Race Recap- 3 months later!

I can't believe that it has been almost 3 months since the Nashville Country Music Half Marathon! Even worse was that my last blog date was March 21st, 4 months ago! Anyway my first half marathon was a huge success and I was thrilled to cross the finish line. We had a perfect day for race day with a cool sunny morning that later turned into a hot day in the south. After researching the course and hearing reviews I knew that we were in for some hills but holy cow I didn't realize the entire 13.1 would be up and down and back up again! The first mile we had a nice stretch of flat to get ourselves into a steady pace and then we tackled our first, long uphill battle. I will say that I felt fantastic the first 7 miles. We had our game plan of walking through the fuel stations etc... Miles 8-12 were pretty intense, between the hills and the heat the exhaustion was starting to kick in but by mile 12 it suddenly hit me that HOLY CRAP only 1.1 more miles left! The last .5 miles was an amazing downhill effort with a slight turn to the right and BAM the finish line! Nashville was an absolutely amazing city and the fans cheering was extremely motivating. Although I'd prefer to not ever run hills like that again I'm really glad this was my experience for my first half marathon. BEst feeling was crossing the finish line and thinking to myself....YES I would do this again!

There was a bit of an interesting hitch thrown into my whole half marathon weekend plans and Dale and my life is about to change in a huge way! 4 days before the marathon I found out I was expecting! It was definitely an unexpected twist but a ridiculously exciting surprise. After getting in touch with my Dr. she gave me the all clear to go ahead with the run. She did tell me to take more frequent walk breaks and really watch my hydration levels. This gave me a longer time in the end but of course it didn't matter at all because it was even more exhilirating to cross that finish line 5 weeks pregnant! It is a good thing that the race happened when it did though because a week later I was hit with the crazy first trimester exhaustion and morning sickness.

Right now I'm 17 weeks and 5 days along and everything is going great. My energy levels have finally returned and I'm back to doing some light workouts. Unfortunately due to some issues the Dr. has told me no more running through this pregnancy but I'm eager to lace up my sneaks and sign up for another half sometime in 2012!

Hopefully no one will mind that this blog will now be a baby blog and life blog about adventures in parenting!

It's Go Time.

No more messing around. It's time to get serious and focused about this 1/2 Marathon. I'm less than six weeks out, 40 more days until 13.1. It is now time to put up or shut up. I have to put the last few miserable weeks behind me and realize that I am strong enough to do this. Do my shins hurt and does my side constantly ache? Yes. But can I let that stop me now? No! Okay so here goes...Here is what this week looks like

Mon-5 miles
Tues-3 miles
Wed-5 miles
Thurs- XTrain
Friday-Off
Saturday- 8 Miles
Total: 21 miles....piece of cake :/

Who knew...

shoes could be the latest attacker on my morale. You may remember a few weeks ago I posted about how excited I was about my new Brooks Ghost 3's. I was really looking forward to running in them and couldn't wait to lace them up. Then I was hit with Bronchitis and sidelined for a bit. During my bout with bronchitis I did a couple very slow, controlled, treadmill runs and thought that my new shoes were great. After a few days off I took it out on the road and oh holy hell shin splints like no other. After about .5 mile I was in excrutiating pain to the point that I limped home crying to my husband. I thought it may have just been that I needed to break in the shoes so I took them out for a couple more painful runs. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and I went back to the running store that fitted me in those shoes. They were awesome and told me to try another version of Brooks with a little more support. After 45 minutes of awesomeness I walked out the door with my brand new shoes excited about using them on my 8 mile run Saturday. Disaster strikes again. As I'm out with my sister in law (who is running the 1/2 with me) she notices how flat footed I am running. (actually I sounded more like a fat out of shape horse "clomp, clomp, clomp") and I literally couldn't bend my foot upward. There was no "heel to toe" running motion coming from me. I told her to run ahead so she could get her mileage in for the day and I slowly somehow think I managed to get through 10K instead of the 14K we were supposed to run. After that I run I knew it had to be something with the Brooks line that just didn't work for my feet. Off to the running store I go again. This time however I find out that the new Brooks shoes I had been buying were less of a shoe than what I was used to running in (that would have been nice to know before!). So I here I am with a new pair of Nike Lunar Glides hoping that this is the end of my shin pain.

Unfortunately I'm now in a very bad place with running. The 1/2 is just over 6 weeks away and the longest mileage I've put up is 7 miles. I'm in no means trying to run a fast race at all but I just want to finish it and after the last few weeks of on again off again running I feel completely overwhelmed and under prepared.

Hills...

are the devil. Last night I had a nice short 2 mile run, except I decided to torture myself and run hills. We have this nice steep hill behind our house so I did a slow paced warm up jog and then did "pyramids" on the hill:

Up easy, Down easy
Up easy, Down Hard
Up Hard, Down Easy
Up Hard, Down Hard
Up Hard, Down Easy
Up Easy, Down Hard
Up Easy, Down Easy

It absolutely kicked my butt. I did at least have some comedy relief watching my dog get a kick out of running the hills with me. I took him off of his leash and he was perfect, running right next to me and patiently meeting me at the top and bottom of the hill each time.

6 miles in for the week and 12 more to go!

No Pain No Gain

7 miles down 6.1 to go! After missing two long runs thanks to bronchitis I dusted off the new running shoes (how sad is it that they already collected dust) and went out for a long run yesterday. Old Man Winter gave us a break yesterday and we had a great day for outside running. It was about 50 degrees, partly sunny, with a little bit of a sprinkle here and there. I had only planned on doing 5 but once I started running I knew I wanted to push myself and get back on track to where I should be right now. I was also excited because this longer run gave me the opportunity to start to test out some energy gels/chews. Those things really do work to give you a bit of an extra boost. I think I may need to take them every mile though ;) 6.2 mi to 7 miles was definitely tough and by the end I didn't think my legs could move anymore but I did it. I took a few very short (30 sec or less) walking breaks about 5 or 6 times and that definitely helped get me to the end. It feels great to sort of "jump" right back in after missing a couple of weeks. I'm really in need of a short run today though to loosen up these legs!

Happy Weekend!

Enough....

of you Old Man Winter! I'm done with you. I am sick and tired of cold, windy, snowy, sleety, nasty, rainy weather. I am ready for Spring. I've had enough of running with a cold wind blowing snow and ice chunks in my face. I'm ready to run in 50+ weather and not see snow again until next December.

I guess I should feel a little "lucky" today is going to be almost 50 degrees out but of course it's pouring down rain. Don't get me wrong I LOVE running in the rain....when it's 75 degrees out that is. Because of weekend plans I took 2 days of rest this week to hopefully run my LD of the week tonight. I need to put 6+miles in and I really don't want to do it in the chilly rain.

Okay, sorry for my rant.

Oh what a week

Last week was definitely a blur and it's hard to believe that March is right around the corner. After my awesome visit to urgent care to find out I had bronchitis and was benched from running I hopped on a plane and headed to San Francisco and Tucson, AZ for work for a week. Originally I was pumped for this trip and the personal benefit of being able to run outside in the warmer air and sunshinier skies. I was definitely worn down and was just hoping and praying that the antibiotics would kick in and I'd suddenly feel great. Eventhough that didn't happen I pushed myself to get in a couple of workouts. 2.5 treadmill runs ( I say .5 because I had to stop early on one of my runs). I ran super slow and only went about 2 miles each time. After every run I was so out of breath and coughing up a storm. As the week went on I was feeling stronger everyday and when Thursday rolled around the gorgeous blue skies in Tucson were calling my name. I jumped at the thought of getting a good run in before my plane ride home. As I started the 3.5 mile run I immediately knew it was not a good idea and parked the run idea and went for a nice walk at a pretty decent pace.

I'm pretty bummed and getting nervous because I missed two long runs for training. I'm not sure how it will all work out with my training for the half but i'm definitely more nervous now than ever. I did manage to get a run in last night. It was a quick 2 miles but I'm hoping the shorter runs and the longer walk I had to do while sick will be enough to keep the muscle memory going in my legs.

I'm feeling a lot better now, still not 100% but much better and am really crossing my fingers that I will be able to jump back in to training.

T: 3.5 miles
W: 2 miles (hills) and belly dancing class!
T: 3.5 miles/strength
Sat: 6 miles (maybe 7 if I can push myself there!)
Sun: x train