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

Making a Comeback!

For the past few weeks, maybe longer (I am not sure how long ago my last post was without looking), I have been dying to write, to catch up, and connect with other bloggers again.  This summer I have been TERRIBLE about reading blogs, writing on my own, and keeping up with my other technological fun stuff. We have had lots going on this summer.  We have season passes to the local waterpark and on the days it hasn't been unseasonably chilly, that is where we can be found.


We've hiked, biked, had birthday parties, park playdates, attended story time, gone to the zoo and a theme park, vacationed, and chilled out at home.

 We went to Old Man's Cave.  It is absolutely gorgeous there and a good place to get some family fun and exercise in.  The kids loved the new panning for gems/fossils thing they added since we were there last.

We have memberships to the zoo and even though it is over an hour away we try to go as much as possible! Also, Curly had to have 2 parties this year because her pool party got rained out so we had a small party at the house for family only and then had her pool party the following week for all the kids that were invited.

 For Curly's birthday this year we decided that we would get her a couple small things from us and then get her an experience.  Everyone always buys them so much and the house is only so big, so we decided we would take her to Kings Island for the first time.  I think she rode everything she was big enough for, the above "supergirl" ride (as she called it) at least 3 times!  Rex loved walking through their animatronic dinosaur park.  It is apparently the largest one in the world?

 We love our library's story time! For such a small town they always have great programs: Reptile guys, the zoo, life-size puppet theater, etc.  We also have gotten lucky enough to get to know another family that homeschools and our kids get along great! We have done lots of playdates in the last year.

 All in all, I am calling this a successful summer! I am not liking the turn of the weather and have my fingers crossed that we will have at least a few more warm days so we can get more use out of our waterpark passes before the cooler weather is here to stay.

The title above is not only making a comeback to blogging.  I am about to amp up my running all over again.  I have a goal in mind that I want to start working toward (more on that later) and I need to get myself back into some semblance of order when it comes to running.  The Husband has been working over quite a bit and it doesn't seem to be on a certain day so some days I have planned to run I end up needing to alter the plan.  Either way, I have big plans for the weeks to come and I intend to post about that tomorrow.. maybe tonight if I can sit down and write again.  I need to document my madness. =)

Happy running!

Running with Friends and Other Randomness

Shew! The giveaways have piled up on me (a good thing) and I have 3 still waiting in the wings BUT I feel like that I haven't gotten to write about anything that has been bouncing around in my head for awhile! So here goes...

Running with Friends

I really, really, really wish there were some sort of running group in my area. Something like Moms Run This Town, Team in Training, or even just a local running club.  Of course, since I live in the middle of nowhere with very few people, there just aren't any.  I have thought of looking into what it would take to start one but I don't even know where to go with that as I honestly don't even know anyone else who runs locally besides The Husband and I.  On occasion I will pass someone in town but it really doesn't happen often.

Then there is the rub to that idea.  I don't know if I would be very good at running with someone.  Largely I have been running alone or with The Husband but he and I don't really run together.  We start at the same time, in the same place, but we go our own paces and tend to spread out after the first half mile or so.  I really liked running with the pacers at the race and honestly I think that is the only time I have run with anyone at a certain pace and talked while running.  It was fun catching up with someone who was also a runner but I think that I need to find someone who runs my average pace, maybe? I know it sounds terrible but if I were relying on it to be a training run I don't know if I would want to put the effort into socializing as well as staying at a slower pace or pushing myself too hard at a faster pace.  Is that bad of me?  Even with all of that I wish there were a group I could jump in with maybe once a week for just a fun run that I wouldn't time myself or worry about distance and just enjoy running with someone.

 Training

I haven't gotten in nearly as many runs as I would like since the Flying Pig.  I think I have only run 3 times in the last 2 weeks? Not acceptable!! We have the Run For Your Lives mud run this coming Saturday (so excited!) but I really need to get some longer runs in the coming weeks.  I want to try to improve my 10k time over the month of June before the Biggest Loser 10k.  It is June 29th and while I am not 100% sure what I want my time to be for sure I know that I want it to be fairly close to an hour.  With the heat coming on pretty strong I think that I am going to have to finally make the shift, at least on some of my workouts, to being a morning person. I am not sure how that is going to work out for me but I know that I want to try to start setting the alarm for 6am at least 1-2 days a week for an early morning run.

Summer

I am SO happy that summer is finally here! The one thing I am worried about is that this is my first summer running and I have really enjoyed the 50ish degree weather to run in and I have to say the heat isn't my friend.  I will get used to it, I'm sure, but for now it's a bit annoying.  Hopefully those early morning runs will give me a bit of relief.  Our summer activities are about to start up: Summer reading program, waterpark passes, vacation, riding lessons, possibly swim lessons. We should stay nice and busy!

I think I am going to do a 2 mile run tonight.  I think it's going to be the last run that short for awhile hopefully.  I am always nervous about losing my endurance!

Happy Running!