Stress!

This is a crazy week. Yesterday I had the 5th grade rehearsal from hell as I forgot all the choreography I wrote, compliments of the week off break. I'm a perfectionist so I was pretty upset about things not going smoothly. Then I put off my huge project for my appraisal class until 2 days before it was due. I know I know, it was stupid and I never do it, I always get things done early, but I'm so sick of school that I put it off and wanted to enjoy my break. I spent all night and part of tonight doing it and I'm happy to report that it's done! I can't believe I got it all done, that's hilarious.

This morning I had a stressful Choir rehearsal because the kids kept missing their split part by half a step. No matter how many times we rehearse it, if I don't do it with them, they miss it. We have a performance on Saturday in front of the whole town of Frisco so I'm hoping we can get it soon. And then I have a 5th grade program Thursday night that I pray goes well. I have class tomorrow until nine and then Sunday's the marathon. I am STRESSED!

The good news...I got the huge project done plus submitted the final assignment for class #2 so that's a chunk off. And even if the kids miss notes, it wont matter, I'll love them and be proud of them no matter what they sound like. They're my little sweetfaces! I'm hoping I will be able to breathe soon. Should be smooth sailing after Sunday...

Tonight's workout was awesome! I pushed the speed and am now averaging 11 minute miles! WOOP!! This is great news for my situation and now I just have to figure out how to make that last 26 miles! :0) My friend Carrie and I are talking about going up to the expo on Saturday, it's supposed to be badass and I think it'll get us good and motivated before the run. I'm getting really excited!!!!!

Time....

I just finished an 8 mile run and I feel good but man, all that Thanksgiving crap I ate sure made things harder today. First of all, it was hot! Not HOT HOT but hot enough to be warm and I REALLY hope that it's cold for the race. 38-48 degrees is my favorite temperature to run in. As of now, the forecast is said to be a low of 45 and a high of 61 with rain. This SUCKS! I hope there is no humidity with that rain because that will slow everyone down. It needs to be crisp and cold. Come on weatherman...be wrong as usual! Another thing I noticed today...I'm dehydrated. I could really tell by how fast I pooped out. Not fun....

So here's my dilemma. Sunday's marathon course is open for 6 and a half hours. Everyone is expected to complete the course in that time. Right now if I were to guess ...if I were to start right on gun time, I'd be about 6 hours 20 min or so. That's just a guess. But here's the problem....the race has 22,000 people registered so they put us in corrals and release us by ability group. It's a good system except for the fact that it robs the slower people of time. We have to finish in 6:30 but we probably won't be able to start until about 20 minutes after everyone else. This is a problem. After 6:30, all the photographers go home, they stop stopping traffic for you, they deflate the finish line, and the medal givers go home. I even read that you might not get a medal ....(I'm not sure I believe that, and if that happened, they would be getting an angry phone call from me). Anyway, it is literally going to be a race against the clock for me.

There are several things to consider when observing this time situation. First of all, adrenaline will get me through a lot of it at a decent speed. Music will get me through some too. I've upped my speed in my latest workouts and I know that will help too. I'm always impressed with my stamina on race days, and I'm praying it will be the case for this one as well. In my running pace right now, I'm averaging 10:45-13:30. If you mix in walking it slows me down of course, but I'll start most of the course just running probably. I need to mentally prepare for the final half though and I need to be smart. I don't want to start off fast and then crash before it's halfway through. On my last half-marathon, I started slowing down at mile 11 and that's not even halfway through a full-marathon distance. I'm thinking I'll start strong with maybe 20 min running segments and 1 min walk....and then once the half way comes, depending on how my legs are holding up, I might switch to 10:1's and then for the final 6 miles, maybe 5:1's. I don't want to tire myself out too much, I know what happens when you push too hard, you crash. And another thing to keep in mind is that everything changes at mile 20. It's a completely different game. I need to be brain training as well. I heard that when you get to the point of the wall, that it's best to think of creative things...create a story in your mind, etc because it allows you to use the right side of the brain which gets you through. Apparently, the left side of the brain is the side telling you to stop and allows you to feel the most pain.

So here's my plan for marathon week. I'm concerned about the speed issue so I'm going to do several things to give myself the best shot:

Monday: 5AM gym: 3 miles at a bumped up speed of 6.0
6PM gym: 3 miles at a bumped up speed of 6.0

Tuesday: 4:30AM gym: 3 miles at a bumped up speed of 6.5
6:30PM gym: 3 miles at a bumped up speed of 6.5

Wednesday: 5AM gym: Taper run of 3 miles at 6.0 speed.

Thursday: 5AM gym: Taper run of 2 miles at 5.8 speed.

Rest until Sunday.

I think with pumping up the speed, it'll help. I also am going to pump the water hardcore...that ALWAYS helps and my nurition is going to be perfect this week. No going out to eat, no fast food. Only protein, fruits and veggies and brown carbs. No boys, no distractions! It's showtime!!

In one year's time...

Thanksgiving was awesome. Had a fabulous time with my family and of course ate waaaaay too much food! I'm feeling sick and am seriously craving a salad. Starting tomorrow, it's awesome nutrition and crazy hard work at the gym until next weekend. Tomorrow morning I'm going to get up and run 7-8 miles as my final semi-long run which is now considered a short run of the marathon season. I'm pretty excited!

Looking back on what I've accomplished this year, I'm just amazed. I ran for the very first time on Dec. 8th, 2009. In less than one year, I'm going to run a marathon. I went back and read my earlier posts on my older blog and when I read that I almost passed out after attempting 60 second intervals every 3 min for 20 min total...it just broke my heart. I cannot believe what I couldn't do and I cannot believe what I now CAN! My grandma's house has these stairs and every single time I have walked up them in the past, I've been out of breath and my heart race increased...every time. Today without even thinking, I walked up to help my mom with something and noticed ABSOLUTELY NO CHANGE IN HEARTBEAT! It's something so simple, yet so huge!!!! I am so freakin' happy. I am CONDITIONED!!! Ya know, I was watching Biggest Loser tonight and was excited to see that the contestants are now "in the zone"...they are focused and nothing is going to stop them. As it gets harder, they keep going and that's where I am now. Nothing can stop me at this point. I am trained, conditioned and even though I've sadly gained weight...I'm STRONG! I am going to finish this bitch of a marathon and nothing is going to stop me! And I know I'm gonna cry like a baby as I finish. One year's work...one moment...

Thankful....

I got my run in tonight so I should be good for Saturday. The gym was completely dead, it was awesome. I held strong and am very surprised by my stamina as of late. Go me!
I have several friends running the Turkey Trot tomorrow morning and I have to admit that I'm sad that I am missing it. I never miss a race!! It's supposed to be 8 miles with cool weather...perfect!! I'm curious to see if the t-shirt has a turkey on it. That would be seriously groovy. I can try for next year but we always go out of town so not sure if it's ever going to happen...

Today was a really good day. I woke up and cleaned and got my tree up, compliments of my awesome brother. I baked pumpkin pie and chocolate peanut butter cookies and am happy to report that I think I'm turning out to be a pretty decent cook. YAY! :0)

I had a touching experience today that made me really thankful for what I have in my life. When I went to Target to pick up my ingredients, I noticed the check-out lady didn't respond when I said hello to her. I said it louder and she still never responded. I was confused at first but then she looked up at me and smiled and that's when I realized she couldn't hear. I felt so bad for her, wondering what her life must be like and as if she knew what I was thinking, she handed me a legal pad that said...

"Hi, my name is LP and I am deaf. I am happy to serve you today. Have a great day and keep shining! :)" She was so incredibly vibrant and you could tell she was extremely happy with life. From that three minutes of contact with her, she made an impact. If that woman can live life to the fullest with her circumstance, I certainly can make the most of my life. I have so many things to be thankful for. I have an amazing mother, who I absolutely adore (even if she doesn't read my blog..grr) and the rest of my family is awesome too. My friends are the best and always lift me up when things get tough. I have the best dog in the world and a kick-ass apartment that I wouldn't trade for anything. I am running a freakin' marathon next weekend and I'm about to graduate with my Masters. I'm a kind and loving person and I know how to have a blast. I am truly blessed.

A friend of the family lost her husband yesterday to cancer. We knew it was coming but it's really hard to know that she has to get through it without him. My mom and I are going to take turns spending the night over there to help her through. It's so sad. Again, I am so very thankful.

I hope everyone has a fabulous Thanksgiving!!

The Christmas Tree Workout!

I am DONE with this stupid tree. It is in 3 heavy pieces in my apt. I can barely lift the parts...oh yes, Lindsey had to get the BIG tree...and the stupid thing won't go in the stupid hole and its stupid self keeps falling over on me!! Me trying to hold it up for so long produced an extensive sweat so I will call that weight training for the day! Me running after the tree as it falls will be my run for the day. I know it's a stretch, but at this point I don't give a flying flip! On to happier subjects...

I ALMOST convinced my friend Jeana to do the TOO COLD TO HOLD 15K with me in January. She seems a little nervous about my highly ambitious goals. (I tend to aim high. I did a half-marathon way before I did my first 5 or 15K)but I know she can do it. Besides, it's so much more fun to run those races with peeps. I'm going to create a training plan for her and she should be good to go! I'm excited...I'm gonna make angry face pictures and inspirational sayings like "Keep going til you puke!" to make sure she's super-comfortable. HAHA!!!

On a serious note, I had a really rough day today. I woke up feeling very sad and it took me almost all day to shake it off. I finally did. Once my Christmas tree fell over for the 4th time, I finally just had to laugh and say, "Merry Ghetto Christmas!" I'm finally feeling a little bit better and I'm ready to see my family on Thursday for Thanksgiving. My grandma seems to make everything better.

Tomorrow will be my last run until Saturday. I'm tryin to decide what kind of mileage I should do on Sat. I'm thinking 7 miles would be a good taper run.

I've created a VERY intense spring training schedule that focuses primarily on speed. Since my slow self could use some improvement in speed, I thought the 5 half-marathon challenge seemed appropriate. I'm also returning back to hardcore nutrition like before. I'm pretty excited about getting the rest of the weight off. Come on January 3rd!

I registered for the Texas Half Marathon in January and will register for Cowntown in Feb. with my next paycheck. They have a great medal series but if I'm not mistaken, I think I will start in the second medal of the series. That means that if I do it for 3 more years...theee will be a huge gap in the ginormo medal that all 4 medals in the series makes! GRRRRR

Ok, I just had the most ghetto experience of all to end this "fabulous" day....my dog just barfed on the Christmas tree. SERIOUSLY?! Wow, I am DONE with this day. Goodnight.

A little anxious...

I am making a promise to myself right now that I will post every day until my race. The biggest course of my LIFE is coming up next weekend and I need to hold myself accountable.

Tonight I ran 2 miles. Lame I know but I'm easing back into the mileage...haha obviously. Tomorrow I am going to do 3 and my plan is to do an easy 7 mile run on Saturday and then taper the next week.

I am feeling so many emotions right now. First of all, I'm bummed that I've gained about 13 lbs since April. It's really been bothering me. I'm at that "I'm still pretty, right?" place and it's not a happy place. But the more I think about it, the more I need to just get over it and realize that I always gain weight in the winter and I always lose it in the spring. GET OVER IT LINDSEY!

I'm also in a "I hate men" phase. It seems like every guy I go for turns out to be a douchebag! I have GOT to start picking better men. The one really good thing about being in the "I hate men" phase is that I usually kick ass in my running during that time. Oh and then I always send them hot pics of me thinner. Oh yeah :p

ANYWAY...huge race coming up next weekend. 26.2 mile full marathon. YIKES! I've trained, I know I could do 23 miles, so I can do 26 but man, it's gonna hurt. It's gonna be long and I'm going to be dying by the end. I hope I don't barf when I cross the finish line or almost pass out like last time. Oh and keeping my hearing this go around would be good. I've been staring at the course...take a look:

http://www.runtherock.com/Whiterock/media/Documents/Maps/DWRM-Master-Course-Map-11-16.pdf

See that little lake on the right? That lake is HUGE!! And it's such a small little part of the course. Puts things into perspective on just how long it is. I've also been coming up with some ideas on how to keep from getting bored for that long. I think I'm going to download a motivational talk to listen to about mile 20 when I get really tired and I'm going to create a kick-ass playlist. That really kept me going on my last half. I'm not worried about the first half, I'm worried about the last 6 miles or so. Your legs hurt so bad and you're so exhausted and you can just feel everyone's pain around you. But one thing I've learned from all these races is that the longer you go, the better the high when you're done. And honestly, I cannot IMAGINE the sense of pride and accomplishment I am going to feel as I cross the finish line. It's going to be incredible.

Another thing I've been thinking about...how the hell am I supposed to fit so many Gu's in my running belt? It's only so big and you are supposed to take one Gu every 3 miles...well that's 8 Gu's. Holy crap! There's no way I can fit that many. I'm going to have to get really creative!

I hear they are going to have a band at every mile. This should be interesting. I wonder if they are gonna be suck bands or good ones. I hope they are smart and keep the peppiest ones at the end when we need the boost.

Ok I think that's all the rambling I have for tonight. Look forward to posting tomorrow about my 3 miles! WOOP!!!

DRC Half Marathon

I completed half-marathon #2 on Sunday, November 7th. It was AWESOME! I woke up with a throbbing sore throat and that part sucked, but once I got out in the cold air, I felt a lot better. My goal was to complete the race at any time faster than my half-marathon #1 time which was 3:32:31. I knew I'd been training hard but I didn't know how realistic it was for me to be faster since I've been training run/walk. Well, I did much better than I was expecting. Once I got into a groove, I didn't stop for walk breaks and would run in 30 min increments with about 2 min walking breaks at the end of each long segment. That worked really well for me. I kept expecting to poop out and I never really did until about mile 11, I started getting kina tired then. But it's interesting to watch how other people train. A lot of people get all confident and fast at the beginning and then once they hit mile 6 or so, they poop out and walk the rest. I start slow and keep it steady. It was such a great moment for me to still hold strong at the end, and to pass every person that was walking. Goooo meeee!!! Not only did I beat my time, but I beat it by over 20 minutes. I was VERY proud of myself. My final time was 3:11:56. It's still not fast but I'm making progress. My next Half Marathon will be in January, as I'm taking on the 5 half-marathons challenge in the spring. Hopefully I will keep getting faster.

23 miles SUCKED!

Let me tell you about the worst run of my life, 23 miles! It all started by eating mexican food the night before. Yep, I'm smart. Then it continued by being woken up several times by airhorns of drunken Ranger fans screaming, "YEAAAHHHH, GO RANGERS!!! WE ROCK! TAKE THAAAAT!!!" ...and as much as I love the Rangers, a good night's rest took priority on something as big as 23 miles. So, I woke up tired and grumpy. To add insult to injury, it was muggy and humid outside, the suckiest weather to run in. We started sweating on mile 1 and once we hit mile 2, my shoulder became incredibly inflammed and that pain consumed me for a long time. Later on in the run, when I was really hurting and looked down to see that I had 16 more miles to go, I about cried. To add to the already established annoyance, I kept dropping the water bottles on my new running belt and random pads kept falling out of it. About 2 miles later, I slammed my finger in a trashcan, dropped 2 more water bottles and then got this crazy sensation of having to go to the bathroom when you don't really have to go. I was so uncomfortable that the tears finally came. I was miserable. I was able to get some ice mid-run to numb the firey pain from the shoulder and that gave me some relief. I got in a little better of a mood when we hit half way, anything to get us closer to done. My shoulder pain became bearable and we finally got closer to done. My legs held up okay though I could tell all of us were hurting. We finally finished at in 6 hours and 41 minutes. I know that seems forever long, but keep in mind we took several long breaks. I'm glad I finished, but I didn't feel accomplishment...I just felt relief that it was over.

Recovery

This recovery was different than any other I've had for several reasons. First of all, I had chaffing on the whole back of my body. Never have had that before. Second, I had red marks that were close to bloody in the shape of a sports bra, never had that either. I felt nauseous and really hungry but that's pretty normal for long runs. I slept for 3 hours when I got home and was pretty out of it the rest of the day. I can honestly say that out of all my runs, this was my worst, and I have a feeling that anything I do after this will not suck as much as this 23 mile training run.

I have a half-marathon this Sunday and I'm pretty excited about it. I am fully prepared to push myself hard this week. Next weekend, we have a 26 mile training run scheduled but I have not decided whether I'm doing it with the group, or doing it on my own if I choose to go to Six Flags instead. Decisions, Decisions! Then we have 2 more weeks of 10 miles and then it's the RACE! I'm so excited about becoming a marathoner! That's going to be an awesome day!

Today

I had great nutrition today and ran 2 miles @ 26:56 time. It feels good to be back in the game!!!!