Life gets in the way!

Me again. I really wanted to be more commited to updating this blog, but as they say... life gets in the way. It sure has.

Just a quick update to let you know I'm alive and kicking! I registered for the Rehoboth Beach Marathon in Delaware in December. It's not the nice fall upstate NY marathon I'd originally planned on. I fell short in my training, got burnt out, etc. etc. I couldn't commit to running in October without training right. The RB Marathon is very close to my parents' summer house in Delaware. I run a LOT in Delaware whenever we're down there. So this marathon is close to my heart. It's only 2 weeks after the Philly marathon which I usually run (but can't this year because we'll be in Disney that week). I can expect the same weather. I'm just hoping it's not crazy windy, this being a coastal marathon and all. I'm excited. Will most likely leave the family home for this race, as it is a 7 a.m. Saturday marathon and I don't think it's worth taking the kids out of school to make the long trip for them to freeze their butts off watching me lol!

I learned a lot about myself this summer - the exhaustion and my month-long hiatus from running - and someday I'll tell you exactly what I went through. It's a long story and I'm not ready to share. Soon. I'm incredibly thankful for my husband, my kids, my family and friends, and for all who read this blog and encourage me along the way. It means to much to me, more than you can ever know!

I had a great experience this weekend and I feel a little pathetic mentioning it here, but I just wanted to share. I have this friend, Fernanda, who loves to run more than anyone else I know. She's been throwing out invitations to run together for months. I've dreaded running with her because she's REALLY fast. I know running with fast runners will get me faster. But I hated the thought of running so slow I'd hold her back. Anyway, on Saturday I went out to run. I had done my long run on Friday, so this was going to be a casual run before my husband left on a business trip. I was thinking during that run of how I should really just suck it up and run with Fernanda - just to get that first run together over with. I'm almost finished my run, it's a beautiful day, and there ahead of me, coming right towards me... Fernanda. She made a motion for me to turn around and join her. I did. Ran an extra 6 miles with her through some great trails, really pushed myself, and hopefully didn't hold her back too much. She had just run 22 miles 2 days before this and this was her "recovery" run. After running with her, I just about collapsed. But I survived, and I know if I just stop setting limits for myself, I can kick some butt.

I'm happy to be back in the game...

Me Again....

It's been a while since I've posted - like over a month now. A lot has happened since then. I don't even know where to begin...

About 3 1/2 weeks ago I woke up and DID NOT WANT TO RUN! We all have our days. But this lasted for 3 weeks. I hit such a down spot. We had hot weather and I was on vacation. I wasn't eating well. I felt run down and depressed. I spoke to a good friend about it. She told me the same thing happened to her a few years ago. Burnout. I couldn't bring myself to run. It was almost like a complete mental block.

So last week I decided to call off my plans for a fall marathon. I decided instead to run a Half marathon this fall.

But that wasn't resting so well in my mind. I run marathons, and I had a goal for this year, and I just couldn't bring myself to NOT do a full marathon. I knew if I got to the end of the year without running a marathon, I'd regret it. So I went out last week twice - forced myself to lace up my sneakers, grabbed my iPod and did 5 miles each time... it felt great! And I asked myself WHY have I not run in 3 weeks? Maybe I just needed to push myself harder.

I'm not ready for the Wineglass Marathon in October, my original plan. I can't take 3 weeks out of training and expect to be ready.

I went online last night to look for later marathons, thinking I'd have to fly somewhere to run a marathon in December or January! Turns out there's a marathon in Delaware, just 10 miles or so from our summer house in Bethany Beach - the Rehoboth Beach Marathon on December 11. I have 16 weeks to train. In essence, I'll have to start over in my training. Training starts next week. My daughter starts kindergarten the following week and I had been wondering how I was going to spend my afternoons without her (my son is starting first grade all day long). This is the first time in 6 1/2 years I'll have daily time to myself. I'm excited to start training again, having a purpose, and focused time to do what I love so much....

Catching Up!

So it's been a while since I've posted. Since the last post, I spent a week in Delaware with my kids and my mom. We had a great time, and I got to run in a flat state... yay! It was HOT and I found myself running at night after the kids were in bed. I could even do long runs because it is safe to run on Rt. 1 which is a well-lit major road with a running path in between the road and the beach!!!

I'm pretty Type A. So when I missed a run because I had to spend 8 hours driving across 4 states, I combined a few runs the next night so I didn't miss my workouts for that week. I did the same last week when I was crazy busy with Vacation Bible School and the kids' swim lessons. And I'm planning to combine workouts this week, too. I hope that's ok. I'm just finding it's hard to consistently run EVERY day and other things take priority. So the next day I make up for lost time. :-O

A friend lent me a great book called Run Like a Mother - I couldn't put it down!

So I'm 4 weeks into my training and it's going well. I opened up my long run schedule to the Ragnar group and a few of us have been meeting weekly to run together. They keep me accountable to my goals, and it's awesome! I've come to truly enjoy the long runs we do together early Sunday mornings. Then I have the rest of the day for church and family fun. It's a good thing.

On Track

Things are still going well. I'm finding my greatest lesson learned so far along this journey is that even when I don't feel like running, I do it anyway, and I never regret it! I'm saying that just about 3 weeks into the training - I'm still "on track" - still doing what I need to do every day. I'm a very Type A kind of gal, so a daily routine is good for me. School and activities are over now for both kids and I'm happy that the only commitment I really have is to playing with them all day long, then running when Daddy comes home! Summer has arrived!

This week I did some speed work and the 4-hour marathon is seeming more possible than ever before!

Our Ragnar team went out for a very belated post-race celebration Wednesday night and just being around the team gets me pumped to continue training hard. One of the guys on our team even commited to running the Hartford Marathon this fall! So Greg and Kim are going to do their first marathons and I'm determined to be there for them at Mile 20 - I can not wait!

I'm also making plans to run the Hartford Marathon on a 5-gal relay team - we did it last year, it was an amazing experience, and I look forward to doing it again. This time with additional runners so we can hang out at the exchange points together. Should be so much fun!

Now I'm working on finding new and fun routes for my long runs since I'm getting sick and tired of running along the trail I run just about every time!!! And I'm working on doing these runs with friends. It's all coming together, and I'm happy to find kindred spirits who want to sweat it out together. Really thankful God has given me many friends who love running!

Enjoying Things...

This was a great week and since this blog is in part to keep me accountable to my training plan I want you all to know I stuck to my plan, and I feel wonderful! I even found a different plan in Runners World, it is somewhat similar to the Hal Higdon one I'm following now, but I"m comparing the two to get the most bang for my buck. Runners World had an awesome issue this month, lots of great articles. It is the one magazine I actually enjoy getting because it is not all advertisements but rather full of awesome stuff! It even had an article about hill training. :-)

Pretty much each week I do the following... one long run (between 8-24 miles), 2 or 3 5-mile runs, 1 day of interval training and 1 tempo or pace run. It's specifically focused to help me run my next marathon in under 4 hours. I'm feeling stronger lately. Tonight I ran an easy 5 miles and I felt great and even got way faster at the end, I just wanted to speed things up. I consider it such a gift to be able to call a 5-mile run an "easy" run given I had never even run a mile until 4 years ago. Really getting excited about my long run this weekend as it isn't as hot as last week, we don't have much on the calendar, and I'm feeling pumped.

Plugging Along

I may not post every day but things but are going well. :-)

Bill's parents are here for the weekend, we're celebrating his 40th birthday. Yesterday was sweltering hot and I didn't feel like going for my 5 mile pace run until night time, but I ended up doing it on the treadmill instead which proved to be a bit challenging - usually i do more leisurely runs on the treadmill. I'm just not crazy about it, but the pace run needed to be done and they were calling for thunderstorms. I didn't get around to running until 8:30, which made me not tired at all to go to bed. Which made me go to sleep much later than normal. Which made waking up EARLY today to get my 10-miler in before church not so fun. My lesson for this weekend... don't do a 5 mile pace run on the treadmill. And if you must, don't do a 10-miler the next morning after getting very little sleep! I love running 10 miles normally, but I struggled this morning and the treadmill just wore me out - I always feel like I'm going MUCH faster on the treadmill at the same pace I run on the road, and I hate all the pounding! Anyway, I got it all "done" and tomorrow is a rest day. Whew!

I love the Christian group Casting Crowns and this morning I listened to one of their songs "Voice of Truth" a whole bunch of times to get through my run...

"But the Voice of Truth tells me a different story. The Voice of Truth says DO NOT BE AFRAID. And the Voice of Truth says this is for my glory! Out of all the voices calling out to me, I will choose to listen and believe the Voice of Truth." Love that song and love it's message. It's amazing how often I listen to the "voices" (i.e. influences) of the world, even in my running - I'm thankful that God allowed me to get into running in my late 30s, it's such a gift, and I want to do it to glorify Him.

Enjoying my new plan...

I've had a few great days of running - Tuesday was my "hills" day - I ran hill intervals on Hollister Drive, one of the hilliest roads in our town. Amazingly my quads are not hurting. I think I'm getting used to hills!

Last night I did an easy 3 mile run, and yes, it's almost 9 p.m., we're watching the Flyers game, but I need to do a 30 minute tempo run. Ragnar cured me of my fear of night running, so I'm grabbing my headlamp after this quarter and heading out....