Cupcake Marathon- Day 3, Playing it Safe

I can't decide if I was playing it safe, being lame, or being a wimp today, because it is beautiful outside, and what did I do? I went to the gym and ran inside while the kids played and watched TV. I needed to do 8 per my marathon plan, and it was just too risky to try to have the second stroller run of the year/season be that long. I was going to have to drive out to Brighton and run at either Kensington or Island Lake to get enough path to do that by either going out and back or a loop, and that would have added about an hour to the outing, as well as limit my stretching afterwards, as well as the 10 minute ab routine and shower that I can do at the gym. I need to build up to 8 with them, after doing several 3-4 mile runs, as well as some 5s and 6s first. I also don't want to kill myself, since I am supposed to be starting my taper, and running at either Kensington or Island Lake would be a bit more challenging from a terrain standpoint than my typical neighborhood run with them.

Here are the stats from today: The treadmills automatically switch into "cool down mode" at 1 hour, so I need to stop it and reset it at an hour.

AND:

I know those are hard to read. The total is 8 miles, 1:07:55, total avg pace, 8:29min/miles.
The gym underwent management changes in the fall, and moved all the treadmills from an upstairs balcony that overlooked the floor to the front windows. I am not sure that I am loving the change, especially today. It was incredibly hot with the sun blaring down on the windows, and it just made me wish I was outside more. Also, there is NO people watching since you are facing out. I understand from a safety consideration that they can't be turned the other way because you don't want to risk falling off backwards into a window, but boy will I be glad when I can just run outside full time. Maybe they will move a few once it gets really hot in the summer.

I did see one funny thing today. While I was doing my abs (which is super short, only about 10 minutes, but rather intense), I saw a guy get on the elliptical, but then get off again, all within a couple of minutes. He must have noticed that I saw him get on and then off again, because he just starting shaking his head as he walked to the locker room. At least he recognized that about 2 minutes of elliptical weren't doing much good. Everyone has a bad day now and again, and I admit, anyone who was at the gym on a nice day like today (including myself) probably wasn't quite right in the head. I did get some vitamin D today once we got home by playing tag and making chalk art with the kids. Hopefully we can get out the bikes after nap time!

Finally, I added a few things to my blog in the last few days. Not sure if anyone has noticed or not.
1. Daily mile accomplishment sticker, 13.1. For some reason, I felt guilty about adding the 26.2 sticker since I haven't done a marathon since 2007, and especially not since I started blogging. I haven't RACED an 13.1 either since I started this site, but have run the distance. However, since I consider this blog a continuation of my Compex blog, and I did run 2 half marathons that I blogged about last year, I didn't feel bad about it. I figure I can wait another couple weeks to add the 26.2, even though an actual one is on my car and fridge right now.
2. I added a button to link to the Live Like Andi Foundation. Their entry is really down (I need to hurry up and enter too), and they really would rather pre-registered runners than race day registrations. It is a great run on May 14th, 2011, in Novi, MI. This will be their 4th year, and I have run in all of them so far. They offer a 10 mile, 10K, and 5K run, 5K walk, and a fashion walk. Please check it out and show your support! In the past, as well as being a great cause, they have had a great shirt too! Last year, I did the 10K, and the year before I did the 5K with the kids (see picture at top), and the first year, I did the 5K while pregnant. It is a family friendly stroller friendly race.

Cupcake Marathon Day 2- Jogging Stroller Run

I was able to run outside today with the kids in the jogger! Yea! Finally, since I have started this site, I am able to write about running with the kids in the stroller. Since Wednesdays are usually my run for time day at the gym, and I had to skip that class today due to volunteering at Keira's school, I was happy to be able to just run the "usual" neighborhood loop. When Keira and Soren asked what we were doing today, I told them a stroller ride. It was met with mixed reviews. Soren was excited, Keira was not. We had been discussing McD's drive thru as a possibility, so I told Keira that if there was no run, there would be no McD's. This was risky, because rule #1 of running in the stroller is that everyone needs to be either fed first or eating in the stroller, because hungry kiddos make for big complainers. I got them their food on the way home, including a Shamrock Shake for me. Yum, my once annual treat, and since today was "Green Day" at school since Keira doesn't go on Thursdays, we celebrated St Patrick's day today, essentially. So, I have now eaten a shamrock shake, a few bites of apples, and 2 McNuggets (Soren was working on his version of Jack Black's McSurf and Turf Delux, eating half a cheeseburger and half a carton of nuggets, while I am doing my best to resist the double filet o fish sandwiches. I have not had one yet this year). Usually I just eat the apples and the diet coke from one meal, and the kids split the fries and chocolate milk from the other, and I make a salad at home. Soren at the apples today, though, and only gave me two, so I ate two of the nuggets since Keira just eats the fries. This is such the lunch of champions (NOT!!) Today is going to be a calories in less than calories out day, which means when I eat junk like that, I just have to cut other calories elsewhere. I usually don't gain weight that way, I just feel cruddy.

Back to the running. We were all fed (?) and I loaded everyone up with their blankets and toys. Wouldn't you know it but as soon as I turned on my Garmin the battery died? Seriously. We had an issue last night setting up my new bike because we couldn't find the tire circumference anywhere for my 650x25 tires, and it sat on for a while not being used. Eventually, we just measured it with a tape measure for last night, but we can let it calculate it once I get outdoors. I am not sure if the stiff, slippery, metal English tape measure I used and converted to metric is more or less accurate than Garmin's satellites or not. Of course I was trying to get data from it for my Cupcake Marathon, but I only needed 1.2 miles of data, and I know my loop, so I just timed it with my Timex. If I have to make it up next week, whatever. We did our 3.4 miles in 27:50. I must say I was very pleased with this time, especially since it was a bit windy and I had eaten the most stellar meal prior to it. This is way better than last year, but I was trying to run fast instead of leisurely, since this is a race and all, and I was technically shorting myself 1.6 miles from the plan. I had always justified that being OK with my cross training, but I didn't do that today. 5 seemed too long for the kids' first time out, and it would require an additional loop of the lake. I am going with 9:49 for my 1.2 for the Cupcake Marathon, based on my average pace for the run. Hopefully I won't have to take a picture of my car odometer, but I can find a run just like it (just not as fast) from last year with the same distance.

Tomorrow has 8 miles on the schedule. I am torn. That is quite a long time to have the kids in the stroller as their second ride of the year. I feel like they need to be "broken in" gradually, and build up to an 8 mile run. Also, there isn't a good 8 mile course that I can do here without looping, which makes the kids nuts. They can't stand repeating mileage, and they know where "home" is, so when I go around again, they go crazy. I could drive them out to Kensington, but that would be pretty hilly and also we can't go swimming afterwards (which was always the reward last summer for going all the way around). Island Lake is a possibility, because we can run out 4 and turn around, but there is no playground for reward. So, it may be that I run indoors tomorrow, with my tunes and my childcare included with the gym membership, and a shower afterwards. Decisions, decisions!

Cupcake Marathon Day 1

Well, today is technically day 2 of the Cupcake Marathon, but it is Day 1 for me. Mondays are a planned day off from running, but I also took the day off from the bike (unplanned) due to being tired and I went to bed really early for me instead. I am going to make it up tonight, I hope. I kicked off the Cupcake Marathon with a speed workout that was courtesy of Dave Peterson. I couldn't swing the workout with the group, but I did 4x800s followed by 4x400s, and did enough warm up/cool down/rest between sets to get to a total of 5 miles for the day. Per the "rules" of the marathon, I am to document the mileage via photographs and spreadsheets. I really had a hard time getting a decent photo of the treadmill. I either had horrible glare or the reflection of myself. If you click on the picture, it will get bigger and easier to read, but it says 5 miles in 40:56. Sprints were done at 7:08 pace.

Also, they wanted a photograph of me in the race bib. I wished my TIA shirt was clean, and will take another picture in that later this week.

The plan for the Cupcake Marathon (for me) is the following:
3/15 - 5 miles - speed workout, plus indoor trainer ride
3/16- 1.2-3.4 miles - hopefully outside! I will miss my morning gym workout due to another commitment
3/17- 8 miles- long weekday run, probably inside, although the weather forecast is excellent. If it is outside, it will be a stroller run, perhaps an indoor trainer ride too
3/18- no running, 1.2 miles of swimming
3/19- 12 miles at Kensington
That should do it for me, and with a full week left. Tomorrow would normally be my indoor brick workout where I run sprints and just make up a distance based on the time, but since I have to miss it, I will just be doing a "normal" run outside. I haven't decided if I will stop at 1.2 to take a picture or just do my usual loop of 3.4 and hit my lap reset at 2.2 to get a decent time for that 1.2 miles that need to be accounted for.

Taper Time!

I am feeling pretty good! I made it through my marathon training (for the most part). I did ALL my long runs this year (Christmas day was the only day that I missed), regardless of the weather. A big Thank You goes out to Cristina, who would not let me quit no matter what the weather was doing. We lucked out this past weekend, and had a great 20 miler. While we missed out on the sunshine of the morning, we did stay dry in the afternoon. We finished up our run in 2:47:24, thanks to Monica who joined us for the middle 6. She was running late, and in a hurry to get home, so we pushed the pace. While I felt ready to be done at 20, I did ask myself mentally if I could do another 10k today. Probably not, but I just felt tired going into the run. I had a big cross training week, and I also was pretty congested. It is awesome to feel myself getting stronger. I felt so much better after this 20 miler than the last, and that one was better than the first. Here is the progression of what I was capable of doing after my 20 mile runs (after a long hot shower, of course)
1st- wanted to crash and didn't leave the house at all that evening, ordered pizza and made Ryan get it.
2nd- didn't want to go anywhere, but didn't want to be a party pooper so I put on makeup and went out to dinner with the family with wet head; Ryan took lead on kid wrangling
3rd- Ryan needed to work on a church talk so I did my makeup & BLEW OUT MY HAIR (this happens maybe 3-4x/month) to take both kids to Pei Wei to bring back take out for us.
Now, I can just enjoy my taper, and hopefully get rested and healthy. I feel really ready for anything with all this crazy weather I trained in. I am glad I have the Cupcake Marathon starting tomorrow to give me something to work on while I taper. It is 26.2 miles total between March 14-28th.

In case you need some extra motivation

Rick and Dick Hoyt are by far my most inspirational athletes. I loved the book, "It's Only A Mountain" by Sam Nall which tells their story.

Cupcake Marathon 2011

For those of you who know me well, it should be no surprise that I am doing a Cupcake Marathon. I have a wicked addiction to baked goods, cake in particular. The photo above is of cupcakes I made last year to celebrate my "Birthday Big Brick" workout, which was an Olympic distance bike/run group training ride/run. Thanks to Kim (Just Trying is for Little Girls) for posting it on her blog, I am now signed up. It is a virtual race, where you can do either a full or half marathon over the course of 2 weeks, starting March 14th and ending March 26th. You do not need to run the whole thing at once. Check out the link here for information on how to get signed up. All participants will receive cupcake recipes, and they are giving away real cupcakes and cookies to the winners of the half and full. The best part is that the winners are chosen by random, so don't think you can't win this one! The nice thing is that the purpose of this race is to help people prepare for their spring marathons, so that fact that it won't be requiring any extra miles on my part is not cheating at all. All I (or you) need to do is track my mileage on their spreadsheet and take photos of the treadmill and Garmin screens as proof, plus take a photo wearing their cute race bib:

My spring marathon on April 2nd fits in perfectly with the timing and it should make my taper a lot more fun. I am curious to see if my total time will be faster or slower than my actual race. I am personally expecting it to be slower than race day, as I have some hills, intervals, and some easy runs scheduled for those two weeks as part of my taper. I miss being able to count my final 20 miler as part of the event by a couple days, but that should hopefully speed things up a tad. I do expect it to be faster than my most recent marathon in 2007, though.

Please let me know via comments if you decide to do this! I hope you do.

ABCs of Me

It seems like everyone is doing their ABCs. I first saw it at Just Trying is for Little Girls, but other blogger friends, Meredith, Colleen, and Leah have done it as well. Here are mine:

(A) Age: 33 for running, but I am already considered 34 for tris. Had to think really hard when I filled out my most recent race application, as it is just a few weeks before my birthday.
(B) Bed Size: Queen.
(C) Chore You Hate: Cleaning the bathrooms, but if you saw my house, you could assume all of them!
(D) Dogs? None, Ryan is allergic.
(E) Essential Start Your Day Item: Breakfast, I am pretty grumpy before I eat. Last year I drank a glass of chocolate milk, but since I have started avoiding dairy, it is now oatmeal.
(F) Favorite Color: Purple
(G) Gold or Silver? White Gold.
(H) Height: 5 ft 2 in,
(I) Instruments You Play: I used to play the piano and violin, but can’t do either anymore
(J) Job Title: Currently a Stay at Home Mom, but formerly a Product Design Engineer for Ford Motor Co
(K) Kids: Keira is 4, Soren is 2
(L) Live: Michigan, Detroit Suburbs
(M) Mom's Name: Miriam.
(N) Nicknames: Mel, Bones, M1
(O) Overnight Hospital Stays? One for each child, plus one when I was a child having a cyst removed
(P) Pet Peeve: Using the word "orientated" instead of "oriented"
(Q) Quote from a Movie: "Whoever said that orange is the new pink must have been seriously disturbed" Legally Blonde
(R) Right or Left Handed? Right, but left handed in gymnastics and my left arm seems to have gotten stronger lately because I always carry children on that side to be able to use my right hand to multi-task.
(S) Siblings: 1 Sister and 1 Brother
(T) Time You Wake Up? Until Keira and Soren wake me up, usually a bit after 7am
(U) Underwear: For running, Body by Victoria, for tris, commando (or bathing suit) I am an endowed member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
(V) Vegetable You Dislike: Zucchini, unless it in baked in a bread
(W) What Makes You Run Late: trying to do too much before leaving or expecting my children to do more for themselves to get out the door than they are capable. Changing a poopy diaper also makes me late from time to time.
(X) X-Rays You've Had Done: Lots, both ankles many times, elbow, hip, back
(Y) Yummy Food You Make: I love to bake, and love the Levain Bakery copycat recipe for their chocolate peanut butter chip cookies.

(Z) Zoo, Favorite Animal: Ginormous bats at the Columbus Zoo.