It's a bright, bright sunshiney day

Well not really. OK. This week has kicked my butt and has been a big downer running-wise. Why do I start like that? Well, everyone knows (or should know) that I am known to be very upbeat and happy. It is a running joke at work (no pun intended) - why the h@ll is Mindi always smiling? But alas, not this week. Well, actually I was pretty darn happy at work, but I have had a tough second week of training. Why, you ask? Let me tell you.

Monday was a rest day and a good day. I have started pilates again and light weights and am feeling a good pain from it - the muscles are being activated again, I am on the road to kissing arse once again.

Tuesday was a bit iffy. For a decent part of the day I did an electronic document review - over a thousand documents re regulatory stuff you don't even want me to begin describing (trust me) - checking for privilege, etc. Hardly glamorous work and by 3:00 I had a wicked headache. 3:30, I had this sharp, mysterious side stitch on my L side. Please tell me how I get a side stitch sitting at my desk all day! Seriously, I could not take in a full breath without pain. 5:45 I realize I forgot my running shoes at home!! Yikes - so I zip home to change then head to the track. We did a nice warm-up (although too short since I had to go home to get my shoes). Then did plyometrics in the grass. Then 4x200 hard, 200 recoveries. Immediately following was a 2 mile tempo run. Idea was to start at 5K pace and speed up. Although that is what the coach prescribed, he has me start at 7:30s and increase, which seemed more appropriate. So I start off (way too fast) and am feeling great. I slowed by the first lap and was hanging strong. Unfortunately by lap 4, I start feeling a stitch on the R side. No big deal, breathe through it - I am not running that fast. Nope. By lap 5 I felt like I had a dagger between my ribs. Just after lap 6, I called it quits. My first official DNF ever. Dammit. I walked it off and ran a very slow cool down feeling like a looser.

Wednesday I was pretty sore - particularly inner thighs which was kind of weird. I did some light stretching but took it easy.

Today I got up at 5:00 am ready to run my prescribed 10 miler. I made it .3 and decided to turn it in - I was way too sore. Again - a big DNF. Not like me. That really sucks.

The moral of the story is: after hard track workouts, run very short and easy on Wednesday am to loosen up the muscles. Sitting behind a desk for 2 days after a hard workout is not good. I felt so much better Wednesday than today and I think if I warmed up my muscles I would have been a lot better off. I don't feel like injury is lurking - just like I let DOMS take over. Hopefully all will be fine tomorrow - but I did not like the way this week went. Lesson learned.

The good news = I am fired up about training again; my husband rocks as always; kids are great and full on the loose for summer; I got my first new client (all mine!) at work regarding a counterfeit claim; and I had a magazine call me to commission me to write an article about branding, protecting trademark rights and avoiding potential infringement liability in a specific niche business community based on a previous article - pretty cool (hahaha even despite my awful word skills in scrabble!!).

Goal for tomorrow = run better than I did today - and longer. :)

First week of training - Recap

This week was my first week of training for Columbus and the Capitol Mile. For Columbus, I am following Pfitz's 18/55. This week I was scheduled for 32 miles/ 4 days of running - I ended up just shy of that because I replaced an 7 miler on Tuesday with my Capitol Mile workout, which was only 4 miles. I could have made it up on an extra day, but I decided to ease into training and follow the schedule (although I did add a mile or 2 to a couple of other runs). For some unexplained reason, I was pretty sore last weekend after my long run so I wanted to be smart this week.

The good news is that I am really embracing training mode again! Yay! I also started pilates again this week (which I haven't done in 6 months). It makes such a huge difference in my knees and hips - I really can't afford to slack on it. Not to mention, it just makes me look better too. So pilates is back into the line-up, as are light weights for biceps/triceps. Here is my week:

Monday - rest

Tuesday - 4.2 miles - included plyometrics and a 1200 meter time trial on grass/hills

Wednesday - rest - legs somewhat sore

Thursday - 9.1 miles (9:11) - this run felt awesome! It just felt effortless and I felt like I could have run forever. Unfortunately, I was somewhat sore afterwards - I think it was from running in the am then sitting behind the desk all day / biceps/triceps

Friday - rest / pilates

Saturday - 5 recovery (9:38) /pilates / biceps /triceps

Sunday - 13.15 (9:20) - nice run on the trail although I should have gone earlier - it was warm! Last mile was the fastest / pilates

Total: 31.6

That is all for now. It is good to be training again!

Oh yeah - the other cool thing - we taught our 5 year old to ride his bike this weekend - it was awesome!

Grandmas

Today is Grandma's marathon! It looks like the weather cooperated and I am having so much fun tracking my friends running it. One of my good friends is trying to qualify for Boston there and is so far predicted to do it by more than 6 minutes. And Bridget is screaming fast - what a rock star - a 2:57 is amazing - especially considering her injury the last 12 days!!!!! Wow - and I just found out Adam ran it in 3:03 - you guys rock.

Congrats to all who are running today!

Back on track

Quite literally! Tuesday was my first track workout for my Capitol Mile training. It was fun and very motivating. And actually we only warmed up on the track - we did a time trial on grass and hills - it was something of a bear, but in that "good pain" way. :)

This week is also my first week for marathon training. I just logged 9 miles in perfect weather - sunny and 52 degrees. What a nice way to start the day!! I was still a little sore from the track workout, but everything felt nice and smooth, which is a good feeling.

It has been a busy week, but a very good week.

Happy running.

Rain, tornadoes, lightening, hail and more rain

The weather has been very harsh here lately. Roads are closed, communities are under water and Lake Delton in the Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin's biggest tourism draw, is gone. Yes, gone. In the storms the dam broke and now Lake Delton is in the Wisconsin River.

I ran on the trail by my house today and what used to be dry lowlands looks like several large lakes. It is crazy. Very scary.

This picture was taken by my husband's colleague on Thursday afternoon. Apparently he has a camera in his office with a "lightening trigger" and it automatically snaps a picture when it senses lightening. Pretty cool. Click on it for a bigger image, it really is an amazing picture.

Today it is beautiful - 80s and sunny. I just logged 13.5 on the trail with some friends and it was a nice day for a run. Hopefully we will not get the storms that are predicted to roll through tonight and tomorrow.

I start training for Columbus on Monday and my speed group for the Capitol Mile starts Tuesday. I am excited to be getting back into the swing of things! I think I am going to do a modified Pfitz 18/55. I am modifying it b/c I can't do quite as many 8-12 milers mid week as prescribed. I will probably do one medium long run during the week and add a day with an extra 5 miler. We'll see how my schedule pans out.

Happy running and stay dry!

And the verdict is ...

I just registered! Thanks Salty - for some reason I confused Columbus with your Cleveland Marathon comments.

So there you go!

Still Undecided . . .

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions for the Fall. I *almost* decided on Akron (even wrote up a schedule), but then decided against it. It is just too soon. If I run that, I needed to start training 2 weeks ago. Yeah, I know I can knock a couple of weeks off. However, I really want to train well this summer and quite frankly, I'm not so sure I am ready to be marathon training yet. It is 2 weeks from the Madison Marathon. I am feeling good and I logged 30 miles this week. HOWEVER, I am not acclimated to this weather (in fact it is kicking my butt) and I'm just not sure I want to rush anything. Oh yeah, and I really think I would prefer October. September is just pushing it IMO. I am a big wimp in the heat. :)

SO, I am thinking of Lakefront Marathon (Milwaukee), Des Moines (I already did this, but good timing and great course), Grand Rapids (ditto), Wine Glass, Baltimore, Steamtown and Columbus (yes, I know Salty hates this one, but it is good timing, not too far and looks like a relatively flat course). So there it is. I have no idea. I am hoping by next weekend I will figure it out and get the training program going. If you have any comments or experience with any of these, fire away. I generally like the smaller/medium sized marathons better.

This week was good, but the first week we have had warmer temps (80s) and humidity. It is weird because you go from painfully dry and cold to warm and humid very quickly and it is a BIG adjustment. I don't know how I ran in Florida. But I know in a couple of weeks I will get acclimated. For now I am half dead on each of my runs.

The good news is that my garden is growing (we planted it on Memorial day) - we have corn, spinach, brocolli, sugar snap peas (my fave), bell peppers, cucumbers, celery and tomatoes planted. Yum. AND my flowers are fab now. Peonies are breaking out this weekend along with Irises and lots of wild flowers. It is so nice after such a LONG winter!!

We had a fun weekend. Lots of running around (despite wicked crazy storms) and took the boys to Kung Fu Panda. Lots of fun. I start my training for the Capitol Mile on June 17. I am SO looking forward to getting back to the track!!

Oh yeah, and to my scrabulous challengers, sorry I have not been playing. It says I need to update FLASH. I tried to download it at least 10 times and followed all of the d@mn troubleshooting, but it still is NOT working. Hopefully it will at work. My home computer is somewhat dated. It is frustrating though b/c I am generally computer literate (not saavy, but I usually have no problems)....and I am very familiar with the Macromedia (now adobe) software. Must be Adobe. :) If anyone else encountered this and has suggestions, please bring them my way....

What fall marathon are you running?

Now that I finished Mad City and my spring training, I am naturally looking at "what is next?" I am definitely planning to train for the Capitol Mile again. Hopefully I can PR or at least stay under 6 minutes. We will see how the summer progresses. I also want to run a fall marathon - this time training properly for it. I had thought about Chicago, but of course it is closed. There is one here in the Fox Cities, but it is in mid-September and that seems a bit risky weather-wise. I am a total wimp in the heat and would rather err on the likelihood of a 25 degree day than an 85 degree day. So, I am looking for a nice, flat course in October. Any suggestions?

What marathons are you running this fall and why?