Boston Training - Week One

Although I didn't run according to plan every day this week, I am very happy with the days I felt up to running. 

Monday : It was AMAZING to run again after having not ran at all the previous week, due to being sick.  I felt so fast and speedy.  I ran 7 miles in the dark around my neighborhood after work and afterwards felt so much happier.  It amazing what running does to make me felt normal after a stressful day at work.

When I got back from my run, we discovered that our furnace was broken - not the best news.  The next 12 hours we focused on staying warm and getting a repairman over to fix it up.  I left for work at 6:30 am and got home at 9pm, because we had our winter concert.  I was very tired after the long, busy day and did not get a chance to run.

Wednesday I had intense sinus pressure after work (my bronchitis turned into a cold, which is much easier to deal with) but the sinus pressure gave me such a headache I came home and actually had to lay down in bed.  Not a good day, and I was even more miserable that I didn't get my endorphin fix.  However, I did get to lift weights in the morning at least!

Thursday I returned to my normal level of happiness by doing hill repeats in the dark listening to rap and Taylor swift.  Weird combination, but it is pretty much like therapy for me.  Of course it is dark, but all the houses were light up with Christmas lights.  It was a great workout and I ran 8 total miles and pulled in my best times ever on that particular hill.  I was in a fantastic mood after.

Friday morning the alarm sounded at 4:40am and after feeding the dogs and getting changed I was on the treadmill for an easy 5, while watching Desperate Housewives reruns.  I LOVE watching reruns of the show while running. 

Saturday I went out to the lake and ran 14 miles.  I averaged 7:50 pace with the last mile a 7:06.  I felt fantastic the first few miles, felt kind of blah the middle miles when the snow and wind picked up, but was able to pull it together for a fast last 5. 


Saturday night we went to the our favorite restaurant in Pittsburgh, Legends of the North Shore and went to the Symphony at Heinz Hall to see the holiday concert.  It was a great night out and was very approrpiate for this time of the year!

Legends of the North Shore - great Italian food AND BYOB

Heinz Hall Christmas Tree

Jordan

This morning we had some snow so my dad and I ran together in the early afternoon.  I ran a relaxing 8 miles with him and spent the rest of the day baking, cleaning, and making a yummy dinner.

Baked Pasta with Spinach, Lemon, and Cheese - from my favorite magazine, Cooking Light!  Jordan liked it, too.

Sunday night is always kind of sad knowing that the weekend is over and you have to be at work early the next day, but tonight I don't even care.  I only have 3.5 days of work until a long, long 10.5 day break and I already have so many fun plans/get togethers in the works.  I am like a seven-year-old when it comes to Christmas and I can't wait for everything to start.  My two little friends are also very eager for Santa to arrive with new bones and toys.  Here is a flashback from last Christmas!!!

Visit with Santa

Our tree and both pups this year

Week 2 Training Goals:
Monday: AM lift, PM 5x1,000 total 8
Tuesday: AM or PM easy 5
Wednesday: AM lift, PM hill repeats total 8
Thursday: AM easy 5
Friday: 15 miles
Saturday: 8 miles
Sunday: 7 miles easy

Productive Tuesday and Knee Pain

In case you were wondering, I am still loving my summer job.  First of all, I have off on Tuesdays.  Yesterday, I accomplished an insane amount.  Let me amaze you with my list of tasks I accomplished.

Starting at 5:30 am (am I the only person who can't sleep in?)
Did a load of laundry, folded and put away
Put away laundry from the day before
Made coffee and bed
Lifted at the gym
Had a coffee at Panera
Went Shopping at a secret store for Jordan's anniversary surprise
Went to another secret store
Grocery shopped at Giant Eagle, and printed pictures
Bought lotion at the mall, scouted out some dresses for our anniversary June 26th
Came home
Took Penny for a 1.5 mile walk
Made a delicious lunch
Cooked a huge pot of homemade wedding soup
Dusted and vacuumed the entire house
Worked on an anniversary surprise for 1.5 hours
Went to a hair appointment
Bought a father's day gift
Took a 20 minute nap
Stalked blogs
Picked up a new girl for running club practice, ran 3x 1,000 meters around 3:51, 1 minute rest, 400 around 1:27
All to come home at 8:30 and have my husband make the salad and enjoy homemade wedding soup and wine :)

I am loving this day off because I can get all of this out of the way to enjoy the weekend with my boo!  And at work today, I got to play on this awesome wooden castle park:

I love this playground! 

and swim at the pool!!!

Onto running news......

Last night, I did the workout I mentioned above to total 7 miles.  My knee felt pretty good.  However, I woke up this AM and tried to run 5 miles before work and I had to stop after a half mile.....I was pretty upset.  Through the day I read more about injuries and I think I have a case of Runner's Knee.  My friend recommended that I get a knee strap, so I rushed to get one right after work.  I also got a cold compress you can freeze, too.

NOT my leg

I went running with it when I got home....it helped so much!  I was able to run 5 miles and barely felt anything different.  It has been about 2 hours since I stopped my run and I have absolutely no pain right now.  I really hope this is the answer!  I would hate to take more time off, because marathon training starts in 1.5 weeks!

Let me know if you have any knee pain advice!

Memorial Day Part Two

I had a world record of sleeping this morning - slept until 8:20!  We all enjoyed not having to get up for work.

I decided to do a quick run around home so I could finish folding and putting away my FIVE loads of laundry.  I'm not really sure how two people had 5 loads of laundry....anyways I got out the door right at 9am after eating a few pieces of watermelon.  The temperature only said 68, but it was so humid and sunny, it was really tough and my legs were tired from the bike/lift the day before.

On part of my run, I found a little beagle running across the road off leash and without a collar.  I was really worried about him because he could get hit by a car easily.  I chased after him for a long time and asked a few people if they knew where he lived.  I was finally told that this dog is not lost, he just always is off leash.  That really disturbed me and I could have easily taken him if I felt like it!!!

The rest of the day we did yard work and housework and by 3pm I decided it was time to tie Penny up in our patio room, open an adult beverage and read.  It was a nice break.

Dinner was a cook out at my Mom and Dad's, it was really fun.  My grandparents and brother Corey came.  Jordan and I dominated in two games of ladder ball.

Family Portrait

Corey, Penny, Dad

Actions Shots

Concentration

Spectating

One more day of vacation! :)

Injury Scare and Easter Break!

Earlier this week, I was pretty bummed about running.

On Tuesday, it hurt to walk and I did not even run (I did get to lift in the morning).  I was pretty bummed out, but I tried to remain positive and spent my free time after school laying on the couch with Penny and watching some quality TV programs (Real Housewives of Orange County).

Not afraid to admit I love this show.

 At first it was fun, but it got old quickly.  I swear I cannot sit still for more than an hour.  My wonderful husband bought me a Chipolte burrito bol and we watched Country Strong.  I LOVED the music in that movie!

Wednesday, I headed out to North Park after school.  Tendons in my right foot all day were bugging me.  I have had foot issues in the past, so I was worried.  They were sore the first half mile of the run, but after that, I felt great.  I was not able to take it as easy as I would have liked, because I was so happy to not be hurt.  I did 7 miles at 7:44 pace.

Thursday, I ran an easy 6 in the morning before school.  Was sore but was really happy to be out early.  I made a deal with myself that if my twenty mile run I was planning to do on good Friday went fine, then I would forget about the few days I was hurting.

Penny had a vet visit Thursday night.  She got three shots and was so nice to the vet.  He was very impressed by her and we were very proud parents.  I made sure to get her a few Easter Basket treats as a reward.

Friday morning I had off so I went out to the lake early to get my 20 miles in.  I thought it was a great thing to get done before the weekend officially started.  The weather wasn't great (It started to rain about halfway through and was windy the whole time - nothing new) and I had a somewhat boring run.  However, I was thrilled to have completed it with no pain, and to have sped up towards the end.  Splits: 8:02, 7:50, 7:56, 7:54, 7:55, 8:03, 7:59, 7:54, 7:44, 7:56, 7:49, 8:00, 7:54, 7:42, 7:42, 7:40, 7:33, 7:45, 7:24, 7:22.

Average pace: 7:48

What is even more amazing is that I went home and got ready to go to Stations at 12 pm in just 20 minutes - shower and makeup included. 

That night, we took my twin out to The Perrytowne for fish and beer.  I have an horrible inability to drink beer.  It is too filling and I just get tired of drinking it.  I am a wine person 100%.

We then took him to our favorite place.
YUM!

Twins love frozen yogurt

My husband and I at our favorite place

Two cute dogs...I look 14 without makeup and real clothes on.

Hope everyone is having an AWESOME EASTER!!! 


Today was a quick 5 miles at 7:53 pace between running errands.  We are about to head out to Bravo's for a date night.....yes!

Past Week

I have been a very bad blogger and haven't written in a week.  So I need to catch up.

Monday: Ran five miles easy in the AM, did some abs afterschool.

Tuesday: Lifted in the AM.  Was so happy, the sun was shining and our running group practices were moved to the Schenley Park Oval, the best place in the world to run.  Running there means summer and nice weather to me.  I had an awesome workout that night because I had super fast ladies to run with.  We did 3x3k on the oval with 2 minutes rest.  Some of them ran 4 repeats, but I gladly stopped at three to be more rested for the race Saturday.  We hit the 3ks in 12:02 (6:27 pace), 11:52 (6:21 pace), 11:53 (6:22 pace).  I was thrilled with our splits and also that I was able to keep up with the other ladies because they are training for sub 3 hr marathons.  They definitely can do it.

Wednesday:  Off day!  My exercise was meeting Lauren at Aladdin's Eatery for dinner.  It was a much needed dinner for a busy week.

Thursday: 6 miles easy around the highschool.  Did not lift to get ready for the race.

Friday: Easy 4 miles around home. I didn't run with a watch so I could go whatever pace I liked.  Friday night, I made a delicious meal of Parmesan crusted tilapia, cheesy noodles, homemade biscuits, and green beans.  I needed lots of food to get ready for the race the next day.  We made a stop to our favorite YUM to complete the pre-race fueling.  We were both feeling a little under the weather, so we bought vitamin water to guzzle.

We were both very tired and lazy this week

Post about the weekend in Clarion coming soon!

Birthday Girl

This past weekend was my birthday.  Which is why I am not blogging until now.

The BEST way to start off your birthday weekend is with a sunny, fast, 22 miler.  This may be one of my most favorite runs this season.  I woke up and got out to the lake around 8am Saturday.  I was meeting a friend for part of my LONG 22 mile run.  I was planning on running at a normal pace, hopefully under 8 minute pace - feels fast to me. 

Does anyone else run really fast when they are mad about something?  I was feeling quite frustrated with something that happened the past week, and I think I needed this long run to help myself feel better.  Seriously, I will never pay money to see a therapist in my life because the long run is all the therapy I needed.  The more I can take my anger out on the pavement and tire myself out, the happier I feel and the smaller my problems seem.  To sum it up, the first half of my run was done at 7:54 pace and the last half was done at 7:32 pace.  It felt AMAZING to run that fast for my longest run and not crash at the end.  I felt pretty spectacular, especially since my anger had gone away after I finish my run.

The birthday weekend was very fun.  I have pictures to put up, but not with me...I am at the Panera in Tarentum waiting to go to a work event this evening.  Saturday, I was pretty wiped out from the rest of my run.  I met my dad for coffee at Borders, then spent the day doing laundry.  woohoo.  That night, Jordan and I got takeout and watched a movie so I could rest my legs.  The birthday morning was spent in the best way possible: running with Penny and Jordan at North Park.  It was an interval workout for them, since 7 miles would be a little long for them both and they needed walk breaks.  My legs were heavy!  We had a delicious Panera breakfast and went up to the mall to make some birthday gift exchanges.  Jordan got me some really cute clothes and a Pandora charm for my birthday, sadly, some of the clothing did not fit right.  The rest of the day we spent at his mom's house celebrating both my birthday and his brother Alex's birthday.  They had tons of delicious food (as usual!) and made some excellent drinks.  I had a great time!  On the way home, we stopped and visited with my parents and I got more clothes and some new candles.  YES!  We went home to cuddle with our corg, the perfect way to end the birthday weekend. 

Monday was back to reality!  I ran 6 miles at 8:32 pace in the AM around home, in the dark.  Tuesday came and I lifted in the morning and did a 12 mile workout that afternoon.  It was tough.  I had 8 5.5 minute repeats at tempo (6:44) with 30 seconds rest.  Does anyone know how short 30 seconds rest is???  It was a good workout.  My splits were between 6:38 pace and 6:46 pace so I was happy and relieved that it went ok.  I immediatly chugged some chocolate milk and drove to my hair appointment, wearing spandex.  I know I am odd.

This morning I did an easy 5 miles on the treadmill while watching Desperate Housewives.  I was extremely sore!  Hopefully I will be ready for the hills tomorrow. 

I might buy the vibram five fingers with some birthday money....still thinking about it!

Fun But Germy Weekend

Friday night, I set my alarm fully planning on waking up and running an 18 mile workout with my running buddy Kate.  What I didn't plan on was falling asleep sitting upright at 8:15 that night and waking up sweating and chilled.  I thought it was too good to be true that I haven't yet caught the bug sweeping through my classroom and I was right.  Saturday morning I did not feel much better.  I met Kate at North Park and was disappointed to see I was very lightheaded and weak running, not to mention it kinda hurt to breathe.  I made the decision to only run 7.5 with her, and to try my long run Sunday if I felt any better.  It was disappointing NOT to do a long run with her because she is only home so often from  school and the time flies by when I am running with her!

The rest of the day I felt miserable.  I was so tired and had a hard time getting enough energy to do things around the house. 

Penny laying in bed with me

I picked myself out of the bed and Jordan and I picked up my two brothers to go down to the waterfront.  We ate at Uno's and I had a very good multigrain pizza with hummus, spinach, feta, and vegetables.  I was impressed this was on the menu!  The boys had the monsterously thick peperoni deep dish pizza.  I had a bite of Jordan's and it was so good but very filling.  We went over to Dave and Buster's and played some games.  I am a fan of the ski ball :).

Brothers eating a 6 inch tall pizza

Jordan and I

By the end of the night, I was pretty tired.  I felt okay out, but again, felt tired all night.  Sunday morning I made the decision to try and run, but I ruled out the 18miler.  I guess it's kind of ridiculous anyways, since I ran a 20 mile race last weekend.  I ended up running an 8 miler with my Dad and Penny.  I was glad I did since I feel miserable when I don't run, and didn't want to be cranky all day.

That night, I cooked Chicken Parmesan for my family.  I am quite proud of how it turned out; pounding the chicken before cooking it really made it better.  We had pasta, caesar salad, bread, and cheesecake with berries for dessert.  The coffee was good, too: chocolate cinnamon swirl. I wish I had ran 18 miles that morning, I would be able to fit more food in my belly.

Family Photo

Chicken Parm, Pasta, Caesar Salad

Cheesecake and Berries

Very tired after the festivities

Today, I made the sad deicison to take a day off from running.  Teaching at school today, I felt pretty lightheaded whenever I was standing and teaching, and felt letargic and run down in general.  I hate not meeting my mileage goal for the week, but I guess my training has been going well and I obviously am not kicking this cold while I continue to run.  I'm hoping tomorrow I wake up feeling great and I can run the rest of the week as follows:

Tuesday: Am lifting, PM 8 with Kate
Wed: 12 mile w/o
Thursday: AM Lift, 10 miles
Friday: Easy 6
Saturday: 10 mile March Mad Dash, 15 miles total
Sunday: 10 miles

56 miles total, which is actually what I should be running this week (80% of peak mileage)

Any advice on staying healthy while being able to hug my 18 little students?  I am thinking about taking Zinc or Airborne.

End of Week 6 Training

Remember how it was sunny and in the sixties Thursday and Friday? Well, it is snowing right now! I guess it was too good to be true that winter was over already and the track was finally cleared! Oh well we have survived this much of Winter already.

I was looking forward to waking up and running Saturday morning because Friday night, I got these new shoes at Dunhams.



I get Asics every time I buy myself running shoes. My last (approximately) 24 pairs of shoes have been Asics. Sometimes I vary the model I get, but they are ALWAYS Asics. My scientific reasoning for choosing them is because the feel very 'springy' to me. What is kind of ridiculous is that Friday I discovered that a size 7.5 fits SO MUCH BETTER than a size 8 does. I have very long, skinny feet (they are not my best feature) and sometimes I would notice my feet slipping if I wore thinner socks. It's kind of embarrassing it took 24 pairs of shoes to figure out that it was because I was wearing the wrong size.

Although Saturday was chilly, the sun was shining and from running in Pittsburgh all winter, 30 degrees really isn't that horrible. North Park was filled with lots of runners at 8:30am, and I guessed a lot of people were training for the Pittsburgh half/full marathon, since many of them had hydration packs on. I really need to order a new one before it gets warm again, since my bad dog chewed on the caps of the bottles this fall...

My workout was a somewhat long run/tempo run rolled into one. I wanted to do a total of 15 miles, and needed to run 4x 10-12 minutes at tempo pace (at least 6:51/mile) with two little minutes of rest in between. I also need to mention that parts of this run would include running into the wind and trying to move but not really being able to. I wore spandex tights and a top with a vest on top, which was a little large for me. When I was running into the wind, the vest would blow out to the sides and I felt a little like a hot pink kite.

I started the first four miles too fast for a warm-up, but I blame the sun and wearing 'springy' new shoes. I averaged 7:52 pace, when I should really be running closer to 8:30. I decided to do my tempo segments near the boathouse area, where part of the run would be sheltered from the wind. Sometimes that was true, but there were definitely times when I felt like the pink kite.

Splits for each 10 minute segment (I decided on just doing ten minute segments when I became annoyed with the wind):

1.46 miles @ 6:50 pace
1.48 miles @ 6:45
1.48 miles @ 6:45
1.50 miles @ 6:40

During the first repeat, I was very negative and hard on myself for having to exert more effort than I wanted to reach my pace goal. Knowing that I planned on writing about the workout here afterwards really motivated me to keep going, because it would definitely be more embarrassing to write that I gave up completely on the workout than writing that I wasn't able to get the times I wanted, but pushed through the workout. The last four miles I ran at about 8:20 pace and was so tired! I did some yoga/abs when I got home to help reduce soreness.

Running this morning, I could tell that the yoga helped my muscles recover from Saturday's hard run. My dad and I ran at the North Allegheny Intermediate track. It was so nice to run on a clear track, I cannot remember the last time I did so. We both felt good this morning and the run went by very fast, especially considering that I never really picture 10 miles as a short run.

I am pretty pleased with how week 6 training went. I ran all planned workouts, all planned miles (my peak - 70) and lifted twice. I even decided to be an overachiever and do a little bit of yoga. I remember reaching my peak mileage in college and feeling very worn down the whole time. I'm so glad that is not the case.

Parent-teacher conferences are this week, the 2o mile Spring Thaw race is Saturday, making this an ideal cut-down week. I'm a little sad that I have to take a day off of running this week, so that I don't go over my assigned miles....maybe I will do something like biking or spinning instead. This week:
Monday: AM lifting, PM 4 x 1 mile repeats (can't do anymore repeats, or else it will be too many miles)
Tuesday: AM 5 miles easy
Wednesday: AM lifting, maybe some cardio, too
Thursday: AM 5 miles, strides
Friday: AM 4 miles EASY!
Saturday: 20 mile race! Spring Thaw @ 10am
Sunday: Easy run! about 5 miles.

Packing our whole week's of lunches this afternoon while Penny supervised.


I started this method a couple weeks ago, when I decided Jordan should pack his lunch and that I hated packing one for myself every night. Sunday afternoons, I pack enough sandwiches/wraps for both of us the whole week, along with cottage cheese, a fruit, veggie and power bar for after school for me. I am a fan of our new system!