I'm baack!

Yes, I’m still alive and still running; it just has not been blog worthy. This winter, I got incredibly sick and had to take some time off. I’ve been base building since February and only had one relapse. Due to my illness, I had to skip the Hot Chocolate 15k in January and the Publix Georgia Half on St. Patty’s Day, both of which broke my heart. I did complete the full 13.1 miles as part of a virtual race so that was good enough for me

On to exciting news…It’s official, I have signed up for my first marathon! On 02/02/2014 I will be running the Rock and Roll New Orleans Marathon! I have been playing with the idea for over six months now. But watching my big brother successfully finish his first marathon and then the events at Boston pushed me from thinking to committing. It also helped that I found a coupon code for $20 off!

Stay tuned, I will return to blogging to report my training. I sketched out my plan last night and will be following the Jeff Galloway Marathon to Finish Training Plan. I know I can run much longer than the 4:1 or even 4:30 sec ratio. But with this being my first marathon, I want to play it safe and not get injured. Therefore, I will finish it with Galloway. My sciatic and IT band are complaining lately and I need to go easy on them the first time around.

Looking forward to reporting my training to y’all come July. Stay tuned, I’m about to join the 26.2 club and I can’t wait!

Bring on the taper

Last Thursday I was supposed to run my last long run: 17 miles. I was unable to get that run in due to PTA obligations. I spent Wednesday-Friday at the elementary school. Saturday, we hiked with the Tiger den and it was a blast. I love seeing Civil War ruins and I love the fact that we live in the heart of many ruins. There is such much history here in the ATL. I didn’t grow up with much history other than the Duwamish Tribe in Seattle. I still can’t get over the fact that Georgia was one of the first 13 colonies. Cool!

Sunday was a family day. Hubby FINALLY had a weekend day off and we slept in, hung out in our pajamas and then went to a birthday party. I have massive mommy guilt when it comes to doing a long run when the boys are home, especially if hubby has a much awaited weekend day off. That means today, 1.5 weeks ‘till race day, and I had 17 miles looming over me like a dark thundercloud. I hate missing my long runs, and I hate even more having them hang over my head. This morning I started out after my oatmeal breakfast and then a cliff bar. It was 66 degrees with 96% humidity. Why oh why do I always have muggy days on my long runs? Thankfully, there was a cloud cover and the sun never really came out. Phew! My first mile was strong; I then played with my pace. I was originally planning to take walk breaks at each mile marker, but knew I’d run out of steam. Yesterday, I looked at the Galloway Magic Mile page. My race pace should be 10:17-10:30 and my training pace should be 12:08. I am not running that slow on my training runs, but I clock a solid 11 minute mile for my long runs. I also discovered that I should be running four minutes and walking for just 35 seconds. After my first mile, I decided to try the 4/35 ratio. It seemed to work for me. I had very little expectations for this run. I battle ovarian cysts that rupture pretty regularly and one started up on Saturday night. I was in so much pain last night, that I broke down and popped a prescribed narcotic just to sleep. I knew that would mess with today’s run. My goal was to run 13.1 miles and whatever I clocked over that distance was just gravy.

I felt incredibly strong today. I took gels at miles 3, 6, 9 and 12. I have found that every three miles is the key to my success. I had plenty of water and didn’t run out until I hit the 13^th mile. My goal for this race next week is to finish strong and only walk when my timer goes off. I even attempted to skip some walk breaks today and I didn’t tire out as much as I had expected!

As I was approaching 11 miles I noticed that the timer was just about to break two hours. That is when I kicked it into high gear. I am working hard to pick up my pace and beat last years’ time. At 12 miles, my knees started to really hurt. As the garmin chimed at 13.1 miles, I decided to stop and walk home, there is no reason to hurt myself this close to race day. My official time for today’s 13.1 miles is 2:22:08!!! No freaking way! That is a seven-minute PR from two weeks ago and 11 minutes faster than last year’s race! Here’s to hoping I can hit that time or even beat it next week. Bring on the taper!

Happy running y’all!

11 > 15

No, I did not fail 1^st grade math. Yes, I do possess a Bachelor’s degree. I understand that 11 is not larger than 15 mathematically BUT on the pain scale of my recent long runs, 11 miles is WAY more painful than 15 miles. Why is that? If you remember my post here about how 11 miles kicked my butt, then you will be shocked to hear that yesterday’s 15 miles was exhilarating. I felt strong, had no problems breathing, even skipped a few walk breaks and finished strong! I have not ever finished a double digit run and felt that strong. The only hard part about yesterday’s run was the 45-degree temperature combined with the wind advisory. It was an ice-cold run and I found myself running just to keep warm. I guess it did the trick because my run was epic.

I will admit that I was dreading these 15 miles. I was supposed to have run them last Thursday, but I was on antibiotics for a TMI infection and decided to sleep the day away. If I had run that day or even the next day, I would have died from heat exhaustion because our temps were pushing 80+. I went camping with the cub scout pack on Saturday. The day was gorgeous and warm. By Saturday night, the temps dropped 30 degrees and the wind started up. Thank you Sandy. By the time we got home on Saturday, we had a slight drizzle. I listened to the winds howl all Sunday night. Monday morning, I stayed in bed extra long, trying to keep warm. Then I chided myself out of bed and into my running clothes.

Long sleeves, a fleece vest, hat and gloves combined with plenty of water and gels and I was out the door. The wind was bitterly cold and would change directions so it felt like the whole 15 miles was with a head wind. I didn’t care about a time; my run was all about the distance. I swallowed gels at miles 3, 6, 9. & 12. I finished all four of my water bottles and stopped by the house for a refill. If I felt strong and my timer was going off, I would skip the walk break. I found that I kept warmer by moving. If I walked in the first half, it was only for 30 seconds just to keep warm. I have often wondered if I would be able to run a half without using the Galloway plan and yesterday’s run proved to me that I can; someday.

Looking at my splits, I am very happy with my pace. I averaged an 11:35 min pace which is really good for me for long distances. I only had one mile break 13 minutes (mile 10) and even then, it was only 13:09.8. It is my goal to keep all of my (mile) splits under 13 minutes and especially under 12 minutes for my race. (I only had two miles in the 12 minute pace) After yesterday’s run, I am confident that I can do that in 3 ½ weeks. Keeping my fingers crossed that I can stay healthy and strong!!!

It’s a great day for running!!!

Postponed

Even with my 20 minute ice bath yesterday, I hurt like nobody's business today. I am not usually this sore after running 13.1 during training. Oyvey! I think it is my new shoes. It was my first long run in them. I am postponing today's walk until tomorrow, putting on my compression shorts and hopping myself up on some advil. Here's to hoping that I will be able to run intervals on Thursday.

Happy running y'all!

Hill Repeats: Part Deux

Today is hubby’s birthday. As I posted on his wall, “Happy Birthday to my better half. I celebrated with leg-trashing hill repeats. Boy do I know how to partay!” Today was my third attempt at hill repeats. (Sorry Hills Part Trois was not as catchy). This morning I put the boys on the bus as hubby was leaving for work and found myself wanting to crawl back into bed. So I did. Two hours later, I woke up, scarfed down some breakfast and hit the pavement. I had some hills to tackle and I had wasted enough daylight napping.

My original plan was to hit the “BIG hill” on my long route 10 times. As I ran towards “the hill” I realized that it was farther from my house than I thought;1.5 miles. I descended two hills on my way to “the hill” and realized that I had to ascend them on the way home. “Crap. I’ll do eight repeats instead of ten.” As I was halfway up the first repeat, I realized that this long hill gets steeper halfway up. “Crap. I’ll do six repeats instead of ten.” I successfully completed six repeats on this hill and ran up the other two hills on my way home. So I guess you can say that I did a total of eight repeats today. This hill was a b!t(h. I am looking forward to next Monday when I will do eight repeats and show it who's boss! Today’s workout was very similar to the last half of my race on Thanksgiving day (minus the six repeats on the same hill). While I know that my legs will be hurting tomorrow, I am glad that I’m doing hill repeats this go around and I’m excited to see how I perform on race day.

Tomorrow is a walk day. Hubby has the day off so we’ll celebrate his Birthday one day late. Thursday I do 6 x 800s; wish me luck!

Happy running y’all!