May Totals

May was back to business: running and swimming.  It didn't take me very long to discover I was tired of walking and it was time to run.  I am so happy to be back.

Running - 80.03 miles

Swimming - 4500 yards

Strength Training - 1.5 hours

I visited the YMCA only three times for a cost per visit of $28.45.  Now that the baby has had all his shots I'll be able to take him to the Y with me and hopefully go more often.  Plus the outdoor pool is now open and I can't wait to introduce him to the water.  He's gonna be a swimmer.

Also in May I read two books:

1. "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
2. "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?" by Mindy Kaling

I'm now up to 10 books read in 2013 and I have two already checked out for June.  Unless something crazy happens, I will definitely be hitting my 12 books goal in 2013. 

And sticking with the 13 in '13 theme:

I am back down to my original pre-baby size, although I still have about 10 pounds to go for the weight.  I am hoping that will just melt off as I run more so I won't have to count calories.  I hate to count calories.

I'm just shy of 250 miles run for the year, which is a quarter of the way to my goal of 1000 miles.  I better get cracking if I'm going to make that goal.

I finally ran my first race of the year.  Unfortunately, I've mapped out a schedule and it looks like I may not reach 12 races.  I may need to find one or two more. 

June is going to be great, I hope.  I am now doing the Runner's World summer run streak, which hopefully means lots and lots of running miles.  I also have two races planned.  And as I mentioned, I have two more books checked out of the library.  Plus, the boy is super cute and I am taking tons of pictures.  It's going to be a great summer.

Let's Go Streaking Again!

Last March I run streaked for a month.  Yep, I ran every single day for 31 days straight.  It was hard; it was monotonous, but in the end I think it really jump started my fitness and training.  I did almost all my workouts without a watch or Garmin so I had no idea who fast I was going or if I was improving.  I loved it though!  So when Runner's World tweeted that there would be a running streak starting Memorial Day and ending the Fourth of July I thought, why not?  The only rule is you have to run at least one mile every day between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July.  I can do that!  My "real training" doesn't start until the middle of June so I can certainly incorporate running into the daily schedule.  I need to drop the remaining baby weight and kick start my fitness anyway.  Who's with me?

Two Months Already?

Week in Review

Blah, blah, blah.  Good week of running, swimming, weight lifting.  Let's get to it.

Monday - 5 miles treadmill, 0.25 hours of strength training
I started with four miles on the treadmill alternative 11:00/miles and 10:00/miles per quarter mile.  Then I did 3 X 400 at a 9:00/mile followed by 21 kettlebell swings (10 lbs) and 10 pushups on my knees.  I have absolutely no core strength anymore so the pushups were tough.  Lastly I did a quarter mile cool down.

Tuesday - 1500 yards swimming
This was supposed to be a 2000 yard swim but I cut it short because I was running out of time and Dave was watching the baby during work hours.  This was an easy workout consisting of pull and fins and lots of bilateral breathing.

Wednesday - 3 miles neighborhood

Thursday - Off

Friday - 7.3 trail miles at Blendon Woods
You can read about the run here.

Saturday - Off

Sunday - 3.1 miles
Field of Heroes 5K.  You can read about the race here.

Totals:
Running - 18.4 miles
Swimming - 1500 yards
Strength Training - 0.25 hours

Field of Heroes 5K 2013

Finally, I ran a race!

Earlier this week I just went crazy online and found races and signed up.  I think I might even be able to get to my 12 races for the year, that's how crazy I went.  In fact, I have three races in three weeks.  I. CAN'T. WAIT.

I started out with a local 5K today.  The run I did on Friday had been great: 7.3 trail miles at a 9:05 average with 3.5 of those miles under a 9:00 pace.  I was pretty confident I might be able to run in the 8:00s for a 5K and come in right around a 25:00ish.  The weather was chilly for a Memorial Day run but great for a faster race.  The race was small - around 300 people - so I lined up just a little back from the start line.  Of course, I was lined up behind a small girl and in front of someone who looked serious.  Hmm, this ought to be interesting.

Anderson looked ready to race.

 

I sorta look ready to race.

Even with a bad self-seeding I got off pretty good and just got comfortable.  I wasn't expecting much from this race.  I just wanted to use it as a jumping off point for the year.  I hit the first mile marker at 7:52.  Okay, well, that's faster than I thought I would be and I'm not dying.  

Before the second mile marker was a water stop.  I took some water, or so I thought, and had a sip.  Yuck!  Orange Gatorade.  Seriously, who needs Gatorade in a 5K?  (I guess you could make the argument, who needs water in a 5K?)  I hit the second mile marker at 7:50.  Wow!  Consistent.

But then I was in no man's land.  I had passed a bunch of people but there was really no one ahead of me to catch.  The Gatorade had caused a cramp in my stomach and so I stopped and walked for a blink of a second.  Who walks in a 5K?  I got moving again and saw Dave and the munchkin.  I felt like hell and might have looked like it too.

 

Dave pointed out to me that I was the fifth female and that there was a little girl ahead of me.  Yep, I was being beat not only by a dog that had passed me earlier, but by a 10 year old girl.  Awesome.  I tried my hardest to catch that little girl, pulling a 7:38 third mile, but came up a little short.  Although in the official results I did beat her by one second.  Gotta love chip timing.

 

I was the fourth overall female finisher with a time of 24:06.  It's a long way from where I was last year at this time, but pretty good for having a C-section just 8 weeks ago.  It's a good jumping off point for the rest of the season.

 

 

For Anne.

Thursday I found out that one of my former athletes (I coached high school track for six years) had passed away.  Suicide.  I think she was all of 20 years old.  I cried.  I was angry.  I wish I had stayed in touch and wound have known she was in trouble.  I would have at least tried to help.  Friday I did what I could.  I ran.  I ran to remember the girls I loved as my own kids.  I ran to get out the sadness and anger.  I ran for Anne.

Foto Friday

Week in Review

This week I set my alarm to get up at 7:00 every morning and yet, not once did I actually get up at that time.  It's so hard when the bug gets up multiple times during the night.  I'm so tired!  Therefore, I did a little scrambling to get in my workouts but I made it work. 

Monday - 3 miles treadmill, 0.25 hours strength training
Because I didn't get up when the alarm was set for (shoot, I turned it off in the middle of the night), I had to take the baby to the basement with me to run on the treadmill.  He dozed off in his swing while I put in the miles.  I also did a little strength training: 7x clean and jerk at 55 pounds.

Tuesday - 1000 yard swim
Again I tried today to get up at 7:00, but didn't.  I asked Dave if he would give me an hour, put the baby in the swing while he worked, and I headed to the pool to do 1000 yards straight just to get back in the pool.  I was surprised how easily this swim seemed.  Good thing...there's an open water swim race in a few weeks.

Wednesday - 4 miles (35:49 - 8:56 pace)
The hottest day of the year and I did this run at like 10:00am.  I thought I was going to melt.  I went a little faster than my ability level right now, but I have a hard time slowing down once I establish a pace.

Thursday - Off

Friday - Off

Saturday - 4 miles treadmill
Dave's been going to the group runs and since I can't put the baby in the running stroller yet to actually run, I could only do the run on the treadmill.  Unfortunately this time he did not doze off and I probably hopped off the treadmill about 100 times to put his pacifier back in his mouth.

Sunday - 5.25 miles trail run (51:56 - 9:54 pace)
There is a metro park right around the corner from us that has some trail running.  Not many trails, but I was able to double up on the trails to get in a pretty good run.  I kept telling myself to run a conservative and easy pace, but I really only have one pace.  I only had one mile over a 10:00 pace.

Totals:
Running - 16:25 miles
Strength training - 0.25 hours

The '80s Vomited on my Running Clothes

I went shopping today and got vomited on.

You see, one of my trail races, the 50K, is held during deer hunting season in Ohio and there is a disclaimer on the race website: "We have carefully worked with the park staff to ensure the safety of the runners and that the entire race course is not in any area permitted for hunting. Although we do not anticipate any issues, it is recommended that you do not wear anything white during the race and are encouraged to wear bright colors, especially orange."

Hmm, I don't have anything orange or really anything in a bright color.

Luckily, the '80s are back and there are lots of running clothes right now in neon colors.  So, I loaded up my $100 from mother's day, a little birthday money, and a coupon, and headed down to the sporting goods store.  And boy did the '80s vomit on me.  I walked away with an orange tank, orange shorts, pink tank, black shorts, yellow t-shirt, and a yellow jacket.  The race is in December so who knows what the weather will be.  I scored all of this for $170 which I paid in cash.

No one is going to miss seeing me on the trails.

Foto Friday

I've been internally debating how much I want to post about the baby.  It's not his choice to show up on my blog.  And I don't want any weirdos creeping on him, ya know?  So, I've been taking daily pictures of them and posting them on Instagram as I have it marked private.  If you are interested in having access to my Instagram, send me an email and let me know you're a real person and I'll give you my username and most likely accept your friend request.

But today's picture I took is too precious not to share.  Seriously, I make cute babies.

Thursday Thoughts

With the plans coming together to take on trail running and some longer races later this year, it's time to load the iPod up with some good tunes with which to train.  Yes, I wear an iPod when I run.  The problem is I moved, or I tried to move, my music from one computer to another and basically lost everything.  I went from about a gazillion songs to about 147.  And I don't know where those other bajillion songs went to.  So, I need your help.  What are some good songs to run to?  What do I absolutely need to download?  Help me load up the iPod.  There are miles and miles to run!

Fixed!

*This is a long overdue post.  It did not take weeks to get our oven fixed.*

Dave and I are cheap.  Well, thrifty.  When our oven broke we tried to find the part we thought we needed locally, but came up empty.  Instead we ordered on the internet with no rush on the shipping.  Thrifty.  We tracked the package which started out FedEx or UPS and eventually wound up in the hands of our mailman.

Our mail service leaves a lot to be desired.  For starters, the gentleman who usually helps me at the post office is, well, dumb.  I go to the post office a lot.  He knows who I am because he always asks me about my running and races.  I mail almost the exact same thing every time, yet he always asks me if I want upgraded shipping, insurance, tracking, etc.  No!  Do I ever mail anything except first class?  No!  Stop asking me those stupid questions and just mail my package!  I even go up to the window and say, I would like this mailed first class.  Same questions, every!damn!time!  The person who delivers our mail might be the laziest mailman.  Our mail service is a little dude in a truck that puts our mail into our mailbox at the end of our driveway.  He does it all from his truck.  I say he is lazy because I've seen him knock over every trashcan in the neighborhood just to get his mail in the box.  He will not leave his truck!

Where am I going with this?

Like I said, we tracked our oven part and the day it was to be delivered a neighbor car got parked in front of our mailbox.  Late in the day our flag was still up on our mailbox and I was pissed that our mail did not get delivered that day.  Get out of your effing truck and deliver our mail!  I was ready to call the post office and make a complaint.  I went out to check the mailbox just in case.  And luckily, the mail was there.  The lazy bastard just didn't put down the flag.

Dave started to dismantle the electronics in the oven.  It became pretty obvious why our oven was not working....

The good news is, the new part worked once Dave got it all put together.  The bad news is that the clock did not peel off as cleanly as the internet said it would.

I don't really care how ugly the clock looks.  The oven works and that's all that matters.  If we ever move someday we will get a new clock face to make it look better.

My Mother's Day

I had a great first mother's day.

The day started great when the little bug decided to let us sleep in.  This was great as we had worked a photo booth event the evening before and had stayed up WAY too late.  Then Dave surprised me by making me pancakes.  I love pancakes.  They're so easy to make and yet I never make them.  After breakfast Dave took the baby and let me go for a run.  I managed five miles.  It wasn't pretty but I got it done.  Dave, the baby, and Sloopy (my dog) got me great cards along with some flowers.  Plus, they got me $100 cash to spend any way I want and to have the afternoon to myself to spend it.

I was still pretty tired from the previous evening so I decided to take a rain check on the shopping trip and take a nap with the baby instead.  The day ended with a trip to Dairy Queen for some yummy blizzards.

Now I've got big shoes to fill for Dave's upcoming first father's day.

Week in Review

So much for easing back into things.  I went full-throttle this week.  It's been six week; I'm allowed!

Monday - 4.25 miles run/walk; 0.50 hours of weight training
I actually did two workouts today.  I started the day with three miles of 3 minutes walking, 2 minutes running.  The walks were in the 14:00/mile range and the runs were in the 9:00/mile range.  Then in the afternoon Dave joined me for a little weight training.  We did 5 rounds of 400m run (treadmill) followed by 15 overhead squats.  I did my 400s really conservatively, greater than 10:00/miles and did my overhead squats with 35 pounds.  My core - abs and back - were torn apart from pregnancy so it's going to be a long process of getting them back.

Tuesday - off

Wednesday - 3 miles run/walk
Again today I followed the plan of 3 minutes of walking followed by 2 minutes of running.  The walks were in the 14:00s and the runs were sub 9:00s.  The last two minute segment I averaged an 8:27 pace.

Thursday - 3 mile run
And this is when I said enough of this walking shit.  Walking takes too long and I just wanted to get the workout done.  The runs from earlier in the week were started to feel more and more normal so I thought that I would just run.  And I did without any walking, no garmin, and no watch.  This was a great run.

Friday - off

Saturday - 1.5 mile run; 0.5 hours of weight training
This was one combined workout of 3 rounds of 800m run, 50 back extensions, and 25 sit-ups/crunches.  The sit-ups were supposed to be full sit-ups and I was supposed to do 50 of them, but I just couldn't manage them.  I did the first round as sit-ups, second round as crunches, and the last round back to sit-ups. 

Sunday - 5 mile run
Five miles might have been a little advantageous.  Nevertheless, I did the run with minimal breaks and a good pace - 9:00/mile.

Totals:
Run/Walk - 16.75 miles
Other - 1 hour of strength training

Next week I hope to get my buns to the pool.  After all, there is an aquathlon on the schedule in three weeks and if I don't practice swimming it's probably going to suck.

The Approach

I haven't the foggiest idea how to attack training for a trail marathon and/or an ultra.  First and foremost, I want to train for the half marathon and to try to a PR with somewhere in the 1:30-1:35 range (doable).  I am once again going to follow the Run Less Run Faster plan because (a) I have limited time with two jobs and a baby, (b) I am prone to injury, do not recover very quickly, and cannot do high mileage, and (c) it works.  If, and it's still a big IF, I decide to tack on the trail marathon and/or ultra I think I will only add one more day of running onto the plan which would be a long, slow trail run.  I see it working like this:

Monday - track work
Tuesday - swim
Wednesday - mid-week speed long run
Thursday - swim
Friday - tempo run
Saturday - off (I'll let Dave run with the group - he doesn't get married to training plans like I do)
Sunday - long, slow trail run

Right now with Anderson being a whopping six weeks old this seems doable and completely insane.  I am having trouble getting anything done because I am always holding him.  You put him down for two minutes and he cries.  When he sleeps I sleep.  And he doesn't sleep very long (2-3 hour segments).  But Dave has also promised me that I can continue my training and of course, I'm allowing him to also.  He's already signed up for a half marathon in September.  This will save our marriage and our sanity.

Have you trained for an ultra?  How much mileage did you do?  How many days per week did you run? 

The Long and Short of It

Andrea texted me yesterday saying she wanted to go back to running marathons because they were "easier" than racing halfs.  I returned the text, laughing, because I said I didn't plan on running a marathon until after the age of forty because I wanted to spend the next few years working on my speed.  We both laughed knowing we would change our minds.

That took all of less than 24 hours.

I haven't done a race, racing or participating, since November.  I've got the itch really bad.  I don't care if it's fast or slow, long or short, I just want to get out there and race again.  But, I do have one race plan for this year.  I was hoping to train for and RACE a half marathon this fall.  Leading up to this I was hoping to do 5Ks, 10Ks, 10 milers, etc. to work on being fast, fast, fast. 

But I've also had this pull to do some trail running even though it's not easy to find a trail around here and well, I've not really done any trail running.  And I can't get it out of my head that I'd like to try a 50K.  Yeah, I don't know, but it just interests me.  There was one locally last November that would have been perfect for me because it was mostly on roads (I would consider myself a road runner).  I'm not sure, though, if they're going to have this one in 2013.  Then I got searching the internet and I started to find some races.  First I found a marathon on November 3rd.  Then I found a 50K on December 7th.  Hmmm, interesting.  I could train to race the half marathon and yet still be able to do these races.  Then I thought, but I've never done a true trail race (I've done two races on towpaths - not exactly the same), so I though maybe I should find something shorter to start with and I found a 10 miler in Dave's hometown on August 17th.  Dave and I could both do this race if Dave's parents were in town and willing to watch the baby for a while. 

Honestly, I have no idea what my running plans should be for the rest of the year.  Remember when you used to be able to decide, "hey I want to run a race this weekend" and then go and sign up the day of?  Yeah, that just doesn't happen anymore.  Plus, I have to do a little more planning with photo booth events and now that we have a baby.

What do you think?  Do you think you can gain speed by going long?  Have you ever done a true trail race?  Have you ever gone longer than a marathon?

Week in Review

As mentioned earlier this week, I am back to running - this time with permission from the doctor.  I started the week walking and ended the week with a walk, but in the middle I did some running. 

Monday - 3 mile walk
Dave and I loaded up the kiddo and hit the golf course for a loop.  I walked, Dave ran, and then he came back to finish the walk with me.  The plan was to go to the bike shop afterwards to pick up some new tires for Dave's bike but the shop had closed at 6:00.  What store closes at six?  Are we in an old people's neighborhood?  We picked up some dinner on the square and that was that.

Tuesday - 2 mile walk
A short family two mile walk before my parents had us over for dinner.

Wednesday - 3 mile run/walk
Finally approved to run!  I celebrated not only with the margarita socks but by doing a little three miles to the end of the park and back.  I did 4 minutes of walking, 1 minute of running for an average of about 13:00/mile

Thursday - 3 mile run/walk
Same as yesterday!

Friday - 1.63 mile run/walk
I was planning on doing 4 miles but when I got out there (a) I just wasn't feeling it and (b) I had some guilt regarding leaving Dave with the kiddo for that long when he hadn't done a workout.  So, I just did a short loop in the neighborhood.

Saturday - off

Sunday - 3 mile walk
Just took the stroller out for a long walk with The Bug.

Total - 16.63 miles

Foto Friday

Halfway through my pregnancy my mom started telling me that I needed to be keeping this and that for Anderson's baby book.  Say what now?  I've got to make a baby book?  Crap!  So, right now there's a pile of stuff sitting in the hallway to be put into a baby book.  One other thing I guess I am supposed to do is create a birth announcement.  I mean, didn't I do that on the blog and on Facebook?  Now I've got to send one through the mail?!  For the last couple of weeks I've been putting this off and finally got around to doing it this week on Shutterfly.  Um, if you think you're getting one of these, don't be running out to the mailbox any time soon.  You'll be lucky if I get everything done by his first birthday.

I'm Back!!!

I had this whole post written with picture included.  I went to save it and then publish it, but because I never shut down my computer or close any windows and the fact that my computer is like 6 or 7 years old and starting to get tired, I lost everything I had written.  So here I go again...

Tuesday I had my postpartum follow up at my doctor.  First, I'm going to do a little bragging.  :)  At my final weigh in before having the baby I was up exactly 30 pounds from my starting weight.  I knew it took me nine months to gain all that weight and it was going to take me a while to take it off.  But, just two weeks after the baby was born I was already fitting into my pre-pregnancy skinny jeans.  My body isn't quite there - I have some swelling around the incision and some rolls I don't quite like - but overall I'm amazed how quickly my body has bounced back.  I was really surprised when I weighed in at the doctor's office and had already dropped 23 pounds.  I attribute that to (a) not gaining a whole lot of weight and (b) working out before, after, and during my pregnancy.  I'm not sure I'm going to try really hard to lose those last seven pounds as I was pretty small when I got pregnant as I was training for a marathon.  I am hoping to just tighten everything back up and get back to at least a good fighting weight.

Secondly, let's talk about the good stuff.  I asked the doctor about running and swimming.  I mentioned to her that I had been walking a lot, including 18+ total miles the previous week.  She said I could go ahead and start adding in some light jogging to my walking (um, sure, I might have already done that last week) and that by six weeks postpartum I'd be good to go.  She said it was perfectly okay to return to swimming as the cesarean incision was healed.

Leaving the doctor's appointment I was absolutely giddy.  I made a "return-to-running" plan.  This week I would do 4 minutes of walking, 1 minute of running; next week would be 3 minutes of walking, 2 minutes of running; the following week as 2 minutes of walking, 3 minutes of running etc. until I was back to fully running.  Today I headed out for a three mile run/walk and celebrated my return with my margarita socks:

I'm back, y'all.

I'm a Reading Fool

I've been a reading fool.  I finished three books in April alone.  When you're up half the night feeding the baby and trying to get him back to sleep, it's easy to get some reading done.  I have found it really great to be able to read books on my iPad and thankfully our library has a great selection of e-books (although I wish they had more).

Books I read in April:

"Sway" by Amber McRee Turner
I actually got this book free on iBooks from a promotional card at Starbucks.  This is a story about a girl who idolizes her mother, but finds out that it's her dad that is the hero.

"Forever" by Judy Blume
This book was like reading a teen romance novel.  Quick read, but a little trashy and inappropriate for a Judy Blume book.

"That's Why I'm Here" by Chris Spielman
Every Columbus-ite knows Chris and Stefanie Spielman.  They're legendary here.  Chris played football for OSU and eventually in the pros.  Stefanie, his high school sweetheart and wife, got breast cancer at the age of 30 and succumb to it 10 years later.  This is their story as written by Chris.  I used to teach their youngest daughter gymnastics and frankly, was quite intimated by the Spielmans.  This book is sad, but powerful and peaceful.

What are you reading?  What can you recommend (that I can get read in 21 days from the library)?