Medals

My race medals have been collecting dust and i have been wanting to do something with them. I see all those cool marathon medal hangers advertised but i am a cheapskate so i went to Hobby Lobby and got my own. These are most of my medals that i have received in the past couple of years. 

I put them by my treadmill that is more of a "lay clothes out to dry on" piece of equipment than anything but i may have to put it to use some this winter if we get much snow! Maybe it will motivate me to add another marathon medal since that is what i am thinking of tackling for this next spring.

I have neglected blogging in general lately so i need to start catching up on my race recaps for this past year before another year starts...yikes!

Battling injury

I am very behind on my race recaps but i will pick up on those soon and hopefully get caught up. Right now i am battling a foot injury. After a recent 5k i started having horrible foot pain on the bottom of my foot so i immediately took some time off and rested and iced it a lot.

I took 5 days off. I pulled the bike out of the garage and dusted it off (actually sprayed it down) and decided to keep my leg muscles in shape with some cross training. The foot gradually got better and i was able to do a 4 mile and a 10 mile run before the foot screaming at me this past weekend.

The half marathon that i have been training for is this coming Sunday and here i am again sitting it out and resting the foot. I did go for a short run yesterday with no pain so that was encouraging! If the pain continues i will be making a visit to the dr but for the time being i think i am doing exactly what they would tell me to do anyway.

I biked like crazy when i was in high school, mixed with running of course because i loved running back then as much if not more than i do now! It has been fun to hit the trails in the afternoon on the bike. The trails around where i live are beautiful this time of year, completely tree covered and not too terribly busy during the afternoons.

Spending this time on the bike has made me decide that even when the foot heals and stops giving me fits that i will continue to cross train more. I haven't been very good about that in the past few years and just mainly run but i am not getting any younger and it would probably be good to cross train and give my feet a break every now and then!

My plan is still to run on Sunday. I may go for one more run and then rest up for a couple of days and cross my fingers that i don't have any pain on Sunday!

Injuries are frustrating for sure but i am just trying to be smart about it and not just push through as i don't want to further injure myself...i really want to be able to run the races that i had planned to run this fall!

Glow Run KC 2012

John and I signed up for this race as soon as they opened registration because it sounded like a fun date night. We dropped the kids off at the grandparents and headed down to City Market.

 Before we went we decorated ourselves in plenty of glow in the dark paint...

 This was the first 5k that my husband had done in a long time.

 There were SO MANY PEOPLE!!! We got right to the starting chute so went in the first wave but some had to wait over an hr till they took off!

John did great!

 It was a fun time, the course was very cool and John's goal was just to beat some guy dressed in a banana suit. (he had to have been sweating something awful, cause it was a pretty hot night!)

The banana took off sprinting at the end and got John by just a little...darn banana!

Hill repeats

The training schedule that i am following incorporates hill repeats. I am not a strong hill runner so it probably is really good that i am doing this but it totally sucks!!

I found a hill that would be perfect for the called for "long hill repeats" on my regular running route that is .3 mile long. I don't know what they consider long but it is long enough in my book. On the 3rd and 4th time up at 5k to 10k pace i thought my lungs might explode! First and second time were closer to 5k pace and third and fourth time were closer to 10k pace, go figure!

The whole time i was doing these repeats i was having to think these words...

and maybe a few more like "this better make me stronger!" "this hurts" , "i would rather be running 10 miles"

But, i am hoping that these tough workouts no matter how much i dislike them really pay off in September when i run a really flat half marathon!

Random mumbo jumbo

Week three of the training program is crossed off and i am on to week four! I have checked off a tough hill workout (i really dislike hills), a fartlek...(i have heard this term since i was in high school but when it came down to doing one i had to google it to know exactly what kind of speed work i was supposed to be doing, ha!) a couple of long runs and lot's of shorter runs in between.

The temps remain in the 100s here in the midwest and since i enjoy my sleeping in while i have my kids home for the summer i am doing some evening running and some forcing myself up early and running before the heat of the day!

I got to run with two of my sisters and my mom this weekend. We were camping out and there was always someone up early to run with which was nice! I was worried about getting in my 10 miler while camping but i managed to get it in so i was happy i didn't feel the need to rearrange the schedule.

I found another Nike running skirt at a thrift shop, big score! I find so much running clothing at thrift shops and every time i do i get so excited! Although, it's hard to buy winter gear when it's 100 degrees out but i will be happy i did when it's freezing this winter!

I can't find my ipod ANYWHERE! It's driving me crazy!! I think it's in my house somewhere, or at least i sure hope it is and i'm hoping it just turns up one of these days very soon so i can have my running tunes again!

I can do about 5 more pushups than i have been able to do before collapsing in the past, maybe that means i am getting stronger...yea right. I had intended on doing a lot of upper body workout while training for this half but as it turns out, just trying to fit all the runs in is challenging enough and quite frankly i don't have time to get to them both so it is pushups and that is it for me right now.


Have a great week working out, running, biking or whatever it is you like to do!

Mass Street Mile

I have run three 1 mile races in my lifetime. My first was a road race that i ran in high school and i finished in 6:32. Fast forward yearsss later to 2 years ago and i ran the Mass Street mile in Lawrence finishing in 6:52..Last year it didn't work out to do the race again but this year i knew i wanted to try it again. 

I wanted to take some time off that 6:52 but i would be lying if i said i didn't want to reach and beat that 6:32. (though i really didn't think that was in reach for me)

I didn't train doing the mile (i despise running on the track) I just did a lot of tempo running and some speed runs on the road which really didn't give me any confidence because i never timed an exact mile to know what i had in me for a mile.

I took off with the front pack. I knew i just had to run hard. I had two girls ahead of me, one of whom i knew would win as she finishes every year in the higher 5s. Two of the ladies that were on my tail passed me about half way. I stayed in 5th place and that is where i finished. 

My husband was yelling for me and cheering me on. I was giving it all i had at the end!

After i crossed the line, i didn't even know what my time was....i knew i had beat 6:52 and i was happy about that. John had taken this picture and was looking at it and said "what was your time on the high school one?" When i told him, he said "you got it babe, you are across the line in this picture and it says 6:29"! That of course made my day! My official time was 6:28. 

So that was my shortest race for the year. Beating my time made paying $28 to run a mile totally worth it!

Goals

I started out this year with a couple of goals that i set for myself that i wanted to accomplish this year. The first being that i complete 1,000 miles of running/walking. Last year i fell short of my goal of 1,000. I am sitting right now at 650 miles for the year so i am on track barring an unforeseen injury or circumstance.

My second goal was to complete one race a month throughout the year 2012. I knew that during the warmer moths i would probably do more than one a month but wanted to do at least one...why? I don't know, just because :)  Here is my racing list so far for the year...

January- Topeka to Auburn half-marathon

February- Love2Run 4 mile

March- Westport St Patricks Day 4 mile

April-Run for Mercy 5k

April- Garmin/Olathe half-marathon

May- Warrior Dash 5k

May- Suicide Hill Trail run 10k

June- Noble Warriors 5k

July- Mass Street Mile

I just started a 12 week training program that i plan to follow for the half-marathon that i plan to run in September. It is a little more rigorous of a plan than i have attempted before. It has a day a week of speed and hill work and i am not always so good at doing those things so hopefully i can stick pretty close to the schedule and complete most or all of the workouts.

I am also teaming up with some friends to run two triathlon races this summer/fall where i will only be doing the running leg of the race so that should be fun as well. I have yet to complete a triathlon as i am not a strong swimmer but someday that may be on the goal list too. Do you see a pattern? I like goals! :) Lot's of other races that i have my eye on as well. I love when there are so many races to choose from every weekend!!

So, that is where i am on my goals for the year. So far i have remained injury free but that is always a  possibility that is  there with upping mileage and is always a fear in the back of my mind.

It won't be this year, and after my last one i said i may never do another one again but after time i do have the desire to redeem my last marathon attempt where i had to walk/run the last 9 miles after hitting the wall...so maybe that will be next year's goal! This year though, i will stick with the half-marathon distance!