The last few long runst

I am in taper week....
This is scary. So to not focus  on that I am going to discuss my longer runs. In hopes that I talk myself back into the realm of Xena Warrior Princess not yellow bellied sapsucker. I knew going into this that it wouldn't be pretty. Hubs has been out of town every other week for what seems like ages. I knew it would interfere with training and I dug in anyway. So here I am less prepared than I want to be and feeling way over my head. Okay enough with the poor me party here is the low down on the awesomeness of everything else.

My inhaler makes a difference! I have been having a hard time since my last half marathon in March with longer runs. Not only that but I have been getting slower! Which is frustrating and infuriating. I finally broke down and remembered to call the doctor for me and get an appointment in the middle of July. She gave me an inhaler and it makes a huge difference. The big problem I am finding now that I have had it is intensity. I can go along at like a 12 minute pace even an 11 but after 3 miles at a 10 I have to take another hit on the inhaler. Crank up my speed to do speed work and I feel my lungs getting tight. I plan on going back into the doctor next week to start trying to figure this out but right now I will plan on trying to keep that 12 or 11 minute mile pace for the marathon. I know my allergies to ragweed are at a high now so that will be a contributing factor I am sure. I plan on having a long chat with my kick but doctor next week.

I have gotten in one 20 miler. It was hard painful and not pretty and I really wanted to get another one in but it wasn't doable with childcare and the absent Hubs. On bright side I felt like the one real problem I had was that my joints especially my ankles were taking a pounding. I think I have solved that problem with new shoes! I love my Brooks PureFlows, did I say I loved them? I love my shoes, and really didn't want to switch but I have this slight case of Plantar Fascitis that is just hanging on a little bit. Hubs had kind of talked me into thinking I needed a stiffer shoe to work on that. Well thankfully the local running store had someone who loves them as much as I do and told me I didn't have to switch. Turns out my shoes were just dead, like D.O.A dead. In her experience PureFlows last no more than three months if your running over 20 miles a week.I bought a new pair that are a week old on friday and I can tell there is a difference.Wahoo for new shoes, boo for having to buy a new pair in three months. Unlike Jimmy Choos you don't keep these babies around just to look at and wear every once in awhile.

On my 20 miler I tried this awesome new gel, E-gel. It tastes like candy or at least the cherry flavor did. There wasn't any of that awkward gagging that happens with my other gels. I stocked up on three for the marathon and have two shot block packages as well. I also  know there are two gel stops on the course with Hammer gel which I also like.

The other really cool thing I tried was listening to Harry Potter on my ipod while I ran. I think I am doing it for the marathon. I love Jim Dale's reading of Harry Potter and it was a lot of fun since they are some of my favorite childrens books to read. (Translation I am a huge Harry Potter Nerd)

So I guess I am set with my gels, music/books, new shoes and tomorrow I go to get my North Face Stow and Go bra. Because I hate when my extra blubber makes odd shapes from the spii belts and such things. So I can stuff my bra for the marathon which sounds funny I know.

Lastly I need to mention that my awesome cousin and fellow Team Socky Monkey Mate Sonita Khan made my 20 miler possible. She watched my kids and drew me an ice bath and made cookies for me. She is the best. The other 15, 18 and 16 milers were not really anything to report about. Saturday here I come.

little more

A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.
Elbert Hubbard

I am not feeling the love of the treadmill today! In the winter I can do my long run without a hitch. My long run on Saturday night was 16 miles and it was slower than I would have liked due to boredom..dun dun DAH!
 I wrote that not this last weekend or the weekend before but 2  weeks ago, well not quite. The husband has been traveling a ton, and that means that my long run had to wait until he got back last weekend. Well I was exhausted literally because I slept through my alarm and didn't wake up until it was way to late to go. I run on the weekends before our crazy schedule of things we need to get done starts. But I took it in stride and thought I needed that it's okay. Fast forward a week, one glorious week he was home. In that week we adopted a new dog, bought a new garage door and tried to fill our time to the brim with everything we missed last week and everything we are going to miss for the next two weeks that the husband is gone.Have you ever tried that it's impossible to fill up with someones love and time because you still miss them like crazy once they are gone.  He left Saturday morning which meant no one was here to be with the kiddos so I could go out for a couple of hours to run 20 freaking miles. My sister is a rock star and came to stay with me Sunday night so I could hit the treadmill and try to get all my miles in. I had an EPIC FAIL, my plantar fascitis has been getting worse which I think is due in part to stress and after 8 miles I wanted to cry. It didn't help it was midnight so I called it quits and hated myself for it.
Fast forward to this morning, I am over my failure I have mileage to do this week and a long run of 20 miles this weekend and I think I can get around my babysitting problem to go in the morning but it will take creative problem solving.

I officially signed up for the marathon so even if my training has been thwarted by the husbands traveling I am going to run that sucker, slower than I would like but that means I can only improve. When I decided to do this marathon and not another one I knew he was going to be gone every other week and that getting my mileage in would be difficult at best but it felt like the right answer. So this is my silly life where sometimes there aren't enough hours in the day or enough me to get it all done and so I do my best. I am sure I disappoint some people and sometimes I disappoint myself. But at the end of the day I sigh and know that I am doing my best and that I am improving and hopefully the people  I love know that.

Torchlight 5K

Post Race Team Sock Monkey

Quick recap for the Torchlight 5k that happened on Wednesday night. This was a Team Sock Monkey event and we had a really good turnout of people. (This simply means that a bunch of us signed up and carpooled so we could all be together) The really cool thing about this run is that it's down Hennepin Avenue in the heart of Minneapolis and it precedes the Torchlight Parade. Every year I think this race grows in popularity and is sponsored by Lifetime Fitness so there was a good turnout. Last year due to record highs the race was cancelled and rescheduled. This year it was hot but not hot enough to call off the race. I was super excited about this race because I was running it with my mother, sister and cousin which always rocks. I was even more pumped because two new Team Sock Monkey runners joined us and they crushed it! My friend Amy F. decided at the last minute to join us and Nikki was running her first 5k! Of course when we finally got to the start line we met our other awesome friends  Emily, Amy O. and Talise and they had brought extra friends. Talise had a friend running her first 5k and Amy  had a friend running her first 5k. Can I just say how freaking cool that is. I love it when people catch the running bug and spread it around!

My sister Mary, my mom Lynnrae and ME!

It was hot and muggy and so many people that I don't think we crossed the official start for like 5 minutes. I plan on writing a separate post about my recent struggles with exercise induced asthma so I will just say that this was my first race with my inhaler and my second run with it ever. I was amazed at how much easier it was to run and breathe! I kept waiting for that struggling feeling that tired feeling and it didn't come. I was shooting at beating 30 minutes but that didn't happen. I had a great time I raced along with Amy F. and Nikki.  It was such a big crowded race that sometimes that slowed us down but it also feels awesome to be weaving in and out of people as you pass them. Towards the end I really wanted to kick it in but the street narrowed and it was hard to get past anyone. Going across the stone arch bridge it was congested! Never the less I finished at 31:43 and was pretty happy with that since I didn't feel like I was dead so I know I can beat that 30 minutes.

My cousin Sonita and I parking lot pre-race

Amy F and a little blurry me

 My biggest problem with the race was the management of the finish line. We crossed the line and almost came to a dead stop immediately and we were stuck in this hot crowd of people as we slowly shuffled towards the water and the food. Getting out of the crowd was impossible sincet they had barriers up. I was so hot at that point it was just miserable. Once we regrouped it felt awesome and we snapped the above picture. This year the t-shirt rocked and once you got to the food and water there was plenty including my favorite peanut nut rolls. It was an awesome night, thanks and congratulations to all our Team Sock Monkey
runners.

It was Nikki's first race

Amy O and I 

How I got here...

How I got here......Once upon a time I was a dancer. A  flowy pants, barefoot, martha graham loving modern dancer. I hated running! In fact I remember telling my husband after he took me on my first run that I would never do that again. Than a few things happened, my husband took a  stressful travel heavy job and I became a mom. The transition into stay at home mom wasn't  hard and I loved my job as a mom. (It probably helps that my kids are ridiculously cute and I am not biased my babies are so stinking cute) I still taught and I dreamt about starting to dip my toes into the things I use to do. There is something in people I believe  that needs to label as part of their identity. I am a dog person, or I am a geek kind of like that. A large part of my identity was wrapped up in being a dancer. There was a very visceral mind body connection that was part of my everyday life and that started to slip away. Motherhood does that because it's all consuming and it's very much like when you first fall in love since really that is what your doing is falling in love with this little angel that is a part of you. I fulling thought that I would get that part of my life back that physical part of a fit body and a love of dance. Than the thing that I think athletes dread the most happened, I got injured. My injury went fully undiagnosed for at least 6 mo nths and I got to the point of chronic pain. I felt like I had lost myself. Then something amazing happened, Dr. Sue Brown a DPT saved me. After many many months of physical therapy I started to move. The doctor told me that dancing the way I had before was out of the question but I needed some part of my physical identity back. One night in june I put on sneakers and some work out clothes and I told my husband I was going out for a run. I think the shock kept him from questioning me further. I wasn't gone long but I loved the feeling of freedom, and empowerment as my body sweated and my heart beat fast. I ran mostly at night and on weekends adding a block every night to lengthen my route. I even ran a 5k that fall and I felt like I became reborn. Life of course didn't let me just coast a year after my 5k I gave birth to twins and my running took a backseat to just the basics of survival with 4 kids 5 and under. Add a move and my oldest starting school and I was overwhelmed and then one day I knew it was time. I ran my first 5k and I was hooked again. Over the last 2 years I have committed myself to really making running part of my life. Running gives me a goal to shoot for, it relieves stress, and it daily teaches me about life.