It's on, again

Marathon Training, that is!

I'm currently starting Week #6 for the Disney World Marathon. This time around I am going to try the Hansons Plan.  The longest run is 16 miles, but there is a 8 or 10 miler the day before. The schedules are based on the philosophy that no one workout is more important than another, not putting too much emphasis on one workout, and not doing 40% of your weekly mileage on one day.  Simply, teaching you to run/race on tired legs.

You can find a Runner's World article on the Hanson's Plan HERE. I actually read this article back in January 2011 when it was published and I photocopied it and but it on my fridge. The bottom line, there are many training philosophies that runners and coaches recommend for the marathon (and other distances). My goal is to find the right one that works for me.  I felt as if my training for Space Coast went really well, but race day was the pits.

I feel as though the training has been going really well so far.  Here is a glimpse of what I've been up to, the actual totals are in parentheses:

Week #1:

Monday: off (1.35 in Jenny's bootcamp)

Tuesday: off (5)

Wednesday: off (5)

Thursday: 3 miles (off)

Friday: off (5)

Saturday: 3 miles (6)

Sunday: off (0) 

Total: 6 (actual total 22.35)

Week #2:

Monday: off (4)

Tuesday: 2 (3.5)

Wednesday: off (3)

Thursday: 3 (4)

Friday: 3 (2)

Saturday 3 (3)

Sunday 4 (4)

Total: 15 (actual total 23.5)

Week #3:

Monday: off (0)

Tuesday: 4 (4)

Wednesday: off (0)

Thursday: 4 (4)

Friday: 4 (4)

Saturday: 4 (5)

Sunday off  (7.5) 

Suggested total: 20 (actual total 24.5)

Week #4:

Monday: off (0)

Tuesday: 5 (5)

Wednesday: off (0)

Thursday: 3 (6)

Friday: 3 (4)

Saturday 5 (6.3)

Sunday 5 (12)

Suggested total: 21 (actual total 33.3)

Week #5:

Monday: off (0)

Tuesday: 5 (5)

Wednesday: off (0)

Thursday: 4 (6)

Friday: 5 (5)

Saturday: 4 (8)

Sunday: 5 (10)

Suggested total: 23 (actual total 34)

There are a few things that I have learned so far.  Number one, doing yoga on my off days feel amazing on my legs!  Number two, my compression sleeves are my new BFF!  Number three, I can pretty much kiss any other physical activities good-bye for the remainder of this training plan.

There are also quite a few races coming up on my race calendar:

Sunday, October 21st: PHCC 5k (one of my favorite races because it benefit's the PHCC's Women's Cross Country team that I just have to be the advisor for)

Saturday, October 27th: Bride of Frankenfooter 5k

Sunday, October 28th: Frankenfooter Half Marathon (combined to be the Living Dead Challenge) (No idea why I signed up for this, but it should be fun?)

Friday, November 2nd: Richard's Run for Life (Always a favorite, the BEST post-race party in Tampa!)

Sunday, November 4th: Wildhorse Half Marathon (Very first trail half marathon - yikes!

In other running-related news since my last post...I ran the First Annual Cheval Cares 5k and somehow landed up in the Top Ten females: (with Kat, Melissa, Tracey, and Jena who were all much faster!)

Saw my very first water moccasin on the trails.  And it just so happened to be a part of a whole water moccasin family.  

Ben and I traveled to Utah for the very first time and had a blast.  Ben totally rocked his Xterra National Companionship trail half marathon, the people were super nice, and the scenery was breath-taking (this picture is from Snowbasin above the valley).

Living Dead

Well I successfully missed the entire month of July on the blogging end.  Whoops.  There has really been so much going on lately.

We will start with work life (part of the reason for my "living dead" title).  The summer hours at work are Monday - Thursday for 10 hours and then Fridays off.  Started in May and ending August 10th.  It always seems like such a long amount of time; and in the beginning, I always wonder what I am going to do with all these available Fridays.  But with one week left, I feel as though the summer as flew by and on Fridays I'm so exhausted from the week that I feel as though I'm a living dead person.  So I will celebrate my last Friday off this Friday, August 10th and frankly it's kind of a relief.  I will certainly miss a "free" day while most people have to work, but getting off work at 4:30 will be nice!

Other goings on:

Picnic Island #3 was on Friday, July 13th.  The tide was fairly low again and Ben and I both had a good time at this third and final run.  36:57 was my official finishing time, good enough for: 187/620 overall finishers, 38/217 female finishers, and 6/34 in my age group.  Annnddd, a cool campfire mug (as pictured below with my fast friend, Vera):

My Boston Red Sox loving friend, Jamie, gave Ben and myself some cool Rays koozies that we broke out for Dave Matthews Band summer tour in West Palm Beach:

Ben was reunited with Chris for some lawn action:

Here we are rolling around in the grass: (It was hot as Hades this day)

Those sunglasses pictured above? Lost 'em in the Atlantic Ocean along with my favorite Bucs hat.  But the water was AH-mazing!

I bought some new Brooks Adrenalines for marathon training.  (I fought with Brooks to give me some black shoe laces, but they refused so I rigged up my own).  I believe they look much better with the black laces instead of white...but you be the judge:

Trail running has also been going well.  Notable accomplishments: had my longest ever trail run (8 miles), my fastest pace trail run (10:10 pace, also 8 miles), saw my first coral snake, had my first wild boar sighting (including a baby boar), took another tumble, and saw tons of water on the trails.  Trail running has really given me a chance to focus on my foot falls and breathing and just enjoy being outside in the woods. I never thought that I would be running 8 miles consistently (especially after running 10 or 11 road miles the day before), but it's been great.  

I must also say that I've been fortunate enough to team up with my buddy, Tracey, for many of these trail runs.  (Special shout out to Paul for holding down the Tripp household on those Sunday mornings!)  Having someone to chat with, laugh with, and share these new milestones has really been a great experience.  So much so that we have even considered doing a trail half marathon this year...stay tuned.

Other confirmed races coming up:

Sunday, August 26th Run for the Fallen 10k.  (This is a FREE event that I'm doing with a team from work)

Saturday, October 27th and Sunday, October 28th The LIVING DEAD Challenge (5k on Saturday NIGHT and Half Marathon Sunday MORNING! WHAT?!?).  This one should be fun and local!

Long Run Socks

The summer in Florida is no joke, especially if you have to train in it.  And, like most runners, I am a creature of habit.  There are certain clothes that are "approved" for longer distances.  They are tried and true.  I know that they will not chafe, bunch, or irritate me on a longer run.  This includes my special pair of "long run socks".  However, I was having a hard time locating my special long run socks on Sunday morning a few weeks ago.

As I frantically searched my sock drawer for my coveted socks, Ben looked over to see what the heck I was doing.  I told him that I was looking for my special long run socks and that I need to find them ASAP or I would be late.  At which point, he rolled over and pulled the blankets over his head.  Perhaps, I should invest in another pair.  Apparently I had already worn them this week, so I had to go with my back up socks.  Sigh.  What article of clothing can you not go without?

Anyway, after I settled on my back up socks, I met Rhonda and Melanie at the Upper Tampa Bay Trail for a 8-9 miler.  The one thing about my friends is that if you talk about more than one distance, you can be sure that you are going to longer distance.  The nice thing about the Upper Tampa Bay Trail is the amount of shade that you get, especially in the morning.  However, there is a huge over pass that is not so pleasant.

Here are the splits (from June 3rd - it's been a while):

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	1:19:47.0	9.00	8:52
1	9:15.1	1.00	9:15
2	9:00.3	1.00	9:00
3	8:47.5	1.00	8:47
4	8:28.4	1.00	8:28
5	8:40.2	1.00	8:40
6	8:53.2	1.00	8:53
7	8:51.2	1.00	8:51
8	8:59.1	1.00	8:59
9	8:52.0	1.00	8:53

On Saturday (June 2nd), I met up with Tracey for a quick, easier run in Longleaf.  There were a lot of things going on this particular Saturday, so we met at 6 (waiting a few minutes for Natalie to bail on us, ahem!) and set out to Dianne and Craig's house and back.  Dianne and Craig live half way between Longleaf and Starkey Park.  And they are gracious enough to have a Gatorade/water buffet for the Strider runners.  Here are our splits:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	1:04:08.5	7.01	9:09
1	9:15.1	1.00	9:15
2	9:11.4	1.00	9:11
3	9:05.8	1.00	9:06
4	9:08.7	1.00	9:09
5	9:10.7	1.00	9:11
6	9:13.6	1.00	9:14
7	9:00.7	1.00	9:01
8	:02.6	0.01	8:16

Then, I also did a San Antonio Hill Run last Sunday, June 10th which was a long(er) run.  It was supposed to be another 9 miler, but I wasn't feeling it after the RAP River Run.  So I cut it shorter and ended up with 8.27 miles.  Clearly, I should have just done the 9 mile route.  Here are the splits:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	1:15:50.3	8.27	9:11
1	9:38.3	1.00	9:38
2	9:21.6	1.00	9:22
3	8:55.8	1.00	8:56
4	9:06.9	1.00	9:07
5	9:02.8	1.00	9:03
6	9:04.7	1.00	9:05
7	9:03.6	1.00	9:04
8	9:05.0	1.00	9:05
9	2:31.8	0.27	9:33

Check out THIS elevation gain!!!

Distance:	8.27 mi
Time:	1:15:50
Avg Pace:	9:11 min/mi
Elevation Gain:	468 ft
Calories:	964 C

We have been running the same 10 mile loop in San Antonio, but found another one on WalkJogRun to try.  It was much more difficult in terms of elevation gain and number of hills, but it was a nice change/challenge.  This particular run was Natalie's last hill run before her move for college.  We did our photo Kids Incorporated style:

Don't know what Kids Incorporated is?!?  Check it! (Excellent video quality of the 80s..)

(Looks like we made it!  Recognize Fergie Ferg?!?)

Finally, have you heard of this website? Hey Runner Girl  Here's a sample:

Talk about a dream come true!

Markets, Cheesecake, Hills, and Baseball

This weekend went by WAY too quickly.  This sounds really horrible, but I normally start planning the upcoming weekend on Saturday.  Blah, if only the silly work week wouldn't get in the way so much...

On Friday, I just caught up on some things around the house, finally did some grocery shopping, and met Ben for lunch at Tampa's downtown Farmer's Market.  It was a really nice day outside and I've been wanting to check out this place for some time. In addition to wonderful food (BBQ, Greek, Ethiopian, Vegan, etc..) they have vendors that sell jewelry, purses, clothing, etc... I actually bought something from Down 2 Earth, and it was beautiful!

After an amazing Greek salad, I headed over to Citrus Park mall to waste some time.  I was potentially looking for some new summer clothes, but it appears that I really need someone to assemble clothing together in to outfits because I'm really bad at shopping (unless it's running clothes!).  Sigh.  Ahh well, I decided I would head over to the party store to gather some (a dozen) balloons for Natalie's pre-birthday celebration at the Cheesecake Factory.

I thought it was going to be hilarious to have Natalie walk around Bay Street/International Plaza with a huge bouquet of balloons...  Guess what?!?  The joke was on me because I had to shove/squeeze/cram a dozen balloons in my car first.  On a windy day.  Holy smokes, I sure hope that I don't show up on one of those American's Funniest Home Video-type shows...  Anyway, the end result turned out great!

Saturday morning I got up really early and watched the movie Moneyball.  If you haven't seen this movie, I highly recommend it!  Moneyball is about baseball, statistics (my favorite!), and the Oakland As. Oh, and Brad Pitt is in the movie, too!  I was really debating about going to bootcamp this Saturday (because I'm lazy), but forced myself to go anyway.  And it's a good thing that I did because I was the only one to show up.  Holy crap, JJ put me through the ringer!  My arms AND legs were shaking so bad at the end of that workout.  Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?!?

After regaining strength in my extremities, I went to go try on my wedding dress. (AHH!)  I had ordered my dress back in December, and I was starting to worry that maybe I wouldn't like the dress as much as I first had.  But, that totally was not the case!  It's hard to describe the way you feel in a wedding dress, espcially the ONE that you are going to be walking down the aisle in, but it's an amazing feeling.

Several people have asked me to see the dress, but I'm trying to make sure that Ben doesn't see that dress before our wedding day.  SO, if you would like to see THE dress, I would be more than happy to e-mail you a picture of some model wearing the dress that I'm going to be wearing, but there will be no pictures of me in my dress until April 13, 2013.  Final answer.

Sunday morning was a planned monthly Hill run in San Antonio.  Most people think Florida is relatively flat, but the East side of Pasco county has some incredible hills.  Elevation gain of 381 feet, anyone?!?

Distance:	10.01 mi
Time:	1:30:47
Avg Pace:	9:04 min/mi
Elevation Gain:	381 ft
Calories:	1,178 C

There were eight of us that met up this month, and it worked out perfectly because everyone had a partner to run with.  I paired up with Matt (since he didn't know where the route was) and did much better than I expected us to.  Here are the splits:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	1:30:47.0	10.01	9:04
1	9:16.3	1.00	9:16
2	8:41.8	1.00	8:42
3	8:52.6	1.00	8:53
4	9:35.0	1.00	9:35
5	9:06.8	1.00	9:07
6	8:56.0	1.00	8:56
7	8:39.9	1.00	8:40
8	9:26.2	1.00	9:26
9	9:18.3	1.00	9:18
10	8:47.6	1.00	8:48
11	:06.5	0.01	9:34

The last month we went out to San Antonio, the average was 9:18.  Needless to say, I was incredibly happy with the improvement and hope to do better next month!  Here are a couple of pictures from the paparazzi:

Tracey cracking me up as usual:

We are actually not sure if Coach Steve is taking our picture or not... I'm actually laughing at the fact that he's not even looking AT the camera, just randomly snapping photos

All done (and acting crazy!)

It was a great morning, definitely looking forward to our next adventure in the hills already!  After we got back, Ben and I heading to St. Pete for the Rays vs. Braves game.  We packed up some sandwiches and drinks and hung out in the shade for a little bit before the game.  

My honey grew up a Braves fan (there really weren't any baseball teams around Florida - when we were kids...),but has since become a Rays fan. Here he is honoring both teams:

Our seats were in the 300s, but right behind home plate. (And apparently very close to a lot of other people that I that knew, but didn't realize were so close!)  We had a good time, but ultimately, the Rays lost.  Their offense was TERRIBLE.  TWICE the bases were loaded and they weren't able to score at all.  Ho hum.  Another exciting weekend in Tampa Bay - on to Manic Monday now! Ahhh!