Running is Like a Box of Chocolates...

You never know what you are going to get.

After having a rough week of training - beginning last Sunday with an incredibly hard 8 miler and ending this week with a tough, tired feeling 3 miler and 4 miler, I was not optimistic about today's long run. I wanted to do 10 but was going to settle for 9 miles since last week was so hard. I decided to take a route that would allow me to bail early if I couldn't make 9 or 10.

I had a carb loaded dinner last night - not really on purpose. We happened to go to an Italian restaurant and I chose the chicken with Angel Hair pasta. I only ate as much pasta as it took to finish the chicken. Still it felt like a brick in my stomach later...and I wondered if I had made a bad mistake for my long run.

I also went to bed later than planned...after 11 pm. And woke up on and off. So when the alarm went off at 5:15 am, I was surprised to find myself awake. I decided to just take it slow, walking 1 min for every 5 min of running. If I was feeling up to it, I would go to 1 min walks after each mile for the second half of the run.

After the first couple of miles I found my heart rate was staying under 150 bpm, so I was very encouraged. It looked like a good run day! I keep it conservative, with my walking breaks every 5 min, until I was halfway through the run. Then I walked at the mile mark. for the last 2 miles I picked up the pace a bit, particularly on the last mile. I wanted to work toward a marathon pace at the end. It all felt good.

My splits:

Mile 1: 12:57
Mile 2: 13:07
Mile 3: 13:00
Mile 4: 12:59
Mile 5: 13:04
Mile 6: 13:12 a little slower
Mile 7: 13:16 still a little slower
Mile 8: 13:09
Mile 9: 12:47 Picking up the pace
Mile 10: 12:08 Fastest mile

AHR = 154 bpm (outstanding!)
MHR = 174 bpm (hit this in the last .12 miles)

I wish I could be faster, but given where I have been lately, this is really good! I am very encouraged :-).

On to week 3 of my training for San Antonio!!

Marathoner - I Do 26.2

I have one of these license plate frames on my car: Marathoner - I Do 26.2. I bought it after I finished my first marathon.

Tonight we went out to eat, and as we came out to the car, 4 people were standing around behind the car, looking down at it and shaking their heads. We were wondering, "What are they looking at?" "Did someone damage the car?"

Expecting to see some horrid damage to the car, we approached the vehicle. One couple walked off to their car. The other owned the car parked next to ours. They looked and said, "We couldn't believe how anyone could run 26.2 miles." My husband piped up and said, "We ran the Disney Marathon together in January. And this coming January we are running the Goofy - running 13.1 miles on Saturday and then 26.2 miles on Sunday."

The man in the car said, "Wow, that is quite an accomplishment, congratulations! And good luck! I could never do that."

Then my husband said, "Sure you could. I was out of shape last year and trained and ran the race. You could do it, you just need 6 months."

Tomorrow, I do 9. Let's hope I can finish that!! :-)

Last Week's Long Run

I had a challenging long run last week - 8 miles with lots of walking in 1 hour 46 minutes (probably my longest 8 miles). I experimented a bit with my cell phone video camera - same one I used in Seattle. The videos are pretty low resolution but are quicker to upload (with the recorder much more portable).

I have more Seattle pics which I hope to post soon as well!

Still Kicking!!!

I have some great pics/video to share from Seattle...but have been too busy to blog this week. And don't you know it, even Twitter is down tonight! But I have the picture above that I took with my good camera while on the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island.

I just finished 5 miles on the treadmill, which is usually quite boring except a co-worker of mine decided to come in and hop on the elliptical machine beside me. It was like running with someone but without worrying about how fast I was going. It made miles 3-5 go really quick!!! It was a really good run :-)

This is week two of my training for the San Antonio Marathon on November 16th. I am a bit behind because of vacation - but thankfully I had a good base before vacation so I expect to catch up quickly. My eight miler this weekend was really rough....but I am hoping for a better 9-10 miler on Sunday this week. I am following a slightly modified Hal Higdon Intermediate II which will help me adjust to running on Sat and Sun in preparation for the Goofy Race and Half in January.

In the unpacking from vacation I lost track of my iRiver. When I find it I will combine some old files for a podcast, hopefully in the next week or so. I also have more traveling adventures coming up. Next week, I will be in McLean, Va for a couple of days to teach a class and the following week I have a quick one day trip up to Ft. Monmouth, NJ to attend a presentation. On August 14th I head to Sierra Vista, AZ to my brother's wedding. Nothing planned after that for now.....at least not until October (sister's wedding) and November (the marathon!). I see more treadmill running in my future I'm afraid.

Everyone's training seems to be going really well!!!! You Chicago marathon folks are kicking butt out there :-)

Back on the Road in Seattle

At the advice of a hotel employee, I headed down to the pier area to run and see if I could find the park he showed me on the Seattle map - Myrtle Edwards Park. I was not disappointed! After you run through that park you run along the water through Elliott Bay Park which has a pedestrian trail and a separate biking trail. I did 2.3 miles north to the end of the park, then back. I was going to try to run back up to Pike's Market via the stairs at Pike Street but when I began to run up the stairs I realized I didn't have the energy to keep running (I had just completed over 4.5 miles) so I stopped the Garmin there. Still, 4.7 easy miles in about 57 min and change - not too shabby.

I think I found my running place for the week! :-) As I ran, I wondered if Lizzie Lee has run down here. Too bad she is also on business travel back east!

Hopefully I will have more Seattle adventures to share before I go home.

Back Online!

Out in front of the camper before my lone run during vacation

Well I am back....but now in Seattle on a business trip. The good thing is that I get to continue my break from Florida's summer heat and humidity for a few more days.

Summary of the vacation:

- 14 days of camping in 3 states (PA, NY and NC) - only 3 days were really rainy during the day (all in North Carolina)

- 1 day of hiking around Bushkill Falls in PA - beautiful place!


- "Ring of Fire" on Honeoye Lake (one of the Finger Lakes) NY - on the 3rd and 4th of July folks around the lake light of flares at 9:30 pm. Great when viewed from on a boat!

- Tweetsie Railroad and Grandfather Mountain near Boone, NC - Tweetsie is not exactly a Disney theme park but fun anyway. We nearly got blown off the top of Grandfather mountain by a thunder storm.


Locked up in the Tweetsie Jail


Blown around on the top of Grandfather Mountain

- (Scottish) Highland Games on Grandfather Mountain - we explored our Scottish roots (husband's mother was a Wallace), watch large men compete throwing heavy objects, dogs hearding sheep and ducks, "Riverdance" style dancing and lots of live Celtic music. They have two road races during the games (neither of which I ran). A 5 mile race called the "Bear" which is a 5 mile run from Linville (at the bottom of Grandfather mountain) to the top of Grandfather mountain. The Games also hosts one of the most challenging marathons around - running 26.2 miles from Boone, NC to the top of Grandfather Mountain. I will stay with my flat marathons, thank you very much!

- About 3300 miles total driven getting about 12-14 mpg in our truck which was pulling the camper. Not too bad. Gas pumps won't let us fill up all the way - they tend to shut off at $75 (when it now costs about $100 to fill from empty). One casualty - a camper tire blew on the way home on Saturday. Fortunately the truck was steady and we were clear of traffic and able to maneuver to the side of the road.

- Best part - took a break from lots of things. Didn't really run (just once) during vacation. The run I did take was really nice - 3 - 1.6 mile laps around the lake at our campground (Otter Lake) in PA. After that there was little time or place to really get in a good run - and I was happy to take a break before diving into marathon training this week! Also needed some time away from blogs, twitter and podcasts - more time hanging out with the kids!! :-)

Now to catch up with everyone's blogs!!! :-)