WOW....I am WAY behind on blogging!

(Part 1 of ?)

Runners on Parade Review

Runners on Parade was a great experience.  It was my partner "T" and I's first road race. 

The Good:

1.  Awesome time!!!  Definitely a PR!
2.  We survived!
3.  Cheering spectators!
4.  Friends and family at the finish line!
5.  We passed some people for the first time...lol

The Bad:

1.  I was totally nervous and my body was letting me know it. 
2.  We couldn't find Wells L.
3.  We didn't know the course
4.  We forgot to warm up
5.  We didn't stick together

T and I learned a lot from this race.  We learned a lot about us as a TEAM.  We thought we had been communicating, especially considering that we were seeing each other 5 days a week.  But we weren't really talking about the RIGHT things.  We finally discussed what we liked and disliked about our training and the races.  Since we're both new to this, we don't have much experience to know how these things are supposed to go.  My biggest concern was that my partner left me in our very first 2 races.  We have a mini in September, and I was worried that I'd be doing it alone.  We talked and decided that we will stick together at every race.  Even in training, my partner has done better this week to stick by my side.  She's a much stronger runner than I am, but I'm sooo much slower with out her at my side.  We decided that we want to do these races and training TOGETHER.

All in all, I'm not sure that I would say that I had a very good experience with this run, but that is not say that I wouldn't do it again in the future.

My finishing time was 41:32.1.  Since this race was only 3 miles, we still have yet to have an official 5K time.

Will post pictures later.

10 Miles....Completed!

Finally!  We had to spread out the miles due to schedule conflicts and increasing heat.  We did 5.5 miles yesterday morning and then we did 4.5 miles to finish up that night.

The 4.5 Mile break down:

Okay, so all day at work (after our early morning 5.5 miles) my legs were seriously protesting.  I finally broke down and took some Ibeprophen...something I don't like to do unless it's absolutely necessary.  When that didn't cut it, I took more.  Finally, an hour later, I had relief.  Then....I pooped out.  I went home, skipped supper and just crashed on the couch for 2 hours.  But, all good things must come to an end.  It was time to wake up and finish these 10 miles.  Now I'll admit, I tried to think up a really really good excuse to tell my partner why we shouldn't do it, skip it, go shopping, ANYTHING but run again.  But....no such luck.
So this one was a little different.  We pushed T's 4 year old in a jogging stroller and took turns pushing.  This really did add to the intensity.  We also changed our intervals to 1:10/2:50 jog/walk.  We did well.  We didn't need to walk through any intervals.  However, we did have to stop at the bridge to see the water.."A" (T's little one) loves that part of our walks!  She definitely kept us entertained.  :) 

We pushed through towards the end of our 3 mile mark to get a good idea on time.  We were at 42 minutes...which is over 5 minutes faster than our last 5K (Full Moon Run)!!  We were pleased to say the least.   We will be doing the Runners on Parade tomorrow morning (Watch for the girls in PINK!), so we're hoping for a similar time.

Our overall time for the 4.5 miles was 1 hour and 9 minutes...which means we are improving!  Thank goodness! 

I have 4 blisters, but my muscles are feeling good. Today we are resting up before our race.  If you are going to be there, make sure you say Hi to us, give us a shout out, cheer us on, or simply wish us luck!  We'll be doing the same for all the other contestants.  :o)

Morning runs....SOOOO much better!!!

Okay, okay, so I unintentionally lied on yesterdays blog.  We did 3 miles last night, not 5.5.  We met up at 5:30AM to do 5.5 miles this morning.  Have I ever mentioned that I'm NOT a morning person?  It was by far cooler doing it in the morning though.  My leg/ankle muscles/bones were KILLING ME!!!! 

Not actually me, it's how I am imagined myself when the pain hit.

  I was near tears at one point.  We stopped three times; twice to stretch the pain out of our legs, and once to die catch our breath.  On the last stop, I ate some Bloks to keep me going...it really helped.  After the 3rd mile or so, the legs felt better.  We didn't walk through a single interval!  Whoop whoop!  Our time was somewhere around 1 hour and 27 minutes....which gives us an average of 15.8 min. miles!  We are getting better!!!  Crazy, cause just 2 days ago I was 'complaining blogging about how I needed to improve my time and was frustrated at how difficult it was to do so.

Needless to say, we got the miles in.  We have 4.5 more miles to do tonight to complete our 10 miles.  Tomorrow we will be resting since we will be running in the RUNNERS ON PARADE 5K Saturday.  Soooo excited!!!  This will be T and I's first 5K on pavement.....FREAKIN' AWESOME!! 

The good:  we finished, it was cooler, different coarse, faster pace, I was able to keep up with my partner!
The bad:  we were passed by speed walkers, my legs hurt somethin' fierce, and I have absolutely no desire
                 to do more tonight. lol

So here's a question for all of you out in blogging land....
What do you like to eat the morning before a race??

stupid computer!

Okay, my computer is being retarded and it won't let me comment on posts.
So...

Wells L:  Thanks for all the great advice!  I appreciate every word of it!  I definitely feel better after reading your comment on my post today. 

If you could pick up our packets while you are there, that would be great!

Have they decided where the race is going to start?  The last that I saw, they didn't have an approved course mapped out yet.

Everyone Else:  Thanks for all of your words of encouragement and advice.  Running is new to me and my body, so reading and learning from others has been very helpful for me to be on top of my game.

5.5 miles tonight.  Another 4.5 in the AM to make up for our 10 miles.  I know it's not the same as doing it all in one night, but the days are only getting hotter...so we're making do.

In need of improvement!

Some people can walk so fast, they might as well be jogging!  I, however, am NOT a fast walker.  I'd rather be jogging, it's the only way that I can keep up.  My problem is, my stride isn't very big when I walk OR jog.  Thus, I get no where really fast!  It's frustrating as all get out!!  My partner can do a 3/1 walk/jog and I was doing a 2:25/1:15 walk/jog and was barely keeping up with her.  I'm so angry about this...I want to improve my time!!  I'm just afraid that if I really push myself to have that larger stride, I'll poop out faster and I won't make the distance. 

This has been infuriating bothering me for several weeks.  My small group bible study said it best when I told them about it:  "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."  ISN'T THAT THE TRUTH?!  I would love to pick up and just RUN for as long as my body would let me....but that would be about to the end of my road. *SIGH*

I seriously think that my partner needs to find someone else so I don't hold her back. 

I'm just so upset and disappointed that my body can't do what I want it to do!!!

10 miles...or NOT

Our 10 miles didn't happen.  We set out and the sun/humidity was crazy.  I might have had a little too much fun the night before for the 4th of July, so that didn't help any.  Nature called BIG TIME after only 3 miles...that has NEVER happened to me.  I was convinced that I was on my way to getting sick from the heat.  I cheated and called my hubby to come pick me up.  My training partner stuck it out and turned around and walked back home.

We've talked about trying again later this week in cooler weather.  My head is hung, and I'm feeling sheepish for coping out.  :(

Nearing the 13 mile mark..

Tonight is our first 10 mile long run.  It will be the furthest that we have gone.  We'll be jogging to our aunt's house (exactly 5 mile) and stopping for water before heading back. 

We are slowly approaching our 13 mile mark.  After our runs, we like to look at the Fort 4 Fitness mini-marathon trail map to see how far we had gone had it been the race.  My training partner and I would love to get up to Fort Wayne and run Foster Park, just to get a feel for the terrain.  The only thing is, it's summer and weekends are busy!  Hopefully we can work that in sometime.

After a long weekend with some relaxation, hopefully our run will feel good on the ol' legs and everything will go smoothly.  I'll be taking 2 water bottles in my "fuel fanny" with bloks, taking some gum this time, Kleenex, a towel since I sweat like a hog, and I think I'm going to wear my leg compression thingy just in case. 

Seriously, I know this sounds ridiculous right now considering how long we've been training (10 weeks), but my goal is to make a 13 minute mile at some point.  I'm not shooting to do that well at the actual mini...just some time in our training, I'd like to see us do a 13 minute mile.  We've been pretty consistent with a 15-17 minute mile.  Some day we'll get there...  :D