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!