My Story of a Marathon and How I Survived it All : Day 157

Official Marathon Training

I kind of changed up this week's schedule, not intentionally at first, but it's worked out pretty well. We're having Maddi's 3rd Birthday Party on Saturday, and I've kind of invited the whole ward. Well, at least all of those who have kids in the nursery, which is a big chunk of our ward.

So, inadvertently, I skipped my 4 mile run on Wednesday, rescheduled it for Saturday, and did my 16 mile run today. It really worked out, because now I won't be exhausted when I'm trying to host Maddi's party.

But, that left today with a lot of excitement. I ran my 16 miles, went to the store to get some last minute birthday items, took the girls out for ice cream {one of the perks of running 16 miles}, stopped off at the bank, took a short nap, and then watched a friend's kids, while I made the cake and cupcakes for the party.

I'm tired just from all the errands I had to run, let alone the 16 miles.

So, here's the part that you've read all of the above to get to...

16 miles

2 hours 18 minutes 46 seconds

Average Mile

8 minutes 40 seconds
Not too shabby, and it included 2 potty breaks. Thank goodness for grocery stores being open early. :D

This was a hard one. I've learned that there are some definite perks to running on Saturday mornings, as opposed to a Friday morning. The biggest one is that there are fewer cars out on a Saturday morning. That allows me to be able to run through intersections without all those annoying commuters trying to kill me.

And this was the first time some random guy honked and waved at me. I thought they looked familiar, but, even now, I still can't place them. But, I waved back anyways, because after running 7 miles, and still having 9 more miles to go, I just didn't care. Although, they were lucky they were on the other side of the street, because I was all ready to spray them with my pepper spray.  ;D

Anyways, an eventful day, none the less.

10 weeks 6 days down, 7 weeks 1 day to go!!!

My Story of a Marathon and How I Survived it All : Day 154

Official Marathon Training

I felt pretty sluggish on the run today. I think I was ready to be done before I even woke up. ;D

Here's today's times :D

8 miles

1 hour 5 minutes 50 seconds

Average Mile

8 minutes 13 seconds

Staying pretty steady on my pace. It seems that I can maintain a 8 minute mile for the first 4 miles or so, and then every mile adds about 5 seconds to my pace after that. Which should put me at about a 10 minute mile pace for the marathon.

I'm okay with that, because that pace would get me finished {not including potty breaks} at about 4 hours and 22 minutes, way under my 5 hour goal. :D

I'm thinking I might actually be able to do this! :D

Now, to go eat more bread. ;D

I've been enjoying lots of my yummy strawberry jam on my wheat toast. :D

10 weeks 3 days down, 7 weeks 4 days to go!!!

My Story of a Marathon and How I Survived it All : Day 153

Official Marathon Training

Another successful run!

4 miles

31 minutes 33 seconds

Average Mile

7 minutes 53 seconds

Feeling super awesome today!!

The best part is that the first 5K {3.1 miles} I ever ran took me about 33+ minutes and now I just ran 4 miles in less time. Oh yeah, awesomeness is so in today! :D

10 weeks 2 days down, 7 weeks 5 days to go!!!



My Story of a Marathon and How I Survived it All : Day 151

Official Marathon Training

Yeah, feeling super awesome right now...and super tired!

Let's get right to it...

15 miles

2 hours 12 minutes 57 seconds

Average Mile

8 minutes 51 seconds

So much better than I thought I would do! And it included a perfectly planned potty break. I've decided to focus the middle 5 miles around business that are open 24 hours. :D

The best part about today was that I found out that they have some "voices" programed in the Nike+. After I finished, the Nike+ gives me my stats and then, Lance Armstrong's voice comes on and says, "You just completed your longest workout yet. Congratulations!"

My first response was, "How did he know?" ;D

But, in all seriousness, this is the furthest I have ever ran in my life. At least, it will be until next weekend. ;D

I know it's crazy, but I almost feel like I could go for another quick run. Maybe just 3 or 4 miles, nothing too far. But, I'll probably go pass out on the couch. :D

I know I'm nuts. ;D

10 weeks down, 8 weeks to go!!!

My Story of a Marathon and How I Survived it All : Day 148

Official Marathon Training

OK, before I get into my times, I have a little funny about my run tonight. I'm about half way through, minding my own business, when suddenly I feel something hit the back of my throat.

I had just swallowed I bug!

While I was coughing, in vain, to get the bug out of me, my mind thought, "This must have been how Arthur {from the Disney version of 'The Sword in the Stone'} felt when he and Merlin were fishes, and he realized he had just eaten a bug."

On the plus side, I got a little extra protein in today. ;D

OK, enough with the fun and games. Here's the important stuff.

4 miles

33 minutes 10 seconds

Average Mile

8 minutes 15 seconds

A little slower than the last 2 days, but I think that has to do with my soreness. Definitely need to think twice before I decide not to do any of my runs from now on.

But, the really exciting part about this week has yet to come. I have my 15 mile run to do on Saturday. This will be the furthest I have ever ran in my life...thus far, because the next week is 16...and so on.

Definitely getting nervous about these upcoming runs. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to survive running them...I'm just not sure if my body will be able to keep it's control for that long. {if you've read my previous posts, you know what I mean}

Oh well, perhaps I'll make some adjustments to my routes to allow for a bathroom break or two. Thank goodness WinCo is open 24 hours. ;D

9 weeks 4 days down, 8 weeks and 3 days to go!!!

My Story of a Marathon and How I Survived it All : Day 147

Official Marathon Training

HECK YEAH! I'm so loving this Nike+iPod!!

Another amazing time today!

7 miles

56 minutes 37 seconds

Average Mile

8 minutes 5 seconds

Pretty darn amazing...at least to me. :D

I'm feeling pretty good about my times now. I was kind of getting discouraged that I was able to run 7.5 mph on the treadmill, but couldn't even come close on my outdoor runs. Looks like I was just running further. :D

The best part is that it will tell me when getting close to the end and I can bump up my speed to finish strong. Because, I don't about anyone else, but I like to run a little bit slower for the greater portion of the run and then basically sprint to burn myself out at the end. Which works perfectly with Nike+, because it will tell me when I'm 400, 300, 200, 100 meters away.

Starting to love running again. :D

9 weeks 3 days down, 8 weeks 4 days to go!!!

My Story of a Marathon and How I Survived it All : Day 146

Official Marathon Training

Yeah, it's been a few weeks, but a lot has happened...well, not so much with the my training.

But before I get to far into everything that happened, let me get in the times from nearly 3 weeks ago...yeah, it's been a while ;)

Tuesday, July 19th

6 miles

56 minutes 44 seconds

Average Mile

9 minutes 27 seconds

Wednesday, July 20th

3 miles

29 minutes 37 seconds

Average Mile

9 minutes 52 seconds

Yeah, those time are pretty awful in comparison to my other times. But, I think I figured out what that "cold" was...I evidently have allergies. I don't know what I'm allergic to, but I'm hoping that taking my allergy medicine will help me to breathe better and in turn run better. :D

Now for the exciting part, and the big reason I haven't posted in a while,

Jake came home for R&R!!

He totally surprised me by coming home a week early.

It's kind of funny how it all played out. At the beginning of July he had gotten his dates for R&R, which got him here the day after our anniversary. Well, since Jake works in the office, with all the officers, he started asking if there was anyway for him to leave just a day earlier. Then, on Wednesday the 20th, one of his sergeants came up to him and  basically said, "You have 2 hours to get to the flight deck, if you want to leave early." So, Jake grabbed his bags and ran. It was not until he got to Dallas, which was Friday morning on the 22nd, that he could finally call and make any arrangements for someone to pick him up. He has an uncle and aunt in Portland, and he made arrangements with them to pick him up and bring him to me. He then called his family in Vegas and told them to get going if they wanted to see him. And, finally he called my mom, to make sure I would be home when he arrived.

During all of this, I had no idea what was going on. I was getting anxious/annoyed, because I hadn't gotten to talk to him since Tuesday. He doesn't have that greatest of internet connections out there, so there are times I don't hear from him for a few days. But, if his connect is down, he normally goes to the MWR to at least send me a message or something. So, while he was in Dallas he got on FB and talked to me for a little bit, and basically lied about what was happening and where he was.

So, that brings us to Friday night and he walks through the door at about 9:30pm. By the time we got the girls back into bed and I settled down, it was nearly 11pm. Yeah, there was no way I was going to be able to wake up at 4:30 am to go run my 12 miles. So, I decided that I was going to take the while 2 weeks off of running and just relax with my hubby. I thought it was quite well deserved. ;D

While Jake was home we celebrated our anniversary, and we got each other iPod nanos for our anniversary gifts. I got a little something extra for mine, the Nike+, a little disk-like sensor that fits in my Nike shoes. Then I hook up the wireless receiver in my iPod and it tracks how far I'm running, my total time, my pace and my approximate calories. I am totally in love with it.

The best part about the whole thing...I found out I've been running a lot further than what I thought. For example, today I started my 3 mile route, but instead of finishing where I normally do, I reached 3 miles nearly 3 blocks earlier.

Here's today's times

3 miles

23 minutes 42 seconds

Average Mile

7 minutes 52 seconds

I couldn't believe it, and I'm still having a hard time believing it. So, evidently I'm running at a much faster pace than what I thought.

No wonder I was able to keep about a 8:20/8:30 pace when I did the Sauvie Island Half Marathon.

I'm of course going to test it out and make sure it's correct, but I'm sure that there have been plenty of other runners, of whom are much better than I, who have tested it. And, I highly doubt that they would keep it on the market if it were not working correctly.

Did I mention that I'm super excited about this? Well, I am! :D

9 weeks 2 day down, 8 weeks 5 days to go!!!