Winter Run

I took some pretty pictures while outside on a long 10 mile run today.  They are from along the Maple City Trail, Oswegatchie River, (first two pics) and one of the St. Lawrence River (third pic).  The bridge to Canada is in the distance at the bottom.  There were people out ice fishing.  You can see the little ice fishing huts.  It was really nice to get outside, but the 15-20 mph winds were tough for me.  Enjoy! :)

Sickness, Another Race and a Hat

February started out pretty slow for Tom and I.  Like someone snapping their fingers, overnight we went from being perfectly healthy to being quite sick.  It was either one of the worst colds I have had in a long time or a light flu -complete with muscle aches and fever chills.  We missed our long run from the end of week 3 and also a mid-week training run before either of us felt like we had enough energy to even go out to the garage and turn the space heater on to take the edge off the chill for treadmill running.  Thankfully I can report that we seem to be in very good health again.  Also, the kids were not ill, which is such a blessing!

Saturday the 8th was the third Frozen Foote race.  Another race done!  The weather cooperated very nicely in my opinion.  It was overcast and about 18 degrees and only light wind on the 2 miles out.  The 2 miles back were warm and pleasant.  I was very glad that I switched out of my vest and into my windbreaker jacket.  I was a little warm at the end, but I think I would have been uncomfortably cold for a very long time without it.

I shaved 5:20 off my time from last month!!!!!  Woot Woot!

I contribute this acceleration to both actually running again and also doing "hills" on the treadmill.  The Frozen Foote course is quite hilly compared to where I run around the house.  I have really fallen in love with the "random" setting on our treadmill.  The "hill" setting on the other hand... I'm sure it's great training, but MAN is it exhausting!

When I checked our mailbox yesterday I was surprised to find packages containing Buffalo Marathon tech hats!  Maybe they are a little corny but I was pretty excited!  They are from the race and there was a little note about the hat and that they are working hard to make it a great event.  :)  I love a surprise!  It's nice to get a surprise present!

I'm exhausted, cold and tired right now, but there is a big smile on my face as I write.  I just did what I am going to call an exhaustion run.  I went to Zumba and it was a great workout and then decided to do my mid-week run on top of the Zumba (which I  have done before). I did it as a hill repeat workout with the "hill" setting.  Curse you "hill" setting!  Wow. There has to be great benefit both mentally and physically to start a run when you are already physically tired.  I'm finally cooling off from the run and I had better get cleaned up and into bed before I get any colder!

Thank you for reading and have a great end of the week and weekend.  Happy Valentine's Day!

January Musing and Musing and Musing...

I'm pretty sure I failed to mention one more goal I have for my running this year.  I would like to run at least 40 miles each month.  This stems from my dramatic lack of motivation last fall after I ran my half marathon.  After two amazing months of running almost 70 miles/month I took a nose dive and ran only 11 and 8 miles in November and December.  If I had only had a short term goal in place before the race ended I think I could have kept my mileage up to a decent winter level.  I chose 40 because I thought it would be doable, but that I would still have to do the runs in order to make it happen (maybe that seems a bit obvious).  As doable and obvious as that is let me tell you about how I barely made it!

I'm fresh from my last run of the month.  A solid 3 miles that I found quite impressive.  On Wednesday at Zumba I hurt my lower back.  I'm not really sure what happened.  Something funky was going on right from the start.  In the first song I had horrible quadriceps cramps.  I pounded on them and stretched them and chugged as much water as I could at our first break.  Then near the end of the class my back started getting stiff and I tried stretching to get it back up to snuff and it just got worse and worse.  I'm thinking that whatever was going on with my legs threw off my pelvis and pulled on my lower back or something which caused over stretching and then spasms.  I didn't "throw out" my back, but it was definitely very tender.  That continued yesterday and I didn't run.  I did tally up the number of miles I lacked to get me to 40.  I desperately hoped I had made it without working to hard to get there.

Nope.  I lacked 1.87 miles of getting my 40.  

I carried this knowledge with me today as my back continued to relax and feel more normal.  Tonight I even put on some Zumba music and tested out my Zumba moves to see if I think I will be "OK" to go tomorrow morning.  I think yes?

Even at 8:30 tonight I had not decided if I would push through potential pain and put in at least 1.87 on the treadmill or write-off my near-miss as a valid injury and move on.  Oh, and I wouldn't need to even tell you all about my 40 mile/month goal.  So then it wouldn't be a real goal if you all didn't know about it right?  HA!  Good try me.

I played around with Spotify tonight.  I have been listening to the Pop and Hip Hop Power Workout station on Pandora (which I highly recommend if you like that kind of thing!), but I wanted to listen to some specific songs and you can do that on Spotify as long as you play the music from a computer and not your phone.  The phone app only does stations like Pandora unless you pay $$$.  No thanks!  I plugged our laptop into our amplifier in the garage next to the treadmill and kicked out some other "power" songs of my own liking.  Really it was these songs (and Tom texting me to just go get on the treadmill and get it over with -He's having a night out) that got me out of my PJ's and onto the treadmill tonight.

Allow me to tell you about some songs I love.  Sometimes Pitbull is the thing when you are running.  Love Pitbull on the treadmill, but then there is my love of Freddie Mercury.  LOVE Freddie Mercury and the movie Highlander.  Yup, the original one with Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert.  "Who Wants to Live Forever" was my warm-up song tonight.  Yes, I fist pumped my hands into the air.  This moved into
"The Show Must Go On".  This was my "get your butt on the treadmill missy, your spine is not going to snap off your hips" song.  Yes, the show went on.  At first I was pretty stiff, but by the time I got to Genesis "Land of Confusion", which is one of my all-time favorite songs, I was pushing right along with a solid pace and only feeling slightly off.  "These are the hands we're given, use them and lets start trying to make this a place worth living in!"

I moved from there to Avicii, "Wake Me Up".  This song is such a great mix of dance beat and ballad.  I feel the tune and the words.  While I listed I see people happy and dancing in my minds eye while I run, run, run.  Then I moved into some Pitbull songs :)
 
I ran right past my 1.9 miles goal and finished my 3 mile training run.

Now I'm just hoping that my back doesn't cramp back up overnight and make Zumba in the morning an impossibility.

Yeah, January was a good month.  Cold as cold can be, but satisfying on the running front.

41.13 miles in January!

Hopefully February will bring with it challenges and great rewards. Happy Weekend everyone!  Thanks for reading!

Day 1 Marathon Training

It's already the beginning of the 18 week countdown to the Buffalo marathon!  Ran 3 miles out in the garage on the treadmill.  Pushed it on the random setting (varies the incline).  

I guess I'm not much into writing right now :P. I thought I should mark the occasion with an entry :)

Goodnight everyone! More later! :)

Here's a sweaty post-run pic.  Let's let the picture do the talking.  Thanks for reading! 

Signing up!

I've been running!  Yay!  I have some running goals this year.  I really want to run a race every month this year.  I'm happy to say that January is done!  

Let me tell you about the race...

It's a series in a small college town called the Frozen Foote.  There are 4 races and if you run 3 of the 4 you get a shirt at the end.  It's a short 4 mile race that is an out and back from St. Lawrence University along Miner St.  We missed the first one of the series in Dec. I guess we had better make it to the Feb. and March ones!  So Saturday morning was particularly gorgeous because it was warm!  45!  We dropped the boys off at my brother and SIL's house and went to the race instead of Tom pushing them in the stroller.  What a GREAT decision that turned out to be b/c it started to pour huge stinging droplets about 1/4 of a mile into the race.  Should have checked the radar... I had peeled my extra layer of running tights off and one of my shirt layers b/c I thought I would end up hot.  The rain was SO cold.  People turned back.  I kept telling myself I was tough.  I also could not stop thinking about Tom wearing a (now soaked and frozen) cotton mock turtle neck instead of a tech shirt.  

My only saving grace was my down vest and my knee-high Smartwool socks.  At least my feet were warm even though they were soaked.  I really wish I had worn my rain jacket that sat warm and dry in the car.  The race was not a pretty sight.  Thankfully we ran out into the wind and once we turned around I was much warmer.  I have not been that cold in a very very long time.  Maybe never.  My arms felt literally frozen.  

Once we were back to the car we changed into our dry clothes as best we could and went to pick up the kids.  Coffee tasted amazing.  

Really looking forward to the race next month... 

Most of my races will probably be 5Ks, but I'm signing up for a half with my niece Jacki and my Zumba instructor (and anyone else that wants to join)! We're pretty sure it will be the CNY Bread Run in Fabius NY on 9/21/14.  

Lots of running ahead. 

Thank you for reading and Happy New Year! 

Lets Get Serious: Marathon Time!

I was lazing around upstairs soothing baby Darren to sleep when a feeling came over me: a feeling not unlike the moment of inspiration and clarity I had when I started this blog last Spring.  I walked downstairs and told Tom we were biting the bullet tonight and signing up for our marathon.  I can now announce that indeed we have signed up for the Buffalo Marathon on Sunday, May 25, 2014 at 7AM.

It's been a while since I have written here.  It's actually been a while since I thought about writing here.  My thoughts have been filled with visions of sugar plums I suppose.  I have run some.  I have not been faithful.  I had really high hopes of exercising like a maniac.  I burned out after about 2.5 weeks.  I have been in and out of funks.  I have not run since a crisp- 18 degree - Thanksgiving morning "Gobble Gallop".

We have our treadmill set up in the garage next to the car.  It's cold out there but once you start running you get really hot and sweaty because of the lack of a breeze.  Guess I'll be out there more often.

Better break my funk, but for tonight I think I'll just Veg! :P


Happy future reading everyone!  And thanks for being there!

1/2 Marathon High

So it's been over a week since I finished my first half marathon.  I'm not sure what has held me back from writing about the experience because it was awesome.  I think maybe I have just been trying to come up with the right things to say to explain how happy I was and am and maybe I just need to start writing and stop thinking.

So here is the story of my first 1/2 marathon:

We attended a wedding the night before the half which was also in Syracuse.  We spent the evening socializing, carb loading, and drinking pitchers of water.  Fun!  I danced, which I was not sure would be a good idea.  I had some pain in my right TFL (top of the IT band) again and I didn't want to aggravate it.  When we got back to the hotel I rolled out my legs really well and especially the pain in my hip.  When I went to bed my hip felt pretty great actually, so maybe the dancing and foam roller was a beneficial pre-race activity!

Here I am in the hotel before leaving for the race (in reverse b/c I took the photo in the mirror).  The weather was MUCH cooler than I had anticipated.  Mid-40s at the beginning and Windy!  I had not packed a long sleeve shirt so I wore the race shirt.  Thankfully it fit and was very comfortable.  

We arrived at the race with no problems and in time to sit in the car and enjoy the heat on high for a few minutes and then stand in line for 20 minutes for a last minute bathroom break.  Below is a photo Tom snapped of me right before we started running.  I'm so cold but excited!

After the gun, Tom quickly faded into the crowd (he's so fast!) and I focused on finding people to try and keep up with.  We ran down city streets and to highways that led us to the Onondaga Lake Park trails.  While the view was very pretty along the water, here we began our encounter with one of those mysteries of nature where you are somehow able to run into the wind in both directions of an out-and-back race course.  The miles passed away quite well.  I carried pretzel sticks, honey stinger chews, and two bottles of orange flavored Nuun on my person and munched on pretzels every so often.  I stopped frequently to get sips of water and drank my Nuun.  

After the first few miles my splits got slower.  I started with a 10 min/mile pace (mistake) and slowed to 10:30 and couldn't keep that up so I slowed to 11:00.  My plan was to try and turn it on when I had 4.5 miles left to go.  So with anticipation and trepidation I put in my time waiting for the 8-9 mile point of the race. 

The male leader returned when I was at mile marker 4 (phew, so fast!)  

I watched and watched for the return of Tom.  Eventually I saw him, screamed his name and we slapped a solid high five.  I kept dreaming that the turn around must be right around the next bend, but of course 6.55 miles is pretty far.  I was ever so glad that I did not have to turn off onto the full course when I passed the fork in the road that led me to the left and marathoners to the right (they had a 30 minute earlier gun time than the half peeps).  

At mile marker 8, I decided to try one of the Accel chocolate gels they were handing out.  I was feeling pretty beat.  I would not normally feel so ready to try something new on a long run, but I had taken Imodium after breakfast to try and quell any "issues".  The gel went down really well.  It was very much like taking a swig of Hershey's Chocolate Syrup.  

Somewhere around here the male marathon leader passed me!  He was thin with long hair and man was he booking!  He looked happy and focused.  Everyone cheered and you could hear the cheering move down the runners he passed like a "wave" in a football stadium.  

Back to me.  I felt pretty great after the gel at least until after mile 10, where I really felt OUT OF GAS.  This is the point where the race became grueling.  This is where my mind kicked in and kept me putting one foot in front of the other.  I just kept telling myself that the fastest way back to the car was to keep running -as quickly as physically possible!  The great running quote that this came from is:

"The best way out is always through" -Robert Frost

This is also where the dark thoughts and inner pleading dialog started.   A sampling of my thoughts follow:

"What was I thinking signing up for a 1/2 marathon?"

"I will NEVER be able to run a full marathon"

"I'm going to have to end my blog because I'm NEVER running EVER again!"

"Dear God, please, please, please, help me have the strength to keep running"

"I HAVE to beat my goal of 2:30 -Keep running!!!"

I trudged and trudged those last few miles.  I even found deep strength to pick up my pace for the last mile and to pick it up even faster for the last quarter.  I passed the finish at 2:26!  YAY I beat my goal of 2:30!  My average pace was 11:05!  WOW  That's 30 seconds faster than I used to run 1 mile!  When I stopped running I found that I was completely physically exhausted.  I had poor mental focus and getting my finisher medal and picking up post-race food and finding Tom are a pretty big blur.  Once we found each other we decided to go right back to the car and head home.  I could barely walk.  It was a pretty good hobble to the car.  We drove to Watertown and got some Wendy's.  I felt pretty weird and exhausted for the rest of the day.  It was great to see the kids again.  It was my first night away from baby Darren.  We had a huge pizza dinner at 4 :)

Props to my amazing husband who took running by the reins when I asked him to do the half with me.  My dreams of beating him in a race may never come true.  He finished in 1:50!!!!! Over 35 minutes faster than me.  I'm amazed and proud.  

That's it for now.  We're already formulating plans for a Spring marathon and I'm starting Insanity today... I'll let you know how that is going soon!  Thank you all for reading!  Happy Monday!