Running Chick

Hello, I’m still alive!  This last month has been a whirlwind of packing, moving, crappy weather and trying to maintain the last of my training schedule along with my sanity.  I’m happy to report that I survived.

I ran Journeys half marathon two weekends ago.  I ended up finishing in 2:08:27 which is about a 9 and a half minute PR over last year.  I honestly have no idea how I pulled that out.  The weather, Josh’s injury and moving really made it next to impossible to stay consistent and unfortunately, running had to take a backseat. My mileage wasn’t even close to where it should have been, but I did focus on lots of hills and I was able to get in six 10+ mile long runs so maybe that helped? Or, maybe it was the tailwind.  I really have no idea.

The weather on race morning was unpleasant to say the least.  34 degrees with about a 15 mph wind, plus intermittent rain/snow.

I dressed in full February running gear and I was still cold but there were some ladies up in the front of the line (read: fast) who dressed like it was 75 degrees outside. Runners are nuts.

This was my fourth time running Journeys and this damn course never gets any easier, no matter how many hills I run during training.  But, looking at my stats, I did manage run a pretty textbook successful race.  My second half was faster than my first, and I ran negative splits for the last six miles.  I took gels at 4.5 and 9 and had a bunch of Swedish Fish in-between.  I had water at every aid station, except the first, and I ran through all but two.    Running that distance at under 10:00 minute miles is really fast for me.  In hindsight, I probably should have taken one more gel had I anticipated maintaining that pace, but I figured I’d end up gradually slow down in the second half and noodling my way across the finish line somewhere around 2:20.  But, my legs kept working and I didn’t feel like I was going to have a heart attack or anything, so I just kept going.  When I crossed the finish line, I was spent.  After a hot shower and a two hour nap (oops, bad move), we headed out for our traditional post-Journeys boozing.

Anyway, next year I’m contemplating skipping Journeys in favor for the Green Bay Cellcom HM.  I know a couple of people who do it every year, and it sounds like a lot of fun.  Lots of time to think about that, though.

Josh got cleared to ride his bike again (and do some short runs), so he biked along with me on my 12 miler this afternoon.

The weather was great, it was nice to be outside in the sun & warm breeze.

Quite a difference from yesterday, when we had hopefully our final Snowpocalypse of the year.

I didn’t meet my mileage quota this week, I’ve been having some IT band related knee issues so I took a few days off to let that simmer down.  Thanks to a few sessions with my foam roller my knee was fine and dandy on today’s run.

Packing has been a priority since our moving date is coming up fast and we have a lot more boxes packed.  This week, we only needed to break into three boxes to retrieve packed items.  We had success with two items, but not the last, which explains why I just pulled banana cake out of the oven instead of banana bread.

At least the cats have been having lots of fun.

Anyway, weekly recap. Monday, 3 @ 11:36, Wednesday 6 @ 10:26, and Sunday 12.3 @ 10:52 for a total of just over 21 miles.  I ended up about seven miles short.  Next week I have 28 miles on the schedule, but I’m already anticipating not making that.  Oh well.

Happy Easter, or Happy Zombie Jesus Day, whichever you prefer.  We are having ham later on today, depending on if I packed my roasting pan.  We’re moving at the end of the April so we’ve been packing like crazy and my life currently looks like this:

Our new place is on 10.5 acres about 5 miles outside of town, and our only neighbors will be critters and trees. It’s going to be so awesome.  Packing up the kitchen has been interesting.  I take something out of the cabinet, try to decide if I’ll need it in the next month, decide that I won’t so I pack it up.  Two hours later either Josh or I are standing in the kitchen trying to figure out why we can’t find the thing that’s now packed away  on the bottom of a large, sealed box.  So far, I’ve only had to break into one box.

Anyway, since it finally stopped snowing, I had a much better running week than the last two.  Last week I was only able to manage 15 miles. 5 miles on Monday right before Snowpocalypse IV hit and then 10 miles on Saturday.  This week, I finished up with just over 25 miles, including a 10 miler in a steady drizzle that turned to sleet half-way through.  The roads were slippery, but not too terrible.  Running in frozen clothing was unpleasant.  Check out the ice on my glasses, compliments of a MUB bathroom glamour shot.

Weekly recap: (last week) Monday, 5 @ 10:16; Saturday, 10.25 @ 10:11. (this week) Tuesday, 5 @ 10:12; Wednesday, 5 @ 10:00; Friday 4 @ 10:38; Saturday, 10.50 @ 10:33.

March (good riddance) ended up being 83 miles @ 10:30, and so far for 2013, I have 178 miles.  Next week is a big one. I have 28 total miles on the calendar, with a long run of 12.  Woot.