Well I don't know what came over me today but I decided to look up the pace for a 6:30 hour marathon, which is the course time limit for the marathon I'm supposed to run in 37 days. The minimum pace in case you are wondering is 14:52 min/mile. So I decided to go out and see if I could actually manage to pull that off for more than a mile. I had 5 miles on my schedule today and since I was supposed to meet my fiancé at 5 pm and it was 3 pm, I figured that if I was going to run 5 miles in 1:14:20 (14:52 pace) it was the perfect time to do it. So I got dressed up and headed out.

I went to one of my favorite paved trails and headed out. Since I don't have a Garmin anymore to micromanage my pace I just set my run keeper app up to alert me every mile with my average pace. I kept it pretty easy and walked for the first little bit and then started picking a sign or a tree or whatever to run to and then I walked to the next sign or tree or whatever and repeated for 5 miles. My splits ended up being even for the first two miles. Apparently I got a little faster for mile 3 though, I guess the downhill helped me. Overall though I ended up running 5 miles in 1:10:38 so I beat my goal, though I don't know how well I would do for 21.2 more miles.

Splits

NAME

PACE

CLIMB

1 mi

14:31

45

2 mi

14:23

-2

3 mi

12:58

-45

4 mi

14:13

-12

5 mi

14:47

15

6 mi

19:02

2

My next run on my schedule is 14 miles on Saturday and I'll need to run it in 3:28:08 or less to stay under my time goal.

Oh and did I mention that Saturday is Mardi Gras and that fiancé and I are planning on being downtown for the parade and some day drinking at 8:30 am.

First Run of 2014

The weather here has been a little harsh, what with 14 inches of snow and temps in the -30 range. My fiancé, the kiddo and I have been snuggled up and at home. The snow started on Sunday morning and it was coming down pretty hard, a friend of Caleb's, who lives in the same apartment complex as us, came over and spent all day with us. By all day I mean all day, I made from scratch pancakes, sausage links and hash browns so we invited him over to enjoy a nice home cooked meal. The kiddo and I headed to Wal-Mart a little bit later in the morning for a few things that we needed for dinner and I ended up getting the kiddo some snow boots and snow pants so he could enjoy the snow. The drive home was less than fabulous as the weather was really get nasty and the roads were getting bad. The four of us enjoyed the day with a delicious lunch and dinner with lots of games, movies and snow play for the day.

Luckily, I have been off work Saturday - Monday and go back to work tonight and Caleb told all of his employees to work from home and he has been doing the same. The roads and the sidewalks are still to bad for me to even think of running outside right now, not to mention the temperature being 2 degrees F when I left for the gym today. 

Anyway, I finally did it, I got back on the wagon with my first 3 miles of 2014. I am out of shape so I'm currently doing a walk 4 minutes/run 1 minute interval, it pans out to just about a 15 minute mile and I ended up finishing my 3 miles in 44:56. My right ankle gave me a little trouble and I will definitely need to work on stretch and strength in addition to my cardio but I'm hoping for a great 2014!

Training Recap

Monday
3 miler at the park across the street from work. I did the 4 minutes walk and 1 minute of run and I felt fine. Ended up finishing my 3 miles in 42:41.

Tuesday
Ran for 1 hour with the 4:1 intervals in the park across the street from work again. I completed 4.14 miles.

Wednesday
Personal Training appointment, mostly chest and back.

Thursday
Rest day

Friday
Rest day

Saturday
Rest day. Spent a little bit of time at the race expo. Picked up a stick to roll out my calves in addition to my foam roller. Got some cute gray and pink 5 inch inseam running shorts, a few GUs and a cute fleece hat to wear during runs so my head doesn't get cold. I couldn't spend much time at the expo since I barely made it to the event before it closed but overall it seemed like your standard rock n roll expo. There was a big brooks shoe that you could ride ala ride the bull but alas I did no try it out.

Sunday
S. Louis Rock N Roll Half Marathon completed in 3:38:02. I had a lot of problems with my right ankle and ended up having to stop at a medical tent to get it wrapped but I did finish and I will have a race recap up soon. I never did the walk to run ratio, I just did whatever felt ok.

Weekly Recap

Overall this week was pretty much a bust exercise wise. I did my 2 personal training appointments and no other cardio this week. I honestly can't justify it besides just feeling tired and working a ton. I wasn't injured or sick. If I plan to run a marathon in April I need to really get serious with training and soon. December 1 will be were I need to start the marathon training.

This Weeks Recap

Monday

• Ran 3.3 miles in 51:44 in the park across from my work. Ran the same route as the very first 5K I ever ran.

Tuesday

• Rest day

Wednesday

• Personal Training Appointment

Thursday

• Ran 3 miles in 45:54 right after work in the park across from work. It was absolutely beautiful running at dawn, the weather was perfect and the run was wonderful.

Friday

• Rest day  -  I was supposed to have a personal training session but I was so exhausted that I ended up spending the day sleeping.

Saturday

• Rest day

Sunday

• Ran the Go! St. Louis Halloween 5K with my fiancé. My GPS showed a total of 3.38 miles in 47:02. Official time was 46:22 for me and 46:23 for fiancé. 
• Spent some time on the bicycles with bonus kid and my 9 year old cousin. Bonus kid is finally getting the hang of riding without the training wheels and soon I should have an extra buddy for my bike rides.

Weekly Training Recap

Monday -  Biked 2.09 miles in 32:43. Mostly just around the basketball court at the apartment complex while fiance worked with bonus kid on riding his bike without the training wheels.

Tuesday - Rest

Wednesday - Biked 5.76 miles in 36:52

Thursday - Personal Training

Friday - Rest

Saturday - Personal Training

Sunday - Rest

Missed one of my runs this week due to working extra and sleeping more than usual. Also I've been using runkeeper instead of my garmin forerunner 610 for tracking my activity lately. I loaned my garmin to one of my coworkers who is training for a marathon this October and she dropped it and cracked the screen. She is going to get it repaired and likely buy it from me anyway as I'm looking to upgrade to the garmin forerunner 620.

I've been reading lots of reviews about the forerunner 620 and I'm liking what I hear, especially that it is now water proof to 50 meters. The only hesitation I have to purchasing one is that there is no bike setting so all of the bike rides would count as runs and it would look like I was a super fast runner. I really like that they are going to have training plans as I have been looking to create a strong training plan that balances my weightlifting, biking and running efficiently. I am really interested to see the estimated recovery time that the watch recommends and it even can estimate your VO2 max. I'm like a kid at a toy store!

My run today was scheduled as a 3 miler but fiancé, bonus kid and I got flu shots and I pretty much always feel miserable after getting a flu shot and today was no different. I spent most of the day in bed.

Weekly Training Recap

Monday - Personal Training

Tuesday - rest

Wednesday - Personal Training

Thursday - rest

Friday - rest

Saturday - rest

Sunday - Quad Cities Half Marathon - Official time 3:27:03 More in an race recap to come soon!

A pretty much worthless, lazy training week.

Weekly recap...

Monday - personal training

Tuesday - 2.32 mile run

Wednesday - personal training

Thursday - rest

Friday - rest

Saturday - rest

Sunday - rest

I slacked a lot this week and my diet was a spectacular failure, unless I was going for most fried food eaten by someone who is actually trying to lose weight, not gain it.

Training Update

Sorry for slacking on my posts lately, I'm here to give you an update on how my training and other goals went this week.

Monday was a rest day and a day off work. I had a lazy day with my boyfriend, the bonus kid and my parents. We drove home in the afternoon and settled back into a little bit of routine.

Tuesday was back to work and school for everyone. I did week 2 day 3 of the couch to 5k plan at the gym and ended up with 2.17 miles in 31 minutes.

Wednesday was a post 12 hour shift personal training session and boy was it tough. We focused mostly on chest and my bench press is definitely improving but I was having difficulty with keeping my heart rate under control. I'm sure my heart rate had to do with the fact that I didn't drink enough water at work and that I was exhausted but it was still frustrating.

Thursday was a planned run that I missed. I ended up sleeping pretty late and then since the boyfriend was still sick I kind of slacked and lied around with him.

Friday was supposed to be a personal training day, however, for some reason I had it in my mind and  on my phone calendar that my training appointment was on Saturday and I didn't realize my calendar was wrong until well after the appointment was over. I'm still confused that my trainer never called or text to see why I didn't show

Saturday after I got off of work and got a few hours of sleep it was time to get up and get everything ready for bonus kids birthday party. He turns seven soon and we had a nice turnout of kids from the bus stop and school plus a few family and friends. Our apartment complex has a playground with a BBQ area that you can reserve. Overall it was a lot of fun even if it was hotter than snot. I again slacked on my run that day.

Sunday the boyfriend and I slept in and ran a few errands. We ran week 3 day 1 of the couch to 5k on a local trail right before sunset and it was really nice. My calves were a little sore during the run and the humidity was 85% tonight so it was kind of like breathing underwater. We ended up finishing 1.96 miles in 28 minutes for the training plan and since we were talking and not paying attention to where we were on the running plan we went a little further. All total we did 3.1 miles in 49:20.

My Crazy Schedule

After a wonderful weekend in my hometown with my parents and my boyfriend and bonus kid, its back to work. First however it is back to the gym.

My sleep schedule is out of whack yet again as I lived like a normal person over the holiday weekend. I slept until about 10 am today and lounged around the house for a few hours before finally realizing that I needed to get to the gym and get a nap in before work. I have a personal training appointment right after work tomorrow so I hate that I keep running, then working 12 hours and then doing my weightlifting.

My run went well enough, finished week 2 day 3 and had a little trouble towards the latter intervals, I started to feel nauseated so I slowed it down just a little bit. I made up most of it I just shortened all of my intervals.

I totally screw up my work schedule this weekend. I have to make my schedule 6 weeks at a time, usually at least a month prior to the schedule starting. I always ask my boyfriend if there is anything I need to ask off for when I make my schedule. Bonus kid's birthday is coming up and this weekend is his mom's weekend to have him. However, boyfriend and his ex wife and their families still do one birthday party for bonus kid and of course I wanted to be there. However I ended up scheduled to work the Friday night before the party. I asked around with the other charge nurses to see if anyone could trade me Friday for Thursday. Well out of the blue one of the ladies text me and said she could make the trade, of course I said YES! The only problem was the trade was Friday for Saturday not Thursday. Now I have to sleep until the party, then manage to get up for the party, leave early for work and work all night. Sigh, oh well, I'll figure it out.

Drained

That's been the best description for the past few days of my life. Between working 3 very busy in a row, working out all of those days and just keeping up with life it was very draining.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were my three 12 hour work nights this week, I ran Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and had a personal training session on Tuesday and Thursday. Maintenance had to come work on the apartment on Thursday so I managed to stay awake for 21 hours, while I was waiting for the maintenance people to come and go I went out for a Mani/Pedi, then gave blood and had lunch with my boyfriend. After all of that I came home and finally crashed. Apparently I really needed sleep since I slept for 18 hours.

Today I have a fairly relaxing day, I'm spending the day hanging out with the bonus kid since he is off of school and I'm off of work. I have a phone interview at 11 and then I think the bonus kid and I might go do some running around. I really need a pair of cross trainers, lifting in my running shoes is starting to get difficult.

I'm planning on running tonight after my boyfriend gets home from work and other than that it's just me and the kiddo hanging out at the house.

Another Run in the Books

Sunday went better than planned, with the exception of my diet. Boyfriend and I got up, went to church, had lunch at Fuzzy's Taco Shop, went grocery shopping at Sam's Club to stock up on lots of healthy things to eat and cooked up a bunch of stuff, then we headed to the gym. Sunday's run was fabulous, I felt great and got the 2.08 miles done in 30 minutes with fuel left in the tank. After bonus kid got dropped off from his mom's we had dinner and hung out for a bit before heading to bed.

I really messed up my sleep schedule over the weekend and ended up sleeping all night and not being able to sleep all day before working all night Monday night. I of course woke up to walk bonus kid to the bus stop so I figured since I was awake I might as well get my run in. Another 2.08 miles in 30 minutes, felt ok, some mild calf soreness and a little abdominal cramping, next round of running should increase my mileage just a smidge. I'm entirely to eager to be busting out 10 min miles every time. I'll get there eventually and surpass, my goal is 8 minute miles FYI.

Anyway, after all my glorious working out, I got absolutely no sleep before heading to work for my first shift of 3. This morning however will be dedicated to a personal training appointment, which will be focused on squats according to the calendar she keeps for me. Next appointment will be a reassessment which I'm a little nervous about, I'm sure that most of the measurable exercises have improved but I'm not sure that my weight will have dropped much since last month.

I think that tomorrow will be my hardest day to motivate myself to keep going with this. I will have to work, then run, then sleep, then work. Those days are mentally and physically tough for me. I'm going to break through though, I am going to do this.

In other news, my boyfriend is thinking about doing the 5K event at the Quad Cities. It will be the first race he has run that I wasn't running with him so I hope he does it cause I'll be all proud of him. Also he asked me if I wanted to do the Halloween 5K in town in October, I said sure but we could do the 10K instead, cause you know I'm evil like that. He said he would think about it, which since he reads my blog, you need to decide soon before registration fees increase. Also my best friend has decided he to wants to join me on my crazy dream of running. He asked me to do a 5K with him in December - it is a 15K and a 5K the same day, being the mean, evil person that I am was like sure we can do that, oh and here's a link to a 10 week training plan for a 15K that you should totally do and just run the 15K with me, then in April you'll be ready for a 21K. I'm mean to my boys. :) I managed, after multiple attempts, to finally get my latest gadgets to work on the blog. I have updated the map on my Race the States page, it is much nicer. Also I now have a new page that shows my workout and race plan.

Back on the Run

This week I started back on my couch to 5K, Thursday was week 1 day 1. I ran it on the treadmill, mostly for motivation for time and speed, since I was still recovering from my sinus infection. Warm up, cool down and the walk periods were all at 3.5 mph and the run was at a 6.0 mph, I kept the incline at 1.0 and I completed the run as directed. 2.07 miles in 30 minutes, not the greatest time ever but it is a start.

After my run I headed home to get some sleep before I headed back to work. I was still not feeling great, my throat was starting to hurt but I had thus far avoided the bronchitis that usually follows any case of sinusitis I have. Medication on board and I still couldn't sleep, I was just miserable and starving. I ate anything that sounded good and was readily available which landed me a pretty nasty stomach ache.

Friday was my rest day, although I don't know how much rest I actually got. After working my overnight shift, I had to stay over for a training class. I of course didn't get to bed right away, I spent some time chatting with the boyfriend and watching my new obsession, Amish Mafia! Have I mentioned I am addicted to this show! I love me some Lebanon Levi, sorry baby... I was also super excited to see 18 visitors to my blog before noon on Friday, and my very first comment made me feel excited and special, so thanks to everyone that stopped by to take a look!

After I finally made myself turn the TV off and got some sleep it was back to work for one more shift before the weekend and while the busy night and running my butt off around that ER should count as a workout it sadly doesn't so I'm home for the day and planning on getting some sleep before getting week 1 day 2 of Couch to 5K checked off my training list for today and week 1 day 3 tomorrow.

Also I laughed to hard when I read this The Awful Truth about Jogging over at CAUTION: Redhead Running. You should definitely read this article and checkout the Friday Faves at Redhead Running!

What's your training look like this weekend? Any races on your calendar?