






Workout(s) – and a couple of fantastic ones at that. Run. run. run. Someone asked me the other day if I really loved to run. just with my past races and my big disappointments and what not, she said, ‘do you love to run?’ without hesitation, I said why yes I do. funny question to a runner, but a good one. I do love to run. and I do love it more now than I did 3 months ago. 3 months ago when I was running faster and farther and with more confidence. then, I was broken down with a little shin splint action and a couple spirit crushing races and a little mental/running burnout that called for a little break time. and that is what I needed. sometimes you need to be broken down a little bit to appreciate what you love. sometimes you need to lose a little bit to figure out what you want. take a step back and realize how something really fits into your life. and to come back with a different, better attitude. and sometimes you appreciate it more when you come back with less and have to work your way back to your best. so yes, I love to run. and I will really love to run when my legs are moving even faster. working on that. slowly.
Yesterday – 6 miles. no pace. no stress. no watch. no clue how I was running. I can’t believe I am admitting it, but I am a garmin-less running convert. It’s a funny thing. somehow, back in the ancient of days, before the running with a gps idea came about, people were running, and they were running fast. baffling how they did it without guidance from a gps, but they did. amazing. I am getting on the boat. I will run with my garmin, but I am hoping to run more without it than with it and use it more as a check in. ditch the watch once in awhile. it will probably do you good. I ran 2.5 miles to meet my girlfriend and dragged her along with me for the last 3.5. perfectly humid, sweaty, early morning run.
and I had energy to burn after that. so I hopped on the stairmaster for 30 minutes. even more perfect.
and then my little anna bam had a hankering for Jillian.
happy to oblige little lady. get on your gear and get moving.
she could do more of the workouts than I could with my withering right arm that still can’t lift things. except little boys named luke because he doesn’t understand that it hurts mommy’s arm when he throws a tantrum in the coffee shop and I have to peel him off the floor and out to the car, kicking and flailing or when he tries to climb the counter at Sweet Frog to get into the toppings and I have to hold him back with a death grip. love. where was I. Jillian. I sat there and did ab work while she worked it out with J-dog. and then she ran a mile with the hubs later. my little athlete.
so that completes the workouts for that day. no it doesn’t. the day ended with me sitting on the couch watching a movie that I can’t pronounce, eating these…
they were 2 for $3. which means I could have just gotten 1 package for $1.50, but I felt the need to buy 2 packages. I only had two. I LOVE anything mint chocolate. junior mints go down like water. I have a decent amount of self control when things are individually wrapped. not so much with a bag of m&m’s, which is why I don’t buy them, or these….
but I did buy those because they were buy 2 get one free, so I had to get 3. I obviously got a discount for that one that is opened. I actually have pretty good self control with these suckers as well. My sweet tooth has really tamed down a lot and I only need a little bit to keep me happy. it’s really only the bag of m&m’s that get me. again, that’s why they are never in my house. that was my evening workout.
Today – 7.25 miles. and still very humid and sweaty. I love CT weather. this was my first early outdoor run – feet on the pavement at 5:15am. regretting going to bed at 10:30pm. happy I pulled my bum out of bed anyway. and thanking the good Lord for the early sunrise so I could get it done pre-children rising and attacking lovingly adorning me with their presence and allowing me to cook for and dress them. I’m going to take full advantage of early days. 7 min/mile avg pace. rolling hills throughout. fine. I did wear the garmin. and I did push it a little at the end. 6:25 min mile for the last mile. actually very happy I pulled that one out of nowhere. I will not feel badly about pushing the pace today. or about wearing the garmin. it was the kind of run I wanted to do. nevermind what coach B said about running easy paces for a few more weeks (technically that should be an easy pace consistently for me. in time) but he also said run how you feel. some days will be great and some days will be not so great, and slow. today was good. tomorrow will be slow/easy, sans garmin.
so I thought it would be fun to make this post SUPER long and see how long you can stick with me. I’m going to continue talking about running, and ‘run’ through a little bit of Katie running history for you newer peeps that are braving my blog. Get your pens and paper out. there will be test at the end. I am finding that a lot of runner’s go through A LOT of different phases in running. I honestly used to think that all runners just ran and it was always happy and rainbows and lululemon filled dreams. not so my friends. It is rare that things go pretty smoothly all the time where nothing changes, la dee da everything is always perfect in running world. even with elite runners and olympic athletes, a lot of them have their share of seasons and ups and downs. Runners go through different training plans, styles, phases. Runners go through different injury and recovery processes that slow down the running and decrease the mileage a ton. Runners go through a lot of different seasons of emotion about running, how they feel about it, what their goals are and how and when they want to reach those goals.
I know for me, my running perspectives and feelings have changed a lot over the past 6 months and they continue to change and to teach me about myself. So here’s a little timeline of ME.
Summer 2011
I wanted to do the VT50 in September 2011. Was starting to train for it. not really sure how to train for it. and probably wouldn’t have been prepared had I gotten in to run it. Registration was closed, couldn’t run it. Plan B. Run a marathon instead. total gear change from running a 50. My 50 plan was to run VERY slow, steady, and probably walk a lot. I just wanted to experience it. any training I did reflected that mentality. Marathons were not on my radar at all.
October 2011 – I like to run. but I’m bummed about the 50. I’ll just do a marathon for fun.
Plan B marathon. Hartford Marathon. shooting for 3:15 finish that I very arbitrarily pulled out of my bum. decided to run with a pace group. worst decision I made for that race. It wasn’t MY run. I will never run with a pace group again. I was running the pacers run. horrible race for me physically. Finished in 3:17. fine. I think I never want to run another marathon again. I was so miserable. 3 hours later….just kidding. I want to run MY marathon now. not the pacers. signed up for Harrisburg 4 weeks later.
November 2011 – I just love to run phase. kind of a newbie runner. I love running. and I think I could be fast.
Harrisburg Marathon. Ran my run. excruciating ITBand pain started at mile 14. quitting wasn’t an option. just had to figure out how to finish. I finished. painfully. 3:11. on cloud 9. Now I want to hit 3 hours. and I dove right into training for the next one because I am an all or nothing. I want it and I want it now and I’m going to start working for it now. Big mistake. I should have taken much more time off from running. solely to avoid what happened before my next April Marathon. total burnout. and injury. and I realize the competetive in me takes over the ‘I love to run because I love to run’ in me. and I need to find a balance.
February 2012
Ran a hilly half marathon in the middle of marathon training. good in theory, but looking back, it threw off my long run schedule, and I missed out on more long miles than I should have for my marathon training. Got a new half marathon PR. 1:28. still running good. injury free.
Speedwork continues. loving it. feeling fast. feeling confident. injury creeps in…
March 2012
Last minute, innocent little 5k. gave me a new PR. 18:42. and it gave me pretty rough shin splints 6 weeks out from my marathon and a handful of long runs and tempo/speedwork to do. tough place to be. I was only able to run a handful of times before the marathon. I should have ADJUSTED MY MARATHON GOALS, to mentally keep me in the game. but I was a stubborn invincible runner. and I didn’t.
April 2012
Gansett Marathon. 3:21 finish. a debacle. I lost it mentally. My shin started acting up as well as my IT Band, but I think I made the pain worse by my really poor attitude during the run. I could have run a better race, but let myself check out when I realized I wasn’t going to hit my unrealistic goal. and that was a HUGE lesson for me. I needed this race to LEARN a lot about who I am as a runner and a person. it was meant to be this way as a little part of what will make me the runner I am. Running is not all of me. I love it. and I want to be good at it. but a bad race doesn’t define me. nor does a good one. it’s a hobby. and I will enjoy it first.
End of April 2012
Nashville Rock and Roll Marathon. Mentally a better race, physically not so much. 3:42. you can just read about here, here, and here. I say I had zero expectation of this race. but I always go in with some expectation. and I really need to learn how and when to tone that high expectation of myself down and really just have fun, no pressure races.
And all of that put me in to a two week complete running hiatus. A good friend is going to coach me, more my mind than my running because he says, ‘you’ve got the running part down. a marathon is 90% mental. we need to get you back in the mental game of running’ aye aye captain!
and I’m back to LOVING running. without any pain. with or without the garmin. fast or slow. long or short. I want to get out and run. and June is my month of just running. because before my fall 2011 marathons, that’s what I was doing. I never did speedwork. I never did a tempo run. I never followed a plan. I never hit more than 40 miles in a week. and I did a couple pretty decent marathons. and now I find the balance of running how I know to run, and training to get faster and stronger while keeping the whole experience happy and fun. while learning how to apply just enough pressure to keep me on my toes, but not so much that I want to lose my mind. and attempt to remain injury free. and replace words like ‘doubt’ and ‘I can’t do that’ with ‘I am strong’ and ‘I am capable’ and ‘I can do whatever I set my mind to’. that’s the season I’m in now.
and that should be it for now. I can’t type anymore. and I’m pretty sure you have left the computer by now. I will chat with you cool kids tomorrow about my ever loving stairmaster. I’ve gotten a few inquiries as to why I love it so much and what kind it is. I’ll give you the 411. but this post can’t handle any more info.
What ‘season’ of running do you feel like you are in?
Who is getting ready for a race this weekend?
What is your favorite chocolate/other flavor combo?
Workout – 30 minutes easy elliptical (this is taper time) and 20 minutes of leg strength:
Seated adductors/abductors
Seated squats
Plie squats with shoulders
I don’t think I’ve been this excited to go to the gym at 5:30 am in quite awhile. what could this be? the stellar terrific run I had yesterday? the run that quite possibly still has me high on endorphins and loving every little miniscule part of life? even butterflies. and poopy diapers. ok not poopy diapers. dislike. or my two year old who is trying to eat me alive today with terrible screaming fits. I love him. but dislike the very inconvenient meltdown tantrums in the middle of whole foods. pretty sure I could live without that. but loving every other part of life.
I am really very excited that I ran yesterday and am walking to tell about it today. I absolutely don’t feel perfect. My right leg is tight, but not ‘splinty’. that makes me want to sing and dance. especially considering I ran a marathon just over a week ago. if there was ‘splinty leg’ to be had, it would for sure be happening right now. that’s my theory. so the fact that it just feels tight and not holy crap I can’t walk without it hurting, makes me feel pretty darn good. REST DOES A BODY GOOD!
I could use more rest for that leg, for sure. and I will rest it until Saturday. then I will continue to rest it for a bit after that. but then I have a half marathon one month later that I LOVE TO RUN. my favorite half marathon. not because it’s the only half I have run besides the horrid colchester hills this past february. my heart belongs to Ironhorse. there is nothing spectacular or exciting about this half. just that it works well for me. and I want to rock it this year. back when I was planning my races and the projected outcome of each one for the year, this was going to be a big half PR race. BUT, lesson learned from my personal Gansett nightmare – I will definitely adjust my goals accordingly depending on how I feel leading up to it. I don’t need to have another complete meltdown half way through the race and start hyperventilating in a sobbing mess. what? that didn’t happen at gansett. you’re crazy.
that’s all there is to it. I love to run. I love to challenge myself. I love to push the line. I have lost my mental edge a little bit these past couple months. and I felt it big time in my last race. maybe it’s because the running has been lacking in a major way. maybe it’s because I haven’t been pushing myself everyday. whatever it is, my little run yesterday gave me a taste again for running hard. I want to, need to, hold on to that. especially this weekend. big goals, or little goals, make it work. push it hard. make it happen. give it your best everytime. and everytime it will get easier. i think. that’s my plan anyway. feel free to join me.
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Alright all of you Twitter Tweeple. tweeple. I’m so witty. and so original. i’m sure NO ONE has every used that word before. anyway you lovely tweeps tweeting out there – I’m in. I did it for you, FitFluential. They told me I could let you peeps know this, I have been accepted as a FitFluential Ambassador! Yay!
Ok, I’m not exactly 100% certain yet what that means, but hopefully it means some very good things for YOU and ME in the future. I’m still crossing my T’s and dotting my i’s with them, but this should be fun.
That is why you will see the little “follow me on twitter” button over yonder in the sidebar. nothing fancy because nothing on this free blogspace of mine is fancy. yet. and I am pretty clueless about the in’s and out’s of twitter, so please bear with me as I learn. so if you ‘follow’ me, be kind to any silly ‘tweets’ that make their way out into the twitter world. It’s a big big world out there, all that Twitter stuff. kinda crazy. kinda funny.
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I am in the countdown mode to Nashville. This is going to be a lot more work to ‘prep’ for this race – in more than just getting myself ready to run. I think it will be good for me to run COMPLETELY 100% outside of my comfort zone.
I’m bringing my two little girls with me. and my mom. I need backup. and leaving the boys at home. the little girls don’t know about the trip yet. this was more self-preservation of my sanity than anything. I do want them to be surprised, but I really didn’t want them packing for a month and asking me every 5 minutes for 3 weeks, when are we going to nashville??? so, they won’t know where we are going until 5:00am on Friday morning when they are pulled from their slumber to get to the airport. so fun.
Lots of prep for this. like I said. make sure the boys are all set. make sure the girls are all set with a gazillion activities to keep them busy on the plane.
This is going to be a busy week. especially since I am still busy with bday celebrations – tonight, tomorrow and Thursday night. quite the social calendar I have this week. and evenings are really when most of my ‘stuff’ gets done because the days are pretty shot with kid stuff.
my getting to bed by 9pm everynight this week plan might not pan out so well. I will do my best.
I will also do my best to stay away from Lululemon this week and avoid the I must buy a new marathon outfit crazy talk. I promise. I will do my best.
I will also do my best to keep up on the blog this week. it may be tough. but, now you can keep up with me on twitter! as soon as I figure out how to do that.
I will also do my best not to go crazy figuring out pace calculations and other pre-race mental stuff I do. this is going to be a nice race. nice.
I will also do my best to ice, compress, roll. ice, compress, roll. repeat.
and I will do my best to keep my happy/life is good/go with the flow/anything is possible/dream big work hard attitude. and you should too. go for a run if you can’t find it. it might be out on the road somewhere. or hiding behind a bush, so don’t be afraid to take a potty break if you need to.
that’s it for me.
Luke is outside somewhere. maybe trying to find his happiness. I hope he finds it. for my sake. and I need to go find him. and I must feed the children. doing my job.
Who’s on Twitter???
Who has run a Rock and Roll marathon before?
When do you get most of your busy/housework stuff done?