(Long) Weekend Photo Bomb - 11/27 - 11/30

It's been a nice long holiday weekend off of work and I've been busy with all sorts or activities.  I did 2 races (a 5k and a half marathon) and will have a full recap of those in the next few days, but in the meantime, here's the long weekend in pictures:

Dinner and gambling at the casino.  Dad hasn't quite figured out that the iPhone can be turned sideways to get everyone in the picture.  Mom and Patrick were the big winners of the night.

Catherine and I ran the Edison Park Turkey Trot 5k (like we do every year) in matching turkey headbands and tiger-print shorts.

My dear little cousin, Elizabeth.  We share a love for bread.  I told her that's called carbo-loading and she helped me carbo-load for Saturday's race  :)  On Friday, we celebrated her new baby brother's Baptism.

Post-half marathon selfie.  Very cold!

All aboard!  The entire Smith family (and "SigOs" - significant others) took a Christmas trolley ride through the city.

A few of the girls, ready to go.

View of the Chicago skyline from Smith trolley stop #1.

 Dad and I at the Lincoln Park Zoo Lights - Smith trolley stop #2.

Things escalated quickly... even had to make a few extra stops for beer/champagne runs (and bathroom runs).

Started the weekend with gambling, why not end it with a little family gambling?   A pizza party after the trolley and a 30+ person game of LCR - Shannon was the big winner.

And another running selfie.  An easy 4 miles Sunday morning in my all purple outfit.  Just kidding, I put another shirt on over that, but thought it looked funny when I was wearing all purple so I had to take a picture.

So there's the long weekend in pictures!  How was your long weekend?  What did you do??

St. Louis Half Marathon & Weekend Happenings

This past weekend was the Rock 'N Roll St. Louis Half Marathon!  I ran the whole thing with my brother's girlfriend Erin and it was her first half marathon ever and I'm sure she wants to keep doing more and more.  Look how happy she was:

I didn't get to St. Louis until late Saturday night, but the Cardinals World Series game was still on, so Erin had made some pasta for me and we watched the game.  Unfortunately, it looked like the game was going to go into extra innings and we needed to be up super early, so we turned it off in the 9th.  Apparently the game ended (with a Cardinals win!) shortly after we hit the hay.

So, race morning.  We woke up and got ready to run!  We had bought matching Lululemon tank tops, but it was a bit too chilly for that.  I advised Erin to eat a bagel and some GU Chomps energy bites and I did the same.  When we got to the start line, I needed to grab my bib and t-shirt since I didn't make it to St. Louis in time to go to the expo.  But that was surprisingly quick and then we jumped in the corral and it was time to go within a few minutes.

The first few miles of the race were through downtown St. Louis, which was cool because it was sunrise and we ran towards the Arch and then around Busch Stadium.  We were each wearing coats over our running clothes because it was so cold at the start, but took them off around mile 2-3.  Luckily, we knew we'd see Katie around mile 5 because the course went right by her SLU apartment.  We ran to her, gave her a quick hug and our coats and continued on.

I was very colorful...and cold.

The race really wasn't that eventful.  Erin had hoped to maintain at 10 minute mile, but we were going much faster staying right around a 9 minute mile.  One of the later miles was even 8:40 and I think she was shocked at how fast she was able to go considering she hadn't trained this pace!  We were even chatting and having fun taking some pictures and videos.  And I will have those videos for you in my next post hopefully...they were taken on my iPod that I was running with, which I left at home today.  Anyways, there were some pretty killer hills, but we maintained a solid pace and finished in 1:56:45!!  Woohoo congrats Erin!!  Erin's mom also ran her first half marathon and finished faster than the first place marathoner!  (That was the goal.)

The pace was fairly comfortable for me, but having run only 2 3-miles runs in the past 2 weeks since the Chicago Marathon, diving right into 13 with those hills did my knees some damage.  They are fine now, but they sure hurt for the whole day.

My cousin Kevin had a funny tweet this weekend:

That's kind of how I feel about blogging.  I feel like a failure if I don't have photo proof of everything I did to show here.  But I can promise I really did go out to dinner with Angela and Liz on Sunday night in St. Louis.  And we were so deep in conversation and sat at the restaurant for so long after paying, that the obvious choice was to move our party over to the nearby fro yo place.

We had such a great time catching up with each other and talking about running and dorm food...and how we ran so much that we could eat so much dorm food.  And then we started reminiscing about the good ole days at UD.

I wasn't driving back to Chicago until Monday, so in the morning I went to breakfast at Einsten brothers with my 2 Billiken cousins, Katie and Kevin.  We had a great time catching up and talking about the upcoming holidays and of course, the event of the summer that we CANNOT wait for - the first Smith cousin wedding.

How was your weekend?

Do you like to take pictures documenting everything you do?

My Upcoming Race Plans

So now that the Chicago Marathon is over, it's time for me to start thinking about what races I want to do next.

When it comes to races other than marathons, I'm usually a "decide a few days before and register at the last minute type of person."  And I'm sure I'll continue to do that, but I also want to pick a few races to specifically train for.

So currently, here are the races on my schedule:

10/27 - St. Louis Rock 'N Roll Half Marathon -  That's this Sunday!  My brother's girlfriend Erin decided to run her first half marathon so I made her a training plan that her and her mom (who also decided to run her first half!) have been following.  The three of us bought matching tank tops to wear in the race and I'm planning to run with Erin the whole time to help her through it.

11/28 - Edison Park Turkey Trot - Catherine and I have run this turkey trot together every year since high school.  It's a 5k race, not even timed (well, there's a clock, but no chips or awards or anything like that), and we have been running it Bandit-style the last few years...literally.  Our high school mascot was the Bandits and we acquired some jerseys, paired it with tiger print shorts, and turkey headbands, and the "Bandit Turkey Tiger" was born.

So that's not really a race to train for, we just run it together for fun.  But I think I have decided on my next real race to train for/try to PR at.  And that is:

1/19 - Phoenix Rock 'N Roll Half Marathon - My UD friend Molly lives in Phoenix and is running the full marathon.  And then I found out another UD friend Emma just moved to Phoenix and her BFF Liz (who is also one of my good friends and I ran XC with at Dayton) said she'd come out for that weekend and run it too!  A half marathon right around this time would be perfect because it will give me 12 weeks to train, starting Monday.  I haven't registered or booked a flight yet, but I'm thinking I will soon after I discuss plans more with Liz, Molly, and Emma.  Hopefully it will keep me training hard as the weather gets colder and will be a fun long weekend!

But then...the big question...what marathon will I do next?  Why am I already thinking about another one in the first place?  I go back and forth between saying "I never want to run that far again" and "I could run even faster."

I decided I won't do a marathon at least until the spring, probably April or May.  Ideally my next marathon will be:

4/21 - Boston Marathon - But it's already closed.  How can I run it?  I will tell you how.  I entered a contest sponsored by PowerBar for anyone who has a valid qualifying time but did not get to register.  The Chicago Marathon was a few weeks after the Boston Marathon filled, so I would not otherwise have a chance to run it until 2015.  And given all that happened this past year, I think 2014 will be THE year to run it.  I'll save sharing the link to my entry until Facebook voting is active from 11/1 - 11/10, but just a heads up!

Four runners will be selected based on Facebook votes and a panel of judges.  As of this morning there were about 160 entries (with 2 more days to enter).  So winning this contest would obviously be my first option, but in case that doesn't work out, here are my options for a spring marathon:

4/6 - Go! St. Louis Marathon
4/19 - Louisville Derby Festival Marathon
4/26 - Illinois Marathon
5/4 - Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon
5/18 - Cleveland Marathon

I chose a few options all within driving distance on different weekends and probably wouldn't commit to one for awhile still.  I have quite a few weddings next summer, so my spring weekends will be filled with bridal showers and bachelorette parties.  Until I find out dates for those special events, I can't commit to a marathon yet...and just hope that at least one of these options will work.  But let's go for Boston as a first choice - the Monday of Easter weekend - shouldn't be any bridal events then.

And depending on which spring marathon I do, I also might want to try to run another half, particularly this one if the timing works out:

4/5 - Lincoln Presidential Half Marathon - It's in driving distance, in the spring, a small race, and age group winners win a trophy shaped like the bust of Lincoln.  That's the real reason I want to do it and will race hard.  That bad boy would look great on my dresser or on my desk at work.

Other than those, I'm sure some other 5Ks, 10Ks, or half marathons will pop up...like the Ditka Dash 5K.  I want to do that one if someone will do it with me!

Let me know if you have any other good suggestions or want a visitor wherever you live!  I'd gladly travel somewhere for a new race  :)  My Aunt Sonja was pushing for me to come visit them in Anchorage in June for the marathon there, but I am already committed to a wedding that weekend so an Alaskan race will have to wait.

Hump Day Happenings and Weekly Recap/Plan

Guess what day IT IS.  HUMP DAYYYY.  But I'm going to tell you about Tuesday and why it was different than a normal Tuesday in my life.

Erin and I ordered matching lululemon tank tops for the St. Louis Half Marathon in October!  Besides a pair of their yoga pants, I don't have anything from there since it is so expensive, but we looked at the sale items and found a cute tank we both liked!  The color selection was a bit limited for our size, but we found a cute one  :)  I just hope it won't be too chilly for tank tops by that time!  But if you're going to do a race with someone and don't have matching outfits, you are obviously doing something wrong.

Speaking of, I plan to do this race with Christina and anyone else who would like to join!  I'm hoping some of my cousins will run as well.  It's the Saturday after Thanksgiving and we already have a big Smith family event planned that evening, so why not add even more fun to the day?

I did an easy (but hot) 4 mile run after work last night.  The highlight of the run was seeing someone wearing a UD t-shirt.  I was too late in spotting it though to yell out to him.  I had also seen a guy wearing a UD shirt a few weeks ago when I did a super long run on a weeknight and that time I was too far into go-mode to stop, even for a fellow Flyer.  Next time I will though so I can make new friends.

I bought an amazing little loaf of pumpkin gingerbread from a farmer's market.  Knowing that I could get home and eat that was pretty much the only way I convinced myself that I really needed to run.

I also made an awesome dinner last night.  It was chicken fajita flavored rice + grilled chicken + onions + feta cheese all wrapped in a tortilla.  And then the pumpkin gingerbread for dessert...and I ate some while I cooked...and for breakfast this morning.  So this was way better than my usual meal of plain pasta.

I finally finished all of Desperate Housewives on Netflix and now I need a new show suggestion so please help me!

And now for some running schedules...

Last Week Recap:

Monday - 4.5 miles including twice up a HUGE hill

Tuesday - 10.4 miles normal

Wednesday - REST

Thursday - 6.75 miles tempo

Friday - biked 10 miles easy

Saturday - 2 miles easy

Sunday - Chicago Half Marathon

Total Miles -  about 37-38ish

Good thing I do log all of my runs otherwise I would have no idea what I did.  AND since I posted my plan for the week on her last week, now I can compare how I did...let's just say like usual, I didn't follow it.  But I did get the important workouts in at least I think -a mid-week mid-distance run, a tempo run, and a race!  I even got in some cross training.

Week Who Knows What Number, But 4.5 Weeks Left Plan:

Monday - REST

Tuesday - 4 miles

Wednesday -8 miles

Thursday - 6 miles @ GMP (goal marathon pace)

Friday - REST

Saturday - 6 miles

Sunday -20 miles

Total Miles -  44

So that's all I have to say about that.  Happy Hump Day!

The Courage to Start

I have been given the task of creating a training schedule for my friend (my brother's girlfriend) Erin's first half marathon!!  I'm really excited for this, for multiple reasons.

First of all, I am thrilled that she has decided to take on this commitment! I encourage everyone to start running :) Erin texted me maybe a month or 2 ago and said she was going to do a half marathon in St. Louis. This week I was looking up the dates for future Rock 'N Roll races and saw that the St. Louis event is on October 27th. I texted her to see if this is the one she was planning on running and she said that she wasn't so sure any more. I managed to convince her that she could and that I would come to St. Louis that weekend to run with her!

Another reason I am excited for this is that I kind of get to act as her "coach" and make her a training plan! I love running and am glad I have this opportunity to help her get into it more also. And it's an item to cross off her bucket list! So, I started working on her plan, and find that it's much different making up a plan for a new distance runner (she runs/works out regularly, but she has never ran more than 2 miles at a time) than when I try to come up with plans or workouts for myself. She gave me an indication of what pace she can run, but it's hard to judge what others are capable of as opposed to what I know I am capable of or what might be just a bit to much. It will be a fun challenge. Maybe what will be more fun is making her a training plan for her SECOND half marathon after she gets through this one and wants to go faster!!

Woo go Erin!! - "The miracle isn't that I finished. It is that I had the courage to start."

I'm not quite sure if I'll register for the race or not. I don't like paying for a race that I won't technically be "racing." All these races get expensive! But I'd get a t-shirt I guess, that's always a nice perk.  And a medal.  Even though I was looking up some future races, I decided not to commit to anything until after the Chicago Marathon. But I think this would be a good chance to visit St. Louis (and all my friends and cousins there) and help Erin run her first half marathon! I have lately been thinking that my running has always been mostly competitive, whether with myself or with others, and I have not been having as much "fun" with it as I should (although starting this blog has added fun to my running!) The Chicago Marathon will be a "compete against my own self/PR" race still, but also should be loads of fun to run with Angela wearing our amazing matching outfits...which I will maybe reveal later this week...so get pumped for that! Anyways, I think deciding to run this race with Erin and help her get through it will be a great experience!

On a somewhat related note to training plans, I made a training plan for myself for the Chicago Marathon way back in June, but haven't been doing the greatest job at sticking to it...that's the hard part, isn't it?  But now, as of tomorrow, there will be 7 weeks left until the marathon.  That gives me 4-5 solid weeks of training before I have to taper.  So I'm going to make them the best 4-5 weeks yet.  And to help do so, I'm going to go back to posting the plan week by week here.  I kind of fell out of that habit when I was just running however I felt instead of following my plan.

I did some damage at Dick's this morning. They really rope you in with their coupons. I think these are the shorts I'll wear in the marathon. They'll go nicely with the matching singlets I alluded to above. Also, 13 new pairs of socks!! At Christmas, I got like a million new pairs of socks and threw away all my old socks because let's face it, they almost all had a hole or were just old. And somehow in the last 8 months, all of THOSE pairs managed to get holes. So, time for another sock purge.

On the schedule for tomorrow is 18 miles! That will be my longest training run yet, but I've had a few runs of 15-16 that have gone well, so I think it should be manageable. And I will have Mac to run with instead of my last couple long runs that have been done alone.

What is easier for you - making a training plan or sticking to it?

How often do you have to buy new socks?