And she's off!

I must make a confession. I didn't go on my long run on Saturday. Oops. I did kinda have a reason - I didn't have anything clean to wear haha. I think there's also a part of me that's just a tad worried about the long runs and how they'll go. But I'm staying positive about the whole thing. Let's just hope that I can get a long one knocked out this week before I go to New York for the weekend.

Now on to today's run. I didn't run yesterday because my knee was pretty sore after frisbee on Sunday. Today it was just fine, which was a bonus. The downside is that I had a bout of shin splints, especially toward the end. The other is that I definitely started faster than I should have. Which then resulted in having to alternate walking and running the last mile and a half. But I'm glad to know that I can go faster. :) I really do want to get my time down, even if just a whole minute. :)

So here's to hoping my time will get better and that I'll get a long run in this week! HONK!

I am not alone, dang it!

Today I was going for 4 miles. I wasn't sure how it was going to be, but I went into the gym pretty determined. Once again I listened to the lovely Mumford and Sons, which was perfectly fine with me. :) And once again, another song just punched me in the gut with the lyric "you are not alone" which definitely put me in a better mood. It really hit that I'm not alone in this whole process, and haven't been since day 1. Which, of course, I've known, but at that moment in my run I was really wondering if I was going to make it the whole 4 miles. But knowing that I had this whole support system with ya'll totally helped. So yeah, once again gotta love the power of music. :)

Like I said, I was struggling to get the miles done. I was fine the first mile, mile and a half, but once I got to the 2 mile mark, the struggle began. Then I just had to turn the thinking around and know that once I got to mile 3, I was home free. And this is when the lyric popped out and totally helped me out. :) Funny how things work out that way. :) The other part is that I've been bumping up the speed these last couple of runs. It's not a lot, but it's something! And then the last mile I bump it up even more. I think this comes from both the desire to be faster as well as the desire to be done already. And the latter probably outweighs the former just a bit.....or more.

I was wondering how my legs would do today since I went climbing last night. And then tonight I played ultimate frisbee. So there was a bet going on in my head how long my legs, more specifically my knees, would hold out. But surprisingly they worked out pretty well. I was happy with how I didn't really have any pain or anything. So yay!

Tomorrow is 3 miler and Saturday I'm going to try to conquer 7 miles. I want to find a track somewhere around here, like at a school or something so that I don't have to drive all the way to Piedmont Park crazy early in the morning. I'll go scope out some schools tomorrow. :)

Here's to hoping for Saturday's run to go well! HONK!

Awake My Soul

I bought new music this weekend, which is awesome because I love new music, and what's even better is that it's a great album to run to. Of which I totally did today. Who is this new awesome group? It happens to be Mumford and Sons. I had it on shuffle but made a point to play "Awake My Soul" first. The song starts out nice and slow and then speeds up toward the end, which is nice to warm up to. :) The song is about heartbreak essentially, but some of the lyrics are just really awesome: "now my heart stumbles on things I don't know/my weakness I feel I must finally show" and "in these bodies we will live/in these bodies we will die/where you invest your love/you invest your life" with the chorus just repeating "awake my soul," which is a nice way to start off a run haha. Anyway, it was a really good start to my run - and I highly recommend looking up Mumford and Sons. They're pretty awesome. :)

I was determined to go three miles today. If you've been keeping up with our trials and tribulations lately, 3 miles has been the feat to conquer for the moment. I went to the gym determined to make that happen. And thank goodness I did! What this means for me is that I'm ready to pick up the training again. Yay! So I think this week my long run will be 7 miles. That won't put me back too far so that I can be ready for the marathon in time. :)

Tomorrow I'm planning on going 4 miles. Let's hope I didn't kill off my legs too badly between playing frisbee and the 3 miles today. Yay for getting back on track! HONK!

One Year

I have to say it has been a wild year. But probably the best year of my life. A lot crappy has gone on for me this year but between having a child and the amazing camaraderie and friendship we built through this shared experience, this year will certainly rank towards the top for many years to come.

I have to thank the two of you for keeping me going. Your friendship pulled me through some tough spots this year and your encouragement has kept me running (although this last month has been kinda rough for me running wise). From the Candlelight run in the essentially dark, to the River Run, to the Rose City Run to the Peachtree Road race. You guys have been with me the whole way and all those races have been some of the best experiences of my life.

I'm going to buckle down and get to it this year, I'm going to beat my times in all those races and set new times in new races and with ya'lls help I have no doubt I can do it. Thank you guys so much.

HONK!

Matt

It's been a whole year!

Happy Running Anniversary to us! We've been on this journey for a whole year, as of July 31st, at least. :) I'm really glad we started this whole shindig - I know that I wouldn't have been able to do this without the encouragement from both Matt and Liz. It's been quite the ride (run?) and hopefully we'll keep it up. :)

Well, the two weeks off from running was quite detrimental to my running. Which is totally sad. But the little running I put in last week definitely helped my run yesterday. I ran 2 miles straight yesterday, which is an improvemnt from last week, which included walking with the run. Hopefully next week I'll be able to get back on track with my training for the marathon. This week I'll just be building back up to the three miles that I used to be able to do. The hard part now will be keeping up with the training and making sure that I'm ready for the marathon. This can't be like other races we've done where I'm only partly ready for the race. This is the big one - I have to be as prepared as possible in order to finish in time and injury free. So I'll definitely be needing all the encouragement possible over these next few months. But I know I can count on y'all for that! :)

Here's to another year of running and getting our bodies into shape! Much love friends - HONK!