Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Long Road to the Marathon

So I've been blogging off and on for a while this summer (can you blame me? it's summer!!!). I apologize! But for a while now I've been working hard at training for various races and the upcoming big two (the half marathon and the full) and it's been consuming my creative energy. Also, I've been avoiding blogging because I haven't really been thinking a whole bunch about food lately (trying not to so that I can loose a few pounds for the races). But just now I thought "Hey, this is my blog! I can do what I please! I don't have to always talk about food!" So I'll be blogging a lot about my training for the next two to three month and if food comes up, which I'm sure it will, then I'll talk about it. Sound good? Good!

So last weekend Kayla and Terrell witnessed our pain in the local sprint triathlon (300 yard swim, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run). I killed on the bike with my best time yet of 16 mph (even though we've gone biking only like 3 or 4 times prior to the race), which totally supports my husband's belief that I'm more of a natural biker than a runner. The swim would have gone a little better if I had remembered to take off my watch before hand and if I had put my goggles on before the horn. Needless to say, my mind was not in the right place for the open water swim and I was hyperventilating for about 1/3 of the distance. Then I just held on for the run at about a 10:30 or so pace. A triathlon is just such an interesting experience, lots of transitions, multiple sports, we have to do one at least every summer.

So now were ramping up for the big half marathon with the rest of the family. At this point, I've counted 7 people from Kevin's side of the family will either be running the 10K or the half marathon in August. All because little Trina wanted to run this summer. Crazy!

So this past weekend was our second long run in the training for this race. We went out to the favorite hilly country road and started running at about 7:15. Ran 9 miles in an 11:02 pace. Boy it was hot for the last half. I'm pretty sure it was at least in the mid 80s but the humidity was pretty high so it felt hotter.

Last night, Kevin's cousin Seth went with us on a 4 mile neighborhood run. It's always nice and cool around 10 pm, so I went a little bit faster and ran a 43:17 or a 10:49 minute per mile pace. I'm not quite up to par with what I did for my last half in January, but that's pretty much a given considering it's summer time and I'm a couple of pounds heavier from eating all those gluten-free, carb-filled, rice-based, ready-made foods I discovered all spring semester (mmmm...gluten free, 120 calorie for two oreo cookies!!!! Yummm!!!!). Anyway, it was really fun to run in a pack. We don't do that too often, mainly because Kevin runs at the speed of light, and it's not very convenient to find someone who's available and at your same speed for every run.

Also on the running front, Kevin and I bought these reflective running bands for our ankles at Academy sports for about $5. They seem to work really great for our late night runs and I feel a little more confident about not getting run over. That's always nice.

So that's about it. I might blog more often now that I've come up with a new strategy. And no need to fear! I'll come back to blog about food and recipes more often after the ordeal is over.

In the words of my boss with some minor modifications, "Run on" allergy peoples!

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