i want adventure in the great wide somewhere - running journal! (comments welcome)

[xjillianpaige]

Week 9 of Training
8 Weeks to Half Marathon​

I did very little (read: none) of this:

And a lot of this:



I hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve & Day!

Tomorrow's temperature when I would normally wake up for a run will be -4 degrees! So I'm going to finally do it and pack some clothes to bring to work and go for a treadmill run before I go home for the day. Let's hope most people's resolution lasted less than a day and there's an available treadmill!

 

[xjillianpaige]

I had to give you all a quick update! I went for a run on the hamster wheel - um, I mean, treadmill - tonight for 30 minutes and it went really well! I've had a theory for some time now that I could run all 30 minutes of my Tues/Thurs runs if I wanted to, but was too nervous to try. Then all this snow and cold and ice showed up and derailed my training. Well, I packed up my clothes and sneakers so I could go to the gym after work for a treadmill run (the gym was packed, btw, all those resolution people) and did all 30 minutes without stopping! I'll post a more detailed update on Sunday - but I'm just super excited and had to share! It feels good to be back on the saddle!

 

[xjillianpaige]

Week 10 of Training
7 Weeks to Half Marathon​

New Year, new me! Except not really. It's still the same me, except this time I got all my runs in for the week - even with negative temps and a few feet of snow! I'm pretty excited to recap it for you, especially because seeing all the marathon runners this weekend (seeing in the reading-threads-online sense) has me super inspired!

Before I jump into the week's recap, I want to let you know my New Year's Resolutions/Goals. Now, Resolutions don't work. They're bogus. SMART goals work. Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely. Here are my goals:

1. Drink more water. When I leave the house, I should have at least a 16 oz water bottle filled. I should be refilling it at least once more, with the goal of getting to a point where I have 3-4 a day for a total of 48-64 oz.
2. Practice Yoga. I am going to start including a Friday morning yoga class into my weekly schedule. I already talked to my supervisor, as my day is supposed to start at 9:30, but she's cool with me starting closer to 10:30 on Fridays (that gives me about 15 minutes after the class to get ready for the day - the class is at my place of employment). I'm even considering getting into a regular enough practice that I can eventually be certified to teach classes.
3. Diversify my exercise. My half training goes through the Princess half, obviously. If it goes well, I'll sign up for another half, but this time I want to incorporate some cross training, very likely doing a barre class at least once, if not twice a week. Gotta build that strength!

Now! Into my week!

Week 10 Plan:
Tuesday, January 2: 30 minutes
Thursday, January 4: 30 minutes
Saturday, January 6: 4 miles w/ mm

Week 10 Actual:
Tuesday: 30 treadmill minutes
Thursday: 30 treadmill minutes
Sunday: 4 ish treadmill miles • 12:45 avg. pace

Well, folks, I'm back on the hamster wheel.

Tuesday after work I went to the gym for a 30 minute run. It was super packed because of all the resolution people (the front desk staff think it'll cool down around February). I threw my stuff into my boss's office and went down to change. One of my friends said that the treadmills overlooking the pool had a feature where you could toggle between two paces, but none of those were available. A friend working front desk had seen a treadmill open up and told me about it, so I took off and grabbed it.

I did a 3 minute warmup at a 20 min/mile pace (I think that's about 3.0 mph). Then I upped the pace for my run to a 4.5 mph/13:20 pace. I did that for 20 minutes straight - no walking breaks - and then around 10 minutes left I decided to play with the speed a little and slowly increased, maxing at 11:59 pace. I then slowed down again back to the 13:20 pace before hitting the cool down option. I learned that the treadmill has a cool feature where it slowly slows you down during the cool down over a period of 5 minutes, so I think I'll use that next time. This time I dropped the time to 3 minutes and set it for a 20:00 pace, then it slowed me down more throughout the 3 minutes.

Treadmill runs are mostly hard for this reason: I get bored. I like to look around during my runs and check out houses (another goal: buy a house by the time I'm 30) and what's happening around me. The treadmill does have a screen, so I turned on a feature where you can pick a place in the world and follow that route or trail. I tried to trick myself into thinking I was outside, but it didn't really work. I felt good on the treadmill, just a little bit of quad and knee pain, but I think that was just my body working out the kinks from not running. Also some foot pain, which I think is related to how my shoes were tied. I haven't had pain for my other runs. I don't know what my distance was, because I accidentally turned off my workout about 10 minutes in and had to start over.

Thursday was the snowmageddon snowpocalypse bomb cyclone storm, so I did not go outside. I instead used the treadmill in my basement which is at least 15 years old. It was scary and unpleasant and I will not be using it again. If, for some reason, the weather gets so bad again that I can't leave my house, I'll be walking to my neighbor's house who has a treadmill in a finished basement that looks at a TV. And then I can play with her 15 month old daughter who I love and her 5.5 year old son who is CRAZY pants and I also love.

Anyway, this was a terrible run. I did this at a 4.0 mph speed but it felt AWFUL and I thought I was going to run off the belt because I was going faster than it, but 4.5 felt too fast this time? I didn't feel like I was running well so I didn't do the 30 straight like I did on Tuesday and did lots of walking. It was A Mess ™. At the very least, it has a feature where the belt is measured out and math happens so that it tells you how many times around a quarter mile track you go, so I know that I ran just over 2 miles, which is not as far as I usually go on my 30 minutes runs, as proven by the record of this journal.

Today, Jenna and I met at the gym at 8:30 for a 4 mile run. I threw my stuff into the front desk's office and met her at a treadmill. They were all being used, but two girls jumped off and we snagged them. So we didn't have to wait long. Jenna showed me how the Jeff Galloway app can be used for a treadmill and we started. The warmup was 3 minutes at 3 mph (20:00 minute mile) so I sped it up to 3.5, which is around a 17/18:00 minute mile. Then the app told me to run for 4 miles at 6.0 mph, which is 10:00 minute mile, which felt a bit fast, so I dropped it to 5.6 mph which is a 10:42 minute mile, which seems fast but I went with it. This time I did ratios again, 2:30 to 1:00. The Galloway app got weird on me because I had to switch it from "just run" to the ratio, so I think the app thought I hit 4 miles before the treadmill hit 4 miles, so I went with what the treadmill did. Eventually the app fixed itself and got the ratios right, but I think that's why it was all off. When all was said and done, I did just over 4 miles in about an hour. The treadmill did give me my final average pace of 12:45, which is right on target for what I want to train at.

When I was leaving the gym, James (he's the associate director of health and wellness and has been trying to get me to be one of his clients for training forever) saw me and his jaw dropped. I told him that he can't tell anyone he saw me at the gym, I have a reputation of not-working-out to protect, but he was really excited to see that I'm "committed" and he's going to tell everyone. How many months until the snow and ice melts and I can run outside consistently again?

Coming Up:
Tuesday: 30 minutes
Thursday: 30 minutes
Saturday: 11 miles (9.5 miles more likely - 12 miles will probably be my max mileage leading up to the race)

Now that I have some treadmill miles under my belt, I'm not so intimidated. I can definitely do 9.5 miles on the treadmill if I have to next weekend. Not ideal, but doable!

 

[xjillianpaige]

Week 11 of Training
6 Weeks to Half Marathon​

The snow melted thanks to a big warm up (it hit 50 degrees) and I got myself outside. Let's get to it:

Week 11 Plan:
Tuesday, January 9: 30 minutes
Thursday, January 11: 30 minutes
Saturday, January 13: 9.5 (11 according to the Galloway plan) miles

Week 11 Actual:
Tuesday: skipped
Thursday: 30 treadmill minutes
Sunday: 9.5 miles (ish?) at some pace

I had every intention of running 30 treadmill minutes on Tuesday. I packed clothes and even scheduled out when I would eat before going to the gym. But then I got really hungry and ate my food earlier than intended and then I got really hungry AGAIN right around the time work got out, then my friend texted me about going to grab food so I did that.

Thursday I got onto the treadmill and did 30 minutes at a 12:45 pace and went 2.77 miles! I ran the whole thing and felt really good.

Thanks to all of the rain and melting of the snow banks, Jenna and I decided to go for a 10.5 mile run on Sunday. We went to a pond that is around 3.2 miles around and did that loop just about 3 times. We only did around 9.5 miles because the sun disappeared and it got so cold. It felt like 8 degrees, so we decided to call it quits around 9.5 miles and next weekend if it's warmer (we've decided it has to feel like 25+) then we'll do a 12 mile run.

Unfortunately, I forgot to turn on my Endomondo so I don't have any splits or knowledge of the exact mileage, and when I did finally turn it on, I didn't switch it off of treadmill mode, but when all was said and done, she and I ran for just about 2+ hours. Then we went out for breakfast.

Coming Up:
Tuesday: 30 minutes
Thursday: 30 minutes
Saturday: 4 miles w/ mm (or 11 miles because why not?!)

 

[xjillianpaige]

Week 12 of Training
5 Weeks to Half Marathon​

This time, I went for a long run and it wasn't freezing cold. Let's recap!

Week 12 Plan:
Tuesday January 16: 30 minutes
Thursday, January 18: 30 minutes
Saturday, January 20: 4 miles w/ mm (but Jenna and I had our own goal)

Week 12 Actual:
Tuesday: 30 treadmill minutes
Thursday: skipped
Saturday: 14.27 miles • 3:07:14 • 13:07 avg pace

Let's just say that, at this point, 30 minutes on the treadmill is 30 minutes on the treadmill. Nothing remarkable to note, except that the TV on my hamster wheel was broken so I had no entertainment for 30 minutes. I again ran at a 12:45 pace the entire time, but the last 5 minutes I did some minutes of a faster pace and then cooled down. The guy next to me was at 7.something mph the whole time and was running very strangely. I was nervous he was going to fly off it and hurt himself.

As for the weekend... Jenna and I decided to go for a Saturday run since she had family brunch for her dad's birthday. The weather was promising with 40 degree temps! That already seemed MUCH nicer than last weekend.

We also decided to find somewhere that had a longer distance so that it wasn't so repetitive. Our choice for this run was the local bike path. We started around the beginning of the path and decided to run for x miles in one direction, then back. Our goal was 11 miles at minimum, but 12 miles was the stretch goal we were aiming for.

Jenna set her Galloway app for the 12.5 mile workout since there isn't a 12 mile workout and we started our run. It was a really nice path to be on - flat, more or less straight, and paved. There were some patches of snow and slush but overall not bad to run on. It was fairly busy with cyclists and walkers and runners, but it was wide enough that Jenna and I rarely had to get single file.

We ran through three towns before it was time to turn around, and here is where it got weird. According to my app, we were turning around at the 7 mile mark, which meant it would be another 7 miles back to the car, and 7+7 =14. I told Jenna this and we were confused, but chalked it up to my app including the 3 minute warm up into our time and distance. We just figured that's why there was a discrepancy in my app and hers.

So, we turned around and made our way back, and it seemed like it was going a lot faster this time, so we did more justifying. "Well, when you're on your way somewhere but you don't know quite where it is, it seems to take a lot longer, the way back will feel faster." "It's the app, they're weird, GPS can be wrong." "I remember this landmark, but I thought it came after this one, but apparently it comes before, that's why we're confused."

Then my app whispered in my ear that we had hit 13 miles.

Wait, what? The workout was supposed to end at 12.5 miles and we hit 13. I mean, sure there's the 3 minute warm up included in mine and not Jenna's, but still. And we've still got about a mile to go.

We're still not sure WHAT happened out there, but somehow we accidentally ran 14 miles (once we hit mile 14 on my app, we decided to walk the rest of the way). Now we know that we can finish the half marathon in Disney, so our plan for the rest of the training cycle (since we made a major jump that neither of us intended to make) is to run 6 miles next weekend, then 12 miles, then 6 miles, then 4 miles, then race day. I also want to try to get out for some 30 minute runs again, but if it's the dreadmill then so be it.

Splits: mile 1 • 14:05 // mile 2 • 13:10 // mile 3 • 13:45 // mile 4 • 13:24 // mile 5 • 13:14 // mile 6 • 12:59 // mile 7 • 12:59 // mile 8 • 13:17 // mile 9 • 13:18 // mile 10 • 12:44 // mile 11 • 12:18 // mile 12 • 12:07 // mile 13 11:59 // mile 14 • 12:33 // mile .27 • 19:51

Coming Up:
Tuesday: 30 minutes
Thursday: 30 minutes
Saturday: 12.5 miles (per the Galloway plan - Jenna and I are thinking more along the lines of 6)

 

[xjillianpaige]

Week 13 of Training
4 Weeks to Half Marathon​

This time, I went for a long run and it wasn't freezing cold. Let's recap!

Week 13 Plan:
Tuesday January 23: 30 minutes
Thursday, January 25: 30 minutes
Saturday, January 27: 12.5 miles (but after last week's 14 miles... this was not happening)

Week 13 Actual:
Tuesday: skipped
Thursday: skipped
Saturday: 6.38 miles • 1:23:24 • 13:04 avg pace

I hate going to the gym. It's too dark and cold to run in the morning or after work. I'll be better about these 30 minute runs this week because I was in for a world of hurt come this morning.

After the accidental 14 miles, Jenna and I decided to give this weekend a much easier go. So we decided on 6 miles. We ran a lake loop twice (it's 3.2 around once) and that first mile or so was super windy, but then the next two miles were much warmer without it. A complete difference from the last time we ran this lake in real-feel 8 degree temps.

I don't have much to report about the run. It was a busy route, so lots of weaving around people. Later that day and this morning my legs were very sore. I think that has something to do with skipping those 30 minute runs.

Finally, the current plan for the next few weeks will be as follows: 9 miles, 12 miles, 6 miles, race.

In other news, Jenna and I are looking at a May half for our next race!

Coming Up:
Tuesday: 30 minutes
Thursday: 30 minutes
Saturday: 4 miles w/ mm

 

[xjillianpaige]

Week 14/15 of Training
2 Weeks to Half Marathon​

Sorry I disappeared. I missed some runs and was feeling kind of disappointed. I keep talking about getting back on track and then I'm not. Not that I'm off track... maybe just wobbling near the edge of the track? Anyway, let's hop to it.

Week 14/15 Plan:
Tuesday January 30/February 6: 30 minutes || 30 minutes
Thursday, February 1/February 8: 30 minutes || 30 minutes
Saturday, February 3/February 10: 4 miles w/mm ||

Week 14/15 Actual:
Tuesday: 30 treadmill minutes on a Monday || 30 treadmill mondays
Thursday: skipped || skipped
Saturday: skipped || 11.27 miles • 2:35:41 • 13:49 avg pace

Between these two weeks, I went in and got two 30 minute treadmill minutes. The first week I went on Monday and got it done, the second week I went on Tuesday and got it done, but skipped both Thursdays in favor of social plans.

So, the weather of weekend 14 was supposed to be a bust, so we decided to skip. But then Sunday wasn't so bad, and Jenna texted me to run, but I had already gone home to shower and get ready for my Super Bowl party (I was dogsitting and prefer to go home to shower). So this ended up being a skip week.

Weekend 15, however (a.k.a. yesterday) was supposed to be GORGEOUS (Taylor Swift voice, obviously) so we decided to get out there and aim for 12 miles, however I felt myself coming down with a cold, so I stopped for some zicam gummies and we decided to see what we could get. We ended up doing a 11.27 mile jaunt up and down the bike path.

We figured that, with boiling temps (a.k.a. 50 degrees) it would be gorgeous. It was last time! But the first mile or so was pure ice. We spent a lot of time shuffling over it. A woman with her dog said that it cleared up quickly and then it was beautiful, but that was a blatant lie. There was a lot of ice and slush all the way down, so we had some pretty slow-for-us splits:

16:06 - 13:29 - 14:21 - 14:10 - 13:40 - 13:42 - 14:21 - 13:28 - 13:03 - 12:49 - 12:20 - 15:22

You can see we sped up at the end because the ice had more or less melted on the home stretch, so we were actually able to run without stopping to slide across an ice patch. The last mile includes the cool down, hence the slow down. That first mile was more or less pure ice.

Here's some actual footage of Jenna and me on our run:

Next week we'll do 4 or 6, not sure yet. Hoping for some nice weather.

After my run I went shopping for vacation clothes! Two more weeks until the race! It feels so real now. Really gotta get my butt in check these next two weeks. When I get back, I'll take the rest of the week off and then start on the training cycle for the half in May! That's right! I signed up for it... no turning back now, Jenna and I are in for another!

Coming Up:
Tuesday: 30 minutes
Thursday: 30 minutes
Saturday: 4 or 6 miles (TBD)

 

[JulieODC]

I got an icy fake-out last week too - temps were great, but in shady areas it wasn’t enough to melt the thick ice. I found myself wishing I had an ice pick at one point trying to navigate a small hill.

Keep up the great work - home stretch!

 

[ZellyB]

So tired of ice! We were running yesterday morning and like @JulieODC would suddenly come across a patch that had clearly been in the shade. I'm ready for spring already.

 

[xjillianpaige]

I got an icy fake-out last week too - temps were great, but in shady areas it wasn’t enough to melt the thick ice. I found myself wishing I had an ice pick at one point trying to navigate a small hill.

Keep up the great work - home stretch!

Yes! That was exactly it, the path is very shady so a lot hadn't melted. By the time we had made it back, the temps were warm enough that a lot had melted, but that didn't do us much good the hour before.

Thank you! So close to race day!

So tired of ice! We were running yesterday morning and like @JulieODC would suddenly come across a patch that had clearly been in the shade. I'm ready for spring already.

I'm so glad that this next training cycle will be two and a half months of (technically) spring. Hoping these recent warm days are here to stay and NO MORE SNOW.

 

[xjillianpaige]

Week 16 of Training
1 Week to Half Marathon​

We are ONE WEEK AWAY and I am so excited I can hardly contain it. On Friday I told my families that I was going away from Thursday to Wednesday via my February newsletter, so a lot of them stopped to give me advice or wish me luck.

Week 16 Plan:
Tuesday February 13: 30 minutes
Thursday, February 15: 30 minutes
Saturday, February 17: 4 miles

Week 14/15 Actual:
Tuesday: skipped
Thursday: skipped
Saturday: 4.36 miles • 52:24 • 12:02 avg pace

I skipped runs. Again. Let's talk about today, instead, super quick.

I woke up and had cereal and lazed around. Jenna dropped off the foil/vinyl for my tank top. Then I went out for a run in my new lulu leggings and I'm obsessed. They have pockets for my phone and SCORE because they don't get weighed down. It's also super easy to grab my phone out. The plan for race day will be to have my phone in one pocket and my ID/Health Insurance card in my other. There's a little zippered pocket in the back where people probably put keys, but I'm going to use it for the gummies I had a few weeks ago. I'll use the water available on course.

The run felt really good. I went out on a 2:30 to 1:00 ratio because that's what I had been doing, but all of my recent long runs with Jenna have been 1:00 to 1:00, so when I found myself struggling with the first two rounds, I dropped down to the ratio I've been using more recently. The weather was beautiful. Nice and sunny and relatively warm.

It snowed last night, so there was some slush and water on the road, and not everyone has cleared their sidewalks, so I ran on the road somewhat but was facing traffic. The cars all moved over a bit so I wouldn't get hit. When there was clear sidewalk I jumped onto it. There was one small stretch turning from one road to another where I was running the same was as traffic and a car went through a small puddle and splashed me, but I dried quickly.

Splits: 12:19 (includes 3 minute warm up) • 12:16 • 11:56 • 11:06 • 13:27 (includes 3 minute cool down).

That last mile I was SPEEDY. I was so close to home and just felt like running the last quarter mile without stopping to walk.

After my run today, I finished the tutu and ironed the shirt so I'm ready to go! I'll post photos of flat me soon. I also posted my link for fundraising one last time with the t-shirt Girl Power 2 Cure sent me and have raised another $50 with a few more anticipated donations coming in. To read about what's happening with my trip (other than running a half marathon) you can go to my pre-trip report using the link in my signature!

Coming Up:
Tuesday: 30 minutes
Thursday: 30 minutes
Sunday: Race Day!

 

[ZellyB]

Woohoo! Almost race time!!! Can't wait to hear how it goes.

 

[xjillianpaige]

Woohoo! Almost race time!!! Can't wait to hear how it goes.

I am SO excited! I can hardly contain it.

 

[xjillianpaige]

One More Sleep to Disney​

I'm going to bed in about half an hour and then I AM OFF TO DISNEY! I am so excited, so let's be real: I'm hardly going to sleep at all!

Training update for this week:

Tuesday was absolutely GORGEOUS so I decided to get my half hour run after work outside! I felt great getting back out there in some heat. Hopefully it helps me acclimate a little bit to Disney. My stats were 2.95 miles in 37:11 with an average pace of 12:36. My splits were: 12:15, 12:37, and 12:19.

Thursday (tomorrow) I might go for a run, I might not. It just depends on how busy our day is, how the expo goes, and how much I want to sit out and tan by the pool.

​

Here's my outfit for the half!

Good luck, everyone!​

 

[ZellyB]

I love your race outfit!! I hope you are having a great trip and good luck on the race!!

 

[GollyGadget]

I've been MIA for a while so I'm trying to catch up. Good luck and have fun tomorrow!

 

[JulieODC]

Hope you had a wonderful race weekend! Can’t wait to hear all about it!!

 

[xjillianpaige]

I love your race outfit!! I hope you are having a great trip and good luck on the race!!

Thank you! I did it! Recap to come when I’m home.

I've been MIA for a while so I'm trying to catch up. Good luck and have fun tomorrow!

Thank you!!

Hope you had a wonderful race weekend! Can’t wait to hear all about it!!

Thanks! Stay tuned...

 

[xjillianpaige]

I did it!

​

More to come when I’m home! Hope this holds you over. My unofficial time is 3:05:34!

 

[DopeyBadger]

I did it!​

View attachment 304747​

More to come when I’m home! Hope this holds you over. My unofficial time is 3:05:34!