I’m officially stocked up on things to blog about!

First things first! On Sunday I took my camera along with me on an overcast and very-mild-for-January morning run.

I took a punk along with me too.

Who wants to come along on a 5 mile run through my new neighborhood? Well, you don’t have a choice. Get your sneakers on. It’s time to go.

Our first landmark would be what is currently my most favorite thing to run over in the whole wide world. A pedestrian bridge that crosses the river that divides the city in half.

Why I take so much pleasure from running over a pedestrian bridge I’ll never know – but I love it, I do!

(Pictures are more fun with people in them so expect to see my running friend Shawn a lot during this post.)

Over the river.

To the river path that also happens to run along a college campus.

A glimpse of downtown from the path.

Getting closer…

I should let you in on a secret goal I have in life: to be able to do a cartwheel even when I’m 100 years old.

30 years and going strong! 70 years to go.

After the river path, it’s time to break into the cemetery though a broken spot in the wrought iron fence.

Dude, you ran right by it!

The only problem with taking my camera with me on this run was that Shawn would run up ahead while I stopped for my mid-run photo shoots, and then I would have to bust ass to catch up with him. Ah well, probably a good thing really, especially given I haven’t done speed work in ages.

Spooky!

Don’t just lay there, get up and run with us!

Through the cemetery. (And figuring out to just take pictures while I’m running.)

Back across the river.

To stop and admire some graffiti.

Why does this come as no surprise that this very cryptic message was spray painted on by men? I certainly can’t imagine a group of women spray painting “BALLS” under a bridge. “KITTENS”? Probably not. “DIAMONDS”? Maybe. “CHOCOLATE”? Getting closer now.

There! 5 miles! Done! That wasn’t so bad now was it? We were only gone about 45 minutes, and it seemed to go by like the scroll of a mouse wheel, didn’t it?

Next on today’s bloggy agenda would the awesome care package that arrived via United States Postal Service from my boyfriend Brendan Brazier yesterday!

OK, maybe not from BB himself, but a girl can still dream.

I need to give a big shout out and thank you to my girl Kelly at Sequel Naturals for offering to hook me up with Brendan’s latest book, Thrive Fitness. I’m so excited to read and review this book!

In case you missed it, I happened to love Brendan’s book Thrive. The changes I made in my diet thanks to everything I learned in his first book have made such a difference in my life. Thrive gave me the information I needed to make adjustments in my approach to eating which in turn has given me more energy in general, has allowed me to sleep better, and made my runs and workouts feel positively amazing – I can’t wait to see what Brendan’s training program and book dedicated to fitness has to offer!

This happens to the perfect segue into Blog Worthy Item #3:

I realized this weekend that the half marathon I plan to run in April is now less than 12 weeks away! Considering the training program I used last time is 12 weeks long, I guess that means it’s time to start thinking about training? Ugh. I’m not ready yet. The Sunday long runs don’t start getting longer for another 5 weeks, but still. If I hope to beat my previous half marathon time of 1:47, I’ve got to get back to doing long runs and speed work too. Speed work is so much easier in the summer! Or at the very least, on a treadmill.

Well, it’s not anywhere near summer and I don’t have a treadmill or even a gym membership, so I’m going to have to figure something out. I’m probably going to have suck it up and run fast outside. In the cold. Joy to the world.

Runners! Do you do speed work outside in the winter? (And if you live in a warm climate, your comment doesn’t count!) Does it suck as much as I imagine it’s going to? Maybe I’ll be surprised and sucking in cold, frozen air fast and hard will be petting a kitten? Putting on a diamond necklace? Eating chocolate? No?

• Half Marathon Race Recap
• Turn It Up
• Secret Goals

All our snow from yesterday is already gone. That’s just how it goes with these early snow falls I suppose. The dry roads made for a very enjoyable run this morning – I did one of my standard loops through my neighborhood – 4.19 miles 34 minutes, making my average pace about 8:06 per mile.

When I bought my black Friday sneakers last week they stuck a post card in the shoebox at check out. I didn’t even look to see what it was until a few days later.

The Flower City Challenge, a brand new half marathon in my city this spring!

I am totally pumped to train for this race and kick some serious 13.1 mile butt. My half marathon PR this summer was 1:47. I’m not sure what time I want to aim for yet, but I do know I want to beat 1:47.

Do you want to know a secret? I would love to qualify for the Boston marathon this fall too. I have been so inspired by some of my new running friends who are working toward this mecca of running achievements and my friends who have just recently done it too! I’m a little afraid to say it out loud just yet so instead I’ll just quietly write

I want to qualify for the Boston marathon

and pretend I didn’t say anything at all.

When I first started running in 2005, maintaining an 8:00 minute pace on an average day was unheard of. A 10:00 minute pace was more like it. My speed has gradually increased over time as my conditioning improved, even without speed work or any sort of real effort to get faster. Just by simply running one or two days a week, sometimes going weeks at a time without running at all, my pace just naturally increased.

What allowed me to make the biggest leap in pace was losing nearly 40 lbs. I’ve read in various places that for every pound you lose, you can gain 2 seconds per mile. Two seconds may seem minimal at first, but what if you lose 10 lbs? That’s 20 seconds per mile. 40 lbs? That can theoretically take off well over a minute per mile! That could mean some serious change to your race times.

I was looking this morning through some of my old training logs. In May of 2007 I ran a 10K in just over an hour. That’s an average 10:13 pace per mile. I weighed about 160 pounds.

In 2008 I ran that same course in 56:26, slicing off over a minute per mile, cutting my average pace down to 9:04 per mile. The morning of that race I weighed 149 pounds.

Looking back further at my training logs from the spring and summer of 2008 when I was running regularly again, training for the full marathon and losing weight, I can see my pace decrease as the months, miles and pounds went by. I have a very vivid memory of the end of a regular morning run one day in the middle of 2008. I was down about 20 lbs and suddenly realized “hey, this doesn’t suck quite so much anymore.”

Today at 130ish pounds I could run a 10K in under 50 minutes. Sure, that’s pretty fast, but there are still scads of people who can run a 10K faster than a measly 48 minutes. The top female finisher of that that 6.2 mile run in 2008 finished in just over 36 minutes. That’s a 5:51 average pace per mile! That makes my jaw drop. And she was 34! Not 22 or even 18! 34! A 46 year old woman ran that same race in 40 minutes. Forty! Six!

So what does this tell me? There’s still more progress that can be made. What’s it going to take though?

First up, I like having a real reason to lose these last few pounds. My effort to lose the last 10 is well under way and while I was only going to count calories in November, I’m on a roll and am going to keep going through December and into January if need be. Calorie counting works for me and I plan to stick with it until I feel like I’m ready to stop losing and just focus on maintaining. 125 is not unreasonable for my 5’3″ frame. 120? Just maybe. It is my secret hope though that losing another 5 lbs or so will shave off a few more seconds per mile and can help me work toward my goal of getting a little speedier and beat my half marathon PR this spring. I love having a goal like this! It keeps me motivated to keep slugging away at these last few pounds – having an ulterior motive is fun and useful too!

Can losing 5 more pounds cut my pace down by another 10 seconds? I’m not sure, but I do know my pants fit better today than they did a month ago. If at the end of the day that’s all that comes from shedding these last 10 pounds then I’ll take it. But my fingers are crossed behind my back that lightening the load a bit might do something really good for my times. Maybe it will even give me an excuse to plan a homeschooling field trip to Boston in April 2011.

• Half Marathon Race Recap
• Half Brained Half Marathon
• A Girl’s Best Friend

I’m going to spoil the ending by jumping ahead and saying right at the start that today was probably one of the best runs of my entire life.

The day started at 4:55 AM when I woke up a half hour before my alarm was supposed to go off. I slept like a rock and felt great when I woke up. I called Shawn at 5:30 to make sure he was awake and moving around.

Shawn and I went over our strategy last night, but I was still feeling unsure about our approach this morning. Fast at the beginning? If so, how fast? Save it all for the end? How much do I hold back? Maintain a steady pace throughout?

I really wanted to finish in under 1:50 but I just didn’t know if I was going to happen. My dad, an avid runner, had called yesterday to predict a time of 1:48:15. My step dad, an avid cyclist, predicted a time around 1:45:00 when I saw him and my mom Saturday afternoon. I was touched they both had so much faith in my speed, but I was still wary.

This morning I remembered the McMillian calculator, a tool runners can play around with to predict times for various distances based on your best time for a given distance.

I entered my 22:56 5K PR from early August and it predicted a 1:46:00 half marathon time for me, meaning an 8:06/mile average pace. Given that’s about my average pace for a maintenance run, I decided I was just going to go out there and RUN and not give it too much thought.

I was also undecided about breakfast. I thumbed through Thrive for some guidance and decided on a smoothie. Brendan Brazier says (I feel like I start every sentence like that these days!) that whole foods in liquid form save your digestive system the work and basically provides you even more energy. I channeled Angela and decided it was a Green Monster for breakfast.

A Green Monster, and coffee for the road. Yup, it’s been two weeks but I definitely wanted the caffeine boost this morning.

These are a few of my favorite things!

Given how long I’d be running today, I used the same approach to fueling this morning as I used for my last 10 mile training run – aiming for my pre-race breakfast to be 60% carbohydrate, 35% fat and 5% protein.  My Green Monster contained two bananas, a couple handfuls of spinach, a good pour of unsweetened vanilla hemp milk, ground flax seed, and a scoop of almond butter.

This was the best combination of flavors! I’ve been so busy drinking green juice these days that it’s been a while since I’ve had a green smoothie!

While I waited for Shawn to arrive I made a breakfast picnic basket for the family, knowing that they would have little time to get out the door by the time they were awake and dressed… this way they could eat breakfast on the road or once they got there.

Shawn showed up and we were on our way. The race started at 7:45 and we got there at 7:00.

With a big travel cup of a coffee on the ride I definitely had to use the restroom before the race started. We grabbed our timing chips and used the restrooms at the stadium near the finish and then began the 1/2 mile walk to the start.

A 1/2 mile later I felt the urge to pee again. Nothing urgent, but I would have liked to have a completely empty bladder! I guess my cup of coffee was just a little too big.

We got in line for the porta-potties and it was probably 200 people long! We had 10 minutes until the start. I kept looking at my watch. Looking at the line. My watch. The line. My watch. Eventually we had two minutes until the start and with 20 people ahead of me I realized I was out of time. We jumped out of line made our way to the start.  I figured that when I had to go bad enough I would just use a porta-potty at a water stop.

The timer sounded and we were on our way.  We were among a sea of 1800 people. I started my watch when we finally crossed the start line about a minute behind the official start.

Shawn very generously offered to carry my camera since the pocket of his shorts were so big. I thought it could be fun so I agreed.

We weaved through the masses and after the first couple miles it thinned out.  Thanks to Shawn’s garmin we knew our average pace was at about 7:30/mile. We both felt great so we held on to the pace, calling it “money in the bank” for the end if we needed to slow down.

Shawn kept running ahead and then stopping to turn around and take my picture.

At least he entertained me!

I remember around mile 5 he asked how I was feeling. I told him I felt like I could cry – I was just feeling so good I had a hard time believing it. I honestly felt incredible. I felt fast and strong and from the pace we were holding I started to believe we just might come in under 1:50.

At mile 6 I snagged a Gatorade at a water stop. I didn’t want to stop running – since I wasn’t feeling very thirsty I managed a few small sips and tossed the rest.

Around the half way mark we passed this guy with crazy hair and a funny shirt.  Shawn told this guy he was going to take his picture and fortunately the dude laughed and didn’t care. His hair was in the upswing in this picture!

We were still feeling great around the mile 7 mark. Our average pace had dropped to 7:50/mile. I decided it was time to whip out the sport beans.  Shawn and I each had two. I didn’t need them yet but I thought it would be better to have a little cushion – because if you wait until you really NEED to refuel you’ve gone too long!

At 8 miles the urge to pee reared it’s ugly head again and I told Shawn I had to stop at the next water stop to hit a porta-potty. I really did not want to stop but I knew I would be more comfortable if I did.

The next water stop came at 9 miles and the urge had lessened some and I thought “ok – 4 miles to go. 4 miles is like a morning run. I can hold it for 4 miles”. Our average pace was now at 8:00/mile and I had my heart set on finishing in under 1:50 at this point. I knew that as long as our pace stayed under 8:23/mile we’d be good, but I just didn’t want to waste a single second in the stupid porta-potty! I could pee after we finished!

Around mile 11 I began to notice how tired I was starting to feel. I could feel my pace slowing too.  I decided to look on the bright side and told myself that if I was feeling really fantastic at mile 11 then that meant I could have pushed myself harder earlier on. Shawn said he wanted to push the pace for the last couple miles so we picked it up, easing off if necessary and then picking it up again.

Just before mile 12 we came off the park path we had been on for the past 5 miles and were back on the city streets. It was at this point I told Shawn that there was a good possibility I was going to pee my pants when we crossed the finish line. I was half joking, half serious.

We saw the the balloon archway for the start of the last mile to the finish and we picked up the pace and held on to it.  It was not easy but we did it.  We decided right about then that we were going to sprint hard as we rounded the last corner for the last .1 mile to the finish line.

I was tired, no doubt, but I had enough in me to finish hard. We saw the finish line and went balls to wall.  (Please note that my step dad took this picture earlier in the race – we did not spot the finish line at 1:35!)

I heard my mom and step dad cheering us on as we blew by, their support meant so much! We probably passed 15 people on that last stretch. I’m sure they all cursed us as we ran by. Shawn kept saying “keep going! We’re almost there!” and I needed those words so much, I’m positive that’s what kept my feet moving fast! From Shawn’s Garmin stats that he emailed me this afternoon I can see now that our pace for that last stretch got down to 5:00/mile!  I totally believe we were running that fast, it certainly felt like it!

We crossed the finish line and somehow I had enough wherewithal to hit the stop button on my watch. I hadn’t even looked at the clock because I knew the time would be off given we were about a minute behind the official start.

YAHOOOOO! And I didn’t even pee my pants!!  Shawn’s watch had the same time and said our overall average pace was 8:06/mile.

They took off our timing chips, hung metals around our necks. We walked through the tents and scored some post race food! I bypassed bagels, chocolate milk and pizza and went straight for the boxes of bananas and oranges.  Playing “Brendan Says” yet again, I took his post-exercise nutrition advice to heart and went with simple carbohydrates.  Protein comes later.

We found my mom and step dad in the crowd and they took our picture while we regaled our tale. Having Shawn as my running partner was amazing – everything fell perfectly into place and unfolded beautifully. He could have ran faster but stayed with me and pushed me along – but without pushing me too hard either. It was exactly what I needed and was a huge part of what made today’s race so fantastic.

I devoured my second orange while we waited for the results.

My jaw almost dropped when I saw the clock time on paper. My dad’s prediction was 3 seconds off!

Shawn’s time is on the top and mine is on the bottom. That bastard finished 2/10 of a second ahead of me!  We were 298 and 299 of out of 1800+.  I’m still unsure of my official chip time or age group results and won’t know until later tonight or tomorrow when the official times are posted on the race website.

UPDATE: My official time was 1:47:15. 19th in my age group out of 146. 297 out of 1716 finishers. 77th of 967 females.

We met up with Zak and the girls and the 4 of us we’re on our way home. I was tired but not nearly as tired as I was last year after the marathon. Besides some mildly sore quads I was feeling fabulous. And HUNGRY!

I got home and immediately whipped up a huge salad and some of my mom’s gazpacho that I demanded she share with me she gave me yesterday afternoon.

Although delicious, I knew I needed some protein too and had a little dried fruit and nut combo for dessert.

A shower and food – what came next? A NAP!

I could not be happier with every aspect of today’s race. The weather was picture perfect. I went into this race feeling well trained, well rested and well fueled. I’ve spent the last two weeks following the principles in the Thrive Diet diet as closely as possible. I fully believe that a largely raw food and mainly vegan diet had a huge impact on how fabulous I felt today. Vegetables are where it’s at baby!!

I want to THANK ALL OF YOU for your encouragement and support, both on and off the blog!  I swear to god that I brought to mind all the fabulous, sweet, supportive comments from yesterday when I was hurting at mile 12. Thanks to everyone for cheering me on! And a huge thanks to Shawn for being the best running partner a girl could ask for.

We’ve just finished an unphotographed dinner (any more pictures in this post and I think it just might burst!) and now we’re off to get ice cream.  Shhhhh don’t tell Brendan!

• A Girl’s Best Friend
• A Fast 7
• Turn It Up

I’ve felt so swamped this week I keep *forgetting* that the half marathon is on Sunday. Last year at this time I was gearing up to run my first full marathon and it was of course all I could think about. I began checking the weather forecast day 10 days out. I laid out my clothes and mixed and matched outfit possibilities in my mind figuring out what would work best. I checked the race website for updates multiple times a day. Re-read emails from the race director again and again, making sure I knew every last detail and didn’t miss a thing.

I was thinking about this today during my morning run and realized that oh yeah, the half marathon is just 3 days away! Sure, it’s only half the distance I ran last year but sometimes I need to pinch that soft fleshy skin under my arm between my elbow and my arm pit to make sure this is me who’s out there running most mornings. I think back to the person I use to believe I was. I was that girl who said I could never be a runner. Running hurts. It’s bad for my knees. My boobs are too big, I might give myself a black eye.

The right goal and some determination can do amazing things. Running’s a great way to lose weight? Hmmm, ok, maybe I’ll try it. I needed a goal and tried to train for the full marathon in 2007 but had no idea of the commitment, dedication and conditioning it took to run 26.2 miles. I told myself I just wasn’t built to go long distances. Some people can do it and some people can’t. I guess I’m one of those who can’t.

It’s funny the things we tell ourselves and believe to be true. These words and phrases we use to define ourselves and how it can hold us back from our full potential. Running is my personal example but it could be anything. Painting. Yoga. Underwater Basket Weaving. If you want it, reach for it.

After my 4.76 mile run this morning I wanted overnight oats so I reached for them. It’s been a while since I’ve had oats and I was in the mood yesterday so I knew overnight oat prep was in order last night.

Oats for breakfast makes me want to reach for coffee! But oh yeah, I’m not drinking coffee right now. If I dig a little deeper it’s not that I want coffee, I just want something warm to drink with oats.

Tea it is!

Oats, ground flax and unsweetened shredded coconut soaked overnight in unsweetened vanilla hemp milk, some mashed banana and a scoop of almond butter.

Topped this morning with sliced banana. I sweetened my chai tea with a tsp of agave nectar and a splash of 1% milk. Funny that I don’t need sugar in coffee but I do need something to sweeten my tea a little bit.

Thoughtfulness from a morning run aside, I’m suddenly excited that the half marathon is so close! I’ve got to go pick up my race packet tomorrow and start thinking about how I’m going to fuel up for the big day.

If the sky were the limit, what would you reach for? Be it big or small – what would it be? What’s your first step?

I want to be tidier! I want tidiness to come naturally and just be a part of my day to day life like running now is. I believe that with tidiness comes order and with order comes peace. My first step? I need to get rid of STUFF! Clutter! Papers! Magazines! Books! Can’t I just go run and forget about this mess I call a desk?

Oh yeah. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing. Interesting. I guess running and a clean desk aren’t compatible. Awww crap there I go with the definitions again.

• Secret Goals
• Run for Breakfast
• Over Run Oats