Ready, Set, Go.........

Only hours left to pack and prep for our 3 Day Walk! I am so excited! We have an amazing team and are going to have a great time walking for this amazing cause!
Jual (of Jual's Gems) did a nice post yesterday- and like she said, I am so excited!!!!
We know our general route- through MD and DC. I am so thrilled, we are walking through places I know so well. I am excited and cannot wait to come back and share my adventure with you!

Army 10 Miler & race day question

What a great race! I was aiming for somewhere between 1:17 and 1:20 (really wanted less than 1:19:59) and I did it! Race day was a lot of fun. We left home at 5:30 am and drove down to the Pentagon. I detest taking the Metro to races so I was so happy everyone else agreed! We were some of the first people down there- it was amazing to see how fast the staging area filled up. 30,000 runners registered and over 21,000 finished. The atmosphere was charged- the military parachuters, helicopters and band really made the event special. When 'Proud to be an American' was sung, I don't think there was a person there who did not get the chills. At race time approached we did a warm up and headed to the corrals. As always- the ATM was a beautiful course. Running in DC is such a fabulous experience! The race went well and fast. I slowed a little around mile 7, if I had not I would have finished at 1:17, but now I have something to aim for at the Cherry Blossom. The finish was nice- less crowded than it is later. My heels have been bothering me for the past few weeks so I plan on heading to the podiatrist. My neuromas have also been flaring up- after 2 foot surgeries I am going to be proactive and get ahead of all of the foot issues. I was not able to run for years when I had the surgeries and do not want to have to stop running again, so I am going to do what I need to do. If I need to reduce my mileage I will. If I need to do PT I will. Maybe it will be as easy as new shoes- here is hoping it is!


I had an email from a reader (Hi Shannon!) asking what I would do to prep for a pace of this distance vs. a half or full marathon. Well- for the 10 miler I don't carry anything. I don't 'Gu' at this distance, although I would at least carry it for a half. For the half I tend to carry the jelly beans instead of Gu and just eat a few as I approach mile 9 or so. Too much Gu or too many jelly beans is not good for my stomach. I got water 3 times during the ATM, but never really drank much. The same has been true in the halfs.

For a full- I carry Gu and jelly beans and see how I feel. I 100% will use them- usually something around mile 10 and then again a bit after 20- but some of that will change based on what the actual marathon offers. In Disney they had oranges, Gu, candy. I did find that as my distance increased I did better by having a real 'food' with me for the late race fueling. By mile 20 my stomach could not take straight Gu or jelly beans. I now take a small handful of pretzels with me to eat with the other 'stuff'.

Yes, they can

I am still amazed at how many hits my blog gets from people Googling 'Can Dogs Eat Waffles?'

Livestrong Day!

As many of you know, I lost my father to cancer in 2000. So many of my friends have lost loved ones, or have cancer themselves. Please take the time to watch the video below, visit the Livestrong site- or better yet become involved. Support those with cancer. Support those raising money to fight cancer and help those affected. This is a fight that will affect us all in our lifetimes. Lets fight this and win!

YASSO 800S

Speed work- I actually enjoy it. Not always the easiest workout of the week, but I always feel like I am accomplishing something when I do speed work, regardless of how the speed work goes. Got to love that. With our current training program the speed work was typical. Mile warm up, 2-5 miles at a fast speed, then a cool down. When my training partner was in her hometown recently she worked out with her high school's cross-county team. The coach suggested Yasso 800's. So far I LOVE them.

Here is a great Runner's World article
Yasso 800's

Basically (in the words of By Christine Luff, About.com)
Yasso 800s are a popular workout among runners who are trying to achieve a specific marathon goal. The name "Yasso" comes from Bart Yasso, the chief running officer at Runner's World magazine, who popularized this workout. Here's how to do Yasso 800s:

• Take your marathon goal time in hours/minutes and convert this to minutes/seconds. For example, if your marathon goal is 3 hours and 10 minutes then convert that to 3 minutes and 10 seconds.
• Try to run 800 meters (approximately 1/2 mile) in your converted time (3:10 in this example).
• Recover after each 800 by jogging or walking for the same amount of time (again, 3:10 in this example).
• Start with three or four repetitions in the first week.
• Continue with Yasso 800 workouts once a week and try to add one more repetition each week until you reach ten repetitions. The first few should feel pretty easy, but you'll notice that they'll start to get more difficult as you continue to add repeats.

I started them this week and really enjoyed my first workouts. I am excited to see how many we can get in before Richmond. I do like that the speed segments are broken up and faster. We did just a few, but our pace was faster than it needed to be.
Last week I did not get my speed work in during the week, so I ran 2 fast miles at the beginning of my long run- 10 regular training pace miles after that, followed by 2 more fast miles to finish. I enjoyed that too- and liked pushing at the end.
Now lets see if this helps us get that 3:something time!

Am I crazy?

I have been considering running an additional Marathon this fall. One of my Richmond Marathon training partners (and previous partner for many races and training) is considering it too. On one hand I would love to do the Marine Corps just because I love running long runs. BUT- I have a busy few weeks leading up to that race and childcare could be an issue b/c of Rich's plans that weekend. I have the Army 10 Miler on 10/4 and then the 60 Mile walk the following weekend. The MCM would be 2 weeks after that. I did some online reading and people have said that they were sore after the 3-Day- even those walkers that were distance runners. My main goal is Richmond- am I going to be risking injury or fatigue if I do 2 marathons and a 60 mile walk in a five week period? I know I *can* do it, and I would enjoy it- but is it the best choice? Is there some Magic 8 Ball for runners?

Falling back into our routine.....

It has been a very busy few months in this runner's house! Between the pool, the beach, starting kindergarten, back to preschool and a wonderful little baby's first birthday- we have been having FUN! Plenty of catching up posts and picture posts to come. Thanks for the emails checking to see if this marathon mom is still alive- I am!!

I will start with the running update since that does not require me to upload pictures- or really think too much. Running has been going well. It did suffer a bit during the summer. With the heat, if I did not get in an early am run the day was shot. There were also weddings, funerals, vacations- many many changes in schedule. We did manage to run many days, and get in some great long runs.

The Army Ten Miler is days away- I am really looking forward that race. 10 miles is a really fun distance for me. The last time I ran this race I did well, and had run 20 miles the day before. I am hoping to come in under 1:20. I would love to come in around 1:10, but I am not concerned if that doesn't happen. Frankly- I am just happy to be able to get out there and run with everyone I know that is doing the race- and that is a huge number of friends. I just love all of the active people I know!

The 3-Day Walk to End Breast Cancer is coming up as well. I have been doing some walking to prepare, but with the long runs I have not been able to do too much. I have met my fund-raising goals- thanks to all of my wonderful supporters. We had 2 fundraisers that were a great success!

I think we all very excited for the walk- and to be part of such an important cause. Our Team is wonderful- Jual's Gems!

After the walk I have a little down time to train........for the Richmond Marathon and The Goofy Challenge in Disney! I can't wait for these races. My training this summer and fall is revolving around these races. I am running 5-6 days a week again. We are aiming for a 3:30 finish at Richmond, but as long as I PR I will be satisfied. I would LOVE to knock Boston off my bucket list with this race, but know with some current challenges with getting all of my tempo runs in on schedule I may not run a 3:30

Challenges- and there always are some! Weekend long runs- phew! I love long runs so the motivation is never an issue. I would run 14 miles- heck 17 miles a day if time allowed. But it doesn't. Somedays even 5 miles is a time crunch. I'll get up at 5:00 to run, but just can't get up if the first number on the clock is a 4. I have been doing as many early am runs as I can- but when Rich has to go to work early there is nothing I can do! I have been running in the evening occasionally and still call in a sitter at times. I think the fact that I love to run makes it easier to overcome some of these obstacles because I am finding time for something I want to do. Having 3 kids- 2 of which are in school and in activities/ sports is a challenge of it's own. Soccer always puts a kink in Saturday am long run plans. This weekend Grandma is coming over so daddy can take one to an early soccer game while I finish my run.
I have remained injury free yet again. I am very thankful for that. My neuromas have been bothering me in both feet after some high mileage weeks, but not as bad as they have in the past. I am very careful about the shoes I wear when not running so that I can continue to run with as little discomfort as possible. My adductor muscles were bothering me a bit on runs 17 miles or longer, but with stretching that seems to have resolved itself!

I need to run and get one of the world's greatest kindergartners off of the bus! I will post tomorrow about our amazing reunion last night with my original marathon training partner who was gone for a year!