Quiet life

 

It's been a pretty/relaxed few weeks here.  Last week we were trapped most of the time inside since the temps here in the 100s.  The kids were going stir crazy.  There is only so much time they can handle together before they are whining/picking on each other... until all the neighborhood kids show up, then it's outside time in the hose!

One of the problems, is Cub (my oldest) loves to read- he has his nose in a book from the time he wakes up and I have to take books away from him at night so he sleeps.  I love it.

But...little brother Buster hates it.  He wants Cub to play with him.  Buster has never been the kid who will sit down and play by himself.*  He was actually ripping books out of Cub's hands and demanding that Cub play with him. 

*He only plays "CalvinBall" which is a very soft stress ball which he kicks around the living room and makes up points and teams- which is great but lots of running around in a small space.  Good thing- he's got amazing foot action for soccer.

My training was pretty good last week- despite the heat- some early mornings!

or earlier...

Air Force Marathon Training Week 8

Monday- Spinning class

Tuesday- muggy 4 miles at 6:30 am

Wednesday-4th of July- rest day

Thursday- 7 miles at 6 am

Friday- rest

Saturday- 15 miles! 
Sunday- rest

Saturday's temperature was going to be 111 degrees, with the heat index at 117.  Super hot. I wore my new Mizuno Wave rider 15s (bright yellow-love!), new water belt, and I forgot my Garmin. What could possibly go wrong?
 We started at 5 am, ran 4 miles on our own, then at 6 met up with the Up and Running group for another 6 miles, then did another 5 miles after.  15 miles run before 8:30 am.  Yay!  It was nice to break up the run as well.  The 5 am part felt completely different, running in the dark and the humidity was brutal.  6 am was actually cooler, beautiful sunrise.  7 am part - well- we were almost done- so didn't really care at that point. Thank goodness, my shoes felt great, figured out  how to get rid of the bounce in my water belt, and Carrie had her Garmin.   I just wondered how am I going to run another 11 miles on top of that.
The rest of the day was on the couch, watching the Tour de France (not looking good for Cadel this year) and hanging out in awesome compression socks!  I love having a legit reason to laz around.

Air Force Marathon Training Week 9

Monday- Spinning

Tuesday- 7 miles at 6 am

Wednesday- 4 miles at 6am

Thursday- Spinning class tonight

Friday- rest or 4 miles (haven't decided yet)

Saturday-rest or Spinning class

Sunday- 13 miles on the trails (It's a step back week on long runs)

Love this quote- don't care if you're Armstrong haters.

Lightning, thunder and dogs, oh my!

Air Force Training Week 7

Monday- Spinning class
Tuesday- Run 4.2 in 36 minutes- awesome running weather
Wednesday-7 miles in 60 minutes (new step in mid week runs- 7 miles instead of 6 like the last 3 weeks)
Thursday- Spinning
Friday- off
Saturday- 14 miles with the  Up and Running running group.

So my first big run past 13.1 miles since 2001...was interesting.

storm damage from last year to our house , July 2011

We had a huge wind storm on Friday that affected a ton of people in Ohio, well, everywhere it seems.  Anyways,  it was the first time that we haven't lost power in a major storm.  I totally feel for everyone who has lost power since we've had a heat wave over the last week.  I've been there- last year in fact.  We lost power for a week, lost a car, roof, siding, fence and a huge tree.  I don't think we have much left that can fall in our yard.  So, for once, we were ok.  Yay for us!

Anyways, I got up at 5 am on Saturday to go to Up and Running to run our 14 miler.  I checked the weather since it was going to be super hot, and wanted to have an idea of what to expect. There is a huge red cell of rain to our west and was going to be hitting around 6 am.  What to do? Do we run in it? Wait it out? I knew it was going to be getting pretty hot if we waited another hour? Called my running partner- she was already in Centerville and the power was out.  Hmmm.  Ok- off I go, since Carrie was already close to the store.  Guess we better training in this stuff, since it might be that way race day.

We show up and it was dark, clouds were menacing and the wind was cold and blustery.   We headed out on the first 6 mile loop.  About a 1/2 mile in the heavens open, huge heavy drops that pelted us.  Carrie wanted to stop and I would have but since this was the first time with this group, I didn't want to get lost, so we kept going.  Lightning and thunder  were in the now moving in. Yuck- not what I wanted  but what do we do?  So we kept on running...  Finished the 6.2 mile loop in 57 mins.  By the end, the rain had stopped.  Thank goodness.

Here's a link to running in storms- we totally failed on taking the advice
Running during storms

So we had 8 more miles to finish.  We headed out with a smaller group that consisted of the 2 group leaders who were running 22 miles that morning.  We ran to one of their houses about 2 miles from the store to use her bathroom, since (I'm assuming) the store was closed (no power).  Then we wondered around Kettering for the next 6 miles.  I'd paused my Garmin at some point so my overall mileage was messed up for the rest of the run.

Exactly what I saw coming up behind us.

At one point, a ferocious German Shepard came out of someone's back yard and about bit the backside off of one the group.  I turned around and saw teeth and froze.  (I was taught by UPS back in college to never run from a dog since they will always beat you).  Anyways, pushed by the woman who was literally trying to save her ass, we moved quickly enough and must have been out of his yard so he backed down.  Adrenaline works way better than a Cliff Shot BTW. :-)  Finished the rest of the run w/o incident.  Legs felt tired but not hurt, foot felt great (except for waterlogged toes!)  Finished the 8 miles in 1hr 20 mins.



Have you got caught on a run when the weather has gotten bad? What did you do?

Anyone been chased by a dog or bitten?  

What about getting lost with a new running group?

50 shades...

I finally joined the bandwagon and picked up 50 Shade of Grey.   I tend to read entertaining books, I could care less if it has any literary merit.  When I read, it's for pleasure.  I also tend to get hooked on books that some people roll their eyes at, which is fine, to each their own.  So with saying that...I loved 50 Shade of Grey.  I couldn't put the book(s) down- I read all 3 in 4 days.  I stayed up til 1am reading.  It was a fun story, perfect for a summer read.  Sad part was I really didn't want to do anything else until I finished them.  Including, gasp, running! (actually, I did have legit reasons for not running) 

Here's a great review from another blogger if you curious about 50 shades  http://fromgrindtowhine.com/2012/06/01/50-shades-of-empowerment/

And if you haven't seen the SNL amazon commercial for 50 shades...I'll let you goggle it, when you want a laugh.

Air Force Training  Week 6

Sunday- Canton Half marathon 13.1 in 1:51

Monday-Spinning 17 miles easy (just to flush out the muscles-seems to really help me after hard runs)

Tuesday- off

Wednesday- xtrain- tried Jillian Michaels 30 day shred DVD

Thursday- spinning 23 miles hard

Friday- off

Saturday- 5.5 miles- dead legs still from the half

Sunday-9 miles with Carrie

Next week, looks like a new distance 14 miles.  I'm nervous about it.  We might go to the running store in town that does running groups- just to break it up.  

Do any of you run with a group (esp. UAR)?  How is it? 

Do you prefer groups or running solo? 

Anyone else read Shades of Grey?

Canton Half Marathon- Race Recap

 

Wow! Canton, very impressive inaugural marathon!  

I decided on a whim to sign up for the Canton for the half marathon since my training plan for the Air Force Marathon had me running 12 miles this weekend.  I knew that it might be risky to run a 13.1 race in June in Ohio.  It could be hot and humid or a pleasant 60 degrees.  It's Ohio after all, which means you could experience 4 seasons (sometimes) in one week.  But my mom lives in Akron (30 mins away-for those of you out of state) and made for a great excuse to head up for a visit. 

Took my dh to explain the tee is supposed to look like a football jersey, duh!

The Expo:
I didn't have much expectation for the race expo, since this was going to be a smaller race and it was the inaugural year.  The packet pick up was painless- no waits, very friendly (love the midwest!) volunteers.  Then we wondered through the expo.  They had a nice group of venders.  It took my dh and I about 40 mins. or so to wonder through.  I looked at fuel belts for carrying H2O but couldn't commit so just browsed.  I have a hand held water carrier right now but I'm thinking I'll want more H2O and I'd like to carry Nuun while I run as well on the longer runs.  Any opinions on fuel belts? I've looked at Fuel Belt and Nathan brands, also the Amphipod versions but not sure...

McKinley Memorial, Canton, OH

After the expo, my historian hubby wanted to stop by the McKinley Memorial since President McKinley was from Canton.  It was on the map and nearby so we headed there after! Wow! Talk about impressive!

Race Day:

Self portrait with DH before the race- looking pretty good considering it was 5 am!

 Race started at 6 am, so 3:30 wake up, 4:15 departure.  30 min drive to Canton.  The only people on the road were cars with 13.1 or 26.2 stickers on them.  Looked like we were all heading to Canton.  It was awesome to see the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the stadium all lit up along I-77.  We parked at the fairgrounds and they had the Canton buses stacked up and waiting to take us to the start line.  I was afraid we'd be get to the fairgrounds and have to wait or worse try to walk back to the start, but it was very well run. 

Pro Football Hall of Fame aka "the juicer"

We were there plenty early to hit the restrooms (yes, flush toilets at the stadium!).  Thank goodness, since I have a super sensitive nose when I'm nervous (so any gross smells sends me into gagging).  Anyways, time to stretch, chill out before hand. 

Around 5:45 headed down to the corrals and I thought was the start line.  We stood around and people watched.  Then we started walking, and walking and walking (probably about .25-.5 miles) under the I-77 overpass to the park.  It makes sense not to have the first .5 mile downhill- I can imagine there would have been lots of people running into each other trying to take advantage of the downhill.  Anyways, delayed start by about 25 mins.  I didn't mind that too much, after all, it was the first year they were doing it.  Although, a few port-a-potties would have been good to have near by. (They were all up the hill by the stadium).  Guys were sprinting towards the treeline for one last pee. 

Finally, the race started.  The course was hillier than I was expecting.  I had looked online at the elevation chart and it looked like there was only 200 ft difference, and I figured after the Flying Pig, that it wouldn't be too bad.   The hills just kept coming!  They weren't huge, but at times, I wanted to scream "mercy"! 

Photo by dh Finish line was ready to go!

The course support was amazing, all the volunteers had smiles on their faces and the fans were out there!  Once again, I wasn't expecting much since it was the first year but people were out there.  Only in a few places, mostly between miles 6-8 the support was a little thin.  I'm glad I had water for that section as well, since there wasn't a water stop once you went back into the neighborhoods.  Overall, I was very impressed by the course volunteers!  Thank you!

I felt pretty good the whole time.  I experimented with my nutrition this time.  I've always gone conservatively with the Cliff Bloks that I take generally 2 at mile 6/7 this time I popped 2 at the start, 1 at mile 5,  mile 7, mile 10.  I took Gatorade on the course as well.  Usually, I'll drink Nuun after my runs.  I felt pretty good the whole time, and my pace was pretty consistent until miles 11-13 then it was consistently slow! That is when my pinky toe started to protest- honestly- do I need a toe nail there? It's so annoying that every race it starts bothering me.  Grrrr- funny how something that small can bother you so much!  

Race Stats:

Official time: 1:52:16 (mine was a minute less-since I had a potty break during the race)
Age group: 17th/153
Overall: 307th/1788

It was a good race/training run.  I finished strong and I got to run a great race.  I will be planning on doing this one again.  Smaller scale than Cincy or Columbus but Canton put on a great race.  I'd recommend it!

2012 medal- that thing is solid!

Happy Finisher!

Road Trip!

Family reunion time! sort of.  Heading to Akron to visit my mom and stepdad, but it works out that my brother is going to be in town from Utah, and my dad will be in town from Arizona.  Can't wait to see everyone together.

 I'm hoping the drive there will be uneventful, but I'm going to have 3 very tired boys in the car.  My dh and cub have been doing cub scout camp all week, and last night cub's friend spent the night (also a cub scout).  They got up at 6 this morning and after swimming and sun I'm sure cub's going to be a bear (forgive the pun!) later.  Also, Buster has been going to baseball day camp (although only half days) he too got up early.  Now add my dh who will be exhausted from being in charge of the pack this week, I'm hoping we'll get through the drive without too many issues.  I'm seeing the portable DVD players being busted out in the near future. 

I'm also running the inaugural Canton Marathon well, the half, on Sunday.  The temps look a little warm, low for Sunday is 67.  Start time is 6am. I'm sure it won't be a problem since I should be done in 2 hrs, but they are already offering deferrals until next year for the Full marathon runners.  I wondered when I saw the Canton Marathon booth at the Flying Pig expo that it would be too warm for a June marathon in Ohio. Then I went and signed up for it. Ha.  Just must remember that it's a training run.  I'm going to go on feel, since there is no point in stressing about pace.  It's going to be hot, humid and it's not what I've been training for, so just a nice training run with a tshirt/finishers medal. 

I think they are hoping to be packed too!

Air Force Marathon Training week 5:
Sunday- 11 
Monday-Spinning
Tuesday-3
Wednesday-6
Thursday-Spinning
Friday-rest/stretch
Saturday-rest
Sunday- 13.1

So, in hopes that someone actually reads this...

Any big (running or non-running) plans for this weekend?  Training runs?  


And I rediscovered despair.com.  So here's a picture to leave you with

Yay! Summer's here!

Wow! I'm so happy to finally be on summer vacation.  It's nice to have some down time to try to get all the projects that I've been wanting to do done.  I'm going to have to do a list otherwise it might get lost in the shuffle of summer camps/ swimming lessons, oh, and marathon training. 

Speaking of... week 4 of marathon training.
Monday- spinning class

Tuesday- ran 3 on trails, then our end of year school party was cancelled since it was also the transit of venus watching party and it was cloudy-boo.  Anyways, headed off to spinning again since the class was heading out to happy hour/$1 burgers at a nearby bar afterwards.  I felt guilty about going, but I can't remember the last time I went out with people for drinks.  (oh the life a mommy!)  It was nice, but made sure I was home for storytime. 

Wednesday- 6 miles on the trails again- felt awesome and pushed myself.  Ran it in 56 mins.  More about that time later...

Thursday, Friday, Saturday- I took off.  I was too busy with work and I was tired.

Sunday-  Ran 5 on our trail, then ran the Dirty Dude Girl 10k so a total of 11 miles.  I felt great the first part.  The race part I was struggling. Carrie kept pulling ahead, and I just couldn't make myself do it.  I'd like to think it was because I was saving myself for next weekend (wow-really soon) since I'm running the Canton Half Marathon but I just didn't have it in me. Vegged around the house watching recorded stages of the Criterium du Dauphine the rest of the day.  Can't wait to watch the la Tour de France.  Even my boys get into it. 

Yes, we did pass the little girl

Was happy with a strong finish - didn't want the skirt girl we'd be chasing down to catch me at the end.

Air Force Marathon training week 3

This was such a non week for me but here it goes...

Monday- spinning nothing/ "rest day" Memorial day- no classes at the rec- as it should be.
Tuesday- run 3 √
Wednesday- run 5 ran 6√
Thursday-run 3 watched soccer tryouts instead
Friday- rest √
Saturday- spinning watched soccer tournament instead
Sunday- run 6√

 Total: 15 miles

Next race:  Canton 1/2 Marathon in 14 days- which is supposed to be a training run.  We'll see.

Anyways, here are some pictures from this week!

Cub smiling after a well played tourney

Buster playing barefoot during the half

Also- If anyone is interested in an Air Force 1/2 marathon bib- I have one, let me know if you would be interested in buying  it.  Need to act very soon.  I have to sell it by June 15th.

Cub's first 5k

Just like mommy!

I am so proud today! My most memorable race to date.  I finally got to run a 5k with my son, Cub.

  We'd plan on running one last fall after the Columbus Half marathon but since I was injured that was out.  It was hard to be a cheerleader when I wanted to be running it with him.  But finally I got my chance, it was a fundraiser that my running partner had organized.  It was pretty low key and I'd planned on running 9 on Saturday so I ran 6 before the race and then the 3.1 with Cub.

We showed up an hour early-which in a way was good since I got to show Cub how to do a sprint start on the track for one of his Cub Scout arrow points.  Then he got his soccer ball out and practiced running down the field and kicking goals for about 30 mins. 

When the race started, I had to hold Cub back a bit, since he wanted to sprint after the other kids who'd gone out too fast.  We managed to pass all of them in the first mile or so as they slowed down or stopped.  He was so cute since he kept wanting to look back and see where his competition was.  I told him to always look ahead and focus on the next runner.  He was such a trooper.  I think he was getting almost annoyed with me since I kept asking him how he was feeling or if he wanted to slow down.  I'm glad I had an extra water bottle so he kept hydrating since it was a hot one! 

Here were his/my splits:
1 mile:  8:06
2 mile: 8:38
3 mile : 8:56 (hill)
overall time: 26:30 for Cub
Overall:  9th overall/ 61 finishers
Age Group: 1st!

I'm so happy/proud of him.  It was so much fun running with him.  I can't wait for many more races in the future.  He wants to do a 10k next, but I think were going to wait  awhile for that.  The only training he did was soccer practice/games.

Here are some pictures from the race.  Enjoy!

  Hydrate!

Love how in sync we are in this one

Leaving mommy in the dust

Victory!

Crazy busy

Quick post since this week has been crazy and so will this weekend!

Air Force Marathon training- Week 2

Monday- Ran 3 easy- felt great after running 8 on Sunday

Tuesday- XT Spinning-  20 miles in 55 mins/ 600 calories- intense

Wednesday- quick 5- dashed out after my youngest decided to tag along to Cub's soccer practice leaving me a free hour.  Managed to keep almost the same splits as last week.  Pretty cool.

Thursday- planned 3 miler after work, then remembered Cub's self-guided conference at school at 3:30, then dh had cub scout planning meeting until um, now- and it's now 9pm, so I'm thinking the run is not going to happen-especially since I'm having a beer while I write this. :-)

Friday-?? 3 miler? I'm not an early morning runner, but if I'm going to do it, it will have to be around 5am... since after work my mom will be visiting, and we have a soccer game at 7 pm

Saturday-6 early, then 5k with my Cub!  Run with the big dogs 5k9 
I can't wait actually to do this. It will be our first race together. Get ready for pictures!

The rest of the weekend I'm going to be painting! Living room, dining room? and hallway.  Probably should be picking my colors...

Other stuff:

1.  Signed up for the Inaugural Canton Marathon well, the half marathon.  It's in a few weeks, on the same weekend I have to run 12 so I figured might as well run 13.1 and visit my mom.  I'm a bit worried about the weather being too warm but I'm not going to race it. Just a training run, just a training run.  Must keep saying that!


2. Compared 2 of my runs for the hell of it.  I was surprised to see how consistent my times were from week to week. It was the same course, I started my Garmin a bit late on my most recent run.

3. Is it bad that I've lived with a ring from a wallpaper boarder that I took down probably 4 years ago, and I'm finally painting this weekend?  It's so hard to paint when we're so busy and the kiddos were younger and its the main room of our house, hard to be elsewhere. 

Murphy's Law for runners

Thanks to pinterest and theRUNiverse.com for this gem. Enjoy

What have I done?

I've been toying around with running a marathon again for sometime.  My running partner, Carrie, has been not been sold on the idea. I was waiting to see how I felt after the Flying Pig Half marathon (which was last Sunday).  I had a great run, it was hot, and hilly and even with those conditions I ran 1:51.  It's 2 mins slower than my PR but considering the tough course, I am completely satisfied.

Add caption

Imagine my surprise when Carrie tells me a few days ago that she's up for doing a full marathon but wants the summer to train for it.  The only one that is at the end of summer around here is the Air Force Marathon at Wright-Patterson AFB.  I'd already signed up for the half.  She went and signed up for the full, so of course, now I had to as well!  So, I'm 18 weeks out from my first full marathon in 11 years!  I must be crazy!

I'm actually curious to see how this goes.  The last time I trained for a marathon, I was doing a charity training group in Washington DC.  I had to fund raise and I had Sunday morning runs with the 12min/mile pace group from beginning of May until end of October.  I completed the Marine Corps Marathon in 5hrs 56 mins.  It was slow, but I finished. 

Now, If I finish this, is I'm going to have to the Army 10 miler and is there a Navy road race that's big?  I might as well try for all the branches.

But now.... what could I do a marathon in?  According to  the McMillan Calculator I could finish in 3:50 with a 8:47 pace.  That pace seems kind of slow, but then better to go out too slow than too fast and fading.  This is definitely going to be a challenge. I've tended to go on feel during races, and my natural pace seems to be around 8:20 for longer distances.  I have a feeling that I'm going to be learning a lot during my training this summer. 


Any marathoners out there who can give advice on marathon pacing to a newbie? 


So here is what my Hal Higdon's Novice 2 Marathon training plan for week 1 looks like:

Monday- Rest Spinning 20 miles√
Tuesday- Run 3√
Wednesday- Run 5 at marathon pace (ummm- I did it in 8:30 pace- a bit quick but we'll see)√
Thursday- Run 3
Friday- Rest
Saturday- XTrain (Spinning)
Sunday- Run 8