All it takes is all you've got

Hi.  I'm new here.  After reading Allie's blog and browsing a few others, I'm thinking this is a good way for me to track my mileage, follow what other runners are doing, and get training ideas and suggestions.  I just registered for the TOU marathon in September and the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon in August, so I figure its time to start getting serious about my training and bumping up my mileage.  Up until now, I've just been running 4 or 5 days a week, probably averaging 25-30 miles a week.  Now I'm going to get up to 45-60 miles a week as I train for my marathon.  This is only my second marathon, so any and all comments, suggestions are welcome and appreicated.  Thanks for reading!

Monday:  Ran out and back on the Big Dry Creek trail by my house.  Ave. Pace 6:53. Total of 800 feet elevation change over 8 miles.  Felt great and very happy with my effort.

Aaron had an early networking meeting and I slept in too long, so I had to go to the fitness center and put the kids in child care .  Ran 4.5 miles, mile 2 and mile 4 were 6:00 pace.  Ave. 7:13  Glad I ran fast because the child care people paged me just as I finished and said my baby had been crying for 20 minutes.  Guess I better go more often so she gets over that separation anxiety phase.

Walnut Creek Trail.  Ave. 7:22/mile

Counter clockwise Walnut Creek trail loop.  Ave. 7:13/mile

Out and back on big dry creek trail.  Felt awesome!  Saw a coyote running on the trail in front of me for a bit around mile 9.

6:47 avereage

Aaron was out of town today, mountain biking with friends in Fruita.  So I was on my own.  Was planning on going to the fitness center to run on the treadmill, but people kept calling and saying they wanted to come look at these cabinets I have listed on Craigslist, so I had to stick around home...and the Cabinets are still not sold.  Ugh.  Got a ton of work done around the house though!  And finally at around 5 p.m. I fixed my bike tire, hooked up the bike trailer and toddler seat and toted the three kiddos over to the grocery store to get a few things before tomorrow.  It wasn't really a workout until we started coming back UP the hill on the way home.  With the weight of the groceries, 42 lb Abe, 30 lb Breanne and 20 lb Ali....yes, it was quite a pull.  I actually had to get Abe and Breanne out and they ran along side me up the steepest part.  Kinda neccessary when I couldn't even keep the front tire on the ground at one point.  :)

Anyway, long story short, I'm calling it 1.5 miles of running effort to make my week an even 35 miles.  I'll gradually build up to more weekly mileage, but this is the biggest week I've done in a while, to be honest.

Easy run around Standley Lake.  Ran on the trail for the first couple of miles, but then had to go o the street when I started forming mud platforms on my shoes.  The street route is suprisingly shorter than staying on the trail.  Lots of beautiful sights this morning; the awesomeness of the Flatirons (they look a little more distant from here than they did in Superior, but still just as breathtaking).  I envied for a moment, the waterskier who was cutting nice walls on the glass that is Standley Lake on weekday mornings.  Also saw some wildlife; two pelicans and a coyote.  I love living in this area that is surrounded by open space and wildlife.  I do admit, the coyotes can disrupt my pace and make me a little jumpy, but I've never had any problems with them.  They always just prance away from me or stare at me as I run by.  A couple of times I have encountered barking coyotes, and I assume it is because they are protecting their young or just made a great catch and want it all to themselves, so I just run a good distance around them and they hold their ground. 

Total 7.5 miles, average 7:30/mi. 

13:00 Warm up, 2 miles @ 12:18, jogged a few minutes, 1 mile @ 5:51, jogged a few minutes, 1/2 mile at 2:52

Total miles: 7.7 avereage pace: 6:59 

Left hip had a little twinge during warm-up, but it went away once my muscles warmed up and I stretched. I stretched it really well after the run and I'm icing it now.

Easy 10 miles around Standley Lake and some.  7:28 average

Slept from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. minus a few minutes to deal with a crying baby around 1:30 a.m.

I felt very rested.  I think 10-6 is my ideal sleep time. 

5.5 miles 7:30 pace 

Lifted weights yesterday for the first time in months and it felt great! I was pretty sore this morning though so I just did an easy run.  My plan is to gradually build up my weekly mileage to 50-60 mpw after years of only doing 0-25 mpw.  The past 5.5 years have been pretty pitiful running wise because I chose not to run during my 3 pregnancies.  I've gotten so sick during pregnancy and its hard for me to gain weight so my midwife advises me to save my calories for the baby. And when I have a newborn and its pretty hard for me to get motivated to run a lot due to sleep deprivation, breastfeeding, and just being busy.  The only time in the past 5 years that I've run a lot was two years ago when I ran 40-45 mpw for a few months to train for the Ogden Marathon.  I used to run 45-55 mpw in college and was able to stay pretty injury free at that mileage, so I'm hoping to be able to work up to 60 mpw without injury in taining for TOU.  I will also start lifting a couple of times a week.  I did "planks" or stability workout this morning for the first time in months and felt pretty weak.  I guess I know I have room for improvement!  

Long run with 4 mile marathon tempo in the middle at 6:20/mi.  Total: 11 miles 7:00/mi ave.

Perfect running weather, overcast and 55 degrees.  Around mile 10 the sun finally started to peek through the clouds and it seriously made my whole body tingle.  

I put The Killers on my Ipod Shuffle last week and have been enjoying a new variety to my playlist.  My favorite song this morning was  "I Can's Stay." 

Looking forward to a fun weekend!  Tonight is a Coctail party (just water for me, of course) with Aaron's networking group of savvy real-estate investors.  Tomorrow my Mom and Step-Dad come to town and we'll be sight-seeing in Denver all day.  For the evening they've offered to watch the kids and tuck them in so we can take our Accountant and Executive Assistant and their husband's to a fun dinner/music place.  I'm excited to get to know them better without the kids pulling on my sleve. 

Just this week I decided I wanted to run a 10k soon, so I found one on July 4th and planned a little get-away with some friends for that weekend.  It will be us and 3 other families staying in a big vacation rental home in Breckenridge for three nights.  There will be plenty of mt. biking, running, swimming, gaming, hiking, ect. and a 10k race on the 4th, of course.  Looking forward to a fun vacation!

Easy 6 around the neighborhood.  7:13 ave.

Easy 4.5 at 7:18 ave.

Had a lot on my mind, so I just did a short easy run to sort things out in my head. 

10.34 miles through the neighborhood south of Lukas Elementary.  Beautiful wildflowers along the trail.  Out to Wadsworth Blvd. and back on 88th and around Standley Lake.  Ran mile 4 at 6:18, miles 6 and 7 at 6:45 average pace (gradual uphill), walked for a couple of minutes, then ran mile 8 at 5:53 (gradual downhill).

Felt Great!

Yesterday I lifted weights for 45 mintues and didn't have any soreness today, so that was nice.  Also my baby is adjusting a little more each time to being left in child care.  They haven't had to page me since the first time, but they do say she cries off and on every time.  Hopefully she can fully adjust and it will become a fun play time for her.  At least my two older kids enjoy it. 

Random loop I just made up.  8 miles 7:30 ave. 

Then later in the morning I put the kiddos in the bike trailer and bike seat and biked to the rec. center to lift weights.  Then we biked to King Soopers to get some lunch and over to the neighborhood pool.  Swam/relaxed with the kids for a couple of hours at the pool and biked home.  Nice warm day! 

7.7 miles around Standley Lake.  Did a 2 mile tempo in the middle at 12:17 (6:08 ave).  The rest of the run was easy pace.  7:00/mi ave.

Thinking about going to the running store today or tomorrow to get a water belt.  Something that I can carry water/electrolyte drink, and possibly gu packs or power bar pieces.  I notice that when I run for longer than 10 miles I really start to need some liquid and calories.  I have a 12 miler planned for Saturday so I want to be prepared.  When I trained for my last marathon, for long runs I just went out the night before and placed bottles of water/gatorade with powerbar pieces in plastic bags every 4 or 5 miles along my planned course but sometimes the powerbars would have bunny nibbles on them....so I'm looking for a better option.  Any suggestions on a good way to carry food/liquid on long runs anyone? 

Easy 7 miles at 7:30 ave.  

Went to Road Runner Sports by my house yesterday and got some new shoes and a water belt for my long run tomorrow.  Thanks, Allie and Jon for your recommendations.  Also ordered honey stix online per Allie's suggestion.  Tomorrow I'll probably just take 8 ounces each of gatorade and water, and maybe a half of a granola bar.  I'm only going 12 miles, but I felt extremely depleted after last week's 11 miler with no hydration or food, so I'm not going to let that happen again.

Tested out my new shoes this morning and they felt GREAT!  I have been rotating between 3 or 4 pair of running shoes I've had for over 2 years, so I figured it was time for a new pair.  Did the gait/foot strike analysis and the sales associate thought I needed a little bit of stability since my left foot falls in a bit.  So I got Nike Zoom Structure Triax.  Any other high arch mild pronators out there have a favorite shoe recommendation? 

12 miles out and back on big dry creek trail.  7:19 ave.

Tried out the water belt with 8 oz water and 8 oz gatorade.  Drank almost all of it throughout the run and felt a ton better than I did on my 11 miler last week.  Felt like I could have gone another few miles today, whereas last week I was absolutely finished at 11 miles.  I realized that 12 miles is probably the longest run I have done since running the Ogden marathon over 2 years ago.  And a 50 mile week is definitely the most mileage I have done in over 2 years too.  And I feel great!  So that is encouraging.

Had to run at the gym on the treadmill because Aaron left at 5:30 a.m. to do a 60 mile ride with friends and I wasn't interested in waking up at 4:30 to run in the dark.  Ali had a fever from teething though so I also knew that putting her in child care could be hard.  Ran 5 miles at 7:00 pace and the last 2 miles at 6:08 pace, for a 12:16 two mile threshold.  Was going to cool down another couple of miles, but just a half mile after my threshold, the child care paged me and I quickly wiped my sweat off the treadmill and went to Ali.  I fed her a bottle and asked the child care if they could put up with her for a bit longer so that I could do a quick lifting circut and shower.  30 minutes later I was back.  Lifting wasn't as effective and thourough as I would have liked, but at least I got 7.5 miles in.

Poor Ali.  She has been SO sad the past few days.  She is cutting two new teeth on the top and has these bright red, puffy gums and a mild fever all the time.  I hope it is over soon.   

Easy 8 miles 7:30 ave.  

Took the kids on a hike afterwards and the 2 mile hike was more mentally draining than my run.  Ali screamed pretty much the whole time from her teething pain/fever. Breanne apparently woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning because she hasn't been able to stop whining about every little thing today.  Abe was awake before me this morning which never happens, and by 8:30 when we left for our hike, he was ready to go back to bed.  It has just been one of THOSE mornings.  And now the kids are all taking naps, so I think I will too.