Speed Work

Through out the year I have been participating in our gym's Run Club, which has been a great way for me to meet other runners and talk about upcoming races and sharing advice, and learning to train effectively. Well, during the summer in AZ the Wednesday morning workouts had to be switched from 8:45am to 5:30am. I didn't think it was possible for me to run that early since I have kids... but then I realized it's while they are sleeping and they can just wake up dad while I'm gone! So today was my first speed workout on the track. Usually in Run Club we just go out and work on distance. Well today was a nice change for the usual routine and it felt great to get the burn in my legs and lungs. I don't know much about Speedwork now, but today we did sets of sprinting 800 yards and jogging 400yds, repeated 4 times. I just loved the feeling of pushing myself and the idea of working harder and hopefully improve my time. I couldn't believe the difference between 5:30am an 6:30am (when I usually go running) and that it is possible to keep training in the AZ summer. What an awesome morning!

Blood Hero

This weekend I accomplished one of my newest goals, which is to be an active blood donor again. My husband and I made it part of our date, and we had a blast doing it together. We sat across from each other and joked around with the staff that we were racing on who would get done the fastest. The staff was cheering us on... Freeman finished in 4 minutes, mine was 5min. Then as they have us raise our blood drawn arm in the air, my husband proudly displayed one finger up, signaling he was #1. He got a good laugh in from that. We enjoyed free snacks and beverages during our 15 minutes of waiting afterwards before heading out. It was all done in an hour, and will probably be quicker the next time we go. Such and easy process and you get some great snacks for FREE afterwards. It was such a nice way to spend time with my husband, instead of going to a movie.

Another to add to my TO-DO List....

Well, my birthday has come and passed and I now have 1 year left until I am 30. 30 is really just a number to me, and I am not going to be one of those people who will say I'm 29 forever... but 30 is just more of a date I picked to get my goals done by to finally get accomplished...

Well, I have another goal of mine that has been on the back burner a few years now and has been forgotten until now. A few years ago I was pretty active in donating blood, but once I started having babies and breastfeeding I had to put that on hold. I couldn't wait to get back into donating blood (Your are helping 3 people per a blood donation so it is a great feeling.) Well, this morning I realized, "Hey, it's been a year since I've been "allowed" to donate blood and I haven't done it!" So my goal is to get back into the swing of things and being active in donating blood. So, I'll keep you updated on this new goal of mine!

Sprint Triathlon coming up next

So I've been browsing some triathlons and found one that may work for me! There is a sprint triathlon which is on Saturday, October 15th, 2011. It's a great location and lands on a Saturday which my #1 rule to this hobby of mine is not to race on a Sunday. I have exactly 4 months til race day and I'll be focusing on training with swimming and biking since I'm not confident in those areas. The only supplies I need to add onto my "equipment" are a helmet and swim cap.

One thing that makes me nervous are the transitions because I have a hard time picturing what to do and how to have everything set up, and actually finding my stuff in the transition area. But, it's good to start somewhere and experience it so I can build from here.

I have taken a few months off from running due to an ankle strain and just started back up again and love that the pain is completely gone. The only down fall to me not training is that I gained 10 lbs! So along with training for the Sprint Triathlon, I hope to lose up to 15 lbs so I'll be a little lighter on race day!

Length of Hair update

So, on to another goal of mine...

Locks of Love

I measured the length of my hair and have about 3 inches to go. I was thinking the minimum was somewhere between 8-10 inches, but it's 10 inches. I felt a little discouraged because it also says that bleached hair is not accepted (includes highlighted hair) so I didn't know if my hair will be accepted. But then I realized that I only get my hair partially highlighted so if my hair isn't approved on top, then at least I could donated my hair that's underneath and untouched by color.

So, still continuing to grow out the hair so I can cut it. ;) Hopefully by this summer I can reach this goal!

My First 1/2 Marathon!

**My friend Cami took this picture, and I took it off her blog :)

Well, one goal down... 2 more to go.

Yesterday I ran my first 1/2 marathon and loved it! I was surprised that I wasn't as nervous as my previous race and I just wanted to run. I had a friend staying with us from out of town, and she is a full marathoner and she was great to have there with me. She wasn't signed up for the race so she jogged along side me for about 2-3 miles and then tapered off. I felt great running and had a good pace going. I was getting a little nervous because I was passing people and I was second guessing myself if I was running to fast, but with all my practice I knew I was where I should be and just let go of my insecurity and kept running.


Our course that we had was go out and come back so I met back with my friend about mile 10 which is where I felt like I was hitting a wall but I felt like her pace was helping me stick with it and just pushed myself through. The last mile seemed like it took forever and when we could see the 13th mile marker coming up my friend said some encouraging words to go for it and I took off. It was hard because the last quarter mile was uphill and right when you got to the hill/marker I almost thought I was done but no... .1 more mile, I got my pace back up and saw a guy up ahead and told myself to "finish hard" and I ended up passing him right before the finish line. They unfortunately don't give enough room for the ones that sprint because I had to stop right away and knocked into someone because they stop you to take off your timing chip. So that was a little weird to me that they didn't space it out a little more. I walked straight to the port-o-potty to pee because I didn't have a chance to do it before the race. (Only 3 available before the starting line???) So I got my cool T-Shirt, chowed down on fruit, bagels with peanut butter (Yum!) and cookies.

So here are my stats from this race.

I finished my 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) in 1 hour and 57 minutes.

Overall females: 32nd/124

Overal female age group: 6th/27

So here is what I learned from my first marathon...

Likes.

• I loved the view of the mountains and the desert





• Great food at the end





• Gatorade at the water stops





• Awesome T-Shirt which was made out of the fabric that is light and will stay dry.

Dislikes.

• Only 3 port-o-potties available before the race.





• The race started at 7am so it was dark when you had to pick up your number and get your chip so I thought it was weird not to have lights up. (Especially if you were lucky enough to get into a port-o-potty.





• They had 3 different places to go to and they put them all close together so all the lines were meshed together and just seemed chaotic. 1st table, pick up your bib, 2nd table:pick up chips (line was running perpendicular into the lines to pick up bibs) 3rd: pick up shirt (which should be done I think after the race because there is no where to put it?





• The course. We ran on the shoulder of the road which was narrow (smaller than a car lane) and the course was out and back so if I was to ever do a full marathon, this would NOT be the course. I think it could bother me mentally seeing all the people already heading back (and yes you stick in the same lane coming back to the finish line) So I think my next race I would look for one that you don't just have to turn around and run back the same way I came.





• Didn't like the finish line ( having to go up hill) and that they didn't give you enough time to stop running and get into a walk before stopping us to retrieve the chips.





• You couldn't tell who were volunteers so if you had a question you had to ask around.