FINALLY back at it.

I have been intending to get back on some sort of running schedule (and blogging again) forever.  I am determined to stick it through this time because I really enjoy this format and interacting with my fellow runners.

I debated for awhile how I wanted to go about training for a marathon.  My original plan was to follow Hal Higdon's Novice supreme which has put a 12 week program ending with a 6 mile long run at the front of his 18 week novice training program.  The main reason I had chosen this plan was to give myself a longer amount of time before mileage above 6ish miles per run started.  I had switched to a lower carb diet but was planning to incorporate more carbs into my diet closer to long runs.  Well, I ended up having some issues with the lower carbs so I decided to begin reintroducing some carbs into my diet.  Following that, my runs started getting stronger, and my mind began to change.

I decided that I had to have some sort of schedule or something to work toward.  I have said it before on here but I have a TERRIBLE time sticking with regular runs when I don't have something to follow. After speaking with The Husband and we decided to follow a 12 week half program (the same one I followed when training) and I will transition from that over into the marathon program.  I just need to decide if I am going to skip that last week that the program calls to run the half so that I am not too sore to start the first week of the marathon program.

I just finished week 2 of the half marathon program today.  I am going to go ahead and do recaps again like I did last time to keep myself accountable to you all as well.

Week	Mon	Tues	Weds	Thurs	Fri	Sat	Sun
2 10-14 to 10-20	Stretch & Strengthen Circuit training (planks, burpees, push ups, etc)	3 mile run 3.2 miles 30:47 9:38/mi	2 mile run or Cross 2.01 mi 18:11 9:04/mi	3 mile run Rest	Rest 3.01 mi 26:27 8:48/mi	4 mile run Rest	30 min cross 3 mi walk 48:55 16:30/mi 4 mi run 35:20 8:49/mi

Monday: I did a circuit that I made up for this evening. 50 jumping jacks then 3 rounds each of 10 pushups, situps, burpees, tricep dips, oblique twists, and 20 second planks.

Tuesday: I ran with a girl I met at a local 5k a few weeks ago.  It was the first time she had run in awhile and she did awesome! It was a lot of fun but talking for the entire run will take it out of you for sure!

Wednesday: I decided to get out before The Husband had to leave for work and get 2 miles in.  I was so glad that I did! It was a nice start to the day.

Thursday: Took a rest day because Rex had a soccer game that threw our plans off.

Friday: Did Thursday's 3 miles down in my little town and was CRAZY surprised when I held sub 9 minute miles without even realizing it.  I have never managed that for multiple miles and normally it's the first mile and I started too fast causing me to peter out by mile 3.  I see signs of getting stronger!

Saturday: It poured a cold rain all day and I just could not bring myself to go out in it or get on the treadmill so I decided to double up on Sunday.

Sunday: For the last few weeks I have been meeting with my weight loss buddy on Sunday mornings to power walk.  It is a nice time to get out and chat sans kids (she is also my homeschool buddy).  We normally do 5 miles but we both had plans today so we only did 3. I knew this ahead of time so I took my running gear with me with intentions of heading straight back out.  When we got back to our cars, I stripped down a layer and took off again and had another awesome sub 9 average run!! I don't know where this is coming from but I LOVE it!

Time to start week 3.  The mileage bumps up a tad this week, but not much.  I have a couple race recaps to add later this week as well as a couple possible giveaways to do.  I'm going to leave you with my most recent progress pic.  This is the first one where I can actually see some progress =)

Left: My first 5k  March 23, 2013               Right:10k Sept 21, 2013

Just when I thought things were calming down... (non-running related)

it came time to gear up for school!  While we homeschool, and my kids are still very young, we have a very flexible school schedule but the kiddos are showing serious signs of needing some structure in their lives so I have been prepping.  It is reminding me a lot of when I was in a classroom. 

We were ALMOST ready to start.  Rex is 5.5 and going into 1st grade this year and Curly just turned 4 and is starting kindergarten this year so I had ordered everything for them and this week I pulled everything out to get it set up.  I got the first few lessons of our reading program ready, got math pages put into binders, and got all of our phonogram cards torn apart and put into the card box. 

Then, The Husband looks at me during a discussion when I was telling him I would like to get a table for the school area rather than the desks that we have now, and tells me that it would be great to be able to move school into the playroom.  Well, my brain took that and ran with it and for the last 2 days I have been in hyper-drive.  So far I have: organized Curly's closet, deep cleaned her room, picked up a cabinet and bed for her room, turned said cabinet into a dress up closet, had The Husband move her room around and take a shelf down, then move it back and put the shelf back up (sorry TH), and moved all of her stuff from the playroom into her room.

Still left to do is deep cleaning Rex's room and moving his toys into his room from the toy room then taking all of the school stuff down off the wall and moving it into the new school room. I am excited to have more wall space to work with! Non-school related, we are picking up Rex's bed and painting it. He wants the headboard to be camouflaged and The Husband is going to Home Depot soon and getting materials to build shelves for their rooms so we can have storage for the toys moving in there. And, don't tell the Husband but I have visions of paining their rooms very, very soon. I have quite a bit of stuff on craigslist that I am hoping sell soon because I am running out of room to store things in the meantime.

Hopefully I can have some before and after pictures soon of our new school room area and of the kids' room makeovers.  Also, hopefully we can get started on school sometime before December! =) 

Since I haven't mentioned running yet, I should also say that I am trying to decide on a traiining program.  The Husband mentioned maybe I should run a half program a couple times from now until time to start the marathon program and then start at a normal marathon training point? I haven't decided yet and need to look at the calendar to decide.  I need to give myself as much weight loss time before I reintroduce higher carbs as possible and since the last couple days I have been off the wagon, it may take FOREVER to make it to goal!

Happy Running!

My Big Plans!

I mentioned I would try to get back tonight to talk about my plans and figured this is the perfect opportunity.  The Husband went to bed early because he's going to run into work for a few hours tomorrow, Rex has been in bed for quite awhile now, and Curly went to spend the weekend with Nana (my mom).

I am a bit nervous to even say...er, type...this because it is not something that I thought would even cross my mind for a couple more years.  I have decided to run a MARATHON in May.  Yes, all capitals because when I think about it, that's how I imagine it in my head.  I am scared out of my mind, ya'll, but I really, really want to do it.

The whole thought came out of nowhere.  The race schedule that I had in mind is looking like it is going to need to change and we have decided to move a couple races and go back to the Flying Pig this year.  We were between it and the Indy Mini but we had so much fun at the Flying Pig and the kids are wanting to race again.  Unfortunately we don't have any options for kids races nearby and the Indy Mini doesn't offer one.

So, after making the decision to go back to the Pig, I wanted to do something different.  I originally thought that I would do the 3 way which is running the 5k and 10k on Saturday and then running the half marathon on Sunday.  That has been my plan for while but the other day when we were getting ready to run the marathon just popped into my head and I said "I want to do that!"  Now, I am fairly certain that is what is going to happen.  There are a couple things that may change this decision.

1. My weight- I know, I know that shouldn't change my decision to do something I really want but recently I have gone low carb.  I am talking induction level low carb so only 20-25 carbs a day.  This is just enough to fuel my short runs right now but I really wanted to be at or very close to goal weight before I move into a more Paleo-ish style of eating and adding back in fruits and sweet potatoes.  I have 23-28lbs before I get to what I consider my goal and I would like to be within 10lbs of there by the time my mileage ups to the higher miles.  I am fairly certain I can do it but you just never know when you will hit a plateau.

and

2. My leg- The day following my half at the Flying Pig in May I had what I thought was an extremely sore hamstring on my left leg.  Only problem is that it still aches now when I run or do a lot of walking like we did at the theme park Wednesday.  I have an appointment with a chiropractor and I am going to see if that helps.  If not, I am off to my general doctor to get a referral to a sports medicine doctor.

I have decided to do Hal Higdon's Novice Supreme program just because I run much better when I have a program to follow so starting 30 weeks out is not necessarily what I HAVE to do but what I WANT to do. I am sure I could start 18 weeks out on the normal training program and be ok but having a set plan keeps me focused and on track.  Therefore, training for the May 4th race will begin October 6!

Thanks for listening to my rambling!

Happy Running!

Getting Back in the Groove...

I still haven't gotten together a post about vacation but I am itching to write so here I am.  =) We are supposed to get a huge storm tonight similar to the one we got in late June last year.  It has the possibility of turning into a Derecho (Long lasting, straight, damaging winds) also like last year.  It's pretty frustrating and I am kicking myself that we didn't buy a generator earlier this year when we were considering it.  Last year we were without electric a total of 5 days and some others in my county were without for 14-15 days.  It was pretty crazy.  People were rushing to anywhere that said they had ice because places were running out really quickly when they got it in and they had bag limits on what you could buy.  The husband is supposed to stop today and pick a bunch up for our deep freezer.  Luckily last year my mom, who lives an hour away, wasn't affected and she and my step dad brought me their generator to use and we could run a couple fans and the fridge... Here's hoping it's not as bad.  Anyway, that is why I am wanting to get a post out there in case my electric goes out for a few days! On to the actual topic of this post!!

I am having SUCH a hard time running regularly without having a schedule to follow and something specific to train for! When I was training for The Flying Pig I was really focused.  If I missed a run, I was sure to make it up because I knew it was a bad idea to miss training runs when I was going to be running 13 miles in the near future.  Now I have this 10k coming up on June 29th that I am excited about but for some reason my motivation is waning.  I think mostly because I know that I can run the race without super scheduled training and I am not expecting to get the time that I want because I apparently suck at running in the heat.  My next half is in November so in August I will start a training program again to get ready for that but until then I have been doing terribly.

While we were on vacation we had a total of 6 days.  2 of those were partial days because of travel with 4 whole days at the beach.  Of those 4 days- I ran 3 of them.  There is something wonderful for motivation about just being able to ride down the elevator and take off running with no worries of being run over by crazy drivers since there is a nice sidewalk/exercise trail as well as a bike lane when that runs out.  Here at home, if I want to run somewhere that I don't have to worry about those things I have to drive somewhere.  I wish I wasn't so worried about how people drive because there are actually some decent back roads but people drive these curvy, hilly, can't-hardly-see-anything roads wayyyyy too fast and there are no berms...

 

The road in the background there is a pretty good representation except it doesn't show the huge hill to the right and the blind curve you hit when you continue down the road to the left of me.  Last year when we were running that road the husband and I both almost got hit by some j*rk who refused to get over even a little bit even though nothing was coming the opposite direction.  On top of that we live in fairly small towns so basically 5 miles is all you can eek out and after that you have to loop or run up and down streets.  It's annoying....

Anyway, I haven't been too successful at getting up super early like I have wanted since I have such a hard time getting to sleep at night.  Generally I have been getting to town at around 8am and because of stretching and getting situated to leave it is probably 15 after before I even get started.  I really, really need to attempt to get out the door by 7 or so. 

Ok, so this is apparently turning into a whining post because I have yet another reason my motivation is suffering. My 3 mile, 5 mile, and 6 mile paths are all fairly desolate on bike paths surrounded by woods. The drug/crime problem is escalating fairly badly in this area which is one of the reasons we are trying to get a fast pass out of here.  I have a CCW license and in the winter I run with protection but I have noticed it is harder to carry with summer clothing.  

If you have made it this far through my whining you get a gold star!  I am not usually one to whine without trying to do something to fix it, so here is my plan:

1) I am going to break out my half marathon program and jump back to week 6 or so and start working forward again.  I figure this will keep me on track fairly well and that way when I start in August for my fall half I can focus on improving my speed because my endurance should be there.

2) I am going to hit mapmyrun.com and attempt to map a few more routes to follow through town.  Don't know how successful this will be but I am going to give it a go!

3) I am going to try to get to bed by around 10pm to make it easier to get up in the morning instead of my normal 12-1am.  I figure after a couple days of getting up early it won't be that difficult to get myself in bed by 10pm =)

In all, I hope that I can get into a good groove again because I don't want to lose what I have gained over the last few months running!

Happy Running!!

6 days!

It is so hard to believe that the Flying Pig is next weekend!

I am so excited for my first half marathon (though not about the hill involved) and I am counting down the days.  It has seemed to sneak up on me but I am fairly confident in my training.  The only thing I am bummed about is this foot issue but it is already feeling a bit better.  With ice, resting, massage, stretching, and anti inflammatories and pain relievers I believe that I will make it through just fine.  I am concerned that my taper is going to end up being 2 weeks rather than 1 and has been literally NO exercise this week.  I have really been babying my foot a lot.  I am going to attempt my short runs this week to test it out as well as the KT tape I ordered and hopefully it helps.

I'm going to need all the help I can get for this hill!

This weekend should be really fun.  I have everything lined out: house sitters, hotels, directions, information. The only thing I have to do is get my packing list together.  Packing for myself and both kids is always fun.  At least The Husband always does his own packing =).

The weekend is going to be super busy: We are staying the night Friday close-ish to Cincy in order to get The Husband to his 10k the next morning without messing with the kids' schedule too badly.  After his race we will head to the Expo and explore a bit.  Following the expo we will be heading over to let Curly (my 3 year old little girl) and Rex (my 5 year old little boy) run the kids races.  We will have a picnic lunch and then we will likely have some time to kill before we can check into our other hotel for the half marathon Sunday.  This Friday night stay was a last minute decision (aka made a few minutes ago) hence the 2 different hotels.

We are also hoping to squeeze in dinner with some friends on either Friday or Saturday night.  Busy but oh-so-fun family weekend!


Happy Running!

Seriously?! An Injury?!

Why wouldn't I start having pain in my foot during my last week of training before the half marathon??

During the beginning of my 11 miler this past Sunday, I noticed a twinge in my foot.  I went ahead and ran through it and by the time I got back to the car I could barely walk because of the pain.  I also had some pain in my knee.  I had already noticed some runner's knee from last spring when I was running and I wear the jumper's knee braces when I run and don't have any pain.  Well, now I have ordered an IT band compression wrap because I am thinking the pain I had on Sunday was due to my IT band.  As far as the foot, I believe that it may be Plantar Fasciitis.  It is right in the arch of my foot and that is the most common problem I am seeing come from that area.

Monday I iced my knee and haven't had any trouble with it since but because of my foot I have not had an opportunity to run to test it.  My foot has been iced, rested, and elevated as much as possible since Monday as well and I have been wearing my running shoes everywhere and not been going barefoot.  I ordered some KT tape and I am hoping to tape it as well as my IT band and I am crossing my fingers that I can do my 12 mile run Sunday without pain.  If I am still hurting considerably I plan to skip it and just rest until the half and hope that I make it through most of it without pain.  Here's hoping.

Weekly Workout Roundup

This week wasn't as great as last week.  It wasn't that great at all actually.  I did have some really good runs, though, so that counts right??

Week	Mon	Tues	Weds	Thurs	Fri	Sat	Sun
10	Stretch & strengthen Zumba and HIIT	5 m run 55:20	3 m run or cross Nothing	5 m run + strength 53:05	Rest	60 min cross Nothing	11 m run 2:02:48

Monday- I went to Zumba and HIIT Fit again.  Zumba last for an hour and this time around they really worked my arms.  I borrowed a pair of the weights and I was definitely feeling it by the end. 

In HIIT we did a deck of cards workout.  I don't know if you watch Biggest Loser or not but Bob did this with his contestants this season when they had to spend all day sitting in the room of sweets and video games.  Each suite had an exercise and you did however many the number of the card was of that exercise.  Here's what the workouts were:

Face Cards: 10 reps of any ab move
Clubs: Pushups
Diamonds: Sit and Stands
Spades: Tricep Dips
Hearts: Prone Jacks
Ace: 10 burpess.

Let me tell you those darn burpess saved themselves.. I think 3 of them were in the last 15 or so cards. That totals 54 reps of each suite and then the 40 burpees and 12 sets of 10 of each of the ab moves chosen.  It was a good workout.

Tuesday: I had a decent run but it was VERY hot and muggy.  I felt like I could barely catch my breath most of the time which was not pleasant at all- but I survived.

Wednesday: It rained all day.  I had every intention of doing Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred but ended up not doing it.

Thursday: Another 5 mile run with the husband.  The wind and heat stunk but I ran the entire way even though it was at a snail's pace.  But progress is progress!

Friday: Scheduled Rest day and Saturday: Accidental rest day.

Sunday: Today I did an 11 mile run on a bike path I had never been on.  I was happy with myself because I ran the first 8 miles, took a small walk break, and ran the last 3.  It felt good.  I had a pain in the arch area of my left foot the ENTIRE run, though, as well as my left hamstring feeling tight from the beginning.  My left leg was apparently against me today.

On a side note, I run in some really pretty places.  I can't wait to get my Garmin so that my phone isn't strapped to my arm and I can use it for pictures!

All in all, it wasn't bad but the next week needs to be on.  Only 2 weeks until my first half!

My last long run and some randomness

I have been wanting to kind of recap my last long run for future reference.  It was my very first double digit run ever and that seemed like a huge milestone to me.  Especially since I just started running at the beginning of January (minus a short 3 month stint last year that had me up to 3 miles).  I have to say that I was really proud of myself.  Sure, I wasn't fast.  I ended up settling into an 11 min/mile pace that felt comfortable but once I was there I felt like I could have gone on forever.

The area I ran in was the bike path in one of my favorite towns in this part of the state.  Ohio University is my alma mater and, in my opinion, is a gorgeous campus.  The path goes along the river and there is always something scenic to look at.

You can see the bike path there running along the opposite side of the river. Source

We parked at the football stadium and hit the bike path going east.  I think this weekend when I go back we will head to the west because from where we parked I hit the very end of the bike path before the halfway point of 5 miles.  I had to run a very short way up into the hospital parking lot that is at the end of the path to get the full 5 miles.

I was pretty happy with my performance overall on this run. I ran the first 5 miles (except for a short stop in the bathroom around mile 3.  I drank too much water that morning apparently!), took a short walk at the turn around point, stopped AGAIN in the bathroom at 7 miles and then ran the entire way back.  I would say that I walked less than 1/8th of a mile or so.  Like I said, it was slow going but I ran much of it!  My time was 1:51:05 which was an average of 11:06/mile.

source

Now, some randomness:

1) I am SO elated over the fact that the final Boston bomber has been apprehended.  I was debating on posting this but decided that in order to stand up to the madness in this world we must move on and do what we love.  Run in memory and honor of those in Boston.

2) I am at the point in my life that I only want those who encourage around me.  There is so much drama among some people I know and I just want people surrounding me who uplift me.  That being said, I have made some decisions this week to begin to make the move toward having only positive influences in my life. I have to say that it feels good.

3) I am just 15 days away from my first half marathon and I get goosebumps every time I think about it!

4) It is so strange yet so great to have my husband home after he was gone for 11 months.

5) Finally, there are some great companies out there making shirts and the like to benefit the victims of Boston.  I am still trying to decide on a shirt that I want but I did order a Sweaty Band and I am really excited to get it.  I really hope it fits my strange shaped head =). 

I am going to try to get a list of the shirts I have seen together to add to my next post.  I have seen some great ones but they are on my phone... which is dead.

Happy Running!

About Boston

Source

Today, as I was sitting on the couch folding laundry and watching the Boston Marathon, I was laughing with my husband.  He was joking with me about how running has taken over my life and that he thought it was funny that I was watching the marathon.  I told him that I don't think that I will ever qualify for Boston but it is such an iconic event that I want to be a part of it and I want to go volunteer for it in the near future.  Shortly after about the first 10 men and women came in I shut off the t.v and went about my day cleaning the house.

Then came the news....

Source

The Husband walked in the door and asked me if I had seen the explosions?  What explosions??? I immediately hit Twitter and saw the many tweets about the explosion.  I turned on CNN and instantly got chills watching the coverage.  It shook me to my core.  These are my people! Even though I am new to running, the running community is a strong one that I feel to be a part of already.  I take this as a personal attack!  I am horrified this has happened and I am still watching the coverage constantly waiting on more news. My thoughts are with all of those who were affected by this event.

Tomorrow I will be out on a 5 mile training run but I will be running for Boston.  For those who can't run.  For those who were injured, lost their lives, or lost a family member. For those who didn't get to finish possibly their dream run today because of this act.

Source

Weekly Workout Roundup

Week	Mon	Tues	Weds	Thurs	Fri	Sat	Sun
9	Stretch & strengthen 1:30  Zumba &  HIIT Fit	4.5 m run 54:13 4.75 miles	3 m run or cross 37:58 7.33m bike ride	4.5 m run + strength 48:31	Rest or easy run	Rest  2:00 Slow walk	10 m run 1:51:05

 ** (a note on this schedule.  It had a 10k built into Sunday but I opted out and settled on a long run for the weekend instead.  That is why there is a rest day scheduled for Saturday also.)

This week has been a great one for my workouts.  Having The Husband home really helps motivate me because he continuously reminds me what I am working toward and where I want to be in the near future.  It really helps.  Now, I have him attempting to motivate me to get my school work done on time!

Monday: I went to Zumba for cross training for the first time in a year.  They now do something called HIIT fit after the hour of Zumba and it lasts a half hour.  So we did Tabata intervals of various things including squats with a kettle bell, leg climbers, pushups, oblique crunches, and lots of other ab work.  I was fairly sore the next day from HIIT Fit.

Tuesday: I was able to get up first thing in the morning to get in my 4.5 mile run! I usually have to run late at night after the kids go to bed but since The Husband is home, I was able to do it before breakfast. I actually ended up doing 4.75 that morning because I got into a zone and forgot when I was supposed to stop.

Wednesday: The Husband and I went on a bike ride.  It was a lot of fun and it had been awhile but I always forget how much of a workout riding a bike can be!

Thursday- The kiddos went to my Grandma's to play and The Husband and I went for a 4.5 mile run through town.  I hadn't run this route in a few weeks and I was happy to get in one of my short runs outside.

Friday: Was rest day =)

Saturday: The kids had soccer games this morning.  My mom and I, along with my Little Girly went to a big outdoor outlet mall right afterwards to get the kids some summer clothes.  It wasn't at the pace I would normally walk for cross training but I was only scheduled for 50 minutes and probably got in over 2 hours.

Sunday: Again, The Husband and I took off together for a run.  I had 10 miles to do and we finally hit the point that we had to travel about 45 minutes in order to safely run it.  I had a VERY slow pace that I settled into but I really felt like I could go forever at that pace.  I stopped 3 very quick times and 2 of those were because I had to pee! I hydrated a bit too well apparently! I am going to have to watch that because I don't want to be stopping in the middle of my half!

I am very happy with this week and I am really excited for next week.

Happy Running!