Catching Up - 9 Mile report

Sometimes I suck at this...Sorry it's been over a week since I posted - I'm not a very good blog partner, but I promise I'm back!  I decided to come down with a Bubonic plague that is traveling around the state of Tennessee this past week.  It was about a 6 day cold that left me missing 3 days of work (in a row..what?!?) and showering taking up all my daily energy.  I'm on the fix right now and actually got out yesterday for a little 3 miler to try and get me back in the swing of things.

That being said, I have to report about my 9 mile run I did on my 29th birthday.  I honestly can't believe 2 things:
1. That I ran 9 miles
2. That I'm 29 (seriously I think I'm Benjamin Button.  I think I'm getting younger...;) )

It was a beautiful Friday in Nashville and I took the day off to wait for my dad to come into town to celebrate my birthday.  I had a long course planned out that took me all over the West End & Belle Meade areas.  I had a couple of rough moments throughout but it was really hot so I took it easy when I needed to and concentrated on getting the mileage.  It was a super proud moment for me & a great birthday present to myself! Maybe I should have gifted myself a nap - here I am post-run:

Also, I love being able to "see" that I ran with Nike Plus - seriously it's all about validation, people!

Gah. The hills in Nashville are KILLER!

Stop Competing with Others

I'm super competitive. Not in the get the hell out of my way or you'll be taken out manner - more of the "we all did so great! [internal fist pump to myself for winning]" kind of way. I'm extremely fortunate to have an amazing mentor in both my profession and personal life. Our topic of conversation recently (the past 6 months) is around motivation. I've excelled quickly in my professional life and what's become more and more apparent is this: the more you move up, the fewer people that are around you. And when you feed off of other people to help motivate you, push to the next level and gut check and you're doing the right thing and going above and beyond - it gets harder and I have to seek other places for motivation. 

Yesterday, I found this:

This has always been easy for me when it comes to anything athletic because I SUCK at sports. But the more active I get, the more experience I gain professionally - this, I think, speaks volumes. Push yourself do to better than you did the day before. Maybe it's not time for you, maybe it's mileage or getting up and going to run even when you want to stay in bed - just do better than yourself and you can't lose. 

Today's Motivation

9 Miles and the importance of ice

And by Ice, I mean consistent training. Lauren talked about this in her recent post. She trained consistently for her recent 10 miler and it made ALL the difference. Now, I've been training pretty consistently with the exception of these last 2 weeks: Sister in Law got married, I did my last wedding as a paid wedding planner and then I was on the road for 4 days for work. Running took a back seat, clearly.

So Saturday came around and I got up bright and early, ate some breakfast and headed over to City Stadium.

Here's Jillian and I before the run started:

Matt commented on how much stuff I run with here: Water belt, iPod, headphones. I would prefer to not run with my water but I seriously cannot figure out how people run long distances without it!

And then we were off!

Proof!!

My pace was pretty good and it consistently improved the longer we ran. HOWEVER, my body slowly started to deteriorate the longer we ran. Around mile 6, the outsides of my knees really started to ache. Both of them. In the same spot. I've had knee problems my entire life but this was different - new places, new pain and by the very end, I was limping ever so slightly. It turns out it was my muscles and tendons just getting super tight and strained because I hadn't been running and then I did 9 miles.

When I got home, I got bags of ice and sat our on our deck and just relaxed for a few minutes and drank water. Trying to get up the stairs after that was a nightmare. One step at a time. Matt, god bless him, rubbed my legs down for probably 30 minutes. It hurt so good! I iced again and then was a vegetable most of the afternoon. By morning, most of the soreness was gone.

This weekly, I'll be sticking to my training schedule :)

Next up 10 miles!

H

Saturday Long Run: Tower of Terror Success

During the week I cannot under any circumstances stare a computer screen any longer than necessary, so you can track my training here.  But come the weekends, we runners know the long run deserves a lot of love and attention.  

Good morning running princesses!  Thanks for letting me be part of this blog, especially because 9 runs out of 10 I do in fact ask myself, whose idea was this?!

This was the EXACT thought I had last weekend when I decided to run the Mickey not so Scary 5K on Saturday morning and then ran the Tower of Terror Ten Miler that night!  However, when I crossed that finish line on Sunday morning at 12:30 AM I felt amazing, better than I've ever, ever felt after a race.  And I think I know why:  I only missed three  runs during training.  That's the most consistently I've ever trained for a race.

Part of my problem before has always been my schedule:  I work 50ish hours a week and I'm always exhausted and we travel a lot on weekends.  I had a lot of trouble consistently fitting the miles in.  But with Jeff Galloway's program I could totally do 2 thirty minute runs per week and a long run to up the mileage every other weekend.  And it totally worked.

After the Disney Wine and Dine Half marathon which I ran in 2010 I could barely walk.  Now granted my girlfriends and I had play play played and that Magic Kingdom all day and I'd walked a ton and not taken a nap, but I barely trained.  I didn't do any mileage runs and I missed a lot of midweek maintenance runs.  And I paid dearly for it; I couldn't enjoy my free wine and food samples at Epcot's Food and Wine festival. 

I'm so glad that my 10 miler had a happier ending. I took it easy out of the start and ran the slowest pace I've ever run an official race and who cares?!  I finished up right, smiling and ready to party!  After the race, I met my Mom and Dad and husband (who had all had the most fun ever riding Star Tours and Toy Story while they waited) excitedly showed them my sweet movable action, glow in the dark medal, beasted my treat box, changed (holy MOSES WAS IT HUMID THAT NIGHT) and MB and I walked right onto the Tower of Terror and the Rock N Roller Coaster (which took forever, actually to get onto.  NOTE TO ALL RUNNERS:  YOU MAY BARF IF YOU RIDE A HIGH SPEED COASTER AFTER RUNNING 10 MILES IN 100% HUMIDITY).

The next morning I had a slight headache (which was NOT from running but from a more dependable monthly cause) but by the time I hit breakfast with my Mickey Waffle, I was ready for a full day of fun at Epcot.

The moral is always always put the miles on those legs.  Eat well before a race and pace yourself to have fun AFTER the race.  Laying with your legs in the air moaning from the dehydration headache and intesne stomach cramps is NOT worth those nights you skipped a run and the 9:10 per mile pace.

Trust me.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RUNNING BUDDY!!!

Today is Natalie's birthday! Let's celebrate:

Maybe you can't tell but this is a birthday cake.

Cindarelly

Today I'll be running in honor of this lil lady - releasing today on Blue Ray Combo pack!  Can't wait to  meet her and run through her castle in 4 months!!