Treadmills are misleading

I'm almost done with my first three weeks of training for the quarter marathon at the end of March, and so far it's gone pretty well. I haven't missed a workout, and I've done the required distances, even though I always have to walk for a little while. Since it's so cold outside (and gets dark so early), most of my workouts have been on the treadmill at the gym, and I thought I was getting pretty good.

But today it's 40 degrees and sunny: a perfect day for running outside. So I laced up my running shoes, mapped out a route to West Hartford Center and back (which is just over 3 miles total) and set out. It was the most discouraging run I've had because I had to stop and walk so often. I maybe ended up running half the distance and walking the rest. It makes me feel totally unprepared and behind.

Of course, I should put this in perspective and try not to let it get me down. First off, it's 40 degrees outside, which is much rougher on the lungs than the 70+ degree air in a gym. Second, the route to Blue Back is VERY hilly, and even a little incline makes it so much harder to keep up the pace. Along with that, treadmills always help you a long a little bit, because the ground moves itself under your feet. Outside running is always harder. Finally, it's been three weeks. Cut yourself some slack, Liz; three weeks ago, you hadn't run at all in three months, and now you expect to run three miles over hill and dale with no trouble?

That's my rant/personal pep talk of the day. The end.

Blog Fail

Clearly I have majorly failed in keeping up with this blog. But instead of trying to go back and catch up, I'll just start from where I am now and go from there.

Before this week, the last time I went for a run was the 5k during the Hartford Marathon, which was back in the middle of October (got my personal best time of 35 minutes and something). Being in a show got in the way of running, and then I just fell off the wagon. But today was my third day of training for the Greater Hartford 1/4 Marathon...6.55 miles around a reservoir in West Hartford on March 31. I'm in much better shape than I expected to be at this point, and I'm definitely in better shape than I was a year ago before I started running. So far, I've done 1.5 miles running Tuesday, then about 30 min. of elliptical/biking yesterday, and today I did 2 miles plus 4 1-minute intervals (run for a minute, walk for a minute to rest).

So far so good. With 12 weeks of training, I should be able to kick butt at this one. It'll be the longest race I've ever done, with second place going to the 5-miler I did last year on Father's Day in Branford. I didn't do as well at that as I would have hoped, so this time I'm hoping to stick to it and possibly even run the entire thing without stopping. That's my ultimate goal, anyway.

And whether that happens or not, I'll still be running a 5k two weeks later with my friend Charity, in the same Bloomfield 5k I did as my very first race last year. We're thinking about making it a tradition. :)

Pictures!!!

So finally the day before my next 5k, I remembered to finally get pictures from Andrew for my last 5k! Check out some pics below. :)







Andy, Charity, me and Steph getting psyched for the race!











The crowd at the starting line











Off we go!











Natalie made me a sign!!!









Andy and Charity stayed with me almost the whole way, and then sprinted toward the end. Andy=annoyingly triumphant. Charity=adorably exhausted.











I'm soooooooooo tired at this point. Steph and Nat had to do some serious cheering for me to be jogging still.









A triumphant finish!












Congrats all around












My face is the same color as my shirt at this point.












Natalie made me do these leg stretches, and Andrew took like 10 pictures. Thanks, dude.











That's right. Andy muscled his way into my race two days before, and he got an award. You're welcome, Andy. :P





That's it for last time, but I'll check back in after tomorrow's race! Feeling a little nervous because I was out all last week since I was sick, so we'll see if I can beat my time, or at least keep it about the same.

The new plan

Sorry guys, still no pictures...they're on Andrew's camera and I haven't had the chance to get them from him. Andrew, if you're reading this, SEND ME PICTURES. :P

So Monday morning I sparked Natalie and told her I needed a maintenance plan so that I would continue to have a schedule and actually keep up my workouts. She asked me what my goals were, and what I wanted to ultimately accomplish, and I told her I wanted to actually run an entire 5k, and maybe to do longer races later. So now I'm doing a 5k on May 7 (the day before Mothers Day) and a 5 mile race on June 19 (Fathers Day). The one on May 7 is a fundraiser for breast cancer, and if you would like to help me reach my fundraising goal, you can go to my personal page at kintera.org. Andrew, if you're reading this, DONATE. :P

So my running schedule has a lot of constant runs, starting with 3-3.5 miles this week all the way up to 6-6.5 miles a few weeks before the 5 mile run. I can't really describe just how intimidated I am by the last few weeks of my schedule, but when I think about how much I accomplished in 5 weeks, 2 months seems like plenty of time (sort of). On Monday I jogged 2 miles straight, then conditioning Tuesday. My right ankle has been bugging me since the 5k last Saturday, so I decided to rest and ice it for two days. Then on Friday I did 4 miles (FOUR MILES) jogging for 4 min. and walking for 1 min. I only had to rest for 1.5 min. twice and 2 min. once, and I made it through the whole thing. FOUR MILES. Saturday was a conditioning day, and then Sunday I tried for 3 miles, though I had to stop and walk several times so I didn't make it constantly running. But it's a good start.

My aunt Charlene and cousin Tonya were here this weekend, and I was sleeping on my sofa bed, so today I'm just kind of wiped out. And I asked Natalie about my ankle, and she said I should switch out a few runs with swimming this week, so that will start tomorrow probably. For some reason I feel really guilty or lazy or something about not doing a workout today, but when you think about it I've worked out 5 out of the last 7 days, and the total distance was something like 11-12 miles total. I should deserve a break, right? If only to catch up on sleep and let my body chill out for a day? Maybe I'm just rationalizing, but hopefully I can jump right back into it tomorrow, either conditioning or swimming, maybe in the morning.

So that's my long-winded update...wish me luck, donate to my May 7 5k if you want to, and look forward to pictures of my April 9 5k eventually. :D Love you all!

Mission accomplished!

As you well know, my first real 5k was Saturday, and I blew my goal away! My official time was 38:49, which was well under the 45 minute goal I set for myself. I couldn't have done it without my personal cheering squad: Charity, Andy and Stephanie all ran right along with me and pushed me to run even when I was tired, and Natalie met me about half a mile before the end and ran along with me with her "Run Liz Run!" sign, which was great. Andrew was the official photographer, and I'm hoping to post some of the pics later this week when I get them from him. I am so grateful to all of them; they definitely helped me have a successful first run!

My plan from here is to run another 5k on May 7, the CT Race in the Park, which raises money for breast cancer research. I already donated $10 in honor of my mom, a breast cancer survivor for 10 years now. If you'd like to donate, you can visit my personal page HERE. My goal for that race is to beat my other time, potentially getting under the 30 minute mark, but I'm not sure yet.

The bigger thing I'm training for is a 5 mile (not kilometer, mile) run June 19 in Branford. I figured that's a nice in-between run, longer than 5k but shorter than 10k. Natalie asked me today what my ultimate training goal is, whether that's a marathon or half marathon or something else. I told her I would just take it one step at a time, and those are my next two steps. So, after a very short break, I'm back in training again. I'll keep you all posted.

T minus 4 days

Yes, that's right: the 5k is this Saturday. My ankle's pretty much better after I rested it for a week or so, and the last two Sundays I've been outside with Natalie doing about 3 miles. It's a lot more difficult to actually jog/run outside, especially when it's cold...I haven't been able to jog that much at all, but I'm still wiped by the time I'm done. I do better at the gym, but I'm still not up to running/jogging an entire three miles.

So here's my goal: finish the 5k in under 45 minutes, any way I can. I'm going to try and jog as much as I can, but I'm not going to beat myself up if I have to slow it down and fast-walk for a while. Several people have told me that adrenaline during the race will help me move faster anyway, and the weather is supposed to be rainy but fairly warm, so I can definitely do this.

Natalie promised to teach Andrew some cheers, so that'll be fun. :) Charity will actually be running the race now (she got talked into it today), so she won't be on the sidelines, but I know she'll be cheering me on at the end.

So, one more run Thursday and then the big event at 9 am Saturday! Hopefully I'll get some pics to post!

I have good news and bad news...

I have clearly fallen behind on my blogging, but I will try to summarize the last week or so in my quest to run a 5k.

When we last left our heroine, she (okay, I) was going to start running with buddies so that I would have some motivation to keep going. Thursday morning I went to Erin's house to run around the water reservoir near her house, which was roughly 2 miles total. It was about 40 degrees outside and the beginning was a little trail-y (through the woods), and I got about 10 feet before I realized this was going to suck. Erin was really great at coaching me and trying to get me to run for a minute or two at a time and then rest for the same amount of time, but I was getting really discouraged. By the time I got to our marketing retreat later that morning, I was not feeling at all confident about being able to run a 5k in a few weeks.

All day I went back and forth about what my goals were (whether I should still shoot for running the whole thing, or just try to do my best and not worry about running the whole thing, etc.) and whether I should still be running the 5k on April 9 or if I should cancel/postpone the 5k. I even looked up the cancellation policies and found out that I could get a deferral (less a processing fee) and use it on a later race. I was just all over the place and really doubting myself.

But on Friday when I drove back up to the retreat, I told my friend Stephanie about maybe postponing the race, and she immediately told me to stop. She decided to sign up for the 5k and encouraged me to not worry about running the whole thing, just to try my best and see what would happen. I also talked things through with Erin and Carrie, and they all agreed that I should just keep going and not put so much pressure on myself. (Kudos to all of them for listening to me jabber on about my 5k all day!)

So, I went to the gym for a run on Saturday, and I managed to do two miles in about 26 minutes, and only 8-9 of those were walking. I found out that if I paced myself by going at 5 mph instead of 5.5 mph I lasted a lot longer, so I managed to run stretches of 3-4 minutes at a time. I forgot to add an incline of .5, but suddenly I was feeling sooooooo much better about myself! I was really excited that I ran 2/3 of the way and didn't even feel like I was going to die at the end. It was amazing the difference half a mile per hour could make, and how much my confidence level changed from just a few days before.

After that, I was feeling a lot more confident about actually running the whole 5k, and I reminded Steph to sign up Monday morning so we were all set to kick some butt. I went running Monday night for two miles again, this time with an incline of .5, and I didn't manage to run/jog the whole time, but I walked the same amount or less than before, plus the incline. I figured it was progress all the same, which is my overall goal, regardless of whether I make it all the way to 3 miles running by April 9; the date isn't important.

Unfortunately, Monday night my left ankle was bugging me, but I just figured it needed to pop or stretch or something. But Tuesday morning it was hurting when I walked or moved it a certain way, so I asked Natalie how I would know if I was injured. She says that if your ankle hurts, especially if you're just walking, it's really not a good sign. She told me to RICE it (rest, ice, compression, elevate) and just do some upper body and ab work for the night. I did the same thing yesterday, and today my ankle is better but still feeling a little sore.

Natalie said that if my ankle isn't better by our running appointment Saturday that I might have to drop out of the race, but I was talking to her today and decided that I would do the 5k on April 9 anyway, even if it just turns out to be a run/walk that's a baseline for future races. If I can't run the whole thing that day, I'll sign up for another one and try to beat my time. She was really supportive and thought that was a great attitude to have. I'm really frustrated that my ankle is messing up my training (if you had told me a month ago that I would be mad I couldn't go running, I would have laughed in your face), but I would also rather take it easy and make sure I'm completely healed than start doing too much too soon and injure it further, perhaps taking me out of the race altogether. I'm hoping it's better in the next day or two, but if not, I'll just have to deal with it.

So those are the ups and downs over the last week or so. Sheesh. :P