Sometimes you just have to laugh

Today, I had a 12 mile run scheduled on my Marathon training schedule and wouldn’t it figure that today also happened to be one of the hottest day of the summer. Did I let that deter me…no way. I was determined to get this run in, so I set my alarm for what was way too early for a Saturday morning and tried to get a full nights sleep. When the alarm went off..what do I hear….rain!! Not a light drizzle, but heavy rain. What is a girl to do…I needed to run.

So, I checked the weather and it looked like the rain was moving out of the area -PERFECT!! I laced up, grabbed my water, and headed out to the trail. By the time I drove to the trail, the rain had nearly stopped, it was just a drizzle at this point. 

I started my run and within the first mile, the rain had completely stopped and there was a slight breeze. The is going to be a great run, I thought to myself. Well, then I hit mile 5 and started to hear thunder in the distance. At first, I shrugged it off and said, ‘that must be a truck’. Nope..it was thunder and it was getting louder. Ok, at this point, any sane person would turn around and head back, especially knowing that I still had 5 miles to get back to my car. But did, I turn around…no way. I still had one mile to go to hit the 6 miles that I needed to make my 12 mile run.

Well, that turned into a huge mistake..I made it to the 6th mile, turned around and then the skies opened up and the rain came pouring down. I was completely soaked within 5 minutes, but I still did not stop running! Here I am soaking wet, in the middle of corn fields, with absolutely no one in sight…I couldn’t help but start laughing! What a sight I must have been. It is actually a good thing no one saw me – Oye vay!

Anyway, I finished those 12 miles, completely soaked, but feeling quite proud of myself. But next time, if I hear thunder, I am turning around

Peace.

Bittersweet Festival 5k

I won! I finally won my age group in a 5k run! Ok, so there were only 3 people in my age group, but whatever, I still won and it feels pretty darn good. The best part about winning it though is that they gave out trophies – I couldn’t believe it. Here is this little town in KY and they are giving trophies to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners in every age groups – it was sweet!

But really the best part was that I have a new PR – I ran the 5k in 25:36 and that was with a bunch of hills! Boy, did it feel good .

Here is a picture of all of us (minus 1) from CAP who ran the race:

The 5k group

And here’s a pic of my trophy:

A Great Run

Today’s run = 6.5 miles

Today, I went out for an unplanned 6.5 mile run. I was actually planning not to run today and to take it easy, but when I got home after meeting a friend for coffee, I just had the urge to go out and run. I love those days were you just run to run – you don’t run for miles, for time, for PR, none of that – you just RUN! And those usually end up being some of my best runs. Today was no exception – I felt strong, smooth, light, fast, everything lined up just perfectly. I probably won’t have another run like that for awhile, but when I do, I am sure it is going to feel great, just like the one today.

A Great Day for a run!

Today was a fabulous day to get out and run. The skies were overcast, there was a little mist in the air, the temperature was at 50 degrees, and the wind was slightly blowing…PERFECT running weather. My roommate and I decided to get up this morning before mass and get in a good 5 mile run. I am so glad that we did, so that I was able to experience the wonderful fall morning.

I really hope we can get in just a few more days like this before old man winter hits!!

Running totals for this week (11/11 – 11/17): 5 Miles – not a bad way to start the week

It’s been awhile!

Well, I am now realizing that having a blog is not always as easy as it seems! As many of you have noticed, and have politely informed me, I am terrible at keeping my blog up to date. I think the last time I wrote on this thing was back in September. There is no excuse for my lack of posts, other than the fact that I have had no motivation to write any posts.

Today is a new day though and I have decided to try and get back into this blogging thing. I can’t guarantee that I will be better at keeping this blog up-to-date, but I will certainly try to.

Thank you to all who have held me accountable in this blogging adventure I have put myself into. And thank you to all those who have posted comments on my blog – it is for you that I continue to blog

Running Update:

No run today, I wasn’t quite feeling well after a night of having a little too much ‘fun’ in the city. I am feeling better now, so my plan is to get in a good 6 miler on Sunday. My roommate and I did manage to get up at around 9 am today (surprisingly) and went on a 4 mile walk. It was nice to get out and experience the beautiful fall day!!

The love of new running shoes

Yesterday, I went for my first run in my brand new Suacony ProGrid Omni 6 Moderate shoes.  What a run that was…I felt like I was running on clouds. I had no knee pain, no backpain, no foot pain – it was great! If I go off of how I felt on my run last night, I think these new shoes may even alleviate some of my heal pain. My run last night was 5.5 miles, but it felt more like 3 miles – I was flying and I give all the credit to the shoes. If anyone is looking for a good running shoe, I would highly recommend buying a shoe from Saucony. They make a great shoe – one that will stick with you for many miles.  

Tomorrow will be the true test of the shoes though – I will be putting them through 12 miles, let’s hope they hold up!

Running in the city

For all of you who run in the city, I must warn you not to run on North Ave. between the hours of 5 and 6:30…it is pure madness.  I could barelly run and ended up walking most of the time on that street – people just won’t move out of your way. Other than North Ave., I had an excellent run today.  I went out for 11 miles…the weather was absolutely perfect and my legs and heal felt good.  The run basically took me North to Irving Park Rd. and then back down South.  Then East and then back North again.  My roommate ran with me, which was nice because when my ipod died I had someone to talk to you. 

I won’t be running tomorrow or Wednesday, since I will be taking my little bro down to college..but hopefully on Thursday or Friday I can get in a quick 7 miler and then on Saturday or Sunday, I am planning a long run of 17 miles!

Chicago Distance Classic Half Marathon Report

On August 12, I completed the LaSalle Bank Chicago Distance Classic Half-Marathon for the first time.  The race went well for the most part. I didn’t run it as fast as I ran the Highland Park Half-Marathon but I still came in at 2:00 hours.  The race started at 6:30 in the morning, which meant I had to get up at 4:00 am – just plain craziness!!  I ended up getting downtown later than I had wanted and by the time I met up with all my friends and checked my gear, the race had already started! For the first 5 miles of the race, we ran through downtown which was pretty neat.  We then headed south and went by McCormick Place and Soldier Field.  Once we hit 39th street, we turned around and headed back North.  My legs and heal were doing well until about mile 10- then pain starting setting in.  I took some water and about a 30 second stretch break at mile 10.5 which seemed to help just a bit.  The last mile seemed to take forever – but eventually I finished! I sprinted into the finish – trying to beat 2 hours, but my legs just didn’t seem to want to run any faster. 

Even though I didn’t PR in this race, I still had fun and still feel as though I did a pretty good job.  Now that this half-marathon is behind me, I will definitely be focused on my marathon training – which is only 7 weeks away!! 

Running Update

Since this blog is supposedly about running, I figured with this post I should probably provide a quick update on how my running is going.  Right now I am currently training for the Chicago Distance Classic on August 12.  Seeing as it is only two weeks away – my training really needs to pick up a little bit.  This week I did 11 on Sunday, 6 on Monday, and then I have not run the rest of the week….. Tomorrow though I plan on getting out for a 5 mile run in the morning and then on Saturday it will be a 12 miler (I hope). I really need to get in a bunch of miles the following week and then taper the week right before the half. 

For those of you who are still considering doing the half-marathon, there are still spots open – you can register on the Chicago Distance Classic Website. I am looking forward to seeing many of my friends there!!

Weekly update

So this week, I ran 8 miles on Wednesday, 7.5 on Saturday, and 6 on Sunday.  I am still battling with pain in my heal, but I think I now know what I have….Plantar Fasciitis – sounds great doesn’t it.  If you would like to read more about it, you can check it out here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantar_fasciitis

Basically, I need to start stretching more before and after I run. And I also have to start applying ice to my heal after each run.  But, I am willing to do whatever, just so that I can keep running  

This week I am hoping to get quite a few miles in; however, I am going to a big country fest up in Richland Center Wi on Thursday, so I am not sure how much I will be able to run…..but I will to at least get a few miles in!!

More on the concert later…..