Seven mile "short run"

  So Saturday didn't quite go as planned but it ended up better than expected which is always nice!

  I have training runs with my running group every Saturday morning at 6am.  I knew my running partner would not be there this week - against my advice she ran 15 miles in less than 2 days and messed up her knees this week and then had to drive over 10 hours in 2 days and it took more out of her than she expected.  So I was going to brave it alone.

  I went to bed at my usual time - 10pm with the plans of unwinding and being asleep by 11 and waking up at 5 to get dressed and head out the door.

  Instead of the usual Friday night, my body decided to not go to sleep until 1am and when that alarm hit at 5am I just couldn't do it.  As a runner we are constantly told to "listen to our bodies" rather than listening to our minds and pushing too hard.  My body told me that if I did the run that morning it was not going to be good.  So I listened to it and went back to bed.  Sadly, my body also didn't want to go back to sleep so I laid in bed for another hour cursing myself for not running but also knowing that I needed the break - especially after being so sick.

  It wasn't too disappointing though - to be honest. I enjoy running with the group each Saturday but we're not half way into our runs and not one person knows who I am or really talks to me.  They talk to my running buddy all the time and when she refers to me by name she always gets "who's that?" as a response which annoys her a lot.  It bothered me at first because I really joined the group to meet new people and make friends but I've come to the realization that I'll be leaving (hopefully) in less than a year so there's really no point in getting too invested at this point.  Just waiting until I make my next move and settle somewhere new and start fresh.

  Anyway, about the run!  I ended up texting Eryn and we made plans to run our old route by the river around 11am to get our 7 miles in.  We parked where we park in the mornings for our group run and ran to the river, up and down the path and back to the car.  All in all we finished in 1 hour and 24 minutes.  Eryn had a few cramps along the way and had to walk but I pushed super hard and only ended up walking less than a half mile at one point (around mile 5.5) to stretch my legs. 

  It amazes me every time we have a long run - I look at my iPhone and smile because I remember the days I couldn't imagine running a total of 3 miles or over 20 minutes.  Now I'm running 6-8 miles pretty easily and running well over an hour every weekend.  Blows my mind.

  I'm still extremely nervous about the Half Marathon but also excited to have the experience.  I feel like once it's done I'll know what it's like and can then decide if I want to try it again.  My goal is to do at least 3 - I'd like to do the Route 66, the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon and possibly one in my hometown of Philly.  I'm not sure if I will have the time to do the Half Marathon in OKC this spring.  We'll see how my job search is going at that point and how busy I am as the semester comes to a close!

  First, I apologize for not updating in what seems like forever.  I was hit with horrible allergies 2 weeks ago and it took me out for most of the past 2 weeks - to the point I wasn't even working out because I couldn't breathe or sleep.  I thought it was the flu but thankfully I was wrong.

  So to play catch up, things have been super busy with work on top of everything else!  Never ends in my field but that's why I love it. : )

  Keeping up with my miles was very difficult while I was sick and I can't lie - I did fail at times.  I had to skip a zumba class and 2 yoga classes due to work and illness.  Depressing but I'm sure my body appreciated the time off.

  To try to work with both of our busy schedules, my running partner and I have been doing the occasional morning run.  I have to admit, I'm not a morning person.  I hate waking up before 8am but nothing is more magical than seeing this when you hit the top of a hard hill (ours is 3 to 6 miles in depending on what route we run).

  As I'm sure you can imagine, it's even more beautiful in person.  My iPhone did not do the sunrise justice!  To me, there is nothing more beautiful than coming to the end of your run and seeing such a wonderful sight - it always makes me want to push just a little bit harder and that's usually needed at the end of a run.

  I was nervous during my sick time because we had a very important upcoming race on Saturday - the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and I was actually running for someone!  The race was something my running partner had worked on the advertisements for so she really wanted to run it as our first race of the "new year."  I am lucky in the sense that no one close to me has ever had to fight any type of cancer (with the exception of a non-blood uncle) so I wanted to be able to run for someone during the race.

  As it turned out, my co-worker's mother had been diagnosed before which is why she is so passionate about the cause.  She asked if I'd run for her mother and I was honored.  My co-worker is a huge scrapbooker so she took a wonderful photo of us with the creation she made of my bib.

  Can you see the HUGE rings under my eyes... that was a few days before the race when I still felt like crap and hadn't been on meds yet.  Now I feel and look much, much better thanfully!

  Here's a close-up of her creation.  Can you tell she likes pink?

  She said our male co-worker made all the spirals so I'll include his photo too as a "thanks" for the entirely too much pink I wore (not a fan of the color).

  The race itself was amazing and I'm so glad I was able to be a part of it.  There were so many people - easily the largest race I had ever been to before.  I almost felt like it was giving me a taste of what to expect at the Route 66 Half Marathon in a little over 2 months.

  My running partner and I have both decided to have fun at the half marathon - we are planning on tutu's or something along those lines so we stand out and hopefully (finally!) get photos taken while we are running.

  The race course was a good one - not too many hills and the hills we did have were not nearly as steep as what we've been doing on our training runs lately so it was pretty easy.  I shot off as soon as I heard the gun and crossed the finish line at 28:48.  That's my 3rd best time yet so I was very happy.  I did an average 5:46 km and an average 9:17 mile.  The system messed up with groups so they said they'd have those stats to us by the end of the week.  Can't wait to see where I stand with those.

  My running group ran 3 miles to the race, ran the race and then ran 4 miles back to get their 10 miles in.  I was on duty that week and received a 3:30am call that morning so I only did the race - I didn't want to push myself and then have an accident/injury.

  Before the race....

  After I got home...

  The shirts this year are super cute as well - looking forward to adding it to the collection I've been growing since I started racing in Tulsa.

  Now just looking forward to the next few races before our half - Oktoberfest Lederhosen 4 mile race, the Tulsa Run 15k and maybe a quick 5k somewhere in there as well.  I love this time of year!! : )

Soda... bye bye

I've been trying to cut down on soda until I can finally cut it out of my life forever. I tend to give it up for Lent and then pick it up again shortly after as it's quick, easy and no calories. I know it dehydrates me and the caffeine makes me sleepy so as a runner I don't need either of these but at times, I settle because it's there. I found this today and I wanted to share it. I think I may print it out and stick it on my fridge so I can remind myself that I need to stop drinking it!!


Via: Term Life Insurance

First weekend off in forever!!

  So Eryn is going out of town this weekend and I suck at long runs by myself so we decided to allow ourselves a nice, relaxing weekend and got up at 6am to do our long run today. I honestly figured I'd do 5 miles and make up the other 4 later tonight before I go out.

  Nope.  Not quite.

  We decided to run town  because I've found (at least for me) that when I run in town I run farther because I have to get home so it's not like I can just quit - I have to finish. : )  Ways I trick my mind and body...

  We decided to start on Harvard and work our way down to Utica.  As we ran we started talking about adding some extra miles.  I suggested going down Cherry Street (it has a huge hill) and then back up on 11th.  We pushed and pushed and made that goal.  Then Eryn realized we'd hit construction if we ran down to 11th so we took 14th back home - which meant we ran up the Cherry Street hill one street over.  I know Eryn wasn't happy but I felt so good making it up that hill - knowing I was at least 5 miles in by then and not stopping.  I had no issues climbing it and made it up with relative ease.  We kept pushing through and made it back to my apartment in 1 hour and 13 minutes with 6.75 miles under our belt.  We figured we might as well finish to 9 miles so we grabbed our keys, ids, etc and walked to the gym.

  We did some intense stretching and then set to work - finishing the last 2.25 miles (or in Eryn's case - over 2.5 miles).  I stopped at 8.5 miles total and walked the last 4 laps to hit my 9 miles.  My knees were getting wobbly and my left foot was starting to hurt each time I hit the ground (time for new shoes??).

  I still can't believe we did 9 miles today!  When I checked my Nike+ I found that I cut 10 minutes off my run a few weeks ago and I only ran 7.61 then!  I even set a new 10k PR on my phone.  Pretty intense.  It blows my mind to see that I ran over 1.5 hours!!  Didn't seem like it was that long at all -  maybe an hour at most.

  I am paying for it now though - don't let me fool you.  My abs are screaming in pain and I am pooped but I have to make it through the day so I can celebrate some amazing women's birthdays tonight.  Gonna definitely take a nap after work!!

  Hope your day and weekend are as eventful as mine have already been today! ; )