March in Review

March in Review

Total Miles:  105.8 down from 141.9 last month (140.6 in March 2011.) 

Total Time: 16:54:35 down from 22:16:15.

Total Runs: 13.  Eep.

Highest weekly mileage:

2/27-3/4 51.2 miles

Favorite run: I had an eleven miler with 5 at tempo pace that was pretty b.a. and I felt great (when I was done). Ha.

Most hardcore run:  Maybe the 20 miler through ice and snow. Otherwise I've had a couple of speedy speedy runs lately.  Uff da, welcome back fast twitch muscles!

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

Bike Miles: 16.4

Favorite Jams: I haven't downloaded any new tunes.  I've been auto loading my shuffle every couple of weeks.

_____________

Apparently summer is upon us.  Today it was 98 degrees.  April 1st.  No April fools.  Not that I spent any time outside, because I was nursing a monster Bachelorette party induced hangover.  Whoa.  Not messing around.  While I was thrilled when it seemed that our winter was going to be very mild for marathon training, I am not to thrilled out summer.  I purposely don't train long-long in the summer, because waking up at 2am to run seems like stupidity.  Saturday I needed to do a long run, but couldn't bring myself to wake up 6:30 on a Saturday to do it.  Gross.

I'm running my first race of 2012 this weekend, and haven't ran long in... at least a few weeks.  Hmm... I'm hoping that a solid run will light that fire under my booty that is dimly flickering.

Because the weather is crazy sauce gorgeous, Kyle and I got to take out his new boat on Friday after work to do some fishing.  I finished my book and then played boat photographer.  What a great night.  Kyle let me download instagram on his iPhone so I could play while he fished.  Yayzies.

The angler.

The photographer.

<3

Half the Distance, Twice the Fun

It is no secret that I've struggled with my motivation, sanity, and burn out for 26.2 the last few months.  Somewhere along the way I became the queen bee bipolar runner--10 days of glorious unicorns and glitter running, followed by 5-7 days of not wanting to run. Ever. Again.

I tried every trick in the book.  Giving myself some time off.  Focusing on how great the weather was.  Taking pride in breaking highest mileage weeks.  Emailing my favorite running gals for motivation and mutual bragging.

Last Saturday after some St. Patrick's Day celebrating, I decided:  I don't want to run a marathon this spring.  At all.

I have a list of reasons about 6 blog posts long, but I won't bore you with those.  I know it's the right decision.  I've been training for a marathon almost non-stop for the last 2+ years, if that's not a recipe for burn out, I'm not sure what is.

Last Sunday morning I woke up and still wanted to bag it, so I emailed the race director and the switcheroo was made!  When I got my confirmation email back from him, I felt a huge wave of relief.  Ok then, I guess that was the right call.

I spent a good chunk of Saturday night scouring the web for some tough half training programs, and I think I came up with something challenging but not too ZOMG scary, with enough flexibility to fit the rest of my crazy school schedule this semester.  AND since I won't be crippled for 4-6 weeks post-marathon per usual, I can actually race before it gets a trillion degrees out.  Oh how I've missed that!

So marathon #5:  TBD.  Half marathon #14:  Brookings here I come!

When I Fall, I Fall Hard

That title isn't some woe is me, emo love struck reference.  I'm currently typing with a wounded paw, elbow, hip, and knee.  Owie.

I never claimed to be graceful.  I'm quite clumsy, to be honest.  But this is something I know about myself, therefore I usually go out of my way to make sure I don't accidentally cause myself bodily harm.  Take running at night, for instance.  I stay away from the bike trails at night, because, hello, nowhere in my training plan does it call for a tempo run interrupted by a raping and dumping of my body in the middle of the Big Sioux River.  And if it does.... I'm firing whoever creates my training programs!  (Jokes, because I create my own, hey-o).

I have a few various mileage loops in a very safe neighborhood of town.  The only drawback is it is a fairly new part of town, and there are very few streetlights.  I've combatted this issue by running in the road.  Not only is this area of town safe, but there are very few cars.  And when there are vehicles, they're usually driving down the middle of the road because there aren't any others.  They're usually really good about moving way over to give me space.  Like I'm going to dart out at their vehicles while they're passing me or something.

Anyway, in the midst of my tempo miles tonight I was running along on the road, and hopped up on the sidewalk for the remainder of the block before I made a turn to the north.  Not really relevant to tell you which direction I was going to be heading, I just like to show off that I'm not directionally challenged.  Before I know it I'm somersaulting through the air and land in the grass (??) on my left hip and knee and casually hit my garmin "pause" button and say, "ouuuuuuuuuch" while looking around to see if anyone was witness to that delightful tumble through the air.  I assess the situation, minor blood, no real pain, and get back to that 8 minute pace I was knocking out.

But tumbles like that always scare the crap out of me.  Good reminder that I need to wear my Road ID all the time (I'm religious about it when I'm cycling, but running...not so much).  Or else need to resort to wearing my bike helmet for protection.  ;)

At least I got a good run out of it.... 8 miles; 2 mile warm up, 3 miles tempo 8:11, 7:58, 7:57, .5 mile recovery, 4x800 (200 jog recovery) 7:36, 7:45 paces, and a cool down as it started to rain.

Relationships: Give and Take

A few weeks ago I was nice enough to tag along with Kyle to a sportman's show. I made a big deal about going, but really it wasn't bad at all. However, I'm now able to cash in on this deed as I need a date to go to the Hunger Games this weekend. Muhahahaha.

I've already been given the "hell no" answer when I asked if he was dressing up as Peeta or Gale. 

Rest assured I'll be rockin' a Katniss braid....

Spring Break South Dakota Style

I've been on a glorious spring break for the last 1 week, and 1 day (and like several odd minutes, but who's counting?!?!).  Want to know how this wild and crazy girl lets loose for the occasion?

Last weekend I spent countless hours tucked in to my favorite cozy chair with my laptop on my chair arm (only b/c I think the fan is going out on my precious MacBook, so the little bugger gets HOT real fast when actually placed on the lap) watching Revenge.  I'd gotten sick of a ton of you crazy fools OMG'ing about the show every Wednesday night on twitter, and I realized that all the episodes were on Hulu.  Welp, ok, I'm now OMG'ing as well.  Congrats.  Ok, I didn't watch all 16 episodes over the weekend, but it was pretty darn close.

In the middle of a Revenge break, I figured I should probably attempt to attack my long run.  Naturally I'd waited until the middle of the afternoon, when it was 75 degrees out and 30 mph winds.  Oh, and I'd been eating Reese's peanut butter eggs at a rate that would make Kobayashi jealous.  Can you guess how that run went?

Five and a half miles later, I was home, and probably eating another peanut butter egg to console myself.

The one silver lining of a shoddy week of running last week, meant that I (should've been) mentally and physically prepped for my highest mileage week ever.  Mentally:  yes.  Physically:  TBD.  Monday I had 7 general aerobic miles with 10x100 m strides.  The first 2.5 miles I thought my calves were going to fall off on the spot.  And then they loosened up, and my "easy" pace was just shy of marathon pace.  yes please.

7 miles in 1:05:02 for a pace of 9:18.

Once I got home and logged my run I realized it was supposed to a) be a recovery run and b) be 6x100 m strides.  Erp.

Since I didn't have class on Tuesday night I got to enjoy a GORGEOUS 75 degree day of 12 miles.  Wheeeeeee!  Managed to leave salt marks on my black tank during the run.  Passed an adorable brindle pug on the bike trail (twice) and didn't pug-nap it.  Self control for the win!

Thursday night I had that terrible training run on my schedule.  You know, the one that you put on you're schedule when you're creating it, and you're like CRAP that's going to be the WORST.  And then you spent a significant amount of time forgetting about the training run, until all of a sudden you're at week 12 million of training (or so it feels like) and BOOM there it is again.  Gross.  Anyway, I had 11 miles with 7 at tempo.  Barf.

I spent 30 minutes freaking out about running in the heat, 80 degrees??  This is March right??  And then spent another 17 minutes tearing my apartment apart looking for some sport beans.  I don't claim to be the "neatest" person, but I know where everything important is.  Except my sport beans, apparently. I finally gave up and went for my run.

I expected to do 2 miles of warm up, 7 tempo and 2 cooldown, but after 2 miles my legs still felt like lead, so I went another.  I decided to go on the easier side of my tempo range for the majority of the miles, and speed up the last couple of miles.  I saw ANOTHER PUG around mile 4, and AGAIN resisted pug-napping.  For real, where are my 17 gold stars??!?!?

Just as expected, it was a tough @$$ run, and the heat didn't help.  A nice surprise was that my heart rate stayed mellow and consistent during the tempo miles.  While my heart was nice and tidy, my legs felt pretty junky, and I could NOT speed up during the final few miles as planned.

I did 11 miles in 1:37:50 for a pace of 8:54.  Tempo miles averaged: 8:27.

As luck would have it, I magically found two packages of sport beans in my purse while I was at work on Friday.  Because sometimes credit counseling becomes an endurance sport and you just NEED some sport beans, ya know??

Now for a wild and crazy Friday night of spring break, I was in my pjs at 5:25pm, and snuggled in bed watching Breaking Dawn.  Uh... more shirtless Jacob #amiright?  And now blogging away while watching Teen Mom 2.  Don't ask where that came from.... I couldn't tell you.  I have 20 miles on tap tomorrow, so I'll probably be thankful for this night of rest and relaxation.  And if not, hopefully there's a pug on my training run, because we know that the third time is the charm.

Woe is Me: Another Pug Tail

It's no secret I'm obsessed with pugs.  Need one.  Gotta have one.  ZOMG GOING CRAZY WITHOUT A LITTLE PUGGY FRIEND.  After last fall's pug meltdown, in which I ultimately decided I should wait to get a pug, I've been readying myself.  Trying to put away a little bit of pug savings for adoption fees, vet bills, necessities, etc.  And apartment searching for a place that will allow my little puggy love.  A few weeks ago I determined that August 1st would be the ideal date for pug ownership to occur.  I finish up my summer courses the end of July and have most of August off.  I'd have plenty of time to bond with the little bugger, and extra time to help potty train (if necessary) and to help her/him get acclimated to me AND ALL OF THE LOVE I HAVE TO GIVE IT.  Ahem.

At the end of work today, my boss emailed me to say that her fiance saw a pug at the humane society in town.  Eh.. what?!?!?  As soon as I got home I googled and saw a little black pug that was begging to be my bestie.  Sidenote:  for some reason I've done a complete 180 on my pug preferences.  I used to be a 100% fawn fan, but I'm now obsessed with the black ones.  So weird.

At this point, I have no problem blowing off my run to go meet this beauty to determine if it's truly love at first sight.  Kyle says that if I can wait until 6:30 ish he'll go with me, but uh... that's not happening, sorry brah.

I get to the humane society with my heart beating a trillion miles a minute and ask to meet the little cutie.  And the lady responds that she's in with a gal who's filling out the adoption paperwork.

[insert tears here]

[and again here since apparently writing this is making me all weepy, gah]

I got to peek in at her through the window and she's such a happy little squirt.  I'm happy she got adopted, but I just wanted it to be by me.  Sniffle.

Uff da, I have a pug shaped hole in my heart.

And how cute is she in this video?  Soooo happy/smily.



Somedaaaaaaaaaay my puuuuuuuuug will cooooooome (to be sung to the tune of Someday my prince will come).

Data Freak + Brookings Marathon

I am 100% a data freak.  I love to analyze and compare my running data.  Over the winter break from school, I found myself with ZOMG so much time!  And one of my projects was to go through my running log to notate my highest to lowest mileage months since I started running somewhat seriously 3 years ago.  As I was starting to creep up on my highest weekly mileage ever last week (HEYO!), I decided I wanted to look at all my highest weekly mileages, so I ranked the top 10-15 of those as well.  I also had to break down which race I was training for, because what good is data if you could seek out corresponding relationships in the data and your race performance?!?!?!  So fun.  And I'm being so serious here.

Another fun feature that my running log awards me is graphs.

Marshall, you're doing charts and graphs at work!?!?

(a pie chart of his favorite bars, which followed a bar chart of his favorite pies, natch.)

After reviewing the mileage for last spring, and last fall, aka Fargo Marathon training and Philadelphia Marathon training, I noticed that my 3 highest mileage weeks for training so far are already above my three peak weeks for the last two rounds of training.  I'm not surprised that I've beat out Philly's training, because that was... very last minute, but I honestly thought I'd trained like an all star last spring.  Maybe I didn't.  Hmm...  Anyway, this comparison left me with a huge sense of accomplishment and helped to motivate me to keep it up.

Speaking of keeping it up.  I realized that I hadn't registered for the marathon yet.  I think a little piece in my brain wanted me to be 100% sure I wasn't going to have another marathon meltdown.  And while it's not completely out of the question, I'm really loving training.  Which is the whole point of running these dang races, right?

(Imagine a sweet, congrats on your registration for the marathon screen shot here. Sadly I didn't get a cool one after I registered.  booo!)

So I'm signed up.  In blood. I'll be there.

Let the marathon nightmares continue.  :)