March and April in Review

Somehow I did manage to increase my mileage for March and April but it's nothing to write home about as the miles still ended up being on the low end.  I have done better this month so hopefully the next review will be more exciting!!  Once again I am combining two months as I just seem to be on the go constantly and have a hard time find a period in the day where I can actually blog.

March 2016 Stats
32.40 running miles
1.66 walking miles
 34.06 total miles

April 2016 Stats
 34.04 running miles
 1.49 walking miles
 35.53 total miles

Current 2016 Stats
 122.45 running miles
 20.79 walking miles
 143.24 total miles

I am still hoping the May will be a better month with me running the Cleveland 1/2 Marathon this Sunday and state #17 next Sunday!  There has been serious talk of training for the Columbus Marathon so that should also help kick start my mileage next month and into the summer months.



 Keep running, you're simply the best, and you inspire me!!

Columbus Marathon Training...1/3 Complete

Yesterday's 12 mile run in the "rainforest" with Deb and Missi concluded the sixth week of my Columbus Marathon Training which also translates into being 1/3 of the way done with my eighteen week training cycle! 

Here's a breakdown of my progress so far:

Running miles
696.90 scheduled miles
204.40 miles completed
89 schedule running workouts
30 scheduled running workouts completed

Cycling/Strength Training
I have completed 62.8 cycling/spinning miles
I have completed several strength training workouts

Over the next twelve weeks I will run 492.50 miles during the course of 59 running workouts.  There will also be more cycling and strength training taking place.  The first six weeks have gone very well.  Here's hoping the next twelve will be more of the same!!

Keep running, you're simply the best, and you inspire me!!

Columbus Shopping Trip

Sunday afternoon Deb and I headed to Columbus for our annual shopping trip.  It's nice to get away and relax, shop, and of course eat way too much.  Once in town we headed to The Container Store.  This year's trip was a lot gentler on our pocketbooks as we didn't buy nearly as much as we did last year.  Of course last year Deb was buying a shelving system for her daughter's bedroom and I was buying all kinds of "must have" gadgets of course!  This year I walked out with a new trash can for my daughter's bedroom and a nice shower caddy for the bathroom.  Since Dave lives in Columbus we had the chance to have dinner with him on Sunday evening.  We decided on McCormick and Schmick's so I went ahead and called to make a 7:45 reservation.  We made a wrong turn on our way there and didn't get to the restaurant until 8:00.  Imagine our surprise when there was a sign on the door saying that the restaurant was closing at 8:00.  One of the staff came to the door and apologized for the fact that they closed early.  Fortunately Dave was thinking on his toes and commented that I guess that reservation didn't mean anything.  The staff member said you're our last reservation tonight, come on in.  The food was great.  I don't generally like fish but I tried Deb's sole and it was actually very good.  The shrimp I ordered may just have been the best shrimp I have ever eaten.  Now the dessert however was THE BEST part of the meal.  All three of us were in awe of the deliciousness of the peanut butter pie.  We were trying to figure out how they made it.  We spent the next two hours chatting and catching up with Dave which was great.  He has such a great sense of humor and always has the best stories.  Finally we were the last ones left in the restaurant and the manager made his way to our table to politely tell us to "get the heck out" since they were closed.

Monday morning Deb and I slept in for a bit and then headed to the Jeffersonville Outlets.  We had a great time shopping and found some great deals.  There was of course a lot of credit/debit card swiping at the check out counters!  We finished up at the outlets and headed back to the hotel to freshen up.  Last night we headed to Easton and had dinner at Abuelo's Mexican Food Embassy.  Once again the food was fantastic and we ended up eating too much once again.  Following dinner we did a little shopping and then headed back to the hotel.

Today we had to come home.  So sad I know!  We had some breakfast at Panera and then stopped by a store at Polaris so Deb could find a dress for a wedding she has coming up in August.  Oh and yes, I did manage to fit my 5 mile marathon pace run in today!

All in all it was a great girl's trip!  I can't wait for next year Deb!!

Keep running, you're simply the best, and you inspire me!!

October 16, 2011....

After a fun spinning class and some planks, I got ready for the day and then headed to the Columbus Marathon website.

I filled in my information and moments later I received the following email:

Dear Jodi:

Congratulations, you've made the COMMITMENT to take part in the 2011 Nationwide Insurance Columbus Marathon & 1/2 Marathon! We are pleased to have you joining us for what promises to be a great event!

Yesterday I completed week one of training for the Columbus Marathon and everything went great.  Looking forward to bringing it to marathon #2!

Anyone else running Columbus? 

Keep running, you're simply the best, and you inspire me!!

Here We Go Again...

I officially started Columbus Marathon training this week and speaking of training plans I need to thank Joe for creating yet another training plan for me!

"Coach" Joe and I after the Austin Livestrong Marathon

Here's how it has been going so far.

Monday
~Cross training day~
Last marathon training cycle I didn't do much cross training.  My goal is to make sure to include it during this cycle so I was off to the gym bright and early for spin class.  Two of my neighbors joined me for class which was awesome!  One just so happens to be a spin instructor so I had asked her if she would come to a couple different classes and let me know which she thinks would work best for me.  I would go to her class but alas I am not a member where she teaches.  Perhaps we just need to set up spin bikes in her basement!!  The music could have been better but overall it was a good class.

Tuesday
~4 miles at marathon pace~
My anticipated marathon pace at the moment is right around 9:40-9:43/mile.  I had a bit of a hard time keeping my marathon pace yesterday.  The problem was I was running too fast.  Ever since the marathon I have just been running "whatever pace feels right."  Of course this kind of backfired yesterday as my "whatever pace feels right" had been faster than anticipated marathon pace.  I know I will get into my pace groove eventually, it just may take a few weeks.

Wednesday
~6/2 tempo run~
The plan for today was to be a 2 mile warm-up, followed by 2 tempo miles between 8:40-8:50, and finishing up with a 2 mile cool-down. I was supposed to run the warm-up and cool down portion around 10:15-10:20. Of course due to my recent "whatever feels right pace", I had a hard time slowing down to 10:15-10:20. I do have to say I was impressed with my tempo miles at 8:48 and 8:46 respectively. I'm working on slowing it down a bit for marathon goal pace training! I promise I really am Coach Joe.

I would have to say the first three days have gone pretty smoothly.  We shall see what the rest of the week brings.  I know one thing for sure, Sunday morning will bring my first long run of the training cycle with some great friends!  Looking forward to it Mellisa and Deb! 

Mellisa, Deb and I during our final long run prior to the Cleveland Marathon

Keep running, you're simply the best, and you inspire me!!

Shopping Can Be A Workout Too

So my kids headed to Pop Pop and Grammy's for the week on Sunday and my dear friend Deb and I headed to Columbus for a mini girl's trip. We got into Columbus Sunday afternoon and headed over to Easton where we spent a good four hours shopping (most of that time being spent in the container store. I could use up my life savings in that store. So many cool things!) Sunday evening we enjoyed dinner at the Melting Pot. We had A LOT of food and I was glad that I had run 10 miles Sunday morning. We headed back to our hotel after dinner and decided we would head to the outlet mall in Jeffersonville in the morning. Before I go on, I should mention that Deb and I are not big shoppers. Now imagine our surprise when we realized we shopped for 7 hours straight on Monday! Shopping is a lot like work! We had an amazing time shopping, people watching, and laughing until we cried at the outlets. We also found awesome deals ($98.00 jeans for $14.24 is just one example) as you can see in the photo below. When Deb emailed my husband this picture, he sent me a text message which said: "Ok that's her stuff so no room for yours. Glad I didn't buy you a Suburban." Deb and I laughed when I read the text message and I replied with: "actually mine was more than half".

We called it a day around 6:30 PM and started on the 45 minute drive back to our hotel. There was dead silence for awhile. It was really quite comical when we realized it. Neither one of us has ever been quite so sore from shopping! When we got back to our hotel Deb even commented that she may have felt better after running 13.1 miles at the Cleveland Marathon. Me, not so much, seeing how I felt like I had been hit by a Mac truck after 25 miles at the Cleveland Marathon. We headed up to our room and sat there for awhile commenting on how sore we were. In fact, we both updated our Facebook status to reflect just how tiring shopping had been. I truly think I was in less pain after my 10 mile run on Sunday than I was at the end of our shopping trip on Monday. We eventually decided we should find something for dinner. We headed back to Easton and had Bon Vie. It was very good, but of course I ate too much again. Yesterday was our last day in Columbus and Deb had ordered a shelving system for her daughter's bedroom from the Container Store so we headed back to Easton where we spent another two hours shopping. We went into a few stores we hadn't gone to on Sunday and then we headed to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch. Deb convinced me to be adventurous and try something new so we shared a chop salad and fish tacos. I was pleasantly surprised! I really enjoyed the meal and would definitely order it again. Now, if they would just put this restaurant in on the West side of Cleveland we could go there more often! Our final stop was the container store. After all was said and done, my Trailblazer was filled to the rim (both the back seat and the back hatch area). Take a look at the picture.

We didn't do one ounce of running on our trip but we certainly walked A LOT! How could we not walk a lot when we shopped a total of 13 hours in three days!?! It was a great trip and I can't wait to do it again!

And no worries on the running front, I got out there this morning for a nice 5 miler!

Keep running, you're simply the best, and you inspire me!!