The big Goal

I have been working really hard to follow the Run Less Run Faster plan.  I have some big plans for the Derby Marathon, and I am going to put this out there.  I want to kick butt and take names.  I want to leave it all out there.  I feel really strong.  I have a 20 miler to do tomorrow, and so far, I have been great at my goal paces.  I told Ryan the other day that I thought it would be really cool if I could place in my AG.  While the Derby miniMarathon is huge, the marathon portion isn't that big.  There were only around 2000 marathon finishers last year.  I looked at the race times, and they don't look impossible.  However, this isn't a great goal to have.  It isn't dependent on ME.  However, what I can do is run hard, leave it all out there, and not get passed towards the end, and do the passing.  I want to go big, and if I burn up, then I do.  If I don't, then I will have greatness.  I need to just embrace the suck.  All of these workouts are hard, and I just keep telling myself when they get hard that this will be what it feels like in the race.  Hard.  It is just a matter of enduring to the end.

I am putting this out there because this was in my email today, from Randy Step of Running Fit:

I believe it's best to pick an outrageous goal outside our comfort zone, just on the edge of not being realistic, perhaps just past what seems possible. From my experience, if you start out near the edge, or even out past it, your confidence in your choice will solidify as you put the plan in place and start the journey, at some point you will BELIEVE. To get to that point, you must take it seriously, I suggest you sign a contract with yourself not to back down, the magic will happen! Yes, you can enter and finish your first 5K, triathlon, half or full marathon, yes you can qualify for Boston, run a race every month for a year, run 50 miles, even run 100 miles! As you can tell I love running goals, but yes ... you can also get rich, be a rock star or cure a disease, if you live and breathe your goal

Make the goal, sign up and commit, tell the world what you plan to do ... And then, figure out how the heck you are going to do it!


I also finally ordered my SOAS race kit today.  I think I posted it already.  It is funny because it was so fun to actually go through and decide for myself a race outfit.  For the past 7 years, the majority of my racing attire was decided for me.  Last year, due to the fact that Team Aquaphor was late to get on the ground, I had the opportunity to select my own outfits for a couple races.  It was really nice to just wear whatever I wanted, however, my selections were definitely "budget minded".  I wore a clearance sports bra from zoot (which I LOVE by the way) for Boston and Muncie, as well as a TJ Maxx $12 sports bra for Ironman.  Seriously, how many triathletes finish their first Ironman race wearing clothes from TJ Maxx????  What kind of scrappy sponsored athlete am I?  I had full intentions of wearing my Team Aquaphor top for the run, but it was just too stinking hot.  So, this year, I decided that for my birthday, I wanted to pick out my own tri kit.  I passed up the opportunity to buy a new Landshark kit because it was expensive and I didn't love it.  No more buying team kits that are just OK.  No fancy logos, no team affiliations, just something girly that is me.  I can't wait for it to arrive.  I did pay full price for it, but selected the "free" shipping option, so it will take up to 2 weeks to arrive.  I wanted to save the $7 shipping, ha ha.  I'll save where I can still :) (picture via SOASracing.com)

At the same time I bought this crazy expensive tri kit, I also bought some deeply discounted Reebok running shoes.  What???  Reebok for running?  Yes I am a tester, and I fell in LOVE with the smoothflex shoes.  I had been running in a free pair they sent me as compensation, mostly because I was too cheap to replace my other shoes, and they worked.  It was time to replace them, and I tried on a few pairs of shoes at local stores, but nothing seemed as comfortable.  So I went online and tried to find the shoes I had to replace them.  Then I find out they come in BRIGHT PINK, in MY size, and were on SALE!!!  Plus, I can buy them through AAA to get even more of a discount.  Yes, I plan to run my kick butt Derby Marathon in clearance Reeboks, that are super cute and very comfortable.  They also match my CEP socks perfectly.  I am not sure what the weather will be like for the Derby race, so I am not sure that I will wear my tri kit for a marathon.  I mean, I would rather wear running shorts I think for 26.2, I think, and I also will want to wear my trusty pink CEPs, and I think that would be way to much pink, and not really match properly.  I don't know though.  We'll have to see if I pull a Ralphie's pink Easter Bunny disaster for race day or not.  I have less than 6 weeks to go! 

Iceman Entry, RLRF update, and Vitamix!!!

This past week/weekend was pretty exciting.  There are 4 things that can give you an update. 

On Thursday, I was on facebook (which is where I get all my news these days, ha ha, if it isn't being talked about on facebook, then it probably isn't that important, right?), and I realized that the everyone was talking about the Iceman Cometh mountain bike race in northern MI.  I was actually tagged by one of my mountain biking partners (teammates) in crime, Kristel, about doing the race.  I had told a few ladies that I would do it once we moved back to Detroit suburbs because of the drive.  Then, I was poking around a little bit more, and Ryan's very good friend and riding buddy was planning on signing up.  At 9pm on Thursday, roughly 15 hours before the race registration would open, I made a phone call to him.  Was he for sure signing up?  Yes.  Then I was to sign up Ryan and I.  Ryan was easily swayed to do this race since his friend was doing it.  I had been wanting Ryan to do this race for years now, and so I arranged my scheduled for Friday so that I would be home to get us registered.  At noon on Friday, I was online and ready to go.  After a short delay, I was into the website, made a quick call to Kent (Ryan's friend) to make sure I was signing us up for the right classifications, and we were in.  Then, after registration had been open for 30 minutes, it filled up.  BOOM!  I am super stoked.  This has been a bucket list race for me too, and I KNOW that Kent's decision to do it was a huge factor in us doing it.  I am not sure what made Kent decide to do it this year.  He is mostly a road cyclist, and has struggled on the mountain bike.  However, he has a relatively new co-worker, Eric, who races for Mark Allen.  I met him and his wife Mindy at Muncie in 2011 if you want to learn more about them.  Both Eric and Mindy are signed up too.  It is funny that now that I have moved, I actually have two events planned "with" them ("with" is used here loosely, as we will probably say hi at the start and the end, since they are so fast).  I also have several other friends racing too.  Kristel is signed up, as well as Stephanie, both from MI.  All of the above are also signed up for Michigan Mountain Mayhem too.

RLRF plan is going well.  I have been hitting all the workouts for the most part, and they are pushing me for sure.  All the workouts are challenging.  I sometimes miss the nice easy relaxing run workouts, but I am enjoying pushing myself.  I did my first track workout today at the Y, and I really had my pride on the line here.  It helped to push myself to keep going.  I really wanted to stop or slow down today, because I had a 2 mile interval!  It was so hard!!!  I also have a 20 mile run this week at 8:30 pace.  I hit my 18 mile run at this pace, so I really hope I can do it for 20.  I missed my 13 mile run at 8:15 pace by 5 sec/mile, but it was pretty windy.  Hopefully I will have good weather on Thursday when I run so I don't worry about the conditions and can just focus on pace.  I am not used to having to worry so much about pace on the 20 mile runs, but this is all about becoming a faster runner.  This is what I need to do.

I also got a consolation prize from SOAS!  Funny, because I had mentioned to Ryan that I didn't get an email with a coupon from them as part of my rejection.  However, a water bottle in the mail is a fun prize!

Finally, we bought at Vitamix blender!  I may do a full review on it later, but I had to mention it.  It is my new toy for sure.  I have used it every day at least once, if not more.  I am feeling a lot more excited to eat healthy when it is this fun to do, and super easy to clean.  I do need to be careful that I don't get caught up in making the desserts all the time with it, because a lot of them have lots of added sugar/honey in them instead of relying on the sweetness of the fruits.  I do feel like I am feeling a bit better with all the fruits and veggies I am eating.  Soren was super excited.  Unfortunately, he hasn't enjoyed everything I have made as much as I have lately.  It must be the same problem I always have with Costco purchases.  Everything eaten at costco tastes better than eaten at home.