Marathon Training

Yeah...MARATHON training! As in FULL. I have decided to go for it! I finished my 1st week of training and I have gone completely off the guide. I did 6x400's Thursday, (7:35 pace each lap) but after that, I ran to the beat of my own feet. As usual. I don't know why I even attempt to follow a guide! I am going to use it as just that though...A GUIDE. If I learned one thing in the last 2 years of my running...it's LISTEN TO MY BODY...and I am this time. And it's working!

I also got a little advice from a very, VERY respected person in our running community...Heather Butcher. I saw her the other day and told her I did 7 miles in 71 minutes. Which I was (and still am) proud of. Then I told her I walked a few times. She told me if I had to walk, I was going too fast. Hmmm...seriously?? What about the Galloway method????? At the time of our conversation, I thought 2 things...1) Could I really be going too fast??? and...2) I'm gonna just keep on keepin' on.

OH...and Heather also told me she HATES to run distance when training! WHAT??? She's done like...3 IRONMEN and 12 full marathons! She told me she mostly does 400's. And her times are to die for. I know I'd die for them. She also told me to cross train with swimming and bike. But I don't really get into those. I will attempt another spin class Monday night though.....

So Steve came over this afternoon and we decided to do 5 miles. I was scheduled to do 7 yesterday, but the 6x400's I did Thursday kicked my behind. I also had my little grandbaby Collin Saturday from 6am to 5:30pm. By the time he left, I wasn't running anything. Today I was still sore and tired, Steve is just recovering from ankle and knee glitches, so we agreed on 5 miles. He had done one 4 miler a couple weeks ago and was ready to go for 5.

As we started the run, Heather's advice came back to me. I thought...ya know...it won't kill me to slow down about 15-20 seconds a mile. Plus I wanted Steve to finish comfortably without pain...I silently agreed to myself I'd stay at 10:15. Or so. I was surprised to keep finding us at a 9:30 pace. I kept signaling to slow it down. There is a patch of grass at one point on the route that I never run across (balance and neuropathy issues) and I did still walk that. Mighta been 15 seconds. We continued on, by mile 3 or so, we walked again, about 45 seconds, so I could chew a glucose tab. Those don't feel too good when you breathe them into your lungs, it's a good idea to walk when eating those. Unfortunately for Steve, that walk ruined the rest of his run. He had to walk/run the next mile or so then called it quits because of his knee/ankle.

I kept running ahead about 1/2 mile and back tracking to stay close by. I did finish the 5 miles. The average pace was 10:15...and ya know...I did feel fine. Even tonight...the cramping is minimal and I don't feel like I over did it at all. Tomorrow I'm going to just do 2-3 miles. I want to save something for the spin class...

The training schedule I chose from the "4 months To A 4 Hour Marathon" is a very good plan. I will commit to the shorter runs during the week, long runs for a weekend and the 400's. I'll just do them when I feel it's the best time. Even though the 400's totally wore me out, I kinda liked them. =)

Thursday is the Turket Trot 5K. My family is going and I love that!!!! Kirstin is walking it with Collin and her friend Ashlee is going with her with her baby Madison. Bobby is bringing Kerri, Emily and Robby too. Steve is thinking about it. He's being a chicken. Or shall I call him a turkey????? LOL

Punta Gorda Turkey Trot Race Report

My husband and I got up at 5am. There was a costume contest going on at the race, so I got back in touch with my Navajo roots and dressed as the Indian Princess I truly am. My friend Stef had some VERY cool indian costume stuff from her daughters' costumes and let me borrow them. Her husband Mark made a bow and arrow holder, whittled a dagger, the feather headband and some collars to add to the dress I already had. He made an awesome 5 foot long spear that looked so authentic. Their daughter even let me take her baby doll that was dressed as an indian too! I borrowed my daughter's moccasins. I was THRILLED!

We got to the race and as we walked up to the registration area, I noticed two things.

1. My knee was killing me.

2. I was the ONLY person in a costume.

My husband, who is very, very shy (we are so opposite, personality-wise) looked over at me and asked if I wanted to change out of my costume before people started pointing and laughing at me. PFFFT. No. This was gonna be even MORE fun, for 2 reasons...

1. This was one race people would never forget me from

2. I was gonna WIN!

The newspaper guy was there, he came and took a picture. I asked him how many other costumes there were. He said two others!! COOL!! Then he said they were both babies. Oh. I can't compete with cute babies! Shoot! Now I won't win. Blah. Whatever. But WAIT!! There were two categories!! Adult, and child. And by "adult", I'm talking age, not porn. Ha!! So my chance of winning came back into sight, and I got to keep my clothes on. Bonus!

They announced the contest, asking all participants to come forward. I pushed through the crowd and stood between the cutie-pie babies. One was an elephant, the other was a turkey. They were adorable! They announced the winner (me) and gave me a $50 gift certificate to a SPA!...OOOOOHHHHH....I'm gettin me an aroma-therapeutic massage!!! Can't wait for that!!!! Truth be told, I didn't even know there was a prize, so it was an unexpected plus to freezing-me-buttocks-off. Yes people. I gets cold here in Florida too. But like the kids in Boston at Halloween, I refused to cover my costume with a winter coat even though I'm just getting over the flu. Proof some people never grow up.

Off to the finish line that I would not be crossing, thanks to my knee. There were so many people at this race that it was tough to find the people I knew. I did see Sherry there with her husband Scott. Her friend Sondra was there too. Sherry got a new PR, but I'll let her post her race report, I won't blow the BIG NEWS!!!!!! (OMG...she totally blew away her last PR)

I saw Bill and Mary, Bill and I ran over the bridge together at mile 20 of the Sarasota Grouper marathon last March. Bill gave me some exciting/sad news. He is doing Space Coast. Sniff, sniff. He hadn't heard that I withdrew from that marathon because of my knee. I'll admit I really wanted to cry. It would have been wonderful to see him there. I had to push away my sadness and just be thrilled for Bill. And I truly am, but man. I wanted to run that race so bad. Bill tried to be nonchalant about it and not mention the extremely cool medal but it slipped out...lol. He felt bad but I UNDERSTAND the excitement, believe me. I honestly feel happy he's going. I can't wait to see his medal and the pictures. How can I not be excited for Bill???? Space Coast marathon is Sunday. I'll be following Bill's progress and I'll post his results as soon as I get them.

Here are a few pictures of the Turkey trot.

Husband Bob and me...

Contestants, you can see why I was concerned about my competition!

Cute babies!

Frank, fellow Endurance team mate and Zoomer!

Scott and Sherry

Sherry crossing the finish line!! GO SISTA!!!!!

Mission Accomplished

YAY! I ran with the Runner's Club today for 2 miles. My knee was sore, but never got too painful. The funny thing was my left knee felt twingy too, so I don't know what that's about. Right now I'm feeling fine. I'd LOVE to run another 2 miles tomorrow and see how it's going but I'll follow the "easing into it rule" for once and take tomorrow off. Well, kinda. I have a spin class at 8:45 I cannot miss.

Chris ran today and did very well. I predicted yesterday that I really thought he'd wind up doing the full marathon and I couldn't wait to see how he felt by his 10 mile run. While a group of us were talking about training for the half, he said "I'm going to run the full." Just like that! I almost fell over! I knew he had it in him! I am thrilled! Then come to find out, he HAS run a half. Not sure how I missed that...maybe because he calls the half marathon "the mini". Yes folks, I know. I finally explained he can't be calling it "the mini" in front of other runners. We'd eat him alive....LOL

I am enjoying running with Chris, he's new to distance and very open to the Galloway method (of which I have embraced). I've always said the reason I love running is because of HOW I learned to run. To have this opportunity to give back what Jim gave me as a coach just feels so awesome. Oh, and Chris called me "coach"...how COOL is that??? Smart guy....lol

Mike ran with us today too. He showed up with two speakers STRAPPED to his body and proceeded to spew forth some funky music. Loudly. Sigh. I should have seen this coming, he's been talking about how cool it would be to have music but be able to hold conversations at the same time. I saw the red flag. I heard the proverbial bell. I know Mike. LOL...I love the guy, don't get me wrong, but today was HYSTERICAL...LMAO! I was trying to talk to Chris and Mike had some kind of meditaion stuff playing...I love Enya but not for running. I couldn't even hear! Mike's lucky I love him, that's all I can say....LMAO!

Steve is the Youth Sports Coordinator at the YMCA and he just started running with us too. He's a sweetie pie! He's 21 years old and doing a great job with the kids over at the YMCA. He just started running so I can't get him to commit to anything, not even a 5K....YET. I'm really hoping to get him into running the half in Sarasota. I know he can do it. I just KNOW it!

My Blog Brother GQ has a knee injury. I'm sending him some healing vibes through the internet, hoping he's healed for his first Turkey Trot next week. He is doing the right thing by resting, icing and taking his Birthday son out for dinner. And getting him a gerbil. (sucker....lol) I can foresee the gerbil blogs coming!!!!!