Run, Eat, Date, Sleep

Well, it’s been almost a month since  I blogged… and for good reason. I’ve been internet-less at home, I picked up a second job, and I moved!

As you might know by now, I had plans on moving to Orlando, and unfortunately, they fell through. So I moved a little closer to work and kept my job with my family.

So here’s a bit about what’s been going on with me in the past few weeks…

I haven’t been running much. With a second job and moving, there just hasn’t been enough time. But now that things are settling down, I’m going to kick things back into business. On Saturday, I did the 3rd Annual Race for the Ribbon 5K with a few of my friends.

It was a HOT race and probably my worst.

Mile 1- 10:51

Mile 2- 12:44

Mile 3- 12:42

.11 Nub- 1:16

Total- 37:35 for a 12:04 pace

I was severely disappointed in myself, but even the guys who placed said it was their worse race. I was just looking up race results, and I placed third in my age group!

On Monday, I did a 2-miler to get my momentum back. My new neighborhood butts up to my childhood neighborhood, so it was fun running around where I learned how to ride a bike and where I made so many good friends. The 2-miler took me 23:21, an 11:20 pace. To help myself build back up to my old endurance, I did 5/1 intervals, meaning I did intervals of running 5 minutes and walked 1 minute.

I was hoping to get a good run in last night, but my stomach wasn’t doing well. Remember I went vegetarian because I thought meat made me sick? Well, I think it really is true. I hadn’t gotten sick since January, so I added a few meats back in recently just to see what would happen. Yeah, I was sick again yesterday and all of last night. Ugh!

I’m feeling a little better today, but I took the day off of work to sleep in, rest, and relax. Once I’m back to 100%, it’s back to marathon training, which will include swimming as part of my cross-training.

Tonight’s plans involve seeing some old friends and the new SATC movie!

After only 3 hours of sleep, my alarm woke me up from a blissful sleep at 6:30am for the DE-Feet Breast Cancer 5K.

I started the morning off with my usual- a deli flat with peanut butter and a banana. Never change your pre-race meal! If it works, stick with it!

Since this was a breast cancer race, I knew I had to wear my pretty pink running skirt and pigtails!

Before I left, my old high school friend Staci commented on my Facebook to let me know she’d be there too. Awesome! I don’t think I had seen her since high school graduation, which was 11 years ago. Ack, I’m old! Staci’s been very successful with her weight loss, and she’s been running now for a while. Hi Staci!!

When I arrived, there was already quite a crowd. We later found out this was the largest attendance of any Seashore Striders event. Over 500 people participated between the 1 mile walk, the 5K walk, and the 5K run.

Early crowd

Once I was registered and not given the long sleeve t-shirt I so desperately wanted (they ran out, plus they weren’t long sleeve), I found Holly and Ellen! This was Ellen’s first 5K!

Also in our group was Manuela who I also went to high school with, Bobbi, and Kelli. Thank you, Staci, for the picture!

Manuela, Holly, Staci, me, Ellen, Bobbi, Kelli

The whistle blew at 9am, and we were off! Right from the beginning, I knew this would be a tough race. I hadn’t run in a week and a half, and it felt like Hades outside! The humidity could have stayed home. At the first mile marker, I looked down at my iPhone to see I ran a 10:13 mile, which I believe is the fastest mile I’ve ever run. Unfortunately, this pace didn’t last long. I lost all of my steam during the second mile, which was 11:56. I had to take a few walk breaks because I was feeling nauseous, but I finished in 35:39, an 11:30 pace.

With the humidity and my running hiatus, I’m not ashamed of my time. I feel good about it.

After the race, we all drove over to Friendly’s for breakfast. Since I already had half a bagel at the race, I ordered home fries and only ate half, but I downed about 4 cups of coffee. Mmmmm! Before you start with the home fries, I know that was a bad decision, but it’s hard to find something to eat at a restaurant for breakfast when you’re a vegetarian. It was either home fries or pancakes drowning in syrup. Speaking of pancakes, Friendly’s now offers pancakes with a scoop of ice cream on top. Seriously? I think I’ll start my day off with an order of that and for lunch, I’ll have the KFC Double Down. I think I just had a minor heart attack thinking of eating that crap.

But anyways… a BIG congratulations to Caren for running Broad Street today!!! It was her first race longer than a 5K!

Now it’s time for me to continue packing. I’m about to head out to pick up some boxes someone graciously offered on FreeCycle!

Oh, and P.S., add me on SparkPeople if you’re a member. I’m Rockstar117! I started the 2011 Disney Princess Half Marathon Spark Team, so join!!!

I fell asleep really early last night, and when I woke up at 3:45 out of nowhere, thoughts of not running the 5K were running through my mind. I had fallen asleep on the couch, so I headed up to my own bed, and made the decision I wouldn’t run today. I didn’t want to pay the registration fee. I hadn’t really run in 3 weeks. I was nursing my knee injury. I turned off my alarm and went back to sleep resigned to the fact I wouldn’t run.

I ended up dreaming that I missed the race, and I could see the runners running by my house. I actually woke up crying about this at 6:44, one minute before my alarm would have gone off. I took this as a huge sign that I needed to get up and go run this race.

So I got up, had my usual pre-race breakfast, divided in half, of a bagel with peanut butter and 1/2 banana, showered, and quickly threw on my race clothes. I got there just in time to register, grab my race packet and t-shirt, run back to the car, and head back to the start line.

The half-marathoners started 10 minutes before the 5k. And they’re off!

I didn’t even get a whole lot of time to stretch before we were told to line up.

(picture taken after I was already finished)

This race was directed by the same group who did the Delaware Hospice 5K last year. I was looking at my watch after running 11 minutes and thought for sure I’d see the Mile 1 marker. I later found out it was on the other side of the street, where none of us would see it. I don’t like “running blind” like that. I like to know how far I’ve been, but hopefully that will be cured soon with a Garmin… just waiting on some extra $$$.

But I did find myself doing something I normally don’t do… I picked a few women throughout the race and decided to pick them off one at a time. I usually just stick with my one pace, slow and steady, but I wanted to pick it up a little today. I did, however, take about 3 walk breaks, one for 1 minute and 2 for 30 seconds. I’m notorious for getting sick at the end of 5Ks, so I didn’t want to push myself to that point, but I think I could have done without most of my walk breaks. I think I broke my momentum.

Besides a slight wave of nausea at the Mile 3 marker, I finished strong with a time of 34:08, my second best 5K race time. I placed 12th in my age group out of 28. I finished with no knee pain!

The race started and finished at Irish Eyes Pub, which has burned down twice now and has been rebuilt.

I’m so excited to have done this race and know that my knee pain is gone! This means I can get back in to the swing of things and start Hal Higdon’s Spring Training program. Since I don’t have any scheduled long races for a while, I wanted to start building up my base mileage. This is this week’s schedule.

Doesn’t seem too challenging But I plan on trying my best to run every run the whole way through with no walk breaks. I’m really anxious to sign up for more races!!! My next 5K race is the Zoo Stampede on April 24th at the Salisbury Zoo.

When you’re fresh out of registered races, what kind of base mileage do you keep up? Do you take a few weeks off? Or are you constantly registered for something?

I was so very excited to be able to sleep in this morning. It had been a while since I’ve been able to enjoy an unscheduled Saturday morning. Unfortunately, I’ve woken up with a very bad headache, and it’s pouring outside. The plan for today was to run a 5K, which will benefit Special Olympics, but I’m unsure whether or not to do it. If I run in the cold rain, I might end up sick, and I have my second half-marathon next Sunday. I don’t want to be sick for that. I have a few hours to make up my mind.

So, I rolled out of bed this morning, made a toasted bagel with peanut butter, turned on American Idol from Tuesday, and decided to catch up with Google Reader. As you can see, I’m VERY behind on blogs… I have over 1000 blog posts to catch up on!

One of the first blogs I read every day is And Her Little Dog Too (Leslie and I met at the blogger meet-up last week in Orlando), and I see that I won her Amy’s Soups giveaway. I’m so excited!!! This is my first giveaway win!

(Leslie’s picture)

I feel like I really need to do this 5k today. I haven’t run since the half-marathon on Sunday, and I know I need to get out there and run. Plus, I’d like to see if I can PR a 5k now. After running 13.1 miles, 3.1 seems like a piece of cake.

Update to the Cute as a Bunny Challenge

Since I was away on weigh-in day, I’m skipping this week’s weigh-in with the challenge. I did meet my goal of not tracking calories last week though   That was easy! Hehehe.

This week’s (3/14- 3/20)  goals:

• Keep drinking 66 ounces of water every day
• Run Monday and Wednesday, cross-train on Thursday

I leave for NYC next Friday for the NYC Half Marathon!

I spent my whole ride home from work tonight telling myself I didn’t want to run. But as soon as I walked in the door, I grabbed a Gu, threw on my running clothes, stretched, and headed out the door. No excuses for laziness in this house! By the way, the Expresso Love Gu almost made me gag. I think I’ll stick to the Chocolate Outrage.

The plan tonight was to work on my speed on a 5K. I felt good almost the whole time. I think the Gu hit me around the 1st mile marker, but I talked myself through it. I told myself the upset tummy will pass, and it eventually did. Here’s my time splits:

Mile 1- 10:28
Mile 2-10:52 (me running slower to get over the upset stomach)
Mile 3- 10:48
Mile 0.1- 1:02
Total- 33:11

That’s 33 seconds faster than my previous PR from last Fourth of July at the Beachpaper 5K!!! I realized this a few seconds after my run and immediately started crying. I’m so dang proud of how far I’ve come.

Today was the 11th Annual Reindeer Stampede for my high school’s cross country team boosters. I ran cross country one year in high school, so it felt pretty cool to be supporting the team. Plus, some of the old runners from my team came out. My coach remembered me and was there at the finish line cheering me on. I really hadn’t been training for this run because I haven’t been able to get out of bed before the sun rises, and it’s dark before I get home from work. And I despise the treadmill. But I did go out on Thursday morning for an interval training run, which felt really good! I had a goal of running the entire race, but after the 1.5 mile marker, I lost my steam. My hamstrings were tight, and I was getting a pain in my side from not breathing correctly. I still had a stuffy nose from being sick the week before, so I had to breathe out of my mouth the whole time. I finished the race strong at around 37:17. Definitely not one of my best times, but for walking parts of it, I think I did pretty well.

You all are welcome to join me in my celebration to welcome back the 180s!!! When I stepped on to the scale this morning, I saw a 1 and two cute snowmen! 188!!! I imagine I woke up the neighbors with my squeal of happiness. I’ve now lost a total of 13.6 pounds since May 7. Plus, I now fit comfortably in my size 12 pants. Last week when I tried them on, they were a little snug so I continued to wear my size 14s. But today, the 12s went right on with no sucking in.

Well, that’s it for now. Thank you to all of my new followers

I got up at the butt crack of dawn this morning to run a 5K (the same one I did last year). Last year’s time was 35:47, and I ran the whole way. This year my time was 37:10, and I had to stop a few times for just a couple of seconds and once to throw up. I’ve NEVER gotten to that point before where I thought I would need to throw up and/or pass out. And it was at the very end too! I suppose I’m just getting older, but I just didn’t feel right today. My back was out of whack, and I wore almost-new shoes. So those are my excuses for not doing as well as I did last year. Plus, I had no one there with me like I did last year. Just knowing someone is there watching you spurs you on, and I just didn’t have that. Oh well. I signed up for another one on July 15 for the Delaware Hospice, so I’ll just keep training and do better next time!

And here’s a really bad photo of me at the start of the race. I’m the one in the green shirt. This will be the LAST time I wear a cotton shirt and long pants for a 5K. I must have had crazy for breakfast.

Speaking of breakfast, I didn’t have anything to eat beforehand, and I know I didn’t hydrate well enough.

I really enjoy this 5K every year. They had a large amount of door prizes, and they offered Life Water, delicious bagels and toppings like peanut butter, and granola bars.

I for sure did not train very well before this race, so it’s time to pick it up!