Confession:

SO I'm sure that everyone has noticed my serious lack of posting lately. I have decided to confess the reason why:

Its the word that no runner (especially one that is training for a BQ marathon) want to hear.....

What is it?....Come on, everyone say it with me....

INJURY!!

And the worst part is that I am not 100% sure what it is, so I'm not 100% sure how to treat it. All I know is that it is scary because it is in my chest.

I made the rockie mistake of going all out to quickly and after almost a month off after my first marathon. I decided I was gonna do planks, arm workouts, lift weights, etc. etc. Well, my upper body was just not ready for this. It was all like "hey dummy, cut me a little slack here, this is the first workout you have given me in years"

And so my muscles went and broke on me. I'm pretty sure it is a pulled muscle in my chest, but everytime I go to run it is SO painful it feels like my heart is gonna stop!

So I have made the executive decision to take a full week off and see if that lets it heal a little. I know that injuries happen, and that I shouldn't let it bring me down. But it really has! I just hope that taking a full week off doesn't mess up my entire training.

A good runner knows their body and knows their limits. It is better to back off when you are injured and let your body heal, then to push to hard and suffer irreversible damage.

And this leads me into some motivational quotes:

"hang in there, trust your body. It may need time, but it knows how to heal itself"  -Kara Goucher

"Every wall is a door" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

" Believe in yourself, know yourself, deny yourself, and be humble." -John Treacy

" Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of great opportunity." - Micheal Johnson

What is your favorite inspirational quotes that keeps you going?

Make me feel better! Share your injury experiences!

Houston Marathon...Who is wearing who?

I'm sure everyone is getting pretty sick of hearing about all of the hype behind the Olympic Trials at Houston this morning....well, maybe not if you are like me ;)

Also, if you are anything like me you are OBSESSED with running shoes. I currently have a deep ever-lasting love for my newest addition to the collection:

Mizuno Wave Elixir 6

And I have had my eye on these babies for this season's training runs:

Mizuno Wave Elixir 7...Just came out this month, can we say LOVE?!

So now to the point. I found this really interesting article on http://running.competitor.com about what the athletes are wearing on their feet today at the Houston marathon.

Ryan Hall is sporting these babies:

The Asics Hyperspeed 2 weighing in at under 7 ounces!

Kara Goucher is wearing Nike's in Pink

The Nike Lunar Racers, weighing in at 7 ounces.

Saucony came out with these special addition racers for their Houston athletes:

Brooks also released their special addition Houston Marathon Racers, the T7:

 

Which ones would you choose? Who followed all of the coverage of the marathon this morning? thoughts?!

 

 

First Long Run of Training...DONE!

Since this week was my first official week of training, today called for the first long run of 8 miles.

I had prepared myself for this run all week and thought I was ready until I woke up to 20 degree weather and icy roads.

As much as I REALLLY did not want to run 8 miles on the treadmill, I was willing to suffer in return for comfort and safety....Until I went down to the gym and every. single. treadmill. was taken. I guess everyone had the same idea as me.

I took this as a sign. I ran back up to the apartment, threw on my running tights, my warmest jacket, gloves, and a hat and braved the elements.

Hell, I'm in Denver now, I may as well suck it up and get tough! When in Rome right?

After getting out I was so glad that I had made that decision. Not only did I feel like a feakin bad ass treakin it through the snow, but it turned out to be not as cold as I had imagined it would be. I even had to take off my gloves and a layer half way through the run!

I ended up getting in 8.5 miles in about 1 hour and 10 minutes. I'll take it. Considering I had to seriously slow down through most of the run, because I almost ate concrete at least 5 times. One of those times being right in front of the office of our apartment complex where the cute runner guy works and was sitting at his desk. Damn. So much for being smooth. Good thing I have a boy that loves me even though I am an extreme nerd. :)

In other news, last night was the boy's mom's 60th BIRTHDAY! The whole family went out to dinner and then to Cirque Du Soliel, which was Michael jackson themed. oh yeah!

And what is a 60th birthday without a ginormous birthday hat?

And here is a shot of the whole fam at dinner, love these guys:

It was definitely a fun night! Now I am off to relax and finish up this Broncos game! Tomorrow I start my new teaching job, wish me luck! Im a little nervous!!

In it to win it

New year, new job, new challenge.

Thats right. I finally am going to venture into my career choice (you know that one that I spent about 6 years getting a masters degree in.) I was offered a teaching job last week and will be starting on Monday! I can not wait and I think that its a great step in the right direction.

I also kind of jumped the gun and quit my other job, so I have had sort of a weeks vacation. Which has been perfect because this week I officially started training for marathon #2, with the goal of achieving a BQ this time! Not sure if its possible, but I'm sure as hell gonna try! :)

Here is my week in training thus far:

Monday: Easy run (6 miles, avg. 8:30 pace)

Tuesday: Intervals (20 min warm up at 8:30 pace, then 20 minutes of alternating 1 min=7:30 pace 1 min=8:30 pace, then 20 min cool down at 8:30 pace)

Wednesday: Easy run (5.1 miles at 8:30 pace)

Thursday: Weight training and Easy run (4 miles at 8:30 pace)

Friday: Rest

Tomorrow will be an interval run and Sunday will be my first long run. I am going to play it by ear, but I'm aiming for 8 miles.

So far I am off to a pretty good start. My goal pace for the marathon will be about 8:15-8:30, and my comfortable pace is about 8:30 right now, so I'm feeling pretty good! Hopefully it will continue to improve!!

Another thing I have done with my week off is a little DIY project that I'm quite proud of:

I have been wanting to make one for forever and finally decided to take matters into my own hands. Next project will be one for my race bibs! And if you guys are interested in a tutorial on how to make one yourself let me know and I will post it! Its super easy!

What is everyone doing this weekend? Any race plans?

Spring Training and Racing Schedule

So I know I've been somewhat of a stranger lately. You know that whole grad school, full time job, full time kid..err..boyfriend. Those things take up A LOT of time. Who knew?!
I'm definitely getting the itch to start training again. Too bad the weather here is pretty much going to be below freezing until who knows when, and I FREAKIN hate the treadmill! I did throw on my bad-ass-ness yesterday though and plunge into the freezing weather for a nice little run.
I was worried that my speed may have declined a little, since I'm not officially training right now. But I was pretty surprised with my splits!

• Mile 1: 8:02
• Mile 2: 8:06
• Mile 3: 7:54
• Mile 4: 7:50
• Mile 5: 7:52
• Mile 6: 8:16

Total Miles: 6 in 48:05
Not too bad em, not too bad.


I will say that the one thing that I like about running is cold weather is the gear. Here are some of my favorite things to where when the temperature drops.

Nike Element Jacket. I got mine last year at TJ Maxx for a steal! And it is always my go to jacket when I run in colder weather.

Mizuno Running Tights. These things are the best! They feel like you are hardly wearing anything at all because they move so well, yet they keep me warm and toasting in the CO weather. PLUS they are my favorite color (purple) and the boy says I look like a pro when I wear them!

Fleece earwarmers. They have a variety of colors at Wal-mart for $3, not kidding.

I also really like this app from Runner's World. You just give a little info, like the temperature, wind, etc. and they will suggest what to wear for your run. I also read once that you should always dress for 20 degrees warmer when you are running, because that is how much your body temperature goes up. I generally find this to be a good rule of thumb.

As far as training and more races, I have a few cooked up for the spring. So far for sure I'm doing the Colorado Marathon and attempting to get a BQ from this one. Its in May, so come January I'll be training my ass off for that time!

I have a few other races on the agenda, such as a Turkey Trot (of course), a few halfs, and maybe a relay. so stay tuned!


P.S. If any of your girls reading this are from Colorado, or think you may want to join a team for the Wild West Relay, go to the website: www.wildwestrelay.com, check it out, and leave me a comment or send me an email telling me you are interested. I really think it would be awesome to get some bloggers together to do this! Plus you need 12 people on a team, and I just don't know that many people around here that are THAT into running.

Halloween and Football

This weekend was filled with fun "fall" type events. On Saturday I finally decided what I was going to be for Halloween:

Black Swan!!
 
Among my friends were a soccer player, Keith Stone, and a Geisha

Pilot and Keith Stone, again
 

After partying all night for Halloween we woke up the next morning and hiked to Sports Authority Stadium for my very first pro football game
 

Ready for the game!
 
We had amazing seats! 14 rows up from the field!


This was the boy's favorite part...the cheerleaders

Pretty fun weekend, and now its time to get back to work.
Happy Halloween everyone!!
What are you dressing up as?

You guessed it!

After carefully tallying all of the votes and taking into consideration all sides, we have a clear winner...
It was a landslide win for pumpkin #1

Who carved this work of genius you ask?....

Yes, I guess you could say my pumpkin trumped pumpkin #2

On the running front I have been DYING to do another race! I loved all of your suggestions from a couple of posts ago. I looked into some relays and this one seems pretty freakin cool...
 
Its not until August, but that would give me plenty of time to get a team together. Anyone wanna join?!
I also would LOVE to do the Vegas Half Marathon, like ALOT of you are doing. My roommate is actually going to be in Vegas that weekend, so I might just try to make it happen, we will see. 
And now I leave you with the most important question of all....
What in the world should I be for Halloween?!!!