Week 9 Reflection

The Ups:

• Multiple times this week I completely forgot I had gone running earlier in the day- I guess that means I'm really falling into this routine!
• This was a "step back" week in my program, so the long run was "only" 10 miles.
• I still haven't missed any training runs
• I'm officially half way through my 18 week training program
• And the very best up of the week: after Hubby G found out that my Nike+ wasn't working anymore, he surprised me with a Garmin Forerunner 305!

The Downs:

• I didn't feel very motivated this week
• My smashed toe is still pretty swollen and a little uncomfortable

It felt like kind of a weird week.  It went by fast and the runs felt easy, but at the same time I didn't feel as motivated as I have in past weeks.  I was really frustrated with the glitches with my Nike+, so hopefully next week with my new Garmin will be better!

What I've accomplished so far:
9 weeks of training
176 training miles

What's left to do:
9 weeks of training
268 training miles

First Marathon Confessions: Timienne Barron

This week's First Marathon Confession comes from a gal I played basketball with in high school.  I picked her brain with a few extra questions because last year she ran the big one- BOSTON.  Let's dig in!

The Basics:
Name: Timienne Barron
Age: 25
Location: Houghton, Michigan (originally)
How many marathons have your run in total? 2, training for 3rd right now.

What's your running background?
I started running in middle school track and ran through high school as a third sport to do during the school year.   I've always enjoyed running, but HATED racing in school. I used to get super nervous because I'm very competitive. If I didn't win my races, I would be so upset.

Where did you run your first marathon?
Long Branch, NJ

What made you decide to run your first marathon?
I moved to NJ right after I graduated from college and met some girls that were training for one and they asked if I would like to join and I said YES! I always wanted to try it:) The longest I had ever run before I started training was probably 5 miles.

What motivated you to put in the training miles on the days when you really didn't feel like it?
Being able to eat a REALLY good dinner later and not feel any guilt whatsoever going for 2nd...3rds..and of course DESSERT!

What's the toughest part about training for a marathon?
The time commitment. I have 2 jobs and trying to fit longs runs into my schedule was the toughest part.

Tell me about your first day-of marathon experience.
I took a sleeping pill the night before to make sure I slept.  My 2 friends and I got up in the morning and I had a splitting headache (of course)...but I took some advil and it helped a little. Race day was perfect. Cool and no sun! It had rained the night before so it was damp. The course was nice and flat so it was perfect for a first time marathon. I felt great till about mile 23....the last 3 miles hurt so bad!! I had to put my iPod on to try and get my mind off the pain. When I finished..I actually didn't feel that bad. My time ended up being 3:39. I wanted to finish under 4 hours so I was happy...then a little bit later my friend's dad told me I qualified for Boston which I had no idea what the qualifying time even was...after I found that out, I knew what my next challenge would be!

What was something that surprised you or that you didn't expect either during training or at your first marathon?
I didn't feel as bad as I thought when I finished, but trying to run a couple of days later was the biggest struggle of my life!

Are you training for anything right now? Marathon or otherwise?
NYC in the November...I qualified through a half marathon in Jersey City, NJ with a 1:37.

What's one piece of advice you'd give to first time marathon runners?
Get good shoes, they make a HUGE difference.

Any other nuggets of wisdom/advice for first-timers?
Have fun, enjoy the experience because remember...not many people can accomplish what you just did!

Bonus questions about the big kahuna- BOSTON:

Did you train any differently for Boston?
Yes! I decided to run only 4 times per week (instead of 5 or 6 runs of just distance runs) and do a different run each time. I did hill repeats, speed work, a tempo run, and a long slow run. It seemed to work much better, I had no injuries and I took 15 minutes off of my first marathon!


What was it like to run in the famed Boston Marathon?
Awesome, but the most painful thing I've ever done in my life. I couldn't walk afterward....literally. My mom and boyfriend were helping me walk till I could sit down. My mom said I never looked so bad in my life..thanks Mom:)


How was the infamous Heartbreak Hill?  Was it as terrible as it sounds?
Boston is a hilly marathon to begin with so there were many hills that I thought were Heartbreak hill before I even got there!


Do you have your sights set on doing the Boston Marathon again in the future?
Yes, but not for a while. I might take a break for a couple of years from marathons. I think my body needs a little break.




Thank you so much Timi for sharing your First Marathon Confession- especially your experience last year at Boston!  Good luck in all of your training for NYC!

Drenched

For a few minutes I actually forgot that I even ran at all this morning- I guess those 3 mile runs literally do feel like nothing now!

This morning it was crazy foggy- like, I could only see about 30 feet ahead of me.  I was really glad that my route only crosses major roads in two places, because I'm sure it would be very hard for cars to see me through that dense fog.  On one hand, the fog was kind of nice because it had a bit of a cooling effect, but on the other hand it just felt ridiculously humid because it was still quite warm out.  Whenever I squeezed my eyes shut I could feel all the water droplets that had collected all over my eye lashes.

If you follow me on Twitter, you would have seen that I tweeted this morning when I got back home:

And it was true- the picture I tweeted proved it!

Ok, so maybe you can't tell that well by the photo, and some of it is legitimate sweat, but I was twice as drenched as I normally am after a 3 mile run!  My hair looked like I had just gone swimming- and that has never happened before!

I was pretty annoyed at the end of my run this morning though- even though I gave my Nike+ a great review a couple weeks ago, I think I'm going to have to go back and amend that review.  My sensor has been disconnecting frequently and it doesn't say that it's a low battery, so I don't really know what the problem is.  I run the same 3 mile route every week and today it got stuck on 2.9 miles and refused to record that last tenth of a mile even though I kept running past my normal stopping place.  I looked at the Garmin Forerunners a little bit- I like that the 305 has the heart rate monitor with it, but I haven't done much comparison shopping around yet.

Do you use a Garmin Forerunner? Tell me about it!!

Week 8 Reflection

I've survived another week!  I don't think I mentioned it here before, but a few weeks ago I added a tab to my blog with my training calendar- check it out if you're wondering what my running schedule looks like up until race day!

The Ups:

• The 3 mile runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays now feel like they're just fun :)
• My long mid-week run on Wednesday (6 miles) went really well this week!  Thanks to the very helpful suggestions from Dawn, Krista, and Keri I made it through the rest of the day without a terrible headache by the afternoon, which felt really great!
• The weather last week was a bit cooler than it has been, so it was much nicer to run in.
• I ran a half marathon (!) -just the distance, not an actual race- for my long run on Saturday.  It feels good to be at the half-way distance point!
• I decided that running 13 miles in the morning (and therefore burning about 1300ish calories) means that I can consume almost double my normal caloric intake for a day just to come out even.  I love eating.  :)
• I still haven't skipped any training runs.
• I got another "First Marathon Confessions" interview up here- I'm loving every second of doing those.
• I am absolutely loving finding other running blogs to follow and I'm loving the comments that others are leaving here for me- it's so encouraging!

The Downs:

• I smashed and bruised my toe on Monday.  It didn't hinder my training really, but it did make it slightly uncomfortable at times.
• I didn't feel really motivated this week.  I was thisclose to putting off my Thursday training run until the afternoon, but I realized I had an evening commitment and the morning was my only option.  It was just hard to get out of bed all week.
• I wish I would have posted more here last week.  I want to try to get better at writing my posts in advance and scheduling them out in case the days just get too busy.

I definitely had more ups than downs last week- which I feel really fortunate about because that smashed toe had some potential to make things really miserable.

What I've accomplished so far:
8 weeks of training
153 training miles

What's left to do:
10 weeks of training
281 training miles

I linked them above too, but definitely check out the blogs of the wonderful ladies who helped me out with their comments last week:

Dawn- running: the dawn
Krista- Commitment is Liberating
Keri- The Blue-Eyed Runner

I found a bunch of blogs related to running that I've added to my reader in addition to the three listed above and I hope to add a page to my blog with all of them listed out sometime this week!

Thanks everyone for your support through another week of training!

First Marathon Confessions: Joan L-K

I've got another First Marathon Confession ready for you!  This one comes from one of my friends from high school- she's always been incredibly motivated and determined to complete her goals and I'm so glad she was willing to share her first marathon experience!

The Basics:
Name: Joan L-K
Age: 24
Location: U.P. originally [The Upper Peninsula of Michigan], Mt. Pleasant [Michigan] presently.
How many marathons have you run in total? 1

What's your running background?
I started running about twelve years ago in middle school track. I ran track throughout middle school, high school and then one year in college at Central Michigan University. I also ran cross country in high school.

Where did you run your first marathon?
Chicago

What made you decide to run your first marathon?
It was something to train for and something to accomplish after having to quit college track due to medical reasons.

What motivated you to put in the training miles on the days when you really didn't feel like it?
Knowing that if I didn't do it then, I would surely regret it mid race! Also, music really helped!

What's the toughest part about training for a marathon?
Your longest training run! That sucked! My blood sugar plummeted at the end! Make sure to practice when you're going to take your gels!

Tell me about your first day-of marathon experience.

My marathon experience was awesome. I carbo loaded the whole week before and ate a lot of bananas for potassium and peanut butter for energy. The night before, I did not sleep very well because I was so nervous. We (I ran it with a friend of mine) had to get up really early because the race started at 8 AM. Walking to the course, we were both very nervous, but excited at the same time! It was such a cold October morning, so we were all bundled up in St. Vinnies (a consignment store) sweats because we knew we would be getting rid of them somewhere along the race.

Once the gun went off it took forever for us to actually reach the starting line because of the 40,000 some racers that were present! You had to make sure that right from the beginning you started your marathon pace because it was very easy to go much faster than your usual pace! The course was nice and flat except for the very end. There were many people dressed up in awesome costumes. I saw Thing 1 and Thing 2 and of course, Elvis!

With the method that I trained with, the Jeff Galloway method, I actually started to speed up at the end instead of hitting "the wall". I had so much energy the last five miles or so, and when I crossed the finish line, I remember thinking, "Wow, that was it....I could go a few more miles!" Don't get me wrong, 26.2 miles is a very rough distance. Many times earlier in the race, I thought I was going to die! You have to be very vigilant about your blood sugar, because once that goes down, you will have a very hard time coming back from it! This almost happened to me in the middle of the marathon, but with some gel, I was able to recover.

The marathon was an amazing experience. I had a lot of fun! I hope to do another one someday, once I can get my body back into running shape!

What was something that surprised you or that you didn't expect either during training or at your first marathon?
That you need to use Vaseline in areas you never thought you would...enough said!

Are you training for anything right now? Marathon or otherwise?
I am training for Mommy get Her Body Back race...basically working on getting my pre-baby body back right now!

What's one piece of advice you'd give to first time marathon runners?
Hydrate and carbo load the week before. Also, not a big deal if you don't get much sleep the night before. The two nights before that are what matters.

Any other nuggets of wisdom/advice for first-timers?
Have fun!!!! Don't take it too seriously!



Thank you so much Joan for taking time out of your busy new-mommy duties to share your marathon experience!

Just Call Me Grace

So on Monday I was leaving work at the end of the day and I had a moment of pure grace wherein I completely tripped over the curb.  Awesome.  I was wearing these little heeled sandals and my toes smooshed against the concrete of the curb when I tripped.  Ouch.  I thought it was basically the equivalent of stubbing my toe- it hurt, but I was fine.  But it kind of hurt more than just a stubbed toe kind of hurt.

Anyway, I made it to the car without further incident and continued on with my evening.  Hubby G, my newly-wedded brother-in-law, his wife, and I all went to a baseball game.  Mid-way through the game at maybe 7:30 or so I checked on my poor little toes.  Not my pinky toe, but the toe next to it was starting to swell- isn’t that weird?  My pinky toe and my middle toe were totally fine but the one in between them was the injured one.  You’d think the other toes would protect it.  Maybe I just had a particularly graceful trip and managed something like this.

It hurt a little bit to walk on it, but not too bad.  That’s when I started to get worried about running- if this stupid toe injury from my klutziness was going to cause me to miss a training run when I’ve made it this far and haven’t missed any yet- I was going to be mad.

Tuesday morning I woke up and my toe felt a little tender still, but I was at least going to try running- my distance was 3 miles, so I thought that would be decent to test things out on.  The first few strides were slightly uncomfortable, but by no means painful.  I finished out the run just fine- woohoo!  My theory is that I’m probably not helping the healing process at all, but I really don’t think I’m hurting it at all either.

Today my toe is still a bit swollen and it has presented a stunning array of colors in the past week, but it’s feeling pretty decent and it hasn’t stopped me from getting any of my training miles in.

Hopefully the 13 miler on schedule for tomorrow doesn’t over-do it.

Week 7 Reflection

Week 7 of training is now complete and in the books!  

 

The Ups:

• I got all my training runs in as scheduled- I haven’t missed any yet!
• I was especially happy that I stuck with it and got my long(er) mid-week run in- it wasn’t easy since my mom and sister were in town visiting, but I got it done
• My long run on Saturday (12 miles) felt pretty darn good.  I had some pretty intense knee pain around mile 10, but the rest of my body felt good and I was determined to persevere.  The pain eased up and I finished out strong.
• The weather on Saturday for that long run was amazing.  Best running weather I’ve had yet I think.  It wasn’t too hot or too sunny or too humid- it felt really great!
• I felt really proud of myself for getting that Saturday run done first thing in the morning- my brother-in-law got married later in the day (it was a beautiful wedding by the way!) and I was happy that I got my run in before getting started in all the wedding festivities of the day.
• I got my first interview (from JohnnyRan) completed and posted here!  I’m super excited about this, and I hope you all enjoy reading the insight that the interview brings as much as I did!

 

The Downs:

• This week was crazy busy.  I loved all the company that we had, but with so much going on it totally drained my energy.  Thank goodness for Monday rest days.
• I got hit with a nasty headache on Wednesday after I had done my long(er) mid-week run.  It inspired me to write about my history with headaches.  Luckily some Excedrin Tension Headache + Cherry Coke Zero + a little nap after work seemed to do the trick and got rid of it.
• The Wednesday training runs are getting longer and longer from here on out- it’s not easy to wake up earlier and earlier for those since I do them before work in the morning!  I think a big part of the reason why I ended up with a headache was because I didn’t have time to eat anything at all before I hit the road for 6 miles- the first of which I was still trying to actually wake up!  I’m not sure about the best solution for this- any suggestions?

 

Overall it was a good, but very tiring week.  My mom and sister were visiting Wednesday-Friday, my brother-in-law got married on Saturday, and all of my in-laws were over for the bulk of the day on Sunday- that’s a busy week!  Like I said, it was absolutely wonderful to see everyone and especially wonderful to see my brother-in-law get married, it was just a lot of excitement to pack all into one week!

 

What I’ve accomplished so far:

7 weeks of training

128 training miles

 

What’s left to do:

11 weeks of training

306 training miles

 

This week’s supposed to be a lot less crazy, so hopefully I’ll have a bit more energy!  Oh, and two things:

• If you have suggestions for my too-early-to-eat-before-I-run problem, please send them my way!
• If you’re reading this blog and you have your own blog, please let me know about it!  Even if it’s not about running I’d love to add it to my reader :)