2012 Totals, Kind of

I follow several running blogs and today I've read several blogs about their totals.  It's incredible how far those hardcore runners run!  2013 will be my year to track my miles.
Matthew gave me a Garmin for my birthday in April so I have 8 months of totals but May isn't accurate because I wasn't used to having a garmin and I would forget it pretty often.

May: 25.6 miles
June: 49.1 m
July: 39.1 m
August: 46.3 m
September: 49.3 m
October: 10.4 m --the month I came down with bronchitis, twice
November: 46.5 m
December: 33.3 m

I know that for some people that isn't impressive at all.  To me right now, its kind of impressive but not good enough.  If I were to see this a year or more ago I would think, yeah right, when hell freezes over.

Dallas Half Marathon

This post is long overdue, I'm terrible at updating this.

On December 9 I ran in my first half marathon with 30,000 of my best friends at the Metro PCS Dallas Marathon.  It was stupid humid and really warm for a december day but this is Texas.  I ran the majority of the course with my running buddies which always make running so much more fun.  As we headed to our corral we passed by several porty-potties but we decided to wait until we found our corral to take care of our business.  By the time we found the corral, there were no potties (that we wanted to use) in sight so Jennie, Deb, and I snuck into the fancy Adolfus hotel just to pee!  Yes, that was the highlight of the day.  Because it was so humid outside we decided to take it nice and slow and I felt great the entire time, just walked by the water stations when we needed to.  At mile 10 I was surprised out how great I was feeling so I told my running buddies "See you at the finish line!"  and ran ahead.  I'm glad we started out slow because towards the end, there were a lot of runners that had to end up walking and I was able to run past (slowly, but surely).  Matthew was at the finish line waiting for me and I'm so glad he was there and that we found each other.  I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to find him.  I waited at the finish line for the rest of the group and we all had our pictures taken then we headed to Eddie Deans ranch for some celebrating.

I'm so glad I was able to finish this race.  I've wanted to be a runner my entire life but was always told by doctors and others that I would never be able to do more than a few miles and only during certain times of the year.  I think I proved everyone wrong.  I sent my asthma doctor a thank you note for helping me get here and for encouraging me to do this.  

I am planning on running in the Dallas Rock-n-Roll Half in March. :)

Quick Update

I'm really awful about this whole blogging thing.
Since last time I blogged, I've continued training for my half, ran the Tours de Fleurs 20k with my brother in law and sister in law, was supposed to run in a 5k but sleeping in to get over a cold sounded like a better idea.
The past few weeks have been a little frustrating with time and my asthma.  I've been working 55-60 hours a week and have had some problems breathing.  I've decided that I have to make it a daily decision to cut back on work.  I'm finally feeling better after being on prednisone for 3 weeks.
Today I ran 9 miles.  1 mile at 12 min pace, 5 at 11:15 pace, and the last 3 at 12 min pace.  I felt great!  The only problem is that I didn't wear my "long-run bra", forgot to put body glide where the bra wears and now I have some major chaffing.  Boo.
I'm looking forward to getting back to running on Tuesday!

11 Miles!

This Sunday I ran 11 stinkin miles with my group.  We ran the whole time because there wasn't any traffic and we were able to run right through those dang stop signs and red lights.  Boo.  The weather was perfect, 62 degrees at the beginning but towards the end it had warmed up 10 degrees.  I felt good until the last 2 miles.  I really just wanted to walk but my group was determined to keep on running!
It took us 2 hours 13 minutes and according to my heart rate monitor I burned 1066 calories.  Wowza!

This Saturday I'm running in the Tours de Fleurs 20k with my sister in law and brother in law.  Their super speedy and I'm super slow and now super nervous.  Here's to Saturday!

Fit For Speed. Class 1

The first official class was the past Thursday.  Yep, I'm still sore.   (And by the way, the fastest girl in our class ran the mile in 7:13.  Oh my)
Here are the results from my magic mile
5k speed: 10:14- My thoughts--do-able for one mile or so but 3.1 miles???
10k speed: 10:23 - i would have thoughts on that but I've only done about 6 miles in one setting and I remember that it was hard for me
15k speed 11:00.

On Thursday we did a 400, 800, 1200, 400, another 400 and then we ended with an "easy" 400 run. We had about 45 second breaks between each one.  I'm not really sure what the class goals were.  My goals were to keep up with everyone.  I did the first 400 in 2:15 and the second one I did in 2:04!  Woo hoo!! I did 1.75 miles in 15:38.  Not too shabby.  I was in pain on Friday.  Next time I will definitely use the roller the night of my run.

In Yoga news....  I received my 25 bracelet from SunStone!  Yay!!  I haven't lost a bit of weight but I have definitely gained muscle.  Even Matthew commented on how strong my arms look and my new abs :)

In Safety news.... I received my RoadID in the mail yesterday.  My long runs on Sundays are at least 60 minutes long which is a lot of running for me.  I do feel much better knowing that if something happens, matthew will be contacted and that whoever rescues me will know that I have life threatening allergies to certain medicines.

The Magic Mile

Tonight marked the start of a new RunOn class. This time I will be in the Fit for Speed class. I'm nervous about this class since I'm not fast at all. However, after doing some research I decided this would be the best class for me to start building up my endurance and mileage.
Tonight all of the runners got together for our magic mile to place us is in our groups. I ran that mile in 9:12. I know that to some that may seem slow but that was a new PR for me! Last time, about 7 weeks ago, I ran it in 10:23. I'll admit that I'm proud of myself. Now I'm looking forward to this speed class and possibly running a 5k in less than 30 minutes.
In other news, I saw my miracle doctor today. He's proud of my running and hot yoga but he's afraid I'm doing too much. In the next few months I'll be seeing another doctor and figure out my bone density and see how my muscles are doing. (a side effect of most of my medicines are a loss of bone density and muscles mass and since I'm already premenopausal, he definitely wants me to get it checked out).
Lastly, Im really bad about this blogging thing. I really want to track
my progress but I don't want to take the time to do it. There's another go for me to work on.

Hot Chocolate 5/15K

Originally I had planned on running the 15K but 1 week into the training class I came down with bronchitis so I decided to run the 5K.  I've been having a lot of problems with my asthma and allergies for the past two months but it didn't keep me from running.  On Thursday, I saw my doctor and he said "I know that I can't tell you to run on Saturday because I know you'll run anyways.  Just don't push it.  Walk if you need to.  If it's too cold, don't even go."  I said, "Um, yeah, ok.  I'll try."  Friday night I washed my clothes, set up my running outfit by the wall and then watched the news.  Holy. Moly.  They were predicting that by race time the weather would be in the 20's and the windchill in the teens.  Now I know there are people all over the country that say "just wear layers; it is winter by the way."  My response is, It has been incredibly warm.  We've been training it 50-60 degree weather and a few times in the 70's!  I definitely was not prepared to run in the cold.  This morning I woke up at 4:30, got dressed, stepped outside and boy was it cold!  I checked my e-mail and there were weather concerns from the medical director.  I decided that running outside would probably kill me or make me super duper sick so we stayed in.  Boo.  I was really looking forward to eating all that chocolate after the race.  Hopefully next year I'll be able to run in the cold.  

The more research I do on the best places to live with allergies, the more excited I get about leaving Texas.  I love Texas but I also love being outside and not taking 8+ medicines a day just to keep me breathing. 

Buffs

I can't run out in the cold without a mask.  Doctor's orders.  The mask I had wasn't working out for me so I bought two buffs!  The wool one is green and the other one is purple.  They're pretty amazing.

We Ran Together!

For the first time ever, Matthew and I did a run together!  Yay!  We did our 30 minute "easy" run but it didn't feel so easy because of the wind.  We tried to plan our route to go with the wind but it was all over the place.  I am still coughing like crazy!!  I'm just going to have to use my nebulizer before I run.  I'll ask Dr. Gross for help on that next time I see him.  This "winter" weather has been a wee bit bi-polar, even for DFW.
2.3 miles, 30 minutes.  Not the best, but it will do.

Tuesday's Run

On Tuesday I went to Running Club.  I wasn't sure how much I would be able to run (a cold front blew in and it was pretty chilly).  I used my nebulizer before running which was a very smart idea. We were supposed to run 9 min, walk 1 min for 25 minutes.  Coach Melanie forgot that we were supposed to walk and we ran the entire time.  Halfway through, I asked if we were ever going to walk, yep, I'm that student.  Melanie realized that she completely forgot about walking, asked how we were doing, and we all decided that we could keep on truckin' along.  We did about 2 1/4 miles in 25 minutes.  I didn't have a single problem breathing or coughing.  I did wear that crazy mask the entire time and I think that's what helped so much.  I realized that the cold really does affect my muscles.  They are sore today and I did a lot of stretching.  I'm blaming the cold and not my lack of stretching.
I'm glad to be back running.  I was supposed to run tonight but I didn't have time.  Looking forward to tomorrow's run!

Not Off To A Great Start

This year has not been off to a great start at all.  On January 3rd, I did the magic mile to figure out what running group I should be with.  It was really cold and windy and it took me 10:30 to finish.  When I was done, I could barely breathe.  Some of the coaches tried to talk me into doing the 15K class, which I really wanted to do, but I have had such a hard time controlling my asthma that I didn't think that would be the best idea.  I am now in the regular 5k program.  I ran on Thursday, the 5th, felt fine but then got sick over the weekend.  I went to the emergency room on Sunday and was diagnosed with bronchitis.  I've stayed indoors for over a week now and I'm really getting a case of cabin fever.  I plan on going to running on Tuesday and I sure hope I can keep up.  I don't know what I'm going to do if I can't run in the cold.  I might have to invest in that machine that Dr. Gross was talking about.  

I guess in the cold weather I have to take it 1 day at a time and realize that there are days that I just should not run outside.