Off Season Races

It was never my intention to go this long between posts. Life has gotten the best of me lately. Between work, home, and getting my workouts in I barely have time to look around and see what's up.

Moving on..

I did the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving with my sisters' and Phil. It was great. I did exactly what I set out to do: run my own race. We started off and I was able to stay with speed demon my sister Hannah for the first half. Once we rounded the corner (it was an out and back race) she was able to go around some folks that created a wall once she was on the other side. So, I continued to run at the current pace. I was feeling good. No pain, no issues with my breathing. Around the 2.5 mile mark I started to feel fatigued. Phil caught up with me. He kept me going. He gave me pace updates (he had an ear bud in for his phone so he could hear feedback), he kept me moving. We ran together to the end. When I saw the time on the clock when I finished I was nearly in shock. It was just under 30 minutes. I was so happy and so ecstatic when I saw that. Hannah ran it faster, Sarah ran it slower. I didn't care. I am so proud of my time! It was really awesome to finish with Phil.

I've decided to run the It's a Wonderful Run 5k in Seneca Falls this Saturday. This one should be really festive. You start running at dusk and the route is lit up with the Christmas lights from the homes and businesses on the route. Seneca Falls is the inspiration for Bedford Falls from It's a Wonderful Life. They do a festival the whole weekend. Looks like it will be a great time. Sarah is running it with me, she rocks with her running as well. She is consistently getting faster, I love it!

My eating is, well, it's not great. It's not horrible. I'm enjoying life at the moment and that includes my indoor s'mores and cheese with my tacos. At the same time I haven't gained a significant amount of weight. If anything I have stayed steady. Which means all my workouts have been a way of maintaining the weight loss. Which is great and all but I would love to drop the last 5 or so pounds that I want to lose. Perhaps after the holiday season is over I can get back on a sensible, portion controlled, diet.

My training. It's been going, well if you had asked me two days ago I would have bemoaned how horrible it's going. How I don't feel like I'm getting any better, I'm not fast enough, so many people are faster or prepare better than me. However, it hit me yesterday. I actually AM improving. Typically on my training runs I am hitting a pace of 9:30/min miles. That's a full minute and half faster from the summer and a full half minute faster than my previous 'fast pace'. My swimming? Couldn't be better. I can knock off 1000 yards in 20 minutes. I could keep going if I wanted, because I don't feel winded or tired. The fact that I'm not injured, not out of shape, improving, means that I'm doing something RIGHT. I'll be honest, I love this feeling. This feeling that I'm working towards my goal paces and getting somewhere.

I am still planning on a half marathon in January. It will probably be the Nike+ Women's virtual half, but I just caught wind of the Manhattan Half Marathon. I need to talk to Phil but I'm considering that one instead of the virtual half, it goes through Central Park and surrounding areas. Sounds nice. We'll see. After the half I may concentrate on my swimming. My swimming goal is the 2.5 mile Peaks to Portland. To make that happen I need to start swimming some distance. 2.5 miles is roughly 4400 yards. I'm pretty sure I could do that, I say that with zero confidence. I think my long term goal for race season is an Olympic distance triathlon along with my two sprints. There's time to sort out which Olympic I do, but I will do one.

Christmas is approaching. I bought Phil's gift and I cannot wait until it comes and he opens it. The only thing on my list is a, admittedly unromantic, Garmin 910XT. Comes out in January.