Guess what . . .

I ran a marathon!! And I'm back to blogging, with a great big giant race recap headed your way tomorrow!

Days 5 and 6

I woke up with some shin pain Friday morning and decided that it would an "extra" cross training day instead of an easy run. I ended up riding the stationary bike for 20 minutes and lifting weights for thirty. This morning I helped build a deck on my first ever Habitat Build. After several unsuccessful attemps at driving nails, I became the official "go-fer" of the group.

I have been toying with the idea of running the half at next weekend's Carmel Marathon, which is about an hour and a half away from my house. I would have to drive up the night before since there is no race day packet pick-up. It looks like an awesome race, but there's an issue. No one else I know is running, DH doesn't want to go, and my mom has other plans for the weekend. So I would have to go alone and stay in a hotel by myself, something I am too much of a ninny to have done before and that I'm a little scared by. What would you do?

Days 3 and 4

On Wednesday, I did 1.5 miles on of speedwork on the treadmill, including my new favorite 'mill routine:
 - Walk for one minute at 3.6 mph
 - For the two minutes, increase the speed every 20 seconds
 - For the next three minutes, increase the speed every 10 seconds; if you're naturally not quick, like me, your ending pace will be a sprint
 - Walk for one minute

I did that rountine first, followed by a half mile at 1 mile race pace (6.4 for me), followed by the first routine again. DH then wanted me to join him for a run/walk so we did another 2.5 miles.

Last night, I did 2.3 miles at "goal marathon pace": 4:1 run/walk with the run at an 11:30 mile pace. I followed that  some ab work, lifted arms and then did something I haven't done in forever - swam laps. I am not at all a strong swimmer, but the Y has recently added flotation belts to their pool equipment, so I put one on and was able to do six laps (no idea what the distance is - help, swimmers!)  in a slow twenty minutes. By the last lap, I was beat.

I've been working tweleve hour days all week, but get to take some much needed comp time off this afternoon to do some shopping. I'm also working this weekend, but have the morning off to do a work-sponsor Habitat for Humanity build.

What are you weekend plans?

Day 2: Cardio Kickboxing

I'm planning on running 4 days a week during marathon training (which seems to be the max I can do with out getting hurt), and on filling my off days with crosstraining. The summer semester of exercise classes started at the local Y this week, and I decided to get a flex pass, which will let me try as many classes as I like between now and August.

After some upbody weight lifting and a short run/walk, I heading to cardio kickboxing, a class I was super excited about. How hardcore does the name sound? I was ready to be an exhausted, sweaty mess. However, only two other women came into class, and one of them was a 1st-timer like me. Before the class started, the instructor told us her "style of kickboxing was turbojam, or dance boxing" . . uh oh. If I want to dance, I'd have gone to Zumba. The hour long class had lots of lunges and booty shaking, but very little kicking or boxing, and intensity level was pretty low. Overall, underwhelming, and not a class I'll be back in.

Happy National Running Day today - how are you celebrating?

Also - DVC is Disney Vacation Club, a disney-owned timeshare program.

Day 1 of Marathon Training

Happy memorial day, everyone! To those of your serving our country, or who have served -THANK YOU!

My first run of training for Chicago began today! I'm working second shift for the long weekend, so after getting up at 9:00 and eating breakkie with DH, I headed out at 10:30 for the easy 2-miler that's on my schedule (I'll share the whole plan with you later). It was already a humid 84 in Indiana, after begin in the fifties  ans sixties all last week. It was like I couldn't breathe- miserably hot. Those two miles felt anything but easy, but I managed to finish in 23:14.

About one big life change I mentioned early: DH and I know own 125 DVC points at Bay Lake Tower! Our first trip on points will be for marathon weekend in Janurary (and no, I still don't know what race I'm running) in a lakeview studio. I researched DVC for almost a year before we bought in, and would be happy to do a longer post - or a reader question post - about DVC if you'd like.

How did you spend memorial day?

Changes

Many changes have happened in these parts! I promise I'm not gone - just playing catch up, thanks to:

 - my third half
 - another 5k under 33 mins
 - an upcoming July cruise
 - a completed semester
 - a buy in to DVC(!!!!)
 - A NEW POSITION AT WORK!

Regularly scheduled posting will resume soon.

YMCA Spring Festival 10k Race Recap

I had never run a 10k race before, so I was a little nervous before the start of this morning's race. I went in with three goals of varying degrees:  Not to be the very last finisher, Run the whole way, and Be under 1:15. I got up at 7:30, did some laundry, and got ready for the race. I was worried about it being really warm today, which was not at all the case: it was 48, windy, and misting rain when I was getting ready to leave. I ended up wearing capris and a long sleeve Nike shirt. After two glasses of chocolate milk (my swear-by-it pre race breakfast), I left my house and drove about 5 minutes to the Y.
There was a 5k that started an hour before the 10k, and there were still lots of people coming in at 8:45 when I arrived. I did a quick warm up jog, and heading to the start area. 10ks seems to attract lots of super fit looking people, who were somehow tolerating the cold in shorts and singlets even though they had no body fat. Amazing.
My goal was to run close to even splits, knowing that the 4th mile was all up hill. I hit the first mile at 10:34, and the second went by super quickly, around 21:00. The course was very well marked, with 5(!) water stops (I dranl at 2 of them), and I found myself running almost all the race in between a group of older women and a mom with two teenage daughters. By the time I got to the climb at mile 4, I was still feeling strong, though the downhills and up-and-downs of mile 5 left me with screaming legs. By the time I got to mile 6, I couldn't believe my time: 1:07:00. I turned on Empire State of Mind on my Ipod, ran as fast as I could for the last, uphill, 0.2 and crossed the finsih line in 1:09:10. Much better than I thought I could, with an 11:09 pace.

What went right today? I'll do a full breakdown of my thoughts tomorrow.

I then went home to warm up and shower, got pizza and froyo with my Mom, and headed to work.

How did your Saturday run go?