What a Week!!

This week has been great! It is my highest mileage week and my longest run (20 miles) ever. I am now officially entering the taper period of my training next week. My total mileage for the week was 41.13 miles (running with a little walking) and biking 7 miles. I won't bore you with a lot of details as I've written a post just below this one.

Lots and lots of calories burned this week. There were 2509 burned one day, 1199 another day and 749 another. These were my highest as my total calories burned for the week was 5112...Woo-hoo!! I ought to be skinny, but it's not going that direction...huh??? This really doesn't make sense as my eating has not been "that" out of whack. I've also needed lots of rest this week. Okay...honestly, it's kinda tuckered me out.

This has been an exhiliarating week! I still can't believe I ran 20 miles the other day! Ran it!! It doesn't seem possible. Actually, I could never imagine me running 13 miles just three years ago. I've come so far.

I'm excited that I'm enjoying running like I do. I'm looking forward to new goals this year once I've finished the marathon in NOLA. After some good rest, I hope to work on my speed in all my races.

Thank you for supporting me during this time and I'll need your continued support until after the race!! I couldn't do it without you, my friends!

I Love New Things!

Yesterday, my running buddies and I put in our longest distance training run before our marathon in February. It was the first time we'd run with Deleica C. on our long run. Since she still works she doesn't have the flexibility to run at any time like we do. The day had been forecasted to be terrible...70% rain only lessening to 50% ALL day long. We'd plan to run but there were huge doubts that we would be able to make it. BUT...when we got up the weather fooled the meteorologists and gave us an absolutely perfect day to run. A little cool with some peaking sun rays throughout the run. As a matter of fact, it warmed up about 15 degrees while we ran. When we got there Keith B. was at the station putting in a long run. He joined us for the rest of his time about 2 miles.

Kent, also, joined us for this long run and he got in 11.5 for his training on his first half marathon race. He did better than planned and ended feeling well satisfied with his progress. He is loving his new compression socks. It was a great day to run long.

FOR THE NEW: Running with a new partner and running a new distance. We got in 21 miles total! It was so exciting!! We ran the 20 scheduled and ended with an additional 1 mile cool down. I can hardly wait until the race. I know from last year just how exciting this one is. There is a lot of fanfare and it will be needed to keep our minds occupied and not focused on running those 26.2 miles and how tired we might feel. We have trained and trained well. There have been no running injuries and we have stuck with the program. I must say that old Hal Higdon knew what he was talking about when he created the marathon program. It has worked and we are pleased with all our training.

I am pleased to add that, so far, we have been able to run all of our runs, even this one. I hope we will be able to do this in the race but, if not, I feel confident to say that we will be able to do most all of it.

The stats of our run today for 20 miles are: 3:38:07 minutes with a 10:53 pace and burning 2425 calories!! This is soooo exciting!!

Here is picture when we finished. Deleica, me and Frank B. Don't we look good after a 21 miler??


And now for a final picture showing how we felt with our new goal met. Happy, sassy and ready to go to NOLA!!

Another New Distance

This week started with a fantastic new running distance. Our program was scheduled to do 18 miles for our long run. A new excitement filled me as well as wondering how my body was going to respond to being on my feet that long. A friend called and asked if she could join us for part of the run. Her being an experienced marathoner, made it exciting to have her come along. With her funny personality, it lightened the 10 miles she ran with us and it seemed like 3 miles when it was over. Right now, we are like sponges soaking up everything we can learning about this adventure called "marathon". The run was an easy one and we talked about all aspecs of a long race. It renewed my desire to run in this marathon. She looked over our program/schedule and gave us her opinion on how we needed to change it. We're over-exuberant and tend to push ourselves further than we should. Can't help it but enjoying every new mile we run. But we now have our orders, ha! We is me and Frank. This is the first marathon for both of us. We run about the same and have been good partners during this training period.

This week increased our longest mile done so far 2 more miles. That's one more than we were schedule to do. But as we were finishing the 18th mile, we felt like we could extend it to another one. There was only one problem...I got cramps in my feet. This is a common thing for me and has caused me to fear this race. But with it occurring in the last mile, I was able to continue running until we finished. As we got close, I yelled for Kent to get out my vinegar and he had ready for me when I to the truck. Two swigs of ACV and I was good as new...whew!!! It stops my cramps immediately. That stuff is a God-send for me. Now I have something else to take in my bag while running the race but that's okay.

Other than this long run, the rest was not what I would call good ones. Seems I struggled with all of them feeling tired and worn. But I will get the rest I need to do my 14 miler on my step-down week next week. I expect a good run because all of my long runs have been good ones. The challenge: move our run to Tuesday. Severe weather forecasted for tonight through tomorrow...icy/snow. Bad combination. Keep warm and drive safely!