Saturday Stats

It's actually Friday here.

And Thursday where you are.

But you get the idea.

After 2 pitiful runs this week, I was beyond nervous about running at all this morning. (We have plans tomorrow morning so the long run had to be done today)

I haven't been sleeping great since getting back from my trip, and to say I'm tired would be an understatement. But, life goes on. So I didn't sleep well last night and I had weird nervous dreams about not having time to put my Glide on, or my pony-tail holder not holding my hair so it kept falling out.

Anyways, I headed out planning to do 8. Since 5 was difficult, I thought 8 wouldn't kill me, but anything more just might. I'm not gonna lie, every single mile was hard. I had side stitches at 2 & 3, which came back again for miles 6 & 7. My time was okay for the first 5. I then stopped to get my GU and water bottle from the gate guard. I had to walk about 30 seconds after mile 6 not only because of the blinding left pain (i've had this several times before), but also my right side of my stomach was cramping too.

For the love, I just want to run.

I somehow made it and around mile 7ish I was feeling okay and remembered I had the chocolate milk I brought back with me on my trip in the fridge. Then pride kicked in and I couldn't let myself be rewarded with imported chocolate milk for a measly 8 miles. So I ended up running 9.5.

I'm happy I finished, it was running like my first 15K or half. Finishing was all that mattered.

Next week the long run will be 11, then taper week (my fave!!) after that.

And just for kicks, here is an awkward picture of my nephews.

Stay tuned!

love

laura

Saturday Stats

Well, I'm tired.

Mostly because I ran 12.2 miles this morning. WOOOOO HOOOOO!!!!

This run was different that any of my other longer runs....because I had people run with me!! Last night, a friend of mine was asking about my run I was planning, and offered to come meet me to cheer me on or to run a few miles with me if I wanted. Ummm yes please!!! i haven't had anyone run with me in months.....like early 2011.

So, then I roped asked Daniel if he would be interested in running a few with me too. Bless him, he hasn't run in a couple of months so I wasn't sure if he would want to. But he did!

So....I ran the first 6 by myself (in the WAY dark bc I started early), met Daniel for miles 6-8.5, ran another mile or so, then met my friend right before mile 10. She ran the last 2.2 with me. Honestly, it was a love/hate having her there :) Because i was getting tired. And i wanted to slow down, but she kept me right on pace at 12 min/mile. I've never actually run with a pacer or anything, but running with my friend felt like that (in a good way). I know if she didn't run the last bit with me, I would've slowed down a lot. I'm so glad she made me keep my pace and finish strong. I actually didn't think I had it in me.

But it was still a hard run.

I forgot to hydrate yesterday.

I barely slept the night before.

My right foot hurt the entire run (no idea what that is about).

Side stitch for mile 3.

And (also a first), my left Achilles hurt the last mile.

I did make sure to carb up the night before. (i've been looking for marshmallows for forever and finally found some yesterday!! I love me a good homemade smore!)

So I ran 12.2 miles this morning and felt pretty sore and tired afterward, but was so glad I did it, and kept the 12 min/mile pace the entire time.

This week ends Week 7 of training. It feels like it's been so much longer.


This is my first real dirt line I've ever had from running.

After a big breakfast of eggs, toast, and coffee, we took a nap. Actually Daniel slept and I laid there. My body is refusing to nap lately.... no idea why.

Also, today I tried a new GU (bc I stole Daniel's). The chocolate mint flavor, and now officially my fave!! It tastes just like a peppermint patty and the texture was easier to handle too. Love.

And I did get word that I will probably not be able to run on my upcoming trip. So I'll have to take a 10 day break and ease back into it when I get back. Which is fine. I feel so sore right now, the break sounds amazing!

I'll post again tomorrow at least once cause there's just so much going on!!

love

Laura

Saturday Stats & Plans

This was the end of Week 6 on the training schedule. The long run was supposed to be 11 miles.

Here's a bit of background info:

Daniel and I are going to a marriage conference all weekend starting tonight until Sunday. We've known about it for a while and VERY excited!! I'm sure I'll have a ton to post afterwards.

Also, I'm going to be travelling for about 10 days the end of the month. I am not counting on being able to do any running where i'm going. So...... my plan was to stick with the schedule, take the 10 day break, then hopefully be able to ease back into the long runs and maybe just push the half marathon back a week.

That is all still possible.

However, last night I realized that I had one GU left and I had 2 long runs (11 this weekend and 12 next) before being able to restock the GU.

So I decided to run 8 miles this morning (instead of the planned11), and save the GU for next weekend, and hope to be able to do an 11 or 12.  I figured I could do 8 and be okay, esp if I did my 5 mile loop, grabbed my water, and finished with 3. At that point, 3 is easy.

The running went well so I decided to do 9. I thought long and hard about running 10, but decided not to. And I'm really glad I didn't. That last mile was pretty hard, not what I would call a quality mile. I was going on just water at that point and was starting to feel each step.

So I ran 9 and am okay with that. I'm going to try and get every mile in next week before leaving on the 24th.

I had a post planned for a 'day in the life' here, but life completely got away from me this week, so it will just have to wait.

Has anyone been to a marriage conference before??? This will be my first one!

love

Laura

Saturday Stats

Today was a big run. 10 miles. I've run 10 miles a few times before, but it's been a while.

I was a bit worried how this run would go, considering I had forgotten to hydrate yesterday, and only drank about 4 glasses of water. I know, not smart. I also didn't eat a lot yesterday to carb up.....

So this morning I set my alarm for 6:10 because I REALLY wanted to get it out of the way. I ended up waiting around the house for a few minutes, because it was just still too dark to start running.

At 6:45, I found my gate guard friend and gave him my water bottle to pick up after mile 5. My plan was to run 2 different 5 mile routes. This ended up being huge mentally! I loved that the routes were different so I didn't get as bored.

The first 5 miles were pretty annoying. I couldn't get my shoes to fit right for the life of me. I stopped at least 6 times to re-adjust the laces. I was reallly missing my old running shoes today, because they had Yankz and were quick and easy to adjust. I'm thinking of buying some for these shoes too.

Anyways, first 5 miles was just under a 12 minute pace. I then slurped my Vanilla Bean Gu in record time and took off for round 2.

A dog chased me again and almost bit me. I don't know how to handle this. Most of the dogs are not on leashes so no one cares what they're doing. And if a dog does bite me, no one will help me. It's not in their culture. So I already have a plan ready in case....to borrow/use someones cell phone to call Daniel to come get me. I carry his phone # and a little money in my running shoe pouch.

So......round 2 went AMAZING!!!! I was on my last mile when I realized I was several minutes ahead of where I should be. I mean, I know I'm getting faster, but I was really far ahead! So I ended up running another leg towards the end to make up for it in case I had missed something.

After getting home I realized I went a different way than I had mapped so when I thought I was supposed to be done, I wasn't. The route I did today was a bit shorter. So i'm glad I tacked on the last part just to be safe. And I mapped my run as best as I could and it's either 9.9 or 10 miles. I'm going to believe it was 10.

I also had an overall pace of about 11:45. Pardon me while I scream from excitement!!!!!!

I've been running less than 2 years. I feel like I have ALWAYS been at a 12 minute pace, and when I would run anything over 5 miles, it quickly went to 12:30-13 minutes depending on how long I ran. I never saw much improvement in my pace until just recently. Not sure if time is what it takes, or because of some of the weight loss. (I'm SO close to a total loss of 30 pounds, but these last few will just not leave!) :)

I'm in shock. Shock and awe.

My total mileage for the week is 21.1 miles.

Next week is Week 6 of training with a long run of 11 miles. Bring it.

love

Laura

Saturday Stats

So random, but I was just looking at the calendar at my mileage for the week and realized it's October. October people!!!!! It's practically Christmas!!! WOW!!!!!!! That's insane, how in the world have we gotten here so fast?!?!? anyone with me???

Normally in the states October and November are busy months because everyone and their dog on both sides of our family decided to be born in October and November. And yes, we thought it would be a good time to get married too.

Even though we're living a few thousand miles away, we still managed to fill up almost every day and weekend over the next 2 months. Go us.

That has nothing to do with running, but for the love it's October!!! And I just can't believe it.

So, i just finished Week 4 of the half training. Confession, I've never gone this far in a training schedule without missing a day or cutting a run out. I'm very proud to say, I have not missed a single day of training! Every run on the schedule has been done!

This weeks long run was 8 miles. I ended up doing 8.4, because there just isn't a good 4 mile route, it's either a little less or a little more.

Here's the play by play:

I tried to hydrate yesterday, which means I only had 1 cup of coffee. I got up at 6:30 this morning, because there is nothing worse than doing a long run late in the day. I prefer to get it out of the way and then eat and rest the whole day to make up for the run, ha!

So I didn't want to run with my water bottle the whole 8 miles, so I told our gate guard that I would be running a long time, and could i please leave my bottle with him, and I would come back to get it? He cheerfully agreed. (he sees me run all the time, so he wasn't weirded out).

(sidenote, I brought 2 Vanilla Bean Gu's with me when we came).

So I ran my first 4 miles, with a good 12 min/mile pace. I had to make myself slow down a lot, because I'm averaging 11 min/miles lately. I swung back around after the first loop, got my water bottle and Gu, and went back out.

Honestly, I realllllly don't like stopping when I run. I wish there were little drink stations set up for me so I could grab my Gatorade and keep going. And there is some type of mental block that happens to me when I stop, and then rerun everything again. It always take me a good mile to get back into the groove of things.

Anyways, Gu went well and I finished pretty strong. I have NEVER run this many miles and been able to keep my pace below 12 minutes. Usually after 5, it slows down a lot. I was pretty excited!!

I had a huge breakfast to make up for the run and a large iced coffee. I seriously love them. They're so easy to make, yet I just don't make them very often. All week I knew I'd have iced coffee after my run, so that was a bit of a motivator as well.

My total mileage for the week was 19.4 miles. Next week it will be 21.

love

Laura

Saturday Stats

It's a little late, but our Saturday looked nothing like we thought it would, sooooo......

Daniel and I recently started watching LOST. He has already seen the first 5 seasons and a few of season 6. We're only a few episodes in the first season and I'm completely hooked!!! This is such a good show! But I'm also glad I didn't watch it when it was on TV, bc now I can just watch several episodes at a time. (Translation: huge time waster!)

So anyways, we stayed up too late last night watching LOST. This morning it was really hard to get up, but yet I did at 8:30. I wanted a slow morning so we made eggs, drank coffee, and were just lazying around.

But then a lot of stuff suddenly came up that we needed to take care of, so our day was spent a lot on the phone and checking emails. We ended up having dinner with friends tonight, which was so yummy, and it's always a treat to not have to cook :)

Anyways...... running...

This week was Week 3 and it went well. My total for the week was 16.9 miles, and my "long" run ended up being 6.5 bc I'm still learning how far things are here :)  I feel like I'm still keeping a good pace, so that makes me happy.

Also, today was the day I got the scale back. I was the EXACT same weight as 10 days ago. It's just funny at this point. I was hoping for something lower, but I baked a few desserts this week so I'm not too shocked, ha!

I didn't get a lot of stuff done today that I needed to, but what can ya do? It will all be done at some point!

love

Laura

Saturday Stats

As of today, I finished Week 2 of my half marathon training. 8 more weeks to go!

I ran about 15.5 miles this week. I'm still running in the afternoons, because that's just when I have time. My "long" run was only 5 miles today. I honestly didn't think I was going to do it. It poured almost the whole day, and I just don't like running in the rain. Maybe if it was 3 miles, and I was a fast runner.....but running an hour in pouring rain in questionable looking puddles is not my idea of fun.

So I waited, and it finally cleared up for me to run by 3 this afternoon. The run went really well. I felt good the whole time!!!

I'm not able to check on if I've lost weight because of the scale issue. But next week I'll know, and hoping for good things!

I think the training is going well. It's hard to make it a priority with the business of school and other things, but I am glad that I haven't missed a single day of training!

Not much to say on the stats, but it's been a good weekend, so stayed tune for the Weekend Rewind post tomorrow!

love

Laura

Many Firsts

Today was the first day of school. I realized on the way, that this was the first time ever for me to ride my bike to school. I've never lived close enough to school to ride a bike, so I was pretty excited about it. ( I also ran into a motorbike on the way, yes, it was my fault)

Here we are using the self-timer:

So we rode almost 2 miles to school in the insane heat and humidity. I was drenched by the time we got there, and of course, no a/c.So instead of running i'm just going to sweat off these last few pounds, hhahaah kidding.

I'm going to be honest....class was hard. The first week you try out the different levels of class and next week 'commit' to the class you want to go to. I went to a class that I thought would be a challenge for me, but it was actually just hard. I didn't understand a lot of what was being said, and I can't read the language yet, so that made it much more difficult. I'm going to try the class below to see if it's a better fit. It's hard because I want a challenge, but also don't want to be confused the whole semester. I'm thinking a lot about this.

Also, today was the FIRST day of half-marathon training!!! Woo hoo!!! I ran this afternoon and i ran fast! Knowing I was only doing 3 miles I brought my A game, and felt really good! Again, sweating off the weight is my strategy, hhaah!

The first bit of training is always easier and more enjoyable because you start off so slow. I know when i'm hitting the 10 mile+ mark I'm going to be wanting the 3 miles again.

Are you training for anything?? A tri, marathon, 5K? Let me know, I'd love to hear!

love

Laura