Naples half done! February 22, 2010

Well, I did the Naples 1/2 marathon on Sunday, Jan 17th with the best group of supportive and athletic woman!

I have to say it was a tough race. The weather was hot. It was very hot and humid. Disney 1/2 the previous week was very cold, wet, and sleety. This race was hot, humid, and it started at 7am which means that we were running from 7-930ish when the sun was strong and hot.

It had a few in/out loops. I got to see Kitty and Missy speed off once they were going on the opposite loop as I was. Then I got to see Jen, Patti, Michelle, and Kristen, then I saw Jen W and Cristina and her DH then Cristina and I ran together for a good bit.

It was very hot. I know you have to prepare for the worst with this weather, but it was quite hot and humid. There was a lot of fog by 7-8ish and once the fog lifted, the sun was out and it was just hot!

Well, I finished. not a PR but I was happy with my time. I finished in 2:23:53. I’m happy that I finished. I had wanted to PR but considering I had just done Disney a week ago I’m glad that I just finished in a decent time.

A new month a new perspective

So January was an interesting month.

Ran over 100 miles.

Joined Team Hammerheads (Tri group)

Bought  Garmin Cadence for my bike.

Ran 3   1/2 marathons.

2 weekend trips: Disney World and Naples

1 really bad cold front (Disney 1/2 marathon)

91 Biking Miles

Met 5 new Divas. Got together with 9 total including me.

So now bad for one month. Now February looks like this:

1  1/2 marathon (local)

1 8k race

Speed work training with Coach Ward starts next Tuesday morning

Tri Training with Team Hammerheads starts tomorrow. (40 mile bike on the agenda)

Well, if all goes well I’ll start swimming this month too. I keep on procrastinating about that one. I will start to swim. In pool first. Then Open Water.

I also am proud to say that I signed up for the Chicago Marathon again. My goal will be to run 4:45 or to improve my time from last year. I hope hope hope hope hope that mom and dad can come see me run!!!

NEW PR for 1/2 A1A!!!!!!!!!!

Woke up at 310 with the coffee pot already on. Had my cup of coffee and finished packing my bag and got picked up at 345 am. Of course the morning was going too perfect b/c I locked myself out of my apartment!! Thank goodness that my bad and clothes were already on me! Left and met others at 4am. My DBF had given me a huge pep talk on Saturday about PRing and pushing myself, and not walking, and just going and going and I told him to save it for yesterday before the race so I could have those thoughts fresh in my mind.

I decided to join a pace group for the 1/2 of 2:15. We had two pacers and M was running her 166th marathon (she was pacing the full) and V was pacing the 1/2.  M told us at the beginning that we’d be doing mile dedications after crosssing each mile and that was really helpful. Mile 1 we dedicated to this little 6m old girl that is having a very delicate surgery on Thursday and mile 2 I dedicated to my friend J’s mom that’s still in the hospital after having a very strong heart attack and being in a medically induced coma. The route by the beach was beautiful and so breathtaking. We got to see the sunrise right by the ocean and that moment was so priceless. By mile 3 I was so over my IPOD and took it out. I didn’t really want to focus on music but mostly on the conversations, my breathing, the scenery, and my pace.

We dedicated some more miles and then got to this little park that was very narrow but quite nice actually. By mile 5 1/2 I had my Cliff Shot mango that my BF surprised me with and gave it to me that morning since they are now discontinued and I’ve looked everywhere to buy them. Well he had one for me! Mile 6 we dedicated to Baby Rachel and Tricia. M asked me where I knew T from and told her from RW. They said beautiful words and I was hurting some, but they reminded us of all of the dedications we were doing and how when we felt like walking or stopping to think of those that we were dedicating each mile to and not quit. Mile 8 I saw RKF since he had already turned around and he was on his mile 9 or 10. He was so happy to see me keep up with the pacers! Right then the 1/2s split and went on one direction and the fulls went on the other one. V had told me earlier that she could see that I could push it a bit more and she encouraged me to run faster and take off towards the end.

I was hurting a little and wanted to walk but I knew that I couldn’t and instead of thinking of how many miles I had left, I thought of 60 more minutes, 40 more minutes, etc since I knew that I’d be finishing in 2:15

By mile 12, V told me that I should take off that she knew that I could finish faster than my goal of 2:15. So off I went.
I ran mile 12 in 9:16 pace  and right when we had about .2 miles left I saw my RKF and he was so happy and proud of me so I flew and ran the last 0.2 in 8:24 average. I ended up crossing the finish line in 2:13:xx which was a huge PR for me as my bestest time had been 2:19:xx~

As soon I crossed the finish line I had to go into the medical tent and thought of Jen W b/c I felt so nauseous and I thought I was going to throw up all over the place! (I know Jen W had something similar after a 5k or so) I was so embarrassed and stayed there for about 5 minutes, but the uncomfortable feeling went away after sitting down and  catching my breath.

Walked over and saw my BF and  he kissed me, hugged me and told me how proud he was and then saw the rest of my friends and they all congratulated me since this was a huge PR!

I honestly felt that I was on top of the world and that I was flying. When I wanted to quit or walk I thought of the mile dedications, my purple bracelet, you girls, Sher running her 1/2, Patti  and Christina’s PR and how I wanted one, and I told myself in a little while I can stop b/c I’ll have finished! What a great moment! I was on fire and I’m so happy! Now I need to beat my current time and run sub 210 in the near future!

Triathlon Training/ can I do this? January 26, 2010

I want to do a Triathlon this Spring. Actually May 2nd is the one that I am looking at. I am looking at plans/programs and I really need help with the swimming portion. I’d start doing laps in a pool about 2x-3x a week with a coach and once I feel comfortable go to some OW swimming on the weekends. I’m looking at different programs/training programs, but I don’t want to pay $200-$250 for someone to tell me how to run and ride when I’m already doing that on a regular basis.

I mean help me with my swim form, with my technique, my breathing, my style. Help me develop speed in the bike and in the run. Give me a schedule of what to do. Help me with the transitions and give me workout options. Is that too hard to ask for?

So I know that I’m going to be doing Coach Ward’s speed program.

starting on February 9th. So I know that I’ll be doing speedwork every Tuesday morning at the track. http://www.coachwardrunning.com/(OR at least that’s what the plan/goal is) I am going to the TMH meeting tomorrow night and will join teamhammerheads www.teamhammerheads.com for $36.00. I hope they can guide me into following the right plan of the tri-world of swimming, biking, and running.

Now TRMH also uses bodyzen  http://www.bodyzen.com/htmlsite/coaching.html but I don’t want to pay money for something on trainingpeaks. I can just go to Amazon.com and buy a book or get my own training. I want physical contact training, not online or via emails…

2 days before Naples 1/2! Woot hoot! January 15, 2010

I am so excited for this weekend! I’ll be running the Naples 1/2 on Sunday with Karen, Missy, Jen’s, Kristen, Patti, Michelle, and Christina! I’m shooting for anything under 2:19:35, but would love go be more around 2:15. We’ll see how it goes. I will be running it with Jen W and Christina since we both have a similar pace. I’m so ready for some girly time with the girls. I can’t believe I only know 3 of them but feel like I have known them all. It’s funny how the internet has connected us all in one way or the other!

In other news, I don’t understand men at times. C was moody and PMSy last night. I wish he would open up to me instead of caving it all in. I thought we were supposed to be there during good times and bad times. Does that mean that when the bad times roll around, you just cave it up and I have to wait until you snap out of it or until you open up?

If you are reading this, please take a moment to pray for all those in Haiti.

xoxo.

When running gets in the way of your social life November 21, 2009

I feel really bad.
Today was a really good friend of mine’s birthday.
We were supposed to go out to dinner.
I had already planned that I would eat at home, (my pasta) and then meet them for some mingling time.
Well, people were meeting at 830-845 (on a Friday night yes)
I have to wake up at 320 so I can be at the hospital at 4am to warm up and to start running at 415am since we’re doing 18 miles and it’s still hot.
So I called and cancelled. I was honest with M and told her that there was no way I could go tonight and be up by 320 to run 18.
I just feel bad b/c I’m sure she was disappointed in me.
She wouldn’t understand. My non running friends would not understand.
We do sacrifice sleep by waking up at the crack of dawn to avoid the heat. We sacrifice Friday night happy hours or cocktails. Yes we’d rather spend $$ on race entry fees, running clothes, or running trips that are out of town than spending the money on other things. We spend money on PT, doctor’s, accupuncture, chiro, shoes every 3-4 months, etc. We sacrifice our social life. Is it worth it?
Absolutely.
I just feel like a bad friend.
I hate feeling so guilty.
I’ll make it up and go see her tomorrow afternoon, but still I feel guilty.

Oh well,
Let’s hope that the 18 miles tomorrow are worth the sacrifice.

4 halves and one full? November 7, 2009

So I’m not sure if I’m overdoing it, but the plan for this month are 2 half marathons: One Nov 15th the other Nov 28th.

December I might just do a local Xmas 5k.

January I have two half scheduled: Disney half on Jan 10th and Naples half (DIVA FE!) on Jan 17th.

So the next big question is should I do the full on Jan 31st or do the half?

I really want to do to the full and do the longer runs (16-22) again in nice weather, but I was going to try to run 16 this morning and only did 10.

I honestly felt like a loser b/c I didn’t do what I had told my body to do. I had eaten enough carbs last night for a 16 mile run, and I stopped after 10.

I wore my new Mizunos and the ball of my feet was aching a bit after mile 7 b/c of the getting used to the Newton shoes. http://www.newtonrunning.com

So I guess I’m just going to play it by ear and how my body feels. Try to train for the full, but take it one week at a time. The last thing that I want is to be injured. I am adding speed work which is a change for me. I am keeping my mileage the same and I am only upping it by 10% or less.

Now I can use next week’s half as a training run. I do not plan on racing it and I am not worried about my time. If I finish in 2:30 that’s fine with me. If I finish in 2:45 that’s also fine with me. Kelle is running and I might wait for her since I know she’s been having issues with her shins.

The Space Coast half is one that I would like to race or try to since I heard that the course is really nice. We’ll see. I haven’t even registered for that half yet.

One day at a time. One half at a time.

On a better note I talked to Antonella today  on the phone! I love my little godchild!!!

first speed work session! November 4, 2009

So this morning I was up with the chickens as I decided to do my first speedwork session over at Tropical Park with Coach Ward. http://www.coachwardrunning.com/ I can go for the next 10 weeks or so (or until our next marathon which is Jan 31st) every Tuesday morning from 630-730. We warm up at 6 and run on a track and he places each runner depending on their goal/speedwork/etc..

 

I wrote down my goals in a sheet of paper so he can help me achieve them. My goals are to run a 1/2 in 2:15-2:20 and a full in 4:50-4:55. I would love to run a 1/2 under two hours but maybe in a couple of years as I know that I am not built to be a fast runner. I also want to improve my time on 5ks since I rarely ever race a 5k b/c I feel Im going to get sick with the distance being so short.

Today’s workout was 5 x 400 with one 400m recovery in b/w. A few drills here and there, w/u and c/d.

So far so good. I decided that since today’s session was hard, I need to reward myself by having chocolate milk. I ended up buying a 1/2 gallon of SILK Light Chocolate milk. Yummy! I had a glass and ate a Go Lean Waffle with apple butter for breakfast. It was delicious!!!!

So if I’m going to be doing speedwork on Tuesday’s that means I need to XT on Wednesday’s and my schedule had me running 4x a week: Mon, Wed, Thurs, and Sat as my LR. I don’t like changing my schedule around!

I guess I can do Tues, Thurs, Sat, and Sun or Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Saturday. I don’t know how I’d feel running 5+miles after my LR on Saturday. So I might do this:

Monday morning: Easy Run

Tuesday morning: Track workout

Wednesday morning: XT (swim /bike if I get pass my clip on fears/gym if I ever join)

Thursday evening: Run with Footworks

Friday: REST

Saturday: Long Run

Sunday: XT (bike/walk/gym/etc)

If I join the swimming classes that I have been wanting to do, I can swim Wed, Thurs, and maybe Friday. We’ll see. One thing at a time, and as of now, my goal is to wake up every morning at 6am so I can start working out by 615. And bed time at 1000-10:30 (means no TV and in bed reading) so I can be asleep before 11.

Like Annie (Lucybelle) I’d also would like to start doing tri’s at one point next year. That will be another goal for 2010!

Yesterday’s run was painful; can I do another full in 14 weeks? November 2, 2009

So I did my first long run post marathon yesterday and ran 12 miles. ( I had ran 8 the previous Saturday and they were also painful and slow) I was struggling yesterday with my run and I am now unsure if I should do another full in 14 weeks or just wait until the next fall season.

I’d love to run Miami with my running friends and b/c I live here and know the course, etc but Miami is hot!! And even in January, it might be 60. The thing that I do not like about the ING Miami is that the spectators and the crowd die after the first half is over. I’m not sure what to do. I guess I can play it by ear and by week and see if I start feeling better after my LR’s. We need some cold weather or at least 75 degree weather. I’m so tired of running in >80 weather with high humidity.

So I went to the chiro, took an ice bath, had my choco milk, foamed rolled, and wore my compression socks. I felt a lot better after a good nap. I even managed to run an easy 2 miles this morning!!

So, I guess I’ll just play it by ear and see how I feel. I’m doing a 1/2 in 2 weeks which I would love to PR but I know that physically I still feel a bit off since Chicago and I will not even attempt to try if it’s hot that day. Why did I even sign up for this half in two weeks??

Congratulations to the NYC runners! Ellen you rocked!!!!

Congratulations to all of the runners that ran the 40th NYC marathon today!

My DIVA friends Ellen and Michelle, your dedication and hard work were amazing. The fact that you ran for a cause made your race even more meaningful and more inspiring! Way to go!! Ellen, can’t wait to run Chi with you next year!!!!

 

Big Congrats to my two friends from my running team, Cesar and Gabe! Gabe you never stop amazing me!!!!  Cesar, training with you was a gift!!!!! I am so lucky to know you!!!!