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!

Back in the ole running shoes

Today was my first day back after taking two weeks off. Here's why I was off the pavement for the past two weeks: one week of camp (I totally took my stuff to run, but it didn't happen...go figure), and one week of a mission trip (of which I didn't even take my stuff b/c I KNEW that wasn't going to happen).

So today I made it to the gym with my shoes and a prayer that I could make it my base of three miles. I made it the three miles, but I had to walk some of it. I could tell that my legs have not moved like that in a while. They just felt a little funny underneath me and they were definitely tired by the end of the run. This week I'm just trying to get my legs back and then next week it'll be back on schedule. Well a couple weeks back than where I ended, but I've gotta start back somewhere!

Here's to hoping these dern legs get moving the right way. HONK!

Another on the record books!

The Peachtree Road Race got OWNED by us! Well, not entirely - we did share the road with 55,00 other people. :) I enjoyed the whole experience, even though I still had the chest cold issue. My time was pretty slow, but that just comes from being sick and not getting enough runs in prior to the race. The good part is that I was on pace for the first 3 miles, but then I totally walked up the hills in mile 4 & 5 haha. A bonus is that my chest didn't really bother me until the end and then I thought it was going to explode because it was so tight and whatnot. But it didn't. So that's positive. :) I really enjoyed the atmosphere and I'm excited to do it again next year. :) But without the chest cold. I'm proud of all of us for finishing though - shout outs to Matt, Sarah, Tiffany, Mitch, and Savannah! :)

I've still got the chest cold going on, but it's getting better I think. I hope. I ran today for the first time since the race, and it went really well. I went to the gym to get on the treadmill so that I could regulate my pace better. I wanted to go 3 miles to just get my legs back under me and to ease back into the training. I went a little slow, but that's okay because I got it done. :) And really that's all I wanted - I just wanted to make sure I still had "it" even though I haven't been able to run a lot lately. I ended up upping the speed toward the end just to get my legs really moving and to kinda train my body that by the end of any run or race, I'm probably gonna want to pass out and be done with the whole thing, but I've gotta keep going and push through. I'm pretty proud of that part haha. Thankfully my legs didn't give out and I didn't fall off the treadmill. That coulda been bad. But kinda funny. Hah.

Anyway, hope everyone stays hydrated while running out there in this crazy Georgia heat! HONK!

It's almost here!

The Peachtree Road Race is only one day away! I'm pretty excited about it. I got my number today at the expo with Matt & Amanda. The expo was pretty cool - I liked looking at all the fun stuff people put up. Plus there was even a Waffle House booth with tech shirts that said "I'm running so I can go eat at Waffle House" or something along those lines haha. But it was cool to just walk around for a bit and get all excited. :)

The downside is that I've been sick with a chest cold/congestion ickiness since Sunday afternoon. Which means I didn't run the first part of this week. Which wasn't what I was planning at all. Thankfully I did get the chance to run on Wednesday. Today I just went to the gym and got on a bike for a little bit. Just wanted to get the legs moving at least. I'm pretty much banking on the fact that the first three miles are downhill so that my time won't be too bad haha. And hopefully it's not gonna be crazy hot when Sarah and I start at 8:51, unlike Matt, that lucky dog, who's starting at 8:05. Let's especially hope the weather is cooperative when Tiffany starts at 9:00! Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! :)

So here's until after the Peachtree -HONK!