Proud Mom

My daughter, Maddy, was asked to be on the tournament team for softball. She has worked hard and has improved a lot from last year. She is showing some promise as a pitcher but she also is doing really well with her fielding. We need to work on her batting but that will come in time. We watched a professional women's softball game last weekend. It motivated her.

That is all for now... I am just so proud of her...

LaCrosse 1/2 marathon results

Okay, sorry. It has been almost 4 weeks since I ran the 1/2 marathon in LaCrosse. Life has just been, you know, busy. Like busy with kid stuff and no time for mom to do her stuff.

The 1/2 marathon was a lot of fun. It was a great course and the weather could not have been any more perfect. I was doing really well until mile 10. I was actually ahead of my target. I did not go into this race with high expectations - I just wanted to finish. If you recall 6 weeks prior to the race I was told by the Dr. that I would not be able to run this due to a stress fracture.

So, back to my story... Collin and I ran the first 3 miles together and then I had to let him go. I could not keep up with him anymore and had to take a short walk and did not want to hold him up. We said our good byes and off he went. I had him in my sights until around mile 6 and then I never saw him again. At mile 6 I saw my kids and that was just awesome and I was feeling fabulous at that point. So I kept plugging along and surprisingly never had the mental demons that I expected - they usually pop up around mile 6. At mile 10, my body decided to crap out on me. My right calf cramped up and I had to stop and stretch a bit. It was more than just a little cramp - it was a stop right here missy do not take another step cramp. So I stopped and stretched and walked for about 200 yds. I started to run again and it felt okay but I had to take it a little slower. Mile 11 was my disaster mile... major cramping and at one point I was almost in tears leaning against a street sign. A volunteer asked if I wanted a medic and I declined and continued to stretch... but it did not help. I had to walk most of that mile and my pace was about 15:3... so there goes my great first 1/2 marathon time.

I know now that I was dehydrated... as I said earlier, this was a great race and my only complaint was there were not enough water stops... only 5 for the entire 1/2 marathon. So at mile 11 I took on 2 glasses of gatorade and some pretzel rods... that was a big fail. I just kept telling myself "keep one foot in front of the other, don't stop, keep moving" Mile 12 came and went with a lot of walking and some 25 - 50 yd run attempts. Mile 13 was almost unbearable but dammit, I was not going to walk across that finish line.

I finished as strong as I could and crossed the finish line at 2:44:08. 653 out of 705 runners so I was not last. 48th out of 54 in my age group. I am happy with this. I know I could have easily finished around 2:20 or 2:25 but I will save that for another race.

Yeah, I think I will do another one. We are thinking about the Vegas 1/2 marathon in December.

Crazy Legs this weekend

This Saturday is the 28th annual Crazy Legs race in Madison. My foot continues to feel good so I am going to run the 5 mile race. I hope the weather improves because today it is cold, raining, and yes, snowing.

Busy weekend as my son makes his first communion on Sunday and we will have a houseful of family.

Next Sunday 5/3, is the LaCrosse Marathon and I have decided I will run the 1/2 but have accepted the fact that my time will not be great. My plan is to run as much as I can and walk through each water stop to have water and nutrition. I will probably hit the mental wall around mile 8 or 9 and will just have to get through it. Losing 3 weeks of training has sucked, but nothing I can do about it.

I will finish and cross the finish line....

No pain

I went out this morning and ran 3 miles to test my foot. No pain at all.... I was very happy. I could have ran 5 but decided not to push my luck. I took it easy and did not try to push it. I did 3 miles at an 11:20 pace. Not bad since I have been off for 3 weeks doing nothing. It helps to listen to your body sometimes... and I guess the Dr's.

Anyway... very happy... I really want to do the 1/2 marathon on 5/3, even if I have to walk a portion of it.

Ta Ta for now...

Last 3 weeks

It has been away since I have been to blog land. Life has been busy and I still spend too much time on Facebook.

3 weeks ago I was out for an 8 mile run and my foot started hurting - bad. I finished my run and the next day could barely walk on it. Went in to urgent care where they x-rayed my foot and told me I had a stress fracture. They put me in a boot and told me Crazy Legs and my 1/2 marathon on 5/3 were probably not going to happen. I was pissed... all of my training down the crapper.

So that was 3 weeks ago. I did my time in the boot and my foot is feeling better. I am going to go out tomorrow and try to run. Not far, but I have to try it. If it hurts I will stop. I would still like to do Crazy Legs but not getting my hopes up. I really still want to do the 1/2 marathon on 5/3 in LaCrosse. My training plan has been interrupted and my time will not be what I wanted, but I want to do it.

Why? Because I will never do this again. I have accepted the fact that Long Distance and I are not a good match and that we will be better of as "just friends". I will stick to 5K's and 10K's - we are a better match.

I have my new bike... I have decided her name is "Rhoda" (thanks Kelli W) and her and I will begin our maiden voyage on the road very soon. My pedals have arrived and now Collin just needs to slap em on her and I will need to learn how to use them. I can't wait.

I am a little nervous and don't know how far out into the country I will be willing to go by myself. My sister was hit by a car from behind on her bike 2 weeks ago in TX. She has 3 compression fractures in her back, broken pelvic, sacrum, and butt bone (not sure what that is) and some nasty road rash and a gash in her calf that required stitches. She was very lucky.... she is still in the hospital and has a long road a head of her. She proudly walked about 50 ft yesterday with a walker. Each day she is improving.

So.... this girl is a little nervous to go out on a open road and may just stick with some trails for now.

That is all for now. Happy Easter to all, Happy Training to all, and BE SAFE...

Week 10 of 16 for 1/2 marathon training

It is week 10 of my 1/2 marathon training. 6 more weeks to go until the big day. It is great to finally be running outside. I need to be outside getting used to the elements - namely the damn wind. The only wind you get on the dreadmill is from the itsy, bitsy, teenie, tiny fan (tribute to Roseanne Roseanna Danna) and that ain't much.

Last Saturday Collin and I took off for a 7 and 10 mile run (I had 7 miles). He was kind enough to run the first 7 miles with me because he knew it would be a killer for me. The first 4 miles went great, mile 5 was okay, 6 and 7 pretty much sucked big time. There are a lot of hills on our route and with each one we were running into the wind. Damn wind... hmpf. After mile 5 I told Collin to go on without me that I would be okay, but he would not do it. Somewhere between mile 5 and 6 we were running up a hill - did I mention into the wind?... I had my head down because if I looked to the top of the hill I was going to die. My head is down and I am telling myself to suck it up and get up the hill all the while thinking I was running as fast I could ... I happened to look over at Collin.... ready for this?.... he was walking beside me... yes walking. In my mind I was running but it was so slow that he could not even run that slow so he had to walk. I had to laugh, what else was there to do? I still laugh when I think about it. Finally, he decided he just needed to run in front of me and wait for me at the top of the hills - thank God.

Finished that painful run in just under 12 minutes and it was great and humbling at the same time to run outside. I have decided that the dreadmill is so much easier because you don't have hills (unless you want them) or wind to hold you back. But I will take the outdoors anyday.

15 miles for the week and a day to rest.

Week 10 started on Monday and I had an easy run of 2 miles. It went great as I had recovered from my run from Saturday. 2 miles in 22 minutes - 11 minute miles.

Today was another 7 mile day but I would be doing this one alone. I went out in the morning because the wind was only whipping at 6 mph and there was a threat of rain for the afternoon and I did not want to end up on the dreadmill. I was worried about being beat mentally but it actually went better than expected. I only had to run up 2 hills with the wind in my face - bonus compared to last Saturday. I also took Collin's advice and had better nutrition before and during my run. Ate a strawberry-bananna gel before the run, plenty of fluids the first 3 miles, a couple of orange shot blocs in between mile 3 and 4 and apple pie gel at mile 5.5 plus fluids. This helped a lot. Finished 7 miles today in 1 hour 20 minutes for an avg of 11:29 minute miles - I cut off some time from last Saturdays run so I was happy.

I also bought a new pair of superfeet inserts over the weekend. For the last 2 weeks my arches had been hurting me again and I was worried my plantar fasciitis was coming back. My arches hurt so bad during my run Saturday that I was afraid that I had done it again. I ran Monday and today with my new inserts and am happy to say I am pain free again.

Superfeet are worth every penny.. I swear by them. If you have any problems with your arches, especially plantar fasciitis, these will help you. They are way cheaper than orthotics from a podiatrist.

So, that is it for my training reports for week 9 and week 10. My long run on Saturday is 8 miles and hopefully the weather will hold out and I can be outside again.

New Bike

Collin and I were out doing some errands yesterday. We were wanting to stock up on some gels and were hitting the bike shops. It is not a great time to be looking for gels, we went to 3 bike shops and they did not have any. So I decided to look at road bikes and find out what size I needed. So about an hour later I walked out with this beauty. See this link for the components.

http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/09/cusa/model-9RWA7T.html I do have tiagra shifters and brakes which is an upgrade from the specs. I am also going to add clipless pedals and will probably change the tape out for black. The bike had a white seat so the white wrap looked good, but I wanted a different seat an all they had was black. I will also be adding bottle cages and will be taking off the reflectors.

I want to start riding this year. If I like it and can get into it, I want to try to do a sprint tri sometime this summer. I need to something more than just run.

Week 7 of training for the 1/2 marathon was brutal. Monday and Wednesday were too horrible run days. I had problems with leg pain and cramping both days. Was not looking forward to my 7 miles on the treadmill on Saturday. But I am happy to report that the long run went really well. No pain at all in my knees and no cramping at all. I completed 7 miles in exactly 77 minutes so I averaged an 11 minute mile. Not bad. So I ended week 7 with a total of 14 miles.

This weather needs to break. I want to get my bike out on the open roads. For right now I am putting her on the trainer to break her and I in. I am not looking foward to the soreness on the old butt that comes with starting to ride again. I may have to sit on a pillow.. ha ha.