I don’t have a full marathon on my schedule for the fall at this point. BUT, apparently that whole training for a half ironman thing was the break I needed to want to run a lot again.

I ran 54 miles last week…. I peaked at 60 miles when training for my spring marathon, so I’m not sure what’s gotten into me. I had planned to run around 45-50 but went over by a little. I like it, for now at least.

Here’s what went down with me and my legs this week: 

Monday- 11 miles, 8 w/ stroller, 3 w/ dog

Tuesday- 5 miles, (treadmill at home) plus 1,000 meter swim at gym. But I mostly just went to the gym to shower and figured I might as well swim some laps while I’m there

Wednesday- 8 miles w/ 6 @ Tempo @ 6:40-6:50 pace, on monon with speed group BIG THANKS to Choy for pushing me on this run! I needed it. The hardest part of a 6 mile tempo are miles 3-4 when the mental games start happening. Was happy to finish strong though.

Thursday- REST

Friday- 10 miles, 4 alone, 6 with my sister downtown.

Saturday- 17 miles @ 7:30ish pace w/ 2 mile fast finish, 5 alone, 12 with Ashley

Sunday- 3 miles, w/ the dog.

What do I like about the runs this week?  They were all pretty different, as far as where and what I did, who I ran with and what the purpose was. Changing all that up is important… for me.

I think I’ll run a lot of miles again this week. Really just because I want to. Not because I have to. Not because it’s in my training plan. Because I really want to. That feels good.

At Glenn’s parents about to head out for our ride. It’s May, why in the world did we need to dress like this?

In my mind, a 40 mile bike ride is similar to a 20 mile run, It takes around the same amount of time for me. Like a 20 mile run, many times when you get started, the distance seems daunting and that’s how I felt about the 40. 40 miles on the bike is long, but it’s not crazy long. The farthest I’ve ever done in a day is somewhere around 80, but that was 3 years ago. And on the same day that I rode 80, Glenn doubled me, riding 160. He’s a much more experienced bike rider than I.

I don’t have a trip meter on my bike, but Glenn had his GPS watch on his bike for the ride. I started asking him how far we’d gone at mile 6. So, yeah those first 20 miles were a bit of a head game. We did an out and back and the first half was into a head wind and I felt like I was crawling pretty slow. A couple of times I was apparently a little chatty and Glenn told me I needed to work harder. Geez man. I wasn’t working all that hard, like in a 20 mile run, you can’t go all hard and stuff the whole time or you’ll crash and burn. When I was pushing hard though, I focused on the turnaround when we’d have a really awesome tailwind.

I feel like I’m always talking about a headwind. Maybe I’m a baby about it, but Mr. Ironman himself told me the headwind out was nasty, so I’ll give myself that.

We took these pics at 20 miles when we turned around. I had my mind set on hopping of the bikes for a minute at the turnaround and took a gel as well. (chocolate hammer, duh)

I think this picture makes us look young. As someone who is turning 30 in 3 months. I like it.

AND, the tailwind WAS IN FACT  awesome. We averaged around 13-14 mph on the way out and 18-19 on the way back. Averaging 15.5, my goal was around 16, so I’m OK with it. I’m not a speedy bike rider. I try, but I need to work on getting some stronger legs.

After the ride, we did a 4 mile run. The schedule calls for an easy run (7:30-8:10 pace). I told Glenn I didn’t know if I’d be up for running that fast. Turns out I lied, we averaged 7:10s. At mile 1, we were at 7:30 and at mile 3 he told me pace was 6:58 and then I decided I wanted to make sure the last one was sub 7 and we hit it around 6:49. Something about sub 7s that make me feel good. I also like biking and running with Glenn because I just let him wear the watch and I don’t constantly clock/pace watch.

I also enjoy running after the bike- there’s no pressure to run very fast and while it takes a little bit of time to wake your legs up, you feel tough. 

Post run. Marshall’s thinking it’s about time we stopped working out and gave him some attention.

Once we put him down for his second nap, we headed out again and went to 3Floyds, in Munster, IN where Glenn stalked up on his favorite beer. Dave (Glenn’s Dad) watched Marshall. They really let us have some freedom on Saturday and it was really refreshing.

When I was planning to to Giest this coming weekend, I had 12 miles at steady state on the schedule for Sunday. Since I decided to drop it, I did an easy 8 instead. Marshall had us up at 5am (this is unusual, he almost always sleeps in until 7) and I almost decided to just go on and get it done early, but usually if I run first thing in the AM I end up having stomach issues- I do much better if I’ve been up for a few hours. Then I almost just scratched it and took a rest day. Then Glenn headed out to run his 8 for the day. When he got back, I had just put Marshall down for his first nap and was ready to get my 8 in. We were having a big brunch at Megan’s (Glenn’s sister) for Mother’s Day and I knew I’d enjoy it a lot more if I got my run in. The alternative was doing it Monday and I like to have to flexibility to throw in a rest day on Monday’s.

I really wanted to listen to music on my run and I don’t feel safe listening to music running by myself… even in Crown Point. It is dangerous and not worth it at all. I know having Cadence with me isn’t fool proof but it helps. It’s the only way I’ll run “alone” with headphones. She used to run this far all the time but hasn’t in a long time- she helped me keep my pace nice and chill and it was just what I needed. (side note- when I stroller run- I do have music, but I play it out loud on my phone with it sitting on the stroller- no headphones.)

Now that’s a good looking dog.

My first Mother’s Day with Marshall. I guess last year technically was, but I hadn’t really met him  yet then.

Rocking the collared IU shirt. Looks like he’s going golfing later. So glad I pulled this sucker out of storage early- it’s 18 months. He is kind of scrawny for his age, so I was surprised it fit already.

This picture of Glenn’s parents with the grandkids is hilarious.

Family pic. Marshall and Glenn got me a purse for Mother’s Day. I’m gonna wear the crap out of it.

I’m so thankful to be Marshall’s mom. Last year at this time, we were anxiously anticipating his arrival. Mother’s Day 2011 was somewhat difficult for me, I’d had my first miscarriage the November before and couldn’t help but feel like it should have been my first “Mother’s Day” and I should have been having a baby 2 months later. What I wanted more than anything was to have my own baby to hold. Everyday I look at this little boy, who relies on me for everything, I’m thankful he does. I feel so fortunate that he came into our lives and I don’t know what the future holds for us with more babies, but I know I can’t control that. I’m soaking up every bit of this little boy that I can. The first couple months of his life were hard and exhausting and quite frankly kind of scary (I was so afraid of SIDS, I know most new parents think about it, but I was obsessive. I think that started getting better somewhere around 3 months. It was the longest 3 months of my life)  It all just keeps getting better everyday though and I’m not sure when I’ll stop saying that. Probably when he starts throwing temper tantrums.

To me, the biking and swimming takes some pressure off training. Not that I should feel pressure when just training for a running race, (but I do!). While I don’t always feel pressure when running, I definitely feel more running than either of the other two disciplines. It’s because I know what I can do when I run- I know what a good day feels like, I know if I’m wimping out and I know if I’m putting good effort in. I am familiar with everything that encompasses the run. Biking and swimming are new to me. Especially swimming. (I did go on a bike trip in 2010 and rode 450-500 miles in just 6 days… or something like that. Not too crazy, but a lot for me… too bad this was before my regular blogging days. I definitely should have wrote about that experience along the way. We rode and raised funds and awareness for the organization Love146… if you’ve never looked into what they do, it’s worth your time to check it out. Love146 works toward the abolition of child sex slavery and exploitation through Prevention and Aftercare solutions, and contributing to a growing abolition movement.  

Anyway, on the bike and in the pool, I haven’t really trained myself to work hard for a sustained period of time. My body doesn’t know how to respond to biking hard or swimming hard for more than a few minutes really. I can force myself to run pretty hard for say, 45 minutes, but I would need breaks in that amount of time if I were going that hard biking and certainly swimming. (and obviously you swim for a much shorter duration of time)

One of my favorite parts about biking and swimming is I have zero intestinal issues with those two. With running, if I’m running a relatively long distance or have a hard workout, it’s a toss up if I’m going to have bathroom issues or not. It’s not fun, but I deal with it and move on because I like how running makes me feel and you do what you do.

I have definitely made some baby improvements in biking and swimming. I know I haven’t spent near enough time on the bike. It’s hard to get bike time in because it takes so long and most days, I’m just not willing to get up at 5am to do some of the workout. I find myself at the gym twice a day a lot because I simply can’t get both swim and bike or bike and run in in the 2 hours of allotted time at the kids club without being a crazy woman frantic from one thing to the next. What I really need to do is get out on the bike for a REAL ride and get out in open water for a REAL swim. We are going to Crown Point this weekend for Mother’s Day and Glenn’s parents are going to watch Marshall so we can ride together. I’ve got 40 miles on the bike and a 4 mile easy run lined up.

Here’s what my week looks like this week: 

I prefer to do speed work on the treadmill, I think it’s a security thing. BUT, there is something about the treadmill in our living room that I’m not as good at doing speedwork on. I don’t know if it’s the size of the room and I feel closed in compared to the huge open room at the gym or the fact that my bed is right around the corner in the next room, but speedwork at the house is hard for me.

I do however like that I can rock the sports bra though and not care if the person behind me is judging my not so perfect love handles. Unless, Cadence judges the handles. I’m not insecure about running outside in the sports bra but something about being inside- I feel like more jiggle is detected inside.

Back to the run. It was pretty awful. I did take an easy week last week- I only took Thursday off from working out, but I didn’t do any two a days and all of my workouts were light. On Sunday, Glenn and I did 6 miles at 7:15 pace and finished fast. That’s not a super hard run for me, but it’s not a stroll in the park either. I don’t think it was what effected my run today, but it could have been a little factor. I think the hard biking that I did on Monday might have been the main reason. That and a poor mental game.

I was supposed to do 8 miles, with 5 at tempo (6:40-6:45 pace). I did not do that. I was happy to see that he only had me doing 5 at tempo. Usually it would be 6. And when I was in the heart of my Shamrock training, I was doing that pace for 7-8 miles of tempo runs. I can run that. But today, I wasn’t having it.

I warmed up around an 8:15 mile and as I hit mile 1, I started ramping the treadmill speed a little bit at a time. (best way to get started on tempos… slowly build up to your  speed… if I go from warm up straight to tempo, it’s bound to feel rough). The slow speed up was not feeling so hot though. Every time I hit “faster” my body was laughing at me.

The goal was to keep the treadmill at 8.9-9.0 speed for the five miles. I started off at 8.9 and half a mile in was not feeling it. I left the treadmill running, and put my feet to the sides and took a drink of water. I need to regroup and reevaluate. As I started running again, 5 seconds later, I debated stopping and fitting this in another time. There weren’t a lot of options time wise and I also had to get in a swim today. And honestly who wants a monster run like that hanging over their head all day? So I just slowed down but kept going.

I slowed it down to 8.5-8.7 for the next 3 miles. (6:54-7:04 pace). It didn’t feel awesome, but it felt a lot more manageable than when I was in the 6:40-6:44 zone. I know what I was running is still a nice pace, and a great workout for me nonetheless but I also know that I am a stronger runner than that right now. With 2 miles to go I was able to hold on and finish between 8.8-9.0 speed. I literally stopped and drank water every half mile to mile or so and let the treadmill run while I did so. I would tell myself “do not stop and drink until you get to at least the next mile and then I’d stop way before then anyway. It’s like I couldn’t stop myself from stopping. This is very out of character. So, I tacked on an extra half mile at the end to make up for any distance I lost when I did that. (which probably only equaled 1.5 total, but since I was wussing out on the speed I was supposed to run, I wasn’t going to wuss out on the distance too.)

I had my kindle out, which is usually a great distraction for me, but I couldn’t pay attention to the book and found myself looking at the time and distance every 2 minutes. It was one of those runs that just creeps by. I’d look down and it would say 2.81 miles and then I’d look down again and it would say 2.98 miles. Since the kindle wasn’t distracting, I tried to not read at all and just zone out. My mind wanted nothing to do with zoning  out, all my mind was focused on was that darn treadmill clock.

I know you aren’t “supposed” to stop during a tempo run. Which is the reason I used to hate tempo runs. No break from hard work. (Somehow I grew to kind of enjoy them during Shamrock training.. not sure what was wrong with me… haha)  But today I did stop because that’s how I was going to get it done. It was stop for 5 seconds and take a drink every so often or stop all together.

I was kind of pissed when I finished. I don’t like not being able to execute what I’m prescribed. It makes me feel like I’m not as good as I should be or I’m not willing to work as hard as I can. It also makes my head go crazy thinking it’s impossible that I could keep even close to that pace for an entire half marathon. But I can. On the right day, on the right legs, with the right mental game, I can.

Then Marshall woke up and I sat on the kitchen floor with him and played. And that’s where my heart really is. I can write and talk about running all day and night and it makes me happy and it’s a huge part of my life and yes I LOVE it. But the little boy who sleeps with the elephant tucked under his arm at night, who never stops moving and has the prettiest blue eyes I’ve ever seen. He can turn my disappointment in myself around in a matter of 30 seconds.

Not every hard workout, easy workout or race is what you want it to be. It’s just not. But you get up and walk away from it and move along, because does it really matter in your life if you have a bad run? There are far more important things to dwell on.

I found an awesome teammate through twitter (how great is that… love twitter!) – Bryon Humphrey and he happened to be quite speedy. As a two person team you end up running six, 2.2 mile loops, handing off to your teammate every loop.

Waiting to start- look I’m all ready to work my watch & I still messed it up. #par

I’m training for a half marathon PR and thought this race would be a really good workout to add to my training. It’s a full marathon relay and you can run as an individual all the way up to a 6 person team. I’m very familiar with the race, as it is the same relay we do every fall for Back on My Feet. I’ve only ever been the race director though, never the runner.

Although it wasn’t a competitive field, we were still happy to win our division and take second place overall. The first place team was a 3 person male team and we ended up being just 23 seconds behind them. Had I known how close we were, perhaps I wouldn’t have wussed out so bad on my 5th lap.

Team “We will Rock You” post race.

I ran the lead lap for our team and had us in forth place behind 3 guys, it felt hard but I was trying to not go out too hard. I’m terrible with my watch and messed up my splits from the start. So, I’m not sure what my lap splits were for the 2.2, but I know what my mile splits were for the most part… there was a mile and half in there where I’m not sure what they were because I left my watch running on accident.

Lap 5 was really hard. I was starting to mentally check out and wanted to be done. I know that Katie and Michele both do 3 X 2 mile repeats and I always admire their speed and the work they put in for those sessions. Very fast.

It’s just a badass workout really. So doing 6 made me nervous and I knew I couldn’t go too fast if I wanted to finish under 7 minute pace.

Here are my mile splits: 

Lap 1 – 6:35, 6:37

Lap 2 – 6:41, 6:42

Lap 3 – 6:40, 6:42

Lap 4 – 6:45, 6:46

Lap 5 – 6:50, 6:50

Lap 6 – 6:47, 6:36

(There’s a mile or so missing in there from when I messed up my watch- who knows what the split was)

My goal was to run them 6:40-6:50 pace, so I’m happy with the consistency, but at the same time it made me a little nervous about my goal for when I race 13.1. Running 13.1 without stopping is a completely different story than running it in 2.2 mile segments with 13 minute breaks in between. I’m not sure which is harder. I think they are both hard in different ways. When you do the stop and go thing, your body is just starting to get into, “ok, I think we are done working out mode” right when it’s time to ramp it back up. And obviously with the no stop and go thing, you get no breaks. Both hard.

Glenn brought Marshall out to cheer me on, but they only stayed a few minutes- it was really cold!

For anyone looking to do a fun relay with your friends – consider the Back on My Feet 42K Relay coming up in September. If you are training for a race, it can serve as a great speed session. Besides the good speed work, it’s fun because you can hang out and socialize with your friends and the other runners when you are waiting for your lap.

AND- we had some Back on My Feet teams out at the race and everyone was having a great time-

Look at this happy group! Jimmy & James ran their first half marathon the following week at Carmel!

Phil, Lee, Me & Chrissy

Great Day for running- thank you Kim and Heather for putting on a great race!

Wearing clothes that are too small. #momfail

• Becoming clingy to Mom and Dad- I used to be able to just head out the door when a babysitter came and he just carried on, now he grabs onto me for dear life when I try to leave. I’ve also been paged by the kids club at LA Fitness twice now to come get him. Oh boy.

• Having crazy hair- I’ve mentioned this story to some, but the other day when I dropped him off at kids club at LA Fitness, a little girl looked him over and said “His hair is crazy… my hair is beautiful.” I laughed and laughed. And then I was secretly glad she wasn’t my kid because she wouldn’t stop talking. I’m not ready for that phase yet. 

• Babbling a lot

• Has four teeth

• Sleeping through the night…all the way, we finally got away from the 5:30am feeding business. He definitely didn’t need it anymore. 7pm-7am. Amazing.

Loves hanging out on the treadmill.

The one hand stand thing he’s up to lately.

Looks like it was easy to get him to sit in this chair for the 8 months pics… it wasn’t.

Two seconds and he’s coming at you to crawl right off. Way to much to get his hands on to sit still for a picture.

Sweet, innocent, adorable, stay like this forever baby boy.

If you made it this far in the post and want to see some cutie videos, see below:

• Crawling up the stairs

• Excited about the bath

• Giggles

I had 10 on the schedule today. All of my runs this week are 10 except for the hellacious 20 on Saturday, and I’ll probably do some non-scheduled easy miles on my off days. I really wanted to run outside because of the weather. Hello 50 in February, and I was itching for a stroller run anyway, so when Marshall wouldn’t nap,we were off.

Ready for nap time in the stroller. He loves it.

This week is all about hard working, mostly faster miles. I’ll probably slow it down a bit tomorrow so I have a good amount of juice to work my butt off for Wednesdays tempo. Today, I wanted to be sure I didn’t creep over 8 minute miles even with the stroller. We started off with a pretty quick first mile, and progressively sped up, until mile 8, when we progressively slowed down.

I headed north on the monon for five and as I ran north, I had a good feeling the run back south would be much harder due to the wind. It was. Thankfully the 86th-75th st. stretch is blocked pretty well by lot’s of trees, so the wind didn’t get too crazy until we had 3 miles to go. Which is when we started slowing down.

The most ridiculous stretch wind-wise always heading south between 54th-52nd st. No wind barrier at all. I was using both hands (which I never do… I usually keep my left hand on the stroller) and forcefully pushing the stroller against the wind. There was a guy standing outside the Developer Town Building who probably thought I was crazy, because I was just smiling and almost laughing at what was going on. I didn’t know how else to take in the craziness of the wind I was experiencing. I could have slowed down or even walked it in at that point with a half a mile to go, but I was determined to keep my pace decent for that last bit. It was hilariously hard.

My Splits:

Mile 1– 7:41 
Mile 2– 7:13 
Mile 3– 7:15 
Mile 4– 7:06 
Mile 5– 7:00 
Mile 6 – 6:51 
Mile 7– 6:50 
Mile 8– 7:17 
Mile 9– 7:25 
Mile 10– 7:35

Average Pace: 7:14

That felt good.

Something about creeping under that 7 minute mile mark with the stroller feels kind of… awesome.

With Buddy after our 10. It was pretty warm, but he was bundled in his standard go to fleece.

Reasons I Love the Stroller Run:

• It makes me feel powerful & happy

• I look forward to it more than the standard 10 on the treadmill

• Fresh Air

• There is a pressure that is taken off when it’s you and the stroller. Meaning… it’s OK if I need to slow down a bit, after all I’m pushing a stroller. 

• Along with the above reason… also comes the desire to run fast with the stroller at times. It’s an added incentive to work hard. You feel extra accomplished if you get a nice paced run in with the stroller. 

• Although I can’t do the creepy stare anymore, I like that Marshall is with me. I know that he enjoys it. I think he finds it soothing and comfortable. The kid has been hearing my noisy feet smack the ground for a long time now, he’s used to it.

Happy Running everyone- hope you were able to get the week started off in a good place. 

Tried out the Vega Protein Powder today- loved it! Also, you’ll notice the baby formula back there… if you are into buying organic formula, Kroger brand has hella cheap organic!

Doesn’t he know mom & dad use Hammer?

Looking all hip and stuff in his homemade hat. (Thanks for the cute new vest from Grandma and Grandpa Hein)

He is eating realish foods these days:

• Oatmeal
• Bananas
• Blueberries
• Sweet Potatoes
• Carrots
• Green Beans
• Zucchini

Still on some Breast Milk but mostly Formula. I’m holding on for dear life, don’t want to deal with weening off, just doesn’t sound comfortable for me.

Hanging out at the Back on My Feet Super Bowl Party- 27th Floor of the Regions Bank Tower, watch out world here he comes.

Nicknames & who calls him what:

• Marshman– Everyone, no seriously… everyone. Even people who have never met him. This is by far the most popular
• Marsh– Glenn & I and lot’s of others
• Fire Marshall– Glenn & I (and probably Uncle Joey)
• The Terminator– Glenn 
• The Marshinator– Glenn & I
• Marshmellow– Mostly me- but that started when he had the white brace for his hip, it’s pretty much over
• Bub– Glenn & I- it’s embarrassing really, but we started doing it as a joke and now we can’t stop. I always have to remind Glenn to not say it out loud in front of people. 
• Bubinski– Glenn
• Buddy– Glenn, Giovann & I 
• Marshy Moo- Giovanna & I
• Major– Grandpa Greg (Old Pap)

Other things he’s up to:

• Crawling faster than any baby I’ve ever known. (I’ve actually only really known a few though)

• Pulls himself up on absolutely everything. Baths can be hard. And Dangerous.

• He does the one handed hold on now and takes little steps.

• Still loves a good stroller ride- although doesn’t get them too much in this weather. We got out and put some miles in though when it warmed up a few days. Cadence came along too… she’s gotten lazy in her older years… 9 miles just about did her in… I was literally dragging her the last 2 miles, while pushing the stroller into a mad headwind. Teamwork. 

• Watching praise baby DVDs- we only have one, so he just watches the same one usually about once a day. It’s just a lot of worship songs with pictures of animals, babies,weird faces and stuff. 

• Hanging in the exersaucer while I treadmill it. My goal is usually to knock out at least a decent warm up before he falls apart for nap time. The other day though, he lasted 10 miles. He was so tired he just fell asleep sitting up after 20 minutes, so I turned on Kathie Lee & Hoda, watched them, read my kindle (just put it on the 2nd to largest font… it works!) and stared at my adorable sleeping child for 8 more miles. It was awesome.

Intense praise baby watching. The creepy old guy chewing like a goat is probably on the screen.

• Favorite new place: Crawling under the dining room table. Our dining room set has been passed down in my family for years- it was my Great Grandmas. A lot of little crawlers have spent time under this table. My mom said she remembers playing under it. That’s kind of special.

Just exploring

• Favorite new thing to get into: Cabinets, trashcans – and if you open the fridge, he bee lines for it. 

• Favorite things to play with: Tupperware and paper grocery bags

• Favorite Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider

• Favorite Book: Trucks 

• Sleep: Bedtime- 7:00pm, and we are slowly cutting out the third nap… he’s kind of been a monster about getting him in his crib for naps these days. A lot of naps have been happening in mom, dad and babysitter arms. It’s peaceful, but makes it hard to be productive.

With his Best Friend Cadence. He is all over her. She doesn’t really mind and means well, but she’s a dog. We aren’t stupid, we are careful.

Everyone says he looks like his mama.

Look at those arches in his feet. Those are my feet. Sorry buddy.