I Did 18.5 Miles and That's It!

According to my training plan displayed in a recent post I was supposed to run 22 miles on Saturday. Well, I didn't quite make it that far, and I wasn't planning on it either. I decided about two weeks ago that running a marathon is hard, and no matter how far my longest training is, it's still gonna be hard. I've had several friends run 16 or 18 as their longest run and then they run that marathon similar to previous marathons, if not better! We'll see how it goes in 19 days...

^^Proof on the Garmin and what 18.55 miles looks like.^^

...Ahhh 19 days!? What? In some ways I'm happy it's coming quick. I need to get this thing over with and move on to other cool workouts that don't take up so much physical and mental energy. Mostly, I'm really scared for the race to come so quick because I don't know exactly what to expect. If it's anything like my first marathon a couple months ago, from mile 1-20 I'll be anxious and from 20-26 I'm going to hate it.

Until then, here's to the taper!

Happy Fitnessing!

What's the furthest long run you've ever done before a marathon? 

Do you love or hate the taper time?

Plane Rides in Lake Powell + A Training Update

Happy Monday! 

We were in Lake Powell with Redmond a couple weeks ago. Other than running a 6:56 mile before we left (woot woot), I pretty much took that whole week off of running. It was a nice break.
               
I love Lake Powell. The water, the rock and the serenity... sigh. It was so needed! I had a lot of fun teaching yoga to several of the 50 other friends down there. I even spent some time teaching (and showing off) how to do a headstand on the paddle boards. So cool!

Eric with our friend Kama at the Luau -- Eric's shirt was very appropriate.

One of our friends from Colorado was there with his plane and he was giving rides. It was an absolute blast flying high above the lake and landing on the beach next to our house boats. He was so nice and it was so cool of him to give everyone rides. Watch a little clip of my plane ride adventure here.


As far as training for the St. George marathon is going... I feel like I'm kind of over the training and I'm ready for the race, at least mentally. I just want to be done with my Saturday morning early long run. Each week it just gets harder to gather up the motivation to make it out the door when all I want to do is sleep in and go to a Zumba and/or Power pump class instead. Maybe I should savor this training time though, come January I'll probably be missing the warm morning runs.

Happy Fitnessing!

The Weekend Update

Friday night I went to bed early (like most lame marathon trainers do on weekends) I couldn't really sleep because I was anxious about the oh so mighty 20 miler I had planned. By 5:30am I was wide awake and so bugged thinking about all the excuses to get me out of running. Excuses like....

 -I was too busy with work and how could I be expected to be on my feet all day helping with a big project after running 20 miles??
 -I didn't eat enough carbs to run that far (my stomach full of spaghetti knows that is a phony excuse)
 -My foot was hurting. I've had some achy pain on the outside of my right foot which doesn't hurt when I run but really aches when I stand or walk.

After debating this in my head for about 40 minutes I sucked it up, got out of bed and got ready for my run. I wasn't sure how far I would go but I was going to run, and that decision was the first and most important one.

I decided to play a game on this run to make it a little more entertaining. I counted all the women versus men I passed (just the runners) to see which gender had more dedication ;) and guess what the score was?

Women = 67    Men = 42

It really didn't surprise me much. Girls rule! :)

Anyway.... with the help of a game and some Clif Shot Bloks (my new favorite) I made it 15 miles and was still able to work hard on my work project all day.

Oh, and had I NOT gone out for my long run Saturday morning, I would have missed this.....

One day I hope to perfect my picture taking WHILE running. Until then, excuse the blurriness of this one. You get it.

Saturday night, after a most busy, stressful, hectic and long work week Eric took me to Chef's Table for an epic dinner. What a guy! I can't say enough about how good he is to me.

Happy Fitnessing!

18 Miles this Weekend

Last week I had sort of a mental and physical breakdown. As I've mentioned earlier, work has been busier than usual lately and I made myself sick with the stress of it this past Wednesday. Eric, being the awesome guy that he is knew just how to cheer me up... with display of my favorite guilty pleasures and beautiful bouquet of flowers to top it off.

I will say that was a great view while working at home.

With being sick and stressed, I was not sure how my long run would go on Saturday. Especially since the week before my long run was crap crappy. I woke up at 6am. I hated being awake so that was already a bad sign. I just kept telling myself that I had no choice, this is just part of marathon training. After getting ready, I spent a little time with my foam roller and didn't leave the house until 6:45. I got into my running groove pretty quick (thank goodness) and my goal for this run was to not walk, at all. I stopped to get some ice cold running water at mile 13 on the canyon trail (the most glorious thing on a hot morning run) and then started running again right away.

Even though I was slower than I'd prefer, it was a much more enjoyable run than last week. That's the thing I'm learning... while I would like to get faster and have future speedy goals I'd like to accomplish, the most important thing right now is that I enjoy this hobby I have invested so much time (and money) in. If that means slowing down and taking it easy then so be it. I don't want to hate running.

Later Saturday afternoon I tagged along with the boys on their adventure up the canyon where they shot their guns at paper zombies and coke bottles. I may have even taken a shot or two, but mostly I sat there and rested my poor feet.

We left just in time as the rain started to come down. Eric and I sat on the porch when we got home and watched and listened to the rain. Love it.

That pretty much summed up our weekend because the rest of it consisted of sitting around watching movies and relaxing with each other (our favorite thing to do). Thank goodness for the weekend. Hope yours was great too!

Happy Fitnessing!

What is your favorite thing to do on the weekend?

Training, Life, and Love.

Hey blog world! I've been so darn busy lately. Work is consuming me and all my time away from it just allows for me to eat, sleep, spend a little time with Eric and marathon train. Speaking of marathon training... I'm currently on the upswing of my training. I've been doing more cross-training, increasing my mileage and despite a yucky, boring 16 mile long run on Saturday, I've changed my attitude towards running. I've turned my frown upside down. I'm still working hard to accomplish my goals but I'm not placing so much pressure on myself. Now I'm able to find more satisfaction from the early mornings, two-a-days and other joys of training. Here's a few pics from life lately...

 16 miles on a new trail.

 After listening to the audiobook Pride and Prejudice during my running and other workouts these past couple of weeks I had to watch the BBC 6 hour version. Such a classic. I can't help talking like them in my daily conversations. "Such a trifling matter, I dare say!"

 Working on increasing my short distance speed... my 1 mile PR was 7:02 last week! Also, I've been consistent in dedicating 1 day a week to challenging leg exercises and it's really paying off! 

 Playing with my niece Marlee <3

 Jumping on the tramp and planking away.

 Date night with this guy and this sunset!

Happy Fitnessing!

Marathon Training Schedule :: St. George Marathon

Hey guys! I wanted to share my marathon training schedule for the St. George Marathon coming up in October. I've never laid out a training schedule this way but I'm excited to see how it helps. Hopefully creating this and putting it out there for people to see will make me feel more accountable and in turn more motivated to be consistent with training.

You can see I scheduled a 5k and a half marathon into this plan as well as a vacation. Thing is, I'm sure life will get in the way at some point and I'll have to adjust my original plans so I'm keeping another version of this where I can write what I actually do and I'll compare later. I've also put my goals into writing because it feels more serious that way. 

The longest run in my training plan for the Utah Valley Marathon was 20 miles. After running that race I've decided that 22 miles might be a better goal long run for me because I hit the wall around mile 21 and I need to work through that during a practice run in order to be prepped mentally for the race. It is different for everybody though, generally if you can run an 18 mile long run, you can run a marathon so if you want to follow this plan you don't have to do that long of a practice run.

Today I start week 2. I'm still recruiting running buddies if you're interested... :)

Happy Fitnessing!

My First Marathon :: Utah Valley Marathon

 

I woke up at 3am (as if running a marathon isn't hard enough..) got dressed, pinned on my number, ate half a bagel with peanut butter and double, no triple checked to make sure I had everything before I left.   I kept feeling like I was forgetting something. When I loaded onto the bus at 4:15am I realized what it was... my Garmin... dang it! At first I panicked but then I figured I would be okay and just stay close by a race pacer.

We arrived at the start line at 5am. The race would start at 6am so I had a good hour to wait. I did some yoga, stretching, and drink a little green tea to help wake me up. I was really glad I wore full on sweats to keep me warm. It wasn't too cold but it was nice to not be standing and shivering for an hour.

As the race was about to start I lined up with the 4:35 pacer so I would be reminded to start slow. The race started and we were off! It was a beautiful morning. I didn't listen to music at first, I just tried to enjoy the moment and soak it all in. I was still nervous... what would happen during the next 26 miles?? I  tried to relax and ease into my pace. Before I knew it I was passing mile 3.. at mile 4 I turned my music on and that relaxed me a lot. I was in the groove. At mile 6 I could hear a number of people around me discussing where the porta potties were. They were supposed to be at mile 3 and every other mile after that but they were no where to be found. Runners were running into the bushes left and right. Oh the joys of being a runner :) But I was confused about where the potties where. It kind of freaked me out because there is really nothing worse than running and having nowhere to go if an emergency hits. Because of this I didn't drink as much water as I should have.

At mile 9 I ate some of my chews and drank a little water. Right after that a cramp hit my tummy. Uh oh... I ran it off but it was a really bad moment. It was a little disappointing too because I was at one of the most beautiful parts of the course. Deer Creek was to my right and a gorgeous mountain stretch was to my left.

Mile 13 brought a whole stretch of porta potties where the half marathon started. I decided to use one just in case there weren't any more during the rest of the race. Mile 14 I saw my friend Tika running towards me with a big sign that said "Chelsea Power" it was awesome! She is so cool! It gave me such a boost of energy just as I was thinking ohhh crap I'm only halfway done.

2 miles later I saw my sister Larissa - another boost of energy but short lived as the sun began to pound down on me. Oh the heat. I thought my shoulders were going to fry up. Between mile 19 and 20 there was a archway that said "Crush the Wall" which I thought was cool. I ran through that thing like I was crushing the wall, which I would soon hit at 22.

Mile 21 I saw a glorious sight, Eric was there with an ice cold water bottle! From mile 21 on I felt like I could not get enough water. I'm pretty sure I got dehydrated because by mile 23 I felt totally delirious. I was not myself and I was angry even though Larissa jumped in to run the rest of the way with me. I wanted to cry. I wanted to be done. I really didn't think I could make it. I was so thirsty. I had to turn off my music just to stay focused. My legs weighed 1000 pounds and the sun was pounding down on me. I tried to put on a brave face. I knew it would be hard... but I didn't expect it to be that hard. I walked for a few minutes and then ran and then walked again for another couple minutes.

^^Can you spy me as I head towards the finish line??^^

Oh joy, the otter pops! I was so excited to get those, even though the came a little late in the run (mile 25) the combination of that treat and 1 mile to go helped me get into a good pace and I ran steady the last mile until I crossed the finish line and in disbelief accepted the medal I had trained so hard for. It was a great feeling. I cried for about 2 seconds as I tried to catch my breath and then decided it was time to celebrate. I grabbed two cups of water and found my family and friends. I truly have the best fans! My dad, brother, sister, and a whole group of friends were there cheering me on. It was a great experience.

^^Comparing the marathon medal to the half marathon medal... Olivia is amazing, she won 3rd place in her division!^^

My official time was 4:32 which isn't as good as I had originally wanted but with not having my Garmin and losing my pacer somewhere around mile 13... by mile 24 I had no idea what time it was and it seemed like it was late since it was so hot. I thought I'd be lucky to finish under 5 hours so when I saw 4:32 on my time card I was happy with that. I may be crazy but I've already plotted out me training plan for the St. George marathon in 17 weeks! More to come on that later, right now I'm just trying to recover and enjoy this amazing feeling of accomplishment. I did it!

This guy..... :) Haha 

Happy Fitnessing!