Marathon Week

So after 16 weeks of training my marathon is almost here. One more measly 4k run stands between me & Mississauga! Training began January 14th and in that time I have run 844km through snow storms, rain, hail, wind & slush all before 7am. I've run a half marathon which rewarded me with a new personal best time and a 30K race which did the same. I trained through an injury and put aside weight training at the gym all so that I can say 'I've run a marathon. I've endured 42.2km. I am badass'.

I don't know if I really suffered 'taper madness' at all during the last week or so but I have had phantom pains and random bouts of panic whenever I thought of the marathon so perhaps I did. I'm feeling pretty good about things right now though. Talking to my dad helped. He told me as long as I didn't crap my pants I'd be fine. See, I obviously get my genius from somewhere. I finally went out and bought my race skirt today. I've been waiting, hoping that Lulu would come out with something super cute but nothing really jumped out at me. Of course next week the most amazing skirt ever will come out. As of now this is what I'm going with.....

I already own a pace setter so I know I'll be fine in it but I will wear it for Thursdays run just to be sure. Running 4K and 42.2k are pretty much the same when it comes to chaffing right? Mental note to self *Remember Body Glide*.

Sundays time goal is sub 4:15. This is Patty's goal. Mine is just to get over the finish line without crying because things are sucking so badly. That's my #1 fear to break down and cry. I'm usually pretty focused in my races. You'll hardly ever see a photo of me smiling, they're all with my eyes on the finish line. I'd hate to see my race pictures for my first marathon have me with puffy eyes!! As Runners World tweeted recently "The race is 1 day, but training lasts month & is laden with roadblocks. If you can make it to the start you can make it to the finish". See you at the finish line, Mississauga!

Mercedes-Benz 10K

Oakville ON

BIB # 2607

Chip Time 54:08:5 (Kyle 53:56)

Official Time 55:38:4

Pace 5:25

Place 362/954

Gender Place 124/507

Category Place 40/171

 

 Here we are again. Another 10K race on my birthday weekend. Do I know how to celebrate or what?! Last year I ran the Yonge St 10K, this year it was the Mercedes 10K. With my marathon 2 weeks away, racing this event would not be a smart idea. What would be a smart idea would be asking my son Kyle to run it with me. At the beginning of the year Kyle had shown interest in running a half marathon. I told him that he could do a 10K and see how he felt after that. There were two 10K's being held on my birthday, Yonge St & Mercedes and if he would like to run with me he could choose which one. Purely for the medal Kyle selected Mercedes. That's my boy. All about the swag. Last week I asked Kyle if he'd been training at all. The answer was no but apparently he got a 12 on the beep test at school, so according to him he's pretty much elite status and doesn't need to train. Seventeen year olds. Gotta love 'em. Oh well. He kicked my ass with no training for the Santa 5K, he's at such a level of youth and fitness he'll probably kick my butt here as well.

 

Race morning arrived and much like last year it was chilly. Thankfully it wasn't damp though and the sun was shining. We arrived to the race with about 15 minutes to spare. Just enough time for us to hit the porta potty line up. After covering the toilet seat with paper, Kyle officially became a runner. With 5 minutes left to the scheduled start time we made our way over to the corrals. Truly, I should have looked around and noticed that we were WAY too far back. We honestly spent the ENTIRE race passing people. As soon as the gun went off I realized my mistake in where I had placed us, and even Kyle was getting frustrated with the speed that the people ahead of us were moving. We bobbed and weaved around people the best that we could and finally after getting yelled at by an old guy for obviously being in the wrong corral I grabbed Kyle and we ran up onto the sidewalk. Soon after the verbal assault by grandad we passed the first KM marker and then the second. Kyle had his headphones in (do teenagers ever take these things out?!?) so I'm not really sure if he was listening to me chattering away but I didn't care. There's something to be said for running a race for fun! We came across a water table and stopped for Kyle to have a drink and then got back at it. There was a slight downhill after this which I told him to ride for momentum. Then after that there was an amazing downhill that I just had fun with and rode all the way down not even checking to see if my boy was with me. I slowed up and let him catch me and then realized what goes down must come up. I honestly never took into consideration that there may be hills on this course. After training with Patty for so long her words started to come out of my mouth. "Even effort. Let the hill come up to meet you". Kyle was definitely listening to me now because he responded with a "Yes, Sensei" He did listen to my words though because as the weaker runners that we were around started walking this hill, he ran all the way up it. Atta boy! Even one of the volunteers cheered him on for it. After we reached the 5K point I kept asking how he was doing and he kept saying fine. I was afraid that he might run out of gas but that never seemed to be the case. We stopped once for him to tie his shoes and then walked another water table and then that was it. There was a fire in this kids belly to get this race done. We passed the final water table and he didn't want to stop there. Around 8K I noticed that his shoe was untied again and I told him to pull off and tie it up. Nope. It's fine. I think telling him that if he kept the pace up that he would definitely get a sub one hour finish gave him some encouragement. The runners around us now were beginning to die a slow and painful death and Kyle was just getting started. The 5Kers joined the course adding to the congestion but he kept going, weaving around everyone in his way. His pace really began to pick up and around 9K he got ahead of me. Pushing it at this point was pointless so I just kept him in my sights and kept my pace. I did notice that he never once looked back to see where I was. Brat! I was still passing people and to be perfectly honest other than the times that we slowed for water and to tie Kyle's shoes no one ever passed us. As Kyle turned onto the driveway I lost sight of him so I just picked people off that were ahead of me. Now I turned into the driveway toward the finish and put on my final push. I heard my parents call my name and waved to them and then it was all over. My birthday 10K race for fun was finished for another year and it was great. I'm so proud of Kyle for finishing this 10K race at an even faster pace than at the Santa 5K, even with two water station stops and to tie his shoes. Whether or not he decides to do a half marathon remains to be seen but I do know one thing. If this kid actually decides to train he could be amazing. Way to go babe!

 

SPLITS - Why yes, we did negative split this baby!

5:39 CONGESTION!!!

5:19

5:38 WATER TABLE

5:54 TYING SHOES

5:25 (5K split 27:55)

5:41 WATER TABLE

5:30

5:12

5:06

4:36 FOR ME 4:24 FOR KYLE

 

Boo disappointed in the race photos. Super small and not many at all.

 

 

 

Marathon Training week # I've lost count

I had a pretty good week last week for my training. As I think about it I feel like I've been training for this marathon forever. I've run in snowstorms, wind, ice, freezing temps, warm temps, you name it. Finally the weather is starting to turn around and the sun is starting to rise while I am out on my morning runs making things way more enjoyable! Winter be gone! With that being said I am much happier doing all of this training now than I would be while doing it in the +30* temps for a fall marathon!

Last week Patty & I got back to the track doing 8 sets of 800m repeats with 400m rest. I felt really great doing these as my splits will tell you. 3:29 3:35 3:27 3:34 3:43 3:40 3:30 3:29. I was pretty happy with the fact that my first and last splits were the exact same so obviously I had enough gas in the tank to finish these off strong! We also did an easy 4 mile run and a 10 mile marathon pace run to start off the week. I squeezed in a 4 miler before driving Kyle to lacrosse on Friday morning before school and then Patty & I drove out to Mississauga and ran the last 33k of the marathon course on Saturday which Nicole was nice enough to get us directions for. It was a beauty day out there and we were able to kick up the pace for the final 6k to marathon pace or less. While we were out there we saw the road closure signs being put up so that was pretty exciting. A whole month of warning for the city of Mississauga? Way to go! We also saw these really cool carvings on old tree stumps all around the route. Patty looked it up when we got home, it appears to be a beautification project that the city has put on. Very cool city of Mississauga!  And one last thing that we ran by was a job site that my morning work is working on. We do concrete forming if you didn't know ( basement foundation walls on new homes). It was kind of cool to actually see our work in progress. I'm not allowed out to the job sites. I'm just the pretty one in the office who bills people for the work that we do. LOL

In other news..... I am writing this on the blogger app on my phone that I just downloaded and I have no idea how to work it so if my photos didn't go where they should have I'm sorry. Also, mother bird is still sitting on those eggs on our front porch. I can't help but think how bored she must be! The dad doesn't stick around any more but I do see him come and take his turn on the nest in the mornings so that mom can go and do her thing so I guess he's not a total deadbeat. ;) Lastly, I signed up for Sulphur Springs 25k yesterday. Now to get out onto a trail to practice. Hopefully I can find someone to come out with me or else Gordie is going to have to suck it up and come and run with me.

Looking back at March and looking forward

As I was walking the dog today (in my toque and mittens!!! Hello April 2??!!) I thought back to all of the things that I did with my fitness in March and tried to think ahead as to what I want to do once my spring races are done.

March was a kick ass month for me! I had my highest mileage ever (255KM!) and got two new PB's! Go me.

I've been sticking to my training plan through thick & thin; injury, fatigue, & general laziness be damned! Probably not so much because I'm committed but I'm scared of what Patty would say if I did miss a workout! LOL Just kidding. I've let my gym time fall off mainly so that I can stay focused on my marathon training, especially now as the next two weeks will be our peak weeks, but I will get back to it once things start to wind down and definitely once the marathon is over. My goal is to get my own set of Jillian Michaels shoulders.

Ok, probably I don't have the discipline nor genes to have shoulders just like that but I want better ones than I have. And I want to be able to yell at people like she does too. Oh, ha, I already do! I'm halfway there! Woohoo!

I have two races left that I have signed up for. The Mercedes 10K that I will be running with Kyle on my birthday in a few weeks, and the Mississauga Marathon that I will be running with Patty in 5 weeks. EEK! FYI, we plan on running the back part of the course for our 20 miler this Saturday. Fingers crossed that we don't get lost! Now I'm left wondering what to sign up for after this. I'm thinking that I will probably do the Sulfur Springs 25K trail race at the end of May with Marina because a) it's a Saturday and b) it's with Marina, whom I love. She's really talked up these trail races so it better be good! After that the Moon in June 5K will more than likely be on my list. My plan for that is to just run my ass off and see what happens. I'm toying with the Bills 50 yard line Half Marathon in June because it's a Saturday and seems kind of cool finishing off in the stadium, but it's obviously in Buffalo so we'll see about that one. Nicole wagged the Midsummer Night's Run in my face the other day too but we all now how well that race went for me last year so I'm not to eager to run the 30K again. With that being said there is a 15K where you get the same shirt and same medal for finishing and it is a Saturday, so I may just suck out and do that. Nighttime is just not a good time for me to run such a long distance. Scotia will more than likely be in there seeing as I want redemption from last year, whether its the half or the full remains to be seen. Patty is not planning on doing a full marathon this fall so I'll more than likely follow suit. Who knows if I'll even like running a marathon when all's said and done?! I also plan on running a race in whatever city Kyle ends up going to school in. He has accepted his Western offer but he still hasn't heard back from Queen's yet *fingers really really crossed* so it'll either be London or Kingston where you'll see my running skirt this fall. Hmmmmm, does Kingston even have races? LOL Guess I should check into that. The Oakville Half is on my maybe list too seeing as it looks like they've fixed up that whole extra 300 metres issue but I am not totally committed if something better comes along. Any other suggestions??