May the wind stay at my back and may angels give me wings to fly.

I started avidly running in April of 2007, 8 weeks after my little boy was born. I was only running about 15 miles a week just to lose baby weight but a friend of mine was thinking of running the Honolulu Marathon. I made the bold move of doing it with her with the simple goal of just to finish. I finished my first marathon in 2008 with a time of 5:13. In 2009 I started running more miles, up to 40 a week when my schedule would allow that much. I signed up for my second Honolulu marathon and finished with a time of 4:48. That was with only 6 weeks of training, two of them being taper weeks. I finished with tears of joy and one other thing, the strong desire to run every runner's dream...BOSTON! I have some real good days and some real bad days but I hope someone finds inspiration in my spirit and strength. If you dig deep enough you will find the strength to do whatever your heart desires. "Don't follow your dreams...CHASE THEM!"

Monday, February 15, 2010

First race since new training

Let me start off by saying what a tough week I just had. I had two good running days, Monday and Tuesday, had Wednesday and my scheduled day off. I headed out Thursday morning for my second fartlek run of the week but had to stop after 2 miles due to a migraine onset and mother nature working against me. Well, the migraine really beat me up this time. It took 2 doses of my medicine to help get rid of it but before it left my feeble body I was visiting the bathroom. Friday I was weakened from lack of nutrition from all of it leaving my body the day before so I tried eating as best I could. Saturday disaster hit again at night. I had tried two new supplements for running and one of them triggered another migraine that evening. I woke up at 1am to take my migraine medicine in hopes that Sunday I could rest up from the effects and get my nutrition up to par again. That is my prelude to race day, lol!

So the past 4 weeks I have been training hard and very happily running faster. My fartlek runs have been right on and I've been doing well and feeling great. I've also cleaned up my nutrition and have lost 4 lbs and lost and inch in hips and waist. I'm getting leaner and faster and I'm happy. Today was a test for me on speed endurance but unfortunately I had a few obstacles that I couldn't seem to get away from. The run was 8.1 miles, distance wise, cake, speedwise for me? Trivial still. I had issues with slower runners lining up towards the front so right from the get go I was dodging people for 4 miles but at least still able to maintain a 8:30-8:45 pace, then the last 4 I was next to the military formations with flag bearers getting out of formation and running AGAINST runner's and yelling. The aid stations were not fun either. The guys wouldn't drink the water, instead they were throwing on each other and I kept getting smacked in the face. I also kept getting shoved closer and closer to the curb no matter how hard I tried to keep my space. Cadence callers would stop and run in place outside of the formation too. So it was I either deal with the slower pace or risk an ankle injury by turning my road race into a trail race. That being said, since I'm trying to have an injury free season I opted the slower pace but wasn't at all happy about it.

I just have to learn race strategies. I haven't done many of the smaller races enough to know the do's and don'ts if I want to run fast so my trainer and I are going to work on this. He's been there done that so he'll show me the ropes. My time was 1:16 with avg pace of 9:15. I wanted to be at least just under a 9 min avg pace but things just didn't work out that way for me today. It is still a PR for me just not the one I was shooting for. I do thank God for giving me the strength to do what I did today. It was a tough week for me physically. I can do nothing without him.

I live. I dream. I run.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Had to say this...

I was supposed to run 7 miles today but had sore ankles from Sunday's 7 miler morning run and then 3 mile hike up to a lighthouse pushing my 5 and 3 year old! Then Monday I ran my 6 miles easy pace. Well this morning I only had time to do 5 but boy was it an awesome 5! A new training PR, 45mins! I started out my warm-up at a 10 pace then went to a 9:30 after a half mile, then hit it to a 8:50-9:05 for the next 2.5 miles then increased paced again to a 8-8:30 and finished at a 7:30pace. I couldn't believe it. Nothing bothered me on the run! My legs (and ankles) were tip top shape. :) It sounds corny, but sometimes I have to think about my goal and imagine me "in the moment" for the run I want to do. Well, it works! Typical woman, I get all emotional and it drives me to push harder when I'm running.

It was a good training day!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Training 17Jan-1Feb

Every week I am seeing results of my training. By January 17th I had lost half an inch in my hips and 3/4 in my waist. As for my running, well that's going well too! My first week of training, the day after my fartlek's I was supposed to run 6-8 miles. Well, the first week I was only able to do 4 in the morning and very sluggish and I did another 3 that evening but a little faster but still stiff. The following week for that same run I was able to do 6 in the morning, a little slower than normal but at least I was able to complete the mileage. My speed work that previous day I had also pushed myself harder during the 7 miles with a slow pace of 9:30 and my fast pace increased from 8-8:30 to a 7:50-8:20 and it seems to be staying in that range the past couple weeks. We'll see how I do this week. I also notice that my comfort pace has increased from a 9:30 to a 9:09-9:12. Amazing. I never thought I would see the day... I still have a long ways to go but I'm anxious to see how well I can maintain a fast pace for my 8.1 mile race coming up this President's day. I would like to hold a 8:30-8:45 but who knows what will happen. My adrenaline always takes over during a race.
This week I'm starting to implement some new exercises in along with my normal ones to help get rid of a little more in the hips/waist area. I've also learned to "not sweat" a bad day that my legs just don't want to go out. If they need the break I need to give it to them. I'm working myself hard every run and trying to do the pace I am told to do so sometimes they get pretty tired no matter how much protein they get. On top of studying for school, running around with the kids and doing my own running thing, I get a little exhausted. But it's okay, I come back strong and that's what matters.
I have a lot of motivators on Dailymile and they inspire me on every run. Each person has an "it" factor that drives me to push harder.
Now time to go ice my ankles from a 7 mile morning run, then a 3mile hike pushing a 5 and 3 year old in a stroller yesterday then getting up this morning to get my 6 miles in! Ouch!

Until next time,
Train smart, race hard!!