Bringing Back the Running Blog with some Kinda Maybe Big News!!

This is a pic from my run at Lake Pflugerville today. I ran only 1.42 miles, but I followed it up with a .67 mile swim in the lake, so not that bad.
Anyways, today is the FIRST day of me and Vince training for the Austin Marathon in February. Now, before I get carried away, let me issue a big disclaimer-WE HAVE NOT YET REGISTERED FOR THE RACE. The major reason is because the race is $$$. Also, I am out of shape since my last half in November. Also, 26.2 miles is a lot. However, training for a marathon is not the same as doing a marathon or committing to do one. So, since the marathon is about 7 months away, we have been running for over 2 years, I think if we stay committed to a training schedule, I should be able to at least FINISH a marathon. So, while we are not a 100% sure we are doing this race ( I think when I pay for it, I will be 100% sure lol) I am going to start training till I make up my mind!  The Austin Marathon has a time limit of 7 hours, so I want to train for 6 hours and 30 minutes, to give me some breathing room for being tired and for bathroom breaks.
Is it weird to be excited for a training plan and not an actual race yet????



An unusual bit of luck, wind or I guess I didnt need a jacket

So, my husband called it the home field advantage. And maybe it is, but on this coming up race, we are actually pretty lucky because it will be the first time I have run a race where I have run the course before. And not only have I run the course, but I have run it multiple times. Its the Lake Pflugerville Trail, which we typically run at least once a week.
I was worried at first about this run, as it was cold and I thought that I would need my jacket. Hence the picture. But as it turns out, I didn't need it, it ended up getting hot. Right now we are in that weird transition weather, where it goes from being coldish in the morning to hotish later on.
Then, although it wasn't cold, it was really windy. If it ain't one thing.... however, I ended up having a really good mock run. I did 3 miles in what I would like to run the 3.1( 5k in). So I was .10 off, but hey, you know, that's not that bad. Overall, it was one of my more successful training runs and it definitely had me feeling like I was more prepared to run this next 5k.

So, on Sunday while we are running at the 5k in Pflugerville, the CHICAGO MARATHON!!! will be happening!! Ever since I watched the Spirit of the Marathon, I have been pumped up about this race!! They say it stands to possibly break the world record time for a marathon!!
For a great article on the subject, I recommend:
http://peakperformance.runnersworld.com/2010/10/oct-5-a-mens-world-record-at-chicago-this-weekend-probably-not-but-maybe-so.html

Sometimes it takes two, but not today!

Last week, I ran what had, up till the point, been the furthest I had been able to run. I was finally, finally able to run a full 10k distance( plus. 6 extra) and it was all thanks to my husband running with me the whole time and keeping me on track.

It ended up being the fastest I have ever run in 5 months of running, even faster then all of my race paces. So, of course, I was really thankful and happy for his help. But also, because I am a pessimist by nature, I had to view this sucess as a cause to worry about my chances of succeding on my own.

If my fastest pace and furthest amount run was when I had someone running with me the entire time, how would I succeed on my own? Because I have always been the type of person who runs from discomfort, pain and discipline, Im sure it is easy to understand how I severly improve when someone is next to me saying, " Run. Walk faster. Let's go. Start running. don't stop." So, even if I do want to punch him in the face because Im tired, my husband is an excellent training partner. He doesn't stray from the plan and tries his best to help me achieve my goals.

Which is why when I ran my run today, I was really relieved. Although I wasnt able to maintain as good a pace as when Vince ran with me, I ran longer! Six and a half miles may not be a lot to most people, but it took me so long to get to 6.2 miles that I am just relieved I was able to run further then that on the very next long run! I took Vince advice and tried to walk faster on my walking breaks, and I think it definetly helped!

Disclosure: In the interest of being honest, let me say that I did run on Friday. And it was a gawd awful run. It was late at night, only 3.48 miles and I had a horrible pace. I didn't want to write a blog on it cause it put me a bad mood. But reading the post I mention below helped put things in perspective. But no one needs to tell me Im whiny. I pretty much got that :)



This is a post I came across through Runners World's Other Voices Blog. It may be the most elegantly, emotionally heartbreaking post I have read on running. It's hard to read this and complain about the heat, a bum ankle or blisters, or whatever.
health interrupted- Post," I still remember running"
http://katehooks.blogspot.com/2010/03/i-still-remember-running.html

Getting Closer

So today was a run that I really needed. I know that sounds weird, but after a week of runs where my ankle was hurting me, it was nice to have one where the pain wasn't that bad. Also, it was nice to have one in which my pace improved by over a minute versus all other runs of the week! Also, I have noticed I say "also" way tooo much in my blogs and I need to nix that.

But back to the run.
We ran at Lake Pflugerville Trail which has become our defacto run place. Mainly because running the block around the house is a harder 5k route and less scenic, Old Settlers Trail my husband doesn't like that much, San Gabriel Park in Georgetown which we last ran at is far away, Town Lake Trail ( WHICH I REEEEEALLLY want to go back to and run because we have only run it once) is really far from the house and Brushy Creek is a little bit further away too.

Im worried we are getting spoiled by running at Lake Pflugerville though because it is a generally flat course although there is not shade, so that does make it harder then the way more hilly Brushy Creek in that sense. Still Brushy Creek is harder, but that makes it cool. We have kind of been in a running trail rut but after 4 months, I guess that is to be expected. Its hard to find new trails that are close by. The good thing about races, especially if it is a hard course like that 4th of July race, is that it makes you appreciate your regular training places.

So, for the third time, getting back to the run. Almost all of my long runs have been here, so when Im shooting to increase my distance, this is probably the best place to do it. I don't have GPS on my phone or a Garmin ( sp?) so it's good to know that the trail is in general a 3 mile loop. Its marked sporadically, but generally in quarter mile increments.

I was so happy to finally go 5.5 miles because it has been so long since I have run that distance. I have less than a month to increase my distance because not only do we have the 10k in September, but there is a 10 mile race that we would like to do October 31st.My husband thinks we will be fine and we will have trained enough to do that. I am less confident because the furthest I have ever run is 6 miles. Which would mean that i would need to boost my running by 4 MILES in 2 months so that I am well prepared to run 10 miles and not kill myself. I don't think I will be able to do it and I don't want to let my husband down. :(.

So what Im thinking is that I will just continue training and trying to increase my long run every Sunday to the best of my ability and we will see. If I can increase my mileage to 8 miles by our 10k race date, then I will feel confident in my ability to do 8 miles. But like I said, I will have to see. I only have 3 more long runs or so before that race so it seems highly, highly unlikely I will increase my mileage that much. I generally try to follow a loose form of the 10% rule in that long runs are usually only about 10 minutes more then the week before.
Man, I have rambled!



For those of you who like running and tattoos, this is a pretty cool websites. Especially, if you are like me, and hope to one day have a running tattoo it's good for some ideas of inspiration, although most of the tattoos are some form of the running wings which I feel is a little overrated:
http://www.columbusrunning.com/tat4ever.htm

More Sleep, Less Wind

So, as you can probably tell by my status, I barely got any sleep and the wind was bad. I have one month and 11 days until the 10k ( 6.2 miles) and the furthest I have run in 2 weeks is 4.75 miles. Oi vey! Should I be concerned by my lack of distance? I don't know. All of my last 6 runs were continually longer then the last. Normally, we switch back and forth between medium runs, speed runs, and long runs. But these last 2 weeks, I have been trying to play catch-up and have been laying heavy on the longer end of runs. However, I think this is having an adverse effect on my runs because I am pushing my legs too much, too fast. So I think I need to cut back my distance a little bit, restagger and try again. Plus, definetly getting more sleep couldn't help. We stayed up way to late to get up and go run.
Here's a map of where I ran:


Man, Im trying to expand my horizons and look outside of Runners World for links to interesting running related stuff. But it's tough because the Runners World website has a lot of interesting stuff! At any rate, ( ugh, such a lazy expression!), I saw some info on this DVD that Im going to try and see if I can Netflix:
http://www.runlikeagirlfilm.com/synopsis.php
It is a movie called Run Like A Girl and as well as telling the personal story of three girls, it also talks about the history of women and running.

If Life was like Running....

Then things would be a lot better.
The thing with running, is yes it sucks when it's slow and its hot.
But if you keep at, eventually, things will get better. and even if there's blisters, chafing, slow race times and the like, theres also
the moment when the cool breeze hits me, the wave other runners give you like " hey, we are in together", seeing the finish line.
But life isn't that easy. You can't practice life to make it better. Wow, that was a cheesy line. But you know what I mean.
Today I greatly improved my time. We took Eva, our scottish terrier, to the lake Pflugerville trail. The idea was that this would be a training run, with Vince walking with Eva and running with me. I was going to start out first, so Eva wouldn't have to run as far and they would catch up with me.
Only, Eva couldn't take the heat and was pooped after about a mile.
So I ran 2.25 miles and then walked back a quarter of a mile to catch up with them and then walked Eva for a mile till the end of the trail. And by walked Eva I mean walked, poured water on her, gave her water, and carried her some. So my back kinda hurts and stuff. Poor Eva. Its hard being a black dog in Texas.
And poor Vince. He ran/walked with Eva over 2 miles with no water because I had the water cause the focus was on my run. I was going to share it with him, because I thought he was going to be running with me, but he never caught up. So I ended up just giving him the water when I went back for them.
At first I didn't know what to think of it, cause I ran only 2.25 miles when I had wanted to run 4 miles.
But:
a. It was too damn hot. We shouldn't have took so long getting ready. ( But we were finishing an episode of Dexter as we were getting ready and eating our cereal. That series is SOOOOO GOOD!! We have one more episode of Season 2 right now, so don't ruin anything for us)
b. I still did one of my fastest times.
So, yes, I didn't run 4 miles, but I really didn't have it me.
But also yes, I improved my time.
And I'll take all the improvement/good news I can get.

Here's a map of where I ran:
( I'll post later)


Also, this is the link for the 10k race I registered us for! It's going to be our 1st 10k and it's in late September. Im really excited/nervous for this one because it's the first race so far where I haven't even done a run that long! eee!! The furthest I have practiced run is 5.25 miles. So I need to be able to run almost a mile more, and run it well at that. Definetly going to need to increase my long runs!
http://www.heelsandhills.com/

The Rain and me go the distance

So... today I went the furthest I have ever gone!!!! :)
I was still slow!!!
But it was the furthest!!!
And not only that, it rained the WHOLE time I ran the 5.25 miles, except for maybe 5 minutes.
My pace was even slower then the race pace. Ugh, I don't know what it is up lately.
I have been so slow. The good news is that I was really proud of myself for running so far in the rain. I know that in the past I would have just given up.
I am really looking forward to the day when I can run the WHOLE way. But until then, I am working on my intervals. Specifically, I think for this month I will continue my intervals of walking 2 minutes, then running 1 minute, except when after 10 minutes, this month I will only give myself a 1 minute walking for every 10 minutes. So basically it will be like:
2 minutes walking, 1 minute running, 2 minutes walking, 1 minute walking, 2 minutes walking, 1 minute running, 1 MINUTE walking ( then repeat all over every 10 minutes for as long as I am running)
Today I ran 1/8 of a mile without stopping. Which I know a lot of you are like WOW, a whole 1/8th of a mile. MAN, STOP THE PRESSES. To which I say, were YOU OUT RUNNING IN THE RAIN FOR ALMOST AN HOUR AND A HALF?!
To which some of you might say, yes, I was actually. and I actually RAN the whole time.
But nobody likes a show-off. :)

Here's where I ran today:
(I will post the map later)


Also, I came across these statistics and this article while reading a blog on Runners World, it's pretty interesting:

http://www.runningusa.org/node/57770#58231

My first Runners High

Im writing this late, because I just got home from work a little while ago.
But today was hands down the best day since I have been running.
Did I magically get fast?! No. Did I run as fast as my husband?! No. Did I...
well, ok, it was nothing major.
Except, to be cliche, it actually was.
We went running at Lake Pflugerville like normal. And i could barely run, like normal. I have been doing intervals. I walk 2 minutes, then run for a tiny bit, then walk 2 minutes, extc since June started.
But this time, it was so cool because after running 3 miles, I felt GREAT! I actually smiled while running for a bit. I looked at the lake and the gravel and the grass and felt so happy and fortunate to be outside. I hope to have that feeling again because I know that it won't be happening much I have been running for about 10 weeks and I haven't felt that.
So, anyways, here's where I ran today:



Oh and check out my husbands blog:

http://vincerun.blogspot.com

This is a good blog to check out. And Im not just saying that because he's my husband. Ok, well, maybe.