Posts tagged Running

I was hoping to get on here earlier this week but it just did not happen. 

First I will talk about my Half Marathon on March 16th (I think that was the date) It was the Get Lucky Half Marathon. It was a cold and icy race. I believe that it had sleeted the night before. In fact I almost got hit by a car trying to get to the race who had hit the ice. Anyway, it made for rough race conditions. But this half marathon was my slowest one yet :( I finished in 2:29. But I did not train nearly as well as I should have. I was just not very motivated to train. But the good news is it has lit a fire underneath my running butt and I am kicking my training into high gear by working on my speed. 

Over the course of running training/running my marathon. I ended up gaining 10-15 lbs. I just figured I could eat whatever I wanted because I was running a marathon. This is not the case. So in January I joined the Biggest Loser Competition at work. I lost 8% of my body weight and 15lbs. I won the competition and $160!! It is a nice feeling to be back where my body is the happiest :)

But the thing that has thrown the most crazy into my life is we SOLD our house!!! :-) We sold it around the last weekend in March. So we had a couple of weeks that we were crazy busy trying to find a new house. It was stressful waiting to see whether or not we were going to get the house we wanted. But we did. There were a couple of offers but they chose ours. So now comes the work of moving, painting and updating the new house to what we like. Needless to say I have become even more addicted to Pinterest.

The weekend we are closing on our house I am running Minneapolis Marathon Relay. So that will be a crazy weekend but I am looking forward to a new running adventure with friends! 

I will keep you update on how that goes and hopefully I will be on here more but I will not make any promises especially not until we move.

So back in November I signed up to run 4 half’s this year. I fully intended to do so but as January 1st rolled around it became clear that is was going to be super cold! The race organizers decided it would be best to give half marathoners the option of running the 10k without any hastle. This seemed like a very smart idea to me so I went with it.

As you can see it was very cold. But I decided to go with 10k and tackle the challenge.

We waited a long time in the warming tents. Although they did not seem very warm! They kept on calling on us to get to the starting line but with temperatures like that I did not want to go into the elements until the last possible moment.

I finally decided to suck it up and get to the finish line. It felt like it together forever to start running. My toes were freezing after one minute out in elements. Around mile 2 I literally thought I had lost one of my toes forever. But thankfully around mile 2.5 they finally warmed up I realized they would stick around.

Switching to the 10k was a very wise decision for me. Around mile 5 the cold got to me. It was getting hard for me to breathe and harder for me to run. I do not know if my body would have been able to handle 8 more miles.

I finished the 10k in 1.05.06 which is definitely not a PR for me. But I am proud of myself for getting out there and running in the New Year.

I am looking forward to tackling 3 half’s in 2013! :-)

New Year’s Day I ran the Polar Dash. I hope to have a recap up in the next couple of days. Let me tell you it was cold! I believe the temperature was -4 F.

On my head I head a hat that the race organizer’s gave out. I also wore a neck warmer thingy that I found around the house and I hade some mittens.

The rest of my stuff was from the C9 brand at Target. My favorite brand of workout gear. I had a long sleeve T shirt and a jacket. On the bottom I wore tights and I running skirt over it. Because those tights are hardcore! They show everything. Then I wore a pair of wool socks I got from Target.

Overall I managed to stay pretty warm. I think if I ever run in this temperature again I will wear 2 pair of socks because my feet were definitely cold. Otherwise the rest of my body stayed pretty warm. :)

I have the Polar Dash Half Marathon on Tuesday. It is supposed to super cold. I am kind of nervous about that. But I have a Sports Authority Gift Card which I plan on using to pick up some gear :)

That is if I am able to run it. I was having some pretty bad knee pain yesterday. It is better now but I every time I would bend my knee I would hear a popping sound and the back of my knee would hurt really bad. I plan on going out for a short run tomorrow and if it is really bad I will not run the race. I will keep you post!

I have decided I that I am going to join the boot camp that my gym puts on. I have gained 5-10 lbs lately and I would like to get in under control. What worked in the past is no longer working so I am hoping this will jumpstart it for me and I will get some good advice. This will start next week. I am will looking forward to being challenged in a new way.

Hi There Blog World!

I am still here just kicking/running along. I just have been really busy. I have been working overtime, we are trying to sell our house and when you add working out into the mix. I do not have much time. That means something gets the shaft sadly that means blogging. :(

I am really hoping we can sell our house soon and not have to prepare for a showing for every weekend! It is hard to keep everything clean all the time. Until then I will do my best to keep up with everything.

Yesterday, I went into the city to pick up my packet/gear for this years half marathons. I got my stuff for the Polar Dash (January 1st) and Get Lucky (March 17) I am glad to get that out of the way and not have to worry about it. I got some amazing gear to get me through the winter

I also got 8.25 miles in yesterday! I ran it in 1 hour and 27 minutes. Hopefully I will be ready for the Polar Dash! The idea of what the weather could be on that day is pretty scary. But I am planning breaking in the New Year with a run and just enjoying the day/race. 

Hopefully I will be able to be around more often!

• I got my all my workouts in for the week!
• Right now, that does not even really matter to me. My sister’s father in law and close family died on Friday. Unexpectedly from a blood clot.
• He was 68 and from every accounts seemed to be a healthy man!
• It are moments like this that make me realize how important it is to enjoy every moment with my friends and family. You just never know when that moment will be your last.
• On a light note I am looking forward to the three day week and being able to spend some quality time with my family!
• I also registered for four half marathons in 2013.
• I will be running the Polar dash on January 1st, Get Lucky on March 16th, Women Rock on all women race on August 31st and Monster Dash the last weekend in October. Looking forward to all these races! 

Here is to a great week and a great Thanksgiving!! Enjoy every minute of it :)

I had a pretty good week. I got the majority of all my workouts in. I believe I  cut one of my runs short because I was sore from my strength training. If I did not mentioned it before I have started the New Rules of Lifting for Women. I did day 2 today.

If you missed it I also had pretty fun 5k yesterday. I finished 3.2 miles in 31.20. I was hoping to come in at 30ish. But considering the 20 mile an hour winds and drizzle I am pretty happy with my time! :) Sometimes it is fun just to get out there and enjoy the race experience. 

Onto the plan for this week:

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 3 mile Run

Wednesday: Strength Training

Thursday: 3 Mile Run

Friday: Rest Day

Saturday: 5 mile Run and Yoga maybe?!?

Sunday Strength Training

I am back post marathon. I took the last two weeks off to figure out where to go next. I had spent so much of the last year or two focusing on finishing the marathon. I had finished it and I really did not know what the next step was.

I always said I was only going to run one marathon and be done. I just wanted to call myself a marathoner :) It is just so hard because I want a post 5 hour marathon! But training for a marathon is hard and takes a toll on your body. So I have decided to take 2013 to concentrate on Half Marathons and cross training maybe lose the last bit of weight. Then depending how the next year goes give the marathon another attempt in 2014 either at Fargo or the Twin Cities Marathon.

My first Half Marathon of the year will be on January 1st the Polar Dash. It seems like a great way to start the year off. Although I think I just may freeze my butt off! I plan on not racing for a PR but just enjoying the whole race experience. So this week I start training for the another half marathon. :) I am looking forward to another race and having direction in my running life again.

So this week should look like:

Monday: Run 3 miles

Tuesday: Voting 

Wednesday: Strength Training

Thursday: 3 miles

Friday: Rest Day

Saturday: Local Turkey Trot 5k and some strength training

Sunday: Elliptical

I am going to leave you with a picture of my parents and I before the marathon. I really love this picture of us :)