6 Miles (Again)

I feel like I don't have anything new to write...

Last night I ran another 6 miles "easy". Jeff got home a little later than usual which meant half of my run in the dark. I am trying a new strategy for what to listen to on my ipod. Sometimes I get sick of listening to just music and am trying to figure out how to stay the most entertained during the marathon. So I went to the library and got a couple of books on CDs and put them on my ipod. And then I stuck a song in about every 4 minutes of the book. So I tried that out on my run last night. It seemed to work pretty well. I'm listening to the book The Year of Living Biblically. It's about a man who decides to spend a year obeying the Bible literally, from not lying to growing a beard, loving his neighbors, and wearing tassels on his clothes. It's interesting enough to keep my mind occupied.

Anyway, the run was fine. Uneventful. Just one more run done. It's amazing but I only have 11 more runs before the marathon. Yikes! I'm getting nervous!

A Short Long Run

Well I have to say it's nice to begin cutting back on my mileage. Those insane long runs really take a toll on my day! I ran 8 miles yesterday. It was a shorter run because the last two Saturdays have been pretty tough (20 miles and half-marathon) and I'm running another 20 miler next Saturday.

My goal for the run was to run the whole thing without stopping. I was going to run "easy" and if I was feeling good allow myself to push it the last mile. The reason I wanted to run without stopping is because lately with my long runs I've been stopping every two miles, sometimes even sooner as the miles get higher. I wanted to know that I could do it that way marathon day, maybe I'll only have to stop at every other water station instead of every one. It was a good run, a nice cool, cloudy morning. I even slept in and went around 10 which was nice. The first several miles were the hardest as they always are for me. But after that, I felt real good. Coming up Galbraith at the end of my run has always required me to stop and walk because it is over a mile up a hill. But I pushed through and made it without walking. Once I reached the top I had a mile to go and I pushed it. I wanted to train my body that even when I'm tired, I can still run strong. I ran the 8 miles in 1:03.

Today I went shopping for my marathon outfit, a very important purchase. Team in Training gives us this race shirt to wear. It's purple so that's good but it fits sort of high and I'm used to longer tank tops so I wasn't sure what to wear with it. I have always worn capri pants when I race or run long runs because my thighs always chafe. But during the half-marathon I got pretty hot so I decided to try shorts. I bought these race shorts that have tons of pockets for my blocks and jelly beans. I also bought a new sports bra and socks. I'm going to try them all out next Saturday during my 20 miler to make sure everything is comfy. Running stuff is so expensive!

Easy 6

Last night I ran an easy 6. I love how that's literally what's written in my training schedule, "easy 6" and I would love to think that 6 miles is now easy for me. But it's not. It still takes determination to do 6 instead of stopping after 2 or 3. Anyway I took off again pretty much when Jeff walked in. My goal for the run was to just enjoy the run. I tried to make myself go slower for the first half concentrating on just feeling good running. I've been buying new music as I'm getting ready to compile a huge playlist for the marathon. I bought a lot of themes from movies that I love like Pirates of the Caribbean, Hoosiers, Indiana Jones, Hook, and even Angels in the Outfield. But the one album that has proved to be the best song to get me going is the Rudy soundtrack. There are like 5 or 6 great songs that make me run faster and push harder without even realizing it. So I allowed myself to get pumped up and push it a little more on the way home. I finished the 6 miles in 49 minutes.

Speed Workout

Last night I had to run 7 miles, 5 of them as a tempo run keeping a pace of a little less than an 8 min/mile. I took off as soon as Jeff walked in the door, around 6 to make sure I'd have plenty of daylight. I warmed up by running the loop around my neighborhood and then took off for Winton Woods, a park 2.5 miles away. I forced myself to run hard without looking at my watch until I got to the turnaround. I wanted to just feel what an 8 min/mile felt like. Like almost every run, I felt completely awful the first 2-3 miles. I felt as if I was running in slow motion or underwater. I felt like I had no control over my body. I think the first few miles of the marathon will be hard for me. Hopefully I'll be able to remind myself that I always feel this way and I always feel better which happend last night as well. I should have gotten to the park in 20 minutes, but I got there in 18 which meant I was going faster than I meant to. I used the extra time to walk and catch my breath since basically the whole way back is up hill. I still managed to get back in 20 minutes and I took another lap around my neighborhood to cool down. Pretty good workout.

Send Off Party

Last night I went to Team in Training's Send Off Party. Jeff and the girls came with me which was nice. There wasn't too much to it. I just picked up my race info and race jersey. They had food so we ate and I caught up with other runners I hadn't seen in a long time. It was exciting to think that we would all be running a marathon!

When I got home I changed and headed to the basement where I worked out while watching The Biggest Loser.

Fall is Here

Last night I was supposed to run an easy 4 miles. Unfortunately Jeff did not get home until 7 which meant that I didn't get out the door until half hour after that. I took off hoping to be able to run 4 before the sun set but after the first mile I knew that wasn't going to happen. After a mile out I turned around. There was barely any light by the time I got back to my neighborhood but there were so many people walking that I felt comfortable running in the dark. I ran one lap around my neighborhood before calling it quits. I got 3 miles in.

US Airforce Half Marathon

On Saturday I ran the US Air Force Half Marathon to help prepare for the full marathon I'm running in less than a month. It was...interesting. It was one of those things that you expected one thing and it didn't turn out the way you planned. It all started very early Saturday morning...

5:00 Ava woke up and I brought her in our bed. (She's been doing this all week. We're hoping it's just because she's had a cold. My alarm was set for 5:20 so I had 20 minutes to get her to fall back asleep before I got ready. Luckily, she fell asleep quickly. I got up, pumped a bottle for Grace, got dressed, ate peanut butter toast, and gathered all my belongings.

6:00 Jeff and I take off for Dayton. The race took place at the air force base.

7:00 We arrive and park in some random field. We wait for a shuttle bus and get taken to the start line. The full marathon started at 7:30. As we were walking to the start area we saw these cool "Top Gun" planes soar by and accelerate straight up. Jeff was more excited than I, but I have to admit it was a cool way to start a marathon. I found my Team in Training tent to sign in and began prerace rituals - jogging to warm up, stretching, and waiting for the port a potties for one last "mission". Then I kissed Jeff goodbye and went to find my pace group at the start line. Pace groups are these people who will run at a certain pace to get you to the finish line at a certain time. They help you stay on pace. Simple concept I know. I decided to join one because I was thinking about doing it for the full marathon as well. I joined Pacer Paul and about 20 others wanting to finish in 1 hour 50 minutes. We would keep a 8:24 pace.

7:30 The race begins.

7:50 I was ready to quit. I was literally kicking myself for not carrying my phone because how would I get ahold of Jeff to tell him I was done. The first mile and a half were straight uphill and my pace group was just flying up it! Then when the hill was finally over I saw a water stop. Great! Well I was literally the only person to stop and walk while I drank. I watched with saddness as my group ran farther and farther away. I figured I'd be able to catch up eventually but I felt like I was falling farther and farther behind.

Around mile 3 my thoughts were a random repeating mix of:

I hate running!

Why am I even doing this?
I'm going to quit.

I suck.

Then the road split and those doing the 10K went to the left while the half marathoners went to the right. My heart was torn. Should I just head back and face the embarassment of not finishing or should I keep going another 10 torturous miles??? Miserably, I went to the right.

Looking back now I think I know why I disliked this race so much. First of all, I knew there were going to be around 10,000 participants so I was expecting the event to be pretty big. It was so uneventful. There were no spectators. Ok there were probably a group of 4-6 people every mile or so. And even when there were spectators, they just stood there. They didn't clap or cheer. It was like they were just out to see what kind of freaks would be running a marathon. Also, I think I am better at starting out slower and then pushing later on in the race. Jeff calls me Lance Armstrong because I guess that's what he does. That's what I did during my 10K and I ended up constantly passing people which then sort of pumped me up and gave me motivation to keep going. During this race I took off fast only to be the one to slow down and get passed which only made me curse at myself and become discouraged. I just remember thinking that I had never felt more lonely in such a crowd of people.

Things started to change about half way through the race. The leaders of the half marathon (or maybe the full marathon?) began to start heading back. This gave me something to look at other than the man's sweaty back in front of me. Also as I was walking eating some energy blocks, a familiar body ran passed me...Lisa from Team in Training! Lisa's the fast girl who always runs with the guys at group runs. Even though she was speeding past me, I felt better knowing that there was someone closeby who knew me. Then at a turn around, I saw her again and shouted "Go Lisa! She waved. I felt so much better. Gosh writing this now makes me realize that it doesn't take much to encourage me. Anyway, I saw her again as well as two of my coaches later on in the race. Each time it was like a small burst of energy.

By this time, I was on the way back and now looking at all the people on the other side of the street who still had so much to go. Two thoughts encouraged me (this might sound mean): 1. I'm so glad I'm not back there! 2. I'm faster than them! I know I know...not very nice. But when you see that you're running much faster than so many men, it gets you fired up. Well at least it does for me.

At about 3 miles to the finish I see Lisa again. And she's not too far ahead of me. I remembered my 6 mile run at the begining of my training when I passed a man at the very end of my run and I knew I wanted to catch Lisa so badly. I was feeling good and running fast. And then I noticed that I had to go to the bathroom...real bad. During all my training, I've been also training myself not to go to the bathroom because it takes up precious time. So I pushed on like I always do. Unfortunetly I was using all my energy to run fast that I couldn't run and control my bladder. So now I'm having this conversation in my head:

Would anyone know that I peed my pants?

Is it worth it?

I have an hour ride home. Do I want to sit in pee all the way home?

Would it drip in my shoes?

I would love to tell you that I gave my all for this race and peed my pants so that I could finish in time...but I can't. During the last mile I could only jog and I had to stop 3 times just to hold in my pee. If this was the marathon, things would have been different but I reminded that this was just a practice race and it just wasn't worth it. Suprisingly, I still managed to cross the finish line in 1:52:32. I was bummed with my time at first, but when I think about how I was going to quit, I can't complain.

The Week With No Power

I have so much to catch up on it's almost overwhelming. Hurricane Ike left my family without power Sunday through early Friday morning. Even though our week was crazy to say the least, eating lots of peanut butter and reading to Ava by lanterns at night, I did manage to get my workouts in. Here's what they looked like:



Sunday - I woke up very early to head out for my first of two 20 mile runs. I had made a route using mapquest, a big loop all around Cinci. (My house to Northbend, to Hamilton Ave, to Waycross, to Springfield Pike, to Flemming Rd, and back to Winton) I bought a new book for my i pod that Renee and Carrie said they both loved, The Other Bolyn Girl, and took off with my jelly beans and blocks shortly before the sun came up. As a whole, the run was ok. My route was very hilly which made it challenging to run for 30 minutes before stopping to walk. It also got hot very quickly which slowed my progress a little as well. Luckily I had asked Jeff to put out gatorade and water along my route and he put two bottles of water at each stop. So I drank one and poured the other one on me. I enjoyed listening to the book and it helped make the time go by but like the heat and hills killed me. When I finally got over to Fleming Road (around mile 18) I got quite a second wind or burst of energy. I switched over to my music for the last push home and the Olympic fanfare happened to come on. I kicked it into high gear while I pictured myself being the woman from Austria (i think???) running into the birds nest. I got chills and enjoyed my "runners high" the rest of the run home. Anyway I ran the 20 miles in 3 hours and 20 minutes which averages a 10 minute mile pace. Not bad.

Oh and I saw the funniest thing when I was running on Hamilton Ave coming up on Mt. Healthy. On this stretch of road there's no sidewalk and I saw ahead of me was a man walking toward me. No biggie. I saw people all morning. Well then all of a sudden he jumped over the guard rail and disappeared into the woods. What the heck? Where was he going? Was he going to try to pull me into the woods too? (I've watched too many law and orders.) So I kept an eye out as I headed down the road. Next thing I know I see him...and he's pulling up his pants! And then the stench hit me...he had just taken a huge dump! Yuck!!! I guess you never know what you're going to see early in the morning!

Monday - Well needed rest. (No power at our house.)

Tuesday - Easy 4 miles on my mother in law's treadmill. (No power at our house.)

Wednesday - Rest (No power at our house.)

Thursday - Easy 4 miles on my mother in law's treadmill. (No power at our house.)

Friday - Rest. Went to Dayton to pick up my race registration for the half-marathon. Bought some new socks, a waist pack, and jelly beans. Tried to go to bed early for the race....never happens at our house! (Power at our house finally!!!)

The workouts were a little lighter this week to prepare for the half marathon on Saturday. I have so much to say about the race that I'll save that for another blog!

Hard Speed Workout

Tonight I ran 7 miles - 2 mile warm up, 3x1600@7:15, and cooldown. Due to rainy weather (which I hope will be gone for my long run Sunday), I ran on my mother-in-law's treadmill. Her treadmill's a little difficult to use for a speed workout. The speed options don't tell you the pace, they just give you a "level" like 5.4 or something. I knew that 6.0 was a 10 min/mile pace but I had never ran a 7:15 on a treadmill before so I just sort of guessed. I picked 7.5 which might have been a slower pace but I couldn't have run any faster and I couldn't make it the whole mile. I had to slow down after .7 of a mile. After jogging for a half mile I tried it at 7.6 for .8 of a mile, jogged again, and then ran at 7.7 for .8 mile again. Not what I was hoping but it was definetly a workout. The good thing about running on her treadmill was that I got to watch cable. We're "frugal" at our household and don't have cable. So I enjoyed an hour of MTV's Real World/Road Rules Challenge and VH1's top 40 hotties of the 90s. Oh yeah!

Yesterday - Strength trained while watching America's Next Top Model. Love it!

Starting the Week Off Well

Sorry for the delay in blogs...we're having computer problems here at the Martin household. To catch you up, here's what's been going on the last three days...

Sunday - Beautiful day! I went for an 8 mile run late afternoon and it was still pretty cool outside. It made me excited for fall! The 8 miles went pretty well and nothing eventful happened which is good I suppose. I finished listening to The Audacity of Hope and really enjoyed it. The book itself and the act of listening to a book while I ran. I'm excited about buying another book to listen to for my LONG run this Saturday. I think I'll be going out for 20 miles.

Monday - Strength training in the basement while watching One Tree Hill. Nice.

Tuesday - Another beautiful evening for a run! I did an easy 6 - the loop around my neighborhood and down to Winton Woods and back. I finished in 49 mintues...not bad.

Garage Sale

Yesterday we had a garage sale to raise money for Team in Training. It actually went pretty well since we sort of threw it together last minute. After a week of 90+ temps, the day couldn't have been more beautiful! Sun shining, cool breeze...it was great just being outside all day without melting. Grace even wore jeans and a jacket. As many of you know there are good and bad things about doing a garage sale. The good things are you make some money and get rid of your junk. We made a little over $300 which will all be going to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society so that's cool. However, garage sales are a ton of work. There was so much to do to get ready for the sale during the week that I didnt' get in any of my runs. It was such a struggle since Team in Training is two fold. Do I work on the garage sale so I can raise money or get my run in? It was a good thing I worked on the sale because even with babysitters every night and me doing what I can when the girls were napping during the day, we still barely got done. I'm just praying that missing about 3 runs this week won't put me back very far. And in my head I know it doesn't make a difference in a 3 or 4 month training period but I still feel guilty as crap. Speaking of crap, we still have tons left so we're planning on having another sale next Saturday. It should be easier since we just rolled everything in the garage and we'll just roll it right out again.

Not Enough Time (And Light) In The Day

Well last night I wanted to do an easy 5 miles. Unfortunetly I have a family to feed and clean up after and the days are getting shorter. I didn't get out until...actually I have no idea when. Ava wanted to come with me so I went out with the jogging stroller. I knew I wouldn't get the whole 5 in because it was already getting dark so I decided to stay in the neighborhood and just run as many laps as I could. We ran into Grandma Karen who was walking down to our house at the beginning of our run. Needless to say that ate up some of our time. All in all I ran for a total of 23 minutes. Not what I had in mind. But maybe since I was working twice as hard to push Ava in the stroller, it doesn't matter that the run was half as long? Well that's what I'm telling myself.

A fundraising note - We've decided to throw together a garage sale for Saturday to help raise the remaining $900. It's a lot of work but I'm excited to 1) get rid of a lot of stuff in our house and garage we don't use and 2) to see how much support I can raise from the people in my community. We're going to have a bake sale and ask for donations. I'm feeling pretty optimistic. We'll see...

Sweet 16

This morning came very early for me. After being up 2 or 3 times in the night with Grace, I got up at 5:20 am to feed her before getting ready for my biggest run yet this season, 16 miles. I quietly got ready and headed out the door around 6:30. Starting out I was actually chilly which was a nice change. I headed from my parents house to the bike path where I would run out 5 1/2 miles to Gambier and back home. I had decided not to worry about my pace and just set out to enjoy the morning and the run. I've been far too obsessed with how fast I've been running. And in return, I had one of the most enjoyable runs I've had so far. The streets were empty and there wasn't a soul on the bikepath. As I ran I listened to Barack Obama's, The Audacity of Hope that I had purchased on itunes. Even though my mind wandered from time to time, I think I enjoyed listening to the book instead of music. It was like I had a running partner talking to me as I ran. For those runners out there, I suggest trying this out especialy for a longer run. Everything felt good as I was running as I let my body determine my pace. By doing this, I found that I didn't need to stop and walk as often as before. Sometimes a half hour would go by before I realized it and I would then stop to get a drink before continuing. Even though I ran for about 2 and a half hours, it went by fairly quickly. This morning was the encouragement I needed and now I am ready and excited for the last 2 months of training. (My average pace was 9:30)