Bring on October!

The first few bars are not proportional to the later ones

Just to give you a bit of history, I only used to train for mostly 5Ks back in the day, pre-baby. Which meant the furthest I ever ran on any given running day was 4 miles. I ventured into the 10K distance for a short time before I got pregnant and did a couple 10K races (both 10Ks were bridge runs, so I am looking to eventually do a flat one to try to PR -- sub 1 hour is my goal!)

I joined a training group in June this year with my local Fleet Feet for beginner half-marathoners (specifically training for the Rock and Roll Savannah Half in November) and they have been excellent for making me get out of bed in the mornings. I knew I could never follow any type of plan by myself because I could easily have just said, "I'll run tomorrow" or, "I'll just make up the miles this weekend" or... any other excuse not to get up and get my miles in.

Another group that I joined this year: Moms Run This Town, has given me even MORE motivation and support to go out there and run. Plus I've made a bunch of awesome new mommy friends -- which is a milestone in itself because I am not the type to go out there and join a "mommy group" but I am so glad I did. I love the group and try to pitch in as much as I can to give back to the cause and support I have received in return. I was recently promoted to be a co-chapter leader for our Savannah group, which I am honored to do so, but not worthy! I'm just doing my part! :)

Doing the LoCo Motion this past Saturday!

One of my last posts dealt with new records for the month of September -- I have even more to add. It's just getting a bit ridiculous -- the amount of achievements I've done this month -- but it's all true and noteworthy that I have to mention it! haha It's like it just keeps getting better!

• Finished my first 10-mile race, the LoCo Motion 10 Mile Run/Walk in Callawassie Island, SC (details below)
• Ran a record number of miles in 1 month: 78 (see image at top)
• Reached a total of 400 miles run for 2012 thus far (according to Daily Mile, yet the screenshot above totals only 388... which is fine because there were a few times I did not log!)
• Completed my highest total number of organized races for the year...so far! And more to be added! I am at 6 thus far in 2012, whereas my previous highest was 4 in 2010!)

Last Saturday morning, while pretty much everyone was out doing the Big Nasty Mud Run (I'm so jealous!), I was out running the LoCo Motion 10 Mile Run on Callawassie Island in SC. It's a 3-day, 30 mile event which benefits breast cancer research, screening and treatment. Callawassie Island is the first community in South Carolina to be designated a Community Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation, so the course was BEAUTIFUL - half golf course and half shady neighborhood streets. But the race started at 9 am! HOT! I've grown accustomed to seeing dark morning stars and beautiful dawns on my runs.

I guess I'll start with the few CONs of the run: First, the late start time, nuff' said! It was a very casual race, which meant no chip timing (no big deal, I knew this before hand and was prepared with my Garmin and was not expecting a PR). But it also meant that the course was most likely not measured correctly -- my GPS readings were minus .2 miles from each mile marker, so I had to make up for it after I crossed the finish line. It also meant that the start was not really officially announced - I thought we were doing a group "warm up" walk, but then after I saw people in the front of the pack start running, I started my watch and tried to make my way past the walkers, which also kind of sucked, because I was in the back and I'd say 75% of the group were walkers. Plus the start was on a golf course path, so it was really narrow and really hard to maneuver past. I read on the website that they'd give runners a 3 minute head start. I guess they forgot!

Now that all the bad stuff is out of the way, I can get on with all the GREAT stuff!

1. It was a beautiful, scenic, mostly shaded course.

2. TREMENDOUS community involvement: high school cheerleaders were cheering, residents had pink bows on their mailboxes, and a lot of them were outside their houses cheering everyone on and waving.

3. TONS of water and snack stops along the way, which made it fun and really broke up the course -- some residents had unofficial stops where they set out some snacks, drinks, candy, pretzels, oranges, chocolates, watermelon (OMG the watermelon hit the spot!) and played music. I wasn't planning on stopping along the course so much, but I loved how they all came out to support the race!

4. It was a small race - maybe 150-200 participants that day, so parking and bathrooms were not an issue!

5. The overall vibe and energy of the morning was great! Maybe due to the intimacy of the race because it was so small? I was definitely catching the vibes of all the different groups and runners out there. For some, it was the 2nd day in a row to be walking or running 10 miles. That's amazing to me.

6. I got to wear PINK! It was a perfect race to don my hot pink CEP compression socks! I got multiple comments and compliments on them!

7. Race goodies! For a small race, they sure had a good amount of free stuff out there: along with the usual bottles of water, bagels, grapes, bananas, granola bars, they had large bags of sweet potato chips (yum), medium size bottles of Gatorade, pink lollipops (grabbed a few for Liam) and other pink candies. And in the race bags there were pink cups, bracelets, a pink beer koosie, nail file...

8. Great race support staff - I had many questions before the race, which I asked on their FB page and they were quickly answered!

Finish time was 1 hour, 43-ish seconds on the race clock. I wasn't paying too much attention because I had to go the extra bit after crossing under the finish line arch to reach 10 miles on my Garmin, which was 01:48:30.

I'd totally do this again next year. Maybe even try to do this and another one of the other days as well! The final day of the event was 10 miles on the beach!

Time for bed... It's October now... where how did September go by so fast? :)

Record-Breaking September

ALMOST a new PR...

What a month it's been so far! And it's not quite over!

First of all, I have LESS THAN SIX weeks to go until I run my first Half marathon!!! I am SO friggin excited!  :)

I had an AWESOME 10 mile run last Saturday morning with the Pooler CREW... my pace was FASTER than both my previous 9 and 8 mile run (which both happened to be just about the same pace) and my legs felt GREAT! I had my first ice bath afterwards. Which might have been a minor FAIL because I only got 2 bags of ice and had to supplement with the ice cubes in my freezer because my tap water wasn't cold enough. I think it worked though. It wasn't so bad for my first one! I need to do it more often!

It was also the second time running my longest distance EVAR of 10 miles. And I kicked that previous time's ass!! By about 16 minutes! Well, the first time I did it, there were multiple HUGE hills that I was not ready for...

Ice bath! (I know... I need a new pedicure)

I started putting my distance PRs on my "Completed Races and PRs" tab... to keep track of my fastest times for each mile distance. If you look at the page, almost ALL of the 4-10 mile PRs happened this month! That PDR is about to change too... the long run on October 6 is 11 miles...

We had a mock 5K race last Thursday morning... It was cool and dark, but I was ready to run! I have not run that fast since 2009 when I did my current 5K PR in the Race for the Cure that year (27:49), but if I remember correctly, that course was a bit short, so I the time that I posted in the photo above is truer. 9 minute miles, for 3.1 miles! I didn't think I was going to see a 27 at the end of my run...

And then this morning, I kicked even MORE ASS running 4 miles in 36:32! That's only a slightly slower pace than that 5K last week!

I attribute these record times to the cooler weather and running with a group. Running with people that are at your pace or slightly faster definitely helps push you to go faster than you would naturally go if you were by yourself. Plus the (huffed) conversations while running help with your lungs and also just helps to keep things less boring! It's a good distraction. :) I don't think I would have been able to train like this all by myself, I am SO thankful for my group!!!

That's not all... last week, I achieved my highest weekly mileage: 27 miles (Sunday, Sept 16 to Saturday, Sept 22)!

And to top it off, I am on track to complete another record monthly mileage total of: 78 miles for September!! Woohoo!!

More new Kicks - Saucony Progrid Omni 11

Saucony Progrid Omni 11

I ordered a pair of Sauconys a few weeks ago from Fleet Feet. I have wide feet and they didn't carry these babies in wide. Well, they came in and I picked them up last Monday. Tried them out on Tuesday morning... OMG... they are AWESOME! I might have a new favorite running shoe. The thing I like about these the most is the cushioning. The inserts have memory foam in them. I might have tried these on last year at the Potomac River Running Store....quite possibly the same model, but not sure. I should have taken note. They were my second choice behind my trusty Brooks Adrenaline. I've never had TWO pairs of running shoes in my rotation, so this is a FIRST for me! I've also never really run in ANYTHING other than the Brooks Adrenaline!

The Saucony Omnis (SO) are lighter than the Brooks Adrenaline (BA), so they are more suited for longer distance running than the BAs. The SOs are just so friggin COMFY! I cannot stress this enough. It's like walking on a dang CLOUD. I could wear them all day! They were the same price, I think... at least in the same price range. I learned that the WIDE version of shoes are very limited in colors, which is why I can't ever find any snazzy/flashy colored shoes that are right for my feet. :\ The SOs also came in a nice Blue/Gray color scheme (still not as flashy as I'd like), but the Wide was only in this Red/Gray combo. I am REALLY happy with my purchase and I hope to make the SOs a part of my running shoe family from now on! :)

Up this week is my last day of Crossfit. I will miss it, but I will be back at bootcamp soon. If they ever do more classes, I will definitely sign up. If they ever open up a Crossfit gym in this area, I MAY sign up... not sure. Those gyms are hardcore. But at some point, I'd like to be hardcore. :) Maybe. At least I got a taste of it. And dammit, doing ONE unassisted pull up in my life is on my bucket list!!!

I have a 10 miler this weekend. I hope to redeem myself from my last 10 miler... which was hilly and just plain exhausting. I wasn't ready, but I wanted to make the most of the running trail in DC. At least THAT was pretty! Me on the other hand... was not so much.

I also wanted to write a bit about my 9-miler I did last Sunday. It was fine. I did it at the same pace as the last 8-miler. We went a bit later than I normally go, so it was pretty hot. I don't know if I just didn't take enough fuel (I split 1/2 a pack of GU chomps - I took 2 at 4.5 miles, and the other 2 at 7 miles in) or what, but my legs felt pretty damn tired at mile 7. I tried not to think about how tired my legs felt... tried to scroll through some uplifting songs on my mp3 player to distract myself (I don't usually listen to music)... it wasn't until after the 8th mile - the last one - that I was like, screw it, let's just get this over with and end it! After I hit 9, I stopped my watch and started to walk the .75 miles back to the car. My damn right calf was so tight! It was tight for 2 days. Well, it didn't occur to me until well after the run that: what if that happens to me at the half in November? What if my legs give out in the middle of it? I thought about the ironman races where people literally crawl through the chutes to the finish line, falling, and getting back up because they just pushed themselves so hard... After some motivating comments from my Daily Mile friends, I decided, well, I just have to take the bad runs and move on. Everyone has them. Just have to adjust and adapt!

I do know that those GU gels worked for me. I tried one for the first time on my 5 miler on Tuesday... and it instantly worked...or so it seemed. Haha. It tasted like shit, though! haha... Whatever. I will choke it down if it will make my legs move faster!!

New PDR - 10 Miles!

A view of DC on the Mount Vernon Trail

For my long run this last Saturday, I did TEN whole miles! I probably shouldn't have, but I was scheduled to do 7 on the training plan, but missed last Tuesday's morning run (I didn't wake up for the run - FIRST time ever missing a training run from oversleeping!) which called for 3.5 miles, so I wanted to combine them to get all the miles in at once. PLUS, no better time to do it while on vacay in the DC area (Arlington)! I'm visiting my BFF who just had a beautiful baby girl. They live right near an awesome bike/running trail - the Custis Trail - that goes on almost as long as you want to go and connects with other trails as well.

I did a 4-miler on the trail on Thursday. I went west on it for about 2 miles and turned around. The trail is mainly a bike path, so runners have to be aware of speedy bikes that fly by. Especially if you need to pass a slower runner/walker... you seriously have to check your blind spot before you pass. I didn't need to do that too many times because I was going pretty darn slow! The trail is very hilly and my Savannah trained body is not conditioned to hills like this. I love it though. Makes things more interesting and challenging. I tried to fly down the hills to make up for my time, but my body didn't let me – well really, my knees didn't like the downhill, so I took it easy. Damn 30s!

The morning of my 10-miler started out cloudy and I expected the clouds to stay and even get a bit of rainfall. Nope. It got sunny! Which was bad because I didn't put any sunblock on my face or tattoo. But even though it was sunny, it never got too humid - not Savannah humid anyway. The weather was awesome. I decided to do a warm up walk to the path (about half a mile) so that I could do a cool down walk back as well to add another mile to my distance (so I covered about 11 miles, but I am not counting the warm up and cool down to my PDR).

I decided to try heading east on the Custis trail this time, because I knew it merged with one of my favorite trails - the Mount Vernon Trail, which runs along the Potomac River. It even hooks up to the Wilson Bridge trail that Joel and I used to run when we lived there (I didn't go THAT far). The first half of my run was awesome and I felt great. Probably because most of it was downhill. I decided into my run that I'd take a 5 minute pit stop at the 5 mile turn around and eat my Honey Stinger chews and stretch. A bad idea. The stopping was good for catching my breath, but I don't think the chews or the stretching helped at all. :( I might have eaten too many, too fast because after I started back up again, my tummy felt weird. (Not so bad that I had to make a pit stop, though) And the stretching didn't help because I started feeling my hips get a bit sore on the way back.

So I went about 3 miles on the Custis Trail and 2 miles on the Mt Vernon Trail. On the last 3 miles of the Custis Trail is where I pretty much fell apart / gassed out / wanted to stop. The beginning of the 8th mile was ALL uphill. I tried to just keep a running motion – even though I felt like I was going super slow – but my thighs were not feeling it. So at some points I had to slow down and walk. The uphill didn't really let up until the beginning of the 9th mile where there were some declines and somewhat level ground. I ran out of water at this point, so I stopped my watch and mooched some A/C and water from a Giant that was on the trail. I started the watch again when I got back on the trail and had one more mile to go. This one wasn't so bad, although at the VERY END was a huge ass incline. On the uphill I was chanting to myself, "dig, dig, DIG!" Then finally I heard that sweet Garmin "BEEP" and reached the top of the hill and stopped my watch for T-E-N miles!! WOO!!

Despite my crappy last miles, I am pretty damn proud of myself for accomplishing this distance!!! I even had negative splits on the great first half of the run! Then it was all uphill from there. It really was an AWESOME trail. I would LOVE to train on this trail. I actually overheard one girl in a running duo say to her partner, "So we've done at least 13 miles, right?" And they just kept going and chatting as they passed me. I ate their dust. Awesome. I want to be able to run an EASY 13 miles and be able to have conversations while doing it! ONE OF THESE DAYS!!!

It's taper week next week with the training group. I sure as hell NEED it! I also start a 5-week CrossFit class on Wednesday... looking forward to getting my ass kicked! :)