My Favorite People

So, here are the people who help me make it happen.  By "it" I mean running.  My lil man Gabe is growing up so quick.  Almost 9 now.  He had a great wrestling season, but quite honestly I'm glad it's over.  It's HARD to see your kid getting thrown around.  He's tough, but he's still my baby.  He's enjoying his first season of baseball.  He might throw like a girl, but my boy sure can hit.  I hope he continues to enjoy it.  Mads is having a great soccer season.  She's decided that she doesn't want to play keeper as much.  What's great about her....she can play any position.  She plays them all really well, but her fav is mid-field.  I'm somewhat relieved that she doesn't want to play keeper.  What a difficult position...for both parents AND child.  I swear my kids are going to give me a stroke with all of the game/sport stress.  And there's no way I could forget my favorite running people.  Diane and I are really hanging in there together.  We're keeping each other honest and accountable.  Donovan is having surgery next week on her knee.  Poor girl.  Nadia is coming back from injury too.  I hope that I continue to run injury free.  :knocks on wood:  And then, there's my brother Joey.  He's the one who got all of my running nonsense started.  He's out for a couple of weeks with a stress fracture.  He'll be running Chicago in October for the 6th time.  He freaking rocks.  Last, but surely not least, my hubster.  The man who picks up the slack when I NEED TO RUN.  He's the best....yes people....THE BEST.  The love of my life for going on 22 years.  Hopefully he'll jump on the running band wagon again.  

Finding the silver lining

It's been a rough few weeks. The snow, stomach virus, work stress and running have all taken their toll on me. FINALLY the snow is melting. It's supposed to be 60* here today. I believe I'll be taking advantage of that a little later.

So last weekend I was supposed to run 12 miles for my long run. It started out ok. I didn't mind running on frozen patches of snow/ice along the river. It's kinda spooky back there. Somewhere I'll never run alone. We (me and Diane) met up with Nadia for our 2nd leg of our run. I knew I had to take it easy but I was so uncomfortable running slower. So against my better judgement, I ran how I felt. Those 3.5 miles were done at a 10:15 pace. That's FAST for me. I'm a 12 min mile girl. I also knew at that point I was screwed. The last 4 miles were TERRIBLE. I didn't hit the 12 mile mark. Damn. I was just too tired.

Today I was supposed to have my last "official" long run before my half on 3/21. It's not going to happen. We received some devastating news last night. My cousin Mark Linkous committed suicide. He's been a sad soul for a very long time. He was an incredibly talented musician. He did everything. Songwriting, singing, guitar, keyboard, producing...everything. If you're curious, the name of his band is Sparklehorse. I hope he has finally found peace.

So here's my silver lining.....I have my health. I am joyfully happy. I know I am loved. When I'm feeling down, I know I can depend on my family and friends to lift me. I am thankful for these things everyday.

Freaking snow

I am sick of the SNOW. I want spring. I want temps 50* and up. I want to SWEAT when I run outside and still be sweaty when I get home. I want to run on the road and not have to worry about falling, slipping, breaking my ass. I want to see leaves on the trees. Not dead brown leaves either. I want to see tulips breaking through, grass turning green and pollen on my windshield. Hell, I'd like to see brown grass at this point. JUST.NOT.SNOW. I want to complain about my allergies, the heat index and humidity. I want to not run on my dreadmill as much as I have. I want the kids to go to school, and not get reamed about missing work. (they just don't get it, I can't leave them at home, they're young!) I want my hair to be frizzy from rain. I want to see tan lines. I want to smell sunscreen. I want to feel the warm ocean breeze. I want to turn the heat off and turn the a/c on. I want my laundry loads to shrink b/c we're wearing shorts. I want to put all of the shovels away. I want to have our bonfire, cook s'mores and go camping.

Come on spring...... I need you!

Miles....

I'm trying to get my mileage back up. It's been freaking HARD to do for the past few weeks. But I'm doing it this week even if it means getting up at the butt crack of dawn. So my plan is this, yesterday was 4, tomorrow will be 6, Thurs 4, Sat 10. I've been doing pretty good on my long runs. I'm going more on perceived effort lately and I find myself to be a bit faster than I thought. Yay me! Still, I have a long way to go. Blah.

Downer note, the wife of a friend of ours passed away this afternoon. She had colon cancer for a while. She was pregnant with twins up until a few days ago when she lost them. Poor girl. Her body gave out. It's tragic. 3 lives gone in just a few days. We're praying for Scotty and his family.

Holy CRAP!

It's been a long time! Way too long. I actually forgot I had this! So my 2nd half was November 14th in Richmond. It was rainy and cold, and windy. I got myself a nice 5 min pr! Since then, I've slacked a little. It doesn't help when 2 of your best running friends are out with injuries. GAH! So I've had to rely on me. How interesting! The weather here has not been runner-friendly at ALL. The 28 inches of snow is still sticking around and with the temps going wacky, it melts and then freezes. I have been treadmill bound and I can't stand it! So on my longer runs, I'll do at least half of the distance and then muster up the courage to run outside. I find it so strange that on the treadmill I can barely manage a 12 min mile, but outside I am a steady 10:50 with hills. What gives?

So my next half is the Shamrock @ Virginia Beach. Joey and Heather are coming in from Chicago to run it too. Nice, it's turned into a family affair!

So there's a wrap up. Now can anyone tell me how to put some cool stuff on my blog??? :)

2 mile time trial

Well, the start of training has officially started. I don't know why, but I was so nervous and intimidated to run my time trial. Ed was so sweet about the whole thing. He made me go to bed early and even rubbed my back until I fell asleep. How wonderful! I woke up at 4:45 to try and collect myself. We had to be at the track at 6am WARMED UP. What that meant to me was, get there at 5:40 and start running. It was nice out. A bit humid, but nice. So much better than the freaking monsoons we've been having. So Mark gets all of us grumpy runners together and tells us not to be nervous, try to run a bit faster than your 5k pace. We line up, me being in the back of course, and off we go. There are a few women behind me and one pulls up next to me and starts chatting. GREAT. Ugh. I was trying not to be rude. Really. But she kept going on and on about how long have I been running, how far have I run, omg. I told her that I wanted to stay on track for a 22:XX finish. Great, she says. She'd love to stick with me. Ummm, ok? So I stay focused and try to stay on pace. I do NOT want to blow this. Well, about a mile into it, I hear this beeping. It's not my garmin, I have the sound turned off. I look at her and ask if she knows what the beeping noise is. She says she thought it was me. Nope, not me. It was her HR monitor! I looked at her and said, "you might want to consider slowing down". I swear it was beeping every 1o seconds! So she backed off, and wished me luck. I thought that was really sweet considering I had not said but a handful of words to her! Before I forget to mention, the FAST people had all lapped me several times. The first 2 guys finished as I was just completing my 1st mile. WOW! So anyways, I finish, with barely any kick in 22:26. I was thrilled! I start walking and UH OH. I puke. I at least got off of the track in time, but damn! Just as soon as I think I'm done, nope. How embarrassing! At least the only person who saw me was the mom of the young boy that finished 1st. I apologized for the gross factor, but to be honest, it didn't look like it bothered her at all. Thank God! A hand full of my friends were running the trials too. They were part of the fast group that went blazing by me. They finished in 14:30 to 15 minutes. Disgusting!!!

So now that the 1st test is over, I'm wondering what pace group Mark will put me in. I hope nothing under an 11:30 pace. I don't think I could handle that!

Motivation

It's been really strange not having a running plan. I've discovered that I don't do well without a plan. So now I've got one! I'm training for the Richmond VA half marathon on 11/14. It seems like it's a long time away, but it will creep up on me quick. So now I'm motivated and making all kinds of promises to myself. Let's hope I can stick with it!

1. Take training seriously.
2. NO MORE EXCUSES
3. Fit running into my life, not life into my running.
4. Work on my core.
5. Stretch properly.
6. Lose some of this weight. (argh!)
7. Try to run in the mornings.
8. Did I mention no excuses?
9. Stay positive.
10. Be dedicated!
11. Conquer those effing HILLS. DAMN!

All of the long runs are in the country at 6:15 AM. That means waking up on Sat am no later than 5. It''ll take about 45 minutes to get to each location. Ugh. This had better be worth it. I'd like to finish this half in 2:35. That's shaving 11 minutes off of my Shamrock time. :)

Wish me luck!!