Race Report: Madison Marathon

Krista, Anne, and I all woke up at 5:30 for the race. The weather reports had been conflicting all weekend long, ranging from perfect running weather (IMO) to 25-30 mph winds and real feel temps of 17-24 degrees. Uff. Krista and I purchased some delightful throwaway clothes at Savers, so I literally had my "grumpy pants" on race morning. I froze to death while we were waiting for the race to start (but managed to warm up slightly when we made a full LAP around the Capital looking for the bag drop, only to find it was DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF WHERE WE STARTED FROM), but the corral was warm enough that I was able to strip down during the star spangled banner. The gal next to me gave me an odd look, as 85% of the runners were dressed for full on winter. She said that I must run hot, and I said yes.

We started on a nice downhill stretch and I held back to my 10:30 pace plan. After the downhill was over, the hills just kept coming. My legs felt like crap from the get go. An 11 minute pace felt hard with all of the hills. My achilles and calves were super tight and felt like I had been running for hours, not 3-5 miles. Cue panic here please. Luckily the Arboretum we were running through was gorgeous, so I just took in the scenary as best that I could. I started talking to a couple of runners around mile five and that helped my mindset dramatically. This dude was so nice and thanking all of the volunteers and spectators, it was just nice to get out of my doubting Debbie brain for awhile and listen to him. He was shooting for a sub 5 finish and I don't remember passing him later in the race so GOOD JOB DUDE!

1. 10:27
2. 10:48
3. 10:59
4. 11:14
5. 11:19
6. 10:56

I was able to pick it up to the 10:30 pace that I had planned for the flat portions which helped my confidence a bit, unfortunately the first 18 miles were hilly, so the flat portions were few and far between. I knew I was going to see Renee and Jen around mile 8 so I just focused on getting to them to pump me up a bit. I also decided to stop watching my garmin and just run.

When I finally saw them, I think I yelled something about hating the hills and then picked up the pace a little bit because there was a very slight decline on the course. Wheeee! I realized around this time that 11 minute miles were likely my fate for all of the hilly miles (the first 18) and that I would work to keep that pace and then try to pick it up the last 8 if possible. I spent a lot of time figuring out what a new goal time would be. Math while running is notoriously hard, so this kept my mind occupied for quite awhile.

At this point I thought a 4:45 would be my new A goal, so I kept putting one foot in front of another with that in mind. Shortly after I saw Renee and Jen, came the REALLY BIG HILL (per Krittabug) at mile 9 or 10 (based on my garmin data it was DEF mile 10). It was huge. I was listening to Wheezy's Green and Yellow and just powering up the hill while many were walking. When we got to the top (or so I thought) I was pumped, until the street re-oriented itself and WE HAD TO GO UP EVEN MORE. I may have dropped an eff bomb to the effect of "You've gotta be f-ing kidding me?!?" Oops, sorry folks.

7. 11:14
8. 11:11
9. 10:33
10. 11:24

After that I knew the worst worst hill was over, but I still had the major one at 17 and 26. I started to pick off a few runners starting around mile 12 or 13 as folks were starting to fade. Somehow I was still managing a fairly steady pace, albeit fairly slow, but don't tell my legs that! I met up with another guy around the halfway point and we chatted for awhile. I saw him again at the 25 mile marker (there was an out and back so he was around mile 23, I think) and he started waving and flashing me the thumbs up. I <3 runners.

11. 11:46 (major downhill that I had to tippy toe down, fail)
12. 11:16
13. 10:40

The route was a smidge boring for a couple of miles after the halfway point, but the rolling hills just kept coming. There was also some sections where the wind was full on in your face. There weren't any spectators so I cranked my iPod, put my head down and just pushed. We hit another hill around 16 and I got all excited thinking that was the hill that Krista had told me about. I tried to pick it up again, and was feeling really good with only ten miles left. Side note: I've never run a marathon and thought, "yay, only ten miles left!" Usually I'm so broken that with ten miles left I'm ready to have a hip or knee amputated.

14. 11:15
15. 11:12
16. 11:02

Well unfortunately I was wrong, and there was a MASSIVE hill during mile 17. I so desperately wanted to walk up it like everyone else was doing, but up to that point I had only walked while going through the water stops (the race had little plastic cups, and I am not nearly coordinated enough to drink out of those while running). I saw a girl who had passed me a mile or two earlier ahead of me and decided I would run as far up the hill as she did. She stopped and I marked the mailbox she stopped at in my mind. When I got up there, I just put my head down and kept going. I pulled a Danielle at the top and got super teary eyed, and had a major peptalk with myself "I'm so proud of you JERI!" Seriously, this happened.

The downhill on the other side of this monster hill was brutal. I slowed way down and was doing something in between a jog and a slow shuffle down the other side, trying to keep good form (typically the downhills are what destroy my IT bands, woof). Changing my stride must've been a big no no because my right quad seized up majorly and I started to feeling stabbing pains in my right knee and left hip. So much for picking up the pace after the last big hill, eh? :(

After the hill ended, I did a quick form check and tried to make sure I was running with things in alignment, not overstriding, etc. I had just a few more stabs of pain in the knee area, but I was able to get it under control. I took two salt packets thinking (=hoping!) that would help my quad seizing to dissipate and just kept plugging along.

Somewhere during that time I realized that speeding up probably wasn't in the cards, so I focused on not slowing down and not giving up or quitting. It's so easy to just start to walk or give up when a good race time is out of the cards for me, but I refused to let that happen. Miles 18-20 seemed to take FOR-FREAKIN-EVER.

17. 11:42

18. 11:43

19. 11:25

20. 11:57

Once I got to mile 20 I had a plan to run each of those miles for someone special, and that helped so much mentally. 20-21 was for my newest niece baby Harlow, or Lolo as the family calls her, 21-22 was for Harper girl, and 22-23 was for the H-Bomb.com. I hope that some day they can watch their aunt Jeri run a marathon. I get all teary eyed whenever I see little kids on the race course with a "Run Aunt ____" sign. Too much cute.

I got to see Renee and Jen again around mile 22 and immediately demanded they tell me how Krista did. She destroyed it, no surprise here, and that lit a fire under my ass to hurry up and finish. She was probably getting cold waiting at the end for me!


23-24 was for my mama who's the biggest and bestest race spectator and cheerleader EVER. I got teary eyed during this mile because I REALLY wish she had been at the race to cheer for me, and I missed seeing her face all over the race course. At just that moment I saw my mom's doppelganger standing in the median of the road facing the other side of the race course (it was an out and back here) and she turned to my side of the road and started cheering for me, "Go Jeri!" (our names were on our bibs), I got even more teary, sobby, so good thing it wasn't an uphill portion.

Mile 24-25 was for my Papa Big Jer for giving me his athletic genes, (sadly no endurance running genes, I've had to work my butt off for those!) and for showing me how the Light's can fight last spring when he had his heart attack.

And the final mile was for Kyle for putting up with me. I imagine that somedays, being with me is just as difficult as running the final mile of a marathon uphill (ugh, enough with the hills already Madison!).

The last little .2 (or in my case .3, tangents are HARD) was for my precious pug Ollie, since in her prime running shape she could run a whole quarter mile at once. #beastmode

21. 11:38
22. 11:36
23. 11:20
24. 11:39
25. 10:49
26. 11:00 (yes, I would like the last mile of a marathon to be UPHILL)
.31 3:07 (10:07 pace, more uphill, neat)



The last 10k I kept recalculating to see if I could run sub 4:55, and I knew I'd need to haul the last 5k if I was going to do it. We ran up a giant hill with .6 to go and I got a HUGE side stitch and was super annoyed at myself for not grabbing water at the last water station. I told myself to suck it up for five minutes and kept going up up up! Krista had told me that I would run up to the capital and then be rewarded to a nice little downhill to the finish. Yayzies! I tried to haul up hill and then turned the corner and cruised down the hill. IT bands can be destroyed at this point, for all I care. I turned another corner and DRAT the finish is still uphill more. I kicked, and then kicked some more when the announcer yelled out my name.

My final time was 4:55:26.

I missed my sub 4:55, but I finished the racing knowing I left it ALL out there on the course. I was grossly unprepared for the HILLS of Madison after running the "hills" that Sioux Falls has to offer. But I'm pretty dang proud that I never quit.

Next up, speedy spring!

 

10k Race Pics and En Route to Madison

Today I'm en route to Madison, Wisconsin for the Madison Marathon, and more importantly TO SEE KRISTA, RENEE, AND JEN! I feel like I've known Krista and Renee for roughly a million years, but we've never actually met in person, which is weird, I guess. Jen and I met up in Vegas a few years back, and she's so sweet and awesome, she would've been even more awesome if she had come and talked to me at Curly's Pub when I was eating at the bar all by my lonesome for my first marathon, but whatevs, I've totally forgiven her for that (#stillholdingagrudge).

I've always felt like I belong in Wisconsin (or Oregon, if we're being completely honest), and prior to landing my current job at my dream South Dakota library, I was constantly following Wisconsin library job postings. I'd like to think that if I someday get my wish and end up in Packers country, I'll get to run with these girls (and watch many Packers games whilst drinking Spotted Cow and eating cheese curds, yes I am 20 lbs. heavier in this scenario, thanks for asking!) as much as I'd want, aka all the time.

Krista is going to dominate the full and is sweet enough to let me crash at her place and be my "host" for the weekend. She's also NaNoWriMo-ing so there may be moments of writing furiously while I'm there. There's also talks of visiting a newly remodeled library, be still my beating heart! (P.S. Ask me post-race what my finishing prediction time is for K-bug, I don't want to jinx anything, but I'm pretty sure I'm right!)

Jen and Renee are going to be spectators extraordinaire, and I've already put in a bazillion requests to Renee, they are as follows:

1) Jordy Nelson
2) Your garmin, in the event it's a cloudy day and my battery dies asap
3) Spotted Cow beer (preferably snuck in to the post-race finishers chute. The post-race beer selection is less than appealing. Bonus points for dixie cups of it along the course...just sayin'....)

I think that was it! Just a small list... NBD.

I've also analyzed the course map and written down mile markers that I plan to "suggest" that they cheer at. I'M BOSSY THIS IS WHAT I DO. But really I did it with them in mind as well, I wanted them to be at spots that I *think* would be easy to see us quickly at another spot on the course as well. We'll see since they obviously know the area a lot better than I do. I'm just looking forward to having race spectators on the course for a full this has never happened before!! 

Ok, that's enough race obsessing.

No wait! It isn't. I have a cold. That should be neat. It was knocking on my immune systems door last week and I finally came down with it on Saturday, basically thought I was dying. I said, that's cool, make yourself at home for 72 hours, and then you're out on your ass, cold. Well, unless this cold is TERRIBLE AT MATH, it has severely overstayed its welcome. Thank goodness I'm not in PR shape, or I'd be freaking the eff out.

Ok, now THAT'S enough race obsessing. On to the pics!

The 10k race I did 2 weekends ago posted 500 photos to their facebook page this week. I decided to pan through them to see if I could spot a flash of green. Even better than a green frog were these two:

I die of preciousness.

Even more so if Kyle had been dressed as a storm trooper or darth vader or something.

You can almost see the "Go Mom Go #teamgreen" Conversation bubble hovering over their heads, right??!?!?

This one was shortly after the start, and I look fast, which is neat. This was certainly the portion when I was all "Wheeee sub 7 pace is super eeeeeeeasy!" lolz.

And then you might end up letting Pi beat you to the finish because of that sub 7 pace start. But in my defense, this chick passed me around mile 4, and I reeled her in big time that last mile and a half. She's actually the reason I hit sub 7 paces at the finish. Competitive Jeri FTW (except not the win, obvs.)

And this is just all sorts of LOLZ. Running hard is hard, you guys....

Madison Marathon Race Goals

This training cycle has gone okay.  I started really "training" again back in May for a 10k, and jumped in to Pfitz 18/55 in July knowing I'd need a long endurance building session, and I was right.  My fitness level has improved greatly in the past 5 months, but I'm still quite a ways away from my previous fitness and speed levels that I used to be.  Which is okay, I'll get there.  It took me a lot longer than five months to slow down, it'll take me longer than five months to speed back up!  With an 18 week training cycle, I definitely had some ebbs and flows with my desire to train.  18 weeks is a LONG.DANG.TIME. to train for a marathon.  Especially through the heat and humidity that was July, August, and some of September, uff.

There were some weeks where I knocked it out of the park with weekly mileage in the high 40s, multiple 4:30-5am double digit runs, and there were weeks when I posted zero miles, (Jenn's wedding week, being cautious after a high mileage week and 18 miler that left me with knee pain).  On one hand it's nice to have 18 weeks of training, because it's not the end of the world if you have a crappy (or non-existent) week, but on the other, it really messes with your confidence to not nail every single workout in a training program.

The miles I have ran have mostly been long and slow.  I focused on endurance, knowing that adding in speedwork on top of the endurance building with new running form was just asking for an injury, but I am excited to get to work on that speed again post-marathon and set some new big goals for the spring.

After looking at my training runs, the cycle as a whole, and general pondering and musing on my last few runs, my goals for Madison are as follows:

A Goal:  4:20ish.  I think a super stellar all stars aligned day could result in a slightly sub 10 pace.  That would be magical unicorn happy as most of my long runs have been in the 10:30-11 minute pace, by HR.  My 2nd fastest race time would be a 4:25, so it'd be cool to have my two fastest marathon times in Wisconsin!

B Goal:  4:30ish.  After really closely analyzing the HILLS in Madison (Sidenote:  HOLY CRAP) I would be ok if I ran a super great race, but gave myself a little wiggle room with the hills so that I don't pound the crap out of my IT bands early on (in the first 18 miles of hills... GAH!)

My recent 10k time and long run paces both point to a 4:15-4:20 finish, so that helps give me confidence that it's a doable time.  My current race strategy is to start conservatively at 10:30 pace for the first 8 miles, run 10:00 for the next 8, and then for the last ten miles run as hard as I can.  The race flattens out at mile 18 until 25, so I'm hoping I can drop the pace a bit there.  Most importantly I want to finish the race feeling strong, and that I ran as hard as I could on that day.  I've only ran one marathon where I ran a negative split, and running that well the second half of a marathon is the greatest feeling ever!

26.2, let's do this!

Taper Madness

Taper madness presents itself differently in everyone. For me, it's typically sour mood and temperament (sorry friends and loved ones!). Also any anxiety I typically have is magnified a bazillion percent and my control freak nature ramps up a hundred fold. I was prepared for this part of taper madness (and so was Kyle, bless his heart). But the one part of taper madness I had forgotten about was the compulsive shopping.

Hi. My name is Jeri, and during taper, I shop like a maniac.

The first few days of taper were maintainable, I'd do some online shopping, put items in a check out bag, and then walk away from my computer. I do this...uh... frequently. But then came the "gateway" purchase. I needed arm sleeves or a long sleeved shirt for the marathon, so I started looking around. Many adorable green items were "added to cart" all over the world wide web. I finally snagged a pair of neon green Saucony arm sleeves for mega percent off.

And then, all shopping hell broke loose. Since then, I have purchased a j. crew button up with polka dots (second hand), Megan's birthday and Christmas presents, Jenn's Christmas and birthday presents, Kyle's Christmas presents, 2 pairs of green and pink shorts from J. Crew crazy on sale (because duh, why wouldn't you buy shorts as we're on the cusp of winter!??!), green earrings and a new cell phone case from Kate Spade, and a time turner necklace to complete my Hermione Granger Halloween costume (not to mention a Gryffendor tie and her wand, but those were costume necessities, right??)

Now this past weekend I get an email from Jenn letting me know that she found a cheaper version of a ring I've been obsessing over, and it was on sale. Attention checking account: Jenn is back in the states, your monies are no longer safe!

The good news is that everything I bought was crazy ridiculously mind blowingly on sale and then discounted. And the majority of things really were for gifts, and just some other little stuff for me, but STILL. OMG.

So now here are some small fruits of my shopping labors, Harry Potter Halloween pics!

Hermione and Ginny hanging out at Platform 9 3/4, waiting for their train.

We had these signs made for kids to take pictures in at the library on Halloween.

Marathon Day Forecast

Most people who train and run/race marathons know that weather plays a HUGE factor in your race day performance.  My first marathon I counted down the days to race day, but I also counted down the days to 15 days out from the race day--getting my first glimpse at the raceday forecast for Green Bay, WI.  For my next marathon in Las Vegas, I found accuweather that forecasted a 21 day forecast.  Now I could enjoy a side of weather forecast freakout with my sunny side up taper mania.  Yayzies!

So imagine my surprise after my last 20 miler, when I bopped on to accuweather, three weeks out from Madison to find that the extended forecast NOW RAN FOR 45 DAYS OUT.  Whoa.  This adds a whole new element of crazy to marathon training.

Race day, and the 2+/- days before/after it all look perfect.  AND, most importantly (or perhaps just equally as important?) is that there are no major blizzards/ice storms leading up to race day, as I'm driving to Madison.  Phew!  Bring on the excessive race day weather stalking!

Marathon Training Update

Two weeks ago I had my most solid training run of this marathon cycle.  I knocked out 11 miles with 7 at tempo pace.  Even with a super slow 2 mile warm up, and slow 2 mile cool down, my overall pace was still considerably faster than the Sioux Falls half race.  Womp womp.  BUT YAY!  Following up that run, I had my first 20 mile long run of the cycle.  And knocked that out of the park too!  I had some hip soreness midway through the run, but was able to focus in on my running form and before too long it went away.  And after a few miles from 12-15 where I was 100% s-p-e-n-t I kept my focus and was able to find some extra store of energy somewhere to finish the last 5 miles as my strongest miles of the day.  I even endured an ice bath post run to aid in my recovery!

YAY MARATHONER JERBEAR!

20 miles of salt is hawt.

And then my knee started to twinge ever so slightly through the weekend.  I scrapped my runs.  Attempted a run last Tuesday and cut it short at 3 miles.  Continued to foam roll, ice, rolling pin (my substitute for the stick), managed 3.5 miles Wednesday that resembled a run, stop, stretch, shuffle, job, stop, repeat motion.   I lost roughly a week and a half of training, which at this point is ~75 miles.  Woof.

FRUSTRATED:  PARTY OF ONE.

I refused to freak out.

Ok, I lie, I freaked out for the rest of the day.  I found the super tight spot in my IT band that my foam roller had not previously found.  I rolling pinned that spot in to submission for the next few days.  I did the silly (but effective!) hip flexor stretch that the massage therapist taught me after the Sioux Falls half, daily as well.  Finally by Monday my legs were all ready to go, and I got sick.  Geez Louise body!

After going home sick Tuesday and staying home Wednesday I finally got out for a run yesterday.  My legs felt amazing.  It was cool, 59* (and humid, but whatevs).  I could tell I was still a little weak, but I was just so happy to be running in gorgeous fall weather, and not laying on the couch in fits of hot and cold.

While on the run I realized that I have approximately six weeks left until race day, including this week which is almost gone.  EEPS!  And then I remembered that six weeks is precisely how long I trained for the Philly Marathon in 2011.  Pfitz still has a lot of miles for me to run in the next six weeks.  I want to have a STRONG and HEALTHY race on November 10th and that's my primary goal.  Outside of the Philly Marathon, I've never finished a full marathon with a negative split or feeling strong at the end, and that would be amazing.  So I will continue to run the miles, and do more recovery crap than the average runner, and see where that gets me.

And I will continue to pray to the weather gods for a gorgeously cold day on November 10th.  WHOOP!

Focus: Madison Marathon

With the Sioux Falls half behind me (race report to come, shortly), I am full-steam ahead focusing on the Madison Marathon.  I'm notorious for not being able to stick with a long (long=more than 14 weeks of training) training program for the marathon, but knowing my lack of running/endurance/general schlepitude when I signed up, I knew I needed a full 18 week cycle to get me prepped for 26.2.

I purposely put a half marathon smack in the middle of that training program so I could focus on that for the first nine weeks, and then I'd only have nine weeks of suffering to go.  Little did my brain know (ok, it totally did, it was the one who typed Pfitz' training program out into a fancy excel doc--Thanks for the doc Jenn!) that I was marathon training all along.  Whoop!

So I made it halfway through my training cycle, and have really just been doing a LOT of long, slow runs.  I think my base is the strongest it's been in a really long time, and I'm excited to start throwing some actual speedwork in to the plan per Pfitz.  I mega puffy heart love speed work.  But my legs tend to hate speedwork, so fingers crossed the base+excessive foam rolling+form fixing will have me speedy and uninjured.

Without further adieu, here are the things I'm focusing on over the next 9 weeks of training:

• Miles.  More miles.  Lots and lots of miles.  I looked ahead on my training program (never look ahead on your training program) and I have 4 weeks of 50-55 mpw straight.  Shiz is getting real. I need to make sure that I'm mentally prepped for my long runs, and physically prepped for all my weekly mileage--good night of sleep, hydrating, foam rolling, stretching, ab work, etc.
• Getting my eating in check.  For a normal girl, my weight is perfectly fine.  For a runner girl looking to PR in 9 weeks, I'm some lbs higher than I should be.  When I set my marathon PR, I was almost 20 lbs lighter than I am right now.  My first training cycle I could NOT keep weight on me (rough life, I KNOW) but ever since that cycle, I haven't had that issue.  Getting older probably doesn't help.  I know that I run stronger when I'm fueling my body properly, and if I focus on that, the extra squish will just disappear.
• Mental game.  One of my biggest struggles with running is mental.  I'm either too hard on myself or I let myself give up too easily.  I need to find a decent middle ground and go from there.  As the temps cool off, I'm REALLY hoping I can have some solid workouts that serve as confidence boosts towards my goal time.  Since the weather for the Sioux Falls half was such a bust, I really don't have an idea of what my goal in November will be.  TBD, I guess, but dang I'd really like a PR.
• Massage therapy.  The Sioux Falls half has complimentary massage tents set up after the race, and I got in line on Sunday because it was miraculously short for once.  I talked to the therapist about my issues, and I was blown away by everything he told me.  He talked at length about my hip flexors and the issues they were causing, issues with my IT bands and knee.  And he told me that his goal is to give me stretches to do on my own so that I only have to visit him minimally.  Sold.
• Buddy up.  With the bazillion of miles ahead of me, there is no way I'll be able to do them all on my own.  I will make it a point to beg one of my friends to run with me at least once a week to make the miles more enjoyable.

There you have it.  My survival plan for the next 9 weeks.

Race Week Thoughts

This week marks my first "serious" race week in about a year.  When I initially embarked on marathon training for the Madison Marathon, I had planned to have the Sioux Falls half be my benchmark race mid-training to give me an idea where I was fitness-wise 9 weeks out from race day.  A few months ago, I thought I could maybe set a course PR (1:52 or 1:53) if training went all fine and dandy.

Thus far, I've put in the miles (save for the week I was in Vegas and logged 0 miles, and a few missed runs here or there), I've been impressed (knock on wood) with my body's ability to hold up to marathon mileage, and my endurance is coming back.  Unfortunately, I know my body's limits and know that it can only handle speed work with a strong base already in place.  The Pfitz program has a large endurance mesocycle which is predominantly what I've been doing the last 8 weeks.  So with that being said, I'm pretty freakin' nervous about my speed.  Meaning:  I don't think I have any, anymore.  Hmmm.

Based on the current forecast, it should finally be cool on race day.  Although it's not Jeri approved COLD.  That'll help me tremendously.  But it's weird for me to go in to a race without really knowing what I'm capable of.

Currently my goals are as follows:

• Beat last year's time--2:05.  Compared to last year's training log, I'm running way more miles, slightly faster.  But I did some speedwork (very sporadically) last summer, so that makes me slightly nervous again because of my lack of speedwork this time.
• Beat 2011's time--1:59.  I was in shape to run a low 1:50 and had major IT band issues, where they locked up and I shuffled along to a barely sub-2.  For confidence going in to Madison, I would really like a sub-2.
• Ideally I'd like to be around 1:55, but man that seems impossibly hard at the moment, so we'll see.  Perhaps if all the stars align, and I can hitch a ride on a unicorn's back, perhaps I'll hit this marker.  ;)

If I don't hit a sub 2 this weekend, I don't think that means I can't run a sub 4 in Madison.  But it would be a great boost of confidence to me.  I have sped up considerably since I started running more consistently this past May, but I'm not to where I was when I was running well.   But I'm certain I will continue speeding up, especially with the crazy speed work that Pfitz has planned for me.  EEPS!  

Above all, I'm just excited to be back to doing something that I love and seeing progress for my hard work.  I <3 running and racing.  Whoop!

Marathon Training + Vegas Vacation

I had high hopes that I'd be able to jump right back in to marathon training the morning after I returned from Vegas.  These hopes may have been delusions, as I'm now understanding.

I went to Vegas to celebrate the nuptials of my bestie Jenn, and purposely did not bring any running clothes, shoes, etc. only sequin dresses.  Duh.  I had planned to still get all of my miles in Thursday-Sunday, and be super runner Jerbear.  Uh... I forget how much terrible sleep, super rich and decadent foods, a seriously lack of water (does champagne have any hydrating properties???), and too much booze (see previous:  ALL of the champs) wreaks havoc on your body.

But at least Vegas was fun and totally worth missing some miles!

Marathon Training: Day 1

Rest.

Nailing it.

Today marks day 1 of the Pfitz 18/55 training program.  And it's a rest day, whoop!  Currently rocking a PR in resting.  NBD.

I think today is the 3rd? time I've started the Pfitz program, and have failed to execute it once.  But that isn't an ominous statement, no worries.

Last week marked the last FIRST day of class of my masters, whoop!  Monday and Wednesday nights I'll be sitting in class from 6-10:15pm (whoof!) for the rest of this month, hence why I finagled my schedule to have rest days on Monday/Wednesday.  BUT because it's absolutely disgusting out, I'm making myself become a morning runner once again!  I needed to make the switch two weeks ago, but I have to have a schedule.  It's too hard for me to get up at 5 for days that I run, and then sleep in until 7 on rest days; all or nothing, party of 1!

Well the good/bad news is that I have so much freakin' reading to do for my class (see this pile, then add five more YA novels that have yet to be assigned, and then imagine my panicky face) that I can easily get up at 5am on non-running days to do more schoolwork.  So day #1 of that is in the bag too!  I guess I'll get back to you after tomorrow morning's tempo run.  Eeks.

1 day down 125 to go.  ;)

P.S.  Thank God today was a rest day, because it's currently a heat index of 97, and the air is so thick with humidity that I lost my breath walking up the parking ramp stairs and my HR got waaaaaaay above my happy recovery rate, fo sho.  Heat acclimation?  Hasn't occurred yet.