Rough Week

Last week was a tough week for me.  I just wasn't feeling it and I was tired of having to run all.the.time!  I did 2 of my speed workouts on the treadmill and I was dying.  I kept stopping, trying to motivate myself, and I just couldn't find the motivation.  I got through all my running last week and it was first time since this training program I did all 5 days of running according to plan.

My schedule called for a 12 mile run on Saturday.  Typically, I meet my Dad on Saturday mornings and he will ride his bike along side of me.  This Saturday we met up and started on our run/ride.  About half a mile in I turned the road and BAM....Head on into the wind.  The first 3 miles of my run were right into the head wind.  Whew, it was not was I was hoping for.  I decided I'd rather have freezing weather than deal with the wind.  The run I mapped had 3 hills in it and I knew exactly where they were.  The first one was fine, but the second one killed the bottom of my foot.  I think I have a slight stress fracture in my foot, but I refuse to admit it or take care of it.  The hill felt like it pulled all the muscles in the bottom of my foot, but I ran on.  At mile 9 I was all excited we were getting close and almost finished when it happened again....turned the corner and there was that damn wind!  For the last 3 miles we were head on into the wind.  Then, I accidentally turned down the wrong path and ended up on the golf course.  Since I was so tired I didn't want to turn around, so we ran in middle of the golf course.  Oops!  Sorry guys.  I ended the run with a 10:30 mile which is WAY slower that I would have liked to run, but I'll blame the wind.

This week so far has been going much better!  I'm avoiding the treadmill and my 8 miles tempo run I actually ran faster than I needed to.  I was quite happy about it.

This weekend will be a 14 mile run.  The farthest I've ever run.  Woohoo!

The Beginning and a little about me

So, it's the first of the year and on a run the other day, I decided that I was going to start blogging about my running.  Pretty boring I'm sure, but oh well.  Here it is and a little back story about me.

I started running at the age of 7 and went until my first year of college.  I HATED running anything over 400 yards so the though of running 13 or 26 miles was crazy to me.  In 2008 I was watching a biggest loser challenge and they had to run a half marathon and I thought if they can lose all that weight and run 13.1 miles, why can't I?  So, I set off on a new goal for myself: run a 1/2 marathon.  I have now run 4 half marathons (each one getting slower for variable reasons) and I am in middle of training for my first full marathon on March 4th!

I have been training for the full for a month now and I logged 111 miles in the month of December.  This month alone I am set to run about 150 miles.  Whew!  I never thought I would be running this many miles EVER.  But, here I am dreading getting off work each day, because that means I will need to run.  No one ever told me training for a full marathon was going to be like having a part time job.  I feel like my life consists of working, running, eating, and sleeping.  But, I guess that is life.  I have 2 goals for this marathon.  The first one is to simply finish and the second is to finish in under 4 hours.  Who knows if that will happen.  But, here is my story and the journey of my running.