Happy Birthday Parker!

Three years ago I gave birth to my little guy. He continues to amaze me each day with his every thought, action and words! What a remarkable thing to be a Mommy. Each year I love looking back at the picture books I make each year. It is amazing that he was so small and helpless. I picked just a few of my favorite from when he was just born and a few days after he was born to share. Hard to believe 3 years have came and gone; I wish life had a pause button.

I need to TAPER!

I am wore out! Work is mentally exhausting and leaves me with no energy to work out. This week was a hot mess of half done workouts. Some were outside, a lot inside, 3-5 miles, some Shred, some crunches and some pretending I know how to do arm workouts. Sounds like a great marathon training plan, huh??? OH WELL! Life happens.

We are in the middle of selling our house and buying another so most afternoons are spent running papers from here to there and stressing about large amounts of money : ( Which leaves me too tired to think about knocking out an awesome 6 or 8 miler in the middle of the week. Good news is the new house is in town and in my favorite running area that I currently drive to so that I can run. SO one day I might get to run outside during the week as long as Scott is home. Pretty sure you can't go run and leave your kid sleeping in the house solo.

Long run was GREAT! ummmm..... I might be lying! We posted some big numbers for sure. Like 10:40 paces : ( WHAT THE HECK?? Didn't I just run a 20 miler in 9:09. Bottom line my hips were sore, legs were tight, it was hot and we did what we could. Both of us were having a rough day and decided to talk the whole time and just finish. Well sorta I wanted to call it day and just do 16 BUT Jeremy really wanted to get in 18. GO him for talking me into it. I told myself I could have ice cream if I did all 18. We ended up with like a 9:40 pace or something like that. Basically didn't look at the watch too much because I knew we were slow and I was sick of feeling like we sucked.

Time to taper. Going to get in decent runs this week, 10 miles next weekend (hopefully my pace might start with a 8) and then I am going to give my legs a pretty good rest race week for sure. Hoping to knock out some packing tomorrow while we are home most of the day that way I am not lifting, bending and stretching a lot the days right before the race.

Those are my ramblings for the week! I still read your blogs I promise but my time on the computer is much less right now with all the house buying/selling events. Hopefully I will have pictures to share soon.

20 Mile Run! and a Typical Week

The week was the usual..... 4 miles, 5 miles, 4 miles, 5 miles. All on the treadmill and all at an 8:34 to 9:05 pace. I also did some arm workouts and have been doing 100 crunches every night. Nothing exciting there!

BUT I did run 20 miles today and I do have to see it was great. Well great in some ways. Weather was perfect! Felt great for the first 10 miles. At 10 miles I honestly felt like I had been running maybe 45 minutes : ) LOVE when that happens. No belly issues. Started to sorta fall apart around mile 14. Just really tight and ready to be done : ( However I told myself to "get mad at it". This was my random mantra for the day. I told myself I was not going down with a positive split and I was not going to fall below a 9:15 pace. I had been 9:11 to 9:13 the whole time. Well I think I got mad alright : ) Check out these lap times....

9:06, 9:09, 9:17, 9:08, 9:15, 9:12, 9:13, 9:18, 9:17, 9:15, 8:57, 9:05, 9:17, 9:18, 9:00, 8:44, 9:37, 8:51, 9:07, 8:46 :)

That random 9:37 is when I was fighting with my phone trying to get some music to play. I was needing a pick me up. I felt great but at the end I was hurting! I know I am not ready to push out 6 more miles in that much pain but I do feel good that a sub 4:00 is in my near future! My average was 9:09 which is what it takes to get a 3:59:59.

I went ahead and registered for Marshall in West Virginia the first part of November. So I am going to go to PA thinking a sub 4 will be nice but have higher hopes for nailing it in West Virginia. The good thing about being a 50 state hopeful is that I have 45 states to go after West Virgina!

Weekly Recap for 8/14-8/20

This week did not go as usual since I had my long run on Sunday so lets start with 18 mile run #1.

Sunday - 18 miles at 9:13 pace (2:45:00) By myself : )

Monday- rest; sore from the 18 miler

Tuesday - 5 mile run - 43:35

Wednesday- 1 mile run and Shred 1; super tired from work

Thursday - distance unknown, perhaps 5 miles but I did some crazy hills!

Friday- rest

Saturday - 18 miles (or not) I had some mysterious pain in my left hip and I kept trying to stretch it out but at mile 10 I decided to be a smart girl and call Scott to come get me. I was knocking out a 9:00 minute average too : ( I think Thursday's hills got to me because it did not hurt anymore and I was able to run tonight (Monday) with no pain

Going back to work is killing my work outs! I am dead tired at night and my feet are sore from being on my feet all day. I am vowing to have 2 more great weeks and then it will be time to taper for the big trip to Pennsylvania.

Running Over Time

Railroad Days 5K 2009

Time:30:57

This is the summer I started running and this was the closest I came to breaking 30 minutes the whole summer. My first 5K at the beginning of the summer was over 42 minutes so this was a huge improvement but I knew I wanted to be faster. This is also the heaviest I had ever been in my adult life. Parker was 11 months old and I was still struggling to keep the baby weight off.

Railroad Days 5K 2010

Time: 24:28

Major PR for me! I had broke 30 mins at the first race of the summer but this was a PR by like 2 minutes. By this time I had completed 3 half marathons and was going strong with marathon training for Indianapolis which would be my first marathon. I was also finally back down to pre-pregnancy weight and staying there! Actually a little smaller since I was also training for a sprint tri at the same time as my marathon training.

Railroad Days 5K 2011

Time: 22:55

Another PR : ) This is a great course for that! Coming off the strongest running summer to date. I have now completed 3 marathons and I am registered for #4 in Pennsylvania. Back to my "typical" weight and maintaing very well. This is the fittest I have probably been my whole life and someone at the race actually commented on my arms!

It is amazing what running can do to your health, fitness and lifestyle! I wish everyone could find an active activity to make them happy and healthier. It has been a great 2+ years of running and am looking forward to many more years of running as long as my health and family will support the habit.

Weekly Recap 8/7-8/13

Sluggish start but a nice finish! This was back to work week for me. I had been doing training and working in my classroom but the kiddos were back in the building on Wednesday so that is when you are exhausted at the end of the day!

Sunday- Just Shred since I was a little sore from 16 the previous day

Monday- NO TIME : ( I had opening day, orientation and a blister (excuses, excuses, excuses)

Tuesday- 5 miles; 2 mile warm up (18 minutes) and 3.1 in 22:30

Wednesday- 4 mile run 35:30 and Shred 2

Thursday- 5 mile run (3 mile easy and 2 mile speed work)

Friday- off

Saturday- I did a local favorite 5K! 22:55!

I am happy with the 5K since I met 2 of my goals; sub 23 mins and a 7:30 or better average (it was 7:26 BUT I sort of wanted a 22:30 : ) Might have to find another one to do once the every Saturday long runs are off the schedule. Not sure when that will be.

I will be running my 18 miler on Sunday this week so I don't have a long run recap. I am HOPING to run 12 alone and find someone fast to come push me for the last 6 miles. Any takers?? I just wanted to keep close to a 9 minute mile so I can see how realistic a sub 4 marathon in. I wanted to be sub 4 hours in Erie but have a feeling it will be close but not hardly there. Perhaps West Virginia in November will be where it is at!

Running Fashion Victim

Do these socks go with this dress?

I posted that on my facebook and all my "non-runner" friends were a little concerned : ) My husband and I celebrate our 6th year wedding anniversary on Saturday the 6th and since date night was after the 16 mile run I wore my compression socks until we made it Lexington. We did some shopping and then had dinner at the Melting Pot! We love to go there for big occasions and had not been in a couple years. Cheese is great, salad is good (so my hubs says) and the meat is yummy BUT the chocolate it what makes it GREAT!

You get all these dippers and your choice of chocolate! Strawberries, bananas, brownie, pound cake, oreo coated marshmallows, graham cracker coated marshmallows, rice krispy treats and cheesecake. We save the cheesecake for the end.

We did a turtle that has caramel and nuts.

See the yumminess! Our son loved the pictures and we are thinking about taking him for the chocolate on his birthday next month. It is very pricey to go for the whole 4 courses but worth every penny!

Brooks Glycerin 8 Review

Big changes people! I have purchased a new running shoe and it is NOT a Saucony. Let me say I LOVE Saucony Running Shoes and always will. I worked at a sports store before I was a runner and loved to wear them to work in and work out at the gym. I always recommended them to people and still do. I have been running in the Grid Ignition before I started which adds up to 5 pairs and one pair of Saucony Kinvaras in there too.

However, I ordered a pair the other day and it rubbed my ankle and made a blister. I took this as a sign to try a new shoe. Lots of people talk about Brooks and I have read many reviews on them. I was unsure of which style but I found the above pair on Running Warehouse.com for $72 (they are a $130 shoe) and liked the looks of them. They came in right after I finished a run so I ran for just a few minutes in them and instantly knew they were going to feel great. Before taking them outdoors I did 5 miles on the treadmill and loved them. They hugged my foot well and had some cushion to them. They do feel a little flat and hard at times but I think I will get used to that. My old shoes are beyond broke down so I wore the Brooks on my 16 mile run. They did not slip and I think the bigger toebox is going to help with my toenail problem. They were a little hot. After another week if they feel good I may buy another pair before they are gone since they are a discontinued style.

Weekly Recap 7/31-8/6

So last week ended with my crash and burn 16 miler due to some freaky calf cramp : ( So I tried to make up for it on Sunday but it was 1:00 in the afternoon and the heat kicked my butt AGAIN! But it was a great week totaling out at 39 miles!

Sunday 6 miles 9:30 pace and Shred

Monday 4 mile run (treadmill) Shred 1

Tuesday 5 mile run 8:57

Wednesday 3 mile speed work (23 minutes) and 5 circuits of Shred

Thursday 5 mile run (44:10; treadmill) and 100 crunches

Friday rest

Saturday 16 miles at 9:23 average

I am loving last week and hope I can love the treadmill this week because my husband is leaving to work out of town for 4 days and school starts so I will not have the opportunity to run outside too much. I do have a 5k planned for Saturday when he is out of town this weekend. Plus I want to tackle my first 18 miler. Before I run my marathon on September 18th I hope to get in two 18 mile runs, one 20 mile run and one 22 mile run. Then I will have one weekend "off" (10-12 mile run) before I leave for Erie. This should easily keep my week totals up around the 40 mile mark as long as me and the treadmill can love some 5-6 mile runs at night.

Running Chic Giveaway

Another giveaway I want! Running Chics clothes : ) Great blog too!