Memorail's May Total

Happy Memorial Day!

Our day started off very rumbly in Columbus. We had a strong storm move through right around 7:30. Just in time for the 5 mile race I was about to run. I signed up last min. for the 5 mile run through UA. I have wanted to run this race for awhile but the fact that it was 5 miles always kinda scared me away. Not any more. 5 miles was a cake walk compared to the 20 miles I did on Saturday.

I'm proud to report I survived both races. First with the 20 mile report. I had one of my friends run with me the first 8 miles. She was a perfect pace for me and made me run more consistently. I was running about a 9:30 mile which is much more obtainable for the marathon. I started early and by the time Jason caught up with me it started to get humid. I finished with a less dramatic fashion than last week but still very humid and I am starting to worrying a little. I only walked about 2-3 min. for the whole thing and was much better off hydrated wise than last weeks.

Today's race I was super happy with. I finished in 43:11 which was much better than my goal of 45 min. It was raining and I had just gotten off of my 20 mile run so I was proud to have less than a 9 min/mile for the entire race. Jason did point out though that all of my races thus far have had rain. I am crossing my fingers and toes that it means I have used up all my raining for races cards.

As for my monthly totals they are about where I expected them to be. I did more lifting and feel better about my legs and my long runs. I only missed one run due to not feeling well, so that is a plus. I feel ready for the final push as I do the marathon. The only thing I am disappointed in is the lack of hill training this month. I was hoping to make it to the local park to do at least one or two more runs but no such luck. Well I will get them for the marathon. Here are my totals:

Running = 134.50 miles in 15 runs

Lifting = 2 hrs.

Hitting the Wall

Sun is great...Sun is wonderful... the sun was my enemy this weekend. The past week it has rained almost every day, so when the weather man talked that Saturday afternoon the weather should see some sun I thought this will be wonderful. I can sleep in and then run my long run.

Here is where the science lesson comes in for the day. When there is a lot of rain and then the sun comes out it dries up all the rain and.... makes it extremely humid. I started the run thinking I had hydrated well, but when I hadn't even gone 3 miles and I was almost out of one of the 4 bottle that I had I knew I was in trouble. I constantly had sweat dripping from me and I felt more like I was swimming than running. I went through all four bottles of water with about 3 miles left to finish. Jason rode with me all the way and he rode ahead to refill two of my bottles and return them back to me. He was also there when I officially hit the wall on mile 16 1/2. He helped to push me the rest of the way. I did officially finish without walking and finish might I add in 2h 26min. Again way to fast. Somewhere around an 8:30 min/mile.

There was some excitement on the trail this week though. I crossed paths with a big black snake. About 4 1/2 feet long and the width of a baseball bat's handle. I don't like snakes so I stopped in my tracks as it slowly made its way across the path (P.S. snakes don't hurry when a bike is right near the back end of it). A kid also took a tumble off his bike very near us around mile 17. Which while I never want anyone to get hurt provided a brief moment of not thinking about how I wanted to stop running because I was so hot.

One more week of a super long run. Then on to my Birthday, a wedding, the end of school, hopefully some job interviews, and finally making my way to the race. The final days are closing in. Any advice from anyone out there?

It's snowing!

This weekend I had the daunting mileage of 16. Which as I increase to 20 miles just seems to be a little overwhelming. I ran at Antrim park on the north bike trail where the trees are mature and tall. On the trail it was snowing little pieces of cotton. This is about 2 weeks earlier than it has been in the past. It was very weird to be running and it be warm and then seeing something that looks like snow falling.

The only problem with the cottonwood is that it flies up your noes, you swallow it, and it gets stuck to you. I know Jason had two separate times got cottonwood stuck in his eyes. The plan was to do two loops of the north trail and then run two loops around the lake. Which was 7 miles one pass on the North trail and the two loops being 2.4 miles. So I figured that 14 + 2.4 = 16 or what I had to run.... Only the North trail is 7.50 on the north trail for one pass. Which meant that I really ran 15 miles + 2.4 = 17.4 miles.

I met my mom and sister for breakfast right after my run. I was explaining my run and they made the comment that it always seems that I have run more than I was suppose to. I guess this just means that this weeks run of 18 miles will be easy. BUT the amazing part was that I ran that 17.4 miles in 2:24. Which means that I was averaging somewhere around an 8 something mile. INSANE. Not really what I had in mind. My initial goal was to do 10 min/mile but I guess that is not going to happen. I had some GU on the trail and powerbar gels before I started so maybe it was all my energy that helped me. Or maybe the fact that I didn't have any alcohol the night before and hydrated the way I should be? I guess time will tell.

New Plan

About a week ago I was reading on line some tips to running a marathon. Well this intrigued me so I kept reading. The article was on how to peak at the right time. Apparently one common mistake is the tapering phase of the training. This is where you decrease the amount of mileage as you get closer to race day.

Well I am officially 30 days from the marathon so I thought this article could really help. One of the topics that was touched on was the fact that many people run their 20 miler 3 weeks from the race and then dramatically decrease their amount of mileage to fast and to quick. Here in lies the problem (according to the article). You gradually increase the mileage so decreasing the mileage so quickly will result in less than optimal results.

So I have tweaked my running schedule and I am now able to increase my mileage more gradual than before and then not decrease as much as well. So two weeks out from the marathon I will be running my 20 miler. Not sure if this is the best thing to do but I'm going with it. In theory the article is correct. I wouldn't increase my mileage by 25% in one week so I shouldn't decrease at that pace as well. I have a new plan and I'm sticking to it... For now.

Stay tuned for the results. 16 miles this weekend. Glad the weather is suppose to break :)

Hardest run yet

After such a great run last weekend I began this week thinking that my long run this week would be a breeze. That was until Tuesday hit and my allergies kicked in big time. Normally I just sneeze and I have an uncontrollable runny nose, but this year because I had so much going on with my nose a sore throat was added to the list. I was out of commission on Wednesday and missed my first scheduled run of training yet to date and barely made it through my Thursday run of 6 miles.

I started off on Saturday just lounging around and trying to recover. Friday night I felt as if there were knives in my throat so I wasn't to sure I would be able to do my long run as scheduled. I ended up somewhat turning a corner about noon on Saturday so I thought I would try to get in at least 1/2 of my long run (7 miles) then do the other 1/2 on Sunday morning.

I waited until last min. to leave and go get my run in. I had already decided to do my run at the gym today because it was so windy here and it would soon be dark. I had made up my mind that I should be able to do most of my run today because I had started to be able to breath out of both nostrils and my throat was under control. I was going to try 7 and see how I felt and then make the decision as to if I could make it through the whole run or not.

I was trying to push the fluids all day but I could tell I was still somewhat dehydrated because 1/2 through my run I had downed 2 - 8oz. bottles then I went through 3 more bottles. Normally I only have about 3 bottles total on my run. I made it through my run making it close to 14 miles but I thought with not feeling up to par that I would take the workout I was able to last through. This run wasn't suppose to be a hard run but considering the circumstances it was one of my hardest run yet. Thank god for NASCAR being on TV and keeping my attention as I ran on the treadmill. Never thought that those words would come out of my mouth, but it was seeing some of the cars crashing that helped to keep my mind off the run.

Have a Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!

Cap City 1/2 Marathon

Saturday I ran in the Columbus' version of a spring 1/2 marathon. (I wish they would do a full along with it, but our weather is so unpredictable that it would be difficult.) The forecast called for rain and thunderstorms. There was a chance of it missing us and the weather man even said the night before that it might be alright that we could miss the rain. Boy they were wrong. The race started off and it wasn't raining. About mile 5/6 it started to drizzle and it didn't stop. It started off with me just getting a little wet, then I started to feel my socks become wet, finally by the end I was dripping wet.

Did I mention I hate rain? I also managed to finish 2:01.01. Which I blame on my watch because I hadn't figured out how to get my splits with my overall time on the same screen. The clock that is considered the race clock was off (because I started so far back from the front of the pack) and I wasn't sure by how much I was off from this clock, so I had know idea where I actually was in the overall time. I didn't realize how close to breaking 2 hours I was or I would have pushed it a lot more. So needless to say I have a goal for my next half (one that I train just for the half and not the full marathon!). So here are my split times:

18:24 (I couldn't get my first mile because the 5k and the 1/2 run the first mile at the same time so I missed the mile 1 marker)

9:08 - mile 3

9:13 - mile 4

9:23 - mile 5 (I was having a hard time dodging the people on this mile)

9:18 - mile 6

9:21 - mile 7

9:29 - mile 8 (stopped for water at a station instead of finishing off my hydration belt)

9:19 - mile 9

9:18 - mile 10

9:24 - mile 11 (not sure what happened here. I blame it on the rain!)

9:05 - mile 12

9:37 - mile 13

I finished off with a little hill work which is great training for the full considering there is a huge hill at the end. Over all this was somewhat of my worse case scenario race and I survived so I feel like I can take on anything. I learned a lot from this race. I know that I am going to take my hydration belt for the marathon, I need more songs for my ipod, I hope there isn't rain, and that I can do it.

A huge shout out goes to my wonderful boyfriend for dropping me off early in the morning and then going to find parking (also for getting my glasses which I forgot to take off in the car before hopping out. He helped with a last minute freak out in the car of whether I should take my hydration belt or leave it... take my rain jacket with long sleeves or leave it). Thanks for putting up with my craziness.

Also another shout out goes to my mom for coming up early in the morning and cheering me on. They may not know it but it helped having a familiar face in the crowd. Mom also got some great pictures which I am going to include below. So... Thanks :)

Here is where I pass my glasses off to Jason for safe keeping


















Nice running Photo Mom!

Can you see the shine on my arms....that is the rain :(