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Six weeks to go!

There's been so much going on, running and otherwise that I haven't had the time to write! I can't even decide what's the most exciting!

Last week we booked our hotel room for the Green Bay trip. We'd been debating but finally decided to stay in Green Bay two nights. We'll take Friday off from work and head up to take in the expo. Saturday will be Allie's first-ever race! She always talks about running and says she wants to race. This will be a fun one because not only will she get a race bib and a t-shirt, but she'll get a medal too! It will be a great too because its not at the same time as my race so I can participate with her. After that we'll take in the Packers tourism sites and the past dinner... the of course race day Sunday!

Six weeks until race day and running is going so well right now. I hope this lasts until race day! I was having a hard time after being sick in March just getting past the mental stuff. I was really focused on coming back from illness and progressing my training. It actually took a bit longer than the amount of time I was sick to really get back to it. In my runs I've had to power through mental blocks, whether its just been hills or an area on my route or certain point in my workout that gets tough. For awhile I was having a hard time between mile 2 and 3 but then felt like I could run forever once I got past 3.

Yesterday was a great example of getting past my mental blocks. I was planning 8 miles but felt like I could do 9. I decided to run my neighborhood to the Ice Age Junction trail to Military Ridge out and back. I really don't enjoy out and back, but the length of this run and the variation on the route made it a good choice, I like the route overall. But the part where I'm coming back and getting toward the end of the Ice Age Junction part of the route... its enough of a hill that at the end of the run its pretty hard. And the wind lately has just been brutal. But I've been working on my mental stuff and totally powered through! I got through mile 7 and my last 2 miles after that ended up being 2 of my best!

I had a great 5-miler last Wednesday, which was really important just because my regular weekday runs had been struggling. Thursday was good too. Then there was yesterday and another great run tonight not even 36 hours after running 9! I'm feeling so strong. I just hope I'm not peaking too soon! I'm not going to worry about that right now. Instead I'm going to feel confident in my readiness for my fifth half marathon!

Strong finish

March started out a struggle, but ended a triumph! Last week was my longest mileage week (at 17) AND my longest run (7 miles) since October!
My mileage for March also was another high for the year at 42. How many miles can I get in if I were to actually run the WHOLE month? Thats my goal for April. I had to take a week off in January for my mystery hip ailment, then three weeks off in February into March for being sick. Fingers crossed I can run all of April.

Saturday's 7-miler went surprisingly well. I was feeling a little apprehensive because it was my longest since October, and I was still unsure if I was fully back from illness. I had a couple tough runs last week. But the strange thing is that my long runs have been going better the last few weeks than my short runs. I think I try to run too fast in the shorter runs because I think they need to be quicker. I am able to relax more on the longer ones.

With Saturday's 7, I think I will end up just fine in my training. For the next three weekends I'm planning on 8, 9 and 10. Then the last weekend in April is Crazylegs. The following weekend is the Lake Monona 20K. Then there will be a weekend in between and then the race! I don't know if I'll taper or not. I've done half marathons with and without a taper. I think what works for me is to just see how I feel. Likely I'd plan a more medium long run, ideally around 8.

We're making our plans for the Green Bay trip this week. I'm looking forward to that! I think we'll be able to stay two nights. So that will be really fun because we can have Allie do the kids race on Saturday morning. Allie always talks about running and how she wants to race! We also want to go to the Packers Hall of Fame. It will be a fun trip.

No more worries

Saturday didn't start out great. I got up early to get my run in before working for a couple hours in the afternoon. I remembered just as I was about to leave that I'd forgotten to charge my Garmin before going out. I usually stick it on the charger at least a few minutes before running because it finds the satellites quicker right off the charger. Well I forgot to do that today but figured there's still plenty of charge. But the battery was dead! Sometimes I forget to turn it off after I'm done with it so the battery dies. But I'm sure I turned it off last time. This makes me afraid that my Garmin is on its last legs. It is four years old, so I've certainly gotten my money's worth, but a new Garmin isn't in the budget now!

I tried waiting a few minutes for the Garmin to charge, but it didn't charge enough. I was going to map a route on the computer and try that, but I'm not really in a place right now where I can run without my Garmin. And as I was about to map a route, Allie woke up.

Allie's been sick since Thursday. She seemed better last night, but she was still sick this morning. The reason I needed to get my run done early was to spend time with Allie because Doug had sick kid duty yesterday. And spend time with her, I did... I got to give her a bath after she puked the first time! Poor baby. She tries to be in a good mood, but she's sick. And she's getting old enough to understand more of whats going on too.

So... I didn't run this morning. But after the run I ended up with this afternoon, it was good that I didn't get to it this morning! I had limited time this morning but not in the afternoon. I was setting out to run 4 miles again, but I was hoping to run 4.5 or 5 miles. Well I was having my usual hard time in the second mile but I made myself slow down. And wow did it make a difference! Suddenly I felt great and knew Ihad a good shot at getting those 5 miles in. And when my route ended up a tad long, I ran a little extra and ended up with 5.5 miles.

Woo hoo! No more worries or mental games! This is about where I wanted to be when I started running again two weeks ago. I wanted to be back to previous mileage after two weeks, but when I had such a hard time last week I gave myself three weeks instead. My goal for a "long" run this week was 4. And my goal for next week was going to be 6. But with 5.5 today, I'm going to run 7 next week and get progressing in my training.

I broke through the mental part this week and logged 14.5 miles, my longest mileage week since I sprained my ankle. Its funny to look at my montly mileage since spraining my ankle. My monthly miles from October to now: October 102.1, November 0, December 23, January 34.5, February 39 and March so far 25. Hopefully from here on out I'll build the miles and maybe get to 100 again!

Its all mental

I am surprised by how hard my comeback from illness has been. I didn't have this hard a time coming back from some of my injuries. I guess maybe because when I've been injured I'd been cross training. I didn't do any kind of exercises, except a little mile-and-a-half run, when I was sick.
Yesterday's run wasn't great. I was baffled as I was out. Right from the start my legs just didn't want to do it. I was glad I only had 2 miles planned because that was all I would get that day. After I got home I remembered the likely source of my fatigue. On Tuesday after work we went out for a family walk. Allie decided she wanted me to carry her for half of it. My arms got quite a weight training workout, but my legs definitely got it too. After all I was walking carrying a 30+ pound weight!

After that tough run, I wasn't sure I should run this morning. I was planning 3 miles but hoping for 4. I've taken a liking to a Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday schedule. And we were planning on getting pizza tonight. So I had to workout so I could have pizza without feeling guilty!

I knew as soon as I started this run would be better than yesterday. So I was getting frustrated as I was getting toward 2 miles and fatigue was setting in. I'm running a half marathon in eight weeks. So I need to start running more than 3 miles at a time!

I knew it was all mental. So I decided I was going to get over 3 miles, even if it was only 3.25 miles. I kept going and was trying for 3.5. Eventually I decided I'd make it to 4 miles. I felt like I'd fall on my face the minute I stopped, but I made it!

When I looked at my watch later I found another reason why this run was so hard... my pace in the fourth mile was nearly a minute faster than my pace in the first! Mile 1-12:10, mile 4-11:16! If I want to get my distance back I need to slow down! But those speeds were surprising because I really haven't gotten much under 11:45 for my splits.

My plan for this week was going to be 4 as a "long" run. Since I did it this morning, now I'm pondering if I'll try 4 again Saturday or try for more... or just take it easy on myself and do the 3 that was originally scheduled for today. I just don't know. I'm at the point now where I'm excited for running... I don't want that to go away too quickly. I'd say I don't want it to go away at all, but I know it will. So the trick is making it last. Running is definitely a mental exercise as well as physical.

Some fun numbers

I've lost 10 pounds in six weeks! I was so surprised when I weighed in yesterday because it was a hard diet week. It had a bad start and I made up my mind to fight for it, and I was successful!
Weighing in at 169.6 pounds is a milestone for me because I've made it to my first weight loss goal, my 5 percent goal, 9 pounds. What I'm a bit more excited about is to be under 170. I am firmly back into overweight category for BMI, instead of teetering right on the edge of obese. The last time I weighed under 170 was around the Fox Cities half in 2008, three and a half years ago.

The upper edge of overweight is 174.5. At 169.6, my BMI is 29.1. Yeah its still high, but my BMI at my worst was 37.2! Overweight is 25 to 29.9 and 145.3 will get me to normal!

My next goal is 163.9 because that will be my lowest weight ever. My previous low was 164. So all I have to lose is a mere 6 pounds.

I gained 5 pounds in January, so I've only really netted a 5-pound loss. But it almost feels like more. I guess I've just lost it in places that make me feel like its more. My clothes fit differently. When I was at my lowest weight in 2008 people told me I was skinny. I never agreed. Well now I do.

Its still a little hard for me to comprehend that I'm less than 30 pounds from my ultimate goal! I'm so close to fitting into a size 10. I've been fitting into some 10s, but not comfortably. It won't be long until a 10 is comfortable. In coming months I'll be a size 8... a single digit size! From the earliest I remember I was a size 18. Until now, that is!

Slow and steady

Slowly but surely, my fitness is coming back. I ran 3 miles today. With how hungry and sleepy I've been today, you'd think I ran 12 miles! But I'm happy with my progress. It will take me a bit longer to get back to where I was, but I still have enough time.

I was sad today though that I wasn't running the Shamrock Shuffle. This was going to be there year I could finally run the 10K for that race! Instead I didn't run it at all. But I made a good decision in not running it. I could have probably finished 5K, but it wouldn't have been my best effort. It was decently warm, almost hot already by the time the race started. I was running around that time and I struggled with the temperature almost as much as I was struggling because of my fitness.

But the overall result of my run was good! I've made it a little further before it got hard each time I ran this week. Today was the same. But I decided even if I only ran a couple steps past the 2-mile mark, I was going to pass 2 miles. And I did! What was really awesome was as I passed the 2.5-mile mark, I started getting really comfortable. It physically felt like I broke through the wall. I probably could have gone over 3 miles, but I'm taking it slow.

So I logged 9 miles in four runs this week. My plan for next week is 11 in four runs, 2,2,3, and 4. The 4 will be my "long" run. Then the following week I'll run 6 for my long run. After that I should be able to add a mile a week to my long run, taking me up to 11 miles two weeks before the half marathon. I'm not sure if that training schedule will work out for me to run the Lake Monona 20K on May 5. I'll just have to see where I am.