Don't worry!

I promise I haven't forgotten to type up my play-by-play of the race!  Life has been super crazy/busy the last week.  My goal is to have it up in the next few days :)

13.1 MILES... ALL DONE!

Wooo hooooo!!!!!!! I'll give a detailed update later, but I made it!!!!! :)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was told by Alex (marathon man), that I should try and run 2-3 miles this week.  This way my legs will remember how to run ;)

My foot has good and bad days.  Today was a bad day and it was bothering me.  I knew when I left work I had to try and run anyways.  Got home and suited up!

Well, I ran 2.5 miles..... and.....

1) My legs did indeed remember how to run

and

2)  MY FOOT DIDN'T BOTHER ME!  I was super close to bursting into tears because I was so excited.  I was anticipating full on pain the whole run.  My foot was tingling in the area it's been hurting, but no pain!   I can tell my other leg is compensating for the other, so I just have to be aware of that as well.  One stride at a time :)

Tonight is just what I needed to give me a boost.  Yesterday, I was completely dreading the race.  Today, after the run, I feel more prepared.

God is faithful  :)

5 days

That's not long.... at all.

Yikes.

Lots of thoughts are running (ha, no pun intended) through my head right now.  More emotions than I'm used to having all at once.  Life at school lately has been overwhelming too, so my brain is currently freaking out.

That's about all I can process at the moment.  Prayers would be appreciated :)

I did get to have dinner with Beth tonight (the one who talked me into running the half marathon).  She ended up getting plantars faciitis a few weeks ago and can't come this weekend because she can't run :(  BIG bummer.  But she was able to give me some inside scoop of race day and LOTS of encouragement.  I'm very thankful for her!

Here's a picture of us at a wedding a few weeks ago

More updates to come as the week progresses!

Running with 22,999 other people will be interesting!  Maybe "running with the crowd" is a good motto to go with this weekend :)

Just Keep Swimming

....Just keep swimming... Just keep swimming...

Gotta love Finding Nemo.

Today my foot is feeling a little bit better.  I don't feel pain in every step, so we're making progress.

Decided to swim tonight to do some cardio.  Ended up swimming a mile.  Note: It took me FOUR times as long to swim a mile than it does to run one, but it is much more difficult!  Considering I haven't swam in quite some time, it is pretty impressive I made it that far.  I will contribute it to my running legs and cardio endurance ;)  My arms were dying though.  It's funny because when I swam in college, I got most of my power from my arms vs. my legs... and now the opposite is true.  Dee claims I'm truly a runner now because of that fact!

Today I was reminded why Swimming > Running.
1)  You can't tell you're sweating.
2) You don't smell like sweat when you finish.  (You just smell like chlorine which is much more pleasant).
3)  You get to float and glide through the water.
4)  I felt more "cleansed" after swimming.  No, not because I was in a big pool of water, but I feel like my veins got cleansed from lots of blood circulation because swimming uses all of your muscles.  Kind of hard to explain.
5)  Brought back lots of Greensboro College swim team memories!

So, once again, I will be VERY excited when these next 2 weeks are over and I can do exercises other than running!

Yesterday at church, I ran into a friend who is in PT school right now.  She was in town for the weekend and I hadn't seen her in a while.  She asked me about how my foot was doing, and I gave her the scoop and explained what was going on.  After church, she looked at my foot and gave me some exercises/stretches/etc for me to do between now and the race.  God is good!  She said that reality is it will come back during the race, but at that point to push through it.  Until then, I'm not supposed to over-do it.  Hence, why I swam today.  I might try and run again on Thursday... we'll see.  I'm signed up to run a 5k on Sunday... we'll see what happens between now and then because I don't want to make it worse again.

Friends who have done similar races keep reminding me that since I've done 10 miles, I should be fine for the half marathon.  I am trying to keep reminding myself of that!

I will leave you with some pictures from the Greensboro College Swim Team days....

Stuart and Mom at one of my swim meets.

Jo!  Rockin the wet curly hair.

At the championship swim meet - with Alex.

That's me swimming the butterfly.

And again... I clearly remember this race because I came from behind and beat our rival team in the lane beside me!

Sharon and Mica

Yay some of the team! Go GC Pride!

No long run this weekend

:(

My foot still hurts, even when I am just walking around.  Being a teacher doesn't help this situation, in that I'm on my feet all day long!  I did wear my tennis shoes to work this week, and that did make a difference.

I talked to a family friend, Alex, who has done multiple marathons, and he said that the best thing to do is rest and ice it.  Running this weekend would just get it inflamed again and we'd be back at square one.  He said glitches like this are expected during training.

It's pretty frustrating because we are so close to the race.  I know it will go away by then, but I was looking forward to being able to run this weekend.  Oooh well!  I might try and go swim today to release all this energy I have built up since I haven't been running.  We'll see.

Alex said that once it healed, I would just pick up where my training plan says I should be that day, and not to try and make up for the miles I didn't do.  Good to know.  He also said that since I've hit 10 miles, that I should be fine in terms of being able to do the race.  That did make me feel better (especially coming from him!).

Well, one perk that came out of all of this is that I got to sleep in this morning and have a lazy Saturday morning.  Can't tell you the last time that happened because for the past couple months I've been running each Saturday  morning!

Time to go drink a cup of coffee :)

Stumbling Block #2

#1 was shin splints a few weeks ago.  Thankfully icing those each night has made a HUGE difference and I haven't had any problems since.

#2 occurred after this weekend's 10 mile run.  I did something to the muscle that goes from my big toe under the ball of my foot... therefore, every step hurts.  It didn't start hurting until Sunday.

Here's what it is.....
http://www.foot.com/info/cond_sesamoiditis.jsp



and yes.... that BRIGHT red area is a good indication of the pain it creates :(  From the list of things that says causes it, I'm going to go with the increased activity (aka the 10 miles).  And I might have overstretched it afterwards.

I looked this up today and found out what it was... wish I would have looked it up sooner.  I made the decision to try and run yesterday... only made it 3 miles because it hurt a lot towards the end.  Yeah, definitely shouldn't have done that.  My theory in going was that maybe running would toughen it up. Also, I tend to lose my running momentum if I don't run every day, so I was afraid going more than 3 days without running would throw me off.  Ummm yeah, should have ignored that.

So I'm currently icing and don't plan to try and run again until Saturday.  The plan is 12 miles, and I was all excited to do it because it's our last long run until the race.  We'll see.

I'm just bummed because we are SOOOO incredibly close to the race (relatively speaking) and I've been doing so well.  Grrrr.

Praying the icing helps and the pain goes away ASAP.

Cartoon

Given to me today by one of my co-workers, hahah.

10 miles!!!

Successfully ran 10 MILES today!! Eeeek!  How crazy is that?!

Went to a new trail today with Patty.  Here's a pic (even though it doesn't do it justice!  The leaves were so pretty!):

Patty joined me for the first 6 miles, and then she had to leave because she had other plans today.  But I definitely enjoyed her company :)  Patty has lots of stories, so she distracted me from thinking about how far we were running!

Miles 5/6/7 were difficult to get through.  So I walked a few minutes, had a snack, drank some Gatorade, and regrouped.  That was a good move because it got me through the second half of the run.

This trail is a paved trail that is covered in dirt, so it's a soft impact when you run.  Bicycles, runners, walkers,  and HORSES are allowed on the trail.  I passed a total of 5 horses in the course of my 2 hour run.  They were beautiful!  But that also meant there were big piles of horse poop, so I had to be careful ;)

This trail is in the middle of nowhere, but I came across this sign...

Ummmmmmmmmmm....................?!?!?

Come to find out there is a driving range that backs up to the trail.  Thankfully I didn't encounter any flying golf balls!

Well, we are exactly 3 weeks away from the race.  After finishing today's run, I thought to myself, I could do 3 more miles after this!  Today's run made me feel better about being able to accomplish the half marathon.  And I've been pretty consistent with my average mile pace, so if I stick to that, I should do pretty well with my overall time (although my ONLY goal is to finish!).

As I was walking to my car after the run, I could just feel my leg muscles tightening like WOAH.  I did a lot of stretching, but I have a feeling I'm going to be pretty sore tomorrow!

Total Mileage

I looked back over my blog and added up how many miles I've run since July 1.

135 miles!!!

WOAH BUDDY!

That's just ridiculous.

22 more days!

Things that occurred during today's run...

1)...Ran through a swarm of mosquitoes/gnats... inhaled one in my nose AND got one in my eye.... simultaneously.
2)...Passed a man riding a UNICYCLE!  Yep.  He was going so fast I wasn't able to get out my phone to take a picture fast enough.  It was quite a sight.

Planned to run 6 miles today.  I had some things to do after school, so I left later than anticipated... meaning a later start to running.... meaning it got dark before my run was over :(  So I only ended up doing 4.5 miles.  I'm kind of bummed because I was on a roll and definitely could have kept going that last little bit, but I made the "smart adult decision" to stop ;)

And now it's bedtime.  I'm not gonna lie... I will be THRILLED when this training is over because hopefully I won't be as tired (all the time) like I am now!  And it's a big time commitment, so I will be happy to have 2 more free nights each week :)

Pumpkin

So this has NOTHING to do with running.

But it's fall, and so pumpkins are in style.....

So here I am rocking the pumpkin look back when I was about 3 :)



That's all.

Yep.

New Gear

Rockin' the water belt! Now I really do look like a hardcore runner ;)

Don't lie... I know you're jealous and you want one.

Ran five miles today with the belt. It took me the first two miles to figure out the best way to wear it (there are a couple options)! But it's nice and handy-  holds my water, keys, phone, etc.  And you don't even notice it's there after a while.

So, I usually run on Tuesdays, but apparently it's supposed to rain a lot tomorrow, so I went today.  Now I remember why I wait till Tuesday to run- I'm still recovering from the looooong run on Saturday. My legs felt SO heavy today! But we made it :)

8 MILES

Katie and I ran EIGHT MILES this morning!!!

EIGHT MILES!

EIGHT MILES!

Can you tell I'm excited?! ;)

I'm still in shock we did that many!! We decided this was quite an accomplishment :) It boosted my confidence in that the half would only be five more miles. So doing OVER half of the race distance made me feel better about this whole crazy idea I had of running a half marathon.

My shins didn't bother me much at all until the end of the run. I iced them the past two days (and after my run today) and it made a huge difference :) So hopefully if I continue that, it will all be good!

And since Katie and I were so proud of ourselves, I said we had to document the moment :) Oh, and we matched pink shirts- unplanned!

We. Are. Awesome.
:)

Problem

I'm starting to get shin splints :(  My brother has had them, so he gave me some exercises to do, and then my exercise sports science friends told me to do ice cup massages.  Hopefully this will help.

They started over the past week or so and they'd only hurt every now and then, and going up/down stairs.  Now it's slowly starting to creep into my running more. Not good.  I did run 4 miles today, and it was a little painful.

I just have to make it through ONE MORE MONTH of training.  Thank goodness.  I've been running regularly since July, and to be honest, I'm just about tired of running during the week. It's more of the forcing myself to go run during the week nights so I can make it through my weekend long run.  Stuff at work is picking up and it's getting dark earlier... so a perfect scenario to not go run.  But I'm a person that if I don't go run, I will feel guilty, and I know I will have to pay for it the next time I run because it will be harder.  Ughhhhh.  I was warned that this feeling would surface about this time... Gotta find a way to plug through it.

Plan is to run 8 miles on Saturday with Katie and Patty.  I do know that going with them will give me some motivation.

Time to go ice the shins!

Gnat Attack

5 miles yesterday!

Two things I learned yesterday:

1)  A really bad day can result in a really good run.

2) If you see you're about to run through a swam of gnats, close your eyes and your mouth.

• I got a gnat in my eye.
• I'm pretty sure I swallowed one.
• Gnats stick to sweat.  

Yep.  It's gross.  But it's reality.

I Survived the 10k!

(That's 6 miles, in case you were wondering!)

Wahooooooooo!!! 

The race was to raise money for the Wake Med Children's Hospital in Raleigh, NC.  So the picture above is me after the race with the hospital mascot!  It's kind of cool that this is the race I ended up doing because my brother, Stuart, was at Wake Med for 2 weeks in ICU his senior year of high school after he had a heat stroke.  Everyone who worked at the hospital was awesome and all of the doctors and nurses took good care of him, and now he is back to himself 100% with no internal damage :)  God is good!

Oh, and my brother and I were both born at that hospital :)

I ran the race today with Patty (right) and Katie (middle):

This is before the race - We were glowing!

They are both running the half marathon with me, and this is the first race I had done with them.  They were such a big help because with it being my first race, they helped me with all the pre-race stuff and giving me the scoop!  We decided to run the race on intervals of 3 run, 1 walk - which is what I was used to.  Katie is like me, and is planning to run the half in intervals.  Patty is one who just likes to go :)  Patty gets EXTRA friend points today because she ran the intervals with us (and she is not a fan of intervals).   So we all crossed the finish line together :) 

Running the race wasn't too bad.  The first mile is always hard, but after that, we were on a roll.  The race was downtown and we ran around a big loop twice.  We had nice convos as we went on our way and had a good time!

And might I add..... we ran by the Krispy Kreme with the HOT sign on... not once.... but TWICE!  Ooooooooooooh the temptation was SO mean.  Smelling them, but couldn't eat them.  Not fair.

We successfully finished the race, and there were a lot of post-race activities and booths set up by various groups.  We got some water and delicious muffins (sponsored Sweet Tomatoes - yum!), and then as we were wandering around the block we found these...................

CUPCAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And they were delcious :)

We weren't excited at all....

Maybe if we would have known there were cupcakes at the end, we might have run a little faster ;)

I'll end this post with the picture of us with the most famous person there today:

SCOOBY DOO!  We found you!

5.2

This past Thursday I ended up running a little over five miles (5.2 to be exact).  I was at a teacher conference all week, and on our way home we stopped at a southern cooking restaurant and I ate chicken tenders, mac and cheese, green beans, and a biscuit... or two.  MMM comfort food.  I think I'm going to blame that for my run not going as well as I wanted.

As I made my way around, I was not being consistent about my intervals. I walked more than normal and ran less, haha.  I just wasn't feeling it.  I was going to stop after 4 miles, but then I get a text from my friend Patty, who is doing the race with me.  The text was about running, so it gave me the little extra push to go one more mile, which I knew I needed to do (especially with the 10k this weekend).

And then it got dark and it was time to go home :)

10k

On Saturday I ran 6 miles! WOAH! Longest run yet :)

I know I need to get a practice race in before the real deal. There is a race nearby this upcoming weekend that has a 5k and a 10k option. I wanted to wimp out and do the 5k, but after running six miles, I knew I could do the 10k (about 6 miles). That night when I got home, I signed up! Ready or not, here I come :)

Just ran 3 miles tonight on a treadmill. It's been a couple weeks since I've run inside because it's been so nice. I forgot how awful it was. Hence the short mileage. It was after dark before I could run, so I didn't really have a choice.

Thursday I'll run more miles, and outside :)

Plant Brain

So yep, this picture is what I discovered today on my run. It fell from a tree. It looks like a ball and it's the size of a softball. Very strange. I have decided to name it plant brain.... because that's what it looks like :) I have a friend who is getting his PhD in horticulture and therefore knows a lot about plants! He informed me that it was Maclura, which is apparently also called Osage Orange. It did kind of resemble an orange.  Well, there's your fun fact of the day!

Ran 3 miles this afternoon. This crazy huge cloud mass over NC needs to hurry up and blow over because I am not a fan of this humidity. It makes me sweat while running, and I already sweat a lot to begin with! Just saying.

It's official....

....I think I can officially classify myself as a runner.....

Why, you ask?

I was almost finished with my 3 miles that I had planned on running today, and I thought to myself, "I can keep going a little longer until 3.5 miles." ....and that turned into, "Well, I've done 3.5 miles, might as well make it a whole number and run 4 miles!"

Yep, it's official.  I'm crazy.  I mean really, who in their right mind runs one more mile just for fun?  I guess this kid does.  I'm glad that it's finally getting to the point where a mile goes by pretty fast.  I hope this keeps up for all those 13.1 miles... eek!


I've learned that if I plan a day ahead the days I am going to run, I am in a better mood when I go because I mentally prepare and psych myself up!  Thankfully, that was the case today :)

The plan was to run 3 miles, and up my intervals a little bit.  I've been doing 3 min run, 1 min walk for the past few weeks.  I've decided that on my runs during the week, since they're shorter, to run 4 min and walk 1 min.  And I will say, I was successful!

So it turned into 4 miles today!  I was really into my music.... I might have done some singing/dancing as I was running... of course, this was at points where there was no one around me ;)

Goose Poop and Puddle Jumping

This has been a busy week with Meet the Teacher night (longest school day ever), as well some other things.  Since Sunday, I didn't get another chance to run until Thursday.  It was still 90 degrees when I left work, so I ran 3 miles on the treadmill.  Nothing too exciting about that.

But today was pretty eventful!  I knew going in that I had to run 5 miles today (farthest I've done so far).  What I love about fall is that since it's cool all day long, you don't have to wake up at the crack of dawn to run because it's cool.  So I enjoyed sleeping in some :)  Well, I looked out the window and it's raining - a little harder than a drizzle.  I opened my porch door to see the temp and it was pretty cool.  I had decided at that point I would go to the gym and run due to the rain. I was disappointed because I had been looking forward to running outside today.

I hopped in the car and started driving to the gym.  The road I drive down to get there is a popular road that many running groups train on in the mornings.  Well, despite the rain, I passed multiple people and groups running.  I thought to myself, "If they can run in the rain, so can I.  It's not raining THAT hard."  So, I pulled a u-turn and drove myself over to the outside trail I run (thankfully it was pretty close to my gym, so it wasn't a big deal to turn around!).  I also realized that the trail is mostly covered with trees, so that would block some of the rain.

I'm glad I made that choice!

I LOVE the sound of rain on the trees.  It's so calming. The rain accompanied me for the first 2 miles of my run, and then it ended and it was just foggy.  I felt pretty good today, in terms of my energy, as I was running.   Towards the end of miles 4 I was starting to drag, so I took a couple extra minutes to walk, and that helped give me the boost I needed.  The last half mile I got an adrenaline kick and that got me through the end!  Hooray!

I run a trail around a lake, and there is a creek/river that flows into it.  First off, there are always a lot of geese and ducks that hang out at the lake.  Today there was more goose poop than normal.  Not sure the reason of that, so I was strategically planning my steps so I didn't land in some!  Success.

Also, the river sometimes floods when there is a lot of rain, or the sand/dirt along the trail gets washed onto the trail.  So I did some puddle jumping (both in and around) the puddles.  Let's just say the shoes are a little muddy!

It was an enjoyable run, and I'm glad I made the decision to run outside in the rain.  It made it more fun, and I know I would have been miserable if I had tried to do 5 miles on the treadmill.  I also run faster when I am outside and accomplish more.  I also have come upon the theory that when I get tired and want to stop, that the more I run, the farther I go... and the faster I get my distance accomplished :)

So it's a good day :)

Girl Power!

Life is officially back in full swing!  So that makes finding time to run more difficult.

Since my last post, two days later I did my cross training class.  I was feeling ambitious that night and decided to do a Zumba class right afterwards.  Not the best decision.  The next morning my ankle hurt, and after teaching all day, it was pretty swollen.  Bummer.  I think it was a result of a lot of the jumping activities involved in both classes.  So I iced it down and propped it up!  I knew going into the weekend that it'd probably be better to take a couple days off so I wouldn't mess up my ankle even more.  Well, conveniently (I guess), I woke up Saturday with a fever and a cold (that's what happens when you work in a germ-breeding zone!), so that meant lots of rest for the weekend, which allowed my ankle to heal back up!

Last Tuesday, I still was congested, so running still wasn't an option.  Kind of have to be able to breathe when you run - it always helps ;)  So I opted for swimming!  It was fun and it brought back a lot of college swim team memories!

Thursday, I finally got back around to running.  It had been a little over week since I ran and so I knew it wasn't going to be fun or easy!  I did three miles, but did more walking than usual.  It was not a very good workout (as in when I finished, I didn't feel like I had accomplished much).  My ankle hurt a little bit, but was fine by the end, and is still fine now :)

Saturday, the plan was to get up and run in the morning since the mornings are finally cool again! (yay 60 degree weather!).  Well..... the school week caught up to me, and I woke up later than planned (go figure, what's new?!).  By the time I got up, was alert, and got to the trail, it was already 11am and it was warming up quickly.  The high was supposed to be near 90.  I planned doing 4 miles, but after the first 2 mile loop, I was hot and tired, so I ended it short.  BUT I told myself that since I ended early, I would HAVE to get up Sunday morning and run before church.

And I did :)  4 miles. And there was this pretty sunrise to accompany me on my run.  If you know me, you know I LOVE sunrises/sunsets, so it was awesome.

Oh, and there were these two girl runners (about my age) I passed a couple times going the opposite way around the loop, and every time I passed them they would say "You go girl!  Girl power! Yay girl runners!"  and then they gave me a high five.  So fun :)

I'm a week behind or so on my running plan since last weekend I was sick.  But, first off - I am NOT a hardcore runner, so sticking to the plan doesn't bother me too much, and second off - my theory is as long as I'm running (no matter what the distance), I'll be okay.  So, yeah.

Sorry that was a lot!

Side note - I've had a couple friends who have told me that I've inspired them to get into running again, so that's pretty cool :)

3 miler

Agh, I'm behind again with my posts.  School is in full swing, so that is my excuse and I'm sticking to it :)

Last week I ran Wednesday night.  I had all intentions of getting up Saturday and running at the gym, but Hurricane Irene talked me into staying in my pjs all morning.  Also, the shoes I wore to school on Friday gave me small blisters on my feet, so that was the deciding factor of not running.  So Plan B was to run before church on Sunday morning.... And that didn't happen either.  So Plan C was to run Sunday afternoon, and thankfully that happened.  I ran 4 miles (wahooo!) on the treadmill on intervals.  This was the week that I started my  long runs on the weekend, even though this one wasn't "long" in comparison of what's to come (Eek!).

So now it's Tuesday.  I've discovered I have to think through my evening plans for the week to determine when I can run ahead of time.  Sometimes this requires more effort that I'd like ;)  Well today when I left school, I felt like I could go to sleep right then and then wake up tomorrow morning.  I forgot how tired the beginning of the school year makes me.  On the way home, I was trying to figure out when I was going to run this week and came to no conclusion after my 15 minute drive.  I literally sat on my couch for an hour (while watching tv) debating if I should go run or not.  How sad is that?!  I wish I was kidding, but it's true.  I finally almost talked myself into it - well, almost.  The deciding factor was going to be if I had any clean workout clothes.  In the back of my head, I was sure that they were all dirty.  I get up and go check.............. And there was ONE clean set of workout clothes left.  Dang it!  That meant I had to go run.  I'll admit. I wasn't to thrilled.

After a lot of talking myself into it and knowing I'd appreciate it later, I got dressed and headed out the door.  Thanks to Hurricane Irene and those CRAZY thunderstorms last night, today was a low humidity, BEAUTIFUL day.  AKA - I could finally run outside (and be comfortable!).  It's been over a month since I've been able to do that.  So I'm super thankful!

My goal, as I was driving to the trail, was 2 miles.  Even though my training plan said I should do 3 today.  Once I got running, things were feeling good.  So I was bold and set my goal for running 3 miles..... without stopping.  That's never happened.  I don't know what I was thinking.  I've run 2 miles with one or two breaks in there, but never non-stop.

Well.....

I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

I was in shock when I finished because I couldn't believe it!  

And to think that I almost didn't go run today.

Night before the first day of school

...(as a teacher) is usually a very sleepless and restless night.  Your mind is going a mile a minute going through everything to make sure you didn't forget something!  This has definitely happened to me.  So my ONLY purpose for running last night was so that I could sleep last night.  I ran 3 miles... and success!! Fell right asleep and didn't wake up until my alarm went off.  Praise the Lord :)

First day of school was today and it went off without a hitch!  It should be a good year with all my little 7th graders!

Born to Run

...by Bruce Springsteen.  The other day the phrase "born to run" randomly popped in my head, and then I remembered there was a song with that title and downloaded it  ;)  It's fun to run to!

So this afternoon I had planned to go swim laps tonight for my exercise.  Something different, and I haven't swam in a long time.  I was really looking forward to it.  But then on my drive home from work, I started thinking about what my evening plans were for this week.  And it's a busy one.  So as I thought through my week, I realized today and probably Wednesday were the only two days I knew I'd have time to run.  The other nights I have plans, or I will be super tired (aka- the first day of school).  I need to be running 2-3 times per week, soooooo I had to give up swimming tonight :(

Therefore, I was dreading running and almost didn't go because it had been a long day.  Then I realized that this is what it will feel like most days after work, so I needed to get over myself, and do it, haha.  Once I got to the gym and on the treadmill, I was fine.  I was feeling brave and upped my treadmill speed by 0.3 mph for the whole run.  It makes more of a difference than you think, but it was a manageable change that still pushed me.  On my last last interval, I upped the treadmill speed a little bit more to sprint at the end.  Success!!  I ended up doing 3.3 miles on intervals. Yay!  And once I got going, I was enjoying it and turned up my music pretty loud so my brain couldn't talk myself out of wanting to walk ;)

Stickers!

My sweet friend, Meg, gave me these the other day (one's a sticker and the other is a magnet). I will not put them on my car until I complete the half, but it is excellent motivation! So, for now, I will put them on my bulletin board in my room to remind myself to get my butt up and go run or to the gym ;) I might take one to put on my desk at school for the same reasons!

Best Thing I Never Had

by Beyonce' was my song of choice while running yesterday!  I can't related to the song at all, but I just like the music and emotion in it, haha.

I had done a lot of cross training this past week, so I knew I'd have to run for real on Saturday.  It was pretty muggy out in the morning, so I resorted to the treadmill  (ps - I am SOOO incredibly ready for fall so I can run outside).  I was plugging along and after about 2 miles, I was getting pretty tired.  I had taken 2 days off, so my legs weren't quite feeling the whole running thing.  So I shortened my running intervals, and lengthened my walking intervals. And I decided I was just going to run 3 miles instead of my originally planned 4 miles.  I walked for a few minutes and as I started running again, I got a second wind (thank goodness!).  I figured out I only had 3 more intervals to do with the distance I had left, so I convinced myself to go for it.  And I'm glad I did!

While I was running, I was about halfway through and I guess my arms were getting excited about running and my hand accidentally hit the Emergency Stop button which stops the treadmill and ends your workout (which includes clearing your time and distance that you had done).  Thankfully I looked at my distance right before I hit it and remembered what my time/distance was so I knew how much more I had to go.  But it was frustrating because I had to stop and reset my settings on the treadmill. Oh, and then I hit the button AGAIN when I had like a quarter of a mile left!  Grrrrr.  Stupid red button gets in my way!

School starts back this week, so I'm going to have to get in the habit of pushing myself to the gym because I'm going to be super exhausted come Thursday!

Legs = Cinder Blocks

This one will be short and sweet -

Last night I did the cross training class.  There were more people there than usual, so she split us into three groups and we did circuits.  One station was abs/core, one was lunges/squats, the other was jump roping.  Yeah, jump roping is fun in elementary school when you are singing, "Cinderella, dress in yellow, went upstairs to  kiss her fellow... Made a mistake and kissed a snake, how many doctors will it take...1..2...3...." till you trip on the jump rope [anyone else remember that one?].  Well anyways, jumping rope in a gym class is not NEARLY as fun as that.  And we didn't sing fun songs.  You had to do that in your head to survive ;)

We did a minute at each station and then rotated.  Once we made it to all three, we'd get new directions for each station and then go around again.  We did this for 45 minutes.  Talk about a long 45 minutes!

Tonight, I went to the aerobics dance class.  I thought I would be fine because I wasn't sore from the cross training from yesterday.  Ooooooooooooh was I wrong.  My legs felt like there were cinder blocks attached to my feet.  They didn't want to move!  And of course the class tonight required a lot of jumping.  My legs did MORE than their share of jumping yesterday.

So I am going to take that as.... Stephanie, you should take the day off tomorrow :)

gLee!

So I must confess... I love the tv show Glee, especially the music :)  Well, yesterday I went to go see Glee the Concert Movie in 3D... and it was amazing!  I already had some Glee songs downloaded on my iTunes, but when I got home I added quite a few more.  I've been listening to them all day.  And the best decision I made today?  Having the Glee songs as my playlist for running... AKA 3 miles of awesomeness.  Life is GOOD!

I had all intentions of getting up early to run since it was BEAUTIFUL today, but it didn't happen, so I ran at the gym this afternoon.  I start back teacher workdays this week, so I guess I better get used to being up early again. Students start late next week and those mean SUPER early days.  Like, before the sun comes up kinda early.  Let's see, the last time I got up that early was June 10.  The last day of school!

After I ran tonight, I timed it just right and went to the dance aerobics class.  The class got a new release soundtrack with new moves, so I really wanted to go :)  And my friend Claire was there too, so we tried our best to stay coordinated!

A few minutes ago, I got up after sitting down on the floor for a little while, and my legs almost gave out!  Sooo I think tomorrow I'll probably be a little sore.  2 hours of hard core cardio will do that to you!  BUT I had some rockin' endorphins this evening :)

PR!

It has finally started to cool down a bit in the mornings, and not as humid, so I got to go run outside this morning :)  The original plan was to get up at 7am... Well, that turned into 8:30 and I was running by 9:15.  Thankfully where I run it is pretty shaded, so it wasn't bad at all.  It was in the upper 70's.  I did a 2 mile loop, and used my Nike+ to track it.  At the end it said, "Hey this is Lance Armstrong.  Congratulations for making a personal record for your mile time!"  This is the first time I've heard Lance!  I did take a minute off of my mile time, so that's pretty exciting!  All these squats, lunges, and abs I've done this week have definitely paid off.  I really can tell a difference :)

After my run I had planned to go to the Butts and Guts class, but thankfully I checked the schedule and found out it's tomorrow.  Glad I didn't go down there!  I did my own mini version of the class in my apartment and did some of the exercises.

This afternoon I ate movie theater popcorn, and then went to a baseball game and had a funnel cake... I think I'm going to need to go running again tomorrow too ;)

Let's Get Ready to Rumble.......

Gotta love Jock Jams.  More on that later in the post :)

So it's been a while since I've updated - oops!  Let's see... This past Thursday I still wasn't in the mood for running (still in the slump from being on vacation).  I knew I should do something, so I did Zumba.  I honestly wasn't looking forward to it, but once I was there and got into it, it was fun.  No Cupid Shuffle this time, but it's all good.  The A/C wasn't working well at the gym that night, so the room was like 81 degrees, with about 25 people dancing... Yeah, it was toasty!  Needless to say, there was a lot of sweat.  I'm weird and sometimes judge my workout by how much I sweat (yeah, I know, it's gross).  Well that night was an AWESOME workout, solely based on sweat ;)  As I was leaving that night, there was another class going on that was doing a lot of core exercises.  It appeared to be all the kinds of things you hate doing on your own- squats, lunges, abs, etc.  So I looked on the schedule and saw the other times they had the class just out of curiosity.....  there was one Saturday morning.

I had planned on going running on Saturday morning.  I had told Dee about this class, and she talked me into going to it.  If you're in Raleigh, you'll remember it rained like crazy Friday night/Saturday morning.  Definitely one of those mornings where you just want to stay in bed all day and be lazy.  It was veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy tempting!  But I got my butt up and went.

The class was in the basketball gym.  There wasn't music playing, which was a bummer, but I got over that ;)  Started off doing jumping jacks and suicide sprints.  I haven't done EITHER of those since I was in middle school gym class/basketball practice.  Wow.  Brought back some memories.  Then we did multiple lunge and squat exercise variations across the gym.  Did LOTS of crunches and isometric (planks) exercises.  It was tough.  Also, a lot of sweating going on!  That's all I can remember doing in the hour we were there.  I'm sure we did more, I just blocked it out of my memory ;)  I felt much better after the class was over because I was like, WOW, I just did that!  I felt like I had finally gotten over my hump of not wanting to exercise.  A nice little kick start!

After the class, I had this second wind.  Strange, I know.  Probably all the endorphins.  So I figured, why not go run?  I hopped on the treadmill and did 2 miles (intervals).  Then I did twice the amount of stretching I usually do because I knew it was coming based on the things we did during the class.

Well it didn't take long.  That afternoon the soreness kicked in.  Sunday morning I woke up, and initially I could not sit up.  My abs hurt that bad!  It hurt to sit down.... and get back up.  I haven't been this sore since swim team in college.  Whew!  I probably should have gone for a walk or something that day to loosen up my muscles, buuuuut I opted for a lazy afternoon instead.   Monday morning was a little better, and today I was fine.  I know it was worth it, but it sure hurt!!!!

I looked to see when her next class the lady taught was, and this week it unfortunately conflicted with other plans I had :(  Oh yeah, on Saturday, she came up to me after and introduced herself (apparently this class has 'regulars' because she knew all their names). She mentioned that she does teach some other classes and I should try those too!  I really like this teacher because she's a personal trainer, so she knows what she's doing.  (The class is kind of like a personal training session without having to pay extra ;).  She pushes you to work hard, but isn't a drill sargent.   She has a fun personality, and is very encouraging.  It's exactly what I need!  I look forward to going to her classes twice a week.  I know it will make a HUGE difference in my running.

Last night I went to a class similar to Zumba.  It's like an aerobics dance class, except you build up to a routine over about 5 songs.  It's one of those classes that you put in the effort that you want to get out of it.  I didn't go all out, because I was going to run 2 miles after the class. And I actually did!  Wahoo!

Today, I went to another one of her classes.  It's called Butts, Guts, and Guns.  Great name.  It was similar to the previous class I had taken.  We did lunges, squats, abs, and did more upper body exercises than the other class.  This class had music!  The soundtrack?  The Jock Jams CD!  It was awesome.  For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about......  A lot of the songs are in the movie Space Jam... and it's a lot of the songs you hear at basketball games.

Here is a video of the songs (DEFINITELY worth listening to!):
Jock Jams Mix

Good stuff, right?!  I'm going to add it to my running list.  That particular song is a mixture of all of them. LOVE it.

Ok, that was a REALLY long post.  Sorry!  I'll do better about updating :)

Getting back on track

I have been so out of the loop lately.  I ran 2 miles yesterday.  It had been a week since I last ran...... So it was pretty difficult.  It's crazy how much you can lose in just a week.  So this week I'm working myself back up, and then next week I'll start the "official" half marathon training plan - eek!

Oh, and I had lunch with Katie today (she's the one doing the full marathon for the same race I am)!  We talked a lot about running and the race.  She's full of helpful advice :)

My brain's dead today... so that's all for now!

Vacation

I've been out of town on a crazy long road trip all week. We've been to Maine and back. So that makes running a little difficult. The previous post was from when I ran in Maine on Tuesday.

On Wednesday we walked around downtown Boston for four hours. So I think that counts for something.

On Friday we walked around Washington, DC for five hours. So I think that counts too. Minor detail- it was 100 degrees. I think I sweated more that day than I do running. It was gross. And what's even crazier was that we saw a lot of people running when it was that hot. And that's just stupid.

The plan is to go running tomorrow. And I have a feeling it's not going to be fun. After being in a car for 2,000 miles, your legs don't get a lot of movement, so I'm afraid my legs forgot what running is like! Eeeek. We will see!

Another trail picture

It's been a while!

Don't worry friends, I'm still alive and kickin ;)

Things have been a little crazy lately! I ran last Thursday. 1.5 miles without stopping, then 1.5 miles on an interval. I really didn't want to go that day because I had a bazillion things on my to do list before going out of town. So I don't remember putting much effort into that run. I think I even gave in and walked the last quarter mile, haha.

Well, now it's Tuesday and I finally ran again. I've been on the move lately and haven't been able to run. It was nice and cool, so I ran outside. I went 2 miles and that's all I was up for. Taking 4 days off was not a good idea. Eeek! It was not a very fun run. Let's just leave it at that ;) But it was very pretty! (see pics above- a nice babbling brook)

Article

Dee found this article and sent it to me. The lady writing this blog must have read my mind because she has the same thoughts I do!  Well, except she opted to sign up for a marathon, and I opted for the half ;)

Marathon Training for Beginners / People Who Aren’t Actually “Runners”(Aside: OMG, I Just Agreed to Run The New York City Marathon. Am I Crazy?!)


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Perfect

...by P!nk is the song of the day :)

Now that I've worked my way up to 4 miles, I want to focus on running more and walking less.  Today's plan was to run 3 miles total, and running the first mile without stopping on the treadmill.  And that actually happened :)  Then I felt ambitious towards the end and ran the last half mile without stopping!  Wahoo!

That's all I've got for now.  I thought of something clever to write on here while I was running, but I have now forgotten it... oops!  My brain power is low at the moment, so I'll add more later, and if I remember whatever that is ;)

Afternoon Reading

Everlasting Love

...by Gloria Estefan is the song of the day :)

The weather has been SO nice the past few days!  This morning I was finally able to run outside :)  It was 65/70 degrees, which was awesome!  And I realized it was the first day I've run outside with my new shoes - made a big difference. 

Today's distance:  4 MILES!  :)  I'll be honest, I'm pretty impressed with myself.  I think I'm going to stick with 3 or 4 miles for the next couple weeks.  Don't want to burn myself out too early!  I'll work on walking less and running more, and once I get that where I want it, we'll add distance come August.

Where I run is about a 2 mile loop, so therefore I went around twice... I guess with being a math teacher, that helped me figure it out ;)  The first loop I did the set interval I've been doing the past week or so.  By the time I did the second loop, it had warmed up and I was getting hot, so I just ran and walked when I felt up for it.  I kind of went by my songs - run a song, walk a song.  Worked out pretty well.  I was still able to run a good chunk of the second half.

A couple days ago, I got this thing called Nike+.  You put a chip in your shoe, and it connects to your iPod.  It calculates how far you went, the time, and how many calories.  It's pretty sweet!  And then there is a voice that tells you when you're half way, and it counts down the last 400 meters.  Then you upload it to the Nike website and it keeps a log of all your runs and times. It will be fun to see the progress!

Oh, and while I was running, I ran into (ha, no pun intended) two friends of mine, Sarah and Brooke, who are also running in the same half marathon as me in November.  So it was a nice surprise to see them :)

Until next time!

Patty

So yesterday, I had a lunch date with my friend, Patty, who is also running the half marathon with me in November!  She has done 2 half marathons so far.  She's like me, in that last summer, she started from scratch, and worked her way up to a half marathon!  

Here's a picture-  Patty is 2nd from the left, then Beth, and then our friend Cate who runs as well, but told me yesterday she'd stick with 5K races ;)

Well anyways, our lunch turned into an awesome 4 hour conversation :)  We talked a lot about running and she gave me a lot of helpful advice, especially since she started from zero as well.  She's also a middle school teacher (we're both crazy, we know), so we talked about school some too, but tried to steer away from it because it's summertime and we didn't want to think too much about school!  She also hooked me up with a Fitness magazine that is the special half marathon edition, so I plan to read that today :)

Patty is an amazing friend and is VERY encouraging to me and so many others!  I'm so thankful for her!

Don't Go Breaking My Heart

...by Elton John was my favorite song that popped up on shuffle on my iPod today.  Listened to it 3 times in a row.  Loved it.

"You Can't Hurry Love" by the Supremes was a close second place.  :)

And the rest of my songs on my playlist are nothing like either of those (they are mostly fast pop songs), but it's fun to mix it up!  If you know me well, you know my iPod has the most random songs ever.  So more insight of that to come.

I ran on the treadmill today - 3.2 MILES!!! I'm so excited :) And it wasn't bad until the last interval or so!  YAY PROGRESS!

PS- Watching some of the World Cup games this afternoon while running made me feel like I was doing nothing in comparison to their running up and down that humongous field for 2 hours!  Made it feel like a breeze.

PPS- I made my chocolate milk ahead of time, stuck it in the freezer while I worked out, and came back to get it.  Delicious!  It was like chocolate snow cream.  Definitely doing this from here on out!

Perspective

The school I work at is in the opposite direction of everywhere else I usually go. So during the summer, I'm hardly up that way. Well today I was up in that part of town and out of curiosity clocked the mileage to work.

It's seven miles.

That means my half marathon is going to be like running to work AND back (minus one mile).

That is a loooonng way!

And no, I am not going to run to or from work because that would involve an interstate and a curvy 2 lane road that they are doing construction on. I'll pass on that option ;)

Day 4

So it's been a few days since I've updated.  Nothing too exciting today .  Today's the 4th time I've run.  It's super hot outside, so I went to the gym and did the treadmill.  I moved up to 2:30 min run, 1:30 walk and went for 2.5 miles (the other times I had done 2).  It was annoying to try and figure out which speed to set the treadmill to for walking and running.  I had an idea of what to set it at, but I was wiggling it around the whole time to try and find the best one.  Still never got it quite right.  AKA why running outside is better.  I just didn't get up early enough to make that happen ;)  I didn't run this weekend, so it had been like 4 or so days without exercising, so it took a little more effort than I was used to.  My legs only felt like jello a little bit when I finished.  

It seemed to take forever to run today, but I knew that right after I finished I was going to have the joy of hanging out with this little guy!  Cooper is my #1 biggest fan and supporter :)  ...and his mom, Meg, is a close #2 ;)

Pictures

I had fun putting up pictures on that last post... so here are some more of people I've mentioned in the blog so far :)

Here's Beth (the one I'm running the race with) and I at a NC State basketball game:

Here's Dee and I at my graduation (she was a year older and came back from Atlanta to surprise us for graduation!):

And here is Dee and I (again) after Verb Day (aka field day for college kids)... Dee rediscovered this picture on Facebook and the caption was:  "This is us and our "did we seriously just run that much" face."  We played some bean bag game that required us to run up and down hill sprinting. It was ridiculous.

Voicemail

This afternoon I was at the store in the checkout line, and my phone rings. I look down and it's Stacey, one of my suitemates and good friends from college, who now lives in Ohio.  I told her a couple days ago that I was doing this half marathon and so she got me started on songs for a good running playlist (she has thousands of songs on her iTunes, and I'm not exaggerating!  So I knew she'd be a good resource).  Since I was in the middle of checking out, I let it go to voicemail, and was going to call her back once I got done.  I go outside, I see that it's raining, run to my car, and then listen to the voicemail.  Here's what it said:

Stacey:
"So... it's 3:41...pm...Ohio time, which means it's the same time in North Carolina.  And I know you're not out running because it's too flippin' hot to be doing that right now.  Or it's raining and you're watching muscular men dance on a treadmill.  Regardless of the situation, I was sad you didn't answer this phone call.  Call me back. Bye!"

I listened to it twice because I was laughing so hard!  And then I called her back and we had a lovely conversation.  Needless to say, this made my day!

Here's Stacey and I on one of our midnight picture adventures.  I think this was sophomore year:

And this picture is more what things were normally like.  We were orientation leaders and this was at one of the events junior year:

Why do you have to live all the way up in OHIO?!

Zumba!

Experienced my first Zumba class tonight.

SO FUN!

A couple summers ago, I went to a weekly class that was similar to Zumba, so I kinda knew what to expect. It's like a dance/aerobic workout.  Thankfully I was not the only one who was semi-uncoordinated! Regardless, I got a good/fun workout and had some good laughs while doing it :)

Oh, and I don't think I'll be able to move tomorrow.

But it was worth it.

PS- The cool down (last) song was the CUPID SHUFFLE.  That won me over.

Cupid Shuffle

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Day 3

So the plan this morning was to wake up and go run outside.  Well, I looked out the window and it looked like it was raining (there were some crazy storms last night).  Once I woke up a little more, I noticed it was just really cloudy.  I looked on my phone to see what the temperature was.  73 degrees.  "Oh, that's perfect!" And then I saw what it said underneath it... 94% humidity. Ummmm, no thanks!  It was one of those mornings you look outside and you can see the humidity.  Gross.

AKA... today was a gym day!  Did the elliptical for 45 minutes and went 3.5 miles.  I did the 'random' setting for the difficulty, and went at a faster pace for the first 30 minutes, and then slower pace for the last 15 minutes.  When I got off, it took a second to walk again after being on that machine.  My legs were jello for a few seconds.  I forgot that happened!

So I had some entertainment when I was at the gym - there was a guy who was on a treadmill on the row in front of me.  He was probably late 20s and he was a one of those big solid muscle guys.  I had my headphones in and all the sudden I hear someone singing really loud.  Like really loud.  Yep, it was him.   And a few minutes later, I look up and he's doing hand motions in addition to his singing (mind you, all while running on the treadmill - kind of impressive I must say!).  He did the "Rocky pose" for a few seconds and waved his arms around like he was dancing.  It was hilarious.  It was all I could do to not fall off the machine because I was laughing so hard.  And THEN he came and got on the elliptical next to me and I had to gain my composure so he wouldn't notice me laughing ;)  Good times.

Oh, and the new shoes were awesome :)

Oh, and one more thing - here was a conversation I had with Dee online this morning before I left:

me: yeah. but there are still clouds from the storm last night. its like 94% humidity. so i think today's goin to be a gym day

 Dee: yeah! You should totallly take a spin class :-)

 me: no spin class scheduled for todayDee: bummer! Well if you don't try it at least once during this training I will kick your butt

 me: yes ma'am.Dee: lol it is really good cross training! It's an awesome cardio workout but won't kill your legs like running

.....Looks like that is something I need to add to my to-do list!   I've heard crazy things about spin class.   So I don't know how I feel about this, but in order to stay on Dee's "good side", it sounds like it's gonna happen.  I'll keep ya posted ;)

Email Updates

Just FYI - on the right side of this page is a place you can put in your email address and you will get an email each time I update the blog.  Makes life a little easier :)

That's all!

Happy Wednesday!

New Shoes!

Hip hip hooray! I'm pretty excited!  I went to this store called Try Sports and they are really good at fitting tennis shoes.  It was cool because they have you run on a treadmill for about 30 seconds and they have it connected to a computer.  They video your feet so they can see how your feet land on the ground and pick up, etc.  Then they watch it in super slow mode and that helps them figure out what kind of shoe is best for you! (ha, that rhymes!)

I'll just be real - my feet are huge.  Every time I go shoe shopping, Dad gets the blame.  And I know it's his gene's fault, because mom's feet are normal size!  So it's always difficult to find shoes I like that are size 10 or 11, and that are wide.  Soooo all that to say, I got guy's shoes because they fit better.  I'm cool, I know ;)  But my brother, Stuart, has Dad to blame as well.  He has it worse off than I do though - he has to get his shoes special ordered because his feet are so long!  So I guess I shouldn't complain too much ;)  Sorry, Stuart!

Day 2

July 4, 2011

Happy Independence Day!

I figured I would take a day off between runs so my body can get used to this whole new idea of running!  I was a little bit sore yesterday, but it wasn't bad at all.

Today I was a little more successful about getting up on time to go run this morning :)  I went back to the same trail I did for my first run.  This time I did 2:30 minutes running, and 2 minutes walking.  It was a little bit more challenging to run today.  I'm wondering if Day 1 run went so easily because I was running on some adrenaline because I was getting started on my new goal.  Today my muscles are still recovering from the run the other day.  But regardless, I made it through and was able to stick to my intervals.

Since it's a holiday, the trail wasn't as crowded, so that was nice.  But one thing that is fun about running is being able to do some people-watching.  Didn't see any interesting or extreme characters today, but I will definitely keep you posted if I do ;)

Day 1

July 2, 2011

It's summer in North Carolina which means its HOT and HUMID.  Yuck.  I'm not a big fan of the treadmill, so I'd rather run outside.  And it helps me to see how far I've run in person versus seeing a number on a treadmill.  Therefore, I have 2 options- run really early in the morning, or late at night. I'm weird and hate having to take more than one shower per day.  I voted to go on an early run so I can then take a shower and be on with my day!  And since I'm a teacher, I have the summer off, so my schedule is pretty flexible (which will be nice to get a jump start on this running thing while I have lots of time).

There's a good 2 mile paved trail five minutes from where I live, so Katie said that'd be a good place to start (and it's pretty flat!).  I had all intentions of waking up at 7am, and running by 7:30.  Well.......... the snooze button won me over and I didn't get to the trail until 8:15am.  By this time it was already starting to warm up outside. Once I got finished with my run, I realized it IS worth getting up early to stay cool :)  So next time I'm going win over the snooze button.

I talked to a few people who are runners and they suggested I start out by doing a run with intervals.  That means __ minutes running, then ___ minutes walking.  I had no idea what times to start with, so I opted to do 2 minutes run, 2 minutes walk.  And I was able to do it the whole 2 miles!  Wahoo!  For SOME reason, the 2 minutes running seemed a lot longer than the 2 minutes walking.  What's up with that?! ;)  I actually enjoyed the run and it didn't seem too difficult.  I think part of it was that I had hyped myself up to be excited about it, and of course my music helps!  There was some singing involved - only of course when there was no one around me ;)  I still didn't want to push myself too hard and have my body freak out and wonder what I'm doing to it!  So I kept to my intervals.

The trail I was on is a very popular one in town.  I saw people walking, people biking, people jogging, people running, hardcore people running with their water belts, and those hardcore people again (because they lapped me, one girl lapped me twice! whew!).  Oh, and cute dogs :)  When I was running, I realized that it helps keep me going to see that I'm not the only one running!

A lot of the half marathon training programs suggest you be able to run 3 miles straight, and then start the program.  So my goal by the end of July is going to be able to run those 3 miles.  I think I'm going to slowly increase the minutes I run, and decrease the time I walk.

Run #1 - check!

Support

The night after I signed up for the race, I couldn't fall asleep because I kept thinking on the idea of  "What the heck have I gotten myself into?!"  This is so far from anything I've ever done before.  The first few friends I told that I was doing this, I prefaced them with:  "Are you ready to hear the craziest thing ever?"  Because, yep, that's about what this undertaking is!

I talked with both of my parents, and they were both excited and very encouraging about the whole thing!  My younger brother (who was a cross country runner) also got really excited when I told him.  So I know I will have their full support!  And knowing me, I'm going to need all the encouragement and accountability I can get!

Dee suggested I go online to active.com and fitnessmagazine.com to sign up for their daily emails.  I've gotten some helpful information so far, and it's only been a couple days!   It also helps remind me that I'm not alone in doing this.  Dee majored in exercise sports science in college, and then went on to get her master's in exercise and health science... so needless to say, she knows what she's talking about when it comes to this kind of stuff!  I asked her what is good to eat/drink after you finish working out.  Her response?  low fat chocolate milk!  Are you kidding me?! I LOVE chocolate milk!  It reminds me of being a kid.  So if anything, while I'm out running, I can just think about that nice cold glass of chocolate milk that is waiting for me when I get home :)

Old School

I remembered seeing on Facebook that my friend, Katie C., had posted something about signing up for a race in November.  Katie had just run a marathon in San Diego a few weeks ago - so she's hardcore!  More power to ya!  I'll stick with 13.1 miles, versus her 26.2!

Well I sent her a message, and sure enough it's the same race I'm doing! (they have a half and full marathon the same day).

Here's the background on Katie:  I have known her since kindergarten.  I can't remember exactly what classes we had together in elementary school, but I know it was at least 3 or 4!  She rode my bus, so we had many laughs sitting in the back 2 rows of the bus with our other friends who we grew up with in our neighborhood.  We went to the same same middle school and continued our bus riding adventures together, but then when it came time for high school, and we went to different schools and lost touch.

Thanks to the wonders of Facebook, we reconnected sometime in college.  Then we both graduated and she moved back to Raleigh as well.  A few months into my first year of teaching, I discovered that she was a teacher too (she works with elementary special education kids).  Well, as a lot of you know, the first year of teaching is FAR from easy.  So we reconnected and survived our first year of teaching together, sharing our crazy experiences and crazy stories.

Even though she's already way ahead of me in terms of running skills (I mean really, she just ran a marathon!), she has already been VERY encouraging and has offered to go on runs with me!  Yay!

I love reconnecting with people!

How it all began

June 30, 2011

So, I was talking with my one of my good friends, Beth, and she told me that she had just signed up for a half marathon in November of this year, and how excited she was about it.  Without a second to spare she then said, "YOU SHOULD DO IT WITH ME!"

Hmmmm.... So Beth has done two half marathons already, with a few smaller races along the way.  Each time she has asked me if I wanted to join, and I'd always say, "Nope!  I'm good!"  But for some reason this time, I was like well, let's think through this.  Maybe?

Let's flashback:  I was on my college swim team (Division III), and I was in the best shape I've ever been in.  I loved swimming so much (especially because you didn't know you were sweating!), and it was always fun to glide and float through the water.  Swimming is a winter sport, and so in the spring when the weather got nice, I would go for short runs to stay in shape.  After swimming every day from October to February, I was burnt out of swimming, so running was a good option to keep in shape.  One of my friends, Dee, and I would go workout together a few times a week.  It helped the motivation!  So that's when I first got into some running.

And then I graduated and continued to workout that summer while job searching.  That August, I got hired to be a middle school math teacher (I'm crazy, I know!).  Well, once school got going, I was exhausted at the end of each day (it takes a good month to get used to teaching again!).  So needless to say, the working out didn't continue.  I considered my dealing with 13 year olds all day enough of a workout!

So here we are almost 2 years later.  I haven't had a regular workout schedule in quite a while.

Here are the top 10 reasons I talked myself into taking on this adventure (in no particular order):

1) I need to get back in shape.
2) I will get to train with Beth, who is one of my favorite people :), so that entails lots of good laughs and accountability!  And she lives right down the road!
3) This half marathon in particular has a lot of live bands, which will make it all the more fun, and it's in a beautiful city!
4) Two of my other friends, Katie A. and Patty, are going to be running the same half marathon with me.  Also, another friend, Katie C., is running a marathon as well (and they are all here in town, so yay for more running buddies!).
5) I'll get to make some super fun playlists for my iPod, which means their might be singing along the runs.  Because I mean really, who doesn't like to jam out?!
6)  It will be a good stress reliever, and I'll get to spend a lot of time outside.
7) It will strengthen my relationship with God, because only through Him am I going to be able to do this.  I'm sure there will be lots of prayers along the way!
8) I am going to run it in honor of someone (I'll share that story later).
9) I'll get to buy sweet new running shoes.
10) It's something I've never done before, and I think it'd be quite an accomplishment!

I talked to Dee that afternoon (she was on the soccer team in college, and has now gotten into some running), and asked her what she thought about me doing this.  She said that I could totally do it, and that it'd be worth it!  Her next comment? "You need to sign up today before you talk yourself out of it!!!"

So that's exactly what I did.  I think I might be crazy.

There's no turning back now!