It’s Friday 5!!! Addition to the family and Life in General!

1.  So, life has been hectic…  I feel like I’ve never known a time in my life when it hasn’t been that way lol…  The things taking up most of my time consist of school, homework, my interpreting practicum (internship), driving an hour or more both ways (to and from) everyday, an interpreting mentoring program, and…did I say homework? ;) 

 

 

2.  So, as you can see from the above, I haven’t had time for much of anything else.  That means that blogging (*gasp*)  and running (*even bigger gasp*) have taken a back seat in this season of my life.  I’d be ok with that, for the most part, IF… I didn’t have a 1/2 marathon sneaking up on me in 8 days! ha!  What happened is:  I signed up for the Columbus FULL marathon as soon as registration opened because I LOVED my first full last year and it’s cheaper the sooner you register… is sooner a word? lol!  Anyways…  Then I had to downgrade to the half because of everything in #1.  NOW, the race is 8 days away… the farthest I’ve run is 5 miles and that was ooo… about a month or more ago lol.  SO not prepared!  I feel rather pathetic about it, but what can you do? 

If this was your situation what would you do? 
     - Go and try to have fun even though you’d be walking about 3/4 of the race?
     - Go and try to run the whole thing even though you haven’t trained because your
       stubborn like that?
     - Go and try not to see anyone you know.. how embarrassing that you’re walking!
     - Don’t go and sleep in instead?
     - Other:___________________

 

3. So… since blogging has been something I haven’t been doing… tell me what’s been going on with you!  I know some of you have gotten engaged and run races and have had many firsts of things… TELL ME! TELL ME! TELL ME!! :)

 

4. My car has been acting up on me.  One day, I was stopped on an on-ramp (incline) and my car battery died so I was stuck and everyone behind me was stuck unless they could go around… a police officer had to come and push me bumper-to-bumper up the ramp and into a gas station that was in a not so good area.  After the tow truck came, the officer gave me a ride, in the back of his car, to school.  I’m sure you all can imagine the looks I got when he had to get out of the car and come let me out of the caged part of the vehicle in front of everyone! It was quite comical!  What’s not so funny, is that my car also died WHILE I was driving on the Interstate.  My engine just gave out.  I had to ride in the tow truck about an hour to get back home and missed out on my internship that day… Here’s a picture from the passenger seat of a tow truck of my poor car:

 

5.  That’s where the new addition to our family comes in…  My car was going to be double what I paid for the thing in the first place, just to replace the engine… so my husband took me car shopping and we were just planning on looking around, but came home with this new little beauty!  (2013 Chevy Spark):

The VERY “Magic Mile”

I was reading some articles online about running and came across an article on Runner’s World HERE that talked about a Magic Mile… What in the world is that?!  and … why is it so magical?!  Of course I was intrigued and opened the article to read more… 

Apparently, you can run a mile, as fast as you can and predict your race finishing times and find out what paces you should be training at. According to Jeff Galloway anyways… ;)  From THIS ARTICLE:

The Magic Mile will help determine:
     1. If the goal pace is realistic.
     2. How much improvement can be expected, and whether someone is on track to
         meet the goal.
     3. Running the Magic Mile takes the guesswork out of goal setting. This often
         involved putting the reins on the ego, which will talk the person into goals that are
         not within their current capabilities.
     4. These formulas will allow one to predict race time by running a timed mile.
     5. During the training season, the group will run a Magic Mile on a set schedule,
        depending on the training goal.

Well now of course I just had to try it… DUH! ;)  And if you want to try it too… here are some articles you can read and a video of Jeff Galloway explaining it to you:

Article #1
Article #2
Article #3

 

Basically, you run a 1 mile warm up and then complete some strides and then run around the track for a mile (4 laps in case you’ve never been to a track before) as fast as you can and time how long it takes you.  Afterwards you can run how many ever miles you have left to run that day or a 1 mile cool down, then plug your results into THIS AWESOME TOOL and voila it gives you a list of paces to expect for training and races…

Last night, it was too dark and too late by the time I was able to workout to go to the track, so I decided to try this Magic Mile on the treadmill… even though the articles I had read said that a treadmill was not the best option…  I started out with a .60 mile warm up and then ran my first Magic Mile in 8:07.  Not what I wanted… but it’s a reality check… also I'm blaming the stupid treadmill for needing to slowly increase it’s pace at the beginning ;) lol… Afterwards, I did some weights and for my “cool down” rode the bike for 20 minutes.

Here’s what my results were:

 

Have you ever run a Magic Mile?

If so, do you think the results are pretty accurate?

Do you think this is a training must? Why or Why not?

If you haven’t, do you want to now?  You know you do… it’s magical! ;)

9/28 – Speed Work at the Track

First, let me say that It has been almost a whole year since I’ve actually gone to a track to do speed work.  My training schedule said I had 6 miles to do Wednesday… but I had homework to do and kept pushing it off and pushing it off until I didn’t feel like running… ever done that?! It’s not a good thing!

But then I remembered I had new shoes that needed to be initiated (more so than a mere 2 mile treadmill run).  I’m not gonna lie, the run in I had with the dog on my long run had me leery of running on the road, so I decided I would go to the track for a change in scenery, but I had to go “now” because silly fall brings shorter days… I don't like it when it gets dark so early lol…

I wrote down my plan and took off:

I did pretty good at hitting my goal paces for the workout:

I really enjoyed it… it was refreshing to do something different, not to mention the weather was perfect… slightly breezy, cool but not cold, peaceful (I was the only one on the track at 6:30 at night lol… I think I enjoyed running at dusk; that was different too. My feet enjoyed running in my new shoes as well ;) Sometimes you just need to switch things up… Do you ever switch things up when you run?

 

I ended up finishing before it got too dark and took a few minutes to stretch and enjoy the peaceful evening before heading home to shower and finish my homework.

It was a fabulous run… I have no clue why it’s been so long since I went to the track… I see more track speed sessions in my near-training future. ;)

Do you do speed work at a track? If so, do you enjoy it?
If not, do you just run your intervals on the road?

18 Mile Long Run Recap (9/24)

Saturday 9/24: It started out pretty good, I was feeling confident and my legs felt great… I had the confidence I needed that would help me finish 18 miles…

And then, I had a run in with a dog.  If you have read my blog for any amount of time, you know that I cannot stand dogs… especially when running!  I am scared stiff of them!

I was about 3 miles in when this dog came shooting across a yard.  I thought it would stop when it got to the road, but it didn’t… it came across two lanes, barking, growling, and scaring me half to death… I was screaming at it to go home, kicking at it, trying to get it to go away.  I’m not going to lie to you, this dog wasn’t very big, but it was the scariest thing to me… everyone has their own fears right?

Finally someone came out to check on me… I guess I was screaming bloody murder, and he got the dog to go back home… he acted like I was an idiot… what a jerk! I continued on my way, but you know when the adrenaline wears off and you are out of harms way… yeah, I started crying so I stopped (a good distance from that evil dog) in someone’s driveway and called my mom.  Mom’s make everything better :)  After telling her about my ordeal, she asked if I needed anything, and I realized that I had been so surprised by the dog that I had lost my gum… she brought me another piece along with a hug… I love my mom :)

I found it hard to get back into my groove after that… it took me about a mile or so and then I started feeling good about my run again… I took a GU Roctane around mile 5.  Once I got to the school/trail there were a gazillion people everywhere… there was a cross country meet going on, so I had to wind my way through everyone saying “on your left” “on your right” the whole time lol… I love running on the trail… there’s all sorts of people out and about… you’re never really alone :)

The halfway point (9 miles) ended up being where my husband works… pretty nifty how that works out ;) So I stopped and chatted for a few minutes while he filled up my water bottle for me and then I headed back.

Around mile 12 I really started having issues… the hills felt worse going back than they had when I first started out lol…(see garmin chart) I ended up walking up most of the hills on the way home… it was slow going…

I also had to stop and ask an older gentleman if he would fill up my water bottle for me because for some reason I was so thirsty the last 4 miles! I was so ready to be done and it seemed like there were hills on top of hills lol… It was tough mentally and my legs were so sore… but I finally made it home!!

18.01 miles in 3:31:31

The farthest I’ve ever run! I was thrilled that I finished and a little bit nervous when I thought that the marathon was 8.2 more miles than I had just run… how on earth will I finish a marathon?! Good thing the Columbus Marathon is mostly flat ;)

Tomorrow I have 20 miles and I’m thinking of doing it on flat ground.. we’ll see lol ;)

ONLY 15 DAYS TIL I RUN MY FIRST MARATHON!!! AHH!!

(Click the image to make it bigger)

Thursday Thoughts – I’m running a marathon next month?!

1.  Now that it’s September I can say “I’m running a marathon next month!”  Wowsa!  I’m freaking out a tad here but one thing I learned from The Cap City Half I ran in May was that not all races have to have time goals… If you run just for fun, you end up having a good time and sometimes, doing better than you thought you would… so I’m running my first FULL marathon for fun and my only goal is to finish those 26.2 miles! :)

2.  Don’t forget to ENTER my giveaway if you want to have the chance to win a signed copy of Mark Remy’s second book called “The Runner’s Field Manual: A Tactical (and Practical) Survival Guide”

3.  If you miss out on a run is it ok to do 2 runs the next day? (as long as they are lower in mileage?) What are your opinions? Have you ever done this?  Like one in the morning and one at night?

4. I’m thinking about buying some nuun but I want to try it before I buy it… Have you guys tried it before? What did you think?

5.  I found this cute little kitten under my deck last week and he was rather scared… I named him Baxter, but since hubster and I are living with my parents I couldn’t keep him and called a few shelters including the humane society… I was kind of mad when the guy on the other end of the line told me they aren’t taking cats right now and that I’d be better off putting him back where I found him.  I told him I didn’t want him under our deck and he said to throw him in the woods or something… seriously?!

6.  Tressa over at Training with a Track Coach & His Adorable Wife, commented on one of my blog posts that now that I don’t have a job, I’m not a bum, I’m just a Domestic Running Diva lol… I like that and I’m sticking with it!! :) Thanks Tressa!

7.  It looks like I’ll be running on the treadmill today… it’s storming outside and I don’t feel like getting struck by lightening…

8. I found out that if I use Mozilla Firefox to read blogs, blogger doesn’t mess up as much and I can actually comment on blogs… who knew?  Try it out if you’re having problems with blogger!!

9.  Last but not least, I have my last 2 finals tonight and then I’m free for 2 weeks before I start fall quarter! lol… needless to say, I didn’t really get a summer vacation… guess I better go study…

Ramblings and More Wedding Prep Memories

Somehow I managed to get today off… amazing! lol… especially since where I work kinda relies on nice, sunny, hot weather to be busy and its all of the above today lol… So my plans include running, blogging, possibly a little bit of xbox 360 kinnect, and laying out… ok fine, a little bit of laundry too lol ;)

Let’s talk running before I talk more about some of the wedding prep adventures…  So If you’re new to my blog, welcome!  (so close to 200!!)  Also, you might not know that I am registered for my first full marathon on October 16th… well, now you know! ;)

The problem is, as I said in my last post, my life is super incredibly busy right now so I feel like I am not going to be prepared for such a feat in 2 months… eek!!  My long run tomorrow will only be 8 miles lol… I may have to change my registration to the half… but I don’t want to until I know for sure or not if I will be ready for the full… but there’s a deadline to change your registration and you can only change it if the race is not sold out… what do you all think i should do??

Sidenote:  I figured out how to schedule posts!  Pretty cool!!  Now I’m gonna be a blogging machine! ;) haha… maybe lol

Anyways… on to some more Wedding prep memories! :)

I NEVER wear makeup NEVER unless it is a special occasion, which my wedding kind of was… so my cousin offered to do my makeup for me.  (Same cousin who threw me my bridal shower)  Naturally we had a makeup trial!! lol… here are some pics… we did one eye in browns and one eye in pinks and decided to go with the pinks for the big day :) (you can click the image to make it bigger)

 

Postponement on my Training

Well… back in November I registered for the Capital City Half Marathon and I have kept pushing off training for some reason… maybe because it’s been cold, I’ve been planning a wedding, or I just am plain lazy… who knows! 

But, I was seriously going to start out training today with a 4 mile tempo run but that isn’t going to happen because I’m sick … It feels much like strep throat which would make sense because the young people I work with come to work and inform me that they have strep throat but not to worry because they aren’t contagious anymore but then cough in my face… I’m hoping to feel better so I can start training tomorrow… it’s supposed to be nearly 60 degrees!! YAY!!  Just a week ago the high was 7 lol…silly Ohio weather!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last night was mine and Josh’s Valentine’s Day since we didn’t get to see each other on Monday.  He came over and brought me beautiful pink roses, reeses cups, and a card.  I gave him a card and a project of mine in pieces lol… I didn’t get to finish it since I was also sick yesterday and slept most of the day. (more on the project later) Then we made dinner together of sausage and cheese bagels and scrambled eggs… yummy!  We finished out our date with watching one of my favorite shows, NCIS, and then he had to go home early because he had an important test this morning!  It was a wonderful date!  I love him so much and cannot wait to marry him! :) 

 My beautiful flowers

 His unfinished project that I promised would be finished by the weekend lol

Now I’m going to take a nap even though it’s only 11:45 AM lol hopefully I can
kick this before I have to go to work tonight!  I hope everyone has a great day
today!!  You’re week is half way done!! :)

129 Days Left!

An Evening Spent in the ER

Well, I have been MIA this week because I have not been feeling well at all!  Monday evening after I got off work, I decided to head to the track to get in my speed workout.  I was supposed to do 1mi warmup, 4x1600 @8:35 pace with 800 recoveries between, and 1 mile cooldown = 8mi… well, I did the warmup and I got the first 1600 with 800 recovery done.  After that, I just couldn’t do it… Maybe it had to do with being on my feet at work all day or that it was kind of hot but I finished with an 800, 400, 200, 100 working on speed… I really dont know how speedy I was, but probably not very lol.  I started not feeling good but said “Zaneta, you can do a 1 mile cooldown… seriously!”  so I slowy did my last mile and cut my workout short by only doing about 4.5 miles.  I went home feeling yucky… headache, slight cough, feeling nauseous, and kind of like I couldn’t catch my breath. Soo…

Tuesday, I decided to take a rest day and I stayed in bed until I got a text from my boyfriend that said “someone’s here to see you!” He had had class that morning and had the rest of the day off so he came over to chill with me all day… we played games like mancala and guess who and read the latest runners world, then we made french toast for dinner…  I was still feeling a little weak and tired and still like I was short of breath, but felt like it was getting better.  I really enjoyed the day despite being sick.  Then…

Wednesday, I woke up feeling OK, so I got out of bed and met my running partner at my door at 8:30… our plan was to run 9.5 – 10 miles but we only got in 8.25.  We had to stop a couple times due to me feeling a little nauseous and I couldn’t catch my breath… we walked a couple times and cut it short because I just couldn’t do it!  I went to work for 2 hours at my sitting down job then came home and rested the rest of the evening.

Thursday (yesterday), I went to my “Stand on your feet all day” job and actually ended up leaving early because I just couldn’t catch my breath and my chest was hurting on the left side a little bit so I came home and my dad took me to the ER.  My boyfriend met us there and they got me into a room right away which is weird for the ER…  They had me standing and sitting for some of the time and my hands and feet were tingly and my lips started tingling… so as soon as they let me lie down, I started feeling a little better but still was short of breath.  They did blood work, gave me some anxiety medicine thru an IV, did an EKG, and took some chest xrays all of which came back ok.  Also, I had no clue I was anxious about anything?! lol… anyways… They ended up telling me no training until I could follow up with a specialist… which Im doing today!  I was really surprised he could get me in today at such a short notice!  I’ll let you guys know how it goes!  Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers!

Tempo Turned Fartlek & Sigvaris Review

Well I have a 5k race this Saturday so I was trying to figure out how to move my training schedule around so that I wasn't doing my long run on Friday! I decided I would just move everything up a day and move my long run to Wednesday... which meant I have to run on Monday which is usually a rest day because I am never very motivated on Mondays (surprise, surprise!)

Training Schedule as planned:
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 7mi tempo run @9:42 (5mi w/ wu and cd)
Wednesday: 2mi easy run
Thursday: Rest
Friday: 9mi long run @11:08
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: 2mi easy run

New Revised Training Schedule:
Monday: 7mi tempo run @9:42 (5mi w/wu and cd)
Tuesday: 2mi easy run
Wednesday: 9mi long run@ 11:08
Thursday: Rest/XT
Friday: 2mi easy run
Saturday: 5k race

So, yesterday I was all excited and psyching myself up to get out and run my tempo run and was pretty excited til I remembered the stupid dogs that always run after me and try to bite me at the end of my road. I didn't let that get me down, I came up with a plan to drive my car down the road and park a little ways down the intersecting road (no big deal)... then I stepped outside!! WOW!! I had completely forgot to check the weather and did not think it would be 95 degrees especially since it had been so cool we had turned the AC off for an ENTIRE WEEK!! lol... I didn't let that get me down either... "I have plenty of water and I've ran in the heat before!!" So off I went for my 1 mile warmup, 5 mile tempo @9:42, and 1 mile cooldown.

I did the warmup up pretty good and 1 mile of the tempo run I was going faster than the 9:42 pace, not a lot faster... but there were times when I was in the 8's... I'm not a very good pacer i guess lol... but soon after the first mile of the tempo run, i definitely started feeling the heat!!
That's when I knew I wouldn't make the whole 7 miles and that I knew I had to slow down... I ended up walking then running fast to the next shade spot, then walking in the shade, and running to the next shade.... it was actually quite pathetic! I felt so ashamed of myself and disappointed! I turned around 2.5 miles in and kept running/walking the rest of the way home for a total of 5.05 miles, as you can see for yourself...

Runs like yesterdays are the times when I start doubting myself and that I can run a half marathon ... days like yesterday make me think "what are you doing?! You're not a runner!! You're just a wannabe!!" And this makes me sad because I am trying... I really am... just sometimes it seems like its not good enough! After especially hard training days like yesterday, I look forward to an ice bath and some chocolate milk!! In addition to those two treats, I also LOVE pulling on my Sigvaris Recovery Socks!

I have worn my Sigvaris Recovery Socks that I received from Erica (HERE) so many times that I have now lost count! My favorite thing to do is take a nice ice bath, shower, then pull on my Sigvaris recovery socks and lay on the couch after those tough runs because even though I'm feeling down on myself and have a negative attitude for a little while afterwards, the compression recovery socks ALWAYS make my legs feel great!! You can feel the sock actually squeezing (not too tightly) the calf muscles that always feel tired and sore on me, and it feels GREAT!

This is what the Sigvaris website says about their recovery socks:


Introducing the SIGVARIS Athletic Recovery Sock

SIGVARIS, the global leader in graduated compression garments, introduces the first product of the Active Therapy collection: The Athletic Recovery Sock. The Athletic Recovery sock helps to flush out the lactic acid built up in the leg during exercise, relieving tired, aching legs and exercise-induced muscle soreness.

Athletic Recovery Sock Benefits:

•Promotes lactic acid flush-out and relieves delayed onset muscle soreness!
•Superior Athletic Sizing Assortment and comfort & fit with 50+ years of graduated compression expertise!
•Patented Drirelease® and latex-free yarns with an embedded Freshguard® treatment that virtually eliminates odors!
•True Graduated Compression from the global leader of graduated compression socks!


I know that a lot of times, people say to not dry your compression socks, but I am a person who loves the convenience of the dryer and every time I wash my socks, I throw them into the dryer. They may have shrunk a little bit, but not enough to really notice, and definitely not enough to make them ineffective! Even after all the washing they've been through, they are not worn out in the least and are just as soft as they were when I first wore them! They always make my muscles feel better after a run! I have even worn them once during a run and they felt fabulous as well! So, either way you wear them, I definitely recommend Sigvaris Recovery Socks! I definitely love mine and will definitely be wearing them after my long run tomorrow!!

**Sigvaris in no way endorsed me for this review, I just wanted to share a product with the rest of you that I have really come to love and enjoy!

If you have a product you want me to review, or you want to host a giveaway on my blog, please feel free to email me. My email address is superwoman_4002@yahoo.com

Week in Review (8/23-8/29)

What my schedule said to do ----- What I actually did

Monday: Rext/XT -- Rest

Tuesday: 6 mi Tempo Run w/ 4mi @ 9:37 -- 5.37 miles @9:57 (inc warmup and cooldown)

Wednesday: 2mi easy run @11:08 -- 2.31 miles @10:57 LLL &hardCORE

Thursday: Rest/XT -- Rest (worked on my feet all day) hardCORE

Friday: 8 mi Long Run @ 11:08 -- 7.03 miles @9:48 and 2.26 miles @10:37=9.29 mi@ 10:01

Saturday: Rest/XT -- Rest, LLL &hardCORE

Sunday: 3mi easy run @11:08 -- Rest

Total: 19 miles ----- 16.97 miles (2.03 miles short)

I didn't have the best week of running, but my long run was fantastic!! I also got new running shirts in the mail from nike that I had ordered that were on sale!! I usually dont like pink, but I thought it was a pretty cool looking shirt! :)

I also won a giveaway for WIN laundry detergent from Jill over at Running to Sanity!! If you haven't already, go check out my sidebar and all the giveaways going on around the blogging universe right now! :D I hope everyone had a great weekend!! I know I did, had a much needed long talk with my best friend on Sunday (which is why I didn't really get anything done) Goodnight everyone!!