My week

This week I have been checking on this daily

Spending lots of time in my car

Trying to keep Green Lantern from getting good and bad guys

Drinking massive amounts of water and sparkling water.. so miss my diet coke

And sorry to say we have been eating out a lot.  I have been trying to find places that are good for us so last night we ended up at the deli counter at Kowalskis.  A chicken with corn and mac and cheese please.   They also have a great salad bar that I can fill up on. 

I worked out a total of three days.. not great at all.  I hope to go tomorrow morning to the gym as well.  I was going to go yesterday but sleep won.  I am feeling ok.  SO glad it is friday.  This week took forever!

Happy Friday everyone

Not Going to Buy Them!

After my run today I will have ran approximately 536 miles in these puppies.  I bought them back in the middle of May so I would say that I did pretty good stretching out their life span to 4 months.  I know that all the running books out there say to buy new running shoes every 400-500 miles that you put into them.  Well after much contemplation I have decided to keep running in these!  They have been through a lot with me (can't ya tell) and I have grown a little attached :)

Gross some might say, although normally I would not be so bent on keeping these.  It is usually men who grow attached to tennis shoes, not women. But the truth is, I am feeling no awkward pains and I feel like they are still going strong. Not to mention I have many OTHER kinds of shoes I would like to buy this fall and running shoes are not among them!

If you look closely by the big toe area you will see a small hole beginning.

I felt like I just bought a new pair of shoes recently and OH YEAH! I DID!  Not sure if you rememeber but I bought these flat puppies for speed work back in August.  Well the truth is so many people told me to be careful because they were close to barefoot running and I could easily get injured if I run too much in them.  SO I got paranoid and now just save them for my in house DVD workouts until my race is over.  I haven't even ran in them yet.  That's ok, I can wait.  It is just that I don't want to buy ANOTHER pair of the same shoes again.  Anyone feel me?

So tell me, how long do you go before you buy new shoes?

Do you think it is super important to get new ones or do you think I can make in through NYC with them? :)

XX
Sarah

PS I have finally started to get excited for the NYC Marathon! (I like ingmarathon on fb and they are posting way more these days)

PSS My new favorite treat I found at Target!

The 20 miler Newbie =) and what is Too Fast?

This past Saturday I was able to finally complete my first 20 miler of the FIRST training plan. If you remember (if you don't, i'll remind you) my last 20 miler I bonked at like mile 13 because of a ragin' sideache.  But live and learn right...

Also, Hoooray to my friend Tara who completed her first 20 miler this past Saturday. Woot Woot!! There is something special about running 20 miles for the first time ever.  I dunno why, it is kind of like some right of passage into long distance running world. Anywhoo, she ROCKED it. She ran her first 20 miler faster then most run any 20 miler. I was very impressed but not surprised, that girl has some skills.

Tara after her first 20. =)

My 20 was also good. According to my garmin I ran an 8:34 pace, but my garmin is always the faster beeping garmins out of my running club bunch so I'll just assume my pace was around an 8:38 or something. Either way, I felt good but I ran it much quicker then I needed to.

Because I hate carrying water, I decided to make my own water stations along the way. I had two of these stools set up with signs and water. It worked great! Anytime I can, I will do this from now on. =)

So....I have a question that I would like some feedback on. How do you know if you are running too fast? According to the FIRST training plan you should always stick to the pace specified by their training plan. I am shooting for a 3:40 marathon and according to my plan I should have ran that 20 at a 9:08 pace. Which is almost 30 seconds per mile slower then I actually did.

During the run I felt good but towards the end I did get tired. Who doesn't get tired after running 20 miles I don't care what pace you go. Sunday I wasn't sore and I felt good so how do you know?? I don't want to jeopardize the rest of my plan by always running too fast, but if I run too slow am I going to lose what I gained? I dunno... any suggestions?

Anywhoo, my running Guru from club says I went too fast and to back off. So I probably will. I definitely don't want an injury or to overtrain.

But what would you do? Push harder or stay patient?

Happy Running all -Jen

We did a 10 mile loop twice so I used my car as a water station as well. One of our great running buds decided to leave us a nice note!  YAY for running friends. Lots of Love. Oh and I am trying to show you my nasty snarly hair. I have never seen hair like mine duplicated ever.  Anyone with fine ultra tangly hair out there..... or am I the only one?

Just one more....

Fifth time is a charm right??  At least that I what I keep telling myself  when I am feeling so sick and tired and it is only 10am!  And that some of the best families I know have 5 kids :)
We never were super sure that we didn't want just one more baby and now that I am pregnant we know that we are suppose to have another one.   Now you all know why I  have not been posting much and when I do they are super short.  I have been pretty sick.  I am really trying hard to still workout everyday.  Even if it is just a walk.  I find that if I can get myself up early that I still enjoy working out as early as I can.  Just makes my day better but sometimes is just doesn't happen.  Also my eating has just been so bad.  I eat what I think will make me feel better.  Which sorry to say most of the time is CARBS!!  Hate that part.  I just keep telling myself that I will soon feel better and back to my good food habits and until then I need to eat what I can to survive without throwing up!

Here is a very early picture....

So HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!
-Heather

Counting Down!

It may be a little early to start counting down until the NYC marathon BUT it is what I have to do to get me through the rest of my track workouts!  Yes, I am tired of going to the track once a week and doing speed work.  It is true that it is helping tremendously but that doesn't mean I have changed my feelings about speed.  Only 6 more times do I have to go to the track  :)  I don't mind my tempos as much, it is the track that I dread.

This Monday I had to do 3(2 x 1200m) with 2 min RI and 4 min between sets.  The 1200s in 5:10, which I did.  I actually always came under between 5:02-5:08 but once again I did my own RI of 200m(walk/jog) and 1x 400m after 3 1200s.  I am just glad that I am done for the week.

I find if I don't get up and do my track workouts on Mondays it throws off the rest of my week.  Plus I like to have a 2 day recovery from running before my long run.  I feel a difference in how tired my legs are.

This was me at breakfast after my 20 miler last Saturday.  Can you tell I look tired and worn out. 

This was my dinner last night.  I know, a lot of broccoli but really this dinner was for me and Scott but then he had to work late and I didn't want it to go to waste.  Yes, I ate it all :) 

Grilled Teriyaki chicken breast with a slice of provolone cheese on top.
Steamed Broccoli.

I am running my tempo run tomorrow, 11 miles with 1 warm up and 10 @ 8:00-8:23 pace.  Once again I am tweaking my plan.  Now I am going to try and do my tempo runs in between the 3:30 and 3:40 training plan.  Because my speed and endurance have improved I am able to challenge myself a little more with tempos.  

So I had to share this last!  The other day while I was running errands in the city I walked past The Soft Serve Fruit Company.  Ok this is the best thing EVER!  No dairy and gluten free!  It is frozen fruit whipped into a frozen soft served treat.  I got the banana with peanut butter, chocolate chips and pretzels.  It was SO GOOD!!!  Because the frozen fruit is just fruit and not yogurt it doesn't have an artificial taste. Banana always seems to taste the most artificial to me when it is not real.  This is why this place was so good!  Everything is REAL!

 

When do you guys start counting down?  Is 6 weeks too early?

Honestly I am enjoying the training it is just the track that is so tough. 

I also want to say that I know some of you out there are doing the plan as well.  Don't give up!  It is hard but you can do it!  If you are really struggling try skipping one of the training days and start fresh the next.  Think of the bigger picture at the end.  This plan really does make you a stronger runner and gives you the determination and drive to cross the finish line with success!


XX
Sarah

18 Miles and the Roller Derby =)

These last few weekends have been great! Last weekend was Les Miserables and then my friend surprised me this weekend with tickets to the Roller Derby.  There is nothing quite like spending the evening watching HoJ Simpson take down Leigh Vem Bruised. =) 

Amber and I with CICI before it started.

Fun Fact: In Denver alone there are 109 Full Member Leagues and 53 Apprentice Leagues. It is Roller Derby Madness around here. I love it!

Now down to serious RLRF business.  First, another shout out to Sarah who ran her 20 miles at an 8:19 pace! That is very awesome and very inspiring.  Also, I ran my 18 this past Saturday at an overall pace of 8:44. This was according to my garmin which always seems to be a little faster then most so I would imagine I came in a little slower then that. But non the less I took the first 13 miles real easy hanging around a 9 minute mile or so and then picked it up and ran around 8:15's or so to finish the run. It was a good reminder to me that if you start easy you can finish strong.  I hope to do something similar in my marathon this December but I guess we will see how it all goes!

This weeks workouts.

Monday: Total Conditioning
Tuesday: Speed 2x1200's and then 4x800's with 2 minute recovery
Wednesday: Bike 15-20 miles easy
Thursday: Tempo 1 Mile easy with 5 Miles at pace
Friday: Total Conditioning
Saturday: 20 miler (Let's hope I don't bonk this time around.... my last 20 didn't go so well.)

Has anyone else been to see the Roller Derby?
-I hope to go again

What are you workout plans for the week?

Who else is doing RLRF? Do you like it?
-So far I am liking it a lot. 3 days of running a week is great. Gives me lots of time to spice up training.

Happy Running -Jen

RLRF WORKS!

I just wanted to share a quick post that the Run Less Run Faster plan is working!   Today I did my 20 miler at a 8:19 pace.  Granted I did get tired at the end and I blame this partially to my walking around too much yesterday but the majority of my miles were around 8:10.  I am pretty happy about this because now I really know that a 3:30-3:40 marathon is within my reach!!

I made Scott take a picture of me right after.  Don't make fun,  I know I look like I was a walking glass of limeade :)  I also wore my compression socks today because it was cool outside so I knew I wouldn't get too hot.

Also another exciting thing happened on my run this morning.  I ran past Nate Appleman from Chopped All-Stars!  The cool thing is that he is in this month's Runner's World Mag.  I was tempted to yell out "Hey I just saw you in Runner's World!" but I didn't. I resisted :)  But the girl who he was running with had on the same limeade shorts as me!

Hope you had a great run today if you were out! Have a great weekend!

XX
Sarah