Training Day (3: The Mini-Vacation)

Aloha!

Welcome to training day, where I share how my training is going and become incredibly concerned with my ability to run 13.1 miles in just under a month. KIDDING! Sort of?

Thursday: I ran 3 miles on the treadmill during my lunch break- there isn’t much to say about it except it seemed like it took forever. My brain is so fried from work this week I can’t even remember why I had to do it on the treadmill vs going outside. Regardless I finished the 3 miles and only did a few walking minutes to break up the time.

Friday: My long run of 4 miles was supposed to be Sunday but I knew I would be on a mini-vacation in Stowe so I decided to do the 4 miles in the morning before we made the trip down there.  The 4 felt solid, well 3 felt good and the last one was definitely a struggle but I completed it.  I did not pace myself well for the first 2 at all, similar to the way a dog freaks out when it runs by people, I freak out as well and tend to speed up. When I figure out how to stop doing this I will be MUCH better off.

Then we checked in for our long weekend at Top Notch and all I can say is, damn!

 

Saturday: Planned rest day so no real exercise, oh unless you count a family reunion with 150 of your favorite people. Do you understand how many people you have to hug?? It’s ridiculous really. We played a 3 hour family softball game and I was more tired after that even than any race I’ve ever run.

We roll deep.

One of our more random family traditions is bobbing for apples.  Seems normal enough however you bob for an apple, drop said apple and then dip your soaking wet face into a bin full of flour to “bob” for hidden poker chips.  I literally have no idea how this started- but of course I will keep it going.  Above is my older sister having a mini-meltdown trying to get the apple, I wish that were the hardest part of this whole thing!

This is adorable baby Joshua, he’s the youngest of the bunch at 10 days old.

Fun fact: In our family we all have numbers, you get a number from either the day you were born or the day you married into the family. We start with my Grandmother and Grandfather as 1 and 2 and go down the list.  Just to give you some context my dad is the 11th kid so he is #13.  My sister Katie is #52, I am #82 and my little sister Meghan is #98. Joshua above is rocking #213- no joke there are 213 of us.

A family that bounces together, stays together.

Love these humans 🙂

This is my brother’s foot. That has got to be the worst sock tan you’ve ever seen right???

Anyway, back to training…

Sunday: Rest day/had already completed my long run on Friday. We were still in Stowe and went to an amazing concert that night, more on that later though.

Monday: Easy 3 miles.  I had just enough time after we got back to Burlington and before work to run a quick out and back on the bike path.  I decided I would go further out on the bike path so that I could just walk casually back up the hill when I had hit 3.  I was in no mood for hills that day!

Tuesday: Rest day.

Wednesday: I did a spin class at lunch but did not run.  I’m still happy that I got a workout in though!

So there you have it, week 3 in the books. I literally need a vacation from my long weekend vacation but it was definitely worth it.  The next two weeks I have virtually nothing going on so I promise to make these posts much more interesting and running oriented, my bad!

Do you come from a big family?

Have you ever seen a worse sock tan???

How is your training going?

Training Day (2: Two down, 13 to go)

First post of the week and it’s already Thursday, oops!

This week’s training was fairly easy as I had set it up to be. I was much more concerned with sticking to a plan than my mileage/pace times and fortunately it worked out.

Thursday: Rest day (I did play pinball so that was obviously high impact)

Friday: Unintentional rest day, it was supposed to be 2 miles but I had to work both jobs on Friday so I decided I would be happier if I pushed it back to Saturday.

Saturday: Hit the pavement for 2 miles to get the legs moving, the run went well and I did it in 22:15 which I was just fine with! Post-run I stopped at another place on my “Indie Coffee Passport” called Barrio Bakery and fell in love with it.  My dream life would involve me waking up early for work and spend an hour just hanging out over there before my real day starts, it is such an adorable little North End coffee shop!

Sunday: I ran 2.5 miles and shaved off a few minutes on the day before which felt great. I also got a manicure with my lovely mother which was basically the best way to spend a Sunday ever…

 I’m an almost exclusively red nail kinda girl.

Monday: 14 hour day… no way was I putting on the running shoes.

Tuesday: I ran 2 miles during my lunch break at work, I normally do the same loop when I’m at work right along the bike path but I switched it up and incorporated a few neighborhoods with some hills and they were tough! Necessary but tough! The weather has been cooling off a bit around here and it makes it that much easier to get out for a run.

Then our softball team suffered our first loss of the season (in the last regular season game- go figure) but we still had a blast!

Sliding is not recommended on this field… hence the bloody towel.

Wednesday: I was supposed to run another 2.5 miles yesterday but I tweaked my knee a bit in one of the softball games and it just didn’t feel right.  Instead of running Zach and I went fishing and I ate a bag of gummy bears, because what’s fishing without snacks??

I am happy to report that the knee feels great today and I’m glad I didn’t push it yesterday!

Overall I was supposed to hit 9 miles total for the week and came in at 6.5.  It doesn’t seem like much but I almost stuck to my plan so I think it was a success.

This week is when it starts to get into real mileage and try to be more mindful of the times.  I’m not exactly a time snob (something I have accepted by being pretty slow) but I do like to push myself and I’d love to get a little faster of course!  That’s all for this week’s training day, stay tuned for next Thursday’s update 🙂

What is your go to nail color?

Do you have a favorite bakery/coffee shop?

How important is your mile time to you?

Training Day (1: The Sign Up)

Yesterday I spent almost the entire day in bed. I can’t remember the last time I felt that sick/tired and I know it was entirely self-induced by how busy I’ve been keeping myself.  It was a pretty big wake-up call for me to slow down and be more respectful of how I’m feeling and what I’m taking on.  With that said I took a hard look at my schedule and saw that I have plenty of time for me in the coming month.  My favorite things to do when I get some down time are to catch up on sleep (duh!) and running regularly on a schedule.  What better way to run on a schedule than to sign up for a race?

So I will be signing up for the Maple Leaf Half Marathon in Manchester, VT on September 6th! I know what you are thinking, 6 weeks is not exactly an appropriate training period but in the last two weeks I’ve run much more frequently and have even gotten up to 6 miles a few times so I feel very confident.

I was on the fence about this race knowing that the 2.5 hour trip there would mean I’d have to stay over night the prior to the race #brokeproblems but thankfully (and selfishly) a friend of mine accepted her first teaching job in Bennington so now I have enough of an in to sign up!  I’ve never really spent much time in southern VT so I’m excited to get down there and see what it’s all about!

I thought I’d share three things that I do before almost every run…

1) Brush my teeth. Weird? Probably. Regardless of how long ago I ate anything I cannot get myself motivated to head out on a run with any taste in my mouth other than the minty freshness of toothpaste.  If I’m in a pinch (as in have forgotten my stolen hotel travel-sized toothbrush/toothpaste) I will substitute gum but it doesn’t do the trick as nicely.

2) Create a killer playlist on Spotify and name it “Ballin” cause I am not cool.  As I mentioned in my LP Half recap I am a music runner, I wish I was able to run without it but so far no dice.  My playlist is incredibly random and scattered like my personality and I love it that way!

Side note: one of the reasons I miss living in Knoxvegas is because I miss the Atlanta hip-hop influence on the radio/at bars.  I’m probably one of the only people in Burlington that can successfully do the “Wop” and rap all the lyrics to “Racks” by YC.

*If you know anyone in VT that can do either of these things, I want to meet them!*

3) Plan it out! I’m an avid MapMyRun user both prior to a run and during.  I will almost never lace up my sneakers without knowing exactly where I’m going be running to, it helps me mentally prepare.  In contrast, I will almost never look at a course map (unless there are known hill sections) for any race that I run. Probably not the best plan of attack but I just don’t like knowing.

I am so excited to be running in this race! I will definitely keep you posted on the training 🙂

Do you have any pre-run habits? Any weird ones?

What kind of music do you like to listen to while running?

And for my first trick… A Race Recap!

Aloha People! (Or person… I don’t really know how this is going to go)
I had a tough time deciding if I wanted to do a race recap as my first post- in theory it would have been last week when the race actually occurred but then life got in the way. Oh well, here it goes!

On Sunday June 8th I ran in the Lake Placid Half Marathon in the beautiful Adirondack mountains of upstate New York. I was so excited to do this race because I hadn’t completed a half marathon in over 5 years and this one would be extra special as my Nana’s front porch is literally situated directly on the route. Built in fans, that is how I like to roll!

“Training”

 I had completed a few 6 mile runs and one 8 mile run prior to race day, not exactly what I was hoping for but I decided that those had gone over well and that I would manage. I also purchased new Puma gear for the race so I just assumed that would add 5 miles right there.    That is how that works right?

The Day Before:

 I was super lucky to have my little sister make the trip with me to Lake Placid. We arrived Saturday afternoon and headed right to the Convention Center for race packet pick up. I filled out all the forms, stared down the competition and purchased an incredibly overpriced 13.1 sticker… because I needed it. After that I had a great pre-race meal and got to bed super early.   I was going to fake this til I made it!

Race Packet Pick Up!

Pre-Race:

 My lovely Nana was sitting in the kitchen when I bumbled down the stairs at 6 in the morning for my FAVORITE pre-race meal of an English muffin with peanut butter and bananas on top. Literally I have never eaten anything else the mornings of races, it’s my comfort run food. Outside the kitchen window I watched a man clearly doing a warm up run at which point my Nana said “Well he’s not going very fast” and I explained to her that if I could run as fast as he was “not”, I would be elated.

The Start:

I have no idea why I’m lifting my shirt so oddly.

 After having a casual photo shoot in the gas station parking lot (see above) my sister dropped me off to begin the race. The starting line was placed right in the middle of town and I thought the announcers did an excellent job of organizing everyone. They also warned of the dreaded black flies who had taken over Lake Placid in recent weeks and would no doubt make an appearance on all of us. 5 minutes to race time a gentleman who was giving us a “pep talk” over the loudspeaker popped the question to his lady friend AND she said yes so props to you sir!

I started my perfectly organized playlist appropriately titled “Ballin” and was off!

The Race:

I started out slowly but maintained a 10 minute average pace through the first 3 miles.
Just after mile 3 I passed by the same window I ate breakfast in hours before and got a good laugh over the poster my sister had made for me which you will see below!

At mile 4 I realized that the couple wearing bright orange shirts, were not stopping to rest at each mile marker but instead stopping to do cross fit moves! During the half marathon?!?! Other runners noticed too and everyone was taking tons of pictures of them, I don’t know who you crazy kids are but DAMN.

At mile 5 “Borderline” by Madonna began playing and I’m pretty sure I laughed through the entire song thinking about how much my boyfriend LOVES that freaking song!

At mile 6 I started hitting some hills and decided to try out the 60 second rule I had just read about. Once I hit the mile marker I walked for 60 seconds and then continued on running the rest of the mile until 7 and then repeated the 60 seconds of walking. I did this for the rest of the race and it really helped mentally get me to break the race down into one mile at a time. In past races I have definitely tried to overdo it and ended up costing me quite a bit of time and more importantly unnecessary effort.

Everything was going great through to turn around at mile 7.5 and right through mile 10. Mile 11 had one fairly nasty hill, mile 12 I passed by my Nana’s house again feeling MUCH more exhausted but still going. Halfway through mile 12 was when a massive hill hit and I definitely struggled. I still felt oddly strong and I knew that I was going to finish but that last bit was tough I am not going to lie.

The finish:

I came into the oval following behind an older gentleman who’s grandson had run out on to the course to finish with his Grandpa… Cue the waterworks because I’m already an emotional monster. I held it together and crossed at 2 hours and 37 minutes with my amazing sister Meghan and cousin DJ standing right at the finish line. I felt like a rockstar who could no longer feel her legs. It was awesome!

Lake Placid Half Marathon Finisher!

For those of you who don’t know me, my celebrity crush (like of all celebrities ever) is Rory McIlroy so this sign could not have fit me any more perfectly!

Best Poster Ever!

Overall:

The race organizers did a great job, from announcers to volunteers everyone I crossed paths with were so nice. I made sure to say thank you to everyone who would listen for cheering us on and spending the hot day out there supporting people. The course was beautiful, I mean when you have the opportunity to run in such a historic little town and see some of the most incredible views you have no choice but to feel lucky. It was so cool to finish directly in front of the high school my mom graduated from. It was absolutely heartwarming to have family there to be able to share my accomplishment with.

Favorite little sister on the planet!

Thanks for reading my rambles ❤