On to Week 6 of Marathon training!

Tomorrow marks the start of June (how did that happen already?!), and I'm moving into week 6 of marathon training. And I have to say it's going amazingly well so far! I have had to mix up my run days during the week since I'm working with my church's Run For God group, but I'll be able to go back on plan in about 8 weeks. Luckily we're still at lower times for the weekday runs, so it's not interfering with the training. 

So far I've been able to do my weekend long runs with Christine, and that has been my saving grace. I've actually looked forward to getting up early on Saturdays, even on the days when it's been cold or threatening to pour at any second. The miles together have flown by, and leave me feeling ready to take on this challenge.

This week my plans had to change a bit, though. Matt (my 13 year old) and I signed up to run one of our favorite races - the Ozzie's 5K , held at the Kane County Cougars stadium. We've run it every year they've had it so far, and with the great perk of a free ticket to a game it's a win-win. Ok, so the free beer and brat doesn't hurt either...that Summer Shandy tastes pretty darn good after the race! Matt ended up shaving almost 10 minutes off his time from last year!! As for me, I took close to 2 minutes off my time, which I'm really happy with. The course was hillier this year, and was an out and back on a trail that was primarily gravel. 

Afterwards we hit Colonial for breakfast with the family, and I decided to go ahead and tackle the rest of the 8 miles I had to complete for my long run. It started off great, but by mile 1.5 the wind shifted to come barreling down from the north, and the sprinkles turned into a steady heavy drizzle. The temps dropped about 15 degrees while I was out there, and when the wind gusted it was downright cold! That probably explains why my splits were 12:29, 12:16, 11:51, and 10:57 - I just wanted to be done!

I still had one more run to complete this weekend, and that was the Answers for Emmett 5K. This race honors the memory of Emmett, and raises the awareness of sudden unexplained death in childhood. I can't even begin to imagine what this family went through, losing their son like that. I normally wouldn't do back to back races, but this was a great cause to support.

Amy and Chris were both there, and it made my day to see them again. It was pretty darn chilly, but that made for great racing weather. Luckily I wasn't sore from running yesterday, but I honestly didn't know what this race held for me. The plan was to give whatever I could, and finish upright. I felt great, so I just kept pushing. My official finish time is 34:09, and that was just 15 seconds slower than yesterday's race! My Garmin said I actually did 3.19 miles, so my pace was actually better. 

This year's marathon training is already off to such a better start than I've ever had. I'm focusing on strength training, and working on building a strong core. I can already tell this has helped, and it's pushing me to keep up with it. There is a whole lot more work to do, and I can't wait to keep pushing! Now on to 9 miles this weekend!

Let the training begin!

It's been a loooong time since I blogged, and mainly because there hasn't been a whole lot to tell. I guess I did do the Country Music Half in Nashville (which was just one tiny part of an amazing weekend!), but I've been very inconsistent with my running. Some due to coming back from an injury, and some due to lack of drive to go more than a few miles in a run. 

Luckily all that seemed to change a couple of weeks ago. Our church started a Run For God group, which is like a Couch to 5K program, and I've been mentoring the new runners in our group. It's opened up my eyes to see this whole running thing through their eyes, and the joy and love of running worked its way back into my heart. 

Then my awesome friend Christine commented that she wants to train for a Fox Valley race!! She and I have been running together on Saturday mornings with then DPA group, so I was beyond thrilled to hear this. All runs with her just fly by, so I can't wait to train with her. And thanks to her training plan, I am confident we'll both do amazing. 

I've started ramping up my miles, and had 7 on the schedule for today. But due to a family event, I didn't think I'd be able to get them done. Thank goodness Christine agreed to meet me at 6:00 this morning so we could actually get all 7 in. Of course, that idea sounded soooo much better Friday night. 

But meet at dawn we did! It had rained earlier, and it was still horribly humid when we started. We have been following a run/walk plan of 3 minutes running and 2 minutes walking. We settled in to our run, and knocked out three miles before making it back to Dick Pond. We got there before the run club took off, and I had a chance to try out Newton Motion shoes for the next four miles.

We had a hilly route for the rest of the run, and we managed to keep our pace right on target for the entire run. Our last full mile was actually our fastest! The rain started to come down pretty hard when we had a bit less than a mile to go, and it was so welcome at that point. We made it back to the store, and I really felt amazing. I know a big chunk of it was due to the fabulous company...I couldn't have done this without her with me for all those miles. 

This run was exactly what I needed. Yes, I'm a bit sore tonight, but a lot of that is due to being stuck in the car for 4+ hours. I feel ready to tackle the next four months of marathon training, and can't wait to see how incredible this will be.

5 weeks feels like an eternity

It's been nearly 5 weeks since my hamstring issue became enough of an issue that it pretty much stopped me in my tracks (I blame the snow...sort of kidding). Since then I have run only one time, for a short two miler. Shortly after that last run I haven't even been able to walk, except for my day to day life. It's sad when a trip to Walmart is the most exercise I get. 

I've been in physical therapy for almost three weeks. After the first session I felt amazing! My hamstring felt so much better...I could actually sit without wanting to cry because of the pain. Unfortunately the relief was relatively short-lived. My doctor and PT had set the expectation beforehand that this is common, so I did my best to roll with it. I've kept up with my homework, and I work my butt off during my appointments. I'm starting to see some glimpses of more progess, but man...this is tough.

It's not so much about not being able to run. The weather has been less than ideal, so at least I haven't missed great running conditions. I've still been heading out to meet my awesome running family, living vicariously through their training. They've helped to keep me sane, and I so treasure them for this.

It's just that I'm so, so tired of being in pain 24/7. The intensity level of pain comes and goes, but it's always there, reminding me that I'm broken. Yes, it has improved some with therapy, but it's still present. I want so badly to wake up in the morning and be able to get out of bed without having to limp to the kitchen. I want to feel whole again...

On the I.R.

For the last couple of months I've been dealing with a couple of nagging injuries, and it finally got to the point where I knew they weren't going to get better on their own without some outside help. The initial issue was a pain in the top of my foot...it felt like I had dropped something on it, like it was bruised. I've rested it quite a bit, and there hasn't been any change at all. Then my hamstring started to get a lot worse after a snow walk, so I decided it was time to get in with an orthopedic doctor to hopefully get some answers.

Luckily I was able to get an appointment with a wonderful sports med Ortho, who happens to specializes in working with runners and endurance athletes. His first question was: "What are your running plans, and your target races?". It's great to have someone who gets it, and understands the drive. He spent about 30 minutes doing a full exam, going over all of my issues in detail with me. 

My X-rays showed that I didn't appear to have a stress fracture (whew!), so my doctor recommended the next step of an MRI to get a better look at what's going on. The results of that came back, and show that I have bone marrow edema within the medial sesamoid with stress reaction. My first thought was "what the heck is that?!". 

Basically it's swelling in the sesamoid and bone, without the fracture. So my instructions for the next 10 days are no running and I have to wear a lovely pad on the bottom of my foot to relieve pressure. On top of no running, I also can't do any weight-bearing exercises during this treatment. And since it's too cold and icy right now to ride my bike I'm trying to find other ways to keep exercising. I would do yoga, but that brings me to my other injury...a high hamstring strain (oh joy!).

My doctor gave me a few options for treatment, ranging from continued rest up to pretty intense physical therapy using the Graston technique. Graston is deep manipulation of the injured area with tools that I'm pretty sure we're used as medieval torture devices.

Yeah...those look a lot of fun! I already know I'm most likely going to come out pretty bruised, and it's probably going to hurt - a lot - but the doctor believes this will be the solution to my hamstring issues. With this the therapist can really get into it and work out the scar tissue that's built up over the last couple of years. They'll also do some additional massage and electric stim, and I can't wait to get started on Monday! 

Even though I'm injured, I'm really okay with this forced time off. The only reason I'm a bit frustrated is that I've been working on losing my marathon 15 lbs. I've done well so far, and have lost about 5 lbs over the last three weeks. I may look at joining XSport so I can swim and ride the bike, as well as add in some strength training. I'm keeping up with my routine of getting up early on Saturdays and heading to Run Club at Dick Pond Athletics, and helped set up for the Valentine's Day Love Run they had today. It gives me a chance to see my awesome friends, and helps me still feel like a runner.

My hope is that I'll be well on the road to recovery soon. I'm planning to run the Shamrock Shuffle 8K for the fifth year in a row. This is the race that got me to fall in love with running, so I'm crossing everything to be well enough to run it. Especially since they're giving out medals this year :-)! Then I'll move on to training for the Rock & Roll Half in Nashville the last week of April. Now it's time to step up that cross-training!

It was a P.R. kind of day...

It's hard to believe that the Naperville Marathon and Half Marathon was 5 days ago! I so wanted to run it last year, but it sold out in record time. So this year I was thrilled to have a chance to run the Half Marathon....I knew it was the perfect way to keep me moving after finishing Chicago.

I completed the Monster Dash Half 13 days after Chicago, and 15 days before the Naperville Half. It actually felt great to get out there running again, and I had a blast sharing it with my lovely friend Christine. She kept me on track until we hit mile 11.5, and ran smack into a Breast Cancer Walk that was joining the lakefront path with us. That bottleneck lasted about a mile, but we were still able to finish with my second-fastest half time, at 2:53 and change.

This awesome skyline never gets old!

So glad I got to share this beautiful day with so many friends!

I ran a couple of very short runs leading up to Naperville, but that was it. Now that it gets dark around 4:45 or so, it's a lot harder to get out after work for lots of miles. So my goal for this half was just to have a great time, enjoy the run, and celebrate finishing the last (finally!!) long run I would do in 2014. My friend Pat, who is incredible, is one of the race directors for Naperville, and I couldn't wait to share this with her. I also had several friends running the half distance, as well as a few running the full marathon.

We lucked out with some pretty decent weather on race day. It was going to be cool, in the upper 40s in the afternoon, but luckily there wasn't any rain and very little wind at the start.

Beautiful sunrise to start out the morning

Love these ladies!! And man....I am short :)

The energy was buzzing around the starting line. I got my bag (packed with some warm clothes) dropped off, made a couple of stops at the porta potties, and found a spot around the 2:30 half marathon pace group. I knew I couldn't stay with them the whole time, so I hung back from them a bit. The starting gun went off, and within just five or six minutes I was on my way. I settled into a very comfortable pace, just a bit under 12 minute miles. My plan was to keep running for almost all of the first 4 miles, then switch to my run/walk of 3 minutes run/1:30 walk. That went really well, and the only time I walked was through the first water station. I felt great, and kept plugging along.

The route went through several different neighborhoods in the city of Naperville. I was pleasantly shocked at the number of spectators. It was great to see so many people in front of their homes, cheering on the runners. I saw my friend Melinda and her son V going through one of the neighborhoods, and that put a big smile on my face. 

Around mile 4 I turned on my Gymboss, which keeps me on track for my run/walk. My pace did slow down a bit, but not too bad. I also took my first GU (LOVE the Salted Caramel!) around 4.5 miles in, so that dropped my pace back a bit, too. Luckily I actually started to speed back up a bit around mile 7, and kept that going for the next couple of miles.

Miles 9 and 10 were the roughest stretch for me. It was on a stretch of road that had very few homes (so very few spectators), and it was hilly. But I knew I was getting very close to just having a 5K to go, and with the pace I had going I also thought I *might* be able to beat my best time. I saw my friend Karen around the end of this part of the half, and that perked me up a ton, too. 

The spectators started to grow as we were getting closer to Naperville Central, where the race started and would finish. I picked up my pace a bit, and it really hit me that "Oh my gosh...I might actually PR today!!". That thought kept me moving as we got to the split, where the marathoners turned left and those of us running the half got to turn right. I could hear the finish line excitement, and everyone around me could feel the energy pulling us in. 

I saw my friend Denise about 0.3 miles from the finish. She cheered me on, and I yelled back "It's a PR for me!". I made the final turn, and could see the finish line looming in front of me. Once I got to the fences marking the finisher's chute, I took off and sprinted across the line, and finished with a time of 2:46:22 - about a minute faster than my best time! I had a HUGE smile on my face, and put on the jacket a volunteer handed me. We had these instead of the Mylar blankets, and I really liked it.

Right after getting my medal my dear friend Michelle found me and gave me a great big hug. She ran a great half! I know she was freezing (she had finished well before me, and was sweetheart to be out there for me), and luckily another running friend Diane gave Michelle her jacket to help her warm up.

Happy runners!

Another great perk of running the half is that I actually got a massage this time :)! And oh...it was amazing! My calves had been cramping up the last couple of miles, and this helped a ton. I also saw Pat and Craig as I was laying there, and got hugs from them. After that, I picked up my bag and headed into the gym at the high school to warm up a bit. Andrea finished just a bit after me (so awesome...she's been injured, so I know how tough it was!), and after some more time warming up we headed up to eat our way through the food tent.

Michelle, me, and Andrea post-race

The beef sandwiches from Buona Beef were just about the best.thing.ever., and yay!! - they had Nestle Quik chocolate milk as well!! It all tasted soooo good, and helped me warm up a bit, too. After eating I grabbed my bag from the Dick Pond Fast Track Team tent, and finally was able to get my nice, warm, down coat on. We headed over to the Two Brothers Beer Tent, and our friend Jitka met up with us there. I am SO proud of her - she rocked her marathon and finished right about 3:45 and change!!

This was just about the perfect way to round out my 2014 races. I do have one more, but it's just a 4 miler on Thanksgiving. I got to share it with so many friends, had a blast, and beat my best time from over 2 years ago when I was faster. And to top it off - I qualified for the Half Fanatics since I did two half marathons in 15 days! That wasn't my goal at the beginning of this year, but it felt pretty good to cross that off my list.

Happy finisher here

This year has definitely flown by, with the races and training keeping me busy. I'll be working more on cross-training this winter, and shedding the 20 lbs I've put on the last year or so. I'm ready to get back and track, and can't wait to see what 2015 has in store for me!

Chicago Marathon 2014 recap

I needed to wait at least a few days to let the emotions from this past weekend die down a bit before putting all of my thoughts down here. It's hard to believe another Chicago Marathon has already come and gone, and I have a whole lot to share (yes...that's a warning!).

Why does the year have to go by so quickly? When I registered and signed up to run the Chicago Marathon for the second time as a member of Team Ronald McDonald House Charities, we were still stuck in the Polar Vortex and dealing with snow/wind/ice runs. It was nice to think about that fact that eventually it would warm up, and I'd be complaining about training in the heat (and yeah...I'm pretty sure I did). I went into this marathon season with the best-laid plans, and vowed to train better and smarter than last year. Unfortunately, due to a whole lot of other circumstances, that didn't happen. I trained....but I definitely didn't train my best. So this marathon really became about survive and move on.

My emotions leading up to the big day ranged from "meh" to "yikes" to "woo hoo!". Chad, the boys, and I had a room booked at the Embassy Suites on Columbus for Saturday night, which was the perfect spot for us. I headed down on Friday to hang out at the Expo, pick up my Team RMHC wristbands, and meet up with some other amazing women I met through a group on Facebook.

Always exciting to see this at McCormick Place!

On Saturday the family and I headed back down to the city. The boys enjoy checking out the free samples, spinning to win things, and I like to share some of the excitement with them. It was a beautiful day, and tons of people were out enjoying all Chicago has to offer. Unfortunately, since traffic was so bad after leaving the Expo I missed the Team ADPi meet-up by the starting line. But luckily I was able to say hello and share hugs with my sisters at our incredible Team RMHC dinner at Union Station.

Dinner was over fairly early, and I was back at the hotel by 8:00. Luckily I remembered all of my gear for Sunday, so I laid everything out and attempted to sleep. That was easier said than done, but I had caught up on sleep over the days leading up to marathon day and I woke up without a problem at 4:45. After getting showered and ready, I joined the mass of other runners making their way to the start. The sun was just starting to come up as I got into our Charity tent for breakfast. We got a team picture, and before I knew it, it was time to head down to my corral.

Team RMHC - 811 runners strong!!

The excitement among all of the other runners in the corral was electric, and it was like one big party back in corral K. I ran into Sara, and it was great talking with her so I didn't freak out. Luckily I was able to make one last quick pit stop before we crossed the starting line, so that was one less thing to worry about.

Chilly, but excited!

Seriously...how much better could the weather have been?!

Almost there!

I had one huge embarrassing (and painful) moment less than a mile into the marathon. On the first bridge I decided to run on the mat covering the grates, and TOTALLY wiped out. It was road rash on the knees, bruises on both knees, and the right side of my body. It hurt like a mother, but I tried to shake it off. 

I felt really strong through mile 13, but when I didn't see Chad and the boys where I was hoping to see them I started to get a bit emotional. Last year they didn't get to come down for the marathon, so I was looking forward to seeing them this year. But I knew I would see several friends at the aid station just up the road. Getting hugs and high fives from them gave me a great boost to get me moving strong again.

SO happy to see Pat, Mark, Tom, Jen, and Megan at Aid Station #10!

I finally saw my family right before mile 17, and had a bit of a breakdown. At that point, I was in a lot of pain, and was starting to doubt if I had another 9.2 miles in me. They all gave me hugs, said they knew I could do it, and that they would see me after I finished and earned that medal. So off I went! I shared some time with a fellow LOCM runner, and another couple of ladies. I made a comment about how I was starving, and one lady gave me a fun-size Snickers bar....OMG, it was heaven!! 

This was the part of the marathon where I had to dig deep and just keep moving. There were several other RMHC runners in our little pack, so we all checked on each other to make sure we were all okay. Yep, we all hurt, but there was no doubt that we would all finish. The spectators at this point were incredible, which really helped. One woman had two bowls of food, and asked me if I need sweet or salty. I yelled back "salty!", and she ran over to me with a bowl of almonds and nuts. Others gave us Jolly Ranchers, Twizzlers, and even little cups of beer! Hearing them yell my name (I had used sparkly letters to spell it out...if I'm going to be slow, I might as well shine!) helped me put one foot in front of the other. 

Just as I was getting to Chinatown I saw my friend Andrea - otherwise known as the "Do Epic Shit" lady! She jumped in, gave me a hug, and walked and talked with me as we got into the main part of Chinatown. Just as we were getting to the great photo op spot she said we were going to run through here so I could get some great shots. She was a lifesaver for me!! And luckily I got to see here again around mile 24-25.

Finally we turned on to Michigan Avenue, and it started to hit me that I was going to finish my second Chicago Marathon. I got a bit emotional, but struggled with some disappointment. I had been on pace to finish under 6:00 until I got to about mile 15, and at this point I was just hoping I'd be an official finisher, coming in right under 6:30. The sweeper car wasn't too far behind, so I kept running as much as I could. I even ran up most of Mount Roosevelt, but backed off right towards the top so I'd have some in the tank to finish strong. I ran into my friend Jamie right as we made the turn onto Columbus to head for the finish line, and getting to see her finish her first marathon was so moving. We hugged and sobbed once I got through the finish line, then went to collect our wraps and medals.

Yep...totally worth all the pain!

We had to part by the gear check, since I had to head on down to the RMHC tent. Luckily some marathon official showed me a shortcut so I didn't have to walk quite as far as I though I'd have to go. I rounded the corner on Jackson, and finally I was back! Everyone gave me a rock star welcome - cheers went up, I saw my lovely ADPi Sisters, and I made my way down the red carpet to collect my well-deserved champagne. Renee, our team "mom" and amazing supporter, jumped over the ropes and gave me a huge hug....I was so happy to see her! Chad and the boys were there, and I made them my personal assistants from there on out.

This was pretty freakin' awesome! Thanks for the great picture Jen W.!

Throwing diamonds with my sisters

All throughout my training, I swore this would be my last marathon. But before I left our happy little team village I told Renee I'll be back to run Chicago again next year. After all, I get to raise money for such an incredible charity! And I want to redeem myself from my less-than-stellar time this year. I know I have it in me....and I will welcome the challenge next year!

I swore this year would be different...

I really went into my marathon training with the best of intentions - I was going to do all of my mid-week runs, I was going to do my tempo work, blah blah blah....you see where this is going.

The only thing I have stuck to is doing my long runs. I've been so frustrated, and keep beating myself up for not giving it my all. Heck, I'm not even giving it my half. I could blame it on being busy with work. I could blame it on having to cart the kids around to different things. But really, it's just that I'm feeling very defeated.

Two years ago I was feeling awesome! I had lost 60 lbs in 2011, I was running my best times, and I was loving my new healthy lifestyle. Then I slowly started slacking off on my exercise and running, and didn't watch what I was eating as well as I had previously. By the time I ran Chicago in 2013 I had put back on about 20 lbs. I took training for a marathon as an excuse to eat anything and everything. Because, you know, when you run 16 miles you can eat the whole double scoop sundae....every other day (I really need a sarcasm font). It REALLY became a problem when the marathon was over - my body knew I wasn't running as much, but my mind kept me eating the same crap I had been eating.

Fast forward to now...I'm up another 5-8 lbs (depends on the day), and it sucks. I know what I'm eating isn't providing me with the fuel I need to keep me going with my training. There are some days that I do really well with my food choices. But then there are days like today - Chick Fil A for lunch, Papa John's for dinner, and I didn't run at all. Although with the awesome chafing I got on Saturday, I still needed to give that another day to heal.

After my 16 mile training run on Saturday I was seriously wondering if there is any way I can actually do the marathon again. I mean, I know I will do it, but I don't want to hate every minute of it. I hurt, I was slower than slow, and it sucked. I keep telling myself "at least I'm out there doing this", but I'm not giving it what I should. I found myself pretty depressed after the run this weekend (guess that explains the random bout of tears after I finished the run), and wondered how I could shake it.

What I did was go back and read my blog posts from last year, with my Fox Valley Marathon and Chicago Marathon training and recaps. Marathon training really is a lot like childbirth...your mind selectively blocks out the incredibly sucky parts. Luckily I wrote about them last year! I had a lot of the same fears, the same doubts, and then I read about finishing my two marathons in 3 weeks.

So I'm back in the game now. I know it's going to be tough, it's going to take some sacrifice with cutting out most of the treats, and it's going to take some blood, sweat, and yes, tears. But I can't wait to have that moment of crossing the finish line again, knowing that I gave it my all.