Operation: Hydration

Operation: Hydration has officially commenced.

I’m planning to drink plenty of Gatorade and water this week so that I’m well hydrated for Sundays half marathon. I can’t believe this race came up so fast and I really cannot believe this will be my NINTH half marathon. Wow. 

The hubby and I finished spring cleaning our basement this weekend. Hopefully cleaning out the closets and garage won’t be nearly as large of a task! We did find some fun things though.

 

I fully admit that I was OBSESSED with the boy bands back in the 90s. KTBSPA! hahaha.

Somehow I acquired SHIRTS for my cats too. Gelsey wasn’t having any of it, but Geisha was willing to posed for a photo. 

Then I promptly threw it in the trash. 🙂

We came across a lot of stuff and purged a ton (I think we threw out 8 bags of trash last week and maybe have 6 in our garage already his week, plus a ton of stuff going to Goodwill and other charities). Our basement looks so clean and organized now it, is awesome. 

I got in an easy seven miles on Saturday. My legs felt tired though. I’m going to take it REAL easy this week (I just did 2 miles this morning) so that my legs feel really fresh on race day.

Have a good Monday!

 

 

 

Friday Fitness Recap – April 12 + 10k Race Prep

This week was the last week of my 10k plan! It’s hard to believe that race day is on Sunday.

Saturday – 4 miles in Baltimore (54:30)
Sunday –  Rest
Monday – 4 miles on the treadmill (55:27)
Tuesday – 3 easy miles on the treadmill (43:34)
Wednesday – Kickboxing! (1 hour)
Thursday – Rest
Friday – 3 easy miles on the treadmill (41:13)

Total miles: 16
Total time: 4.25 hrs

I’m leaving tomorrow mid-day to drive to Hershey with my friend for the 10k on early Sunday. I’m feeling pretty confident and excited. I created a playlist last night just for the race, and ran the first half of it this morning during an easy 3 mile run to see how it felt.

I also printed out my mile splints for a 1:17:00 and 1:15:00 finish. I used this really cool site – Taz Running which actually lets you find your race and then enter your goal time. They then adjust your splits based on the elevation chart! The Hershey 10k was actually not listed when I searched for it, but I emailed them asking them to add it and it was added within an hour! Super impressive!

A 1:17:00 finish would be a 1:30 PR, 1:15:00 would be a 4:30 PR. I’m hoping for at least that 1:17:00 . 🙂 I’m under strict instructions to push the pace if I feel good, so we will see I guess!

I doubt I’ll be checking in before the race, so I hope you have a great weekend!

What’s Next

Taking a few weeks easy with running since Goofy has been nice. But I am itching to get back into it. And if you’ve learned anything about me by reading this blog you know that I love love love having  a plan spelled out that will help me meet my next goal. But first I had to figure out what my goal was.

I have completed 8 half marathons, a full, 3 10ks and a bunch of 5ks. I feel like I have “finished” all those distances in an upright position. Which for me has been a big accomplishment. But I think I’m to the point where I am no longer content with just “finishing.” So I have decided that some of this year is going to be focusing on getting a new PR.

And not just a PR in an old distance, but a PR in the distance I loathe the most. The 10k. I have run three 10ks, and found each of them incredibly challenging. I ran one in 2010 in 1:19:34 (which is my current PR). I ran two in 2011 at 1:19:54 and 1:21:58. Not the best times by far. I find it hard to pace myself in this distance because I know I have to go “faster” than a slow Half Marathon pace, but slower than a 5k pace. I also worry about burning out too soon (which is what happened in my first 10k and probably turned me off of them from the start).

After I decided that 10k was the distance to tackle, I looked at Runner’s World’s Smart Coach, Hidgdon’s plans, etc, etc. I knew I had to incorporate speedwork somehow but I’m never sure what paces I should running at and how hard I should be pushing myself. So after looking around and feeling like I was “settling” with some of these out of the box plans, I enlisted help.

Enter, Jen @ MarathonMom. She is part of the 13 in 2013 group that I am a part of, and right about the time I was struggling at creating a running plan for myself, I got an email in which she advertised her coaching services. The timing was just meant to be!

After filling out a questionnaire and a few emails back and forth, I got the first 3 weeks of my 12 week training plan from Jen on Saturday. I was pretty excited, and after reading over it, it looked pretty reasonable. The plan actually started on Monday, thus my faster 2nd mile during Mondays Tackle The Miles Virtual 5k. It’s been great to get some feedback from a pro, and get a plan that is tailored to my schedule, my weekly mileage preferences, my pace and my goals.

The race I’m planning to run is the Hershey 10k on April 14th. Jen thinks I could hit 1:17:xx or 1:15:xx. I’m planning to see how training goes and adjust these goals if needed.

So a 10k PR is my first goal this year. After that I have the Pittsburgh Half Marathon in the beginning of May, the Wineglass Half Marathon and the Runner’s World Half Marathon in October. I’m thinking that depending on how Hershey goes, I may want to try to improve my time for a Half during the Wineglass half, but I’m not committing to that yet. One thing at a time. 🙂 I’ve also got a handful of 5ks thrown into my schedule for the year to help me reach my 13 in 2013 goal.

So that’s my plan for now, subject to change of course. 🙂

It feels good to have a plan again. 🙂

Taper maddness

Good Morning!!

I can’t believe it’s already Tuesday. Yesterday really flew by for me thanks to numerous meetings at work.

I spent the weekend just hanging around the house and mentally getting prepared for my upcoming race. It’s this weekend! ahhh! I ran an easy six miles with the hubby on Sunday and felt really really good and confident afterwards. Then yesterday was my last run before the race. Three miles on the treadmill. Training is officially done now. Which is crazy to think. Looking back at my calendar I’ve really been “training” since about July. Yikes. Now that I have no more short runs planned for the week I feel like I don’t really know what to do with myself. I’m also feeling nervous, anxious, excited, prepared, unprepared…..

We fly out Friday (destination race!!) and will be back early next week, so I only have to get through 3 more days of work.

My foot is feeling fine. It feels a little stiff day-to-day, but when I put my running shoes on and run it feels totally fine. Hopefully this continues!!!

I have my twitter account hooked up to track me so feel free to follow along. I have no idea if the tracking will be based on gun time or chip time but it should at least say when I finished.

I probably won’t post the rest of the week because I’ll be trying to keep myself busy with packing and all that. But I’ll post something once we’re home, and then have some longer more detailed posts after that.

Sorry if this all sounds pretty erratic – it’s reflective of how I feel right now, what can I say. 🙂

Catch ya’ll later!

Taper Week

WordPress just ate the post that I had spent about 10 minutes typing up. So, that’s cool. Let me see if I can try to rewrite it now…

I hope your Labor Day weekend was a good one. We spent the weekend catching up on stuff around the house, going to a neighborhood BBQ, taking my Grandma to dinner for her 81st (!) birthday and relaxing with the Netflix Instant TV Shows. It was a good one.

I also managed to get in a 5 mile run on Saturday (I was hoping for closer to 8 but it was freaking humid and I was dehydrated from a few drinks on Friday night), and hot yoga on Sunday (which kicked my ass).

This week is technically my taper week for the Bird In Hand Half but I’m trying something different this time around. I want to keep my mileage up as much as is comfortable, since I feel strong on my long runs that way. So, here’s the plan for the week…
Monday – 3 miles – check.
Tuesday – 3 miles, Zumba – check on the 3 miles this AM.
Wednesday – 3 miles
Thursday – Rest
Friday – Rest
Saturday – Race Day!
Sunday – Walk 4 miles, hot yoga

I’m majorly looking forward to the fact that the race is on Saturday. That means I’ll have Saturday afternoon/Sunday to do the normal thing and enjoy the rest of my weekend.

Anyhow, that’s the plan, hopefully it all works out okay. 🙂