February in Review + Goals

February in Review

Total Miles: 41.8 miles down from 72.4 last month. Up from 0 miles last February.

Planned Miles: 117. Recovery from the half in Dallas + gallbladder attack that had me out for days + a terrible cold = a LOT of missed miles. Uff.

Total Time:  7:22:57 down from 12:48:40 last month. 

Monthly Average Pace: 10:36/mi

Total Runs: 9, 5.97 miles per run average.

Highest weekly mileage:

2/6/2017 – 2/12/2017: 19.1 mi 3:19:33 10:26 / mi

Favorite run: 8 mile mid-week endurance run. In the sun! in shorts! and a tank! in February! Doesn't get much better than that, right? Most hardcore run: 7 miles with 20 minutes at tempo. Toni ran with me and let me put in my earbuds and just run hard. Surprised myself with what tempo pace looks like right now! Favorite race: None. Bike Miles: 0 Favorite Jam: I've been running with friends so much that I haven't been listening to much music. I have been adding Kesha Tik Tok and Miley Cyrus to my yoga playlists a LOT lately, much to the delight of my yoga students, I'm sure... :P Goals Check In:

• Run 100 miles for the month
• 3 Core Workouts/Week
• 2 Cycling Classes
• 2 Morning Runs
• 2 Group Runs
• Hydrate!

February in Review + Goals

February in Review

Total Miles: 80.2 up from 60.5 last month. 28 last February.

Total Time: 14:38:26 up from 11:00:48 last month. 

Total Runs: 12 runs, for an average of 6.68 miles per run. 6 runs last February.  

Highest weekly mileage: Week 8 of training, 36.1 miles. Probably why this week was 3.5 (so far). :(

Favorite run: 

Half marathon training run through snow, slush and ice. Helped remind me that spring is on it's way (hopefully).

Most hardcore run: 

Brrrr. 10 degrees and the last six were into 30mph winds. Earning all sorts of B.A. points this winter.

Favorite race: NA
Bike Miles: 0, but I have plans to start commuting to work via bike if spring ever decides to show up (more on that later this week).
Favorite Jam:  Still the same as January, Christina Perri's Human. Does anyone have any new music recs? I've been jammin' to some old school tunes lately and it's kind of great.

February Goals

• Hit 100 miles for the month. This should be easy peasy if I don't get lazy/injured/sick. Well, I won't say I'm injured, persay, but decided it was best to take it easy this week and spend a lot of time icing, stretching and foam rolling. 100 miles I'll get you next month!
• 12 ab sessions. I've been trying for 3/week. I slacked on this the second half of the month. Oops.
• Finish a classic novel. The Great Gatsby on audiobook. 
• Have one super stellar long run. 2/2 12 miler
• Have one speed session that makes me feel like I'm a speedy runner again.
• Get a few pounds closer to my racing weight. 
• Run 3 of 3 scheduled long runs. 3/3
• Run 3 of 3 scheduled speed work sessions. 3/3
• See one Oscar Nominated best picture movie--Captain Phillips 2/16
• Read Printz award winning book 2014--Midwinterblood. Oops, I've had too many good books to read so far this month. Hopefully I'll get to this in March!
• Try one new recipe. I've saved a couple of good looking recipes from Veg Times, so I'll be attempting this in March too. I have embraced ground deer meat and all the ways I can eat it, but it's not really recipe following.

February In Review + Marathon Nightmares

February in Review

Total Miles:  141.9 up from 121.9 last month (82.5 in Febrary 2011.)  Highest February mileage ever.  The weather doesn't hurt.  Two hundred mile months down, 10 to go!

Total Time: 22:16:15 up from 19:34:50. Thank God we got that extra day, because I spent it running!

Total Runs: 20

Highest weekly mileage:

2/27-3/4 51.2 miles 8:20:03  Not sure how a half Feb/half Mar works for a February recap, but this was my highest weekly mileage EVER. So brag alert, there you have it.  If that doesn't suffice, then

2/20-2-26 47.1 miles 7:29:39.

Favorite run: I had a lot of fun running my 16 mile long run with 10 miles at MP.  It was a cruddy day out, so I spent it on the treadmill.  And learned that I can still manage to dominate Jeopardy even while knocking out marathon pace miles.  That's a win in my book.

Most hardcore run: All of my tempo runs. seriously.  Uff da.  The last one I did was painful, but I had the biggest runner's high when I was done.  10 miles w 5 at pace.  

8:26, 8:19, 8:14, 8:05, 7:58

Favorite race:  zero.  I've yet to run a race as a 28 year old.  Sad.

Bike Miles: 0

Favorite Jams: I'm loving Katy Perry's new song Part of Me and Kelly Clarkson's What Doesn't Kill You makes you Stronger. I could see that being a theme song on some of my LRs or tempo runs. ;)

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Well I'm approximately 9 1/2 weeks out from the Brookings Marathon, and it's started already.  The marathon nightmares.  I woke up last night in a panic; I was so freaked out.  It was so vivid and ridiculous.  And totally on par with EVERY race nightmare I've ever had.

And here it is:

I arrive at the race start and it's SURPRISE today.  Nothing like a surprise, your race has been moved up 9 1/2 weeks, right?  Fun!  I get up to the start line and the announcer is lining us up by submitted race times, a la high school track when your coaches would send in your race times to get you in the faster heats/best track lanes (I <3 lane 4, FYI.  Sprinting still has my heart, FYI.)  There were 10 people there for the race, and shockingly I was dead last.  Fine, NBD!  I'm already setting myself up to think that I may be all by myself for a good chunk of the race, that's just bound to happen with a really small race.  But bonus!  I'll get to see my family a TON, so it'll be like a long run with spectators.  Huzzah.

Anyway, just as the gun is about to go off, I realize my shoes aren't tied.  No biggie, it's chip timed, not like I'm going to be running with these speedies anyway, right?  And then I realize I'm only wearing one shoe.  Where is shoe #2, you ask?  5 feet across the start line, of course.  SOB!  So I cross, start my garmin, and by the time I've tied my shoes my garmin reads 5:50.  IS THIS YOUR FIRST TIME TYING YOUR SHOE?!? HOW IN THE WORLD DID IT TAKE YOU THIS LONG??!?!?

I get going out of the gym, because most of my race dreams start in gyms and include many many obstacles (yayzies, as if running 26.2 miles isn't hard enough!) and I have no idea where the race course is.  And since I'm a slow poke, and now 6 minutes behind the group, I'm stuck.  I shout to someone who appears to be a volunteer and they point me in the right direction.  Naturally, I'm running through 12-15" inches of snow.  The type of snow that's big and fluffy, but then has a nice layer of freeze on the top of it.  It's just stable enough that someone of my size can precariously walk across without it collapsing underneath you.  However, the force of running causes me to break.through.every.time.  I briefly think about DNF'ing and carting my booty up to Fargo for the marathon next weekend (I mean, come on... dream Jeri is kind of a genius here!  except she keeps going, because she's not a quitter.  oh sweet jesus Jerbear, just be a quitter!)

I run for a little bit and then it's on to obstacles!  Slides!  There are three slide options covered in ice.  But which do you choose?  I choose one and it's a dead end and I'm forced to climb back up the slide to get to where I was.  I finally make it through the right slide and end up in another gym.  And of course no one is around to direct me where to go.  I can't even find my way out of the school.  Finally I get outside and a kid tells me to just "look for Otterbox street."  I knew I should've memorized the course map.  Out of no where a classmate of mine shows up on a bike and says, "I made the trip down from Canada to keep you company on your race!"  I hand off my water bottle and continue on my way.  I end up down by a river and see the bike trails, and vaguely remember that the last half of the race is on the bike trails.  However, I don't know which way to take them.  The super not helpful volunteers tell me I can take either one, they're free for the public to use.  I'M TRYING TO RACE HERE PEOPLE!!  

Luckily I wake up shortly here after, and don't have to go through that torture anymore.  I made it not quite 5 miles in my dream.  Longest 5 miles EVER.  

The good news is that marathon pace was easy peasy.  

So there's that I guess.

February in Review

February in Review

Total Miles:  82.5 up from 79.2 miles up from last month.  (124 miles from February 2010.  Wow I was kicking ass and taking names... also didn't have the ninja death star flu... so there's that....)

Total Time:  13:28:10 up from 12:33:18.  An hour for 3 whole miles?!?!?  Yes, I'm looking at you slow poke 10 miler..... (19:17:08 last February.)

Total Runs: 15 for an average of 5.5 miles/run.

Highest weekly mileage: 

2/21/2011 — 2/27/2011:

29.5 Mi

4:55:28

Favorite run: 14 mile long run.  It was such a gorgeous day, and there were a gazillion other runners out doing there running thing.  A guy who I had saw 2 different times on the trail actually stopped me to see how far I was going, and we gave each other a little pep talk.  It was presh.

Most hardcore run:  Either my 800 m. repeats or my 10 miles through the snow and ice.

Favorite Race: None.  Sniffle.

Bike Miles: 0 which is exactly the same as last month's 0.  

Favorite Jams: Maroon 5--Never Gonna Leave This Bed, Foo Fighters--Everlong (yet again), Roxette--Dangerous
___________________________________
Monday morning I hit the trails again for a quick and easy 3 miles.  I figured the trails should be clearer than Sunday because of the SUNSHINE!!!!!!!  But it was a chilly 4 degrees out.  Luckily there was little to no wind, so I put on my big girl pants and did the darn thing. 

Speaking of pants, I picked up these running tights at Target this weekend and I'm a little bit in looooooooooove.  I had bought some fabulous heavy Nike running tights from TJ Maxx last winter for crazy cheap, but was not enjoying them so much this year.  See, because of the maaaaaaaaajor cheap sale, I neglected to care that the tights were mediums.  "They're SKINTIGHT.  Who cares..... close enough!"  Uh not so much.  Upon wearing them this winter, I had to take several breaks to hike up my drawers..... (please read that with a distinctly southern accent...danke).  How low can the crotch of your running tights go?  (please read that to the tune of.... Ludacris' How Low (can you go)). 

Anywhosits, I wasn't about to plunk down some cashola for primarily vain reasons, until I saw these beauties.  On sale for 17 bones?  Hook a sistah up! 

Things I love about them:
Super cute reflective design on the back calf.
No  terribly unforgiving waistband to emplore muffin top or as Marshall Eriksen would say:  “No elastic waistband leaving its judgmental pink teeth around my Thanksgiving belly.”
Nice and toasty (I wore them in roughly 0 degrees today).
The price.
The zippers on the back of the ankles

What I don't love:
The zippers hurt a little bit to be completely zipped.  Nothing major though.

(p.s. I bought these puppies with my own moolah and just did the review because I wanted to.  mmk?)

And the best part of the purchase was the picture message I sent to KK from the dressing room:  Do these pants give me a camel toe?!?!?!?!?!? 

Apparently this is very important information when selecting running tights.

(They didn't/don't.  Obviously.  Or I wouldn't have bought them.... Unless they were like $15 or something...... hah)

February in Review

It's that time of the month again (not that time of the month...eew... like I would declare that for the whole world wide web (WWWW?) to read....) my month in review.

February in Review
Total Miles: 124 which is up from 81.5 last month (compared to 54.37 in 2009). This is my 3rd highest mileage month of all time.

Time spent: 19:17:08.  I ran almost a full 8 hours more this month than last, and we were even cheated with only 28 days this month.  Heck ya.  (Last month was 11:25:01.)

Total Runs: 16 for an average of 7.75/run.  (whoa! that seems like a lot!) (Last month was 5.82/run).

Highest weekly mileage: 2/22/2010 — 2/28/2010: 35.0 Mi 5:30:49 (11 miles farther than January)

Favorite run: My tempo run where all was right with the world, the birds were chirping (I'd imagine, I was inside), the heavens were singing, there was a beam of light from above as I frolicked along on the treadmill effortlessly at neckbreaking speeds (ok not quite, but go with it).

Most hardcore run: I'd have to say my longest run to date of 16 miles was pretty hardcore.  Not only was it the farthest I've gone, but it was done with 3-4 miles of loose snow and roughly 1-2 cumulative miles of ice, and I *still* managed to have a faster pace than last weeks 14 miler.  Winner winner, chicken dinner.

Favorite Race: The Knights Classic Sprint (ha, just made that up) aka the footrace where I raced Nick for the length of the basketball court and *almost* beat him.
 
I'm contemplating doing a major switcheroo with my schedule this week.  I may be working a 12 hour shift on Thursday so I can leave work on Friday at noon to do my 18 miler.  This would free up my weekend (other than an easy 5 miler that would need to get done) for going out of town for fun shenanigans.  Could be worth it.  Or perhaps I would fall asleep at the wheel after running that far.... we'll see.
_________________________________
Monday afternoon I was itching to get out of work.  SUNSHINE.  It was a'beamin' into my office window and my body was craving some of its awesomeness.  I rushed out of work towards home, and even toyed with the idea of digging out my capri pants for the run.  News flash Jeri:  30 degrees is still below freezing.  Also, you're dumb.

Luckily, I opted to wear pants (as opposed to capris, not like running around without pants was an option...ya) but failed to grab a headband for my ears.  They were a little on the bright-red-and-burning-with cold-side by the time I got home.

I headed out for 6 easy miles and was so excited to see so many people out enjoying the beautiful weather!  Within a 1/2 mile of my doorstep I saw my buddy Todd running, a mile and a half in I saw a girl I went to Bible camp with as a grade schooler and have still kept in touch with.  YAY for seeing people while running.  And the best part of the run was when I randomly followed a running duo around a loop around the park vs. through the bike trails per usual.  This loop was the exact same distance as the trail is and got me to the portion of the trail that wasn't covered in snow and ice!  Remember the hellacious loose snow for the first two and last two miles of my 16 miler?  Yeah, totally avoided.  WIN! 

I had thought I was running easy, but apparently I was running a smidge faster than that.  Luckily there were still some random patches of ice/huge puddles I had to go around/mud to trudge through to slow me down in some areas. 

I did 6 miles in 56:44 for a pace of 9:28 and made it home while the sun was still on the horizon.
1. 9:08
2. 9:18
3. 9:29
4. 9:47
5. 9:24
6. 9:34

After my run, I noticed something dark on my toe, and had just assumed it was some black lint from my work socks.  Post-shower I realized it was my first blood blister.  EEW!  I swear I was just boasting about how "prissy little Jeri is oh so blessed not to have to deal with gross blood blisters and only has to handle little dinky water blisters."  Well, I guess that came back to haunt me then didn't it?  Naaaaasty ---->