I May Be a Slacking Blogger... But I'm Still Running!

I have not been a good blogger lately.... a combination of being busy and not being sure that anyone is reading other than my husband. So anyway... a couple of weekends ago we trekked to Philadelphia so my husband could run the marathon. He randomly asked me the week before if I would want to run the 8k the day before, and I thought, why not? I had a 5 mile training run on my schedule anyway that I wasn't sure when it would fit in, so that worked out perfectly. Plus it gave me another shot at meeting my goal for 5 miles, which was to finish in under an hour. It was really a perfect day for a run, chilly but not cold, and sunny. We woke up super early, since the race was at 7:30am, in a strange city with difficult parking. I didn't really get to eat as good a breakfast as normal, since the hotel wasn't serving that early and apparently couldn't get me a banana. I wasn't prepared for that, but we ended up finding a Starbucks where I had half of a bagel. Good enough. Anyway I actually felt pretty decent during the run- they started off with the Rocky theme, and who isn't motivated by that? My foot was a little bit sore but I rested the entire week before and it was far better. I felt decent until about mile 4, when I started feeling a little bit pukey. I blame that on my early start, crummy breakfast and inhaling of orange Chomps. The Chomps usually work well for me, but I think it was too early in the morning. Must find a better morning energy supplement. Anyway, I finished the race, on my feet and I ran the entire way. I finished in 56:03, almost 4 minutes better than I had hoped. My pace was 11:14, which is still sllooooow, but for me, it was pretty good. I was very pleased with myself. It certainly helped to have my Dad, Karen and husband there to cheer me on. My sister and kiddies were there in spirit, still sleeping at the hotel, Can't blame them one bit!

Moving on to the Turkey Trot... I took the days off in between the races off, mostly out of lack of time and resting to get my foot feeling better. Thursday's weather was less than spectacular, chilly and rainy. Not pouring, but enough to be annoying. I was actually overdressed- I still haven't entirely figured out my winter running clothing and what I need to wear. I had my jacket and gloves off by mile 2 because I was overheated. I think my jackets are warm enough that I can still wear tank tops underneath. Anyway the wheels just kind of came off about that time. I started out running with a friend, under 11 min/mile, but I knew I couldn't maintain that. My feet felt decent, but my right calf was sore for some reason, despite my compression socks. Anyway I let her go ahead and I slowed down to a more comfortable pace, which ended up being around 12-12:30 pace for miles 2 and 3. Looking at my watch, I started fearing I wouldn't finish in under an hour. Originally, I thought I could beat my previous 8K time but now I was fighting to finish under the original goal. I ended up eating some Chomps around the halfway point out of desperation, and all of a sudden after the 3rd mile, I felt like I could speed up. Mile 4 I was able to get back to around 11 min/mile and for mile 5, I was right around 10:30. I ended up finishing in 56:55, 11:21 pace. I was happy I was able to pick it back up and finish under and hour, and also disappointed that I wasn't faster than the weekend before. The weather surely didn't help, and the 12,500 people around me probably didn't either.

Soooo what's next? I told my husband that if I could finish the Trot under an hour, that I would seriously consider training for a half marathon. Well, the day of the Trot, I said absolutely not. But, the next day I decided to go for it. There really isn't one I can fit in until April or May, so for now until mid January, I am just building base mileage and increasing speed as much as I can. I have speed goals now, so that should help. Thanks to my husband for making up a training calendar for me!! Yesterday was Day 1 of half marathon training- 5 miles. Funny how 5 miles has become the new routine for me. I have some new challenges ahead- I have never run more than 5 miles at a time, and I will be increasing my long runs to 6, 7 and eventually 8 miles. Longer runs will come up after January as well, but first I need to tackle these distances.