Registered for my first Half Marathon!

I have officially registered for my first Half Marathon!! 13.1 miles. I've done 12 miles what's another 1.1??

I plan on running 12 miles tomorrow, weather permitting of course. It is hard to do such distances at the gym. Running on a treadmill for 2 hours is not really that much fun, an hour is kinda pushing it. CSI makes it easier to doing an hour on the treadmill, which is roughly 10k for me.

I think my Nike+ system is not working right. I calibrated it and now it seems to say I did 5k in 19 min. To be honest I don't think I can do 5k in that time frame. If I did I would be training for the olympics LOL. So I will be calibrating it again to see if it will work right again.

I was running the other day at the gym and I noticed one guy that I always see at the gym. I finally noticed that he always pics the treadmill right beside me. He had his choice of 10 other treadmills and he climbed onto the one right next to me. I later saw him checking out what speed I was running at, I think he's secretly competing with me. Although I'm pretty sure that our goals are not the same. I'm running to prepare for some long distance races. I think he's doing it just to get his cardio time in, because at 20 min he shut off the machine. 

Setting a new PB

Sunday morning I had decided to get to the gym early. I was thinking of trying out the absolution class they have offered, instead I hopped on the treadmill. It had been a couple of weeks since I ran on a treadmill. It's been pretty nice here and I've been taking advantage of the nice weather with running on the beautiful pathway system. Running on pavement sure is different from running on a treadmill. Treadmills have a bit more bounce in them to take away some of the shock from the knees. Since I started running on the pathway system, my right knee has been aching a bit, only after a run, never during the run. When I hopped on that treadmill and calibrated my Nike+, the run was a breeze. I had originally planned on doing 10k, but I had a lot to do around the house and cut it down to 5k. When I reached the 5k mark, my Nike+ came on told me my time. I was stuck on the the 23 minutes time questioning weather I did 5k or not. Distance matched the treadmill, so I did run 5k. The voice over also told me that I clocked my fastest mile. I couldn't wait to get home and plug in my Ipod to check out the numbers myself. I couldn't believe it 22:36 for my 5k, I beat my PB by 3 minutes!


It's been a while since I ran just 5k, since I started training for the half marathon I've been running 8 or 9 miles. I had no clue that my speed had increased with a 5 k run. I had been concentrating on my endurance for longer distances. That makes me happy and I hope, that I can maintain that speed for future 5k runs.

Bad weather

One of my favorite paths that I run is the one that goes along the zoo. I love watching the Gazelles prancing around their coral, like I did today. When I run longer distances it takes me past the zoo to where some of the homeless tend to hang around. At first I was ok with it, I have my Ipod on and I'm just minding my own business. Today I actually felt uncomfortable. I saw a drug dealer waiting for his 'client', I realized it on my return trip when I actually saw him meet up with his client. Thank goodness they waited for me to pass to do the deal. Further down the path, I saw a girl wacked out on something, that had fallen down the ditch from the path. This all happened at approximately mile 4 of my 6 mile run. I still love the zoo, but now feel I don't want to go past it for my distance running.

Also on my run today, I figure I ran further than the planned 6 miles. Seems that my Nike+ has lost it's calibration. Thursday I ran the same path with 6.2 miles planned and my half way point was way earlier than it was today. If the calibration was still good, I should have been told the run was done when I reached my car. I apparently had 0.4 miles to go. So before I run again I will have to calibrate it again.

The weather was nice out when I hit the path, half way through the run I saw the looming rain clouds. By Mile 4 the wind had started to really blow. Mile 5 the wind had blown some dirt into my eye and made it water. This was not the best run I had, it's probably one of the worst runs for a while. I am still going to continue running, I enjoy it way too much. I just need to be more aware of the weather report, unfortunately the weather can turn in the blink of an eye around here. 

Nice weather to run outside finally

I've been trying to put together a new strength training program for a couple of weeks. I did my first run through Thursday night after my 10k run. I really liked the routine, but felt it was lacking in a couple of areas. I really felt my quads yesturday morning and knew what was missing. I need more arms and core. I didn't feel one bit of soreness in my arms from the workout. The core is always hard to focus on. So I re vamped it up and I'm hoping that this is a good routine that will challenge the whole body, which is what I want from a circuit training routine.

I've been wanting to try out a class at the gym called Absolution, I finally see when it is offered at my gym and it's at 0830 on a Sunday. Can I get up that early? I'm going to try. My friend wanted me to do a hot yoga class tomorrow as well, but I can not afford it this week. I did enjoy the class, and will most likely get a pass.

The past couple of days has been very nice to run outside. I took advantage on Thursday and yesturday afternoon. I did a 10k run Thursday afternoon in 61 minutes, not bad for my first run outside on the pavement since the summer. Yesturday I got in a 13k run in 88 minutes. The wind was really blowing hard the first half, to which I was running into the wind. When I started the next half, I thought for sure the wind would help push me along, but that's when it cut out for a bit. Just my luck. I ran into some time issues at the end when I had to wait for a train to pass through the pathway. Still over all it was a good run.

So for the past couple of months, I have been feeling a twinge in my left ankle randomly. It often would feel like someone was piercing my Achilles tendon with a needle. It is quite painful when it is happening, other than that than those few moments no other pain is felt. It's quite bizarre. Then it just seemed that I could not relieve the pain in my left calf muscle. On the suggestion of another long distance runner I know from another website, I bought some compression socks. They are supposed to help relieve muscle fatigue and get rid of the lactic acid after a long run. Today I ran 10km at the gym and I put these on afterward and wow do I ever feel a difference. My calf muscle barely feels sore at all. I'm hoping that this will relieve that twinging eventually as well. I am feeling great after that run. Can't wait to run that half marathon now!

Getting back at er

I used to run as a kid lots. When I got into grade six I was the new girl in the class, just switched schools. Mr. Norris was big into running or more like looked after the runners of the school. He soon figured out that I could run. I was part of a relay team that year and I enjoyed it immensely. I felt like I belonged somewhere, and I made some new friends. Our team had done so well that we made it to provincials and we came in fourth, thanks to Joanne. She was the superstar runner, running distances that I can only dream of.

That world came crashing in for me when my mom said I couldn't do it anymore. She used the reason that I had to help the family out. That was one weekend out of the year to help my grandparents move out of their farmhouse. All I remember was getting a salt and pepper shaker from my grandma's collection and a white porcelain kitty that lit up. For the record I still have that little kitten. I never ran after that for competition just for gym at school. I ran in the Turkey trot for junior high and that was the end of any kind of running for me.

Fast forward 20 years, at the age of 35, I decided to run again. I had reached my highest weight Christmas 2008. I saw a picture of myself holding my best friend's baby and I saw nothing but a blob in place of me. How could I let that happen? I hit the gym and started running again. I couldn't make 2 km without struggling. What an eye opener that was. I didn't let that discourage me at all. I kept at it, next think I knew I was doing 5 km. I started to work more on my speed and endurance.

July 3 I had run a personal best 5k at 28:44. I have since beaten that and I can't really remember when I got my personal best. In the summer I had invested in the Nike+ adaptor for my Ipod. I really enjoy it to track all my runs. My personal best for 5k is 26:36 and my PB for 10k is 55:30. Not too bad considering I hadn't run for 20 some odd years.

Introducing running into my exercise routine helped me shed 25 lbs, that I hope to never find again. Eating healthy was a major contributor to losing those unwanted pounds, but running definitely helped. I am 10lbs away from my goal weight and I don't plan on stopping now, especially running.

Last October I decided to do the Run for the cure. With the help of my family, friends and colleagues, I raised $1154 towards research for the cure for breast cancer. That was a tough run for me. I hadn't run an actual race until then, I always ran on my own on the pathways by my house. That day mother nature did not treat us to nicely. She gave us a pretty bad snow storm. At one point I thought my nose was running faster than me. I finished with a time of 32 min I'm sure I would have done better if I was prepared for such cold weather. The start was very crowded and I struggled to get my pace going as well, so I'm happy with a 32 min finish time. More importantly how much I raised for the cause.

January 2010 I decided I was going to do a half marathon. Even when I was running, I never thought of doing a distances like this before. A half is 13.1 miles or 21.07 km, that is a lot of road in front of me. A friend had sent me a link to the Calgary Police Half for April 25th this year. I said "yeah I'm going to do this!" I started training and doing the distances required for the half for the last couple of months and I surprised myself that I was able to run 11 miles and still smile afterward. I have been feeling some bit of pain from running, but it's not going to stop me. I just have to take care of myself and keep on planting my feet on the ground one step at a time.

We went on vacation to Mexico and just got back last week. I had planned on registering for the half when we got back. When I went to the website the other day, it was full. I was bummed a bit, only a little a bit. I emailed the committee to confirm if there is any spots left and I just got an email with one person's name that is selling their registration. I may contact him, I haven't decided. My thinking is that there will be more halfs for me to register for. I found one already! The Calgary Half on May 30.

The only thing is that a couple of weeks ago I registered to run 10k for the Underwear Affair June 5th. One week after the half. I really want to do both, but is it possible for me to recover from the half and run 10k a week later.

So that brings us up to speed on my running this past year.