MARATHON Training: Take 2!

Hello all.  I'm back from the depths of non-posting.  I spent a solid 45 minutes tonight typing out my race report to have it eaten by my computer--hell's bells, I tell ya.  I didn't want to throw another one together all half-assedsy so I shall try again tomorrow.  I may have had a level 9 tantrum when the report went -poof- so be happy I was talked off the ledge.

Tomorrow marks Day 1 of running for my MARATHON training program.  This is assuming my IT bands are happy campers by then.  As I've mentioned a few times before, one of my favorite things in the world to do is create my training programs.  They are a work in progress for a full month before I give them the final okay.  Here is the thing of beauty that I came up with.

After tallying up my mileage on the training program to give myself a mileage goal for the year, I noticed that my mileage for marathon training was 262 miles.  How eerie is that?  Must mean it's perfect-o, right? :)

So I'm signed up for #2.  Sub 4 here I come!


Check out some sweet giveaways (while I painstakingly rewrite my race report....UGH!)
Run to the Finish
Racing with Babes
and another! Racing with Babes

Jeri the Yogi

Tonight I "did it."  Eeew.....not that "it", what are you a junior high girl?!?!  (Btw, while rereading my diaries this weekend, totally referred to "it" as "it"when referencing "it" following me?  The fact that I wasn't able to call it anything other than "it" was probably a good indicator that I was smart for not actually doing "it."  But I digress.)  I finally attended a yoga class!!!!

I've been doing yoga off of Fit TV, and on video podcasts from iTunes for the past 4 years, but I've been too big of a chicken to actually go to a class....for the past 4 years.  In my town, we have a first Friday celebration, where a lot of places downtown will hold specials/events/etc. the first Friday of each month. There is a yoga studio in town that offers free classes on the first Friday.  Yet still I've been too big of a wuss to go.  After wussing out yet again last Friday, I decided I would go no matter what this week.

I checked out another studio in town that offered your first class fo FREE.  Hahah, I just really like to say fo FREE (part of the sweet secret language that the office hubby and I have developed).  Anyway, after trying to get anyone and everyone to go with me, because again, I'm a freakin' wuss, I finally ended up there on my own....sweating bullets before it even started (literally...I was pitting out sitting at my desk the last 30 minutes of work...lame sauce).

The class was super small (4 students) and the instructor chatted up myself and another girl who was new to the studio.  When I told her I had never been to a class before, she basically said this would be the last class she would recommend for someone's first.....excellent.  At this point I expected to do crow's pose for the full 60 minutes (I have it mastered for roughly 15 seconds at a time, which is a vast improvement for me!).  She got started, and it was actually great.  She corrected me in a couple of poses, which I was grateful for--the worst part of practicing by yourself is you never know what you're doing wrong/right!  Apparently I hold my shoulders very high, which I actually find myself doing all the time, not just during yoga, and it's why I have such tense shoulders and get such bad headaches, good to know!

There were some times were I was tired and shaky, but overall the class was really really great.  I guess I was confused as to why she thought this would be a bad first class to take?  Hmm...oh well.  The great thing is the prices for class are crazy reasonable $6 for drop ins, or you can purchase a punch card for 12 classes for $60.  Doesn't get much better than that.  I think it'll give me something to look forward to during the week other than running, and it'll be nice to have someone else kicking my butt instead of me doing it all the time.
______________________________

The other day I was updating my race spreadsheet (yes, as noted previously, I love me a good spreadsheet).  I list all races that I'm interested in doing along with date/time/fee/location/date of cheap fee/etc.  I always pay for a race on the last day of the cheap/early bird deadline, because I am cheap.  I was scanning the spreadsheet to see what races would need to be paid for the in the next couple of months (see that, planning and budgeting AHEAD, you'd think I was a credit counselor or something :p).  What the heck?  Vegas RnR cheap-o deadline is May 1st???  Uh...is it just me or does it seem a bit premature to register for marathon #2 before even toeing the line for marathon #1??  Based on MARATHON TRAINING so far, I really want to do another one, but I know the actual marathon could be a whole other ballgame.  Thoughts???

(Also, I tend to have 900 windows open at all times.  Multi-tasker is an understatement.)

And in random office hubby story news:

I went home for Easter, and while we were eating dinner, I started telling a work related story and mentioned "my co-worker."  Immediately my mother chimes in asking if I'm referring to Tom.  She then precedes to say how cute he is, which means my mother is a) stalking my blog (hi mom!) or b) stalking my work Facebook fan page (as there are pictures of all of our staff on there).  She then wants to know if he's single.  Hi, mother.  Remember that one guy that I'm dating?  I don't think he'd be too happy if he knew you were trying to work your magic with my office husband.  :P  Needless to say, she was pretty bummed he was taken (for me, not herself; in case that wasn't clear :p).

Tough as Nails*

*Not me, the run.  Uff.

Tuesday night (speed work night) had me doing 9 miles, with 7 at a tempo pace of 8:44.  Nine miles and speed work should never be allowed into the same sentence, just sayin'.....  I contemplated running outside vs. hitting the gym.  Because of the flooding and some trail maintenance, the bike trails are closed near me.  Also, I live in a bit of a valley, so no matter which direction I run, I end up having to run some pretty decent rolling hills.  7 tempo miles + wind + hills = ahhhh hell no!  Gym it is.  Unfortunately, I don't know if this was a better choice or not.  The gym was so hot and humid.  So many sweaty bodies (mine included) made for not so awesome conditions.

I'm going to be honest, this run was tough.  One of the toughest I've done in a long time.  I even tried to work the magic with my brain where I tell myself that I ran a full 13.1 miles at a 8:34 pace...but ya, the brain just didn't want to hear it.  I think I was probably dehydrated and fairly underfueled, which didn't help the situation at all.  Also, my legs were tight.  Holy cow.  Not sure if the 20 miler is still in them or what, but they sure didn't feel as fresh as they normally do for speed workouts.  I ended up bargaining with myself that if I could stick out the 7th tempo mile, I could forgo the cooldown mile, and opt for a cool down walk until my heart rate returned from skyhigh to normal.  I'm really good at making deals with myself.

I ended up doing 8 miles in 1:10:44 for a pace of 8:51 (tempo pace:  8:43).

1. 9:38

2. 8:37
3. 8:47
4. 8:49
5. 8:42
6. 8:50
7. 8:43
8. 8:35

While we were out on St. Patty's Day my old roomie mentioned that she was thinking of doing a HM in Vegas this year.  Of course I freaked out.
Jeri:  OMG!!!  THE VEGAS RNR?!?!?  I'm totally doing that!  You should do it! You should do it! You should do it!

Um ya.  I was slightly excited.  She's not a runner, but wants to get into shape, and I totally think she can do it.  We're going to have a powwow soon to sit down and talk about what she wants to get out of training, what she wants to put forward during training, etc. so I can mold a beginner program for her, as well as give her a rough guideline to follow for base building.  Is there a market for running coaches for newbie runners? Because I think that would totally be my niche.  Oh wait, I'd have to actually be a certified coach?  Um..ok.  But I love getting other people inspired to do something they're totally terrified of doing.  Very fun.

In other exciting news, while doing some race searching in my area (btw, seriously my faaaavorite thing in the world to do, other than cuddle HA!, is to plan out my racing schedule), I stumbled upon something exciting.  My schedule from May's marathon to September's HM is pretty wide open, and I had plans to run as many 5ks as humanly possible, along with another HM if it worked into my plan.  Well I found out that the group that put on the 5k that I won last year (whoot whoot!) is expanding their race day to include a 10k and a HM.  Given the small field from last year, I'm guessing they'd have a similar turn out, and is plenty of time after the marathon to give it a go.  If I could place in my AG for a HM, I could probably retire as a runner (jk...kinda...ha).

Check out the Hungry Yogini's awesome yoga giveaway!