ok so in an effort to try

So in an effort to try and a need to procrastinate from the presentation I'm writing for my class I figured I'd update.

So since tomorrow brings the scary day of registering for the Goofy Challenge I thought I would begin updating on the trials of a first marathon. Jon and I will be experimenting with training and nutrition to get ready for his first marathon (MCM) in Oct and mine in January (WDW). I'm going to need some motivator, besides starvation, to try things like GU. So we will start with review number 1.

Zipfizz!

Ok so we have been in search for an alternative to gatorade. And apparently this is what you can find when you decide to get pictures printed at Costco and you have 30 minutes to kill. Which means you start going through sample tables. As much as I love the free sausage, chips, and salad dressing they never have drinks. So when I found a table I stopped to sample. Come to find out there are 3 different flavors Pink Lemonade, Orange, and Grape. So far the Pink Lemonade is pretty tasty and the orange isn't to bad. But according to the nice lady it has more electrolytes then gatorade and the combo pack was a good price. It was $27 so for 30 packs that is about $.93 per thing, so totally cheaper. It also tastes better then the other flavor mixes out there. The others that I have tried all just make my water taste funky. I either want my water to taste good or just be water, but funky water just defeats the purpose of adding something to it.

So all in all it is pretty tasty. Not sure I would want it to replace gatorade just yet but right now I'm enjoying it for shorter and post runs!

Tuesday's choice

So Jon and I have made the choice to go big or go home. So one Tuesday I will be registering us for the Goofy Challenge and a half!! It will be my first marathon and well my first goofy. I'm excited about the challenge of 39.3!! I am someone who really works hard with a goal, so I am really looking forward to getting ready for it. I need a motivator. Last year it was to PR during the Baltimore half marathon. This year it is to get ready for Goofy, and hopefully the training will help me improve in the other areas of my running.

So Jon and I are looking forward to joining our friends for a fun 39.3 in 2012!! I'm just sad Jen won't be there to join me in my first marathon! But I think I will have a ton of support from my ROTE friends!!

Lots of firsts

So in the last month I got married and ran another half marathon.

Jon and I got married in Walt Disney World at the Wedding Pavilion on Feb 16! It was a truly magical event. All of our friends and family were there, including our running friends, which still surprises me! I say it surprises me because traveling to Fl for a wedding is a big deal and not at all cheap. I mean we had family that refused to come due to distance and price. So it meant a lot to both of us that with only a couple months notice all but 4 of our running friends came to the wedding.

We stayed in Disney for the week with the plan to fly back down the following weekend so that I could run the Princess half marathon and we could stay in the Treehouse. However, there was a crazy amount of drama at the airport and we ended up deciding not to go. I was disappointed to miss my first race but was glad to not deal with all the stress of the quick weekend. Instead we joined in with the Jen's for a 10 mile run on Sunday. Half way through this run I realized why fate didn't let me go down to Fl again. I was coughing and having such a hard time keeping up.

Thankfully, I had the week to rest up for the following weekend for the B&A Trail half marathon. I ran the B&A with Katie and Megan and it was a very enjoyable 13.1 miles. Lots of talks about trashy reality tv, zombie attacks, and a slew of other craziness. We ended up finishing in 3:15:00 which given the rain and everything was a really good time. So we enjoyed some hot pizza and rested up. Took care of Bob after his 4th marathon and then headed off to a yummy brunch.

And this week I have had the opportunity to see exactly why our group is so close. There is no runner left behind! I am proud to call the loopers my friends and now I am off to visit with 3 teenage boys and 4lbs of chili!!

Motivation

I need to find some. With all of the craziness that is the holiday season I have just been slacking, well that and the cold. I don't really care much for running in the cold. I appear to be a fairweather runner, lol. It is supposed to be 50 degrees on Saturday and I am really looking forward to an outdoor run!

So 2011 is almost here! I met most of my goals for 2010 and now it is time to start goals for 2011. Here we go:

1) Increase milage and get half fanatic status!
2) Decrease debt
3) decrease weight (just a little)
4) get out of wedding debt
5) graduate
6) Get puppy (this will be on my list till I get one)
7) as always drink more water!

Fall Race Recap

Ok so this fall meant my triumphant return to running races! My not so glorious entrance being the Disney Princess half in March.
After not so much arm twisting by Jen, I signed up for the Baltimore Half Marathon. Then the Disney Wine & Dine Relay, then the MCM 10K. So my goal for the summer was to be ready to run the Baltimore half and not want to die at the end, or collapse and actually die. These were my goals and I was determined to stick to them. So with a lot of super hot runs! I logged the necessary hours and got my butt ready to go.

First race on the books was the Disney Wine & Dine half marathon. Jon and I signed up for this one together and did the relay. This was Jon first actual race so it was a good way to get him started. Although most of the beginning was a lot og hurry up and wait once we got started it was good. Jen was running the whole half so we decided to run the first 5 together. It made the race so much better to have her there with me (this will be a theme throughout this post, lol). At mile 4.5 they split the relay folks and the full half people to divide up. I waved goodbye to Jen and headed off to trade off with Jon. The transition point was easy to figure out, although the lack of finisher photo frustrated me. So Jon headed off and finished up the last 8 miles. The after party was actually really lame for Disney standards. There has already been to much complaining about this so I digress.

Race number 2 this fall would be my mountain, the Baltimore Half Marathon. This was actually my make or break race. I had decided that this would decide if I was cut out for running. Everyone enjoys the high but I was really lacking in motivation and I was stressed with my crazy life (i.e. wedding planning, masters thesis, work, etc). So if I could run this race and not want to die and actually want to keep running, it would be a success. Jen decided at some point (bless her heart) it was her mission to get me through this race. Granted she did not know most of the above information. So we got into our decided upon corral and got started. This was a CRAZY hilly course. It made me so happy at mile 3 to see Aunt Peggy and Uncle Lou cheering me on!! Once I get past mile 3 I find that I am usually good to go, my wall at Princess was mile 10. Somewhere around mile 5 we found Tracy, who I ran with during the Striders training runs. She decided to stick with Me and Jen and Jen. So it became the invisible rope of Big Jen pulling Little Jen, who was pulling me, who was pulling Tracy. I was very much needed. I did hit my wall at 10 but was able to push through it, although I'll tell you I don't remember any of mile 11. I finally finished at 2:48:00 which is 1 whole hour better then my time at Princess!! I was floored and amazingly not dead! I would continue down this running road with a renewed spirit!

Enter race number 3, the MCM 10K. I went into this with the plans of enjoying the run. I joined Katie and we took off and she showed me the sights of DC and VA. I have to say that this was my favorite race of all 3! It was a great pace, great company, and a great day!

So all in all, it looks like my race time isn't quite over yet. With 3 lined up for 2011 it looks like I'll be going strong. That and if I'm not dead it looks like I want to bury the bling with me!

Doing better

I have been terrible about keeping up with this blog. So with all my crazy amount of free time (ha) I'm gonna try to pick this back up. Since as it states my goal is to do the Mickey Marathon and Goofy before I'm 30 (even crazier) since I realized I will meet this goal in 2015 which is the same as the 5x5x5, I think this is fate telling me something.

So I have been doing some 5K;s and 10K's this summer in an effort to run a real half marathon in the fall. Don't get me wrong I loved Princess (and my company) but we didn't really prepare, or try for that matter. This time I a running the 10th annual Baltimore Half Marathon. I believe that since I have the right training and the right partner to push the heck out of me that I might even finish in under 3 hours.

I joined a training group this summer and that was a good and bad idea. We had 2 coaches and 1 was really great and 1 was not so great. Alas, I didn't get to work with the good one until our last class yesterday. He ran with me and helped me with my cadance and speed. We worked on fartleks and breathing and it was so awesome to be learning. THAT is what a training group is supposed to do, TEACH.

So on saturday I plan to head to the starting line and run the best race I have run. I will have Jen with me. Who has become my training partner in the loopers. I appreciate her pushing me for the last few weeks, although I think I've been keeping her company on her amazing trek to run the MCM in 2 weeks. I need to remember not to kill her on Saturday, lol. Well folks the next time I post, I will be closer to my goal!

Hardcore training

So I've been feeling a bit in a rut about my running lately. My mental game has just been seriously off. I decided that I needed a goal and more structure to my "training".

Sidenote: I call it "training" cause there wasn't any. I was doing long runs on Saturday and the occational weekday run and wondering why I was getting slower!

Anywho, I joined the Howard County Striders and signed up for their "Next Step Program". It is half/full marathon training. This was the best $55 I've spent. I look forward to Tuesday nights becuase there is a coach there pushing me. I log hours all week becuase I know someone is watching my totals and will nag me if I don't make it, and I'm really not a fan of fake excuses.

Lesson from yesterdays session:

coach: we are going to run the 1.5 miles to Lollipop lane and then we will do sprints.

Kim starts on the 1.5 mile run actually looking for a street called Lollipop lane. Come to find out it is just a dead-end road, haha road, I mean HILL in the shape of a lollipop. You job up to the 1 mile mark and then SPRINT up the HILL and use the down as a recovery. Although I actually liked the sprinting and the hill work I did not really enjoy the 1.5 mile run back after all of this. But I know I'm doing the right thing because I always leave feeling so awesome! I wish I could push myself like that on a daily basis.


So onward to my goal of running the Mickey Marathon in January 2012!