Friday, February 10, 2012

Ramblin'

I might be a bit on the rambly side today. I missed 3 Things Thursday yesterday even though I sat down a couple of times to write but i was exhausted and just didn't have it in me to put any thoughts (random or not) down.

I've only been to the gym 3 times this week. Monday I did cross training (6 miles- elliptical and some weights). Tuesday was a scheduled run day and the training plan called for 4 miles. I started off at a slower pace thinking I would just take it easy but decided after the first 1.5 miles to turn this workout into speed work finishing 4 miles in just over 36 minutes. I aim for 45 minutes of activity at the very least so I decided to do some rowing as well which actually felt really good! Wednesday was a run day; my training plan called for 7 miles. Right now I've been doing my workouts at night because of our "life" schedule so it's dark by the time I get to the gym. I don't run solo at night for most of the obvious reasons so this was a treadmill run. I usually don't mind the treadmill at all but after the first 6 miles of this run I was bored to death and dreading the last mile. I think mostly this had to do with the fact that I was on a TM with auto shut off at 60 minutes. I had hit 6.15 miles at 60 minutes and was frustrated when the machine slowed down. I had to wait for it to go through all it's data stuff. Hit the clear button, restart and wait again for it to be ready for me. Once I got going I was ok until 6.5 miles and just dreaded the last .50 mile. I tried to slow down, ugh, my legs didn't feel like slowing down so I tried to speed up. I eventually just told myself "do it," and finished 7 miles done 1:10.

I had planned to make my weekly mileage 33 for every week in February. Thursday should have been another 4 mile run but I decided to take 2 days rest before the half marathon on Saturday. So, my mileage this week won't hit 33 unless I decide to do something on Sunday. Sunday is usually a rest day though and Rest is good! I mostly took 2 days in a row because I want my legs to be as fresh as possible. I'm not going for time tomorrow just looking forward to running for fun, training. I'm excited to run with my husband and friends. And I am excited about adding to my (small) "bling" collection!

What I am not looking forward to all that much about race day is the current forecast. Earlier in the week it was looking great. Mid 40s, perfect running weather. Looks like we will have low 30s, snow showers (starting tonight with possible accumulation of an inch, so not much) and 10-20 mph winds. Yay! lol We will be prepared though!

When I grabbed lunch today I went ahead and ran by my favorite local cupcake shop. 2 pretty cupcakes ready to go for tomorrow. I considered taking a picture and putting up a teaser pic today but you all know that will be part of my post race recap!!!

I might haven mentioned this already but my husband and I will be volunteering before the race tomorrow at the race day registration table. I worked this last year and enjoyed it. Plus volunteering with the KTC gets you $ vouchers to use towards future race registration fees! I'm sure we can find a summer 5k to run for fun.

I feel like I have done relatively well in the eating department this week with the exception of a silly box of Runts I picked up on a whim at Walgreens one day. Today has gone well because I have ignored the screaming box of Runts! I have a slight feeling the reason for the "sugar screams" is because a visitor is on her way soon. Darn her! I'm hoping I luck up and she stays away at least until after tomorrow's run. TMI, right!? But I haven't had to do any racing with the pesky beast being here and I know it'll happen. I'd just like it to not be tomorrow.

Speaking of food... I lost my train of thought above. What I had started to say was that I think taking pics of my food and posting them here (though only one day) helped with the accountability factor. I'm not a food photographer (or photographer at all actually) so while the pics may not be great I think it may be something I try to do more often. Can't hurt to try to stay motivated.

Current weight 156. Goal weight 137? Slowly that number is moving closer to goal but it has me rethinking my goal number too. I do that quite often. I think I will be happy once I get out of the 150s and have even told myself 142 is a good number. I'm not far. Marathon training will make losing weight difficult, this much I know. But you know what? Being told I can't do something or that it's going to be hard or even (gasp) impossible is something I am willing to prove wrong. And maybe not even prove wrong but what I will do is bust my butt harder to get to my goal.

Wow. this post got long and as I previously warned... lots of rambling. If you were able to get through this long, boring post.. THANK YOU! Have a great weekend!

4 comments:

  1. That is awesome mileage, nice job! Enjoy the race... I like running them for fun, not time, although I don't do it very often. But that's my plan for Austin next weekend. True that marathon training can make weight loss tricky, but if you know that going in, you can definitely stay on top of it. You're making such impressive progress!

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  2. First, let me say that I am incredibly proud of you! :) You should be very proud of all that you have accomplished, and if petty people want to try to tear you down you know that that means that they recognize how awesome you are and that they are jealous. They don't realize that they could do exactly what you have done with a similar amount of hard work and dedication, and that that would be a much better use of their time. Build yourselves up, people! Don't waste time tearing someone else down!

    But I do want to clarify why I didn't continue with you beyond mile 9. It wasn't just the pace - it was probably a little slow for both of us for an appropriate half marathon pace. The cold, wind and hills just made it seem more difficult. Yes, that means I think that you can PR your next half, too, depending on the conditions!

    The reason I sent you on ahead wasn't because I couldn't finish at that pace. It was that I didn't want to pound my legs for nearly forty more minutes when I have the big race this weekend. Slowing the pace by just a minute per mile over the last four miles of our half took the pounding down a notch and will let me go into my race next week with legs that are somewhat more rested than if I had pounded through the whole thing. I essentially pushed solidly for 90 minutes and then did four miles at a bit under MP. I knew you could do the last four without me - heck, you could have done the whole thing without me, but I'm not sure you realized that 100% until you did it! :)

    So, why am I telling you this? Because you are training for a marathon this spring, and if you race as hard as you possibly can every single weekend leading up to it, there's a good chance you'll hurt yourself or run a sub-optimal marathon. Slower miles have a place in our program, too! :)

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  3. OK, now I see I left that comment on the wrong post! Which is fine - as long as you understand the point (slow is beneficial as a planned part of our running), I don't care who else does! :) Oh, and the caveat of course is that if every mile is slow we'd never make progress - there's a time for slow miles and a time for fast ones! I'm glad you found your fast miles this weekend!

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  4. Thank you!! I'm glad to know that you understand me and what i have gone through. I'm also glad you've been there to see it with your own eyes. And I know what you meant about yesterday even if i don't get it out the way I mean to! I know you are going to kick butt next weekend and can't wait to hear about it. You inspire me to be a better runner! I'm getting there.. slowly! And I am glad to have those slow miles and the fast ones! And I have said it over and over til you're probably sick of it, but thank you! You have taught me a lot.

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