Let's do this!

I got to St. George yesterday around 3:20 and hung out with my family. My parents and Sister live there. We hit up Texas roadhouse for dinner and I ate a gob of rolls and honey butter. I've been eating very clean all summer, so the last few days have been weird for me partaking of so much carbalicious things! I slept well and woke up at 4:05, dressed, ate, drank, immodium AD  -out the door!

I met a friend (Kristen Thorne) at the bus loading. We rode up and talked the whole way. It went by quick. Laughing with Kristen seemed to calm my fears and anxiety.

It felt warm at the start. Kristen who has run St. George several times said she didn't remember it feeling this warm at the start ever. It worried her, and then it started worrying me a bit.

Time to start lining up in the corrals. Gun fires, and were off! It was pretty dark. Kristen and I went out with the intention of not going to fast the first half. We must not have been paying attention, because now that I look back at my splits, I think I went out to fast for this course. It was a good time plugging along with her. Mckenzie and Tylers were just behind us for the first 6 miles. At the bottom of Veyo there is a band, and it seriously cracked me up. Funniest thing I've ever seen. Then the signs on the side of the road: "what doesn't kill you will only make you veyo"....haha, and" toenails are overrated."

Veyo was very hard. But I dedicated this mile and the 2 after to a dear friend who has struggled a bit the last few months. I promised her I would pick away at the hill just as she is picking away at hard things. On the hill I said a small prayer for her. It made the marathon all worth it. Once we were to the top, things were still hard as it was slight incline. I ran with Kristen until the half. Shortly after we passed the half (which was @ 1:29 something) I remembered something Tyler had said to me a little earlier on. He said, hey Lily, see that volcano looking mountain over there? When you see a 2nd one, that's the cue to pick it up. Shortly after the half point, I looked up and saw the 2nd volcano type mountain. I reached into my shirt and pulled out my headphones, turned my ipod on. Immediately hearing the familiar music that I run to spawned a whole new running game for me. Suddenly I found my familiar rhythm footfall and began to pick off runners. This went on for several miles. The beautiful panoramic views during these miles were just amazing. I did notice headwind during this time as well.

Although hot, I still felt somewhat strong. Until......dreaded mile 22. My fuel never sat right with me the whole race. I felt like my stomach was sloshing around way to much. I drank more this marathon compared to my last one, and I am not so sure I like it. In fact, my stomach just isn't used to that. I don't drink or eat anything during my training runs. During mile 19 I took a powerbar gel with caffeine. By mile 22 it had kicked in and it was making me ill. I could not get a handle on it either. Then suddenly I started becoming very aware of the heat. Oh the heat! I was horrible! I was sweating so bad, my legs were tensing up, I started feeling VERY dizzy. Mile 23.5 I vomited a little on the side of the road. I turned around and started my run again. not even 10 seconds later I stopped and puked again. This was horrible! I have never puked in a race, EVER. Seriously, at this point, the only thing that kept me going were two things that kept going through my head: something Kristen T. said to me as she passed by me when I started to bonk. She said: "hang on Lily, it's only 3 more miles. You can do it." the 2nd thing I kept thinking of was my sweet family at the end. How they would be so disappointed if I were to walk over to the curb I was now eyeballing to sit and park my rear. I couldn't do it, so I kept going. Then at mile 24 it started.....me doing the walk/run thing. I would walk for 10-15 seconds, then pick it up and run as long as I could again. Sadly I have to admit I did this for 2 miles. I was crying and delirious.

The last halfish mile an angel came. Jossee! She had been pacing friends into the finish line. She ran next to me and drilled into my head that I could not stop and walk again! I was so emotional and crying and kept repeating aloud that I can't do this. And abruptly Jossee corrected and said YOU CAN DO IT LILY. She repeated it until I began to repeat it. And suddenly, it was if I deity stepped in seriously, because then I did believe it. And I ran and picked up the pace until the finish line. I don't have any answers to this because I was toast 2 miles back. I lost all my emotions as I crossed that finish line. I cried and collapsed on the 2 volunteers.

 The volunteers were awesome. I was so ill. The literally put my arms around there shoulders and walked me clear into the runners coral. This is when something else emotional happened. A man who I recognized came up to me (a runner) I cannot remember his name. He grabbed my weak hand and placed a $100 gift card in it. He said I want you to have this Lily, you are so inspiring. Whhaaaa? me???  he obviously came in before me. Why me? What have I done to inspire this man? I was such a wreck I started crying again, shoulders shaking. I looked up and he was crying to.

This race was hard. Whoever said this course was easier to PR on wasn't thinking. I think it's the Veyo hill that does runners in.

I should mention that I was violently ill for about 6 hours after wards. I had a low grade fever until about 8 pm. I also want to mention that as soon as I felt better, I ate a giant animal style double double and a shake from in-n- out burger.  :)

Splits: 6:56  7:04  6:40  6:34  6:48  6:36  6:32  7:46  7:18  7:18  7:31 7:21 6:54 7:03  6:31 6:23  6:42  6:56  7:34  7:19  7:05 7:28 7:39  7:52  8:42  8:35

A picture is worth a thousand words eh?  (picture taken from the St. George spectrum)

Can't stand sitting around so much. Very tiredly staggered into Gold's gym and lifted some upper body weights. Then elliptical for 45 minutes. No biggie.

 It's my birthday and I am going to eat cake and nobody is going to stop me :)

Stair climber for 12 minutes, then 20 minutes in the weights. I thought my legs felt a little better today.

52 minutes elliptical. Then crunched my core.  2.5 miles outside at a dreadfully slow pace. My legs aren't recovered obviously. I did some fast walking in there a few times. My left IT seems tight. So I will roll that sucker out everyday. I need a deep massage in my hips and glutes. They are killing me. Everything feels really tight. So it's off to ART therapy I will go. (not today but I'm going to start up again)

Warmed up on the stair climber for 6 minutes. Then lifted weights for 35 minutes. 

Ran 3 miles at a 7:56 pace. Walked the last .80 with incline.

Elliptical for 35 minutes. Legs are feeling better each day. Hopefully by Saturday I can do a 7 mile run.

5 miles. Then elliptical for 31 minutes.

Weights and 9 miles!

Weights for 35 minutes, 25 min elliptical, 5.50 running speed work for the first 5 miles. .50 cool down.

I would really like to find out who the guy was that found me in the corrals at the SGM. He gave me a hefty gift card. I want to ask him questions. It's driving me crazy!

40 min elliptical. 7 miles running. 

I have a little rant. Since the weather has taken a turn, it's either been to wet or a little to cold for my comfort to run outside at 6 am. So being inside at the gym more is getting on my nerves. I'm not a fan of the  mindless chit chat that goes on.  I just like to get it done and get out. Hope that doesn't make me a snob, cause I'm not. I read an article in oxygen magazine that Jamie Eason did, she talks about how she wears a stop watch and times peoples questions or casual chats. She let's them know she is done talking and she is getting back to her set. If she can do it, so can I. LOL

I'm going to runners corner to get some running pants today. Any good suggestions? I threw out my 2 pairs from last fall/winter.

Weights for 35 minutes. 31 minutes elliptical, 7 miles running in the bright full moon light. What a run it was! It looked amazing! I'm done running the trail in the dark though. Today it was sketchy and the people I would normally see were not on the trail. I guess maybe they have realized it is way to dark on the trail to.

5.75 of sprints. 16 minutes of elliptical hell. 

Starting next Monday I am taking a voluntary break from running. Shocking, I know. I promised my husband I would do that after the marathon. So Monday it is, and I won't pick it back up until the spring. I am working with a meal and workout coach starting then. Exciting. It's just a different goal. And I know my body will get stronger between that time. The cardio I will be doing isn't everyday, and it isn't for longer than 40 minutes. I'll be doing a ton of weights though. Scary scary.

weights. Elliptical for 45 minutes. Ran 6.5

5 with Merri, it went fast but we are unpracticed and it felt like 15 LOL

7 miles on the river trail. I ran them quick and I felt way better than yesterday. It was very impressively beautiful out this morning. The whole mountainside was covered in fall colors. When the sun broke through over the hills, the whole mountains sides turned a ablaze. And lucky me got to see it in the early am when most people were still sleeping. It was fantastic!

I decided I am going to keep a day or 2 of running a 5-6 miler. I can't completely quit. But it will be enough to keep a bit of running fitness.
I was never going to quit completely, she has a plan for me to do 2 days of sprints, and that is some running at least. :)

Is it appropriate to record my new workouts on the FRB if it's not really running? This is what I did today:

gym 4:45,warm up right away then I worked arms in the weights for about an hour. It was hard. Then I worked on the step mill for 30 minutes. Quite a change from what I have been doing. But change is good. When we do the same things all the time, our bodies become resistant with almost zero change. My change is less cardio, increased resistance training. I honestly am welcoming it.

The diet is strict, but still good. I will have no problem doing it.

Today I worked my lower body. Deep squats, reverse lunges, a few different deadlift forms, worked my calves then core. Then it was off to the treadmill for some hill training. You start at 2% hill, then after 4 min, bump it to 4%, then 4 min of that. Then bump it back to 2% for 60 sec recovery. Then bump it up to 6% for 4 minutes. Then back down to 2% for 60 sec recovery. Then to 8% for 4 minutes. This is done at a jogging pace or a fast walk. You keep it rolling and turning up the incline until you are at 12 %. I was done in 46 minutes. It worked my butt for sure.

Tomorrow there is no lifting, just sprints!! I am stoked to get some running at the track!

5 miles this morning. I started at 5:40 am, and ran to the high school track. I did 15 sprint intervals there. My workout called for sprinting as hard as possible for 200m. It felt really good, and it was a challenge for sure. I hit 4:59 and 4:57 paces on the first 6-7 sprints. Then I started to die off a bit and was hitting 5:55's and such. It felt good. I was done my 3.8 miles so I jogged at a recovery pace for the remaining 1.4 or so miles home.

Today was another semi-brutal arse kicking. I mean WHOA!

-overhead barbell press 5 sets

-chin ups 5 sets-THIS TOTALLY KICKED MY BUTT FOR THE REST OF THE MORNING! It was so hard!

-Incline dumbbell press 4 sets

-kneeling high anchor rowing 4 sets

-push ups. Oh my hello! I already turned my upper body into spagetti from the chin ups. Let's just say it was 3 very shaky sets.

-seated cable rows 3 sets

-tricep exercises

-bicep exercises.

I chose to sprint for 30 minutes again. Bad idea. Sore knees and quads but I have some powerful explosion! - if it doesn't sound conceited to say so. I can kick up a 5 minute mile and power punch it before I interval down. I love intervals. This is otherwise known as HIIT. I like the way this article describes it if you are interested in a little read

http://www.askmen.com/sports/bodybuilding_100/135_fitness_tip.html

Side note. I never said anything about this, but about 5 weeks ago I did some user testing and project study for athlete.com. I can't lawfully tell you everything I did and tested, but it was awesome. Their site is on it's way for a revamp and will probably end up rivaling the other running blogs out there. It will be interesting to see how it is implemented.

Lower body workout

sumo squats, leg extensions, calf raises, pelvic thrusts (lol)... I was worked.

5 miles on the treadmill -easy pace.

45 minutes elliptical. Ran 9 miles, the first 5 easy, the last 4 sprinting on and off. Hard workout for sure. 

5 miles on the river trail. It's so so beautiful right now.

Upper body weights. So SORE! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Ran 4.25 on the dreadmill chatting with Julie. Good times.

Lower body strength training. Lot's of squats and lunges. 

I did a hill workout on the dreadmill again. for about 31 minutes, then I ran for 20 minutes more. 5 miles all together. 

Summer please come back :(

Hiit sprinting today. Oh boy, can I just tell you that this is HARD! It exhausts the body so quick, but it feels really good. I like my Wed. schedule because I only sprint for 25 minutes, so I can sleep in longer, and get it done and come home. I'm supposed to do them outside, but I was to chicken with the chill in the air. Maybe next time I will.

6 minutes warm up with increasing pace. 15 sprint on offs. 10 minute cool down brisk walk. 5 miles altogether.

upper body and back workout today. Chin ups was on the list again today, They hurt so bad. They make me shake. I am getting my asprin kicked.

I walked on the dreadmill for 13 or 14 minutes, then 20 minutes of elliptical. Not much carbio but who cares? My meal plans are awesome. Tons of food and I am full all the time. But I see results. My upper body looks more muscular already. I am excited for the coming months to see the changes.

Lower body strengthening. Squats and sumo squats. Calf raises, plevic thrusts and such.

Then Hill workout on the dreadmill. Incline walking for about 4.5 miles. Sprints tomorrow. Yay!

4 miles of sprints

7.3 running outside. 

Upper body weights. Elliptical for 30 min, sprinting on the treadmill for 30 minutes.