First 20-Miler

So, I know it's a little late, but here's a post on last weekend's race! Blake, Gary and I ran in the Akron Marathon Relay last Saturday. We all did more than one leg of the race, even though you only need five people and we had five! :) Overachievers. Here is the outline of the relay legs:

Relay Point	Leg	Location	Miles
Point #1	First	0 mile/Start	3.5
Point #2	Second	3.5 mile/High St.	5.7
Point #3	Third	9.2 mile/Brown St.	6.3
Point #4	Fourth	15.5 mile/Sand Run Pkwy	2.8
Point #5	Fifth	18.3 mile/Sand Run Pkwy/Revere	7.9

 All three of us did the first two legs, but Blake and I ran all the way to point five! We handed off the snap bracelet to one of our team members and she handed it off to the last guy, but we just kept going since we were scheduled to run 20 miles that day.

Surprisingly, I REALLY enjoyed running 20 miles! Never thought I'd say that... I mean, don't get me wrong, it was pretty tough, especially after mile 10, but not as bad as I initially thought it would be. It was great to have so many spectators cheering on the thousands of runners and the pacers, they were AMAZING! Especially the one we ran with, which was the 9:55 min/mile pacer. He was so hilarious and motivational. I only hope he's at the Columbus Marathon in three weeks!

Guess who was at the Akron Marathon Expo the night before? HAL HIDGONS himself! I saw that he was going to be there that night and was so excited, but not excited enough to stay the whole time. We got to the expo, got our stuff  and left! It was just nice to be in the same building as the man who created the training plan that has worked so well for me so far. Also, not to mention how amazing and inspiring he was as a runner himself back in the day!

So, now an overview of the morning and after the race that day. I ate a PowerBar (Apple Cinnamon Crisp), some Gatorade, and made about six bathrooms stops before the gun shot off. Of course, I had the butterflies in my stomach, but that's just expected now. After the race I wasn't all that hungry, so I took a shower first and then had a PB&J, banana and yogurt for lunch. But, a few hours later I was STARVING. So, note to self - eat after finishing even if you're not hungry!! It'll catch up to ya later...

Well, tomorrow morning is my last double-digit run before the marathon! Twelve miles tomorrow, four miles Tuesday, three miles Wednesday and four miles Thursday... Not bad! Boy, is my body going to love these few weeks of tapering!

Well, that's all I can think of to write right now. My brain is throbbing from reading all evening for school... That's what I haven't really been posting as often, GRAD SCHOOL! I know one thing it won't stop me from ever doing though - RUNNING. :) I'll promise you that!

Stay fit, my friends! ;-)

New Training Schedule and NOMalicous Food

Hello there! Yes, that's right I created a NEW word - NOMALICIOUS. It means food that's so good you just want to NOM it.

So, I was on Hal Higdon's website yesterday and saw that he had TWO different types of Novice training plans... He only has one of them in his book, which is the easier one for those who've been running for less than a year (what kind of crazy  person would just start running in less than a year and run a marathon anyways?). Novice 2 is for those who have been running for a while and have done half marathons, 5Ks and such, just never a marathon before. That's me! Here's the schedule... It's really not a whole lot different, but the mileage is higher in the beginning and adds "pace" runs. I think those are either like tempo runs or race pace. We'll see how I feel. I am on my third week now, so obviously the first two weeks were different from this schedule, but not too much. This is the plan I'll be following from today on. I even ran four miles today instead of three because yesterday I only ran four when I was supposed to run five.

Marathon Training Schedule: Novice 2

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat	Sun
1	Rest	3 m run	5 m pace	3 m run	Rest	8	cross
2	Rest	3 m run	5 m run	3 m run	Rest	9	cross
3	Rest	3 m run	5 m pace	3 m run	Rest	6	cross
4	Rest	3 m run	6 m pace	3 m run	Rest	11	cross
5	Rest	3 m run	6 m run	3 m run	Rest	12	cross
6	Rest	3 m run	6 m pace	3 m run	Rest	9	cross
7	Rest	4 m run	7 m pace	4 m run	Rest	14	cross
8	Rest	4 m run	7 m run	4 m run	Rest	15	cross
9	Rest	4 m run	7 m pace	4 m run	Rest	Rest	Half Mar
10	Rest	4 m run	8 m pace	4 m run	Rest	17	cross
11	Rest	5 m run	8 m run	5 m run	Rest	18	cross
12	Rest	5 m run	8 m pace	5 m run	Rest	13	cross
13	Rest	5 m run	5 m pace	5 m run	Rest	19	cross
14	Rest	5 m run	8 m run	5 m run	Rest	12	cross
15	Rest	5 m run	5 m pace	5 m run	Rest	20	cross
16	Rest	5 m run	4 m pace	5 m run	Rest	12	cross
17	Rest	4 m run	3 m run	4 m run	Rest	8	cross
18	Rest	3 m run	2 m run	Rest	Rest	2 m run	Marathon

Blake ran with me this morning. It was a nice, cool, sunny morning. Perfect weather for a morning run. I didn't have to work until 11 AM, so it was nice to relax after my run before work. OH, and I got to watch LIVE with Regis and Kelly. :) Always a plus. I'm off tomorrow and of course Monday for the Fourth of July. YAY four-day weekends! Two 5K's this weekend too, one Saturday night and the other Monday morning.

Dinner tonight was Hawaiian chicken on the grill, corn-on-the-cob and homemade garlic red mashed potatoes. NOM NOM! Mom worked the grill. :)

I forgot to post the picture of my home-made chicken pot pie me, my mom and Blake made Sunday night. We made everything from scratch, including the WHOLE WHEAT crust. OMG, it was AMAZING! Blake and I have also been making our own smoothies pretty much every night. They are NOMalicious too! Ever had a smoothie from Pulp? Well, our's is better! We use about a half a cup of ice, cup of fat-free Activia yogurt, handful of strawberries, two bananas and two tablespoons of honey... Mmmm...

Tuesday night was turkey tacos with whole wheat tortillas, romaine lettuce, salsa and cheese. I had leftovers Wednesday. I think my seasoning made me sick though... Been running to the bathroom all day. =-/

Well, tomorrow is an off day for the legs! Going to do arms and abs. Then Therese and I are going on a hike at the Peninsula. :-)

Going Gym-less this Summer!

Good Morning! So, I did it - I gave my legs a rest! :) Because even Hal Hidgons takes off days. He says in his book:

"For those who failed, often the reason was that they trained too hard and were too unwilling to take days off."

Maybe that was my problem last year when I attempted to train for the full marathon in Cleveland. I resisted rest days but not resting enough.

I plan to take off at least one day a week for my legs to recover. On my cross-training days of Monday and Friday I'll either do some strength training, with legs or just my arms and core. Then on Sunday is when I plan to ride my bike. I think another mistake I made last year was not enough strength training in the early weeks of my training. I would just run and ride my bike, no weight-training or yoga. Although I will be resting at least one day a week, I will be working on my arms and core on the days when I give my legs a rest.

I worked out my arms and core this morning actually though with the lovely Jackie Warner and her video Personal Training with Jackie Warner.

She is a BEAST! Check out those abs! Jealous... She has a 40-minute circuit-training workout that focuses on all of your muscles - it's a killer! You can pick and choose certain body parts too and that's what I did this morning. Her ab workout is pretty awesome! I actually think she's better than Jillian Michaels, and that says something!

The real meaning of this post is to say that I am going gym-less this summer. I normally go to a gym every summer like Snap Fitness, but I decided to save money and just do my workouts at home. I've got TONS of different workouts to do right in my bedroom, why waste money at a gym? My summer equipment includes two sets of weights, 5 lbs and 15 lbs (I would like to get a 10 and 20 lb weight too), resistance bands, 6 lb. Empower Ball, Swiss Ball, a treadmill in our family room, my road bike and a Yoga mat.
I also have my favorite workout DVD's. The best, of course, is Jackie Warner's as I mentioned already. I also have Jillian Michaels' Yoga Meltdown, which is about 30 minutes long. I also have the P90X workout videos on my computer. The ones that I usually do are the Yoga (an hour long) and, my favorite, Plyometrics. Plyometrics is jump training and a little less than an hour-long. If you want to sweat, this is the workout for you! I really think this workout will help me with speed.

Once school starts in August I'll definitely take advantage of Kent State's Recreation Center. It's AMAZING! So much better and bigger than BGSU's Rec Center...

So, that is it for today. I'm actually running a little late on getting ready for work. OOPS! P.S. I HATE my job... Trying to find a new one.... Ok, well I don't HATE it, it's just not me...
I need something that is actually in my field. Business and Entrepreneurship to me is BORING... The people are nice though.


Stay fit my friends!

One Week Down, 17 More to Go!

Why hello there! Thanks for visiting my blog and for reading my first of many blog posts! I can't wait until October 15, but I'm also excited for this training program and to see the progress I will make. I am using Hal Higdon's "Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide" for my training program. I am on the novice program since this will be my FIRST marathon.


Woo hoo! Week one of training for the Columbus Marathon complete! It really wasn't that difficult. Three miles on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and then six on Saturday. I also rode my bike today and did some strength training Friday on my rest/xt days. But, I figured he's starting off in lower mileage and will build up.

This is my first post, so it's pretty short - not many obstacles, YET! Legs are a tiny bit sore, but nothing I can't handle. :)

Here is a picture of my Mizuno Running Shoes. I have a little over 250 miles on them now, so in the next 250 miles I plan on buying the Nike LIVESTRONG Lunarswift+2  Shoes - see below. I've heard some great things about these shoes. Plus, they're yellow!


I'm going to try to update this thingy a few times a week - usually after my Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday runs. I'll also be sure to share articles I come across that may appeal to my fellow runners.

Stay fit my friends!                                                  

Colleen