Laptop!! Plus, let's talk about my last couple of races...

So, once again, it's been a while since I last posted. My laptop has been sooooo slow, I haven't even wanted to fire it up long enough to do anything from home. I took it to the shop this week for some TLC, and it's like a new computer now. We all have computers that are right as rain at Casa de Tammy now!

My 2 most recent races were the River to River Relay (8 runners - 80 hilly miles) and the Flying Pig Half Marathon.

The Relay was on April 17. The relay team that we put together was the bestest relay team ever. I've run this relay 5 times, and I've never had such a good time. Every single person made the day that much better. We couldn't find 8 runners that were fast enough and uninjured, so we wound up running the race with 7 runners (2 of the runners split up the 8th leg).

Here's Mustang Sally and the Tipsy Rousers at the finish:

We finished the entire 80 miles in 11:03. That's an average of 8:17/mile. And, I was a slowpoke. Our goal was 12 hours, and we smashed it! Mustang Sally and the Tipsy Rousers rock!

A couple of weeks later, four of us went to Cincinnati to run the Flying Pig Marathon. I hadn't done the training, and I've been continuously gaining weight, so I decided to run the Half instead of the Full.

It was POURING the morning of the race, and a part of me was hoping that they would cancel it. It had been storming just prior to the race, but the lightning and thunder managed to move on just before the race start. Yay. :(

So, we all started the race soaking wet. On top of that, I had some stomach issue going on and wound up in the port-a-potties along the race course 5 times. Yes, 5 times in the port a potty with soaking wet clothes. One of those times, I had to wait in a line for 15-20 minutes. My goal became to beat my friend G to the finish line. He was planning to run a 3:10 full marathon. Ugh.

It was miserable.

It is over. Hallelujah.

I must drop some weight and get back in running shape this spring and summer. I'm registered for the Chicago Marathon on 10/10/10, and I intend to have a good race there.

128.8

At 47 days into 2010, that's how many miles I should have run after the end of today in order to reach my 1,000 mile goal for the year.



So far this year, I have run 49.1 miles. I'm considerably short of my goal at this point. I will need to make up almost 80 miles throughout the rest of the year.



I know that I can achieve this.



There are 318 days remaining, and I have 950.9 miles left to run. That averages out to just a hair under 3 miles per day, or 21 miles per week.



(I'm a math geek, I can't help it).



21 miles per week, I can do. I have two marathons planned for the year, I have no excuse for not running an average of 21 miles per week. Never mind that I did it last year. If I can do that much training, my speed will have no choice but to improve, and as promised I'm not even going to mention my weight.



This weekend, I'm headed to Florida to run the A1A Half Marathon in Ft Lauderdale. I'm looking forward to it, hopefully the short vacation will re-energize me.

Do You Know?

Yesterday, I ran the Fly with the Eagles Half Marathon at the Crab Orchard wildlife refuge. I've been running this race every year for several years now.

I woke up yesterday morning after approximately 3 hours of sleep. I could not sleep Friday night and didn't bother to try. I drank my coffee and forgot to eat breakfast, so I ate a banana in the car with the girls on the way down. The temperature was 30 degrees and sunny. Knowing all of this, along with the minimal amount of training that I've been doing, I estimated my finish time at 2:32.

When you go to a race, do you know what your finish time will be?
I almost always know within a minute or two what my finish time will be for any given race.

On the way down, the girls were talking about how slow they would be, but they had NO idea what to expect. This absolutely boggles my mind.

Several miles of the race are inside the sanctuary on a trail that was "soft". My shoes were covered in mud after this race. Yuck! I hate getting dirty. I'm such a girl about mud. I hate it. Several runners reported seeing eagles while we were in there, but I never saw them. :-(

I felt good the entire run, but I was being careful not to run too hard, since I do have another half marathon next weekend. At Ft Lauderdale!

Given the muddy conditions, I wasn't as close as I thought to my prediction, but I still ran a 2:34. I was happy with this finish time, even though I finished LAST in my age group and was very close to being the very last finisher. Yup, these small-town races have their benefits and their drawbacks.

Benefit: It's very easy to win an age group award
Drawback: Run slower than a 9-10 minute mile and you risk finishing last.

So, the question, do you know how you will finish a race, or am I alone in this? Does predicting my time this way become a self-fulfilling prophecy and keep me from running faster?

My Old Ways, and my Last Whiny Rant

I admit it. I've reverted to the Weekend Warrior.



No running Monday - Friday, long run on the weekend.



I wish that I could find a magic cure for this problem. I don't like running after work, but I can't force myself out of bed before work. OK, Clearly I CAN force myself out of bed before work, or I CAN run after work. The fact is, it's not happening. After a long day of work, I want to snuggle into my warm clothes and rest. And, the mornings? It's dark at 5am. And, I'm lazy.



Obviously, if I'm not running, I've gotten away from strength training too. For quite some time now. I come back to it occasionally, but I slack off almost immediately.



Unfortunately, over the past 2 years, I've gained 40 lbs. I wonder if the non-running and the gain in weight are related? Hm. Seriously, I'm tired of hearing myself complain about it, as I'm sure all of those around me are tired of it as well. It's time to put up or shut up. Yes, you heard it here. I'm no longer whining and complaining about being fat. If I'm not willing to DO something about it, I'm not going to waste my time whining about it.

Half Marathon this Saturday.
Then, I travel to Florida next weekend and run the Half Marathon at Ft Lauderdale.
Hopefully, I can manage a couple of runs in between the two.



Now, does anybody have that magic cure for sleeping in?

Back in the Swing

This weekend, the weather was somewhat warm, 45-50 degrees, but the sun was in hiding. I took the opportunity to get some running in. I ran 10 miles on Saturday morning and 5 miles on Sunday. My pace is snail-like, but I know that if I keep at it, that will improve. I'm still planning to keep to my marathon training plan, in case we decide to run the Flying Pig again this year.

I'm also trying to get back into my weightlifting routine, slowly. I'm getting a late start, but I intend to make 2010 my year.

She Lives!

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. I have a blog.

I'm not going to try and catch up on everything that has happened since the last time I posted. I did run another marathon in Memphis.



That was a lot of fun. Even more fun than running 26.2 miles was going out with friends on Beale Street afterward, though. The marathon was December 5. From December 6-December 23, I ran 0, nothing, nada. Then, I ran 4 miles on Christmas Eve with the best of intentions to get moving again.

I went to a concert earlier this month. Lady Gaga was amazing!



Nope, still no running.

So, the week after I ran Memphis, I signed up to run another marathon - Ft Lauderdale on February 21 - with a friend. Um, nope, not gonna happen. I'm now officially running the Half Marathon in Ft Lauderdale. What a relief!

A Spring marathon is still not completely out of the picture, I'm going to start training and see where it goes. OK, so actually I'm going to decide whether or not to run a spring marathon based on what the rest of the gang decides to do.

Happy Late New Year, by the way. No resolutions for me this year. Those never end well.

One challenge I have taken on for the year is Tall Mom on the Run's challenge to run 1,000+ miles in 2010.

I also will strive in 2010 to stop running so many races undertrained. To give some perspective, in 2009, I ran ~700 miles. This included:

10 - 5K races

3 - 10K races

1 - 15K race

2 - 10 mile races

4 - Half Marathons

2 - Full Marathons

That's 183.7 miles in races alone. I love running the races, so I will probably run just as many races in 2010, but I do not want to go into them with so little training. This morning I ran 7 miles. I have 2 Half Marathons scheduled in February, I have some training to do in the next few weeks. You can expect to see more of me around here in 2010.

Weekend Warrior, 3rd Time's the Charm

Once again, I missed all of my shorter runs during the week and ran my long run on Saturday.

Gah!

My 5K time this morning at the Kinmundy Lions Club Run showed it, too. My official race time was 30:22, a pace of 9:47 / mile. I'm happy that my pace was faster than 10 min/mile, but I am capable of so much better than that.

This is the Last. Time.

Alarm is set.