White Rock Half Marathon

I know it's been a while so I last blogged, but have no fear... I did not give up on running! In fact, today was the day of my half marathon and I did it! I ran 13.1 miles in around 2 hours and 16 minutes. I ran at approx. a 10:29 pace. That was better than I thought I'd do, so I am happy! I'm going to keep this one short, but hopefully I won't be neglecting the blog as much as I have been. :)

I ran my first 10k!

And it was so much fun! Hard... but fun!

This past Saturday was the Tour des Fleurs race in Dallas. It was free through my Luke's training group, so I signed up as early as I could. I have never ran a race before in my life, so I wasn't sure what all to expect. I asked Grant to go with me for support and he did, even though we left the house at around 6:30am. What a great husband. :)

Anyway, there was a lot more hills than I expected, but I ran them all. I only took (2) 30 second walk breaks at the top of 2 hills to catch my breath, but that was it. Other than that, I RAN! I was so proud of myself when I came around the corner and saw the finish line. I also wore my new Garmin watch so I could keep up with my pace/distance. I love that thing!

I finished the 6.2 miles in 1:05, which is about a 10:48/mile. I really wanted to finish in around 10:30/mile, but I did not know there was going to be so many hills. Oh well, maybe next time! I'm just so glad I actually went out there and ran the full race. I also saw my coach at the finish line and she yelled, "GO STEPHANIE!" which made me feel good.

Now I kind of know what to look forward to for the Dallas WR Half and I am pretty excited and stoked about it. Bring on the 13.1 miles!

So far, so good!

And hopefully I'm not going to jinx myself! lol

So I took 3 days off last week but ran on Friday. I had a pretty good run. I ran about 3.5 miles, and 2 miles was a tempo run, both below 10:00/each. Not too bad. I didn't have any problems with my back the rest of the day, or the rest of the weekend so it has to be the shoes.

I took the weekend off since we were out of town. Yesterday I did a total of 6.5 miles and ran the first 3 miles without a walk break and here were my times:

10:14

9:59

10:03

I then took a walk break and alternated walking/running the rest of the way back. Obviously I need to work on keeping my pace about even, and I think I need to slow down so I can go a little further. I had a longer run last Monday, but my pace was a little slower. I'm ok with that.

I can't wait to run again tomorrow now that I have a new pair of shoes and I'm having some good runs! I've got the Tour de Fleur race coming up on Sept. 19th, which is a 10k, so I really need to spend the next 10 days focusing on getting to 6 miles straight.

One step forward, 2 steps back

Sometimes I feel like I can't catch a break when it comes to running! After my awesome run on Monday, I get a call from Luke's Locker saying that the shoes I ordered are backordered in my size until December. Lovely. So now I have to get new shoes from somewhere else, which really isn't that big of a deal, just kind of a bummer to have to search other places. 

Monday night I was suppose to work from 4p-12a and I was all excited to tell people about my awesome run. My back was still hurting, but nothing I couldn't handle. Then I go into work and it starts to get worse as I'm constantly bending over to assess patients, start IV's, up and down on the computer, etc. By 8pm my lower back muscles were so tight that it hurt to breathe! I was in a lot of pain, and my co-workers could tell. I told our teamlead that someone needs to go home early, PLEASE let it be me. He could tell I was in a lot of pain. About 30 minutes later the charge nurse said I could go home. I was really upset that 1) my back was hurting so bad, 2) I had to leave work early because of it, and 3) I had no insurance to do anything about it! As I walked out of work, I started crying. I hate having things go wrong and not knowing why or not being able to do anything about it. Needless to say, as soon as I got home, I got on the computer and applied to BCBS for some insurance. I should have some insurance by next week. Thank God.

So if you haven't figured it out by now, guess who's back to taking some rest days off. ME. I will be so happy when I can actually finish one week of training according to the schedule. Ugh.

I'm so proud of myself!

Ok, first let me start with Friday. Friday after my post, I went for another run, and it was another pretty good run, IMO. That was my deciding factor.... I definitely needed new shoes. That afternoon I went back to Luke's to get new shoes. Unfortunately they were out of my size and had to order them, but they went ahead and exchanged my other pair and gave me a store credit for when the new shoes came in. I love Luke's. They treat their customers well. So in the meantime, I'm running in my old shoes, which is completely fine with me. 

I spent the rest of Friday afternoon just hanging out, running errands, nothing extravagant and then I went to bed early since I had to work an early shift on Saturday. Saturday morning as I was getting ready for work, I noticed that when I bent over, I was feel a small "click" in my lower back. At first it was just annoying, but after a few times, it started to hurt. I don't know what was going on. By the time I got to work, anytime I went to bend over (to sit, stand, anything!) it would hurt. I thought it was a pulled muscle, but I'm not sure how it happened. By the end of Saturday's shift, I was really, really hurting. I was planning on running 6 miles on Sunday morning, and by that point, I wasn't sure if I was going to make it! Needless to say, I was in bed by 8:30 Saturday night..

The next morning when my alarm clock went off at 5:00am, I moved around in bed a little and thought, "this isn't so bad.. I can probably run" but then went I went to sit up, it was horrible. There was no way I was going to be able to run 6 miles. I decided to go back to sleep for another couple of hours before going in to work. Needless to say, my back was still hurting all day yesterday, but it was definitely better than the day before. I'm still not sure what is wrong with it. It only hurts when I bend at the waist, and it feels like bones are rubbing together back there. Definitely not a good feeling.

So today it's still hurting, but manageable, and I knew I couldn't put off running any longer so I decided to give it a try. According to my training schedule, I was suppose to run for 50 minutes, but since I didn't make my 6 mile run yesterday, I was really aiming for that. My favorite place to run is Katy trail, so I got ready and headed out there. I started off walking, and my back was feeling pretty good, so I started running slow and progressively built up my speed. I was surprised, but my back didn't hurt much at all during my entire run! I ended running for 52 minutes (4.75 miles) with only a 1 minute water break at around 2.75 miles!! THAT'S why I'm so proud of myself! I didn't quite make it to 6 miles, but I did go over 50 minutes AND that is the longest I've EVER ran in my entire life!! Granted, it wasn't the fastest, but it was the longest. lol

What a great way to start my day! I can't wait until my new shoes come in.

So it's been a month....

And my runs have gotten worse. I missed the 6, 7, and 8 mile runs with my group. I have only been doing about half of the training schedule. For about a week, I seriously thought about just giving up. But I can't. And I don't. I have set a goal, and I'm going to stick with is. So I have been racking my brain trying to figure out WHY I'm having trouble with my runs... besides the lack of motivation. lol. I think I have figured it out.

Back in early July I got new running shoes. They are a totally different brand than what I previously had and they feel really heavy. I expressed my concerns about them the day I bought them, but the salesperson/running expert insisted they were the best fit for my feet. I think he was wrong. They are too narrow, too heavy and I feel like I stomp when I run. So yesterday I wore my old running shoes on my run. Let me remind you that for the past month, my longest run without a walk break had probably been 20 minutes, and I have only been doing like 2 training sessions a week, and not even the full sessions. Pretty pathetic, huh? Anyway, my run yesterday was pretty good I think. I ran 26 mins (2.5 miles) before I took a walk break. All together I did 4.5 miles. 

I will be making a trip back up to the running store today and getting a new pair of shoes. I feel good that I think I may have found the problem. Well, at least one of them. Hopefully the new shoes will have a little bit of motivation tucked away in the toebox, because I could sure use some of that. :) Now to get back on track. I'm once again excited about running!

I'm sick... in the middle of summer.... really?!

The day after my last blog, I had my weekly Saturday morning run with my group and I felt great! I ran 4.0 miles in 40:24. Not bad for my first time to run 4 miles straight EVER. I was pumped. The next week I did my usual training, which is only like 3 of the scheduled 4 days of training. I know, I know... I need to step it up. Anyway, that Thursday after my 40 minute run, I started to feel yucky. You know that feeling that I'm talking about, when you first start to get sick. I took it easy Friday, doubled up on the vitamins and hoped I'd feel better by Saturday. But I didn't. And I still went for my group run. We were suppose to run 5 miles that morning. I'm going to be honest here... I was terrified of running 5 miles! I've never done it before in my life, and on top of that I was sick. Needless to say, I did not do well. I walked a lot that day, and I mean a LOT. I finished the 5 miles in 55:00. That's an 11:00/mile. That's sucky for me! I was really disappointed in myself, but I also knew my immune system and body were drained.

That was this past weekend, and now it's only getting worse! I ran my 40 minutes on Monday and didn't feel all that bad until bedside. I was up all night with a runny nose, stuffy head and coughing. It sucked major butt. Tuesday wasn't any better, and I had to skip my run that day. Now it's Wednesday, and I still feel crappy. I don't know what's going on. I use to never get sick, but now I've been sick twice this year. Blah! So as I'm sitting here typing this, with the left side of my head feeling like it's going to explode through my nose and tissues within reach, I've still got hope that somehow, someway my cold will go away today so I can run tonight. We're suppose to run 6 miles on Saturday and I really, really want to do it, but not if I'm not feeling like this.

Ugh, I hope this cold medicine kicks in soon....

Lets try this again....

I originally started this blog back in November 2008 to document my journey of the Couch to 5k program, but it didn't take me long to fall of the wagon. Heck, I don't even think I was completely IN the wagon before I fell off! So around Thanksgiving I decided to give up running for the holidays (good thinking, right?!) and that lasted until the middle of February. In February I slowly started to get back into the swing of things and by the end of April I had finished the C25k program. YAY!

Shortly after finishing that program I decided I needed a new focus after my wedding in June, so I started looking into a half marathon. Yeah, I know, it might be crazy, but what the heck I figured I could try. So in June after returning from my honeymoon I joined the Luke's Locker Fit Program and am now in the process of training for a half marathon in December. So far, so good! I'm hoping to keep up with this blogging thing throughout my training, too.

Wish me luck on both accounts (running and blogging)!