Hot and Cold

I like running. I mean really, I really truly enjoy it. It's fun, it feels good, it makes me happy and I look forward to it. However, I do NOT like running in the heat! (And heat to me, since I live in Minnesota, is anything above 78 degrees. I know, I'm a wimp!) When it's hot I just lose everything I love about running and it turns into a chore instead of a retreat. That's exactly what happened on Monday. My friend was watching the kids so I thought, I should take advantage of this and go on a 6 mile run. Unfortunately I didn't leave until noon, when it was 85 degrees outside. I started out slow, thinking I'd speed up, but I never could. The first 3 miles were all about 9:30 miles. The last three were even slower. I had to stop a couple times to drink and pour water on myself to cool down. I ended up finishing in exactly 1 hour, blah! The whole run just felt like so much work. How the heck to people who live in Arizona or other hot places do it?

Anyway, today was the total opposite. It was a cool 65 degrees when I went on my run at 10am this morning. Teya was at preschool so I just had Brinley and was able to push her in our single jogging stroller. She did awesome, fell asleep before the first mile and slept the whole time. I felt awesome too. I ran 4 miles in 36 minutes, not bad for pushing a stroller! The best part was it was fun! On Monday I thought I was losing my love for running, but now I know it was just the heat! : )

Pioneer Day 5K

On Saturday our church put together a little 5K run to celebrate Pioneer Day. It was very low key, no official clock or anything. But we had a really good turn out and it was fun running with so many great people I know. Taber was able to run it with me which is the first time we've run together in over a month. We kept around a 9 minute pace for the most part but on the final 1/4 mile Taber really started to kick it in! There was a huge hill too and he just owned it! I looked down at my watch and he was running around a 7:20 pace. I could barely keep up with him and he ended up beating me to the finish. He's knee was bugging him after but man was it good to see him running hard again!

I ended the week with a total of 12.5 miles. Not as much as I hoped but better than last week's 7. I DID cross train twice though so that counts for something right? Next week will be even better. I'm shooting for at least 15 miles. 4 tomorrow, 4 Wed, 2 Thurs, and at least 5 (but preferable 7 or 8) on Saturday.

Much Better

This week I am back on track, as promised! On Monday I even did something that is completely outside of my nature, I woke up early! We're talking 5:30 am so I could go running before the kids got up. I gave myself a big fat pat on the back for that one. ; )

The run was GREAT! Taber's friend is letting us borrow his Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS watch and I got the treat of running with it. Taber has the Garmin forerunner 50 which measures your pace and distance by a foot pod. But the 305 tracks you by satellite. It's super accurate and it tells you your time, distance, and pace all on the same screen so you don't have to switch back and forth. I LOVE it! I will be so sad when we have to give it back. (I think I'm gonna have to start a fund right now to save up for my own, it's just too awesome!)
Another cool thing about it is that after each mile it pops up your average time for that mile. So On Monday my first mile was 9:22, second mile was 9:03, third mile was 8:28 and 4th mile was 8:16. My fastest pace during the run was 7:11. I loved having the watch to measure my run and it definitley made me want to work harder.

Besides wearing the fun watch I loved Monday's run because it actually felt like a run, not just a jog. My legs are feeling better than ever and the IT band issues have improved almost 100%. Heck, I bounded down the stairs today. BOUNDED! I haven't done that in a long time. With my ITB syndrome I wondered if I'd ever be able to just walk down them normally, let alone bound. It's very exciting to have my legs back, although I'm still being cautious and not pushing up my mileage or pace too fast because I don't want to go backwards when I've come so far.

Today I had another good run. Not as fast as Monday, but I did 4.5 miles at a solid 9 minute pace. It was fun because we had playgroup at a park by a lake with running trails. So I left my kids with one of my friends at playgroup and ran around the lake a couple times. The kids had a great time and I got a work out and social time all in one deal. Gotta love multi-tasking! I'll do one more run tomorrow and then we have a 5K on Saturday. So yes, this week is going much better than last one!

Slack attack!

Wow, last week was BAD as far as running goes. I ran a grand total of 7 miles! Yikes! I don't have a good excuse either. My legs are fully recovered and I'm totally back up to speed and everything. I think I was just in a little bit of denial about my next race coming up in just over 30 days. It's a relay race that covers 200 miles and is split up in legs between 12 runners. Each runner does three legs in a 24 hour period (meaning I'll run one of them in the middle of the night) Anyway,I thought, "oh it won't be so bad, I ran a marathon after all, I can just slack off a little and be fine. Well then we had a team meeting yesterday and I was assigned my route. Here's what it looks like (They assign you miles for each leg and then a level of difficulty according to elevation and distance):

Leg 1: 8.3 miles/very hard
Leg 2: 7.5 miles/very hard
Leg 3: 3.9 miles/moderate
Total distance: 19.7 miles!!!

Aye aye aye! For some reason my team thinks I should run the 2nd longest and most difficult route (My brother in law Kevin is running the #1 longest and hardest leg haha!) Guess after you run a marathon people have higher expectations of you. That's a good thing though. I've been needing a boost in motivation lately and this is it! Now that my route is assigned I know exactly what I'm up against and I'm ready to work for it! Yeah!!! So good bye slack attack! I'm ramping up the mileage this week and back into full training mode! WOO!

Slowing down to speed up

3 weeks now since the marathon and I'm finally starting to feel like I'm getting my legs back. It's been a slow process getting back. I've only been doing 3 mile runs a couple times a week and they've been hard. My IT bands have been really tight and last Wednesday they hurt so bad I limped through the first mile. I went in for a deep tissue massage and have been doing lots of stretching and resting.

On Saturday I ran 6 miles which is the farthest I've gone since the race. I started out really slow, about a 10:30 minute pace. I kept that up for the first three miles and the longer I ran the better I felt. each mile I felt like I could go a little bit faster. The coolest thing is that for the last 1/2 a mile I was running! almost sprinting, and I didn't get tired or feel any pain. I haven't "flown" like that in forever! I was surprised my legs could do it! I credit it mostly to the fact that I slowed down for the first half of my run so my legs and IT bands really had a chance to warm up and get loose. I also did a lot of stretching before and after. Anyway, it was exciting to have a good run and to feel like I'm still in the game.

Also on a happy recovery note, Taber ran 7 miles on Saturday. That's the most he's been able to run since his injury 2 months ago. When he first got hurt he couldn't even run 1 mile. He had to take 3 weeks off running and has done some physical therapy and lots of streching and icing and strengthing. He's really been careful as he's eased back into it. Slowly increasing his miles each week, sticking to his rest days, and not pushing his pace. It's been awesome to see him running again and to know that there's a light at the end of the injury tunnel.

Numbers (for Mel)

My friend Melinda wanted more specific numbers on my weight loss so here you go. I started out at 154 lbs. and on the day of my marathon I weighed 126.2 (I was shocked to see the distance of the race on the scale that day, talk about a crazy coincidence!) So total weight loss was 28.2 lbs.

I also went from barely squeezing into size 12 jeans to comfortably fitting into a size 4. I wish I took measurements to see how many inches I lost but I guess I wasn't thinking ahead. Anyway, so there you go, running does a body good.

I will say though that as I really increased my miles at the end I didn't lose any weight. My skinny clothes started fitting better but the scale didn't move. I think that's mostly because of adding muscle (which weighs more than fat) and because I was so hungry that I ate ALL the time! Now my problem is that I'm only running about 10 miles a week but I still want to eat like I'm running 30! Guess I better make some adjustments there : )

I'm back! Sort of...

I went for my first post-marathon run on Monday. I read that for a whole month after the marathon you should run easy, no racing or speed training so that your body can recover fully. To help out with this I left the Garmin at home. I didn't even run with a watch. I just wanted to get my legs moving and see how I felt. I ended up doing 2 miles. It felt really really good just to get sweaty again! The next day however my old friends, the IT bands, were giving me some trouble. I have a feeling I'll be dealing with those guys for awhile. Anyway, I took Tuesday off and went out again last night for a 4 mile run. I had the Garmin this time and kept around a 9:30 pace. The beginning was tough, my legs were definitely hurting, but once I got warmed up I felt awesome(minus some leg pain.) The wind was blowing, the night air was cool. There's just something so therapeutic about running outside. My heart and lungs feel strong as ever, now I guess I just need to get my legs up to par. I'll keep doing easy runs for the rest of July. My Ragnar race isn't until the end of August and our team isn't looking to break any records so I don't feel too much pressure to push my times up. Right now I'm just happy to be running again, even if it is slower miles and shorter distances. I'll take it!

Transformation

Here are two pictures that were taken of me 2 months after I had Brinley. These are the pictures that inspired me to start moving my body. I kept telling myself, "Oh well I just had a baby, that's why I look like this." But as the weeks went by, I didn't lose one pound. In fact, I gained. Then I saw these pictures and all I could think was, "Who is that girl? That can't be me." It wasn't me, I had to find myself. That's why I started running.


It's been almost a year now since Brinley was born. Sometimes I still don't recognize that girl in the mirror, probably because she's a lot more fit than I'm used to! It's weird being referred to as a runner or athletic, but I guess that's something I have transformed into. After the race the lady who gave me a massage said, "You're really fit, did you know that?" And the other day we were driving in the car and Teya saw a girl outside running who was tan, toned, and athletic looking. Teya said, "Look Mommy! That girl's just like you!"

I know my body is far from perfect, but it's been really neat to go from huffing and puffing after my kids to being able to run around with them. It's awesome being referred to as "skinny, or fit" and it's great that my 3 year old thinks I look like that buff girl running!
But the greatest transformation of all is just the way I have come to think. I feel like the little Engine that could. When faced with new challenges I don't say I can't, I say, " I think I can!" : )

Resting and Recovery

It's been 5 days since the marathon and I'm really enjoying my week off of running to rest and recover. I'm not gonna lie, Sunday my legs, back, hips, and feet all hurt like the devil. I couldn't sit down or stand up without a pretty impressive effort. The stairs were a nightmare, and poor Taber ended up having to do a lot of kid and house duty on Father's day because I was useless.

Monday I felt greatly improved in all areas but my quads, which still really hurt. So I splurged and got a massage and asked the lady to mostly just focus on my lower back and legs. I am now a HUGE believer in the healing power of massage because the next day my legs felt 90% better! I only had a little bit of soreness but could actually climb the stairs without using the arm rail to pull myself up.

By Wednesday I was pretty much back to normal. Today all muscle soreness is gone but I'm just dealing with some knee pain and of course some pain in my IT bands which I expected. I did Pilates on Tuesday and today and have been stretching and doing a few strengthening exercises for my glutes because apparently that's supposed to help your IT bands. I have tentatively scheduled my return to running jog for Monday, but if I'm not feeling up to it I'll push it back to Wednesday. The nice thing is that my next race isn't for 2 months so I've got some time. And speaking of time, since I haven't run at all this week I've actually had time to watch a movie, go to playgroup, and mop my floors! (okay, running is no excuse for not mopping my floor, but that's the first movie I've watched in a long time! it was fun!)

Marathon insider info!

I did it! I finished! For all the overall details and pictures you can visit my family blog here: Marathon Mama.

For my running blog though I just wanted to put up some stats and some of the insider info that only runners probably care about.

My chip time at the finish was 4:37:54. Gun time was 4:41:54. So we started exactly 4 minutes after the gun. My pace was calculated according to the gun time, so it says it was 10:46 but my chip pace was 10:36. I can handle that!

I finished 537/1239 for my age division and 925/2264 for my gender.

My 10K time was 59:10
Half marathon time was 2:09:37
20 mile mark was 3:26:06
Mile 25 was 4:24:11( meaning that last 1.2 miles took me over 13 minutes to finish, it's amazing how much you slow down at the end!)
My last 10K was 1:11:48. 12 minutes slower than my first. Again, the law of diminishing returns hits you hard in the marathon!

Favorite or Funny Moments:
1) not even a mile into the race dozens of men run off to the side of the road to pee. Seriously, they couldn't hold it?
2) Every time a cool breeze came off the lake you could hear a collective sigh of relief from all the runners. It was hot out there!
3) At mile 21 a spectator shouts out, "You're gonna win!"
4) Seeing Taber at mile 24 was more refreshing than all the water, gel, fruit, and power drinks along the way.

Lessons learned:
1) Get there early. The bathroom lines are outrageous and you want to have time to stretch.
2) Don't pour water on your head with your earphones in, they might short out!
3) Take it easy! They say your marathon pace should be 3 minutes slower than your perfect mile. I tried for a 9:30 pace in beginning. I'm pretty sure my perfect mile isn't a 6:30 pace! Once I slowed down to 10:30-11 minute miles I was much happier.
4) Don't hunch over for the last 6 miles, your back will hurt like the very devil the next day if you do!
5) no matter how great your shoes are, your feet will hurt after mile 21.
6) If you wear a sweatband or a bandana on your forehead you're gonna get a funky tan line. (which is fine, just a heads up)
7) Having a running buddy (preferably one who is a better runner than you) is AWESOME! They can help you stay motivated, keep you company, push you when you need it and help you stay sane during that last grueling 6 miles.
8) When your done get your legs in cold water or iced up ASAP!
9) The next day stairs are going to become your nemesis!
10) Girl Scout cookies taste really awesome after you've run 26.2 miles