So my only race before the marathon is the day after tomorrow. I haven't given it a lot of thought b/c I'm so excited about Tiffany coming. But now it's here, and I'm really curious how I'm going to do. Last year I ran out of my MIND. Way faster than I was prepared to run. I just checked my blog post from it and I ran 8:42 miles?! What?? I read that and said a verbal, "crap."
I want to beat my time. But beating that time is going to be tough. The past week or so I've been doing closer to a 9 minute pace. I do remember after that race I thought I was going to die. By the time we drove home from Provo I just laid on my living room floor for like 20 minutes and just kept telling Justin I felt like somebody poisoned me.
So, needless to say, I emptied the tank on that race. But I'm so much better prepared for this one. The race last year was the first time I had ever run ten miles, and I only trained for a couple of weeks before it. I've been pretty seriously training now for months. So I better beat that dang time! My total time was 1:27:02 so I'm aiming for under 1:27:00 this year. Please please please!
(p.s. did my due diligence and ran 4 miles today... 8:55 pace)
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Seven miles
Didn't feel like running yesterday so I rewarded myself for doing it by running as slowly as I wanted. I even stopped to walk for a minute when I got a cramp (I ran like 20 minutes after dinner... I was asking for it). I haven't stopped to walk in the middle of a run in years. And it was totally fine, I walked for about 60 seconds and started back up. I felt like my mom, the queen of fartleks (haha that sounds awful).
It had rained all day yesterday so the combination of cool air and slow running felt like a real treat. And I saw a beaver in the wild for the first time in my life, he let me get about 10 feet from him, it was pretty cool. Don't remember how long it took me but I think I was doing 9:30 or slower the whole time.
It had rained all day yesterday so the combination of cool air and slow running felt like a real treat. And I saw a beaver in the wild for the first time in my life, he let me get about 10 feet from him, it was pretty cool. Don't remember how long it took me but I think I was doing 9:30 or slower the whole time.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Back to 4
Ran four miles yesterday in 35:33 (8:53 miles). The scab on my heel/ankle was able to scab over really well during my 2-day break so yesterday I was determined to not mess it up. Naive me. I put on a bandaid and wrapped it with some kind of gauzy stuff. Nope, 2 miles into it, it was just a big tangled mess so I ripped it off and almost cried as every step was tearing the scab off just a little bit more. Oh well, I'm done worrying about this thing, I might just have a raw ankle until my marathon.
We've had quite the rainy weather this week and it has been raining all day, so my seven miles might be interesting tonight. Might have to do it electronics-free. dun dun dun...
We've had quite the rainy weather this week and it has been raining all day, so my seven miles might be interesting tonight. Might have to do it electronics-free. dun dun dun...
Monday, June 8, 2009
I actually cross-trained
Mondays are my cross-training days. So far, my efforts have been modest, to put it nicely (aka do 40 pushups while I watch Medium and maybe some crunches).
Today I began video #1 of P90X. I have heard terrible-wonderful things about it, like how people can't walk for a week b/c they're so sore and such. I don't want to be that sore, sounds a little counterproductive to marathon training if you can't even walk.
But today I did the chest/back which means an hour of pushups and pullups. I don't have a pullup bar so I had to modify it with a band, but it was a really good workout. I will admit, I had to do sissy girl pushups for half of it, but it felt so good to do some real strengthening exercises.
There are a bunch of dvd's in the set, so I'm hoping P90X will be the ticket to making me super strong for my long runs.
Today I began video #1 of P90X. I have heard terrible-wonderful things about it, like how people can't walk for a week b/c they're so sore and such. I don't want to be that sore, sounds a little counterproductive to marathon training if you can't even walk.
But today I did the chest/back which means an hour of pushups and pullups. I don't have a pullup bar so I had to modify it with a band, but it was a really good workout. I will admit, I had to do sissy girl pushups for half of it, but it felt so good to do some real strengthening exercises.
There are a bunch of dvd's in the set, so I'm hoping P90X will be the ticket to making me super strong for my long runs.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Fourteen
Well, I did it. The furthest I've run to date: 14 miles. It wasn't bad. But it did have its setbacks.
Setback #1: Pesky blister. The dang thing can't heal because I keep running and rubbing it open again. Mile one was definitely the most miserable, as my bandaid was soaked through with blood and hanging off before I even got to the 2 mile mark. It stung like crazy and I had visions of a gauze-wrapped ankle for my next run. When I completed one mile, I had to laugh to myself (yay! only a half-marathon to go with this thing!). But yeah, by the time I got to 3-4 miles, it was numb and only periodically bothered me. I definitely need to get some of that liquid bandaid stuff.
Setback #2: My legs! So weird, but my legs just ached through this whole run. That's usually not a problem until I get past 8 miles or so, but from the minute I started to the minute I finished, my legs where achy. It was a good ache though, a "growing" ache, not an injury ache.
Those were pretty much my only obstacles; besides those, my run was quite enjoyable.
I ran a new trail in Draper that a friend recommended to me. It was really nice, nestled up against the mountain so I had a gorgeous view of the valley. I even came across a couple of water fountains, which was a pleasant surprise. At about mile 7, I had returned to the trail head when I was bombarded with an oncoming race. Some race for Taylor Swift, I have no idea what that was all about. But I liked seeing all the other runners, and it got me motivated for my Riverwoods 10 miler in one week.
I felt like I was running with mollases stuck to my soles, I just wasn't feeling any kind of speed today with the achy legs. I thought I was going over 10 minute miles the whole time (yeah, I forgot the nike+ tells you your pace until the last mile!). But when I finally checked my time at the half-marathon mark, it was 2 hours, 2 minutes, only a couple minutes slower than my race time last year, so I was pleasantly surprised. I had plenty of energy for the last mile, and actually ran it in under 8 minutes, which was motivating. 2:09:30 for my final time, average of 9:19 miles.
Setback #1: Pesky blister. The dang thing can't heal because I keep running and rubbing it open again. Mile one was definitely the most miserable, as my bandaid was soaked through with blood and hanging off before I even got to the 2 mile mark. It stung like crazy and I had visions of a gauze-wrapped ankle for my next run. When I completed one mile, I had to laugh to myself (yay! only a half-marathon to go with this thing!). But yeah, by the time I got to 3-4 miles, it was numb and only periodically bothered me. I definitely need to get some of that liquid bandaid stuff.
Setback #2: My legs! So weird, but my legs just ached through this whole run. That's usually not a problem until I get past 8 miles or so, but from the minute I started to the minute I finished, my legs where achy. It was a good ache though, a "growing" ache, not an injury ache.
Those were pretty much my only obstacles; besides those, my run was quite enjoyable.
I ran a new trail in Draper that a friend recommended to me. It was really nice, nestled up against the mountain so I had a gorgeous view of the valley. I even came across a couple of water fountains, which was a pleasant surprise. At about mile 7, I had returned to the trail head when I was bombarded with an oncoming race. Some race for Taylor Swift, I have no idea what that was all about. But I liked seeing all the other runners, and it got me motivated for my Riverwoods 10 miler in one week.
I felt like I was running with mollases stuck to my soles, I just wasn't feeling any kind of speed today with the achy legs. I thought I was going over 10 minute miles the whole time (yeah, I forgot the nike+ tells you your pace until the last mile!). But when I finally checked my time at the half-marathon mark, it was 2 hours, 2 minutes, only a couple minutes slower than my race time last year, so I was pleasantly surprised. I had plenty of energy for the last mile, and actually ran it in under 8 minutes, which was motivating. 2:09:30 for my final time, average of 9:19 miles.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Blood & Sweat
No tears, thank goodness, but I definitely had some blood going on yesterday. I set out to do my 7 miles and as soon as I started, I realized my new shoes had chafed the back of my left heel from my last run. I thought about going back to get a bandaid, but it didn't hurt terribly bad so I just kept going. BAD IDEA. By the time I hit my first stoplight, I could see blood all on the back of my shoe, and stopping made it really hurt.
I had no choice but to keep going though, and it really didn't bother me that bad as long as I was still running. My shiny new shoes are a bit tarnished now, and Justin was sad I made them look gross so soon. I told him it was the mark of a runner and I was proud of it, haha.
Anyway, I ended up doing 6.55 miles because we wanted to go see a movie and I ran out of time. My pace was on the ipod was a lot slower than I thought, somewhere around 8:50 miles... I'm wondering if my pace was off all along during training. Probably. We'll see. Gotta go do 4 miles now and I'm not looking forward to messing with my heel. I'm gonna wear my old shoes!
I had no choice but to keep going though, and it really didn't bother me that bad as long as I was still running. My shiny new shoes are a bit tarnished now, and Justin was sad I made them look gross so soon. I told him it was the mark of a runner and I was proud of it, haha.
Anyway, I ended up doing 6.55 miles because we wanted to go see a movie and I ran out of time. My pace was on the ipod was a lot slower than I thought, somewhere around 8:50 miles... I'm wondering if my pace was off all along during training. Probably. We'll see. Gotta go do 4 miles now and I'm not looking forward to messing with my heel. I'm gonna wear my old shoes!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Movin on up
I'm moving up in my weekday distance this week to 4-7-4 schedule. Saturday will be 14 miles, my longest feat yet.
I'm also moving up in the gear category. Justin surprised me with the Nike+ for my ipod that I've been wanting for a while. It's only $30, but I've been feeling bad about my selfish running budget lately and decided I didn't really need it. I'm SO glad to have it now though, that thing is awesome. He got me a little pouch thing that attaches to your shoelaces so I didn't have to buy Nikes (yuck, not my favorite) or cut a hole in the sole of my Asics. I used it for the first time today. I'm going to have to get used to it, but I love it.
I ran 4.22 (I know exactly now) in 36 minutes (8:30's).
I'm also moving up in the gear category. Justin surprised me with the Nike+ for my ipod that I've been wanting for a while. It's only $30, but I've been feeling bad about my selfish running budget lately and decided I didn't really need it. I'm SO glad to have it now though, that thing is awesome. He got me a little pouch thing that attaches to your shoelaces so I didn't have to buy Nikes (yuck, not my favorite) or cut a hole in the sole of my Asics. I used it for the first time today. I'm going to have to get used to it, but I love it.
I ran 4.22 (I know exactly now) in 36 minutes (8:30's).
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