I promise to be good

Yes, I have been a bad little blogger. Life is crazy, but I have been running. I just haven't been writing about it.

Today I ran 5 miles, my farthest distance ever. It was a great run and 5 hours later I still feel great. The knees hurt a lttle bit, but I think I just need to get off my bum and walk around more. I know that getting into longer distances is going to require some help. So I emailed a local running club about having a test run with them and I hope to hear back from them soon.

It has been a little harder getting out to run lately. I am an outside runner. I am not a fan of the treadmill. It gets dark so early now though so I really have no choice, thankfully I can do my long runs outside. I really don't think I could have run 5 miles on a treadmill. It would have been dreadful.

Also, my brother encouraged me to join athlinks.com. Have any of you joined? The site keeps track of all the races you have run and you can track friends and even rivals. I look forward to more races being entered on my page. I only have 3 races right now. If any of you join and want to be friends on the site just let me know.

Ok, well I should get moving now before my legs fall asleep. I promise to be good about writing more. No more bad blogger for me.

Kids and Running

Last weekend I ran in the Hot Chocolate 5k. I did pretty decent for having a bad cold. 33:44, faster than my last 5k.

What bugged me though was when I was looking at the results. Now first let me say I have no problem with older kids running. I think its a great family thing you can do together as long as you are not having your kid run a marathon. My problem was the results for the 5 year old girl. Come on, she is still a little girl! My four year old loves to "run" with Mommy. She usually runs a few blocks and then she is ready to sit in the jogging stroller. I can't imagine her running 3 miles. Maybe I am just picky, but I think 5 is too young for a race. (Especially when it costs $40).


Tomorrow is the Girls on the Run 5K. I am super excited and can't wait to help someone finish their goal. I know it will be fun, just really cold. Hopefully it doesn't snow.

Running and Coughing

My dreaded October cough is here. You can set your clock to it, every October and March I get the worse cough ever!! I get huge coughing fits and I can't sleep at night because all I am doing is coughing.

I am especially sad about it this year because tomorrow I run the Hot Chocolate 5k. Thankfully I only signed up for the 5k, I almost did the 15k. The race is in Chicago, so my daughter and I are taking the train in to spend the night at my sisters condo. She is running it with me. I have given up on getting a PR for this race. My sister has a goal of 45 minutes so I will probably just run/walk with her. I haven't run in a week and I am soooooo tired. Hopefully all the chocolate at the end of the race will make my cough go away. I am also glad that the weather will be nice. The weather should be in the 50's.

Any advice on getting rid of this cough would be greatly appreciated!!

I've been tagged

Thanks for tagging me Jenn. Can I ignore it? :)

10 Years ago (1998)
1. Still in college at St. Ambrose University
2. Met my husband Ben at college
3. Was too lazy to accomplish anything.

5 Things on Today's to do list
1. Get Trinity to preschool on time
2. Prepare projects for todays after school open house
3. Make dinner before I go to work.
4. Call Mom
5. Clean off the kitchen table. (Might as well put that on tomorrow's list as well)

5 Things I would do if I were a millionare
1. Hire a maid!!!!
2. Buy a vacation home in Hawaii
3. Travel to Europe
4. Hire a driver.
5. Sleep in!

Places I have lived
1. Aurora, IL
2. Davenport, IA
3. Crystal Lake, IL (3 different places)

Jobs I have had
1. Target
2. Petsmart - cashier
3. USI - account representative
4. Marquardt Eng. - Office Manager
5. Cary Park District - Site Coordinator for ET Program

Running In My Head

Lately I have been thinking of nothing but running. I am constantly thinking of training and planning when I should go and run. I am running tonight and I am ansty. It can't come soon enough. I found a 20 week plan to start training for a half marathon in March. I will start the last week of October.

The March madness Half Marathon is a hilly course in Cary, IL. The running club that puts it on begins training runs on the route in March. I am thinking about joining so I can get used to the hills. After that race I will begin my mileage for the marathon next year. I still can't believe I have a greed to do the race. Part of me is scared, but I am also excited. I hope that I can make it.

Fundraiser Widget

I can't understand why my goal widget for my breast cancer walk says zero. I did raise some money. It makes me look like a bad fundraiser. :(

Marathon Fun

Yesterday I went in to Chicago to watch my brother run the marathon. What a crazy day it was. It was hot again, but thankfully not as humid as last year and I think the city was a little more prepared. I still think they should start earlier, but next year it may be really cold and I will probably say it should start later.

My brother did well. He was feeling a little under the weather and finished in 4:22, still faster than last year. We chased him around the city and actually saw him once. It was exciting to see thousands of runners and it made me want to be a part of them. I promised my brother I would run next year. I think I am going to have to join a running club though, otherwise I will never be able to get through long runs, plus I have no idea how to train for a marathon so a club will help me with that too.

I signed up for the hot chocolate 5k on November 2 in Chicago. The post race party is sponsored by Hershey's, nuff said. :) ha ha They also have a 15k that day. www.hotchocolate15k.com

Have a happy Monday and keep on running!!!!

Awesome Cross Training

Does dancing at a New Kids on the Block concert for two hours count as cross training? I am sure I lost many calories last night oh, and my voice too. I want to have Joey's babies. :) Ha ha

The New Kids totally rocked last night!

Dissapointed

Wow, I am so dissapointed in myself. I have been a terrible runner. I didn't run for two and a half weeks, plain laziness. I ran Thursday for the first time and I could only go 1.5 miles. I was planning on doing a 10k on October 26th and I am in no way ready.

My running brother sent my daughter one of those blow up #1 fingers so she can cheer me on at my races. It made me feel guilty and that is why I ran on Thursday. He will be in town next weekend for the Chicago Marathon. I am jealous, I wish I could run with him, but I need more training. Maybe I could run next year with him. I know I need to set a goal and maybe if he holds me accountable I will keep up with the running. I am just so good with excuses.

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk

In October I am particpating in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk. I am hoping to raise $2000.00. I hope that I can make it to that goal. So far I have $10!!! If you could help out that would be great, I posted a link to the donation site. If you wanted you could also follow the link to find a walk near you to participate in. Together we can fight Breast Cancer. Hope starts with Us!!!

Sunset 5K

Yeah, I finished the race. I ran with C for about 2.5 miles and then she told me to go and finish. She was struggling a bit and didn't want to slow me down. I was able to run strong at the end because we took most of the race slow and we even took a pit stop at a friends house for some water and pictures. I finished in 34:41!! C finished at 37:18.

I didn't realize how much fun a race would be. The excitement of all the other runners and just being around all of those people who love to do what you do. I look forward to another race.

I am thinking about a 10k in October, but I know I will need a running partner. C doesn't plan on running longer distances than what she already has. So I will need to find someone else. On Saturday mornings the local running store has a running club, but I admit I am nervous about going. Its intimidating to me. I will probably call the store first to get more info and then decide what to do. I know I need the motivation from other people to keep myself going. It is hard by myself.

Its Race Day!

I am super excited tonight is my first race! Its a little warm today so I have been drinking water and plan on drinking some gatorade about an hour before the race. I can't wait to run. I have missed it the past two days. This day has been dragging on and on.

I have had some upper calf pain today in my right leg. It feels tight. I am not quite sure what to do to fix it. I am sure I can get my husband to rub it for me when he gets home from work. I don't think it will effect my race, but I am searching the internet for ideas on what to do. What do you do for calf pain?

The Race is Upon Us

Ok, so I have been bad at blogging. I have been busy trying to train and enjoy my kids before the first day of school, which is today. So the crazy race of life has started today and on Friday is my first 5K. I am looking forward to it. I am guessing my time will be around 35 minutes. I think that is pretty good for a first timer. I didn't get the chance to run yesterday until late, so I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill. I went 2.99 miles in 33 minutes. I didn't want to go the whole 3.1 miles, because I am saving that for the race.

I am taking two days of rest and then I will be super fast on Friday. Wish me luck!

I ran a Marathon

I have been keeping track of my runs and realized that since April I have run 27.3 miles. I can officially say I ran a marathon right? It only took about 10 weeks. :) Ha ha

7 Minute Run

So, the begining of the week started out slow. I had no running buddy, C is on vacation. I found an excuse to get out of my Monday run. I was so tired so I said I couldn't run because my running gear was dirty. I do have other things I can wear, but I was lazy that day. I decided to run Tuesday instead, but of course I didn't.
Wednesday I had to run. I spent the day at my Mom's and on the car ride home (a one hour drive) we got hit by a nasty storm. It was pitch black in the middle of the afternoon. The rain was coming down very hard and we got pelted with one inch hail. I was waiting for the windows to break as my two girls screamed in the back of the car. We were about 15 minutes from home and it was the longest ride ever. My nerves were so rattled and I needed to let go of all the stress. It is hard to be strong for your kids when you are as nervous as they are. I went to the gym to run on the treadmill and it was my best workout yet. I felt great when I was done and I thought I could run another half hour more. Of course on the way home from the gym I got hit by another strong storm, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the first one.

Friday I ran around the neighborhood. There is a park in our neighborhood that I always tell myself I should bring the girls to, but I never had the motivation to run there. I always thought it was too far. Well, I decided to run that direction and guess what. I ended my 7 minutes at the park. I couldn't believe how close it was. I realized that I need to just stop worrying about how far something is and just do it. In the end I know I will always be surprised.
The joy of reaching the park though quickly diminished though as I started to feel fatigued. I had to really slow down and just take my time. My head was spinning by the time I got home from my run. I couldn't get in the cold shower fast enough. I don't think I drank enough before I ran and it really effected my workout. I have been drinking water all day today so it doesn't effect tonights run.

On Monday C will be back in town. Yeah!!! I hate running by myself.

Training Has Started

So, I finally decided to get serious about this running thing. Before I would sporadically go out for runs, but I found myself a running partner and now I go more regularly because I have someone else counting on me. We have been running for about three weeks now and I must admit I love how it feels after a run.

My running partner, I will call her C, hasn't run in FOREVER so we have to go slow. I found a great run/walk program and convinced her to do a 5K with me. C isn't adjust to well, she is sore alot, but I am proud of her because she keeps on plugging away. Next week she is on vacation so I am crossing my fingers that she will go out for her runs. I convinced my husband to go on my runs with me next week. We will be out for our first run tomorrow. I hope he can run five minutes straight.

Tomorrow is run 5 minutes, walk 2.5 minutes, times 4. Next week is run 7 minutes, walk 3 times 3. We will see how it goes.