Monday, March 31, 2008

Saturday, March 29, 2008

WooooooooooooHooooooooooooo, Ya Ya Ya Ya Ya, God Bless the U.S.A and My Running Legs, BaBam, I am Awesome! 21 miles!

Yes you read it right, my 20 mile run today turned into a 21 mile run! Don't be too impressed, I ran it kind of slow. 3 hours 37 minutes, 10:22 minute mile average, actually, yes, be impressed. I went 21 miles for crying out loud!! :) The thing that I have loved about training for this marathon is that I am constantly amazing myself, today being no exception. Let me start from the beginning.

I met my friend Carla at 7 this morning and we took her car 7 miles down the Orting trail, parked it and went back to the hometown to start. I had my capris on and then decided to change into my skirt since that is what I was thinking of wearing in the actual marathon. It was a little cold, but I didn't mind. We got going and I felt great right from the beginning! We were doing 10 minute miles. (I stopped at mile 4 to uses the facilities and put my iPod under my sleeve. Rain, but not too bad) I felt a little tired at mile 5, so I took a gel pack. We met up with my sister in law Lindsay at mile 7. I said good bye to Carla and welcomed Lindsay. I started running slower because Lindsay's pace is a little slower than mine, by about a minute. At mile 11.75 my stomach felt a little hungry. So I took another gel pack. We had gone out three miles and then turned around, so we got back to her car at mile 13 for me. I took 600 milligrams of ibuprofen and pushed on. I knew we couldn't stop for long because I was cramping up. After that I told Lindser I was going to push ahead a little lit but would not get too far ahead before coming back to her. This was working well and then I looked back and she was walking. (She doesn't have a fuel belt) So I ran back to her and discovered that she was so hot she felt like she was going to pass out! She was wearing under armour on the top and the bottom. I told her to stip down right on that trail, next to the road and take off that under armour top. So I held her hat, watch, and ipod and had her T-shirt ready to put on quick while she took off the under armour top. It was kind of funny. I gave her a water bottle and the problem was solved! I was still feeling really good. When we got back to the spot where I used the bathroom, sure enough, Carla's dropped water bottle was still there! (Mile 16ish)I ran it back to Lindsay and continued on my way. I kept making sure I didn't lose sight of Lindsay, and if I did, I immediately turned around to go back to find her. At mile 18 I took another gel pack. Doing this made me realize I was HUNGRY!! You know like when you don't know you're hungry and then you eat something and think, holy cow I'm hungry. That is exactly what happened. So at mile 19 I ate a pack of lunar moons. Basically they are suppose to be like a gel pack, but they are gummies, kind of like gum drops. They were good too. I was still feeling good, especially after eating the gel pack and moons. I was PUMPED when I hit mile 20! (3 hours 27 minutes) I made a big scene throwing my arms up in the air! However I was not at the start. I had picked up some extra mileage checking on Lindser. I was feeling really good, so I kept going. I didn't want to walk a mile back to my car. (I wasn't really sure how far it was at the time.) When I could see my car, I was at 20.8 miles. I was too close to not make it an even 21 miles. So I just went until I hit 21 and then stopped and walked. I was sooooooo excited to be done and so proud of myself. Once again I felt a little overwhelmed by emotion. My eyes watered a tiny, but no tear drops or anything. I couldn't believe I had just run 21 miles and I actually felt pretty dang good. I was tired, of course, but my knees felt good, my hips felt good. What a relief. At that moment, I KNEW that I could do this marathon!! I have complete confidence in myself now. The only thing that bothered my while running was the balls of my feet. All that pound pound on the ground was taking it's toll, but nothing too bad, just annoying. Overall, I felt great. I amazed myself today!!


Look out SLC, here I come, and I am ready!!!!!!


P.S. After the run I went to Farelli's and got a full size order of cheesy bread sticks with ranch and marinara sauce. I ate 2/3 of that baby loaded up with ranch. It was like one part bread stick, two parts ranch. Then I got home and took a two hour nap. I'm feeling it now. I got out of bed and my legs were like lead. They didn't want to move. My muscles are a little tight everywhere and my hip is hurting somewhat. But still, that's pretty darn good. I ran 21 miles today!!!! Go me. (I think I'm finally done bragging.) :)

P.S.S. A special thanks to Carla and Lindser for making this a great run. I couldn't have done it without you!

P.S.S. I just want to note that all week I had told myself this was going to be a great run. And it was. Never underestimate the power of the mind!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

8 miles

I had a good, but cold run outside tonight. The only problem was the route I took had me stopping to cross streets way to much! And about half way through I had to go to the bathroom and so I chose to go into the Whole Foods Grocery store as apposed to the AMPM across the street. Turns out there was a line at the grocery store and I swear it took 10 minutes. As a bonus though, there were drinking fountains right next to the bathrooms. :)

Mind Body Spirit Update

I just wanted to write a post about how I'm feeling. With a mere three and a half weeks until race day, I'm starting to get really nervous. There are a couple of reasons why.

1. My back is bothering me more than I care to admit. I'm worried after this weekend's 20 mile run, I may be out of commission.


2. On the marathon mommies blog, girls were posting about how they are doing and I noticed most everyone had already completed a 20 mile run and still had one or more to go. I, on the other had, am only doing one. I'm just so worried that my training isn't going to be enough. The truth is, I am confident that I will finish. Period. The problem is that I do have a time in my mind that I would like to finish in, 4hours 20 min. or less, and I think I am going to be disappointed if I don't make that. And I'm nervous that my body is going to be a wreck by the end of it. At the same time, I am super glad that I jumped from the intermediate plan to the beginner plan when I originally hurt my back. I really don't think I would have lasted much longer on the intermediate plan.

I'm also getting worried about what I'm going to wear and what I'm going to carry with me.

I can't even tell you how bummed I am that Nate and the kids are no longer going to be able to come. Now that we know Nate is going to BYU in the fall, it doesn't make sense to pay for everyone to go to SLC when we will be moving there three months later. Originally, it was going to be our final trip to Utah before going to the East Coast, or staying here. Funny how life works. In every marathon vision that I have had, the kids are there at the finish line with Nate. And actually I envisioned them along the course too holding signs. I just really wanted them to have a memory of their Mom accomplishing something great. So bummed. My mom did buy a ticket to come so that's exciting. Plus I will have my two sisters there, Kimm and Kylee, two sisters in law, Lindsay and Jana- two of Nate's sisters may even come, and one brother there, Jeff. So it's not like I'm going to be totally by myself. And of course I'm meeting up with some marathon mommies the day before, so that is super exciting and who knows, maybe one of them may want to run at the same pace that I want to. That would be cool.

Also, my feet are nasty! It is now officially spring and my feet couldn't be in any worse shape to be in sandals! Because I think only Kelly and Michelle look at this blog(and I really appreciate your comments and support!!!!!!!) I am going to post a picture! Warning, total nastiness below!





Despite all my worries, I am totally totally totally excited and can't believe that race day is almost here!!!!! Wow, what a journey this has been so far.

P.S. I forgot to mention that my achilles tendons do feel much better than they have in a while. All that icing and ibuprofen paid off!

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

5 speed training miles

I did the same work out that I did last Tuesday.

2 miles half marathon pace

1 mile 10k pace

1 mile 10k pace

800meters 5k pace
800 meters 5k pace


I love this work out so much!!! The problem is that tomorrow I'll run outside for 8 miles, and then on Thursday when I have to go back to the gym, it will be hard to do 5 regular treadmill miles. Oh well, life goes on.

Monday: 4 elliptical miles

Monday, March 24, 2008

Saturday: 13.1 miles

I decided while I was running that I would do a half marathon instead of my 12 scheduled miles. Mostly because I had done a 4 mile run instead of a 5 the day before. I started out at a pretty fast pace and just decided to go with it. It lasted about 2 miles and then I slowed down to about a 9:45 second pace. I decided to keep it there because that's the pace I would like to run the marathon at. I got myself on a new trail by accident, the sidewalk took an unexpected turn under a bridge, and I decided to go with it. I was pretty sure it would dump me out onto the Lake Sammamish trail. It did. About .25 miles from that was another new trail that I was planning on trying out. It was the Issaquah-Preston trail. It was super great at first. I was loving it. The weather was beautiful too! Then it started climbing, up, up, up. I kept pushing along and around every turn there was more hill to be conquered. I thought maybe I was half way to Mt. Rainier at this point! Then the paved trail turned into a gravel little trail and I was in the wilderness! NOT my scene. I'm a big scaredy cat and was imaging mountain lions ready to pounce on me. So I turned around and went back to the Lake Sammamish trail. Turns out I ran up for .9 of a mile! That seems big to me. The rest of the run was pretty uneventful. I tried to keep my pace under 10 minutes. I had to push myself pretty good to do that. Also I had to use hammer gels as apposed to my regular power gels. NEVER again. They are just too thick and just didn't quite give me the boost I was looking for. The plain flavor was the nastiest thing EVER! The apple cinnamon actually wasn't that bad. I finished my own personal 1/2 marathon in 2 hours 7 minutes and some change. My pace was 9 min. 44 sec. average. I was a tiny bit discouraged because that is the pace I want to sustain for the full marathon and I was spent by the end of my run. However, I am still getting over a cold and feel like my lungs aren't quite back to normal yet. Also, my back was giving me more grief than normal and still is. I have been icing and taking anti-inflammatories hoping to keep it under control.......... especially for my 20 mile run this weekend! Yikes!

Friday March 21st- 4 treadmill miles

Thursday= Big fat skipped day.

I was at Jordan's track meet in the hometown and just didn't make it home in time to get to the gym.

Wed. -8 mile run outside!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Speed Training!- Tuesday March 18th

I came across this speed training workout on Julia's blog. (The girl that Erin writes to). So I thought I would give it a try. Can I just tell you I loved it! It felt so good to run faster than normal! My five miles flew by. Here was my workout.

2 miles at 1/2 marathon pace. 8:49 min./mile

3 minutes walk/rest

1 mile 10K pace. 8:00 min/mile

2 minutes walk/rest

1 mile 10K pace

2 minutes walk/rest

800 meters 5K pace. 7:19 min./mile

1 minute walk/rest

800 meters 5K pace.

Will all the resting and my small warm up and cool down I went a total of 6 miles. I feel really good. AND I did this workout from 10 to 11pm tonight! Nate hit the gym first tonight when the kids went to bed, that's why it was so late. I almost skipped it too, but I knew I could not skip any more runs! I should mention that Nate deserved to go to the gym first as I took a nap the second he walked in the door at 5pm and didn't get up until 7:30pm!

4 Elliptical Miles- Monday

Saturday, March 15, 2008

18 Hard Hard Miles

But I did it.

In my chant that I say to get psyched up mentally I say, "I am mind-body-spirit strong." Today I was none of those things.

I basically had myself psyched out from the beginning. All day on Friday I kept thinking about all the reasons why the run would be hard. 1.I was alone. 2.It was 18 miles, the longest I've run. 3.It was going to be rainy 4.I was on a trail that I had a bad run on the last time I was on it. The trail is dreary and boring. Dead brown grass all around, next to a river. 5.I only managed one 5 mile run during the week. (The reason there aren't posts between last Saturday's run and this one.)

So pretty much I hit a wall before I even began. Every step was tough.

But on the bright side, my body(knees,hips) felt surprisingly really good for 18 miles! I felt confident about that. Even tough it was such a tough run, I still managed an average of 10:16 sec. miles.

One of the things that saved me on this run was the fact that at mile 6 the trail turned out to be part of the course of the first half marathon that I ran! It was fun to think about that as I ran along the course. It was miles 10-13 of the half marathon. I was running it backward when I got to it, but when I turned around, then I was running the same direction as I did when I ran the half. So that was fun to think about.

Anyway, glad it's over! And even though it was a very tough run, and I wondered the whole time why I was even doing it, I'm still grateful that I can run. I'm not taking it for granted.

Looking forward to a shorter run next weekend!

Monday, March 10, 2008

16 miles WooooHoooooo!

I ran out on the orting trail for this run. It was so great. I started out with my friend Carla, (Debbie is still injured and I'm getting worried our running days together are over. Poor Debbie), and we ran together for 7.5 miles. We parked her car out at the orting park which was 7 miles from where we started. She wanted to run 8 miles, so that why at 7.5 she turned around and went back to her car. It was nice to run with her. I was dreading running back by myself, but I actually enjoyed it. It was a perfect day for running too! I took gel packs at mile 4.8, 9.8, and 14. I hit a wall at about mile 12 and then put my playlist back to the beginning, because that's where my favorites are, and it really helped. I also used my visualization technique for when I'm tired. I basically imagine myself bursting off the tired outside layer of myself. I actually close my eyes for a second and open them with a burst and say, "poof." I'm kind of embarrassed to admit it, but it really works. I felt way better and then took a gel pack at mile 14 and boy that really helped too. The first two I took were with no caffeine, because it negatively affects my intestines, and I waited to use the caffeinated one until the end. It works like a miracle. I'm telling you I think my fastest mile was my last mile! The running group that Lindsay belongs to was running on the same trail and they were there at the finish. The head guy saw me a few times along the trail and when just about finished he gave my a little encouragement. I liked that.
As far as my body is concerned, I was really happy. My back did WAY better than I had expected, and I just had the usually aches that go along with running. I was sore the next day, but hey, what else is to be expected? So I'm happy and feeling more confident at this point!!

Thursday, March 6, 2008

4 miles

For some reason this was a hard run for me. After 1/4 of a mile, I had decided I was quitting at 1 mile. But when I got to one mile, the Eye of a Tiger song was on so I kept going. Once again I used my chant in my head over and over and I made it four miles. I think the problem was that I wore the most annoying shorts in the world. They are mesh shorts with spandex underneath and the spandex was riding up like crazy. Ugh. I will never wear them again!!! Physically I felt pretty good! Yay.

NOTE: I bought some new chapsticks that were all candy flavors. Nerds, blow pop, laffy taffy, tootsie roll, sugar babies, etc. Well, I put on the grape/strawberry one just before I went into the gym, said hi to the friendly gym guy that knows me by now, and went upstairs to the cardio room. As I got to the top of the stairs I saw myself surrounded by mirrors on every wall and was mortified to see my lips were the brightest eighties style hot pink!!!!! I immediately started wiping them off. Apparently the nerds chapstick does not go on clear. So embarrassing!

6.25 Treadmill Miles

I got to the gym and realized I forgot my iPod, and my Gatorade. Nice huh. But, I repeated my chant over and over in my head and it was all good.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Survival Mode

I figure that I have 4 more weeks to power through and then I have three weeks of tapering until the marathon. That is do-able in my mind. I am totally in survival mode for 4 weeks. I can do it. It doesn't matter anymore what hurts............I'm just going to.....................Git R Done! (I hope you read that how I am saying it in my mind).

So, yesterday I did 3ish cross trainer miles. Is that what that machine is called? It doesn't have moving arm thingies. Maybe it's a cross ramp. Whatever.

Today I did 4 miles on the treadmill. I used my new shoes and am happy to report that they fit perfectly!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!! They are wide enough, and long enough. My toes are singing songs they are so happy.

In order to get through the 4 mile today, I moved treadmills twice. Yes, third treadmill is a charm. Biggest Loser Couples was on and I really wanted to be right in front of a TV! Also, I kept saying a little chant to myself. I got the idea from the "Nonrunner Marathon Trainer" book I am reading. It went like that.

I am a marathoner. I love running. I am mind-body-spirit strong. I run for my kids. I run for my husband. I run for ME. I CAN do it. I am a marathoner.

The book suggest repeating your phrase every morning and several time throughout the day, everyday. I love doing it. It totally works.

P.S. My IT band isn't hurting at the moment. I remembered to stretch it today. Hmmm, funny how that works!

Sunday, March 2, 2008

7 treadmill miles

I was going to rest on Sat. too, but I just couldn't. My body needed it, but my mind couldn't take it. My back was feeling OK so I thought I would give running a try on the treadmill so that 1)I could stop whenever I needed to 2)I could avoid hills and 3) I wouldn't have to carry my fuel belt around my waist. I should have done 16 miles, planned on doing 12, and ended up doing 7. I had two baptisms to attend in the morning at 10am and 12:30am, so a morning run was out. When I got home from the second baptism, I went to the gym. I was feeling guilty for leaving Nate home AGAIN. So that's why I quit early and my back wasn't hurting, but it wasn't feeling normal either. I figured less was more on this day. I came home super happy that my back wasn't feeling horrible, but then immediately bummed as my IT band starting hurting me pretty good when I got cooled down. Honestly, if it's not one thing, it's another. I'm sick of my body being so lame. I'm really going to try to complain less........ starting tomorrow! :)

Oh, I totally used a gel pack at mile 4.75. Can you just imagine me at the gym eating a gel pack. Too funny.

Rested Thursday and Friday