...something to say about motivation.

I don't really have time to write. I have to leave for work in five minutes or so. Blah. (Did I tell you that I don't like working at night? Because I don't. It annoys me.)

Today Kath and I ran together. We did a little over eight and a half miles. It was really tough. For the first time outside of a race, I thought I was going to throw up. I've never felt sick during a training run before. I didn't even push myself too hard. I'm not sure what the problem was with my body. My breakfast was healthy and pretty light (a bagel with peanut butter and a slice of turkey ham). Ijust felt miserable. The. Whole. Time.

There's something to say for motivation though. I pulled it out in the end. I cut my average pace from 16 to 15:30 in the last three miles. (I'm really unhappy with that pace.) I'm glad I found the motivation to push past my barriers and move forward. I think that's pretty awesome.

I just wish I didn't have to dig so deep sometimes.

Goal: 1000 miles/366 days
So far: 479.34 miles/225 days
To go: 520.66 miles/141 days

positives and negatives on long run day.

Long run day recap. Again.

Let's start with the positive things that happened during my run today... First, I ran the distance that I needed to. Though my toe is still swollen, it doesn't hurt at all when I'm running and only hurts some when I'm walking around. (I think that it mostly depends on what shoes that I am wearing. My work shoes are awful at squishing my toes. Ugh.) I'm ecstatic that I'm running again. I'm pleased that I only had to take a week off before I could run again. I'm glad that I did fourteen miles today. It takes a lot of mental strength to push it that hard and for that long. Yay for me.

I just wish that it was easier. I struggled a LOT today. My legs felt heavy and slow from the very beginning. I'm not sure how I ended up getting all of the miles in. I guess that I pushed it pretty hard, but my pace was way slower than I would have wanted it to be. ...frustrating. I KNOW that I can run faster and better than I ran today. I just don't know why I didn't do it today. I know that I should be pleased that I got the mileage that I needed, but I feel like my pace is pretty important, too.

I'm less than two months away from Chicago. I'm about three weeks from Disneyland. Then Tower of Terror 10 miler, then Chicago, then Wine & Dine, then the Jacksonville Distance Classic, then the Orlando Half, then Goofy (Dopey)! This is crazy. I just really want to make sure that my body is ready for all of this. I'm not sure that it is, because of tough runs like I had today. Frustrating...

I know that I can run the distance. I just want to get my pace to where I need it to be. I'm just feeling a little stuck right now, I guess. I don't know what the answer is... the magical motivation that I've been looking for.

I'm at a completely different sport than where I was last year at this time. My body is different and my training is so muh better. Frankly, I have no idea what my race pace might be. It has to be something better. I feel like I'm looking PRs in the face, I just don't know what they would be.

I'm also planning on adding personal training back into my regimen. I need it desperately. I can't find the motivation to strength train on my own. Another frustration...

Kath & I at 13 miles. Today was her furthest run in the history of her life!

Goal: 1000 miles/366 days
So far: 470.74 miles/224 days
To go: 529.26 miles/142 days

3 cheers for being back to running.

I ran! (two days in a row!) I'm really excited about it.

I thought I was going to have to modify my distance in order to help work through the pain in my toe, but my toe really doesn't hurt at all when I run. I actually decided not to tape my toes today, because it seems like my foot is strained and I limp much more when I tape my toes together. The smushed toe is still swollen, but most of the bruising is gone now. I feel so much better. It's crazy how sad I was about my toe being injured. I thought I was going to have to lose a lot of my training in the next several days. Instead, I lost 3-4 days of training.  Yeah me!

So yesterday, I did four miles. It was the first run I'd done in a week and I felt great. It was awesome. I ran slowly, but I did what needed to be done. That's what really matters.

Today, I was scheduled 8 miles and I knew that I could do it. I did two miles, then Katherine came home from work and we finished out together. We had lots of good talks along the way. One fun thing about Katherine and I running together is that our pace has improved exponentially in the past few months. It used to be that we were pretty slow together and walked a lot. Now we can run much more quickly than we could before, so I'm excited about that. Lots of fun teamwork.

I'm exhausted, so that's all I have to say this time. ha. I'm just glad to be back!!

Goal: 1000 miles/366 days
So far: 456.66 miles/222 days
To go: 543.34 miles/144 days

i have toe woes...

I guess I should write about... why I haven't been running.

On Thursday, at work, I was pushing drink carts out.. and one thing led to another and my toes got run over.. by a 300-400 pound cart full of drinks and ice.

Yup. My pinkie toe was smushed and is now purple-ish (actually the bruises aren't so bad now). I'm pretty sure it was broken in the incident, but knowing that there's nothing that can medically be done for a broken toe, I've buddy taped it to my ring-finger-toe (is that even a real thing?!) and refrained from running. Since Thursday.

I've been crabby, irritable, mean, and in bad spirits since. I'm worried about my marathon training and about all of my races coming up. I'm trying to pray my toe better. I've been lazy and stayed off it. It has been miserable. I've gone from running 5 times a week to laying around. ALL THE TIME. No joke.

So yes. Chicago training has stopped. For now. I'm going to start using my spin bike as much as I can and lifting weights. I've also looked into buying a good bike that I can use. (I can't afford that.) I've also thought very seriously about swimming. The only problem is that... swimming uses feet. Feet have toes. My toes hurt. So... I don't know about that.

...we'll see. I'm hoping that I'm exponentially better by.. tomorrow.

motivation means improvement

I had a really fantastic run today. I think that the new shoes really helped. A lot. They're super light and my feet felt light and like they weren't really doing anything. It was fantastic. I ran at about a 13:30 pace for the majority of my run (like... all but one mile), which is my racing pace, so I was (and am!) really excited about it.

I was supposed to do 8 miles today. I ended up doing nine. I felt good enough to do an extra lap around my apartment complex when I got home, so I did. I walked it so that it was more of a cool down, which is where my pace really slowed down a lot. That pushed me to almost nine miles. I figured that I might as well finish out the nine, since I was already almost there. So I did.

I ended up with just over nine miles and at a 14 minute pace. I know that, under many standards, that is extremely slow, but I'm pleased. Sometimes I don't feel like going running, I don't always feel like pushing myself, but I still do it. I do feel like that is an accomplishment. I pushed it out there today. I know that I could be faster and I know that my racing speed is at least a minute quicker than my training pace. I think that if I continue to hold onto it like this, continue to push through, I'm going to improve exponentially into a runner that I want to be. I've been really focused on improving that I haven't noticed the improvements that I've made. A few months ago, an eight mile run would have made me cry and I would have run it at a 15-something pace, just because I would have taken it easy.

I'm proud of who I am becoming. I do feel like running is shaping me.
(and I kinda like it.)

Goal: 1000 miles/366 days
So far: 444.6 miles/214 days
To go: 555.4 miles/152 days

New shoes, July recap, and week 7 of training (already?!)

This is going to be an exciting post! Lots to talk about, including a July recap!

Katherine and I went to Track Shack today to do some shoe shopping. My old shoes were just not working out for me anymore. As much as I love(d) them, my feet have started to ache after I run for the past few weeks, so I knew that it was time for new shoes. I also wanted to get them broken in before I start all of the (lots of!) races that I'll be doing in the next few months.

I decided to stick with the Nike Lunarglide. Since I'm in the middle of training for Chicago and I have so many big races coming up, I don't want to confuse my feet. I'd like to try different shoes, because I'm still fairly new to running and I'd like to really get a feel for different types of running shoes in order to find out what I really like and don't like. I think that this was a good decision for right now though.

Katherine decided to get new shoes too, because her feet have been bothering her. (and who doesn't love new running shoes? Let's be honest here!) I do like the bright green-ness of the Lunarglides though. They're really fun.  

After we left with our new shoes, socks, and box of energy gels, we headed to go on a run! Today called for an "easy" four miles. It was more like a "my legs hurt like hell from my long run on Sunday, but I'm going to tough it out and do the best that I can" four mile run. We went downtown to run around Lake Eola, which we have never done before. We've been talking about running there for... a long time. By "a long time", I  mean almost for the entire two years since we moved here. So exciting!  

(i kind of love that katherine's eyes are closed. haha.)

As much as it was really tough and my legs were still a little sore and achy, I had a fun time out there today. We did four laps around the lake. It was a gorgeous course and I'm glad that I changed it up. I've been spending way too much time running the same routes lately. How lame is that? It's fun to do something new every so often.

Yay! Okay, now for the most important thing...

July Recap!!!!!

I FINALLY had another 100 mile month! This is my first 100 mile-plus month since January. I feel more like a legitimate runner now.

By 100 mile month, I mean that in July, I ran......

145.66 miles...!!! Whaaaat?! Is this real life?

In August, I really want to add in weight training. I did a little yesterday, but it's time to do more and get strength added into my routine. I'm so excited about all of the work that I've put into this. I also plan to really get my nutrition on point. Eating is one of the most important parts of the journey... but it's something that I struggle with a LOT.

Goal: 1000 miles/366 days

So far: 435.58 miles/213 days

To go: 564.42 miles/153 days

Long Run Day and Retiring My Shoes (ending week six)

Today was long run day! My favorite day of the week (or not so much). The plan was to get up early so that I wouldn't have to run alone, but I ended up at work three hours late last night and didn't get home until after two in the morning. I knew I wouldn't be able to get up early for a run. Disappointing. So I had to run when it was already pretty hot out. ..On top of that, I ended up running alone.

I felt really awesome for the first mile. When I knew I was at the first mile marker, I was actually surprised with how little struggle I was going through. I felt like I could definitely finish out the last thirteen miles. haha. I actually didn't really struggle too much until I got about halfway through. I still had a really awesome pace until the tenth mile. After that, I really started to slow down. I actually almost slowed down one minute per mile. It was a little bit frustrating, but that's whatever.

At about mile ten, I started to feel like I was hitting the wall. I had run completely out of energy gels at that point and was just ready to give up. Actually, I REALLY wanted to give up. That only lasted for a mile or so and I was back on track. I felt really good ending the run, too.

I've never actually run 14 miles outside of a race before. Crazy.
It was good though.

In other news, today was the official last day of running with my current shoes. I'm getting some new ones on Tuesday before my four miler. I'm excited, but sad. These shoes have given me lots and lots of miles and many races in the past few months. It is also beyond time to get new shoes. My feet are a little achy.

So the shoes are going into retirement. I wish I knew what to do with old running shoes. I could donate them, but I feel kind of attached to them after all of this time. It's tough to let go. Haha. I sound ridiculous.

Goal: 1000 miles/366 days
So far: 431.41 miles/211 days
To go: 568.59 miles/155 days