Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Cake Reward

So, I saw this cake in my current issue of Southern Living and time stopped still.


photo courtesy of Southern Living
Lemon-Orange Chiffon cake with Lemon-Orange Buttercream. {drool} When I saw it, I immediately knew what I would make it for...as a reward for completing my next half marathon. Should I reward myself with something so decadent and sweet? Is that a healthy idea? Probably not. No...no, for sure it's not. But it's what I'm going to do! It's not like I make desserts like this every night (although I do eat desserts every night...small desserts. Like a teacup of ice cream.). This is a special dessert. Something I will only make for special occasions - like family visiting, or finishing a race. I will dream of this cake for another 8 weeks. Omg...only 8 weeks left! I'm coming for you cake!!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Messed Up Schedule

Ugh. I just fudged on my training run. Supposed to do 3 miles...3 miles! I figured I would do it on my treadmill and do a little speed work, but I crapped out at 2 miles. To be honest, my training schedule is about to get all out of whack for about two weeks. Ray and I go out of town next week. I have a 4 mile and then an 8 mile run on days we'll be gone. I'm going to take some running clothes and try to get the 4 miles done on a treadmill at the hotel, but I don't see the 8 mile run happening. If Ray was also a runner, I would have him come out with me at a park or something, but I won't go run by myself in a strange city. Eek. I'm supposed to do a 7 mile run this Saturday, but the weather is going to be soooo beautiful tomorrow (sunny and high of 47!) that I'm going to run it early - drive out to the area that has many hills. Maybe knowing I'm going to do a long run tomorrow messed with my run today.

I'm trying not to be so hard on myself about not following the schedule as written. I'll be back on schedule the first week of March, but I can't help but feel like I'm going to fall behind. Fall behind who? haha! I guess the important thing is to keep at it and do the best I can, when I can.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Just Run.

Saw this on Pinterest a minute ago, and I connected with it:


That's what I find so addictive about running...competing against that little voice inside you. And winning.

Training Begins

April 21 sounds like a good ways off, but not so much when it is the day of your next race and training begins. I'm into week 11 now of a 12 week half marathon training program - see? Eleven weeks doesn't sound like much now, does it? When I look at the program, I can see the weeks just fly by. Gets me excited, and nervous.

Last time, I used a training schedule a friend had given me. It required running only three days a week, gradually increasing mileage, and I feel it was just fine for my very first half marathon. I'm now using a schedule that another friend shared - he is part of a running group using the schedule, and looking to run the same half I am here in Indiana (he's in TN). This schedule runs four days a week up until three weeks before the race. I'm a little nervous about that. The schedule runs M/T/rest/TH/rest/S/rest - lately I've been running with a rest day between each run, so the M/T runs will be interesting. I don't know why that makes me nervous - I guess I worry about injury or burning out. I suppose a big part of doing it will be to just change my mindset. They don't have to be hard runs - I can take those two easy, and just enjoy them.

I am going faster these days, which is fun. In an earlier post, I mentioned how my former neighbor suggested I go at an uncomfortable, fast pace every quarter mile, then back to a comfortable pace. I did that several times on the treadmill since it was easy to see a quarter mile go by on the screen. I honestly think that helped pick up my pace. I ran 4.5 miles yesterday in 39:42. I don't think I can hold that pace for an entire half marathon, in fact, after the first mile of that run, I told myself to be sure NOT to start out the race that fast as I was already feeling a little fatigued. The fatigue wore off and I got into a groove and the faster pace felt pretty natural, but we're talking another (almost) 9 miles on race day. We'll see how the long runs go in training, but I'm not going to push it. I absolutely do not want to not be able to run the entire half because I tried to run fast and ran out of gas. This still needs to be fun.

So, off to put on the running clothes and head out. Yesterday was supposed to be 4 miles, my route took me 4.5, and today is another 4. Thursday will be 3 miles, then Saturday will be 6. I promise myself to take this run easy today.