Here Goes Nothing!

Well folks, it's hard to believe that 4 whole months have already come and gone.  The aches, the pains, the blisters, the headaches it's been a long ride but finally, tomorrow I'll be running in my first Half Marathon!!!

I do have to say I did a pretty good job at sticking to my training program with the exception of the last week.  I haven't done a run since Monday- this is the most consecutive days I've taken off from running in about 5 months.  I did my last long run, a 12 miler, exactly one week ago and I actually felt pretty good about it.  By now I've learned that running is such a mental game.  Once you can wrap your head around the idea of running sooo far for sooo long it's not that bad.  It also probably helped that I did my long run on the nicest day we had out in about a week so it felt great to be outside.  I also derailed from my planned route a bit when I found a gorgeous, quaint little park complete with running paths around a chain of ponds.  Then once I left the park I happened to take a wrong turn and made my run a tad bit longer than I actually needed it to be, but again, it felt so good to just be outside.  I've also learned to try not to think about my time so much.  I think it ends up just slowing me down!  So, this being my FIRST Half Marathon, I'm going to concentrate on just finishing it in one piece and not try and meet any crazy times.  I'll save that for my second and third Halfs :)

So here I sit, in Cincinnati, the night before the Flying Pig Marathon.  I've been in town visiting my mom and Chris for 2 days now and the nerves/excitement/anticipation of Sunday has been eating me alive!  I'm obsessed with the Weather Channel app (prob have been for the past month now) and stalk Cincinnati's weather like no other.  Not looking so good.  That's all I have to say.  At 5AM there's a 60% chance of rain and thunderstorms...and the chances are only supposed to increase and the morning goes on...eeeeeeek!  So needless to say, I've been trying to mentally pump myself up for how FUN it's going to be to run 13.1miles in the rain for 2+ hours!!  Ha.  But seriously, sounds like a blast right?! :/

While I've been here I've enjoyed partaking in the Flying Pig Festivities.  I went to the Health and Fitness Expo twice.  Got my registration packet which included a personalized bib, timing chip, coupon book, "Run the Pig" poster, technical tee, and souvenir backpack.  At the expo I also ended up getting a souvenir t-shirt, 13.1 sticker, pair of Runner Girl running shorts and my mom bought me a "Flying Pigs of Cincinnati" book.  Then I also got lots of other free stuff like pig tattoos, chapstick, udder cream, larabars, water bottles, cereal, reusable bags, aquaphor, gummy vitamins, stickers and home made princess crowns.  Overall, I enjoyed my first pre-race expo.  The event was nicely organized and fairly easy to meander through.

Here's a pic of the registration swag:

Then this morning as sort of a half marathon warm-up I walked/jogged the Flying Pig 5K with my mom.  And this was her first organized run/walk event ever!  So proud!  Here's a pic of us at the "Finish Swine"!

It's been a great weekend thus far and my mom's preparing us a carb-o-licious meal right now!  Then it's to bed I go since I'll be having to get up at 4:30 tomorrow morning...

My brother, Aaron, and his girlfriend, Catie, are here to run their first half as well.  So keep your fingers crossed and wish us all luck.  We're gonna need it while running in a rainstorm!

I'll be sure to write an entry summarizing what happens tomorrow.

So until next time!!

What I've Been Up To

So I know it's been FOREVER since I wrote last, hopefully this will make up for lost time!  Since my last 10K, almost a month ago, I've been following my Half Marathon Training Program pretty religiously.  I may not get my runs in on my intended dates but I make sure to hit my designated mileage each week.

Here's a general glimpse at what my weeks look like:
Sunday- 3-5mi run plus strength
Monday- 5 mi run
Tuesday- Yoga
Wednesday- 5 mi speed/tempo runs
Thursday- 60 mins XT
Friday- REST
Saturday- long run (6-10 mi run)

So far this has been pretty manageable but I'm not going to lie, working out has been taking over my life!  I kinda feel like all I do is work, work out, eat, relax for an hour or so, sleep and do it all over again.  I've begun to dread Saturday mornings cause that's when my long, most challenging run of the weekend awaits me.  So as you can see, I still have not fallen in love with the act of running.  I'm trying but it's still sooo hard!  I keep waiting for that day that my run feels easy and effortless.  But as of now, no matter if I'm running 3 miles or if I'm running 10 miles it continues to kick my butt!  And honestly, I feel like the first 3 miles or so are my worst miles and then it seems to get a bit easier for me on my long runs.  One other thing that frustrates me is my speed, or lack of speed.  It feels like I can't run much faster than I was running 7 months ago when this all began.  BUT I have noticed some positives.
1) I can run up to at least 5 miles without HAVING to stop (believe me, I WANT to stop the entire time but don't let myself!)
and,
2) I can run those non-stop miles at a pretty steady 10 min/mile pace
So I guess that's something to be proud of.  My Tuesday yoga classes have been really enjoyable as well.  It's nice to just stretch for an hour after a weekend's long run.  Speaking of my long runs, here's a quick summary of the last few weekend runs':

8 miler- AWFUL.  It was only 30 or so degrees and was snowing!  This made for slippery running conditions, extremely cold temperatures, and over worked achy joints.  I stopped to walk probably 3-4 times for about 2 mins at a time making this a really long day out in the cold.  Plus my route ended up being almost a mile shorter than I had anticipated so I had to improvise and add a mile at the end when I thought I was almost finished.  I also got extremely thirsty around mile 6 and thought I was going to die of dehydration.  I was also a waste of space the rest of the day after this run.  My body temp was all whack from the weather and I had the chills the rest of the day.  Not to mention I was extremely sore.

9 miler- Better.  The temp was more bearable and I had a new running route.  This made things more interesting when I wasn't worried about missing my turns!  I also carried a water bottle with me to hopefully fix my dehydration problem from last time.  During this run I only stopped to walk 2 times and each time was probably for 2ish minutes.  I wasn't so sore this time either.  In fact, I was able to run another 5 miles the next day.

10 miler- Ok.  Once again, the weather wasn't very appreciative except this time it was raining instead of snowing and it was around 40 degrees.  So I did a little last minute change in my running route.  I decided to run 1.75 miles to the gym, run 6.6 miles on the treadmill, and run 1.75 miles back home.  This was an interesting little experiment.  First of all, I was extremely thankful I decided to run to the gym because I had to go to the bathroom, bad, by the time I reached it.  I was also really hot and sweaty already and going from the outdoors to the indoors only made it worse.  Then once I left the gym it felt weird to run outside on pavement.  It felt like the ground was still moving!  AND during this run I got my first TWO blisters!  This has never happened before so it made me nervous...beginning to wonder if it's time for some new shoes...

One other thing that's been a little bit of a challenge for me is to do cross training.  In my head it seems so much better to just do another run because that is the most efficient way to run/burn calories compared to biking or doing the elliptical.  BUT I know those cross training work outs need to happen so I'm trying to make sure I get at least one day in a week of doing something besides run.  Now that the weather is getting better I'm hoping to just get some bike riding in throughout the week.

So this is pretty much my last few weeks of training in a nutshell.  If you have any suggestions please drop me a line!  I'm always looking for some pointers.  Christopher did recommend getting up at 6AM to do my long runs since that's what time my Half Marathon starts but I haven't been able to do it quite yet!  I also started to pick up some "goodies" to test out to see if they benefit (or make things worse) during my run such as sport beans, drinks, gels, etc.

Ok, until next time!