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Monday, October 6, 2014

2 weeks. . . 5K and Half Marathon

Hey everyone!  It's been a *long* time since I posted.  Mostly cause I haven't done jack with my weight loss. Total stall.  Slight gain.  Slightly bouncing around.  I struggle to lose weight during half marathon training when I have longer and longer runs.  I think in some way my body is always in a state of inflammation.  I will gain 2 lbs shortly after a long run. . . try like hell for a week to get it off and then have another long run.  Sucks, but it's life.  I'm hoping to really buckle down once the race is over.

So here's what happens in 2 weeks.   I run (well I think I will be walking to save my legs) a 5K on Saturday the 18th.    I get this medal:



The next day I run a half marathon and I get this medal:



But because I did both I also get this remix medal.  Apparently the middle part spins.



Who doesn't like race bling?  That's the *only* reason I'm doing both of these - for the bling.  First of all I have never done a 5K and received a medal.  My very very first 5K that I ever signed up for, gave away medals.  But it was rained out.  I still got my medal.  And I cried!  No joke.  But eventually after doing a few races I threw that medal out.  It didn't count.  My husband is doing the 5K with me and I think this will be the one time he finishes before me!  I'm really worried about putting those miles on my legs the day before a half.  Last month we did a Run or Dye (one of those color runs) and we walked quite a bit of that.  My legs were sore.  You use different muscles to walk than run.  So I'm kind of torn on if I should really walk this 5K.  I've not fully decided yet.  It will be hard to walk it cause I'll have fresh legs and I will want to run!

My half training is going well.  I'm following Higdon's novice 1 plan. I followed this the last time as well. However, I had just finished a 15K using his plan for that distance.  And I ran 3 times a week.  The half plan calls for 4.  For my last (and first) half marathon I tried that for 2 weeks and just couldn't commit to 4 days.  So I tossed the really short run in the middle of the week and did 3 days.  I figured it worked for 15K - 9.3 miles, why won't that work for 13.1?   It did work.  I mean I have no reason to believe it didn't.  But this time around I'm doing all 4 runs.  I have hopes that getting my weekly base mileage up will help those last couple miles of the race where I was just dying the first time around.  I should note that really I'm only doing the runs on this plan.  Not the strength and cross training too.  I wish I had the time for all of that, but I have too many other commitments. I ran 9 miles on Sat and I looked back at my 9 mile run for the first half (cause let's be real, I never run 9 unless I'm training!) and my avg pace was faster.  So maybe the 4 days is helping.  I'm not going to lie, it's hard.  I've really struggled last week.  And I struggled in the last 2 weeks of the plan the first time as well.  So I have a 10 miler this weekend and my fingers are crossed!   I really want to PR this half, but I know the course will be more hilly and I will be running alone (I had a friend with me the first time) so I really don't know what to expect.  I want to run the whole thing first and if a PR happens then that will be great.



Last but not least - any baseball fans out there?  I'm a new baseball fan.  This is really my second year of paying attention in a way that I can knowledgeably talk baseball, I can identify the players on the field, etc. The St Louis Cardinals (my home team) are in the playoffs.  I'm going to game 4 of the 5 game NLDS series tomorrow.  I have tickets to 2 games for the NCLS should we make it that far.  I'm not sure we will.  The Dodgers are tough, among other things.  But my fingers are crossed.  I'm struggling with my soda drinking habit, so I was thinking I may give up soda once the Cardinals are done with their season.  I haven't fully decided. It's such a drug.  It's emotional for me too, but sometimes I just *want* a soda.   In the meantime Go Cardinals!


2 comments:

  1. Wow, I didn't realize your race was so close! I've noticed that your pace has been improving a lot in your recent FB posts -- that's awesome! You are going to rock this half. :o) Good luck on your long training run this weekend!

    Still don't understand the baseball thing, but hey, whatever floats your boat. lol

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    1. Hot guys in white pants float my boat :)

      My pace is pretty good on my long runs. The short runs still suck for some reason. Not very logical huh? Last night I did 5 miles and while it was better than last week it was still slow. That being said my pace is improving cause the weather is improving. Humidity just kills my pace. I'm hoping for a chilly fall morning on the 19th.

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