Peak week happened!

So yesterday we ran 28 miles, wow! Huh, I don't think I ever explained what I was traning for. People are probably thinking I'm crazy. I probably am. The race is called the Red Mountain 50K. It started six years ago, taking its second year off because of lack of sponsorship, I think. It was back on the third year and has steadily grown since then. I am the last person to have done it every year so I feel a responsibility to keep doing it. The 50K is an amazing race and is really well put together. For those of you who are baffled by the distance, it is 31 miles. Yes, that's an ultramarathon. Like I said, it's an amazing race. Sometime I'll tell you about the year it was sabotaged and people got lost.

Anyway, back to yesterday. We literally ran like half of the county. It was a great run. No matter how well prepared you are for it, the upper miles seem to beat you up a bit. My husband was really struggling toward the end but I've decided that it's because he just doesn't have enough recovery time for his body to fully recover, between work and training. Our planning was a little crazy too. Our last mile and a half was uphill. I should have thought that one through a little better. We have discovered how much we really like coconut water on a long run. It's available readily now at convenient stores, mostly in the Naked brand but some carry it in brand specifically marketed to Spanish speaking individuals. Any brand is great. Coconut water is naturally high in electrolytes and its light flavor is refreshing.

I read an article about a year and a half ago when I was in a sports medicine class that cited a research study done in Europe. It said that consuming non-alcoholic beer after a long run can actually be good for a runner. It has to be non-alcoholic but it's true. Non-alcoholic beer is high in polyphenols that can help to boost a compromised immune system do to building for a race. Its alchoholic counterpart doesn't work because of the dehydrating affect of alcohol. Needless to say, my brother and husband couldn't wait to get done so they could drink their O'Douls. I can't stand the smell of the stuff so I don't drink it Chocolate soymilk is my recovery drink of choice. My brother has been fighting a cold so he was especially looking forward to it.

Well, we did it. We made it through peak week and even did it right! Next week we'll taper and continue for a few more weeks. Then, it's race day, the day we've been working toward since January.

Thanks for checking back with me and come check back again soon. Have a good one!

My first open water triathlon

So my road to being active, as you know, began with a triathlon. I did them for a few years but I always avoided the open water tris because I'm scared of water. My husband is an amazing swimmer and has given me some great tips so I decided to give it a go again, this time comfronting my fear of the open water. My training was a little sub-par but I had been swimming a little over a mile once a week for months with consistent running and biking where I could get it in. I didn't have a wet suit but I didn't want to rent one since someday I am going to complete a full Ironman and I will need a wet suit to train for that. My husband has a friend that could get us a screaming deal on a wet suit so we went through him to get it. It arrived the day before the race. Yes, that means that the first time I swam in the lake and the first time I swam in a wet suit were the day of the race, during the race. My parents wanted to be there for the race but ended up going to my niece's dance recital out of town. The last thing my mom told me before thet left was not to freak myself out, that I could do this. Just before the race started they had us jump in the water. I was fine. The race started and I was fine. I was even staying with the pack, up near the front. I'm not sure why, but a few minutes into the race, I had a panic attack. Thankfully, my mom's words stuck in my head and I was able to keep my head but every time I tried to put my head in the water to freestyle, I would freak out. I swam most of that race breaststroking and backstroking. I came in at nearly twice as long as I thought it would take me. My family was starting to worry. I distracted myself by singing to myself. Coming out of the water was the strangest experience. I felt so disconnected to my body. I wasn't sure that my legs were going to respond to the "walk" message they were getting from my head. Once I got on my bike it was smoothe sailing. I was able to fly and of course when it came time to run, my body can go on auto-pilot it's so used to that. I came accrossed the finish line happy to have accomplished my goal but disappointed with my performance. To add insult to injury, my timing chip malfunctioned sometime during the race so I do not have an official finish time for that race. I have since tried to do some swimming at the lake but with no real success. I know the only way to overcome my fear is to stare it in the face. I wanted to do the Ironman St. George 70.3 event ts yesr but it sold out before I could make up my mind. I've been looking into full Ironman tris that could double as a vacation but still haven't made up my mind.

In May of 2010, St. George hosted it's first Ironman event. I volunteered but it was the first time since I've been active that I've sat the sidelines at a major event. It was harder than I thought it would be and that was when I knew that I have at least one Ironman in me. In 2012, just previous to the St. George Ironman, Ironman announced that 2012 would be the last full distance event in St. George. I was so disappointed because 2013 was going to be my year. I would be done with school so I could put in the time required to complete a full distance. That's why I'm looking now. Maybe Cozumel!

What I'm hoping you can take from my experience is that we can't let fear stop us. Stare it right in the face and say,"I am stronger than that." You are more than your fears. They do not define you.

Thanks for checking in with me and stop back by again soon.

I'm not setting a good example, but here's 26, kind of

So this past weekend the plan was to go 26 miles. My kids had been on Spring Break last week so we went to Vegas on Thursday and stayed the night. My brother had to go back to work on Saturday so we decided to run our 26 miler when we got home on Friday evening. First of all I should mention that no matter what, I lose most if not all motivation as the day wears on. By the time we got home and ready to go, my husband and brother really didn't want to go anymore. We decided to run a quick 7 miler and my husband and I would finish the run up in the morning. The late night in Vegas really did us in because we woke up at 8:00 and didn't get out the door until after 9:00. Thankfully, we had cloud cover most of the run so even though it was warm, we weren't frying. By the time we got to the end of our run, I could tell that we had gone 26 miles in the last 16 hours.

Once again, I do not recommend getting your miles in this way but it does work. Next week (peak week!) we are going 28 miles, no matter what, not broken up!  Sometimes life just gets in the way. We are hoping to go on Friday since we have soccer games and dance competitions on Saturday. Even if Friday doesn't work out, we will go on Saturday, even if it means going at zero dark thirty.

I really should apologize for my terrible example of how to train for an ultramarathon. I normally am so diligent in and dedicated in my training but this time I have two other schedules to accomodate. Here's to doing better for my next race!

Thanks for checking in with my craziness and please check back again soon!

These are a few of my favorite things

Almost two years ago, after doing some research, I decided to change my gait. That is a story I will save for another time but after changing my gait, I found an interesting shoe. They had no drop from heel to midsole. I will admit that, initially, I thought they were an ugly shoe. The brand name is Altra.   Altra's toe box is more square shaped. I looked at my own foot and realized this shape actually makes sense since that is how the human foot is shaped. I tried the Altra Intuition on in my local shoe store. I kind of liked it. It was different but in a good way. I purchased the shoe and on my first run in them, I fell in love. Up until that point, I hadn't felt like I had found "my" shoe. Ever since I started running, I have dealt with blisters on long runs. I just accepted that blisters were part of being an endurance runner. That stopped when I started running in Altras. I just don't get blisters anymore.

Interestingly, most running shoes have a "life" of between 350 and 500 miles. I hit 500 miles on my Altras and decided to see just how far they would go. On my 22 mile run, I turned over more than 1000 road running miles. I have worn them down on the outside to the midsole but those shoes just kept going and I love them.

Altra has a full running shoe line from their Adam/Eve minimalist shoe to their Lone Peak trail shoe to their Torin max cushion sole shoe. For what it's worth, I am not a paid endorser of Altra brand shoes. I just simply love their shoes and feel like it's a great brand. Check out Altras at www.altrazerodrop.com.

Thanks for checking back in with me and I hope you'll check back in again soon. Have a great one!

24 miles, or not :/

We were supposed to run 24 miles this weekend. With the exception of summer when it's just hot all the time, I almost compulsively check the weather for days leading up to a long run. I check all of the local(ish) stations for their weather forecasts but I put the most stock in accuweather.com. I can input the name of the city or the zip code and get an accurate hour by hour weather forecast that includes wind speed, rain/snow, and "feels like" forecast. This week I checked everything all week. We often run on Friday so we can have it done before my kids get out of school but we go on Saturday when Friday doesn't work out. This week, no matter whose forecast I checked, it was rain and wind. Friday came and we decided Saturday would be better because that forecast at least didn't include wind. I hate running in the wind. Last night I checked the forecast on accuweather one last time. The "feels like" temp was 32 degrees. Now I realize there are people out there who are right now saying, "So?" Well, I have a really hard time regulating my body temp. If I get cold, I freeze. Besides, it's March, in St. George. I'm done with those kinds of temps. On top of the temp, we were going to deal with rain off and on. As much as I really hate skipping a run, we were going to have to skip this week or be miserable. I have missed a run every once in a while training for other races and things have worked out fine. I am a little nervous doing it so close to peak week but it will be okay.

What I'm hoping to he people understand that as long as you are consistent, missing a run every once in a while is okay. It won't undo all your training. Consistency is the key here. We did make it to the gym this morning and I can report that we killed the pace today. Six miles at 7:51, 7:36, 7:49, and the last 3 miles at 7:33. It felt great to just run and go hard.

I hope this information helps someone out there along the road to whatever goal they have set. Thanks for checking in and I hope you'll check back again soon.

22 miles. . .

Last Friday we went 22 miles. Once again, "we"was my brother Ryan, my sister-in-law Laura, and my husband Jeramiah. We were probably 2/3 to 3/4 of a mile in and we were running up a small incline. My brother made the comment that that hill took it out of him. I kind of chuckled but I have run enough to know that an off-handed comment like that can be your un-doing later. I started asking questions. Ryan had played three games of basketball the night before. Ryan doesn't toss a ball around and shoot hoops. Ryan plays ball. I then asked him what he ate the night before and how much water he'd had. I also wanted to know what he had eaten that morning and how much water he'd had. I determined that Ryan hadn't eaten enough the night before and was probably dehydrated. I immediately told Ryan that he could cut out early if he felt like he needed to. Secretly I was hoping he would because I was worried about him. We did the same route we did last week just adding a short addition on the trail into Washington at the end. When we were about 15 miles in, I asked Ryan how he was doing and he said not well. I encouraged him to cut out when his wife met us and he agreed. We missed him for the last 6ish miles but I was glad he listened to the limits his body was setting that day.

I put Ryan's story in here because everyone has an off day sometimes. Part of being a runner is learning to listen to what your body has to say. It can be disheartening to not accomplish your goal for that particular run but rest and recovery are so important to your overall training. Trust the process and you will be successful. A day off can mean a killer run next time!

Thanks for checking in and plea check back again soon.