Running update and what have you

I am finally back at it. I have just recovered from a crazy upper respiratory infection. i was getting worried about it because I have a half marathon this coming weekend. I ran a 5 k two weekends ago with the infection and it wasn’t that fun. (How could I turn down a free registration though!?)

Anyway, I did two runs this weekend and they weren’t too bad. Saturday I felt pretty great. I tried out 3/1 intervals and they seemed to work pretty well. I averaged about 13:06 min/mile. I even managed to run all the way up the massive hill of death at the park.  It wasn’t my fastest run but it would be enough to get me a PR at the half if I can hold that pace all race. I really want a PR on this one. It was the second half I ran and ended up being a 20 minute PR for me. This year’s will be my fourth half and I just want to come in under 3 hours.

Yesterday, i ran with my bff and she is just getting back into running. She’s a natural speed demon but we both struggled yesterday. The wind was awful. Leave it to us to go for a run in the middle of a dust storm warning. I thought we both did good. We averaged about 14 min/mile and I still think she did great despite her saying she didn’t. I was just happy to keep up with her!

There are some other things going on lately too. I am still going to personal training 3 times per week and it is going wonderfully. I love my trainer and I’m seeing massive differences. My biceps are more defined as are my shoulders, back, and triceps. Today she told me she could tell my knees were getting stronger due to the amount of weight we used in one of the sets. it was a weight I was never able to do before.

I have also started redoing my diet and started juicing. I’ll try to make some posts about those soon. I also have a review of my new Garmin planned.

Very Late Princess Recap: Half Marathon edition

Okay, I admit it. I have been slacking. I mean, I have been sick but I’ve also been completely slacking on everything except work and personal training. So here it is, my recap of my first ever Disney Half.

1:30 am I wake up on my own to avoid the whole flashlight in my face thing from the previous morning. Seriously thought i was about to be murdered. I’m dressed and ready, pacing a bit by around 2:10 am.

  
I was far more awake than I expected to be and I beat my running buddy to the lobby once again. My ChEAR squad was sleepily in tow. We boarded the bus first, once again at 3:00 am and were well on our way to the pre-starting area. More dance party and character meets ensued. My adrenaline was going and I was so beyond ready to get in the corrals.

   

 My running buddy was correct, we had to walk FOREVER to get to our corrals this time but it gave us something to do so I didn’t complain. Everyone was packing in and eagerly awaiting the fireworks to get us going. Miss America gave a short speech and they played the super cute video about dreaming big and the corral starts began.

   
 We had our planned stops for the run, which was less than for the 10k. We had two priorities the Heroes and the pirates. Beyond that, we just wanted to finish ahead of the balloon ladies. We saw the heroes early on before Magic kingdom and jumped in line. My heart was joyous when I saw Flynn Rider. He’s my favorite! We took that quick pic and were off. We ended up not seeing the pirates at all, sadly.

  
Running buddy needed quite a fe bathroom breaks and I took those times the get a good stretching in. Who knew hard hard it could be to do two races back to back, right? Haha yeah…

We ran through the gates to MK and passed the Contemporary resort. The first sign of the park itself that I remember was seeing Space Mountain. It was so neat to see it so early in the morning with oodles of princesses in running gear. Some midrun selfies and quick pictures of our view happened throughout the run. We photo bombed some characters to save time. (Aladdin and Abu, The Stepsisters, and our castle pic.)

   
    
    
    
    
    
   
Running through the castle was a lot easier than I was expecting. They did a great job of keeping a steady flow of runners and that was nice. Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff were standing on the balcony of the castle waving and talking to us as we passed. My running buddy shouted “Do you have any chocolate?” to Anna and Anna responded with “Chocolate?! Where?!” Which was pretty fun.

   
    
    
    
   
There was a lot of roadway and the two large hills toward the end but nothing horrible. they had  DJ at the beginning of one of the hills. My running buddy and I dance/ran and sang “Call me maybe” as we conquered that hill. It was the homestretch from there. I ran it in strong despite my severely aching feet. Hubby was texting me toward the end to tell me which side to stay toward so he could see us. When I came up to where he was, he had a surprise for me. He made me a sign and both he and our friend were yelling for us! There was nothing quite like crossing the finish line for the second time at Disney and going to collect our medals. I will admit it…I teared up.

In summary, I DID IT! I earned my Glass Slipper and proudly display them separately on my wall.

   

  

Tiny biceps and nerves

Yesterday I rested and today I did personal training with the awesome Mallorye. As I did bicep curls she tells me “Hey there’s a bicep there!” I looked in the mirror and, sure enough, there was a little baby bicep. Guess this sticking to a routine thing actually CAN work! Seriously though, I love personal training and it’s helped my running in both physical and confidence. I feel better. I feel stronger. I tell myself I can and WILL complete the Glass Slipper Challenge.

I’m still nervous. I have both my skirts in and the tanks from raw threads are on their way. I will either do the assigned 5 and 14 mile runs this weekend or I will do the 10k and half run through in costume. I still want a few props ( an apple and a headband for Snow and a toy frying pan for Punzie..if the new rules will allow those.) but I am mostly ready. We set out for Florida in exactly two weeks!

Getting my mojo back

I finally got back out there and ran today. I took my lovely Sparkle Skirt out for a trial run and she was amazing. I only did two miles because I didn’t want to get sweaty and nasty in her. After last week’s tough run, I have not had much motivation but today was pretty good. I went without music and ran at the college campus here in town.

Since today was the first day where temps were in the 60s again, everyone was at the park. I tried to run there first and both the road and the trail were packed to the gills. It was insane.

I did my short run. Averaged 12:19 min/mile and that was with walking to take a phone call from the hubby. If not for him I would have been a bit speedier. I’m looking forward to going back out again tomorrow for a longer run.

As for my skirt…she was great! There are two enormous pockets on the shorts underneath the skirt and it was big enough to fit my iPhone 6 plus, case and all. Someone had said they put a water bottle in their side pocket. My water bottle fit but looked like I had some kind of deformity so I left it in the car. The middle zippered pocket was perfect for my keys and would be great for holding fuel on longer runs. She didn’t ride up and made for a very comfortable run.

Not so great end to the weekend

This past week was just completely off thanks to the brief winter weather. It was a double run weekend and I feel like those are most important for the GSC training. I stressed half the week hoping I would get to do them.

I did. Saturday I did a personal training session and later went for a run. I decided to try to use the shoe inserts one more time. I shouldn’t have. They were the source of my foot issues and I ended up walking instead of running.

I headed out yesterday for the scheduled 12.5 run and there was still some pain. I did great for the first half of the run though. Then 8 miles in I had to make an unscheduled bathroom stop. For like 10 minutes. I seriously thought about just doing the mile that would get me to the mall where my husband works, stealing his car, and going home. Alas, I decided to continue on. The rest of the run was just a disaster. Full of traffic lights. The foot pain threw my gait off and gave me hip pain and I almost popped my knee out of place trying to stretch. Yeah it was awful. I decided at 10.5 miles to call it. I walked the mile back to my car and complained on the phone to my running friend about how sucky it felt.

Then the doubts started. Oh my God, what have I gotten myself into. 

Holy cow I have to run further than this for the challenge.

Oh crap it’s less than a month. What was I thinking?

Of course, I realize that this is just ONE RUN. I also know there won’t be stop lights and bad shoe decisions before those races. I am telling myself repeatedly now, YOU CAN  DO THIS and Think of all that bling! 

There is no way to slice it, I am nervous. Seeing posts about how we should be getting corral assignments soon and everyone getting their magic bands (ours came in last week) is drilling it in. This is really happening and it’s not far away. Single digit weeks.

Anyone else getting the jitters??

 

The Things I Get talked Into…

I know I already posted but I wanted to do a more upbeat one now that I ate my snickers and feel better 😉

I’m going to start by going back a year. This time last year I was struggling and in so many ways. I was registered for a half marathon. The second one I registered for but it would end up being the first one I completed. Anyone that knows me can tell you, I am not used to failing. I’m just not. I had a 4.0 in high school. I have a master’s level education and was able to obtain a dream job. I was a championship majorette in high school and I went to districts in tennis twice, one of which was about three months after having a pretty significant knee surgery. I don’t give up and I rarely fail at things I truly set my mind on.

That being said, I had to back down from my first half marathon. I had busted tail all summer alone. I picked up my time and everything. I was hitting massive hills and practically wore  down the path in the trails at the park. I ran rain or shine. Then my old running partner came back to run. She had been out for a few months due to her back problems. She’s an amazing athlete that continually downplays her awesomeness and I have to admit that I sometimes felt a little inferior. She was a beast and just an overall natural runner. I was lucky to have her help me get started but I was trying to keep up with her and my so-called good knee went out on me (i.e dislocated) less than two miles in. It was my worst fall to date and I have dealt with these falls since I was single digit ages. I just have naturally awful knees. I still have flashbacks of that fall and might be part of why I am not quite as fast as many people I know that run. it put me out of commission for a while. We did the 5k instead of the half for that race and I was distraught. It felt like a failure.

Fast forward to January 2015. I had new shoes and a new half I was training for. I had some minor falls and the previous November I sprained my ankle. I had no running partner because she stood me up pretty much every day. She just really wasn’t a morning person. I was terrified I would not be able to finish that one either. The pace requirement wasn’t super fast or anything. You could literally walk the whole thing and finish but I was still terrified. I’m going to speed this up because the post is longer than I thought it would be… needless to say, I finished! and I made a new friend along the way.

She was wicked cool and stayed with me the whole time, even when I had to sit on the concrete and stretch my crazy hip out. Also, the medals were way cooler than the one pictured. Those were temporary ones because the real ones were tied up in a shipping crisis. Anyway, I had massive hip pain and was super slow but I still finished my first half.

The struggle I had was with pain and feeling like I was alone all the time. The day after this half, I started a program I accidentally signed up for. It was called Women Can Run and, yes, I said I ACCIDENTALLY signed up for it. I don’t do new crowds well. I’m an omnivert with a slight tendency toward introvert so hubby pretty much forced me to go through with it for the next few weeks.

The program was amazing!  It was free and for women of all ages. Walkers and runners were all welcome and I was somehow in the advanced group. I was terrified. I went on the first group run and was terribly slow. My leader, Lauren, was wonderful and hung back with me since everyone else had those amazing fast twitch muscles God left out on me. I told her about the awful hip pain I had experienced and about the knee problems. She suggested a metronome and told me to take small steps as if my shoelaces were tied together. I swear she was magic because that hip pain disappeared after that short run with her.

The program was 10 weeks and ended with a graduation 5k. In the advanced group we learned about speed drills and all kinds of stuff I had only read about in blogs and books. I some how went from running 13 minute miles to having my best magic mile be 10:45. My easy pace went up to 12:30-11:30 per mile. The best part was, they encouraged you to get to know the other women and make friends. This was how #teamslug began. I made two of my best running friends in that group. I did my second half marathon with them and cut 20 minutes off my time! That accidental registration changed my entire life and I am so glad hubby kind of forced my hand for those first few weeks.

The program is state wide and it was the best thing that happened to me. i would not be preparing for Princess Weekend if I had not gone to this clinic. I think I would have given up. Okay so maybe not but I would have hip pain, bad gait, and like no running friends which is just as bad.

The program is about to start back up and I have been talked into being a leader. I’m nervous because I feel like I still have so much more to learn. I’m also extremely excited and flattered that they felt I would be “an inspiration” to others. I have no idea how I will be an inspiration but I am hoping to be placed with the beginner runners. I love seeing people find joy in running and I can’t wait to give back to the program that gave me so much!

Unrequited Love

Last night was game night. Game night means lots of snacks and, usually, fast food. The crunch wrap box at Taco Bell just looked too tempting to turn down. Against my better judgement, I gobbled up that flour tortillas wrapped pseudo-Mexican food. 

Then we got to our friend’s house and the table held pretzels, trail mix, and Oreos. Those damn Oreos sat in front of my taunting me. Whispering my name and promises they couldn’t keep. I was weak and took two of them. Two can’t hurt you right? 

Wrong. 

The sweet goodness of the chocolate and cream-filled devils was short lived. I survived last night but, true to their deceitful nature, they came back to hurt me in the morning. It was hazy and grey outside this morning when I stumbled out of bed, head pounding. I didn’t want to go to training. I didn’t want to wake up. I just wanted to sleep to escape the pounding in my brain. 

I pushed through and committed to training. I sweated like a pig. I breathed deep throughout the session and explained to my awesome trainer that I wasn’t unhappy being there I was just struggling through a horrible headache brought on by my star-crossed love of all things gluten-ous. 

I feel like I have learned my lesson. I love pastas, breads, cookies, and pastries but they just don’t feel the same about me.

Training itself is going great. I’m seeing more and more definition in my muscles and I feel so much stronger in my running than I did before I started lifting. I’m getting super excited about princess weekend with just a touch of nerves. I can’t wait to run through the parks and maybe even make some new friends in person along the way. I’ll miss the anticipation once it’s over and have to find a new goal to work towards. 

What kind of struggles are you guys having? Any exciting races coming up for you (Disney or otherwise)?

Feeling Better

I’m back and feeling a bit better for the most part. I’m not worried about the job situation anymore. That was silliness on my part in the first place. I am still nervous about the race but that’s normal for me. I am starting to get really excited too!

  
Who wouldn’t be excited to earn these beauties!? Well, I’ll be getting (hopefully) the middle three at least! 

It’s so fun that the theme is Little Mermaid! The New Balance mermaid shoes are pretty gorgeous too. Personally, I am hoping they still have the Tink shoes when I get there! 

I went for my maintainence run this morning and it was a struggle to get out there. It’s cold outside and the bed was so warm. It also takes a lot of effort to put on all my gear. (knee braces) I did it, though. It wasn’t my best run but it wasn’t my worst one either. My time was in the 12 minute range and I would have liked for it to be a bit faster. I did push harder at the last mile and brought that one mile up to the 11 minute range. The best part was that I did not have any pain. None in my foot at least. Maybe the injury is finally over. I’m actually looking forward the the back to back runs this weekend too. 

I also started something new for the New Year. I’m keeping a training journal. I have documented all my runs and training sessions and even do a weekly wrap up. I’m going to try to have a little more structure with getting myself on here too. I also plan on writing about more than just running. When the mood hits I’ll throw out a new subject or I’ll do something more than just talk about what I accomplished in running that day/week. I’ll find my direction. For now, this princess is getting pumped about getting her glass slippers. I thought the Disney races would be something to do down the road and here I am 42 days from my first one!

So Many Emotions

  
It’s THAT close….

It’s thrilling….and terrifying. Definitely need to get on the ball with my costumes. Training is going well but I’m still really nervous about doing this challenge. 47 Days. Wow. Any tips from challenge veterans are definitely welcome. 

I’m also feeling a little bit of guilt about the amount of money and the time off work…yeah, I’ll get over that. 

Today I did 3 miles and tomorrow will be 9.5-10 miles. I hit the hills at the park and did 5/2 intervals. I don’t know if that’s the intervals I will keep or not but it’s working to ease up ion whatever is going on with my toe. I did take the supportive insoles out of my shoes and put the originals back in. I feel like they may be causing me to over correct. 

The only downside to the run today is that they are tearing up my beautiful park! They are making some kind of trail where you can run a while then stop at exercise stations.I don’t know…All I know is that I am NOT happy with the destruction of all the pretty trees along the road. 

How is everyone else doing? Anyone going to be at Princess weekend? If so and you would be interested in a meet up let me know!! I would love to meet some new running friends along the way!