Hey everyone!
This is a record- 2 posts, 2 days!

I am glad that I finally got that pesky half post outta the way. Now a look at my summer plans and what I have going on!

You may or may not know that I am on a serious hunt… for a job. I will hopefully be a first year teacher come September, but getting an “early hire” position has become much harder than I anticipated it would be! I have 2 grad school classes left before I am handed my diploma and sent on my way! YAYYY! I walked in early May, but they just gave me a diploma holder. I can’t wait to have my weekends back and not have to procrastinate writing papers or what have you. Mike and I are finally getting a place of our own. July 31 we will be hitting the road from the basement of my in-laws and moving into a new apartment complex just in time for our one year anniversary!! (Aug 8)

As far as races go, right now I have two separate 5 milers coming up for fun the in the next few weeks and then the Army 10 miler in October and Gwen and I are hoping to get at least one more half on the calendar for the year. Right now we are looking at a few different ones and narrowing down our choices! I am really excited about the 5 milers I have coming up. One is to help kids and teens who use the alternative house, and the other is just a fun Eastern Shore run on the 4th of July! I haven’t raced since my half and I am really looking forward to getting back into it! What am I going to do this winter???

I think that’s all I had to share today!
Kristen

June 10, 2010 is the date today. I ran my first half marathon on May 2, 2010. Well over a month ago. I blogged May 5, 2010- again well over a month. You might be wondering… WHAT have I been doing the past month that I have been so busy that I can’t blog, tweet, post, or anything technical. Drumroll please!!!!! I have been doing nothing. Well, not nothing, but nothing crazy with some weird set of circumstances where I couldn’t blog or anything like that. I promised over a month ago that I would post a recap for my first half marathon. I never did.

Why?!

I was, and still am a little bummed about the whole thing. Let me start by saying that I never once thought running my first (or any) half marathon would be easy and I guess mentally I might not have been prepared for it and possibly even physically. As most of you know I ran 2 milers (Cherry Blossom and the GW Parkway) before I ran my half. I felt prepared for both of those and told myself it was only 3.1 more miles and I was totally ready for the half. Both races I achieved my goal and both races I felt really strong mentally and physically. I’m not sure if it was because I could break the race down in my head by 5k and half way and then 6 k and then count down the miles that way or if they were just good racing days, but I loved both those races.

Fast forward to the weekend of May 2. My friend Gwen and I headed up to Frederick, Maryland on Saturday afternoon to attend the expo and check into our hotel. We checked in and went over to the expo, it was small but efficient. After the expo we went out to Olive Garden for a pasta dinner, where I think I ate too much! Maybe it was the piece of cheesecake that I brought back to the room as desert. We were back in our room super early because there isn’t too much to do in Frederick. So we basically lounged and laid around all night. Finally it was time for bed (we were fighting being tired from about 7 pm on) and we set our alarms, packed our stuff and turned in for the night. We were both really prepared as far as hydration and nutrition go. I didn’t feel like I was dehydrated at all over the course of the race.

The next morning we were up by 4:30 (I think) and ready to go. This is where I believe I made my first mistake of the day. In order to get things uhhh moving… I drank (chugged) some coffee on while we were getting ready. I didn’t even think about any of the other side effects and we were on our way by 5:30. We stepped out of the hotel lobby and were smacked so hard in the face with the biggest soggiest cloud of humidity that you can imagine at 5:30 on race day morning. I was immediately worried, but we continued on our way to the race. We were only staying about 10 minutes away so we got there in plenty of time to miss the port-a-pot lines, all 3 times. So I was definitely happy about the coffee, but then I started to get a little panicked. I didn’t say anything to Gwen for a while and then I thought maybe something was wrong with me because I was so shaky and my heart was racing. She said “it was probably that coffee you chugged this morning!” Darnit, she was right! I didn’t even consider that! Phew, I wasn’t dying. It was finally time to head to the starting line! We tucked our Sharkies in our belts, note that they are not fuel belts, and waited to begin. After what seemed like f.o.r.e.v.e.r the gun went off and we were on our way and not even 5 steps in we both lost our sharkies. UGGGGH!

We had planned to stay together but I hate in the beginning of the race when the crowd is so thick and I ended up taking off and not seeing Gwen for a while. I got hot. fast. I remember around mile 6 I was really hot and slowed down a lot. In my 10 milers I could tell myself only 4 more miles but this was only7.1 miles… I wasn’t even half way! Gwen passed me just before or just after the 10 k mark and I didn’t see her again. I was in my head and I couldn’t find my rhythm. I wish I would have just stuck with her in the beginning like we planned! So for much of the race I was really negative and just not running like myself. I didn’t listen to music and just tried to enjoy everything around me. It was tough. The route was kinda hilly and it was pretty boring. By mile 8 I was walking. This is what bothers me more than anything. I know I could have kept going (now) but I didn’t believe in myself. I walk/ran for the next 4 miles. I met an older gentleman who told me this was his first race of the season and we chatted a bit. He was walk/running too. We talked for a few minutes and I said bye and ran off. This wasn’t the last time I saw him. Fast forward to mile 11? Hill…. I tell myself I can walk run it but then the guy runs up to me and says “come on Canada you’ve got this” and I walked for a few more seconds and then said “Oh alright, let’s do this” and ran and didn’t stop until the end. When I finished I got my medal and Gwen was waiting for me. I felt happy that I was done, but I was immediately disappointed with my performance and immediately wanted to sign up for another to show 13.1 miles that I CAN DO IT! So weird, because for much of the race I was thinking I would never do that distance again and how unhappy I was (like I said, I was in my head) and literally seconds after finishing I wanted vengeance! I did go into the race with a goal in mind, and maybe the goal wasn’t feasible for me that day, but I know that I can make the goal at some point!

I have been displaying this little gem in my living room the past month! So it wasn’t soooooo bad….. I guess ;)

I don’t think posting my time on this is important, because there are some people who may look at that and think I am ridiculous for being upset with the time I got. Some may understand where I am coming from, and others might not care. So for today- I am not sharing my time for my half, but eventually I’m sure I will. Todays post was more about getting everything off my chest that has been weighing me down since the race and sharing with the people who supported me! Thank you everyone for the support! Sorry my blogging has been SOO sparse lately. Hopefully I am back and hopefully you are all still there!

Kristen

Does it amaze anyone how much time can slip away? I can’t believe that over a week ago I finished my second 10 miler! I need to think wayyyy back so I can share with you all! The race weekend started on Saturday when Julie and I went over to Pacers in Alexandria to pick up our race packets and I think we were expecting a little more that what we found. I know I definitely thought there would be a bit of an expo since it was a decent sized race. We pulled up to pacers, in the rain, and saw a tent and a truck and a few signs. We quickly figured out that we needed to get over there because that’s where packet pick up was. Along with our race packets we also got a sample of Rita’s, my first experience- Yum! Next we went inside and picked up our tee’s- the quality was nice, but to be quite honest I thought the design could have been better. Sorry if you, or someone you know designed it!! In order to get out, you had to walk through the store; nice marketing move Pacers! We fell for it and both purchased so new clothes! I am addicted to Nike Tempo shorts and of course I added another pair to my collection. Julie also purchased a few items and got a free New Balance hat. After we fell for the marketing trap we headed back to my place, but not before stopping to get some lunch… Greek! After everything that day I had to work in the evening and was really hoping to get off at a decent time. Ha, didn’t happen. Look what time I got home!

Next I had to pack everything up for the morning otherwise, something would be forgotten.

The next morning Julie arrived at my house bright and early, in the rain. We drove a few blocks from the bus pickup and walked, in the rain, about 5 blocks to the area where the busses would be picking us up. It wasn’t the walk that bothered me, it was the rain! I hate having wet hair so I kept my hood up the whole time we were outside. Thankfully we were wearing flip flops so our shoes didn’t get wet.

I guess at the time though this didn’t really matter since they were calling for rain and storms all day so our shoes would get wet anyways. We made it to the bus stop along with everyone else and we waited a few minutes for the busses to load and we were on our way. I really think the organizers did a great job with the transportation of racers to the site. We didn’t have to wait to long, there were plenty of busses and we also out smarted everyone else and used the bathroom on the charter bus! That might have been the best idea I have had in a long time!! No bathroom lines. Our next step was to find Julie’s friend KK and drop off our bags to the bag check. Again, I thought this was well organized, besides the longish lines some people had to wait in. By the time the rain had stopped and we were standing on a big lawn listening to some guy tell everyone to stretch as he was leading the way. I did a few of my own stretches, but I figured my routine works for me, soooo don’t fix it if it ain’t broke!

After what seemed like a while of a wait we headed over to the starting line and chatted with each other and a few other people around us. The national anthem was sung and the gun went off. We walked our way to the start and then I started my watch a quickly started making moves. I have found that I prefer to start with a slower pace group otherwise I really seem to push myself to hard in the beginning because I hate getting passed. This has worked well for me before and I think for the time being I will continue that method. Now, before I get into the race itself I want to share something I heard about the race from a few people. “This race is pretty flat except a pretty decent hill at the end”……. ahem, bull$*#+… This race (to me) was up hill, down hill, up hill, down hill… for most of the race! Mile one and two I kept thinking ok these hills must just be in the beginning, people told me this was a flat race. Mile 3 and 4 much of the same and then mile 5 came! So I’ll back up.. miles 1-2 were good I felt good and there was a lot of room to run because they had shut down the whole parkway, not just 2 lanes. I think by the end of mile 2 I was thinking this sucks these hills suck, and that carried over into mile 3 and a bit of mile 4. I think by mile 3 I had my headphones off and I was listening to the sounds and enjoying the day, minus the hills! I really like just taking in whats going on around me. Right before we hit mile 5 there was a water station and some guy said to the girl he was running with “mile 5 is all down hill, we need to make up some time” and he wasn’t kidding. Mile 5 was all down hill and it was amazing! I love mile 5… You are halfway done and each mile after that you are getting closer and closer to the finish. Mile 6 and mile 7 were good for me and they were pretty flat. There was one point, I think in mile 6, where there was an Airborne Ranger that began to chant with a friend… SO COOL! It was awesome. It helped everyone around us!!! After that I took off and there was no looking back. Well, until mile 8 when I could feel a blister developing on the pad of my foot but I wasn’t going to let that stop me and I pushed through. The last water stop was at the end of mile 8 and I got my water and as I was doing so there was a volunteer who thought it would be helpful(?) to tell everyone that mile nine was going to be “the worst mile you have ever run” SERIOUSLY?! WTF! Don’t get me wrong, I love the volunteers who make races possible, but keep it positive. I had a mini panic and wondered what the hell could be around the corner (literally and metaphorically). About a quarter of the way into mile 9 I saw it, the hill that I had heard about. ‘THAT’S IT’?!! I thought to myself… this hill was nothing to worry about and I sped up and made my way up the hill so I could rest once I got to the top. A guy yelled “Thatta girl” as I ran by him. From then on I feel like I could see the finish line, but it felt like it took me 45 minutes to get there! As I was about to cross the finish line I saw Julie’s boyfriend Dan, and waved to him before the final bit of the race. As I crossed the line I stopped my watch and looked down to see my time. I was in disbelief, it couldn’t be…. the time on my watch said 1:28:03…. EXCUSE ME?! How is this possible? but it was right! I was beyond happy! Just 2 weeks before I had done my first 10 miler on a totally flat course and finished it in 1:35:57 . I guess all those down hills really helped me increase my time since I really try hard to not slow down on the up hill from my average pace!

I walked over and got snacks and picked up my bag from bag check and then made my way back to the finish line to cheer for Julie and KK. Julie came across and looked thrilled to be done too! Once we were all together they got their bags and then we headed to the beer garden and I had about 2 sips of beer and decided that YUCK, I was not interested. That was the last thing I wanted at that time! Shortly after this we headed back to the car (thank for flip flops!) and made a pit stop at Rita’s and then back home to relax for the afternoon.
So, all in all, I really liked this race. Would I run it again? Yes, I think I would. Maybe I am partial because I feel like I had a good race, but I actually liked the course and thought it was a good training run for longer distances. Would I do this race a week before a half marathon again, NO. But, like I said, the transportation was good, the course was wide and had plenty of room for all runners, and I think the pre-race communication was also good. (if you got the emails) I have a feeling I will be trying for a long time to beat this time- but a little competition within is good!

Tomorrow, or later today I will be posting about the Frederick Half Marathon from this past weekend. Did I finish? How did I do? Would I do it again? Wait and find out!
Happy Cinco De Mayo, Loves.

Kristen
Ps. Thanks to Julie for AGAIN, taking photos!! :)

Hey all!! Things are still as crazy as ever around here! I’m back to work and student teaching full time! Can you say exhausted?! I had a race this weekend at the National Harbor in Oxon Hill, MD. My first out of state race! Haha, by out of state I mean it was literally 2 miles out of Virginia.

Now for the recap:
Mike came out to this race with me! It was nice to know he’d be at the finish and I actually pushed myself a little harder knowing he was there. We left the house by 7:45 and we got there by 8:15 for a 9:00 start time. I think we got there a little too early, and it was not warm out! We waited around for a while and watched the people and then around 8:50 he headed to the car to drive to the finish. The announcer was telling people to line up at their pace section and they had 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,and 14+ and people were only lining up at 8 minutes and slower.. I thought this was a little odd. Since no one was really using the 5,6, or 7 paces they asked people who were 9 minutes or faster to line up first because they were going to get a minute head start. I lined up with the 9 minute pace, which I thought might be a little fast, but I do typically run within 9 minute miles- so I figured it would work out.

The started the race at 9 on the button (awesome) and we were off. I definitely started way to fast and I didn’t like getting passed by everyone and I think I pushed myself harder than I normally would have. However, almost the whole first mile was down hill, so it was ok that I was going faster than I should have. They also had the 1 mile marker at .88 miles which threw me off a little. The second mile was part of a loop from the first mile and then we ran down past the harbor and it was chilly and we were running on broken sea shells- or something like them. The last 1.7 miles had a big uphill that I tried to power through but about halfway up, I died and really slowed down. Then after the big hill it was mainly downhill and I sped back up and crossed the finish and I couldn’t believe it when I looked up at the time! Mike also couldn’t believe it and I heard the surprise in his voice when I crossed the finish!

Before the race I told Mike I was hoping that I would get under 33 minutes. When I crossed the finish I looked up and saw 30:45- WHAT?! no way, the clock was wrong.. I was almost 2 and a half minutes under my goal. I also hit stop on my garmin when I crossed and it said the same thing!

My splits looked like this:
Mile 1- 7:58

Mile 2- 8:27

Mile 3- 8:59

Last .7- 5:20

I was so excited all day with my time! I finished 33 of all the women and 13th in my age group! I really enjoyed the race course itself, but we didn’t stick around to see what was going on after the race. There was a live band there after the race which seemed pretty cool and I really loved the location!
Soooo, that’s it! Sorry no pictures… hopefully all my words were enough!

GW Parkway 10 miler is this Sunday with Julie and next weekend is my 1/2 marathon. My friend Gwen decided to do it with me! I won’t be alone after all!!

Kristen

I am 4 days post 10 miles and I feel great! I didn’t really expect to hurt too much, and I really didn’t. Monday I was pretty sore but only in my quads. I took off Monday and Tuesday from running and I think that was a good choice because I got a pretty good rest and now I am ready to get back at it. Last night Mike and I went for a short 2 miler and it felt good. Tonight I think we will probably head out on a 5-6 miler depending on how long my school work takes. I am getting really close to graduation and I am so stoked about it. I walk at graduation May 9th, but I don’t technically graduate until July. This spring semester ends on Saturday and next semester starts at the end of April. I can’t believe I am about to start my last semester of graduate school. Crazzzzzy! It will be really nice to get my Friday nights and Saturdays back (that’s when my classes are) and I am sure my hubs and friends will appreciate it too!

This weekend I have class tomorrow night and I have to turn in my final portfolio and then Saturday I have a final and thats going to take most of the day. Sunday I am running a 6k at the National Harbor. 6k sounds weird, but it’s for a great cause. You can read my original post here if you want more information. The run is helps other people around the world get water. 6k is the average distance that people in some countries have to walk to get drinking water. If you are local, there are still spots available. I know that I will be able to finish 6k and I am really going to push myself to accomplish my goal for the race but this will be the first race I am running alone. Well, by running I mean, this will be the first race where I don’t have friends going to the race with me, or meeting me there. I think it’s good though because my half will be like that. I have my hotel booked for the half and I am a little nervous about standing in the starting coral all alone… it seems so strange to think I’ll just be standing there quitely without anyone I know around me! I talked Mike into coming up to the race with me! So this race will also mark the first time I’ve had a spectator cheering for me! I’m going to work on him coming to my half. I feel like thats a pretty big accomplishment and I want him there with me. I’m sure he’ll crawl his butt out of bed to come cheer me on :)

Official countdown to my first half marathon…. 18 days!!!

Kristen

Hey ya’ll! I finally have 5 minutes that I can breathe and post about the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler from this past weekend. Let me start by saying that I loved this race and I can’t wait to run it again next year! Or at least enter the lottery and hope for the best next year! One month ago I didn’t even have this race on my radar and then one day I got an email from Erin asking me if I was interested because her friend was unable to do train due to an injury and she had two bibs that she was looking to get rid of. I was certainly happy to oblige and take them off her hands. One for me and one for my friend Gwen who you might remember from this race.

Alrighty, now that you have the background deets (details) I can move on with the rest of my review. All things race began Saturday night when Mike and I drove out to meet with Erin to pick up my race packet and once I got home I laid all of my things out for the next morning. I am not a morning person and it was absolutely necessary to stay on bed until the last possible second! Sunday Morning at 5:00 my alarm went off and I hit snooze just once (possible PR) and I was up and out of bed by 5:15. I also had to keep in mind that coffee on race morning doesn’t work for me. I tinkered around the house for a while and got my things together slowly. I took a bagel for the road and I headed out to meet Gwen at the metro by 6. We were the first metro stop so we got a seat, but that thing filled up quick and I got a little more anxious as more people strolled in at each stop. By the time we got off the metro and were headed out to the race this was what the station looked like.

Pretty crazy huh? That was 7:00 in the morning and all those people were runners! It didn’t take us much time to get to the start. However, we did under estimate the time it would take to do EVERYTHING else! So along the way we were taking pictures and trying to really take the whole thing in!

I was nice and bundled in my sweatsuit for the pre race photos!

Clearly this is my first time at a big race and I didn’t realize when you make your arrival time so close to the start you really need to get a move on… but can you blame me with views like this?!

Pretty surreal for this Canuck. We figured out pretty quickly it was time to stop playing tourist and get our shit together and get moving. They started announcing that we should be at the check in tent to do bag check right as we got there so we picked up the pace and headed over. We got everything checked and made our way to the port-a-pots. This was like nothing I had ever experienced before in my life. Pots everywhere and lines like you see at a fair but NO MOVEMENT! We got in line by 7:15 (ish) and our heat started at 7:40. We stood and stood and stood and then they began the race and the air horn was blowing for the heats to start! I was freaking out, but there was absolutely no way that I was going to run 10 miles without.. ahem.. you know. 7:55 we are at the front of the line and we sprint in and out and make a dash to the start. Why were we running you ask.. Oh, I didn’t tell you.. They close the starting line at 8:00 AM on.the.dot. I’d say we sprinted a quarter mile to the start and barely made it as the announcer was saying that there was literally seconds left until the race was closed. Not the best way to begin 10 miles.

Mile one was hell for me and Gwen and I quickly went our own ways once we caught up to the crowd. My stomach was in so much pain and I seriously questioned what the hell I was doing. I took out my headphones at the beginning of mile 2 and didn’t put them back in the entire time. There was a lot going on around me and I was just taking it all in. I caught up with Erin during mile 2 and we chatted for a few minutes and then I continued on my way. It was shortly after that I found the zone and just kept going. I didn’t stop at the first water station and mile 3 flew by. I remember thinking, ‘wow I am already at mile 4!’ I quickly forgot about how I had a bad start to the race and my stomach stopped hurting in mile one and I just took everything in. Since I started behind my group I was passing people most of the race, but I didn’t mind. I did mind when people would decide to walk and just stop in the middle of the road. This race was really crowded and I feel like there could have been a better thing to do, like move over and then stop. MIle 5 and 6 were pretty and they went by quite fast. My right ankle started to hurt at the end of mile 6, but I had also caught up to Gwen at that point so we were able to run together for a while. I remember around mile 6.7 just smiling because I knew that I had gone farther than I ever had and that I was feeling great and I was going to make it to the end! Mile 7 and 8 were probably the toughest miles for me because I started to look at my watch to see the distance more frequently and I think I definitely started to get more tired in these miles. I heard a girl say that those are always her hardest miles and I’d have to agree, at least that day it was!

Seeing the mile 9 sign was awesome! I knew I had one more mile to go and then I could say I have run 10 miles. I did look at my watch a lot the last mile and this also felt like the longest mile of the day. There were some great spectators and fans that were cheering me (only me) on. I love that people come out to support runners because it really makes a difference those last few miles! A HUGE thank you to all the spectators- you guys were great! It’s really fun to look at the signs and see the excitement in some peoples faces. Annnd back to the race. Somewhere in mile 8 or 9 Gwen and I separated, I thought she was behind me and she thought she was too, I think. We didn’t finished together like we had planned (at mile 7) but we were pretty close! When I finally saw the finish line I sprinted to the end and was so excited because I had just run 10 miles! for the first time! I felt so great and excited. It was such a cool feeling.

Gwen and I eventually found each other and we proceeded to take more pictures, drink plenty of water, I even ate a banana (sick, gross, nasty) because my hands were swollen and Dr. G told me I needed potassium. We met up with our friend Deirdre from school and took a few pics, walked about a mile and then headed back to the metro. The metro ride back was great. I sat. Relaxed. Eavesdropped. Perfect way to end the morning! Here are a few more pics from our sunny Sunday!

And last but not least…. I’m sure you are super interested to know my time, right?! Well I was pretty pleased with myself. I had hoped for a time under 1:45 and I finished in 1:35:57! Maybe for my next one in 2 weeks I’ll shoot for under 1:35. Who knows, this course was great because it was really flat and really fast! I was pretty happy because my splits were fairly consistent throughout the race- mainly in the 9’s.
Mile 1: 9:38
Mile 2: 10:16
Mile 3: 9:29
Mile 4: 9:14
Mile 5: 9:29
Mile 6: 9:17
Mile 7: 9:36
mile 8: 9:24
Mile 9: 9:35
Mile 10: 9:10

Ok.. so I think that’s all for tonight!! Hopefully I’ll get a few more posts in this week, but if I don’t, stick around! I have a race on Sunday and I’ll be sure to have a full report ASAP!

Kristen

P.S. All photos are courtesy of Gwen!! THANKS!! :)

UPDATE!
Ok so, things got a little crazy tonight with my teaching portfolio, but I promise, it’s coming soon!

OK guys, I know that after people run a much anticipated race I am chomping at the bit to hear ALL about it! Tonight I promise that I will be posting all the details and stories from the day!

Check back later this evening!

I’ve been wishing for it for months and it’s finally here- warm weather. I seriously can’t get enough of it! The days right now start out cool and have been getting pretty warm mid day and then they cool down again for the nights, it’s amazing! This is what the summers were like at home in Canada. Summers in Northern Virginia are a different story friends! From the time you step outside before work in the morning until the time you get back inside after work you are sticky. The humidity around here is the W O R S T part about summer! My hair looks like a hot mess and I am a very sweaty girl. As it starts to get hotter and more humid for my daily workouts I need to keep reminding myself how important it is to drink more water! At my old job drinking water was simple and I always had enough. Now that I am in the school and not thinking about it, I do not drink enough water in a day, let alone enough water for a hot day work out. When I run I sweat a lot (like I already said) and if I am not super hydrated I will get a headache and be done for the day after my run. So hydrate hydrate hydrate is my motto for the summer! With race season already starting it’s a good habit to get into since I really never know how hot it will actually be for the time of the race!

That’s all I have today, but I feel like it’s an important public service reminder.
Kristen

Hey all! Wow, it’s been a few days since my last post and I definitely have good reason! Spring break, duh. It was awesome!! In college I never had a traditional spring break because of lacrosse. There was always something else we were doing for the week. We always used to joke that MTV was going to follow us and chronicle the lives of us lacrosse players, they never did-obviously. So back to my real spring break and not my fabricated one. I like to do things pretty last minute and I am not always a planner, so when my bff Jackie was in the area visiting her aunt I decided on a whim that I would make the 2 hour drive with her back to her place for a few nights and Mike would come pick me up halfway. Notice how I said “I” decided? Well Mike and Jackie were both actually there, but it was all my idea and they just agreed. Jackie lives in the town that Mike and I got married in and the last time that I was there was for the wedding! I always love going over there and this time was especially awesome because Jackie and her husband just bought a house and this was the first time that I got to see it! I got back from their house on Tuesday night and then on Wednesday I was the host of book club. We ate baked ziti and sipped some wine. It was a good time, as always. Haha, by always I mean this was my second time at book club but they have both been great! Wednesday night I started to get a little stuffy and by mid day Thursday I was full out sick. I am almost over it now, but for a couple days there I was not feeling too hot. I think the combination of school, and teaching, and work and life took over and it turned into a cold. Thursday and Friday I really didn’t do much because I was laying around trying to feel better and hydrate. I also had to get in my runs all week. Wednesday-Saturday were running days and I took yesterday off and I will be back at it again tonight.

In case anyone forgot… The Cherry Blossom 10 Miler is on SUNDAY, as in 6 days from now. I still have yet to run more than 6.4 consecutive miles and I think that tonight’s going to be the night I go for 8. Why on Earth have I not gone for more yet you ask!! Well… I have had a really tough time getting in “the zone” if you will. I feel like I get running and I’m thinking “ahhhhh this is going to take forever” or “hmmm what will I do tonight after my run” or “I wonder what’s going to happen with Owen and yang on grey’s this week”…. literally I could go on for hours. My mind was wandering like crazy this past week and I don’t know how to control it! It’s like I was psyching myself out of my running. Sometimes it takes me a few miles and I really get going and things are great, and others, like last week… not so much. I always have my music with me and usually it’s just a background noise that is going on, but if I get to focused on what is playing it bothers me and I have to turn it off. Weird? yeah, I know! So yeah, that’s my dilemma… I am ADHD and it has been wreaking havoc on my training runs this past week! I am hoping for something glorious and out of this world to happen tonight and that I will be able to pull off 8 miles! I’m not worried about making the distance, but I am a little concerned about actually getting it done! you know what I mean?

How about everyone else? How were your runs and workouts this past week or weekend? I have been reading a ton of awesome posts on In It To Gym It and seriously they all motivate me!! I am loving having that as another part of my day.

Enjoy your Monday!!
Kristen