I really didn't expect to feel this nervous about this race. And truth be told, I'm not nervous about the RACE at all. I'm nervous about the expo. And packet pick up. And pre-race logistics. And getting my kids up at dark-o-clock to haul them around the city for the morning.
Yeah - pretty much everything BUT the race.
I was REALLY sore yesterday, but not in a painful way. Does that make sense? Not like last week where I knew I couldn't run, but more like a "I'm an old old lady who has no business beating on herself this way" kind of way.
This morning I ran 4 miles, which were neither painful nor pain-free. Uncomfortable. But I'm actually feeling pretty good since then, so I am hopeful that I'm on the way up.
I'm pretty sure I can make it through 13.1 miles, and I'm ok with walk breaks throughout. I think walk breaks throughout are a SMART move on my part. So I'm planning on walking all the water stations, with potential of more walking at the end, depending.
I would REALLY like to finish in under 2:30, since my ultimate "race of my life" goal for the marathon is sub 5 hours. But mostly, I just want to finish, feel good, and have a great time.
We'll see - I'm excited to potentially meet some bloggers at the expo Saturday morning (but nervous about that too - I'm such a dork!).
***
ENOUGH with nervous. On a really good note, I haven't mentioned weight loss as a goal for this training, but it was something I was hoping for. I have lost a grand total of 8 pounds since April, all with no dieting whatsoever. I HAVE been trying to make healthier, "food as good body fuel" kind of choices, but overall, I'm eating more, not less.
So a big fat YAY!!! for that.
Still 10 or 15 to go to make me blissfully happy, but I'm just trying to get in a not-round shape. I gained 80 pounds with my first pregnancy (license to eat, anyone?) and I'm finally feeling like I could maybe recover from that someday. Which makes me so proud of myself!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Not Quite Sure Yet
Well, I ran. I walked a lot, and I went slow. It was a GORGEOUS afternoon! I went to my favorite trail, and I went north instead of south, so I ventured into previously unrun territory. Fun!
I got to run over a wood plank bridge over a lake, which was super pretty. Please excuse the crabass look on my face - I am so not a self portrait artist, and I am still figuring out how to use my new phone.
It was super lush and green after all the rain we got, and lots of sun. It didn't take me long to realize I forgot sunscreen. Ugh. Hopefully that won't bite me in the ass.
My legs felt ok. But I didn't want to push it, so I called it at 8 miles (when I ran out of powerade). I was still 2.5 miles from my car, so I got a great walk in at the end. I stopped to stretch at benches along the way...
Overall, I was happy with this run. I didn't have any pain, and I walked whenever I felt like it (which was often, since the afternoon sun seemed to zap my energy).
When I got home, I had an ice bath and a shower, and I've been stretching on and off. I'm a bit sore already, so we'll see how this is in the next day or 2. I'm really glad I didn't push my distance any further - I think I'd have regretted it.
I hope you all had a great weekend!
I got to run over a wood plank bridge over a lake, which was super pretty. Please excuse the crabass look on my face - I am so not a self portrait artist, and I am still figuring out how to use my new phone.
It was super lush and green after all the rain we got, and lots of sun. It didn't take me long to realize I forgot sunscreen. Ugh. Hopefully that won't bite me in the ass.
My legs felt ok. But I didn't want to push it, so I called it at 8 miles (when I ran out of powerade). I was still 2.5 miles from my car, so I got a great walk in at the end. I stopped to stretch at benches along the way...
Overall, I was happy with this run. I didn't have any pain, and I walked whenever I felt like it (which was often, since the afternoon sun seemed to zap my energy).
When I got home, I had an ice bath and a shower, and I've been stretching on and off. I'm a bit sore already, so we'll see how this is in the next day or 2. I'm really glad I didn't push my distance any further - I think I'd have regretted it.
I hope you all had a great weekend!
YAY FOR NO HUMIDITY!!!
I just wanted to post super quick to let you all know that I THINK my leg is feeling pretty good, and I LOVE this weather, and I'm heading out to the trail this afternoon to try to get my long run in. I'm planning on walking more than usual (is that possible?!?!) and really listening to whatever my body says.
I'll post later and let you know how it goes!
I'll post later and let you know how it goes!
Friday, July 23, 2010
Temporary (hopefully!!!) Setback
I am sideline for now. After my 10 miler, my left quad was feeling strange / hurting some. I did 4.5 on Monday, and after warming up, it felt ok, and pushed my Tuesday run to Wednesday. My Wednesday run was supposed to be 7 miles, but I only did 4.65, because my leg was really bothering me. I stretched a ton, but was having trouble stretching the spot that was hurting (it's more like my groin, but way underneath everything).
You see where this is going right? Thursday morning, I got out of bed, and I couldn't tell yet how I was going to feel. I was hopping around a little, and trying to get some indication of how my leg was doing. I decided to try it out. Within 200 meters of starting, I knew that a run wasn't in my cards - it really HURT when I ran, and I was gimping a little to accommodate it. So I scrapped the run, and walked for an hour instead, turning my music off and losing myself in my thoughts and the sunrise.
I'm feeling frustrated. I took today completely off, and it doesn't seem to hurt as much, but I can't tell without actually running. I'm going to push my long run to Sunday and just feel my way through it. I don't want to jeopardize the Chicago Rock-N-Roll Half which is a week from Sunday. But I'm nervous.
I'll keep you all posted...
You see where this is going right? Thursday morning, I got out of bed, and I couldn't tell yet how I was going to feel. I was hopping around a little, and trying to get some indication of how my leg was doing. I decided to try it out. Within 200 meters of starting, I knew that a run wasn't in my cards - it really HURT when I ran, and I was gimping a little to accommodate it. So I scrapped the run, and walked for an hour instead, turning my music off and losing myself in my thoughts and the sunrise.
I'm feeling frustrated. I took today completely off, and it doesn't seem to hurt as much, but I can't tell without actually running. I'm going to push my long run to Sunday and just feel my way through it. I don't want to jeopardize the Chicago Rock-N-Roll Half which is a week from Sunday. But I'm nervous.
I'll keep you all posted...
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Melancholy
It's my oldest son's 9th birthday today. And while I love basketball camp week every summer (both oldest kids gone for the whole week) I hate it because his birthday always falls in the middle of it, and I MISS HIM.
So to fight off my melancholy (and his too) we called and sang to him this morning before camp started, and tonight, we (me, my husband, and the 2 littles) are going to surprise him at dinner out. I can't wait to see the look on his face!
He rules - Happy birthday to the funniest, smartest, sweetest boy I know!
So to fight off my melancholy (and his too) we called and sang to him this morning before camp started, and tonight, we (me, my husband, and the 2 littles) are going to surprise him at dinner out. I can't wait to see the look on his face!
He rules - Happy birthday to the funniest, smartest, sweetest boy I know!
Monday, July 19, 2010
Weekend Awesomeness
First off, I want to thank you for your sweet supportive comments on my last post - you guys rule for 1.) listening to me whine and 2.) making me feel so much better!
Let me back up to Friday night. At the last minute I invited some great friends over to swim and grill out. We had such a relaxing night (even though we had a ton of basement work planned, which I effectively said "fuck it!" to) and it was just what I needed. Great food, even better company, and even the kids all had a blast (when they weren't trying to kill each other). Success!
BUT...towards the end of the evening, John and I both commented on how hot it was getting in the house. All along, we'd chalked it up to the kids running in and out and in and out and leaving the door open. But after our friends left, we realized that OUR EFFING AC WAS BROKEN. Sweet. Really. On a friggin' Friday night, so there's no way in hell I'm waiting til Monday to fix it. I called them up, but it was already getting dark, so the fix would have to wait til Saturday morning. Lovely - this meant sleeping in our 90 degree house.
Honestly, as weird as it is, this turned out to be a blessing. I was stressing about my run, and hot. I slept like crap, and was up at 3:30am. Yep. Insane. But I figured, I might as well get up and get running before it got super hot outside. So that's exactly what I did. I filled up my handheld, tucked a vanilla bean GU in the pocket, and chose orange GU chomps to try out (the vanilla bean was backup in case the chomps sucked). I set out in the dark in my neighborhood, with the goal of survival.
After thinking about it lots, I really wanted to run this SLOWLY. I've been averaging 11:15 or so paces on my runs, but in reality, that meant 10:40 pace interspersed with walk breaks while I tried not to die. So my goal pace was between 11:30 and 11:40 for this run. I started off right in my goal pace, and stayed there for a good 7 miles. I FELT AWESOME!! I actually kept smiling because I was feeling so good! This was fantastic!!!! At about mile 6 I'd swung back home to pick up my water, and tried a chomp. HORRIBLE! It was too sour, and I felt like I was gagging it down. So I aborted the chomp and went with the GU. I just don't think I'm meant to chew anything on a run, but I'm still experimenting (I've heard good things about the strawberry).
I won't lie - the last couple miles were harder, but not nearly as hard as I expected. And the reason they were difficult was honestly due to all the butt-clenching going on. Not fun. And I almost made it home in time. Almost. Ahem.
All in all, this run served as an amazing confidence builder for me. I proved that not only can I do it, I can do it and FEEL GREAT. YAY!!
I took my first ice bath when I got home, and while my legs were a bit sore, it wasn't anything major. I ran 4.5 this morning, and once I warmed my legs up, I could FEEL that I had used them hard this weekend, but they didn't HURT. That was a pleasant surprise - I honestly was a bit nervous about that.
So I'm back in it!! And I'm down to 2 kids this week (basketball camp for my older 2) so hopefully, I'll be posting a bit more. Have a good one!
Let me back up to Friday night. At the last minute I invited some great friends over to swim and grill out. We had such a relaxing night (even though we had a ton of basement work planned, which I effectively said "fuck it!" to) and it was just what I needed. Great food, even better company, and even the kids all had a blast (when they weren't trying to kill each other). Success!
BUT...towards the end of the evening, John and I both commented on how hot it was getting in the house. All along, we'd chalked it up to the kids running in and out and in and out and leaving the door open. But after our friends left, we realized that OUR EFFING AC WAS BROKEN. Sweet. Really. On a friggin' Friday night, so there's no way in hell I'm waiting til Monday to fix it. I called them up, but it was already getting dark, so the fix would have to wait til Saturday morning. Lovely - this meant sleeping in our 90 degree house.
Honestly, as weird as it is, this turned out to be a blessing. I was stressing about my run, and hot. I slept like crap, and was up at 3:30am. Yep. Insane. But I figured, I might as well get up and get running before it got super hot outside. So that's exactly what I did. I filled up my handheld, tucked a vanilla bean GU in the pocket, and chose orange GU chomps to try out (the vanilla bean was backup in case the chomps sucked). I set out in the dark in my neighborhood, with the goal of survival.
After thinking about it lots, I really wanted to run this SLOWLY. I've been averaging 11:15 or so paces on my runs, but in reality, that meant 10:40 pace interspersed with walk breaks while I tried not to die. So my goal pace was between 11:30 and 11:40 for this run. I started off right in my goal pace, and stayed there for a good 7 miles. I FELT AWESOME!! I actually kept smiling because I was feeling so good! This was fantastic!!!! At about mile 6 I'd swung back home to pick up my water, and tried a chomp. HORRIBLE! It was too sour, and I felt like I was gagging it down. So I aborted the chomp and went with the GU. I just don't think I'm meant to chew anything on a run, but I'm still experimenting (I've heard good things about the strawberry).
I won't lie - the last couple miles were harder, but not nearly as hard as I expected. And the reason they were difficult was honestly due to all the butt-clenching going on. Not fun. And I almost made it home in time. Almost. Ahem.
All in all, this run served as an amazing confidence builder for me. I proved that not only can I do it, I can do it and FEEL GREAT. YAY!!
I took my first ice bath when I got home, and while my legs were a bit sore, it wasn't anything major. I ran 4.5 this morning, and once I warmed my legs up, I could FEEL that I had used them hard this weekend, but they didn't HURT. That was a pleasant surprise - I honestly was a bit nervous about that.
So I'm back in it!! And I'm down to 2 kids this week (basketball camp for my older 2) so hopefully, I'll be posting a bit more. Have a good one!
Friday, July 16, 2010
Quickie
I have about 15 minutes, so I thought I'd check in. You are all ridiculously lucky that I didn't actually post yesterday, as I had this entire woe-is-me rant in my head, that I decided to delete rather than publish (you're welcome!!).
Basically, my run yesterday morning SUCKED ASS. And I wimped out and ran 3 instead of 4.5 (I know, I know, no huge deal, but it felt huge to me yesterday morning). And the self-doubt and lack of confidence set up shop in my head until my lovely daily mile friends told me nicely to KNOCK IT OFF. So you were spared! ;)
I have always felt that people are way more confident in my abilities than I am confident in myself. This goes for jobs, parenting, any sort of skill set. I feel like I get myself in way over my head and there's no way I can meet my "big goal" at the end. And this same doubt is starting to rear it's ugly head again with this marathon. Like seriously, who the hell am I to think I can actually DO this??
Gah, sorry, you STILL had to listen to me whine!
But in reality, I WANT to do this so badly I WANT to tell that doubt in my head to SHUT THE EFF UP ALREADY. Silence it for good.
Tomorrow, I am going to run 10 miles. Double digits. Holy crap.
But you know what? I AM going to run it. Every step might hurt and it might be a giant struggle, but I'll do it.
I will.
Basically, my run yesterday morning SUCKED ASS. And I wimped out and ran 3 instead of 4.5 (I know, I know, no huge deal, but it felt huge to me yesterday morning). And the self-doubt and lack of confidence set up shop in my head until my lovely daily mile friends told me nicely to KNOCK IT OFF. So you were spared! ;)
I have always felt that people are way more confident in my abilities than I am confident in myself. This goes for jobs, parenting, any sort of skill set. I feel like I get myself in way over my head and there's no way I can meet my "big goal" at the end. And this same doubt is starting to rear it's ugly head again with this marathon. Like seriously, who the hell am I to think I can actually DO this??
Gah, sorry, you STILL had to listen to me whine!
But in reality, I WANT to do this so badly I WANT to tell that doubt in my head to SHUT THE EFF UP ALREADY. Silence it for good.
Tomorrow, I am going to run 10 miles. Double digits. Holy crap.
But you know what? I AM going to run it. Every step might hurt and it might be a giant struggle, but I'll do it.
I will.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Catching Up
I'm still trying to get back on track after last week's head cold. It's amazing how much a stupid little thing like that, which only really lasted 3 days, can set you back. I did end up missing a training run last week, but it's done - onward...
My weekend was insane. I'm so glad my long run for the week was only 6 miles, because any more than that and I couldn't have fit it all in! I ended up cleaning my mom's for 10 hours (!!!) on Saturday after my run (no I'm not a saint - she paid me!) and fell into bed an exhausted mess. Sunday was nice though...we were invited to dinner at a friends whose kids go to school with mine. Another family was there too, and the grown ups got to chat while all the kids played. It was so nice to hang out, but we got home too late. I love the ease of summer that way - it's so nice to just BE and let the kids run like crazy and not worry about anything. And the food was great too!
So, back on track this week. I'm hoping to incorporate some crosstraining (read: scrub MY house) into the week - we'll see how successful I am at that. I ran 4.45 yesterday and 6.29 this morning. I'm a little nervous for my 10 miler this Saturday. One foot in front of the other, right? And HOLY EFFIN CRAP THE CHICAGO ROCK N ROLL HALF IS IN 2.5 WEEKS! Gah. Scaring the shit out of myself is never a good thing. It's just a training run. It's just a training run. It's just a training run.
Question to all you pros...What are your favorite socks? I need some new ones (my old ones are no longer wicking very well, and my feet are super sweaty after 6 or 7 miles). So tell me what you can't live without!
My weekend was insane. I'm so glad my long run for the week was only 6 miles, because any more than that and I couldn't have fit it all in! I ended up cleaning my mom's for 10 hours (!!!) on Saturday after my run (no I'm not a saint - she paid me!) and fell into bed an exhausted mess. Sunday was nice though...we were invited to dinner at a friends whose kids go to school with mine. Another family was there too, and the grown ups got to chat while all the kids played. It was so nice to hang out, but we got home too late. I love the ease of summer that way - it's so nice to just BE and let the kids run like crazy and not worry about anything. And the food was great too!
So, back on track this week. I'm hoping to incorporate some crosstraining (read: scrub MY house) into the week - we'll see how successful I am at that. I ran 4.45 yesterday and 6.29 this morning. I'm a little nervous for my 10 miler this Saturday. One foot in front of the other, right? And HOLY EFFIN CRAP THE CHICAGO ROCK N ROLL HALF IS IN 2.5 WEEKS! Gah. Scaring the shit out of myself is never a good thing. It's just a training run. It's just a training run. It's just a training run.
Question to all you pros...What are your favorite socks? I need some new ones (my old ones are no longer wicking very well, and my feet are super sweaty after 6 or 7 miles). So tell me what you can't live without!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Too much fun....so....tired....
I hope you all had a fabulous 4th of July! We had a very low key weekend, but that still involved a bunch of late nights in a row, and we are all pretty spent. After pushing off my long run to get my hair done on Saturday (YAY!) we went swimming and then later saw fabulous local fireworks on Saturday night. Sunday morning, after finishing my 8 miles, some friends joined us for swimming all morning, we had an easy pizza lunch, some downtime in the afternoon, and then back with the same friends for a barbeque and some more fireworks and sparklers. And Monday, we spent the entire day in the pool. Serious napping has happened already this morning...
As I said, Sunday was my long run. Those 8 miles were some of my suckiest (is that a word?) to date. It was effing HOT. And I now know what people mean when they refer to "bonking." At 5 miles in, I felt like another step and I may very well die. But after some fuel and electrolytes, and way too much walking, I finished the last couple pretty strong. And I'm happy to report that with all my time in the pool, my legs felt really good this morning. Too bad the rest of me didn't! Somewhere over the weekend, I picked up a summer head cold, and running when you can't breathe is no fun.
Here's to a less stuffy (less hot would be good too) tomorrow...
As I said, Sunday was my long run. Those 8 miles were some of my suckiest (is that a word?) to date. It was effing HOT. And I now know what people mean when they refer to "bonking." At 5 miles in, I felt like another step and I may very well die. But after some fuel and electrolytes, and way too much walking, I finished the last couple pretty strong. And I'm happy to report that with all my time in the pool, my legs felt really good this morning. Too bad the rest of me didn't! Somewhere over the weekend, I picked up a summer head cold, and running when you can't breathe is no fun.
Here's to a less stuffy (less hot would be good too) tomorrow...
Friday, July 2, 2010
Miscellany
This week has been a real bummer - I've been completely stressed (money issues, ugh) and in an emotional funk. It took until today for it to lift - I hate that feeling of "going through the motions" like a zombie, but I guess I just needed a few days for my attitude adjustment to kick in. Anyhow, it's better now.
On the running front, this week has been STELLAR. The weather has been so so so perfect, it was a joy to be out there. I'm sure it helped me out of this crappy hole much quicker than I could have done it without running. LOVE!
***
I got a bunch of new STUFF lately! It's been fun trying everything out.
- My RunID showed up, and I am feeling much better about my solo early morning runs with that on.
- I bought a running skirt from runningskirts.com - I got an athletic skirt with the compression shorts underneath and it has become my absolute favorite thing to run in. If I manage to lose a few more pounds, I will actually need a smaller size though (WOOT!) but I adore it and want more.
- And my cell phone was finally ready for an upgrade, and I entered the world of the smart phone. I got a Droid (for FREE!) and installed the Runstar App. I ran with it for the first time this morning, and it was fun to get some Garmin-like info about my run without actually owning a Garmin (I am a Nike+ girl - Garmins are not in my budget at the moment). The only bummer is that the phone is rather heavy...it kept making my capris fall down today, so if I want to continue to run with it (and I DO!) I will need to get some kind of belt to put it in.
***
The best part of my runs lately is noticing that I am getting FASTER. Well, faster for me anyway...Today the schedule called for 4 miles, with the second half faster than the first. I'm finding that I can hold on to an 11 or 11:30 pace for a really long time...my "conversation pace" so to speak, but I can run (and sometimes my legs WANT to run) at a 10:30 pace for quite a while. At the end of today's run I kicked it at an 8:40 pace. HOLY CRAP. I don't know how you speedsters hold that for an entire half marathon. Seriously. That lasted for MAYBE a half a block. My splits from today went like this:
11:53
11:17
10:31
10:36
But I looked back to earlier this spring, and I was barely holding on to a 12 minute pace. So I'm enjoying seeing progress! Maybe in a year or 2 I'll be able to hang with the speedy chicks ;)
***
We have a really nice, laid back weekend coming up. We'll be BBQing with some good friends, hanging out in the pool, I'm getting my hair done (YAY!) and I have 8 miles on deck. I hope you all have a fantastic holiday weekend!
On the running front, this week has been STELLAR. The weather has been so so so perfect, it was a joy to be out there. I'm sure it helped me out of this crappy hole much quicker than I could have done it without running. LOVE!
***
I got a bunch of new STUFF lately! It's been fun trying everything out.
- My RunID showed up, and I am feeling much better about my solo early morning runs with that on.
- I bought a running skirt from runningskirts.com - I got an athletic skirt with the compression shorts underneath and it has become my absolute favorite thing to run in. If I manage to lose a few more pounds, I will actually need a smaller size though (WOOT!) but I adore it and want more.
- And my cell phone was finally ready for an upgrade, and I entered the world of the smart phone. I got a Droid (for FREE!) and installed the Runstar App. I ran with it for the first time this morning, and it was fun to get some Garmin-like info about my run without actually owning a Garmin (I am a Nike+ girl - Garmins are not in my budget at the moment). The only bummer is that the phone is rather heavy...it kept making my capris fall down today, so if I want to continue to run with it (and I DO!) I will need to get some kind of belt to put it in.
***
The best part of my runs lately is noticing that I am getting FASTER. Well, faster for me anyway...Today the schedule called for 4 miles, with the second half faster than the first. I'm finding that I can hold on to an 11 or 11:30 pace for a really long time...my "conversation pace" so to speak, but I can run (and sometimes my legs WANT to run) at a 10:30 pace for quite a while. At the end of today's run I kicked it at an 8:40 pace. HOLY CRAP. I don't know how you speedsters hold that for an entire half marathon. Seriously. That lasted for MAYBE a half a block. My splits from today went like this:
11:53
11:17
10:31
10:36
But I looked back to earlier this spring, and I was barely holding on to a 12 minute pace. So I'm enjoying seeing progress! Maybe in a year or 2 I'll be able to hang with the speedy chicks ;)
***
We have a really nice, laid back weekend coming up. We'll be BBQing with some good friends, hanging out in the pool, I'm getting my hair done (YAY!) and I have 8 miles on deck. I hope you all have a fantastic holiday weekend!
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