Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas!

It was such a nice morning for my 4 mile run! Marissa gave me a Virginia is for Runners technical tee so I wore that with a running skirt since it was only 50* out.  Had a bit of a head wind for about half of it was amazingly was able to still maintain a 10 minute mile pace.  I was pleasantly surprised when I saw my time at the end.  Gonna take the kiddo hiking after breakfast and presents, so pictures to come later.  Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!  Happy running!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Personal Best

Okay, I know that habitual training will eventually make me faster, but I don't think it dawned on me that I would ever PR in a training run.  Today was my second run with the new training plan and I just ran a 32:32 5k time.  This is of course slow by normal standards, but I ran my last 5k in 32:46 which was also a PR for me.  I think part of my problem was a mental block.  For some reason I could never run an entire training run, then my coach told me I had to, and since then I haven't stopped once.  We'll see how Saturday goes since that is a 4 mile run, but I'm happy with where I'm at at the moment.  That isn't to say that I won't want more soon though.  I always want more.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

I just realized....

I just realized how much I need to stretch after my runs.  Over the last months, my hamstrings have been getting tighter and tighter, to the point where I could feel them tightening up more on my last run.  Now, I have no one to blame but myself since I was too lazy to stretch well after a run, but we're changing that.  The new goal is to get up early enough to fit my run in, followed by 20 minutes of Yoga.  I did the Yoga this morning even though I had no run scheduled, and found out just how much flexibility I've lost over the last year.  Not that I was that flexible before but.....  I have a long way to go.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

The Plan

Okay.  I met with the new Running coach from Peak Training tonight to go over my race goals and to see the game plan.  In short, I don't eat enough to fuel my runs and have been overtraining.  Not really what I expected to here I think.  I now have the new training plan and will be receiving my new meal plan by email.  I will be logging my runs as well as my water and food intake to report back to my coach.  I also have core training that I have to do everyday.  I am committed to doing what I need to do to get ready for this Half Marathon.  I think that it's going to be hard for me since it will require actual preparation as far as meals go, but it's necessary.  I'm looking forward to my first training run under the new plan.  Happy running.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

3 mile run

The run went okay this morning.  I signed up with Peak Training to help get me ready for my Half Marathon.  I have a fitness assessment tomorrow evening, but since we won't have time to do my 3 mile run tomorrow night, I got to do it today.  My instructions were to eat before (I hate eating before a run), and run the whole 3 miles at a comfortable pace, but no walking.  I used to sportband instead of my ipod and nike+, which may not have been the best decision, but I made it through the whole thing.  There were times in the run that I was thinking "on a normal day I would have walked here" if my legs were starting to get stiff.  I kept going though.  It's not my fastest 3 miles, but it is my fastest training run.  Normally I walk/run my training days.  Oh yeah, I even ate before I ran.  A half a bagel with cream cheese and some milk, so I could get enough protein.  My knee was feeling a little off for the last quarter mile, but the last half mile is at a decline.  For some reason my knee does not like going down hills.  I will need to figure something out for this since not all runs are completely flat.  So, my time was 34'22.  I did a .3 mile cool down and am feeling pretty decent.  I think some yoga and pilates is in order to get my knees feeling 100%.  Happy running!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Healing

Well, my knee is feeling much better after the holiday.  That day of rest that I took really seemed to help.  I have another 3 on the board for tomorrow so we'll see how it goes.  Definitely getting excited.  There aren't many days left until I can register for the race and I can't wait.  I have so much stuff that I want to do before the trip, and to get ready for the trip.  One thing at a time though.  Happy running!

Friday, November 26, 2010

Milestones

I don't often look at my total mileage, so after adding the widget showing my total miles I was surprised.  I see my miles in daily and weekly increments, but I don't really notice the complete total.  I'm coming up on 300 miles, which is kind of a big deal for me.  I need to start paying more attention to that since seeing that number has motivated me to change it to 300.  I may even go walking today even though it's a rest day.  I also hit another milestone yesterday.  I do weigh myself fairly frequently and try not to get discouraged when my weight fluctuates, but yesterday the scale read 130.  I haven't seen my scale show that number since before I got pregnant.  I still have a few pounds to go, but I'm excited and newly motived to drop the last 5.  It will take a lot of work and probably some added exercises, but it's close.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Week Two - Almost complete

Well, today was my 2nd training day of Week 2 to get ready for the Marine Corps Half in May.  It was a less than stellar run, as far as runs go.  My pace time was a minute slower, but I'd like to blame that on the wind being in my face for about half the run and the horrendous stitch in my side that started part way up the hill (about half way through the run).  This was nor normal stitch, one that I would normally run through, this was bad, stretching from my upper rib cage down to my hip.  I've never felt anything like it.  I just had to walk the hill and wait for it to go away.  Once at the top of the hill it was a little better, but had already killed my mood.  And it was freezing outside (at least for Arizona).  Running when it's 40 degrees outside is really not my idea of fun, but training is way to important for me to punk out on a training day.  I may switch up training a little bit, because I really like running few miles and more often during the week.  Everything I've read so far says to add only 10% to your weekly mileage.  So, I'm going to go back to my 2 and 3 mile per day runs with a slightly longer weekend run and see how that goes.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Week One complete

I started the 10k training this week for the Nike + 10k coach.  Once I finish it, I will move on to the half marathon training.

Today was my long run.  I had to change the start date of this challenge/goal so the long run would fall on a weekend instead of on Thursday or Friday.  Week One's "long run" was 5 miles, my longest distance yet.  I broke it into a mix of running and walking so I wouldn't get too tired or try and do too much at once.  The goal is to finish a Half Marathon, not hurt myself before I even get the change to try.  There was a little bit of stiffness in my left knee and both hamstrings, but after doing some more reading, that might be because I didn't hydrate enough before my run.  I'm still learning all of this stuff.  The compression socks helped a lot, but the laces I bought for my shoes were too tight and my feet were getting tingly for the last 2 miles.  Gonna switch back to my old laces.  I've also decided that I need to stick to the same time every morning.  During the week I leave between 5 and 5:30 for my run and this morning I didn't leave until almost 7.  Will need to make sure I keep it consistent.  All in all it was a good training day, although I might regret taking Sevrine hiking this morning on top of the 5.11 mile run.  We'll see though.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Veteran's Day 5k



The day started out with a really tired kid, then a tired and really cold kid, then a crying kid because she couldn't run the 5k with Mom, then a really happy kid crossing the finish line first of the walkers with her Grandma, then a happy kid cheering her Mom across the finish line.  Had a great morning though.  Oh yeah, a very nice National Guard Recruiter asked me out. lol  What an eventful day, and all before 9:30.  The official race results are Mom and Sevrine finish first out of the walkers (no posted time though) and me finishing in 32:41 (a minute faster than my last 5k).  This was my first race in a skirt and besides the cold it was awesome.  The compression socks were a total blessing, keeping my legs warm, the blood flowing and at the end of the race, my legs still felt fresh.  Have to give credit to Runningskirts.com for making sure my skirt made it in time for the race, and the camo was perfect for Veteran's Day.  Can't wait til the next race.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Countdown to Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon

Okay, so the decision to tackle a half marathon may seem a little bit crazy, but I think I need the challenge. A goal to set for myself.  It's also a great way to get out to the East Coast and spend some time with my little sister.  I can't wait.  I need to see how much money I can save up for my plane ticket and expenses, because I might want to bring Sevrine with me.  We'll have to see though.  Training begins officially tomorrow.  The plan right now is to run 3-4 training sessions a week, with cross-training on off days.  Some days I'll be doubling up with a run in the morning and yoga or pilates at night, but I'm optimistic that this will be a good plan to start with.  I didn't run that much last month, but have been at it all this week so far.  To get ready for 13.1 miles I'm going to start the couch to 5k program from week 5 or 6 until I get my legs back and then begin the bridge to 10k program which lasts 9 weeks.  Once I've completed that, I'll work right into my half marathon training to build up that distance.  It's gonna mean a lot of long runs, but I think it will definitely be worth it.  Can't wait to start.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

One week left

I only have one week left until my 5k and I'm feeling a little bit unprepared.  I've been doing the Couch to 5k program and I am on Week 6 Day 2, which I also did yesterday.  I did it again this morning because I couldn't run all of the last 10 minute interval.  Not really sure that was a good idea though since about halfway through my last 10 minute interval my legs were like jell-o. I think part of my problem is cross training or at least the lack thereof.  I'm going to try and start getting on the bike in the evening to loosen up and for a few minutes before I go run this week.  Hopefully that will help, because I really like to PR at my 2nd 5k.  We'll see how it goes.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Not the way I planned

Getting out for my training run was harder than I'd anticipated this weekend.  I got up not as early as I'd planned on Saturday morning, so didn't run.  I packed up my gym bag and was going to head to the Rec renter to run on the indoor track after my friend's bridal shower, but that ended up being an all day thing.  So, I set my alarm early Sunday so I could get up and run before it started to get hot and ended up not leaving until 8.  So, instead of running my "long run" (4 miles) I walked it. Grrrr.  Tomorrow will be better.  Gonna do W5D3 of the Couch to 5K program which is a 5 minute warm-up, 20 minute run, then a cool down.  Should be better.