Dilemma...

I've been faced with a dilemma this week, that made me choose between sticking to my training schedule or taking advantage of a beautiful spring day, off work, at Oliver Winery-- aka one of my most favorite places. (See pictures from one of many of our Oliver trips.) Dow is closed on Good Friday (surprising since even banks don't observe that holiday!), so it will officially be my first vacation day of the year. I had planned to do a 10-mile run since that's what I'm due for this week. Friday was my only chance since we are spending Easter weekend up in the Chicago area Saturday morning-Sunday evening.

THEN, I found out some girls from work are going to Oliver Winery that day. They are planning on leaving around 10 or 11am, which wouldn't give me much time to get in a morning run and shower...we all know I'm not a morning person, not even a little bit. (Good thing the mini was bumped to an even earlier start time of 7am this year, huh?!) And running 10 miles after multiple wine tastings, cracking open a bottle, and then picnicing outside in what's forecasted to be 85 degree weather does NOT sound like a good idea to me. That's just asking for major dehydration.

My gut instinct was to turn down the offer. I made a training schedule for a reason...to stick to it! You could say I even backed out of doing my full 9-mile run last weekend, since I broke it into two separate segments. I like to think two of my best qualities are my determination within myself and my follow-through with other people. It irritates me to no end when others don't have these same attributes, so I hold myself to the same standard. Even if nobody else would know that I skipped a run, I would.

When I talked it over in my head, (if it was ANY place besides Oliver, I could have said no), I realized I WOULD regret not hanging out with my newest group of friends and taking full advantage of a BEAUTIFUL vacation day. Would I regret not doing the 10-mile run? Out of sheer principle, yes. But would it negatively affect my training? No, because I hit the 10-mile mark two weeks ago. Is 10 a monumental mile number to me anymore? No. Mind made up :)

To justify my choice, I started brainstorming of ways to squeeze in a decent length run before Friday. I'm limited with time in the evenings as it would start to get dark before I completed the run, plus I'm usually tired from my work day. Then it just so happened that today, I was able to take an hour and a half break since I only was able to take 30-minutes away yesterday. Even though running around the work campus is not an appealing scene to me (boring loops and running into the same people you see day in, day out) I decided to do it. It was 61 degrees and sunny when I took off which made me a little more gung-ho than I was. All in all, I ran just over 8 miles. Not having water breaks started to be a problem again. Around mile 6, I was pretty thirsty and started to have a couple isolated leg cramps. It's never a good sign when you stop dripping sweat and you just feel salty, which was happening too. I listened to my body and knew I could push through to finish my designated laps, and made sure to hydrate right away with water and some FULL sugar apple juice. Within 10 minutes and a good shower, I felt back to normal.

No 10 miles, but still respectable. Definitely the longest I've ever run in the middle of the work day. Call it a compromise?

The Joy of Cross-Training

Since I didn't get in my usual exercise at work yesterday, Chad and I decided to go on a bike ride last night. It was only the third time I've been out on my bike since we bought them, since I've been so heavily into running and not much else lately. A great little strip of bike path can be found on 106th street between Hague and Allisonville Rd. It's all hills, which makes for a fun bike ride. One small section of it is wooded and has multiple wood bridges to ride over. All in all, we did a 6 mile ride. The problem I have with biking outside is that so far on the streets around Fishers, I have yet to actually feel like my heart rate is elevated enough for it to be called a good workout. Last night, with those hills, was the exception! For more details on the ride, copy and paste this link in your browser:

http://www.mapmyride.com/view_workout?w=287126999363919145

Runner's High

I was reading an article in Fitness Magazine (April 2010 issue, pg. 125) entitled "Why I Run." Four women wrote a short essay about why they run, what made them start and why it outweighs any other form of exercise. Here were their reasons:
-It's the only "sport" I enjoy and can excel in.
-Running at sunrise is the calm before the day's storm of being a parent.
-It gives me inspiration for writing my novels.
-It was a natural form of Prozac after my husband lost his job.

I can relate to all of these reasons in some fashion. Obviously, running gives a plethora of physical benefits. I got to a point in my fitness life where no other form of exercise (minus spinning) quite got my heart rate up the way running did. When it comes to toning leg muscles, same thing. But I'm not going into great detail here, because the physical benefits are only the surface reasons for running.

The first woman in the article wrote that she had tried sports like soccer and failed miserably, then picked up cross-country, and even though when she started she usually came in last place, she eventually was able to run 3 miles in 23:28. I can completely relate to this one. As fitness-orientated as I have become, I am by no means blessed with athletic skill. Little hand/eye coordination and that classic girl fear of (I'm ashamed to say) being hit by the ball. I went to basketball camp in middle school and while I became really great at free throws (I made it into the 10-in-a-row club) the whole dribbling thing messes me up. I enjoy volleyball and played a lot last summer, getting better with each game. I know the first game I play this summer will NOT be pretty. Chad and I have recently been playing tennis, which is one of my better sports (not saying much). When we first bought our rackets I started the trash talk of how I was going to dominate him on the tennis courts. He looked at me and with all seriousness said, "No. I've seen you play sports." Leave it to your husband to be honest. With running, I don't need really any kind of coordination except to know how to run straight and dodge giant potholes---that I can do :)

The second story of "Why I Run" I can't fully relate to, as I'm not a parent--and hopefully won't be for a long time! But I can say that any stress I've felt either in college or real-world can be alleviated with a good run. No wonder I've been in such a great mood lately!

Again, the third story I can't relate to as much either as I am not a writer who's constantly brainstorming of plot ideas for novels. But of course running gives me inspiration for every day life creativity. Inspiration enough to start a blog!

Who can't relate to the last reason for running?? We all need some natural Prozac every now and then. And ANY exercise has this effect. I dinstinctly remember the workout I had 2 years ago on the weekend I found out my parents were getting a divorce. Again, I don't typically workout on weekends, but that Sunday night, as soon as I returned back to my college house up in Anderson I headed straight to the campus gym, avoiding all eye contact with the people I knew, and jumped on an elliptical. Music full blast, pedaling hard, wondering sometimes if the wetness on my face was sweat or tears. Even in situations as dire as this was, every little bit of physical activity helped. One thing that I both love and hate about my job is that no matter my mood, no matter what has just happened in my life, and no matter how rainy and gray the day is, I have to put on a pleasant face and be chipper enough to motivate other people--and be believable. One day at work, I got news that Chad's already meager pay had been cut in HALF due to my least favorite person EVER--Chad's old boss. I cried...hard. And then I composed myself and taught class. (Thank God Chad's new job came within a few weeks after that incident.) Even though I could confide in some of my clients or group fitness participants, there are settings where they need me to be the encouraging one--not the other way around. They are there to workout, be pushed, and find motivation in me that they may not have on their own. It's one of those things, when I pretend to be happy and smile for so long, I actually become happy and realize that my life isn't so bad after all. In fact, it's fabulous.

Why do you run?? Feel free to comment!

The Best Weekend Ever

Ahhh. I love those Sunday evenings where the full-feeling of all the fun things I was able to do over the weekend outweighs the melancholy of knowing Monday morning is looming ahead....only hours away. This was exactly one of those weekends. I'll admit, Friday night I was dreading all the things I had to get done over the next two days: my training run, picking up a cluttered apartment, making a trip to Anderson to pick up our hot-off-the-press wedding album, and multiple commitments with my friend Sarah including a promised workout together---in addition to my training run. But I have to say, this weekend was one of the best I've had in a LONG time. The perfect balance of accomplishing things (if you know me, I'm BIG on checking off boxes on the ol' to-do list) and relaxing.

Saturday started off with a morning run with Sarah. We made the loop to the "workout park" that I've referred to in this blog a few times and did one circuit of strength exercises. From there we jogged in and out of streets lined with our dream first homes, into an adjoining neighborhood (with a HUGE PINK inflatable Easter bunny), and back to my apartment building. Towards the end of the run I could tell Sarah was starting to struggle a bit, and she mentioned several times that she was focusing only on keeping running without stopping to walk. She made it, of course. It still seems so bizarre to me the be the one dishing out the encouragement during a run with a partner. We went inside my apartment and mapped out the route we took, and found it was 2.7 miles. (See below.) Sarah was so pumped that she made it that far, only stopping to do a circuit of exercises that still kept our heart rates up...i.e. step-ups. It took a good hour for me to realize that was the farthest she had EVER run continuously...let alone outdoors, which for most newer runners is hard. After seeing her lose FIFTY pounds and undergo multiple personal training sessions by yours truly, I was so glad to have been there to experience that literal milestone with her.


Even though this run was not a physical challenge for me, and much of it was social (chit-chatting about when will we ever be able to afford houses of our own and who is tacky enough to have a HUGE PINK inflatable Easter bunny in their yard?!), it was during this exact run that I decided I could do this running thing for life. After only a few short weeks of being in runner mode 24/7, I don't want this to end after May 8th! I think I could really enjoy a nice Saturday morning jog. I've always refrained from working out on weekends because it really just makes me think of work. For most people, it's an escape (as it is for me most of the time) and everyone else gets a break from the work week so why shouldn't I? God knows I don't need the extra calorie burn beyond what my job gives me. I've never really enjoyed running with other people either. Usually their pace is faster than mine, or they tell me to set the pace but I still feel the pressure to run faster than what I can maintain for long. I decided we were a good running pair. We know each other's fitness level well enough to gauge when to push the other person, but at the same time, I never minded running at a slightly slower pace than my usual so that we could stay together. This run was just so different...it was shared, fun, and not anything resembling work or pain. And that is ok.

Then on to my training run. I decided to take a different approach and screw the 9-mile run I had so diligently mapped out on Friday. Since I had just run 2.7 miles, I split my training run for the weekend into 2 parts. The morning run combined with a 6-miler would give me the total of 9 that I had committed to. Normally, I wouldn't recommend splitting a training run into two parts since endurance is a key factor of a long-distance race. Just this once I decided to try the two-a-day workout because it does have other benefits (think of it as intervals and why they are so successful--when you have minutes where your body is allowed to recover, you can perform at a higher intensity during the designated hard minutes). Sarah and I grabbed some lunch at Panera and wasted approximately 30 minutes of our lives watching the newest Dane Cook stand-up. Allow me to sidetrack here....formally a huge Dane Cook fan, I wasn't finding humor in any of these newest jokes. He started out with tackling some heavy, controversial issues in a serious tone: racism, politics, suicide, rape, cancer, and the death of both of his parents only months apart. He clearly wasn't trying to be funny. Then when he WAS trying to be funny, his jokes were so raunchy and over the top that I wanted to throw up more than laugh. I find it hard to believe anyone in the audience was giving him more than a sympathy chuckle. This was the guy that only a couple years ago made me laugh until I cried; the guy whose lines I would think of in the middle of class and have to try so hard to stifle a laugh. After one too many jokes about STD's and hookers, I decided I would RATHER run 6 miles than continue this nonsense.

Sarah showed me a route in Noblesville (see below) that she and her husband had mapped out as being a 5K loop. I set out to do it twice giving me a mileage of 6.2. What can I say about this run? It went by SO fast!! I knew I was running at a quicker pace than normal, but I was fully expecting to walk back into her apartment, discover I had only been gone for about 30 minutes and tell her she was WRONG. I got back right at 54 minutes (and she re-mapped the route for validity) meaning I, once again, shattered any previous time. Running 6.2 miles on a treadmill, I would have finished at 62 minutes. Even mentally, this run felt equivalent to a 4-mile treadmill run I did on Thursday. Maybe I'm beginning to retract my previous statements about treadmills being so much better?? I can almost hear the "told you so's" from any REAL runner out there. My favorite song of the run was "Beautiful Day" by U2, because it was, in every way.


PS. I did attempt to use a water-holding belt that I found at Dick's Sporting Goods on Friday night. I got about .01 miles into the run and it was jostling all around. The water bottle is supposed to stay right around the hip area, then as I ran it would migrate to the front of my stomach, then my other hip, then behind, always smacking me as I ran, even though I tightened the belt. Needless to say, I ditched it and re-started the run. I'm almost glad it didn't work out after all, because let's be honest....it was a glorified fanny pack.

I finished out the weekend with eating out at some of my favs (Panda Express and Qdoba), a new hair color (mahogany, they call it), a couple glasses of Riesling, sleeping over at Sarah's since Chad had been gone for the entire day/night (making it our first married night apart), church this morning, making the rounds in Anderson with Chad's family, dinner with him at Greek's Pizzeria (new for us, and I highly recommend it!), and finally, putting together some playlists for the cycle classes I am teaching this week.

And no feeling sick after this run:) Only proud, of both myself and my friend (that I ended up spending 25 straight hours with) for what we have termed the The Best Weekend Ever.

9 Mile Out and Back Fishers Neighborhood Run

This route is offcially the plan for tomorrow. All I did was search "running routes in Fishers, IN" on mapmyrun.com and boom this one came up. It was like they KNEW I needed a 9-mile run! Here is the description: "This route takes you through 5 subdivisions of Fishers. There is usually light traffic and is relatively flat with a couple of very small hills." PERFECT =)

I'm trying to figure out a good way to bring water with me. I know they make running belt-like contraptions that carry water bottles, but the idea of strapping anything on me while I run drives me crazy. I can't even stand to run with my wedding rings on because feeling them move around on my finger irritates me. Nor can I tolerate running with a normal-sized ipod in an arm band. That is why I use the shuffle. Chad will be at work tomorrow, otherwise I would commission him to ride his bike around the same area and deliver occasional drinks of water. Maybe I'll drive through the route and leave water bottles hidden in bushes along the way haha....

Clarification

I wanted to clarify that caffeine in and of itself is NOT bad for exercise. It actually has many benefits when the right amount is consumed before a workout (as a co-worker pointed out to me yesterday.) In my blogs I've only been preaching about the harmful effects of too much before a workout, but I don't want to discredit caffeine completely. They say, if you are used to drinking a morning coffee, then it's actually beneficial to do the same on the morning of a race. (I did that last year before the mini.)

A recent article from Shape magazine:
"Q: Is it harmful to drink coffee before I exercise?
A: Not at all. In fact, it can actually improve your performance. Caffeine makes you more alert and may help you workout longer or at a harder intensity. In an Australian study, runners who ingested caffeine before at 5K shaved 10 to 12 seconds off their finish times. Other research published in the Journal of Sports Sciences found that cyclists who downed a dose of caffeine before a sprint felt less leg pain and had a lower rate of perceived exertion. For optimal benefits, drink up to 45-60 minutes before a workout and stay under 150 milligrams. That's 12 ounces of coffee, up to 24 ounces of tea, or 17 ounces of Red Bull." March 2010 issue, pg. 130

For reference, I had about 20 ounces of coffee that morning :O

Pro: Energy boost and less feelings of pain/fatigue
Con: Dehydrates your cells and could cause a dangerously high heart rate/blood pressure.
As long as you're drinking the right amount to reap the benefits and not slip into any of the "cons" then drink up!

"I don't do decaf"

The title of this blog comes from a quote on one of my coffee mugs...and it's pretty true for me. When people drink decaf coffee I just think "What's the point?" Coffee has been a part of my morning routine for a solid 4 years, and even though that's not ALL that long, I don't function without my morning coffee boost. I don't drink it throughout the day...just one cup in the morning Monday-Friday. (I recently bought a Keurig, and I make the 10-ounce size.) The exceptions are Saturdays where I drink a few cups throughout the morning as I deep clean our apartment, or some rare days in the winter where I have a cup in the middle of the day for the pure warmth. In addition to the caffeine in the morning, I usually have either a Diet Coke or Diet Dr. Pepper in the afternoon as a litte bit of pick-me-up between personal training sessions or other work.

So all in all, I wouldn't consider myself a caffeine junkie, but I feel REALLY deprived and sluggish when I don't have either the coffee or the diet coke.

However, with my increased running as well as what I'm referring to as the "dehydration run" last weekend, I'm trying to be more aware of how much water I'm taking in because I really don't think it's enough. Despite the fact that I always have a big water bottle with me at work that I constantly drink out of and re-fill, there are still times where I find I'm SO thirsty I can't stand it a second longer. I'm thinking that an easy substitution for the afternoon diet soda would be Crystal Lite mix-ins or light lemondae...anything to give some flavor without caffeine, carbonation or calories.

The morning cup of coffee will never get nixed, but I can certainly decrease the amount I drink on weekends. Or consider a switch to decaf if I just really want to enjoy multiple cups.

As far as my diet, I've never been what I would call "strict." People at work sometimes ask if I'm super strict with my diet, and I don't know how to answer that question. I don't ever really feel like I'm being deprived or forcing myself to be hungry. I NEVER count calories unless I'm just curious on any one particular day. There are some things that are just assumed for me: I never eat things like potato chips, snacks like cheetos, or full-calorie soda. I rarely eat french fries, red meat, pork, and I'm not much of a candy person. So some people may call that strict, but that still gives me plenty of room for other foods that aren't so great for you but sure are tasty!

Senior year of college I went through a vegetarian-ish phase. Not for any moral reasons, but just to cut down on cholesterol in my diet. I completely eliminated red meat and pork, and I only had other meats (turkey, chicken, fish) maybe 1-2 times each week. I found that I LOVED things like veggies and hummus, pitas filled with those 2 things, veggie wraps, veggie chili, and even grilled veggie sandwiches. I knew I wasn't getting enough protein, but I felt more healthy than I had in a long time.

My real food weakness is desserts...the more homemade things like brownies, cheesecake, cookie dough, etc. Also, ICE CREAM--of any kind. I don't keep these things in the house, but I love going to places like Cheesecake Factory or Coldstone Creamery. I did one big "No sweets" stunt that started 6 weeks before my wedding. I inadvertently lost 4 pounds, which wasn't the goal, but apparently that shows how many calories desserts had been adding to my diet! Beyond the weight loss though, I felt healthier in a "clean" kind of way...the bloated feeling that comes with sugar was gone, making me feel leaner. Best of all, I felt empowered that I COULD say no to desserts--that was a first.

Now, I'm looking for just a healthy, maintainable, clean diet. I don't believe in completely eliminating any foods--there will inevitably come a situation where I will want to eat one of those "never" foods, so I'm not so much worried about getting rid of all the unhealthy things so much as being more choosey about what I eat and learning moderation. Ideally I would eat sweets only 1-2 times each week. Some weeks that is the case, others it isn't. A few months ago I was in a phase where I always had wine with dinner, usually about 2 glasses. Again, I'm shooting for about 1-3 times a week for alcohol---although we all know wine is good for the heart, VERY high in sugar. And really with any alcohol, talk about emtpy calories and dehydration!

So just my thoughts out loud on eating, drinking, and just being more aware of what I'm putting into my body; considering whether I'm giving my body energy or dragging it down; creating the parameters for a healthy, lifelong diet.

Recovered

Back to feeling 100% again after Saturday's events. Even Sunday, I felt lingering effects of the dehydration...a little dizzy. Mostly I was just starving all day considering my net calorie intake for Saturday was a grand total of 240*. At lunch, I had a full meal at Nickel Plate then still managed to eat a medium sized chocolate brownie chunk hurricane from Handel's...quite possibly the best ice cream ever. (Actually National Geographic did rate it the best ice cream on the planet!)

Today I missed my normal lunch break exercise at work due to a doctor's appointment. I didn't even teach any group fitness classes today, leaving me with a choice of skipping my workout altogether or coming home and working out at our apartment fitness center. (It was way too rainy and cold to do anything outdoors.) Again, some of you may find it hard to believe that I have to muster up that much motivation to come home and workout, but since exercise is just a built-in part of my job, when I miss a workout during the day, it's going WAY out of my routine to get one in past 7pm. Working out on weekends is definitely something I'm not used to, but as you've seen, I'm at the point with training runs where I need to devote more than an hour to my workout--and explore new running terrains other than the goose-poop-covered trail around the pond at work.

So, my small, mundane victory of the day was that I did come home and workout. I made it a cardio cross-training day and did 45-minutes on the elliptical. Does anyone out there have a great apartment fitness center?? Ours is small (which most are), doesn't have the greatest equipment (most don't), and there is ALWAYS either: a stinky guy who smells like a mixture of BO and cologne, both equally as strong, or that macho guy who is just trying way too hard....at least for a tiny fitness center with only one bench.

*When/if I ever track calories for my daily food intake, I use an application on the iphone called "Lose It." When I want to track calories burned during a workout, I use my heart rate monitor (Polar RS 200). I also highly recommend Spark People online if you're interested in keeping a daily log of food and exercise--very user-friendly for balancing calories in versus calories out, keeping you on track with either weight loss or weight maintenance goals. (No, unfortunately I'm not getting paid for any of these advertisements!)

Run #3...What???

Now we're in real-time since the run I will be writing about happened today. And I have full faith this will be the most interesting of my training runs for two reasons....

I told Chad my plan was to run 8 miles outdoors, and I was having trouble picking a route since I don't know any exact mileage of the streets around our neighborhood in Fishers. He suggested a loop we have done before on our bikes--down Lantern Road and into a neighborhood that has a small scale workout park--things such as bars for dips and pull-ups which, by the way, is the site of those incredible 3 pull-ups I mentioned in the first post! According to Chad, who had looked the mileage up before, a loop of going from our apartment to that workout park and back was 1.33 miles. If I did this 6 times, that would give me exactly 8 miles. The idea of repeating a loop 6 times seemed boring (and at times it was) but since it was mileage I knew, I was going to use that plan. For future runs, I plan to map out more exciting runs before the day of.

I took off down Lantern Road on this first day of spring, Saturday, March 20. The weather was truly beautiful--sunny, nice cloud cover at times, 55-60 degrees and breezy. Right up my alley :) The first 2 miles always prove to be the hardest for me, especially outdoors, because as I am getting into the grove and establishing a pace, my knees/ankles/shins are in pain. After 2 loops, I felt great. After 3 loops, I knew I was halfway done, at the 4 mile mark. At 5 loops, I was excited to only have one loop left, however my knees were very achy and my shoulder blades were as well. (After the mini last year, the worst pain I experienced after the run, much to my surprise, was in the back of my shoulders.) No matter how often I remembered to shake out my arms and keep a loose running posture, my shoulders throbbed at longer distances. I paused briefly before embarking on the last loop to stretch out my quads and alleviate some of the knee pain, as well as to stretch out my neck and shoulders. I also felt a little dizzy and flushed but chalked that up to it being a little hot outside at this point. I was on the final stretch back to my apartment when I saw Chad riding his bike to check on me:) I finished up the run, clipping along at a quick pace right behind his bike.

It was HARD. I felt pushed to my max at the end of this run, which was disappointing because, although it was the first outdoor long run, I could not fathom tacking on FIVE more miles in a month and a half. Another disappointing fact was that it had taken me 98 minutes. This meant I was running around 5.0 miles per hour (as opposed to my normal 6.0 on a treadmill)....gotta pick up that outdoor pace if I want to even come close to my time goal.

All this disappointment was washed away in an instant when Chad and I discovered a miscalculation. Using an online tool for mapping outdoor runs/bike rides, Chad asked me exactly the point where I started and finished all 6 of those loops. I heard him yell from the other room "Babe, you ran 10 miles." Incredulous, I ran into the room to see the computer screen myself and the route he had mapped out perfectly. There it was: 10.02 miles. Meaning a.) I skipped past running miles 8 and 9 as my plan laid out and jumped right to 10! No wonder it felt so hard and took so long! and b.) I averaged a 9.8 minute mile, running slightly faster than I run indoors on that nice comfy treadmill belt!! It's awesome what your body is capable of doing, even without your knowledge! I felt amazing!!

Amazing, that is, for a little while....I started to ice my knees which still throbbed and I also had a pretty good cramp in my left quad. No biggie. My head started to throb so I thought that I was really due for some post-run replenishment. Especially after 10 miles!! (For breakfast that morning, I had eaten oatmeal with sliced banana and a maple syrup drizzle and also about 3 cups of coffee--my Saturday morning ritual as I love to make a full French press of coffee and leisurely drink it all. In my defense, I did try to drink an equal amount of water to balance out the diuretic effects of coffee before I ran.)

So, I drank 2 full glasses of Crystal Light raspberry ice and had a tuna salad sandwich on whole wheat toast. I started to feel increasingly terrible, pounding headache right in the center of my forehead, blurry vision and seeing spots. The sunlight coming in our sliding doors was excruciating, and I realized as I was texting on my phone, I could barely see the letters. I went and laid down in our dark bedroom, on the floor. Chad brought me in an apple thinking that my blood sugar had to be low, so I ate that but didn't feel any symptoms subside. I crawled into bed but could not get comfortable. It felt like the hangover from hell...and trust me, there was no alcohol involved. I started to feel nauseous from the headache and blurred vision--the nausea came in strong waves and I felt like I could pass out lying down in bed! I called Chad, who had run out on errands, sounding a little frantic and told him to hurry home--I have just never felt this bent out of shape! When he got home, I had him grab my heart rate monitor so I could at least see if anything was wrong there...nope, perfect 68 bpm, very steady. And then, I threw up. A lot. (In a wire mesh trash can, which I don't recommend, but that's all that was handy!) And over the course of the next 2 hours, threw up 2 more times. A lot. Sorry Mom, for canceling our dinner plans!

Classic dehydration according to my own common sense...ok, and Google. Which would explain it feeling so distinctly like a hangover! Of all people to not hydrate enough before a run, and not hydrate at all during the run, the Health and Fitness Specialist should have known better.

Somewhere around 8pm (I finished the run at 2:50pm), I felt human enough to crawl out of bed. You can thank the episodes of today for giving me the inspiration to start this blog that had previously been just a fleeting idea. And now, at 10pm I feel thrilled again at the 10 miles and happy that spring has finally sprung!

Lessons of the run:

• Accurately track your mileage! I got lucky in that I thought I was running less than I actually was, but it can also happen the other way around which can be a bummer! I recommend www.imapmy.com This website allows you to map a run, walk, bike ride, or even a triathlon course!
• Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! If you feel thirsty, you ARE. I ignored the fact that I was very thirsty during the second half of my run, when it would have been easy to take a tiny detour up to my apartment for some water.
• Nothing beats Saltines, and a husband willing to drive to the nearest gas station for Gatorade. Have both handy!!

Favorite songs of the run (randomly played on ipod shuffle):

• "River of Dreams" -Billy Joel
• "I Need Love" -NSYNC
• "Closing Time" -Semisonic (which fittingly came on as I began the last loop)
• "I Kissed a Drunk Girl" -Something Corporate

Let's Buy Bikes!

On the weekend of March 13-14, my run was supposed to be 8 miles, and I was determined to get outdoors for my first long run of the season not on a treadmill. However, Mother Nature had other plans for me--it was rainy and chilly compared to the 60-70 degree weather we had experienced leading up to the weekend. Combined with that, we had spent some time on both days of the weekend visiting my husband Chad's grandfather in the hospital as he was recovering from a heart surgery--so other things were going on that weekend that seemed more important in the scheme of life.

The other surprise of the weekend is that Chad and I finally forked over the money (yay tax return!) and bought 2 mountain bikes! We spent a great deal of time picking them out and then taking our first (although brief because of the weather ) bike ride together, so the guilt I had been feeling for not running was lifted since we were being active by other means and had made a purchase we had been talking about and dreaming of for quite some time.

So, week 3 of mini-marathon training was a wash. Lesson in being flexible, but I had already completed the mileage I wanted to be at this week, 7 miles.

Runs #1 and #2

My first 2 training runs were on the treadmill in the DAS gym. I'm an avid treadmill runner, which I know all you REAL runners out there frown upon. Yes, I know I'm not getting as "true" of a training run indoors as I would outside on pavement, but having battled shin splints and 2 cases of IT band syndrome (one of which was debilitating and stopped my running for about 4 months), sometimes, I just want to stick with the comforts of a nice, soft treadmill belt. Besides that, I'm a very fair-weather outdoor runner, literally. If it's cold, snowing, raining, about to rain, too hot, humid, etc., etc., I don't run outside. Running for me has always been about 50% physical challenge and 50% enjoyment....and I don't enjoy anything less than warm-and-dry-with-a-slight-breeze running weather:) And in response to all the people that think treadmill running is so dreadfully boring, if you got into music even half as much as I do, you would feel invigorated the whole time! I'm worthless without an ipod.

Since we're back-tracking a little bit, all I have to say is that my first training run, the 5 miles on February 27, was very average. This is a distance I run quite frequently, and I always say that 6 miles is my standard number for "I just want to get a good run in during my 1-hour lunch break." So, 5 miles was fairly easy, but being the first run of any distance since the BOSU dominated me, I didn't want to push my knee.

My next run, which was supposed to be the 6-miler, was on Friday, March 5. I was running back up at normal speed with no knee pain and when I got to 6 miles, I said "I could really run more than this, and I WANT to." So I did, that simple. I ran 7 and felt like I could have gone onto 8 but didn't since I was under time constraints.

Establishing My Training Schedule

My plan this year is to HAVE a plan for my training runs. Last year, aside from just doing my job every day and getting in my normal 5 workouts per week, the only real training runs consisted of an 8-mile run at Anderson's Shadyside Park and a 10-mile treadmill run. I kinda winged it the day of the mini because I had previously done a 5K race (the Big 10 Hoops Day 5K--see pictures) and realized, "Hey! Adrenaline on race-day is better than any training runs you could ever do!" Which I still believe is partly true:)

This year, however, the plan has been to increase my long runs by one mile each week starting with a 5-mile run on Friday, February 27. I had hoped to start sooner, however things were delayed with a minor knee injury. (For those who don't know the story, I was foolishly trying to replicate an exercise I saw on "Biggest Loser." That show has given me so many good training ideas, so when I saw a 300 pound person jump from the ground onto an upside-down BOSU ball, I thought, why can't I?? Turns out...I can't. I made the jump a solid 5-6 times, then on the last jump, I fell forward off the BOSU and landed on my right knee which was bent 90 degrees to the right. OUCH! So for 3 weeks after that incident, I could do no cardio except for cycling which put minimal impact on the leg.)

If I stick with the current plan of increasing my mileage by one per week, that will put me at running a full 13 miles 2 weeks before the actual mini. I want to gauge the time of that practice run to see if it will even be possible for me to beat last year's time. Then for the 2 weeks before the mini, I will do shorter runs and hopefully rest up for race day!

My weekly schedule of exercise looks like this:

• Monday: 45 mins to 1-hour of pure cardio followed by abs (lately it's been either spin classes or a mixture of different cardio machines)
• Tuesday: 1-hour of strength/cardio circuits (usually workouts from Jillian Michael's Hot Bod in a Box)
• Wednesday: 25 mins of teaching cycle, occasionally 30 minutes of teaching a strength class, then one hour of my own cardio
• Thursday: 45-min stability ball strength class, 45-min total body challenge class
• Friday: light cardio OR Hatha yoga class OR skip the workout and go out to lunch with one of my best friends/co-workers :) Sometimes, I just NEED to get out of the gym for my break!
• Saturday or Sunday: Long training run
• Other day of the weekend: rest

Allow Me to Introduce Myself...

For anyone out there who doesn't know my background, I work for the National Institute for Fitness and Sport (NIFS) as a Health and Fitness Specialist in the corporate fitness department. I work at the Dow AgroSciences employee fitness center doing a variety of health related jobs: personal training, teaching group fitness (stability ball class, Total Body Challenge-which is a boot camp style set-up, spinning, and 10-minute core classes), and general health promotion for several different programs and events throughout the year. I honestly LOVE my job :)

I graduated from Anderson University with a degree in Exercise Science. I have always enjoyed working out, however I did not take up running until freshman/sophomore year of college. You may find this hard to believe, since I really do love running now, but in high school I was that girl who DREADED the semi-annual 1-mile run in PE class. It seemed that everyone lapped me around the track and after I was finished with the run, I felt completely sick....yes, after only ONE mile.

At my current age of 24 years old, I am without a doubt in the best shape of my life. I'm at the healthiest weight I've ever been at (note that I said healthiest, not lightest), the lowest body fat percentage I've ever seen, and I have more stamina, muscle strength, and even balance and agility than ever before. (To toot my own horn for 2 seconds, I realized the other day that I can do 3 pull-ups on my own---to do one pull-up without assist was a life-long fitness goal of mine that I truly thought I would never accomplish. I even got teary-eyed!)

With all this said, even signing up for the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon was something that I had put off for a few years...I made excuses because it always fell on or around finals week in college. So, last year, 2009, being my first full year as a college graduate, I had no reason not to. I signed up and finished the mini-marathon in 2 hours 15 minutes. I had no time goals for this first race, as this was the first time in my life to run a full 13.1 miles. My only goal was to finish, and hopefully not have to resort to walking--which I accomplished and beyond that, enjoyed every minute. Where else can you see all the odd side-shows and hear teenage garage bands (that are truly terrible), run a lap around the famous Indy 500 track, and have random strangers yelling your name telling you to finish strong?? (It freaked me out the first time someone yelled, "Go Mechelle!" Then I realized, it's printed on my bib!)

For the record, my goal this year, on Saturday May 8, is to beat 2h 15m. I'm slightly uncomfortable putting this in writing for even one other person to see (big fear of failure). All of my fitness experience aside, this IS a challenge for me, as I don't consider myself a natural-born runner. It's something I work hard to be. The hope for this blog (my first one ever!) is to share ideas of what has helped me train, what routes I've chosen to run, and really just for everyone to see the inside of an average runner's training regimen for a long-distance race.