It's been a month

and I haven't blogged.  mostly because i'm embarassed about the lack of exercise going on in my life.  The speedwork was going great until it wasn't anymore.  I need to re-evaluate why running isn't as fun for me anymore.  I've got another half on the books on  May 13th and then I think I'm going to take a break from constantly running and try to fall in love with it again.

and fall out of love with sugar.  seriously, I have no self control when it comes to sweets and it's starting to really bum me out.

In other news, Dave and I both got Fitbits last Thursday.  Full review coming soon :)

First long run on the FIRST program

as I mentioned, I have 9 weeks until my next half marathon.  So I decided to do a few workouts this week from the first week and a few from the 2nd, since starting on Monday I will officially have to be in week 3 of workouts. We ended up doing 8 miles. We were supposed to target a 10:22 pace (30 sec/mile slower than what will be our half marathon pace).  Today was one of those days where everything felt awesome - perfect temperature, sunny, my legs felt great!  Because my Garmin is still acting up (more on that later), I used the Marathon app for Windows Phone, and my running buddy's Garmin was working.  According to Marathon - we ran 8.4 miles in 1:21:00 (9:38 pace).  According to Garmin, we ran 8.0 miles in 1:21:00 (10:07 pace).  Regardless, I'll take it!  I do have some sore legs and 5-6 blisters, but nothing that won't heal quickly!

FIRST training program

Hi all.  I have this not so secret half marathon goal to run a sub 2 hour half.  I'm a long way away from that right now (current PR is 2:16:10).

I've been doing some research on different training plans and found the FIRST method through a couple different people that have had success with it on the Nest health and fitness board.  so I decided to give it a go.  I'm planning on running another half marathon on May 12th, so that gives me 9 weeks in total to prepare.  Given that the first is a 10 week training plan, I'll just have to merge the first and second weeks a bit. For this race I'll be targeting a sub 2:10 race (9:52 pace which will yield in an almost 7 minute PR).  From there, I will try to train for the sub 2:00. 

I thought I was going to dread training because honestly, I haven't been feeling it lately.  I've been feeling very lazy and bored, as evidenced by my lackluster training for the lake sammamish half.  I did the first workout Monday (cross training) and then the first running workout (400m repeats) on Tuesday and it's nice to feel challenged again.  I do feel like the 20 minute warm-up is a bit overkill so I can't promise I did the whole thing, but it felt good to really push myself!

I'll keep you updated as my progress continues - hopefully I can stick with it and work won't get too crazy!

Lake Sammamish Half Marathon Recap

So, I have been totally absent from the blog, mostly because: I haven't been getting my runs in.

I have really been struggling to run during the week, and our last 2 long runs (were supposed to be 8-10 miles) were more like 5-6. 

Last week, leading up to the race, we found out of the 3 ladies that I was planning to run with, 1 had to have surgery, and one got really really sick.  So it was just me and my normal running buddy (I trained with her during my season with Team).  Thursday rolled around and I got sick.  I thought it was just allergies, but in the afternoon the fever and chills came.  I felt awful.  I told my RB that I was still planning on running the half, but I'd keep her updated on how I felt.  I tried to go into work on Friday and turns out no one wanted to meet with me since I was sick - so I went home and rested, really hoping that my nasal congestion wouldn't prohibit me from running.  I figured I'd at least start the race, but if I couldn't finish because I couldn't breathe, well, so be it.

I woke up Saturday morning bound and determined to run.  The forecast was calling for rain, rain and more rain.  lovely!  I met my RB at the park and ride and we headed down to the start.  It was pouring, and I was not feeling great.  Lo and behold, though, once I started to run, my sinuses completely cleared out!  It was magical!  Definitely not my best 13.1 since I hadn't properly trained, but it wasn't my slowest, either.  In fact, as we were approaching the back end of Mile 10, my RB realized she could seriously PR if she kept it up, so I told her to go on ahead without me, took a short walk break, and then tried to finish the last 2.1 the best I could.  Turns out? RB PR'ed by 5 whole minutes! Rockstar!  As much as it sucks not having a "good" race, it really is a rewarding feeling helping someone else achieve their goals.

This has been a recovery week for me, both healthwise and running, so I've been pretty lazy.  I'm doing a 5 mile run with RB tomorrow, and then next week I am going to start the FIRST program and try to PR a half marathon in May in under 2:10:00.  Next stop?  A half marathon in July in (hopefully) under 2:00:00.  We shall see!

Victories and Losses

This weekend it was supposed to be my 10 mile long run for my March 10th half marathon.  We woke up yesterday and it was snowing, hailing and raining. fun fun.  We decided to skip it and try again today.  Between prior plans and stuff we needed to get done, no one was able to meet today either.

I decided to head out today anyway for a shorter run.  Well, it ended up being only a mile.

I really wanted to try out my wireless headphones that Dave got me for Christmas.  I typically don't run with music - I ran with my Zune for several of my shorter runs when I first got into running, but I could never figure out a good system for my earbuds not falling our getting tangled.  When we decided to exchange stocking-only presents, of course Dave went out and spoiled me like crazy - this was one of my gifts.  I intially opened them and put them on and thought they were pretty uncomfortable, to be honest.  They do have several sizes of ear covers, so I played around with them to find the one that felt the best (though it certainly didn't feel good).  I talked to Dave about it today and he said if they don't end up working out for me, he'll just use them.

Once I started running, the discomfort really went away - it was barely noticeable.  It was really really nice being able to have my phone in my pocket, and not have to worry about cords and such.  I have a Windows Phone, but I'm pretty sure any smart phone that's bluetooth enabled with a radio/music player on it would work.  Dave put together a playlist for me, and off I went!  It was really nice!  I don't think I would use it on my long runs or during my half just because I typically run with friends.  Especially for this half marathon coming up - I haven't trained at all (except for my long runs) so it will be a leisurely half.

So, back to why I only ran a mile.  I have become pretty dependent on my Garmin, and unfortunately it really let me down today, and this is not the first time this has happened.  I do really like Garmin and haven't read many negative reviews, so I'm not quite sure what the problem is.  My watch will be fully charged, I will take it off the charger and it will die within 30-60 seconds.  This happened last year and we sent it in for repair and it worked great since.  I am going to be calling tomorrow to see if they can do anything for me.  If not, I may just switch to the Nike+ system because it's really expensive to have to replace a watch that's less than 2 years old!  Anyway, I was reeeeally bad at monitoring my pace and pretty sure I set a record for my fastest mile in the last 5 years (but I wouldn't know since I didn't have a timer.. haha).

We are having a new patio installed tomorrow and Tuesday and I can't wait to see how it comes out!

Meet our new addition!

Well, the surprise I referenced yesterday came to fruition.  We got a new puppy!  i've been wanting another dog for a very long time and Dave has not been on board at all.  We finally had a heart to heart after coming across the perfect little guy this weekend and we decided to get him.

The breeder had named him Tuxedo, and after chatting about it on the drive home we decided to keep it and call him Tux for short.  When I got Riley, I was a bad dog mom and didn't do my research.  i got her from a backyard breeder and then took off on vacation and left her with a friend.  My friend did the best she could, but she had a 10 month old lab of her own.  It took us until Riley was 10 months old to fully potty train her.

Tux is 12 weeks old (born right around the same time of year as Riley, ironically enough) and is currently a touch over 7 lbs. He can already sit, he's only had one accident, and he slept last night with minimal problems (a full 7 hours I might add!)

I think he's the perfect little thing to round out our happy family!

Praying for Daylight....(savings time) and lots of surprises!

So I continue to be absolutely worthless on my weekly runs... but I've been consistent about meeting friends for long runs.  Did 90 minutes this morning (about 7 miles... lots of walking and intervals).  My legs are feeling pretty good.

We have had an insanely busy weekend.  I work as a recruiter, so my company routinely puts candidates in hotels.  It just so happened this week that we had a few candidates cancel rooms at the last minute so we were able to get a free room for the weekend.  It is only about 20 minutes from home, but our friend offered to watch our dog, so it worked out extremely well. 

I got a second job (more on that in another post) so I had to buy a new laptop for that, so I was able to get a fabulous deal due to President's Day. 

Fingers crossed but we are going this afternoon to look at adding to our family!