#MedalADay – Days 1-6

Since I had to pack up all my medals for our move, I thought that I’d showcase one each day through the month of March. In typical Lani fashion, I’ve already managed to get to the 6th of the month without a post, so you’ll get 6 days off the bat.

Day 1 – Incheon Half Marathon, Incheon, South Korea, April or May of 2003

My first half marathon. Training for this was interesting since I lived on a base that was only about 4-5 miles around the perimeter. I ran the perimeter a lot, and I also spent a lot of time on the treadmill in the gym. My First Sergeant ran most of the race with me, but left me around mile 10 or 11. I finished in about 2:25 – not bad for a first half.

Day 2 – New York City Marathon, November 2007

My first marathon! Yes, there really was 4 1/2 years between my first 2 major races. Running NYC was an amazing experience, and I had the added fun of running as a member of Fred’s Team. However, the excitement of the BIG race atmosphere got a hold of me and my anticipated 5 1/2 hour finish ended up being 6:35. I got too caught up in the excitement and forgot about my planned walk breaks until an hour and a half in and it made for a very long day.

Day 3 – Oshkosh Half Marathon, Oshkosh, WI, April 2008

This was an interesting race. My parents and brother came with along with my husband and son (just had 1 at the time) to watch and cheer me on. We had figured out several places along the course where they could see me, but the weather had other plans. It was around 32 degrees and was precipitating – a combination of snow, sleet and rain, or as I call it, precipi-yuck. The family stayed in the vehicle the whole time, although my husband did venture out with our son to a nearby fire station to see the fire trucks. On a positive note, although chilly, it was nice weather for the kids’ race the day prior and my Big Kid ran his first race there!

Day 4 – Veteran’s Day 5K, Sierra Vista, AZ, November 2009, 3rd place F30-34

There was a race on post the same day as this one and that race would have been free, but I chose to pay to run the one in town because it was closer and started an hour earlier which fit into my schedule better. I ran a decent race and was surprised to find out that I had placed 3rd in my age group!

Day 5 – Rock n Roll Arizona Marathon, Phoenix, AZ, January 2010

Marathon #2. I didn’t really train well for this – my longest run was a whopping 13 miles 2 weeks before the race. But I finished and with a new PR – 6:25. The best part about this race was finally getting to meet my friend Sara in person! Her training had gone really well and we decided to not run together as originally planned. I’m thankful for that decision as she qualified for Boston during this race!

Day 6 – El Tour de Tucson, 40 mile bike, Tucson, AZ, November 2010

My first bike race, and the farthest I’ve ever ridden. Rode with my best friend, Kristin. We had an interesting and challenging 40 miles – I had a flat not even 2 miles in and at about mile 17 or 18 one of her pedals decided to disconnect itself from the bike. With course support help, we were able to get it fixed enough that we could finish.

Check back tomorrow to see which race is next!

Marine Corps Marathon Recap

Ok, so the Marine Corps Marathon was now almost 2 1/2 weeks ago and this race recap is definitely long overdue, but I’ve still been processing the day and trying to figure out what went wrong. I still don’t have answers and I probably never will, but I’m ok with that, so without further ado, here are my thoughts on the Marine Corps Marathon. . .

We arrived in Washington, D.C., on Friday afternoon and took the Metro from the airport to our hotel. We got checked in and decided to head to the Expo that evening instead of having to rush Saturday morning. It was super fast getting through packet and shirt pick up and then we headed to check out all the vendors. It was fun seeing everything, and stopping to chat at a few booths. Ryan stopped to talk to some people that provide PTSD dogs and got some info from them. I stopped and chatted at the Nuun booth and got to meet one of my fellow Nuun ambassadors. Then I met my fellow Generation UCAN Ambassador Gary who was working at The Stick booth. It was nice meeting him in person finally and chatting with him for a little bit. And then I finally got to meet Varun, one of the head guys at GenUCAN!! He hooked me up with a few samples of UCAN’s new hydration/electrolyte mix and even gave Ryan a shaker bottle. It was really nice meeting him finally after being an ambassador for the company for a year and a half now (and yes, I’m still am ambassador for them). I’m sad that I didn’t get any pictures at the expo, especially of my Nuun peeps, Gary, and Varun, but my phone was dead.

So we finished up at the expo just as they were closing and headed back to our hotel. Thankfully there was a Subway right as we got off the Metro, so we grabbed dinner on our way. We also stopped at a Giant grocery store (the name was Giant, but it also reflected the size) and got a few things for the room.

Saturday morning I did my 2 mile shakeout run on the hotel treadmill and then we headed down to the restaurant at the hotel for breakfast before heading to the Pentagon for the Kids’ Mile races. Robert was in the last heat and we got there in plenty of time (unlike some other families). He ended up lining up near the back, but finished near the middle of the pack! I got some pictures from that, but I’ll save them for another blog post. After chilling in the hotel room for a while, we headed out again to go to the Team RWB pasta dinner, sponsored by the DC chapter of RWB. We kind of went the wrong way when we got off the Metro, despite having a map and directions, and we ended up walking well over a mile more than we needed to and through a rather sketchy part of town, but we eventually found the place and had a great dinner of all kinds of pasta and pizza. We figured out the right way to get back to the Metro and it turned out to only be maybe a half mile walk. Oops! After we got back to the hotel, I laid out all my gear and took my “Flat Lani” picture (yes, I really used just about all of that pictured) and then we headed to the hotel pool for a little while. And then it was time for bed.

My alarm went off at 4:30 and I headed to the bathroom to get ready – that’s my usual getting ready spot so as to not wake up the guys. I had my English muffin with peanut butter, mixed up my UCAN (2 packets for before and 2 packets mixed into a gel put into 3 gel pouches for during), and got ready to go. I dropped my Nuun tablets (all 4 of them!) into my hydration pack, double checked to make sure I had everything and headed out. I stopped at the ice machine to fill the hydration pack and then the bathroom in the lobby for water and then headed to the Metro. Holy crowded!! And it was even worse when we got to the Pentagon stop and EVERYONE was trying to get out. Metro rides really should be free on race mornings and then we wouldn’t have to worry about the turnstiles. I ended up missing the Team RWB group photo because of the backup at the metro, the long walk to the start area, and security getting into the start area. I basically had time to check my bag, hit the port-a-potty, grab a selfie and head to the start.

While walking to the start, I was able to grab a picture of the skydivers bringing in the American flag (a 7800 square foot one!!!). This was actually a tandem and one of the skydivers was Medal of Honor recipient Kyle Carpenter (not only did he jump in with the flag, but he went on to run the marathon and finished in 5 hours and 12 minutes!).

They also had some Marine Corps Ospreys fly over during the start, so I grabbed a quick picture of them before I shut my phone off to save the battery for after the race.

The first 5 miles were a lot hillier than I expected. I had looked at the course profile, but the elevations didn’t register. The Army 10 Miler is pretty flat, and I was kind of basing my expectations off that. Bad idea. At least it prevented a too-fast start. For what it was worth. . .  I felt pretty good for the first half of the race and was on pace for a PR. And then the wheels fell off. Hitting a wall at mile 13 of a marathon?? Huh?? What kept me going was knowing that I would see my guys along the Mall. There was a long stretch (a couple of miles maybe? Everything kind of ran together for most of the race.) where there was a motivational sign every few feet. It was fun reading all of them. And then we got to the Mall and there were my guys – on the side opposite where I expected them. That was a wonderful surprise seeing them there! I got some hugs and some encouragement from them and headed toward the Capitol building and around to the Carousel side of the Mall where I knew I’d see my guys again. I passed off my empty gel pouches to them, got more hugs and encouragement and headed off again. I already knew at that point (maybe mile 17 or 18?) that a PR wasn’t going to happen, but I was bound and determined to finish no matter what. I was reduced to walking lots and lots at at time – some of my splits were in the 19 minute per mile range. I did, however, “Beat the Bridge” and finally got a second wind about mile 25.5 or so and I was able to finish strong (at least strong compared to what I had been doing). The final hill to Iwo Jima was a lot steeper than I expected, but I charged right up that hill and crossed the finish line!

Here’s a picture that I had another finisher take with my phone while I was waiting in line for the official photos.

Here’s my official finisher’s photo (I bought all my pics in digital version, so they’re mine to use as I like).

The Iwo Jima Monument actually does have a flag on it. 🙂

Here’s my Garmin time – official time was 5:50:49. And yes, it was 26.7 miles – the extra half mile came from not being able to run the tangents and weaving around people. It’s all good. Despite it being over an hour slower than my goal time of 4:30-4:40, it was still my 2nd fastest marathon. There’s always next time for a PR. It just wasn’t my day. Here are my splits:

Miles 1-5 – 11:07, 11:09, 10:41, 10:25 (huge downhill), 10:53
Miles 6-10 – 10:47, 11:10, 11:03, 10:59, 11:01
Miles 11-15 – 11:21, 11:06, 11:26, 12:17, 12:11
Miles 16-20 – 13:11, 13:05, 14:05, 13:58, 16:25
Miles 21-26.2(7) – 15:51, 18:10, 18:51, 15:10 (got a small second wind), 19:49, 14:36, 11:08 for the last .7 (at least I finished strong!)

After the race, I got my medal from a Marine and my goodie box with food (nothing much I wanted to eat in there) and a bottle of water. I stopped and sat on a pile of pallets with a fellow Team RWB Eagle – he actually helped me sit down because I was about to fall down. After sitting for a while, I felt better and went off to find my guys. They were easy to find with their RWB shirts on, and we walked through the rest of the finishers area together. I got my “jacket” – a paper-ish/cloth-y zip up jacket with a hood. It was actually pretty nice and definitely helped keep me warm after! We finally found the baggage trucks and got my bag and headed to the Metro to head back to the hotel. It was a long wait, but a well-maintained line to get there. Once back to the hotel, I took the boys to the pool for a bit. They played and I sat on the steps with my legs in the cool water. I would have loved to have taken a cool and/or epsom salt bath, but our bathtub drain stopper wasn’t working. The pool worked. After about 1/2 hour or so, we headed back to the room. I grabbed a nice warm shower, put my compression sleeves back on (clean ones, though), and we headed out to go to the Silver Diner for dinner. We had heard a lot of good stuff about them and they were one of the race sponsors, so we figured we’d check it out. It was about a half hour Metro ride, but I managed to keep my feet up while we were on the train.

We finally arrived at the right Metro stop and after a short walk, we were there! It was a very short wait for a table and it was definitely worth the Metro ride and wait for a table! I ordered a burger with mushrooms and Swiss on it, fries, and a local craft beer!! It was all delicious.

After we ate, we made our way back to our hotel and headed to bed. I definitely slept good!! I’ll leave you with a picture of me wearing my shirt and my medal.

From Sneakers to Sundresses

Yesterday morning I got up early and into my Team RWB Shirt and patriotic running skirt, got Thomas up and dressed and brought him to my friend C’s (Ryan & Robert were at Scout camp this weekend). Then I headed to the gym on post for the Fort Rucker Ten Mile Run Off and Team Relay. I had a lot of fun chatting with my fellow runner friends before the race for a little bit, and then we were off on a hilly 10 miles! There’s a mile-long downhill around mile 3, but since it’s an out and back course, that means there’s a mile-long climb (about 115 feet elevation change) at mile 7. It was a beautiful morning for a race – and decent temps instead of the usual insane heat we have this time of year. My original goal was a 10:30 pace, but when I hit 5 miles in less than 50 minutes, I figured I’d shoot for a sub-10 pace. I killed the uphill climb and finished out the last 3 miles. With a 1/4 mile to go, I started my final kick to get in under 1:40. My watch beeped at 10 miles and the finish line was still off in the distance. Ugh! Race was a 1/10 of a mile long. Ok, so you non-runners are like Big deal. But when you’ve already run 10 miles, especially with that big hill and you start your kick when you need to, you’re done at the distance and the extra seems like forever. I did finish with a 9:56 pace and my time was 1:40:05 – so for all practical purposes, I ran a sub-1:40 10 mile. LOL!! It was still about 2 minutes slower than last year on this course, but last year I had been training for a marathon (which was the week prior) so I was in a little better running shape. Here’s a pic of me heading to the big downhill at mile 3:

After the race was over, I hung around and chatted with my friends and stayed for the awards. They don’t do age groups for this race – just the top 12 males and females. I was like 18th or so, but I’m ok with that. I was pretty much just using it as a long run. Once everything I was over, I headed home to eat and shower and relax for a little bit before getting dressed and headed back out.

I had been invited to a bridal shower for my friend S and it was a Kentucky Derby-themed one, and the invitation said the attire was sundresses and fancy hats. I had to borrow a hat from my friend K at church. It was a lot of fun getting dressed up and hanging out with other ladies (some of whom had also run the 10 miles in the morning) and showering S with jewelry (that was her request in lieu of gifts). She’s going to be making a jewelry bouquet for her wedding and she wanted to have little pieces of all her friends! We played some fun games and ate some delicious food. The hostess had punch and mojitos in small mason jars, so they were all pre-portioned. Really neat idea! They also had mint juleps, but I didn’t have any of those. I did have a jar of punch and 2 mojitos. Here’s a picture of me in my finery!

After the bridal shower was done, I headed back to C’s house to pick Thomas up. He had had a lot of fun with little E, C’s daughter who is 6 months older than Thomas is. They played and ate and took a nap and when I got there, they were out back in E’s little pool. After I got changed, we headed to the Children’s Festival in a local park and got to go on some bouncies and sit in a firetruck and play on the playground for a while. It was a fun way to end the day.

14 Things I Love

Since it’s Valentine’s Day, I’d like to share 14 things that I love with you!!

I love my husband, my sweetie, my main cheerleader for all things in life. This is Ryan. He does so much for me and our family. I really appreciate him and love him with all my heart!!

This is my Big Kid, Robert. He’s the one who first gave me the title of Mommy. He’s a big help around the house and with Thomas, but he’s still your typical 9 year old boy. He loves sports (and plays basketball, baseball, and soccer), playing video games, Cub Scouts, and his little brother. He also loves ice cream, just like his Mommy!

This is my Little Man, Thomas. He’s a super smart, very talkative 2 year old. He loves Mickey Mouse, eating (especially blueberries), doing (or trying to do) anything his big brother does, giving fist bumps, and helping feed the kitty.

I love seeing my boys play together. Despite the 7 year age difference, they get along really well and they have a lot of fun together. Oftentimes, you’ll find the two of them closed up in Thomas’ room playing and reading together, and you can tell they’re having fun by the peals of laughter that come through the door!

The newest member of our family, Cricket. She is a beautiful feisty little kitten and although she’s a pain in the butt sometimes between her claws and teeth and trying to steal my food or sleep on my head, I love her very much. She loves to tear through the house after who-knows-what, play with her little mousie, snuggle at my feet when I’m sleeping (if she’s not trying to share my pillow), and eventually, after she tires herself out, take  a nap curled up on my lap. I love the way her little nubbie-where-a-tail-should-be wiggles back and forth when she’s happy.

My fellow Army Musicians. This is my family when I’m away from home. Many of these Soldiers are (or have been) MY Soldiers. Not only have a I trained and worked with them, but I have celebrated with them, mourned with them, laughed with them, cried with them, and spent time with their families.

Music. Of course I love playing music, but I also love hearing good musicians and ensembles, such as the Dallas Brass. They gave a performance/clinic for us today (a separate blog post coming soon on that!!) and it was an awesome experience. I enjoyed their music and learned a lot from them.

I love my extended Band Family (the Families of all the Soldiers). We have an awesome Family Readiness Group (FRG) comprised of the spouses of the Soldiers, and they look after everyone. As a female Soldier, I enjoy a special connection with the spouses of my fellow Soldiers – not only am I a Soldier, but I am a wife and it’s nice have other women to chat with when you work with almost all guys. The FRG Leader brought me these beautiful flowers and chocolate today since my main Valentine (Ryan) has been out of town for a week and doesn’t know exactly when he’ll be home. I thought that was awfully sweet of her (and the FRG) to think about me on Valentine’s Day! There’s even two M&Ms tins for the boys!

You all know that I love running! It’s my me time and helps me stay sane in my busy life. I can be having the worst day, but if I go for a run, it almost always makes everything better. And there’s no better way to start a day than with an early morning run and seeing the sun come up over the horizon! I love the solo aspect of running, and rarely run with others – until race day! I love the atmosphere of races and love talking to other runners, oftentimes complete strangers. I love the feeling of accomplishment when I cross the finish line, whether it’s a 5K or a full marathon.

I love the beauty of nature. I think this picture says it all.

I love artwork that comes home from day care, on a weekly basis. And there is a lot of it because Thomas loves drawing, and they do some kind of art project almost daily! Sometimes they are extra special – like this one!

Generation UCAN. I know I’ve talked about UCAN before and I’m sure I’ll talk about it again, but it is an amazing product! I mean, who else can say that they ran a 2 hour, 15 minute half marathon on only 400 calories that was consumed about 45 minutes BEFORE the race started and then nothing during the race except water?? I’ve done it and I felt great because of the slow release super starch that UCAN is! And it comes in great flavors, too! My favorites are Chocolate, Vanilla (and now Vanilla Creme), and Pom-Blue.

Nuun Hydration. There are so many great flavors to choose from that I never get tired of it! It helps me drink more water on a daily basis and helps with my electrolytes. My favorite flavor is Tri-Berry, but I love pretty much all of the flavors. And then, since I have a 32 oz cup and 1 tablet is for 16 oz, I mix 2 flavors together for even more variety!!

I’ve been drinking a Shakeology shake for breakfast for the past week and a half and I love it! SOOO many nutrients in it, it tastes delicious (I make a shake with a scoop of Shakeology, a cup of skim milk and a cup-ish of some kind of frozen berries), and keeps me full until lunch (and then some!). If you’d like more info, let me know, and I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have!!

I hope you enjoyed reading about 14 things I love!!

2014 Fitness & Running Goals

Happy 2014!! I hope your year is off to a great start! Here are some of my fitness and running goals for the coming year:

— My goal is not to run 2014 miles, but 2014 kilometers which equals roughly 1250 miles – definitely doable for me with marathon training and training for the 2015 Disney World Dopey Challenge.
— Along with this goes training smartly so that I don't get injured again and earn a new marathon PR at the Marine Corps Marathon in October (and hopefully a sub-5 hour marathon as well)!

— Complete 14 races in 2014. So far I have 10 on my tentative schedule. I'm not registered for any, although I did defer the Marine Corps Marathon from last year, so that's a given.

— My goal is to complete all 90 days of P90x3!
I'llbe starting P90x3 on Monday (6 Jan)!! If you'd like to order your own copy of P90x3 and join me in getting fit, check out my BeachBody page! Yes, I'm a BeachBody Coach and you can order all your favorite workout videos and Shakeology from me.

— continue to be the best #UCAN Ambassador I can

— be the best Nuun Ambassador I can

And my focus word for the year is
CONSISTENT
I need to be more consistent in my eating (and not consistent with the bad stuff) and my fitness.

2013 Running Recap

Overall, I had a really great year of running! Sure, I didn't meet my goal of 1000 miles, or even my secondary goal of 800 miles, but it was still my highest mileage year!  Here's a little run-down of everything running for the year:

Number of runs: 175
Number of miles run: 759
Average miles per week: 15.1
Average miles per month: 66
Highest week: 34
Highest month: 104
Number of Races: 8 (3 5K, 1 10K, 1 10 mile, 2 half marathons, 1 full marathon)
Number of Injuries: 1 (stress fracture in my right tibia)
Number of weeks off from said injury: 7 1/2
Number of pairs of shoes worn: 4
Amount of GenUCAN and Nuun consumed: A LOT!!!

Stay tuned tomorrow for my goals for 2014 and my focus word for the year!

Talladega Half Marathon report

This past Sunday I ran the Talladega 21000 (Half Marathon) for the 2nd time (last year being the 1st). Race morning started with a 5 a.m. alarm and after I had gotten mostly ready, I woke the rest of the family. We all finished getting ready, packed up, and were checked out of the hotel and on our way to the Talladega Super Speedway by 6:15. It was only about a 20 minute drive to the track and we had no problem finding parking. I had my 2 packets of chocolate GenUCAN (mixed with 12 oz of water) and then hit the porta-potties. The line wasn't bad at all – maybe 10 minutes from getting in line to being done. And then it was time to say goodbye to my guys and head to the start line. I took a couple of quick pictures with my phone and then we were off!

The race started just after turn 4 (it's a NASCAR track, so think like a race car driver) and then we ran down pit lane. My guys were waiting for me near the end of pit lane, and I handed my jacket off to them – I started with my jacket because it was only 55 degrees out and it felt chilly after not having anything below 70 for months. I had zipped my phone into my pocket of my jacket, so I didn't run with it.

The race continued around the track and then near turn 3, we headed up on the outside access road around to turn 4 again where we exited and headed out on the roads for a few miles. We were still on track property, just running around the parking areas. Part of it was on a crushed gravel road and that was a nice change. Around mile 6.5, we had a short steep climb to the grandstands and we ran under the grandstand on the front stretch, continued around the track on the upper access road, and under the back grandstands. My Garmin went a little wonky under the grandstands, but it all averaged out in the end. After the back grandstand, we headed back onto the track via the tunnel that goes under the track!! It's a short steep downhill and then a short steep uphill, but oh so cool to run under the track! Then we ran on the infield access road back to just past the start/finish line for our final lap around the track – this time we went all the way around. And it was during these last couple of miles that my knee decided to remind me that it was hurting. Up until about mile 11.5, I was on pace for a new PR, but then my knee started hurting and I had to slow down and walk a little bit more.

I did manage to finish though, and with my 3rd best half marathon time! I finished in 2:17:34, which was 49/78 in my age group, 188/399 for females (yay for top 50%!!), and 503/813 overall. My mile splits were 10:29 (had to stop and retie my shoe), 10:18, 10:13, 10:18, 9:48, 9:58, 11:10 (end of 6/beginning of 7 was under the grandstand, so may not be accurate), 10:15, 10:15, 10:08, 10:46 (that's when my knee started hurting), 10:58, 12:04, and 9:10 pace for the last .1. I had no fuel during the race except for water at the water stops – yay for my 2 packs of UCAN before the race!! Other than my knee, I felt really good the whole race, and given my knee, I'm really happy with the results.

After getting my medal and some orange slices, I found my guys and we headed to Victory Lane for post-race photos. We got a family picture in Victory Lane and then headed to the garage area for the post race party. I guess I should mention at some point that it was post race for all of us! Ryan and the boys did the Talladega 1000 – a 1km fun run/walk. Yay for them!!!! Robert wants to do the 5K next year. On the way to the post-race party, Ryan stopped to talk with one of the track employees for a little bit, so I took a minute to take a selfie of me with my medal.

Jim n Nick's BBQ provided the food for post-race and it was really good – pulled pork or turkey sandwiches, chips, and coleslaw. After we ate, we let the boys go play in the kids' play area for a little while – they both had a lot of fun in the bounce house!! I think Thomas almost had too much fun because this happened about 10 minutes after we got in the car to head home:

It was a really fun race and a fun family weekend, and I hope that I'll be able to run this race again next year! It was also a good training run for the Marine Corps Marathon in October, and a good trial for my fueling!

I'll leave you with a shot of the race shirt and medal. . .

Marathon Monday

Ok, so it's not quite Monday anymore, but close enough! Here's my wrap up of last week's training for the Marine Corps Marathon.

Monday evening was the first day of soccer practice for Big Kid. Seeing as how I didn't get up in the morning for my planned 7 miles, I took Little Man out in the jogging stroller for a little 5K during soccer. I failed to check the temperature before I started and almost died by mile 3 because I started out WAY too fast for the "felt like" 92 degrees. Oops! But at least I got a few miles in.

Tuesday morning was an easy speedwork day for the Ten Miler Team. It was a cut-back week for them. We did a mile warm up and then a 2 mile time trial. I ran my 2 miles in 16:48, my second fastest 2 mile time. Not bad considering the tired legs from the night before and still 12 seconds faster than I need to max my run on my PT test! We ended with a nice easy 1 mile cool down.

I actually managed to get up and run Wednesday morning and I got a nice easy 6.9 miles in! I tackled the hills along one of the bike path routes and then just kind of meandered through the neighborhood to get home. I finished the 6.9 miles in 1:10:09 – not a bad way to start off the day!

Thursday was a rest day for the team, so no practice. I ran a nice easy 3.2 miles on one of my flatter routes. Finished in 30:30.

Friday was a rest day for me. It was nice getting a little extra sleep. However, I was still up about 5:30 or so, so I got some crocheting done and I did a short 10 minute yoga work out!

Saturday I knocked out a super hilly 13.1 miles for my long run (no team practice as most everyone was racing 5Ks). I finished in 2:19:47 – 15 seconds per mile faster than when I ran this same route back in the spring!! After my turn around point (it was an out-and-back route), I saw a snake on the side of the road that was about as big around as my forearm. Thankfully it was dead, but talk about a spike in my heart rate! I felt pretty good after this run despite the hills. Training on hills will be nice come my half marathon in 4 weeks and the Marine Corps Marathon in October – both those courses are fairly flat!!

Sunday was a rest day, and it was nice sleeping in a little more than usual. However Little Man decided that 6:30 was a perfectly ok time to wake up; Mommy would have liked to have slept for another hour or hour and a half.

Total miles for the week – 29.4

It was a really good week of training!!

Marathon Monday

It's time for another recap of my marathon training!! It wasn't the best of weeks, so this will be pretty short. It's all good though! One bad week doesn't make for a bad marathon.

Monday got the week off to a good start with a nice little 5K in the morning. Or not so nice. It was supposed to be 7, but everything just felt off so I cut my run short to save it for another day. 3.11 miles in 30:26, 9:47 pace.

Tuesday was our weekly speed session at a local high school track! I'm really enjoying the speed days with the Ten Mile Team. After a 1 mile warm up (9:32), we did 5x1K repeats and then walked from the finish to the start for recovery. I now know what a sub-25 5K feels like (kind of). My time for the 5K was 24:56, an 8:03 pace!! My goal is to someday run a sub-25 5K race. Then it was a mile cool down, again 9:32 for me!

Wednesday had another 7 on the schedule, but I don't remember what happened. Sleep probably.

Thursday was a 65 minute run with the goal of getting a negative split. I made that happen, and had a nice little progression run as well (each mile is faster than the previous). I ran 6.65 hilly miles in the 65 minutes, 9:47 pace!! I'll take that.

Friday was a planned rest day which worked well since I had early formation for a ceremony.

Saturday was our team long run day, but the weather didn't cooperate. It was POURING at 6 a.m. when we were supposed to start. I'll run in the rain, but this was ridiculous and our team coach decided we weren't going to run. Not to mention that there was lightning about 20 miles away and getting closer.

Sunday morning was going to be my long run make-up day, but I ended up sleeping through my alarm and was awakened by my "Thomas alarm" at 8:00! The extra sleep sure was nice, but running would have been nice as well. I had 14 on the schedule and that just didn't happen. Oh well.

Total miles for the week – 14.9

Overall I'm happy with the runs that I did get in, especially with the speed session on Tuesday. On to next week!!

Marathon Monday

I had another really good week of training last week! Training with the Ten Mile Team really helps keep me consistent, and the encouragement I get from the team members is awesome.

I started off the week with a rest day on Monday. When I went to bed Sunday night I was undecided as to whether I would run, go for a bike ride, or put in a yoga DVD. The answer? None of the above. I forgot to set my alarm to workout time, so I got some extra (and probably much needed) sleep!

Tuesday morning was speed work at the track! I've really come to look forward to speed days, and Tuesday was an awesome workout. After a mile warm up, we did 4×800 with 90-120 seconds rest in between followed by 4×400 with 200 meters recovery followed by 2×1 mile with a few minutes rest in between!! My average pace for my 2 miles was 8:47, even after the other stuff!! I'm definitely getting to be a stronger runner. After a .8 mile cool down, my total mileage for the morning was right around 7.3 miles. Not a bad way to start the week!

Wednesday morning was another rest morning. I think I had planned on getting up and getting 5-6 miles in, but I think I must have needed sleep.

Thursday morning was fartleks on one of the dirt roads we run on. We did a 10 minute warmup followed by 5 sets of 5 minutes at 10 mile race pace and 5 minutes recovery and a 10 minute cool down. I had to walk a little during the recovery times, but I still had a great workout! I covered 6.9 miles in an hour and ten minutes.

Friday morning we had a Change of Command ceremony to march, so it was an early formation/no workout kind of morning. It was close to 80 by the time the ceremony started and I think I got my workout in from marching and standing on the field in the heat.

Saturday morning was an awesome long run! It was the complete opposite of last week's. I ran just over 12 miles in 2:07:35 – 2+ miles farther and about 20 seconds per mile FASTER than my 10 last weekend! It's amazing what a couple degrees cooler temperature and proper fueling and hydration can do for a run. After we were done with our long runs (everyone went different distances and routes), we waded around in the lake for a while after just chatting and enjoying the social aspect of running. Although the lake water is pretty warm, it still felt really good on my legs after the run.

I had planned on doing a 3-4 mile recovery run Sunday morning before church, but after the awesome run Saturday morning and a church pool party Saturday afternoon, I was tired. I got a wonderful 10 hours of sleep overnight Saturday! It was kind of nice sleeping in and just using my "Thomas alarm".

My total miles for the week was 26.5 – that makes 2 weeks in a row with mileage over a marathon! Now to keep up on that consistency.