Parkside run today so that course is going to be a bit rough. Went at 6am with Bill to get some miles in before as Lighthouse is in just 3 weeks and I want to do some longer runs to prepare. There were actually alot of us at 6am this week as it was a great day and people are training for Lighthouse. Ran the roads for the first hour and got in 5.8 miles.

Then joined the group and ran the course. It rained yesterday so the grass was pretty wet and there were puddles in the low parts of the trails. Ran with Andy and Lorma (a new girl) for the first 3 or so, until you end up back in the open field again. I really didn't want to do that bill hill again, so I deviated off onto the roads and ran the outer loop towards Wood Rd. Started to get really tired and had to walk a bit at about 9 miles. Then walked/ran for the last mile or so just to get the 10 miles in.

Did the 10 miles in 1:43:21, not a great time at all. 3.1 mile splits were 32:34 (10:30 pace)[had a potty break at the first 0.5 mile and didn't stop the watch so that affected this time a bit]; 31:36 (10:11 pace); 32:09 (10:22 pace); and the last 0.70 mile was 7 minutes (10:02 pace). Overall probably pretty consistent in the 10:10-10:25 pace for each mile. Not great, but still working on the endurance.

Haven't run all week as I've been doing other stuff. Should get out and run as I want to run a long run tomorrow. We went to dinner right after work, so we went out for a late run.

Ran 1.02 in 9:55 (9:45/mile pace).

I should have got up this morning to run as I knew I wouldn't at night, but just couldn't get going. So I took my tennis shoes to work and thought I may do at least a 15 minute walk during the day as it looked like it would be a nice day. Mid-afternoon it started to sprinkle and never stopped. Therefore I didn't get out for a walk, then had drinks with Jackie in Milwaukee after work. Got home about 8:40pm or so and didn't want to do anything then. Another day of nothing. This is the 3rd day in 7, that's bad!

Since my sessions are about to expire at Synchronicity, I thought I'd go there tonight for Core-on-the floor. Haven't done that in a while, so it was a good session.

Didn't really feel like running tonight and I really needed to do some weights. Went to the All Saints gym and did 15 minutes of biking to warm up, then a few of the machines and some free weights.

Today's Memorial Day and we really didn't have any plans for the day. Just sat around lazy all day and watched TV. We had dinner at Mom's. At around 8pm Bill started to get ready to run and I thought I'd probably go with. We were watching a show, though, so he just sat ready, but watching. All of a sudden, the winds picked up dramatically and it got stormy dark. We watched the trees blowing around, very blustery-like. They didn't die down and it didn't look like it was going to. I wasn't going out in that, but Bill did. When he got back, he said it was really bad running in that wind so I was glad I didn't try.

Unfortunately that meant nothing for me today.

After doing lots of gardening yesterday, trimming all the bushes, digging up two of them and moving them, my back is really sore. At one point while doing a little car shopping today, we had to jog across the street to beat traffic and I barely could lift my legs to run. My back is really sore.

Therefore when Bill went out for his run, I decided to just do a walk. Did the neighborhood mile at a moderate-fast pace, then when I got back to the house, Bill and I went for a leisurely walk around the short loop of the neighbhorhood.

Saturday morning with the group doing the southside bike path. Started out with Kristin and Vova and doing a good pace. Had to walk a bit at one point as Tucker needed to relieve herself. Ran with them for about 2.5, then caught up with Bill and Amy. Bill then backed off and I was left with the speedy Amy. Ran with her for the rest of the run, but she's fast. Had to walk twice, but she stuck with me and just kept me going.

Ran 5.5 miles in 49:58, a 9:05 pace overall. The first 3.1 were in 27.18, a 8:48/mile pace. Considering we walked for a minute or two while Tucker relieved herself, that's really fast. No matter it was harder to finish strong. The last 2.4 were at a 9:26 pace, which had two little walk spots in there.

Bill wanted to go to Jose's for dinner, so we headed out right away so we could beat the rush. Later Bill went for his mile run, but I really didn't want to. Decided to take the day off completely.

I'm having dinner/drinks with the PHR/SPHR group tonight so I knew I wouldn't run later. Got up and did the mile around the neighborhood.

Ran 1.01 in 8:46 (8:41/mile pace).

A few weeks ago I was chatting with Bill about my sessions with Anna soon expiring and how they do partner training now. Bill actually was interested and said he was interested in working out with Anna.

Therefore it worked out that my sessions ended 2 weeks ago and we could start a new 12 week partner block after his marathon, when he doesn't have another one to train for for a while, and he's actually home for the next 2.5 months with no work travel planned.

Tonight was the first night, so we spend nearly 30 minutes just talking with Anna and doing measurements. Then we started working out. This is going to be fun as Bill did eveyrthing but did struggle. He couldn't finish all reps of everything and rally broke out in a sweat. Did jumping jacks to warm up, then chin ups at an angle, hamstring supersets, pushups with side plank reach and shoulder press supersets, walking squats with a weighted ball circling the legs, and the sitting (back at 45 degree angle) core twist/stretch with the ball. A good, short workout.

Fun to see Bill struggle, but this will be a good workout for him.

I will take a running break today and go to the 20/20/20 class. That was good to do some light cardio with upper body weights and stretching.

Don't know why, but didn't run right after work tonight. Bill got home from trap and we did the quick neighborhood loop.

Ran 1.03 miles in 8:58 (8:38/mile pace). Back to a pretty good clip.

My hamstring didn't really bother me during the race ysterday and it was only a little tight today. I had said to Bill earlier in the week that I might take a running break after the race just to recover, both physically and mentally. But now we just drove home from Fargo and spent all that time in the car and I was a little stiff. Wanted to do a little run just go get the energy going and stretch out.

Set out with Bill to do the neighborhood run and the first few steps were really hard. Walking was OK, but trying to lift the legs to run and they didn't want to. It was dfeinitely going to be a leisurely run.

Ran 1.o2 mile in 9:52 (9:39/mile pace). At the end I felt better just stretching that all out again.

So, today’s the day of my first half-marathon. Surprisingly I’m not really nervous. I don’t quite understand that….I should be. Especially since I’ve been nursing this hamstring/tendon pull and it’s still not quite 100%. I get ready, eat a granola bar and a few sips of G2, and set off with Bill and the girls (Jodie and Kristin) for the race. They are all doing the full marathon, which luckily has the same start time as the ½. I was hoping to try to run with Kristin and Jodie for the first several miles, but they took off into the crowd and I couldn’t stick with them. I ran with Bill for the first 1.5-1.75 miles, but then he needed to walk. Therefore I was alone in a crowd now. I didn’t bring my MP3, and wish I would have just to have some background noise.

I was going along at a really good pace, maybe too fast. I had gotten way ahead of my virtual running partner by mile 4 or 5and was starting to feel it. By about 6 or so (I really don’t know as I lost track of some of the mile markers and wasn’t sure where I was at times on the race) I had to walk a bit. I just walked through the water stop and a little after and that helped. Set off again, but had to walk again about a mile later. This isn’t good, I’m only ½ done. Then at about 7.5 there was a problem. I started getting this cramping in my right side gut area. Not a breathing cramp, much lower, kind of level parallel with my belly button. I had to walk a bit and thought I could walk through it. It kept getting worse and I kept walking slower. I started to really get discouraged as it wasn’t going away. After walking probably .3-.4, I realized we were about to come up on an aid station and this one had water, Powerade, and GU. I didn’t really feel thirsty as I drank water a bit before, but maybe I needed something more. Although I’ve never had GU for running, I was desperate to try anything. I grabbed the first one I saw, luckily it was a good flavor—Strawberry Banana. I opened it and took a bit. It actually tasted really good—thank God. I wanted to just gulp it down, but was scared that it would hit me heavy. So I walked a bit, then took some more, walked a bit, then took a bit more and threw out the wrapper. Overall I probably ate close to ¾ of it. I kept walking as I still had the pain. Over the next .2 or so the pain started to subside. I guess I really needed the electrolytes. Finally I was able to start running again.

Was able to get running, but mentally I was really struggling. I couldn’t distract myself and just “get into it.” Therefore about every ½ mile or so, I wanted to stop. I started bargaining….run to the next mile marker, and then you can walk a bit. I was trying to keep to that but it wasn’t working that well. Over the last 4 miles or so, I walked a bit nearly every ½ to full mile. Not too long, probably 20-50 steps. Finally when I hit mile 12 I said no more walking….but at about 12.5 I did again. I jogged all the way into the finish and ended up finishing at 2:09:03.

I’m a bit disappointed as I wanted closer to 2:00, but everyone tells me it’s a great time. Looking back, I lost a good 5 minutes at least around 8 miles with all the walking I had to do there. As I went through the finish line, I realized how gritty my face was—all the salt. I really was sweating much more than I think I realized. It was a bit windy (which also didn’t help with the run) and it was very sunny. I think my sweat was evaporating/drying off me quickly and I wasn’t realizing how much I was sweating. The bag pickup was a disaster as they weren’t sorted. As I stood there in a crowd of people I was getting dizzy with the heat and crowd. I just jumped in and started looking for my own bag. They kicked me out once; I waited, and then noticed others doing the same again. Bill had tied our bags in a particular way, so I thought I could quickly glance and try to find it. On this second attempt I was successful. I got it, got a banana and ice cream sandwich and moved on. Had a woman take a picture of me with my medal in the Fargodome, then tried to call Jerrod to catch up with him. Jodie was having a phenomenal race and was already nearly at 21 miles already. Therefore he couldn’t pick me up and I was on my own. I started walking the 1+ miles to try to see Kristin and Bill. I waited there for some time, stretching and relaxing. Then Kristin called to say she had dropped at 14 due to her foot and was back at the finish. Shortly later Jerrod called saying Jodie finished in record time. Turns out it was in 3:50…..over 33 minutes faster than her previous PR! Wow! Bill still hadn’t arrived and I waited and waited. Unfortunately he was way behind and finally showed up walking. I walked with him a bit and he told me he had been ill for a few days and never told me as he didn’t want to put a drag on my first big race. He had mild cold and also was just tired from the marathon 2 weeks ago. He knew he was pretty much going to walk til the end. I met him again at 24 or so and walked to the finish with him. He finished in 5:58 or so.

My first ½ marathon is done and I realized during it that it was much harder than I expected. It was even a lot harder than the 12-miler I had done a few weeks ago. Obviously with only doing 1 12-miler as training and only one 9-miler before that, it wasn’t going to be easy! That was definitely the hardest mental and physical thing I’ve ever done. Although I did look around and see the sights and crowd, having it be so long and in such a foreign place, and all by myself, really taxed me mentally. I just can't do the same thing for 2 hours....that's just too repetitive. I wish I would have had someone to run with and/or my music as that might have given me a little familiarity. Good to realize what I need to do for long runs. Now on to train for the 10-mile Lighthouse Run next month!

Got up early as Jodie and Kristin were due to pick me up around 5:20pm or so this morning to drive to Fargo. After a long 9-hour drive, we arrived, met Bill and went to the Expo then dinner. After all that, I didn't even realize that I didn't exercise until it was late. By that time I didn't want to run as the race is tomorrow. Unfortunately this is the 2nd day of 3 I didn't exercise.....not good.

Didn't have anything specifically to do tonight for the first night in a bit, except pack to leave for Fargo in the morning. Didn't really want to run, but since I didn't do anything last night I knew I should get out and do at least a bit to stretch the legs.

Ran around the neighborhood...1.03 miles in 8:47 (8:34/mile pace)

Was going to run in the morning, but didn't. Then had planned to run at night, but it was the awards banquet at work and didn't get home until after 7:30pm. It was nice outside and I really had no excuse not to run when I got home, but I just didn't feel like it. My leg is still bothering me a bit (hamstring and calf) and I was just tired. Decided to sit with the heating pad a bit and not run tonight.

Had plans to go to Sara's tonight for chinese and to watch a movie (PS I Love You), therefore I knew I should get out early and do a little running.

Ran 1.02 miles around the neighborhood in 8:32 (8:25/mile pace).

Decided to go to 20/20/20 tonight and it was a good workout. We used light weights for about 30 minutes of the workout tonight---lots of toning to all parts of the shoulder and upper arms. Although it was lower weights, it was high reps and you could really feel it.

It's pouring rain and windy today so I'm not really up for running. By early afternoon the rain had stopped, but there were 20-30mph winds. Bill went for a run, but I decided not to. After being lazy all day so far, though, I had to do something. I turned on ExerciseTV and found a 22 minute Cardio Sport workout to do. It was about 20 minutes of cardio with a 2 minute cooldown and stretch. Wasn't a whole lot, but it was something.

Today's the Ice Age 50 race in the Kettle Moraine and Bill volunteered us to help with an aid station. We did this a few year's ago when he learned of it through one of his accounting instructors, Danica. For the past few years we couldn't make it, but this year it worked out. That prevented us from running with the group this morning though as we had to be out near Whitewater by 8am. We brought our stuff with, though, and Bill mapped some trails in the area that we could run after we were done if we wanted.

After standing for a few hours at the aid station, our legs were a bit tired. Then it looked like we were going to have to pay to park where we were going to run so we decided to skip it and do it later.

Took a little nap, then got up and still needed to run. Neither of us really wanted to, though. Earlier I had suggested doing the cemetary run as we could run together on that one and not fight traffic. Bill then agreed and off we set.

Ran it backwards so it was nice to start with the big downhill on 12th street. After we visited with Dad, Bill announced that he didn't want to do the whole run and wanted ice cream. I never turn down ice cream, so we just finished in Mound cemetary and capped off the run in 4 miles.
(then I made him make good on the promise and take me to DQ)!

Ran 4.00 miles in 36:08 (9:02/mile pace). Not a full Saturday run, but a good run nonetheless.

Bill and I didn't have anything planned tonight, so we met after work at home and decided to do the quick mile before going out for a bite to eat.

Ran 1.01 in 8:56 (8:52/mile pace).

Hamstring's a bit better today, but still sore. Luckily it isn't quite as tight so it's healing already and that's a good thing.

Mom has her Aurora awards dinner tonight so I knew I wouldn't run later. Got up early and did the neighborhood mile. Tried to keep it easy just to stretch the legs and not do any damage.

Ran 1.01 in 8:55 (8:48/mile pace). It's a shame that sub-9 is now an "easy" run. ;)

As the day went on today, I noticed there was definitely something wrong with my hamstring. It was really tight and when I did a hamstring curl, I really noticed a knot. Called Anna to see if she still wanted me to come, even though I wanted to lay really easy on this leg so as not to injure further. She said she could still do a workout of upper body, so we went ahead.

Did just a walking warmup, and worked out with Anna. She really did focus on my shoulders, pecs, deltoids, triceps, biceps, and upper back. We did everything sitting so as to reduce the strain on my leg. It still felt like a really productive workout. Only problem is, when she can't spread it out over the entire body, I can really feel the workout that was so focused in just one major area---definitely going to be sore! :)

As I left work today I realized how beautiful it was. I really wanted to do a run outside. As I have been trying to keep a bag of clothes in the car, I realized I had most of what I wanted to run in, so I decided to change in the car and run from the car around the cemetaries. It was high 60s and I had everything except shorts, so I wore my capris. They were a little warm as they are heavier weight and black and the sun was beating down. Didn't have my GPS, but figured I could map it later.

Got running and decided to run to Dad's grave first to say Hi (today's their anniversary). Spent a few minutes with him, then headed back. Figured that was about a mile or so one way, so just headed back and figured 2 miles was good.

Got home the same time as Bill and he was debating running his mile right away before leaving for trap. I told him I'd run with him if he did it right then, so we set off.

Mapped the first run and found it to be 1.95--not too far off from what I thought so that was pretty good.

Then ran 1.02 with Bill in 8:55 (8:43/mile pace).

So, finished the evening with just under 3 miles on this beautiful night. Unfortunately my hamstring's really tight so I'm going to have to watch this now.

Since I didn't run yesterday, I thought I should get up and try to run in the morning and maybe do the 20/20/20 class at night.

Ran the neighborhood mile in the morning--1.02 mile in 8:36 (8:25/mile pace). Wow, that was quick, but it felt good.

Then, I figured I'd work till about 5:30pm, then do 20/20/20 before rushing to the GOP meeting. Work was very quiet and I was basically done with it by 4:50pm. I wasn't going to just hang for 40 minutes so I left, did some grocery shopping and met Bill at home. Never made it to 20/20/20 as we just ate dinner and went to the meeting together. Glad I at least did the run in the morning.

Today was Bill's marathon. I met Melissa and Jen at mile 5 and we planned to spend the morning together chasing Bill, Kim, and Yemi around different points of the race. Although it was chilly (45 degrees) there wasn't a cloud in the sky, the breeze was light, and it was a beautiful day for their race.

We saw them at 5, 10, 14/15 (there was a nice turnaround here so we saw each of them twice), then met them at the finish. Bill was doing really well with his times all along, but at 14 I noticed a problem. His nipple tape had come off one and it was raw and bleeding. He kept trying bandaids from 1st aid, but they kept falling off. This was going to be a problem.

We went to the finish to cheer everyone on. Kim came in right with the 4 hour group, Yemi wasn't far behind at 4:13ish. Bill then came in just over 5 hours. I was a little surprised as the last text I got was at 19.7 and Bill was on track for 4:45-4:50 or so. After the race I learned from him that the nipple really was a problem and slowed him alot after mile 19. Additionally, there had been a fire earlier in the day (delaying the start 15 minutes) and it was at about mile 22--forcing a re-route. Everyone's watches said they ran 26.5-26.7 miles. Sure enough, we learned they added about .25 on to the route. This is a good thing for Kim as she really wanted to break 4 hours and the official time said she was at 4:00:34--but with the recalculation she'll be under 4 hours. Bill ended up at about 5:03 or so with the recalculation which is just about what he had in Atlanta 6 weeks ago so that's good, and about 30-45 faster than the last few marathons before that.

Unfortunately Yemi struggled after the race and needed some medical attention, therefore we got running really late in getting back to the hotel to shower and check out. We couldn't get late check out, but Kim was gracious enough to let us use her hotel so Bill could shower before getting on the road.

We hit the road and drove back to Wisconsin right away, with a stop for dinner at a mexican restaurant (of course). We got home after 8pm and it had been a long day. Unfortunately, except for the walking around the marathon course and back and forth from hotel to start/finish, I didn't get any formal exercise in today.

So, today is 10k race day. As expected, woke up to rain and wind. Got ready and Bill was going to take me to the other girls' hotel to meet them there. We get outside at it's raining pretty steady and there are gusty, cold winds. As we get in the car, I say to Bill--would you think I was a complete wimp if I just didn't do the race? I really hate the wind and then coupled with cold and rain I was really dreading this. He just said, 'it's your money'---so he didn't really give me permission or denial. We drove to the hotel, grabbed the trash bags that we brought for jackets and headed in. Met the group, got our bags on and started heading down to the start line. About 1/2way down, Bill said goodbye and I knew I was going to at least try.

At the starting line, I was chatting with Melissa and her friend Jennifer (that works with them and came down to do this 10k) and learned this was Jen's first race. I asked her what she hoped to run and she said 9-9:15/mile pace. I told her that's what I wanted so I suggested we run together. Then she mentioned that that's much faster than her typical pace and that was her goal. OK, well I'll run with her for a bit and see how it goes.

The race starts and by mile 2 the winds had died down and it stopped raining. Jen and I were still running together and keeping about a 9:20 or so pace. We throughout our trash bags and kept going. At about mile 3 we crossed a bridge over to Kentucky. That was a rough bridge as it was a long incline to get to the top of the curve of the bridge. I stuggled a bit and Jen really struggled. I had said to her earlier that if either of us wants to run ahead of the other, they should just go and she agreed. Yet as we got over this bridge, I was really liking running with someone. I slowed a bit to catch my breath and allow Jen to catch hers and back up with me. As we got to around 4 miles she said she was really struggling. I could see it but she was still doing OK, just slowed up a bit. Right then, I realized that I felt good but it didn't really matter. I saw myself in Jen....the way she was breathing, the struggle she had on that hill, it was all me and my running just a few months ago. I decided I didn't care about my time at this point...what difference does it make if I run a 58 min 10k or a 56 min 10k, I'm not winning so who cares? I thought about how many people, particularly Bill and Ken, have slowed themselves during runs to just stay with me and keep me going. It was now my turn to take that baton and give that to someone else. I think Jen may have wanted me to go on, but I just stayed with her and slowed when she needed it, then gradually picked the pace back up again on flatter portions or downhills. We saw Bill at about 4.5 and that was fun to have that to look forward to and have that nice distraction. After mile 5 there was a short little hill that was a struggle and I just plowed through and then slowed at the top for Jen to catch up. Then at about 5.5 we were crossing another bridge back to Ohio. It wasn't as steep as the first bridge, but still a stuggle. Jen was really waning at this point and I noticed I got a good block or so ahead of her. I saw Gary on the bridge and said Hi, then turned around and ran back to Jen. Let her know she could do it and we were going to finish together.

As we passed the 6 mile sign, we could start to hear the crowd and announcer. At 6.1, I yelled to push it and we sprinted to the finish. She stuck right with me through that sprint. This was her first race and I felt good about how I ran mine.

My GPS says we ran about 6.4 miles in about 59 minutes. After the race, I got 2 text messages with my time, one said 58:25 and one said 59:25. That was odd and I figured the 58.25 was probably right based on my watch. Well, the official time was 59:25, about a 9:34 pace. We still finished in under the hour and it was OK as the start was windy and rainy and Jen got her first 10k done in under an hour--about 7 minutes faster than my first one!

Drove to Cincy today and went to the Expo to get our race stuff. Thought about running this morning before we left, but Bill said we'd probably want to run tonight after being in the car all day. That made sense, so didn't run in the morning--but wish I had as it rained much of our drive and was still raining when we got to the hotel.

I decided to go to their little fitness center while Bill ran outside in the drizzle. I just walked for 15 minutes on the treadmill. Nothing much, but the 10k is in the morning.

Not a whole lot to say again, just did the quick mile around the neighborhood. We're leaving for Cincy in the morning and I don't know when/if I'll get a run in, so just want to do something leisurely before the race.

Ran 1.02 in 9:24 (9:12/mile pace). A little slow tonight.