DC 1/2 Marathon Goal post!

It is finally the weekend for the Rock N' Roll USA 1/2 Marathon!

That is my holy crap face! 

After all the planning and preparing I can't believe the weekend is finally here. Paul and I are driving now down to DC for the weekend. We have packet pick up today as well as some exploring around the city. Race is tomorrow morning (St. Patrick's Day!) at 8 am! I have to switch my coral today as well (for a faster time!). So here go the goals for the day!


Goal A: Finish in 2 hours and 45 minutes. For many of you reading this you are going to go "OMG?! Goal A is 2:45? How is she that slow?" I'm aware for many my goal A would be their goal F. I have done two 1/2's before and finished the first one in 3:27 and the second in 3:05. 2:45 would be a HUGE improvement for me.

Goal B: Finish before 2 hours 45 minutes 40 seconds. I'm aware this seems silly, but there is a reason! Paul's 1/2 marathon PR currently is 2 hours, 45 minutes, and 41 seconds. Huge motivation to have the better 1/2 time of the two of us!

Goal C: Finish under 3 hours. Since both of my previous 1/2's were over 3 hours, I really am working hard to improve a great deal from them.

Goal D: Finish my 1/2 marathon before Paul finishes his marathon. 


So here goes nothing! I will keep you all updated to how it went!

Wish me luck :) 

Last long run!

This weekend was full of sunny skies, movies, dinner with friends, shopping, and of course my last long run! Friday night, after a delicious penne a la vodka dinner, I went to see The Lorax with Paul and friends! The food was delicious, as was the movie! Saturday morning included some laundry and my first attempt to dye my hair back to blonde (more on this later). Later I went to buy some delicious snacks for race day! I got lots of gel bites from PowerBar and also got some Chomps to try by GU. I of course grabbed some gels, because as much as they gross me out, I know they help. There was some ridiculous deal, if I bought 12 products I got a 20% discount. How could I resist?! So now I at least have a whole bunch of new things to try!  Saturday night was dinner and a movie (Tower Heist aka awesome movie), which also included attempt number 2 at dying my hair (again more on this later).

Sunday morning I was all sorts of confused. I woke up at 9:45 and couldn't understand how I possibly slept that late. Paul nicely reminded me about daylight savings and that my body only thought it was 8:45. After slowly getting up and ready, I finally went out for my last "long run" before the race. Since my real "last long run" was two weekends ago and was 10 miles, I had this run be 6 miles. I of course wanted to be at race pace. Mile 1 was good, after that it was rough and I kept thinking "what am I going to do for the race?". However I pushed through and managed to make it work. I was 3 minutes over my "goal" time for the 6 miles, but I was overall happy about it. Mile 6 hurt a lot, but I also know in all my other long runs, mile 6 hurt and after that I felt better. I have to keep this in mind during the race so I know not to panic during mile 6 if it isn't going well.

I can't believe the race is less than a week away! I am incredibly nervous, but excited all at the same time! The "hair dye" post is coming up as well as a final goals post before the race!! Happy Monday everyone!!!

Tri Nutrition Meeting

Hopefully by now you all have realized that when I say I will post something the next day, I really mean two days later! So last Thursday I went to a triathlon team meeting with Paul. I had gone before and really found it interesting, so I figured why not go to another one! They have them twice a month, and because Paul is on the team he goes to all of them...I only go to the one's that I think have interesting topics.

So all that being said, the meeting last Thursday was on proper nutrition during races. As you all found out in my 10 mile run post, I never do much nutrition during the race. I am good about eating a protein bar of some sort before, followed by nothing during the run, and eating my face off usually after the run. Not that this will shock any of you, it definitely didn't shock me, but apparently my nutrition plan is not the most effective plan for racing.

One of the guys talking was from the PowerBar company. While I wanted to hear more about general nutrition, I was interested in what he had to say about all the PowerBar products. He went through all the basics of what each product was as well as the best times to take them. Since I had never had any of these products before (mostly out of fear of how they will taste), this was all pretty new and interesting to me.

After that, one of Paul's team members talked about basic nutrition for the days leading up to race day. I clearly also do not have this down correctly, so I found it just as interesting. He gave some good tips on better nutrition, as well as how to keep your nutrition plan on track. Some of the things I have heard before (keep track of food, food log etc...), but sometimes when you hear it just enough it actually clicks in your head what you need to do. Starting Sunday, cause I want to start at the beginning of a week, I am going to keep an actual log for the whole week as to what I eat. As much as I convince myself that "I really do eat healthy most of the time" I know seeing it in writing will confirm that is not true. Once I can see what I am really eating on a daily basis, I hopefully will be able to make the right changes.

The best part of the meeting was clearly when we all got free samples! I found out just how much I like the gel chews and as much as I dislike the actual gels, I'm glad I got to try them out.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

10 Miles!!!

Just a warning, this post is long. Get some coffee, relax, enjoy!

Yesterday was my longest training run scheduled. 10 miles. This was the longest training run I was going to ever do. Yes I have done two half-marathons and never did a 10 mile training run. We can all guess why those races didn't go so well now can't we?

I had two good 5 mile runs during the week (the fact that I got them done was why they were both good).  Both were the exact same time, 64 minutes a piece. That just sounds slow, but other than that, they were slower than my goal pace for the race. I was worried going into the 10 mile run only because I didn't want my pace to be even slower. On top of this, the day before Paul and I moved furniture and etc to multiple different houses. As unhelpful as I actually was in carrying things, my arms were still sore when I got up to run. So yes, this all set the scene for a pretty rough 10 miles for me to run.

I tried to have this run be just like a test run for the race. I ran in the exact same outfit I plan to wear race day to make sure it was comfortable...no worries it was. I also decided it was time to add in some nutrition during my races. I know many (many) people that have gu's and etc during races and training runs. I have never had a gu before in my life. I typically will have a protein bar (Luna bars are amazing) about 20 minutes before I run, and just gatorade/water when I am running. I decided it was time to at least give the gu's a test run....I also had free samples from my tri meeting the other night (more info on that tomorrow). Paul helped me figure out what to have and when to have it etc during my run. I was very skeptical about gu's (as I clearly should have been), but knew this would help so I listened to the advice and brought them along.

On to the run! I had a key plan for this run. I was going to run 9 minutes and walk for 1. I heard about it a few times and believe it was started in Canada, I figured why not give it a shot. Once I started running however I got a little confused on my timing. I couldn't remember if I was supposed to be running 9 minutes at a time or 10. I also realized how short 1 minute actually was when you need time to recover. I very quickly decided I would do 10 minutes straight running and then 2 minutes of walking. I had planned to have a gu at 30-35 mins, 60-65 mins, and then some chewys at 90-95. By breaking my runs up by time, it was easier for me to get through the 10 miles, mostly because I wasn't focused on the mileage at all.

At 34 minutes I had my first gu. At 35 minutes I almost threw up from the gu. It was not for me....and that is an understatement. After some time though I noticed times that I usually would of been tired I was able to push on. At 61 minutes it was time for gu number two. While this flavor was better, some how I had to throw up more. I am unsure if my relationship with gu's will continue in the future, but I am glad I at least got them down for the run. At 95 mins, I had the most delicious snack in the world. The raspberry PowerBar chews I had were fantastic. I would sit down and eat these things just as a regular snack. I can already tell these chews will be my friend in the future.

Finally after 2 hours and 3 minutes, my 10 miles were done. This not only was better than I had expected, but put me on track for my race pace! I could not have been happier with my 10 mile run yesterday, and I'm pretty sure nobody expected to hear me say those words. If my race day goes as well as the training run I will be very happy.

Happy Monday everyone! I'll have my post about my nutrition tri meeting tomorrow!

March!!!

Happy March everyone! As it is the beginning of a new month, I want to check in again with my New Years Resolutions to make sure I'm staying on track.

1. I was supossed to run a race for every holiday. Unfortunately in February (even though I wanted to) I did not run a race for Valentine's Day. My work schedule conflicted a little and then it was Paul's birthday, so there was no day I was available. The 1/2 marathon does fall on St. Patrick's Day so I know I am already set for the next holiday at least!

2. Run 2 or 3 half marathons. DC 1/2 marathon training is still going strong...sort of. I'm unsure if the Chicago half marathon will happen or not unfortunately. As much as I want to go back to Chicago and visit, there are a few issues with the trip in general. For one the amount of money it will cost is a problem for me because I should be saving every dime I have towards a new place to live. Also time wise, I'm not sure if I will be able to go for the amount of time I want to. I think it is a waste of money if I'm only flying out for 48 hours when I want to be there for much longer. Finally the last reason is because this half marathon training has shown me that maybe I'm not ready to sign up for the race yet. I need to have a good base before I start training and signing up for the races. If time wise and money work out, but I'm not feeling comfortable with my running then I shouldn't do it.

3. Stretch every morning. This has changed into stretching 3-4 days a week. I figure if I can do the weekends as well as 2 days during the week of stretching then I would call it a success.

4. Run at least 10 miles every week. Check! One of the resolutions I am completely sticking to!

5 & 6. Running 5k's and 10k's in a certain amount of time. I'm not going to work on these until after the D.C. half.

7. Take a pilates class. I'm still failing at this one. I have a 10 more months though!

I have more running updates, cupcake updates, and tri meeting updates coming in the next few days!!!

Happy March Everyone!