Almost Half the Distance

Nothing too exciting about today's run other than we did it.

I don't think either one of us were mentally prepared for 12 miles today but we did it and we actually finished well. My dad did a lot of running during the week, which was much better than I can say for myself. My only run during the week was on Monday when my knee failed me and I ended up walking most of the way in much frustration. I was so scared to go out and do 12 miles when I hadn't really done any exercising during the week. I need to psych myself out to go and do these big runs and I didn't do any psyching.

But...we went out there. We hopped on the trail. We ran. And ran. And ran. We ran from my house and took the trail all the way to Syracuse's Jensen Nature Park then ran the trail all the way back through West Point and had to still run in a neighborhood to get the distance we needed.

My knee didn't bother me at all. I did take 3 Advil before the run and I had been icing it all week. I wore a knee band as well. I am also going to start taking Glucosamine. Hopefully all of this will help my knees have minimal injury. That is the scary thing of all this. I really don't want to put this much time and effort into training for a marathon and then not be able to do it because of a bum knee.

We have been carrying water on all runs that are more than 6 miles but today we threw in some Gu. We took one Gu before we started and again at 6 miles. This really helped give us a boost of energy that we needed. We will be taking more Gu as the distances get longer. My Dad also needs to pack more water. He drinks it like he is a camel. We have decided that he is probably going to have to carry a water belt during the marathon because I don't think he can wait around for the water stations. He drinks so much that he ends up dipping into my supply. :)

We are trying to figure out what works for us as far as water and energy supplements. We are learning that there is a lot more to running than just putting on a pair of shoes and putting one foot in front of the other. When you are running these distances you have to be prepared and really ready for anything. We carry water, Gu, other snacks, toilet paper for that just-in-case moment. We are also learning that running really isn't all that cheap. Sure, once you have the basic supplies it is just upkeep and upgrades but everything is so expensive. Shoes are $100 or more. My cold-weather outfit was not cheap (although this is from the last marathon I ran so I would say I am getting my money's worth). Water belts. Running watch. Music player if you are like me and need background noise. Knee bands if you have bummer knees. Gu I just found out is NOT cheap. Entry fees to runs add up quick. Ugh.

OK these are just a few things we are learning with each passing run. But, at the end, it is worth it!

**STATS**

Distance: 12.02

Time: 2:02:04

Pace: 10:09/min/mile

Temperature: 35 degrees

Time of Day: 1:25 p.m.

Lonely Run

Take a good look at these pictures. Notice anything wrong? (besides the sun hat)

Yup. My dad is in street clothes. Why, you might ask? Well, it's because he ditched me. For football! I know. Crazy, right? So this daddy daughter run turned into daughter-just-run-by- yourself.

He was away at Bear Lake for the weekend so we planned all week that we would run on Sunday together. I loaded up the kids and headed up to his house because we were going to run hills this week. I was all ready to go when my dad said he just couldn't leave the game. Huh?

Well of course this makes me not want to go. I just couldn't force myself out the door. Finally I decided to just run on their treadmill because I'll be darn if he was going to ruin my training. After 2 minutes on the treadmill though, I had had it so I headed outside and just started running. I had no idea what route to take so I just ran. I wanted at least 4.5. So I kept running until I got to 4.5 and then just a little longer. There is just no flat areas up there in South Ogden. Every road I took had steep climbs. Oh well. It felt good. Well except to my right knee.

To give my dad some credit he was out of town the entire week and still ran 3 good runs. I actually slacked off during the week. So I guess we are about even.

Like my runner's pose? I get sick of just standing there for pictures.

**STATS**
Distance: 4.92 miles
Time: :46:40
Pace: 9:29/min/mile
Temperature: 37 degrees
Time of day: 2:30 p.m.

Hardest 10k EVER!

Today's run called for a short 4-miler but Striders was hosting a free 5k/10k as part of the Striders Winter Racing Circuit so I decided to do that instead. I wanted to get an idea of what the courses will look like. The actual circuit starts Feb 5th but they wanted to let people come out and get some practice runs in. I am not sure this was a good idea for me. Now that I know what the course is all about it is going to be really hard for me to want to go back and do this again!

I chose to do the 10k today because I knew I at least needed 4 miles. I had to use a stand-in dad because Tom was up enjoying life in Bear Lake. Luckily my brother-in-law wanted to get some miles under his shoes and said he would run with me. Mike runs a much quicker mile than I do but said he would stay with me. At first I felt bad that I was holding him back but then I was glad he stayed with me because it pushed me to run harder and better than if I had to run by myself. Without him I am sure I would have walked a ton of this course. This course was brutal. I have ran some of it before but never 6 miles on these hills. The first mile is uphill and then it had an awesome downhill that just makes you fly. I was enjoying myself until Mike said we had to come back up this same hill! I told him I would be losing time for sure on that uphill. It was so long and steep. But...I did so much better than I thought I would. I only stopped to walk once, and that was almost at the top. I walked for 1 minute and then ran the rest of the way in. My stats were shocking because I really thought the hills would kill my time!

Now, I just have to not think about having to do this again. I have been told the Winter Racing Circuit is seriously brutal, especially the 10-miler. If the 10k was like this then I am really scared for the 10-miler.

**STATS**
Distance: 6.31miles
Time: 1:00:41
Pace: 9:37/min/mile
Temperature: ? degrees
Time of day: 8:00 a.m

A last minute 10.5

Our schedule called for us to do 4 miles today but on Wednesday I got a call from my dad telling me about all his travelling plans and that we better get our 10.5 mile out of the way or else it might be hard to fit it in and keep on track. Plus with him travelling who knows what kind of shape he will be in when he gets back. :) Well he better still put in some miles because we have a 12'r coming up when he gets back. YIKES!

So I wasn't at all thrilled about doing the 10.5 for a few reasons. One, I felt like I was still recovering from the 9-miler. Two, I hadn't done much exercising this week so I didn't feel physically ready. Three, I hadn't thought up a route yet and I like to have a few days to mentally visualize the run. Honestly, running is a ton of mental strength. For me anyways. I like to get excited about an upcoming run and I didn't feel like this was adequate time to "get excited." So needless to say when Saturday arrived I was a little nervous about how my performance would go. I was telling my dad the night before that he was going to have to motivate me along the way. Then come Saturday morning, I get all dressed and try to prepare myself as best I can when 30 minutes before our run is supposed to start I get a call from my dad saying he wants to put off the run until Sunday. WHAT!? NO! First off, I just gave it my best mental effort to be ready for this run. I can't put it off another day because who knows how I will feel about it tomorrow. Secondly, it is supposed to snow and be even colder tomorrow. He says my mom doesn't want to run because it is so cold. Oh ya, I forgot to mention my mom was coming down to run her 5 miles. I told them to buck up and get in the car and get down here. So they did.

So glad we got it over with. I actually did better than I thought I would. I definitely wouldn't call it my greatest run but I wasn't wanting to quit and just walk home either, which I have had happen on runs in the past. One bad thing though. My right knee is starting to hurt on my runs. I don't know what the deal is. When I lived in Hawaii and California I had NO knee problems whatsoever. Now, back in Utah, my knees are hurting all over again. My dad said he felt great. Probably his marshmallow shoes doing all the work. ;)

Another thing we discovered is we are going to need to start thinking about fuel options. Gu, bars, etc. I am trying to be more aware of my body's needs this time around instead of just going at it blindly. I think that is why I threw up after long runs the last time I did this. I noticed that I started feeling hungry around mile 9, which means we should probably start eating something around mile 7. I don't know. I really need to research this stuff. It starts to get overwhelming when I think about it.

As for the run we just did...we ended up doing 10.8 miles! My dad was loving this because he kept saying, "we basically just ran 11 miles." He was pretty excited. He said this was the farthest he has ever run. We ran from my house out west then headed towards Syracuse. We hopped on the trail and made our way back to West Point. It was a good course! Hopefully I can keep coming up with interesting places to run. I forgot how hard it is to come up with that many miles.

Oh and by the way, my mom did great! Instead of running 5 miles, she ran 6.8! What the heck!

**STATS**
Distance: 10.8 miles
Time: 1:51:23
Pace: 10:19/min/mile
Temperature: 24 degrees
Time of day: 10:20 a.m

These are not my best looking pictures. I was talking when the picture snapped. And we didn't get my mom in any pictures because she was off running errands by the time we got back.

The 1 1 fingers is because my dad said we basically ran 11 miles.

The plan that didn't happen & a 9-Miler in the COLD

Well remember the plan? The one where we were supposed to run Friday morning at a free 5-miler in Layton? And then we were going to do the 9 miles on Saturday morning? Well neither run happened. Here's what happened instead:

On Thursday we hit the gym for some speed intervals. Ran just over 4 miles doing that. It was hilarious watching my dad because I swear every 5 minutes he kept hitting the emergency cord which once knocked off stops your treadmill. He was getting so frustrated.

Friday we were going to run the free 5-miler that Striders put on but after feeling the temp on Thursday we decided against it. I believe Friday's high was like 19 degrees, which means the morning temp was well below that. There was no way I was going to attempt running in that freezing weather.

Saturday we were going to run our 9 miles but of course Friday was New Years' Eve which meant my dad party hardy'd and wasn't up for the task.

Soooo...FINALLY today we did our make-up 9 miles from last week. The weather was still a bit cold but today was our last day to do it or be forced indoors on a treadmill and 9 miles on a treadmill doesn't sound too fun. We chose to run from my house because it is relatively flat and traffic is well, there is no traffic. Just a few cars here and there. We ran to the bottoms and then headed north towards Clinton. We zig zagged throughout West Point to get our 9 miles. It was an excellent course. The cold froze my face stiff for most of the run. I guess I should have worn something over my mouth. You can see from the pictures that there is quite a bit of snow on the ground. I was really worried about that because I didn't want to be forced to walk but I didn't want to fall on ice either. Luckily a lot of the snow we ran on was more slushy than icy. The only bad thing about that though was within a mile my feet were wet. Luckily it didn't bother me. When I felt the water seep in I asked my dad if his feet were wet yet and he said, "No, but I am 4 inches off the ground in these shoes." So funny! He loves his shoes. He says they MAKE him want to run. Oh, and I loved my new gear as well. I clipped my new shuffle on my sleeve cuff and had my nifty watch on. It was nice to be able to watch our pace and be able to adjust as needed.

Now that the holidays are over we are hoping we can be more diligent on the nutrition side of our training. But who am I kidding? We are Zampedri's and as my dad always says: There isn't a meal we met that we didn't like!

**STATS**
Distance: 9.0 miles
Time: 1:34:11
Pace: 10:28/min/mile
Temperature: 24 degrees
Time of day: 1:18 p.m.