Shedding

So I am back down to my official fighting weight for Piggy. I had gained quite a bit during my ultra training last fall. To reward myself for all my hard effort I went and shaved off a few more ounces.


I think these can double as my morning pics for Runner Susan's challenge. I look a bit groggy.



8 inches tip to tip







I had thought my only option for hair donation was Locks for Love and I needed 10 inches for that, and I am definitely not there yet but Robin showed me you can do 8 inches with Beautiful Lengths. So I hoped for the length and went and got it all chopped this morning.

It is 8 inches from tip to tip but a few layers of it are shorter so I may still send to Locks of Love as they use shorter pony tails to sell at market price and offset their manufacturing costs. I want to make sure the pony tail gets used and just looking at it from my standpoint it doesn't look long enough to make a wig out of, at least a long one :) It looks like they use several pony tails to create the actual wigs. Fascinating stuff really.

I started growing out the hair so I could have a ponytail in race picks. LOL I wanted to have the fun long hair look for my marathon photos. But I love short hair. It's so much more fun and quick to do while still looking like you put in more effort than a pony tail. I am sure it will take me a few days to get used to the short do again but I have a feeling I am going to be loving it!

I was going for the Keira Knightly look in this picture. I think it's close but it looks like my hair is too wavy to quite get it right. I may chop the top shorter next time I go in for a spikier look.

For giggles the last time I had really long hair was my senior year in high school. About a month before prom I chopped it all off.

Your Thursday Moment of Zen

Pigeon Pose

I forgot to have David take photos of me doing this series so for now you get About Yoga Lady!

Here is an explanation of how to get into this pose:

1. From Downward Facing Dog, bring the right leg up into a Downdog split.

2. Bend the right knee and swing the leg forward, bringing the right knee outside the right hand while releasing the top of the left leg to the floor.

3. Square the hips towards the floor.

4. Take padding under the right side of the butt as necessary to bring the hips square.

5. Try the following variations:

6. Bring the torso down into a forward bend over the right leg.

7. Let the weight of your body rest on the right leg.

8. Continue squaring the hips and breathing into the tightness.

9. Make sure the top of the left foot keeps pressing down into the mat.

10. Come back up, bringing the hands in line with the hips.

11. Bend the left knee and reach back for the left foot with your left hand.

12. Draw the foot towards your butt, stretching the left thigh.

12. Square your shoulders to the front of the room.

13. Release the left foot, curl the left toes under and step back to Downward Facing Dog.

14. Repeat pose on the other side.

Beginners: Be sure to take adequate padding under the right side of the butt. If necessary, use several blankets or a block.

taper madness

I swear taper is some kind of disease! I am going through lapses of extreme tiredness to bottled up energy feel like I am going to explode if I don't run this marathon right now.

Uggh. 12 more days until I get my sanity back.

Cut my track workout short last night. The first 3*1k went great right on or ahead of pace but the 4th was lacking and I figured better to cut out 1k than to explode on the 5th. I think I made the right decision as during the cool down my legs just felt like they were tapped. Probably should have brought some gatorade or fuel as I was definitely not fully recovered from Sunday. One more track workout to go next Tuesday!

4*1K 3:55, 3:54, 3:56, 4:04

Morning Sunshine

Apparently I get wavy hair when going to bed with my hair still wet. I don't think I topped Runner Susan's bed head but this is what I woke up with. This girl is still sleepy although I fell asleep a good hour and a half before my usual time. Talk about needing some Zzzs!

Week 14 Pig Training Run Down

Officially in taper mode I kept with the 3 runs this week and opted for an extra day of yoga!

This week was super busy but most of my workouts went great.

Monday-Rest
Tuesday- Track workout 8*800
Wednesday- quick at home yoga sessions in the AM and PM
Thursday- Hatha Yoga 75 Minutes
Friday- 6.5 mile run
Saturday-75 Minutes Forest Yoga
Sunday- ~11 miles with 5 mile race

Tuesdays track workout started off odd. There was a lacrosse game at the high school so after an 800 warm up we decided to head to the middle school track. We arrived there to find a track meet going so we did an 8 minute jog while waiting for them to finish up. Then stood around and watched the last two events. I couldn't believe how long it took to get through those two events but eventually they finished and we did another easy 800 before starting on the intervals.

My FIRST pace for 800s is 3:07. It was windy out and the middle school track is a bit lumpy in places so I was sure my paces would be a bit off. The workout called for 8*800 with 1:30 rest but I upped the rest to a 400 recovery, 1:30 just seemed way too short. The first few 800s went well. Before the 4th my hair tie busted. Nothing like running around with hair flapping in your face. I started to get a side stitch and struggled a bit with the rest of the 800s. Before the 7th A loaned me her hair tie and I finished out pretty strong. Luckily JG showed otherwise I am sure I would have been tempted to cut the workout to 6 800s. I am glad I got in all 8 even if a few were off pace. Ended the night with a 1 mile cool down.

800 3:08.96 400 recovery 3:04.32
800 3:08.35 400 recovery 2:53.80
800 3:07.12 400 recovery 2:45.51
800 3:09.28 400 recovery 2:59.06
800 3:10.81 400 recovery 2:58.76
800 3:17.14 400 recovery 3:27.98
800 3:11.03 400 recovery 2:59.99
800 3:11.64

Wednesday I did some sun salutations in the morning and some hip openers in the evening. Nothing heavy, just trying to loosen up.

Thursday night was my regular yoga class. We did a really tough pigeon series and my left hip was a bit off the next day but I think it really helped to loosen up those hips!

Friday I headed out with the intention of getting in my long run. I figured that way I could just run the race on Sunday as my tempo run. Well it was hot and I got a late start. I had to pee before I got 1 mile in. Luckily there was a bathroom before the 2nd mile. I was already sweating buckets and had drank almost half my handheld before I got to 4 miles. Around mile 3 I ran into a pair of geese. I hate geese. They are bold and they scare the crap out of me. I stopped and shouted and shooed the geese until they moved from the path. Got some laughs from cars passing by. My tempo so far had been fast or right on marathon pace which was good. I continued on and was just past mile 4 when I ran into another pair of geese. I proceeded with the shooeing but this pair were not moving and eventually started hissing at me and flapping their big wings so I gave up and turned around. My heart rate was probably out of control now and my pace slowed a bit on the way back. I once again came across the first pair who were not moving for me but luckily a man on his bike passed and scared them away although the one decided it would just run ahead of me flapping its wings, I was screaming at him to get out of my way, and eventually he flew into the canal. I am sure the man on his bike thought I was absolutely nuts. After all of that excitement I decided to bail when I got back to my car. I had had enough of the heat and geese for the morning.

Friday night went out with my Chicago TNT pals for some food and bowling. It was nice seeing everyone and they definitely have me considering mentoring for the Chicago tri again this year.

Saturday I woke up and headed to the west side for yoga with Trisaratops. This was a new location for me but after wandering around the place I found the class and got set up. Well I had envisioned a nice relaxing stretch session but this teacher put us to work! My abs are still sore today from just the first few minutes of class! I definitely got my moneys worth.

After yoga we headed to Panera to meet up with Daisy Duc, MT, and BH. We had fun chatting and chowing down and I managed to get fried by the sun in the short time we were there.

After breakfast I headed over to my friends place in Westlake. I spent the day sunning myself, drawing up garden plans, gossipping, painting toenails, and going to an impromptu B-Day party for one of the TNT honorees. The weather was gorgeous and I had a great time. In the evening we ran over to an open house at GC's to celebrate the new addition to the house and the new addition to the family. Got in some good conversation a glass of wine and some cookies before heading back to Westlake. A bit more girl chat and it was time for bed.

Woke up early and headed to Bedford for the 5 mile race. After the race I went home and mowed the lawn, vegged for a bit, talked with Su, then watched a movie. By the time evening rolled around I was beat and ready for a good nights rest before starting off another week!

Hope everyone had great weeks and that this week trends toward greatness too!

A New PR and a Free Car Wash

Our club always has a bunch of runners who go to Bedford to run the annual pancake run. You know me if a race has good food, I'm there, so this morning I woke up early and headed out to race with my friends.

I ran inside to get my bib and got lucky number 177. Anything with 77 or 777 is always good in my book so i just knew that was a good sign. I headed out for a warm up with KM and B50. My girls are so great and they did 30 minutes with me despite it already being warm and Bedford having no flat places to warm up on. I wanted to get in 13 this morning. So a longer warm up was ideal to have less after the race and to keep me from running too hard and doing something stupid two weeks before pig. We discussed race plans and I wanted to be in the 7 minute range. I screwed up my workouts this week and was supposed to do a 5 mile run at 7:19 pace so I figured if I could get somewhere around 35-36 that would make up for that and then I wouldn't worry about my warm up and cool down pace. Towards the end of the run I joked that maybe I would just try to win the whole thing.

Well we got started and just like Spring Classic I was out in front. But I felt much better than Spring Classic this morning. The first mile I felt strong but even keeled I didn't feel like I was pushing too hard so i was shocked to hear 6:15 as I passed the marker. I wrote it off as being way short. At least that is what I hoped as if I really ran a 6:15 I was sure to pay for it. The second mile headed slightly uphill but we had a nice breeze coming at us that made the harder effort feel reasonable. I felt strong and just tried to keep an even effort. 2nd mile marker 7:06. Perfect. I felt like that was probably a more realistic pace and that I could hold it the rest of the race.

At the few corners we took i would glance back but I never saw any females. I was getting excited that i might be able to bring home a win. The third mile I hit 7:11. There was one water stop between 2 and 3 and I took advantage. It was really warm this morning and my throat felt really dry despite hydrating well.

The 4th mile got a bit rough with some slight inclines and the wind at our back not doing much to cool you off. I think the actual marker was a bit before the man calling times but I went with him for the split at 7:33 and 28:06. I made a mental check to pick up pace on any downs to try and hug 7 minutes to come in at 35. The last mile was a bit up and a bit down and finished on the high school track. I thought before we hit the track, please let it be less than a lap but we got to do a near full lap before we reached the finish. I held off on any kick until the last 100 meters in case any women were coming I wanted to be able to turn it on. Last mile I hit 6:58 for 35:05, a new 5 mile PR for me.

I made sure to thank all the volunteers I passed on the course today and cheered on EM's kids who were finishing their 2 mile race as I was coming in for my track finish, and I smiled big for the photographer at the end of the race. I feel like when you run a happy and enthusiastic race the karma gods have got to smile back at you and it looks like today they did.

I am super stoked. I don't think I have won a road race ever and the last cross country race I won was probably my sophomore year of high school. I realize this was just a small local race, and my pace wasn't breaking any records, but it felt good to lead a race the whole way and finish first. Also it was nice I had the option of running a tactical race and not having to push hard at the end to grab the win.

I grabbed some water and powerade and cheered on club members. EM came in 3rd and KM 4th (1st master) B50 ran great despite being hung over and having done the 30 minute warm up with us and won her age group. This race is always a blast as it is a nice race for SERC to show how talented all our runners are. Plus you get pancakes!

The girls and I got in a 10 minute cool down before heading in for the awards and the pancakes. They accidentally got two women's masters plaques and no overall plaque for women so I didn't actually get any hardware but I did get a free car wash, which in all honesty is much better than any award. I am all about prizes you can use! So I told the race director not to bother ordering an award as it would just go in my little cardboard box of random age group wins. I can't wait to go get my car washed though! It needs it!


After the awards and a pancake breakfast I headed out with B50 for another 20 minutes. It was super hot at this point and since we had just eaten we took it easy. I figure I got in around 11 today so I am happy with that.

All in all a very good morning for me! And what a great mental boost for me going into pig!

Thursday Moment of Zen

I can't wait for yoga tonight! This pose is thread the needle and that is me, not falling! Imagine that.

Week 13- Pig Training Run-Down

Quick Stats Check

Lots of Rest this week, looks like someone was ready for taper a week early!

Monday-Rest
Tuesday-Track 10*400
Wednesday-63 minute run easy-medium effort
Thursday- Rest (If Girls Night Out can really be considered rest)
Friday- Rest
Saturday- 20 miles (Plus half a day of car shopping! Where do I get all this energy from?)
Sunday- Rest (Big slacker here just did not want to drive the hour plus to me scheduled swim)

Tuesdays track workout went well. I was at or below my pace on every 400. The FIRST plan called for 400 rest between each but I cut that to 200. 400 rest for a 400 interval seemed excessive, especially when only doing 10. This worked out fine for me and got me off the track earlier. Almost all the quarters were at 1:29, a few at 1:30, one at 1:31, and the last at 1:26

Wednesday I headed out with Jen in the rain at NCR. I tried to get everyone on the trails but they were pretty sloppy so the majority of the run was on paved path. It was windy out and Jen had fartleks to do so we paced through 5*4 minutes at Jens zone 3/3 minute easy and took it easy the rest of the run. Nice little run for me. I'll miss these jaunts the next three weeks while I back off on any extra runs.

Thursday was GNO and I missed my tempo run. But wine and gossip were consumed and a good time was had by all.


This was hanging in the bathroom of the Dilly Deli, it made me laugh because I think this is what all the male SERC runners think GNO is all about.

Friday night my parents came into town so we went out for dinner, I got sliders yum! and we played Pinochle until I had to head to bed.

After about 4 hours of sleep I woke up and got ready for my last long run before pig. Drove in the dark to our starting place where my cell rang as I was pulling to see two little furry legs sticking out of a trash basket. Oops looks like I interrupted someones 5AM snack! Those raccoons are smart guys, had he not left those little legs stuffed out he would have got stuck in the can! The phone was Daisy asking where I was. We had a miscommunication on the start location so I directed her to where I was, hopping out of my car and using my headlamp to read the handy park map on the info station (making sure to give the raccoon plenty of space).

Shortly thereafter Daisy and her friend MT arrived and we headed off into the dark. I had my headlamp and Daisy had a handy flashlight. The sun didn't start to rise until we were about 4 miles in. Funny how in the dark the course seemed much flatter as on the way back I noticed hills that weren't there in the morning. We had some good conversation and I was super pleased to be done with 20 miles before most folks were out of bed.

I hurried home and got ready to go car shopping. My parents came along to help. Friends had been pushing the Mazda3 on us so we went and checked out the Mazda dealer. Took a test drive in a Mazda 3 5 door touring model with a few added perks. The price was much higher than I wanted but we figured test driving wouldn't hurt. Well several hours later we made a deal and got the car for payments just slightly higher than I budgeted for (with the help of a down payment from mom and dad, thanks so much!). It really does seem like a nice car and David seems very happy with it. When my focus goes in 3 years or so though I will be buying another Ford. One foreign made car per household seems like enough to me. Next time I think we will have a few more tricks up our sleeves to get an even better deal!

We headed home for some more gaming action and dinner before my parents had to head home.

Sunday morning came too quickly and I decided to sleep in instead of making the drive across Cleveland for my swim. Instead I ended up cleaning out my closet and getting rid of a bunch of t-shirts while watching Ray. Runner Susan would be so proud of my now organized and color coded wardrobe :)

So a little more rest and no cross training this week, but I still got in some good runs so I am not too worried. Now it is time to focus on my mental prep, fine tuning, and lots of stretching until the big show on May 6th!

Taper Time

The Final 20 is in the Piggy Bank.

And the winner is...

From our Team Captain

"

Dude, Where's My Van?

YAY!

YAY!

APPLAUSE!

APPLAUSE!

WE HAVE NAME!!!

ITS OVER!

THE NAME GAME IS OVER!

Dude, Where's My Van?

THANK GOD!

It took us longer to decide on a team name, then it does to pick the president of the USA

I laughed, I cried, its better than cats!

Lets kick some butt"

So Anonymous it is time to come forward if you want to claim your wonderful prize! If you wish to remain anonymous I will get a Wild Bill T-Shirt to our runner up as soon as I can find Wild Bill! He has been sick and not running with the group the past few weeks. Hopefully he is feeling better and has a few extra shirts on hand for this wonderful moment! (Our runner up was Masochists in Motion from Journey to a Centum)

Thanks everyone for all the great suggestions!

Grateful

Every week at Yoga we start off with chanting and then we go around the room introducing ourselves and stating something that we are grateful for. Tonight will be my first Thursday in about 12 weeks I won't be at yoga as I will be partying with my running gals for Girl's Night Out but I wanted to take a few minutes and remember to be grateful.

This week I have really thought about how grateful I am to have such wonderful loving parents. It is easy sometimes to take that for granted as I realized that I haven't actually seen them since Christmas. Thankfully they are making a trip down to visit this weekend.

I have plenty of reasons to be grateful for my parents but as this is pretty much a running blog tonight I have focused on how lucky I am that my parents allowed me to follow my own path in life and never made me feel like I couldn't do something. Many women grow up feeling inferior to men and are forced to do "girly" things and choose "girly" hobbies. From a young age I was cycling, golfing, bowling, hiking, you name it. If I wanted to do it I got to do it. They even let me try some feminine venues too, including Ballet (which I was horrible at and they luckily let me quit after my first recital).

So today I just wanted to take a few minutes and focus on how lucky I am that my parents encouraged me to pursue my own path. How my mom and dad always included me in their own pursuits and how I never grew up knowing that certain hobbies were "just for the boys."

Thanks Mom and Dad! I love you!

Week 12- Pig Training Run Down

Stats

Monday- 4 mile recovery run
Tuesday- 20 minute bike, yard work (mowed the lawn, weeded, moved some bricks)
Wednesday- ~8.25 mile run with treadmill hill repeats, quick weights and lunges
Thursday- Yoga 75 minutes
Friday- Rest
Saturday- Spring Classic 1:40:59 plus 30 minute warm up run
Sunday- 12 miles in the snow easy

Not a bad week mileage wise. Not what FIRST had on tap but I will take it. Some times you just have to go with the flow. This week was all screwed up by the car problems and weather but I managed to salvage my training regardless and got in a pretty damn good race to boot.

Now lets hope this snow melts before Tuesdays track workout!

Happy Easter!

Cinci Recap Via Pictures

First night we rolled into town we played Caboodle. Very fun cooperative game involving charades, drawing, and word play to get through a stack of cards. I seriously could not believe it when David guessed the one above. I was thrilled! Any guesses?

Some tasty beverages were consumed and we finally called it a night at 3 AM.

Saturday we headed downtown to drive the course and check out David's sis's boyfriends (I know that was confusing) buildings he is working on. Very cool buildings downtown they are going to turn into a hotel. Lots of stair climbing!

View from about mile 8 of the flying pig. This is also where I met Rae and Brent last year during the pig! Let's hope the weather is a bit nicer than it was during our tour of the course last weekend.

We headed to C and J's place for some gaming action and got in some Guitar Hero and Wii before heading to dinner at the Dilly Deli and then off to Graters for ice cream. I was so freaking stuffed it was honestly hard to enjoy the ice cream. I was also disappointed that I could not get coconut topping as the big cake with coconut on it under the counter looked so tempting!

After another late night we woke to beautiful weather and we got in a round of putt putt as well as some time at the dog park. Then it was home for some corn hole, Euchre, and Uno Attack!

I forgot the camera that evening but I had a lovely run while they went to a softball game. We headed home for some more gaming action before calling it a night.

Monday we headed back to C&Js and I perfected my guitar hero skills while the boys played 40K. I also went for a short recovery run. Then it was time to drive home.

It was a great weekend! Can't wait to go back in a few short weeks!

It is April isn't it?

Just Tuesday I was in the yard weeding and admiring my beautiful blooms and getting a tan. Now my poor blooms are under snow.

Not quite as much snow as my MIL's tulips are under though.





The birds are seriously confused!

And what is up with Blogger using my Picasa album space for blogger pics now? Lame!!!

Auto Pilot

Woke up bright and early this morning for the "spring" classic. I think it should definitely have been called the winter classic though as it was about 30 degrees.

I didn't want to worry about the temperatures though and how that would affect me. I wanted to go and race and see how I fared. I came up a bit short of expectations.

We got to the race early despite sloppy traffic conditions which worked out great. About 10 minutes later and we would have lost a place in the prime parking area. The one within walking distance that also wouldn't have to drive through the race traffic on the way out. Score!


Telling Risko where to park before heading to my warm up

I started my warm up and headed to the bathroom. I decided to try something new today (I know I know!) and not drink any fluids before the race except for a cup of earl grey and a cup of green tea (I have done this for both my last long runs so it wasn't entirely new, just new for race day). I am notorious for having to pee for an entire half marathon. I did not want to deal with that today and it turns out my little experiment worked out just fine. I drink more H20 than anyone I know during the week so I highly doubt I am starting my day completely dehydrated anyways. I think I will take this into account for pig. If anything I will have one small glass of gatorade with carbo pro first thing when I wake up, my teas, then nothing until the first aid station.

Warm up went well. Easy 30 minutes with some jogging in place while waiting for the restroom. The snow was slowing and the roads weren't bad enough to warrant trail shoes. My feet were already wet though and I wasn't exactly thrilled about that.

Got to the starting line with a few minutes to spare. Tried to find my husband but he must have been behind the crowd so I hollered "I love you David" in the silence before we set off. I set out at what I thought race pace should be with DaisyDuc at my side and to my surprise Risko joined us for the first mile or so (she hasn't run over 9 miles since Marine Corps hence my surprise). She said she wanted to say she lead the race so she jumped in front of us for a few then fell back into a better pace. I was seriously worried that there weren't any other women in front of us. On my best day I shouldn't be leading a half marathon. I decided it was just that no real competition had showed and stuck to the pace.

Hmm not so much. The first mile was 7:00 (S from VR claims this was a short mile but still too fast! I should have gone out more conservatively than that). Daisy and I stayed even and we got passed by the first lady just before mile 2. I still felt good and we cruised through at 7:10. Still too damn fast. But for some reason I didn't back it off. We kept the effort the same but mile 3 was slow. 7:44. Brilliant, I'm doing what feels like half effort and now I am at marathon pace, WTF. But I just kept it even.

The course is a pretty flat, out and back, out and back. So we made a hairpin turn before hitting mile 4 in 7:24. This is the pace I was looking for and I was starting to feel better about the race. Around this mile the 2nd women passed us. I was feeling pretty peppy and thought there was a good chance Daisy and I could round out 3 & 4 for the day. Next mile 7:24. Perfect. Something changed before mile 6 though and I lost my peppy edge. My legs just went into auto pilot. Mentally I decided that was fine. I should run my own pace in hopes that I could kick it in strong at the end. I had done it at River Run in October and it worked out great. So I let Daisy edge ahead of me. Mile 6, 7:52 not so great but I was at 44:36 which was still the overall pace I wanted. Smiled for my hubby and high fived the volunteer before making the jaunt onto the trail. The trail was icy and footing was sloppy. My group got a good edge on me here as it seemed like they weren't phased at all while I was unsure of my footing and couldn't keep pace.

I could hear some chatter behind me and knew that I was about to be passed by another female. She sounded chipper and relaxed. I wish I had felt that way but I was just not able to move my legs any faster. Auto pilot was set and it wasn't moving. I had run with the lady on the warm up and she had just run Athens marathon last weekend and is planning to run a 3:19 at Pig. All I have to say is more power to her. She's is gonna rock the pig for sure.

Mile 7 came by in 7:55. Mile 8 in 7:48 I was passed by some guys that called their mile split to each other, 7:19. I entertained the thought of drafting off them but I just wasn't picking up steam. I started walking through water stops now. On one of the turns I realized Daisy's friend wasn't too far back but I was pretty confident I could hold the gap and come in 5th. I had Daisy in my sights but I wasn't closing on her. She had about a one minute gap on me that wasn't budging. I hit Mile 9 in 7:57. One mile till the race starts. I just held steady to my pace and smiled and thanked volunteers. Hit the hairpin turn and turned back for the last stretch of the race. Mile 10 came in 7:50. I knew there was no chance for a PR at this point but I just hoped for the best. Around here I saw Risko and she cheered "You're a tiger! You're a Tiger!" I growled for the crowd and laughed but unfortunately it didn't give me the boost I am sure she hoped it would.

Three miles to go. Anyone can race a 5k! I upped the effort a bit but the wind kicked in and I just wasn't going any faster. My fleece pants were nice for warmth but the wind made them flap around and I was kicking the hem which wasn't helping my foot speed for sure. Mile 11 came in 7:56. Rootsrunner gave me some encouragement, and Gatorade, as I walked through the aid station. I pushed a bit after that but auto pilot was not letting me pick up speed. Mile 12 brought more of the same in 7:53. I could still see Daisy ahead of me and I did my best to close in on her but despite my efforts my last mile was my slowest. 13 was 8:11, what a kick in the face after remaining under 8 the rest of the race! Kicked it in for a finish time of 1:40:59. Placed first in my age group and took 5th overall.

I am not sure how much the weather had an affect on my race today, how much of it was going out too fast, and how much of it was just mental. I let my head get in the way. I don't think I was 100% invested in the PR today and I just didn't go after it like I should have. I'm fine with it. My big race isn't the spring classic, it's the Flying Pig. But boy a PR would have been a nice ego boost. Instead I will be happy that I ran strong and endured the race at the pace that I was supposed to run 15 at today. With the warm up I did just that. Besides it's not every day I place top 5 in a half marathon. I have only run 8 half marathons so far. This one ranks as number 4. So better than half of those I have run. I should definitely be happy about that.

I was never in any serious pain today. I just wasn't feeling it. There was a spark missing that I have had at most of my races the past few years. When I finished I did feel queasy and almost lost my cookies but deep down I know I have run harder than that and endured worse than that. I think auto pilot just did me in today. If I want a PR I am going to have to dig deeper than I did today and endure a bit more suffering to get it. I can't just show up, run auto pilot, and expect a miracle!

So I know now that I have to keep working on the mental aspect of running for pig. When pace starts to falter I need to be able to remind myself of all the reasons I want to run a 3:25 and I can't let myself settle. I have to be willing to dig in a bit to get what I want. I have to bring my A game and not the auto pilot!

All Fixed

Apparently my spring coil broke. I guess that was the loud boom we heard while driving 70 MPH on the freeway. But as nothing seemed to act up afterwards we assumed we hit an invisible bump. That is until we slowed to stop at the rest area and the car started making funny knocking/pinging noises when turning at low speeds. So I called first thing Tuesday morning and they got me in at 2 PM.

Luckily for me the part has an extended warranty and everything got fixed for free! Unluckily for me it wasn't in time for me to hit the track. But I did get in a nice short bike ride and realized perhaps I do miss the cycling thing. Unfortunately I won't be riding outside again for a bit as Old Man winter decided to return yesterday. What a shock to the system after running in 70 degree weather this weekend!

I was way under-dressed last night and luckily Jen took pity on me and we ran indoors. But I still got in a nice 16 minute run in the snow and wind in my shorts! I can't begin to explain how cold it was when the wind hit me square on. Treadmills still aren't fun but I think it was better than the alternative. I did 5*90 second treadmill hill repeats at 7.8 mph (inclines 5.5,5.5,6, half 5.5 half 6, start at 3 and work up to 6) to boost my hill skills and ended up with a little over 8 miles last night. Afterwards I did some quick biceps, triceps and shoulder presses, then some lunges and stretching. I guess that is the bonus of running inside!

Have no fear I am sure I will be entirely overdressed this weekend for the spring classic half marathon. I decided to get in a test race to see if 3:25 is indeed achievable. Unfortunately the weather isn't going to be great so I will have to take that into account. Regardless I am going for a PR as long as I feel semi decent and I have no unusual pain. No repeats of River Run last year.

Good luck to all those racing this weekend!

Congrats to Jodi and Janet who had great races last weekend. And huge congrats to Trisaratops on her pregnancy! Very excited for all of my Cleveland friends!

I won!

Man the gaming luck was just with me this weekend. I had an excellent round of putt putt, won a few euchre games, rocked out to Guitar Hero, Golfed a perfect par on the Wii...and now I won the RBF March Madness bracket! Who knew? I have never followed college basketball so it was fun rooting for all the teams, and coming out with the win!

On a sad note my car started acting up on the way home and is promising to screw up this weeks training. Track workout tonight is most likely off and I will have to trade it in for a bike ride from and probably back to the dealership since they are all out of rentals and David won't get home until after the service shop is closed, lovely. On top of that the appointment is for 2 so I really couldn't get into work either and will have to make it up on Saturday.

So now I am off to prep my bike and try to be productive around the house. Gotta make the best of this day off! Keep your fingers crossed that the repairs are cheap and quick!

The Gnats Come out at Night (Week 11 Pig Training Run Down)

We've been visiting in-laws in Cinci this weekend and having a great time. Not much time for running but we drove the course yesterday and I am feeling even better about the race.

Just got back from a nice relaxing hour and 40 minute hilly run, other than the gnats. Lots of hills and lots of people. Beautiful park with a couple different trails. I did the marked 2.6 mile trail twice to gage pace and then headed out on some wooded trails and had a run in with the gnats, for the rest of the run. They were everywhere! I think there may still be some in my hair and eyes ;)

Didn't manage to get in my tempo or 20 mile run this week but I did get in a great track workout on Tuesday, a fun trail run Wednesday, and tonights hilly run. I may have a chance to get in 20 tomorrow morning still so I will keep my fingers crossed.

Quick week run down, lots of rest this week which was probably good as I could feel my hip getting a bit tight and my calves protesting a bit more.

Monday- Rest (Work Bowling Outing)
Tuesday- Track 6.5 miles 1,000, 2,000, 2*1,000
Wednesday- 6 mile trail run
Thursday- Yoga 75 minutes
Friday- rest (driving to Cinci)
Saturday- Rest (Lots of beer drinking and game playing)
Sunday- ~11 mile hilly run

Now I am off to enjoy the rest of my weekend! God it's nice to have a 3 day weekend with no committments!