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!"

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Weekly update

So...after suffering from 2 migraines this week I still managed to get a decent number of miles in, 34. I have an appointment Tuesday to see the doctor about them, again...and get more medicine...again.
Runs were good this week. I had a couple easy paced runs but also had some faster ones. Fartleks were good this week and I hadn't done them in awhile. Friday I had the chance to run Diamond Head and even had a little off road adventure treking downhill to the beach. It was a good run and workout on my legs for hillwork but the hour rest on the beach was fabulous. :) I took Saturday off to prep for today's long run, well, semi-long. I had to be back home by 7:15 so hubby could leave for work so my 12 miler turned into a 10 but I made it a good one. Hills throughout the run one of which was a steady incline for 1.5 miles and my cheeks were feeling the burn! I took the pace easy the entire run but the last two miles I did pick it up without realizing it to a 9min mile.
My core/strength workouts have been consistent this week. I love some of my new core exercises. My weight is now 126, waist 26, hips 38. Not bad at all. Lean but still got my curves! When I started this new training in January I was at around 133, waist around 27, hips too big, lol! I had gained weight 6 weeks during my injury down time before the marathon so I wanted to get back to my normal weight and such. Thanks Mickey!
From the sounds of it we are here until January so the Honolulu marathon will be my 3rd and hopefully my 4th marathon will be a BQ. We shall see. I still have a lot of speed to do and maintain. That equates to a lot of praying and hard work!

I live. I dream. I run.

Monday, March 22, 2010

After a week off of running

This was not by choice really but I just had company in for 3 weeks, 2 sick kids, a big test I had to study for and then cleaning my house after company left. My body was exhausted and needed the break! I started back out this morning and did 5 miles and my pace seemed to still be on track with sub 9 pacing. I've been doing a lot better. The week before I took a week off I did nothing but speed runs. Well, to me it was all speed because I aimed for sub 9 paces every run. The only exception was my 12 miler where I did the first 4 at an easy 9:30, next four were just sub 9 at around 8:50 or faster, then another easy 4 at 9:30. I still need to work on the endurance at at least a 8:45 pace. That's why I have been pushing myself to run harder. I slow it up if my body needs it during a run but I increase my pace again as soon as I feel I can do it for another half mile or mile or more.
I have a 10k on April 4th and I'm hoping to PR. Last year I think my time was 56:04 and that time surprised me so after training in speed lately I'm hoping to shave some time off of my 10k.
My nutrition has been helping me run better as well. Not that it was ever really bad just not as much usable fuel for my body. No breads, no pastas, no sweets, little or no saucy type foods. If I need something sweet I indulge in plain yogurt with fresh blueberries and raspberries. I'm very proud of myself in that respect!
My measurements are also where I like them. I'm back at a slender 127 and have lost over an inch in my waist and hips since January when I started my training. I can feel and see the improvement so I have to keep reminding myself that all my hard work and discipline is paying off and I just need to stick to it.

Train smart, race hard.