Do What You Can...

I finally settled on a training journal! I know that we are more than halfway through the month but it took me forever to decide which one I really wanted and then I had to wait for standing shipping & handling to bring it to me...

The Commit 30 planner is not specific to running but it's perfect for all the streaks I'm currently doing and is an easy way for me to track my workouts (week by week AND month by month)... 

It also has a mini "vision board" with different areas of focus so you can monitor your overall goals for the year... 

(I'm probably going to change some of the categories)

It may not be the perfect training planner but I think it will work really well with helping me stay focused on different aspects of my running (and blogging) life. And one of my favorite things about the planner is that each month starts with a quote...

I was really glad when I got home and saw the Commit 30 planner in the mail. And since one of the things I committed to this year was my running streak, I made sure I didn't skip today's run...

And finally I was able to end my day by adding this to the list of three things that made me smile...

(This is currently taking place in my body 🙈)

Have you ever used the Commit 30 planner?

What are some of the 30 day commitment challenges you've done in the past? (or are currently doing)

Are you doing a running streak right now? How is it going? (my legs are in a steady state of tired now)

Two More Miles & Cross Training Goals...

I added two more miles to my 2017 mileage log today...

This time I really made a conscious effort to stay close to an 11:30min/mile pace and stick to structured walk breaks...

The Year of The Full: Chapter Six - What the Doctor Ordered...

Nowadays I try not to over think my aches and pains. That's not true... I totally over think them. But sometimes I wonder if I went from one extreme (assuming the pain is not a big deal when it actually is (which is how I was last year)) to the other (assuming every ache and pain is an issue when it isn't). I guess in the grand scheme of things it's better to assume the worst and find out nothing is wrong, than to assume nothing is wrong and end up not being able to run for a long period of time...

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Last year I ignored my hamstring pain and I ended up with months of physical therapy and even more months of regret. Not to mention the cost of therapy, medication, the registration fees I lost etc...

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Do You Believe In Magic?

The Jeff Galloway training plan recommends doing a Magic Mile (i.e run one mile non-stop as fast as you can) every couple of weeks or so throughout your training. Based on your Magic Mile time you can determine your min/mile pace for longer distances...

Today's Magic Mile also resulted in a new Garmin record!

Which puts me at (a little less than) a 12min/mile marathon pace. Which works out to a marathon finish time of (approximately) 5 hours and 15 minutes.  My "inside my heart" goal is to be sub-5 hours; but for my first full marathon I know it's probably not realistic to go into the race with rigid time goals.

It's Nurses Week!!!!

This week is Nurses Week! So the hospital where I work had a "Dessert Extravaganza" for all the nurses...

A close up of the decadence...

This was just a small sampling of a truly extravagant event. I only nibbled on some fruit and a small tiramisu, but it was nice to enjoy the festivities with my fellow nurses.

Elevation Insanity & The Strength Within...

So this happened today...

I'm only doing the Half Marathon but for some reason the "Congratulations" doesn't clarify. I wonder what it would say if I had signed up for the 10K?

I'm only doing the half for three reasons:

1. The race is in July and there is no way I would be ready for a full marathon by then.

2. I want Chicago (the city of my birth) to be my first full marathon so I'm not going to run a full before Chicago in October

3. The elevation for this course is insane....INSANE!

so yeah.... not doing more than 13.1 miles of this craziness

I think I broke my muscles :(

I think I broke my muscles. My entire upper body is sore from my Push-up Challenge and it's only Day Two. I've been working on trying to get the proper form since Monday, but I still can't do them properly. I found a few tips on push-up progression online today...

My brother suggested that I do upper body weights at the gym to help build-up my arm strength. He also (along with EVERYBODY else that I asked for help with push-ups) suggested that I do the modified ones on my knees because I am, as he gently put it, "struggling to do them".

But I don't want to do the modified ones. I want to do the regular ones. So I'm having an internal temper tantrum about the whole thing. Maybe I should start with the incline push-ups??? I barely got through my attempts at 4 regular push-ups today (I've attempted 3 times), so I'm giving my broken muscles a break until tomorrow.

The Year of the Full: Chapter Five - The Time Has Come!

Today marks the start of my training for the Chicago Marathon! 

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I can't believe it's here! I've been so anxious to start and now that it's here I'm simply excited...

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Tuesday Talent, 5K, & Push-UPdate

Status Update: I am (kinda sorta) able to do 1/2 of a push up. Soooooo I'm a little behind in my pre-30 Day Challenge prep because I need to be able to do 3 FULL push-ups by Friday if I'm going to follow this plan...

Push-ups are seriously a lot harder than they look. People assume I'm exaggerating when I say I don't know how to do them properly... and then I show them and they're like "Ahmmmm ok so that wasn't technically a push-up. In fact I'm not sure what that was". Great, thanks. Fortunately I got a few tips from my friends today and I watched a bunch of videos online so hopefully by Friday I will be able to do 3. 

Not even one?

The humidity was already more than 90% by the time I got up to go to the gym at 4am this morning (did I already mention that I'm not looking forward to training in the Summer?? The humidity is going to be dreadful!) Since I haven't done any significant strength training in a while I decided to focus on that this morning. As always I did a leg workout. I plan to incorporate upper body strength training into my routine, but probably not with the weight machines. Instead I'm going to try and do push-ups.

Sadly, I can't do a proper push-up. Not even one! It's very distressing because the fitness gurus that I see on social media make it look so easy. But when I try and do it there is some type of invisible anti-gravitational force preventing me from "lowering my body in a controlled manner"...

I do more of a "stay up on wobbly arms until I collapse face first on the floor" movement

The LR Countdown and email excitement!

Today was the longest Monday in the history of long Mondays. I required a lot of coffee to make it through the day. Thankfully I didn't have too much...

I did my sit up challenge this morning before work. I completed five sets of 25 sit ups (it's easier for me to break down the session into manageable sets...for Day 24 I was supposed to complete a minimum of 115 sit ups, so a total of 125 isn't bad). For the rest of November I'm going to aim at adding an additional set every couple of days or so, but I'll need a new approach to my 30 Day Challenge for December. I'm planning on restarting the sit-up challenge and maybe incorporating some wall sits in there as well. Thoughts?

My legs felt good today. I have some mild soreness but  overall I think the hot/cold soak and compression leg sleeves really helped in the whole recovery process. I also wore knee-high socks today which provided some mild compression for my lower legs :)

Can you believe the year is almost over?? Below are a few of the major events I'm looking forward to for the rest of the year (as measured by Long Runs)...
Zero LRs before Thanksgiving
One LR before the Palm Beach half (my third and final half marathon for this year)
Two LRs before my Dad's birthday! (December 11th)
Three LRs before my 2 year anniversary at work (which means extra special stuff will happen!...or so they tell me)
Four LRs before Christmas (this is probably the most exciting news ever! I can't wait to go home!!)
Five LRs left in 2014 (I'm excited to see what 2015 will bring)

I'm trying to come up with a safe training plan for 2015. As you may know, I adjust my training plan as needed to incorporate safer mileage incremental increases and to accommodate for changes in my work schedule. For 2015 I will be sticking to a formal plan that's well thought out, not complicated, and not too intense (so it doesn't put me at risk for injury) but intense enough (so that I push myself safely to get stronger).  So I'm trying to get a general consensus on what other runners are doing (or have done) to prepare for their full marathon(s). Please leave a comment with your answer to the following questions (it will be greatly appreciated)...
1. What is your longest LR during your training cycle? (some people don't go past 20 miles, others go up to the full 26 or more)
2. How many LRs (20 miles or greater) do you run during your training?
3. How far apart are these LRs?
4. How many weeks before your marathon is your longest LR?

On a more exciting note, I received an absolutely fabulous amazingly wonderful email from my boss today...

Never before have I felt so excited to work in an area that is considered to be "non-essential". I'm so happy that I'm off on the Thursdays and Fridays of the holiday weeks!!! However, the term "non-essential" is kind of insulting isn't it? They need to come up with a better phrase/term like "totally awesome departments that are vitally important but can take the days off since we have other people to cover life threatening emergencies"...or you know, something like that.

A quick reminder: The Holiday Giveaway closes on Dec 11th! Don't forget to enter :)

Also, please take a moment to comment on your training cycle LRs! (thank you, thank you, thank you!)

My Frozen moment and race day pics...

It feels like Winter is here bringing with it bitter sweet temperatures. I woke up this morning to temps in the 50s and light rain...

It took me an additional 15 minutes to start getting ready to run this morning because I was standing by my bedroom window silently screaming "WHY WHY WHY?!!!" It's bad enough to run in the rain but to run in the rain when it's cold is worse.

Disclaimer: I realize that I'm pretty spoilt when it comes to my ongoing complaints about weather. For a lot of runners temps in the 50s would be a welcomed relief. So to all those runners I apologize for my ranting. There is, however, available housing in Florida should you be so inclined...I'm just saying.

Anyway, I've been looking forward to this run all week so I figured I would run in the rainy drizzle and see how many miles I could do before it turned into a downpour. My mantra for this morning's run in "winter" weather was...

I was so focused on the rain when I was getting ready that I forgot my gloves (yes 50 degrees is glove weather) so my hands felt numb. Do you know how hard it is to hold your phone while running when you can't feel your fingers?

I also forgot my knee brace (again). The rational thing would have been to go back inside and put it on, but I knew if I went back inside where my warm welcoming bed was waiting for me it would have been even harder to convince my body to go back into the cold.

I decided to do an easy run today for my goal time of 45 minutes. After my 1 lap warm up (walking) around my complex I started my running session with 1:1 intervals (running without my brace can get tricky so I wanted to play it safe). I did 1:1s for 10 minutes and then increased to 2:1s for 20 minutes; and then 3:1s for the last 15 minutes.

Overall summary:

The Breakdown:

Somewhere in the middle of my run I stepped in a puddle of very cold rain water which resulted in one shoe and sock being soaked. I had a "wet foot dry foot" thing going on. It was not a fun feeling.

Post run pic...

I didn't do much of a cool down walk. Instead I did my recovery yoga "legs up the wall" pose. And then I did my sit up challenge (4 sets of 25).

I've been icing my knee on and off today (just in case I did some damage by not wearing my brace). Fortunately, I haven't felt much discomfort (well not much more than I normally do after I run with the brace) so that's a good sign. I'm making tiny steps in the right direction when it comes to running. It's like I was born to do this...it just took me 33 years to figure that out ;)

The pictures from the Michelob Ultra Half Marathon are finally in! I made an effort to smile as much as I could along the course so, unlike the race pics from Chicago, I don't look like I'm dying. Highlighted in these photos is the fact that my feet travel in every direction except the one in which the rest of my body is going...

Happy Wednesday! Remember to Hug A Runner tomorrow (maybe stick with runners that you know... complete strangers might not appreciate random hugs).

How much would you pay for your race day photos? 

What's the most you've paid for race photos in the past?

Consider everything...

My new cross training routine started today. The gym workout sessions and swimming are on hold for right now (I should probably save some money and put my membership on hold too) so I had to come up with other ways to stay motivated for cross training. I really wanted to run but I'm running tomorrow so I decided to go for a walk...I needed to clear my head anyway and walking (as does running) helps with that. The musical selection collage for this morning's cross training session...

(It's just one of those days...)

I walked for two miles. I didn't wear my knee brace because I figured that would ensure I didn't run... well that didn't quite work and I still managed to squeeze in a few (like 4 or 5) short distance (like 50-100 meters) running sessions. Fortunately my shins and knee felt fine throughout the run and after, so I should be all set to do my official mid-week run tomorrow.

After my two miles I went inside and did a short wall sit ...

...not exactly a great session but I haven't done it in a while so I can't really expect anything else.

Then I did my sit-up challenge. I have been way behind with this challenge. I may redo it for December since I haven't been as disciplined with it as I should have been so far this month...maybe I should redo the sit up and wall sit challenge for December...is that too much??

The scheduled # of sit-ups for today (the 18th) was 90...

I decided to do 5 sets of 20.

My cross training morning routines will probably start to look more and more like this. I'm going to try and get a yoga mat so I can incorporate yoga into the mix as well. Hopefully the cross training will help me focus on other areas/muscle groups that I need to strengthen to become a more successful runner. With that, I will also need to focus on other types of runs (tempo etc) for my mid-week sessions so that I can develop a more comprehensive training plan....

For the past few days I've been trying to keep myself distracted from a whirlwind of emotions by focusing on ways I can improve my training. I want to be a strong runner and so I need to train harder and improve both speed and endurance in order for that to happen...

...but I'm going to do it at a pace & with a training plan that works for me & my injury prone body.

Thursday November 20th is Hug A Runner day (I didn't even know that was a thing) and this year proceeds from the virtual race registration will be donated to the Girls on the Run charity...

I'm not usually into virtual races but I know this charity and they do great stuff for girls in local communities. I'm trying to see if I can get a group of runners together (I know it's short notice) for a fun run on Thursday evening. That really only gives me tomorrow to plan but hopefully people will get excited and make the effort and commitment. The website to sign up for the virtual race is www.hugarunner.com. If you want to learn more about Girls on the Run you can check out their website HERE.

Are you participating in Hug A Runner day?

What's your favorite way to cross train?

Another day another....

Both my shoulders felt good when I woke up this morning. I've been trying to find the right "sleeping position" that's both comfortable and proper in terms of alignment, so I've been trying not to sleep on my side etc. Resting my shoulders has been the right thing this week (and I'm sure being on Naproxen has also helped).

I did my workout at home again this morning. I'm catching up on sleep as well as trying to stay away from the temptation of overdoing my gym routine.

I did my wall sit...

And followed up with crunches. 

This week has been kind of an "easy" workout week for me. Skipping the gym, giving my shoulders a break, trying to focus on being proactive about injury prevention etc have helped me feel more relaxed going into the end of the week (and preparing for my LR this weekend). I really want to be able to be a stronger runner, and one that runs for many years to come. I was talking with one of my co-workers about my marathon bucket list today, and he asked me if I always had a desire to run. For me the desire is a new one, but one that runs deep (no pun intended)

I may not have been running for years and I may not run every day but I understand the sense of determination and spirit that comes along with being a long distance runner...

When I got home today I found the latest copy of Runner's World in the mail!!!! I took a few moments to read through some of the articles...

Then it was back to reality because I had papers to grade for the online nursing course that I teach...

What Running Magazines do you read? (if any)

What races are on your running bucket list?

Wednesday workout

It's Wednesday ~ Hump Day ~ The middle of the work week ~ And a Running Day! I was up, dressed, and doing my warm up routine by 5:45am. There isn't a glimmer of the morning sun at that time so I took extra precautions...

Safety First!

My mid week goals are changing slightly as I try to improve my endurance. I decided to do a 5K or run for 35 mins (whichever came SECOND)...

Summary of the running session....

Mile pace breakdown...

(I just love seeing that little "hare" icon)

I'm not doing all that well with my plank challenge...

I was able to complete the time goal for today but I had to incorporate two different plank positions in order to do so. I guess ultimately I'm still targeting my core, but I was hoping to eventually be able to do the full 5 minutes in one position. The problem I'm having is that I'm getting back pain (oh the joys of scoliosis) so I know that my body positioning must be off a bit. Anyway I'm going to continue to try and complete the challenge for this month (even if I have to break up the time between multiple plank positions). November will be here before I know it and I will start a new challenge! (Any suggestions for what my November challenge should be?)

My parents leave tomorrow (booooo!) which makes me kind of sad. I have 11 more LRs before Christmas (when I will (hopefully) see them again). I've decided I'm going to count down the rest of the 2014 milestone events by determining how many LRs I have left ;)

I'm still waiting to register for Wings for Life and the Palm Beach Half Marathon. The Palm Beach 1/2 is in 2 months (8 LRs) so I'm kind of concerned about registration closing if the event gets full :(

Has anyone done the Palm Beach Half? Is it normally really crowded?