Marathon Training Summary...

I am four days away from the big day.  It's been almost 16 weeks since this insanity began and I thought I'd post a recap of the last four months.

In total I have ran 287.49 miles.  (Holy Cow!)  Not bad for a girl that has never considered herself a runner, or even wanted to be one.  According to Dailymile.com, where I log my runs, I have burned 33,404 calories.  I can eat a TON of cupcakes and cookies to make up for that.

My pace has ranged from 7:56 to 11:23.  In my defense that crappy pace time was on April 18th, we ran/walked 7.29 miles total, and I believe it was 95 degrees out at 6 in the evening with about a million percent humidity.  Looks like my shortest run was a mere 2 miles, and the longest was the 20 miles of insanity on the indoor track at the Y.

I have logged two races since training began, the Heart for Haiti 5k, at which I set a PR of 24:36, and the Rock n Roll Half Marathon in Dallas where I set a PR of 1:53:23.  I also raised $1,700 for that race, and baked alot of cookies for my wonderful friends and co-workers that donated.

It looks like, if my calculations are correct, that I have spent no less than 45 hours running since January 10th.  Now all that's left to do is a little carb loading, and a few days of rest.  I'm praying for no rain, but plan to prepare for it just in case.  The weather now is showing lows in the 50s, highs around 70 and a 30% chance of rain.

It's been a long road getting here, and it has not been easy.  There have been at least three long runs that made me want to hang up my running shoes for good, or even burn them just to be rid of them.  I've had the muscle aches and pains to go with it, and my feet are a little worse for wear, but I am as prepared as I can be.

I'm ready to hit the road, and soak it all in, and I plan to have the biggest smile on my face when I cross that finish line.

More Beer Sprocket...

Had a mixer on loan from a friend.

First batch was pumpkin.  Gotta love Penny Cakes!

That's organic pumpkin.

The minis are so stinking cute.

One half of the display table.

The other half of the display table.

With the banner.

Check out the logo.

Race Week!

So this is happening on Sunday.  That's only 5 days away!  Holy cow!  I am really trying to get over my urge to throw up whenever I think about it.  Maybe I'll have it down by next Tuesday.

So for the last 15 weeks, I have been working for this.  On Sunday, in five short hours it'll all be over.  Ha!  I can hope it will be over.  I have never thought about time for this, and since the Rock n Roll in March, Abby and I have only been working on the distance.  But then Abby says things like, we are shooting for between 4.5 and 5 hours and it all freaks me out.  My goal is to just keep up.

I have a plan for the Expo, we are heading over there on Friday after work.  I am hoping to find another cute headband to wear.  Josh doesn't get the fun of the expo, with all their protein food samples, and cool running gear.  It's like a mall built just for runners.  What's not fun about that?

We have a plan for carb loading on Saturday night with my running gang, or herd, as Josh is now calling us.  We don't have a plan for Sunday morning yet, but that will be worked out as the week progresses.

I am working on having to pee at least once a night for the rest of the week, and I'm going to be drinking Gatorade and water all week.  I hit the gym with Abby last night for a three mile run and a body sculpting class, and again this morning for a hi/low cardio class.  After only running 5 miles on the treadmill at our hotel this weekend, my body felt a little creaky!  So we'll do another short run in the morning and hopefully some yoga with our running group tomorrow night, then upper body on Thursday morning.  After that it'll just be the race on Sunday.  (Again with the freaking out and the urge to throw up.)

All that's left now is to do it.

Who Needs Toenails...

Workouts:
Monday-7.25 miles run/walk emphasis on the walk.  It was about a million degrees out and we were all hurting.
Tuesday-Hi/Low cardio class
Wednesday-3 mile run in 31 minutes, getting the feel of the new shoes.

My feet are seriously suffering from my 20 mile run around the Y track Friday morning.  Not only do I have blisters under about six of my toenails, I had blisters on both big toes and the side of my right foot.  What the heck?  I have a week and a half before the marathon and I felt the need for some serious action.

I went to a local running store, and they put me on the treadmill to analyze my gait.  This is not the usual store that I go to, but I had a good experience with them recently with a return so I thought I'd check out the high tech stuff they offer.  They had me hop on the treadmill barefoot, and run for about a minute.  Then I got to see exactly how my feet react when I run.  I also decided that if I could just run barefoot I'd be very happy, but it was a little weird to be on the treadmill with no shoes on.  Anyway...

They fitted me in the same shoes I have been training in.  Guess my local running store does know their stuff, without all the high tech gadgets. 

I got a new pair of these:

But I also decided to go with a pair of these:

I am hoping that the new insoles will give me the arch support that I need, and will help keep my feet from sliding forward in my shoes.  Apparently, when your feet slide forward in your shoe and hit the inside of your shoe over and over again for 20 miles or so (give or take 10 or 15 miles) that causes blisters, and bruises under your toenails, and it will help you loose your toenails.

I personally don't see the point of toenails, but it is spring time and I do love my flip flops, so I am trying really hard to hang onto them for as long as possible.  Good thing I'm a girl, because I can at least paint my toenails to make them seem half way normal, or I can paint the skin where there once was a toenail to give the illusion that there is still one. 

I did seek some advice from the Brooks Fanatics group on facebook, and it appears that I am not the only one that suffers from this ailment.  Clearly I am the only one in my running group.  Well maybe not, but I guess I'd rather loose toenails than suffer from IT Band issues, or knee issues, or hip issues, or back issues.  So maybe I'm pretty lucky, but my toenails might beg to differ.

All That's Left...

Friday morning, Abby and I were meeting to get our long run for the weekend out of the way.  Abby had a wedding on Saturday, and I had Beer Sprocket.

I had heard talk of it being cold on Friday morning, but I think I was a little in denial.  I got up, even though I could hear the wind howling, and put on my running capri's, a short sleeve shirt, with a long sleeve pull over, and grabbed my gloves and headed to the Y.  Man, what was I thinking?  The whole way there I was trying to figure out how we could run 20 miles outside and not be affected by the wind.  I was contemplating how we could change our route, and still be able to hit our water stops.

I got to the Y and went inside for a bathroom break, Abby got there not long after, and she said "Tell me if I'm crazy, but do you want to run inside?"  Oh thank god!  We planned to run five miles on the track, five on the treadmill, and then repeat.  We grabbed a clicker from the front desk, because who can keep track of all those laps? 

We headed up and got started, it was 6:15 am at that time.  So this track is relatively small.  You have to run 11 laps to equal one mile.  Our plan was to run two miles and then walk a lap, and we did that for the first ten miles.  Yep, the first ten.  By that point, we were comfortable on the track, it wasn't very crowded and we decided to stay put, or to stay as put as we could while shooting for 220 laps around the Y track. 

After ten miles, we decided to walk a lap every mile, and we even went against the grain a bit.  When it wasn't too crowded, we'd reverse our direction and just dodge the few walkers/runners that were there.  We only got comments from the grumpy old men a couple of times, and for the most part when we explained that we were up there for 20 miles they were okay with it.  We reached a breaking point at 16 miles.  We decided to head to the workout room and finish up on the dreadmill.  We walked all the way over there, yes, it's far after you've already ran 16 miles.  Unfortunately, when we got there all the treadmills were full, so we had to turn around and go back to the track to finish up the insanity.

Did I mention that the track is upstairs?  So we added an extra trip up the stairs with four miles to go.  But we did it, we did 220 miles, with a couple of extra.  We are convinced that we set some sort of Y record for that.  Who else would be insane enough to do that?  We did get to see the people coming and going in the parking lot, and we were very thankful to not be out in the cold and wind.

My toes took quite a beating.  The middle toe on my left foot, which is the foot that took the most inside turns on the track, had a horrible blood blister under the nail.  I considered taking pictures, but decided it was better not to.  I did get it popped and without all the pressure under the nail, it feels much better.  Other than that, I was not near as sore as I thought I would be.  Don't get me wrong, I was tired as I baked cupcakes the rest of the day, but overall I felt pretty darn good.

That's the longest run I will do before the marathon, which is less than two weeks away now, and I am confident now that I can handle it.  It may not be pretty, but I am sure I can get it done now.

Beer Sprocket

Beer Sprocket was this past Saturday.  I would have to say that it was a success.  I made between 450 and 500 mini cupcakes and when we left at about 8:30 (30 minutes before it was officially over) we were out of cupcakes.  Every last one was gone.

I had made:

pumpkin with cream cheese frosting

red velvet with cream cheese frosting

strawberry with strawberry buttercream

amaretto chocolate chip with cherry buttercream

Who would have thought it, but the red velvet was the hit of the day.  We ran out of those first, followed by pumpkin, chocolate and then strawberry.  It's funny because the red velvet was a last minute addition.

Who also would have thought that Josh, with the help of Jeff, would make me two awesome cupcake stands.  They even had C's on the top of them.  With the stands, the brightly colored napkins, the cupcakes with our C&C toothpicks in them, and our banner, it all looked very professional.  I gave out a ton of business cards too, so we'll see if we can generate a little business from this.

Now I just have to come up with a strudel inspired cupcake for Oktoberfest in September.  I love a good recipe challenge.

Veggie Lasagna...

Before I get into the food, my workout today was a hi/low cardio class, and my arms are gonna be sore.  I did nothing yesterday after the horribleness of Sunday's supposed to be 20 mile but ended up being 16 mile run/walk.  Worst run ever. 

Not sure what happened, by my knee was bothering me some and I could never really get it going.  I do have an appointment with my knee doctor next Tuesday, but I only have two long runs left so I'm going to suck it up and just do it.  We have 20 planned for Friday before the cupcake craziness, so I am thinking positive thoughts.  I am shooting to get a run in tonight, just to remind myself that I can, in fact, run.

So on to the food.  One of my favorite blogs, has a recipe for veggie lasagna yesterday.  It looked so good I had to pick up the missing ingredients and make it last night.  It took a little time, but it was well worth it.

I can take no credit for the beautiful picture, I could never take a picture that looked this good.  Truth be told my lasagna didn't look this wonderful, but it sure tasted good.

I did make a few changes to the recipe, I used zucchini and yellow squash and omitted the red pepper.  I have a general hatred for green and red peppers.  We used to have to eat stuffed green peppers when I was a kid, it was something I always hated.  I do try to eat peppers with fajitas, but other than that I generally avoid them.

I also used crushed tomatoes, partly to save time, and partly because whenever I use whole tomatoes I feel like I have to cook them for a long time to get them to break down.  The crushed are already crushed.  I didn't simmer the sauce for the full 20 minutes mostly because I was hungry.  I threw in a little sugar to cut the bitterness of the tomatoes, and the red pepper flakes added a nice bit of heat.

There is enough sauce to make a big lasagna, but since I made a smaller one, I have half of the sauce in the freezer for next time.  Love that.  Josh has not been the biggest fan of all the veggie lasagnas I have tried in the last year, but he gave this one two thumbs up.  He even has leftovers in his lunch today.

Midievil Fair...

Today's workout was a pilates/sets and reps class.  I have not run since Monday, and tomorrow is a 20 mile day.  Oh lord help me.  The knee does feel better, so I am hoping the rest this weekend will do me good.

We took the girls out to the Medieval Fair last Saturday.  They love to go out there every year, and it's a great place to people watch.

 It was hot and windy.  As you can tell by our hair blowing all over the place, and the squinting.

We mostly went for the food.  By the way, an Indian Taco is not a vegetarian meal.  Camy had pizza.

Carson and I in the blazing sun.

Camy and I waiting on Josh to get her a corn dog.

I must have put my camera away, because I managed to not get any pictures of Josh.  He was there, I seriously almost asked him to carry me, my legs hurt so bad after running 18 miles that morning.  Oh and the blisters!

Baby Shower Goodies...

This weekend I am baking for babies. 

The first baby is a little boy, and for his mom's baby shower I made two dozen very vanilla cupcakes, with blue tinted cream cheese frosting.  I have not used the recipe for the cupcakes before and I am very happy at how they turned out.

The second baby is a little girl.  For her mom's shower, which is being hosted by my friend Kendra, I made carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  I did a test batch of carrot cupcakes last week, and was not thrilled with the results.  I did get good reviews from my co-workers, but I was still unsure.  I don't have much of a history with carrot cake, so I don't really have a point of reference for this one.  The initial batch called for crushed pineapple and raisins.  I have never been a huge fan of raisins.  When I got ready to whip up this batch, I opted for Martha Stewart's version of carrot cake, it didn't contain pineapple, and the golden raisins were optional.

I also made a batch of sugar cookies.  I love the little feet cookie cutter I bought the other day, though I kinda think I should have gotten the left foot and the right foot.  They are iced with pink and yellow royal icing.  I have been worried about these because the icing didn't set up as quickly as I like, but they seem to be okay now.

Later today, my niece Lanee will be here, and I told her I'd make her some cupcakes for her birthday party tomorrow.  I think she wants cherry, but we'll see when she gets here.  I love having a pantry full of supplies and people that need baked goods.

Beer Sprocket

A week from today is Beer Sprocket.  I have committed to provide cupcakes for this event.  I am hoping this is just what I need to jump start my business and get some regular customers.

I will be making somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,000 mini cupcakes next week.  What was I thinking, right?  Turns out mini cupcakes are a bit easier to manage on a large scale than regular sized cupcakes.  I did some experimental baking last weekend to get ready.  Who would have thought that a regular batch of pumpkin batter, that usually makes about 3 dozen regular size cupcakes, would make 11 dozen mini cupcakes?  Not me.

I came up with three varieties that I sampled last weekend, and have since decided on adding another.

We are going with Josh's favorite, pumpkin with cream cheese frosting, strawberry with strawberry frosting, and Amaretto chocolate chip with cherry butter cream.  I decided that I'll also include some red velvet with cream cheese frosting, just because I love that one too.  I hate to leave any of my favorite flavors out.

I ordered a set of business cards, complete with my new logo, and I have a banner in the works.  I even went on cafepress.com and ordered a pink t-shirt with my logo on it.  We'll see how it looks when it gets here.

Now, I have to come up with my plan, and a grocery list and come Friday I'll be baking up a storm.

Complete Slacker...

I have been a complete slacker this week.  It's weird.  I don't think I have worked out this little in a week, since I can't remember when.  I had two days where I have done nothing, so weird.

I am hoping that the rest will pay off and when we head out bright and early on Sunday, I'll make it through the 20 miles just like that 18 I did last week, except without the horrible knee pain and the limping around afterwards.  Injuries suck, and I want no part of them.  I am too close, only three weeks to go.

I did bake up a storm last night.  I baked a batch of sugar cookies shaped like baby feet, baby right feet, that I will decorate pink and yellow for Kendra tonight.  I also whipped up a batch of carrot cake cupcakes for Kendra, for the baby shower she is hosting tomorrow.  When I get home tonight I'll make the cream cheese frosting to go with them.  This is only my second batch of carrot cake cupcakes, and after the practice batch from last week, I decided to go a completely different route with the recipe I used (Martha Stewart) and I think they are lovely.

This morning I was up bright and early and instead of hitting the gym I hit the kitchen.  This time I baked up some vanilla cupcakes for Josh's old boss who's is also hosting a baby shower tomorrow.  These will also have cream cheese frosting, tinted blue for a baby boy.  There's lost of frosting in my future today.  Tomorrow I'm going to make some cherry cupcakes for Lanne's birthday party on Sunday.  Cherry with cherry butter cream, I'll make these mini size.  They'll be just the right size for her to pop the whole thing in her mouth if she wants, just like she did on Sunday when she was sampling my Beer Sprocket test batches.

I Ran 18 Miles?

I have less than four weeks until the Memorial Marathon.  Holy cow, I only have less than four weeks until the Memorial Marathon.  After a weekend in Dallas for the Rock N Roll Half last weekend it was back to training this weekend.

My previous longest distance was 16 miles, done twice.  Once HORRIBLE, the second much better.  This weekend we set out to go for 18.  We selected a nice not too hilly course with lots of side walks, and we left the Y at about 7:15 on Saturday morning.

Our plan was to run two miles and walk a minute, give our bodies time to recover a bit so we could keep up our pace.  It was a beautiful morning to run, and Abby and I had three other runners out with us.  They are all training for the half, so they were only going to go part of the distance.  Abby set up our water stops, and I had my Garmin set to notify us of our miles. 

We had to take a bathroom break about mile 5, but we made it through the rest with only our water stops.  I had some Jelly Belly Sport Beans that I snacked on in the later miles, and we did good to have water and Gatorade out to drink on our water stops. 

Overall, it was not too horrible.  We finished in just under 3 hours, and had an additional 8 minutes for our bathroom break at the Embassy Suites and our water stops.  We were only terrified by dogs barking at us from a passing truck once, and we even managed to navigate a little construction area.  I only took my shoe off once to get rid of some gravel that found it's way in, and I ran the entire 18 with NO MUSIC!  I hear that you are a real runner if you run without music.

Abby, Tommy, Kim and I freezing after we finished.

Atleast that's what Tommy would have you believe.  Tommy even meet up with us when we were running over I-35, that hill is the most challenging of the whole route.  But then he was off to run with others, running much shorter distances than us.

After we were done, I went home, drank 40 oz of Gatorade, and took a three hour nap.  Josh and the girls wanted to go to the Medieval Fair, and we had to go to the grocery store too.  Why, after running 18 miles would everything I wanted and needed to do involve walking or standing?  Makes no sense to me.

I did make one mistake on Saturday.  I decided that I might need to break out the knee brace I wore on my right knee before my lateral release in 2006.  What was I thinking?  My knee hurt worse during the run than it had in any of the miles I ran up until then, and it has been KILLING me since.  I went with ice/Advil routine yesterday, and I even broke out some tape that I got in my race pack for the Fall Classic Duathon that had instructions for taping up your knee if you have runner's knee, and put that one.  I think it helped because it is less swollen and hurts about a million times less today than it did yesterday.

Abby and I hit the track at the Y this morning and did a nice slow 3 miles and then sat in the sauna for a while.  I think my knee is OK, but I'm planning on taking it easy this week in light of the fact that we are going to do 20 on Sunday.  Lord help me.


I didn't post this pic in my Rockin recap.  How cute was this?  Again, when you are on an empty train for 40 minutes at the crack of dawn on your way to a race, what else do you do but take pictures?  We had to document our pink awesomeness.  Ha.

I did get one picture of Tommy posted on my blog.   He was there the whole weekend, really.