Milestone Week

This week (well, last week really, but both weeks are the same) marks the point where I've gone further with training than I did for my half marathon in October. My last 2 long runs were both 13 miles, so I did 13.1 just because that's a half. I ran the first one with my bff out at her house, and it was a great time. We always have so much fun together! We're most likely going to get arrested for disturbing the peace during the marathon-that's how loud we are. My weekly mileage is up to 25 miles per week. My left ankle has been a little grumpy ever since I tried Zumba a few weeks ago. The class was a bit awkward. My longest mid-week runs are on Tuesdays, and I'm up to 7 miles now. I just don't think I can do 7 miles and then go to Zumba again. Also, I sort of suck at dancing. So there's that.

This week has been super busy workout-wise. Monday was a bit scary. I did an arm workout with my trainer, and we did cardio on the treadmill in between arms sets. I normally struggle with the treadmill workouts, but it's usually ok. The treadmill was set at a 12% incline and the speed was 4.5, for 3 minutes. I was ok until the second treadmill bout. I didn't have my HR monitor on, so we can't be 100% certain, but I think my HR spiked above my max. Despite resting after the cardio, I couldn't make it through the last arms set. I got dizzy, my head was pounding, and I couldn't hear. I ended up puking in the bathroom. My trainer was super worried about me-she said my face went from the purplest she's ever seen to very white when she came to check on me after my shower. The workout ended around 1:30, and I didn't feel better until 8pm or so. What really concerned me is that I couldn't fill out the mileage sheet for the Coast to Coast challenge after my shower. My trainer said that I have to wear my HRM every time I work out with her now so she can check.

My 7 mile run on Tuesday went ok. I went a little slower than normal because of Monday's incident. On Wednesday, I (probably) went a little overboard. I started off with kickboxing at 7am, and I broke my gloves. I think they were already broken from the previous time, because I wasn't punching very hard.

I also did weights yesterday, and it was a leg day. I don't know what the proper terminology is on this, but I squatted 65lbs! There was 20lbs total on the bar, and then I'm told that the bar weighs 45lbs by itself. This was my first time to do barbell squats on anything other than the smith machine. It was pretty cool. I ran 4 miles after weights, because I didn't want to take an extra shower and come back after work to run. That sort of didn't matter though, because I ended up going to my first spin class, and while awesome, it resulted in a 3rd shower for the day. My butt is so stinking sore today, but I really enjoyed the class.

Oh, and I am hungry all.the.time. It seems like all I do is eat. Sheesh.

2012 Stats and Updates

A lot has happened since my last real post. I ended up returning the Saucony shoes a few days after buying them because they were defective. They had a piece of hard plastic in the side that was rubbing on my feet. I ended up getting the Brooks Glycerin 10s that I wanted.

The polar hrm that I won also didn't like me. It read my resting heart rate as 210 and flipped out when I tried to do exercise, so our purchasing dept is returning it for me. Hopefully I'll get the replacement in a week or so.

This past Sunday was my runiversary. I celebrated by skipping my planned makeup run (I had to skip thursday because of work issues, and had planned to make it up on Sunday), and then working at the second job. I sure do know how to commemorate anniversaries.

Liz and I ran her first race, the Sandridge Santa Run 5K, together, on Dec 8th. I am so proud of my bestie for sticking with running and doing so well.

Clearly we don't care about how we act in public. This is why we're BFFs.

Now for 2012 stats:

I ran 423.06 miles.
I ran 109 times.
I raced 5 times:
     Redbud Classic 10K: 1:15:31 (PR)
     Chesapeake Riversport Challenge 5K: 37:33 (technically a PR, but it fell)
     Spirit of Survival Half Marathon: 2:36:45 (PR)
     Putnam City Cancer Classic 5K: 32:14 (PR)
     Sandridge Santa Run 5K: 44:35

I ran for approximately 91 hours (excel is fighting me on making the formula work, so that was quick adding up with a calculator).
I ran the most miles in September (63.21), just barely beating December (63.15).
I ran the least in May (9.68), which proves that I must have a race on the schedule in order to stay motivated.

I registered for the Marathon on Jan 2. If I had paid attention, I would have registered on Jan 1 and saved myself ~$35. Oh well. My gym is also gearing up for another fitness challenge. This one is the annual Coast to Coast challenge. You make teams of 6 people, and you run. The team that gets the ~3000 miles that would take you from LA to NY first, wins. Most of the runs have to be done in the gym to count, so it's quite fortunate that I prefer to run on the treadmill. You can count 15 miles per week outside of the gym, and most of the fitness classes count for 3 miles. I am on the team that won last year (I did not participate last year as I hadn't joined the gym yet). It's really nice to know that, barring injury, I will actually be an asset to the team, rather than the person who is always picked last.

We are 74 days away from the feared 20 mile long run. It just so happens to coincide with the annual DFW Fiber Fest weekend, where I go to my other best friend's house in TX and we go play with yarn for the weekend. We'll do the 20 miler there. This will be my 4th year to go, I think. Maybe the 5th? I'm not sure. Liz will go with me, and we will run.

We're 96 days away from the marathon.

ETA: I have my first toenail injury! lol. Lost/damaged toenails are common amongst runners. I apparently cracked the second toenail on my right foot during my 12 mile long run last Saturday. Oops.

Quickie

I promise I'm still here. On Dec 30, I got the wild hair to make a spreadsheet with all of my running stats/data from 2012. I wanted to post that on New Years Eve, or maybe New Years Day, but it's taking me forever to do! I just can't post until I have that done (blame the OCD). But I'm still running. I've registered for the marathon, so it's set in stone now. I found out today that I won the drawing in my work gym's last fitness challenge, and I won a heart rate monitor strap (and watch? I think?)! I am so excited about it! It hasn't come in yet, but the data lover in me will thoroughly enjoy it.

I am really trying to get my update post together with stats. My goal is to finish it before my 1 year mark of running (Jan 20, 2012).

A change of plans, a new PR, and new shoes

It's a day of new stuff! I'll start with the change of plans. Around 2 weeks ago, my bff Liz and I decided that it would make more sense economically to do a local marathon rather than the Cowtown in Ft. Worth, in Feb. It just doesn't make sense to pay for a hotel and gas and try to drive 3 hours after running 26.2 if our DHs can't go to the race. Therefore, we have officially switched to the OKC Memorial Marathon on April 28. I had to rework the training plan; we are using Hal Higdon's Novice Supreme plan, but we didn't want to go all the way back to week 5. So I duplicated weeks in the plan until the schedule is back on track.

Just because I can't bear to lose my record of what I did in the weeks between my half and switching races, here's my training plan prior to switching:

And here's the new one, as of Thursday:

The Putnam City Cancer Classic 5K was yesterday. The bad news is that it was supposed to be Liz's first race, but she got sick and had to stay home. The good news is that I PR'd. My chip time is 32:13.63, so I'll just call it 32:14. I finished 120th of 235 overall, and 7 of 18 in my age group (F 25-29). I am really happy that I finished in the top half of my age group. The shirt is pretty awesome:

My finishing photo (taken by DH) looks pretty much the same as the one from my half:

Finally, I bought some new running shoes. While I fell in love with a pair of Brooks Glycerin 10s, my mom sent me $100 for my birthday, so I couldn't swing $140 for the perfect shoes. You can bet that I'm going to watch for them to go on sale though, or maybe I can get them for Christmas. I ended up with a pair of Saucony Progrid Ride 5 in the blue/white color. They were my second choice, but I still like them. In a weird coincidence, they are the exact same kind of shoes that Liz runs in.

Run Summary:

10/17/12: (Wednesday)
Stats: 3 miles in 37:05. Shins a little sore but ok. Left hip sore too. Watched Cosby; lifted weights afterwards-legs & shoulders.

10/18/12: (Thursday)
Stats: 3 miles in 36:20

10/20/12: (Saturday)
Stats: 6.02 miles at hefner in 1:13:16; HP & the prisoner of Azkaban

10/23/12: (Tuesday)
Stats: 3 miles, TM, 35:39

10/24/12: (Wednesday)
Stats: 3 miles, TM, 37:49

10/28/12: (Sunday)
Stats: 6 miles, TM, 1:11:31

10/31/12: (Wednesday)
Stats: 6 miles, TM, 1:11, 23, Once Upon A Time

11/3/12: (Saturday)
Stats: Putnam City Cancer Classic. 3.1 miles, 32:14.

Post-race recovery

I had originally planned on taking an entire week off from working out after my half in order to give my hamstring a break. I mentioned this plan to a coworker who also runs, and he acted like that was too much time off. So I decided that 2 days off was sufficient, and ran on the Wednesday after the half. My shins were so ridiculously tight, but I kept on running. Then I ran on Thursday, and it was so painful that I could barely finish. I was hobbling for days. I ended up skipping my "long" run last Saturday. I'm going to try running with Liz today out at her cow pasture, and I hope things are better. Right now my left hip is so tight that I can't crouch down and then get back up easily. My hips have always popped out easily, and now I can't make it pop. I'm sure the 2 are related somehow.

I guess I didn't learn as much about listening to my body as I thought I did. I'm a bit worried about stress fractures or something, but I hope my legs are just sore from the combination of weather changes and the fact that I ran a half. If this is how long it takes me to recover from a half, I'm going to end up bed-ridden after the marathon lol.

My birthday was last Sunday, and my husband got me a pair of those yurbuds headphones. I really wanted a blue pair, but the volume button control thing isn't available in the blue ones, so I got the red pair. I can always buy a blue set of the ear covers when I eventually have to replace them. I haven't run with the headphones in yet to see how well they stay, but they withstood my bouncing up and down test. Mom is sending me $100 towards new running shoes for my birthday, and Liz and I are going to hit up the Red Coyote running store after our 5K on Nov 3.

I've been trying to figure out if I should get a gps watch. I really like the Garmin Forerunner 10, but I'm concerned about the battery life (rumored to be only 6hrs-not sure of what my marathon time will be yet) and lack of foot pod compatibility. The dcrainmaker reviews a lot of the GPS watches, and he's very thorough. His wife is very petite like I am, and she liked the forerunner 10, but prefers the FR310XT. But then she's a triathlete, and I'm not (but want to be someday). I've been looking at the Nike+ GPS watch too, but it seemed very loose on dcrainmaker's wife's wrist. I really like the Motorola MOTOACTV because it can clip on your waistband, but the battery life sucks. I just can't decide what I need, or if I even need a gps watch at all. Right now I use my mapmyrun app on my phone, and listen to audiobooks at the same time. I really like how the app yells at me every mile to tell me what my pace/distance/speed is, and a watch wouldn't necessarily yell at me (although I could just look down lol). I'd have to get an ipod shuffle or something to put the audiobooks on if I leave my phone in the car too. I'm worried about my phone getting damaged from the sweat in my spibelt. I can't decide if I really need a watch or if I'm just lusting after new toys. I'd lose the ability to text people during runs/races if I left my phone in the car. It sounds like I really don't NEED one per se, but that I just want a new toy. I can't decide.


Run Summary:

10/10/12: (Wednesday)
Stats: 3 miles in 37:11. Shins very tight.

10/11/12: (Thursday)
Stats: 3 miles in 37:51. Shins very very achey.

Spirit of Survival Half Marathon Race Recap

I did it! I finished my first half marathon! My time was 2:36:45, which blew out both my official goal of <3:15 and my secret probably-not-attainable goal of 2:45. I'm fairly sore today, but I'll be ok.

Earlier last week, the weather reports all said that the temp when the race started would be around 45F, which I could probably handle since you're supposed to dress like it's 20 degrees warmer. However, as we got further into the week, it became clear that the temp was more likely to be in the upper 30s (correct-it was 38F at the start). I wasn't really worried about running 13.1 miles, but my nervousness manifested in a freakout about my clothes. I had my clothes planned out for the past 2 months, and I've done all of my long runs in them. I wanted to wear an underarmour tank and compression shorts. That won't work for 38F, so I wore some compression capris, my underarmour tank, and my running jacket. I added some cute gloves and an ear warmer and I survived.

Here are the tech shirt and my bib number. I find it very ironic that my number for this race was 17, and my number for my first race (the redbud classic) was 717.

We were freezing to death before the race. I'm pretty sure I was about 10x colder than Gnome was.

The race itself was fairly smooth. Either my mymyrun's GPS was off, or the mile markers were off. My app would yell at me about .1 miles or so before I passed each mile marker. I took my water bottle with me so I could use the pouch to hold extra sport beans (cherry and grape). I drank water until about 4 miles or so, and then I started drinking gatorade at every other water stop. I refilled my water bottle at the other stops. I went through 2.5 of the 4 sport bean pouches I brought with me (both cherries and 1/2 of a grape). I managed to not stop for the portapotties, although I don't think I'll be able to avoid it when I run a marathon. I was not able to run the entire race, but I didn't walk as much as I thought I would need to either. The turnaround point is at the top of a hill, and it was a bit rough getting up there. The rest of the course had gradual hills, and part of it was flat (mostly the part on the city streets). There was a tiny hill at the end of the race, which I thought was a bit cruel, but I ran it anyway.

Here I am, about 50 feet from the finish line:

And now I'm finishing:

My app says that I actually ran 13.59 miles, although I did forget to turn it off for a few mins in the confusion after I finished. It was like my brain completely shut off in the excitement of finishing. Also, my legs decided that they were going to cramp up if I stopped moving, so I had to keep walking. At one point I was walking circles around Liz and Katie because I just couldn't stand still.

We took our obligatory photo with our medals and went back to the hotel. Liz refused to get in a pic with us, unfortunately.

Stats:
13.1 miles
2:36:45
12:01 pace
165/233 females
24/33 in 25-29 females

Other stats:
Mapmyrun says I ran 13.59, with an 11:37 pace. I'll go with the official stats for this, but I like the MMR stats better :)

Training for this race was sort of difficult, since I initially pulled my hamstring on the Tuesday before training started, and then re-injured it in week 8. I ran about half of the mileage that I should have (108.74 of the 177.4-204.4 scheduled). I only ran the mileage that I was supposed to for 4 of the 12 weeks. But I'm proud of my effort, and I've learned some things about injury management, listening to my body, and differentiating between regular pain and injury pain.

I have finished this:

Now I'm starting this:

139 days until the Cowtown Marathon in Ft. Worth, TX, on Feb 24. It'll be the first marathon for both Liz and me. She started training 10 weeks ago, and I am jumping in at week 11.

**Note: the end of the half marks 252.77 miles on my shoes.**

1 week to go

The half is one week from today! I am so ridiculously excited about the whole weekend. I will be off from both jobs on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. My bff Liz is coming to my house sometime on Friday, and we're going to do some shopping and watch Bridesmaids. We will leave for Lawton on Saturday, and meet my other bff Katie at the hotel. Since she's going to get there too late for the carb-loading dinner, we're going to go to Olive Garden on our own. Then, theoretically, we'll go to bed and get up super early. We'll race on Sunday morning, and I hope to finish in 3:15 or less (ok, there's a voice whispering that less than 3 hours is possible, but I don't want to get too optimistic). Gnome (Katie) was going to run the half with me, but is waiting to hear if she can switch to the 5K instead. This weekend is going to be the best of the year, I think.

I love how the past 3 real long runs have each been the longest run of my life. 7 miles was the longest, then 9.58, and now 11.41 miles. I ran at Earlywine park again, and it was drizzly and a bit cold this time. I had to run with a jacket on. I finished in 2:20:52, and Runner's World's training calculator is taunting me by telling me that my half time should be 2:43, which would be freaking awesome. However, after 11 miles, I was very sore for the last .41 miles, so I don't know what kind of pace I'll have for the last few miles of the half. I'm going to officially stick with my goal time of less than 3:15, with a secret goal of less than 3 hours.

Also, I have decided that I love listening to audiobooks while running. I used to always say how much I hate audiobooks because I am so easily distracted that I lose whole paragraphs because I saw a cute bird. However, I have read the Harry Potter books twice, and therefore I can listen to the audiobooks without really missing any details, even if I am distracted or my mapmyrun app drowns out the audio at every mile with my stats. I'm going to listen to HP6, The Order Of The Phoenix, during the half.

Running Stats:

9/24/12: Monday
Stats: 5 miles in 1:14:38. Watched Bones.

9/25/12: Tuesday
Stats: 5 miles in 1:07:35. Started a Cosby Show marathon on Hulu.

9/29/12: Saturday
Stats: 11.41 miles in 2:20:52. Last long run before half. Earlywine park, HP3 audiobook.