Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Urgh!

Sorry haven't bloggged in a while.....Today is a blah day! Cleaned the house and still feel like there is lots of cleaning to be done. This is all just xmas cleaning so I am sure there is more in store.
As far as the running goes.Its SLOOOOOOWWWWWW. I rans a few times while on vacation. I was taking this medication that come to find out increases skin sensitivity so hence the burnt nose while running 6 miles. It stung too and best of all its still red! Weird. Now that I am home I am working on getting things in order around the house, finishing up some loose ends with school and job hunting, then will focus my energy on the running. Due to money constraints I am up in the air about gasparilla. I will just run what I can get in shape and then see in a month or so.
I gotta go...sorry so short

Monday, December 14, 2009

The road to Gasparilla...

Its here! Week one of 11 weeks of training for the Gasparilla Marathon in Feb 2010.
It was a tough decision to make. I know I wanted to run another one, but when and which one was another story. When it comes down to it, I have family and friends in Tampa so that one is the logical choice and of course it gives me a little more time to train. Not much, but a little!

So here I am in week one of training. I had to modify my schedule a little bit to accomadate for the shortened training period. This week will be a little hard, just getting back into the training part. I have been running since the MCM. I ran a 10 k with my sister on Thanksgiving and PR'd for that by over a minute and that was with hills so I am betting my time without hills would have been great for me. Then I would occasionally run 2 times or 3 times a week,about 4 miles each. So I haven't completely stopped.

This week will consist of a 3 mile, 5 mile, 5 mile, and a 10 miler. With a day of cross training at the gym. My schedule also has times to meet. That will be a challenge but it is made for a person that wants to finish in 4:15....thats an hour difference for me, but if I try my best to meet the times thats all I can do and then PR at the race. I might not get the 4:15 but it should be well under the 5:15 I had.

So again today is 3 miles at a 9:30 pace. That should be pretty easy. Thats a good one to start out with then I guess...lol

JM ....I'm bbbbbbaaaaaaaacccccccckkkkkkkkk!

Return from the Dead!

Hello out there! It's December 14 th. I haven't written anything since October 17th. Wow!!!OK not really...I knew that I haven't written.
Marine Corps Marathon- Where to begin? Well it came time to run my first full marathon. I was really excited to be running it. My mom and I flew up to Washington D.C. and met up with my running group, had some lunch with them, went to the expo with them etc. It was fun! I bought myself a few things to commemorate the experience but gosh were the MCM official gear expensive! Race day finally came. I didn't get much sleep the night before. I set 2 alarms to make sure I got up and a friend of mine called to make sure we were up...alsways good to have backups...lol. It was cold out, and I was bundled with what I was wearing while I raced. I had gloves, hat, jacket, shorts, etc. We made our way to the metro station and then made our way to the starting line. Let me tell you, what a walk it was from the metro to the baggage drop off, to the start line. I lined myself up in the 4:30-5:00 area. I met someone there that I talked with until the start. When the gun went off, it took about 30 mins for us to move and cross the start line...thats a long time...but with 40,000 people I guess you have to figure as much.
I was hoping that I would get to see my mom along the way, but pretty much knew it was going to be impossible.
I was running great for a while. I wanted to stay at or under 10:45 min/miles....I did that until mile 15 or so. At that point something happened and I felt tired...not even so much that but drained I guess. I said to myself I am not stopping until mile 20. I kept running until I hit that mile 20 mark. It was nice..but I had to stop. I wanted to call Ian and hope that he could give me some motivation to run again. I started running again shortly after that and I swear the next 6 miles was the longest EVER! Unfortunately, I ran, walked, ran, walked the rest of the way. The last mile I ran the whole way, and it was tough. I think the longest I had run before that was 20, and and 18.
I made it!I finished my first marathon!!!! I finished in 5:14:53 I think it was.....(it gets hard to remember the seconds in these races). Afterwards I was tired, and very shakey. I needed to sit down so badely. But they shuffled you through to the medal area and then to the picture area and then to the baggage pickup which was like another mile down the road. After I got my bag, I finally met up with my mom and I sat down right there on the road. I took my sneakers off ( cause my feet hurt) and did not wear them the rest of the way back to the hotel.
All in all it was a great experience! One that I did not want to do again right away, but this week have decided to shoot for it again and this time get a PR. So my next adventure will be the Gasparilla Marathon in Tampa February 2010!

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Just remembered

Oh yeah, so I just remembered that I didn't write about my almost fatal accident. Ok it wasn't almost fatal butalmost a wip out. I was running and there was a yeard sale, so I looked over and when I did I guess I didn't see a crack or whatever the hell it was in teh cement and I tripand went forward, face first. Somehow I managed to save myself and not fall. I don't know how but I did. Now my foot hurts when I walk. Not badely but bothersome.....geee whizzzzz

Last long Run

I am sitting here humming/singing a song from Phantom of the Opera. I have no idea why, but I feel GOOD!
I ran my last long run today before the Marine Corps Marathon next weekend. The weather was great for a run. It was sunny but cold, and a little bit of a wind. I headed out on my run and thought to myself, wow its pretty cold out here. (mind you I am wearing my normal attire for warm weather)...its gonna be even colder in DC. I definitly better get a throw away jacket, and some gloves! My ears were starting to hurt a little from the cold air so I am going to pick me up a head band at the expo as well.
So as I ran ,the plan was to stay under 11:00 min miles.The "running"plan calls for 10:45 min miles. Well guess what, I did it! I ran all 10 with an average of 10:33. Well below the 11:00 planned. I am happy. It felt good, I felt like I could keep going. I wasn't out of breathe at all, it was great!
One more week left, and I won't be running much this week. A few miles here and there..its rest week. I am so excited!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

It's going...

It's going well so far, the running I mean. What else would I be talking about? I ran 6 miles this evening. It was decent out. Not cool by any means but not sunny either where the sun is beating down. Very humid though.
My plan called for 6 miles at a 10 min pace. I had a little bit of a hard time getting into the run for some reason. Not too sure why but it had to be done. i also had a stitch inmy sidefor like the whole first mile which didn't feel so good. Pushed on through and I finished in 58:42. I am very happy with that. Thats a better time than the Shamrock race and I wasn't even racing tonight.
I definitly know that keeping that pace up would last much longer. maybe I could get another 4 at that pace but then I would fade for sure. My kneealso started hurting slightly. So I IB'd it up and its on ice as we speak.
As far as my knee goes, it hasn't hurt at all, really until today. I think I have realized that when I start trying to speed it up a little thats when I aggravate it.
ok so next is Thursday or Friday another 4 miler and then the weekend a 10 miler.
Till then....

2 weeks and counting

Less than 2 weeks left till the big day! Yay! Its taper time, but I haven't felt like I have been runningall that much where I have to taper a lot.
This week I am following the plan and follwing the times, to see if I can do it. Monday I ran 4 miles with a 9:18 pace or so. I was supossed to keep a 9:30 pace, but I was under so I am happy. Today, Wednesday, I am supossed to run 6 miles with a 10 min pace. So later this evening I will be running that.
The plan after that is a run on Thursday and then a 10 miler on Saturday. Saturdays run is 10 miles at a 10:45 pace. Thats will be the challenge, but for myself I will be attempting to stay under that pace.
Here's the thing. I have been wondering what pace I am going to try and race at. I haven't really been running the long runs with the intent of finishing at a certain time. I have just be running them to finish and I have finished almost all of them. I would have liked to get another 20 miler in but its too lat now.
I took a look at my past Garmin runs and when I went to Florida and ran with the group I ran a 3:23 for 18 miles. Here for 20 I ran a 4:10. Thats a big difference for 2 miles!! So whats the prob? Maybe since I am running alone I don't have that motivational pace like I had with the group. Maybe the hills here tire me out more. Hard to say??? Ido know that I need to figure out my pace and quick that way I have more of a definite goal.
Speaking of goals....My ultimate goal is to finish under 5 hours. Next to that anywhere under 4:45 would be great! Not sure what the outcome will be. I do know that I can't start out to fast or I will fail, but at the same time I want to give it all I got so that at the end I don't say " I could have run a little faster". I do that to myself a lot.
Anyways, I am starting my list of things to do and pack that way when the week goes by and next week comes I won't be rushing around to much.
I will try and update tonight or tomorrow after my run.