An Unplanned 2-A-Day

As you are probably well aware, Chicago has been the victim of feet upon feet of snow.  And then magically, it got warmer yesterday.  Ok so it's not magic, it's science.  But for the sake of the story, let's call it magic because it seemed as if warmth would never come our way.  But alas, the warmth came and the snow melted.  But wait, it gets better.  Then it rained ALL day.

Despite the wet conditions, I still thought I would try to run outside yesterday morning.  I couldn't not take advantage of the first time temperatures were above freezing in as long as I can remember.  So I put on my fave long spandex, a long sleeve, and a short sleeve and headed on my way.  I didn't even bring my iPod because I thought I would just enjoy the pure fact that I was not on a treadmill.  Well, that and although it wasn't raining when I left, I was worried I would get rained on and I didn't want my iPod to get wet.  The poor thing has it hard enough dealing with my sweat.

I expected some puddles, but this was so much more.  I had to either run through small lakes or figure out ways to get around them - which often meant going into the street and weaving around parked cars, etc.  And some parts were slippery because temperatures were getting closer to freezing and causing all the water to turn to ice (more science).  So basically, I felt like I was not getting in a good workout and it was not worth it to keep trying to get through all the water and ice so I decided to call it quits at 2.3 miles.  I had the Garmin and I believe my miles were 8:07 and 8:3x (don't remember exactly).

Fast forward to the evening and I was back at the running again.  I wasn't satisfied with the short morning run since I took Wednesday completely off.  I had no real plan when I went to the gym in the evening, but soon decided I would do a tempo run.  It wasn't a long tempo, but still a tempo.  It went like this:

2 miles warm-up between 8:34 and 8:00 (7.0 - 7.5)

1 mile @ 7:19 (8.2)

1 mile @ 7:13 (8.3)

.5 miles @ 8:00

 

Total - 4.5 miles in 34:45

 

I'm happy with how I felt although I know I need to be doing longer tempos...or at least a long warm-up/cool-down to up the mileage.  But for now, I am really happy with it.

 

I think what I hate most about treadmill running (especially today) is how sweaty I get.  I like that the YMCA has huge fans, so I actually am cold when I enter the area wearing only my shorts and tank, but once I get going I can't control the sweat.  What I don't like about the Y is that they charge you for a towel and I always forget to bring my own!  But even when I do have a towel, it sucks having to wipe your face every few minutes (or more often).  I guess when I'm outside I don't think about it as much.  But when I'm running on a treadmill staring at myself in the mirror the entire time, there isn't much else on my mind except wishing I could stop and clean my face with soap and water.  (Not soup and water as I almost just typed, that would be gross...)

 

So now that I've most recently left you visions of either my sweaty face or washing your face with soup... let's get something happy and fun in here.  It is Friday after all!  But not just any Friday.  It's my dad's birthday!!!  This is a photo from his 31st birthday:

 

 

That beautiful, red-haired baby in his arms is me, along with some of my cousins.

 

And a more current picture of us:

 

My how hair colors can change.  Dad is on his way to Vegas right now for his birthday :)  I hope he'll come back with a present for me.

Do you ever do a 2nd run/workout in the evening if your morning run doesn't go as planned?

Have you been to Vegas?  What was your favorite part?

Weekly Running Recap - 2/10 - 2/16

It's Monday, which only means one thing - time for a recap of last week's running:

Monday - 5 miles (7:57 avg pace)

Tuesday - 3 miles (8:00 avg pace) + Body Pump

Wednesday - 4.75 miles (8:25 avg pace)

Thursday - REST

Friday - 9.1 miles in the morning (8:01 avg pace) + 3 miles in the evening (no watch)

Saturday - REST

Sunday - REST

 

Total - 24.9 miles + 1 BodyPump class



 

My mileage for the week wasn't super high, but I am still really happy with the week, especially since I got in that longer 9 mile run on Friday.  And I loved that I was able to get in an outdoor fun run, instead of all treadmill miles like the past few weeks.

 

I didn't mean to take the weekend off, but it was nice to just relax.  On Saturday, I went to brunch with Catherine.  Unfortunately, it was not a bRUNch (run + brunch), but we will pick those up again once it gets warmer.

 

And I got my Garmin fixed so that when the weather does get nicer, I can use it again!  It was temporarily not functioning.  Apparently all I needed to do was a software update.

 

Actually, today isn't just any other Monday.  Today, is 2/17.  It's my cousin Erin's birthday!!  Here's some photos of us from our favorite holiday, Christmas:

 



 

To celebrate, Erin will be going to the Justin Timberlake concert (JT is to Erin as Katy Perry is to me), so I am going to meet up with her to get our nails done.

 

I have to give major props to Erin for basically being the reason I started this blog.  She has been an avid blog reader for awhile and got me started on it last spring, and by the time the summer and Chicago Marathon training rolled around, I wanted to start my own and she encouraged it!

 

I haven't really wrote about set weekly goals in awhile, but I think I'm going to start that up again today.  Here's what I want to do (running/fitness-wise) this week:

 

• Run 35-40 miles
• Do a speed workout!
• Go to Body Pump twice
• Focus on healthy eating

So nothing super crazy or new, but I do want to get a speed workout in!  On the treadmill I've been getting to good speeds (7:30 or faster) when I do my normal runs (which I guess are actually more like progression-ish run).  However, I haven't done set "speed work-outs" and that's what I want to start working in now.  I'm going to try to come up with some workouts to do that will be good for a shorter race since my next goal race is the Shamrock Shuffle 8K.  I'll definitely be posting those workouts as I come up with them!  And I'll still be on the treadmill, so I think try some hill/incline workouts that Catherine sent me.

Complete this phrase: _________ is to me as Katy Perry is to Colleen.

What are you goals for the week (fitness or not)?

Friday Five - Valentine & Olympic Edition

Welcome to the Friday Five - Valentine's Day and Olympics edition.

For starters,  I'm not a big fan of Valentine's day.  Mostly because I'm single.  So it's a holiday that I am currently excluded from.  Like how I imagine non-Christians feel around Christmas.  I'm sure when I am in a relationship, for at least the first Valentine's day, I will be the girl posting flowers (provided the guy sends them I guess) and checking in wherever we go out for dinner and brag about what we did.  But this year, I have plans with some girlfriends - including a running event!

Tomorrow evening I'll be heading to this run:

(www.fleetfeetchicago.com)

Each runner receives a reflective wristband based on your relationship status.  So to start of my Friday Five, here are five pick-up lines I'm thinking of using:

1) "I bet I'm faster than your girlfriend."  (Juuuust kidding, I'll stick to the single ones.)
2) "Your pace or mine?"
3) "When I blog about this, it will say I ran 3 miles with my future husband"
4) "I'm like chocolate pudding.  I look like crap, but I'm sweet as can be." (For after the run, because that's definitely not my most attractive time.  I will wear make-up and my cutest running clothes though.)
5) "On a scale of 1-10, you are a 26.2!"

Ok, so I didn't make up those last 3...thank you, Google.  And I altered the one about blogging.  I will obviously blog about the event, but you can bet your glutes I will not say something like that.

Besides Valentine's Day, it is also one of my best friends Grace's birthday! Happy Birthday, Grace :)

I haven't talked about them much on the blog yet, but I really love the Olympics!  I would like nothing more than to compete in them, but I don't foresee that happening, unfortunately.  I have to say though that I'm really not as big a fan of the winter Olympics as I am of the summer.  But so far, here are what I think are my five favorite winter Olympic sports:

1) Figure skating
2) Cross country skiing
3) Alpine skiing
4) Speed skating
5) Curling

These are my five favorite summer Olympic sports:

1) Marathon (what did you expect?)
2) Triathlon
3) Gymnastics
4) Swimming
5) Track

Five Articles I've Loved This Week:

Runner's Valentines - Runner's World
17 Things You Should Know Before You Date A Runner - Thought Catalog
Matchmaking App Tinder Sees Huge Spike in Sochi During Games - Wall Street Journal
Beer Fridge at Sochi Olympics Only Opens for Canadians - NY Daily News
The Olympics' Most Interesting Man - Crave Online


And since I didn't tell you about it yet, here are 5 things about Wednesday's run:

1) 4.75 miles in 40 minutes (8:25 average pace)
2) Treadmill...what else is new?
3) Started at 7.0, increased by .1 every 2 songs, so ended at 7.5
4) Took it nice and easy because the lunges at BodyPump on Tuesday destroyed my legs
5) ...and then I went to Panera with my dad.

I took Thursday as an off day, but I'll be back at it today!  I'm going to do a morning run on my own before tonight's fun run.

What is your favorite pick-up line?  Running or not running related!
What are your favorite Olympic sports?

Half Marathon Training & A Birthday!

It has started.  Colleen's PR half marathon training.  My current half marathon PR is 1:37:10.  I set that in October of 2008 at the Columbus Half Marathon.  I actually have no idea how I ran that fast (I even just went back to my running2win training log and looked and it was pretty weak compared to what I know I could do), but I had good company to run it with and just wanted to stay with them, so I imagine that was how.

Anyways, that's the past.  And now I'm going to beat that time at the Rock 'N Roll Phoenix Half Marathon.  That is the goal at least.  I know some races just don't go well, but my goal is to train hard for the next 11 weeks and then run super fast there with Liz (while Molly runs the full and Emma and Brigitte cheer us on!)

I don't have a super specific time goal, but I know I want to PR.  It's been over 5 years since I ran that half marathon time; I think it's overdue.  I came really close in the North Shore Half Marathon this past June - only 29 seconds off - and that course had a monstrous hill right in the middle of it.  I think I should be able to run under a 1:35.  I really have no idea what the course in Phoenix is like, but hopefully it's favorable!  Since I like to show tweets, here's one I liked from my UD friend Lauren who rocked the NYC Marathon this weekend:

It's so true that the course can really impact how you run - the terrain, the scenery, the spectators, the elevation change, etc.  A lot can happen over 26.2 miles.

But back to focusing on the half marathon for now.  I made up a training plan.  And I'm going to follow it as best as I can.  Realistically who knows what will happen with it getting cold and the holidays, but I guess that's where my friend the treadmill comes in.  We are not actually friends.

Here's what I did last week:

Monday - 5.75 mile run

Tuesday - 1 mile warm-up; free weights

Wednesday -  5.3 mile run in the rain

And then I didn't work out Thursday through Sunday...
Total Mileage = ~12 miles

So...the week started off strong, but then I fell off the horse.  But that's OK since it was just my first week really coming back to running since the Chicago Marathon.

Here's my plan for this week:

Monday -6 miles + core work + arm work
(I haven't done this yet, so I have a busy night ahead...plus the Bears/Packers game)

Tuesday -8 miles - 1 mile easy; 6 miles cut-down 10 seconds per mile starting at marathon pace; 1 mile easy

Wednesday -  6 miles + core work + arm work

Thursday - REST
(Maybe I'll do a short workout at lunch, but I'm having margaritas and sushi with Stephanie - we are very cultural - Wednesday night, so a Thursday morning workout is highly unlikely.  And then Thursday night is the Old St. Pat's Crossroads Runners post-marathon party!)

Friday - 5 miles - 1 mile easy; 3 miles race pace; 1 mile easy + core work

Saturday - 10 miles + core work

Sunday -  REST
(Christina's birthday party is Saturday night.  And then Bears game tailgating/watching on Sunday, so a workout is unlikely.  So obviously I'm scheduling my rest days around my social calendar.)

Here's what I'm gonna try to go with for my training paces:

Normal run: 8:00 pace

Marathon pace: 7:30 - My actual Chicago Marathon pace averaged to 7:45, but I held right around 7:30-7:35 for 18 miles, so I'm gonna try to aim for 7:30 as my marathon pace for training purposes

Race pace: 7:10

Easy: anywhere from 8:00 - 8:45 - I usually don't like to go slower than that, but I am also learning the value of pace variety in training instead of running 8 minute pace all the time.

And speaking of Christina's birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to one of my most loyal readers (and friends)!!!!!!!!!

Since I was so busy writing about Chicago Marathon stuff recently, I don't think I wrote about the fact that about 2 weeks ago, Christina, Jim, Emily, and I went to the Bon Jovi concert as Jim's birthday present to Christina!  The concert was a lot of fun and I knew way more songs than I thought I would.  Basically I thought I'd only know Livin' on a Prayer.  I really do love birthdays, especially mine, but also other peoples' so I can't wait to celebrate with Christina!

What is your longest-standing PR?

If you could go to any concert right now, what would it be? 

More Birthday Celebrating

Since I want my birthday to last as long as possible, here's another post on some of my birthday activities...and some of the things I ate on my birthday.

The day started off with a Dunkin Donut:

Unfortunately, I can't say it was purchased for my birthday specifically. Patrick and Kyle's girlfriends with both in town for the weekend, so we had a full house. They bought a dozen donuts on Sunday morning and luckily this one was leftover for me on Monday morning.

In the afternoon, Katie and I met up for a 2 mile rollerblading adventure. I am happy to report that neither of us fell, which was surprising to me since I haven't rollerbladed in probably at least 12 years. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to rollerblade again!

And in the evening I met my parents, Kyle, Erin, and Danny at California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. We had a few issues overall with the quality of service and staleness of the tortilla chips, but everything else was great! 

We sat outside, which was nice for a summer night.  A little chilly, but not too bad.  And we had a nice view of the mall parking lot.

I had the fish tacos as my meal.

I of course had a lot of the bread and butter. Our main problem with the service was that the bread and water did not appear on our table in a timely manner, even after asking for it. The best way to judge a restaurant is how fast they bring the bread and water (or tortilla chips at a Mexican restaurant). And then we treated ourselves to dessert!

So that was a lot of the birthday fun! I took another few days off from running again... I did a short run yesterday though and have mile repeats on the schedule for tonight. I am also definitely getting in a long run this weekend, hopefully 18 miles!

And I got an iPad!  So now I'll probably be using it to post instead of my regular computer.  I can't seem to get the pictures centered from the iPad though, so that's just something we'll have to deal with.

The Past Few Days - Birthday Celebrating!

I have been so busy the past few days and completely failing to post things here.  So here is my recap of exciting things and running things over the past few days.

On Wednesday, Katie and I had big plans of rollerblading and sitting out at her pool. The weather killed those plans though. Instead, we went to Joann Fabric, looked up some ideas on Pinterest, and had craft time. We made these little rings:

I decided to stick with the Pinterest theme for the day and cook a new recipe for the padres and Kyle. I made these spinach, feta, mozzarella croissants (without olives). Kyle took a look at the mixture before it was done and decided there were not enough red pepper flakes,  dumped way too much in, and made them a little too spicy. They were still good though.

On Thursday, I suffered through terrible traffic and met Mac at the track, but we did a normal run instead of a track workout.  My legs have been really feeling last weekend's long run.  We ended up on a trail in the forest and of course, it wouldn't be a trail run without falling at least once...and hitting a tree with my shoulder on the way down.  I had to take a picture of the scrap on my knee.  It is actually a very small injury and is done hurting now, just 3 days later.  Despite the fall, I'll still call it a good run since it was cool to run on the trails!  We probably did about 5 miles, but who's counting?

After getting all the mud off, we went to a concert!  It was the CMA Songwriter's Concert Series at Joe's bar so it was awesome to hear a bunch of country songs performed by the people who wrote them.

 

Friday wasn't anything too exciting except for some cleaning, some errands, some chatting on the phone, and a 5 mile run on the lake.  But I did get THIS AWESOME PLANT DELIVERED from Grace for my birthday!!!  So that made the day extra good and not boring :)  I will water it and let it bloom and be excited that I now have some real flowers instead of all the fake flower decorations in my ultra girly bedroom.

 

The big day of fun was Saturday!  Angela and I went for an 8 mile run in the morning (I failed to get any pictures.)  We were both just not feeling a long run, and this was nice to just run and chat and enjoy the BEAUTIFUL weather.  Then, to continue enjoying the weather, we went to the pool for a few hours with her sisters and Kevin and then took a walk along the beach.  I got a little burnt.

Saturday night was my birthday party!  I was so glad so many people were able to come!!  Plenty of friends, cousins, and family were all there and then met up with a few more when we went out to the bar.  Even a few UD friends that I haven't seen in forever were able to come over!  We went to Bub City, which is a newer country bar in River North and it was a lot of fun!  The line took forever to get in and I attempted to get the bouncers to let us in early since it is my birthday, but they would not and it was a nice night out so that was OK to stand out there and chat.  Once we got in, we were lucky to get a little table to stand at and there was a live band.  Unfortunately, people were not really dancing and were more just standing watching the band.  But we had an enjoyable time anyway!  Some pictures from the night:

Angela and Christina are now real DOCTORS of Physical Therapy!!

And then today was Grandma's 80th birthday party.  I don't have any pictures from that uploaded yet, so I will paint you a visual picture.  We sat outside, enjoyed a bunch of snacks and appetizers, chatted, sang Sweet Caroline to Grandma because she loves that song (I hope a lot of people will sing Teenage Dream to me tomorrow?), had some lunch including Portillo's salad, and then started the REAL birthday festivities.  And by that I mean we sang a song about Grandma that we made up, read a poem about her, opened gifts, and had dessert (including a cake with 81 candles - one for good luck).

I wish every weekend could be filled with that much excitement  :)  Basically I want it to always be my birthday.  It is the best day (or days leading up to it).  I don't understand people that don't like their birthday or don't want to celebrate it.  So if anyone wants to come to my apartment every weekend bearing gifts and to go out with me, I would love it.  Also, it would be a reason to make sure my apartment is always clean and tidy.

Have you had any bad injuries from falling while running? - My worst was the time I got hit by a biker while I was running.

How do you celebrate your birthday?