so rough.

4. My hip has been hurting since said long run last week, and it has me majorly freaked out!

5. I am super lucky to already have a massage booked for Thursday, so hopefully we can get all the crap out and be ready for another longer run this weekend- 15 miles is the goal.

6. For those of you who have experience with snow running- I am leaving in 17 days for the arctic air in Austria! We are going skiing for a week and I still have to get in a few runs once I am there. While I certainly do not expect anything of quality, I have to get some miles in- any advice on how to run on hills in the snow, or even in the snow for that matter? All advice is deeply appreciated!

7. For this trip, I for see myself slipping, falling, and being laughed at as the dumb American who can't run in the snow. I won't even worry about the fact that the base elevation there is 4212ft and my house is umm....8 feet above sea level. Great. I can see it now, I will be sucking wind like a sixty year old santa claus look alike with emphysema.

8. 11 days in and I have already decided to ammend one of my 2011 Goals...running related...not loving it.

9. I am supposed to run the 26.2 with Donna on February 13th, that's right, in like a month. The longest run I have done since my last marathon is 15 miles, and I would maybe have time to squeek in 1- 20 miler before this race. Considering the injury I had to deal with (am still dealing with) after my last marathon, I have not had the time to put in the type of training I would like for a marathon.

After much internal deliberation I have decided that I want to drop from the Full to the half for this race. While I could physically be ready to run 26.2 miles that day, I would not truly be ready for it. I don't want to run a marathon just to run it at this point, I want to race, I want to destroy my time, and I want to know I put everything into my training that I could, and I don't feel that I could do that for this race.

I really wanted nothing more than to run this specific marathon, and to do it well, but I am humble enough to know I am just not there right now. The last thing I want to do is reinjure myself and have to forfit the rest of my spring races, so I am at peace with my decision, and plan to go out and destroy my half marathon PR, I do feel very much prepared for that right now.

This had been eating at me for a couple weeks now, and it feels SO nice to put it all out there in the open finally!

10. I have wedding updates! But they will be coming your way in a fun "Wedding Wednesday" post!

Running and Wedding Planning

2011-01-07T14:22:00.000-05:00

TGIF...big time!!!! This week has almost felt like a slow spiral out of control since it started. Monday started so nicely with a plan in place and goals for the week, and slowly but surely my beautifully crafted plan was butchered- what else is new?!!?!

So on the running front: I have run every day this week, and I have been pretty speedy, maybe its the cold, or the unnecessary stress that is creeping in, but I could not seem to run fast enough this week. Now I will say there was not very much far running due to other factors, but running is running.

Monday- 5 mile bridge run + core
Tuesday- 4 miles "easy" 36:13 (9:03 pace) + 40 mins XT and core
Wednesday- Indoor track workout thanks to rain 5 Miles total, 4x400, 2x1600 @hmp: 5 Miles- 43:35 (8:43 pace)
Thursday- 25 mins XT + weights + 4 Miles- 34:10 (8:33 pace)

So yeah a speedy week for me. Other than the 400s I was really not trying to go fast I just kept wanting to go faster, and it felt good. Hopefully my whole run faster = race faster thing works :)

Wedding Planning

So I have been engaged for 2 weeks, and in 2 weeks we have manged to:
-set a date
-buy a dress
-pick my 4 bridesmaids
-pick the 4 groomsmen (not that they know who they are yet:)
-look at venues
-decide on a venue, although nothing is booked yet
-create, destroy, and rebuild a guest list
-lose interest in the whole wedding thing all together

I know that seems like a lot to do in such a short time when we should be enjoying our newly engaged status, but the truth is, we all had last week off so it made sense to start doing things. Also, after 6 years of dating, goodness knows we don't want or need a long engagement, not to mention I have helped plan so many weddings that the routine is very easy for me, no need to have to figure it all out, so this whole process is going to move fast.

Having worked in event planning and coordinated other weddings before, I have been so very objective about everything we are doing, I don't think about anything from an emotional standpoint except for maybe the whole vows thing;) And to be honest that is driving everyone else nuts because I am pointing out all the flaws with their dream wedding plans, and why the idea is so inefficient. I just feel like if you are going to waste money on something like a wedding, at least do it right.

How cynical I know, you would think I don't want to get married, and it's the total opposite, I am SO excited for John and I to be married, but the whole wedding thing just isn't fun anymore, and I was always the person who wanted the huge, rediculous, over the top wedding! I would rather have a quality party for our nearest and dearest than a half-ass get together for those I don't know.

So I pose a very important question: whether you have been the bride, bridesmaid, or just a guest, do you think a wedding is really worth the hype? Is it best to go big or go home? Do you invite the whole world and scale back the party? I would rather have a very memorable and unique experience for our closest friends and family that some rediculous blowout with crappy food.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Starting 2011 of Right

2011-01-03T15:23:00.000-05:00

Happy back to work day to everyone!

I realize many people still have a few more days off, but I am back to my routine as of 4:50am today. As I know many of you may proceed to throw things at me after this comment, I was actually ready to get back to work today!

I really do love my job, and I missed knowing what day it was. After 17 days off (all of which felt like a Saturday) I was starting to feel fuzzy and lazy. I had so much time on my hands that there was no urgency about anything, sooo not me at all. I was beyond ready to get back into a routine, to be able to justify grocery shopping and get back to my normal running/gym routine which had totally fallen apart over my vacation.

I started my morning with a 5 mile bridges run with the group. I was back to the cold weather after several days in the high 70s, but the cold really did help my lazy self not suck it up too bad today

5 Miles- 45:46 (9:11, 9:05, 9:47, 9:30, 9:13)

2011 Goals

So last year I had a ton of time and put a ton of thought into my 2010 goals long before we rung in the new year...I didn't do that this year. Between getting engaged, and tons of traveling I just didn't have time to write it all out as pretty as I had before. However, I have spent plenty of time on these long trips thinking about what I want to do in 2011, and it is a lot more concrete and ambitious than last year, so here it goes:

1. Run 13+ races in 2011
...I ran 13 races in 2010 and I felt it was a good number. I ran a race almost every month, and some month I had 2. It kept me constantly focused on training and helped me stay motivated. I really do love racing and want to make sure I keep my race skills fine tuned.

2. Complete 2 Marathons in 2011
...We already know Marathon #1 of the year is coming up here quick, but I want to step it up from what I did in 2010 and do 2 marathons. I had originally had my eye on several more, but with trips and weddings, etc 2 is about all I can literally squeeze into my calendar this year.

3. PR's
...I want to set new PR's this year. Last year was really a bunch of firsts for me, and several of my PR's are just luck that came off of first races, so this year is all about improving my speed and efficiency as a runner. I have my eyes on a few big goals:
-Sub 4:15 Marathon- I am really greedy for this one, I am pretty confident I can hit it, but you have to respect the distance and so I am not going to get cocky.
- Sub-1:55 and 1:50 half marathons: My true goal is a 1:50 half, but I also know with everything else that is an end of the year goal time, so for my spring races, I would really like to see a sub-1:55 and shoot for the 1:50 in the fall/winter
-15k PR: I have never raced a 15k, my unofficial 15k time is 1:26:xx, I want to beat that.
-54:00 minute 10k. According to Mcmillan with my current 5k PR I should be able to hit 54 minutes in a 10k, and that would shave over 2 minutes off of my current PR
-Sub-24:00 5k: This is probably my biggest goal of all, I don't know why I am so antsy for a fast 5k, I don't even really love 5ks, but I feel like breaking that 24:00 barrier is big deal, that is a sub-8:00 pace, and that would be a big deal for me!

...Obviously the real message behind these PR goals is that I want to get faster. While I have made some gradual improvements in my speed this year, I feel like the last couple of months my speed hasn't been increasing much, so I really want to focus on running faster, and seeing all my times start with 8:xx rather than 9:xx

4. Half Marathons
...These are without a doubt my favorite distance, they are long enough to require training but short enough that you don't hate yourself somewhere in the middle. I ran 5 Half Marathon's in 2010 and I will run at least 5 in 2011.

5. RICE/Stretch
...So while I was better about the whole rest, ice, compression, elevation while injured, a lack of RICE/Stretching is what probably led to some injury, so I really want to keep a focus on stretching/foam rolling/icing regularly to help keep injuries away.

6. Cross-Training
...What's that???? I did pretty much no XT at all this year. Some bike rides for fun, spinning when I was injured, but I never cared about it. I plan to cross-train at least once, but ideally twice per week to help supplement my running, and again...avoid injury. Maybe I should have just made one of these numbers "avoid injury" and I could have saved myself a lot of typing:)

7. Strength train
...With a wedding coming up, and a dress to fit into, I need to kick my butt into high gear to tone myself up a bit, namely the arm areas. But 2x week minimum for the weights, but 3 would be great!

8. Try something new
...I am not quite sure what this is yet. It could be a new fitness activity like a bike race or triathalon, changing my hair, etc. The point is that I am a very safe and routine person and when I find something I like and that works I just stick with it until it doesn't work. I would like to push the envelope a bit this year, be daring, and try something I wouldn't normally try. I have a few ideas in mind, but I am sure there are a few more to be found.

9. Read more
...In 2009 and early 2010 I was reading at least a book a week. But when school picked up in 2010, my reading fell by the wayside, and then marathon training replaced everything except work, sleep, eat, run. I would really like to give myself a little time each day to read some of the fabulous books that are on my shelf that I have not even touched yet, so all a matter of prioritizing my time. We did cancel our cable, so I am hoping that will promote the reading thing.

So that is pretty much it, my plan for 2011. I am quite confident that this will be the best year yet, I have so much I am already looking forward to and big plans! Hope everyone is starting their new year off with a bang and big plans!

Worth the Wait

2010-12-29T09:00:00.008-05:00

Six years ago this girl

set me up on a date with a guy from our work I had been drooling over. This guy...

Over the years we have had a lot of fun, he took me to Europe for the first time

And became my football buddy

My go-to confidant

And my best friend

He keeps me in check, goodness knows someone needs to

But I know no matter what, he is there for me always

I know he will love and support me with any and everything I do, no matter how rediculous it may be

And even after all these years, I am even more in love with him all the time

So on Christmas Eve we sat on the floor of our apartment lit by our Christmas Tree to exchange presents

and the most amazing man offered me the most amazing ring

and asked me to be his wife

and I said yes!

Disappearing Act

2010-12-28T19:43:00.000-05:00

Happy Belated Christmas Bloggies!

I have pretty much fallen of the face of the Blog world since my vacation started almost 2 weeks ago! But we are home and slowly resuming a routine, so hopefully a more routine blogging schedule will resume.

SO much has happened in the last 12 days, where to start....

Penny came up and we ran the Jacksonville Bank Half Marathon.

I missed a new PR by 16 seconds, and finished 1:58:58 but considering I was literally numb from the cold and not really trained I will not complain one bit. I am actually anxious to see what kind of PR I can set with some real training behind me.

It was without a doubt the coldest run I have ever done. I dressed as it would get a few degrees warmer as we ran. Well it got 10 degrees colder and started to rain- needless to say we didn't stick around for the awards ceremony.

We went to Atlanta to celebrate Christmas with my Dad's side of the family. It was loads of fun, a little crazy, and I am beyond lucky and literally received my entire Christmas list in boxes.

We spent Christmas Eve here in Jacksonville with my Mom's family. Lots of food and time with people we don't see very often.

Christmas day I got in a short run (like 1/3 the length I had planned) and then spent the next 2 days with all of John's huge family. It is so much fun when they all get together- how can it not be fun with a family that that big!

We also went to the Jags/Redskins game on Sunday- it was the coldest I have ever been in my life. It was 37* with 20mph winds, and it snowed before we left the house!!! I do not know how you northerners do it, I was so cold!

John and I have been back in Jacksonville for about a day and half now. We have managed to take down the Christmas decorations, put aways tons of clean laundry, all the presents, and clean the house. I have had some errands to attend to since we got back also that have slowed my to-do list, but it has been so much fun!

We have 2 more day trips planned before returning to work next week, and I am so thankful to be able to get back to my routine. My running has been pretty slack since we have been on vacation, I have always seemed to have something else to do, but I think when we get back to the day-to-day it will fall back into place.

I have a super-fun and super-exciting announcement coming tomorrow, as well as a 2010 recap and 2011 goals, it should be a busy week!

Check back tomorrow for the fun news!!!!!!!!

The Last Day

2010-12-16T09:27:00.000-05:00

Happy Christmas break day everyone. Today is our last day on campus before our winter break begins, I am so thankful to have time off for the holidays without having to guilty, like at my last job!

I am a super busy girl today trying to get everything wrapped up before heading out this afternoon, so here is a quick running update.

Yesterday I decided to try a double, didn't get in nearly the mileage I had wanted because, get this, I was sore from my massage??? She told me that would probably happen, but I thought massages were supposed to relax the soreness, not cause it...Oh well, I am supposed to take today off, but spent some quality time with the arc trainer.

Yesterday AM run: 3.5 miles, 31:29 or 9:00 pace.
PM Track workout: 4x1000 (supposed to be 5x1000- stupid soreness)
1 Mile warm-up- 9:25
4x1000- 4:56 (7:53p), 5:01 (8:03p), 4:52 (7:47p), 4:44 (7:26p)

With the recoveries and cool down I got in another 4.5 miles to make 8 for the day. I find the 1000 distance awkward, I think because it is not a full lap, you have to add in an extra half a lap, and sometimes I think of it as a long 800 and sometimes I think of it like a short 1200, so my pacing tends to waiver back and forth between 1200 pace or 800 pace. I was supposed to take them relatively easy since we are all racing on Sunday, but once I fell back into my rhythm after the 2nd one, I was good to go. I was supposed to be doing 5x1000 but when I said my hip was sore, my coach made me drop the last one, especially when he found out I already ran that morning :) I was instructed to rest today to make sure I was feeling good going into this weekend, here's hoping it works.

Has a massage ever left you sore or tight the next day? This is a first for me, but I have heard that getting really deep into the muscles can do that.

Confessions

2010-12-15T10:18:00.000-05:00

Hello all! I have been a MAJOR blog slacker, I kept trying to get some fun stuff up, but I have been slammed at work this week, although I can't complain since Thursday is my last day until January 3rd... don't you all wish you worked in the fabulous world of post-secondary education where everyone's goal is to work as little as possible :)

So onto my confessions, there are definitely a lot of things I have been avoiding, so it's time I came clean:

1. I ran twice on Saturday. My normal long run days are back, and I sure did miss them. Saturday morning I went and met my group to do a "long run", it really wasn't long, only 8 miles- 1:13:40 (9:13 pace). I also raced that night, hehe! Per instructions I was supposed to run at 10k-15k pace and not truly race, since A, I have a much more important race this weekend, and B, it was my first week back to normal post-injury.
5k Race - 26:55, 8:27 pace course was long 3.20

2. I learned something at this litte 5k race- I am a mean person when I race! This was a cute little race- actually not little like 3000 people, but a cute race. It is called the Festival of Lights 5k and you run all through the historic (and expensive) neighborhoods along the river at night and it is all lit up by luminaries- fun right! Well since it is so cute and fun, it is heavily family/stroller/stupid-people friendly. Despite the director saying for 20 minutes pre-race that anyone who was walking, with kids, or with a stroller needed to go to the back, they all ignored him and lined up right next to me (only 10 yards from the start line). I have never experienced the cluster* that people talk about at big races and taking forever to get up to speed... I finally get it. There were so many people walking within .1 miles of the start, people who dressed up all Christmas like somehow dropped all their stuff while run/walking and decided to stop in the middle of the course to re-dress themselves- I literally almost ran over a small child, and then yelled at her mom, and no I don't feel bad about it. I was SO angry in the first mile trying to dodge all the non-racers who had started at the front, and kept me stuck in the 8:45 pace range since I couldn't break free, that my last mile and half were at killer paces, and my last 1/2 mile was sub-8:00 pace....

Yeah, as much as I told myself since I couldn't PR, I would just run for fun, apparently I can't do this- I guess I am a bad person- or at least a bad racer.

3. My next marathon is 60 days away. That's it, 60...and the furthest I have run since the last one is 13 miles, and even that was a struggle. I have some serious work ahead of me if I plan to still run that race, and I find my motivation to be wavering some. Maybe because I wasn't able to jump in and follow my training as originally planned, but I have some serious work to do and not so much time to do it in. Any advise from those of you who have done a fly-by marathon training???

4. Despite the fact that I am a native Southerner and Floridian, I am actually really loving the freezing cold weather we are having, like literally freezing

Our highs have been in the 40's and lows in the 26-32 range. Nothing at all like I am used to, but it makes me run fast, and I don't get all gross or over-heated, I really think there may be something to this whole running in the cold thing. Not to mention all the cute sweaters and coats that haven't been touched in a while are getting put to good use these last 2 weeks, and maybe we will actually have a Christmas this year where I won't be wearing flip-flops...

5. The downside to the cold is it makes it almost impossible to get out of bed in the mornings to go run. I even have a hard time convincing the dog that she needs to emerge from the cocoon she has built herself to get a treat

And really who would want to get out from underneath that big bundle of snuggliness!

6. Yesterday I skipped my run in favor a massage instead. My it band and hip/glutes were all so much better than my last visit, and hopefully all the deep work will pay off in my race this weekend. And since I skipped yesterday's run, I am doing a double today...3 days before a race, oops! Looking a double digit day which is actually kind of exciting I miss doing double digits during the week, I used to feel so accomplished when I would run 10 miles and then go to work like it was nothing.

7. I am drastically behind on my Christmas shopping, like embarrasingly behind. My house has been decorated for 3 weeks, and there is not a thing wrapped under my tree yet, this could be a problem. I am hoping to tackle a lot of it this weekend, so here's hoping that works out. I think the biggest problem is I have no idea what to buy for all the men in my life, they all buy everything they want anyways, so what does that leave me????

So that is enough embarrasing stories for today, back tomorrow with a track recap:)

Consecutive Days

2010-12-10T10:13:00.000-05:00

Woohoo for the weekend! I have a ton on my plate for the next 72 hours, but it should be lots of fun:)

I was planning to get up and run yesterday morning like I usually do, but when the alarm went off less than 12 hours after my speedy track workout I could feel how tight adn tired my legs still were, so I decided to do some weights and a little cross-training and give my legs some more time. Since the weather is actually nicer in the afternoons than in the morning it was easy to swap my schedule and run after work- something I haven't done in a while!

This was the first chance I have had in weeks to head out solo and do my own run on my own terms. Well apparently my own terms were quite quick:

5 Miles- 44:15
Mile 1- 9:01
Mile 2- 8:48
Mile 3- 8:59
Mile 4- 8:40
Mile 5- 8:43

So yeah, that was great! Once I saw the first mile split I decided I wanted to try and do this like a tempo- except without the warm-up/cool-down, so just a fast run. While it may be a long shot, I am going to try for a new PR in my half next week, and that will require a sub-9:00 average, so I wanted to see how 5 miles at/near that goal pace would feel. Answer: it wasn't too bad! My lungs burned some, but I mostly blame the cold for that... still only 48* at 5:30PM! But another great run in the books, and the leg is still holding up.

My biggest thing when building back up this week was being able to run consecutive days. I feel like that is one of the most helpful things for me because it gets me used to running on tired legs. My goal was to get back to my pre-marathon schedule of running Monday-Thursday, Saturday, and cross-training Sunday. While I wanted to get in 30 miles this week (and I will) it was more important to be able to run every day with no pain or issues, I can always build the mileage back over time, but I really needed to be able to feel good running for 4 or 5 days in a row- so I think that turned out to be a major success!

I do have a couple runs planned for this weekend, as well as a long bike-ride, starting my Christmas shopping (and hopefully finishing it), a fun date night, and plenty else to keep my busy! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Back to the Track

2010-12-09T09:46:00.000-05:00

Happy Thursday, we are beginning to get away from our arctic temperatures today and will actually see a high of 55* today- a little rediculous that 55* is warm now!

I have been enjoying the cold weather this week, and am kind of sad that it will be warming up to normal (68/45) this weekend. Don't worry, we are getting our arctic temps back on Monday with lows back in the 20's and highs in the 40s, lets pray the 40's stick around for my half next weekend.

After another successful and painfree run on Tuesday I knew that I needed to throw myself back into my normal routine to make sure my IT band could handle the higher intensity of training that it is literally about to be thrown back into. So yesterday (Wednesday) I got up, went to the gym to weights (including legs) and some time on the arc trainer and stair climber (which I have avoided like the plague since the ITB thing). I felt great, put in a hard effort, and was left still nervous and excited to go to the track after work.

I hadn't been to the track in 3 weeks, so I knew no matter how my knee felt that I would be dying out there from the effort. Since everyone in my group is racing either this weekend, next weekend, or both, he kept the workouts relatively light: 1600,1200, 800, 2x400, expected times (8:05, 6:00, 3:58, 1:53, 1:50)

I was planning to get there early to get in a few extra miles before we started, but I left my Garmin at home :( John was so wonderful and brought it to me at the track. Since I wouldn't have time to get in the extra miles I needed to hit 6 for the day I opted to just swap today's 4 mile run for the 6 and do 6 today.
The weather was perfect, 48*, a little windy and dark, I am really going to miss the cold weather come summer, it seems so conducive to my speed. The workout went down like this:

1.25 Mile warm up- 12:16 (9:12 pace)
1600- 7:58
1200- 5:55 (7:56 pace)
800 - 3:49 (7:40 pace)
400 - 1:43 (6:54 pace)
400 - 1:39 (6:38 pace)
1/2 mile cool down- 4:52 (9:42 pace)

4.5 Miles total- 38:12 (8:29 average pace)

First of all, I love how fast this actually makes me look, but I'm really not. I was surprised how easy the warm-up felt, I just kept getting faster, and was under 9:00 for the last half mile of it, maybe it was the cold, but I felt good. Since it had been a few weeks and we didn't know how my knee would feel, my coach wanted me to take it easy until I saw how my knee felt, so he told me to start at about 8:05 and then drop about 5 seconds per mile for each interval.

With the 1600 I was determined to make it in under 8:00, that is my standard, and as hard as it was and as much as my lungs were burning, I paced it well to finish just under 8:00. The 1200 was tough I felt like I started to quick and so when I back off it lap 2 it made it too hard to get my speed back in the last lap, but I still dropped my pace some and that is ultimately the goal. By the time we got to the 800, I was ready to start dropping the paces, my knee felt good, and I wanted to start trying to hit my normal times. The last time I did this workout (2 weeks PRE-marathon) my 800 time was 3:49. Boom 3:49 like cake, I probably should have pushed more at the end, but 7:40 pace was my aim, and I hit it.

When we started the 400's I was told to try and hit 7:10 for the first and 7:00 for the 2nd. 1st 400- 6:58 pace, and it felt good. After my coach saw the 1:43 he told me to try to hit 6:40 pace for the last one, I took off with one of the faster guys who pretty much pushed me the whole lap, he was great, and even though I totally was dying in the last 100m I hit 6:38 and was elated! My knee felt great and I was hitting my pre-marathon track times after a 3 week hiatus, so refreshing!

It feels so good to be able to run hard and fast again, and hopefully even with only 2 weeks back at my normal level, it will be enough to bring good things for my upcoming races. In the interest of staying healthy through my training I have another massage scheduled for next week a few days before my half to make sure everything is in working order and to break up any lingering scar tissue before jumping back into my longer runs the following week. I am excited to get back to the 18 and 20 milers, I have missed my long weekend runs! It seems there has been a lot of rebounding on the injury front this week amongst many runners, and I am so very happy that everyone is getting back to healthy and running, myself included!

Running Solo

2010-12-07T10:36:00.000-05:00

My Tuesday is shaping up quite nicely, hopefully yours is too! I started my day with another balmy 5 Mile run. It was 34* today, felt like 25* and 15mph winds. I seriously almost ditched my mom to go to the gym, but I am not that mean!

Since I have been taking so much time off to try and rest the IT band thing, I have realized what I really missed the most were my Tuesday/Thursday solo runs. Now don't get me wrong, I love my group and the push that they give me, but I have really missed going out with my ipod and my thoughts and not having anything else to worry about. I was hoping today I would get my chance to fly solo, but my mom is leaving town for the rest of the week tomorrow, and hasn't run in a few weeks and since she refuses to run alone (no idea why, it is so fabulous!) I decided I would be a nice person and sacrifice 1 more run for the greater good, and I am praying to get in that solo and fabulous run on Thursday.

So today 5 miles-48:28. I did the first 3 miles with my mom, and then was on my own for the last 2.
Splits were 10:04, 9:58, 9:53 and then 9:22, 9:11. When I am with my mom I usually run up ahead of her a bit and then turn around and come back and meet up with her. That way I get in a bit more mileage and don't sacrifice my pace too much. I was REALLY wanting to do some fast miles today, but I will have to save it for another day. I was pleased with my last 2 miles considering I wasn't really trying to push since the first 3 had been so slow.

I seemed to have again hit the perfect balance of "enough clothes to keep you from literally turning blue, and not so many that you die from heat stroke" it is a very thin line! My knee held up today, no pain, but some IT band talking. I think it was mad that I made it take really hard about-face turns so many times, but the fact that it never actually hurt was nice. The last 2 miles were actually flawless, so proof that running faster really is easier on your ITB, haha! After the run I went to the gym to ~~defrost~~ get in some core work and weights. Well Even though I brought a light shirt to change into, I was dying walking around our 75* gym in my tights, so I only managed to get in the core work and some stretch/rolling action before heading home. I am planning to head back tonight to get in the weights and such.

Do you prefer running solo or with a group?? I think it really depends on the workout for me, I love being with the group for speed workouts, but long runs and easy runs I really do prefer to do alone!

Being Cautious

2010-12-06T09:32:00.000-05:00

Hello and Happy Monday everyone! I trust everyone had a nice weekend, mine was jam-packed full of a whole lot of everything!

Saturday I went to help my mom with her annual Christmas party most of the day, and didn't get home and in bed until after midnight, I was SO tired!
Yesterday I woke up at 7am with a zillion things I wanted to get done. The to-do list looked something like this:

-Do Laundry :)
-Put away laundry :(
-Wash towels
-Dust
-Vacuum
-Peachie Bath
-Publix
-Costco
-Clean Kitchen
-Prep food for the week
-Clean out closet/dresser
-Re-organize closet so John can actually put his shoes in there :)
-Clean off the counter
-Clean Bathrooms
-Coffee Table
-Organzie china cabinet
-Throw out old magazines/organize others
-Clean out office closet
-Goodwill trip (clothes/old electronics)
-Weed out old toiletries under bathroom sink
-Clean out pantry

Now even for me, this is a pretty lofty list for one weekend, let alone one day. There were certainly priorities, but I somehow managed to cross everything off that massive list EXCEPT Miss Peach's bath- although technically John does that, so I win again, I crossed everything off MY part of the list ;)

I felt so unbelievable accomplished when I went to bed last night, my house was spotless, all my clothes were clean, my closet looked great, I was ready for the week, had gotten to watch Love Actually while cooking, and I also tacked on 1 extra fun project. All my bibs and medals were cluttering up my jewelry stand, so I decided with as many as there are now, they probably needed their own space, so here is what I threw together

Ideally I would like to get something else for all my medals, but I had an extra cork board lying around, and a little extra time on my hands, plus I am impatient, and once I want something done, it has to be done right that instant or else I will turn to dust!

So now we are to Monday, and what I have been waiting for, my first day back to running. I was beyond excited all day yesterday, I was so ready to be able to get up and go run like normal, I have felt so naked without it the last few weeks. I actually planned out what I would wear last night and got everything ready, pathetic, a little, but in my defense I was also having to prepare for something I had never done before: 36* run! Now I will say that last winter I did 2 runs in under 45*, but both were during the day when the sun was out- my Floridian blood was about to attempt an all dark 36* run + wind, very scary!

I don't own real running tights because well, I live in Florida and that seemed rediculous. Although for some reason I have also convinced myself that owning 4 peacoats when you live in Florida is completely rational;) I have some imitation running tights that are dry fit and tight, but they are really baselayer spandex to wear when you go skiing, but with 36* feels like 28* on my phone this morning I decided faux-tights were better than capris, and I will say it was a good choice. I also layered up with a cold-gear mock tutleneck, another long-sleeved shirt over it, gloves and a fleece headband for my ears. I ALMOST took my wind-breaker, but ditched it at the last seconds, and over all I ended up feeling comfortable on the run- Big Win for me, I ALWAYS overdress!!! Needless to say, I will be needing to go and apprehend some real winter running gear tonight, the lows through the weekend range from 28*-36*!

So my coach told me to keep it easy to do and do 4-5 miles, I started the first mile with the group of girls I had normally done the bridges with, but after the first mile I was ready to speed up so I just took off on my own. My knee and IT Band felt good I was able to settle into a comfortable pace, and I was really surprised that after so much time off I wasn't feeling winded finding my normal pace, especially since I was able to maintain it on all the bridge climbs. I was really concious to keep my downhills in check since I knew that could be where my ITB would flare up, and I didn't even notice it until the very last downhill in the last mile where I started to feel a slight soreness come from my actual IT band in the middle of my leg. I rememebered everything I read and have felt the last couple weeks and decided that picking it up rather than staying slow on the downhill would probably be better in the long run, so I did- 5 miles, no knee pain ;)

5 Miles- 47:24, 9:28 average pace
Mile 1- 9:50
Mile 2- 9:28
Mile 3- 9:44 (tackling the big beast)
Mile 4- 9:26
Mile 5- 8:56

I was so happy that I still felt so good despite everything. I know that running a lot of hills while trying to build back up is not the best way to keep my ITBS in check, but I wanted to at least get out there this morning with the group. Over the 5 miles we ran 4 ambitious uphills with the accompanying downhills, and each had their own mile so I was glad to see the efforts I put in on each incline. I stretched and foam rolled like a pro when I got home, I am hoping to stay on top of this thing as much as I can. I also iced my knee once at work, again proactive is better. I am *hoping* to get back to my normal 5 days of running this week, even though the mileage will be lower than usual (~30 this week), it is about getting my body (and IT band) used to the 4 days in a row pattern again, and then I can increase mileage from there if it holds up! I am still being cautious, both mentally and physically, while I realize I did everything I could to try and disolve this problem, I still need to be prepared it may show up again.

Thanks to everyone for sticking through my 10 day hiatus, I aprpeciate all the support! It certainly was boring, and I never realized how much I would miss just being able to go run.

4 More Days

2010-12-02T09:24:00.000-05:00

Only 4 more days until I can run again...Thank God!!!!!!!!!!

Like seriously I am irritable, feel bored, lost, confused, lazy, boring, annoyed, etc. I can definitely tell there is something missing in my life right now, so I am happy to get back to my running obsessed schedule, oh that and use all of the cute new running gear I practically stole from Dick's during last week's Black Friday Sales!!!

So when I don't run I feel like there isn't much to talk about, but I will regale you with the fun tales of my week. Monday and Tuesday I slaved away on the arc-trainer, the only faux-running machine that doesn't aggrevate my knee (or brain) and it leaves me sweating and gasping for breath, so I guess I can't complain.

Yesterday I went to my favorite Wednesday night 5:30 spin class. I haven't been since long before the marathon since my track workouts are usually Wednesday nights, but since I'm not running, no excuses. Well there was a new instructor teaching 5:30 spin, and I can't think of anything else to say other than that she reminds me of a jack-rabbit!!

Honestly, during class when I was sucking wind and wondering why on earth I subjected myself to this torture, I thought that this instructor and this class is probably exactly what hungryrunnergirl's spin classes are like- super bubbly and super quick, so I just imagined her as the instructor and it made not want to throw my waterbottle anymore ;) At one point she told us she was born in 1976, and that we were going to do 76 - 2 second consecutive jumps, umm yeah, that hurt!

So despite the lack of running I have gotten in some quality workouts since my half last week, and a week off so far, has left my knee/IT band feeling good. I have focused a lot on getting in some strength exercises so that all my weak muscles are no longer weak when I get back to it next week.

All local runners are still safe, I have not taken any further action into my plan to stone the local running groups on their morning jaunts, but now that our winter is officially here, 54/37* today (yes that is winter in the FL) I am starting to get a little resentful again of all the people running in the cool weather, it will probably be back up to 80* by the time I get back out there next week.

Being December 2nd now, I should probably start my Christmas shopping, but I find it difficult to buy presents for the people in my life who go out and buy everything they want, what is left after that???? Any good ideas for brothers, sisters, moms and dads???
All none of the running variety, oh if only my life could be that simple to only have to buy for runners, I would have been done weeks ago!

Outback Distance Classis Recap + Thanksgiving

2010-11-29T08:54:00.000-05:00

So Thanksgiving is over and now it's Christmas, which is really scary to think that this year is over already.
Thanksgiving morning I woke up bright and early for Jacksonville's "Turkey Trot" the Outback Distance Classic- Nothing like running a half marathon to really earn your dinner!

This was without a doubt probably one of the worst races I have had- I seriously almost quit like 17 times during the race. I was given the ok to go out at a 9 minute pace which would have put my finish time at 1:58 and I was content with that. I managed to stay on that pace for the first 5 miles, and then just fell apart, my hip was already aching and there were rolling hills on the course and lots of turns and I wasn't being super careful. Combine all that with the fact that I don't really feel like I'm in shape from taking so much time off and you get a really crappy race. I mentally was not in it the way I needed to be, and it's hard to be mentally sharp when you have no control over your body and it could fail you at any minute.

John came out to take lots of pictures, which will have to wait for another post because they are at home, and I am not. I really think if he wasn't there I would have stopped somewhere along the way and made someone take me home, but I stuck it out, and finished in 2:05:06, a lot faster than my half last weekend, but still not up to my standards. I have never had a bad race like this, where I literally wanted to quit, I love to race, I am not fast but I can execute a race plan to a T and that is why I think I love races because I always nail the plan, and I guess I did nothing I would normally do during this race, I felt reckless out there with no strategy. Oh well, onward and upward, the next race will be better.

I am now currently on day 4 of a running hiatus, I have another massage booked for later this week, and I have lots of cross-training plans, but truth be told I get very angry when I walk into the gym and see people running on the treadmills. I get even more angry at the people I see running outside. The goal is to go back out on Monday feeling back to normal and get back to my normal running, so here's hoping, not just for my sake and sanity, but for the fellow runners who now all have targets on their backs if my plan does not go well.

Pre-Thanksgiving Holiday

2010-11-24T20:28:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving Eve to everyone! J and I both had the day off today and spent the day running errands and wasting time, it felt nice to not have any real obligations and just enjoy our day off.

A few things we did accomplish... Costco and Whole Foods. Somehow I have managed to eat an entire pound of Spinach in just 2 1/2 days, probably because I have been eating these like it's my job...

I guess since the temperature has headed back into the upper 70s I have been craving smoothies. I basically make my standard smoothies (strawberry, orange, banana) and add 2 huge handfuls of spinach- looks awful, tastes amazing!!!

I also had to pick up my packet for tomorrow's race, and while at the running store I picked up something for my tree....

I always get a new ornament every year, and I thought what better than to remind me of what I spent so much of this year focused on. I also picked up a 13.1 ornament for my mom, she has gotten to be quite the racer.

So now I am watching Eat, Pray, Love on Redbox and trying to collect myself for tomorrow's race. I have been given the green light to go out at what I will call conservative half marathon pace, and to pace off another girl until mile 8. If at mile 8 the knee still feels good, I am allowed to really pick it up- here is hoping the plan works! I am planning to do everything as I did on Sunday, and praying my knee responds the same.

Everyone enjoy the start of your Thanksgivings, and I will see you tomorrow with a race recap!

Women's Half Marathon Weekend Recap

2010-11-22T11:14:00.000-05:00

Hello and Happy Monday!I have been a major blog slacker since last week, so this will be a long recap.

So rewinding to Friday, I got up early to test the knee out after my Thursday night massage. The massage went well, she was able to really target where the tension was in my leg, and which muscles were weak and which ones were doing the over compensating. Good to know moving forward so I know what to be targeting. She also showed me how to apply the KT Tape to my leg to try and alleviate the pain while running.

Friday's run I went an easy 3 miles, average pace 9:15, I also wore the knee strap I bought to try and figure out where I like it best. I changed positions for each mile, not sure if any spot was better than the other, but I was able to finish all 3 miles without the stabbing knee pain, another win!

Fast forward to post-work Friday, I made the 3 1/2 hour drive to Tampa for the weekend. I made a super fun playlist for the car trip and it flew by, before I knew it I had arrived at Penny's apartment. After a quick wardrobe change we were headed out for the evening. Since the race wasn't until Sunday, we knew Friday would be our fun night, but I don't think either of us were prepared for the evening ahead.

First stop was to spend some time with Jaime before continuing on elsewhere.

Well after 3 stops and a lot of dancing, Penny and I finally managed to crash at 4:30am Saturday morning. Needless to say, I have not been up that late in I don't know how long, maybe ever, but we had so much fun it was absolutely worth it. A very early wake-up call Saturday morning meant less than 3 hours of sleep, but despite a sluggish start, I managed to have a very productive day and never really felt awful, I was functioning on all Cylinders. Jaime and I hit the expo to get all of our stuff, had lunch, and took and ice/heat bath in her pool and hottub.

I did manage to sneak in about a 90 minute nap before Penny got back from work, and then the three of us headed out for an early dinner. We were in bed early Saturday night, but a 4:30am wake-up call Sunday morning we still only had about 7 1/2 hours of sleep.

Now going into the race, I wasn't sure what my plans were going to be or how my knee was going to be feeling. I had done everything I possibly could to try and ensure my ability to race, but I just didn't know how my knee was going to feel.

We rode down with several of Penny's running friends whom we spent some time with this weekend.

While everyone else went to warm-up, I stayed at the cars knowing I didn't want to waste a possible mile or 2 of the race now. I stretched a lot, got myself loose, moved around some to see how my knee was feeling. I knew with the crazy Friday we had that I was not in prime racing condition, I had been on my feet pretty much since I got to Tampa and that made me nervous. Before I had ever left Jax on Friday I told myself this would be a race morning decision, and I had a few options depending on how everything felt: Don't start, drop down to the 5k, start the half and if the knee flares up before 7 miles take a DNF, start the half and if the knee flares up after 7 miles deal with it and finish, or start the half and do whatever I need to do to finish.

The annoying part about this injury is that you can't tell from the first step how a run is going to end, and that was what made this such a tough call because you couldn't tell if you were making the right one. Well I decided that my leg felt good enough that I was going to give it a shot, and I really didn't want to do the 5k, so I lined up as planned in my corral for the half. I had done everything that morning that I was supposed to: I stretched (a lot!), foam rolled, took some ib profen, I used the KT tape AND the knee strap, I also decided to wear my old shoes instead of the new ones. I knew my old shoes had done me so well that if I had a change to day, it was in a pair of shoes that my muscles were familiar with.

So the race was advertised as flat which I knew was good, but the course map showed a lot of turns which is where I had been having trouble with my knee the last week, so I though if I ran the turns wide rather than really tight that would help from putting to much strain on my knee, I would rather not bother to run the tangents and finish still running than try and turn to tight and have to take a DNF if my knee flared up. So this was my only race plan, that and to keep it pretty easy and not push too hard until the last couple miles if I was still feeling good. Normally I am such a strategy person in a race, I have splits nailed down, fueling plans in place, and have thought of every last detail, I did no such thing for this race because I truly didn't know how I would be feeling physically.

Now this race is heavily walker friendly, so we were put in Corral 1 and I started pretty close to the start line. I crossed pretty quickly and while I tried to keep it under control, my legs were wanting to run what my original planned pace was...

Mile 1- 8:58

Oops, too fast. I kept in check for the next 5 miles, I never pushed, I took the turns wide, and I walked through every water station- mostly due to congestion, but it also gave me a change to break up the running and stretch my knee which I did once up until mile 6 and then at every water station there after. I focused on keeping a short stride and landing more on my heels since that has been the only thing I have noticed over the last few weeks that seems to keep the knee pain away.

Miles 2-6 were all in the 9:20-9:25 range.

After Mile 6, my hip started to get achey, and I got nervous, I told myself that if I could make it to the halfway point before any knee pain started I would finish, but when my hip and it band started to ache at 6 I was a bit nervous as to if I had the mental strength to push through pain for 6+ miles.

My pace took a hit and miles 6-10 were all 9:55-10:07 range. Slower than I had wanted but I was stretching almost every mile and while my hip and IT band were tight/achy the debilitating stabbing pain never started so I just kept on going. At mile 10 I knew I had it in me to finish but it was still a waiting game for the knee.

Mile 11-12 had an uphill I was unaware of and then we ran through the inside of Tropicana field (stadium?) where the Devil Rays play. It was neat to run through the inside of the baseball stadium, but the turf really threw me off and slowed me down. It definitely require me to have to stabilize myself more with each step which sucked because my knee was not needing to be stressed anymore by being asked to stabilize me on rough surface. So my pace here dropped pretty bad, and per everyone's splits, it seemed to be a universal problem.

After we made the final turn to head to the finish line I figured if I had made it this far w/out any pain then I could pick it up until the finish line. I managed to get mile 13 at 9:50 and then the last little bit down to an 8:16 pace. It felt SO good to open up finally and take the long strides I have become accustomed to. It felt good to get back into my normal pace rhythms and I was flying by people in the last 1/2 mile which was also kind of nice.

While this isn't a personal worst, it certainly is not far off of it. Do I wish my time had been better, sure, but to be honest, finishing this race in my current injury-ridden condition was a serious accomplishment. I know that I have some time off coming very very soon, and once I give my knee a chance to recover fully, then I will be able to get back to my normal times and setting new PR's, but this was about finishing a fun race with my friends and having a great weekend in Tampa, which I did.

Post-race we hung around for the awards ceremony, and then headed out for breakfast. I hit the road and made it back to Jacksonville before dark. My knee seems to be feeling ok today, a little stiff, but to be expected after the beat-down it took yesterday. I am hoping it recovers quickly as I have one more favor to ask of it before it gets a running hiatus.

You win some you lose some

2010-11-17T09:12:00.000-05:00

Happy Hump Day! Despite an uncertain racing future, I am still super excited to make to Friday and hit the road to spend another race weekend with two of my favorites!

So yesterday after work I had some time and a serious yearning to put my new shoes to good use, so I played it safe and hit the gym for a run on the treadmill. I actually really came to embrace the treadmill and it's functionality over the last year, but for some reason since my marathon I am really loathing the idea of the treadmill, but since I didn't want to be miles from home in the dark if my knee freaked out I decided to keep it safe.

I ran 3 glorious pain free miles on the treadmill before I decided to "quit while you're ahead". I actually feel like I could have probably made it to 5 miles piece of cake, and in hindsight, I kind of wish I had.
3 Miles- 28:59 (9:50,9:40, 9:29)

I kept the run super easy and while I had some tightness in my actual IT band up near my hip, my knee never spoke up, I was thrilled. I knew with a completely different kind of shoe my legs might feel off or tight and they might have a little bit, but to be honest it was the best feeling run I had in over a week so I was quite happy. So there you have it, a win!

Now in hindsight I realize this was probably a pretty dumb move, but I never claimed to be smart. I decided I was going to run again this morning, and my coach ok'ed it as long as I was smart and careful. My original plan was to run this morning, last night's run was kind of impromptu, so I never really thought about moving this run.

The lose: 1.5 miles in to what I had hoped would be an easy 5 miler my knee shut down. after I made a hard turn. I was purposely avoiding uneven or slanted terrain, avoiding hills, but kind of forgot about the planting portion of a hard turn. As soon as I felt that stabbing pain on the outside of my knee I stopped and walked the shortest route home. I am taking off completely the rest of the day and tomorrow. I have a massage (read: torture session) tomorrow and then have been permitted to test the waters on Friday mornig with nothing more than 3 miles, and preferrably on a treadmill.

I bought some KT tape yesterday, I had read really good things about it, and figured tape never hurt anyone. I am taking in to my massage appointment tomorrow, the massage therapist is a Certified Kinesio-Taping practitioner, so I am actually really excited to see what all she has to say. I am kind of at that point now that I hit during the marathon where I have laid out all my options and it is probably time to start re-evaluating my goals. That would certainly be a lot easier if I wasn't already signed up for several races that I am so very excited about, but 2 races now could ruin all of next year and that is just not worth it. A lot of decisions to be made in the next several days.

Every Trick in the book

2010-11-16T09:15:00.000-05:00

Hello Bloggies! I have been MIA since last week, I have learned that no running makes for a very boring blog.

So to rewind, Saturday I attempted a long run with Penny, I made it 3 beautiful pain-free and quick miles before my knee freaked out and I had to turn around and walk back- yeah that bad. I vowed right there that I would take the entire upcoming week off from running to see if I could salvage either of my races in the next 10 days.

Saturday football = bad, tailgating was good as always, but football...bad.

Moving forward to Sunday- weights and cross-training. I found a lovely machine called the arc trainer which worked my quads, left my knee pain free and really got my heart rate up, a positive pay-off.

Monday- I sent my coach another discouraged email asking what options we had left to salvage one or both of my races. We talked through EVERY possible problem and scenario and came to 2 conclusions
1. If I want to race, pick one, gut it out, and plan to need another week recovery afterwards- FAIL!
2. Maybe you need new shoes....interesting thought!!!!

My current shoes had exactly 300 miles on them, and while I have always been able to make it to the 400-500 range, the mizunos I have been wearing recently are a much lighter shoe than all my previous pairs- maybe they couldn't handle the same mileage, hmm interesting.

After looking at the bottom of my shoes I noticed something very disturbing, the only wear on them was in the middle of the fore-foot area- I am (was) a very bad pronator with some decent heel striking- but that was not what my shoes were telling me. An hour spent in my local running store having my weight distribution, gait, and arch scrutinized, and trying almost a dozen pairs of shoes we MIGHT have a solution!

For whatever reason my natural stride has completely changed over the last 6 months and I am now running normal with minimal pronation and zero heel strike- so I have been wearing the completely wrong shoes for the last 14 or so weeks. I am still suspicious that the shoes are the culprit since nothing flared up until post-marathon, but either way I do need to be in the right shoes, so time well spent.

I tried to cling to my beloved Mizuno brand since I really did love the pair I have been in most recently, but there was another pair that felt so perfect on my feet. The felt super light and springy despite the fact that they were 2 ounces heavier than the mizunos...

So I know I professed my absolute hatred for Asics after my last pair destroyed my feet, but I could not deny how perfect these shoes felt, I ran outside, on the treadmill, jumped up and down, and did pretty much everything I could to try to find something wrong, so at the end of the day the Asics Gel Cumulus 12 came home with me, but with a promise that if they gave me blisters or any other problems, to bring them back and the would exchange them for a new pair of Mizunos.

I was supposed to give them a test run this morning, but before I even climbed out of bed I could feel my hip was stiff from the strength exerices I did yesterday. I know the route of ITBS is weak hips/glutes so I have been trying to do a little strengthening to get them back up to speed. As much as I wanted to run I knew this was not the day to push it, so they will have to wait for another day.

The last resort which I don't want to try with the new shoes on the first time out is one of those IT band knee straps. Almost everything I have read swears they work, but that many people become dependent on them and can't run without it. I don't want to get to that point so I figure I will save it for the race if I can't get my knee to calm down before then.

So there you have it, the full knee update- it seems like such a weird case of ITBS that it flared up only during the race and was still just as prominent after a week of complete rest. and another 2 weeks of so little activity, but I guess it doesn't discriminate.

Foam Rolling: Helpful or Harmful?

2010-11-12T09:45:00.000-05:00

Now it's actually Friday, yay! We are back on the road again this weekend, because we all know I can't sit still!

So to rewind a bit, Wednesday night = track night. I went to the track, updated my coach on the current ITB situation if the day and set out with my group for our warm-up.

I felt great during the warm-up, other than the fact that it was already pitch black at 6pm, I was beginning to think all of the being cautious was paying off.

3 Mile warm-up (27:13- 9:00, 9:09, 9:04)
We did another half mile warm-up once everyone else showed up at the track and then got down to business- on deck 4x1600, 2 1/2 minutes rest.

1st 1600- 7:48
My legs felt good during this first mile, but I was sucking wind like an 80 year old man with emphysema! I knew my legs should feel good, with all the ITB issues keeping me slowed down, I feel so rested, I actually miss that feeling of exhaustion that comes with long hard runs. I guess so much resting has been bad for my speed, but not much we can do there

2nd 1600- turned 800. Somewhere in the middle of the 2nd lap the infamous IT Band seized up and sent my knee and hip into some shooting pain. That was it, I called the workout right there. On pace for 7:55 2nd mile when I stopped, so at least I got something accomplished.

Made for another 5 mile night, I cannot seem to get past the 5 mile barrier, is that the point where my leg just gets angry? I spent a good 20 minutes talking to my coach, stretching, and foam rolling before heading home to ice and foam roll some more.

Yesterday with the day off, I woke up and had to ditch the long run (15 miler) I had planned, I was so mad, it was the perfect setting for it, and I had to scrub my workout because my leg still hurt. I ended up trying the bike, but the whole 'bending my knee repeatedly' seemed to be making it worse, so I just did some weights and went home to again ice/stretch/roll.

I must have spent at least an hour with my foam roller on just that 1 IT band yesterday. This morning, my knee and hip feel great, but I can literally feel knots in 2 spots on my IT band. I had never actually felt anything on the band itself, just the joint pain it was causing. It makes me wonder if all the foam rolling is actually hurting or helping???

I am thinking if I was getting a massage today and she could knead all these knots out I would actually be good to go, but maybe that is just false hope. And I can't decide if I should keep trying to roll out my leg, will it help or will it make something else hurt???

Too Many Priorities

2010-11-10T10:10:00.000-05:00

Happy ~~Friday~~ Wednesday! Working in the fabulous education industry has warranted me a nice mid-week holiday tomorrow, and a nice long weekend to look forward to!

Tonight is track night, and my leg is feeling good, so I am hoping I can do something good tonight rather than just flail about like I did last week at the track.

Yesterday I cross-trained...a lot. I could have run, but I have some big runs planned the rest of the week, and a pissed off knee would not have fit into that schedule so I did some spinning, so hand bike action (SO boring btw) and some more spinning, exciting I know. I am a bit nervous to still only be in the 4-5 day a week range with the running and not the 5-6 range, I feel like a February marathon is starting to seem like a long shot right now.

So obviously I have a lot of races scheduled in the coming months, and I would be lying if I said I didn't have specific goals for each of them.
-I am hoping for a half-marathon PR in just 10 short days, and only 7 weeks after setting my last one.
-I also trying to drop 90 seconds off of my 5k PR for seeding purposes for a spring race.
-Lastly, I have a redemption marathon in just 13 weeks that I need to start building back up for, like now!

Even as I type this, I realize how ridiculous this all sounds. I am trying to focus on 3 major goals that are each a daunting task all on their own, and yet I am somehow trying to roll all 3 strategies into 1 condensed training cycle, I might have tried to take on too much. I would rather have 1 or 2 really awesome races with new PR's that 5 or 6 mediocre ones, and I am worried that there is not enough time to really be able to focus on the specific training to achieve each of the goals I have, but I can't bring myself to back off of any of those.

This past fall when I started racing again after a summer of base building and marathon training, I was smashing old PR's left and right, by minutes at a time, and to be honest it was easy. Most of my PR's were from last fall or early spring when I was still considerably slower, my speed had improved enough that a PR was a given, it was just a matter of how much. Unfortunately, I am not in that position anymore. My months of focusing on distance and now recovery I feel like has left me stagnant for the first time since I started running. I think over the last year all I have focused on is increasing my distance, and that is all, the speed just came on it's own. Now that I have reached the maximum distance that at this point I am willing to train for, I am only focused on speed, and I just don't know if I can build the improvements in my speed as quickly as I have been able to improve my ability to run the distance.

I suppose we can call this a post-marathon rut, or possibly being a litte over-whelmed as to how to proceed with all of my goals, or maybe it is injury-paranoia who knows, but I don't seem to have the same focus I did when I was in the thick of marathon training, and to be honest a think a lot of it is because I don't really know what to focus on. Focusing on nothing is certainly not the way to go, but I don't really know where to start. Hopefully starting with today's track workout will provide some guidance.

Caustiously Optimistic...

2010-11-08T09:56:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday everyone, back to the routine today! I am currently obsessed with the cold weather, it makes me look feel so fast!

Like I mentioned Friday I was gearing up for my first post-marathon long run this past weekend. I was a bit nervous about how it would go since the IT Band was giving me so much grief last week. I was hoping for 10-12 miles, and ended up doing 11- a nice litte compromise I suppose :)

I ended up doing the first 5.5 alone, and the second 5.5 with a running buddy. The person I was running with was a teeny bit slower and I kind of did that on purpose, I my legs were itching to run far and fast, and while I knew some fast miles were needed, I also needed to exercise some control as to not hurt myself even more. Since I have no self-control in the cold weather, I knew signing up for pacing duty would be a good way to keep it at a moderate pace.

1st 5.6 Miles- 51:25 (9:11 pace)
Mile 1- 9:33
Mile 2- 9:24
Mile 3- 9:15
Mile 4- 9:16
Mile 5- 8:57
5-5.6 - 5:00 (8:20 pace)

So I was flying for the half I was alone, I felt so good, the temps were perfect, it was 45* and I warmed up so fast that I actually ended up taking my gloves off. It was so nice to be out for a long run again. I was really pleased with how good I felt (including my knee). Kind of bummed that I had to make a short stop to pick up running buddy and refill my water, but it was a quick stop and back out.

2nd 5.4 Miles- 52:43 (9:45 pace)
5.6- 6 - 4:02
Mile 7- 9:44
Mile 8- 9:33
Mile 9- 9:49
Mile 10- 9:28
Mile 11- 9:51

So my hands froze during the 2nd half, so bad that I could barely even push the buttons on my Garmin. Other than that, I was pleased that we were able to stay under 9:50 for the first 5. At mile 9 my knee started to hurt all of a sudden, so I promised myself that I would pick it up some for mile 10 and then I would slow it down for the last mile, since 10 was my minimum I didn't feel bad about the last 1 being slow. After I finished mile 10 my knee got pretty right, but the last mile helped loosen it up.

I spent most of Saturday with my knee hurting every time I bent it, not good! But woke up yesterday and it seemed fine- weird? I decided to literally rest all day and sit on the couch watching the NYC Marathon!

This morning I had a run planned with the group to do the bridges as usual on Mondays. Iwas very nervous about my knee after it freaked out at the end of Saturday's run, but it felt good so I told my coach I was feeling Cautiously optimistic.

Other than a slight ache somewhere on the 2nd down hill, it felt really good this morning! We did a total of 4 bridges (uphills) and the accompanying downhills. My times look slow to me, but I know I was doing well up the hills, and kept in check going down since that seems to be where my knee acts up.

5 Miles- 48:34 (9:43 pace)
Mile 1- 9:46
Mile 2- 9:50
Mile 3- 9:51
Mile 4- 9:39
Mile 5- 9:26

Another successful run, and I am ready to start picking it back up. I am also feeling cautiously optimistic about my race in 2 weeks, if everything continues to stay healthy, I think I could really see some big improvements in my running this fall!!!

It's Finally here

2010-11-05T09:54:00.001-04:00

TGIF everyone! That is not exactly what I am excited about, but it's a nice fact I suppose. Fall, or more importantly winter is finally here in the Sunshine State, woohoo!!!!!!

Temps this AM were 51* at 5am, and predicted 44* for tomorrow's first post-marathon long run! I have honestly forgotten how to dress for this weather- I spent most of last winter sweating to death from being over-dressed for many of my cold yet super-sunny runs. Are shorts appropriate for 44*, I haven't seen a number like that since maybe early February????

Since it is getting to be cold out, I also decided that I needed to make sure my dog was well equipped for winter. While out running errands one night this week, a fuzzy red item caught my eye, and I decided that since my poor Peachie was deprived and did not get to dress up for Halloween, I made sure that she would get to be the cutest ever Christmas pup...

Yeah she pretty much hated this thing, but it is SO cute! It is fur lined AND has a hood, you can't beat that!

So an ITB update, it seems to be doing better I guess. It was making itself heard at the track Wednesday night, but nothing I couldn't handle, I kept bringing my paces down and by the end of each interval it was feeling better, the longer I went the better it felt- weird right???
My coach had my put this stuff along my IT band that I thought was kind of like icy-hot, when I asked if that was what is was, he said kind of, but more just the Hot. I did my entire workout and my leg felt good with no major pain, but the second I finished and climbed in my car, my leg was on FIRE!!!!!!! Again, no pain, so I suppose we could call it a win, but not sure I will be trying that method again.

Wednesday's workout was 5x1000 with 200RI.

Warm-up: 3.15 Miles- 29:14 (9:15, 9:13, 9:21, 1:24 (9:29pace))
I felt good during the warm-up, it was cool out and cloudy, and not once did I feel like I was pushing, maybe the cool weather really does do wonders for your pace!

4x1000: Goal times 4:45-5:30
5:24, 4:51, 5:16, 5:12

So I only did 4 intervals instead of 5, better safe than sorry this week, but my times were all over the place. I started slow because I had no idea how it would feel, and to be honest the first one hurt the most. For #2 I hit the pace I am supposed to for that distance, and toward the end my right hip started to ache, so I decided to back it off for the last 2. I kept it respectable, but didn't try to kill it. The recoveries were perfect, I was ready to go as soon as I hit the start line again, even though most of the other were trying to walk and take a longer break, I guess all the distance training pays of somewhere.

1/2 mile cool down: 4:57 (9:58 pace)
Total 6.5 Miles

Not too awful for the first track workout back, but it was certainly not pretty, actually really ugly, but I feel good about it, I knew a week off would not make everything easy. As intructed I took Thursday off after running 3 days in a row.

I was going to get up and run a few easy miles this morning, but I woke up late, I blame the cold, and getting in everything this AM was just not going to happen. Determined to stick to my strength training schedule I did get in my weights this morning, so that make 3x this week as scheduled, I am so proud of myself that I actually did it! I don't remember the last time I actually lifted 3 days in one week!

I am planning a long run tomorrow 10-12 miles. I am wanting to do 12, but we will see how that pans out, but double digits is a must! I may try to get in some missed miles Sunday, but may just rest since next week is back to the real mileage, I hope the IT band holds up, I have been foam rolling and icing it to death, avoiding, heels, stairs, and anything else that may aggrevate it more. Thanks for all the suggestions, they all seem to be working!

Good luck to everyone racing NYC this weekend!!!

Soliciting Advice

2010-11-03T10:05:00.000-04:00

So my first week back to running has not gone as smoothly as I would like. Monday's run went great, and I left feeling fine. Yesterday I had planned to do 6 miles with 2 at hmp, especially since I felt so good Monday and was so energized I was really excited to be able to hop back in.

Well the heavens opened up here in North Florida yesterday and sent me to visit the treadmill. I actually had kind of missed the treadmill, I couldn't even remember our last date, but I would say it had been at least a month. So I get started, set my first mile at 9:31 and feel great, and again almost effortless. I get into mile 2 and my right knee that one that has been showing the ITB stress starts to flare up. I keep going since it is more achy than painful, but during mile 4 it stages a rebellion and forces me to change my stride. While I could have kept running since it wasn't really painful, I knew that since I was running and landing funny that is was a recipe for disaster, so run cut short at 4 miles, boo :(

4 Miles- 37:12, 9:18 average pace
Mile 1- 9:31
Mile 2- 9:29
Mile 3- 8:49
Mile 4- 9:23

Since my run got cut short, I used the extra time to stretch and foam roll, and while it seemed to temporarily offer some relief, I am a little stressed now. Up until today, any knee/ITB pain has been post run or exercise so the fact that it came about while I was running is a little, well, terrifying!!!

This is textbook ITB syndrome, it starts in the knee, but shows lingering tension up my leg to my hip. I have not a clue how to be proactive about this, ITB is not something I have ever dealt with, and everything I read says 3 things: Stretch, Foam Roll, and/or stop running. I have no intentions of taking another week off, so any advice on this matter is requested, and well expected, and if it could before my 6pm track practice that would be even better! If you have dealt with ITB issues, lets hear it, how did you kill them off????

Back in Business

2010-11-01T13:50:00.000-04:00

Happy Monday and November to all! I trust everyone had a nice weekend, our Florida/Georgia festivities were amazing and so insanely busy that I did not snap one picture the entire day- so imagine, lots of food, drinks, and TONS of people! Per usual, scheming for next year is already in the works.

Despite 9 hours of sleep Saturday night I was dragging yesterday, I skipped the weights, laid low, and got in bed early last night. This morning I almost turned off the alarm clock when it started blasting at 5am, and then I remembered I had to get my butt out of bed because I had a hot date!

8 days post marathon, and I was finally allowed to go for a run. I was really nervous about having had taken a week off, and while I did some moving last week, I would still consider my level of physical activity last week to be sloth-like. Due to some initial differences in opinion between my coach and I, this first week back tends to have a range for all my runs rather than a specific number. Today said 4-6 SUPER EASY, literally just like that. Well I met the large PRS group downtown this morning to run the bridges, especially since the bridges + wind kicked my ass during the marathon, I am going to make sure I own these babies come time for my next race.

I was a little timid starting out, I didn't really know how my legs were going to feel, or if they would even remember what to do. I tucked in with a couple girls who seemed to be about my same pace, and some faster ones I knew who were taking it easy today since they raced yesterday. Within the first half mile I was shocked I had fallen right back into my normal 9:40 pace, was moving, breathing, and feeling fine! Last week my right knee acted up off and on so I was also nervous that I would get halfway through and the pain would flare-up again, but it felt good the whole time.

I ended up running with just 1 girl the entire way. She is training for her first half in 3 years and is actually doing the same race I am in 3 weeks so we immediately had tons to talk about. I was SO happy to have someone to chat with as I was running up the monster bridge, and since she said she was doing 4 miles today, I decided that I would just stick to 4, which made my coach very happy.

4.14- 39:46, 9:36 average pace
Mile 1- 9:57
Mile 2- 9:26
Mile 3- 10:07
Mile 4- 9:49
.14- 1:27

I started feeling great during mile 2 and wanted to pick it up, but since I had started talking to this one girl I stuck with her, probably smart too because I have several more plans for this week, so I'll take it for my first day back.

Since today is November 1st, I did a look back at my month of October: mileage was very low for me: 109.3 miles total for the month of October, but considering that October included my taper and 1 week rest post-race, that actually still seems pretty good, if I had those 2 weeks back it would have been my highest month total yet.

October's Highlights obviously include my half marathon PR, meeting a new friend, and My First Marathon! I am really excited about all the things I have going on this month too, so there should be lots of fun race recaps to look out for :)

Zero Week

2010-10-29T09:30:00.000-04:00

Happy Florida/Georgia Weekend to everyone! To say have been busy this week would be an understatement, but it all seems to have worked out perfectly.

This week has been what most training plans call Zero Week in terms of running, where you pretty much just recover all week. The only things I have done are take a few longer walks with the dog, some weights, and get myself feeling back to normal.

It took me until Thursday to feel 100% normal- not tired, unusually hungry or not hungry, and no more lingering pains. By Tuesday I felt good, but still had some pain in my right knee, it didn't scare me much since I knew that knee took more of a beating than the other one, so I just kept icing it and left it alone. By last night I had gone all day without it hurting, so I declared myself recoverd :) I am still not planning to run until Monday, but to be honest I think that is more by circumstance than by choice.

I got super lucky when planning out my October. Having the week following my marathon be the busiest week of the year with preparing to host a 25+ person party tomorrow has certainly forced me to rest this week because I had so much else to do, that I did not feel tempted to go out and run before I should. I am looking forward to getting back into my routine on Monday, and getting my mileage back up.

For those unfamiliar with the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party (aka the Florida/Georgia game) you can read about last year's experience here.

This game has always been special for our family because it is a divided household, but it makes it so much fun, and must attend event every year. As you can imagine, being the home town sponsor for said event is kind of like training for a marathon, you put in a lot of time and preparation into everything for just 1 day.

So the last couple nights have consisted of a lot of this...

Feeding and drinking 25 outdoors is no small task, needless to say we have been making sure we had everything ready to go ahead of time just in case we needed to make further accomodations.

Last night with everything else ready to go, I finally got my butt into the kitchen to start on the food portion of the program. These little babies are SO fun and super easy...

Any excuse I can get to make them I do. I think I actually need more cookie cutters in my life, oh the fun I could have! My baking self stayed up waaay too late last night trying to get through everything, but I feel super awake today, I think it is all the lingering excitement!

I hope everyone has a great weekend, good luck to all those racing this weekend, I know there are a lot of Halloween races going on! See ya Sunday with a recap!

Post-Marathon Reflections

2010-10-26T14:29:00.000-04:00

Happy Tuesday! I want to thank everyone for their support and kind words regarding the marathon!

We are now 3 days post race, and I am starting to feel back to normal today, and even made it to the gym this morning for my first quality weights session in I don't know how long!

So there are a lot of things that I have been thinking about and gotten questions about so I figured I would share. Beware this is another long one:)

The Race: So I will start by saying that if you didn't catch the subtle hints from my race recap about what a catastrophe this race was, then well, I don't know what to say- it was a Catastrophe!!!!
-Expo: Nothing impressive, I have gotten more things from a bigger 5k race than I did here.

-The course was advertised as flat, when in fact it had 4 major hills on the bridges that would make you New Englanders proud, not at all what was indicated to us naive Floridians. My favorite was the beast of a climb that you had to scale at mile 25- just in case you hadn't worked hard enough in the first 25 miles, they made sure it would kill you in the last 1.2

-Safety: There was none! They had you running in the emergency lanes on open roads the entire race going teh same directon as the cars- not safe at all. There was zero traffic control, and no medical support either, lets just say they were VERY lucky that something bad did not happen.
-Sun/Wind: While the race director could not control the 20mph winds, he could have controlled the course to make at least 1 mile of it in the shade. All 26.2 miles were in direct sunlight, which definitely took it's toll on most of the runners and left me with some pretty horendous tan lines.

-Water/Gatorade/Fuel: Water stations were under-stocked and some were unmanned, making staying hydrated very challenging. I was SO thankful that John was such a trooper and met us 4 times on the race course with additional water, otherwise I think I may literally have been the walking dead like all the people I passed from Miles 22-Finish. There was pretty much no Gatorade, there was some at mile 12, and some that John gave me somewhere in the early 20s. We were fed false promises of Gatorade, had I know there would be none, I would have brought my own- in hindsight, I probably should have seen that one coming. There was no proper fuel on the couse, but some volunteer at mile 21 tried to force-feed me pretzels, umm no thanks!

-Medals: While my medal is still intact because I have pretty much refused to touch it, many medas broke including Penny and Jaime's..

You can see the great big hole in the middle where the rest of the medal should be... I would be pretty pissed if my medal broke and they told me, oh it's ok, you can fix it, just take it to a jeweler!!!!

-Race Director: there may as well have not been one! This was the most disorganized race I have ever participated in, the race director seemed very indifferent to many of our concerns the day before the race, and clearly had no experience running in a race, let along putting on a race with 4 different groups. I feel bad for him, I don't think he expected all the chaos that ensued, but if they plan to continue this race, they really should bring in a real runner to set it up.

-Crowd Support: ZERO! I got more support and cheers from my fellow runners than I did from all the spectators combined! Now I will say that my support group was great, but 3 people is mighty slim for such a long race.

I really hate to be so negative, but this race was awful! Nothing was delivered upon and my low expectations were drastically under-met. I knew it would me a small no-frills race, but I did at least expect water and gatorade, this was a marathon after all, not just some small 5k race. I want to use this as a cautionary tale to all future marathoners: Pick a non-inaugural big race, it may be crowded, but at least you won't be left high and dry!

Goals:

While I obviously missed my time goal, I can't complain about that too much considering all of the above. I know my next marathon can only get better, so I am really anxious to see what I could actually do in good conditions under competant race direction.

As for my non-time goals, here is how I fared:
-Finish Happy, Standing and with a Smile on my Face: Well I was happy to be done, I was standing, and while the smile was more of a grimace due to cramps in the last 200 yards, I think I took care of this one
-Stay Positive the entire race: Well I will say I stayed super positive the last 6 miles when the cramps started when I could have been nothing but a negative nancy, but I was my own biggest cheerleader the last few miles. I never actually hit "the wall" but if I had to pick my low point it would be somewhere between mile 10-11 after reaching the top of big hill #2 and feeling so beat up from the wind that I couldn't fathom how I would survive another 15 miles. I really wanted to stop, but after I decided at the half way point to abandon my 4:15, my positivity came back and it was smooth sailing until the end, so I give myself an A!
-Consistency: I would consider this one an epic fail! My fastest split was 9:04 and slowest I think 12:02, major inconsistency, However...My first half was super consistent in the 9:20-9:40 range for 13 miles with the exception of the 9:04, and the 2nd half was mostly at the 10:30 point with the exception of a few cramp-filled miles. I think I stayed consistent in each half given the situations, but would still consider this a major fail!!!
-No Walk Breaks: We all know how that ended, but there is always next time.
-Run the Tangents: Mission Accomplished!!!

26.28 Miles is about as close as you can get to 26.2. I knew I was focusing on the tangents, but I really didn't think I had done that well- go me!

What I Learned:
Every new situation always brings a learning experience and I learned a lot from this race.
-I am more positive than I thought
-I can run a marathon, and am a lot more capable that I give myself credit for
-And most importantly... do not ever register for a small or inaugural race ever again!!!

Weight: I actually had 3 separate people ask me about weight gain/loss during this training cycle and race, and while everyone is different and will vary, this is what I noticed:
-I weigh literally the exact same at the end of the race (day after) as I did the day I started training in June.
-I feel MUCH more flabby right now than I did when I started training 18 weeks ago.

My priority for the last 18 weeks has been running, and building up my endurance and a little bit of speed. I did some cross-training, and kept a very haphazzard weigh-training regimin, but the only thing that stayed consistent was my running, which is why I am softer than I was at the start of this. It took almost 8 weeks for my appetite to increase with my miles but it finally did, and I found that I all I wanted to eat was carbs!!! Not great for keeping the abs looking nice, but it seemed to work just fine. I am planning to at least strength train consistently for the next few months, on top of my running, and hopefully that will resolve some of the flabiness-factor.

Recovery: So while I still have 5 more days of this recovery nonsense, I feel good right now. My muscles seem back to normal, no extreme tightness or excruciating pain. My right knee is still unusually sore, but I attribute that to some itb inflammation from running only on the right side of a slanted road for 20+ miles, oh and hills- that's enough to piss off a knee and it band!

I may try to sneak in a short run this week just to make sure nothing is broken, but if I do it will be Thursday or Friday, I may hit spinning one day, but otherwise I have been given strict orders to rest this week, and hit the ground running again on Monday morning.

What's Next: So what's next???? Actual training picks up again on Monday, my coach and I have discussed a lot of options as far as what's up next for me and while some things are still up in the air, I will leave you with a good teaser of what is to come:

Monday 11/1: Resume Running (plan for 35-40 mile week)

Monday 11/8: Start 14 week training cycle

Saturday 11/21: Women's Running Magazine Half Marathon in St. Pete with Penny and Jaime

Thursday 11/25: Outback Distance Classic (Half-Marathon)
Who doesn't love a good Thanksgiving day race!

Saturday 12/11: Festival of Lights 5k

Planning to shatter my current 5k PR in hopes of it being fast enough to qualify for Corral 2 for the 2011 Gate River Run.

Sunday 12/19: Jacksonville Bank Half Marathon

Sunday 2/13: 26.2 with Donna

While I had already filled out my application and written the check for my 2nd full marathon, I held onto it for over a week before finally dropping it in the mail. As much as I loved training for a marathon, I was nervous that after doing it once I would not want to race that distance again. Well it took me about 2 minutes after finishing my race last weekend to know I was ready to tackle the distance again. I dropped off my registration on our way home Saturday and am officially in now for Marathon #2!!!!!

Running for the Bay Marathon Recap

2010-10-24T21:08:00.002-04:00

Spoiler Alert: I finished my first marathon!!! It was the most amazing and hardest thing I have ever done. Now lets get down to the gritty details, beware…world’s longest post ever below!
Friday, John and I loaded up and headed through BFE to Apalachicola. We met Penny and Jaime at the hotel and headed to the ‘expo’ We proceeded to grill the race director a few times about many things that were unclear, drove the race course (which ended up being a blessing in disguise) and then headed into town for our pre-race pasta dinner.

I was not feeling great most of Friday, I had a lingering headache from Thursday, and just felt sluggish, but I was really trying to keep myself mentally psyched up, but felt like such a Debbie Downer because all I wanted to do was sleep. Despite that fact, I actually had a super hard time falling asleep, all the nerves and anticipation, and when I woke up an hour before my alarm, I could not fall back asleep, all I could do was think about my anticipated paces, when I should gel, etc.

The alarm finally went off and I started to get ready and eat, but about 1/2 way through my breakfast I could not eat any more- my stomach was crampy and full of knots, and I was not about to force down any more food. I got myself together and was ready to get out there, the weather was going to great at the start and a lot of the nerves were starting to fade leaving lots of excitement in it’s place.
Jaime, Penny, and I all headed down to the start line about an hour before the race started. John and his parents would see us out on the race course at several pre-planned spots.

It was 57* degrees when we got down to race start and it was very windy. We spent a while keeping warm in the car which we so luckily parked about 30 feet from the start/finish line. We hit the bathroom a few times, and then finally ditched the warm clothes about 20 minutes before the start. I also took a pack of sport beans then, to make sure I had plenty of energy to go.

To lay the setting for you, I will say that this is one of the smallest races of any size that I have ever done. There were only 800 people total (for 4 races) and only 200ish doing the full marathon. We literally walked up to the start line maybe 5 minutes before the start. The full marathon runners were in the first wave, and due to a conversation with the race director on Friday, we were told they were going off gun time not chip time so we literally parked ourselves on the starting mats with the super fast people.

As soon as the gun went off, I took of flying. I tried really hard to keep my pace under control but it was hard. We got to where the first turn was and I noticed that most of the leaders passed it and kept going straight. Since we had driven the course the day before, Jaime and I remembered the poorly marked turn and were among the first to make the right hand turn onto the course correctly. This turn put you onto the base of the first bridge that would take you out to the rest of the course. As we started up the bridge I worked to keep my pace under control and let people pass me. This was the shortest and most moderate of the 4 bridge inclines (read monster hills) that we would have to climb, and I felt good by the time we reached the top, my heart rate seemed fine, and my pace was in the lower 9:xx range, faster than I had wanted, but it was done now. I kept it REALLY slow on the downhill and managed to net a 9:08 first mile- the fastest mile of the whole race- FAIL!

To describe the course, it was a basic out and back that consisted of 2- almost 5 mile bridges. Each bridge had 1 major hill/incline at one end of it and the rest was relatively flat. The bridges were not closed to traffic, we were running in the emergency lanes which concerned me at first, but worked out fine once we were out there. The problem however that we were not anticipating was the 15-20mph winds that would be coming at us non-stop for the entire race.

After mile 1 I slowed it down perfect into my 9:35-9:40 range that I was planning to sit at until about mile 5. I felt ok during the first 5 miles, my legs seemed heavy instead of light and springy, but I was seeming to hit my paces fine, so I just chalked it up to too much rest and nerves and figured they would loosen up somewhere between miles 4-7. I was planning to gu at mile 4, but with no water station is sight I had to hold off until mile 5. I took the gu, my stomach felt great, and as we came off the first bridge and made the turn towards the 2nd I started to get into my groove, I felt like I was finally falling into my rhythm.

John was waiting at the base of bridge 2 with a water bottle at mile 6.4, we had asked him to be at the base of each bridge with water bottles since there wasn’t going to be much if any water over the long stretches of bridges. I noticed as I came up on where they were standing that it looked like they had been wrangled into working a water station there since the race was very short on volunteers. I waved, grabbed my water and kept on going. It was definitely a boost to see people I knew and it kept me in my stride, my middle miles here were in the 9:25-9:35 range and I was really pleased that my pace was progressing as I had hoped.

Once I hit mile 6.5, the half marathoners split from us to head back towards the end. At that point when we got onto the 2nd bridge, I felt the winds that had been semi-blocked by the larger crowd on the first bridge. The wind was torturous, it kept me cool I suppose, but it was constant, it was hard, and it was right in my face. I would describe it by telling you to turn a big standing fan on high and trying to run straight into it- not fun! I tried really hard to run as close to the bridge siding as possible because that at least took some of the impact from the wind and then I only had to fight it from about the hip up. At about mile 7 with a good 4 miles and mass incline still to go on this bridge my mental state started to falter. I thought about how many miles I still had to go, and how brutal it would be to have to fight the wind the whole way. At about mile 9 I got really discouraged, this was getting hard, my legs already felt tired, there had been no Gatorade on the course yet, and the sun was now out in full force. Despite all these mounting negatives, I was still about a minute ahead of pace at mile 10. That is where the next hill started.

Starting up the next hill, I knew it was make or break time right here at mile 10. I kept my head down and just kept pushing, I knew that the downhill would also come before I hit mile 11, so I knew even if I slowed down on the uphill I would be able to make it up on the downhill. Well I took all advice to just pump my arms, stay on my toes, keep my head down. I made it to the top a little tired, but as soon as it leveled off the wind got worse, I actually had to pay attention to make sure it didn’t blow me off the bridge. The downhill offered no help with the pace because the wind was basically negating all of my efforts to go faster, and as my Garmin beeped at mile 11 I saw my first mile over pace- 9:53, FAIL!

I knew 1 slow mile wouldn’t kill me, but I felt so discouraged that it came on a mile that should have been quick, my pace after the uphill was at 10:03, so how was it possible that I only gained back 10 seconds over a very long 1/2 mile downhill????? As we came off the bridge shortly after the mile 11 marker, I had John waiting for me with another water bottle. I was SO thankful that he had gone out for us with water, because I may have literally died without it. The water stations were running out of water/cups and had so few people that you often had to move off the course to grab water from the table.

Approaching the area where I would be passing the leader as we all started the turn back I kept my eyes open for Penny, I knew I would see her if she was on or ahead of pace. If I had been 15 seconds slower we would have missed each other, but I saw her as she was turning to go back over the bridge, and was SO excited to let her know that at that point she was the 3rd overall female!!!!! At that point I made another right turn to run along on the road closest to the beach, and the last mile and half stretch that would take me to the turn around point.

Another mental boost from seeing Penny, and I was still in range of my goal, but I needed to catch a break. I actually got excited that I was off the bridges and would have a good 3.5 miles with a break from the wind, boy was I wrong. Running so close to the beach, even though there were big houses along the road, the breeze was at it worst, I was baffled that it was so bad, and that it was effecting me so much, but it was. Right here at mile 12 is when I saw 9:59 and knew I was at the point where I needed to re-evaluate. I felt like the effort I was having to put in to hit a 9:40 mile was equal to what I would normally put in to hit a 9:00 mile.

Finally we turned around and I crossed the halfway mark. As we did I checked my Garmin and it was literally at 2:07:19, so I would have to have a perfectly even split (or negative) to hit 4:15, and at that exact second I threw away my time goal and knew I had to run my race on that course in these conditions, not my ideal course and conditions race. It took me about a mile to really get comfortable with this idea, but so many of the people around me were already walking and looked like they were struggling, and at that point I still felt physically in it, so I felt thankful. I made the turn after mile 14 to get back on the monster bridge, and grab another water bottle from John. I went ahead and told him he needed to not expect me until around 4:30, that the wind was just too bad, and I was already hurting.

I walked through the water station at the base of that bridge since once I was on it, it was an immediate and steep 1/2 mile uphill. That was my first walk break of the race. I made it up the bridge and passed several people who had to stop and walk, I just kept my head down again, and sucked it up. Downhill was non-impressive again, and after that the bridge flattened out and the wind came back. It was more of a cross/tail wind going back so not nearly as bad, but since this bridge curved and didn’t run an even north/south, when we curved it came back in my face again. I held my pace pretty well until mile 18 when I came off the bridge, I was still in the low 10:00s and was only walking through the water stations. I had only had Gatorade once at mile 12 and had not seen it the rest of the course. I grabbed 1 last water from John and mile 18 and asked him to make a change in plans and meet me at mile 23ish in the middle of the last bridge before the monstrous final hill at mile 25.

Miles 18-20 flew by getting from one bridge to the next on the mainland. I had lost many of the pacers/people I had been hanging with over the bridge, they were all somewhere behind me, so I found some new ones to hang in behind. I got back out onto the last bridge and watched as Garmie rolled over to mile 21. Honestly at this point when most people are hitting the wall, my mental state drastically improved. I was so happy and positive that I had 5 miles to go, and that I was in the low 10:xx range when I was running, 5 miles really seemed like nothing, and I knew it would hurt, it already did, but I knew I could do 5 miles, I had less than an hour to go, and I was so at peace and excited for the first point all day. But around mile 21, the cramps started. Due to loss of electrolytes/salt imbalance/hypernutremia? my legs started to cramp like crazy.

Only having Gatorade twice up until mile 21 was definitely the culprit, but it was out of my control, and at that point there was really nothing to do.

I took another gu at 21, it didn’t help. Every time my leg cramped up I had to walk it out. I hated that, but I really had no choice, the cramps made me pretty much immobile. What really killed me was when I was able to start running when the cramp passed, I was running at about a 10:15 pace which I felt good about considering everything else. As I kept going the cramps came closer and closer together, but I kept my head up, I knew I would make it, and I was still passing people some how, and as bad as I felt for them, I felt good that I hadn’t hit a wall and that I was still going. I really thought I would lose it mentally before I did physically, but it was the total opposite, my legs failed me out there and my mind kept me going, it was amazing how it works like that, and if nothing else I was SO proud of myself for sticking to my goal of keeping positive, I really did it, and for that I am elated!

John was there at about 23.5 where I begged for some Gatorade hoping it would kill the cramps and I could finish strong. It didn’t really help, but he told me to keep running, and I tried my hardest, I would literally run until my leg seized up and then walk until it stopped. I got to the base of the hill and took the same approach, except I made myself go at least 2 light posts running whether I had a cramp or not. I passed 4 people going up the bridge, that was a huge mental boost! As I reached the top there was an older man names Lester who I talked with. He said this was one of the worst marathons out of 30 that he had done, and it made me feel better that I wasn’t the only one with negative thoughts. He was walking and I urged him to run the downhill with me since we had less than a mile.

I hit the bottom of the hill with literally only .3m to go and got another cramp, I basically hobbled my way to the finish line. I was bummed I couldn’t lay it out and finish strong, but I kept running and felt so good that I didn’t give up and that I stayed so positive despite less than ideal conditions.

Finish Time: 4:38:43, average pace 10:36

So I missed my time goal, and yes it’s a bummer, but I am ok with it considering everything else. I was on pace until the half, and had a major positive split, but under the conditions, it was the best I had. You can bet I am already mentally onto the redemption marathon, because I know I can do better and have better in me. I have A LOT of other things to share about this race, how I am recovering, and what is next, but that I will get to in another post, this one needed to be for me, as a reminder of what I did, how hard I worked, and all the barriers I pushed through. Always remembering the day I became a Marathoner!

Post-race I hung out a bit with these lovely ladies before we all hit the road to head home. I had an amazing weekend with Jaime and Penny, make sure to check their blogs for their own race recaps. I am looking forward to racing with them again in just 4 short weeks!

Race Goals

2010-10-20T08:22:00.000-04:00

So as a 2nd to last post pre-marathon I thought I would go ahead and talk about the dreaded topic of race goals. But first, the Last run!

This morning was my last run before the marathon- 3 Miles with 2 @ goal pace.... I follow directions ok, but this became 2 miles at goal pace and 1 well below it :)

3 Miles- 28:04, 9:22 pace
9:29, 9:28, 9:07

I had originally planned to just run at home and go on about my Wednesday morning, but yesterday afternoon I was exchanging some emails with my coach and he suggested I come do my run with his AM track group so he and I could talk about my race strategy and recovery plans once I was finished- I hopped on that bandwagon in an instant! Anyone who is naive enough to let me talk about the race and the 168465164632165 thoughts in my head is actually kind of dumb, but he volunteered! I feel good to have a plan in place that someone besides me agrees is smart, so with all that said, training and planning is done, and it's time for 48 hours of rest and panic, and then... RACE!!!!

Now... everyone talks about how you shouldn't have a time goal for your first marathon, and your goal should just be to finish- but if you know me at all, you know that is not even an option. I am an over-driven type-A who is super competitive, at least with myself, sometime others- and not having a goal would just not fly. Just finishing is not an option in this race (kind of like school wasn't an option, you just did it), I will finish, yes it will hurt, sure I may cry, but I know myself and I will finish this race or they will have to wheel me off on a stretcher.

However...I do understand that setting hard or unrealistic expectations for such a demanding challenge can be a huge let down which is why I have gone and given myself multiple goals (some even non-time related) so that way whenever I do finish I can be proud and excited about all the things I did accomplish.

Non-Time Related Goals First:

-Finish Happy, Standing, and with a smile on my face. I think that is all we can ever hope for
-Stay positive throughout the entire race. I know the pain will come at some point, and the best way to get through it for me is to not dwell on it and keep a positive attitude- so this is a major goal!
-Consistency. I have spent many hours reviewing splits from long runs and races and considering my tendencies and strengths. My thought is it will be so helpful (and distracting) to focus on keeping a consistent pace range.I would LOVE to see negative splits, but I am not naive, so I will focus on consistency!
-No walk breaks. This may seem a little harsh for a 1st marathon, and I may rescind this statement after Saturday, but I do not walk during my runs unless something is drastically wrong, it always hurts more when you start again, and I can never seem to go as fast as I was before, so I figure pain is better than prolonged pain, thus no walking!
-Run the tangents. This may seem like an obvious statement, but I am using it as one of my major distraction techniques. If I run too wide on the course, my Garmin may actually read 27.00 before I cross the finish line, and I would like to avoid as much extra distance as I can, so focuing on running the tangents hopefully will help to make sure I keep the distance as close to 26.2 as possible.

Time Related Goals:

- Goal A: 4:15:00 or less. This is what I trained for, and I am prepared to go for a 4:15. Assuming the sun, heat, or race director don't try to kill me, I think this is very realistic and attainable if I can mentally keep it together. HOWEVER...

I do realize that not everything can always be rainbows and sunshine and I have prepared myself that if things turn south to change my expectations based on the situation. I will not be disappointed if I don't hit 4:15 for a specific reason, such as bad weather or poisoned Gatorade, but I also know myself and that if it becomes obvious that my 4:15 is gone I will need to set a new goal to keep myself focused and motivated out there. To avoid Negative Nancy tendencies I am not going into my B and C level goals, because that would mean preparing for the worst, and I am putting all my energy right now into preparing for the best!

Race Week

2010-10-19T10:10:00.000-04:00

Today is Tuesday and T-Minus 4 days until the race, and I do not feel ready.
I went out for another run this morning, 4.5 miles, and while my legs seemed fine, my lungs acted like they were being abused, it was almost like a claustrophobic feeling, not at all what you expect when you go out for a cool run in the dark.

4.5 Miles- 41:42, 9:16 average pace
Mile 1- 9:38
Mile 2- 9:05
Mile 3- 8:57
Mile 4- 9:20
last .5- 4:42 (9:25 pace)

This was supposed to be an abbreviated tempo and it was ok, nothing too crazy, I wanted to remind my legs again what it was like to run fast, but not too fast. But I felt really out of it since my breathing was all wacky, it almost reminded me of how winded I used to get when I first started running, it really made no sense. I am not really putting much stock in this run, and it doesn't have me doubting anything, but I feel like I have rested far too much during this taper and that makes me worry that I have lost everything I put in early on. Don't worry, I won't go do anything crazy like try and run 20 miles tonight to see if I still can, but it leaves me a bit weary and thinking "have I really done enough in the last 5-6 weeks that my body will remember how to run for 4 hours without stopping"? I know everyone says its normal to have those doubts, but these don't seem like irrational fears, I feel like I have solid proof to back it up, making it seem all the more legitimate, oh well, too late now, what's done is done.

On a more cheery note I did spend a good hour yesterday on Google Earth dragging my little virtual man down the entire race course to check out the terrain, elevation changes, possibilities for my bike pacer, places to be afraid of, and to try and figure out how I plan to pace myself. There are some serious advantages on this course and in my opinion it would dumb not to take advantage of them, so I spent a while going through thinking about where I would hope to hit some faster times and where I would play it conservative.

On deck for tonight is finally getting around to making a new playlist, and starting the packing extravaganza, I was tempted to pull out the suitcase last night, but I with held in fear it would make me seem crazy. ANy good song suggestions for the playlist, I desperately need some new music!!!

Last 'Long Run'

2010-10-16T09:39:00.000-04:00

Happy Weekend everybody! We are officially 1 week away now, I am very excited and very nervous!

This morning I had my last long run on the schedule, it was supposed to be 8-10 miles at goal pace. We had a front move in yesterday to cool it off for the weekend, and it was a chilly 54* when I started my run at 6:45am!!!! I REALLY wish our race had been this weekend, because the perfect weather is not supposed to last past Monday, boo:(

I made an attempt at what I was hoping was another race outfit possibility today, well lets just say it was another wardrobe FAIL! I also tried putting my phone in my spibelt instead of just keys and gu. I was thinking if it didn't annoy me that I could race with it. So many people take pictures during the race and I thought that it could be fun, but after 1 miles I decided that it was not sitting right and unless I wanted to put the spibelt at my true waist which is practially my bra line, it was not going to work, so I turned around and ditched it at home at mile 2.

The first 4 miles total I found it harder to hit my goal pace, my lungs were kind of burning, and those 9:25 paces felt harder than any mile I ran during my half a few weeks ago. I decided that it was the cooler air and my lungs not being used to it. I felt great in the cold air, except my fingers, they got quite cold, but I would never bring out gloves in 50* weather.

8 Miles- 1:13:31, 9:11 average pace
Mile 1- 9:36
Mile 2- 9:29
Mile 3- 9:21
Mile 4- 9:05
Mile 5- 9:11
Mile 6- 8:54
Mile 7- 9:05
Mile 8- 8:46

So the run went really well, I was super happy with how I felt even though the paces seemed tough, they came pretty easy. The 5th and 6th mile (9:11 and 8:54) were the easiest miles by far and they weren't even the downhills. I almost wish I had done the 10 since I felt so good, but I will take a super quality 8 miler.

I definitely needed the confidence boost that came with such a good/fast run. I kept trying to slow down but all it did was drop from an 8:30 mile to a 8:55 mile, so hopefully my goal pace next weekend will feel smooth and easy.

Since this is pretty much the end of the road now, I spent my post-run time icing, taking a bath, stretch/roll, and giving myself a mini-pedicure. I am too afraid to let anyone else touch my feet right now, but they needed some attention, so I got rid of all the dead skin and updated my nail polish, fun! We are off to watch football tonight, and run a million errands tomorrow, good luck to all this weekend's racers, can't wait to read all the race recaps!!!

Calf is Back

2010-10-15T09:40:00.000-04:00

8 Days and Counting and the calf pain is back! I will say it is very different than the inner shin/calf pain I have had the last few weeks, those spots actually feel great (probably because I have been icing them 34354321 times a day) but my very low calf on the back of my leg (almost achilles area) is talking now. I hope this is just a "taper thing" which I assume it is because it seemed so random!

Last night I went out to do an easy 4-5 miles, and I had to stop at 4 because my calves were SO tight. Trying to stretch them mid-run was literally like trying to stretch a metal pole, there was just no way! Despite the awful calf cramps/pain/tension I managed a pretty good run. The goal was to keep it easy, and I was hoping for 2-3 miles at goal pace, especially since the weather was already getting nice last night- cool and breezy, and the sun was already going down at 6:30!!!!

4 Miles- 38:00 exactly:) 9:30 avereage pace
9:41, 9:35, 9:25, 9:19

I was actually really suprised that several times I looked at my watch I was below a 9:00 pace, and I figured that might be why my calves hurt, but I actually found the longer strides and quicker turnover helped more because my heel was less likely to hit the ground if I went faster, so hence the negative splits! I felt like I was going slow the whole time, but obviously not, I managed 3 quality miles 2 in my goal pace range, but I think speeding up helped disipate some of the pain and made the end of the run nice.

I rolled/stretched/iced when I got home, its really amazing how well those things actually work, if only I did them every time I ran ;)

So 1 week from right now I will be en-route to Apalachicola, scary right! It finally hit me when I got to work today and realized it was the weekend, that meant that next week is Race Week, the week I have been thinking about for months! Yesterday we had to send a co-worker home sick with an Upper Respiratory Infection- at least that's not contagious, but the cold that caused it is, so I am loading up on healthy things and healthy thoughts, I rarely if ever get sick, but when I do, it's bad, and it puts me down for a while, so I am not taking any chances. Hope everyone has an awesome weekend! Last long run tomorrow!!!!

Last Track Workout

2010-10-14T09:24:00.000-04:00

Morning y'all, it's almost the weekend, and I am itching for 2 days off to try and tackle this growing to do list I have!

We are now at T-9 days until the marathon, and after my last track workout last night, and talking with my coach for a while I feel better and a big bundle of nerves all at once now that other people are all paying attention to my running.

So originally we were supposed to be doing mile repeats last night, but when I got to the track, he had changed it to 3 x 5 minutes at tempo pace. Since I normally do actual tempo runs in the 8:20-8:30 range I figured I needed to be in the 7:55-8:00 range for just 5 minutes. We were essentially doing 5 minutes at tempo pace, and a 1 minute recovery jog to drop our HR back down before doing the next 5 minutes- to be honest, that seemed pretty easy to me. He offered to let me do 4 x 5 minutes with the first group, but I said no, this was not the time to test myself against the team speedsters. I decided that I needed to try to get in 1000m in each 5 minutes and that would make it more of a track session than tempo which is what I wanted since I already did my tempo on Monday :)

After a longerish warm-up, we lined up for the first 5 minutes, I was suprised how heavy my legs felt in the first lap considering how much energy I had bursting out of me all day, I seriously was bouncing off the walls and now my legs couldn't wake up- I guess this is the taper!

1.25 Mile Warm-up
5 Minutes- .67 miles (1000m) at 7:40 pace
5 Minutes- .63 miles (not 100m) at 7:58 pace
5 Minutes- .65 miles (almost 1000m) at 7:45 pace
.52 mile cool down = 4 miles for the day, right as I had planned :)

So yest I started a bit too fast on the first one, what else is new. My shin/calf pain magically returned at the end of the first 5 minutes so I backed off some during the 2nd rep to make sure I could finish strong. My legs really felt like lead during the whole workout though which really made me mad. It was obvious yesterday that I was SO well rested, and yet my legs couldn't perform, oh well, it could have been worse. I had lots of fun again last night, even more people were there since there were several who skipped last week due to races, but this is going to be a really fun group to train with. I am not going to go to the track workout next week because I know I would be too tempted.

I had planned to do an easy 4-5 miles this morning as a recovery and to shake out my legs, but my coach said I should wait 24 hours since I was tapering, so I have instructions to do my easy run after work (and class) tonight, and then my goal pace "long run" of 8-10 miles on Saturday.