running's my favorite

Hey peeps! Long time, no blog.

So, I've been trucking along, loving our new house, walking a lot, working even more, running a few races and trying to resist the siren call of gluten-filled goodies.

Did I mention that I got a 5k PR with my non-running, non-training plan? No? I haven't mentioned that yet?  Well.......

I got a PR! It was in the Women Run the Cities 5k. (I was signed up for the 10 mile but I downgraded due to my joints, blah, blah, blah....) Anywhoo, I have no idea how the hell it happened but I'll take it. Look, here's a picture!

I've run some other races too, a few trail races, some new ones I haven't run before.... all with the goal of having fun, seeing running friends and finishing.

Here's a little collage of my running exploits since my last post.  (Ok, maybe "collage" isn't exactly the right word; its more of a collection of photos.) Here goes!

Women Rock 10k in August. Yeah, it's another race that I downgraded in distance, but whatever. At least I got out there!

Muscle Milk Woodsy. My favorite trail race. The hills of Murphy Hanrehan park kick my ass every time!

Monster Dash 10 Mile.  I loved this woman's shirt! 

Salomon Autumn Trail Series #4. I'm digging the trail races.

Urban Wildland 5k. It was the husband's first sub-30 5k!

Run for the Apples 5 mile run through an apple orchard. I met all these women on the internet. Seriously.  I love the internet!

Before and after at the Monster Dash 10 mile. Yes, those are turkeys on our heads. And I got to wear the skull arm sleeves that I couldn't wear last year. Bonus!  

As another bonus, the friend that I ran with (and who purchased our awesome turkey hats) is a midwife. So I knew that if my uterus fell out mid-race, I'd have a professional by my side, and would suffer no ill effects.  Plus, she's an absolute blast and one of my favorite people in the world, so I knew it would be a fun 10 miles.

Speaking of the midwife - she invited me to run the Fargo Marathon with her next spring.  My response? I did what any rational, reasonable person who has been backing off on distances all year would do - I signed up for the marathon.  

I never said I was smart.  What can I say?  Running's my favorite!

first race of 2013 AND the unveiling of marathon #4!

Here's the weather we woke up to.

The New Year's Day tradition continues.  To help ring in the new year, the husband and I ran the Polar Dash 5k.

It was kind of cold out yesterday. Bitterly cold, according to the weather channel. (You'd think I would embrace the bitterness, but I don't.)  13 degrees below zero where we live. I like to run in the cold, but dayum, that's COLD! Luckily, it was a balmy 5 degrees below zero in Minneapolis (where we would be running) so we had nothing to fear.

Choices, choices..... trail shoes or running shoes??
I like to wear my trail shoes when running in the snow but
wasn't sure how snowy the course would be.
The deciding factor was not knowing how to attach the
timing chip to the laces of my trail shoes (they have
speed laces and can't be "unlaced".)
Running shoes it is!

Have I mentioned that I hate being cold?  HATE it.  So we're on our way to the race, talking about how freaking cold it is, and the fact that we're crazy to be doing this, blah blah blah...... and I asked the husband, "How did we get started running this race outside, in winter, in Minnesota anyway?  What possessed us to do it the first time?"  And he just looked at me and said, "Ummm, you found something on the internet called "Couch to 5K" and for some inexplicable reason, started running.  I have absolutely NO IDEA what drives you to do what you do. I just go along for the ride!"  He's a fun date.  I'm glad he likes me!

The worst part of the race experience? Using the porta-potty in sub-zero temperatures.  Not a pleasant experience. We'll just leave it at that.

Uber flattering photo of us in the start corral.

The run itself was fun. My only observation/complaint is that there are so many new runners and walkers (like the Diva Dash).  While I think it's fantastic that so many folks were out (especially on such a cold day!) but a little etiquette would go a long way......walkers start towards the back of the pack, don't walk 4-5 abreast on the narrow course, etc., but having said that, it was really more about getting out and running on the first day of the New Year, and less about "racing" so all in all it was a good time.  And the crowds thinned in the second half so we were able to pick the pace up a little bit which was nice.

As the husband and I were walking back to the car after the race, we were reflecting on the fact that though we had bitched quite a bit about the cold before the race started, we certainly never regretted getting out and running.

Our glorious splits:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	31:37.0	3.12	10:09
1	11:02.0	1.00	11:02
2	10:19.3	1.00	10:19
3	9:15.1	1.00	9:15
4	1:00.6	0.12	8:45

So there you have it.  First race of the year - Done!

Garmin Electra's documentation.
I just like this picture because Sherman is in it.

Oh, and I signed up for marathon #4!!  Green Bay Marathon on May 19, 2013.  As a Vikings fan, I'm a little torn about running through Lambeau Field, but with time, I'm sure I'll be able to work through that issue.

the last post for 2012

The light-up necklace was the coolest part of the swag!

Can the year really be coming to a close already?  Wow!  Seems like it was January 1 just a couple weeks ago.

Hmmmm, I haven't exactly been covering myself with glory fitness-wise these last few weeks.  Again, life has interfered with my well-intentioned plans.  What's the saying? "You make plans, and God laughs"?? Or something like that.  Another saying: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." You get the idea.  So I'm just going to keep moving forward and see what happens....  I still have to do my all my HBBC update posts.... Yikes.  I'm behind.

Annnnnyyyhooooo.  Let's talk about my last race of 2012. The Jumpin' Jack Frost 5k. It was a good time!

I love 5Ks.  Such an easy distance and I feel like I can just go and run 3.1 miles and not have to train or anything.  Of course, I'm never going for speed. Things might look a little different if I were a serious runner. And by serious, I mean fast. Which I'm not. And I also mean talented.  Which I also am not. But I'm fun!

Pre-race with my running buddy.

So the night before the race, I met up with about 30 of my high school friends, all home for the holidays. It was so fun to see all those folks and catch up on everything that's been going on in the 5 years (give or take) since we graduated from high school. I was super careful about my pre-race fueling, too.  The temple that is my body ingested only the best deep-fried Wisconsin cheese curds and I insisted on 9-grain bread for my BLT.  And my dirty martini vodka of choice?  Grey Goose. I hear it's got more carbs than other vodkas.

Good thing the race didn't start until 4:35 p.m.

I ran with a friend - our first time running together ever - and we had a wonderful time!  We ran pretty slowly (see our splits below) and chatted the entire time.  I always forget how much fun it is to run with someone else! The course is an out and back along the Mississippi River in St. Paul.  We started at dusk; it was completely dark by the time we were finishing up and the city lights shining over the river looked absolutely beautiful.  A nice way to finish the year!

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	31:30.2	3.05	10:21
1	11:00.9	1.00	11:01
2	10:24.0	1.00	10:24
3	9:43.2	1.00	9:43
4	:22.1	0.05	8:03

========================================
And now, let's look at the year in review.

Number of races completed this year: 
23 total - Six 5k (including one Warrior Dash!), an 8k (trail), a 10k, an 8.9 mile (trail), a 10 mile, 8 half marathons, a 25k, a 30k, a 20 miler and two full marathons (Grandma's and Chicago).

Number of PRs set this year:
Six! - 5k, 8k, 10 mile, half-marathon, 30k, and marathon.

Free stuff! 
Remember, I'm cheap frugal, so I LOVE getting anything for free, no matter how it happens.  And can I just say that I love the magic of the internet?
Items won via Facebook:
1. Soleus watch courtesy of Team Ortho, organizer of many of my favorite races!
2. Race entry to a half marathon, courtesy of an Orthopaedic Group that sponsors many races.
3. Sweatshirt courtesy of the Med City Marathon folks, just for "liking" the Facebook page! (The fact that I won a sweatshirt is kind of ironic since the temps in that race rivaled the those in the pits of hell.)

The message informing me that I'm a winner!

5. Race bib belt from Final Stretch running, just for being one of the first 10 folks to sign up for their newest race.  It's called the Chocoholic Frolic.  Guess how long it took me to sign up once I saw the title.... Yeah, about a nanosecond.  That's why I'm a winner, folks!

My cozy sweatshirt....

.....and my cool race belt!

Items won in other ways.....
1. A sweet jacket courtesy of my running club for following their blog.
2. Hotel room at Grandma's Marathon - ok, so I didn't "win" this, but still, free stuff is free stuff!
3. Road ID bracelet for signing up for the Explore Minnesota Challenge.  Sadly, I didn't meet the challenge because most of the races I ran didn't qualify.  Oh well.  Maybe I'll try that one again if they expand the race list....

Progress on goals: 

1. Complete Grandma's again and improve my time. Check!

2. Run a total of 1000 miles.  Nope. 773 was my total mileage for running.

2012 Running Miles

But when you include walking and elliptical, I covered 1123 miles.  Not too shabby!

2012 Total Miles

3. Run at least one mile per day every day of the year.  (the "I heart to Run" running streak challenge)
I abandoned this one. Running one mile every day proved much more difficult than anticipated!  The daily donning of the sports bra proved to be the biggest mental hurdle to reaching this goal. Oh well.

4. Purposely move my body 30 minutes every day for the first 100 days of the year.
99/100 days of success!

Missed it by one day. Doh!

5. Attempt eating clean more often than not.
Epic failure. But I did manage to purge Oreos from my diet.  Speaking of Oreos...

6. Keep on trying new challenges and see where this adventure takes me next.
Well, I guess running a marathon on very little training is one way to challenge myself...... but I do keep on trying!

All in all, it's been a pretty good year.  I may not have met all my goals but I still managed to accomplish a lot and had a pretty good time doing it.  That's success as far as I'm concerned.

Happy New Year, everyone!  Looking forward to continuing the journey in 2013!

excuses, excuses

I know what you're thinking..... "Damn, girl, you ran that blisteringly fast 5k yesterday morning! So what happened in the Freeze Your Thorns Off virtual 5K??? Did you choke? Was that PR an anomaly?"

I ran the Sweat Your Thorns Off 5K last summer and set an unofficial PR (which still stands!) so I had high hopes for this one as well.  But it was not to be.  <sad face> So I asked myself the burning question: "What gets in the way of a PR??" I know there are as many reasons why as there are grains of sand on the beach, but let me share with you the barriers that prevented me from getting a PR twice in one day.

1. Let's start with my choice of running partner.

Jane is not as interested in the actual act of running as I am.  Don't get me wrong, she LOVES to be out running but she's much more interested in whatever it is she's interested in, rather than focusing on some stupid goal I might have for our outing.



2.  Snowmen

I just know that bastard is preparing some type of attack.

Jane hates snowmen.  


And because we've gotten some snow recently, and it's of the perfect snowman-making texture and consistency, they kept popping up where she least expected them.  


Each one had to be given a wide berth and then circled back to and examined ever closer.

Gaaaah!  It's a pack of snowmen!!

FYI- Large snowballs are highly suspect as well.

3. Bodily Functions


No, not mine.


Jane's other name is "Two Poops" because that's usually how many times she has to mail a package during the average run.










4. 5K route being altered due to bodily functions


Because I didn't want to carry Jane's gift during the entire run, we took a detour to dispose of it properly. I am a responsible dog owner, yo!

Here's an action shot of me using a public receptacle.

You should know that this was next to the parking lot of an elementary school and based on the attire of some of the kids, there must have been a basketball tourney of some sort going on.  While I was capturing this momentous moment, parents and kids were heading to cars and were noticing me taking the picture.

I shouted, "It's ok!  It's for my blog!" but that just seemed to make them hustle their kids into the cars faster.  Sigh.

My FYTO5K 2012 route.

5. Ice, ice baby!  And snow too!  


We hit it all: ice covered sidewalks, snow covered trails, and we even ran for a while on the lake.  All that stuff is gonna slow you down. Honest.

Even the bridge to the school was covered in ice.

That's pure ice, folks! 

Jane had to drag me up this hill.  It's steeper than it looks.

Jogging on the trail next to the lake.... 

....and jogging on the lake......

...... and trying to dig for fish while out on the lake.

Victorious FYTO5K finishers! Per usual, it's a hideous photo of me but Jane looks good.   You can kind of tell that it was cold and that my nose was running.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any shots of me doing snot rockets.  It's a real shame too, because they were beauties!

So I guess that's what you could say is my blame train.  You know the saying, "I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was going to blame you."  But who cares.  It was fun!


Here's what iSmoothRun said about the weather: Temp 25 °F, Wind Chill: 13 °F, Winds: 14mph W, Humidity: 63%.  Damn near froze my thorns off!


And because I'm all about honesty and transparency and crap, I must post my splits of shame.......

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	37:15.5	3.11	11:59
1	11:16.6	1.00	11:17
2	12:58.9	1.00	12:59
3	11:49.2	1.00	11:49
4	1:10.9	0.11	10:43

Thanks to Adam at TheBoringRunner.com for hosting a fun run!!