Returning to Training

Who wants to talk about training?

I have been running again now for going seven weeks now and today marked the first time since my return that I hit double digits on a run. 10 miles. It was a muggy and humid 10 miles on the Monon with Marshall and the stroller. Lindsey had a long brick to do for Muncie this morning so I loaded up Marshall and hit the path.

Lindsey ready to hit the road for 50 with Jake. Muncie 70.3 is coming quickly.

Marshall at the end of the muggy 10 mile run. Don't be fooled. He was ready to be done and so was I.

It has been a slow progressing build back to 10 miles but it is coming back.

Week 1:
4 runs
14 miles
1:51 of run time

Week 2
4 runs
18 miles
2:15 of run time

Week 3
4 runs
20 miles
2:28 of run time

Week 4
4 runs
21 miles
2:37 of run time

Week 5
5 runs
31 miles
3:41 of run time

Week 6
5 runs
30 miles
3:36 of run time

Week 7 (In progress so thus far)
4 runs
30 miles
3:31 of run time

The first couple weeks back all I focused on was getting used to running again. Nothing strenuous. Easy miles. To be honest, it was kind of touch and go for a while with my mind. I had some scar tissue that was flaring up on my hamstring but the more I ran and the more I foam rolled the better it felt.

Beginning in week 5, I started to add some small stress workouts into my running. It has been the Wednesday run. It began with a one mile fast finish near tempo and has grown each week by 1 mile. So this week was a 3 mile warm up, 3 miles @ descending tempo (6:10, 6:02, 5:45), and a one mile cool down. Good lord...that one hurt on Wednesday. The 3 miles was long enough that it really began to tax me but still short enough that I could handle it. I have yet to decide for next week if I am going to take it up to 4 or  maintain for another week and then add...my guess is that I will add but we will see.

As it stands today, I am starting to feel really good about my running again. I have 3 or 4 more weeks of base building before Chicago training officially kicks off. I should be up to about 44 miles or so by the time Chicago kicks off and that will provide a nice starting point to ramp up the marathon training. I have yet to attempt a repeat of any sort...but I think that will come in a week or two. That is the last mental and physical check box for my return. I injured myself during a repeat workout so I need to do a repeat workout.

It has been a long road back from my hamstring injury in January but following that 10 miles today I feel good and I am ready to chase down that 2:45 marathon come October.

Anyone currently returning from an injury? Getting ready to start a Fall Marathon plan? Running Chicago?

Biking, Running, Mother's Daying

This weekend I did my first real outside bike ride of IM 70.3 training. I've rode around a bit outside since the weather got nice, but not a real training ride. Those have all been inside. We went to Crown Point to visit Glenn's family for Mother's Day and his parents agreed to watch Marshall on Saturday morning so we could ride together. You know I wasn't going to venture out on my own.

At Glenn's parents about to head out for our ride. It's May, why in the world did we need to dress like this?

In my mind, a 40 mile bike ride is similar to a 20 mile run, It takes around the same amount of time for me. Like a 20 mile run, many times when you get started, the distance seems daunting and that's how I felt about the 40. 40 miles on the bike is long, but it's not crazy long. The farthest I've ever done in a day is somewhere around 80, but that was 3 years ago. And on the same day that I rode 80, Glenn doubled me, riding 160. He's a much more experienced bike rider than I.

I don't have a trip meter on my bike, but Glenn had his GPS watch on his bike for the ride. I started asking him how far we'd gone at mile 6. So, yeah those first 20 miles were a bit of a head game. We did an out and back and the first half was into a head wind and I felt like I was crawling pretty slow. A couple of times I was apparently a little chatty and Glenn told me I needed to work harder. Geez man. I wasn't working all that hard, like in a 20 mile run, you can't go all hard and stuff the whole time or you'll crash and burn. When I was pushing hard though, I focused on the turnaround when we'd have a really awesome tailwind.

I feel like I'm always talking about a headwind. Maybe I'm a baby about it, but Mr. Ironman himself told me the headwind out was nasty, so I'll give myself that.

We took these pics at 20 miles when we turned around. I had my mind set on hopping of the bikes for a minute at the turnaround and took a gel as well. (chocolate hammer, duh)

I think this picture makes us look young. As someone who is turning 30 in 3 months. I like it.

AND, the tailwind WAS IN FACT  awesome. We averaged around 13-14 mph on the way out and 18-19 on the way back. Averaging 15.5, my goal was around 16, so I'm OK with it. I'm not a speedy bike rider. I try, but I need to work on getting some stronger legs.

After the ride, we did a 4 mile run. The schedule calls for an easy run (7:30-8:10 pace). I told Glenn I didn't know if I'd be up for running that fast. Turns out I lied, we averaged 7:10s. At mile 1, we were at 7:30 and at mile 3 he told me pace was 6:58 and then I decided I wanted to make sure the last one was sub 7 and we hit it around 6:49. Something about sub 7s that make me feel good. I also like biking and running with Glenn because I just let him wear the watch and I don't constantly clock/pace watch.

I also enjoy running after the bike- there's no pressure to run very fast and while it takes a little bit of time to wake your legs up, you feel tough. 

Post run. Marshall's thinking it's about time we stopped working out and gave him some attention.

Once we put him down for his second nap, we headed out again and went to 3Floyds, in Munster, IN where Glenn stalked up on his favorite beer. Dave (Glenn's Dad) watched Marshall. They really let us have some freedom on Saturday and it was really refreshing.

When I was planning to to Giest this coming weekend, I had 12 miles at steady state on the schedule for Sunday. Since I decided to drop it, I did an easy 8 instead. Marshall had us up at 5am (this is unusual, he almost always sleeps in until 7) and I almost decided to just go on and get it done early, but usually if I run first thing in the AM I end up having stomach issues- I do much better if I've been up for a few hours. Then I almost just scratched it and took a rest day. Then Glenn headed out to run his 8 for the day. When he got back, I had just put Marshall down for his first nap and was ready to get my 8 in. We were having a big brunch at Megan's (Glenn's sister) for Mother's Day and I knew I'd enjoy it a lot more if I got my run in. The alternative was doing it Monday and I like to have to flexibility to throw in a rest day on Monday's.

I really wanted to listen to music on my run and I don't feel safe listening to music running by myself... even in Crown Point. It is dangerous and not worth it at all. I know having Cadence with me isn't fool proof but it helps. It's the only way I'll run "alone" with headphones. She used to run this far all the time but hasn't in a long time- she helped me keep my pace nice and chill and it was just what I needed. (side note- when I stroller run- I do have music, but I play it out loud on my phone with it sitting on the stroller- no headphones.)

Now that's a good looking dog.

My first Mother's Day with Marshall. I guess last year technically was, but I hadn't really met him  yet then.

Rocking the collared IU shirt. Looks like he's going golfing later. So glad I pulled this sucker out of storage early- it's 18 months. He is kind of scrawny for his age, so I was surprised it fit already.

This picture of Glenn's parents with the grandkids is hilarious.

Family pic. Marshall and Glenn got me a purse for Mother's Day. I'm gonna wear the crap out of it. 

I'm so thankful to be Marshall's mom. Last year at this time, we were anxiously anticipating his arrival. Mother's Day 2011 was somewhat difficult for me, I'd had my first miscarriage the November before and couldn't help but feel like it should have been my first "Mother's Day" and I should have been having a baby 2 months later. What I wanted more than anything was to have my own baby to hold. Everyday I look at this little boy, who relies on me for everything, I'm thankful he does. I feel so fortunate that he came into our lives and I don't know what the future holds for us with more babies, but I know I can't control that. I'm soaking up every bit of this little boy that I can. The first couple months of his life were hard and exhausting and quite frankly kind of scary (I was so afraid of SIDS, I know most new parents think about it, but I was obsessive. I think that started getting better somewhere around 3 months. It was the longest 3 months of my life)  It all just keeps getting better everyday though and I'm not sure when I'll stop saying that. Probably when he starts throwing temper tantrums.

How do you break up or handle a long bike ride? (It takes so LONG!!)

I enjoy brick runs, is that weird? (I think it's because I know the run won't be all that long and it doesn't have to be fast?) What do you think about them?

Did you have a nice Mother's Day?

Triathlon training- MUNCIE 70.3

I'm on week 5 of Half Ironman training. It is a lot of working out, but I really am enjoying it. While I sometimes really want to get off the bike, because 25 miles at the gym gets super boring... I am glad for the break from running 6 days a week.

To me, the biking and swimming takes some pressure off training. Not that I should feel pressure when just training for a running race, (but I do!). While I don't always feel pressure when running, I definitely feel more running than either of the other two disciplines. It's because I know what I can do when I run- I know what a good day feels like, I know if I'm wimping out and I know if I'm putting good effort in. I am familiar with everything that encompasses the run. Biking and swimming are new to me. Especially swimming. (I did go on a bike trip in 2010 and rode 450-500 miles in just 6 days... or something like that. Not too crazy, but a lot for me... too bad this was before my regular blogging days. I definitely should have wrote about that experience along the way. We rode and raised funds and awareness for the organization Love146... if you've never looked into what they do, it's worth your time to check it out. Love146 works toward the abolition of child sex slavery and exploitation through Prevention and Aftercare solutions, and contributing to a growing abolition movement.  

Anyway, on the bike and in the pool, I haven't really trained myself to work hard for a sustained period of time. My body doesn't know how to respond to biking hard or swimming hard for more than a few minutes really. I can force myself to run pretty hard for say, 45 minutes, but I would need breaks in that amount of time if I were going that hard biking and certainly swimming. (and obviously you swim for a much shorter duration of time)

One of my favorite parts about biking and swimming is I have zero intestinal issues with those two. With running, if I'm running a relatively long distance or have a hard workout, it's a toss up if I'm going to have bathroom issues or not. It's not fun, but I deal with it and move on because I like how running makes me feel and you do what you do.

I have definitely made some baby improvements in biking and swimming. I know I haven't spent near enough time on the bike. It's hard to get bike time in because it takes so long and most days, I'm just not willing to get up at 5am to do some of the workout. I find myself at the gym twice a day a lot because I simply can't get both swim and bike or bike and run in in the 2 hours of allotted time at the kids club without being a crazy woman frantic from one thing to the next. What I really need to do is get out on the bike for a REAL ride and get out in open water for a REAL swim. We are going to Crown Point this weekend for Mother's Day and Glenn's parents are going to watch Marshall so we can ride together. I've got 40 miles on the bike and a 4 mile easy run lined up.

Here's what my week looks like this week: 

Run Pace: Easy Pace - 7:36 - 8:09

Repeat Race  - 6:15 - 6:30

Steady State - 7:00 - 7:30

I need to get signed up for a couple of shorter distance triathlons before Muncie... which is slowly creeping up on us. Today when I was running after the bike, I was picturing the race and thinking about how happy I would be once I get the run. It will hurt, but I'll be happy to be in familiar territory.

I wouldn't say I'm 100% looking forward to my swim tomorrow- but sometimes it's really nice to just swim. It is so easy on the body compared to running. It's probably going to take me awhile to swim 40 laps, but I'll get there.

Also- I think I've decided to drop Giest half next weekend. I'm hungry for a half PR and could squeeze one in, but not the monster one that I REALLY want because my body is tired in a way it's not used to with all the biking and swimming.

If you want to be a faster runner, you need to run more and run faster in your training. My speed in training has been fine, but I've been running a lot less miles. I think I'll race a half while I'm in training for my fall marathon (whatever that may be.) I need to remind myself how badly I wanted to focus on something other than running toward the end of my Shamrock training. And as Glenn says- it's important not to have too many goals at once. The chances of excelling how you want to in both is less likely than if you just focus on one. So, I'm choosing the 70.3. I know I won't place in my age group and I might be one of the last people out of the water, but I'm doing it because it's new territory for me and I want to do something different. And, because I can.

Any swim advice out there? My swim form is TERRIBLE!

Have you done a triathlon- what's your best advice?

What's your favorite- swim, bike or run?

500 Festival Mini Marathon 2013

I had a 14 mile run on the schedule this weekend and decided to jump in the 500 Festival Mini Marathon and use that as my run rather than run by my lonesome. The mini is the first half marathon I ever completed- in 2005 as a jr in college I ran it- I continued to run it every year and in 2008 moved on from the mini and ran my first full marathon. The mini is the first half marathon a lot of people here in the midwest do as a first. I think this was my 6th or 7th time doing it. I'll have to do a post sometime about the different times I've ran it- but the fastest I've ever run this race was a 1:37 in 2008 and the slowest was 4:00 hrs in 2009 when I walked it with a bunch of senior citizens. Last year on a super humid day, I was a very pregnant spectator. I've experienced it in most every way you can now. There is something good about each way. 

My sister was coming into town this weekend for her bridal shower and I knew this would be the most fun way to get the run in. Otherwise I'd lay in bed until 7 when Marshall woke me up and I'd waller around until I convinced myself to get going around 9 or so. I knew a few people who weren't using their bibs, so I was able to get my sister a bib too.

Marshall and I headed to the expo on Friday to pick up the bibs. He wore his jammies, because at the young age of 10 months, he realized how much more comfortable it is to just wear pajamas than regular clothes. I stopped by my parents house to grab something on the way there and  forgot my wallet there. We parked in a parking garage so were stuck for a bit until my parents could bring my wallet. They were heading down to the expo anyway, so it worked out fine. While we were waiting for them, we posted up in a "living room" area set up at the expo. Marshall was everywhere, crawling all over the place. He was having a good time and was a crowd pleaser for sure.

Someone put some shoes on that baby.

Grandpa showed up and they had some fun. Anyone else think they look alike?

About the run- The workout was supposed to be 10 miles easy, (7:30-8:10 pace) and 4 at race pace. (6:50ish)

We had bibs for Corral M. If you've ever ran the mini, you know that being in a corral far back is a big headache if you are running even remotely fast. Even though this wasn't a "race" for me, I didn't want to be forced to run 9 minute miles for the first 4 miles. So we snuck up just a little, but only had a few minutes to spare, and landed in corral J. We just hopped the barricades. The people working the entrances to the corrals would not have let us in. Turns out corral J is also really slow. I found myself running the sidewalk for much of the race. Had I been racing I think I would have needed to be in corral A or B and for this run, at least C would have been nice.

As soon Ericka and I hopped into the corral, I saw Doug, one of the very first Members of Back on My Feet Indy. Doug was on team Progress House. I had only seen him one time in the past year or so and it was just in passing on the monon while running. It was great to catch up- he is doing great, 4 years sobriety and when he was on the team, he was in school for heating and cooling and he's now working in that business and doing well.

Doug and I ran the first 5 miles together and separated a little before we hit the track. As soon as I was about to enter the track, I saw another old friend from Back on My Feet, who used to run as a volunteer. She had a baby a few weeks before I had Marshall and recently got her first Boston Qualifyer at the Carmel Marathon. I was so excited to see her and hear about her race and training. She works out with the Jordan YMCA Mutlifit group and is also training for Ironman Muncie 70.3. I am more than tempted to look into getting involved with that group.

I ran with Danielle for most of miles 7 and 8- we lost each other at a water stop though, which was fine because she had actually been running with friends before this loud mouth came up and starting talking her ear off and I think she wanted to get back to them anyway and I needed to do my fast finish so the talking had to stop for me. You'll notice I slowed quite a bit when I was talking with Danielle. I consciously thought about that, and quickly reminded myself, that the reason I was doing this run in the race rather than on my own was for the fun of it and I was having fun running and catching up with her. If you take yourself too seriously, you'll never have fun with it.

Also- for miles 1 and 2, there was nothing I could do about going any faster without tripping over people or making myself look like a crazy person- it was obnoxious. So I decided to not worry about that and enjoy the warm up.

Splits:

Mile 1- 7:57
Mile 2- 7:40
Mile 3- 7:27
Mile 4- 7:23
Mile 5- 7:22
Mile 6- 7:33
Mile 7- 8:10
Mile 8- 8:04
Mile 9- 7:25
Mile 10- 6:54
Mile 11- 6:50
Mile 12- 6:55
Mile 13- 6:57

Total Time: 1:38:26 - before the race, I figured I'd run somewhere around 1:36-1:39, so that was about right.

In my mind I had wanted to run 7:25-7:35 pace for 9 miles and then 6:45 for the last 4 miles. Things turned out different though and that's totally fine. I mostly wanted the end to be faster but I gave it what I had at the end there. My legs where honestly tired this whole run. As soon as I got through mile 1, I thought about how happy I was that I didn't decide to try to race this or even try for another baby PR. My body wouldn't have loved me for that. I think I would have miserably ran something similar to what I did at Carmel had I tried to do that. Racing on tired legs will only get you so far for so long.

During those first 9 miles, as my legs were so tired, I was a little nervous about being able to put out those fast race pace miles. I'm not gonna lie, it took some discipline and work. I could have easily decided to finish it off in 7:15s. I really think all the biking is making my legs tired in a different way.

It was weird running that pace at the end and being so far back. I was 9 minutes from the gun time. I had already been passing people the entire race, and it had at least spread out a little by mile 9, but was still super crowded. During the first half of the race I stayed on the outside and sidewalks to get past people. In those last four miles, I stayed more in the middle and felt that I was able to do less weaving that way.

In the mini, you pass mile 12 as you approach New York St., which is the last straight away. It's quite the long straight away. You run over the New York Street Bridge and if it's at all windy you feel it strong there- the wind kind of hurt a little and again I was glad I wasn't racing. I let my pace slow down to 7:08ish for a bit there and knew it didn't matter much, but I needed to pick it up if I wanted to keep with that fast finish. Honestly I was tired and I just wanted to keep it under 7 minute pace. My mom was chillin on a corner about a half mile from the finish line and smiled at me and told me to put some pep in my step. She knew it was a training run for me, but also knew I was trying for the fast finish.

Using these races as "training" runs is much more fun than running alone,  but when you see other people running PRs or great races you feel like you missed out. Part of me is saying "Well if I was really running my best, I'd finish so much faster" but the smarter part of my brain says, "does it really matter if you run 4-5 minutes faster and end up with a strugglefest and wearing yourself out, when you are supposed to be somewhat chill?". You can only have so many quality races close together though, it's just hard to force yourself to not be competitive in a race atmosphere sometimes.

I think I'll race the mini at some point in the somewhat near future- it's flat, fun and if your in an appropriate corral is an excellent course for a PR. 

Congrats to everyone who ran on Saturday- there were a ton of friends out there who accomplished big goals!

Sister & I- she wasn't racing either, and ran a 1:55. She had sore crossfit legs.

With my parents after the run. The recently moved just north of downtown so they rode their bikes down to spectate the race. This is a running family. We all love the atmosphere.

Do you ever use races as "training runs?" Do you like it or not?

Stop and Go.

Today I had a tempo run scheduled. I go to the gym pretty much everyday Monday-Friday between 8:30am-10:30am, (before I had a baby and worked normal hours- I always said this would be my dream time to get a workout in. I remind myself of this almost everyday when I head to the gym... remember you always said this would be the perfect time) Anyway, on Wednesday's Marshall has swimming lessons at 9:00 (which are over as of today), so that mean't I needed to get my run in early. Glenn wanted to run this AM too, which landed me doing my tempo at 5:30am on our treadmill in the living room.

I prefer to do speed work on the treadmill, I think it's a security thing. BUT, there is something about the treadmill in our living room that I'm not as good at doing speedwork on. I don't know if it's the size of the room and I feel closed in compared to the huge open room at the gym or the fact that my bed is right around the corner in the next room, but speedwork at the house is hard for me.

I do however like that I can rock the sports bra though and not care if the person behind me is judging my not so perfect love handles. Unless, Cadence judges the handles. I'm not insecure about running outside in the sports bra but something about being inside- I feel like more jiggle is detected inside.

Back to the run. It was pretty awful. I did take an easy week last week- I only took Thursday off from working out, but I didn't do any two a days and all of my workouts were light. On Sunday, Glenn and I did 6 miles at 7:15 pace and finished fast. That's not a super hard run for me, but it's not a stroll in the park either. I don't think it was what effected my run today, but it could have been a little factor. I think the hard biking that I did on Monday might have been the main reason. That and a poor mental game.

I was supposed to do 8 miles, with 5 at tempo (6:40-6:45 pace). I did not do that. I was happy to see that he only had me doing 5 at tempo. Usually it would be 6. And when I was in the heart of my Shamrock training, I was doing that pace for 7-8 miles of tempo runs. I can run that. But today, I wasn't having it.

I warmed up around an 8:15 mile and as I hit mile 1, I started ramping the treadmill speed a little bit at a time. (best way to get started on tempos... slowly build up to your  speed... if I go from warm up straight to tempo, it's bound to feel rough). The slow speed up was not feeling so hot though. Every time I hit "faster" my body was laughing at me.

The goal was to keep the treadmill at 8.9-9.0 speed for the five miles. I started off at 8.9 and half a mile in was not feeling it. I left the treadmill running, and put my feet to the sides and took a drink of water. I need to regroup and reevaluate. As I started running again, 5 seconds later, I debated stopping and fitting this in another time. There weren't a lot of options time wise and I also had to get in a swim today. And honestly who wants a monster run like that hanging over their head all day? So I just slowed down but kept going.

I slowed it down to 8.5-8.7 for the next 3 miles. (6:54-7:04 pace). It didn't feel awesome, but it felt a lot more manageable than when I was in the 6:40-6:44 zone. I know what I was running is still a nice pace, and a great workout for me nonetheless but I also know that I am a stronger runner than that right now. With 2 miles to go I was able to hold on and finish between 8.8-9.0 speed. I literally stopped and drank water every half mile to mile or so and let the treadmill run while I did so. I would tell myself "do not stop and drink until you get to at least the next mile and then I'd stop way before then anyway. It's like I couldn't stop myself from stopping. This is very out of character. So, I tacked on an extra half mile at the end to make up for any distance I lost when I did that. (which probably only equaled 1.5 total, but since I was wussing out on the speed I was supposed to run, I wasn't going to wuss out on the distance too.)

I had my kindle out, which is usually a great distraction for me, but I couldn't pay attention to the book and found myself looking at the time and distance every 2 minutes. It was one of those runs that just creeps by. I'd look down and it would say 2.81 miles and then I'd look down again and it would say 2.98 miles. Since the kindle wasn't distracting, I tried to not read at all and just zone out. My mind wanted nothing to do with zoning  out, all my mind was focused on was that darn treadmill clock.

I know you aren't "supposed" to stop during a tempo run. Which is the reason I used to hate tempo runs. No break from hard work. (Somehow I grew to kind of enjoy them during Shamrock training.. not sure what was wrong with me... haha)  But today I did stop because that's how I was going to get it done. It was stop for 5 seconds and take a drink every so often or stop all together.

I was kind of pissed when I finished. I don't like not being able to execute what I'm prescribed. It makes me feel like I'm not as good as I should be or I'm not willing to work as hard as I can. It also makes my head go crazy thinking it's impossible that I could keep even close to that pace for an entire half marathon. But I can. On the right day, on the right legs, with the right mental game, I can.

Then Marshall woke up and I sat on the kitchen floor with him and played. And that's where my heart really is. I can write and talk about running all day and night and it makes me happy and it's a huge part of my life and yes I LOVE it. But the little boy who sleeps with the elephant tucked under his arm at night, who never stops moving and has the prettiest blue eyes I've ever seen. He can turn my disappointment in myself around in a matter of 30 seconds.

Not every hard workout, easy workout or race is what you want it to be. It's just not. But you get up and walk away from it and move along, because does it really matter in your life if you have a bad run? There are far more important things to dwell on.

10 Months

In two months, Marshall will be one year. Say what? Woah.

I would be happy to stop time right here and enjoy this age for a little longer. He is ridiculously fun and really just a happy boy. I also can't wait to hear him say words. I practically melt and cry everytime my niece tells me she loves me, I can't imagine hearing Marshall say it. He babbles a ton and you can tell he's trying to say something, but doesn't have it figured out. The closest thing is dadada, but he doesn't realize what he's saying. Today he was also actually kind of singing his babbles- that was a first.

My biggest mom fail of this month was missing his 9 month doctor appointment. I rescheduled it at first so I could make it to something else, then I missed the day we rescheduled it for and I still haven't rescheduled. I suppose I'll get to it this week. I used to like taking him to the doctor at first. The check ups were fun to see his growth and everything. Now it seems like a hassle and a little excessive how much you go for check ups. I think we missed a round of shots though so I need to get in. 

Oh - he's still not walking! I'm kind of shocked, thought he'd be running all over the place by now. He's super fast with his crawling, like I want to enter him in a crawling race for real. I'm not sure he could be beat. But, when you try to have him walk to you while holding his hands, he collapses his knees and speeds over with a crawl. Apparently he doesn't have time to learn how to walk, he can get places way faster if he crawls.

Marshall is such an easy kid still (I feel like I can't call him a baby anymore, he's more of a kid now). BUT the one thing that is difficult almost every time is changing his clothes. He doesn't have time to sit still and let you change his clothes. pajama's are a whole other ball game. It's like he's desperate to move as much as possible because he knows he's about to go down for 12 hours. 

What he Loves:

• Cadence, Cadence and Cadence

• Food- pretty much anything we give him

• Making noise, babbling

• Going up and down the treadmill 500 times a day

• Butler Basketball is still a BIG favorite

• Walking with his zebra toy

• Pap's guitar

• Stroller runs 

What he doesn't Love:

• Old fashioned Oats (he likes small quick oats though)

• Putting clothes on

• Really, that's all

Watch out, I'm about to show you what's up with this zebra.

His favorite thing to do, walk with the zebra. He can do it 100 times in a row and it's just as exciting every single time. 

Me as a baby. It's crazy how much we look alike. 

Sometimes climbing all over the treadmill isn't enough, he wants to climb on the window too. There's always some kind of dangerous mission he is on. 

We started swimming lessons a few weeks ago- he's not thrilled over it, but does OK. Mostly likes to crawl around in the water after the lesson. He doesn't realize it gets deep.

First time out on the bikes with him. He did well in here in his too small pants. Fell asleep just like he was in the car. This thing is GREAT. There is so much room to put all kinds of toys and stuff in in it. One big play room, while zipping around Broad Ripple with the other hipster kids. Just kidding our kid is no hipster kid, he was just dressed like one that day.

This was on my last big day at BoMF right when I got home. My Grandma watched him all day. (THANK YOU Grandma!) This is my new job full time job. We're happy about it.

Special Dad Time. How cute are they.

The kid eats anything. I'll give him broccoli and he'll just chew on it for literally an hour. It's gross. 

Look at all of those teeth. 

See you at 11 months.

Carmel Half Marathon Recap

Glenn put a half marathon training plan together for me that I started up two weeks after the Shamrock marathon. It was a lot running (for me) for a half marathon. I was back to running around 45 miles a week again right away. 

I wasn't really ready to start running 6 days a week and high mileage again. I had just trained pretty hard for a marathon and was really ready for a break. BUT, though I liked the idea of taking a break, I'm not good at taking breaks, I like to push myself and I like having a plan. 

After a week into the half marathon plan, I wanted to have something to shoot for but I didn't want to run that many miles. So, I decided to train for a half Ironman. Glenn changed my plan to train for the Muncie Half Ironman in July, while still training for a half marathon. It's a lot of working out, but less running, which is what I really needed a break from. I'm down to running only four days a week now. I know I could run a faster half marathon if I kept my focus on the half, but I just flat out don't want to do that.

All this to say- my plan last Saturday called for 15 miles steady state. My steady state pace should be 7:00-7:30 pace. Realistically if I were our running this on my own, I'd probably do 7:20ish and 7:35ish if I had the stroller. 

Glenn had a bib for the Carmel full marathon because that's where he had planned on tearing up his PR and running a hella fast 26.2. And, Back on My Feet runs the Carmel half every year, so I would be out there anyway, so I just decided to use Glenn's bib and run the half as my 15 miles steady state workout. Yes, it's two less miles and no I didn't run steady state. What's the fun in always following a plan so perfectly that you have no wiggle room for fun sometimes? Running a hard 13 sounded like a lot more fun if I did it in a race, opposed to on the monon by myself.

Glenn was poo pooing this whole idea because he thought I would race it and wouldn't follow the plan. And the plan is not to race until my half- which is supposed to be mid May. He's too much of a stickler sometimes. 

My thoughts were:

•  I have a really outdated half PR and if I can break it on a "training run race", I want to. 

• Who cares if I run a half marathon twice in 4 weeks. You recover from a half marathon quick and it's just completely different than recovering from a full

• My freaking goal race was Shamrock, it's done, let me do what I want man.

So I did what I wanted (he says I'm a stubborn person to train), I told him to stop taking it so seriously. I showed up for the race at 7:00 to circle up with the BoMF crew. 

When it was time, I jumped up close to the front in the corrals and hung out with the 1:30 pace group. I was kind of kidding myself thinking I could easily run something like a 1:32 without a big effort. I did the go out too hard thing, and I knew I was doing it but did it anyway. 1 minute after the start, I promptly fell on some uneven surface pretty hard. I ripped my pants, my knees were bloody and also broke the screen on my phone. (which I didn't realize till after the race, I carried my phone the entire race and had no idea I broke it) The fall kind of threw me off but I mostly thought, I was glad I wasn't doing the full. Being thrown off like that in a shorter race didn't matter as much in my head.

I never race with my phone, but something about running 13.1 miles (opposed to 26.2) where I wasn't all out racing seemed like no big deal and so I acted all lassie fair and carried my phone. I also carried my hat which I decided to take off while in the starting corral.  

Post race picture of my battle wounds.

Splits:

Mile 1- 6:51

Mile 2- 6:38 (the pace group went out a bit slow, so they were making up time on this mile... I don't usually like hanging with pace groups because I like to do my own thing, but did hang with them on Saturday just for the beginning)

Mile 3- 6:48

Mile 4- 6:56

Mile 5- 6:58

Decision making time. My legs were tired here, like way too tired for being at mile 5. So I decided to slow down. I could have hung on with them for a few more miles, but it would have made for a scary, slothy ending. Bye Bye 1:30 pace group. I told myself- hey remember your aren't really racing this? Even though part of me wanted to try to stick with them, I knew it wasn't happening in the long run.

Mile 6- 7:17

Mile 7- 7:13

Right around here, I heard a girl coming up on me. Well really I saw her pony tail shadow. I always try to encourage other females who pass me or are around me and I said "good job girl" or something like that. She was friendly right back. Her husband was riding his bike next to her and she offered for him to carry my hat and gloves that I was carrying. Awesome... I was really sick of carrying them.

I let her go for a minute and then sped back up and told her I was going to try to hang with her for a bit. She said she was dying and would like that.... girlfriend kept pushing right along. She definitely helped me pick my pace back up these next two miles.

Mile 8- 7:04

Mile 9- 7:04

We started parting ways here... see next two splits and see why. haha.

Mile 10- 7:34

Mile 11- 7:25

Two miles to go, I decided to finish up a little stronger. My legs had been tired since mile 4 really and that was my real problem but I didn't want to keep slowing down. I pictured myself being at mile 24 of a full marathon and imagined how much worse I hurt at the end of most marathons and decided I should be able to run it in a little faster. Had I not picked it back up, I think I would have finished feeling like I just gave up. The only two miles I'm really not thrilled about are 10 and 11. I let myself slow down too much- I would be more satisfied if they were more like 7:15 pace. 

Mile 12- 7:02

Mile 13- 6:52 

Finish Time-  1:33:56

Place - 7th Female out of 792, 3rd in Age Group out of 117

And this is random, but does anyone else think it's weird that the girl (who is obviously a badass & is actually a  pro triathlete) that was pacing the 1:30 group placed 4th? Not that it matters if I placed 6th or 7th, I just feel like since she was a pacer there to help the other athletes she shouldn't place? If I would have been 4th and she 3rd, it would probably bother me, but beyond top 3 I don't really care I suppose. Clearly she would have won the whole thing if she was actually racing.

At the finish, the friend that I met at mile 8 was hanging out and I got my gloves and hat from her husband. She ended up finishing in 3:33:05 I think. We chatted a bit and exchanged numbers. She's ran a 3:21 full PR, wants to run sub 1:30 for a half, also likes to ride bikes. I think I perhaps found someone to run and ride with.

Anyway, even though my time was a PR, and I am happy with a PR.... the pace was literally only 3 seconds per mile faster than what I rolled through the half marathon mark at Shamrock.  I figured since I ran my half so quickly in the full, regardless of tired legs, the pace would feel a lot easier for 13.1. I would have probably been pissed if I ran it slower than my half time in the full. It was only 40 or so seconds total faster.
  
I knew I was running on tired legs- I had ran Rock the Relay (6 X 2.2 Mile Repeats) the previous Saturday, did a rough tempo on Wednesday, a hard spinning workout on Friday with lot's of easyish stuff in between. There was nothing fresh about my legs.

During the race when my legs were feeling pretty blah, I kept thinking about how I really don't want to race a half again soon, (but I will), I was also thinking about how if my legs felt so heavy during this half, they are probably really going to feel heavy in the half Ironman.

My breathing and the rest of my body felt pretty good , so I'm pretty sure if I'm having a good, not tired leg day, I can  keep that quicker pace for the entire 13.1. I'll need a good week and a half taper probably and should be in good shape to break this time at Giest. (If I ever pull the trigger on registering!)

Another note about Carmel- for a a couple of weeks, during my Shamrock training, I almost decided to have Carmel be my full marathon instead of Shamrock, so we wouldn't have to travel and spend money on the trip. But I decided I didn't want to drag my training on that long, I wanted to get on with the damn thing.  I'm still glad I did this, but I can't help but think how much faster I could have ran Carmel than I ran Shamrock. The weather was perfect, temps were cool but not too cool and wind was minimal. I feel like sans the wind, I could have shaved a good 3 minutes off my time. Maybe I would have been burnt out, but it's likely I would have been more powerful with a few extra weeks of training. You can't dwell on stuff like that though. So I'll stop thinking about it now that I've typed it out right?

Some other great things about today- all of the Back on My Feet accomplishments, lot's of guys who ran their first half marathon today, all of the amazing Back on My Feet supporters who worked water stops on our behalf. So many people stepped up and helped out and I am thankful for every single person who did.

I also met one of my twitter friends, Josh @jbakeindy- who had a goal of running sub 1:50 and ran a 1:46. I'd say that's success. He's a big trail runner and ran a trail marathon just for fun the previous weekend. Just a hunch, but I bet he'd destroy that 1:46 on fresh legs.....

With my twitter friend-  JBakeIndy

One of our awesome water stop crews!

With BoMF Member Leon- who ran his 3rd or 4th half marathon. He's an old pro at it by now.

Some of the BoMF crew after the race, waiting on a few of more Members to finish.

On to some more triathlon training this week and the next half will be here soon. This past week was a light week because I was super busy with my last big week at work.

Have you ever had success racing on tired legs?

What do you think should the pacer place?

Any Triathlon advice out there? 

Rock the Relay Recap

Last weekend I ran Rock the Relay, which was a benefit for Back on My Feet Indy. When we heard the race was going to happen, Glenn and I planned on running it as a two person team. We've ran on a relay together a couple of times, but not a two person relay which I really wanted to do. We thought his injury would be healed up, but unfortunately he's still on the mend.

I found an awesome teammate through twitter (how great is that... love twitter!) - Bryon Humphrey and he happened to be quite speedy. As a two person team you end up running six, 2.2 mile loops, handing off to your teammate every loop.

Waiting to start- look I'm all ready to work my watch & I still messed it up. #par

I'm training for a half marathon PR and thought this race would be a really good workout to add to my training. It's a full marathon relay and you can run as an individual all the way up to a 6 person team. I'm very familiar with the race, as it is the same relay we do every fall for Back on My Feet. I've only ever been the race director though, never the runner.

Although it wasn't a competitive field, we were still happy to win our division and take second place overall. The first place team was a 3 person male team and we ended up being just 23 seconds behind them. Had I known how close we were, perhaps I wouldn't have wussed out so bad on my 5th lap.

Team "We will Rock You" post race.

I ran the lead lap for our team and had us in forth place behind 3 guys, it felt hard but I was trying to not go out too hard. I'm terrible with my watch and messed up my splits from the start. So, I'm not sure what my lap splits were for the 2.2, but I know what my mile splits were for the most part... there was a mile and half in there where I'm not sure what they were because I left my watch running on accident.

Lap 5 was really hard. I was starting to mentally check out and wanted to be done. I know that Katie and Michele both do 3 X 2 mile repeats and I always admire their speed and the work they put in for those sessions. Very fast.

It's just a badass workout really. So doing 6 made me nervous and I knew I couldn't go too fast if I wanted to finish under 7 minute pace.

Here are my mile splits: 

Lap 1 - 6:35, 6:37

Lap 2 - 6:41, 6:42

Lap 3 - 6:40, 6:42

Lap 4 - 6:45, 6:46

Lap 5 - 6:50, 6:50

Lap 6 - 6:47, 6:36

(There's a mile or so missing in there from when I messed up my watch- who knows what the split was)

My goal was to run them 6:40-6:50 pace, so I'm happy with the consistency, but at the same time it made me a little nervous about my goal for when I race 13.1. Running 13.1 without stopping is a completely different story than running it in 2.2 mile segments with 13 minute breaks in between. I'm not sure which is harder. I think they are both hard in different ways. When you do the stop and go thing, your body is just starting to get into, "ok, I think we are done working out mode" right when it's time to ramp it back up. And obviously with the no stop and go thing, you get no breaks. Both hard.

Glenn brought Marshall out to cheer me on, but they only stayed a few minutes- it was really cold!

For anyone looking to do a fun relay with your friends - consider the Back on My Feet 42K Relay coming up in September. If you are training for a race, it can serve as a great speed session. Besides the good speed work, it's fun because you can hang out and socialize with your friends and the other runners when you are waiting for your lap.

AND- we had some Back on My Feet teams out at the race and everyone was having a great time-

Look at this happy group! Jimmy & James ran their first half marathon the following week at Carmel!

Phil, Lee, Me & Chrissy

Great Day for running- thank you Kim and Heather for putting on a great race!