Winter Running

I just got done running 5 snowy miles outside, and it felt great!  It was about 15 degrees with very little wind.  I have to say, as much as I have been enjoying watching season 5 of Breaking Bad on my treadmill, it felt good to finally get outside again.  We had a long streak of sub-zero days and I have been spending every free minute either Christmas shopping or finishing up my last MBA class.  I'm happy to say that I have completed my MBA coursework and the last gifts are wrapped and under the tree!
So far, the longest run I did since the Monster Dash was 8 miles.  I'm hoping to do 10 miles tomorrow and then just hope for good Polar Dash weather on January 1!
Merry Christmas!!!!

Run for a Reason 5k

Running BFFs!

On Thanksgiving morning I ran a small 5k in my hometown for charity with my running BFF Jackie!  It was so fun to run with her again since she hasn't been running much lately due to the bun in her oven for the past 20 weeks or so :)  That girl did great and ran the whole thing…she thought she would have to stop and take walk breaks but we didn't stop once!  It was a nice recovery run for me since I ran 8 hilly miles the day before:

My new Garmin Forerunner 220, isn't it pretty?!

I'm trying for a running streak through the holidays, and so far I have run every day since November 18th!  Most of the time it is on the treadmill after the girls are in bed, but I try to run outside at least 3 times a week.  I love winter running!  If only there were more hours of daylight.

Monster Dash Half Marathon Race Recap

I finally had a great half marathon!  I felt strong just about the whole race and never needed to take a walking break (well maybe once for less than a minute on that one hill toward the end that seemed giant…).  I achieved my goal of under 2:30, with an official time of 2:29:26.

It was the perfect weather for running, in the low 40s and a nice sunny day.  Anna ran with me the whole way, and we both felt like the miles just flew by so quickly!  It was really fun to run with her and get a PR!  During the race we talked about how we both want to run the Disney World Marathon someday, maybe 2015?  However, after we reached the finish line, I just couldn't quite imagine doing that distance twice in a row, so I guess I'm still undecided about running a full marathon.  

The last 2 miles were tough, but I was still able to finish relatively strong.  I did have some flashbacks to the Women Rock race because the last part of the course was the same as this race.  I remember how awful I felt during that race, and I'm so glad I got a chance to redeem myself!  Anna, Tasha and I all signed up for the whole monster series for 2014, so we will be doing the Polar Dash 14 mile, Get Lucky HM, Minneapolis HM, and the Monster Dash HM again next year.  I can't wait to work on my speed over the next year and just keep improving.  It's good to have some running buddies to race with, and I am very excited for my running BFF Jackie to have her baby next April so we can run another race together soon!

Twin Cities 10 Mile Race Recap

On Sunday I was lucky enough to run the Twin Cities 10 Mile "The Shortcut to the Capital"!  The race  shares the last 6.2 miles and the finish line with the Twin Cities Marathon, so it was fun to get the marathon experience without actually having to run 26.2 miles!  This race went SO MUCH BETTER for me than my half marathon just five weeks prior.  I was really nervous going into it, especially because was running alone so I had to navigate the start line and everything by myself.  However, everything went so smoothly and I felt great the whole time!  The weather was just perfect, around 50 degrees with the sun coming up just as we started running.

The course was beautiful and it almost made me consider signing up for the full marathon next year.  I'm still not sure I want to do a marathon but it sure was inspiring to run past those mile markers 20-26! The last mile is the best because it's all downhill and you can see the finish line in the distance!

ok, not the greatest picture but this is when I got my first glimpse of the finish line...you can see the capital and the giant American flag is where the finish was

I didn't eat breakfast before the race, instead I just had UCAN protein powder about 30 minutes before the start of the race.  That ended up being a great strategy and I felt good for the whole 10 miles without feeling like I needed any fuel.  I sipped Nuun electrolytes a few times that I had brought with me on my water belt, and stopped at just two water stops.  I really hope to repeat this strategy successfully for the Monster Dash coming up on October 26!

When I got to the finish line, I was surprised to hear someone yelling my name; it was my mom and her friend Linda who had come down to cheer for me at the finish and give me a ride back to my car!  I was so happy that my mom got this great picture of me finishing:

I was really happy with my results; 1:51:48 almost a full hour faster than the half marathon!  This race gave me my confidence back and I know that the sub 2:30 half is definitely doable for me in a few weeks.

5k PR!

Last Saturday I set a 5k PR of 28:17!  Not only that, but I was also the 3rd female finisher in the race!  Ok, so the race was only 40 people at my work family picnic, but it felt good to set a PR in front of my coworkers and family!  My mom even captured the glorious moment:

And here I am up on the podium for the first time ever:

3rd place!

I was most happy about taking almost 7 whole minutes off of my time from this same race last year, when I finished in 35:00.  I can't wait to improve even more for next year!

Women Rock Half Marathon - Race Recap

Jackie's awesome sign (the other side said "Run, Bitches")

I wrote a draft of this post just a few days after the race.  I was waiting to get the pictures back from the finish line before I published it!  So almost two weeks later...

My first half marathon was a humbling experience!  Needless to say, I did not meet my time goal of 2:30, a pace which felt comfortable for me during training.  My official time was 2:50:11, and here are my splits:

1. 10:43
2. 11:03
3. 11:13
4. 11:17
5. 11:48
6. 11:47
7. 13:02
8. 18:11
9. 12:32
10. 12:31
11. 15:40
12. 16:28
13. 12:37

I had to manually type those out because my Garmin refuses to sync with my computer.  Also, I forgot to stop my watch when I crossed the finish line so it shows like 8 minutes for that last .1 mile.

As you can see, the first 6 miles felt great.  My mom and I were sticking to our plan of walking for one minute at each mile marker.  We still managed to stay close to the 2:30 pace group using that strategy for the first half of the race.  Around mile 5, I ate my first Gu (I brought 3 with me for the race and I had planned on eating one every 45 minutes or so).  Around mile 6 I started to feel a little lightheaded and tingly, which I had experienced before during training but I tried to stay positive and keep my pace up.  I was drinking water at every water station, and dumping water over my head to stay cool (even though it wasn't that hot yet).

Excited at the starting line

At mile 7, things suddenly took a turn for the worse.  My stomach just cramped up and I felt super nauseous.  I thought I was going to throw up, so our one minute walk turned into a one-mile walk, to the 8 mile marker.  My mom was talking me through it, but later she said I looked really pale and shaky.  I felt dizzy and lightheaded and my stomach was churning.  Thinking back to the training runs where I felt this bad, I had always been using Gu as my fuel.  I don't think I will be using it anymore, because it seems to have a bad effect on me.  Just drinking U Can seems to work best, but the effects of the U Can seemed to be cancelled out when I used Gu later on.  I wish I had figured all this out prior to the race so I could have had time to come up with a different nutrition strategy!
  For the last five miles, I tried to run as much as I could, but I felt very defeated as the 2:30 pacer got farther and farther ahead of us, until we couldn't see her anymore.  Tons of people were passing us and we did a lot of walking.  Finally, we reached mile 12 and the top of a long hill, and I could see that we were actually going to finish the race.  I spotted Jackie up ahead and we ran up to her and hugged her.  She was waiting for us 1/2 mile from the finish line, and she hopped on the course to run us in!  I have never been happier than when we all crossed that finish line together!

Do I really want to pay $25 for the digital file...probably

After we were done, it took me a good 20 minutes to feel like I could stand up and walk to the post-race party and then back to our hotel without vomiting.  Drinking some disgusting banana-flavored Muscle Milk actually seemed to help.  To get back to our hotel we had to go back up all these stairs from the river, which seemed like the worst sort of cruel and unusual punishment:

Before the race (going down was so much easier)!

During the last several miles of my first half marathon, I was wondering to myself why I had decided the night before to sign up for the Monster Dash half marathon (only 8 weeks away)!  However, a few days later, I am looking forward to my second half marathon, and I hope I can take what I learned from this race and get a much better time!  My legs were only slightly sore the two days after the race, and the only other negative effect was a lot of chafing from my bra.
 The Women Rock race was really fun and the course was nice and well-supported, with lots of spectators.  I had fun staying in St. Paul the night before, hitting up the race expo, and having dinner with my friends.  Although I am disappointed with my time, I am happy to have completed my first half marathon!  I know my legs and lungs are strong enough to carry me for 13.1 miles, and if I can just figure out a better way to fuel, I know I will be able to improve next time!

With a shirtless firefighter at the race expo Friday night!

Me and Anna before the race

21 Day Detox

I am on my third day of a 21 day detox program from my trainer...nothing too crazy, but I have to eliminate gluten, dairy, soy, caffeine, alcohol and refined sugar from my diet.  I also get to take these lovely supplements all day long:

So far it's going okay except that I am missing my coffee.  I am not experiencing any headaches or anything so that's good, but I am pretty tired.  Supposedly around day 4-5 I should turn a corner and start feeling GREAT, so let's hope that is the case!

My half marathon training is going pretty well!  I had such an awesome 10 mile run on Sunday evening:

I don't have my splits since I didn't even wear my Garmin.  Ever since I started using Nike+ I usually just leave the Garmin at home.  Anyway, this was my second attempt at 10 miles, since my first attempt two weeks prior was pretty awful.  In that run, I walked the majority of the last 2-3 miles, and I felt like I was going to die the whole time.  My average pace was 12'36".  After that run I was feeling defeated, and worried about the race.  I completely skipped my long run the following weekend (I had a wedding and friends from out of town = too much drinking, not enough sleep, zero running).  So needless to say, my confidence is back up after this more recent 10 miler!  The next four weekends look like this: 11, 12, taper, 13.1!!!!!!!!

Barefoot Running

Last week Christian Peterson (also known as The Maple Grove Barefoot Guy) did a presentation at my work.  It was pretty interesting to learn a little about barefoot running and proper running form.  I know I typically have a heel-strike when I run, but I have no interest in actually running barefoot like this guy.  However, I am interested in improving my running form, if for no other reason than to save some wear and tear on my knees and other joints, so I decided to try some minimal shoes.  I got a pair of these babies:

So far I have just run a couple of 5k's in them, but they are pretty nice!  I can definitely tell they force me to avoid striking with my heel.  I also wore them for weight training last night and they were very comfortable for that too!

Unfortunately, I can not write a race recap of the Torchlight because I was sick this year.  This was the second year in a row that I signed up for that race and was not able to run it for one reason or another.  I was actually so sick that I didn't run for 5 days in a row.  The last time I did that was in February!

But there was some good news this week...my friends and I will be running this on October 6:

Nike+ Running App

A few weeks ago when I was doing my 9 mile (!) long run, the battery on my Garmin watch died.  I was dumb for not charging it, and I knew it wasn't going to make it the whole time, so I decided to use the Nike+ Running App on my phone.  I was surprised at how accurate the GPS was on that thing!  It was showing the exact time/mileage as my watch (well, until my watch died anyway).  Since then I have used the app on the treadmill as well, and it was really accurate (I'm not sure how)?  Anyway, I really love using it now, and I have added a few friends too so we can compete to see who has been running the most.  So fun!

My 9 mile run went great, my plan of being careful with my nutrition and hydration before my run really paid off.  I bought a few different flavors of GU to try during my next long run, to see how that works for me.  After 8-9 miles I really need a little energy to keep me going!

This past week was a "step back" week as far as my long run.  Only 6 miles.  At first I was thinking maybe I would just go for 10 this week because I am so excited to get to say I ran 10 miles.  But the weather turned really hot and humid this past week, so I ended up being glad I only had to do 6 miles for my long run.  I made it into an "even" 10k and check out my pace, it was awesome!

This weekend I have 8 miles on the schedule before I ramp it up to double digits next weekend!  Maybe I will go for 10 this weekend, you never know!  Next Wednesday is the Torchlight 5k, which I am looking forward to.  Last year I signed up and got my shirt and everything, then I couldn't go due to a last minute switcheroo with my husband's work schedule.

This week I entered the lottery for the TC 10 mile race in October!  I really hope I get in!

Recipes: Rhubarb Cardamom Muffins and Kale Chips

I got my first CSA box of the summer, and of course there was a nice bunch of rhubarb.  The farmer gave me a recipe for rhubarb muffins, which I tweaked a little bit, and the results were delicious!

Rhubarb Cardamom Muffins

2 1/2 cups flour (I used half almond meal and half all-purpose flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 1/4 cup sour milk (add 1 tablespoon of vinegar to milk)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup margarine or oil (I used coconut oil)
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups finely diced rhubarb
I also added 1 tsp of cardamom to the muffin batter

Topping
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
I added another 1/2 tsp cardamom to the topping

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then stir in rhubarb
Beat wet ingredients
Add wet to dry and stir until just mixed
Pour batter into muffin tins (I greased mine with coconut oil)
Bake for 20-25 minutes

I actually used a mini muffin tin and it took about 12 minutes.

YUM!

There was also quite a nice bunch of kale in the box this week.  I don't think I have ever eaten kale, or at least I have not prepared it myself.  I decided to try making kale chips, which I have seen all over Pinterest and was super easy:

Kale Chips

1 bunch kale
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tsp sea salt

Wash the kale thoroughly and rip it into small pieces.  Rub olive oil all over the kale and sprinkle with sea salt.  Spread on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.  Eat the whole batch in five minutes (offer to your kids but they will probably refuse to try it).  Then go floss your teeth.

I guess these were pretty good, but I'm not raving about them like the rhubarb muffins.  Kale has a pretty strong taste but the crunchy chips were not bad.  Next time I might try with a bunch of garlic to mask the kale flavor give them a little more flavor :)

8 Mile Road

Well, I now have the first two "long runs" of half marathon training under my belt (7 and 8 miles).  My schedule has been pretty crazy so I have had to juggle the days around and everything hasn't been going exactly as planned, but I have still been getting *most* of my runs in during the week.  7 miles felt great, but my 8 miles this past weekend felt tough.  I think it has a lot to do with the 83% humidity on Saturday, but my pace was slower than normal for that run (over 12 minutes/mile for everything after the first two miles and the last mile where I couldn't wait to be done).
 

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace	Avg HR	Max HR
1	11:30.0	1	11:30	129	151
2	11:40.6	1	11:41	142	153
3	12:38.1	1	12:38	148	153
4	12:33.9	1	12:34	149	158
5	12:25.5	1	12:26	156	162
6	12:12.9	1	12:13	159	164
7	12:41.7	1	12:42	162	170
8	11:40.4	1	11:42	164	173
Summary	37:23.1	8	12:11	151	173

For the 9 miler coming up this weekend, I am going to pay extra attention to my nutrition and water intake the days leading up to the run, and I am going to rest my legs or do an easy run the day before (instead of doing tough intervals the day before my long run like I did this past weekend).  I have also found that having some fuel (this is what I have been using) right before any run over 5 miles really helps get me finish strong.  The past few weekends I have had a lot going on so it has been hard to find time to fit in my long run, but this weekend coming up I don't have any plans so I am going to really make sure the conditions are ideal to run 9 miles!  As long as the weather cooperates!

In other news, this girl turns 3 tomorrow:

Albertville Friendly City Days 5k

My running BFF Jackie and I ran a nice 5k on Saturday, pushing our kids in jogging strollers!  I was really proud of us for actually doing it.  Getting anywhere on time with little ones is so stressful, not to mention the stress of preparing for a race.  But we made it to the start line just in time, and finished in around 35 minutes, according to our Garmins.  (Side note, I just checked the race results and it has my "official" time listed as 33:52 and Jackie's as 34:59, which is way off because we pretty much crossed the finish line together).  As you can tell this was a small-town race LOL!  There were 280 finishers.  Here we are at the start of the race:

I love seeing the difference from last year!

The race started and finished at the middle school; Austin ran around that track like a crazy person:

After the race, we went over to the carnival and went on a few rides with the girls.  They loved the big slide.

On Sunday, I just ran 5 miles for a "long run".  I started my 12 week training plan this week for the half marathon, so my first official long run of training will be 7 miles on Sunday.  Unfortunately, my summer MBA classes also started this week so I have a lot to do between that and running five days a week.  So far, so good!

Half Marathon Training!

My first half marathon is officially 12 weeks from Saturday, so it's time to start my faithful training.  I'm hoping this blog will keep me accountable!  My weekly training schedule will look something like this:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 25 minutes intervals (4 minutes in HR zone 3 and 1 minute recovery in HR zone 1, repeat 5 times)
Wednesday: Repeat Tuesday intervals + strength train (most of the time I will be doing Anna's group race training at Lifetime)
Thursday: Base building 30-60 minutes (same pace as Sunday long runs)
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 18-24 minutes "peak" intervals (2 minutes in HR zone 4 and 1 minute recovery in HR zone 1, repeat 6-8 times)
Sunday: Long Run (HR zones 1 and 2, basically I will just be running these at a slow, comfortable pace)

Before my intervals I will do a 10 minute progressive warm-up and some stretching!  The distances for my long runs will hopefully look like this:

Week 1: 7 miles
Week 2: 8 miles
Week 3: 9 miles
Week 4: 6 miles
Week 5: 8 miles
Week 6: 10 miles
Week 7: 6 miles
Week 8: 11 miles
Week 9: 12 miles
Week 10: 6 miles
Week 11: 8 miles
Week 12: Half Marathon!

I pretty much made up this schedule just for me, but it's loosely based on Hal Higdon's training plans, and the heart rate training intervals are from my trainer Anna.  My longest run to date is just over 7 miles so I'm excited to build up to that half marathon distance over the summer!  This weekend I think I'm going to run a 5k race by my house with some friends and my girls in the jogging stroller!  Here they are in their stroller spectating last year at my very first race, the Maple Grove 5k: