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, 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.

1 comment:

  1. Nice work! Life catches up and we cannot always keep up with training...but you are doing a wonderful job of maintaining a balance and staying strong.

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