7MM - week 2 fail.

Well, this week's 7MM was a complete bust. I went to the gym with a pal and we lifted for about half an hour, doing upper body. I guess I didn't anticipate how tiring it was going to be, and also how hard of a time I would have running fast on a treadmill. It turned out to be a short 12 minute interval workout, essentially. I walked for about a quarter of a mile, did my fast section for about .4 miles, then jogged for the rest of the way, slowing down little by little.

Whatever, I got a killer upper body workout so I'll just try again next week, back on the road.

Monday I ended up taking as a rest day because my ankle was feeling a little sore. I'm not going to worry about it because it's only the second rest day I've had since last Sunday. I don't think I'm overdoing it, either, because the mileage is still fairly low.

It was right back on the bandwagon yesterday, though. Boyfriend & I ran 2.57 miles around the neighborhood, it took us about 28 minutes. We sat at around a 10:56 pace, much better than last week's 11:27. It feels good to run with him.

Today is week 2 of 7MM. We'll see how it goes. I think this week may be completed on a treadmill. A pal of mine is bringing me to her gym, I'm thinking about joining. I'll check back in with a recap.

sunday funday.

Except NOT. Work was long, I was hungover, it kind of sucked. I survived, though. After I got off, all I wanted to do was come home and nap but that couldn't happen. I had way too much to do around the house in terms of cleaning. Clothes that needed to be put away, dishes that needed to be washed, floors that needed to be swept, sheets that needed changing... so I sucked it up and did everything I needed to.

After an hour and a half of cleaning, I went for the day's run. 2.05 miles in 20:02. Still sitting at a sub-10:00 min/mile pace which is awesome.

weekly workout schedule (WWS)!

Every Sunday I'm going to plan my runs and workouts for the week. Here's what I've got for this week:

• Sunday - 2 miles
• Monday - 3.5 miles
• Tuesday - 2.5 miles
• Wednesday - 7MM week 2
• Thursday - 4 miles
• Friday - diving
• Saturday - diving

Yep, should be a good week.

damn you, texas.

Yesterday I set out to do my 3.5 mile run around 5PM. Big freakin' mistake. It was so hot outside (at least it felt that way, apparently it was only 80) and the sun was beating down on me. The route I mapped out was a little over four miles and was around campus on the path by the bay. I made it through the outbound and was on my way back home and I just couldn't do it. It was too hot, I was dehydrated, and I had to stop.

This is very much not like me. I have only stopped a run a handful of times, I can count them on one hand. I push myself. It's why I love running. But I knew that it was absolutely not smart to push myself this time. I should have brought my running belt with water, but I didn't. I should have worn a hat but I didn't. Shoulda, woulda, coulda. Next time I'll know better.

I stopped at 3.2 miles and walked the rest of the way home. It took my heart rate about half an hour to drop back to normal. Water has never tasted so sweet.

Since we are getting into the heat of summer here in Texas, my running is going to have to adapt. Early morning or late evening runs will be ideal. Make sure to stay hydrated. Bring water on runs, even if it is only three miles. Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen. Be safe, y'all!

As the week is finishing out, I have met all of my goals! I did all my runs, with the exception of today's 3.5 miles which hasn't happened yet but it absolutely will.

Thursday's run was 2.77 miles, completed in a little over 26 minutes. I was sitting at a 9:34 minute/mile pace. Doing speed work has been awesome. It hasn't felt too awesome all the time, it's definitely hard but it's nice to be challenged and to switch it up.

Friday's dive was a damn good work out, as well. I was scrubbing the walls and boy, was it tough. My legs were getting worked from kicking to keep myself up to scrub the upper wall area, my arms were worked from scrubbing the shit off. My core was definitely getting worked out, too.

So cheers to the end of a great week of runs!

7MM - week one.

Not too bad for my first week. In fact, I'd say it was great (minus the fact that it was a little toasty outside for my liking). Here's the breakdown:

• warm up - .5 mile jog, 5:14, 10:28 min/mile pace
• mile run (which ended up a tad longer due to an accidental err in my planned route) - 1.08 miles, 8:43, 8:04 min/mile pace
• cool down - .5 mile jog, 5:13, 10:28 min/mile pace followed by a quick walk around the block

Dude. 8:04. That is my fastest mile in my life I think. It was hard. Especially with the heat. But I did it. Wee! Now to just shave 1:04 off...

in the zone.

Tonight's run was fantastic. I ran with the man friend and we set out to do three miles. We kept a nice, slow, steady pace throughout. The weather was perfect, too. My breathing was totally controlled and I felt nice and strong. I think the small amount of speed work I've been doing is going to help my running overall.

I've never run with someone I'm 'dating'. It was kind of nice. It's a great way to spend time with each other and share the joy (hah) of running. Get those endorphins pumpin' together! We are going to try to make Mondays and/or Tuesdays our running days. We've got to get prepped for the relay in May!

So 3.07 miles under the belt, finished in 35:12, setting us at a 11:30ish min/mile pace. I felt like I could have gone forever. My heart rate dropped back to normal at a great rate, as well.

Then we came home and ate soup.

I managed to run again tonight. I'm going to try to get a run in every day this week, except maybe Friday. I'm diving at work that day and it's a workout in itself. Tentatively, I have this planned:

• Tuesday - three miles with the man, followed by dinner
• Wednesday - my first 7MM one mile run
• Thursday - 2.5 miles
• Saturday - 3.5 miles

So all fairly short runs, but still getting a semi-decent amount of weekly miles in.

I did two 1.22 mile loops around the neighborhood tonight. It was really windy and spooky outside, so I brought a canine unit for backup. Thanks to him, my pace for the first loop was kickass. It took me 10:57, setting me at an 8:58 min/mile pace! Holy cow, that is terrific for me! The second loop I slowed down for and made it in 13:17 (10:53 min/mile pace), setting me an overall workout time of about 25 minutes and an average pace of 9:58.

I'm glad I went. I napped on the couch when I got home, which is something I seem to do almost every day lately. When I woke up I ate leftover fried fish and it was at that point that I decided I should go get moving for a bit.

When I got home, both my pup and I got bathed and now we are in bed. Glorious.

back in the game.

I ran again this evening after work and I feel a million times better about where I'm at. I set out to do a two mile run through the neighborhood that I had mapped out beforehand. Roommate decided to come last minute. Since it was only a two mile run, I decided to pump up the pace a bit. It was tough, but I wouldn't say it was any tougher than the slower run I had done on Friday.

During the run, I completely forgot what my planned route was so I just winged it, hoping that I would come in around two miles. I just set a goal of 23 minutes, just to be on the safe side. Maintaing the pace was hard, but I kept telling myself that it was only two miles. That's it. And I was able to push through and kick my own ass. More proof than running is at least (if not more) as mental as it is physical.

After finishing up and cooling down, I came in to map out the route I had taken. Turned out to be 2.34 miles and I ran it in 22:23. That set me at a 9:34 min/mile average pace. Not too shabby at all! I'm proud of the run, especially because I was super exhausted after work but I still pushed myself out the door with no hesitation.

This week begins my journey towards a seven minute mile, which will be referred to as 7MM from here on out (not to be confused with 7 millimeters). This will be me attempting to consistently improve my one mile time little by little. My goal is to reach seven minutes or less by the end of the year. I feel like that's plenty of time to achieve it. Wednesday is my very first mile, so I'll check back in with a starting point later this week!

After catching up on The Walking Dead tonight and hanging out with the man, I am ready for bed. Goodnight, internet.

working my way back up.

So I finally got a run in on Friday, my first since the race. I decided to stick with the easy, short 5K neighborhood route that I frequented during training. It was strange running it, knowing that the half marathon had already come and gone. But I was glad to be getting back out there after almost two weeks of resting my foot.

It is insane how much fitness can be lost so quickly. This run was quite hard. It doesn't help that I've been smoking more lately (blech). I wanted to quit a few times during the run. I couldn't believe that I was having such a hard time when just two weeks ago I ran 13.1 miles fairly easily. Oh well, I'll just have to get back to that point. I can't imagine it'll take that long since I'm not really starting from scratch.

But the positive note to the run was that I had no foot pain, during or after. So I'll be sticking with 3-4 mile runs mostly for now, just to make sure nothing pops up.

Next scheduled race: Beach to Bay marathon relay in May. I'm in the process of organizing my team.

Over a week has passed since the race and my foot STILL hurts. I'm going to try to get to the doctor this weekend to get it looked at. It sucks. I want to run. I have been walking, though. But it's just not the same.

I want to be comfortable again!

ouch.

Peroneal tendonitis. I believe I may have this. The soreness in my legs has faded, but the sharp pain in my right foot has not. I've been limping around since the race. I had to come back to work today and it's been rough. I've almost been brought to tears multiple times. I've got an ace bandage wrapped around my ankle, holding an ice pack up to it. Hopefully a week of rest will fix the problem..

I don't even care though. I ran a freakin' half marathon.

rockin' and rollin' in nawlins.

Well, it's all over and we did it! This is going to be a lengthy post so bear with me.

For starters, I ended up not running at all the week of the race. It just didn't happen, don't judge. I wasn't sure if it would help me or hurt me, but there was no going back so I was stuck in my position.

We left on Friday afternoon with two of our pals and started the 9-10 hour drive to the Big Easy. It was a long drive, but with good company it was bearable. We passed the time listening to Disney music, talking and laughing, and those bastards watched a movie while I was stuck driving. We finally arrived at our hotel at around 2:30AM. We were hungry and restless. So some food and beer was acquired and we each had one or two. And... I am not proud of this... but I ate Taco Bell for the first (and last) time. Oh, the things you'll eat when hungry. With stomachs full of crap food and Sam Adams, we finally fell asleep around 4:30AM.

I awoke first the next morning. Not surprising since I had a lot of anxiety about something going wrong on the trip. Waking up too late and missing the expo, leaving too late on race day and getting stuck in traffic and missing it... you name it I was probably worried about it. It was my first race, give me a break! After a little printing fiasco with Roommate's confirmation page, we finally made it to the expo and got our swag bag, bibs, shirts, and all of that good stuff. I really like the shirt, and I'm so glad it is made of a workout fabric and not cotton!

We didn't spend much time at the expo, seeing as it was already 3PM and we hadn't eaten yet. This, my friends, is where the trouble started. We went to grab lunch and we had some beers with it. Well, no food and minimal sleep combined with two beers apparently has significant effects on us. After lunch, we were going to walk around the French Quarter, and of course, we found another bar to go to. We played a few games of pool and had a few more beers. When we left there, we walked to the water for the view and then our plan was to head back to the car. Somehow we ended up on Bourbon street. You can guess what ensued. Now, I know this probably wasn't the best idea before a big race, but (as I kept saying during the race "NO REGRETS") I wasn't too worried. I mean, we were in New Orleans for less than 48 hours, it was still early (we were back at the hotel by 7 or 8PM), and I've done many a long run after a few drink the previous night. Had I truly been racing, I would have opted out of the drinks, but I just wanted to finish in no particular time and I knew that I could complete my goal. So pass that drink over this way!

Now, not only did we drink, but then we ordered pizza and I ate probably five slices. Now that, I regret slightly. Because what goes in must come out, and it didn't want to come out before the race so I raced with intestines full of pizza. It made for some slight discomfort near the end...

But okay, let's get into the actual reason for this post: the race. We woke up (probably too) early on race day and got there (probably too) early. We wandered around, got some water, and used the port-o-potties. Finally we started to line up in our corral, which was one of the last ones! We are some slow mutha fuckas. Granted, we did finish 30 minutes before our estimated corral time. It took about forty minutes for all the waves to pass before it was our turn. And off we went!



This run was fun. It was gorgeous outside, the music made me smile, and the excitement of the crowd definitely rubbed off on me. The route took us all around the city, which is so vibrant and beautiful. Up until mile ten was a breeze, which is pretty surprising. There were supporters lining the streets, many of which were cancer survivors. I saw a woman pushing who I assumed was a family member in a wheelchair for the first few miles. It was really amazing. As for Roommate and I, we just talked and laughed and ran and drank water and Gatorade and ate pocket bagel. The bands were pumping us up and we counted high fives.

After sailing through the first nine and a half miles with zero problems, fatigue began to set in. I was tired, my legs hurt, and I could feel a blister forming on my foot. But what do you do in those situations? You fucking march on.

Mile eleven was when the pizza was ready to come out. But I clenched and kept running. I know, I know, probably more than you needed to know. But I've got no shame so deal with it. This happened sporadically (thanks, Clueless!) until the end of the race. The last mile was the real bitch. It felt like it dragged on and on and on. Especially when we got to the park and I was so sure we were done, but we still had half a mile. So on we ran.

Let me tell you, when I saw that finish line, it was the most beautiful thing I could have seen. So we kicked it up a notch and we were finished! We were half marathoners! Our finish time was 2:33:50, setting us at an 11:44 min/mile pace. My tentative goal had been 2:30, but this was definitely close enough for me to be happy. Especially because we ran the entire thing, no walk breaks at all. Plus, we had gone out on the town the night before. It all ended up working out great in the end.

We got our medals and photos taken, and got all sorts of treats to refuel our bodies. Bananas, protein bars, chocolate milk, Gatorade, water. I felt like ass. I forced some food down, fighting nausea, and we walked around and tried to loosen our tight legs up. Somehow, Roommate didn't feel as bad as I did. I spent four months training for this race, he squished most of his training into the last two weeks and ended up with an easier aftermath. That's life for you!

After grabbing jazz brunch (yes, it was as awesome as it sounds) at an amazing cafe, we hit the road. Folks, I do not recommend sitting in a car for nine hours after running 13 miles. It hurts, to say the least. I'm still hurting today, but I'm sure it's nothing a week of rest won't fix up. Overall, the trip was absolutely terrific and I had such a good time. Pictures to come.

I am already planning on running the Rock and Roll San Antonio half marathon in November. I do believe I'm addicted to these things.