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Friday, May 30, 2014

I've stood at this door before I'm told.

It's been a busy May. Unfortunately, very little of that "busy" has been running. In fact, almost none of it was.

There are reasons (Child! Work! Lots of places I had to be!) and excuses (My leg isn't 100%...I'm super tired...) but honestly none of that matters.

In fact, I'm letting the whole month go. It's behind me, and there's nothing I can do about that.

What I can do is move forward. I've got goals that I'm setting up, and a plan.

June will be redemption month.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Lilac 10K Race Report

I know, i know, I'm just getting around to this now! This past Sunday, most of my family ran in the Lilak 10k. This was an amazing feat for many reasons, Let me count them out for you!

1) Last year, my goal race was the Lilak 5k. Finishing it totally wrecked me. This year I ran the 10k with ease (although not fast!)

2) My Father, who ran with us, had not run in YEARS, and only started training for this in January!

3) My mother, who has Multiple Sclerosis, is completely confined to a wheelchair. My amazing brother (the Ironman!) pushed her the entire 10k in a special ordered wheelchair.

Right before the finish!  My brother is pushing my Mom, with my Dad then Me and my (soon to be) Sister in Law!
Also, I have to say, this is not an easy course! Most of the first half is downhill, followed by a flat-ish section, and then UPHILL for most of the last half of the race.

The weather was amazing. It was cool, but not cold, partly sunny, and there was only a light breeze. We let my Dad set the pace, and he did AWESOME! I have no idea what our splits were, since I left my phone at home, and just ran for the fun of it, but at mile one there was a guy calling out times and I think we were right around a 13 min/mile. We kept a relatively consistent pace, with occasional walk breaks, and finished in 1:26:52. It was awesome crossing the finish line as a family! We even made the news!
We made the news!

This was the first race that I've run where I wasn't pushing my limits. I was able to run at a conversation pace, and have a great time enjoying the scenery and conversation with my Family. I felt awesome at the end of the race. I even had enough left in my legs that when we passed my Husband and Daughter, I sprinted over to give them kisses before rejoining my family for the finish.

The crowd suport along the race was awesome as well. There was a large group of people around the point where the course rejoined itself that were all dressed in crazy colorful costumes. Right around the half way point there was a large contingent from Fleet Feet out to cheer everyone on.  Of course, since the finish line for the race was smack in the middle of the Lilac Festival there was a HUGE crowd cheering at the finish.

My only complaint is that the middle section did not have enough water stops. It seemed like all the water was clustered along the first few and last few miles, with only a couple water stops along the (very hot sunny) flat stretch in the middle. I was glad I had my handheld with me!

It was really so much fun, and we've decided we're going to make it a tradition, and next year we're dragging Hubs into it, and I'll push our Daughter in a stroller!

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Back to it

After the Half, my motivation obviously took a nose dive, helped along by a nagging calf issue. This resulted in two solid weeks of....nothing. Oh I've walked a bunch, but no running, at all. The calf issue has resolved itself, but the motivation issue, not so much.

So I'm taking drastic measures. (Well drastic for me anyways.)

I've signed up for a Half Marathon Training program run at our local Fleet Feet store.

See, this is putting me way outside my comfort zone.

First, people. People I don't know. In fact, I'm fairly sure a large group of people all of whom I do not know.

Second, one of the runs is at 6:00 AM, as in in the morning, and is also on a morning when I have to work (it's a tuesday.) I am not a morning person. Try as I might, I have not been able (so far) to create a morning run habit. This is going to force me to. And then to attempt to function for a full day afterwards.

Third, commitment. Once I start this program, there's no backing out, no slacking off, no fudging the schedule to work for me. There will be people. People who know if I don't show up. People who will know if I'm not giving 100%.

Also, did I mention there will be people?

I have a 10K coming up this weekend as well. We'll see how well that goes, but I'm not super worried about it. My whole family is running it together, My dad's been working his way up to the 10k distance all winter, and my Brother (the Ironman) will be pushing my mother in push chair. Obviously the pace will not be super speedy for us.  I'm going to try to get one shorter run in on Friday, just to test out my legs.

Hopefully between the run this weekend, and singing myself up for this Training Group, I'll avoid the training drop off I'm fearing.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

My gift to myself

After finishing the Half, I ordered a gift for myself. Something to commemorating my first Half, but also to remind me of what I accomplished. It came in the mail last night, and I have to say, it could not have shown up at a better time. I keep looking down at it to remind myself that yes, in fact, I can do this.


P.s. Get your own here Charmed by Cindi (She does custom sayings!)

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Ugh

My leg is finally starting to feel healed up, so I'm hoping to get a run in soon, but as you can see by the lack of updates, I have not ran since last thursday. I did manage to get a short (half hour) walk in on Monday, but that's been the extent of my exercise this week.

Lame.


Friday, May 2, 2014

First Post-Half Run

Getting ready to run
I made the decision the day of the half that I would give myself a few days rest, and then get back to it. Thursday the weather looked nice, so The Hubs and I packed up our daughter and headed up to Cobbs Hill to do a short easy run. The idea was just to get my legs moving, and take stock of how they were recovering.

Always an awesome view up there!
The run went alright at first, my legs felt good, not tired or sore. Then the Hubs handed the jogging stroller off to me, and within the first quarter mile, my left calf started to cramp up. I slowed my pace up a lot, but after about a half mile I was ready to call it quits. I handed the stroller off to my Husband, and the cramping in my calf eased almost immediately. We did another loop and again, as soon as he passed the stroller back to me, my calf started cramping up, so we finished out the loop we were on and called it quits.

When we were walking back to the car I started trying to stretch my calf out, and I noticed that there is a swollen spot on the outside edge of my left calf, about halfway down. I can still feel it today, and actually can still visually see it when comparing it to my other calf. So yeah, I'm gonna put it up tonight and ice that sucker.

We did manage to finish out two miles on the run, which isn't bad for a shake down run I guess. Not super happy with the split pace, but I think pushing the stroller took a huge toll on me. I actually think that the way my gate changes when I'm pushing the stroller, combined with still tired legs, is what caused the ouchie calf.

 I'm going to try for another easy run this weekend, then next week it's back to it, fer realz.