Finally Increasing Miles

I have a little over 6 weeks to my 1st half marathon this year. I'm running the Scranton marathon with a team at work. Until this week, I haven't had very high mileage weeks, or very consistent running for that matter. So I sat down last weekend and worked out the next 6+ weeks of running. (worked on getting my half & marathon medals hung up too)

This medal holder is for only marathon and half marathon medals. All my others are on a
different display. 

Last Sunday, Hill Dynamo and I ran 6 miles in the town next to us. We needed a change of scenery. It was in the high 40's which was wonderful, especially because we had wet feet by the time we were done. The sidewalks still had a lot of snow or big puddles from melted snow. We always have fun when running together, even when it sucks. I stopped for what felt like a million times because my legs and hips were bothering me.  I had to keep stretching but we got the miles done.

It was a gloomy day but the company was great. 

I took Monday as a rest day.  The mail brought me lots of goodies (the mug came last week but it's from the same blogger/Podcast, Fatman Chronicles). Check it out. It's a husband/wife team and they are fun to listen to, plus he's a Subber and it's fun to support one of our own.

So the mail lady brought my Fatman Chronicles t-shirt, which can be found on Zazzle and I was able to add my own little touch of customization; my Gasparilla stickers and Sub30 shirts, unfortunately we aren't able to make the trip to Florida for this race and my InkNBurn shirt that I plan on have #BeTheLion put on the back!

#pavementforbreakfast

Tuesday was a 5 am day. Hill Dynamo and I met to get an early 4 miler. It's my favorite time to run, before the day starts and life gets in the way of getting the run done.  My legs were achy still from Sunday so I made some of my homemade muscle rub "Bone Juice". 

On Monday, My Musician says to me, "Oh that's a nice picture of you on your phone." I responded,  "That's our daughter. It would be pretty egotistical of me to have a picture of myself on my phone's screen." Fast forward 24 hours and I found this picture of myself in 2015 at the track, which I talked about in my last post. Well it's a picture that motivates me with my weight loss struggle, so on my phone it went. I almost always have my phone with me so a few times already, I see the pic and it helps me make smarter food choices.

Wednesday, I got up and ran at 6:30. Hill Dynamo had to work so I went alone but it was nice to sleep in a bit. I was only going to run 3 miles but then I had an emergency pit stop in the woods. Can I tell you it's difficult to find privacy this time of year with the naked trees and no ground cover! I felt much better so I ended up running 4 miles!

I'm starting to get a collection of torture devises under my desk

I looked at the forecast and decided not to get up early on Thursday to run. It was supposed to be almost 50 around 5ish. I bolted out of work at 4pm on the dot. Got home as fast as I could and found out I had to get my daughter to a friends house. So I changed fast and back out the door we went. Of course, I had to wear clothes over my running gear because she was embarrassed by my See-From-Outer-Space yellow shirt and too tight shorts. I chatted with the mom for a bit and off I went for my running date.  I broke the no-loud-music-when-running-on-the-road rule but I needed to just run hard and it drowns out the sound of my labored breathing and my brain screaming at me.

I wanted to stop so many times on this run. My lungs hurt, it was glorious. My legs hurt, but I pushed them anyway. It's not my fastest run but I haven't seen these paces out of me in a long time. It felt amazing. It was just the kind of run I needed. Look forward to getting through the Scranton half and starting to work on some targeted speed work.

I could not stop grinning after this one #BeTheLion

Friday is my rest day and I needed it.  My legs were a bit tight and sore from the night before's run.

I decided to do my long run on Saturday because of the upcoming snow storm.  It wasn't warm but it was sunny.  I felt really good going into this run.  One of my Fast Bitches does a #nowatchme, where you run by feel. I don't normally run that way but decided to try because I wanted to keep the run comfortable.  I had a goal of around 10:30 per mile and I'm pretty pleased with the overall run.

I'm always grateful for My Musician because he'll drop everything to rescue me. I was a couple miles into the run when my GI issues flared up.  I called him, he flew out the door, picked me up, took me to the gas station and then right back to exactly where he'd found me.

The last mile is all uphill and the very last hill is a tough one. I have only been able to run it a handful of times since we've lived here. This was not one of those times. I made it just under 1/2 way up and had to walk the rest.  My overall pace was still one I was really pleased with.

Views from my 7 mile long run

I'm really excited about this year's races and training cycles.  I'm cross training to try to avoid ending up injured again. Weeks like this help to really motivate me.  I can't wait to see what the spring brings.

#BeTheLion