ING NYC Marathon -- pretty please with a cherry on top?

Registration opens on Monday 1/02/2012 at Noon EST. I am so entering this lottery....

Bad stretch...can the year just end already?

So that "I skipped my run this morning?" Yeah...it's kind of led to a bad stretch of sorts. I was able to get a couple runs in last week but then we went out of town for the holiday and it was hard to keep up. 

When you only get home a couple times a year - you have to cram a lot of stuff into a short amount of time...seeing my mom, my 3 year old nephew who is more grown up every time I see him....etc, etc. Oh and the shopping. I hate Christmas. Like really hate it. There are two very big reasons for that grinchiness.....but I'll save that for another story. Where was I--oh yeah- the shopping. My hatred for Christmas and mankind in general means I put off buying gifts until the very last possible moment. Like Christmas Eve. So there's that. 

All of that led to not getting in a run for a couple days. We got home on Monday and I immediately threw on some clothes and laced up for a run. Five and half miles later, I was home and a little sore. Next morning, woke up and my left thigh was killing me. Was limping around all day like an old lady....finally realized I probably pulled or strained my quad. Started treating it and now 4 days later it actually feels normal. I haven't run since Monday so 4 good rest days really helped I think.

I am glad since I was starting to think I shouldn't run in the 5K I have scheduled for Sunday. Still haven't decided for sure but I'll give it one more day of rest and then go on a short easy run Saturday to see how I feel. If all is good, I'll still do the race. I really want to since it sounds fun--there is an optional Polar Bear dip (so not doing that--the lakes are cold around here! I won't even go in this particular lake in August so no- not doing it in January thank you very much) so it'll be entertaining to watch people freeze...and there is a beer garden after this one too. It is New Years Day after all. Nothing like sweating out the alcohol/hangover with a good run and then topping it off with some hair of the dog! 

Skipped my run this morning....

And I feel pretty guilty. I did have a good excuse though....I woke up with a pretty bad migraine when my alarm went off...so I decided some meds, an ice pack and a couple more hours sleep would be better for my body. I hate missing a day though. 

I like spreadsheets. I have created probably a few too  many related to running.....I mean how else are you supposed to track the mileage on a pair of shoes? So of course, my training schedule was manually input into a spreadsheet from my Runner's World Smart Coach app (gah! I wish these apps had an export to excel feature-damn it would make my life so much more efficient) and dutifully posted all over my house, much to the annoyance of The Girl. But whatever. She can suck it. Kidding. But not really. 

So like the runnerd I am, I check off each day on said posted training schedules. And not being able to check off today makes me feel like one of those over-achieving little kids that is hyperventilating because they are missing one sticker on their chart. Sad. I am aware of this. But I'm getting over it. I'll run the 5 mile tempo run tomorrow instead of the 4 mile easy run I am supposed to and I'll be right back on track. Right?

Training Cycle #2

Starts on Monday. I can't wait. I love training schedules. I'd never followed one before my last training cycle but I found a good one for beginners called Marathon Rookie. It was a pretty simple, 10 week, 4 day running schedule. And I figured something out. I dig structure. I like leaving the house knowing exactly how many miles I am running and what the route will be. I like to plan things out and prepare in advance.

That may be one of the reasons I am holding off on a full for now. I have decided that when I do it- I want to CONQUER it, now merely SURVIVE it. So I am going to put in a full year of running before I tackle it. Get at least 3-4 half's under my belt and several 10 and 5K's. Setting my sights on next fall, 2012. 

Since finishing the half last month, I took it easy for a couple weeks running 3-4 days a week. Last week, I ran the fastest I've ever run in the Jingle Bell 5K. After a bit of a chip timing fiasco, I got my official time and did it in 27:19--a full 8 minutes faster than the last time I did one, in Nov of 08. My pace was in the 8 minute mile range...which is crazy fast for me, considering when I started running again in July, I was doing 10-12 minute miles.

The training cycle I just completed gave me an excellent base to build on. And I just want to keep improving from there. So for this training cycle, I am upping my game. Going to incorporate cross training and yoga on my rest days. And do speedwork consistently. I'm down to between a 9-10 minute miles on my runs now...need to work on getting that down for shorter runs and keeping that pace up on longer runs.

Next up-Mercer Island Half 3/25/12. Plan to best my Seattle half time by at least 10 minutes...since I can easily minus about 6 mins from the time I did get for a bathroom/stretching stops. So easy peasy. I got it, no problem!

Magnuson Series-10K Holiday Fun Run [12/17/11]

Well that was a change of pace. I've only done 4 races, 3 of them in the last 5 months. They've all been big races with thousands of people on city streets. Until today. Race #5 was a little community running club event. They do a race monthly at Magnuson Park in Seattle, which is a 3.1 mile loop in a ginormous park along the northwest end of Lake Washington. The race is a 5K, 10K and 15K -- so you just loop the course 1-3 times depending on your race length. There were only a few hundred runners and it was half trail, half asphalt.

That was definitely different. I haven't run on a trail since cross country in college. I live in an urban area and run mostly in the early morning, so I feel much safer on busy well lit roads. So needless to say, the terrain was a bit of a challenge. There were even a few mud puddles to jump over.....

I started off too fast....in the 8 min mile range and by mile 3 I was really struggling. I really had to dig deep for the remaining 2 miles. But I still did really well and finished within a minute of my other 10K time. I forgot to turn off my runkeeper app when I crossed the finish line so I expect my actual time to be a smidge less. 

Overall I had a pretty good time and look forward to doing the course again in a couple weeks at the Resolution Run 5K.

Stats: 10K -- 6.18 miles -- 58:33  58:19-- 9:29 min/mile

Splits: 

Mile 1 - 8:34

Mile 2 - 9:00

Mile 3 - 9:30

Mile 4 - 9:37

Mile 5 - 9:46

Mile 6 - 10: 17

Final bit - 10:21