Friday, March 28, 2014

Its THAT Time.....Time for Run the Bluegrass

Holy cow I can NOT believe how fast this year has passed by! Holy cow I can not believe the Run the Bluegrass is tomorrow! Am I ready? NO! Will I survive? I sure hope so!

Last Friday out of no where around 4pm my left hip started hurting not really positive that it was my hip exactly but hip area. Within a couple of hours it felt worse. So I took an Epsom salt bath and tried soaking it. Saturday morning I could barley put any weight on it. We had to take Miles (the dog) to the vet so I decided to take him to the park after so he could run at the dog park and I could walk around and hopefully stretch out whatever was going on! We was supposed to do a long run the next day and I'm beginning to get worried. I took another bath that night hoping for the best along with taking ibuprofen. Sunday morning it didn't feel too bad so I decided to try and run but take it easy.Gerard told everyone I kept him up all night tossing and turning and whining in my sleep over it. We went up a couple of pretty good size hills and within a couple of miles I could feel it. It was still a couple of miles back to the car and I thought I would just stop there. Everyone else was going to run on to the park so I said I was going to walk I even reset my Garmin. Except that the first mile to the park is fairly flat so I decided to run it then I started walking I walked about a mile made a bathroom stop and pretty much slowly ran all the way back. I still ended up with 7.7 miles so it was sort of a long run.

I took a few days off and have only ran once this week 4 miles. While I was running I didn't feel anything but while we was standing there chatting after I could start to feel something.

So here's what I am feeling.....My left side lower back on left side and sometimes down the back of my left leg down to my foot just an achy pain. But it comes and goes or maybe I mask it enough with ibuprofen. I'm wondering if its not maybe a nerve or IT band issue?

Tomorrow is my first half of 2014, its HARD, its HILLY, there's 80% chance of RAIN my goal at this point is to have FUN and ENJOY it the best I can and hopefully focus more on the Derby next month!

WISH M E LUCK:)
RUN HAPPY!

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

More Pics from RailRunner 10

Morgan (in green) Mylinda (in orange)

Melinda (orange) Vicki (green)

Chris doing some UK basketball thing I don't know since I don't do basketball, lol!

My girl Sherry!

Neal- has turned into such a regular runner!

Mary Kay Neal's wife :) very sweet lady!

DeAnna (black) & Angela (green) these two look up to no good! But always having fun!

Sarah! Owner of GetMovingKy Another sweetie :)

Rebecca and Lucy decided to "jog" the 5k while waiting for  baby #2 to arrive in a few short weeks!

Danny & dang it I forgot her name so sorry! Jason in the back waving!
!

Again photos thanks to The Picture Lady

2014 Railrunner 10 Miler- A GREAT Day for a Race!

Bob with 3Way Racing

On Saturday, March 15 Gerard(my hubs:)  and I ran the RailRunner 10 miler. I was so excited for this race, it was the first race of the year that almost all of my running buddies was going to be at I have missed them so much this LONG FOREVER ONGOING winter we have had!

I went into this race with a few goals:
*Beat last years time
*With "Luck" finish before or right beside Gerard
*Have an overall pace as close to 9:09 as possible

For once the weather was predicted to be a beautiful morning and it actually was! It was a little cool to start (around 35°) but warmed up quickly as the sun was shining! We all gathered up at the start line and did the "talk" of what we hoped to happen that day. I don't think I ever came right out and told Gerard I was hopeful to beat him but he knew I had it on my mind.

Off we went and way too fast as usual for me. I had said my intention was to start around a 9:30ish pace and get hopefully faster with each mile, about a ½ mile in our buddy Ricky yelled "What happend to that 9:30 pace?" and yep we was way to fast! And as usual I felt comfortable and decided to just keep going with it as long as I could. I stayed side by side with another buddy(Michael Lee) I think we was feeding off each other he would look at the pace and say lets slow it down a little, I would look and say we are still pretty fast maybe we SHOULD slow down some. After about 2 miles in I could no longer hear Gerard and Ricky talking with each other so I felt like I was making a pretty good lead on them.


Me of course Gerard in white and Ricky in blue
This race is held on the RJ Corman property in Nicholasville, KY. It is a very beautiful place with a great path to run on. For this race you do the 5k loop then run up/down the airport runway and make the 5k loop again. It is fairly flat the whole way with one fairly good hill  half way on the 5k loop and another one towards the end of it but the worst part for me is the runway its flat straight and seems forever long! This course is  very close comparison to the half course I hope to PR on in April that's why I wanted to try for as close as possible to a 9:09 pace.

I was able to stay with Michael for about 4½ miles then I had to start falling back, I took about 5 steps to try and slow down my pace and get a comfy pace again and this was the point when we hit the runway.


Michael Lee

This cracked me up when I saw this LOL!!
The runway just a long straight concrete path all the way down one way loop around ALL the way down to the other end, I swear it seems like that second end keeps getting farther and farther away instead of closer. The first end of it I was still pretty close to Michael and probably a good minute + ahead of Gerard but then I was getting close to the six mile mark and slowly going down hill. I tried my best to slow my pace but just keep on moving, coming off the runway was around mile 8 and I was pretty much done mentally and still had to go up the hills. I am a HUGE fan of giving myself "pep" talks in my mind it seems to work for me most times and this day was no exception. From 8 on I was telling myself over and over "You only have 2 miles left, Your light as a feather light on your feet, Don't think about it and just keep moving, Less than 2 miles now just take your time and keep moving!" It was tough at times and I really wanted to be closer to that finish line. I saw Sherry when I was at 8 ½ and I said "only 1½ to go" she knew I needed her to say "you got this". Not only do you have the two hills twice but you also cross a concrete foot bridge twice, the bridge is ugly it shakes, it bounces, it makes you dizzy and feel sick! The first time around it didn't seem to bother me so  bad but that second time was AWFUL I walked across it but when I started running I was still dizzy from it. It instantly made my stomach upset and make me feel ill but I kept on going. I was really close to making the final turn to the finish line when I saw another way faster than any of us buddy Jason who was walking back for his wife Angela so I asked him "Do you see Gerard? Is he close or do I have him?" He smiled real big and said "Your good you've got him!" I got excited felt my pace picking up had to slow it back down thought I was going to get sick saw the finish line and just wanted to cross it!

Mile 1- 8:57                                        Mile 6- 9:11
Mile 2- 8:50                                        Mile 7- 9:18 
Mile 3- 8:55                                        Mile 8- 9:45
Mile 4- 9:05                                        Mile 9- 9:59
Mile 5- 9:17                                        Mile 10- 9:34

Finish Time 1:32:54 which is 3 mins faster than last year and I finished before Gerard(his time 1:33:22) My overall pace was 9:18 so it was fairly close and there is still time to hopefully work on it a little!

All in all I would say it was an Awesome day and an Awesome race held by some pretty Awesome people! After chicken sandwiches from Zaxby's was offered as well as home made banana ice cream my favorite part of the entire race! Thanks Bob and company with 3Way Racing as well as RJ Corman owners for hosting such a great race!


Gerard at the finish. I didn't like my finish photo so I didn't share it:)

Sherry- This chic did AWESOME!
All Photos are property of The Picture Lady.

Monday, March 24, 2014

SPARTAN UP! By Joseph De Sena



Think your up the SPARTAN CHALLENGE
Pre-Order the book SPARTAN UP for some in depth coverage, hints and tips.


SPARTAN UP is based on many concepts according to the synopsis of the book but there are three that trumps everything:
*Question your Assumptions
*Less is More
*Discipline is Everything


Don't delay order your copy of SPARTAN UP today!!

Friday, March 14, 2014

I Didn't get a Turtle Dip

Saturday, March 1 was the first ever Turtleman Trek 5k in Lebanon , KY which was being held by one of my running friends for the local school baseball team. The only race I usually do in Lebanon is the Pokey Pig and I enjoy the course so I was looking forward to this.  The weather forecast  all week for rain but thankfully that morning it did not and it wasn't super cold like it had been! I didn't think any of my running buddies was going to be there but thankfully a handful of them was. I need my friends around me, LOL!

As I lined up to the start line I decided to ask about the course, wouldn't you know it its completely different than the one I was familiar with but they said it was pretty flat. I have been trying hard this year to focus on not taking off all crazy fast, well I looked down about a ¼ mile in and WHOA I was way too fast (7:47) so I tried to  keep going but slow down to a comfortable pace and not walk any. The first mile was fairly flat with a small incline towards the end of it and there was lots of turns(just looked there was 5 turns in the first mile!!) as it went through a neighborhood. Mile 1 8:19. The second mile was a long  long stretch that had a little uphill grade almost the entire way. At first I enjoyed it as it was helping me regain a more steady manageable pace but then I started feeling like "Is this mile EVER going to be over!" The best thing was coming back down. I was disappointed though I thought we would continue straight back to the starting point but oh no we had to turn and circle around another block to get back. I don't enjoy races with lots of turns. Mile 2- 8:47 That fast(er) first mile was really catching up to me in the third mile. I just tried my best to stay as steady as I could, unfortunately I did have to stop and walk a few steps. (Why do I keep doing this? If I'm only taking 5 -10 steps why am I walking?? Gotta work on that!) Mile 3- 8:49 This course was a little longer than the HSG race but the funny thing was I ran the same exact time! 27:00 finish time!

OMG my left thigh looks like a tree trunk!
I was happy with my time and happy with the way I ran but it wasn't good enough for an age group award:( They have some fast runner there in Lebanon! It was all good though. Although I am not a Turtleman fan I do have to say this was a very upbeat lots of positive floating around especially for a first time race. I would recommend separating the table of pre-registered and walk up registration a little farther apart it seemed a little crowded.  Thanks Sharon for putting on a great race! Hope to return next year!


The Turtle Dip




Be sure to check out The Picture Lady for more pics!

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Five Things Friday- Bam! Just Like that 5wks of RTB Training done

 Yeah I pretty much have ditched the training schedule. The crazy stupid winter we've been so lucky to have this year (along with most of the country!!) and the fact that I am anti treadmill has made it really hard to get out some days. I tried keeping up on the long runs and did fairly good until the last couple of weeks. Anyways here is a quick recap of the last 5 weeks of my training for Run the Bluegrass (RTB).

1. Jan 27 - Feb 2- Total mileage for the week was 25½ Even though I ditched the schedule I have tried to maintain around 20 miles a week. This week I finally had a solid 10 mile(1:38:02) run, a run that wasn't broken into 2 runs. I did the long run alone, I considered stopping early after making 3 bathroom stops but pushed on through to the end!

2. Feb 3 - Feb 9- Total mileage for the week was 18¼ I cut back on the long run for this week because Gerard decided to finally get back into the running world after about 3wks (or maybe more) off. We went for 8 miles (1:18:40) I felt really good & strong on this run not the fastest but I felt great!

3. Feb 10 - Feb 16- Total mileage for the week was 19.07 Back to another 10 miler (1:38:29) this week. The weather was beautiful for the long run and we had several join us, it ended up being 6 of us! I love it when several of "us" can get together to run.

4. Feb 17 - Feb 23- Total mileage for the week was 19.78 I was shocked to have so many miles this week as I didn't get a long run in. I planned on not doing one this week due to having the two races Saturday & Sunday. Read about the races HERE!

5. Feb 24 - March 2- Total mileage for the week was 11.14 ??? What happened this week??? Terrible weather and laziness on my part! I did another race Saturday morning (will recap in next post:) and planned on doing the long run after the race, Gerard was going to join me but didn't want to do 12 miles. So I planned on doing the race and running the route again so I would have half done and complete the other 6 miles with him that evening. I know him too well and just knew some how the other 6 miles wouldn't happen. Sure enough they didn't:( should have went with my instincts and completed it myself!

So now my blogger friends I have a question for you:
Have you EVER ditched a training schedule? How did your race turn out? Better or Worse than expected?

Run Happy ;)

Friday, March 7, 2014

Three Things Thursday- 4k for Heart Health & Heart Sole & Glove 5k

1. Okay here I go again getting behind in blogging. Stop get a hold of myself now!! I promise I will be doing better. Things got a little rough around my house with my crazy youngest daughter acting out, it really put a lot of stress on me that I tried really hard not to show or share with everyone else. On top of the stupid crazy winter that we have all had COME ON SPRING!!

2. On Saturday, February 22 Sherry and I headed to the good ole' Cedar Rapids Golf Course for the 4k for Heart Health which is also the second race in the Rockcastle Regional County-Wide Series. This is (to me) a very hard 2.48 miles, I kept telling Sherry all week how hard it was real encouraging of me huh?


Part of the reason it is so hard is its part grass and part cart path that is not very smooth with speed bumps and tree roots so on the nice long down hills it was hard to speed down in fear of falling over a root! I learned my lesson from last year and knew not to go out all crazy fast I tried to just stay steady. There was 2 cute little kids in front of me that I kept talking with I think we was motivating each other. Although I was slower than last year I feel like I ran so much better this year and didn't feel completely dead after and I got 3rd in my age group!! 2.48 mi/25:03

3.The very next day Sherry, Gerard and I headed to Lexington, KY for the Heart Sole & Glove 5k that actually was rescheduled due to weather and it worked out great the weather was perfect minus the wind!

This is one of my favorite races in the past the first year I ran it they had the best after snacks ever! Yep I'm one of them that runs for food (and it shows)! I was glad Gerard got to join us I love it when we get to go to races together for two main reasons 1.) Quality time together 2.) He is faster than me so I can use him to judge how well I'm doing or not doing, if I can see him I'm good! I didn't think my legs felt tired from the day before but once we started running I could feel them and I realized it was my 4th day in a row running. But I still did way better than I ever thought and I could see Gerard just about the entire time!
Go Baby Go!
They changed the course from the last time I ran it and I LOVED it! It was an out & back and was flat & fast! Once again I tried to not go out crazy fast and just maintain what speed I had, I stayed pretty steady until the last ½ mile or so when I had to take a few short steps to clear my throat. That is when I started loosing sight of Gerard. I was totally shocked I placed 1st in my age group and really happy because I wanted one of the awards
The picture doesn't really do it justice but they were awesome soft grey scarves! I LOVE IT!! 3.09mi/27:01