Today is September 16. My marathon is October 16. That means it's only one month til the big day. DANG! I think I'm ready. I say this as I lay in my bed typing with two ice packs on my shins. I'm hurting tonight. I went to the gym and did 30 minutes on this new elliptical they have - and it's no joke. After 30 minutes on that I ran 30 minutes on the treadmill. I was planning to run outside today, but it started to POUR at 4:30 and it's been raining ever since.
So I guess in my last post I wrote about how I was planning for my first 20 miler. Well... that never happened! It rained when I was supposed to run and 20 miles in the rain isn't my cup of tea. So 20 miles is definitely happening this weekend. Saturday morning to be exact! This weekend is jam packed! Between running and going to a wedding, I will be busy! Saturday is 20 miles and Sunday is a 5k. This could be a major fail. Sunday is the Miles for Melanoma 5k and I will be there to honor my late friend, Michelle. I'm anticipating that I will be in pain on Sunday morning after Saturday's run. I'm going to do my best to run the 5k, but if I have to stop and walk I'm cool with that. This is all about running/walking/crawling for a good cause!
I'm ready for this marathon training to be over. I'm starting to get bored with running and it seems like I'm getting slower and slower each day. The days are getting shorter and I'm finding it hard to get motivated to run after work. On Monday I ran 8.5, Tuesday 6. My weekly mileage is not very high for training for a marathon, but it seems to be working for me. I haven't run more than 12 miles since my 18-mile run a few weeks ago. I think once I do 20 miles this weekend my confidence will improve.
That's all. Another rambling post.
Peace. Love. Run.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
A few things
When I posted last I was talking about a shady looking man hiding behind a tree! Well, trust your instincts, people, because that man turned out to be a REALLY shady man. Today one of my co-workers and fellow runners told me how a man was arrested in White Clay Creek for hiding behind trees... NAKED! And he was taking pictures of female runners. That's very unsettling and I'm so happy I listened to my gut and turned around last week. I am going to be more careful about where I plan my runs out.
So Saturday was my long day and it was only 12. I'm happy that I am at the point in my training where I say only 12. It was a good run and I was conscientious to include more hills in preparation for the hills of Baltimore. Let me rewind a bit... prior to the 12 miles I was complaining of a lot of knee discomfort, hooray, the pain is gone. I started taking a vitamin and yoga on Friday seemed to help because I felt good during Saturday's run. I even felt good the next morning and did a quick 4 miles. Monday I did Body Pump and it was my first class in a few weeks. I felt good with the weights I was using (same as usual). I was a bit worried it was going to irritate my knee, but it actually feels better after the workout. My muscles are sore, but that's mainly because I've been working out a lot lately. Yesterday I ran 5.25.
Tonight I did a hill workout at Carousel Park and it was BRUTAL, brutal in a nauseating way. I pushed through though and did all 7 repeats as planned. I wanted to quit, but I didn't because I know these difficult workouts now are going to make the marathon that much easier in almost a month! Quite honestly, I would rather run 20 miles than do hill repeats. It takes a lot of self-discipline to train for a marathon alone. There were times trudging up that hill that I wanted to quit... but I didn't. I kept going. And going. And going... seven times!
Tomorrow I'm spinning at 6 a.m. and then I'm resting for 2 days. Sunday is my first 20 miler. I did 18 a few weeks ago so I'm not too nervous about 20. I'm hoping one of my brothers will run the last 5 miles or so with me. It helps to break up the run and gives me something to look forward to. If not, I'll run it alone. After this 20 miler, I'll have one more... and that one I'm planning to actually do in Baltimore as part of a preview run of the marathon course. I'm a little iffy about knowing the course ahead of time, but I think it will be helpful. I'm planning to run that with my friend, Katie, who is also doing the marathon!
That's all.
Peace. Love. Run.
So Saturday was my long day and it was only 12. I'm happy that I am at the point in my training where I say only 12. It was a good run and I was conscientious to include more hills in preparation for the hills of Baltimore. Let me rewind a bit... prior to the 12 miles I was complaining of a lot of knee discomfort, hooray, the pain is gone. I started taking a vitamin and yoga on Friday seemed to help because I felt good during Saturday's run. I even felt good the next morning and did a quick 4 miles. Monday I did Body Pump and it was my first class in a few weeks. I felt good with the weights I was using (same as usual). I was a bit worried it was going to irritate my knee, but it actually feels better after the workout. My muscles are sore, but that's mainly because I've been working out a lot lately. Yesterday I ran 5.25.
Tonight I did a hill workout at Carousel Park and it was BRUTAL, brutal in a nauseating way. I pushed through though and did all 7 repeats as planned. I wanted to quit, but I didn't because I know these difficult workouts now are going to make the marathon that much easier in almost a month! Quite honestly, I would rather run 20 miles than do hill repeats. It takes a lot of self-discipline to train for a marathon alone. There were times trudging up that hill that I wanted to quit... but I didn't. I kept going. And going. And going... seven times!
Tomorrow I'm spinning at 6 a.m. and then I'm resting for 2 days. Sunday is my first 20 miler. I did 18 a few weeks ago so I'm not too nervous about 20. I'm hoping one of my brothers will run the last 5 miles or so with me. It helps to break up the run and gives me something to look forward to. If not, I'll run it alone. After this 20 miler, I'll have one more... and that one I'm planning to actually do in Baltimore as part of a preview run of the marathon course. I'm a little iffy about knowing the course ahead of time, but I think it will be helpful. I'm planning to run that with my friend, Katie, who is also doing the marathon!
That's all.
Peace. Love. Run.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Fail.
So I was supposed to run 8 miles yesterday. I didn't. I got dressed, went to the park, started running - about 30 seconds into my run I saw a shady man near a tree and ran back to my car. I just didn't feel good about it so I listened to my gut. My plan was to go to my mom's, hop on the computer and map something out on mapmyrun. It was 98 degrees out and I was just frustrated and not feeling like running so I got dressed in my regular clothes and went out to dinner!
Last night I was really down about running. My legs and knees were hurting and overall felt tired of training. It's been a long road and I'm not about to quit now, but I miss just working out without a schedule. I know the hard work will be worth it in the end though. I just need to keep imagining that finish line. 26.2. Dang, that's a far distance.
Today I was talking to my chef co-worker and a personal trainer, Tim. I told him I was tired of training because my body just aches everyday and he recommended I start taking a multi-vitamin. He was shocked I wasn't taking one. He said I'm sweating out a lot of nutrients. Now that I think about it, I've been feeling really tired lately. I'm hoping this will help with the tiredness, fatigue and any muscle aches. Tomorrow I'm planning to go to hot yoga. I'm going to start doing it at least once a week, because I am feeling TIGHT. I need to do a MUCH BETTER job stretching. Saturday's long run is 12 miles and I'm hoping to put some new music on my iPod to keep me motivated. It's the little things that help runners. Everytime I have a new playlist I'm really excited to run.
I said I'd update more... so here's today's update! I'm hoping for some positive vibes in the coming days to get me back on the right track. Right now my knees and legs are feeling good!!
Peace. Love. Run.
Last night I was really down about running. My legs and knees were hurting and overall felt tired of training. It's been a long road and I'm not about to quit now, but I miss just working out without a schedule. I know the hard work will be worth it in the end though. I just need to keep imagining that finish line. 26.2. Dang, that's a far distance.
Today I was talking to my chef co-worker and a personal trainer, Tim. I told him I was tired of training because my body just aches everyday and he recommended I start taking a multi-vitamin. He was shocked I wasn't taking one. He said I'm sweating out a lot of nutrients. Now that I think about it, I've been feeling really tired lately. I'm hoping this will help with the tiredness, fatigue and any muscle aches. Tomorrow I'm planning to go to hot yoga. I'm going to start doing it at least once a week, because I am feeling TIGHT. I need to do a MUCH BETTER job stretching. Saturday's long run is 12 miles and I'm hoping to put some new music on my iPod to keep me motivated. It's the little things that help runners. Everytime I have a new playlist I'm really excited to run.
I said I'd update more... so here's today's update! I'm hoping for some positive vibes in the coming days to get me back on the right track. Right now my knees and legs are feeling good!!
Peace. Love. Run.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Aches and pains of marathon training
My lil body is starting to hurt from marathon training. Tonight my knees are hurting. I iced them for a bit and now my foot is hurting. HAHA. Tonight I ran a fast 3 miles. I felt good while running and for some reason I am more nervous about my short runs than my longer runs. At this point it seems to take my body a few miles just to warm up. I couldn't find my watch to time my run, but I would estimate that I finished around 28-29 minutes or so. Tomorrow I'm running 8 miles and I'll be incorporating 2 fairly big hills in the run. I've been reading quite a bit about the marathon and it is quite hilly according to the reviews. I've been running on some hills, so I think I'll be ready, but it can't hurt to do a few more hill runs.
This week my long run is only 12 miles, so I'm looking forward to the shorter distance. I'm also planning to take an RPM class (cycling) and yoga class. The cross training has really made my running stronger so I plan to continue with it as the marathon approaches. I haven't been to Body Pump in about 2 weeks, mainly because of my schedule.
Marathon training is tiring. I've been training since March and I'm starting to get tired, but 45 more days until race day! I'm beginning to think what I'll do after the marathon is finished. I am definitely planning to run the Broad Street Run again and the Delaware half marathon. I think the half marathon is a distance I want to do more of and continue to improve my times!
That's all for now. Just a quick update. I'm going to try to update more as we get closer to Baltimore!
Peace. Love. Run.
This week my long run is only 12 miles, so I'm looking forward to the shorter distance. I'm also planning to take an RPM class (cycling) and yoga class. The cross training has really made my running stronger so I plan to continue with it as the marathon approaches. I haven't been to Body Pump in about 2 weeks, mainly because of my schedule.
Marathon training is tiring. I've been training since March and I'm starting to get tired, but 45 more days until race day! I'm beginning to think what I'll do after the marathon is finished. I am definitely planning to run the Broad Street Run again and the Delaware half marathon. I think the half marathon is a distance I want to do more of and continue to improve my times!
That's all for now. Just a quick update. I'm going to try to update more as we get closer to Baltimore!
Peace. Love. Run.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
18 Miles!
A very rambling blog entry...
18 MILES! Woo. I did it. This morning. It's been a pretty long training process and I am finally getting to the workouts with BIG miles! I'm proud of the progress I've made... I still have some work ahead of me, but after today's run I finally feel like I've reached the point where I am confident in my physical ability do this marathon. Mentally, I'm still working on it! If I had to do the marathon 2-3 weeks from now, I feel I could do it!
The day before my big runs is always a day to prepare for the next day's run. I watch what I eat and I am hydrating all day. It seems to be working because my long runs have been pretty successful so far. Last night I iced my shins - they started bothering me yesterday and my knees have been a bit sore and I've been icing them as well.
This morning I woke up at 5:30 to get ready to start running at 7. I got to talk to my BFF Jessimba who happened to be up I so that was a nice, encouraging conversation before I embarked I what I'm calling "Kim's Parade Around Newark." I started my run at the Newark Reservoir and went practically around the entire city. It was a good mix of scenery and flats and some hills. Most of the run was flat though. I was really feeling good through most of the run - surprisingly good. I broke the run into 2 sections. Miles 1-11.5 I ran alone. At 11.5 I ran by my friend, Anna's, house and she joined me for the rest. She was a great help and kept me motivated!! I was tired from mile 12 on, but didn't really hit wall until 16.5 miles. And it was more of a mental than physical wall. At that point tons of obscentities were running through my head. I tried to think positive thoughts but it wasn't working well until I realized I was going to finish my run in under 3 hours so I kicked it in gear. I finished strong - the strongest finish of all of my long runs to date and I was really sore when I finished. After driving in the car, I definitely struggled to walk. As the day went on, my legs got looser and I'm feeling okay. Just okay though... I did run 18 miles afterall. At some points of the day I felt a bit naseuous, but I think it's because I needed to eat more.
A lot of times when I run I think about the progress I've made since the first day I attempted any long distance run. My first cross country meet (3.1 miles) I probably finished around 38 minutes. I walked and I complained... but eventually I grew to love running. Hence why I'm crazy enough to train to run 26.2 miles. I think anyone can become a runner if they really want it bad enough. I am amazed everyday I lace my sneakers up at how powerful the human body is. The thought of running 18 miles always seemed so daunting, but with each week of training, my body gets stronger, but more importantly, my mind gets stronger. The fact that I could run for almost 3 hours straight is simply amazing. Respect your body, people it does great things!
P.S. This is such terrible rambling jibber jabber.
Peace. Love. Run.
18 MILES! Woo. I did it. This morning. It's been a pretty long training process and I am finally getting to the workouts with BIG miles! I'm proud of the progress I've made... I still have some work ahead of me, but after today's run I finally feel like I've reached the point where I am confident in my physical ability do this marathon. Mentally, I'm still working on it! If I had to do the marathon 2-3 weeks from now, I feel I could do it!
The day before my big runs is always a day to prepare for the next day's run. I watch what I eat and I am hydrating all day. It seems to be working because my long runs have been pretty successful so far. Last night I iced my shins - they started bothering me yesterday and my knees have been a bit sore and I've been icing them as well.
This morning I woke up at 5:30 to get ready to start running at 7. I got to talk to my BFF Jessimba who happened to be up I so that was a nice, encouraging conversation before I embarked I what I'm calling "Kim's Parade Around Newark." I started my run at the Newark Reservoir and went practically around the entire city. It was a good mix of scenery and flats and some hills. Most of the run was flat though. I was really feeling good through most of the run - surprisingly good. I broke the run into 2 sections. Miles 1-11.5 I ran alone. At 11.5 I ran by my friend, Anna's, house and she joined me for the rest. She was a great help and kept me motivated!! I was tired from mile 12 on, but didn't really hit wall until 16.5 miles. And it was more of a mental than physical wall. At that point tons of obscentities were running through my head. I tried to think positive thoughts but it wasn't working well until I realized I was going to finish my run in under 3 hours so I kicked it in gear. I finished strong - the strongest finish of all of my long runs to date and I was really sore when I finished. After driving in the car, I definitely struggled to walk. As the day went on, my legs got looser and I'm feeling okay. Just okay though... I did run 18 miles afterall. At some points of the day I felt a bit naseuous, but I think it's because I needed to eat more.
A lot of times when I run I think about the progress I've made since the first day I attempted any long distance run. My first cross country meet (3.1 miles) I probably finished around 38 minutes. I walked and I complained... but eventually I grew to love running. Hence why I'm crazy enough to train to run 26.2 miles. I think anyone can become a runner if they really want it bad enough. I am amazed everyday I lace my sneakers up at how powerful the human body is. The thought of running 18 miles always seemed so daunting, but with each week of training, my body gets stronger, but more importantly, my mind gets stronger. The fact that I could run for almost 3 hours straight is simply amazing. Respect your body, people it does great things!
P.S. This is such terrible rambling jibber jabber.
Peace. Love. Run.
Monday, August 23, 2010
15 miles - DONE
Saturday was my longest run ever - 15 miles. I was really nervous about it. 15 miles is far. I mapped out my run a few days before to prepare myself mentally. On Friday I drank a lot of water, but went to bed late (David Gray and Ray LaMontagne concert - Amazing musicians!!) so I didn't start running until about 10. It was fine to start this late in the morning because it wasn't very humid. I started my run at the Newark reservoir parking lot and pretty much did a complete tour of the city of Newark. I was really out of breath for the first mile or so... I'm not so sure why. Around mile 3 I started getting terrible "girl cramps," but I worked through it and started feeling good around the 4 mile mark. For most of the run I felt good, besides some leg stiffness and the bottoms of my feet were hurting at about 1:40 minutes of running my feet really started getting tired and all I could think about was sitting down, a cold shower, a swimming pool, Rita's water ice and freeze pops. I knew I had some more work ahead of me before any of these were possibilities. I estimated that I would finished in 2.5 hours and I came in at exactly that time. I stopped a few times to stretch during the run. The course I mapped out was 15.07 miles at at mile 15 I was just ready to be done, but I felt a sense of achievement. I had almost finished running 15 miles! What an accomplishment. Once I was finished my legs really hurt. I drove home and ate a bowl of cereal, tried to stretch out a bit, but I knew it was going to be slow moving for the day. I rebounded pretty quickly and was able to clean my house later that day. The next morning I felt stiffness especially when sitting for long period of times.
Today was back to training. I did an RPM class at the gym, did ab work and some weight training. Tomorrow I'm doing 4 miles miles and looking ahead to Saturday - 18 miles! WOW. I knew I would make it, but it's still crazy to think about running 18 miles. I'm feeling confident this week!! After 15, I'm really getting excited for the marathon. I've decided I'm aiming to run under 4 hours and 15 minutes, but my ultimate goal is to just finish.
Peace. Love. Run.
Today was back to training. I did an RPM class at the gym, did ab work and some weight training. Tomorrow I'm doing 4 miles miles and looking ahead to Saturday - 18 miles! WOW. I knew I would make it, but it's still crazy to think about running 18 miles. I'm feeling confident this week!! After 15, I'm really getting excited for the marathon. I've decided I'm aiming to run under 4 hours and 15 minutes, but my ultimate goal is to just finish.
Peace. Love. Run.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Running Running Running
I'm not a good blogger. Between writing all day at work and writing for school, I just don't feel like writing about running. But I will. I've been doing well with running lately. Tonight I ran 3.1 miles at White Clay Creek on the cross country course and I finished in 28:08. Since I haven't updated since July 25 I don't really feel it's worth writing about every single run since then. However, my long runs have been 12, 13 and this week is 10. It will be nice to only have to run 10 miles - only 10 miles. HAHA! Next week is 15 miles though - my longest run ever. I'm not worried about it. At this point it becomes a mental game. When I prepare myself to run the longer distances, I do fine. With the heat I've been carrying a water bottle and it's really helped. After the ten-mile debacle a few weeks ago I always carry water on the long runs.
My times have been a bit slower than I'd like, but I'm not really concerned. 1. it's hot out. 2. my only goal for the marathon is to finish. The talk of trying to finish in under 3:55 (mile pace of 8:55) is nonsense talk. This is 26.2 miles, people. I know my pace for the half was 8:39, but another 13.1 miles is a whole different ball game. I'm trying to live!!! However, I am still competitive and I'm going to start trying to incorporate more interval work in my training schedule. Lately, I've been working to just build the mileage, but now I think I can start doing some more speed workouts.
My times have been a bit slower than I'd like, but I'm not really concerned. 1. it's hot out. 2. my only goal for the marathon is to finish. The talk of trying to finish in under 3:55 (mile pace of 8:55) is nonsense talk. This is 26.2 miles, people. I know my pace for the half was 8:39, but another 13.1 miles is a whole different ball game. I'm trying to live!!! However, I am still competitive and I'm going to start trying to incorporate more interval work in my training schedule. Lately, I've been working to just build the mileage, but now I think I can start doing some more speed workouts.
I bought new shoes last week; Asics Gel Kayano 15s. I like them a lot. They say to change your running shoes every 250 miles and my old shoes definitely had more than 250 on them. These are the 
most expensive sneakers I have ever bought, but I have a lot of running until October so I might as well get some quality shoes. I've also bought some new running shorts and shirts. I am not buying anymore running crap. I've spent way too much money!
Well that's all.
Peace. Love. Run.
most expensive sneakers I have ever bought, but I have a lot of running until October so I might as well get some quality shoes. I've also bought some new running shorts and shirts. I am not buying anymore running crap. I've spent way too much money! Well that's all.
Peace. Love. Run.
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