First 15 mile run

Well, our first 14 mile schedule run was this weekend. I ran from home so in total 14.9 miles (ok I rounded up to 15...close enough. I wasn't sure how the day was going to go because I had two pieces of pizza on Friday night, ice cream and then slept at home with no a/c. Neither of us slept much because it was so warm in the house. This was my first run without Marin with me because now it's Richard's turn to take her.

I felt good the entire run with even some gas in the tank at the end. Sharon and I brought the final 1/2 mile home running around 8 min/mile (7:44 when I looked at my watch). I'm very happy with the run and how I felt before it, during it and after it.

PACE: At some points, I found the pace challenging because we were running at a slower pace than I am use to lately. While that was probably a struggle, it's probably the reason why I had energy toward the end of the run. Diana was out running with us this week (she was on her bike) and she was very clear to remind us that pacing ourselves is key to a good run without hurting ourselves but also in finishing strong. That is my goal so I will listen to the experts in the crowd.

NUTRITION: I worked hard to remember my shot blocks and made sure to drink my water during the intervals. This may be the key to the stamina required (I suppose that sounds obvious but I will keep working on it).

RECOVERY: I think the recovery stretch makes a big difference in how I recover and how I feel for the rest of the day. I didn't even need a nap :-)

HEART RATE: My heart rate was lower than it is usually is after a long run. 158 vs 164 ... again proving the point that there was gas in the tank.

Sunday was a tough day because I was pretty tired. I slept 10 hrs Saturday night so I guess these things have a way of taking their toll on us. I keep reminding myself that if it were easy, everyone would do it. I guess that's why not everyone does it. I mentioned to someone at work this week that the run kicked my butt and their response was "maybe you should slow down". NOT a chance!!! That's the point. I can't accomplish my goal without getting my butt kicked a little.

I would like to run at 9:30 pace and then taking the walk breaks. I would like to keep aiming for an avg 10 min/mile. So far seems possible.

12 mile run

So today's run was FANTASTIC!! The weather was 66 when I left the house. What a difference 2 weeks make! Marin and I set out to park at Deli Lane so we could drive home after breakfast. From the hospital we set out to run 12 miles. None of the miles seemed hard today. I didn't wonder at any point in time when it was going to end. I felt really good the entire way. I don't think I have said that before. I really think the weather is helping.

The new Pearl Izumi got their debut today. I love these shoes!! 12 miles and they were great the entire time. Avg heart rate was 158 bpm. That's a little lower than usual so that's a great sign. I knew that training all summer would be good for me and now I am super happy that I plugged away for so long.

I am starving all the time now. I continue to gain a little weight but I know it's because I haven't eaten some chocolate and some brownies. I need to work on staying fuller longer with better foods. My habit of filling the void with 'crap' must stop!

Part 2 of Oct 2 run

I'm back. Having a family and a training schedule sure does take some discipline. It's Sunday night and I'm back to writing about the Saturday morning run. I guess I know why I'm tired all the time. Life doesn't really stop.

I will say that I now realize how focused Richard and I seem to be on our training. Some people could call us self involved while others (and us) would say focused.

The run was fabulous yesterday morning. As a group, we had our fastest run to date. We ran 8 miles as a group and I ran 9 because I ran from home to the hospital with Marin. I felt really good. The morning was fresh but it was still a little humid. I wasn't sure how the day was going to go but it went really well. We were all feeling great and pushing the limits at times. I am working on the shot block routine. I did better this week but still not on target. This will become increasingly important as the distance starts to get higher. Right now, I can still manage. This week we started from SMH which is a little better than Key Biscayne because then we don't have to do the bridge. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the extra workout and the change of scenery but it is nice to get up and leave from home. My average heart rate was much lower than it has been in weeks. I averaged 156 bpm over 8 miles. Pretty good.

I am looking forward to the Marine Corps 10k at the end of the month. My goal is to beat my time at the ALS (56:32 net/chip time). That would mean that I would need to run under a 9 min mile. I KNOW that I can do it but it's fast for me. Let's hope the weather cooperates.

Now on to the trouble spots after all the good stuff. The last two weeks have caused me to reevaluate my plan. My legs have had some discomfort, especially in the calves. I couldn't seem to get ride of the feeling so I called Ernie. Ernie is our expert neuromuscular therapist. We LOVE Ernie!!! He came over on Wednesday and without giving you all the details, said my legs were pretty much a mess! What does that mean...well, it turns out that the extra stuff that I have been doing at work at lunch to work out is probably not a good thing. All the different exercises are working my quads and they seem to be tired of all the work. So my other muscles are compensating. The solution you ask??? Lots of stretches and some hamstring work. I need to strengthen the opposite muscles. I guess that makes sense. So no more BOSU for a while. Instead, I am going to work on the hamstrings, core and stretches. I guess that's ok. Trust me it's less fun but the pain isn't worth it and I really really really don't want to get hurt. I want to train for this marathon and then finish in the normal amount of marathon pain. Not the kind of pain where you need to stay in bed for 2 months.

I do feel much better today. I'm not sure if it's Ernie's great massage from Wednesday, all the stretches I have done since then, the great stretch routine that Edwin put us through after our run on Saturday or all of the above. I just know that my legs feel wonderful today.

Now for one more truth. I have been starving for two days now. Even though I have had good meals with solid proteins, veggies and carbs, I cannot stop being hungry. I have eaten so much chocolate this weekend, it's frightening. I made the mistake of buying Halloween candy on sale this week so that we had it in the house in case mom wants to give it out and now that's all I think about!! I hope tomorrow is better.....

So there! That's all the dirty truths. I will be back tomorrow after spin class hopefully to let you know that all is well and the class was good.

October 2 & other runs

WOW! I suck! I cannot believe it's been three weeks since I updated my runs. I thought I missed last week but didn't realize I had missed two full weeks of long runs.

I'll start with this week's runs. They were great!!! The weather has cooled off a little so running is sooo much easier. Tuesday night was a great 4.8 mile run. I ran the first two miles at less than a 9 min mile. I was feeling great! I then decided that running with my friends was more important so I held up and then ran with them. I'm glad I did because we solved a few world issues :-). I missed Thursday's run but did get out on Friday morning. It was only 72 outside so running was great. I was running an 8:20 to 8:40 pace. I had to force myself to slow down. AWESOME!!!! I'll write more later about today's run.

This week's runs

ok so I didn't put any comments about my Tuesday and Thursday runs. I guess I have to get better at this. After all, putting this blog together was my idea. Right?? Both runs this week were tough. Tuesday was a tough day because I worked from home while the hot water tank was getting fixed. I didn't eat right, didn't feel right and as a result, didn't have a good run. In fact, I didn't even run the entire 4.8 miles. I bailed after 3.8. Every once in a while it happens. I try to live by my own advice which is "listen to your body". Thursday's run was good but was tough. It was very hot (88 degrees according to the truck's thermometer). I found it very humid and didn't seem to have a lot of steam at the end. Sharon kicked my butt with her final sprint into the finish. We did talk about having Tuesday be our speed work. Now that I see Richard having success with speed work once a week, maybe it's worth it. We would then have one speed work out, one tempo short run and a long run for building endurance per week. I think that works for me.

Today is Saturday so the long run is over for this week too. The group was running 7 miles but I ran 2 before I joined them. I wanted to try to stay close to 9 if I can. So far so good. Today was one of those days when I realize that 96% humidity is hard even if the temperature is in the high seventys. My shoes were soaked about 7 miles into the run. My pants were dripping with 1 mile to go. It was a strange feeling. I started to get a stitch on the last mile so one of the guys volunteered to push Marin for the last mile. I was so happy that I handed her off to him. This gave me the opportunity to stand up straighter and let my chest expand more. This seemed to help me alleviate the tension. The rest of the final mile was good. I managed to average 11 mile miles per my watch which includes the water break and the lights at US1. According to our run leader, Edwin, that means we are right on target for our 10 min/mile pace. That's great news!! I really don't want to run faster in this heat over the long distances. It's just too hot. I am really looking forward to running in cooler weather. Right now, I would be happy with less humidity. Every little bit helps.

Good Saturday run

As I put in my title today's run was good but a little tough. I started out on my own (well, with Marin of course) for a mile and a half before the group run. I parked at the breakfast place so I could finish right at breakfast. GREAT IDEA! Richard was running 18 miles so we could all have breakfast together. ....back to the run. The group had a good pace and we were running in the 9s for most of the intervals. We only had to run 6 today so the extra 3 was good. I ran 9 in total. My average heart rate was much better at 166 bpm. Over the last year, I seem to average between 164 and 167 on the long runs. I still am not taking in enough shot blocks. I cannot seem to be consistent when I run with Marin. On my own, the routine is there but I struggle to remember when I have the stroller. We are also running mile intervals so it's possible that I am so excited about the break that I forget to take in fuel. Something to work on.... Breakfast after the run was great. The last two weeks I have been a little nauseous after eating. It's probably the heat because it happened last week too. I will watch for this. Richard mentioned that he felt the same way, but then again, he ran 18 miles vs my 9!

I didn't post my Thursday run comments so here they are. Because we had a dinner party on Wednesday night (who does that anyway????), Richard was going to run Thursday evening so I decided to try to run at lunch from the office. That was a CRAZY idea! It was smokin' hot!! Near 100 or so they tell me. I tried to run in the shade but I didn't do a very good job. I had mapped out a route which clearly needs to be changed if I am ever to do that again. I managed to run 4 miles but I have to admit that I stopped a few times more than usual. It was also a strange run because I couldn't seem to regulate my pace. My legs wanted to go faster than my heart could take. Probably because of the heat! I did finish and was very happy to be finished. I returned to work but was a little more tired than usual. I slept like a rock on Thursday night! I fell asleep in front of the tv around 9pm. Too funny. I put Marin to bed, ate dinner, cleaned up and then passed out. Sleep never felt so good!

Tuesday's run

Tonight's run was good. It was cooler outside (only 80) so it seemed to be a little easier to run. My average heart rate was back to it's usual place even though we picked up the speed a little for the last mile. I am hoping that with the cooler weather comes some easier runs but something tells me that I'll just run faster. Time will tell. I will say that running almost 5 miles and burning only 400 calories seems not quite fair. What's up with that!!!!!????? I ate well today but really wanted ice cream after the run, so I ate some. Totally yummy!!!!

FW week 4

Today's long run was good. The program called for 5 miles but we did a little more. Sharon was keen to get in a few extra so we met early and ran more. So after all is said and done I ran 9.5 miles. I felt good today but when I look at my Garmin my heart rate was 6 beats higher than it usually is on long runs. Could have been the heat. Could have been the speed. Could have been a combination of both. I also seem to be a lb heavier today than yesterday. I'm not sure why that is but could have been the chocolate I ate yesterday afternoon. I need to do a better job of remembering to eat the shot blocks. When I push Marin, I seem to forget to eat them. While that's ok for the first few miles, I certainly suffer on longer runs. I did have some help today with Marin. Edwin and Lex pushed her for part of the run. I think that helped me a little. Sharon, Aileen and Felix are doing great (btw - they are the usual suspects). I realize now how much I look forward to running with them.

Today, as usual, I am starving! I did eat after the run at Deli Lane with the usual suspects. Not sure why but I had an upset tummy afterwards. It's mid afternoon now and my appetite has certainly returned. I'll be riding approx 48 miles tomorrow on the bike so I'll get in some good cross training. Thaaaa that's it folks...for today!

First week of training

ok. So here I am about to start telling you about my journey. This week wasn't too eventful. This was my first official week with the Footworks program since I just got back from vacation. I ran almost 8 miles on Saturday morning with my group. [6 with the group plus 2 to and from the house to the starting point]. We managed to get the core group to all sign up for the 10 min mile pace group. That's how quick I finished the ING half in January and I ran the half in Halifax in just over 9s finishing in 2:00:15 (really too bad about the 15 seconds). Oh well, at least I have something to aim for now since I would like to run a half under two hours. We'll see - for now, it's all about the full. I am a few lbs heavier than I want to be but I haven't managed to lose them all after coming back from vacation. I need to work on that. I am eating a little more sweets than I should (did I mention that I love pie!! Thanks dad for the reminder). Something to work on and for this blog to keep me honest about.

I did some cross training this week to strengthen my core. This should help my stamina. Of course, when you read about how this is suppose to help, I can only assume that they mean that it will help when the stomach muscles stop hurting. For now, it almost hurts sitting at my desk...all in a good way of course.

Thanks to Sharon, Aileen, Carla and Felix who will come along with me.