18 Weeks.

So my first half marathon of this year is in 18 weeks. That gives me hope for warm weather! But it also got me thinking about half marathon training. I’m pretty sure I’ve never really done it… oops!

My first attempt at Summerfest and also probably the last time I semi-trained for a half marathon. – June 2011

So maybe I should actually try to be a good runner and train for races, no? Well, at least this one. I am revisiting a training plan that I loosely followed two summers ago when I ran this race but with less focus on speed-work this time around. I’m also going to follow the 6 week lead-in option since I haven’t done much running since the marathon in JuneJanuary. So the 12 week program + a 6 week lead-in = 18 weeks of training which = THIS WEEK!

The first 6 weeks are pretty low mileage and even the peak week is not that crazy high so (knock on wood) hopefully, I can avoid injury and ease my body back into training and running consistently again. I’ve been such a bad runner this past year it’s really sad…

My week has not really started out on track already… Monday was supposed to be 2 miles but… it was black-ice galore and 40mph winds. Let the excuses begin!

Here’s to making 2013 different than 2012, or at the very least trying

Running Recap: 2012.

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas yesterday!  My second most favorite Holiday ever Too bad I woke up feeling sick as a dog and have continued to feel horrendous for the past 48 hours.  You know what’s also awesome?  Being the only person out of three at work this week when it’s our busiest week of the year.  #fml

I’ve seen quite a few bloggers post about their years in review as far as running is concerned and I really liked that idea so here is my year in review:

Total miles: 807 per Daily mile.  This is likely not 100% accurate.

Total Races: Started = 10, Finished = 9

This is not going to end well.

Total States run in: FL, TN, MN, IN, WI

# of new shoes purchased: 4-5 I think?

New Distances: Marathon! and 15k

PRs: 5k!

Favorite Race: Tie between Maritime Marathon and Disneyworld Half Marathon

And just like that… a Marathoner!

Least Favorite Race: Turkey Trot 15k.

Most forgotten race: Bellin 10k.  Totally forgot about this one happening in 2012  Also, the Madison Shamrock Shuffle 10k…

Most remembered race: Fox Cities Half Marathon

Most disappointing race: Cellcom Marathon

Best Race Photo EVER!: (You’re quite welcome for this)

Don’t let anyone tell you marathons are easy.

It really was a crazy running year for me this year.  Starting with hurting my back in January and being unsure how I would recover to run again.  Then, the fiasco that was Cellcom and living with the severe disappointment of a race that I never got to finish because of the weather.  Five more weeks of training and then FINALLY becoming a Marathoner!  Totally being burnt out on running after training for 6+ months and then taking a running break that lasted a few months (and fighting a piriformis/sciatic issues all the while).  To really make it a weird year, throw in one of my most favorite half marathons ever in Appleton and then randomly deciding to attempt Lakefront even though I was not trained at all and finishing it in relatively good shape…

I think 2012 will always be remembered by me as the year where I learned you have to just throw all your expectations out the window with running and just have fun!  Rest when you need to, break if you want to but run when you can.

Here’s to another good year in 2013!

11 for fun.

Sometime in the past year, 10, 11, 12 mile runs have become no big deal.  That makes me both sad and happy at the same time.  Sad because I know next year that distance will probably go back to feeling like death even when my brain is like NBD and happy because, well, at least for now those distances aren’t so terrible awful

I felt pretty good on my run this morning, keeping a 10ish minute mile pace the whole way through.  And for whatever reason, finished the last mile in 9:00?  WTF is with that?  I went back to taking Gus ever 45 minutes or so and walking every mile for a minute and that really does help so much!  I decided to pick the hilly version of a long run course this time and will likely regret that later this afternoon when I am trying to shop!  The weather today was also so warm!  Like 45+ when I left!  I can’t recall the last December run I’ve done in a tank top and was over dressed like that!  I’m pretty sure the weather was colder for Lakefront!  (How was it only 2 months ago that I ran a marathon?  Sometimes I feel like time is going fast and then sometimes things feel ages ago that are really not long ago at all!)

I just spent the last 20 minutes looking for the only pair of jeans I own that are not awfully tight on my thighs.  #runnerproblems And will likely go from fine to dying of starvation this afternoon when I am as far away from food as humanly possible… sometimes I really wonder what I like about running

Favorite running quote I think

Hope everyone is having a good Saturday!  Happy December!

Marathon Monday: 11/12

9 weeks until Disney!  How are the weeks going so fast?  The days go slow but the weeks fly by so that means it’s time for another Marathon Monday post.  I’m proud of the fact that I got a whopping 2 hours of yoga in this week!  That never happens…

Monday: Ripped in 30, week 4
Tuesday: 2 mile run + 15 core workout
Wednesday: Bob Harper Yoga DVD
Thursday: Ripped in 30, week 4 + 2 mile run
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 15 miles down by the lakefront with a running buddy! + yoga class
Sunday: Ripped in 30, week 4 + Insanity Relief DVD (super good stretching DVD, not real Insanity at all)

Total running mileage: 19!
Total Ripped in 30s: 3!

Overall, a pretty successful week.  My sister and I broke down and joined a new gym for the upcoming winter months.  We both got really tired of running outside in the cold last winter so hopefully the treadmill option with be nice this year.  We also will be able to try out some more classes and I am going to shoot for getting to yoga there once per week at a minimum.  I’m looking forward to belonging to a gym again!  Hopefully this one works out better than the last…

My 15 mile run on Saturday was fun but challenging.  I met up with Amy (met her at the Lakefront expo!) down by the lakeshore and just ran and chatted for the first 11ish miles but then my legs just died and every step felt so incredibly hard.  But I finished!  And I am guessing it was challenging because of my lack of training lately catching up on me so hopefully with more training, it will get slightly better  I am totally hooked on running with someone though – long runs are SO boring when you have no one to talk to!

Goals for the upcoming week include a reduced mileage level, I’m thinking 8-10ish?  4 times of Ripped in 30 (1x of each week so I can blog a review on it) + more yoga and stretching.

In other news, I finally learned how to properly foam roll in my NASM study materials!  I thought I’d been doing it right but after reading about it, I was not holding the spots long enough at all.  You are actually supposed to find a painful spot and then hold that spot on the roll for a minimum of 30 seconds to allow the muscles to release.  Makes so much more sense now and I felt a huge difference when using it yesterday.  So maybe I will be better about that this week too!

What was your best workout of the week?

Marathon Monday: 10/29

Another week of training is complete which means only about 11 weeks until Sister and I will be running a marathon!  Here’s how I spent the last week:

Monday: Ripped in 30 + 2 mile run
Tuesday Ripped in 30 Week 2
Wednesday: 4 mile run
Thursday: Ripped in 30
Friday: 6 mile run
Saturday: Monster Dash 5k!
Sunday: Bob Harper’s Pure Burn Strength DVD

No real rest day last week but I’d planned to take one Sunday but then had way too much energy this weekend so I needed to get rid of some

Total miles ran: 15.1 miles
Total times doing Ripped in 30: 3

Which means I met my goals this past week – whoop!  Ripped in 30 has been just the kick in the butt I needed to get back to doing weights routinely.  I’m kind of scared to see what weeks 3 and 4 hold though!

For the week ahead, my goals are to up the weekly mileage to about 16 or 17 and do week 3 of Ripped in 30 about 3 times!

How about you, any goals for the week ahead?

Friday 6 Miler.

Since I am running a 5k tomorrow (!!!), I won’t have time for a true long run this weekend so instead I did a medium long run this morning.  I set out for 6 miles at the whopping hour of 5 something o’clock.  Here are 6 random bits about these 6 miles:

1) It’s SO much colder this morning!  Yesterday it was 20 degrees warmer at this time… Oh Wisconsin, I <3 you – blah!

2) 6 miles is a really long way to run at this time of the morning… but it feels so good now that I am done.

3) I set out on 2 3 mile loops but that ended up making me feel like I was running a 3 mile run and paced myself accordingly… I finished this run with a 9:38 average which is much faster than I normally do a 6 mile run.

4) I want to take a nap now but instead I have to go to work.  Yuck.

5) I hope once the time change happens that it’s not quite so dark when I run in the morning…it’s like running at midnight.

6) I’ve missed running and I am glad to be back at it

Happy Friday, Everyone!

Disney Prep.

So you’re probably sick of hearing this already, but… I’m going to Disney World!!  In less than 80 days  I’m super excited for this trip and this run and just everything about the week we are spending down there!  I don’t really have time to go crazy with training and everything for this upcoming marathon in Disney but I do think it will help me a little to make some preparations for it to make sure I make it there without injury, etc.  Here are a few things I am going to implement to try to get to the start line healthy and injury-free:

1) Track my pre/post long run eats on a calorie count website/on paper.  In the past I’ve always just went with the mind set of eating whatever I want after a long run but that decision has led to quite a few extra pounds acquired in the past year… oops!  I obviously won’t starve myself if I am really, truly hungry but seeing a tally of my eats around my long run helps me see that maybe it’s not always that I am hungry but maybe I need more water/protein/fats, etc.  I’ve recently found a newish site called SlimKicker and am really liking the points you can accumulate for reaching certain goals, etc.  Plus with a long run, I’ll get tons of points and my self chosen reward is a new iTunes song.  Too bad I have to buy my own rewards

Too much ice cream, not enough vegetables…

2) Ice Bath, Stretch, Foam Roll.  Like it’s my job.  I’m so bad at this but I’m going to work to get better.

The Stick will become my friend. And new shoes will be in order soon I suppose!

3) Shoot for weekly mileage totals instead of per day totals.  That way, if I have a horrible run one day, I can cut it short, skip it, whatever and make up for it on another day.  So some weeks I will have a really long run + 1-2 very short runs and other weeks I will have 2-3 moderate size runs or any combination.  I’m hoping this will help me avoid burn out.

4) Leave my garmin hiding in a drawer somewhere.  Even though I wanted one so darn bad, now that I have one, I really, truly hate it.  It turns me into this time obsessed monster and I’m not really too keen on turning into that again.  I may have to wear it on long run for the sole purpose of knowing my distance but I will have to keep it in a pocket or something… or maybe I’ll try getting my iPod with Nike+ to start working again?  How do you ignore that 50lb weight on your wrist?  And I would also like it better if it didn’t show me such depressing information…

5) If I start feeling any kind of nagging pain, stop with the running for a number of days until the pain gets better.  I’ve always been really bad about pushing through but that just leads to a cycle of hurts and I don’t want to go there this time around.

6) Have fun.  I’m likely only going to get to run this marathon once in my life (unless I move closer to Florida ) so I want to enjoy everything about this training and experience as a whole.  I know I didn’t enjoy the half marathon last year as much as I should have and I am glad I get a do over with the marathon.  For whatever reason, DisneyWorld/Land turns me cranky sometimes  But I am really trying to stop getting so annoyed by everything…

Can we leave yet?

It’s crazy to think how soon I will be toeing this start line.  When I registered, it seems like years away but now that it’s getting so close, I am so, so excited!  Plus this time of year always goes SO fast with Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, etc. so I will be packing my bags before I know it!

Anything I am missing?  What else should I do differently this time around?

Marathon Monday: 10/22

Monday again.  Yeeks.  I’m not excited about it!  But on to other things… like a Marathon Monday recap post!

Here’s how I have spent my last 7 days:

Monday: Ripped in 30 – Week 1
Tuesday: 2 mile run + Ripped in 30 – Week 1
Wednesday: 3 mile run
Thursday: Ripped in 30 – Week 1
Friday – Rest
Saturday – 8 mile run + upper body circuit
Sunday – 4 mile walk

Total weekly miles run = 13!
Times doing Ripped in 30 – 3!  (Would have been 4 if I wouldn’t have forgotten it when I went to my parents this past weekend…)

I finally feel like last week was more back on track with some sort of routine.  As much as I like having a varied workout routine, it’s hard to really focus on something and make improvements in certain areas when I’m doing a little of this or that.  So for the next few weeks, I’m going to mainly focus on running and working through Ripped in 30.

So, for the next week I am going to aim to run 15-16 miles and do Week 2 of Ripped in 30 3-4 times.  Hopefully all goes well!  I also hope to sneak in some yoga or extra stretching this week to help ease my legs back into running!

I’m really not looking forward to another crazy week at work but I do have something fun to look forward to this Saturday, the Monster Dash 5k with by blog buddy Allison!

Step One.

Start running.

Step two…

There is no step two!

I think this might be my favorite running quote from the running genius, Barney Stinson  Clearly I am really fond of his training techniques.  Ha!

All jokes aside, I set out on an 8 mile training run this morning.  This was my first real training run in… um…. awhile?!  Because I am so awesome, I forgot pretty much everything I need to do a regular run.  Well, everything I thought I needed anyways.  My Garmin, handheld water bottle and sunglasses.  I ended up being just fine without them though so I guess they were not as essential as I thought they would be!

Since I ran 8 miles in my parents area last year, I just set out on that route again with plans to turn around earlier if needed.  I’m not 100% sure it was 8 miles and I don’t really know how long it took me but I followed Barney’s words of awesomness and finished!  Step one, start running.

Wait for it…

I’ve gotten really dependent on the walking breaks on my long runs which has really helped me but today I wanted to just start running and run all the way.  I think I’ve taken the walking break thing a little too much to heart and as soon as running turns 2% challenging, I walk.  Well, today, I got out of my own head and just ran.  And you know what?  It was just fine.  Even with the hills, by just putting one foot in front of the other and not letting any of my thoughts get me down about not having everything I usually have, I still made it and actually really enjoyed it!  (I was a little overdressed but I guess it couldn’t be a perfect run, right?)

It’s amazing how much your head can mess with your running game.  I was in the depths of this for most of this year but now that I am working more at getting back to when running was just fun, it seems like it’s going much better.  Not having my long run essentials this morning could have really messed with my head and talked me into skipping this run, running less, having a bad run, etc.  (Luckily, that was not the case but I think I’ll still try to remember by stuff next time )

Now I am going to spend the rest of the day watching my newest addiction TV show, Friday Night Lights.  Clearly I am a little late to this party but I am LOVING it so far.  Kyle Chandler from Early Edition + Connie Britton from another new favorite of mine, Nashville + written and produced by Jason Katims = Awesome!

Clear eyes. Full hearts. Can’t lose. – Eric Taylor

Marathon Monday: 10/15

Marathon Monday again!  This past week was pretty low key on the workout front because my legs were still requesting lots of recovery time after last weekend’s marathon.  I did lots of stretching, foam rollering, and resting.  It was kind of nice but now I am ready to get back to working out!

Monday: Foam Roll, Ice, Stretch, Rest
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: Yoga Body Boot Camp – minus 50% of the actual moves
Thursday: Rest
Friday: 2 mile run
Saturday: Weightlifting with Bowflex
Sunday: 30 day Shred + 2 mile walking DVD

I had wanted to get a longer run in this past weekend but it never stopped raining all weekend!  It was pretty ridiculous actually and I was seriously worried we were going to float away

To get myself back into a weightlifting routine, I’m thinking of working my way through the Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30 DVD this coming month.  I probably won’t attempt to do the workouts 6x a week but I am planning to fit them in 4x a week.  Between that and running, it should keep me active this week

Only 89 days until Disney!!

Any good workouts happen over the weekend?