RunningMoms' Blogs

Oh the dreaded long run of the week...  This weekend I did mine bright and early Saturday morning, meeting my fellow runners at 8:00 a.m.  I proceeded to get in 6.5 miles, the most I've ran in nearly nine or so months.  It wasn't pretty near the end, but we did it.  We ran the short side of Calhoun, up and around Lake Harriet and then back around the rest of Calhoun before walking back to Whole Foods for our cool down.

The month of August is nuts for me, but with T-minus two months and one day until the 10 mile, I'm putting running times on my calendar to make sure they happen.  With a trip to Michigan this weekend, Catholic marriage retreat next weekend, and a trip to D.C. over Labor Day ahead, I've got to stay committed.

My half marathon went way better than expected today.  Yesterday I was so worried  about not being able to finish in a certain time.  But I can tell you I finished my race in 2:20 -- and that includes a potty break which I'm now kicking myself for.  That ends up being around 10:40 minute miles.

So if I wouldn't have stopped for what I believe was a 2-3 minute potty break...I may very well have finished in a better time than the Minneapolis Half back in May!  Ugh...Not only that I could have avoided nearly falling into said Biffy (because the back, or toilet side, was going downhill), ripping my number as I  "prepared" to go potty, and ultimately dropping my much-needed chapstick onto the floor of the port-a-potty (fell out of my pocket-- no I would never dare to try to put chapstick on in a Biffy...ew.).

Ah...long time no talk!

It's been a busy time. The last you heard from me I had just had a great half marathon. The Minneapolis Marathon was my first ever. Now in less than 12 hours I will be finishing my second half marathon.

I'm going to run in the Urban Wildland Half Marathon in Richfield, MN. I'm pretty nervous about this one because I don't have the support system I had with the Minneapolis Half Marathon. I ran with 4 friends from high school and my hubby in the half. Fellow RunningMoms Kristy Powell and Dani (my sister-in-law) and my father-in-law both did the full marathon. Plus my kids and my mother-in-law were along the route. This time my support will be a radio podcast and music for the first hour. My hubby and the girls will meet me, hopefully, at mile 7 and then maybe one more time before catching me at the end.

As training ramps up for the TC 10, it's now time to hit the long runs.  As Amy mentioned previously on the site, within the last year I had a stress fracture in my right foot from ramping up my mileage too fast while training for the frozen half marathon last winter.  Now, training for the TC 10, I'm being extra careful to take rest days, and not over do it, so I don't end up in a walking boot again and on a no exercise regiment for five weeks.  That no exercise regiment didn't seem to affect my waist line, what it did affect was how toned I was.  I remember going to try on jeans after about four weeks of no exercise and yelling from the dressing room, "I lost my @$$, it's gone!" and it was!  Those weeks without toning my legs had really done a number (don't worry, my rear assets are back now. ;)

As I said in my previous post, last week I did the Torchlight run on Wednesday.  Therefore, I took my usual Thursday run day and turned it into a walk around Lake Calhoun as not to push things.   This weekend I was also in Kansas City for my brother's wedding, and luckily stayed in a hotel with a great workout room where I took the time to run two miles on the treadmill, it felt great and gave me more energy for the big day.  I highly recommend starting your day off with exercise while on vacation, even if it's just a quick 20 minutes.  

Running the Torchlight 5K tonight before the Aquatennial Parade in downtown Minneapolis and I'm super excited!  This was my first race last year, and I was near the waaaaaay end of the pack.  Hoping to do better this year.  I'm not running it with my usual 10 mile training gals, but instead my college roommate Sam.  She's much faster than me, however, and I've given her permission to leave me in the dust and meet me at the finish line, I'll have my i-pod along for company. 

If you have never done this race, it's a huge mess.  Poorly organized by Lifetime Fitness, the "free" beer line at the end takes about an hour, and last year the water at the finish line was warm and nasty.  BUT, running down the middle of Hennepin Avenue is something one doesn't get to experience very often, if ever, without risking their own safety, so it's completely worth it!  Plus, it's finally a nice day out, Viva Summer!

This weekend my running gals and I ran 3.1 miles around Lake Calhoun on a beautiful Sunday evening. What a great way to wrap up the weekend. Sunday's are our long run days, and this early in our training, 3.1 is our long distance. Tonight we will be focusing on hills and running the hills over by Lake of the Isles.

Besides running, I also have a trainer that meet with at Snap Fitness about two-three times a month. She knows my running regiment and helps me stay on track with building muscle and staying toned as well. I try to do my programs from her once a week on my own besides our normal meetings. I also enjoy yoga, but have been depriving myself of this relaxation lately. I've found that a yoga class the day after a long run can do amazing things for my muscles and my mind.

Last night I met my trusty running gals at the RR in start of our 10 Mile Journey. We even had a new member to our little group, Anne, who works with my fellow runner Jen. All of us were accepted to the TC 10 through the lottery and feel really lucky. Last night, we listened to the shpeal from the new RR 10 Mile Instructor and made a group decision, "We can train on our own this year!" We have decided we will work on our own, and not run with the RR, something that scares me a bit, but I know these gals are just as committed as I am.

We headed out last night for a good little run around Lake of the Isles. 2.7 miles respectively. We run in the RR style of five minutes running, followed by one minute walking. It was a good run, but I had a bit of a side ache, I think I didn't eat enough in the few hours before running, my stomach was growling, and that caused the pain. It's time like these I'm glad I run with a group who can keep me motivated through the pain; if I had been out on my own I would have surely stopped a turned around. But we did it, in good time (for us) 34 minutes roughly.

Today it begins, training for the Twin Cities 10 mile race through the Running Room (RR) in Uptown. First things first, about 18 months ago I would have never dreamed of training for this race. It all started when I joined "Team Fitness" at Lifetime Fitness (LTF) to get a workout schedule and try to become more fit. Then, it spiraled into me joining the "Learn to Run" class at the RR, thanks to some prodding from my former co-worker Kearn Kirkwood.

Anyway, enough about all that. Let's just say, I never envisioned myself as a runner being that I was a slow, asthmatic kid; but now, when people ask me, " Are you a runner?," I proudly reply, "Yes I am!"

Still here, yep I am!I finally bought THE dress for the wedding. No details can be posted - Thom can't know about it, so you'll have to wait until post wedding to see those pics! For those that don't know - the wedding is a destination wedding in Miami, FL. We are boarding a cruise ship with our immediate families and that's about it. We are keeping it small and simple and we are focussing on the marriage - sounds cheesy, right? Well, it's true though that we want to be stress free and just enjoy the beginning of our lives together. Don't worry - we'll still have a party to celebrate! We'll do that in Minneapolis next summer some time. Invites will come out eventually.Besides wedding stuff, I've been working on the kitchen and with mom and dad's help this past week while they visited, we made some awesome changes in the Living Room and Dining areas! We have yet to get the table top (backordered at Ikea), but when

Nearly 4 weeks post marathon and I haven't written...wow am I slacking?!I've been incredibly busy lately trying to get some things finalized for the wedding, train for the Border to Border race, and do some home improvements. It has been great that rink bandy has started up for the summer too on both the Women's team and the Men's team that I play for, so I'm getting on the ice two times a week on average now...and of course, I am truly enjoying every moment of that!Just a quick recap of what we have been up to - the weekend after the marathon, I did some dress shopping and we went to Thom's nephew's graduation party which was a cool experience - it was at a park which was a mile from our house and I never knew it was there. I have since been back to run the trails in the park! After that it was a weekend with the Wynns at the quarterly family party, which was a nice relaxing weekend in Wisconsin at Thom's