I started running in the fall of 2007. I truly believe I was inspired to start running and I have seen some very big blessings come my way because of following that inspiration.
Ran Boston Marathon 2013 & 2014. My favorite PRs: 2011 at the SG 1/2 and 5K where I ran the 5K in 22:22. 2013 Nebo 1/2 (downhill) 1:36:15
Short-Term Running Goals:
Long-Term Running Goals:
Running throughout life with Tom. Staying healthy and happy.
Learn from others, learn from myself, work hard, do my best, enjoy!
On running and on life.....
On occasion we need to make a second effort - and a third effort, and a fourth effort, and as many degrees of effort as may be required to accomplish what we strive to achieve.
~Thomas S. Monson~
Personal:
Going to St. George? Bag the hotel and stay in one of our condos instead!
Time for our "City Tour Ten" again. Up and down the streets of our good ole windy city. This gives us a mini long run/hill workout in the middle of the week.
Yesterday I got to go with my dear friend out for massages and lunch to celebrate our b-days. One word...."heavenly"! My cute little massage thearapist at the Yardley Inn and Spa in Manti is my favorite! She works the legs exactly how I need them at this point in marathon training.
Tom and I shook things up a bit today and ran down west, mostly on some of the city trails. It was a nice morning. Not many others out at first but finally started seeing a few people enjoying the early morning. Rest day tomorrow then 20 on Saturday.
Best long run of the year! Loved it! Woo Hoo! I'm feelin' it! Yippee Yahoo! Good Golly Miss Molly! And any other type of woo hoo you can think of! I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful!
Beautiful run down Provo Canyon to Utah Lake with my really cute running partner! I just really can't think of anything negative about the run at the moment. We thought the detour on the Provo Trail was going to mess us up but it actually took us to exactly 20 at the finish.
Now....if only I can have the same kind of experience in 4 weeks with adding another 6.2 miles on!
Tom and I are both still feeling really good after yesterday's 20 miler. I am just sitting here trying to figure out a way to can or bottle all the things that went into making it such a great run so I can pull it off the shelf and use it whenever I need it. Then I could start selling it and make a fortune!
Here we are at the start of another week. One thing about marathon training is the weeks seem to go really fast. I'm not sure if that is good or bad. The chilly fall like mornings are kind of bittersweet. I love this time of year, I guess I just wish it would stick around longer.
Last night I was up until midnight with our cute almost 10 year old daughter, Tia. She had a tooth that needed to come out but was just not wanting to! It was hanging on for dear life no matter what we tried. We were twisting and pulling and pushing. Finally at 12:05 I had it with the needle nose pliers and gave one final twist and pull and it was finally over! Whew! I was glad I wasn't going to have to wake up early for today's run. We woke up at 7:00 which was just perfect and got out just in time to see the sun poke it's pretty little head up over the top of the mountain.
We went to the airport yesterday to pick up our cute Japanese friend, Aoi, who will be staying with us for the next week and a half. So fun to have her here with us. Time to enjoy the day off with family and friends!
Time for our Tuesday ten, up and down the streets of the city. Into the wind on the up hill and the wind at our backs on the down hill. Chilliest morning yet....but was ok. I don't really look forward to it getting any colder than this, but there's not a lot I can do about it but but bundle up and enjoy each run. Because there may come a day when I can not run...but today is not that day! : )
As much fun as marathon training is, I think I might be happy to be done with it soon. Today was nice, but a little hard to get going the first few miles. The wind always plays with our heads a bit here in our windy city. Taking a rest day tomorrow and then doing another 20 on Friday so we can help with the Spanish Fork 1/2 marathon on Saturday.
Now I'm making a bunch of freezer jam that the family will eat way too fast!
We had to get our long run in today because tomorrow we are helping out at the Spanish Fork 1/2 marathon. We did the same thing as last Saturday. This time we had my friend, Anna Lisa, with us. It was so nice because her nice hubby woke up early to take us to the top so we didn't have to drive back up to pick up a vehicle afterwards! Yeah Justin! Thank you so much!
It was pretty dang dark up there in that canyon at 5:45 A.M.! Luckily it was Friday morning so most people were going to work and there wasn't much traffic anywhere. Loved having the trails mostly to ourselves!
It was another enjoyable long run...I guess I won't have one this long again until the actual marathon. Last week and this week I took and Ibuprophen at the start and then at mile 10. I use to not like the idea of taking anything while running because I felt like it just masked the pain and made things worse by running on an injury you are not aware is happening. But I am now believing that a little bit of IB helps keep the inflamation down. I will plan to use some for the marathon.
Saturday countdown to the marathon...
Tomorrow: Help at the 1/2 marathon
Next Saturday: Celebrate 24 years with my absolutely amazing hubby! Run a 14 - 18 miler at Fish Lake.
Saturday after that: Run the Dirty Dash with that same cute hubby! Can't wait...should be lots of dirty fun!
I had to take our cute friend, Aoi, to the airport this morning so I had to get my run in with the sun. I guess that is probably good for me since I'll most likely be seeing some of that on the marathon.
I just decided to go back and look at my first two marathon reports and remembered this funny story from last year! : )
Anyway, those who seen me the last bit probably saw a lot of grimacing! During that time, Tom realized that our van key had slipped from his little hidden pocket in his shorts and fallen into a new little pocket, not intended to store keys in. :) As he told me where the key was and watching him try to get it out I got laughing and laughing! I'm sure people thought I was delirious or something, (which I may have been)! And they probably wondered what in the heck he was doing! Anyway, the key was put back in it's proper place, as was everything else and we continued on.
Then I read on and remembered that I said I was going to wait 2 years until my next marathon.....oh well, I guess I forgot I said that. : )
I would love to run another marathon someday. I think I will give it 2 years though. I want to think only about 1/2 marathons and less for the next while!
And last but certainly not least....I loved what I said here.....
A big thanks to a great hubby who sacrificed a perfect year to run this marathon with me! It was a lot like life....ups and downs, grimaces and laughter, joy and pain.....but together the whole way through!
And I get to have him with me all the way through this marathon too!
Only 9 miles up and down the streets of SF today instead of ten like we have been doing for several weeks. Beautiful morning...no moon so it was pretty dark. The stars are always a nice sight to see! Still feeling good about everything. Starting to get a bit more excited each day.
Today our sweet daughter, Tani, became a 13 year old! Ya know how there are 2 different kinds of people in this world? One that makes you happy when they come and one that makes you happy when they leave? Well, Tani is definitely one that brings joy when she comes around you! Tom and I are very lucky to have such a wonderful daughter!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TANI GIRL! I LOVE YOU!
Oh, and it felt good to have a rest day today too! Back at it tomorrow!
When the alarm woke us this morning we decided to ignore it and get a few more Zs. Tom is taking the day off so we can head off for a nice little anniversary get away, so we decided it was ok to get the run in after the kids went to school. It was nice to run in the beautiful sunshine today! The mountains around here are starting to be so colorful! I can't wait to get down to Fish Lake and see how pretty it is! Thanks to my parents for coming to take care of home and family for us while we away!
Tom and I got to spend the weekend down at Fish Lake. We left Friday and came home Sunday morning. (I'm writing this on Monday). We are very grateful to our kids and to my mom for taking care of things here so we could go without a single worry on our minds. We spent our honeymoon at Fish Lake 24 years ago this same weekend! It was so fun and so beautiful down there! This is such a perfect time to be in places like that! The colors of the trees, the mountains and even the water were so vibrant!
Part of our anniversary plan was to run 16 miles on Saturday. We figured that since we were at 9000 feet elevation that we didn't need to go the whole 18 that was planned on the schedule. We took off one direction on the Lakeshore Trail and went out 3 miles. Unfortunately, even though I thought I was watching carefully, I did a nice face plant in mile 2. It was one of those falls where you feel like everything is in slow motion. I knew there was nothing I could do and thought it was really going to be ugly. But the MPAs (marathon protection angels) were on hand to make it as smooth as possible. I still feel stiff in my shoulders from catching myself but absolutely no other injuries came out of it!
After going out 3 miles we turned back to the start and headed the other way. The trail took us another mile and a half and then started going too far up the mountain. We decided to come back down and go out on the road and back for a few miles. We met up with the local cow heard and gave them a little run for their money. I think we must have threatened them or something so they all started running. But instead of running away from us they all just ran with us! Not really my idea of fun. The couple in the truck trying to get through the pack seemed to get a pretty good kick out of watching the whole thing! : ) Anyway, we were happy when the cows figured things out and ran down and away from us.
When we turned around and started heading back I got a bit of the mental "want to stop" feeling. We stopped while I drank some Gatorade and then we were off again and the feeling was gone. I enjoyed the rest of the run back to the cabin.
After showering we decided to walk the mile and a half trail back to the restraunt for lunch. On our way there I guess Tom was a bit jealous that I had done me a face plant so he decided to add one of his own. Luckily we were moving slowly at that time and he came out ok too.
Enjoyed lunch, the walk back to the cabin and a nice nap without guilt for ignoring the family all day.
The same ole' Tuesday up and down the hilly streets with the wind. The only difference was that we ran 8 instead of ten...,taper time. I seemed to feel each part of my legs and feet today. Getting nervous about doing something stupid to injure me this late in the game.
OK, I know I am probably just being a little paranoid, but I would rather caution on the side of not getting injured at this point. I decided to take my rest day today rather than tomorrow. Saturday Tom and I did 16 miles with a lot of it on trails. I'm not use to running trails so I was a bit nervous about doing something wrong. I think the only thing I actually did wrong was trip on the rock in mile 2 and slam to the ground, but other than that all was well.
Monday we did easy but threw in some strides and yesterday we did some hills. Last night while I was walking around the neighborhood doing Primary business I felt a bit of a pain in the left ITB area. That is my biggest weak point and I am scared to death to have it flare up before SGM. So last night I decided that today would be a rest day. I hope I don't freak out about every little ache and pain this next week.
I really, really, REALLY want to run this marathon without ITB issues! I have ran SGM in 08 and 09 and had troubles both times that have really slowed me down and caused me much pain! I'm hoping that the ole "third time's the charm" saying comes true for me this year. I'm not really concerned about time as much as I am concerned about injury.
I am glad I got to get out and run today. Usually I take Thursday off but since I took yesterday off I got to get up and go today. What an absolutely beautiful morning! I don't think it could have been any better for a nice run in the morning with the hubby! Temps...perfect! Moon....full and beautiful! Wind.....NOT THERE! Solitude with the hubby....nice! Aches and pains and phantom injuries....not there! Yeah!
Tom and I were able to get our 10 in today after the kids headed off to school. Tom has to take a few vacation days so today was one of them. Still feeling good. This marathon training has mostly been miles in the 9:00- 9:30 range to see if it will help nix the ITB issues that seem to haunt me. But today we did the last mile in 8:20. It was fun to know I can go faster than 9s at least for a mile.
Tomorrow is the Dirty Dash. It should be lots of fun....I just hope we don't get some dumb injury there.
The first day of the last week. The first 3 miles of this run felt like lead but the last mile felt good. One out of four.....I guess that's what I get for today. I am actually just grateful that the eventful Dirty Dash from Saturday didn't do any damage to either of us.
BTW: Does Ryan Hall ever freak you out the way he looks at you when you are typing your report?
Only one more day of running then 2 days rest before my long run on Saturday! Still feeling good. Tail bone a bit sore from a fall at the Dirty Dash Satruday but not bad.
