Early morning run, and five days of giveaways

Last night, the kids stayed the night at my parents' house, and Jerry had to work all night, so I had a pretty quiet night to myself. I went to a couple of stores looking for the Wii EA Sports Active "More Workouts" game, but it's an old game, and I couldn't find it anywhere. I want to do another strength training challenge, and I loved doing the EA Sports Active 30-Day Challenge a couple of years ago.

I have a couple of other games--The Biggest Loser and Nike + Kinect game, but I don't like those ones. Even though the EA Sports Active game is old school, I really like it! I just wanted to get the "More Workouts" version to add some variety. I'm going to order it on Amazon.

When I got home, I ended up putting my pajamas on super early. I made some tea and sat outside on the front porch, just enjoying the weather.

I had gotten in a shipment of David's Tea--I ordered three new flavors: Cotton Candy (rooibos), Root Beer Float (black), and Caramel Corn (herbal). I made the Caramel Corn last night, and it was decent, but I don't think I'd order it again. This morning, I tried the other two. I hated the Root Beer Float, and the Cotton Candy was pretty good.

Jerry got off work early this morning, so we made plans to meet up at a park for a run. It was the park with the infamous hill that I wrote about before, where I chose to crash in the grass on my rollerblades instead of flying into the river ;)

It was humid this morning, but not too hot, so it wasn't bad. I love the park that we went to!

I wish the path around the park was long enough to run, but it's only about 3/4 of a mile around, so we started there and then ran the connecting path toward the Metropark. I told Jerry that it was either two or three miles to reach the Metropark, I wasn't sure which; so we decided to just run the length of it and turn around at the Metropark.

During the first mile, I felt so stiff! I'm not sure why my body has felt so stiff lately when I run, but I still felt like we were running around a 10:00/mi pace, maybe a little faster. When I heard my Garmin beep at one mile, it said 11:00/mi. I was shocked--even on my easiest runs, my pace is faster than that. We obviously weren't trying to run fast, but I was surprised that it felt kind of difficult at that pace.

Anyway, we reached the Metropark at mile 2.1, so we turned around, deciding on a 4-miler. My legs really started to loosen up at mile three. Mile three seems to be the magic number for me! I tend to feel really stiff and clumsy for the first couple of miles, and then I loosen up. When we hit mile four, we stopped the Garmin and just walked the short distance to the car, enjoying the scenery. The park is kind of far from home, otherwise I'd run it more often!

I really like that Jerry has been running with me sometimes. I feel like I'm getting spoiled, running with Jerry, Nathan, Jessica, Stephanie, and anyone else I can recruit. I enjoy running so much more when I run with a partner; I'm always bummed when I run alone now ;)

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I have a pretty awesome giveaway today! When I went to the Runner's World Half & Festival last month, I was given some sample products to try out. Some of the things I really like, and I decided to put together five days of giveaways (giving away a different item each day for five days).

First up? Shoes! There was a New Balance rep at the Festival to show us a new shoe line, the FreshFoam 980 Trail Runners.

They sent us bloggers a pair in the mail to try out for ourselves, which was so generous! Admittedly, I've never run on a trail before, but I am excited to try it, and testing out the shoes makes it even more fun. The first pair of the Trail Runners I received, even though they were my size on the label, fit much too small. New Balance sent me a size larger, and told me to give the others away on my blog!

The shoes are the ones pictured above--women's size 9.5. Now, in my normal street shoes, I wear an 8.5. My Brooks Adrenaline running shoes are a 9.5 wide. These shoes are a 9.5, but my toe was hitting the front of the shoe, and the toe box was too small for me, so I ended up with a 10.5. So, if you want to enter the giveaway, it's just something to keep in mind when deciding whether it's the right size for you.

To enter to win the shoes, just fill out your name and email address below. I'll select a winner by random drawing on 7/14/14 at 9:00 AM EST.



I have some other great stuff to give away, so check back over the next four days for that :)

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Getting back into old habits

Yesterday's get-together ended up being so much fun! I think we need to have people over more often, if only to get motivated to clean our house ;)  Jerry did most of the outside work, and I cleaned the inside, and it was good to go.

For being a last-minute plan, everything came together well, and I think everyone had a good time. It was SO nice outside. Not at all humid, and the temp was in the 70's. We sat outside, under the tree, and I kept looking up at the sky because it was so pretty.

We had dinner (beer brats and chicken sausages, cheesy potatoes, coleslaw, and a couple of salads). Then we built a fire in the backyard and sat around chatting while the kids went through about 10 boxes of sparklers ;)

I didn't get to bed until nearly 1:00, which is MUCH later than I'm used to staying up. But it was a very fun evening!

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Contrary to what the title of this post may make you think, I'm not talking about getting back into my old BAD habits; but rather, getting back into my old habits that I formed when I was losing weight. I've realized over the past few years of maintenance, that I've slowly started to drop some of the good habits I picked up when I was in weight loss mode.

A few examples: I've started using white rice again instead of brown; I've been eating white English muffins instead of the low calorie whole grain ones; I've been eating premium ice cream instead of light ice cream or frozen yogurt; I've been going out to eat a lot, and I harder ever ate out when I was losing weight. Stuff like that! It seems so small in the moment, but when added up, it's probably making it much harder for me to lose this 15 pounds I've put back on.

When I was losing weight, my tastes changed a lot. In the beginning, I would put two whole tablespoons of brown sugar in my oatmeal, because that was the only way to make it palatable to me! As I lost weight, I cut back on the sugar, and after a year or so, I was able to sweeten my oatmeal with just a banana or a teaspoon of maple syrup.

Oatmeal with one teaspoon of sugar... I used to use six times
that much sugar when I first started losing weight.

I remember a specific time (two months after I started losing weight) that I made warm cinnamon apples in the crock pot, and I followed the recipe as written, which included 2/3 cup brown sugar. The apples were delicious! I thought they were perfect. Then, a year later, I made them again--and I couldn't even eat them, because I thought they were way too sweet. I cut the sugar in half the next time, and it was much better, but still on the sweet side.

I used to work at Lonestar, a steakhouse, in college--and one of the side dishes they serve is a baked sweet potato with butter and cinnamon sugar. I used to order them and pile on the cinnamon sugar, completely coating the entire thing. I avoided eating sweet potatoes much when I was losing weight, because I knew I couldn't afford to use heaps of sugar on it, and they just didn't taste good plain. One day, I decided to try one with just a small amount of sugar. Before I added the sugar, though, I gave it a taste (completely plain)--and I loved it! I couldn't believe how sweet it was without the added sugar.

Anyway, the whole point of this is that my tastebuds changed while I was losing weight, and I formed new habits because of that. Plain sweet potatoes, cutting back sugar in recipes, using whole grains where possible (except pasta--I never did get to the point where I enjoyed whole wheat pasta, but I did like the Smart Taste pasta, which is white with added fiber). Healthier habits.

Over the past couple of years, however, I gradually started losing those habits. I was at goal, so I could afford to do that here and there (or so I thought). But what I didn't foresee was that I would develop a TASTE FOR the unhealthier version. Sweet potatoes don't taste as sweet anymore, light ice cream isn't nearly as rich, vegetables taste bitter, etc. My taste buds have changed once again--for the worse.

So I'd really like to focus on getting back into those old habits: whole grain bread, brown rice, light ice cream, plain vegetables and fruits, naturally sweetened foods, smaller portions, dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate, etc. I know that it will take time--it didn't happen overnight before, and it won't happen overnight this time--but I'm willing to be patient.

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Fourth of July long run and get together

Yesterday, when I sat down to write a blog post, I realized that I had absolutely nothing to write about. My day was so boring! So I didn't write.

I looked at what the weather was supposed to be like this morning, and it was supposed to be as perfect as it could possibly be for a run (in July in Michigan). I decided to plan on doing my long run in the morning, about eight miles. When I got up this morning, it was 60 degrees and the humidity was only in the 50% range. The humidity has been in the 90-100% range for a while, and it's been miserable, so I was thrilled to see the temps this morning.

I spent about a half hour trying to figure out where I wanted to run, which was a big waste of time. I finally decided to do an out and back from my house--10 miles total. I brought my handheld water bottle because I didn't think I'd need much water with the low humidity. And I decided to run a 9:1 ratio--run 0.9 miles and walk 0.1 mile, and then repeat. Almost as soon as I started running, I just felt "off". My legs felt so heavy and clunky!

I had planned on running in the low- to mid-9:00's, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. My first running portion was a 9:37 pace, and even that felt tough. At around mile 1.75, I was really having a hard time. I decided that I'd finish out the run portion, and at mile 1.9, I'd call Jerry to come pick me up. My whole body just felt so tired and clumsy.

When I started walking, I pulled out my phone to call Jerry, and then had the thought that I'd give it one last effort to keep going. I really wanted to finish, because we're having friends over tonight, and I wanted to earn some activity points! So I gave myself permission to run as slowly as I wanted, even if it was a 12:00/mi pace. That seemed to help, because once I slowed it down for mile three, I felt like I could at least keep going.

When I reached mile three, I started to feel much better, and my pace dipped back into the 9:00's. I wasn't trying to push myself at all--I just ran however I was feeling at the moment. I was so surprised to see how few cars were on the road. Usually, it's a pretty busy road, but today, there were moments where there weren't cars coming from either direction--it was almost eerie. Normally, I would be too embarrassed to take a selfie if there were cars, but nobody was around ;)

When I hit mile 4, I debated briefly whether to turn around there or to keep going another mile, to get 10 total. I was feeling good in the moment, so I decided to keep going. I took it easy on the running, and took a 0.1 mile walk break at the bottom of each mile. At mile eight, I was thinking about calling Jerry for a ride again, but I knew I could finish. So I just kept going. At mile 9.25, my mom drove by with my kids--she was taking them to a parade. I was so glad to turn onto my street.

It definitely wasn't what I would call a "good run", but I am really happy that I stuck it out and didn't quit at mile two, like I'd wanted. I felt good when I was done, and I'd burned a lot of calories for our get-together tonight :)

We hadn't been planning to have a party or anything, but a couple of days ago, we ended up inviting one of Noah's friend's family over, and then invited one of Jerry's co-workers and his daughter, and our next door neighbors. We never do anything on the fourth, so I'm glad we decided to have people over.

As soon as I got home from my run, I didn't even change out of my sweaty clothes. I just started cleaning the house, and I made coleslaw. I've never made coleslaw before, but figured it'd be a good side for the craft beer brats we'd bought to cook on the grill. I chose this recipe (a copycat KFC recipe), and when I got out the ingredients, I realized that I had forgotten that I broke my food processor the last time I used it. So I had to chop all the cabbage by hand--to the size of a grain of rice. Hahaha, it took a while, but it worked out. And the coleslaw turned out really good!

I spent a couple of hours cleaning the house, and then I finally was able to take a shower. I was bummed when I realized that my boobs had chafed from my sports bra during my run! I had planned on wearing a sundress (which was pretty low-cut), and when I put it on, you could totally see the boob chafe.

Because I'm classy, I still wore it, despite the chafe. We have a cooler full of cold drinks, so that's all that matters anyway, right? ;)

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Kids' first 5K!

I was thinking about taking today as a rest day, but I was feeling kind of lazy toward the late morning. I decided to take the kids to the State Park, and let them do a "practice 5K". Eli has been begging me for a couple of years now to let him run a 5K race, but I always tell him that he has to train for it. I don't think he realizes how difficult it will be. He doesn't have the discipline to train, so he hasn't done one yet.

There is a lollipop route at the park that is a perfect 5K distance, so I figured we could do a run/walk method and they could get a feel for how far a 5K actually is. I set my Garmin up for run/walk intervals--a feature I'd never used before. It's different from doing intervals, because it only keeps track of your 1-mile laps, but it will alert you when it's time to run and when it's time to walk. You can specify the time or distance of each run/walk segment, so I set the run for 1:00 (minute), and walk for 1:00. I figured that would be a good place to start with the kids.

I told them we were going to take it very easy, and do a light jog for the running part, because I was nervous they wouldn't be able to finish. We filled their water bottles with ice water, and left them in the car, and then headed out on the path. The first 4-5 running segments went really well.

Noah, my almost-10-year old, doesn't like to run, so I was expecting him to complain the entire time. And I was expecting Eli (8 years old) to be pushing us to go faster, because he wants to SPRINT the entire distance ;) But Noah said several times that he felt really good to be running and he was glad that we went.

Eli found a long stick on the ground during one of the walking segments (barely a half-mile into the run), and he started running with it. I told him he can't run with a stick like that, because he'll trip. He didn't listen, and within a few seconds, he tripped over the stick and flew onto the pavement. He scraped his knees and hands. Normally, he's a pretty tough kid, but he started crying and then being really dramatic.

We stopped for a few minutes to figure out what to do, and he wanted to turn around. Noah was really excited to do the whole 5K, and I didn't want to disappoint him. I knew Eli was fine, that it was just a couple of scraped knees and they would hurt whether we turned around or kept going forward. So, I bribed him--I told him that if he could suck it up and keep going, I'd let him get something from the corner store later. Between sobs, he agreed. That's when I knew he was fine, and he was just being overly dramatic ;)

But, we had to listen to Eli cry for the next mile and a half. He was pretending to hyperventilate, and double over with pain, and all the other dramatic things I remember doing as a kid. Noah, meanwhile, was loving every minute of the run.

He said he was getting tired, but he was excited to finish his first 5K. At the halfway point, Eli insisted that he had to sit down and rest, so we stopped for a couple of minutes.

Finally, around mile two, Eli stopped crying while he ran. I think he was enjoying himself, but didn't want to admit it. I pointed ahead and told Noah that was the finish line, and he was really excited. When we hit 3.11, I told them that they'd done it--they ran their first 5K. Noah said, "YES!" and was SO very proud. Eli said he was never going to run a 5K again. Hahaha!

The best part of the whole thing was that I could actually do something like this with them. Five years ago, I couldn't even teach Noah how to ride a bike because I couldn't run down the street. And today, I got to help them run a 5K! Noah asked me a couple of times, "Is this super easy for you?" And I told him the truth: "Yes, but it will get to be super easy for you, too, if you keep practicing."

On the way home, I heard Noah ask Eli, "Eli, did you think that was fun? I thought it was so fun!" and Eli muttered, "Yeah, a little bit." So maybe he'll change his mind about one day doing another 5K ;)

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I watched Extreme Weight Loss this morning (recorded from last night) and I LOVED the episode. (Don't worry, no spoilers...)  The woman on the show lost her husband to suicide due to PTSD after he went to Afghanistan. It really hit home for me, because my younger brother has PTSD (after serving in Iraq). I don't know how much he'd be okay with me sharing, so I won't get into specifics, but there hasn't been a single day that I haven't worried about him since he was discharged from the Army several years ago.

That's one of the reasons I've been so excited that he's gotten into running. I've noticed such a change in him, and I love that I'm getting to spend more time with him because of the common ground we share. Anyway, seeing the woman on the show just broke my heart. After her husband's suicide, her young son was diagnosed with PTSD due to the suicide of his father!

It's such a scary disorder, and I love that the show was bringing more awareness to it. Even when soldiers come home and seem like they are totally fine, they may have all kinds of things going on that you can't see. I didn't really comprehend that, or think much about it until I saw this photograph series about a veteran with PTSD. Seeing the photos and reading the captions blew me away, and I started to read more about post-war PTSD to gain some insight on what my brother may be going through.

I love the TV show Parenthood, and Zeek, the grandpa on the show, said something one time about war that I thought was so dead on that I paused the show to write it down:

"War is a place where you lose who you were. And then if you get back, you don't have any idea who you are. And you're scared to death of what you might become."

I obviously can't speak from experience, because I've never been to war; but from what others have told me, and what I've read, it sums it up so well.

Anyway, the Extreme Weight Loss episode was a really good one, so if you haven't seen it, make sure you try to watch it!

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I don't think I mentioned this Monday, because it was Motivational Monday; but Eli's baseball coach put him in as starting pitcher at Monday's game! He did REALLY well--they are only allowed to pitch for three innings, and out of the nine outs in three innings, EIGHT of them were strike-outs by Eli :)

My brother, Nathan, is coming to the game tonight. Eli surprisingly doesn't get nervous under pressure, so I'm sure he'll do fine!

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The joy of the three-miler

I think I have found the joy of running. It was in a three-miler all this time! ;) After all the miles I've been running for about a year now, very few of my runs have been less than 4-5 miles at a time. After the Heartbreak Hill Half & Festival, I've done several three-mile runs, and I'm starting to remember why I got hooked on it.

I remember when I first started running, and three miles seemed IMPOSSIBLE. I couldn't even run down my street, so the thought of running three, or even ONE mile was a foreign to me as climbing Mt. Everest. But over time, I obviously continued to add mileage and I started seeing three-milers as "just" three miles.

"Oh, good, I only have three miles on the schedule today!", as if it was a rest day.

Eventually, I was fast enough that I could do the three miles in less than 30 minutes. And because I'd always heard that you should do 30 minutes of intentional exercise each day, I decided to do 4 mile runs, to hit that 30+ minute mark. I started to have the attitude that a three-miler wasn't really worth my time, because it takes me that long to get ready to run (okay, that may be an exaggeration).

I was just looking at my training log, and from June 19 through October 21, 2013, I only had ONE run that was less than 4 miles. I got so used to running 4+ miles for marathon training that a 3-miler didn't even cross my mind anymore.

After the Heartbreak Hill Half training, I was feeling burnt out and tired of running so many miles, so I did some three-mile runs. And it felt great! At first, I felt kind of guilty that I was "only" doing three miles, but I'm totally over that now. I am feeling excited about running again, which is what I was hoping to accomplish. I don't have any races on my schedule until the end of October, so I have several months of just running how I feel like running--and that will include lots of three-milers!

It's been ridiculously humid for the past week or so, but because it's "only" three miles, I don't dread going out and running in it. Yesterday, I was drenched in sweat, and fish flies were sticking to me, and a bird even pooped on my arm--but I still felt happy to be out there. And today, I did another three-miler... in 100% humidity. Yep, when I headed out this morning, I checked the weather, and the humidity was at 100%. I could certainly feel it when I stepped outside, too! But I knew I'd be done in 30 minutes (give or take), so I just started running.

I have no idea why, but my entire street is covered in dead baby frogs. They're really tiny, and just look like splotches on the road until you get up close, and then you can see that it was a frog. I think they've all been run over by cars, which is odd because our street doesn't get much traffic. Anyway, I just thought it was so weird to see all the frogs--poor little guys!

I carried my phone with me, and took all sorts of photos while I was running. It helped me to not think about the humidity for a little bit. I did stop a mile and a half in to take a picture of the lake, though.

At one point, I thought I was taking a mid-run selfie, but when I got home, I realized that the camera was pointing the opposite direction. I ended up getting a pretty cool picture of the sunrise!

I was surprised to see that my pace wasn't too bad, either. Because of the humidity, I expected to see my pace in the mid-10:00 range, but I finished the run with negative splits and a 9:11/mi average pace. I'm very happy with that!

It ended up being a little over three miles today, because I changed my route a mile in so I could run by the lake. But that's another thing I like about not having a schedule--I don't have to do a 3-mile or 4-mile run, I can do a 3.39 mile run, and not feel like it's odd ;)

I didn't intend to turn this in a post about three-mile runs, but I guess that's what came out when I started typing. If you're feeling burnt out from higher mileage, I suggest changing it up--do some three-milers!

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Motivational Monday #67

Happy Motivational Monday, Friends! I hope your week is off to a great start. I'm so glad that today is the last day of my June challenge. If you don't remember, I set a goal to get in 12,000 steps per day for all of June. It was hard!

I managed to do it every single day until the 21st. That was the day that Jerry and I drove up to northwestern Michigan, and I just wasn't even close to getting in my steps that day. After breaking the streak, I wasn't so motivated for the last week or so, and there were a few more days that I didn't hit 12,000. However, I did get 12,000+ steps for 25/30 days. So I didn't hit my June goal entirely, but I am happy with what I did.

I really like doing monthly goals like this. It gives me something to focus on other than the stupid scale (which is NOT my friend right now). So I'm going to pick a new goal for July: Stick to two alcoholic beverages per week. Summertime always makes me think of sipping cold beer or margaritas on the deck (which likely leads to snacking...). I don't want to cut out ALL drinks, but I think two drinks a week is a good goal. Maybe I'll get creative with some mocktails made with club soda ;)

Anyway, what have you all done this week to make you feel proud?

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Kayse ran a half-marathon... on her birthday! She ran the Mayor's Half Marathon in Anchorage, Alaska, and even with the pouring rain, wind, mud, and moose, she had a blast. Her sister made her a shirt that said, "Today I run for cake"which was a great conversation starter during the race. Next year, Kayse plans to run the full marathon the day before she turns 30! (Kayse's race report)

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Tiina just completed her second marathon--shaving 15 minutes off of the finish time of her first! She ran the Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, and despite being June, there was actually a hypothermia risk because of the temps that day. She met up with a blogger-friend at the starting line, and the two discovered they were going to run about the same pace, so they decided to run together. It was a tough run, but they kept moving forward, and finished in 6:07:26. A PR for both of them! (Tiina's race report)

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In October 2013, something snapped (literally) in Krista, and she made some serious changes in her lifestyle--and has since lost 50 pounds! She had just gotten home from vacation, and was heading to work with a little bounce in her step. She stepped off the porch, and heard a snap, and then felt shooting pain in her calf. It turned out that she had torn a tendon in her calf, and it was likely that her weight had played a part in it. She immediately changed her eating habits, started counting calories, and working out 4-6 days a week. As part of her workout routine, she's been walking 2.5 miles 2-3 times per week, and is just starting the Couch to 5K program!

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Jennifer just finished her THIRD marathon in eight months! She just started running 18 months ago, and wants to continue as long as she is able. It's been fun "watching" her on this journey. She started running at the time when I was in Key West for Ragnar! :)  (GREAT finish line photo!)

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Rebecca is celebrating all kinds of accomplishments, and she has every reason to be. She's lost 131 pounds! She started running in September, and today she ran her farthest distance yet--nine miles. As of this morning, she's logged 93 miles for the month of June!

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Don't forget to check out the Motivational Monday Facebook post for more stories :)  If you have a photo you'd like to share for Motivational Monday next week, you can email it to me at: Katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com, with the subject Motivational Monday, and a brief description. Remember, it doesn't have to be a race or losing a ton of weight--any sort of health/fitness accomplishment that makes you feel proud is worth celebrating!

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Tips for running (and training for) your first marathon

Since 26.2 miles is as far as I'm willing to run, this will be the final post in my series of training for particular race distances. If you're one of the crazies who is going to run an ultra, more power to you! But this is as far as I go ;)

Previous posts that you may find helpful:

Running Lingo (common running terms and phrases)
50 Running Tips
Tips for running (and training for) your first 5K
Tips for running (and training for) your first 10K
Tips for running (and training for) your first half-marathon
Guest post from my sister (who wrote a lot of tips for first marathoners)
My Favorite Running Things (clothing, fuel, etc.)

In this post, I am going to pretend you didn't read the 5K, 10K, or half-marathon post, because I really don't want to leave anything out. A full marathon is a BEAST, and I want to make sure I include everything that helped, whether I mentioned it before or not. If I forget something anyway, feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email!

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*Sounds obvious, but please don't make a marathon your first race. Ideally, do some 5K's, 10K's, and half-marathons before tackling a full.

*Don't think of a full marathon as "just like a half, only twice the distance"... because the full is an entirely different animal. Everything you thought you knew about your body during half-marathon training will likely change as you train for a full.

*Choose your race wisely, depending on your goals and personality. Do you want a large, crowded race with a ton of crowd support, or would you prefer a small, hometown feel? Are medals and shirts, and other race swag, important? Is there a time limit, and will you be able to finish within that allotted time? Do you want a trail race, lots of hills, or a Boston-qualifier? Fall or Spring? Just make sure you do your research to choose a race that fits your needs.

*Choose a training schedule that fits your wants/needs (or hire a running coach to write a schedule for you). I always recommend Hal Higdon's Novice 1 plan for beginners, but there are a lot of good plans out there. I've done three different plans for three different marathons, and my personal favorite is Hansons Marathon Method (you can read my review of it here). It's not practical for everyone, because it takes a lot of time. But the decision really depends on your own needs and wants!

*On a good training plan, most of your training will be at "easy pace", or "conversational pace". Basically, you should be able to carry on a conversation while running. You may do some speed work once a week, but the majority of your mileage is really all about the time spent on your feet, getting in those miles! Please read The Importance of the Easy Run.

*Prepare for marathon training to pretty much take over your life for 18 weeks. You will be thinking, eating, and breathing running for a few months!

*Use your long training runs as a way to test out what you're going to wear, eat, and drink on the big day. Dress in the clothes you'd like to wear for your race, experiment with different fuel options, and practice doing everything you would as if it was race day. It helps to see if you chafe with certain clothing, or your stomach rebels against Gu, or you can only handle a particular flavor or ShotBloks.

*Plan on using the water stations to your advantage during the race. Start fueling/hydrating as early as possible in the race (from the very first station!); you can look up on the race website exactly where the water stations will be, so that you can plan to practice fueling at those points during your long runs. I highly recommend eating or drinking something at every station from the very beginning, whether you feel like you need it or not. You are going to need that fuel later in the race, so stock up while you can!

*There is no fuel plan that is set in stone for you to follow, so you really have to find out what works for you. But here are a few helpful tips: 1) Don't take gels, chews, and/or Gatorade all together at the same time. Maybe consume a gel at mile 5, then Gatorade at mile 7, and chews at mile 9; but you should take time in-between. Consuming too much at once will cause stomach cramps. 2) Plan on fueling at every water station, whether it's with water, sports drink, gels, chews, or something else. 3) A good place to start is one gel (or the equivalent, about 100 calories of simple carbs) every 30-45 minutes or so. 4) A fuel plan is highly individual, so you really need to practice and see what works for you! (Here is a post from Runner's World that explains more)

*Running your first marathon is a very big deal, so if you want your family and friends there to support you, make sure you let them know! If they aren't runners, they probably won't know how important this is to you--so tell them. They won't know what you expect of them unless you spell it out.

*If you'd like, try to find a training partner to do your long runs with. Running 16, 18, or 20 miles is hard enough--but doing it alone takes a lot of mental strength! If you have a friend to run with, the miles will go by much faster, and you will probably train at the proper pace (a "conversational" pace is best for your long runs).

*You'll either need to carry water/fuel with you, or plant it along your route ahead of time, for your long runs. There are a number of ways to carry it with you, and everyone has different preferences. Personally, I adore my Camelbak Marathoner Vest for runs over 10 miles (here is my review of it); for shorter runs, I like my Amphipod Handheld water bottle. Some people prefer a hydration belt, which you wear around your waist to hold water bottles. It's up to you whether you want to wear it during the race itself or not. I usually decide that based on how many water stations there are, and how far apart they are during the race.

*Even if you forgo the hydration vest/belt/bottle for the race, you will probably want to carry some "stuff" with you--Gu, ShotBloks, other forms of fuel, your ID, a phone, etc. For the Detroit Free Press Marathon, we even had to carry passports to cross the border! There are a thousand different belts and pockets out there to choose from, but my personal favorite was actually recommended to me by a lot of my blog readers.

I bought one at the expo for the Chicago Marathon, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!! It's called the FlipBelt, and it's basically a belt that you step into and pull up around your hips or waist. There are little slits in it to slide your stuff in. I was able to fit my driver's license, iPhone, 2-3 Gu's, and 2 full packs of ShotBloks... at the same time! It never bounces, and it fits flat against your body. Love this belt!

*If you are someone who thrives on spectator support, you may want to consider getting your name printed on the front of your shirt. You will likely get a lot of spectators cheering for you by name, which will give you some pep in your step!

*Be prepared for all types of weather on race day. If it's raining, have a friend or family member be ready with a dry pair of socks and shoes for you to change into on the course. If it's much more hot or humid than you expected (I feel so sorry for you--that's what happened at my first marathon), then plan on going much slower than you expected. Have some warmer back-up clothing prepared, just in case it's colder than you thought. Basically, prepare yourself for anything!

*I learned a harsh lesson during my first marathon, so hopefully I can spare someone else by sharing it here. For my first, it was 86 degrees and very humid, with a heat index of over 100 degrees. The race was "red flagged", meaning that runners should use extreme caution running in that heat. I was worried about dehydration, so I drank a TON--lots of water and Gatorade at each station, on top of my Gu and ShotBloks.

At mile 21, my stomach rebelled, and I needed a bathroom RIGHT NOW. I spent about 4 minutes in a disgusting portapotty, with the worst stomach cramps imaginable. I later learned that you should take small sips of fluid, rather than gulping a bunch at once, to avoid the cramping. Also, consuming sports drink AND gels or chews at the same time is a bad idea. You should do one or the other at each station, not both.

*Pick up your race packet the day before the race, and lay out everything you'll need for the race itself. Pin your bib on your shirt, get all of your fueling supplies ready and stocked in your belt, make sure your Garmin is charged up and ready to go, and make sure you have everything you'll need during the race.

*Get up early on race morning, and eat the breakfast you've been practicing with for weeks. Try not to get nervous, because that will make you feel (what I call) "poopy nervous". ;)

*Get to the race with plenty of time to spare, so you can go to the bathroom one last time, and you won't have to be rushing to the starting line. Better early than the stress of being late!

*Hydrate and fuel early and often during the race! But you have been practicing this all along, so it won't be anything new ;)

*DON'T GO OUT TOO FAST. I can't stress this enough! You will feel fantastic after a couple of weeks of tapering, but if you go out too fast, it WILL come back to bite you later.

*In the later miles of the race, be prepared to feel like quitting. Your body is going to scream at you to stop, and you will have thoughts of, "Fuck this! Why did I sign up for this?!" and "I PAID for this? How stupid am I?!" but you will regret is SO BADLY if you quit. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, and remind yourself that it will be over with by lunch time ;)

What misery looks like during a marathon ;)


*As difficult as it may be in the moment, try to enjoy yourself. You're only going to run your first marathon once, so you want to make the best out of it!

*The last six miles are going to be very tough, but you CAN do it!

*When you cross the finish line, don't worry about stopping your Garmin. You don't want your finish line photos to be of you stopping the Garmin! Look at the camera, do something fun or goofy or inspiring, but just don't stop your Garmin until you've cleared the finish line by several yards.

Yes, I show this photo wherever appropriate, thankyouverymuch!


*Be prepared to be very sore, and take at least a week or two off of running entirely. Your legs will hurt like they've never hurt before. I had to use my arms to lower myself onto the toilet for a couple of days after my first marathon, because my legs were too sore!

*Celebrate!! You just ran 26.2 miles--something that less than 1% of the population will ever even attempt. You deserve some extra pampering and fun! Oh yeah, and now you can slap a "26.2" bumper sticker on your car, too ;)

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Eight sweaty miles

Yesterday, I was hoping for a relaxing day, and I definitely got it. I didn't even have anything to write about, so I didn't post yesterday. After dinner, I only had about 3,000 steps for the day, and was really tempted to just forgo my 12,000 step goal and sit down with a glass of wine. I was feeling very "bingey" though, and I was afraid that I would eat everything in the house if I did that.

Instead, I made it a mission to get in all of my steps. First, I went outside and used a broom to get all the spiderwebs, cotton from the cottonwood trees, and fish flies off of the house. It actually took me about an hour. I was a mess when I was done, covered in cotton and grime, which was all pasted to the layer of sweat on my body (thanks to the awful humidity!).

I was dying to go inside, take a shower, throw on my pi's, and lounge in the air conditioning. But I hadn't accumulated many steps from cleaning the house, so I headed out for a long walk. I walked to my parents' house, and chatted with my mom and her neighbor for a little bit, then continued to walk the neighborhoods.

(I love that an Instagram filter will remove even the grossest of sweat and bug guts from my skin)

I arrived back at my house having just hit 10,000 steps. I was getting blisters from the shoes I was wearing, so I swapped them out and headed out for one more circle of my neighborhood. After four miles total, I had reached my 12,000 steps.

I couldn't get into the shower fast enough, and then I finally sat down in my pajamas with a glass of Cabernet. It tasted so much better knowing that I put it a ton of effort to get in my step goal for the day.

---

This morning, I had plans to get together with Stephanie for a long run. On her schedule was eight miles, and she said her pace has been around 11:00/mile, so I figured it would be a nice, relaxing run. Well, I'm sure it would have been, but when I got out to my car, I saw that the humidity made it do THIS:

You know the humidity is bad when even your car is sweating! I drove to the Metropark to meet Stephanie at 6:45. When she parked, I gave her a bottle of Chardonnay and a card that I had gotten her for after her marathon--I haven't seen her since, so I've been holding on to it all this time (and surprisingly I didn't drink it myself). She asked, "You ready?"

And that's when I realized I forgot my Garmin.

It was like all the birds and animals went silent. The waves of the lake stopped moving. The sticky breeze came to a halt. I forgot my Garmin. Is it even possible to run without a Garmin? Would my legs still move? What would happen if I couldn't glance down and see my pace? If you run without a Garmin, does it even count? What do you post to social media?! For the love of God, what was I thinking when I left the house?!!

Okay, enough with the dramatics ;)  Since I was running for fun, there was no need for a Garmin. And Stephanie had hers, so I could just use the info to plug in manually when I got home. No big deal. (But still, I felt so naked without it!)

We did an eight mile out-and-back, and I'm pretty sure I was completely soaked through with sweat by mile two. But it was nice having someone to chat with, and definitely made the time pass much faster than if I had run alone. We came across a couple of deer, who didn't seem at all scared of us. We got really close before they ran off the path and into the grass.

We took a 0.1-mile walk break after each mile after the turn-around, which helped a little. There were quite a few people out, mostly on bikes, but we saw a couple of other runners, too. There were a couple of older men on bikes that passed us, and they yelled, "There's ice cold beer waiting for you at the end!" Hahaha, I told him that I wish that were true. We finally made it back to the car--eight miles, run and done!

It was probably the most humid day we've had so far this year, but it was nice to run with a friend today!

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Bubble wrap

What a day! The past few days have actually been pretty busy, and I'm looking forward to a relaxing day tomorrow. This morning, I set two alarms to make sure I was up for when my brother came over to run with me. After what happened last time, I didn't want to take any chances. I still didn't sleep well, and was looking at the clock all night.

I got up at 6:00 and dressed for our run. I sat outside until Nathan got here at around 6:15, and then we headed out for an easy three-miler. I know of about six different three-mile routes from my house, but I chose one that I figured we'd encounter the least amount of problems (cars, dogs, etc). Turned out to be a good choice!

The weather was nice this morning--not too hot, and the humidity wasn't bad either. It was nice for summer running.

The only bad part about the run was that there were fish flies all over the ground. In some spots, it sounded like we were running on bubble wrap, because the flies make a popping sound when you step on them. So gross!

Nathan just registered for the Detroit Free Press FULL Marathon. I was so shocked! But I think it's great for him. The race is in October, and he's on the third week of training. I'm registered for the international half, so of course I'm going to stay after and cheer him on. Nathan works a pretty wacky schedule, so I'm going to try and come up with a running plan for him.

Anyway, we finished our run at a faster pace than I would have run if I had been by myself, but it felt good ;) After I showered, I got the kids ready for football camp, and drove them there. We had plans to meet up with my friend Andrea and her kids at a park at noon (picnic and play time), and the kids' camp was until 11:30. So I went home to make our lunches.

I ended up making Quinoa Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing. I forgot just how good that is! It's such a strange combo of ingredients--quinoa, cabbage, cucumber, honey, peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, and pepper flakes. I threw that in the fridge to cool off, and then went back to the football field to watch the boys play a scrimmage game for about a half hour, before going home to pick up our lunches and sunscreen, and all that good stuff for the park. Whew! Went back to pick up the kids, and then drove to the park.

The park was one that I'd never been to before, and it was really nice! It was tucked away in the middle of nowhere, really. They had picnic tables and a play area, as well as some baseball fields (which were locked, much to Eli's disappointment).

Andrea and her kids showed up, and we ate lunch and the kids played. With my kids' ages being 9 and 10, I am surprised they played for as long as they did. We stayed for about 2 1/2 hours! Afterward, I stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home, because Noah left his water bottle at the game yesterday, and needed a new one.

I am back to craving McDonald's vanilla cones all the time. I went through a phase last year where I couldn't get enough! They are only 170 calories (5 PointsPlus), so they are a much better choice than a flurry or something from the local ice cream shop. Anyway, this afternoon, Jerry and I took the kids to get a cone. Yum!

I've been in such a rut with meal ideas lately, and it's driving me crazy. I'm so tired of the same 20 or so dinners, but cooking new recipes means calculating all the nutrition info, which takes forever. It's so easy to go through my recipe book (where I've printed all my favorites with the nutrition info already calculated and attached). I really need to take some time to sit down and input a bunch of new recipes, at least for a week's worth.

Well, Jerry is off work, so we're going to watch Super Troopers tonight. I've never seen that movie, and Jerry and Nathan have convinced me that I need to. ;)

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Eli's big chance

I'm really liking not having an actual running schedule! Yesterday wasn't a convenient day for me to run, so I just didn't. I've always had Wednesdays as my rest days, but today I had a great opportunity to run, so I did.

My kids have football camp this week--yesterday, today, and tomorrow, just for a couple of hours in the morning. So this morning, I dressed in my running clothes and then drove them to the football field. Once I signed them in, I just ran from there.

I've run around there before, so I knew that going around the block was exactly four miles. I planned to go at a nice easy pace, and try not to overheat ;)  The heat actually wasn't all that bad today. It was really humid, but mostly cloudy. The first mile went by really quickly, and I hoped the whole run would feel like that.

Almost as soon as I hit that first mile though, I was overwhelmed with fatigue. My body just didn't want to move, and I was really tempted to walk. But I was running into the wind, and I could see the corner ahead where I'd turn, so I just kept trying to talk myself into continuing to run. Once I turned, I saw that my pace was at 10:03/mile for that lap, so I decided to see if I could pick it up just enough to get it under 10:00.

Having something to focus on (first turning the corner, and then dropping the pace) made the time go by a little faster, and I started to feel a little better for the third mile. There were no shortcuts back to my car, so I just kept running, and tried to keep my pace under 10:00 for the rest of the way. That last mile felt like forever, but I finally got back to my car. Because of the humidity, I was drenched with sweat, but happy that I stuck it out!

Tomorrow I'm going to run with my brother, Nathan. We're only going to do three miles, so rather than drive to the State Park, he's just going to come to my house and we'll run from here. Hopefully the fish flies don't bother us!

On Saturday, I have plans to run with that loud redhead, Stephanie ;) I haven't seen her since I went to cheer her on at her first marathon, so I'm really excited to catch up! Having company on runs makes them so much more enjoyable, too. We're going to do eight miles.

The kids played their fifth baseball game tonight. I was so happy for Eli, because he finally got a chance to pitch! Last year, the kids were in "transition" ball (a.k.a. "coach pitch"). This year, the kids pitch, and it's kind of a mess. Eli is only 8 years old, and the age for this league is 9-10; but he's always been really good, so they allowed him to play.

Eli really wants to pitch, and he's been practicing a lot, but the coach has never put him in as pitcher. The kids' team has lost all but one game, and the team they played today crushed them 14-1 the first time they played. I was worried today would be a repeat of that game.

Anyway, when we got there, Jerry started playing catch with Eli, basically letting Eli pitch so the coach would take notice that he was pretty good. I mentioned to the coach that Eli was really hoping to pitch. In the bottom of the third inning (they only play six total), the pitcher for our team was walking a lot of people, and with two outs, the coach put in Eli to pitch.

I like this picture, because Eli is pitching and Noah is in the background,
playing third base

I was SO nervous for him, because this was his big chance to prove himself! Two outs, bases loaded, down by three runs, and Eli steps up to the mound ;)  Eli threw one right down the center of the plate, and the kid hit it--right to Eli. Eli grabbed it and threw him out at first. I was SO relieved (for Eli) that the inning ended well.

The coach let him pitch the rest of the game, and he did awesome! He struck out three people, and only let one walk (at this age, there are a LOT of walks, because the kids are still learning to throw strikes). In the last inning, the score was tied 4-4, and due to an error by the first baseman, the other team scored and won. But it was a GREAT game, and at least they didn't lose by 13 runs, like last time! ;)

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