Spring Race Plan

After a very lackluster running schedule, I opted to DNS the Houston Half Marathon. Bye bye $$$. :( Given how painful the Bemidji Marathon was while fairly prepared, I can only imagine how brutal a half marathon would be given my current running base (little to nothing). I'm truly enjoying yoga all day everyday, so I'm going to continue with that and run when I want to.

With that being said, my plan for this spring is to start back at the beginning (kinda)! Whenever I've "got back into running" I've always focused on a 5k race to shoot for. I know I'm doing great things for my body and my future running self, by strengthening areas that have given me trouble (glutes) and gaining flexibility in others (uh, everywhere, but hips especially). 

While I'm going to continue to go to yoga classes as much as humanly possible, I'd like to also start with shorter runs, lower weekly mileage, and re-introducing speed, essentially working from the ground up again. I'm hoping that by keeping my mileage low, and my goal races shorter, I can really work on keeping my form in check and find a balance between all the yoga and running.

My plan for this spring is as follows:

• 1/31/15 Frostbite Four (weather permitting). I've always wanted to run this race. It's a 4 miler in a town about 30 minutes south of me. They have multiple race routes plotted out and choose the route the morning of the race based on the direction of the wind. I think this race would be a good baseline indicator for me on a hard effort 4 miler. If it's ridiculously cold, I'll probably just go to a yoga class instead. Let's be honest. :)
• 3/14/15 Free Rebel Run 5k. I ran this 5k last year and had a blast. It's free/donation based and on one of my favorite parts of the bike trail. This is my first "goal" race of the spring. "Goal" being a loose term, but I'm going to attempt to add running back into my routine 3x/week with one speed session with a speedy-ish 5k time on this day as the game plan.
• 6/13/15 Harrisburg 10k. I love 10ks and look to have a crazy busy spring ahead of me as far as weekends are concerned, so this would be my next weekend free (insane!) in which there's a race nearby. 
• 6/19/15 Longest Day 10k (?). I have this Friday off, so if it's not a trillion degrees I may head up to Brookings and convince Megan to come run with me. :)
• 7/4/15 Firecracker 10k/5k (weather dependent). I love this race. I ran my 2nd fastest 10k there last summer. But I've also ran my 10k PW there on a hotter/more humid day. If it's gross out, I'll only make myself suffer through 5k. 
• 9/13/15 Sioux Falls half marathon. Shortly after the Firecracker race, it'll be time to start training for my 11th consecutive Sioux Falls half marathon! Wouldn't it be neat if taking things slow and steady all year long lead to a breakthrough race in September?? I wouldn't be mad... ;)

So obviously a spring marathon is out of the cards, as I had previously mentioned that Grandma's Marathon might be an option, and maybe 2015 will be the first year since I started running marathons that I won't toe the line for 26.2 miles. We'll see. There's still a little time that one could be snuck in if I feel the itch! :)

Blog Award + Please Send a Search Party kthxbai

Bree from Bees Knees Life was nice enough to send me the Stylish Blogger award.  Which makes sense, as I am almost as stylish as they come.  Bree is running in Fargooooooooooooo this spring too, so I hope to meet up with her there!  Check out her blog, or ELSE. 

The rules for accepting the award are:

*Offer up your unborn child to the running blogger gods

*Pluck all body hair
Er...wait..... Nevermind... that's a different award I've recently received....

ahem...

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Award 5 recently discovered great bloggers.
4. Contact these Bloggers and tell them about the award!

My Seven Things
1.  I rarely eat meat (and was a pescatarian for a few months).  I despise the taste of meat, typically.  Even when eating chicken I swear I can taste blood.  Eew.  However, I get INTENSE cravings every blue moon for a cheeseburger.  And then I have to have one charred to perfection on the grill.  FYI I'm currently in the middle of one of these intense cravings.

2.  I don't drink pop.  I don't really like it.  I was that strange kid who loooooooooooooved water.  Weirdo.

3.  Before starting up running again about 2 years ago, I was 25-30 pounds heavier than I currently am (slash am at when at my racing weight).  Everyone how met me during that time period kind of freaked when I started running again because I lost a lot of weight.  It's interesting to me, because the people who have known me forever just saw it as me getting back to my "normal" athletic build.

4.  I was a lifeguard for 6 years, but swimming is the part of a tri that I'm most terrified of.  I have really good form for the various strokes but my speed is...uh... non-existant.  Unless I have to haul booty to save you in a little pool, of course. :)

5. I am an extremely organized messy person.  Trust.  It's possible.  Anything that can be explicitly organized is (ie:  movies in alphabetical order, books by author's last name, clothes by clothing type and then by color within each sub category, all facing the same way with the hanger facing the same way.... you know... the usual...).  Also, I'm a planner to a T, race plans through 2013?  Why not.  However, my apartment (as will be mentioned below) is a disaster area.  Some things just seem to be a waste of time (read:  I'm lazy), such as emptying a dishwasher (I'll just use the plates as I need them!) or putting away clean laundry (I'll just wear them as I need them!).  No biggie.

6.  I think the reason I was such a good sprinter in high school is that I was boy crazy (cough...still am... cough).  I was the fastest girl for most of the Varsity track seasons, so I typically got thrown in with the boys to complete my workouts.  Chasing boys?  Just hand me my first place medal nowwwwww.

7.  If for some reason I don't end up as a children's librarian (in which case I will commence crying one million tears ASAP), life goal #2 is to have a children's book store/coffee shop.  I just adore books and kids who love books (and espresso, let's be real) so this would make for an excellent (albeit much more risky) life plan B.


Blog Award Recipients
I'm going to go with some newly added blogs to my reader:

• Krista at Krittabug
• Kelly at Meals For Miles
• Ashley at A Spoonful of Smash
• Shelby at Eat Drink Run
• Sarah at Once Upon a (L)ime

Tuesday night after work I was set to head to the gym to do my tempo run (the only routes around my place are hilly, except the bike trail and the bike trail is a major NO GO after dark).  But it was sooooo gorgeous out I had to switch out my run to do an easy 5 with strides instead.  For the first time in 2011 I got to wear SHORTS for a run outdoors.  Oh hai their spring.  Random note:  These shorts are a strictly for outdoor running, and not utilized for the gym because they show SWASS like no ones busiess.

Obviously I had to wear my sweet new IRISHMAN shirt from this weekend.  No matter that I wore it for all 3 races and have yet to wash it.  Stench of success!  My mind tends to wonder while I'm running, especially when I'm sans music, like I was on Tuesday.  A random peek in to my thoughts:

• When did Schwann's change it's logo?  A truck drove by me and I was all confussled.  It's been the same for the last 20+ years.  Shocker.
• I love the smell of clean/fresh laundry.  Honestly, men, instead of pouring on the cologne, just put on a freshly laundered shirt and I'm yours.  Er... I mean... if I was available and all I would totally be yours.... because clearly I'm not interested now... ummm. yup. :)
• There was a 3rd major point and it's escaped me.

I did 5 miles on a hilly route and it was swell.  And I'm really digging the random pickup/strides on these easier paced runs.  Also, does anyone else save their holey running socks to wear in really muddy/wet conditions or am I the only weirdo?  I hate mud staining new socks!  Hai pink toe nails!

And yet another random note, if someone wants to help form a search party at my place I am missing a number of items (not surprising as my apartment is a sty):

• My iPod shuffle*, hence why my run was musicless.
• My normal iPod.* You know, the one I listen to while at work, while in my car, and while in the shower.  Hrmph.
• My tax print out. (whatever it's called)
• My Under Armour running briefs.  I had to wear volleyball spandex shorts under my tights for Saturdays race.  Not happy.  Those puppies were spendy!

*Both of these items were recovered this morning while searching for the still missing tax information.

P.S.  Apparently I've met my max for GB for photo's through picasa/blogger.  Anyone want to give me dummy instructions on using something else to upload my photos???  jerbearshares [at] gmail [dot] com  Thanks I'll love you forever!

Dear Spring, I Heart You.

Today was the most beautiful day ever.  Well....  It ended up being beautiful after a co-worker and I spent 25 minutes bitching about how the weather report was calling for sun shiny amazingness all week, and we had yet to see it.  It's amazing how much of a difference great weather makes for your runs.  I had an easy 3 miles on the schedule and felt like I was effortless flying.  It was great.  I ran 3.02 miles in 25:45 for an average pace of 8:32/mile.  Definitely not an "easy" pace, but I swear it felt easy.  

Speaking of easy paces, that's something I really struggle with and would appreciate any and all suggestions on:  I struggle with what paces to run my training runs at.  Right now I'm training for a 5K.  My best time was about a month ago of 25:48 (8:19 avg. pace).  I would like to get down to sub 8 minute mile pace.  I will be starting my half marathon training in mid-June.  My best time is 2:07, and am shooting for somewhere in the range of 1:55-2 hours for the one I'm doing in September.  When I try to use the Runners World website for training plans with paces calculated they seem really off.  Anyway, any suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated.  :)

In other exciting news,  I was talking to one of the boyfriend's friend's fiance (follow that all right??) about my training and she offered to help me out with some tweaks to my next training plan and joining me for some of my speed work runs.  I went to college with this chica, and she is amazing.  Nationally ranked in cross country for division 2 and the steeplechase, 3000 m & 5000 m for track.  Seriously I wish I knew some better and more exact stats on her, because this small blurb is not even close to doing her justice, but that would be kind of creepy of me to do that without her knowledge, so I won't.  :)  Obviously she has benefited from some great coaching, and is just naturally a gifted athlete, so I'm super excited to use her expertise.  Plus it'll be nice to have someone else to blab about running too.