Sometimes You Deserve a Treat

Last week J and I finally decided to give in and splurge on the ultimate post-run treat.



Nothing helps you to get over the pain of a long run more than watching "Rock of Love" in HDTV. Sweet Jesus, what happened to Bret Michaels face? There is such a thing as too much botox.

Other than that, not much exciting to report on this week. Busy with work, life, blah, blah, blah...

I had a meeting last week with Footworks.They are the running store in South Miami that does the huge marathon training program that I used last year while training for the Miami Half-Marathon. I have been asked this year to be a team leader (along with two others) for the 10:30 pace 5:1 group. J has led one of the faster paced groups the past two years and it was pretty nice that they asked me to help out. Especially since I have never actually run a full marathon yet. Maybe I'm supposed to keep that part a secret, hmmm... Thankfully, the main leader in my group has been doing this for a few years and has it mostly under control. I'll just stand around and act like I know what I'm doing ;)

Anyway, the program starts again this Saturday for the Miami Full Marathon training, so it will be interesting to see how J and I manage to coordinate our long runs. For example, this week Miami has a nice short 3 miler, but we have a 20 miler scheduled for Columbus. Not too bad, but as the weeks go on, it could get pretty hard to juggle it. We'll see.

Training has been great. I kept up with all my runs, made it to the gym one day and had a awesome 18 miler (another first!)

Sunday, 7/22 - gym, lift, abs, 30 minutes elliptical
Monday, 7/23 - 6.1 miles/61:14 - 10:01 pace
Wednesday, 7/25 - 5.65 miles/57:00 - 10:05 pace
Friday, 7/26 - 2.9 miles/27:55 - 9:37 pace
Saturday, 7/27 - 18.02 miles/3:06:38 - 10:21 pace

Total Weekly Mileage: 32.67

Pretty good mileage, not as great as I had planned, but it was good.

I had a little scare with an odd foot pain on Friday, hence the short run. I stopped a short run even shorter since I was doing 18 miles the next day. It was an odd sensation on the top and side of my foot, but thankfully it has gone away and not returned. Phew.

My 18 miler was great. It was my first long run back with J and while I was scared since I had toned down my pace a little in the past few weeks, it felt great to run with him again. Our pace was right on this week too, 10:30 the whole run. It was pretty hot, but I somehow had a lot of energy. I even cut out the walk breaks the last mile. I think I may be getting used to this running thing.

Ask me next week after my 20.

Never Say Never

I never thought I would see the day when I thought a 12 mile run was "short".

I also never thought I would believe that 79 degrees with 78% humidity was cool for 5am.

Never say never.

Todays run was short and cool as mentioned above (shorter and cooler than last Saturday). I think I may finally be getting into a groove of summer Miami marathon training. My running has been getting a bit easier again as I finally stuck to all my runs during the week. I still need to get to the gym two days a week though. Next week, next week...

Monday, 7/16 - 6.1 miles/60:50 - 9:57 pace
Wednesday, 7/18 - 6.1 miles/59:40 - 9:45 pace
Thursday, 7/19 - 6 miles/60:29 - 10:00 pace
Saturday, 7/21 - 12.69 miles/2:20 - 11:40 pace

Total Weekly Mileage: 30.91

In other news, I bought new running clothes the other day!!! :)

Nothing revs up the old drive and inspiration like some new running clothes/shoes/gadgets. I have been having a problem lately with excessive sweat from the humidity soaking my shorts and causing them to ride up during the ends of my longer runs. I found an awesome pair of Adidas shorts the other day with a softer, looser waistband and compression shorts built in underneath. I wore them for a 6 and 12 mile run this week and they work GREAT so far. I'm pretty excited. Only downfall is that they don't have a pocket of any sort. That and when I went to the Adidas Outlet store today I found the same pair in a better color for $14 cheaper. Grrrr... Oh well, at least I know where to get my next pair.



Sexy, I know. It was 4:45am, what do you want from me?

I also love the two new singlets I got as well. Woo-hoo! I have more than one summer running outfit now!

Finally, Sweet Micki tagged me as a RAWKIN BLOGGER GRRRLLL!!!



Thanks Micki :)

Now I get to do it back to everyone else. Funny thing is, a lot of my favorite blogs have already been tagged. If you have, no need to redo it, unless you have a few more homies you want to recognize.

First up, back to you Micki.
This girl is forever PR-ing and I love reading her get stronger and more confident as a runner everyday. Plus, she has the cutest kiddies!

Second, there is Sonia.
Like a true Canadian, this girl is as friendly as they come no matter how many miles she is running. Her laid back attitude is contagious and makes for feel-good reading. She is the kind of person you feel like you have known forever I always leave her blog with a smile on my face.

Third there is Marcy.
Marcy is always good for a LMAO and a few LOL's!! She has a sense of humor for days, is a way better runner than she gives herself credit for and reminds me of some of my most hilarious friends.

Fourth there is Josie.
If you haven't read this girls blog PLEASE do it now! You will not be disappointed. Her sarcastic sense of humor, witty writing style and total honesty about running and life in general always leave me cracking up at my computer.

Last but not least, there is Irish Blue.
First of all, she is from Ohio so there are a few cool points right there. On top of that she is honest, funny, down to earth aaaannnd we are both running our first marathon in Columbus! It's fate!

A New Land Speed Record!

Well, maybe not the speed part. But I ran pretty damn far today!

Sixteen miles to be exact, my longest to date. It was hot and sooooo not as easy as I thought (based on my long run last week). But there were actually a few things worse than the "running 16 miles" part. Here are a few:

1. Getting up at 4:30am for our 5:15am start

2. Running through a puddle of vomit, probably from only a few hours earlier

3. Running past a dead possum, not smelling good in the Miami heat

4. Trying to get into every bathroom because we decided to pass up on the first one, only to find all the rest of them locked along the way

5. My shorts riding up incessantly after they were soaked with sweat, resulting in very chaffed legs

6. Almost getting run over by other runners who REFUSE to run single file when passing on a narrow sidewalk - jerks

7. Triple Berry GU is NOT as digestable as the Chocolate

8. The last two miles of the run having NO trees. NO trees = NO shade. And it was sunny. SUN-EEEEEEE!

9. The pain I felt in my legs that I never experienced as a Half-Marathoner

10. Realizing when I was done that I would still have to run another TEN miles to finish a marathon. Stupid math.

11.Trying to get down on the ground to stretch. HA!

12. The Ice Bath - Also a first for me



Yeah, an ice bath is nooooo fun. Who would have thought by simply sitting down in a bathtub, I would actually almost have a heart attack? I mean, this was shocking. Probably would've felt good if I had just walked in from the run, but since I stretched for 15 minutes in the AC, it was just cold. But I will admit, my legs feel way better now. I'll suffer for 15 minutes to be able to bend over and put on shoes for a few days.

Other than that, I had two other good runs this week:

Wednesday, 7/11 - 6.11 miles/61:00 - 9:59 pace
Thursday, 7/12 - 6 miles/60:55 - 10:00 pace
Saturday, 7/14 - 16 miles/3:06:56 - 11:40 pace

Total Weekly Mileage: 28.11

This is not nearly enough running to get me in marathon shape and I need to try to be better about being consistent. It's just hard with Dakota visiting for us to get to the gym. That and it's way more fun to sleep at 6:00am on a Monday than run 6 miles. Sigh.

Lastly, I finished The Nonrunner's Marathon Guide for Women. this week. It was a great book. A super easy read and hilarious. I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who has a sense of humor, likes to runs yet feels a bit grumpy about it from time to time. It is not a serious running manual by any means, just a humorous look on a sport that is taken waaaaaaay too seriously by a few people from time to time, which is probably why I like it so much.

Sometimes Slow is OK

First of all, Happy Belated July 4th to everyone!



I hope everyone's day was a good as mine. I got to spend it wih my husband, stepson (who is visiting from California for three weeks) and a few good friends at their new house on a lake. It was a great time. Here are some more pictures of our fun-filled day and fireworks extravaganza!

Training this week has been a little slower than usual. With Dakota (my stepson) coming in and the holiday, regular training has been a little messed up. J and I can no longer run together in the mornings because we don't want to leave Dakota alone while we're gone (even though he is old enough and would be fine, we still don't feel right about it). So basically we are both on our own. We've been taking turns running and for the next three weeks while I run with our friend Marissa on Saturday mornings, he will be doing his long runs alone on Sundays. Poor guy.

Unfortunately, this week I only got in three runs:

Monday, 7/02 - 5.6 miles/54:41 - 9:37 pace
Thursday, 7/05 - 3.2 miles/30:04 - 9:20 pace
Saturday, 7/07 - 13.16 miles/2:36:32 - 11:53 pace

Total Weekly Mileage: 21.96

It's getting a little frustrating to get further and further into my training only to be getting slower and slower with each run. Jeremy keeps reminding me that it's only the weather and that my body is getting stronger and is able to work through so much more now that when fall comes along my times are going to be insane and blah, blah, blah...

Of course I know all this. I was blessed with common sense, thank goodness. But it still sucks, I don't like it.

The Monday run was awful. The Thursday run I did at the last minute after it stopped raining for five minutes. It was so muggy and thick. I hadn't run that route so slow in months and I really felt like I was giving it my all at the end.

Actually, my best run in weeks was this morning. Marissa met me at my house at 5:30am to set out for 14 miles. Since I am used to running around a 9:45 pace on my long runs with Jeremy, the slower pace was just what I needed to boost my confidence. The almost 12mm pace, which seems really slow to me for some reason, really didn't feel all that slow in the heat this morning.

Screen shot from weather.com @ 5:30am today.


It felt great actually. We talked the whole time, I didn't feel angry or wonder why I was doing this crazy running thing like I normally do on my long runs lately. My fuel belt didn't even bother me. It was just really comfortable and I finished strong. Unfortunately, when I mapped the route later on runstoppable, I found out we only ran 13.16, not 14. Oh well. Either way, I am looking forward to running with her for the next couple of weeks. It's nice to mix things up a bit.

Another reason I think it went so well is I discovered a new little ritual for myself in the mornings before a long run. A very small cup of coffee with a lot of water helps to get things moving before I head out so that they don't start moving around mile 2 (I aint talking about my energy level either). If you don't know what I'm saying, here is a hilarious post from Josie that will put it all into perspective for you. Lets just say the coffee 30 mintes before I ran really helped me out. Finally, I have found the cure!

Lastly, I am excited tonight that I finally picked up a copy of The Nonrunner's Marathon Guide for Women.



I've read reviews about it numerous times and honestly it seems that it may be the only running book I will ever truly be able to relate to. I'll let you know how it is.