I can do it!

After a very sick weekend battling strep throat, laryngitis, and a sinus infection, I got up this morning trying to decide whether to spend one more day sleeping it off, or actually get out of bed and do something.  Motivated by the extreme jump in my weight after a weekend of inactivity and stuffing my face with rich delicious foods and candy, I rounded up Elijah and Britnee and set out to do three miles of running.  After the first mile, both kids were feeling sick, so I went on alone.  Wow!  Eating hoardes of halloween candy right before bed must have given me extra energy, because I felt fabulous while running!  I decided to go ahead and make it five miles, which I did in 48:59.  Not a great time - my energy was good but my muscles felt tired and sore.  After my run, I remembered that I was supposed to meet some friends at the dance studio to practice some of our tapping, so I tapped for about 45 minutes.  Then, after some shoe shopping, I headed back home to do my P90X legs workout (minus the back) and ab-ripper.  This evening I finished it all up with some swimming at the pool - I did 100 lengths following the same workout as I did last week.  I ate really good all day, except for a small sliver of pumpkin pie with whipped cream after the swim.  I balanced it out with a raspberry protein shake, though, so I think it's okay.  :)

I started my day with P90X Cardio X.  Then I finished my day with an hour of yoga at the rec center.  That's pretty much it.....

This morning I got up and did a 5K run in 29:06.  I followed that up with P90X Shoulders and Arms, then Ben and I celebrated his birthday with a trip to the sushi buffet!  Yay!  This evening we celebrated by going to spin class at the rec center.  I only made it through a half hour, then my ankle really started to bother me, so I got on the treadmill and ran 2 more miles in 17:16.  After that, we took the kiddies to the pool and swam laps.  I only did 50 lengths, but I figured it was enough to justify a big bowl of ice cream when we got home.  Actually, it was a SMALL bowl of ice cream, but then I had to have another....so tasty!  :D

I felt pretty tired this morning, so I decided to do P90X Cardio X again instead of Kempo.  I figure I need to start resting up for the half marathon this Saturday.  This evening I went to yoga class, but there was a substitute, and it was really more of a stretching class than yoga.  Probably what I needed.  :)

Day before a race....I still haven't decided whether I want to really race it, or just use it as a training run in preparation for the marathon in two weeks. Anyway, today was an easy day. I did P90X Ccre Synergistics this morning, then carbed up all day long - YummY!

Race Day!  I woke up this morning TIRED.  I really thought I didn't have it in me today.  After the marathon, I realized that I was capable of coming in sub-two, but I wasn't sure if today was going to be my day.  And after the first two miles of steep downhill running, I felt like I had spent it all - my head hurt, and I figured it was going to be a bad race.  I ran the first two miles in 14 minutes, and completed the first three in about 22 minutes.  I hadn't been taking my walk breaks, and my heart-rate was WAY too high.  I felt really lousy.  So I forced myself to slow down, take my walk breaks, and forget about trying to PR.  It wasn't until after the seventh mile marker at 1:01 that I realized I just had to keep running, and I would make my two-hour time, but only just barely.  So I kept doing my thing, taking my walk breaks, forgetting my ego, and letting people pass me.  To my surprise, I came in at 1:54:26!  I was quite pleasantly surprised.  Another PR for me!  This was 20 minutes faster than my previous race time, and a good eight minutes faster than my fastest 13.1 miles!  I finished 101st out of 503 overall, and 20th out of 74 in my age division.  The headache lasted most of the day, until I finally realized I probably just needed my minerals replaced.  Then I was able to take care of it in 5 minutes. 

Ben and I finished off the evening with a short 10 mile bike ride on our mountain bikes.  It took about 50 minutes.  I am SO ready to go to sleep!  :-)

Well, I think I know why I had such a headache all day Saturday...it turns out I had developed another sinus infection!  Today I seem to be over the worst of it.  Yay!  The funny thing is, I was WAY more sore this weekend than I was after the marathon!  I think it was because I had to start on such a steep downhill slope.  I went out today to try out my legs, but even after walking a mile, it hurt to run.  So I did two miles of walking, then later in the afternoon I did P90X Cardio X.  I think the Cardio X loosened me up a little more, so tomorrow morning I'm going to try the run again.

I did a short recovery walk/run with my neightbor, Gail, today.  The first two miles we did 4 minutes of running for every 1 minute of walking, but most of the last mile we walked.  We finished in 41:49.  After that, I did an hour of P90X YogaX, then had a wonderful massage!  Tonight Ben and I are taking out kids to Mesquite so that we can run the 9 mile hilly stretch of the Mesquite Marathon route in the morning.

Mesquite was fun!  But I ate really badly.  We had Del Taco last night - we had already eaten dinner, but I was starving when we got there, so we went out.  Someone had also brought us cookies, so we ate those, too.  This morning we got up early, ate some granola bars, and ran 10 miles of the Mesquite Marathon route.  There are some pretty steep inclines!!!  We took it nice and slow, finishing in 1:41:19.  I feel like I need to preserve my legs for this weekend's triathlon and next weekend's marathon - plus, I feel like I'm still in recovery from last weekend's half-marathon!  I'm glad we were able to run the "scary" part of the route, though.  Now we know what to expect.  After the run, we ate cookies and McDonald's for breakfast, then drove back to Saint George to the Pizza Hut buffet!  We took the kids to "Jumpin' Jacks" for a few hours, then Ben and I came home to work out.  I ate a cookie, then did my P90X KempoX routine.  Now I am resting up to finish off the evening with my ballet and tap dance classes.  Do you think all that working out will counter-balance all the cookies and fast food?  :-)

I meant to sleep in this morning, but instead I laid in bed thinking about what I was going to do for my workout today.  I actually had too much to do this morning, so this afternoon I took my daughter Britnee out for a short run.  We ran 2.25 miles in twenty-five minutes, doing 3 minutes of running and 1 minute of walking.  She said she didn't feel very good, so I tried to take it really easy.  From there, I went to a Zumba class and followed it up with an hour of yoga.  No P90X today!  I'm supposed to be having a recovery week....  :-)

Everything felt tired today, so I decided that since I'm SUPPOSED to be in recovery, I'd actually take it easy and recover!  I did XStretch for my workout today...and you can hardly call it a workout, but at least I had a nice hour of stretching.  Tomorrow is my first triathlon.  It's only 400 yards of swimming, 10 miles of biking, and 3 miles of running.  I'm a little nervous about the cold...haven't figured out yet what I'm going to wear.  But I'm excited, too!  I carbed up today a little....

Turkey Triathlon today!  It was my very first triathlon!  I had a good experience, and definately learned a few things.  The swim started out pretty good.  I did it in 8:30.643, including running across the pool room, losing my goggles on the dive in and having to stop to readjust them, and running outside to the transition area.  First transition time was 2:17.728.  I think I could definately knock a bit of time off in transition, now that I know how it goes.  Messing with cycling gloves took a lot of my time.  I also wan't quite sure what to do with the soaking wet hair.  The bike was a double loop out and back.  I did it in 35:43.198, which was the fastest time in my division!  My first loop was okay, but I really picked it up on the second loop, and I passed a lot of people.  Then another slow transition, with a time of 1:38.675.  I ended up taking my cycling shoes off when I got off the bike, because they were too hard to run in.  Then one of my friends asked to borrow my helmet, since he forgot to bring his.  That took a little more time.  And trying to get the gloves off took FOREVER!  Next time I'll just run with them on, or remove them while I'm running and fasten them to my belt.  The run was what really surprised me.  The muscles in the front of my shins were REALLY tight!  I've never had to run that way before, and I felt like I was barely moving.  I would have pushed it a little harder, but I was thinking about the marathon next weekend, and decided it wasn't worth it.  Anyway, with a few walks thrown in, I was a full 30:34.057 on the run - shameful!  But most of the other participants weren't much faster.  I ended up finishing third in my division and 15th overall, with a total time of 1:18:44.30.  I'm happy about the race, and looking forward to the next one!  :-)

This morning I did P90X legs and ab-ripper routine.  I skipped "back" again, since I'm not equipped with a pull-up bar where I work out.  I'm going to have to figure out how to rectify that situation...  Anyway, I followed that up with a 5K run with my daughter Britnee.  I'm really proud of her.  She's decided to train for a half-marathon in January, and has put together a training schedule that she's been really good about following.  We ran slow and easy - 35 minutes total, taking one minute walk breaks after every three minutes of running.  It was enough for me to work up a sweat, even though it was FREEZING cold this morning!!!  But not so much that it will affect my marathon.  This weekend will be interesting.  Since I've been racing every weekend, I haven't really done any training, because every day feels like a recovery!  I have no idea what to expect from my body for the marathon.  It would be fun to set a new PR - I feel pretty confident that I can do a sub-four now.  But I'm not sure that it would be a good idea.  "Patience, grasshopper!"  There is always another race.  I don't want to kill myself off with an injury by doing more than my old bod is capable of yet.  I think I will just run what feels good at the marathon, and maybe I'll get a new PR, and maybe I won't.  Either way, I plan to have an incredible time!!!

This evening Ben and I went to the rec center to do part of a spin class.  I ended up spending 42 minutes on the bike, and logging 10 miles.  I also did a few back exercises to make up for this morning.  After the gym, we went to the pool and I did a modified version of my regular pool workout, adding an additional 500 yards to the swim, for a total of 2500 yards.  I'm feeling my gluts tonight!  I hope I didn't overdo....

Oh! So sore today! I was going to get up and do P90X, but with the marathon on the horizon and every muscle in my body SORE, I decided to skip it and went and got a massage instead. I DID go to yoga tonight, but that's it. I've decided to ground myself for the week. At least....that's the plan! :-D

I took Britnee to the gym this morning so she could run without freezing...so I decided to do a light workout.  First I did a 20 minute HIIT on the elliptical.  It was surprisingly difficult!  I don't know if it is because I haven't done that workout in a long time, or because my muscles are still REALLY tired!  I took it pretty easy, knowing that I've got to give them some rest before the weekend.  After that I hopped on the treadmill, walked a quarter mile, ran a mile, then walked another quarter mile.  I was tempted to do more for my ego's sake, but wisdom ruled out and I quit when Britnee did.  I finished with some light stretching, and went home with the intention of doing P90X ab-ripper.  But when I found it difficult to get through the first three sets, I decided that I'd better not push it, and I quit.  Crazy how you can feel so strong one day, and then feel like you've never worked out in your life the next day!!!

I've started carbing up for the weekend, but my intention is to do it differently than before.  So I threw an extra half banana into my shake for breakfast, had a nice whole wheat sandwich for lunch, and for dinner made fried rice using brown and wild rice instead of white, shrimp instead of ham, and egg whites instead of whole eggs.  It was really good!  Over the next two days, I'll try to include more complex carbohydrates with my regular meals, and will continue to avoid sugar and other simple carbs.  We'll see if I feel better or worse for this race than I did for the Saint George Marathon, where I went on a one-week sugar binge before the race!  :-)

One hour of yoga this evening is all I did today. I'm being good!  :D

Wow.  I did absolutely NOTHING today.  I didn't even stretch.  I guess I'm calling today a rest day.  Tomorrow....MARATHON!!!

Today I discovered that I AM capable of running the last eight miles of a marathon even when my legs have totally cramped up and just walking is painful. It was a good day.  :D

I think that this race was the hardest I've ever run...not necessarily because of the course or the conditions, but because I've never had my legs cramp up like that before - either in training OR in a race.  It was a totally new experience for me.  It was mile 18....and I felt certain that there was NO WAY I could even WALK eight more miles, much less RUN it.

Imagine the thrill I felt in discovering that I DID have the strength to finish a seemingly impossible task! If I could have begged, bribed, or cheated my way to the finish line, I would have. But there was no choice other than to finish or quit. I kept telling myself, "four more minutes of running, and then I can quit if I need to." That four minutes turned into an hour and a half or the hardest running I've ever done. But I did it! And I feel incredible! NOT my best race. But a GREAT experience. I learned a lot about myself today. :D

So here's the breakdown...

I woke up thinking, "I'll bet I can do a sub-four today."  Ben had broken up the race into timed segments, and he was even going to pace us.  Having already run the hilly part of the course, I knew what I was up for.  So when the race began on that nice gentle downhill, I felt great running a nice, "fast" pace.  In fact, I set a new 10K distance PR for myself, clocking 50:25 for the first 6.2 miles.  My average pace here, including walk breaks, was an 8:08.  By the half-way point, I was WAY ahead of schedule!  The hilly section had begun, but still I had left Ben behind, and hit 13.1 miles in 1:53:54, averaging 9:12 for that section.  Then there was the series of steep uphills.  That was when I began to notice that my legs wee cramping up.  I didn't worry about it too much, because I had never had a problem with cramping, and I figured it would stop as soon as I finished climbing.  But it didn't.  It got steadily worse, until just after mile 17, and then I knew I was in trouble.  I was thinking, "all I have to do is a 10 minute pace from here on out, and I'll easily do a sub-four."  But I just couldn't make my legs go.  I tried walking for longer periods of time, but nothing helped.  What I would have given for some icy-hot or something!!!  My cardio felt great, and I didn't physically feel like I had been working too hard, but I was completely cramped from foot to glut.  When I got to the top of the last big hill entering Mesquite, I realized that sub-four was out-of-the-question.  I thought I might have to walk the rest of the way, but honestly walking was just as painful as running, and the thought of being on my feet for another 2 1/2 hours was excrutiating!  When I hit mile 20, I was at 3:09:04, and the last 6.9 miles I had averaged a 10:54 pace.  So I MADE myself run for four minutes.  Then I would walk for two.  Then I would MAKE myself run four more.  I wanted so badly to give up!  It really was the hardest run I have ever done.  I managed to finish the race off that way, averaging a 12:48 pace for the last 6.2 miles.  My finish time was 4:31:32.  I was pretty disappointed at first, hobbling in that way.  But then I remembered how seven weeks ago, I would have been THRILLED with a 4:31 finish!  And I began to think that maybe that time wasn't so bad.  And then, as time went on, I began to realize what I had REALLY accomplished.  And now I'm pretty dang happy about the race!

Because my legs were so cramped up and sore, I had a really hard time walking around the expo afterwards.  But now my legs feel pretty good!  We'll see how I feel tomorrow.  I don't think there's going to be any long-term soreness.  I'm not sure what went wrong today.  Maybe I started out too fast.  Or maybe I was just tired from all the events these last few weeks.  Whatever.  I finished my third marathon.  And every finish is a victory!!!  :D

Oh!  My son Elijah ended up setting a new PR for himself - with a 4:16 finish!  He took second in his age division...against an 18-year-old.  Elijah just turned 12 two weeks ago.  :-)

So last night, after I finished blogging, my right foot suddenly cramped up BIG TIME and I could hardly walk! I woke up this morning and couldn't walk at all, especially when I put on my heeled church shoes.  I put on an ankle brace, and hobbled off to my meetings. Later on when we arrived home, I took off the shoes, and everything seemed to be okay. So this evening, Ben and I went on a short bike ride with our mountain bikes.  That seemed to feel fine.  We'll see how it feels tomorrow...

 Maybe it was stupid, but I decided to try to run this morning.  My legs felt a little more fatigued than yesterday, but I had high hopes when I got out of bed and didn't feel pain in my right foot.  It had bothered me a little bit through the night, but felt fine in the morning.  So I took my daughter to the gym, and warmed up on the elliptical with a 20 minute HIIT session.  That didn't bother it, so I proceeded to the treadmill with the intention of doing 20 minutes of alternating walk/run every two minutes.  The first run went well at 6 miles per hour, so on the second run I bumped it up to 6.5.  Then the foot started to ball up again.  Bummer.  I did one more run at 6 MPR, then decided I'd better be smart and let things heal a little more.  Anyway, I got a mile in, which was something.  I do think that it's just a muscle cramp or something that will go away when my muscles are rested up, and I'll probably be fine in a few days.  Yay!

After the gym, I had a massage....  :D

Then this evening Ben and I headed off to the pool to get a few laps in.  I swam 20 lengths, followed it up with 100 yards freestyle, 75 yards legs only, 50 yards drill and 25 yards sprint, repeated with back, freestyle again, and then breaststroke.  Then I finished it off with 20 more lengths freestyle.  It was just the right amount for a nice marathon recovery.

This morning I did P90X Cardio X...

This morning I went to the gym and did 20 minutes of HIIT on the elliptical.  I wan't going to try to run, because my foot was still bothering me.  So I started on the recumbant stationary bike, but after a few minutes, I got bored and decided to walk on the treadmill.  I made it a quarter of a mile, then just HAD to try running.  I ran at a very slow pace, but I was able to do a mile without much discomfort!  Yay!  I would have gone further if I had more time, but I'm trying to be smart, too.  It just felt really good to run again.  :D

Happy Turkey Day!  To celebrate, I went out to do some running with my daughter.  She wanted to do 30 minutes of two minute walk/run intervals.  We ended up doing 36 minutes, and then I went out to run for 16 more minutes, and followed it up with a couple of minutes of walking.  I didn't bring my garmin, but I'm guessing we did about 3.5 miles...conservatively speaking.  Then we celebrated some more by eating turkey and lard all day long.  :D

Ben and I did P90X Kempo X today.  We followed it up with a 20 minute run...and were able to get in 2.1 miles.  I started out nice and slow, at a 10-minute pace, and picked it up to a 8.5 minute pace.  My foot felt slightly aggravated, but I can tell it's improving.  I just need to give it some time, and watch my speed until then.  I'm just glad to be getting the workouts in, even though we're out of town!  :)

Ben and I ran with Britnee this morning.  It was the perfect recovery run for me!  We ran five, walked one minute for the entire run at about a 10-minute pace, which was pretty tough for her, but really easy for me.  I think I'm ready to get back into training now...  :D

I started the day with a nice run. I ran the first 20 minutes with Britnee, covering 1.8 miles. It was a good warm-up. Then I ditched her and finished the remaining 3.2 miles in 28:57. That's a far cry from the 24 minute 5K that Galloway's race predictor says I need to do to make a sub-four marathon....guess I've got some work to do. So I went home and did the P90X legs routine, and followed it up with Ab-Ripper. This afternoon Ben and I went swimming, and I did a pretty relaxed 44 lengths. I had a protein shake instead of ice cream tonight...ahhhh!