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?

Guilty?

Yesterday I did something I haven't done in a long time: I blew off a cross training workout. And felt really guilty about it. I chose to use the good weather to clean out my flowerbeds, helped the husband change out a broken outdoor water faucet, and went to dinner with a couple work friends (and may or may not have left hubby downtown with his buddies and stopped by Red Mango by myself. For the second time in two days. Don't judge. )

And I felt really down on myself, and then thought "No." Healthy means mental and physical, and sometime doing things around the house and with friends are just as healthy as the elliptical, right? Right.

Do you ever feel guilty for skipping workouts?

This could be dangerous!

Last night, the husband and I ran the first 4 miles of Saturday’s 10k course – and it is rough: super hilly, curvy, and un-shaded. After about 20 minutes of trying to run the hub’s 11:00 “easy” pace,  I had a small mental meltdown, but was able to keep running intervals until the end.

After the run, we went to try out our area’s first fro-yo place, a Red Mango that opened last week. I have had major yogurt and topping envy from everyone else’s blogs, and was super excited to try the goodness for myself. Let me tell you, this could get addicting very quickly – there are so many options!  I had a medium bowl of half plain/half raspberry cheesecake yogurt with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and fruity pebbles. Amazing – so much better than ice cream! When I was in college, there was a fro-yo place we went to all the time, and I have it missed it terribly (it was before the idea of adding one’s own toppings existed, but it was still awesome).

What is your favorite yogurt combination?

Long running

Hopefully you have dry weather where you are - it is pouring here! Yesterday, I went for my first run longer that 5 miles since Princess (um, so over a month ago. Not sure how that happened!) It was 83 by the time I got home from work, and the heat made it seem impossible to run! I ended up doing 4:1 intervals most of the way, and finished 6.65 miles in 1:25, with a mile pace of 12:47. Not too fast, but not as bad as I thought it would be. I purposely chose a hilly route to try to get over my mental "hills are evil" issue, and though I walked up some of them, I'm starting to feel stronger.

I also did measurements last night: I lost .5 inches in my chest, and .25 around my thigh! Not huge losses (and not really in the areas I'd lose from the most) but a loss is still a good thing.

I also registered for my first 10k, coming up next Saturday! It's not a common distance around here, and I'm anxious to try a steady-fast pace for something longer than a 5k.

What's your favorite distance to race?

I've been bad . . .

I broke down and bought a new pair of these:

which are way expensive and way something I don't need. But are fabulous - and my old pair are more like . .  disgusting. I also got a few things online at the Old Navy sale going on today.

What do you splurge on?