Month: March 2013

I’m not racing this month. I’m doing the MS Walk with some friends on the 21st, but that’s not a race scenario. This is my month to prep for the Pittsburgh Half. Not sure I’ll beat my PR on that course, but I’m sure gonna give it a go. 🙂

• Lose 5 pounds. I’ve been kind of a slacker. I’ve been bouncing between 141 and 143 for the past month, but not making any real progress. My diet has been sloppy. Time to get down to business and get this shit done. I want to see a 3 in the 10 spot of my weight.
• April “RUN YOUR ASS OFF” Challenge. I like this WAAAAY better than the March “RUN EVERY DAY” Challenge. The goal is still to run at least 1 mile every day. BUT if you miss a day, you run 3 miles the next. Miss two days? Run 5 miles. SOOO much more doable for me, because I will need some rest days and this will allow me to not feel like a slacker/failure for missing a day.  
• Register for my last June race AND my full marathon. 
• Work on my core strength. I have decent core strength, but I can feel yesterday’s half marathon in my obliques, which means they need some work. So, to prepare myself for the rest of my race season, I will be doing more core work.
• Do another 15 mile run. I love running long. And running 15 before my half made me feel strong, powerful and confident. I want to do it again. 🙂
• CROSS TRAINING. I have an obstacle race coming up in the first part of June. I NEED to work on my upper body. And I need to make sure I’m balancing the muscles I use for running so I don’t injure myself. This means I need to get serious about cross training, and in particular, adding in strength training on a regular basis. 

I think those sound like solid goals. Mostly fitness. All totally doable. Bring it on, April!

First half marathon of race season is in the books. And it was ridiculously good. I had run the majority of this course a couple of times before–my 10 mile race at the start of the month was here, as was last weeks 15-miler. The only part I hadn’t run was the 5k portion, which takes you up a hill or two. Yeah, a little tough, but no big deal. I’ve run far crazier hills than that. Then it goes into two fairly easy (for me, at this point) laps around the lake. 

I knew I was set to PR. My previous best time was 3:06:11. I KNEW that with the way I’ve been training I was going to crush that. I was planning on a 2:40ish finish. BUT…I was running with/against one of my friends. We crossed the start around the same time. Cat and moused a bit until we got through the crowds and settled into our respective rhythms. Then I got a huge lead. I was chugging along, I was doing fine, then BAM! Cramps. Not those kind of cramps, either. Female cramps (sorry if that’s TMI, but it is what it is). So I slow down because I am in agony. I’m still pushing myself, but I HURT. My friend catches up to me. I look at him, say hell no, and take off. I gain a decent lead again. Then I start to slow as another wave of cramps come through. I look back over my shoulder, see him coming up behind me, and TAKE OFF. I was not having that. And so it goes for awhile. Eventually he does catch up to me again. We chat for a few minutes. Tells me he cracked up the last time he saw me bolt. I eventually take off again. Eventually he catches up again. We cat and mouse for awhile until the last mile when I’m dying. It’s taking everything in me to get to that line. We run together until right before the finish when he takes off. I smile and say go get it, at that point my uterus had sapped all my energy and I would run to the finish, but I just didn’t have a sprint left in me. 

Unofficial time: 2:32:22. Still waiting on the official results, but I know it’s gonna be close. Official time: 2:32:08!! Either way, I CRUSHED it. I exceeded my own expectations. And that was while I was in pain. I might’ve been sub 2:30 if I hadn’t been hurting so bad. Un effing real. I don’t even care that my friend ‘beat’ me (by 2 seconds. Literally, 2 seconds), because my time is so out of this world. 

Sometimes I can’t believe it. I can’t believe who I’ve become. If you had told me in high school or even college that I would be a runner, really a runner, I would never have believed it. I always wanted to be, but I couldn’t imagine that I actually would be a runner. And a decent one at that. When I finished my first half marathon, I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of doing a full, I didn’t want to do one unless I could get my half time down to around 2:30. And I’ve done that. I ran 15 freakin’ miles last weekend and while I was sore after, it just felt…good. It felt right. I felt happy, and strong, and confident. The person I’ve become seems so far from who I’ve always been, it still takes me by surprise. 

I think I’m going to do a fall marathon guys.

This is exciting. I’m not quite ready to register. But soon. And you will hear about it when I do.

And my streak is officially over.

I’m sore from my glorious 15-miler. I didn’t rest properly yesterday and now I’m still sore. Not like injured-sore, but like I-should’ve-known-my-limits-my-body-isn’t-thrilled-that-I-added-5-miles-in-2 weeks-I-need-to-effing-REST-sore. So much as it pains me, I’m sitting out for a day or two. I have my first half marathon of the season on Saturday and I don’t want to mess that up.

I’m not sorry about that run though. It was glorious. It was perfect. It reminded me how much I love running and why. I would do it again in a heartbeat (though I would rest the next day had I a re-do). And if I weren’t so dead set on PGH being my first full marathon, I would be searching for a fall one because I LOVED adding miles. It felt good. It felt right. And I can’t wait to push for the next longer run.

Working on trying to build a training plan for the month between JASR and PGH, while keeping the rest of my season’s plans, and future goals in mind. After my 15-miler this weekend, I’m hungry to build distance. If I weren’t dead set on my first full being PGH I’d probably be looking for a fall full marathon to train for. But alas, my love of Pittsburgh running prevails.

Puts me in an interesting place as far as training goes, however. I love distance and I want to build it, but I’m focusing on half marathons this year, and I’d love to see that PR time come down as the season progresses.

I’ll figure it out. 🙂

This sums it up for me. My love affair with running. Running is my safe place. The place I’m free of doubt. Free of fear. I don’t care what my body looks like, just about what it can do. I am my most true self, and I am truly happy. I really feel like I don’t choose to run, but that running chose me.

Last week I had a no-good-very-bad run. I set out for 12 and had to stop at 6 because I was literally crying. Emotionally, mentally, it just wasn’t happening. Life had crept it’s way into my sacred space, into my run. So I relaxed this week, took a step back, re-evaluated some things. I’d been nervous about a long run since my breakdown, but with a race next weekend I needed to get some more distance in there. So mid-week, when a friend invited me along for his Saturday 15-mile training run, I accepted.

And it was perfect. PERFECT. The weather was perfect. My playlist (on shuffle) was spot on. I was happy. I was relaxed. I smiled almost the entire time. I’d never done 15 before, but it just felt good. I kept pushing pace and having to slow to let my friend catch up (I wasn’t trying to, I wasn’t trying to do anything other than the distance, but it just felt soooo good I couldn’t help it). And I needed that so much. I needed to have my safe place back. And I do.

Good day so far…
…rocking some skinny pants and my killer red heels. Friend comments that I have such cute pants. Kohls juniors clearance I tell her. Looks at me again and says ‘your hips and ass are smaller than mine. You suck!’
…Sexy Express Guy that I gave my number to is filling in today & tomorrow unexpectedly. And it wasn’t awkward.
…tried on the bikini as its been awhile. Still some work to do, but definite progress. I actually look halfway decent.

Why is it not sandal weather yet?! I need to get some new sandals, but I’m dying to run around sans socks. Blah!