More Than Half Way There!

Today I ran my longest distance ever....14.7 miles, baby!!!! Oh yeah! It was cool out, but I've been through enough of winter to know how to layer properly for it. I have been itching to do a half-marathon, however, the one I wanted to do happens to fall on the day of my dear co-workers baby shower so in the absence of any kind of race available to me locally, I decided to set my Nike+iPod to "half-marathon" & conquer the distance. Did you know that you can't listen to more than one podcast while running in Nike+ mode? Well, you can't. If you try to switch to another it ends your workout. Oh crap. Had to reset. Anyway, combined mileage adds up to 14.7 miles. No speed record...but that's ok. I will admit that the last mile uphill really, REALLY sucked. Holy crap it hurt! A friend asked if I was training for a spring marathon. OMG! I can't even imagine 12 more miles on top of what I did. Will I be able to actually do that in even 6 months? I'm having serious doubt here folks...what got you over that psychological/physical hurdle?

An even dozen!

A big shout out to Stacey who is officially my dozenth(is that a word?) follower! Thanks everyone for following my blog! In the spirit of honesty, I have to tell you that my teenagers think it's hilarious that ANYONE follows me & have made bets on how many will be following me on marathon day...& as the 14 year old said " you should be happy, I have the biggest faith in you". :D. My friend encouraged me to start my blog & I'm so happy I did...running itself is mentally freeing and therapeutic, but blogging just seems to complete it. So Thanks!

On another note, I have been feeling the urge to run a half but I dont want to travel to do it. We are going on vacation next week & I COULD conceivably run the Skunk Cabbage when we get back ( gosh I love that name...it's almost worth it to get the t-shirt!) but then I'd miss a DF's baby shower & I'm thinking that's not kosher. Maybe I should do the Nike+iPod half marathon & give myself a prize for doing it...but it's really not the same. Guess I need to do some more research and find a half in the next month or so locally. It is so weird to me that I'm thinking that I NEED a half & that I know I can run the mileage no problem, but want the challenge that a race brings. My what a difference a year makes!

Also, do I bring my running gear to Europe or do I give myself permission to not run for a week? I'm conflicted. And I know I should just count myself lucky to have this decision to make. Btw, I highly recommend 'travel zoo' for anyone looking for vacation deals. They are awesome!

Happy running!

Top Dog

At my gym they are having a Top Dog Challenge this month with gold, silver & bronze levels for a variety of workouts including he-man stuff like bench pressing etc, but there is a 1 mile & a 5K challenge too.  For the 1 mile, for a woman the benchmark levels are Gold: 7:30 min; Silver: 8:00; Bronze 9:30.  Yesterday I went with the intention of trying to just get on the board & maybe if the gods shined on me break a 9 minute mile.  Well, the Gods did shine on me & I pulled a 7:36 out of my ass!  The only one more surprised than me was the exercise physiologist who was timing me....she wasn't paying too much attention because we both had no expectation for that kind of time & actually I thought the Gold was 7minutes even. So I miss it by 6 seconds!!!  I was thrilled & frankly, fairly astonished.  But it kept bugging me all through the night so back I went today to try it again.  Success!!!! Today I was 6 seconds on the right side of goal! Yay!  Never thought I'd see a 7:24 mile, but today it was me!

I know I can't sustain that pace, and had to hold on to the treadmill handles in order to keep my spazzy self from flying off the back at times, but it's nice to know that this old bod can move if it has to!

The chaos of life

Today is shrove Tuesday & I'm wishing that I could give up catastrophe for lent. First my cars's bumper is taken off while at my sons hockey game a couple weeks ago, then on Sunday while mother nature is throwing yet another hussy fit of spring temps, rapid snow melt & torrential downpour my sump pump decides to stop working resulting in a soggy finished basement. I say soggy in the loosest sense of the word. It was saturated. Then the weather changes to snow & we get over a foot of snow! Seriously, I'm at the hospital fielding texts & phone calls from my dear husband trying to figure out what to do & when I am finally able to leave it takes me 2 hours to get home in a freaking blizzard. Sigh. Was looking forward to a run today but it wasn't in the cards...new sump installed (music to my ears) & carpet being pulled up now. I am hopeful that the worst is over & I can get out tomorrow. Don't care about pace, time, or mileage. Right now I crave the mental peace that running brings me.

On another note, I tried Running Worlds smart coach today to make a training plan for my marathon & I wonder how they figure your race pace??? I typed in 2:18 for a half marathon time & it gave me a goal of 4:26 (a pace of 10:07!!!)...WTF? Really? I thought marathon pace was supposed to be slower? I KNOW I can't sustain a pace like that...why do they calculate that as my goal pace?

I'm giving up the candy drawer at work for lent...hopefully catastrophe will gone too.

The joys of youth...

So I came off nightshift today & needed to run the cobwebs off.  Also, had to get the 14 year old off his butt for a run.  He gave me a 5 minute headstart, caught me at 2.5 miles (he claims he got a 'cramp' or he would have caught me sooner) & finished 9 minutes ahead of me.  I booked it the whole time and clocked 10:18 miles.  He didn't even look tired....just a leisurely run with his old mum @ 8:08 miles.  He was a good sport about it. I've decided to continue to let him live in my house ;-D