Less than a month...

My first marathon is becoming more and more real!  In 24 days, I'll be toeing the line to my very first marathon!  I can't believe it!   I thought I would have more self-doubt at this point, but I don't... yet.

My first 20 miler is this weekend.  So far, not intimidated by it.  I'm meeting a friend at the ungodly hour of 530am to knock out 6 miles before our class starts.  Then we'll bust out 14 with three other friends.  I'm excited for the fun of the group run - and 2 of us are running the Detroit Full, 2 are running the Detroit Half, so we may run together on race day...

I haven't decided on my race day outfit yet, but I have:

• my training plan in stone
• night before food planned (Cottage Inn pizza!)
• morning of race breakfast planned (crunchy PB toast)
• mid-run fuel ready to go (Jelly Belly Sport Beans in Cherry)
• newish shoes broken in (New Balance 758)
• friends coming in town

So I should be just fine!!  Can't wait!!

Do you Visualize?

My first marathon is in 26 days and I'm getting a tiny bit nervous.  Everyone talks about visualizing the race, but I've never done it.  I'm running the Detroit Full and I ran the half last year as my first half.  The first half of the full is the exact course of the half of last year (if that makes sense).   

So I already know what to expect for the first 13 miles, it's the second 13.2 that I'm a bit worried about.  I've studied the map a million times and have an idea of what I'm getting myself into.  Surprisingly, I'm not doubting that I can finish the distance; I just want to be upright and actually running at that point.  

Have you ever visualized a race?  Do you visualize the beginning or the end?  I'm not sure if I should be doing more mentally to get ready. 

I feel very confident in my training and have found the right fueling techniques that work for me, but I'm not sure if there is such a thing as mental prep.  

Any thoughts from you experienced marathoners for a newbie??!!

12 miles and 28 days :)

This morning I ran 12 miles totallybymyself.  It was nice to sleep in a little bit before my long run since the weather has changed enough that I didn't have to worry about the heat.  I headed out just before 10am and hit the road prepared with my hydration back pack and sports beans. 

I started out slowly and honestly, the worst miles of the entire day were the first two.  My feet hurt, I was tired (even after 11 hours of sleep!), and my brain wasn't on board with the run.  But, I had a great route mapped out and was already dressed and out the door, so I couldn't come up with any reason to cut the run short.

Miles 3-7 went by no big deal and after I made the turn around at mile 7, I felt really good.  I knew I only had 5 miles left and was on the way back home, so I was flying.  I took a walk break about every two miles to hydrate and fuel a couple times.  I don't normally take walk breaks, but I figured it would keep me going since I was worried about getting bored on my own.  This was my longest solo run to date and I wasn't 100% how it was going to go. 

The two most annoying things about my run were:

• My garmin died just after mile 5.  I had an idea it would happen when I turned it on and it said 'low battery'.  Whoops, I don't remember charging it after my 18 miler last week (and two subsequent runs).  I grabbed my old school stopwatch just in case and ran with one watch on each wrist.  Oh well, at least I have my total time.
• My right contact was fuzzy the entire run!  I was unable to focus completely on anything.  talk about annoying.  If any of you wear contacts, you know what I mean and man, does it suck.  But, I didn't really realize it until mile 2, and I wasn't going to turn back to replace it.  Most annoying thing ever.

Other than that, getting home after 12 solo miles felt amazing.  I was tired, but didn't have any self-doubt about the marathon, which is nice.  Speaking of which, there are only 28 DAYS until my FIRST MARATHON!!

20 miler next weekend, then 12, 8 then race day!  I better find an outfit, I definitely want to personalize my shirt.  But can't decide with what...

What do you think?  Just my name really big so people will cheer for me?  Or something like "It's my first marathon!"  I don't know.  Any great ideas from your first marathon outfit?

18 Miler and Tailgate Recap

So I've been a bit MIA since my 18 miler on Friday.  I've just been very very busy :)

The 18 miler went FABULOUSLY!!  I left the house in the pitch black of 5:30am and ran a bit over 4 miles  of a new route to Rebecca's house.  Once I met up with her, I turned my brain off and let her take the lead.  The next 6 miles flew by and we kept rolling along.  We took short walk breaks here and there to fuel and hydrate, but overall things felt great!  (I've confirmed that I LOVE Jelly Belly Sport Beans)

Mile	Time	Calories
1	12:37	118
2	13:16	100
3	12:37	121
4	12:48	120
5	11:53	132
6	12:52	111
7	12:43	117
8	13:59	107
9	12:38	121
10	14:53	112
11	12:32	126
12	13:25	116
13	12:47	116
14	16:13	111
15	13:56	117
16	13:02	119
17	13:11	118
18	12:49	112
19	:33	4
18.04mi	3:58:46	2,098

Holy Crap - I burned more calories than some people eat in a day!  Not me of course, but someone I'm sure!  Just after mile 11, we headed back around my neighborhood and finished up the run around there.  It had been raining in MI all week so we were thrilled that it didn't rain until mile 17!  At that point, it felt great and I welcomed the cooling effect.

We parted ways for Rebecca to get her 12 in and me to finish my 18 and I finished strong!  I still felt great when I got home and short of a bit of an abrasion on my left shoulder from my (brand new) hydration pack and another abrasion on my left thigh from my IT band support thingy, I felt great!

Saturday was our annual Michigan Football Tailgate and we rocked it out!  We has 75 of our closest friends come party with us on the golf course before our first night game against Notre Dame.  Complete with grills, HD TV, gallons of Bloody Mary mix and pounds of bbq pulled pork, we set the bar really high for next year!

(I'm to the right of #16 in the center in my yellow shirt, with my husband the silly looking one to the right of me with the towel on his shoulder).  I even got to rock out my new running skirt and dri fit Michigan shirt - LOVED them!  The tailgate was the most fun ever and I am actually looking forward to next year. 

I was too lazy/hungover/lazy/fat/bloated to run on Sunday and sleep-deprived on Monday, that I didn't run again until my group on Tuesday night.  BAD IDEA.  Won't do that again.  While I had no pain during the run on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday, my left hamstring was KILLING ME on Tuesday night.  It was so tight, it felt like it was going to burst out in a charlie horse any second.

From the left it's my running buddy Amanda, who is also running the Detroit Full, me and then Liz, who is running the Detroit half.  The other guys are in our group and much faster than we are.

I stretched it out and just kept running.  It felt better at the end, but I did stop in the running store this morning to get a thigh compression sleeve.  Now, I've never bought one of these before and holy crap, I was SWEATING like a pig trying them all on.  Thank goodness I went into the dressing room to do so - the first one was more like a calf sleeve - it didn't even get past my knee.  It took me a good 20 mins to find the right one, but now after wearing it all day, it feels much better.  We'll see how it does in the morning for my 6 miler :) 

After this week passes, I should be more calm at work and get back on a regular running and blogging routine!  Thanks for sticking with me :)

Holy Crap I just ran 18 miles!

my first 18 miler is in the books.
left the house at 5:30am.  it was pitch black.
18 miles in just under 4 hours - my time goal.
felt great!
12 of those miles with a friend - AWESOME!
tried new hydration back pack.  worked great when i figured out the mouth piece AT MILE 16.5 - DUH!
didn't rain until mile 17, not too shabby.

now it's time for recovery drink.
ice bath.
hot shower.
compression socks.
get my butt to work.
prep for tailgate.

TAILGATE TOMORROW!  GO BLUE!!

Favorite day of my life so far :)

Monday Mish Mash

Since my brain is mush, here's some things going through my head:

Michigan Football is here!!  Not that I'm a huge football fan - cause I'm not - but my husband and his brothers throw one big tailgate each year and this Saturday's night game against Notre Dame is our big one this year.  We host ~60 friends on the golf course for the best tailgate ever!  Our wedding presents to my brothers-in-law were personalized Michigan jerseys which we rocked out last year.  (Hacker is our last name if you didn't get that by now and we numbered them in birth order - and then married in!)  GO BLUE!

Since the tailgate is on Saturday, I won't be able to do my long run with the group, so I'm rockin' out my 18 miles on Friday around my neighborhood.  The good news is that my friend Rebecca us up for 12 of them with me!  My biggest fear is not having proper hydration, so I went out and purchased a hydration back pack yesterday.  Kinda excited to try it out on Friday!

I just ordered this skirt online from runningskirts.com cause I'm in need of an awesome tailgate outfit - can you see a trend on how tailgate takes over our life!  Looking back through old tailgate pics I've found my outfits were boring - except of course for our Hacker jerseys last year!  I hope this skirt arrives in time for Saturday's tailgate.  Oh yeah, I'm excited to run in my new skirt, too.  After tailgate of course.  

I got a whole bunch of tomatoes from my mother in law this morning and man are they delicious!  I've already had two tomato sandwiches today :)  I think I'll make some salads this week.  Or make some tomato juice for bloodies on Saturday morning!

So, can you see how mish-mash my brain is?  I'm all over the place.  With the first day of school tomorrow (and I don't even have my outfit picked out!), my brother-in-law flying in on Thursday, my first 18 miler on Friday, and tailgate Saturday, this is going to be one awesomely amazing and busy week!

My Great Running Week!

Things have been great since I finished the Crim 10 miler last Saturday.  I ran 7 miles the morning after the race as recommended by my running coach.  I had 16 on the schedule for last Saturday but only ran 10 in the race.  We decided I should run 6-8 miles on Sunday so I headed out first thing in the morning.  

The first 4 miles felt great and then I started getting really bored.  This is when I realized I haven't run more than 4 miles on my own in over 10 weeks.  Every long run has been with a group of friends and the other runs have still been with friends.  I only regularly run my 3 recovery miles on Sunday by myself.  

After 4 miles, I pushed myself through the boredom and heat to 7 miles.  At that point, I was all done.  Mentally I had finished a long time ago, so I was happy with 7.  Physically, I was a full minute per mile slower than I had run the Crim the day before, but I had no pain.  Just a bit tired.  

Tuesday night we met for our group run and I felt like garbage.  The good news is that just about everyone that ran the Crim felt sluggish and we just trucked along slowly.  I'm glad that I didn't feel this bad on Sunday, but that's fine.  We got through a little over 4 miles and called it a day.

I postponed my Thursday miles in order to run my long run of 12 miles this morning.  Three of us from our running group had weekend plans and wouldn't be able to run with the group on Saturday morning, so after Tuesday's run, we decided to meet Friday morning for our long run of 12 miles.

It was way darker than I thought it would be at 6:30 this morning, but we headed out on time.  We did a 2 miler to a park with a water stop then 2 more miles through a really pretty part of Ann Arbor to another park with water :)

At this point, we were all feeling pretty good and did a 4 mile loop around this nature center and back to this water stop.  With 8 miles under our belt, we were feeling pretty good and headed back to the first park and then on to our cars. 

Miles 10.5-12 were pretty much brutal.  It was HOT, we were tired and just ready to be done.  This is the point when we were all so glad we were running together, since on our own we would have stopped for sure.  

I'm just glad that my 12 is over and I get to sleep in this Saturday morning!  I'll run 3 recovery miles tomorrow and my 5 miles from Thursday on Sunday.  It will work perfectly.

Up next... 18 miles this week!  Holy Moly!  It's finally here :) 

Crim Race Recap: Killed it!

I killed it at the Crim today!!  It was an amazing race and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVED it!  Since I ran the Crim for the first time last year, I wanted to break it down side by side.  I went to look at last year's Crim recap (when I had just started blogging) and I didn't even include the race time!  haha - who does that?? 

Overall

2010: felt like garbage after mile 4.  Hills chewed me up and spit me out.  Walked a bit; more than I'm willing to mention.  First time I experienced chub rub.  ouch.  Had to stop to tinkle on the course.  Lame. 

2011: Felt like a CHAMP!  From the first step, we treated this as a training run and it couldn't have gone better!  The miles went by so fast, I actually felt bummed about it :(  I've never had that happen before.  I was enjoying the run so much that I didn't want it to end.

Time
2010
2:06:50
405/514 age group 25-29
7179 overall
(I don't know how to find all the details of the runners from last year)

2011

1:54:30 Garmin time - the time I'm going with :)
1:56:09 chip time?!?! 99 seconds off?  what the heck?

6260/9590 overall
2595/4943 women
348/545 age group 25-29

Obviously better in 2011, by 10-12 minutes :)  I'm going with 12!! 

Hills

2010: The hills chewed me up and spit me out in pain.  Brutal.  Felt like crap.  However, ignorance is bliss and I had no idea what I was getting into.  That obliviousness was nice.

2011: From last year, I knew I had a tough course in front of me but was determined to train properly and kill it!  And that's exactly what happened!  After 11 weeks of 501 training (my running group), we've done at least 7 different hill workouts and man, did they pay off.  After the Bradley Hills, I was like "is that it?"  HA!

Injury

2010: my first Crim was the beginning of my left IT band PAIN.  Like, collapse out of the car when I get home.  Not able to walk up steps for a couple days.

2011: I bit my cheek eating my jelly beans.  Not the few I took at mile 4 or 7 on the course; the ones I ate at the after party while standing still.  Go figure.  And it hurts still!  (but nothing like an IT band problem)

Friends

2010: Drove up to Flint solo.  Shopped at Birch Run solo.  Checked in/expo/hotel solo.  Ran all by myself without talking to another human being.  LAME

2011: Drove up with a friend on Friday to shop at Birch Run, did the expo, found a great place for dinner, ran the race with her and three other 501 friends.  AWESOME!

Shopping

2010: Hit up Birch Run and found lots of back to school clothes as well as a spi-belt at the expo.  Win.

2011:  Rebecca and I hit up all the stores and tried on a lot of things and bought NOTHING.  What two women can go to an outlet mall and buy nothing?  And then hit the expo and buy nothing?!!  Unheard of!  Lame.

Can you tell how happy I am with this year's race??!!  I LOVED it!!  Can't wait for the race pics to see if I finally have a good one :)

Hope you all had a great race weekend!!

51 Days and the Crim

Wow!  Only 51 days until I run my first marathon.  Holy crap.  At this point, I feel like I can do it and my training has been going really well, so that's good :)

For now, I'm going to take a step back and get excited for the Crim this Saturday.  It's a fun 10 mile race in Flint, MI and I can't wait to run it this year!

Last year I ran the Crim for the first time; it was my first 10 miler ever and the first time I ever really ran hills.  It was an experience to say the least.  I'm excited to meet it again with actual training behind me.  

My entire running group will be there (Running Fit 501) and I'm excited to run such a big race with lots of friends.  Not to mention hit up Birch Run outlet shopping on Friday before the expo :)

Anyone else running the Crim on Saturday?

Cheesecake Disaster and a Spa Day!

Well, technically, a mini-cheesecake disaster.  Check it out:

Oh yeah, ruined.  The good news is that I'm on vacation.  I have all day to make something delicious for tonight's book club meeting at my house.  First, I have to chuck these things though.  

So my actual week of vacation started with a trip to the Spa on Monday.   My husband got me a gift certificate for an entire day of pampering for our anniversary in May and I've been waiting for this week off to use it.  

The first thing I did was the hour massage.  LOVED IT!  I would go back again just for this massage.  She was great and really worked my tired legs out.  So relaxing.  

Next was a facial, which I've never had before.  It was okay.  It felt nice, but I don't see any reason to ever do it again.  The lady was so nice too, she complimented my on my 'small pores' (whatever that means) and let me know that she doesn't recommend anything for my skin.  That's awesome!

After a catered lunch, it was time for my mani/pedi.  Typically, I go to the cheap-o salons in a strip mall for my summer pedis, but I thought it would be so nice getting one in a nice salon.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  It took FOR-EV-ER!  Over two hours for mani and pedi and it wasn't even that good.  I mean, the color looks fine, but it wasn't that great of an experience and time was crawling by.  I think after my relaxing massage and facial I just wanted to go home.

It was a weird way to end the day of pampering, but I still loved it overall!  I will definitely head back for another massage sometime and know not to push my limits of sitting around/relaxing ALL day :)  My husband makes fun of me for never being able to relax and this was perfect example of that!

After a nice and easy run last night with my group, I'll put in a few miles tomorrow and get ready for the Crim 10 miler on Saturday!  Best week off ever!