Tour de Pain: Extreme Half Marathon

Walking into the half marathon Saturday morning at 7am I had hoped to run in under 2:30 and was actually hoping to maybe get closer to 2 hours and 20 minutes if i was really feeling good. Either way I would be besting my previous PR by about 26 minutes and that is something to be proud of.

Tim in 2 hats and my sunglasses around his neck! Silly goose!

The morning of, Tim and I got there early and met up with his 2 friends who live there now and chatted a bit to waste time. It definitely helped calm my nerves. The weather was nice, but a little chilly and while everyone else was taking off their long sleeves I kept mine on. (I would later regret this and ran 12.1 of my miles with it off.) Before we knew it we were lining up at the line and ready to go.


This course also included the big blue bridge in the beginning and my first mile came out to 10 something. At mile 2 I watched the sunrise here. It was breathtaking. After that I got a sort of push and was teetering just under 10 minute pace.

Ran this quite a few times over the 3 races! 

Sunrise over the bridge above. 

By mile 4 I had started to follow this girl who was pushing low to mid 9 pace and I kept with her until about mile 9.5. I really credit this girl with helping push me through. After that I started to drop off severely. My pace dropped and I needed fuel. Which I got at mile 10 thank goodness, but my pace still suffered. I went from pacing in the 9's to high to low 11 at the finish.

Booking it to the finish

None of this seemed to matter though because that 2:20? Yeah. I blew it out of the water. I ran my half marathon in 2:11:40. Talk about success!! I got a PR and bested my last time by about 45 minutes! Now I hadn't run a half marathon in just over a year, but that's quite an accomplishment. I have to say that I never thought that was possible. It made this race so special and I was so proud of what I had done.

I am a champion. I am an athlete. I am a runner.

Until next time!

Tour de Pain: Extreme 10k

The amazing tour de pain: extreme series in Jacksonville started with a 10k at 7pm last Friday night. I have to preface this with the fact that I had never run a 10k before!! I was nervous and very excited about the new distance and an automatic personal record. This race wasn't too big and I was happy it wasn't going to be super crowded.

T and I got there early so I could do a little warm up and get my time chip. We did some exploring and then I kissed him goodbye as I headed towards the starting line. I knew I didn't want to go all out on this race and tried to keep it as easy of a pace as possible, knowing I still had 2 races to go!

The 10k course was a down and around that included both bridges near the Jacksonville landing, an overpass, and a pedestrian bridge. Having looked briefly at the course before hand, I hadn't noticed this at all. Oh well. All the more challenge for me!

big bridge and sunset!

I got some great sunset pictures though! It was nice to not have to worry too much about the timing and just really enjoy the course. And I did, as I suffered running over the big bridges. One, I might add, that didn't have a solid bottom so you could just look down and see the water! This part boggled my mind a little bit.

Overall, I finished in 1:04:10. I was extremely happy with this time. Like I said before, I wasn't really racing it and I got some great pictures in the mean time! And who doesn't love running by and over the water?? This was a very fun race.

Look out for my half marathon update tomorrow!!

Until next time!

It's been awhile..

It has definitely been awhile since I've given an update and I've been busy and not busy. If that makes any sense.

Last week I did whole lot of nothing leading up to my race weekend. This is not what I had in mind for a taper week, but laziness set in and took control. It was definitely a nice break.

Then of course last weekend was the Tour de Pain: Extreme. 22.4 miles of craziness!! Update coming soon!

This week I have yet to run due to sore calves which I'm using as an excuse to take another week break.

The orange and blue football game was today and I greatly enjoyed watching the pieces of it that I did.

The NEDA walk in Gainesville is tomorrow.

Monday I get to start running again and with another partner!! I'm excited about this one because she is a faster runner by a lot! Maybe another half marathon PR is in my reach!

I'm also starting to look at my race calendar for the end of the year to see what I can come up with.

There will be a lengthy update on tdp in the next few days. Hopefully my blogging skills get better as well!

Until Next time!

Craziness

Well it's been quite a week!! I've not exactly had a bunch of free time, but it's Friday and now I have too much free time!

I've spent most of this week studying for 2 tests that were today and yesterday. Along with studying came study group and 2 meetings. I only got 2 runs done, but I figure it was a good week to let my body take a break because my mind was doing so much work!!

I am officially one week away from my race weekend!! I booked a hotel today! Yay!! I'll be staying about a mile away from the race due to the fact that the host hotel was much more expensive than this college girl can afford!! I'm getting very excited!!

The only thing that separates me from this race is a small paper, two 3 mile runs, a 2 mile walk, and a lot of stretching, foam rolling, and rest!! I'm really hoping for a PR in my half marathon and I'll be getting an automatic PR in my 10k because I've never run one!! I might just have fun with the 10k though and take pictures so my legs aren't too tired for my half less than 12 hours later. Yikes!!

I can't say that anything too exciting is going on right now other than my race and school. I have an 8 mile run this weekend and then I'll be doing a bunch of lounging.

I did go grocery shopping today though! I'm super excited to be trying a few new recipes and redoing a few we liked from the last round. This batch of recipes includes sweet potato burgers, zucchini fries, rice and bean burgers, turkey burgers, the lovely stuffed pepper recipe we had not too long ago, and a few others. As you might be able to tell, I've been craving burgers lately and I feel like these are much healthier options. Especially when you think about how to fuel the week before the race!

I think that's enough rambling for now!

Until Next Time!

New Shoes!

If you read my last post  you know that I just got a new pair of running shoes!! I also purchased my first very nice pair of running socks.They were much needed and yesterday was the first day I got to take them out.

My run was just a 4 miler and I unfortunately I got a tad bit excited and raced the first 2 miles. Oops!! I went out way too fast, but even with the last 2 miles I stayed under 10 minutes with some stops and walking for a few seconds. It was a great run that I finished in under 39 minutes. I'm really proud of that. I know that this might be an anomaly, but I'm hoping that these new shoes will help free me enough to get some faster pacing in. 

These are my new socks. They were very interesting to try. They have great cushioning and of course the color is fantastic. If only they'd had orange.... Anyways. I'm looking forward to breaking these in a little bit and getting some mileage on them!! 

Overall, I am very happy with my new products and am looking forward to see how they hold up on me!! 

Also if you didn't notice, I took pictures of the funny ducks I pass on my route. I couldn't help it. I was enjoying every part of the experience!! 

Until Next Time!! 

QOTD: Have you ever taken pictures of something fun on your run???

Weekend Review

It's been a bit of an exciting weekend here in my house.

 Friday was the first day that it was actually warm. I was so excited!! Finally some warm weather!! It's too bad it's the end of my spring break. I was hoping to get an adventure in over the weekend, but that was to no avail. Tim had some work stuff to deal with and it was dragged out far enough that a trip just wasn't possible. Oh well!! Sometime soon perhaps.

Saturday I had to drag myself out of bed for a run. I didn't even get up until after 9. This can be difficult when you have 12 miles and you know it will take you over 2 hours. Well, that didn't go so great for me. After another painful run after about 5 or 6 miles, I had had enough. At mile 7 I took off my shoes and called Tim to come get me. I proceeded to run an extra mile or so in just my socks. I have to say I loved it. Other than having to watch for acorns, sticks, and glass, I felt really good doing this.

 I knew my shoes were the problem. They have been fighting my natural stride and causing major problems on my long runs. Enough already!! I went home, showered, and headed straight to the mall. I ended up falling for 2 pairs of shoes. The Brooks Pure Flow 2 and the Newton Distance. In LOVE!!! I opted for the Pure Flow 2 because of the price and the fact that I have 3 weeks until my races and I need a training shoe. I'm thinking about going back for the Newton's before summer just to have it as a race shoe. The Flow 2's are perfect though. They have  4mm drop, they are a mid strike shoe, and they are exactly what I need for running on my toes already. I can't wait to try them out on my 4 mile run tomorrow. I'll have a review then!

While I was at the store, I grabbed a pair of Experia socks and a few new GU flavors I'm excited to try. 

In other news, today is Sunday and I plan on just doing a bit of stretching and foam rolling to help my hips. Nothing too exciting. Maybe attempting to get back in the swing of things for school tomorrow. We'll see what happens! 

Until Next Time! 

Ramblings of a College Student

I am currently on spring break. No, I'm not writing this is Cancun, my beach front hotel somewhere, the Keys, or my room on a cruise. I'm writing this in my cozy apartment in North Central Florida. I can say that the most exciting aspects of this week have been sleeping in past 7am, cooking new food, and going out to eat on a few occasions. I know, I know. Spring break only comes once a year, so I might as well go crazy.

Seriously though, I've had a pretty good week. I made 3 new recipes and we loved all 3!!! I made zucchini pizza sticks, spaghetti squash, and stuffed eggplant.

They were all extremely simple recipes and the only one that took a bit longer to make was the stuffed eggplant. 

For the zucchini rolls we cut zucchini in half length wise, scooped a little canyon into each half, put some spaghetti sauce in the crevice, added some cheese and baked at 350 until the zucchini was soft. You could really do a lot with this recipe. You could add toppings and different sauces and cook to different softness. It was really quite simple and we didn't go too crazy because we didn't have too much in the house. 

The spaghetti squash was another simple one. Cut the squash in half length wise and scoop the pumpkin like goop out of the center. Cook for about 45 minutes to an hour in a 375 degree oven. Ours were done about 45 minutes in. Then remove strands with a fork. We added a little bit of parm cheese and some pasta sauce and fell in love with this!! Neither of us had had spaghetti squash before so it was one we look forward to trying again. 

For the stuffed eggplant recipe we had to modify just a bit because we didn't have everything. It was still super simple and I was done cooking everything in about 30-45 minutes. We loved this one as well. Both of us have had eggplant Parmesan, but to just have the eggplant was new to us. The stuffing made it so flavorful and it's so healthy with the filling being mostly veggies and some ground turkey. 

Try these!!! They will not disappoint!! 

On a running note, I've had some rough runs this week that didn't get to the distance I wanted. I missed a 6 by .7 and a 4 by .25, but I'm taking today as a super rest day to stretch, foam roll, and relax before my 12 mile run tomorrow. It will be my last big run before I start to taper next week. I'm getting more excited every day for the races at the end of the month!! I can't wait!! 

From Here

Sorry for the long post today!! Until Next Time!!