January in Review

Today's 7 mile "long" run brought my January training to a close. Jenn and I managed to rock our run today even after she was running late because her youngest was up at 3AM with a fever. When we were running Jenn kept mentioning that she felt like we were running an 11:30-12:00 mile pace. The thing is I knew better. I was well aware that we were running much closer to 10:30 mile pace. See, Jenn had forgotten her Garmin so she had to rely on my Garmin for the stats for the day! I keep telling Jenn she is getting stronger and she just doesn't realize it! And truth be told I might have been pushing the pace to prove to Jenn that she could do it if she just believed in herself. 7 mile run done and confidence-boosting mission accomplished!!

January Stats
104-- running miles
12-- elliptical miles
116-- total miles
1 hour and 14 minutes-- rope skipping
150.8- weight as of January 30, 2011

Current 2011 Stats
104-- running miles
12-- elliptical miles
1hour and 14 minutes-- rope skipping
116 total miles

The first month of 2011 is in the books and today finished up week 3 of marathon training! I gotta feeling that February's gonna be a good month as well!

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

Reindeer Run for Fun Preview

If you recall, I had to tell Kaelynn that we wouldn't be running the Gobble Wobble 5k on Thanksgiving morning. She was very upset and asked me to see if there were any other races we could run soon. Luckily the Reindeer Run 5k takes places the first weekend in December each year. Fast forward to this past Wednesday and I had the following conversation with Kaelynn.
Me: Kaelynn are you absolutely positive you want to run on Saturday?
Kaelynn: Yes.
Me: Okay but just so you know the temperature is going to "feel like" 20 degrees.
Kaelynn: I still want to run it.

At this point I let it go and asked her dad to talk to her when he took her to school on Thursday morning to make sure she really wanted to run it before I registered us. So, he did just that and then he called me with her decision and shared with me the conversation that took place between the two of them.
Dad: Kaelynn are you sure you want to run Saturday?
Kaelynn: Yes dad.
Dad: You know the temperature is going to "feel like" 20 degrees.
Kaelynn: Yes dad I know mommy told me and I have gear for that.

So tomorrow morning Kaelynn and I will run a 5k together to make up for our punt on Thanksgiving morning. We may be slow moving but what matters is that we are out there having fun and exercising and we got a really cool shirt in the process!

We also got jingle bells for our shoes. Who doesn't love jingle bells?

And on a side note, it's official. I have paid off my elliptical and treadmill in full in less than a year and I did not pay one penny in interest! You have to love 12 months same as cash as long as you discipline yourself to make the proper payments each month!!

Stay tuned for a full race report including lots of pictures tomorrow!

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

Week 1 of training is in full swing!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I officially started training for the Cleveland Marathon this past Sunday. Sunday I completed an 8 mile run on the treadmill. Monday was my first day back to work after being off for 2 weeks so I was glad it was a day off from training. Tuesday afternoon I did a steady 3 mile run on the treadmill. I had my monthly massage appointment last night as well. While on the subject, I have a love/hate relationship with my massage therapist. He gives a great sports massage but he always seems to find sore spots. It never fails. I went in last night complaining of mild left shoulder pain when running. He was able to release the "hang up" on the shoulder (as he refers to it). After that he actually found sore spots in my hand of all places. Can I tell you how painful hand massage can be when they find a "hang up"? OUCH!! This is where the hate part of the relationship comes into play!! However, the love relationship came this morning when I woke up pain free with no muscle tightness. Gotta love that. Tonight I opted to cross train on the elliptical. I did 6.8 miles in 90 minutes. Not too bad. My feet did get numb once or twice but I was able to overcome that. Just takes some getting used to. Tomorrow calls for a 3 mile run and Friday a 5 mile run. Saturday is a rest day and that will complete week 1 of my marathon training. Believe it or not, I am actually looking forward to this challenge! Now, if it would just get a little warmer (less icy) out, I could get in a nice run outside. I miss running outside during the dead of winter!
Thank you for checking in and remember "you're simply the best" and "you inspire me".