So it wasn't just me?

I was very relieved to hear that I wasn't the only one who had a hard time getting back on the road on Tuesday. I set out planning for a slow 4 mile run, and got about 1.3 into it before I my legs felt like total jell-o.  I ended up walking a full 4 miles, with a few more short burts of jogging, but it was a lot of convincing my legs to keep moving so I could get back to my car.

I was feeling discouraged at first, but then did some thinking: I've never run 6 miles before. EVER. And I've never run 6 miles that quickly. So naturally, my body needs some recovery time.  I am hoping to get back into the swing of things tomorrow, maybe 3 or 4 miles, and do a 6 mile run on Saturday instead of upping the milage to 7. Next week, I'll increase the milage like the schedule says, but I just want to get everything moving again this week without pushing too hard and getting hurt.

We're starting to look to future runs, I'm thinking of a 10 mile road race at the end of July, and then I'll need to pick a few for the fall so I can keep up the pace for January.

Just gotta keep going forward.

A.

Not My Greatest

Today should have been an easy run, only 3 miles, especially since I finished 6.2 miles on Sunday, what I didn't expect was how tired my legs would be. I set off on my usual run around the aquarium and managed to hit both hills but at the top of the second hill (about 1.8 miles in) my legs just felt tired. It was somewhat surprising to me because I haven't felt very sore or tired in the last two days.

Normally I would chalk this up to be a failed run, the first failed run of the training program, but since I just finished my first 10k, I don't feel like I failed, just that my legs need to get a little stronger. I did stop and walk once I hit the top of the hill, but I started right back up at the bottom of the hill and continued running about another .6 miles. I then proceeded to walk again and started up again nearing the very end of the run for another .3 miles, all in all I ran 2.7 miles instead of a full 3. Instead of letting this be a set back I plan on continuing with the program and running 4 miles tomorrow. 

I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse. -Walt Disney

I have always loved this quote, to me it is the epitome of everything Disney and how much can be accomplished from such a small thing. It may not seem like the ideal quote to motivate someone, but it motivates me, especially since all of my hard work training will pay off with a trip to my favorite place on earth! Not finishing this one run is a small hiccup in a larger plan.

J.

B.A.A. 10k

We arrived at the Boston Common around 7 am so we could get our t-shirts and check everything out before the race started at 8. Since this was my first race EVER I had butterflies in my stomach from the second I woke up that didn't go away until I started running. When the race started everyone really took off and I had to keep myself from going all out as well, I needed a slow pace to start to warm myself up. But as the race continued I found myself really kicking it up a notch, wanting to keep up with the people in front of me or pass those around me that were slowing down. 

Surprisingly I was so focused on everything going on around me that I barely realized how much I was pushing myself, I think thats why I was able to finish the 6.2 miles in 1:05:36!! 

All ready for the run!

  

Erin passing quickly by despite possibly having walking pneumonia. 

Right around mile 6, not much further to go!

A and J!! We're runners now.

All pictures are courtesy of Shawn, who I'm so happy was there providing support, coming out just to watch us run by and then wait an hour for us to return to run by again! 

J.

I guess that makes us runners now.

Well, it's Sunday afternoon. You know what that means... I finished my first 10k this morning! One hour and nine minutes after I started, the announcer called my name as I ran across the finish line. It was a pretty amazing experience - there were several thousand people gathered for this race, including some of the top runners in the world.  As I was on mile 1 and 2, I could see them finishing up their last leg [I'll be ok if I never run a 30 minute 10k]. The first two miles went by pretty quickly, as I was trying to get into my rhythm and just take in the whole scene. It suprised me that people were already starting to walk that early in the race - I just assumed that anyone who pays to run a race is serious about running it.  Mile 2-3 was a straightaway with a turn at the 5k halfway mark. Close to the turning point, I saw a familiar face running in the opposite direction! J was about a 30 seconds/per mile pace a head of me. It felt to see her coming at me, knowing we were both completing our goal. We exchanged a quick high five and kept going at our own paces. Mile 4 was the hardest for me.  Since I was near the end of the race, the people around me weren't serious runners, so they were slowing down, and there were a lot of people walking.  It was hard for me to not join them, but I kept pushing and reminding myself that I was here to *run* the race. Two of the songs I usually sing in my head are 'River of Dreams' by Billy Joel and 'Do You Love Me [Now That I Can Dance]' by the Contours. I kept repeating those until mile 5, where I just started telling myself I had a mile left and I had to keep going. When I got to mile 6, I kicked it up and gave it all I had for the last block, and finished hard.  I almost cried when I heard my name called, I was just so happy to have completed this huge goal.

After the race, there was free food and drinks, and we each bought a race t-shirt in addition to the one we got free. Did I mention we also got finishers medals? [Pictures coming soon!] I need to find a good place to display that. The rest of the day has been spent relaxing, eating lots of good food, and we're off to a double date movie night with our boyfriends in a bit.

So glad that tomorrow is a rest day!

A.

Tomorrow, tomorrow...

The weather report for Boston calls for "pleasant and sunny" tomorrow, with highs in the mid 70's. Sounds like a perfect day to go running!

Yesterday was my last run before the 10K, a flat run to give my legs a break from all of the hills I've battled this week.  Today I'm running errands and relaxing before we drive up to Boston tonight. I've been doing a lot visualizing lately - I picked out my race outfit a few days ago [white tank top, pink shorts], picked out my race day breakfast [banana, bagel with peanut butter, gatorade] and I have my time in mind. My goal is to keep running the whole time, the race closes after a 15 minute mile pace, and I typically do a 12-13 depending on how long the run is, so as long as I keep going, I'll get there. The point is, I'm doing it. I'm doing something that I've never done before, and that in itself is exciting and impressive.

You'll hear from us on Sunday night, with our tired legs and victorious smiles on.

Cheer for us wherever you are!

A.

It's Almost Time

Today was my last run before the big 10k and I really pushed myself. It was a 3 mile run and I went my usual route around the aquarium. I always take it a little slower at the beginning to help warm myself up and slowly increase the speed. This run the warm up was short before I started moving quicker and I maintained the quicker pace the whole run. I took 2 minutes off my previous time and feel ready for the race on Sunday.

I've got a time in mind that I would like to finish by for the 10k, I'm being conservative allowing myself a little more time than I may need. But either way I know that when I finish the 6.2 miles I'm going to be psyched!

J.

Making time for... everything.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but the reason that I chose to do the 1/2 marathon rather than the full is that I'm starting grad school in the fall [yay!]. However, this means that in the next two months, I'm finishing up a night class, editing a paper with our vet, and preparing all of the details necessary to shuffle my life down to North Carolina. It's becoming quite the juggling act, especially with the longer runs coming in to play, so I'm still figuring out how to fit everything in.

Meanwhile, I ran 5 miles. FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER. If there could be a fanfare or a crowd of people doing the wave right now, that would be lovely.  This was a huge step for me on Sunday.  Like I said before, I've never been a distance runner. This was a very big moment for me. I'm picturing the [flat!] 10k on Sunday to be doable now after the very hilly 5 miles that nearly kicked my butt.  In the end though, I made it through and felt pretty good - ending on a big downhill has that effect.

I'm off to sleep! Must be well rested this week... Sunday is not too far away!

A.

2007 to Now

It's truly amazing how much of a difference there can be between two of the same things. I say this because back in 2007 I first attempted this training schedule, back then I had a goal in mind of the Chicago marathon. I started the training sometime in June or July after returning from an internship at Disney World, although I can't recall what my motivation was exactly. Despite following the exact same training program I don't remember having as good of a time with it as I've been having. Each run although challenging at times has felt great this time around, in the past every run was a struggle (or at least thats how I remember it). I bring this up because this week is a 3, 4, 3, 6 mile run schedule and it was after the 6 mile run last time that I quit.

I ran this morning on what is now becoming a familiar and favorite route of mine located near the aquarium. It has a two larger hills, a few minor ones and runs through a nature preserve and along the river at points. This morning was my first run of the week and at only 3 miles I figured I could push myself a little, I'm even proud to say that the second hill of the run, the one that I have to talk myself up the whole time seemed better, shorter almost. Today was probably my favorite run of the entire program, I think I'm finally understanding why runners like to run. I could definately see myself long after this program is over continuing to run on a regular basis.

I can say with confidence that I won't be quitting this time around after the 6 mile run!

J.

On a sidenote: I bought a new water bottle this weekend since I need to up the amount of my water intake. I found one from Camelbak at Target that has a filter inside the water bottle, now the plan is to bring it everywhere I go!

7 days to the 10k!

There is exactly one week until A and I run our very first 10k! This came in the mail yesterday for us, it includes: course and race day information along with our bibs! 

J.

Sunday Run-day!

When I lived in Albuquerque we (the aquarium sunday crew and myself) would call it Sunday Funday. We didn't have any supervisors on duty that day and although we always got all of our work done we took a little bit of liberty with our day. Sunday Funday included sitting in front of the shark tank in the morning and enjoying it without guests around, we usually only sat for about 15 minutes. At ten o'clock break (this isn't us slacking, we received a break at 10 everyday and everyone took it together) we would send someone out to get us breakfast burritos from Golden Pride. Outside of Albuquerque I have yet to find a place that has a comparable breakfast burrito. Now that I no longer live in Albuquerque and Sundays have become my Saturday's I don't normally refer to it as Sunday Funday, except when I do something really fun.

Since I've reworked my running days Sunday has now become my long run day. Today is the first long run at 5 miles. I've decided I will now refer to it as Sunday Runday. I did a little bit of research this morning on coolrunning.com and active.com about proper meals before long runs and how much time to wait between eating and running. I haven't been very concerned with my diet up to this point but as the runs become longer and longer I feel it will be necessary to come up with a plan for meals.

Postrun: I wrote the rest of the blog before going out for the run, trying to kill time between breakfast and  the run. Now I've completed the 5 miles in 59 minutes - its a minute quicker than I planned! I picked a loop that for the first half was relatively flat and the second half was a lot of uphill climbs. Althoguh feeling very tired on some of the uphills because it ended on a slowly descending down hill I felt good at the end.

The rest of the day will be spent on errands and enjoying the beautiful weather outside.

J.

I guess it's my turn...

As I mentioned last week, I was away for a few days, taking a nice long weekend.  I still managed to fit in 2 days of running while I was gone, and got to do some sightseeing while I ran.  One run was out on Star Island (in the Gulf of Maine) which was a very rocky, windy morning run; the other was in Portland, Maine.  I was a bit suprised at how chilly and windy it was out there as I ran near the water, so my 3 mile run was slower than I had anticipated.

Yesterday was another big milestone for me - 4 miles! I'm very happy to report that I made it through the whole run, and I'm the first to admit that I'm still just as slow. So what if it took me 50 minutes ... [52 actually]... Today is another 3 miles, and it looks like it will be a bit rainy.  Saturday is supposed to be the big 5 miler, but I may push it off until Sunday so I can go visit friends on Saturday night. 

The 10k is getting closer and closer... I'm starting to feel good that I'll be able to run the whole thing, no matter how slow I'll be.

Here comes the weekend!

A.

4 miler!

 This post is a little late but I was just so excited about completing 4 miles and how good I felt after that I forgot to post, oops!

I spent most of Tuesday thinking about my upcoming run that afternoon and trying to talk myself up. 4 miles just seemed so long and so much longer than the 3 mile run on Monday. Basically while walking around the aquarium I kept telling myself "I can do this" "It won't be that bad" on repeat until the end of the day. I mapped out the route earlier in the day and after work headed out, with a built in extra long warm up walk. During the warm up walk I felt a little worn out which didn't bode well for the rest of the run. The weird part was once I started running I felt better, the part of me that was tired, that felt worn out seemed to fade away. Two minutes into the run I started singing (silently of course) "I feel good, na na na na na na, like I knew that I would, na na na na na na, so good, so good, so good, I got you, woo woo woo woo" The feeling lasted through out the run and I finished 4 miles in 46 minutes.

Up next: another 3 miles, should be easy :)

J.

My Monday

My Mondays are a little different than most everyone else's due to the fact that they are my Sunday. While everyone is headed back to work I get to sleep in late, run errands and veg out. Although this means I don't have Saturday off, I would take the trade off any week. I used this Monday to do all the things I love Mondays for - I slept in until 9, completed important errands (taking my car in for an oil change), relaxed on the couch watching some trashy tv and now added to the list: ran!

The last few days have been rainy, overcast and unmotivating. I was suppose to get in one more 30 min run before switching over to mileage but due to the bad weather and my lack of wanting to get that wet while running I never made it back out. I woke up this morning slightly undecided on whether I would make this the last 30 min run and start the mileage late or just go for the 3 mile run since my longest run was 2.75 miles and I figured I wasn't that far off. I finally came to the decision to go for the mileage because in less than two weeks I have the 10k coming up and I need to start increasing my mileage.

The run I decided to take was relatively flat along the river. I completed the 3 miles in 32 minutes! I took the first 2/3 easy and really pushed myself at the end.

I used the time running to plan out how the next few weeks will progress, according to the plan this week should include 3 miles, 4 miles, 3 miles and 5 miles for the four runs of the week. I've found that at the end of my work week I have no energy to run after work so Friday and Saturday will be set days off (unless something prevents me running earlier in the week). Sunday will become the end of my running week with the long run. We will see how this works out but I think having set running days will be the best course of action to help me stick to the plan.


J.

Rain Delay

Today's run was postponed on account of the crazy thunderstorm that took up most of the evening. I'm already 2 runs in to the week, so I'll try for tomorrow and Saturday.  I'm going away for a few days [hoorah!] but I'm packing my running gear with the intention of running Saturday and Monday.  It should be fun to check out some new scenery and enjoy some much-needed time off of work.

The 30 minute mark hasn't been too hard for me at all, so now I get to decide if I should do another week at 30 minutes or start pushing for milage... with the 10K approaching, the milage might win. So far, both runs this week have been over 2 miles, and we're only going up from there!

Don't forget the sunscreen! And the umbrella! And the sweatshirts! [Oh, New England weather...]

A.

I'm not a Morning Person

I have never been a morning person, it doesn't matter how early I get to bed (and I go to bed early) I just don't have energy first thing in the morning. But I forced myself up, quickly put on my running gear and drove to the aquarium. This way I couldn't just fall back to sleep and skip out on the run. I won't lie though once I was at the aquarium I debated just changing into work clothes and getting some computer work done since it was a little early to be clocking in and starting work. I'm happy to say that I talked myself out of this idea and went for the run, even taking the path with the most hills along the way!

I only have one more day of 30 minutes before moving onto mileage.

J.

Heat Wave

It might be a bit of an overstatement to call our warm weather right now a heat wave but it seems to have come out of no where. I know mid-summer will be much worse with heat and humidity than what we are currently experiencing but I figured I would delay my run until the evening when it had cooled down a bit. I used that extra time in between to be productive by washing all the dishes that had accumulated on my side of the sink and to cook myself three different meals for the week. Now I have some variety when it comes to my lunches and dinners (for those that are wondering I made a spinach-potato casserole, chicken and mushroom hash and pasta salad with goat cheese and broccoli). Cooking took me a little longer than expected so I didn't start my run until almost 8 o'clock. I wore my super cool looking reflective vest just to be safe and headed out down Rt 1 running 2.75 miles in the 30 minutes.

Today is suppose to be just as hot as yesterday and I was planning on running in the morning while it was still cool. Although I woke up at the required time, mainly because my cat Jack decided to bring a toy into bed and expect to be played with, it was not a well thought out plan as I awoke sore and very tired from my late night run yesterday. I'm not ready for two runs so close together so today has now become a day of rest and I will attempt the morning run on Thursday instead!


J.

Sunday Fun-day!

Many know this but every sunday I religiously check the Postsecret website. There are often secrets I can relate to, some I find humorous, others shocking but always interesting. I'm very proud to say that this secret is not one I can relate to:

                                                   postsecret.com


After a quick motorcycle ride to breakfast and scenic ride back home, I put on my running shoes and had Shawn drive me 3.1 miles away from my house for my first run of 30 minutes. I figured based on my pace of 11min/miles in the past that it would be an appropriate distance away. The route was again filled with hills and went great. In fact the biggest compliment I could have received was from Shawn after I returned from the run, he said I looked like I hadn't even run, I was in that good of condition on the return! I felt like I could have continued on running but I'm sticking to the plan so that I don't overdo it and burn out.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at a winefest at the Jonathan Edwards Winery. Shawn, A and myself along with some other friends sampled wine and cheeses and spent a leisurely time in the sun listening to some great live music.


J.

MILEstones

How many weeks are we into this? I'm already losing track.  This week's suggested run is 25 minutes with a 5 minute walk, though I may just skip right to the 30 minute run.  I set out with a distance goal today - the 2 mile mark. I've come frusteratingly close in the last 2 weeks, but today was the first time I ran the full 2 - 2.27 to be exact :) I rewarded myself with some snazzy new shorts and running shirts for summer, since it's starting to get quite warm out. Expect a fashion show at some point.

I did some poking, around my old pictures, and found these from my first (and only) 5k that I ran in college. I've walked others, but this was a very big deal for me, so I was pretty excited, if you can't tell from my face.

Check out those guns!  

I can't remember how many people ran that race, but I know it was more than 82, and that was fine by me. [I think it was somewhere over 100, actually]

With the 10K coming up in 20 days, I don't think my milage will be quite where I want it to be, so my big goal is to run the whole thing, and not to come in last.

Here we go!

A.

Dead ends and sunny days.

I guess you could call it a busy two weeks... but that seems like an understatement.  Although I wasn't involved in the wedding, I was happy to attend and dance the night away, but it was a crazy week at work.  I still managed to fit in all of my runs last week.  This week was another step up - 20 minute run, 5 minute walk, 20 minute run. Happily, I made it through all 4 days, and it even felt pretty good afterwards.  I could get used to this feeling. The weather has also been cooperating most days - not too humid or rainy, so it's hard to come up with an excuse not to run.

I've started to suprise myself with how far I can get in 20 minutes, and have come across 3 dead ends that I didn't know existed, simply because I hadn't made it to the end of those streets before. Pretty cool. It still gets frusterating that I'm not getting as far as I'd like to - I haven't made the 4 mile mark yet - but I keep telling myself that it's much further than I was running a month ago, so progress is good, no matter so slow. The 10k will be a big milestone for me, so I've got 22 more days to get ready for it.

Next week, I move up to 25 minutes of running, 5 minutes of walking. I don't think it will be too hard of a transition, especially since I'll be able to push myself and know that there isn't a second set of running to repeat.

Here goes!

A.

Hills

I asked my coworker who used to run around the aquarium a lot for a route to switch it up with today. I don't like running the same way over and over again so I'm trying to constantly alternate where I'm going. Her suggestion was a little more than the distance I needed but sounded like a great run, minus one small (or very large) thing - hills!

I started out in the direction she suggested but wasn't necessarily convinced I would proceed with the run, I kept trying to think of alternate routes but couldn't come up with any that I hadn't already done at least once. It was at this point that I figured the past few runs this week have been good, not easy, but not hard and I was up for the challenge. I turned right and ran up the first hill, my legs burned, but as soon as I hit the top and ran where it was flat again they recovered and quickly! I hit the second hill, more burning, more flat ground and more recovering. The final hill seemed never ending as I was running up it but obviously it ended and I was able to recover and to continue running. The feeling of accomplishing something I couldn't do a month ago, two weeks ago, even last week was amazing. I ended up running 2.5 miles in just over 28 mins!

Although I never thought this was possible - I think I'm starting to like running (which is really good seeing as I'm in this for the long haul - 219 days until the marathon!)

J.