Derby? what?

So before i got pregnant i was on a derby league (WFTDA) if you wanna look it up. Yes people are doing this currently. Well baby is now 15 months and there happens to be a league in town, so i went to the recruit night (knowing in advance that i was not going to play derby but rather referee) Hubby and i decided my body was not going to allow another season of getting smashed into the concrete. I had bruised my tailbone really bad still cannot sit for long periods and jammed my right shoulder all in one bout. Needless to say I am committed to the time and effort i have put into my running at this point and don't want anything to get in the way of that. So without further todo about derby, I am going to check it out tonight and see if it's something that can work. It is def a time committment and i have to make sure Hubs is cool with it too cuz if my home isn't happy neither am I. I trust him to be honest, he's never selfish, so i know he can tell me without emotions what is going to work. Sometimes my running has gotten in the way but he would bite his tongue and grin and bear it, well most of the times. :) anyway I love him dearly and i know I can trust him. So yeah i get to get back on skates tonight. Yipeeeee that'll be a great way to get some serious cross-training in (see where my mind goes) supplement the run, supplement the run, I live an breathe running now. I've come a long way in a short amount of time. 

On a side note: I've also decided to start tracking my calories again, as i have gotten off track and have started to gain again, not a lot but 5 lbs is 5lbs in the wrong direction. I will also pay more attention to what calories are going in, i never really cared before but it's obvious that even a few days of good eating and exercising has me bouncing off the walls so there has to be something to it. Less Sugar and Less "white" carbs, more whole grains and more veggies. i also added a Soy protein based powder to my lunch routine which is incredibly healthy and like 25g of protein 0 carbs. gotta love that. 

I ran yesterday for the first time since the race and I have to admit that wasn't easy. I pushed thru mile 3 but managed to get 4 miles in. So glad i did that anyway.

I did it!! 10 miles

So I had a race this weekend and here is my first official race report i felt worthy of typing up. We got there plenty early b/c we only had limited space to park in this area for us to be close to the start/finish. I went with a friend of mine that i'm running my 1/2 mary with in feb. (Jenn). So we head over to start line she heads to bathroom for 2nd time, horn goes off she's nowhere i start anyway then i catch a glimpse of her. She catches up sometime after we start thru the gate it seemed as tho about 200 people were there. 40+ degrees and i'm wearing t-shirt capri's and skirt, perfect! pacing with my friend thru mile 4 feeling pretty energized actually. I was feeling settled and she was not. She has up to this point done all of her training on the treadmill and i think it's showing. i stop when she needs to stop which has felt like every 5 min. then we get a to mile 2ish and i tell her we will run til the mile marker then walk a little. So we made it to 3 feeling like i wanna take off, but i wasn't worrying about time. I hear over my songs that we have just completed 3 miles in 42 min. getting down toward lake now and we will surely hit some hills in the trail i still feel really good , find a public restroom around then and she goes (i'm holding door and jogging in place) off we go again stop for a second at the 5 mile point for gatorade. I see now that my gps is red (damnit - lost signal) so i go and shut it off. She insists i go ahead without her. So i do, because it was at this point that i realize keeping with her may wear me out moreso than if i just continue. so off i go. Mile 7 was thru the trails and then there was snow and ice. No big deal i was expecting it at somepoint. feeling a little tight and heavy legged. I just push thru enjoying the scenery and trying to catch girl ahead of me. almost to eight........oooh photographer. i have him all to myself. smile.....off i go feeling re-energized knowing 8 is around the corner and that puts us back on the road. Mile 8 i get a text saying hi sexy and that got me revved up oh and i see that i'm at 2 hours exactly and that puts me on my usual pace of 15 min or less per mile, so off i go to catch this girl she's in reach. we both walk a bit run awhile walk a bit. etc... omg already i'm to 9 and couldn't be happier as this is as far as i've ever gone. Not really sore yet i'm feeling good, but where o where is the finish it's hiding. catch up to girl at the finish line. OK i know i was pretty far back there (5th to last) to be exact. Wow parking lot emmmmpppptyyyy. oh well i start to stretch and wait for Jenn.. the three girls we passed long ago have since passed Jenn and she finished dead last. But who cared right? we did it!!! she couldn't have been more than 1/2 mile behind me anyway. 2:23 was the time on the thingy and since my gps crapped out i have no idea how accurate that all is. I think she clocked in at about 2:38ish. We both were pretty excited to know that 13.1 doesn't seem impossible now. Time to go home rest up and then we needed to party like rockstars!!

Wrap up

So i have officially finished the Hal Higdon 12 week beginner 1/2 mary training. I have to say that even tho i'm consistant and slower than most i've come a long way and i couldn't be more proud of that. I took a few slow weeks during the holidays but overall i followed the running portion of the training to a T. I certainly have room for improvements, ie the crosstraining portion i haven't begun at all with the exception of a few days here and there. So now that i have approx 40 days or 5 wks left until my first half marathon in JAX. So until that date i will continue to do 5 miles on tues/thur and long runs on weekends. I am doing his suggested 10 mile race this weekend and it will be the test for sure. I have been battleing plantars faciitis now more than ever, i've begun to ice after running but now i'm thinking i better ice everyday. I also read that i should ice for a couple of weeks after all symptoms are gone. I'm sort of new to this so had i known i would have been icing long ago. I just thought i had to live with this and that it wasn't cureable but now i'm reading that it absolutely can go away or at least subside. I am hopeful with some mild treatment it won't be as bothersome. I even got an overnite brace but in the middle of the night somehow i'd taken it off. YIKES. so i will attempt again this evening. I will report more after my race on saturday.

2010

Missing my running buddies. His kids were great to me when we ran and i kinda think that i was an inspiration to them both. Now we are back to our house and it also means back to this hellatious altitude. I always find it a slow return process. the day after we were in the car for 3 days i decided no matter what i needed to get in a workout, and outside was not an option at this point so off to the community center only this time i'm getting in the weight room and then i'm getting on a bike. That felt awesome haven't been on a bike since my tri in Sept. got in 8 miles and spent 45 min in the free weights. then i sorta let a few days go by and then came the weekend and I knew i had to do the unthinkable- 9 miles. It was brutal. some sidewalks still snow packed and made me almost cry 2 miles into my run. Then it was ok after that altho the route i chose to do the majority of the miles was a skinny county road that had no shoulder so when cars came near i had to step into the ditch that at this time of year could be quite ugly so i was really tired of that on the way home i was just looking forward to sidewalks again. about 8.5 i just had nothing left i realized i had just done all of this on a bagel with cream cheese hours ago. hmm next time something is coming with in a pocket somewhere. did i mention the high on sunday was only 34 so it was a layering day too. made me really miss running at the beach house. When i was walking home in my sore and starving state I actually thought to myself "why do i do this?" "why is all this worth it". I'm not sure i'll find that answer but for now it's out there. Hubby says wow great job the race is only 4 more miles you got this, easy!!. Love him for that supportive statement.

Vacation Wrap up

So many of you know my family rented a beach house on St. George Island for the week of christmas. We rented a minivan and loaded up my 9yr old, his 18 yr old, our 14 month old and off we went and only about 3 hours later than planned. 3 days on the road and 2 more kids pick up in New Orleans (his 23 yr old son, and 21 yr old daughter) we made it to the beach house. Managed to get in a 3 mile run one morning at hotel gym then we arrived at the beach house. I happily got up sunday and proceeded to race against myself and my old time for a 10K which was part of my training, but since there was no race in close proximity i timed myself. Mapped a course earlier in the week knowing that at the end of the island was an 8 mile park that i would run 6.2 of. His oldest daughter wanted to run 3 miles that day with me so when she hit half way i would wave at her to turn around. Well she set off like a ruptured duck in a hail storm,  i thought now how am i gonna tell her when she's half way if i can't catch her. Ok it wasn't that bad, she was running about a 12 min mile pace and i was not all that far behind her when she stopped at about 1 mile to walk a bit i kept going and thought i'd just wave at her at 1.5 and tell her to turn around. well i did so and she'd already turned around so off i went strong and steady and since she set the pace i kinda kept it going and it felt great to be running at that level, I think a slowed eventually but i got back to the car and i hadn't gone far enough i stopped to notify her i had .5 miles left and i would be ready to go. I  PR's by 10 min. pretty awesome in that short amount of miles. rested mon and tues i asked who was ready to run 5 with me? his son said he'd go. so off we went and his son let me set the pace and when i turned us around at 2.5 he went ahead at his pace. Wed i had no chance of a cross training day so i decided to run again. His daughter came with and we paced together until half way then we turned around i finished strong she stopped at some point to do lunges. Thurs morning (xmas morning) i went off to do 5 on my own, no takers. my body was hurting too. It took alot for me to get it in, i practically walked the last mile home but i took off my headphones and listened to nature it was marvelous to hear the ocean and all the birds that morning. I took this picture that morning.
So all in all i think i got 19 miles in on my vacation. Now back home for some more snow running.