20 Miles Or Bust

I did it! I ran 20 miles! For the first time ever. I was determined to complete it even if I had to crawl the last mile. I was a little worried because my feet started hurting earlier in the run than I anticipated, but after a while I think I got used to it (or maybe my feet just went numb, lol). The temperature was 38 degrees when I started and 68 degrees (F) when I finished! The only major problem was that I wore new shorts (stupid! stupid! stupid!) These shorts rubbed me the wrong way for nearly all 20 miles. I was sure I would be bleeding at the end but it ended up looking not nearly as bad as it felt (I guess I was hoping for a bigger battle scar!) Nice Mothers' Day gift to myself, right? ;)

At the end of the run, "Everybody Hurts" by Avril Lavigne started playing on my mp3 player. I recently bought the Goodbye Lullaby album so I hadn't listened to it a lot yet, but all I heard as I was finishing my last mile was "Everybody hurts some days, it's okay to be afraid, everybody hurts, everybody screams, everybody feels this way, and it's okay..." and it just seem to fit. Because I hurt. And I'm terrified of running the marathon.

Today I am happy to report that I am sore, but walking upright. :)

Here's my training for the rest of the week:

Week 15
Monday: TT 2K3, workout A (upper body workout)
Tuesday: 2.22 miles, 27:00
Wednesday: pace workout, 3.83 miles, 45:00
Thursday: 3.28 miles, 40:00
Friday: stride workout, 2.41 miles, 30:00
Saturday: OFF
Sunday: 20 miles, 4:19:12 (12:58/mile average)

Totals: 31.74 miles, TT 2k3 workout A

Have a great week!
(And Belated Happy Mothers' Day!)

Squirrels Do Not Like Jelly Beans

OK, I'm a little late, but I have a cute Easter story. Early on Easter morning, the (ahem) Easter Bunny left a number of candy-filled plastic eggs in our backyard. I went out for a long run while the kids were still sleeping. A couple of hours later I called home to see if the kids had collected the eggs. They hadn't, so I asked my husband if he could hold them off a little longer since I was 2 miles from home. When I got home, the kids started putting the eggs in their bags and my husband and I noticed that we seemed to be missing a quite few! We had 2 neighbors report that they saw squirrels with Easter eggs. We also found stray eggs under the neighbor's car, behind the neighbor's garage, in their flower bed, in their window well, half buried in my flowerbed, behind our shed and under our garbage cart. I think there ended being about 20 or so that just disappeared. Although I have found 3 empty ones since then. But apparently squirrels don't like jelly beans because we found several opened eggs with the jelly beans lying there next to the egg. :)

So anyway, here's my training for the past 2 weeks. I can't remember if I mentioned this before or not, but most of my treadmill workouts include 3-5 minutes of walking at the end.

Week 13
Monday: off
Tuesday: TT 12 Minute Workouts (x2), Intervals - 1.22 miles, 15:00
Wednesday: TT 12 Minute Workouts (x2)
Thursday: pace workout: 3.46 miles, 41:00
Friday: tempo workout, 2.51 miles, 30:00
Saturday: off
Sunday: 12 miles, 2:25:04 (this run went really well!)

Total: 19.19 miles, TT 12 Minute Workouts
(This week got a little messed up because I woke up late on Wednesday. I didn't actually plan to do TT workouts 2 days in a row.)

Week 14
Monday: 10 Minutes Yoga Solution
Tuesday: TT 12 Minute Workouts (x2), Intervals - 1.53 miles, 20:00
Wednesday: tempo workout, 2.54 miles, 30:00
Thursday: TT 12 Minute Workouts (x2)
Friday: pace workout, 5.05 miles, 60:00
Saturday: off
Sunday: 15.31 miles, 3:07:57 (windy day!)

Total: 24.43 miles, TT 12 Minute Workouts, 10 minutes yoga


And finally, TT Transformation Contest #11 has begun! If you are interested, you can check it out here ==> TT Transformation Contest

I've been thinking about joining this one, but not until later this month. You have until Memorial Day to sign up.

Have a great day!


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