• Official time: 2:33:05.7
• Average pace: 11:41.2 min/mile

Half #2 = Done.

For my training plan I turned to Runner’s World Smart Coach. They allow you to tell them what you are training for, what your best recent race was (to help with time goals), and how much you want to run on a weekly basis. I love the plan that they gave me and I loved the workouts they had me do each week. I knew that the time goal that they said that I could run was too fast for were I was physically/mentally even though I hit all the runs and paces that they set out for me but knew that I couldn’t run 2 hour 15 minute half marathon.This was my one goal race for 2012. When I had to defer my Utah Valley Half Marathon entry to 2013 I was immediately on the hunt for the “one” race that I wanted to train hard for and beat my last half marathon time. I found a few races that would work out in the time frame I was looking at but I really liked the elevation profile of this race and it was a fairly small race.

I also started using a heart rate monitor in August and at the beginning it felt like I was moving backwards but eventually I started moving forward again and began to build my endurance and got a little faster in the process.

So now to Saturday Race Day morning….it was a very early morning. I caught the shuttle bus to the start line @ 6:40 am and it felt like a lot longer that 13.1 miles from where I got on the bus, at the finish, to the start line where I got off! It was also really windy at the start. They had set up a tent with the patio heaters and it was warm enough if you were in the tent. If you were not in the tent it was cold! I had a little over an hour to wait for the race to start so I wandered over to the porta potties, retied my shoes, dropped my bag off to be taken down to the finish line, ate a few energy chews and tried to stay warm but I didn’t drink any water and hadn’t drank anything since before I left the house @ 6:00 am. This, it turns out, was a mistake.

The race started right on time, at 8:00 am, and I pressed start on my garmin. The only problem with that was I had used my garmin to monitor my heart rate at the gym on Thursday and didn’t ever reset it, so I started the race @ 40 minutes with 0 miles! I noticed a half a mile into the race and freaked out a little but quickly rest my garmin and would add  10 minutes (since I wasn’t sure how long I had run and wanted to err on the safe side) to the time each time I looked down.

The race course was gorgeous! We started out in daybreak and ran along the river for a bit, made a couple of turns and a serious hill! I couldn’t see it at the bottom but once I got close to the top the Oquirrh Mountain Temple came into view and it was spectacular! Quite unfairly, at the top of the hill a race photographer was lurking  So, I quickly found my smile and pretended that the hill was no big deal.

The middle portion of the race felt mostly down hill and I felt great throughout mile 10. I spent the middle miles “tying” a string around a runner ahead of me and pulling myself past them and doing that over and over again.

For distraction I had planned on starting the race without listening to anything, then listening to my audio book for as long as it was entertaining and then switching to my playlist for the last miles when I really started feeling sorry for myself. It was a good strategy to have a couple of different distractions.

After mile 10 I think the lack of water consumption that morning was catching up to me and I started to get tired. And by 12 I was ready to lie down and take a nap! I grabbed a Gatorade at the aid station at mile 12 and it seem to help quite a bit. At least I made it to the end, it wasn’t pretty but I made it.

After I received my metal I grabbed a banana, a bagel and a bottle of water and stumbled over a soft patch of grass and sat down to stretch. I didn’t stay long because I realized that  if I hurried I could get home in time to watch most of The Boss’ last soccer game!

Here are the spits our of my garmin…

This really was a fantastic race. I don’t know if I will do it next year if only because there are so many races in Utah I might want to try another!

Biggest lesson learned = drink more water the morning of the race. I will have to find the balance between being hydrated and having to hit every porta potty along the race course.

Thanks for the ride, feet. Get ready for another next weekend!

I have started moving my long runs to the beginning of the week and really like having them done. Maybe it makes the rest of the week’s training seem easy or time gets tighter as the week plows on and getting a long run in is harder? I’m not sure but I like having my long training run done on Monday of Tuesday.

So, in that spirit yesterday I did my long run for this week which was also my Hot Mama Virtual Half Marathon. I was going to run it next week after having a cut back/easy week this week but the Boss is having surgery next Tuesday {ear tubes inserted, adenoids and tonsils removed} and I don’t know how she will be feeling. I have heard some really awesome horror stories. Great. Anyway I wanted to make sure I got the half complete before the end of July so yesterday it was.

Sunday night was thunderstormy so it was already muggy and humid at 5:30 am when I stepped out of my front door. Awesome. I had planned a loose route that would get me pretty close to 13.1 miles and take me past some new territory plus include some hills which up until recently, I have done everything in my power to avoid.

I wore my Nathan hydration belt that holds 2 10 ounce bottles and was worried about having enough water so the night before I froze another handheld and planned on dropping it along the route to pick up towards the end. I started out at my usually too fast pace. I still have a hard time slowing down right at the beginning, I need to work on this in the future. I started with my usual route and felt really good. I dropped my handheld in a tree stump close to where I would start my loop. And before I knew it I was 40 minutes in and at my planned porta potty #1 {Just outside of the Highland Cemetery ~mile 3}. I assessed the situation and while I didn’t feel like I had to pee right then I went anyway, because you never know. A couple of steps later I had my first gu. Then on to my favorite paved trail and then I am at Alpine Highway {~mile 5}. I am really feeling good and time is going fast. I am listening to the end of my audible book and I guess it was really good because it is making the time fly.

Down Alpine Highway, stop at a stop light waiting for the walk signal, and over into a fun neighborhood that I have just discovered. I didn’t run up to the lake like I have originally thought I would but passed it and then back out onto the highway. Took the road I usually drive to the temple and ran past Fox Hollow Gold Course. This is where my book ended and I had to turn on my playlist and head up a steep hill back to the highway.{~mile 7} I took another gu here and started to worry about my water supply running out, begin rationing. I also realized that my running playlist is getting old and I need to revamp it, also that I am getting tired and am pretty far from home.

Ran down hill to the American Fork Cemetery {~mile 8} where I turned and began to find my way home, uphill of course, for a few miles, that felt like forever. Find a second porta potty {~mile 9} and decide to stop mostly because the hill is killing me and I want a break. I start back and a group of women turn onto the road just ahead of me and my goal is to stay with them. I start gaining on them just as they turn of onto another side street which makes me sad because they were great motivation, Thanks Ladies! Still running uphill and now my legs are telling me that I am done. I did a lot of run/walking here and then I get to the stop sign where I turn back towards home and I know it is all down hill from here {~mile 10.5}. I tell myself that I don’t have to run but I have to shuffle until I get to my stashed water, about 3/4 of a mile away. That water was a huge motivation and I didn’t care if it was hot by the time I got to it. I just wanted the water.

Finally, I reach the water {~mile 11} and it still had a little bit of ice in it and is so cold. It was the best-thing-ever. It tasted so good and now I only have 2 miles left and then I am done. I can do this. Another shuffle goal and I can take a walk break. Then one more shuffle goal and I am done. And it is hot by the time I finish. I am soaked from sweat and want to lie down in my ice bath, the only thing that kept me motivated after the ice cold handheld became warm water.

It's not pretty but it's in the books! Done.

In the mail yesterday was my Hot Mama Half Metal. Talk about instant gratification!

The goal is to run each interval at the same or a faster pace. If my pace starts to slow on the last intervals then I was going to fast in the first ones. Here are my interval splits from this morning…

• Int 1: 9:51 pace
• Int 2: 9:18 pace
• Int 3: 9:00 pace
• Int 4: 8:29 pace
• Int 5: 8:21 pace
• Int 6: 8:19 pace
• Int 7: 8:17 pace
• Int 8: 8:03 pace

They made the rules simple:

1. You must move at least 5 days/week: Run, walk, cycle, downward dog, swim, squat, push-ups if your bottom half is injured. Whatever. Just move with purpose and focus and get your blood flowing.
2. You must have at least 1 rest day/week: Two days is fine too. Sorry if that doesn’t work for you. We insist—and your body will be happier and less injury-prone because of it.
3. Claim your prize: Your “finish line photo” is a picture (screen shot or regular shot) of your planned/finished workouts on this calendar. Send the pic to runmother@gmail.com to claim your AMR bumper sticker.

I needed a plan for summer. I was unsure how I wanted to proceed without any races on the calendar so I was excited when I saw this on facebook and immediately signed up. I haven’t filled out my calendar yet but I am looking forward to making June great!

I am only running 3 days a week right now and it has made all the difference in how much better I am running. I was feeling a little burned out going to the gym 5-6 times a week and working at a hard effort each time. I have loved how awesome taking it easy but running faster and longer is! However, I have just been flying by the seat of my pants. Whatever, whenever, no structure. It was a good break but I am ready to get back into something more structured but fun and pressure free.

Hello Summer!

So let me sum up: After the Hale Freezes Over 5K I hurt my hip. I thoroughly ticked off my tensor fasciae latae, a small muscle in my right hip. It hurt so bad there was no running for a while. I visited the chiropractor a couple of times, went to a sports med doctor, and the physical therapist several times.

Slowly I started running again. Carefully increasing my mileage adding in walk breaks during runs to give my hip a break. As long as I do my PT stretches and exercises and don’t run too many days a week, the old hip is feeling happy.

For the month of May I signed up to run the Joggermom Marathon. It’s a virtual race that began on May 1st and you record your mileage until you complete a total of 26.2 miles by May 31st. So I began on May 2nd and completed my first 26.2 on May 16! Now I am working on my second 26.2 which will be easy to do as I only have 8.4 miles until I finish my second! Why did I sign up for a virtual race? And buy my own t-shirt that says Joggermom Marathon?

I really don't have 2 black eyes. I just have four kids!

I honestly believe that this is the only way I will ever complete a full marathon. Running the 26.2 all at one time just doesn’t appeal to me. And it’s just a fun thing to do. And I’m not running the Utah Valley Half Marathon in 2 weeks that I signed up for all the way back in October. Stuff comes up, but luckily they allow runners to defer their race registration to the next year. So now I am registered to run the race in 2013! Mom can I book your babysitting services a year early?

So I’m not training for anything specific right now. I have thought about training for another 5K but I don’t know. I have signed the older girls up for a running club this summer {they were so excited when I asked if they wanted to do it}. I think it will be fun to help them work towards their own 26.2 over the course of the summer. I am just really enjoying running, being outside and staying healthy and not hurting myself. Today I ran 6.8 miles at an average 10:44 minute/mile pace! That’s pretty fast for me. But I feel awesome and I think it has to do with taking more rest days and loving the run.

I run by this lama all the time. He looks like he is surveying his kingdom!

First race together.

I was totally nervous last night as I was getting ready for bed and laying all of my gear out. I didn’t know what jacket I should wear or if I should wear the compression socks {is it only my ankles that protest running in those things?} or if I should wear my hat or ear warmers. etc, etc…. I slept well until my littlest, Bea, woke up around 2 am. Mark took care of her this time, thankfully. But she deiced to wake up for good at 5:30 this morning. Come on, seriously? Didn’t she know I was racing? So, I shoed her back to bed 7 or 8 times until 6:45, when I got up for good.

We went downstairs to enjoy breakfast, Bea and the Boss {who heard there would be cereal and woke up to participate} had lovely bowls of coco-crispies, a Saturday favorite. I ate a toasted hamburger bun {because we only had ultra healthy wheat bread and I wanted something easy to digest} one side with peanut butter and the other with honey, and a glass of water. Then I foam rolled my legs for a bit, cleaned up after the girls and started getting ready. I wore my winter tights with a pair of capris over them, a long sleeve base layer with a short sleeve tee over and a jacket. I also brought my lovely old sweat pants to wear once we got to the race and my winter coat. Mark picked up the babysitter at 8:30 and we kissed the girls goodbye and were gone.

Waiting in the warm car

Ready for his first race.

We made it to packet pick up with no problems, got our bibs, race shirts, and goodie bags and went back to the car to stay warm. We were there early enough for me to use the bathroom twice before the start. I finally left the warmth of the car and made our way over to the “pre-race meeting” and then followed everyone over to the start line, jumping and bouncing trying to stay warm. We lined up toward the back and the going was a little slow in the first few minutes of the race as everyone got moving. Our first mile was awesome and right on target pace wise. Mile 2 had a serious and steep down hill section that flattened out for a bit and then we had to climb back up all that elevation that we had just lost. The route was a rectangle and we started running south and then turned west and then back north. All these directions the wind didn’t seem to be affecting us too much. But once we turned back east the bitter cold wind was in our face and stealing any chance I had at breathing. That coupled with the up hill was too much to keep the pace. I had to take 3 short walk breaks and by the 3rd one I waved Mark on and told him to finish strong without me.

After the finish - happy with my PR.

This wasn’t the sub 30 minute race I had hoped for but it also wasn’t a “perfect racing day.” In all I am happy with my performance today. It was cold and tough.

I’m not sure what my official time was but when I crossed the finish the clock said:      32:08 - an almost 3 minute PR. I’m pretty happy about that.

My average pace was 10:39 minutes/mile. This race, while not my A Goal, may me think that I can definitely reach my A Goal with a little more work.

The upset of the day was Mark. He was worried that he would be hurting towards the end. In reality the opposite was true. He was my rabbit through the whole race keeping my moving and then at the end finished strong ahead of me. He said that he had fun and I am definitely going to try to talk him into another race!

Looking like a "real" runner.

And in celebration {and because this was a date} we went out for breakfast at a favorite spot, One Man Band. I refueled with eggs for protein and a scone for carbs. Fried bread dough has to be the best form of carbs. And slather that in honey butter – made in heaven.

My favorite form of carbs - fried

So, yes, THE 5k is tomorrow. The Hale Freezes Over 10k and 5k.

The race benefits the Hale Center Theater in Orem, Utah. We love this theater they do great work and it is always fun for a night out. As part of your swag you receive a ticket to one of their productions – score, date night!

Mmm-K. Here are my A and B goals for tomorrow.

• A Goal – Run under 30 minutes. This is what I have trained for!
• B Goal – PR. This shouldn’t be too hard. My last 5K time {August 2011} was a blistering 35:03.3. I should be able to at least make my B Goal.
• Most importantly I really want to enjoy myself tomorrow. This is hubby’s first race and I think that we will have a great time. I want him enjoy the race and want to do it again sometime.

I was trying to find a time when I could have a “good” run. I should have known better than to hold out for a perfect time for a good run, my life doesn’t work that way. Anyway, I had planned on today because yesterday was long run day and pouring down rain anyway. Today they said it was supposed to be relatively warm in the early parts of the morning and turn snowy in the late morning and afternoon. I woke up with the intention to run early before it got any colder. I got out the door around 8 am (hey, that’s early for a Sunday) and the first step on my driveway almost made me fall flat on my butt. My entire driveway was an ice rink.

Our house faces north and honesty my driveway is icy the entire winter normally, so I was hoping that at least part of the road had sun on it and no ice. I found a mostly ice free route but there were still a couple of perilous spots and it was so so cold.

• Total run: 3.78 frosty miles
• Total time: 43:00 perilous minutes
• Average pace: 11:48 min/mile

On the training plan for this week, Janurary 8-14, 2012

• Sunday: - Training plan (TP) said – Rest. I actually went for a run this morning. When I built my plan Our church time was 9:00 am and getting myself and 4 girls ready for church and there on time made it imposible to run before. But now that church has moved to 1:00 pm I have time to run in the morning and I am loving it! It is so quite on a Sunday morning, it is a peaceful way to start my Sunday. Actual – Easy; 3.35 miles in 40:15 min
• Monday – TP - 4 x 1000m Race Pace + 400 m Recovery Pace. Actual -  4 x 1000m Race Pace + 400 m Recovery Pace, total 4.32 miles in 52:14 min. And Yoga Class at night.
• Tuesday – TP – 2-4 miles Easy. Actual  – 3.39 miles in 38:24 min Easy. Ran with my new garmin outside – loved it. The garmin and the run.
• Wednesday – TP – Rest. Actual - Worked Downtown so I walked about 1 mile. Yoga class at night.
• Thursday – TP – 4 miles Easy. Actual  – 3.26 miles in 41:33 min Easy.
• Friday – TP – Cross Train. Actual  – Weights with Tim (triceps, chest & shoulders) and elliptical 20 min.
• Saturday – TP – Long Run 6 miles. Actual – Long Run 6.73 miles in 1:20:17. Outside in the sunshine!

I ran a new route and saw little ponies for sale. My girls would love me forever if I came home with one of these babies!