Three Things Thursday

1. I have been eating like it is going out of style. I can't stop myself. It is actually quite weird. I keep trying to reel it in, but if I see a sweet treat or a chip I can't put it down. Lucky I do run enough because I don't think that I have gained any weight, but at the same time getting heavy during marathon training is not really a great idea.

2. I am getting a new calendar this week and then figuring out my calendar until the new year. Tonia at Racing with Babes has her calendar/training figured out until the National Marathon which is March 26th. I am feeling like I need to get with the program.

3. I have had a funny running week, but I am ready to jump back in. The race on Saturday really took a lot out of my body and seemed to affect me mentally. It is almost like I have been depressed this week. I ran on Wednesday and I am running tomorrow and have a plan for both days this weekend. Thank God the Patriots are not playing this Sunday, I am hoping to get my long run in after morning football.

3 Miles Down

This morning I got up at 4:45 to meet my friend L for a run. This would be my first run since the infamous Applefest. Once we got to our meeting place we decided to just run 3, we are going to ease ourselves back in slowly. When we first started out my legs felt like jelly. I apologized to Lynn a couple of times for holding us back. Thank goodness she just laughed. Once I got to mile 2 all of the cricks and cracks in my body had faded away and I started to feel like my usual running self. In fact I probably could have gone 5 at least, but I thought it was best if I took my time. I have a big run next week and I need to slowly get back into it.

On a setting goals note, with the support of my husband, I signed up for the National Marathon. It is March 26th, 2011. I am hoping that I am not being to lofty, I have not even made it through Manchester yet, but this will be great. It is fast and flat and I have decided that in order to keep running I have to set goals for myself.

Does anyone else have running goals for the future?

Where to Begin....

Today I ran the Applefest Half Marathon in Hollis, NH. I woke up feeling apprehensive about the race. It started at 10 am and the temp was supposed to be 85-90 degrees. This is not usual New Hampshire September weather. By mile 2 I was already pouring down sweat. It was hot and it was humid. I kept going though. My pace was slow, I might have had some 8:50's, but by the end I was in the 11's. At mile 7, I kept telling myself that I could do anything for an hour more. Let me be clear this was the longest hour ever. It was hot, I smelled, I could not drink enough water. I took my Hammer Gel, but that didn't even give me one ounce of energy. By mile 10 I think that I was hallucinating, (not really, I might be a bit over dramatic). The last mile is a hill that goes straight up, I had to walk, which was killing me and then finally I was at the end at 2:08. Considering that my half in June I finished in 1:52, I was definitely feeling a little crappy. I don't know what I could have done differently though. I have been training for my marathon although there has not been this kind of heat. I felt better after my 30K 2 weeks ago.

On a positive note I wore my Somnio's today and felt great. As much as I love my Brooks there is something about those shoes that I love. I know that I keep talking about them but definitely look them up.

Making Plans

I have been on Facebook a bit today and was reading the RLAM post about marathons. Marathons that are in the area you live, good ones, bad ones (I don't think that they actually mentioned any bad ones) and ones that people want to do. Of course, I couldn't stop reading the posts. I have not even run my first marathon and I am already planning to run another. Have I lost my mind. I have been eyeing the National Marathon in Washington DC. It is at the end of March which equals great weather for that part of the country. It is also an hour away from my mother's house so I could leave my kids' there. I basically have a plan in my head which is my personality, I am always making plans, making lists etc...and I feel like having running goals i.e. races will keep me running. I don't know if I could just run if I didn't have a goal at the end of it. Oh well...I should probably see how I feel after my November marathon before signing up for another one. Maybe I will start a list of marathons that I want to run. Now that is an idea.

Pepper Spray

Today both of my sons had football games in the next town over. We all go as it is a total family and friends affair. The girls play with friends' that they don't see during the week, eat yucky food from the snack bar and cheer for their brothers'. Today though Siri provided some excitement to the game when she went into the car and just happened to spray my pepper spray in her eyes. Now you might be saying to yourself, "What is Rene' doing with pepper spray?" I have it for running. I am scared of animals in our rural area i.e. bear, fox, skunks and I run at 5 am sometimes and there are some crazies out here/there. Next thing you know I have a 10 year old girl (Siri) screaming because she has sprayed pepper spray in her eyes when she was showing it to her friend. I am so thankful that one of our friends and her mother are both ICU nurses and they immediately stepped into action flushing Siri's eyes out with bottled water for over 30 minutes. After we got her settled and she could see again, I had essentially missed Ben's game and Siri had caused a scene on the sidelines. All of the boys' kept asking if she was okay, what happended, which was all super kind, but I think my husband (who is the head coach) had just about had it at that point and "encouraged" the boys to focus on the game. After Siri felt better she went about her business going to the snack bar and playing. The best part of the ordeal, when my friend stopped Siri and asked her for the whole story she looked at her and said, "it's really complicated." Only Siri would have that answer. The real story, she was showing it to her friend, opened it and showed her how to spray it, then sprayed it on her hands and rubbed her eyes. Never a dull moment.

On a running note I took today off and will run 6 miles tomorrow. I am doing a little tapering this week as I am running the Applefest Half Marathon on Saturday.

Tired

I am tired today and a bit disappointed in myself. I got up to run this am and talked my friend Lynn into running 3 miles. We were supposed to go almost 6. I just did not have it in me. Between the 18 on Sunday and the 10 on Wednesday my legs are just TIRED and my mind is TIRED. Running, shuffling the kids around from school to activities and even just my daily stuff is catching up with me. So, I have decided to take Sunday off. Tomorrow I have an eight scheduled that I want to do and then Sunday I have nothing planned. Both of my boys have football games and the Pats are playing the Jets so I think that I will just take it easy that day and start from scratch on Monday. Anybody else tired today?

A 30 K and 6 boys

Yesterday my friend Michele and I ran the Nahant 30K. We were using it as a marathon training run and we thought it would be fun to do a "race" for the training. For those of you that don't know Nahant it is right on the coast of MA on the other side of Lynn. What a beautiful course. When you weren't running on the water, you were running through beautiful neighborhoods. One house that we passed had views of the beach from every part of the house. INCREDIBLE!!! The water stops were great, almost every 2 miles and the volunteers were super. The only down sides.....HILLS. Who knew that Nahant had so many hills? In fact when we were driving over I asked my friend if it was hilly and her response was, "of course not we are on the water." But, Manchester City Marathon is hilly so this was a good training. The other bad idea, you pass the finish line and then have to run a mile and a half loop before you finish. There is nothing worse than going past the finish line at the end of a race. I don't mind it at the beginning of the race, but definitely not at the end. So....our time was 2:54 which we felt great about! Our pace was great, although we probably should have run a bit slower, we got a bit caught up in the "race" aspect of it. But, all in all a fun time...

Now to what I came home to. 6 boys, 2 girls and 2 dads in the pool. (it was 65 degrees) The first person I see is Izzie clapping for me, then one of my favorite boys asks me, "Did you win?" My response, "Well, my time was good, and I got a medal, but I didn't win. The woman who won was really fast." He thought about this for a minute and then looked at me, "Well, I guess you better train harder." You have to love a nine year old boy.