1-0

Picture it: Sunday, March 20, 2011

OK?

That was the last time I had a double-digit mile run.

That is until yesterday!

10 miles in the books! I'm so excited.

I went out with the Foxtrot running group. This is a group of some pretty cool people. They're training for the Pittsburgh Marathon in May but anyone can show up for their weekend group runs. Since my friend, Sandy, and I are training for the Cook Forest 1/2, we're usually not prepared for the distance they have set to run. No biggie, we just adjust our mileage as needed.

So they had 14 miles on the agenda. I knew this was not possible for me. Sandy was thinking 10 miles and, although my schedule had a 9-miler on schedule, I was OK to try to 10.

So we met, took off and once we established our running grove, I found myself just a few steps ahead of Sandy (who was running with a gal, Kyra). When I hit the 5-mile mark, I turned around. Sandy felt good and wanted to continue, but Kyra was ready to turn around (to this point, 6 miles was her longest run). Sandy continued with the group and Kyra and I turned around and headed back to the start/finish.

For several miles we chatted and came to realize how similar our lives are - we chatted about our boys (she has 2 boys, ages 6 and 8) and their adventures in school and soccer, what we love about parochial schools, etc. Kyra started to slow and told me to push ahead and we'd meet at the end. So that's what we did.

I finished the 10.17 miles in 1:40 on the nose - setting my pace @ 9:50, which is the perfect pace for a long run!

10 miles - it's been a long time since I hit that mileage.

I'm feeling it a bit today, especially in the knees. I'm going to take it easy today and tomorrow and then hit the road again on Tuesday.

This is the group (before we took off). I'm in the pink top with the blue hat!



Training Season - it's ON!

It's February.

Already.

I haven't posted since 1/7/12.

That's unacceptable.

Since my last post, I started the official 12-week training program for the Cook Forest 1/2 Marathon.

Yes! That's the one I (over)trained for last year and then was unable to run it.

Fast-forward to today - I may not be a year faster, but I am a year smarter and have promised to train smarter and stick with the plan.

I am also thrilled to have 3 friends running the 1/2 this year - that makes for a lot of motivation.

First, there's Amy. She's an amazing runner, a wonderful person, and I'm so thrilled to be running with her. We have been training 'together' at a distance, as we live 4 hours apart. We do our training and then email each other our updates on Saturday (although she is always the one who initiates the exchange - thanks Aim!)

Next, there are Sandy and Mary. 2 truly amazing people. I work with Sandy and we're similar in that we both started running not too long ago. Mary has been running for a bit longer - she is just amazing. I've learned so much about running just by watching her at races (she's always ahead of me, I just try and keep up).

This is Mary and I at the Turkey Trot in November.

 Here comes Sandy in from her 12-miler yesterday.

So, the training has been going well  - I track it all on Mapmyrun.

Don't want to bore with details, but the basic plan is

Sunday - rest or cross-train (I've been keeping it a rest day)

Monday - cross train (usually circuit training class at work)

Tuesday - 3 - 4 mile run

Wednesday - 3-4 mile run

Thursday 3-4 mile run

Friday - rest

Saturday- long run (yesterday was my longest - 8.87 miles with the Altoona runner's group)

Running Humor

I've seen this video floating around the running blogs lately. I thought that maybe I was the only one who thought it was funny, but Jeremy and the boys watched it and they catch the humor in it too.

If you know my boys, you can easily guess what their favorite part of the video is.....

"Don't poop your pants, don't poop your pants!"

or

"Don't pants your poop, don't pants your poop!"

Love it!

I'm hoping to get out for a run today - it's beautiful here today - 49 degrees and sunny (What? In January? In the mountains of Pennsylvania? Yep :)



Twilight Race Report

Last race of the year!

Made sure my toe nails were painted for the occasion! And just to make sure that I didn't take this race too seriously, I wore my "Where's the beef?" tee shirt - funny since I haven't eaten red meat in over 20 years!
Weather was fine - about 42 degrees - it was a tad cold waiting to take off but as soon as we got started, the air felt good.

Getting ready to go! Got to chat with my friend, Monica, who was running this race for the 1st time - her goal was a sub-30:00 (spoiler -she did it!)

A little blurry, but had to add this one - check out that smile - glad I was enjoying myself.

Coming in the home stretch - always the best part of the race :)

Finished and feeling good.
I didn't really have any goals for this race - I just wanted to have a good time. I did have a good time - I really enjoyed this run (I ran it last year, but it seemed so much harder last year). Maybe taking things with a side of humor has some credit to it. I finished in 24:58 or somewhere right around that mark, which will seal up the best 5k time of 2011 for me (my PR is 24:12 in this same race last year).

After the race we went to TGIFridays for supper. Yes, while everyone else there was dressed in their finest New Year's Eve outfits, I went with my "where's the beef" shirt....

We ended the evening with a ride through Lakemont Park's Lights on the Lake (we got a ticket for free entrance as part of the race packet and we're not going to pass up something that's free!).

Jude  watching the lights.

Blurry, but you get the idea!

This is my favorite part!

The path that we drove through was the exact route of the 5k I ran earlier!

After the drive through the park, we went inside to see this train display - the boys loved it.

It was a great way to end 2011!

Tomorrow is a new year, full of possibilities and hopes!

Thanks for reading my blog!

2012, I'm Coming for You.....

Hey everyone!

Happy 2012 - the year of the dragon!

I'm heading into this year with a good outlook, much hope, good motivation, but with some sensibility! If you've been reading this blog, you know that last year I attempted training for the Cook Forest Marathon but bummed out my knee (that's my official diagnosis) and not only did I not run the 1/2, but I let it get the better of me.

Looking back, I realized I totally over-trained for that race - I went into the training with the, "more is better," mentality. I downloaded a nice training plan, but I honestly thought that if I did more than was planned each day, I would not only be able to run faster, but stronger.....wrong.
I know that now :)

This year will be different - I'll be using my head as much as, if not more, than my legs.

So what's in store for 2012?

In 2012, I will.....

1. Run more than 600 miles. If I keep up my miles as I did this year, I should accomplish this goal, no problem!

2. Finish a 'bigger' race. This would be anything longer than a 10k, since that's the longest run I've done up to this point. Will it be a 10.1k? Maybe a 15k? We'll see. The key word in this goal is finish.

3. PR in a 5k. This is a goal that, a year from now, I might be re-reading and think, "What was I thinking?" But by putting this in writing, I know it will encourage me to incorporate speed work into my training - that's the reason it's in here.

4. Increase my # of group runs. I usually run alone, but in the few times that I've run with someone or a group of people, I realized how much fun it is, so I want to do it more.

5. (Most important for me) Be smart. I need to keep in mind that more is not  better and that I need not take myself so seriously. After being out of the running circuit for almost 2 months in 2011 because of my knee injury (due to me being an idiot and over-training), I realized that I need to have balance in my training (enter my Hal Higdon training plans - which I will follow this time).

That's it? Yep - that's it! I think by making this my list, I'm already working on goal #5!

Any goal out there for you?
Make this your best year yet!

2011 Year in Review

I just took a look back @ my 2011 goals - Wow! I'm just a tad off on those....

I had BIG plans for 2011 and although it wasn't a total bust, I didn't really accomplish any of my goals. I really feel like this 2nd year of running has been my sophomore slump, starting with the knee injury and not running the Cook Forest 1/2 marathon. The other goals I missed included my weight loss goal, running all YMCA races, and running a 15K. OK - enough of this crap of what I didn't do. This year wasn't a total bomb - I did accomplish some really great milestones.

Highlights of 2011:

# OF MILES RUN:

 551.56 *

(* I'm not 100% sure this is the accurate # because I didn't track any runs during part of April, May or June - I know I took some time off from my injury, but I also recall feeling so defeated that I slacked on recording anything I ran....so, I'm guessing this estimate is off by a few miles)

2011 RACES:

4/10/11 - A 5k to Remember: 28:49

7/4/11 - 4th of July 5k: 27:08

7/16/11 - Liberty Days 5k: 25:34 (2nd place finish)

7/30/11 - Ebensburg Homecoming 5K: 28:08

9/25/11 - Pittsburgh Great Race 10k: 58:30

11/24/11 - Turkey Trot 5k: 28:01 (I'm still mad about that :01)

12/31/11 - Twilight 5k race: Yet to come :)

5k to Remember

4th of July 5k - felt good to get back out on the race circuit after the knee injury.

1-mile test run: 7:47!

FAVORITE RACE:

 Pittsburgh's Great Race

FAVORITE CROSS TRAINING EXERCISE:

 Bicycling (stationary and trail)

~ 75 miles on the bike this year

Jeremy and I on our 'date.' 13-mile bike ride on the Ghost town trail!

Although 2011 isn't over yet, I'm starting to wonder what 2012 will bring?

Stay tuned!

Turkey Trot Update

The weather was great for yesterday morning's Turkey Trot! A tad breezy, but OK.

My goal was to just go out and make some room for Thankggiving festivities by running off a few calories! That's pretty much what I did! I didn't train for this race, so I wasn't expecting anything great. I figured I'd finish in under 30:00; I did. I came in at 28:01 (why didn't I pick it up just a little to make it in under 28:00? I don't know...). There were 421 runners/walkers for the race - a great increase from last year's # (I think around 150).

Starting line - I'm in there - look for the funny blue hat (I'm just behind the guy in the maroon sweatshirt who is actually paying attention to Jeremy for the picture).

A smile on my face - must be coming in to the finish!

My boys like this race because the start/finish is @ the local fire station.

my boys + firetrucks = true love!

(that's a banana in Jude's mouth btw)

My friend, Kerri ran with her sister and nephews. I'm so proud of her.

Bummer, we didn't even get a picture together after the race.



And this is why I ran yesterday!

Another Thanksgiving in the books!

I went out Black Friday shopping this morning, mainly to get new running shoes.......I gotta take them for a test run and then I'll let ya know how they are!

RACE RESULTS:

Official time: 28:01 (9:02min/mile)

Age (30-39): 21/75

Overall: 164/421