Where have I been?

On VACATION!!

My husband and I are celebrating our 10th anniversary this year and had the opportunity to go to Hawaii this summer with some friends! YES PLEASE! Between getting ready to go and getting the kids ready for their stay with family and then the actual vacation as well as a short stay with family AFTER the vacation means I've basically been MIA for the whole month of August! But for a good cause!

The Marathon is in 4 short weeks and I am SO excited! My knee has been holding up pretty well. I started running again and as I increased in speed a little every run trying to get back to where I was when I had to take time off I started to notice a tiny twinge of pain in my knee that wasn't there before so I eased up again. I found that I could add the miles steadily and not have a problem but when I kept adding miles AND pushing for speed my knee would tell me to ease up. Since I started back into my training with only 9 weeks left and I still hadn't gone farther than 12 miles I knew that NOT adding the miles was NOT an option. So instead I've sacrificed on my speed. Before my knee issues I got down to about 8:50/mile. Now I try to keep myself at 9:30 to 10:00/mile just for training but I get down to 8:something in each of my runs for at least a little bit and I have to remind myself to slow down. My long runs I've been going even slower and the past few weeks I've been averaging about 11:40 average on my long runs and have even been seen walking for a short break when I'm doing a lot of hills which bums me out. I do NOT want to walk during the marathon. Of course I've forgotten my energy gels a few times and have still been scavenging for water fountains as I run since I haven't figured out whether I want a camel back or water bottles on a belt. I already run with a belt for my iPhone and my gu's and gum and chapstick. So I'm leaning towards water bottles that have the harness that I can slide onto my belt. I really need to just go get them since I only have 2 long runs left before my marathon. This Saturday is an 18 mile run and the next is 20 then I'll taper for 2 weeks and then the next week is the marathon! I need to run with my water. I carried a water bottle last weeks since I did a pretty long route in residential and knew there wouldn't be water fountains. It was kind of a pain, but not as annoying as I thought it'd be. It had a clasp so I tried to clasp it to my belt but it bounced off in the first half mile. So that didn't work. I really could just use the water stations at the marathon but I'd like to only have to stop to use the bathroom. So anyway! There you have it!

Another reason I've been such a slacker on updating this blog is that I've stopped dropping weight and have leveled out. I got down to 153.6 before Hawaii but all that yummy food did me in even though I did exercise while I was there. I ran 3 days while there. I did a 2.5 mile run with my cute hubby who used to run track and when to the national junior olympics and likes to think he's pretty speedy! We averaged 9:40 but got down to 7:50 for awhile! He said that going so slow made it hard for him to run and he was WINDED at 2.5 miles! So we went into the gym and he lifted weights while I finished running another 3 miles. Then I ran almost 6 miles one day and even did a 12 mile run along the beach (not in the sand) and it was HEAVEN! Nevertheless, I still came home with a few pounds for souvenirs and they haven't gone away yet!

Also having my RunMeter app on my phone that emails me the results of each run and also posts them on Facebook. I haven't needed a place to keep track of them anymore. I LOVE this app! I love going back and checking my splits for each mile and seeing when I hit my peak and when I started to slow down and could use some energy gu for a pick me up! I love having my pace spoken to me at each 1/2 mile so I know where I'm at. It's also so fun to have peoples comments read to me on the automatic posting that RunMeter puts up on facebook. The voice is a robotic male with a Brittish accent! LOL! So funny to hear how he pronounces things! Love it!

So to sum it up. I've got a plan where I ran 4 miles then 6 miles then 4 miles then 10 miles, then 4, 6, 4, 12, then 4, 6, 4, 14, then 5, 8, 5, 16 then 5, 8, 5, 18 then 5, 8, 5, 20 and then I'll taper and do 5, 8, 5, 9, then 3, 5, 3, 8 then on the last week I'll do 3, 3, walk 2, then 26.2! I did 16.75 last week and this morning I only did 4 miles instead of 5 because I had to get back so my husband could get to work, but I'm planning on 8 tomorrow and 5 Thursday and 18 on Saturday. My goal for this week is to not stop to walk on my long run at all.

I'm hoping that when I run the marathon I'll be able to go a lot faster than 9:40/mile which I hear I should be able to since I'll have tapered and fully recovered and I'll be excited whatever. So I guess time will tell. Part of me wants to speed up, but I don't want to risk an injury this close to the marathon. Especially without any small tapers since I started running again. I've been adding 2 miles every week and that makes me nervous about getting hurt. Anyway. So that's where I am! I'm still hoping to loose these last 10 pounds sometime in the near future. But I'm sure it will come!