How far have I come?

I've been caught in the habit of looking forward to what run I have next. I've neglected to look at the past and be inspired by the changes I've made since starting this journey. Today's post is dedicated to celebrating progress!

On July 19th I started this adventure and nearly five months later, the progress is pretty incredible. On day one, the distance I ran was 1.78 miles. Now I've come to the point in my training that I've competed 12 miles! How did that happen? How is that possible?

Last year at this time I was pregnant with my baby girl and couldn't do any physical activity other than swimming, due to debilitating sciatica. And so, I've decided today is a day to celebrate. I haven't completed the marathon yet, but I am going to relish in the progress I've made in the last few months.

I am becoming a marathoner!

12 Miles!!

Last weekend was a bust for the long run. It was raining cats and dogs. I know, where's the dedication, eh?

Instead of dwelling on a missed run, I just continued right on with the schedule. Which, was 12 miles. Whew!

It went pretty well. I decided I wanted to run with Scott, so we got a babysitter who was crazy enough to wake up before 7 am on a Saturday morning. Scott dropped off fuel along the route at about 6:30 am. He was in a hurry so he just threw things out the window along the way. That made for a fun game of "fine your Gatorade".

My long run pace has been right around 12 min/miles so I was happy that at the end of the run we were just a little faster than that. I think we finished at about an 11:40 mile pace.

I felt pretty good, but I have been more sore after this run than any of the others. My knees and one ankle were pretty sore. This morning coming down the stairs holding my little Gracie was pretty painful for my quads.

Other than that, a pretty good run. After the run, I had a two hour drive down to Houston by myself so I listened to a few of these podcasts to learn more about fueling during long runs and the race. I love learning.

10 Miles!!!

Today I had a breakthrough. Well, two actually.

1. I ran 10 miles!

2. I realized I can run alone.

I am a social runner. I feel like I NEED people to run with me or else I will give up. Today, I had my friend run with me for about three miles, and then we had to part ways. I had the remaining seven miles to conquer by myself.

In the past, I have hated running alone. But today, it felt good. I listened to a podcast about Air Force One (thanks Josh and Chuck ), it makes me feel smart. I've gotta do what I can.

Then I listened to this song. Since I started my run at 5:30 am, this song came at just the right time. It was awesome! I actually enjoyed the alone time, and I'm not an alone-time person.

Great run!

108 Days till go time

It might seem like I've quit this marathon training business. I assure you, I haven't. In fact, I've been surprised by how strictly I have followed my training program. I have done all of the workouts except for one week when I had a stomach virus. For me, that's not bad at all.

Last weekend my long run was nine miles. It went pretty well, until about mile five. Then the miles seemed to drag on and on. Here's what I think I did wrong. I used an old route that would end at my house, and then just tried to add miles on to make it longer. Mentally, this didn't work. Once I got close to my house, my head kept telling me I should be done. Next week I'll make sure to make a route that will keep me away from home until I really am done.

The best part of the run was at mile five when my sweet husband and kids met me with smiles, encouragement, and Gatorade. I love them. I'm lucky to have them in my life.

144 days till the RACE!

Well, I've already posted my entire training plan, so now I can just comment on how it's going. I've been keeping up with the schedule and it has been feeling good. I've discovered that having a good running buddy is HUGE.

For example, this morning I dragged myself out of bed to get to the track to do my workout all because I knew I was meeting a friend there. I got there, but she wasn't there yet. I figured she had slept in so I headed back home planning to go right back to bed. On the drive back, I found her and headed back to the track to do the workout. It was a good thing she was there, or I would have let sleep take over.

So the moral of the story, have a good running buddy!

158 (aka, the plan)

It's getting closer, but I'm happy to announce that I've been keeping with my training schedule. That's a big accomplishment for me. Here's what I've been doing.

			Key Workout #1		Key Workout #2			Key Workout #3
			Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
19-Sep	24		10 min warm up 6 x (1 min f, 3 e) 10 min cool down	Bike	1 miles easy 1 miles T 1 miles easy	Bike	Fun	4 miles	Rest
26-Sep	23		10 min warm up 6 x (1 min f, 3 e) 10 min cool down	Bike	1 miles easy 1 miles T 1 miles easy	Bike	Fun	4 miles	Rest
3-Oct	22		10 min warm up 6 x (1 min f, 3 e) 10 min cool down	Bike	1 miles easy 1 miles T 1 miles easy	Bike	Fun	5 miles	Rest
10-Oct	21		10 min warm up 6 x (1 min f, 3 e) 10 min cool down	Bike	1 miles easy 2 miles T 1 miles easy	Bike	Fun	5 miles	Rest
17-Oct	20		10 min warm up 6 x (1 min f, 3 e) 10 min cool down	Bike	1 miles easy 2 miles T 1 miles easy	Bike	Fun	6 miles Determine 10K race pace	Rest
24-Oct	19		10 min warm up 6 x (1 min f, 3 e) 10 min cool down	Bike	1 miles easy 2 miles T 1 miles easy	Bike	Fun	7 miles	Rest
31-Oct	18		10 min warm up 6 x (1 min f, 3 e) 10 min cool down	Bike	2 miles easy 2 miles T 2 miles easy	Bike	Fun	8 miles PMP+30	Rest
7-Nov	17		13 min warm up 6 x (1 min f, 2 e) 13 min cool down	Bike	2 miles easy 2 miles T 2 miles easy	Bike	Fun	9 miles PMP+15	Rest
14-Nov	16		10 min warm up 4 x (3 min f, 3 e) 10 min cool down	Bike	2 miles easy 3 miles T 1 miles easy	Bike	Fun	10 miles PMP+30	Rest
21-Nov	15		10 min warm up 12 x 400 (90 RI) 10 min cool	Bike	1 miles easy 4 miles T 1 miles easy	Bike	Fun	11 miles PMP+45	Rest
28-Nov	14		10 min warm up 6 x 800m (90 s RI) 10 min cool down	Bike	5 miles T	Bike	Fun	12 miles PMP+55	Rest
5-Dec	13		10 min warm up 3 x 1600 (3minRI) 10 min cool	Bike	2 miles easy 3 miles T 2 miles easy	Bike	Fun	10 miles PMP+55	Rest
12-Dec	12		10 min warm up 5 x 1K (400m RI) 10 min cool down	Bike	1 miles easy 4 miles T 1 miles easy	Bike	Fun	12 miles PMP+55	Rest
19-Dec	11		10-20 min warm 5 x (2 f, 2 e) 10 min cool	Bike	1 miles easy 7 miles T	Bike	Fun	13 miles PMP+15	Rest
26-Dec	10		10-20 min warm 4 x 800 (1:30 RI) 10 min cool	Bike	1 miles easy 5 miles T	Bike	Fun	14 miles PMP+30	Rest
2-Jan	9		2 x (4 x 400) (1:30 RI) (2:30 between sets)	Bike	8 miles @ 10K pace + 40 sec.	Bike	Fun	12 miles PMP+20	Rest
9-Jan	8		1 mile (400 RI) 2 mile (800 RI) 2 x 800m ( 400 RI)	Bike	2 miles easy 3 miles T 2 miles easy	Bike	Fun	16 miles PMP+45	Rest
16-Jan	7		10-20 min warm 1K, 2, 1, 1 (400m RI) 10 min cool	Bike	9 miles @ 10K pace + 40 sec.	Bike	Fun	13 miles PMP+10	Rest
23-Jan	6		10-20 min warm 3 x 1600 (400m RI) 10 min cool	Bike	1 miles easy 4 miles T 2 miles easy	Bike	Fun	18 miles PMP+30	Rest
30-Jan	5		10-20 min warm 10 x 400 (400m RI) 10 min cool	Bike	1 miles easy 5 miles T	Bike	Fun	10 miles PMP	Rest
6-Feb	4		10-20 min warm 5 x 2 min f/2 e 10 min cool	Bike	8 miles @ 10K pace + 40 sec.	Bike	Fun	20 miles PMP+30	Rest
13-Feb	3		10-20 min warm 6 x 800 (1:30 RI) 10 min cool	Bike	1 miles easy 5 miles T	Bike	Fun	13 miles PMP	Rest
20-Feb	2		10-20 min warm 5 x 1K (1:30 RI) 10 min cool	Bike	2 miles easy 3 miles T 1 miles easy	Bike	Fun	8 miles PMP	Rest
27-Feb	RW		10-20 min warm 6 x 400 (400m RI) 10 min cool	Bike	3 miles @ PMP	Bike	Fun	RACE DAY!!!	Rest

I feel good doing this. So far it has been completely manageable. I'm getting a little bit addicted. My Fridays are the days I play basketball and tennis. So, I get a little bit of everything into my workouts.