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.

Below Zero and Travel advisory

So as many of you may or may not know i traveled to MN this past week and well let's just say it was a drink fest. I am not really sure what my problem is but i return home and return to my drinking days it's like I left 12 yrs ago and haven't changed at all. So i'm rather disappointed in myself and i think i planned to lose 6 lbs and instead i gained it in beer i think. ALTHO i did go to my Dad's in WI after 2 days and was excited to go run my 7 miles which i did do, asked my Dad which direction i should go as he's in a secluded part of the woods near a lake and a golf course ( i know it's absolutely horrible). So he suggested a route he knew would be nice and flat. (aahhh the things i miss about the north......flat roads) So off i go and i plan to make my way through the windy roads by the golf course and past the homes on the lake and i come to the road known as A yep gotta love the creativity of the natives. So off i go ( oh and Dad says before i leave, don't get shot it's hunting season) ha ha ha......off i go i kinda start to worry tho cuz i pass two seperate dogs wearing bright orange ........hmm self check......nope no orange on me. make my way to A that's one mile behind me. I run another 1.5 and i hear shots........shit seriously........turn around go otherway on A that's only another 1.5 and .25 to the main HWY so back up that same way 1.5 and back, and well if i do the math somewhere around returning to the golf course i was done........yay so proud i'm glowing. It's 30 some degrees and 4 o'clock i'm so happy......oh wait......phone just died......i'm a mile away from Dad's house are you kidding me this will end up being 8 miles.........damnit.....so i walk and i walk what seemed like an eternity......surely Dad will get in car and come to look for me as i told him no longer than 1 hour 45 min........nope......getting sore now and i've completely cooled off and it's soooooo cold out here, anyway i made it home sore for the rest of the evening and woke up and not sore at all.......sweet.......then the week went downhill from there.......drinks monday nite........drinks tues nite........drunk wed nite at strip club.........thurs time to go home and catch flight......no other workout done at all......
Take the weekend off at home knowing i was supposed to face an 8 miler on sunday. it's snowing and below zero i'm so not in the mood for this shit........blow off.....
Monday.....back to normal but snowing and below zero........blow off

tues.......below zero hubby at work all day......get's home at 6pm hand over baby and off to try new Gym, I am going to go run........little bit of sarcasm in my husbands voice as i leave immediately upon his return so out of guilt i cut my run short as i said i would be a tad over one hour.........got 3.5 miles done and boy did i feel like shit.....do not watch biggest loser, listen to ipod, take out frustration all in one workout.....equals disaster. But i went so it goes. so it goes. Today; Wed plan is to get on my eliptical 45 min and Do my Jillian DVD while my child naps altho she's changing her naps on me currently so i'm not sure when it will be but i will do it, i felt really strong when i got home last night and ate a great dinner. In looking back at my week, what i did to myself is so unforgiveable and so much like that old fat girl. I hated that. Never again will i allow myself to fall into my old patterns, time to make new ones there......

After the long weekend

As I'm sure you can imagine the day i'm supposed to run my first 6 mile training run (you guessed it) 6" of fresh powder and not expected to lighten up all day. So i pull out my $5 and off to the community center i go. Because i am determined not to miss this and never ever put a long run off until monday. I did that one time and it was a brutal week. So yes i did it and i did not incline the TM either. I walked 5 min warm up and started out strong and slow walked at 1.5 miles for a minute then again at 4 miles for 3 min then i was off there was no stopping me or so i thought. I guess the machine had a mind of it's own. Yep it stopped at one hour so quickly record mileage in my head 4.25 miles and then remembering i had to run to bathroom after my warmup which was also .25 miles i hate doing math in my head in the middle of my run therefore i lose track anyway somehow in my head i said ok if it's .25 miles to cool down and i've done 4.5 already I need to clock another 1.25 in running so after i figured that out i ran. I finished in 1:25 min which is exactly what it took me to do my 10K earlier this summer so i felt pretty good about this especially cuz i wasn't even in a race just me and TM and it felt good. People always say it's really hard to get past about 3miles on a TM and i can see why. But wow can i sweat out a shirt in a gym.....lol....and not to mention my headband. drip drip drip. Yesterday (my 4miles) I was so excited that enough had melted and the day was sunny and about 47 degrees so off i went down what i thought would be a typical run. I miscalculated somehow thinking this usual path i always went would be enough. so i get to where i think should be half way and check my iphone and ooops i'm .5 mile off course so i turn into a neighborhood trying to keep it flat and start around the corner then another corner only to see a gigantic hill and no other way to go but up.........so i go and think well all this work will pay off when i turn around and get to go down. well i ended up getting close to home and it still wasn't enough so i turn down some other streets before heading home and i sprinted at the end to ensure i finished this time under one hour....59:37......YAY i'm getting faster and it was just like everyone said I finally broke my 15 min mile pace and averaged 14:47 i think which felt so great... looking forward to thursday and i read in my plan that i am supposed to run a 5K this weekend instead of another long run. how exciting altho i'm running a 5K on turkey day so i will run 4 on sunday and my 5K will be thurs (just switching it up a tad) but exciting never the less. My friend that i'm running with did all of her runs last week too so i'm proud of her. Not sure about yesterday as i didn't hear from her yet but she is doing the 5K with me. I really wish i could figure out how i magically found how to post a picture again. lol