Shopping, Dinner, and 22.2 in Pittsburgh

Friday evening the kids and I arrived in Pennsylvania. We spent the evening visiting with my family and friends. Saturday morning I got ready to head to Pittsburgh to spend some quality time with my cuz Michele. I left the kids in the very capable hands of their pop pop and grammy and I was on my way. I arrived at Michele's around noon and we headed to Panera to grab some lunch. We both had soup and salad which was very yummy! After lunch we headed out to do some shopping. I was in severe need of new summer clothes since I will be going on a cruise the week after the Cleveland Marathon and none of my summer clothes from last year fit due to my weight loss. The best part of shopping in Pennsylvania is the fact that there is no tax on clothes. I managed to do some major damage at the mall and walked out of there with 4 pair of shorts, 5 nice short sleeve t-shirts, 1 long sleeve shirt, and 1 three-quarter length sweater. After the mall we headed to Dunhams in search of new running shorts with a zipper pocket. No luck there so we headed to Dick's and sure enough the first pair of shorts Michele picks up are not only my size but they also have the zipper pocket. It was a great find by Michele and I had a coupon which made it even better. After we finished shopping Michele took me to the park we would be running at to show me the lay of the land. We headed back to Michele's around 5 o'clock to make dinner. Of course I took pictures of the action.

Michele reading the vegetable marinade recipe

Michele trimming the huge chicken breasts

The yummy pasta

Lemon caper chicken breast with baby spinach

Grilled eggplant and red peppers

Dinner was outstanding and we had great conversations about many things including our plans for our 20+ mile run. We decided we would plan to run at 7:30 AM. Since we wanted to get up around 5:45 AM so we could eat breakfast we headed to bed around 10:00 PM. We left around 7:15 AM and headed to the park near Michele's house. During our drive over we discussed our strategy. We decided to do the 8.5 mile loop (with the big hill) when our legs were fresh. I mentioned that my brother's friend recommended we run 22.2 instead of 20 because having 4 miles left would be less intimidating during the marathon. With that in mind we decided to go for it and added on three 4.5 mile loops (shortening the 5 mile loop by 1/2 mile eliminated the big hill which was fine by me!). We managed to get the other .2 miles in by running to the restrooms before we took off on our first loop. Running the loops made it possible for us to stop at the car after each loop to get some water and gu/sports beans when needed which worked out perfectly.

Michele before our run

Me before our run

We successfully completed all 22.2 miles. I think we were both a little delirious between miles 18.5 and 20. When we had a 1/2 mile left we kicked it up a notch and gave it our all. In fact, Michele's garmin had us running at a 7:45/mile pace. We hit 22.2 and stopped and we immediately hugged each other because we were so proud of what we had accomplished and simply because we were thrilled to be done with the run. We finished in 3:39 (9:51 avg/mile). Not too bad!
Michele and I after our run

We stopped to get ice and headed back to Michele's for the dreaded ice bath. It was really quite comical as we did our ice baths in a trash can outside! We both decided to leave on our running pants and socks because it was quite chilly out. We both decided that the ice bath definitely helped our legs.
Me getting in the cold ice bath

Me shivering

Not so bad after 5 minutes, how about 5 more

Michele entering the ice bath

Michele shivering

Not so bad, 5 more minutes to go

Once we completed our ice baths we headed back inside to get changed into warm clothes and then we had amazing chicken salads made with the leftovers from our dinner.

After finishing our yummy salads and having some vitamin water zero we exchanged hugs and said "see you in two weeks for Pittsburgh" and I headed back to get my kiddos. It was a great weekend!

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

18 miles of scattered rain, snow, and hail

Due to this week being spring break I had to alter my training schedule to accommodate time restraints which meant I would need to complete my long run today instead of Sunday. Thankfully, the kids' great grandma came over to play with them while I headed out for my 18 miler this morning.

After several days of gorgeous weather, I woke to 39* and a rain/snow mix. To say I was not looking forward to going out in the elements is an understatement, but with the kids taken care of I laced up my shoes and headed out the door for three 5 mile loops and one 3 mile loop.

Miles 0-5 (loop one)
46:40
9:20/mile
Weather: snow/rain mix

Miles 5-10 (loop two)
47:00
9:24/mile
Weather: snow/rain/light hail mix

Miles 10-15 (loop three)
46:30
9:18/mile
Weather: snow/heavy, painful right in the face hail

Miles 15-18 (loop four)
29:26
9:48/mile
Weather: painful right in the face hail/insanely strong winds

After the third loop I seriously contemplated finishing the final three miles on the treadmill, but I was already cold and wet so I trudged on and completed all 18 miles with a time of 2:49:36 (9:25/mile). I stopped by the house after each loop for water. I also ate some sports beans around mile 9 and that seemed to give me a little more energy which showed in loop three's time. Overall it was a pretty decent long run. I am thankful it is complete and I am now watching "Princess Protection Program" with my kids and staying warm.

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

Sunday's Sixteen Miler and Wellness Week

I ran my 16 miler yesterday morning and everything went well. My first mile was around 10:02 and I was concerned that I was going to have another bad experience like I did when I ran my terrible ten a few weeks ago. Fortunately my legs joined me by mile two. I have been doing loops for my longer runs so that I have access to my own bathroom facilities as well as water/gatorade/sports beans. Yesterday I did an eight mile loop, followed by a five mile loop, and finished out the run with a three mile loop. I was able to finish without any pain in my feet this week. I ran a 2:32 (9:30/mile).

I work for a school and today was the first day of wellness week. The sports nutrition class passed out pedometers for us to wear to see how much we actually walk in a day. I asked them if I was allowed to wear my pedometer while doing my training runs this week or if they considered that cheating. One of the teachers (who happens to be a runner and is actually the 5:30 pacer for the Cleveland Marathon in May) said it is certainly not cheating and I plan to wear mine while I train this week as well. I think it will be interesting to see how much walking I actually do at work. I should probably mention that I am the supervisor of the kitchen staff so I am on my feet more than I am at my desk.

I will be altering my training schedule for the next two weeks to accomodate my spring break. As a result I will be doing my long runs on Friday instead of Sunday. I had to do the same thing last year during spring break and it seemed to work out really well. I am sure it will work out just fine this year as well. I am scheduled to travel to Pittsburgh the weekend of April 16th to run my 20 miler with "cuz" Michele. It will be nice having someone to run with for that length of time. The plan is to run a 5 mile loop 4 times so that we will have access to clean restrooms and water/gatorade/gu for her/sports beans for me.

I will be running 4 miles tomorrow after work and then heading to my monthly massage tomorrow night. I am in a lot less pain than I was last week but I always feel so much better after my massage therapist works out the lactic acid. This weeks long run is a scaled back 12 miler so I most likely will not get a massage next week. Next weeks long run is supposed to be 18 miles so I will be scheduling a massage for after that workout for sure!!

Happy running and training! Our weather looks promising for the rest of the week and here's hoping all of you find sunshine and warm weather in your training this week.

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

Fantastic Fifteen

Today's schedule called for a 15 mile run. I have to be honest, I was intimidated by the thought of today's run last night and even put it out there on my facebook status. I had many people be very supportive and encouraging on facebook last night which truly did help a lot. My alarm went off at 5:30 AM and of course I hit snooze for a good 30 minutes. Once I finally got out of bed, I headed downstairs and had my standard cup of coffee, banana, and peanut butter toast. Today I decided to try something different and I took my shot blocks before I even started running. I opted for strawberry flavor, not too bad.

I spent the next few minutes drinking some water and getting my running gear on and I was out the door bright and early. In fact, the sun didn't come up until I was about 20 minutes into my run.

I started out slowly since I knew I would be covering a lot of ground today. I was glad to realize that my legs felt good and I was feeling very optimistic that today's run wouldn't be a repeat of last Sunday's terrible ten miler. I did run the same 5 mile loop I ran last weekend so that I would be able to hydrate and fuel after each loop.

Miles 0-5 (loop 1)
48:50
9:46/mile

I stopped and had a few drinks of water after the first loop and then I was off again.

Miles 5-10 (loop 2)
47:50
9:34/mile

Around mile 9 of this loop I took out my sports beans. It was quite frustrating since I had to remove my gloves in order to get the package open. It was crazy how hard it was to actually open the resealable package. Once I finally got it open and went to pour a few in my hand, two or three landed right on the road..oops. I slowly ate the sports beans while I continued on with my run. I went for the orange flavored sports beans. This was my first time using them. I think I have found my new fuel of choice. They were very easy to eat while running and quite tasty. I grabbed water when I got back to the house at the end of loop 2.

Miles 10-15 (loop 3)
47:00
9:24/mile

I made a point during the third loop to check my time when I hit 13.1 miles. My time was 2:06 which is a good minute faster than I ran the Cleveland 1/2 Marathon last May. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Right around mile 13 my feet started to hurt and my legs started to get heavy. When I hit the "half marathon" point of my run I just kept telling myself I had less than 2 miles to go and I could run 2 miles in my sleep. By the 14.5 mile mark I was tired with heavy legs. I was so happy to see the street sign that indicated the end of my 15 mile run. I couldn't get to that sign fast enough! I got to that sign and stopped my Garmin.

Finish Time
2:23
9:32/mile

Overall, I had a really good run today. It was the polar opposite of last Sunday's run and I am so thankful for that. It made me realize that I can do this.

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