Day 227.

This morning I did a 5 mile run.  I went to the park again, since I had Nick in the jogger.  I walked there as a warm-up, ran 5 miles, then walked home.  After my run, I also did 15 minutes of Pilates.

Day 226.

Today I did an 8 mile run.  Since my husband is out of town, I took the older kids to school, then headed to the park with Nick in his stroller.  I walked on the way there for a  warm-up.  The distance of the track at the park is 5/8 of a mile, and I was a little worried that the run would be tedious; to accomplish 8 miles, I had to do 13 laps!  Strangely, I had a great run!  It was actually a fun challenge to do that distance around the loop, pushing the jogger, and it went by surprisingly fast.  I mean, my pace wasn't super fast, averaging about 11:30min/mile, but it didn't feel too monotonous.  It sure as heck beats trying to do 8 miles on the treadmill!  After walking back home from the park, I did some simple stretches as a cool down.

Day 225.

My newly revised schedule has me cross-training today.  I'm feeling really good this morning.  My stress level is fairly low, I don't have any aches or pains, or even any sore muscles - it's been a while!  For my workout I did a 30 minute DVD called Crunch: Fat Burning Ab Attack, the first time I've tried it.  Netflix is awesome, I can pick a different workout video everyday if I want, and play it from my computer.  Anyway, it was definitely a decent ab workout.  After that I walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes at an incline, trying to prepare for the hills of RimRock.

Day 224.

Wow.  What a day it has been!  Yesterday afternoon the electrical in our home went haywire, light bulbs were popping, outlets were humming and smoking, we "lost" 2 TVs, a cordless phone and my Dustbuster to the strange surges. :(  I was very worried that we had lost the computer, as well, even though it was plugged in with a surge protector.  My husband is out of town for the entire week, so of course I was freaking out.  I had an electrician friend, neighbor and the Inkom fire chief over to figure out what the heck was going on and make sure there weren't any hot spots in our walls.  They didn't figure the problem out, in the meantime we had to have every single item in the house unplugged and all the lights turned off, or we risked more mini-explosions due to the surges.  All of this was happening on a day when I happened to have a migraine.  Needless to say, the kids and I did not get a very good night's sleep.  This morning I had a 4 mile run on my plate, and when I woke up with my head still pounding and major stress to boot, I was unsure about completing my run, to say the least.  I got the kids off to school, put Nicolas in his jogging stroller, and made a pit stop at the market for a Diet Coke before heading to the park.  As I started my run, my head was jolted with each step, but as I've learned in the past, running has a weird way of relieving stress and headaches, so I forged on.  Oddly enough, other than my head, I felt good on my run.  My legs felt nice and strong and the fresh air felt awesome.  I did the whole four miles then walked home, took a shower, gulped an Instant Breakfast, and by then my headache had thankfully subsided.  I then called the power company, which I should have apparently done in the first place yesterday, duh!  There were some huge branches that had fallen and broken something called a neutralizer on the exterior power lines to our home.  Basically with that broken, you get super high voltage in one set of outlets, while the others have super low, and every time something is turned on or off, the surges take place, smoking everything in their path.  Thankfully, the fix was simple and we're back up and running, with only the above mentioned casualties.  My kids will be very happy when I pick them up from school this afternoon.  Life happens, and I'm still running!

Day 223.

Today is a rest day.  Earlier in my training, I used to get annoyed with "rest days", feeling like I should be using every possible minute to prepare myself for the marathon.  Now that I'm up to logging 30+ miles a week and growing, my body is extremely grateful for the rest!  Now if only I could get better rest, that would be something.

Day 222.

Today is for cross-training.  So far, all I've done is 30 minutes of Pilates.  I then got distracted giving my kids and the dog haircuts, now I'm going to give the dog a bath.  After that, I'll jump on the treadmill and do a 1/2 hour or so of walking.  My legs are still sore, but I'm determined to start off on Monday with a new resolve to work through the pain and do my absolute best, realizing that the pain and soreness is part of the process.  I'm actually starting to get very excited for the marathon.  It's going to be such an adventure!

Day 221.

This morning I did 30 minutes of Pilates, then 20 minutes of walking on the treadmill.  Despite a bit of soreness in my legs and back, I feel in pretty good spirits today.  My friend, Rebecca reminded me of the words in the "Complete Book of Women's Running", by Dagny Scott Barrios.  Though I've read the book twice and referenced different parts of it many times, it had been a while since I'd read the portion on marathons.  She points out that if your goal is to finish the marathon, the training should focus on the long run.  "The purpose of long runs is to develop endurance - particularly in the leg muscles and the connective tissue - and to develop the fitness of your cardiovascular system so that your body can withstand the rigors of the marathon distance."  She also says: "Walk early and often in order to go the distance.  Maureen Roben (5-time Olympic trials marathon qualifier) refers to these workouts not by the amount of running, but by 'total time on your feet'.  It's assumed that you'll spend some time walking."

Anyway, re-reading that made me feel a little bit better about yesterday's long run.  I've rearranged my training schedule for these last 7 weeks leading up to the marathon so that instead of running 4 days in a row during the week, then having 3 cross-training/rest days in a row, I will run on Mondays, cross-train Tuesdays, run Wednesdays and Thursdays, rest Fridays, long run on Saturdays, then rest on Sundays.  I'm hoping that by placing my long runs between two rest days, I will gain the most benefit from my runs.

Day 220.

12 mile long run today.  12 miles, shouldn't be too tough at this point in my training, right?  Well, unfortunately none of my runs seem to come easily these days.  It's quite frustrating, actually.  I would have thought my muscles would have built up more endurance by now, but they seem to tire out even more easily!  I started my long run routine as usual, with a 10 minute warm up.  The first few miles were fine, though I could tell early on that my legs felt heavy.  I really, truly hate that feeling.  I just want to feel light on my feet.  Anyway, I pushed on, each mile getting more and more difficult.  I took my first walking break around mile 7, walking for just a minute or two.  When I picked the pace back up, I felt just as wasted.  The backs of my thighs were burning like a fire that wouldn't go out.  From there on out, I was feeling pretty down.  I alternated between running and walking, which I don't usually like to do, but it was such a struggle today to even keep moving because the muscles in my legs were feeling so weak.  How is this possible??  I should be stronger by now.  Infuriating.  For the first time, I would have to say I was not enjoying my long run.  Around mile 9 I was deep into a pity party and had slowed to a walk to take some GU and shed a few tears over my frustration.  Just then I saw a vehicle coming toward me that looked familiar.  It was my husband, who had been at home taking care of our 4 year old.  He was wearing his uniform, so I knew something was up.  He had been called in to work on his day off due to a bad accident involving a truck semi and a school bus.  He had our son, and had brought the jogging stroller, and he gave me the choice of hopping in the car and riding home so he could switch to his patrol car, or I could finish my run with Nicolas in his stroller.  I still had a good 3 miles to go, on winding, hilly country roads.  What a choice...I mean, here I was having this crappy run, I could have easily jumped in the car and called it good at that point.  Of course, anyone who knows me knows that's not the choice I made.  So I buckled my little guy into his stroller and off we went.  At that point I pretty much decided to end my sour attitude and try to make the most of the remainder of my run.  I mean, things are put into a different perspective about the time you learn of an accident involving a school bus full of children.  Plus, now I had my sweet little boy with me, it gave me a new purpose.  I have to admit, I did do a little more walking when I came to realize about 1/2 way up some fierce hills, that pushing a stroller with a 40 pound kid in it up a steep hill adds a new dimension to your training run.  Hopefully, even though I walked some, I got a good workout.  When all was said and done, the time it took me for the 12 miles today, equated to the same pace I ran my half marathon, which seems weird since I took so many walking breaks today.  I guess I must have made up some time on the rest of the run, so I guess that's the silver lining to all of this.  I also did level 2 of Yoga Meltdown when I got home, and I already feel recovered - another bonus.  I've got to figure out what's going on with my leg muscles, though.  Next week's long run is 18 miles, and I can't go into it dreading the pain, I've got to shift my paradigm right now if I'm going to finish this marathon.  I know I can do it, I just have to convince my body we can do this!

Day 219.

Today's run was a 5 miler.  I did my usual warm up, then started out on my run just as the sun was coming up over the mountains.  I felt pretty good in most respects.  I didn't feel too tired this morning, and no headache, which is of course a huge plus.  My only issue was that my legs felt very heavy.  I hate those runs when it feels twice as hard as usual to lift each leg, over and over and over... So, I tried to focus on my surroundings, looking at the scenery, watching for wildlife, waving at my friends and neighbors as they drove by me.  It seemed a good enough distraction, and I was able to complete the 5 miles no problem, and I even started to feel a little "lighter" on my feet for the last mile or so.  See, this is such a mental challenge.  Gaining control over my thoughts means gaining control over my body - at least to some extent!  When I got home I also did workout 1 of the 30 Day Shred DVD.

Day 218.

8 mile run this morning.  I started out with 15 minutes of Pilates, then made sure the kids were ready for school, lunches and backpacks packed, so my husband could take them when it was time.  Then I headed out for my run.  I walked for a few minutes to warm up a little more.  Today was one of those mornings when I was having a hard time getting moving.  I woke up with a pounding headache, which I attribute to a poor night's sleep.  As I was doing my Pilates warm up, I was thinking "Gosh, this sucks.  I feel like crap.  I don't feel like running."  The frustrating thing is when mentally I still feel the motivation to get my run done, one day closer to the marathon and all that, but my body is fighting me every step of the way.  It's seriously amazing, though, how I always feel better after a run.  I don't know if it's the endorphins, or just getting out in the fresh air, but within the first mile I could feel myself start to relax and I forgot about how yucky I'd been feeling when I got out of bed.  By the time I finished the 8 miles, I felt tired, but better, and so glad I did my run.  I also did level 1 of Yoga Meltdown after that.