Week 1&2 of Marathon Training

Lots of running happening over here, and I'm so very happy about it!

Marathon training commenced almost 3 weeks ago. I'm using the Anothermotherrunner Training plan and so far it's going well.  

Week 1 training: I was able to get all the runs in, and felt good doing it. 

M 3 mi + 4 strides

T 3 mi

W yoga and strength

Th 4 mi

S 8 mi

Total 18 miles 

I'm making a conscious effort to include yoga and strength work atleast once a week. Runners world website has an awesome recovery yoga 20 min workout that if time and kids allow I like doing post run. My right Ichilies and arch is still bugging me just a little I've been trying to ice and massage and compress the darn thing. I hurt that pre half marathon. It's just tight right now, but I don't want it getting worse. 

Week 2: Also able to get all the workouts in this week and I used the Lighthouse Run 10 miller race as my 10 mile training run on Saturday. Makes putting in the miles more enjoyable.

M 4 mi

T yoga/strength/6 mi bike

W 6 mi

F 3.1 mi

S 10 mi lighthouse run 1:35:23 not bad 

Total 23 miles

I had work this week and my kids did sleep well at all. It made for some painful work shifts and runs. I got the miles in, but it was mind over matter especially on Saturday. My kids were both up in the middle of the night. I think I got 4 hours for the 2nd night in a row. I think I could've been faster for my race if I'd been well rested. There's the rub with being a working mom. I'm never well rested. 

I'm into week 3 now and so far so good, But this darn Ichilies is still bugging me so I may be taking the rest of the wknd off and trying to rest and ice. I figure one long run won't ruin things. We will see how I feel tomorrow.

I'm working on a race recap! How's running going for you? Any recent races?

 Ice ice baby 

Pound the Pavement 10k recap

I've been running randomly with a friend of mine that had given up on running until I infected her with my running enthusiasm. Yesterday was our goal race. She's been training for 3 months and I'm so proud of her for running the farthest she's ever ran!!! 

We were up and in the car by 615 for the hour drive to the race. I'll sacrifice sleep for being able to be in my own bed.  My brother had decided to run with us so we met at his house which was 5 min from the start.

It was a small race and most of the participants were running the 5k.  It was 37 degrees at the start. Is it May??? Brrrr

We were off on time which was great. The course was mainly and out and back on a bike trail which was super nice. My friend Sarah told me to go so I took off with my brother. We held a steady 920/930 pace for the first 4 miles then picked it up. My last two miles were in the 8's! I also had my fastest 5k post babies 26:20!! Which was my last 3.1 miles. So a new record for me and negative splits which I've really been focusing on in my training. I finished 30s off of placing in my age group :-( but my friend and my brother placed in there age groups. Talk about positive reinforcement!!! 

I'm so proud of both of them!! 

Love that I got to run this with a friend and my dear brother. 

Strength!

I think many runners can say that strength training goes to the wayside when your busy.  Without a doubt I'm one of those.  

I'm in between training programs right now. I have a few more weeks before hard core marathon training begins. I've really been working to strength my postpartum hips and overall strength. I DO NOT want to get injured. It's been many years and a few kids since I marathon trained and I got injured my first go around as well and had to take time off. It sucked. I don't want to do it again. Especially since I spent a fair amount of $$ to run MCM this year. Not to mention its on my bucket list and I WANT to be there.

With that said. I've been doing several things and plan to stick with it when training begins again.  First the myrtle routine. It's awesome http://kineacademy.is/gogn/nutlimur1/pdf-itarefni/myrtl.pdf Try it out it works hips especially for us motherrunners. I've also been using runnersconnect.com for strength routines to prevent injuries. Check it out. Finally I've been doing some sort of routine like this

One to 2 x per week. I'm hoping it makes a huge difference when my mileage increases. Plus who doesn't want to be a strong badass motherrunner? 

My workout partner. 

What routines do you all do? Are you good at sticking to a routine while running or does it get lost in the shuffle? 

Post half Running

So it's been almost two weeks since my half. I took 5 days off from running and spent them doing yoga for runners and the myrtle routine for my achey post partum hips. Saturday I went for a two mile run. Boy were my hips and feet aching. My IT bands weren't so happy either. 

I took another day off then ran 3 miles Monday and 2 miles yesterday. It finally felt better on those two miles. Thank God. I was getting really worried that I was injured. Noooooooo!!!! So I'm taking it easy the rest of this week. Yoga and strength routines. 

Then I have a 10k this weekend. My friend that recently got back into running wanted me to run it with her and I couldn't say no. I got my brother to do it with us to. I'm excited, and hoping it doesn't hurt! 

Until then I'll spend my time with these guys 

WI Half Marathon

I can't believe it! 17 weeks of training.  17 weeks of fitting in long runs and losing sleep and occasionally my sanity. This past Saturday I finally reached my goal of finishing my first Half Marathon post babies! 

The night before I laid out all my gear. I was having difficulty deciding what to wear. The half was down by Lake Michigan so about 10 degrees cooler and windier. 

I ended up wearing Oiselle flyte long sleeve, lululemon groovy run shorts, and procompression marathon socks. I froze beforehand, but was happy with my choice once I began running. 

Miles 1-5 were nice, flat, and I cruised along. Then the hills started. They weren't major, but they were long rolling hills. They didn't quit until mile 10. The pain really started around mile 7.5. My left IT band and hip flexor were screaming. I started repeating "I will not walk" over and over. Every hill I repeated" it's a hill, get over it." It worked but my last two miles were my slowest, negative splits out the window. Oh well. I saw the finish and tried to kick I didn't have much left which let me know I gave it all on the course. I also admit to tearing up as I crossed the finish. 

Official time 2:08:24. A post babies PR. I've run faster in the past, but that was before I popped out two kids, and my body rearranged itself. I'm so proud of myself and my body. 7 months ago I had a baby and now I ran 13.1 miles. Hell yea !! 

Post run with my cheese medal and my Strava/anothermotherrunner Prove It medal. 

Now I've got a few weeks and marathon training for MCM begins! Eek! 

Did any of you run long or race this weekend? 

Waiting for the boulder to budge

I read a post by Lauren Fleshman this morning titled The Boulder Budged. She had a baby 10 months ago now and hasn't felt like herself until recently. 

I'm waiting for that boulder to budge myself. My Norah will be 7 months old on the 17th. I love her. she is truly a happy baby with a great personality. She just doesn't sleep. Up until a few days ago she was getting up 2-4 times a night still. This week it's down to 1-2 and I've had to finally do CIO cuz I'm standing on the edge of a cliff ready to dive off into crazy land. I was spoiled with my first baby. He started sleeping through the night at 11 weeks and really has kept to the 7pm-7am schedule since. Norah came along and shot that all to hell. I try not to complain because I know others have it way worse. At least when she's awake she's happy as a clam. 

My point in this is this sleep deprivation is effecting me big time. I'm a cranky, sand in the eyes, barely can function, exhausted ghost of who I used to be. It's effecting everything. I ran 12 miles yesterday at a 9:34 pace. Not bad right? I was so tired through it I felt like I was dragging my ass on the pavement. Then j got woke up twice last night and now have to go work a 10 hour shift. I'm spent. I love running LOVE it! and am lucky to do it but lately every step is hard. That makes it tough. I'm 3 weeks from my first half marathon since pre babies. I'm so excited and scared that I'm going to get to the start line and be so tired from the constant wake ups that it will be the race from hell instead of the happy comeback I want it to be. 

Breast feeding is zapping my energy to. Being a mother runner is tough! I'm lucky to run that's what I keep telling myself. 

I know I'm Venting but I just want to be real, and reality is that being a mom, working, being a wife and running is freaking hard and sometimes the rewards seem so hard to reach so out of reach. I love to run so much that I will keep putting one foot in front of the other. I will keep going. Running taught me that. I just wish the boulder would budge for me and it will start to get a little easier soon. 

Lucky Leprechaun

After many chiropractor and PT appointments my shoulder is almost back to normal. It's taken a lot of time and icing to get it this good. The real test will be if I can make it through the next 3 days of work. 

The best part about having my shoulder be a little better is I got to run the Lucky Leprechaun 8k with my friend. She just got back into running after a long off period. I was so proud of her and we had a ton of fun! 

Not the best pic but runselfies are tough! 

She did great barely walked at all and she informed me as we crossed the finish that that was the farthest she's ever run! Way to go Sarah!!!

I'm into a new week of training and did my first tempo run today after being injured went really well. I was able to maintain 8.5 mile pace for the 2 tempo miles and felt great. With a WU mile 2 .5 mile recoveries in between and a .5 mi CD total 4.5 I'm ready for the day! 

Have a great Wednesday!

Marine Corp Marathon and this darn shoulder

There are not enough hours in the day to get all the stuff I need to do done! Even one more hour would suffice. Sigh. Despite that I've been keeping to my training plan like a rockstar until it all came to a screeching hault this week.

"I did something stupid about a month ago." That's exactly what I said to my chiropractor as I explained how I injured my shoulder. Do any of you know Menards it's like Home Depot. Anyway I was moving huge rolls of remnant carpets trying to find a deal and a good color. I suddenly felt a tweak in my shoulder. Like most people I ignored it. When it still hurt the next day I iced, stretched and ran. I went on like this for a month until it got so bad this Tuesday I couldn't breath without pain. Dumb.  

So this week I've iced every hour, visited the chiropractor twice, and tried to rest as much as possible. Which has meant no running. It's made me a little depressed. I'm 5 weeks away from my race.  This needs to get better. I'm praying it does. 

On the upside I got this email yesterday 

Horaay!!! My first marathon since 2004. I can't believe it. My hotel and flight are booked. It'll be my first time traveling alone to a place where I don't have family waiting. It's going to be epic. I also get to hang with Adrianne from lacedupwithlipstick.com. So excited.

One race at a time though. So for now I'll keep icing and resting and trying not to go loony toons while waiting to run. 

And it starts

I did it. First half marathon is officially paid for. Registration confirmation.

While I was at it I found a lucky leprechaun race 7k in March. 

Training has commenced!! 

Day 3 of the shred went well. I'm 85% eating clean and then I need a piece of chocolate. Its cool. 

What steps are you taking to reach your goals?

Day 1 New Years Shred

I did the 6 week Holiday Shred with Nhershoesfitness. I lost 8 lbs and changed the way I ate. Because I was so happy with the results and because I still have 9 more lbs to go to get back to prepregnancy weight I'm back at it with the New Years Shred.

Day 1 today! Healthy eating has commenced. It's not as hard as it was in the beginning of the holiday shred and I like myfitnesspal to track my calories. The workout was beyond intense. 3 rounds of 40x burpees, squats, push-ups, lunges, shoulder presses, tick ticks, tri dips, sumo jerk, and bicep curls. I did 2 rounds and that was enough!! 

I also signed up for the Prove it Challenge to train and run a half marathon with anothermotherrunner. Check out there website and sign up! Anothermotherrunner.com. 

Working towards my goals one day at a time!

Happy New Year!

I spent New Years Day at work helping someone receive an organ transplant to save there life. Not a bad way to spend the day. 

I decided to try the RW runstreak from Thanksgiving Day to New Years Day and I put my last mile in before work on Jan 1st. Last mile and first mile for 2014.

2014.  This year I have plans. It'll be the first year since 2010 that I won't spend part of it pregnant. I'm quite pleased about that. I love my babies...who wouldn't love these sweeties.

But I'm super happy to have my body mostly to myself. I say mostly because I'll spend a good chunk of this year breast feeding. That's cool I like providing that for my daughter. 

I'm in the camp of not really diggin New Years resolutions I like goals. I thought I'd write them down here. Writing them down definitely makes them real for me.

Running Goals

1. Run one half marathon

2. Run 1000 miles in 2014

3. Run 5 additional races

Personal Goals

1. Spend time alone each day with each kid

2. Make date night a priority. Alone time with husband at least once a month.

3. Become better at balancing work, mommyhood, and me.

Blogging Goals.

1. Blog at least once per week.

I have been slacking at blogging but honestly learning how to manage two kids and work and oh I don't know sleep here and there blogging has gone down on the list. I want to do better.

What are your goals for 2014?