North Texas Winters : A False Sense of Security

Things I consider safe to assume about winter in North Texas:

• It starts about mid-December and lasts until the first week in March.
• Temps will be lows in the low 30's and highs in the low 50's.
• I can sleep in a little on Saturday mornings and it won't affect my long run.

Things I should never assume about winter in North Texas:

• Anything I stated above.

Yeah....high's in the mid-70's all weekend with bright sunshine are not ideal running conditions when you start mid-morning.  Yikes!  Still managed to have an awesome run, though, after bumping my intervals to R15:W30.

I'm Back, Baby!

I am officially BACK.  On Sunday, along with several dozen of my friends and thousands of strangers, I ran the "Donna" Breast Cancer Half Marathon.  This was my redemption race post-hysterectomy, and I came back with a bang!

Donna is a race my friends and I have been doing for the last four years because it's awesome - it's a 13.1 mile party with amazing spectators, lots of "beverages" and fun times to be had by all, so I can't think of a better race to make my return to racing.

We flew into Jacksonville on Friday, and Mel and I got to meet our "running guru," Jeff Galloway and chat with him for a few minutes!  He claims to remember us from several events he's done with the Dallas PGL's, but he's also a really nice guy and would probably say that anyway.

Mel & me with Jeff!

Saturday was a bum around the beach kind of day with lots of time with good friends, good food, and good drinks.  We relaxed, walked in the surf, and prepped for the run the next day.

Friends!

View from our balcony

Booze!

                       

Sunday morning, race morning, dawned foggy and slightly chilly (for Florida).  We welcomed the overcast skies as the forecast was for a warm and clear day, which makes for rough running conditions.  The good news is that we weren't taking the race seriously - we were all about the fun, with planned picture, "beverage," and snack stops along the route.

My awesome group of friends pre-race

I'd been training using an interval of 15 second run / 45 second walk, so the plan was just to continue with that and see how it was going.  We had a ton of fun running, and met friends old and new along the course.  

Old friends!

New friends (left) we met on course!

Friendly strangers!

The tough spot is always the last few boring miles heading to the Mayo Clinic, over a huge causeway bridge, but we kept up my run/walk intervals the whole way to the top and stopped to take a quick picture at the crest of the hill.

Mile 12 at the top of the bridge!

We finished strong with a 3:20, which was an over 30 minute course PR for me!

Texas ladies together!

Finished!

 

Then we continued our tradition of using the Atlantic Ocean as a post-race ice bath and consuming even more "beverages," lol. 

Bayou Rum punch bucket!

Ocean ice bath!

10th anniversary medal

I am SO happy to be back to racing and really looking forward to my upcoming spring full of great races and what I know will be more great times with friends!

Glitter Stars Galore

You might remember this old post where I wrote about how I like to give myself stars when I finish a planned workout as a motivational tool / reward system.

Monday night as I was putting a star on my calendar after finishing my strength training, I realized that as long as I did Tuesday's planned run, then I would have completed every single workout I had scheduled in January.  Every. Single. One.

Well, there was no way I was going to blow the opportunity to accomplish that, so of course I gladly hopped on the treadmill on Tuesday, and after my 3 miles I gleefully placed my last star of the month on the calendar.  Check out all those stars!

This never happens - I'm great at planning out a training schedule, but some (most) times I'm not so great at following through on the schedule... so it's a HUGE achievement, especially considering I had both work and personal travel throughout the month!!!

I'm so proud of myself that I still haven't flipped the page over to February yet, just so I can glance over and see all those glittery stars.  

I Have Seen the Error of my Way(finding)

If you saw the picture I posted on Facebook Saturday after my run, you already know I got a little ... well, lost ... and ended up running an extra 1.5 miles that morning for a total of 10.5 instead of 9.  Now, thanks to actually studying the map (better late than never?), I have seen the error of my wayfinding, and I'll know better next time I'm visiting my family and need to get in a long run.

I started on the far west end of the Mockingbird Trail (purple on the map) and ran until the Eldridge Pkwy bridge, at which point you have to switch to the north side of the bayou.  I continued along the north side on the Quail Trail (green) all the way past Kirkwood to go 4.5 miles before turning around (remember - the goal was a total of 9 miles).  On the way back, I mistakenly assumed that I could cross back over to the south side of the bayou via the bridge across the bayou at the Blue Jay trail (blue).

What I didn't realize is that in order to cross at that bridge, I'd have to take the northern spur up the Cardinal Trail (red) first.  I realized I'd definitely made the wrong choice when I saw the I-10 freeway.  Oops.  I finally checked the next "You Are Here" trail map I saw, and realized that I could get back to the bridge I needed to cross over, but only after a pretty significant detour.

I did, indeed, finally manage to make my way back to the car, with quite a bit of unplanned additional mileage.  On the upside, I'm feeling better about my training for the Donna half in a few weeks!

Thoughts on a Freezing 8 Mile Run

Start:   Okay, I'm leaving the house.  I have on cuddleduds under my tights, a longsleeve shirt, jacket, hat with earcovers, and gloves, so I'm good to go.  OMG.  It's freezing.  Literally freezing. Actually, it's several degrees below freezing.  There's still snow on the ground - this is a really bad idea.  No, the sidewalks are clear, so the trail's probably okay.  No excuses.  I'm doing this.

Mile 1:   My lungs are burning.  I can see every breath in the air.  Maybe I should have worn some kind of mouth cover.  Oh look - another runner!  Dude, we're hardcore.  Yes, our mutual waves mean "glad to see I'm not the only one crazy enough to run in this."   Maybe this isn't so bad - I'm actually smiling.

Mile 2:   Oh my.  The pedestrian bridges over the creek are still covered in ice & snow and are potential death traps.   Go slow, go slow, don't break a leg.  Hopefully as it continues to warm up, and as the sun keeps shining, then the next ones will be thawing out.

Mile 3:   My hands are hot.  I think I'm going to take off my gloves.  Oh shit.  Nope, gloves going back on!  My palms are really hot.  Do they make palm-less gloves?  I mean, I know they make fingerless gloves...but my fingers need to be covered - my palms are hot!  I should check into this when I get home.

Mile 4:   Okay, time to turn around, and fuel.  Uh-oh, my gel is practically frozen.  Maybe I should stick it in my bra so my body heat can warm it up a little and it'll be easier to get down.  OH GOD...I think I've given my left boob frostbite!!!  Is that possible?  Soooooo cold.    But, it seems to have worked.  And hooray for freeze-proof water fountains!

Mile 5:   Dogs in winter coats are the cutest thing.  Ever.

Mile 6:   Where did this wind come from?  Did I have a tailwind outbound and not even notice?  I feel like I'm slowing down.  Ooof - the wind makes my face hurt.  Back to wishing I have some kind of face cover.  Why does the outbound leg not feel like it's downhill, but the return path definitely feels like uphill?

Mile 7:   This bridge definitely did not thaw out while I was out.  Go slow, go slow, don't break a leg.

Mile 8:  1 mile left.  I am a total badass for rocking this run.  It feels like it's finally above freezing, but I've warmed up a lot, so maybe that's just in my head.  No, it's definitely gotten warmer.  There's less snow along the path than when I started.  This last mile sucks.

Done:   Home!  Home!  Home!  OMG, now that I've stopped moving, I'm freezing again.  Totally shaking, even inside the house.  I'm making myself hot tea and hopping in a steamy shower.  Yay me!

2016: The Year in Review

Photo credit: https://www.nraila.org/articles/20161223/2016-nra-ila-year-in-review

So, it's been almost a year since I posted here, talking about New Year's Goals.  I'd like to tell you I met that goal of 500 miles in 2016.  But I know I didn't - I don't even have my total mileage to tell you how close (or how far away) I came.  My year was that...interesting.

I ran two halfs in the spring, and skipped a couple races throughout the year (sometimes DNS is the best decision you can make).  I surprised myself and ran an "official" Disney time (sub-3:30) at the Star Wars Dark Side Half in April after committing to my training plan and taking off almost 20 lbs, so that was awesome.  

I had surgery in May (hello hysterectomy, goodbye uterus & all of your complications!) and despite my best intentions of not letting pounds pile on during recovery....they crept back on, and brought some of their friends with them.  Sigh.  And having to defer a summer race I'd been looking forward to was not awesome, but at least it's giving me something to look forward to next year!

The absolute highlight of my year was the birth of this little dude in early June!  My nephew is the cutest thing EVER, and I'm loving my new role as Aunt Jenny, and the ability to spoil him like crazy (and then give him back, lol)!!!!

The real downer of the year is that my family has been dealing with some pretty serious struggles throughout the fall, and all the stress and associated travel seriously impacted my training (basically non-existent) and all the stress eating packed on even more pounds than before!!!  Insert even bigger sigh here.

After watching/cheering on friends and family struggling through the Marine Corps Marathon in October, I found some new motivation and decided to turn around my own struggles and work towards my personal goals again - I wasn't waiting for New Year's to set them this time around.

I'm glad to say that I'm back down to what, at one point, had been my "all-time-highest-weight-ever" (before I started running and lost weight, then put it all back on), and I've had some really GREAT runs recently.  Which probably means I'm due for a stinker of a run soon, but it's amazing how good you feel when you've been struggling for several years and finally can feel yourself turning a corner.

2017's got some BIG plans coming up: I'm already registered for 5 halfs, and that will mean 4 new states, and lots of fun trips with my running peeps and my family.  So here's hoping I'll be able to maintain the momentum and motivation I've gained the past couple months and translate those into a really great year!

New Goals...New Hope???

Okay, it's a brand new year.  2016.  People are making New Years Resolutions and setting new goals.  I'm not big on resolutions, but I do like goals.

I recently realized I didn't set any finite goals for 2015...and looking back on my year, it definitely shows a lack of focus, for sure.  Without motivation, I piled on even more unnecessary weight, my eating habits went to he**, and my running "training" (if you can even call it that) slacked off terribly.  About the only area of my life where I can say I truly found success all year long was in my work life - which is awesome - but it's definitely time to start focusing on ALL OF ME again.

Ok. Soooooo....   My running friends and I are discussing setting the "2016 in 2016" goal for groups of us.  I figure my contribution can safely, and should be, at least 500 miles.  This is a personal goal I had set for the last several years and I like having a number to work towards all year long.

So there it is.  500 miles in 2016.  Plus of course, the standard "lose weight," "eat better,"  "keep up with the blog," ... yadah yadah yadah.  All of which will be important, but for the beginning of the year I'm going to strictly re-focus on getting my training back on track and then let the rest follow.  Lots of hope attached to this one.

Race Report: Too Cold to Hold - 2014

***I found this old race report floating around, un-posted, so decided to go ahead and post, just for fun...***  This is from the January 2014 Too Cold to Hold race in Dallas.

So, the blog's been a little quiet lately - not much to talk about.  Training for the Donna half had been okay - a few big hurdles but nothing that was going to keep me from finishing.  I had a really bad cold that settled in my chest (turns out maybe it was bronchitis?) and that kept me from running at all for a few weeks, so I had to start back slowly, then tweaked my left knee on the stairs (doh!) and ended up skipping a long run just to be on the safe side...

Because I'm a bling whore, when I saw the Too Cold to Hold / Too Hot to Handle race package last year I knew I needed to sign up for it, despite the rather extreme racing conditions ... because check out these medals, peeps.  Awesome, no?  And they FIT TOGETHER!!!!  Must have them!  So I signed up for the cold 10 miler and the hot 15K.

Too Cold to Hold was yesterday morning, and this was the weather forecast, true to the race's name:

Brrrrrrr.  Honestly, if not for the conjoining medals, I probably would have DNS'd this race because of the weather conditions.  And standing at the start line it looked like a lot of people had done just that.  It was COLD.  and WINDY.  At the 5 mile turnaround I made the decision to switch from the 10-miler to the 5-miler, just so I could be out of the cold faster, lol.

The race director/company always puts on a good race and has a nice after party.  They were well-prepared with hot chocolate, and portable heaters, but it was just so cold I didn't stick around too long afterward.  You can't really tell in this picture, but there was ice forming on my hat after I finished.

Post-race.  It was coooooooold!!!

The cool (pardon the pun) medal!

Buckling Down and Streaking

If I had a dollar for every time I've said "I need to do something to change this" over the last year, I'm pretty sure I'd have a good chunk of next month's mortgage.  I have gotten entirely too complacent with my training - barely following a plan and settling for "good enough to get me through" for months and months on end.

Somthing's GOT TO change.  SERIOUSLY.  Time to buckle down and RUN.

I'm not big on follow through.  I'm great with the grand ideas...that tend to fizzle out in execution.

So, when Runner's World posted their annual #RWRunStreak Challenge, I was tempted because it would be a great way to force myself to get back on some kind of plan - but, would I actually get past day 2 or 3?

Then a friend announced her commitment and she and I talked, and decided to be #StreakBuddies, so between the plan, the need to prove to myself that I can do it, the accountability of having a buddy, and the need to just do something, I think I've got my goal - and it's attainable.

The plan starts with a Turkey Trot today, Thanksgiving Day.  So I'm toeing the line, literally, in downtown Austin for their annual 5-miler.  Day one, check!

#RWRunStreak Training Plan

Dumbo in Pictures

DisneyLand 10K

DisneyLand Half Marathon

The bling

Taper Time!

Saturday's 12 miler was the last long run in my training plan before the Dumbo Challenge.  It was hot, humid, and uphill home, but we toughed it out and got it done.  Didn't break any speed records, but we covered the distance without any major issues, and that's about all I can ask for at this point.

Test Run

Since Saturday's run was "just" six miles, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to try out part(s) of my costume for the Disneyland 10K in a couple weeks.  I'm not going to ruin the surprise by telling you what the plan is, but I'll show you this little teaser below...

credit: http://www.doveoriginalstrims.com/

I wanted to make sure that this, along with the top and skirt I have chosen, will be acceptable for 6.2 miles...and they were!  I need to reduce the length of the cord a little bit so it's less noticeable to me on the "upswing," but otherwise, it was a great test run!

Still worried about the Dumbo Challenge, but getting excited about the trip and seeing friends!

The First 10

The first 10 minutes of a treadmill run are the hardest for me.  On an outdoor run, getting out the door is the hard part.  On the treadmill, staying on the treadmill when I really don't want to be there is the hard part.  It's a little too tempting to just push that red stop button and step off if it's a hard run or you're just not feeling it...I'm not going to lie and say that I've never done this...at least once I got the TM in the house.  So, I have to get myself through the first 10 minutes.  Once I've reached that mini-milestone, completing the rest of the run is usually no problem.

Credit: www.someecards.com

Wednesday morning I chose to sleep in rather than get up and run, so I knew I had an evening run ahead of me, and I was dreading it all day.  Several times I had to talk myself out of skipping it - before I even got home!  So, immediately after I got to the house I ordered myself upstairs to change into running clothes so I wouldn't get comfy on the couch and while away the evening.  After a little procrastinating, I started channel surfing to find the "right" show to watch while running, and lo and behold, Pitch Perfect was on!  So I turned up the volume, flipped the switch on the TM, and started to move.

It still wasn't an easy run, but it was certainly made more enjoyable to have one of my favorite movies on, and the first 10 minutes just flew by!

NTX in August

Welcome to North Texas in August - the thermometer on the back porch (in the shade) officially registered 104 here on Sunday.  We've been hanging out pretty steadily in these temps for a few days now, and are forecast to endure a few more days of this before a "weak cold front" dips us back down into the high 90's later in the week.  Sad when you get excited about double digits.

Whew, let me tell you, this made for a pretty uncomfortable run on Saturday morning.  Even "only" doing 6 miles, and starting at 5am (already 84° at 5am) was pretty brutal.

On the bright side, training in these temps should, theoretically, make at least a couple of my fall races feel a little easier...  ;-)

Too Much and Not Much to Say...

I can't tell you how many times in the past six months I've sat in front of this screen and started to write something...anything...   It's not that I haven't had much to talk about (anybody who knows me in person, feel free to laugh at that thought), it's that sharing those thoughts didn't seem relevant.  I'd start a post about something on my mind, but then re-think and delete it because it's "not important" or "nobody wants to read that" or "this is just me whining about being slow" or "no one wants to hear about my lack of motivation AGAIN."

Source: http://certainlyher.com/

So instead of posting anything, I end up tweaking the page layouts, or updating my race schedule, or cleaning up the sidebars (looks better, no?  If you don't think so, don't tell me.).  I've been "on" the blog plenty...but still no new posts to be seen.

Here's my quick update just to prove I'm still alive and kicking, and still training.  Though training is...a loose term.  My Galloway group started up again at the end of May; I'm still a PGL and we've got a great group.   I'm slower than I'd like to be, but that's working out okay given our target training pace for our group members, but I still need to be pushing myself more mid-week, both in pace and mileage.  

Right now I'm doing good to get in 2-3 sessions during the week and the long run on the weekend.  The weekday sessions are at least one run, but sometimes it's one run and one fast-paced walk or one run and two fast-paced walks, the second run has been kinda infrequent.  I'm having trouble finding the motivation for a second weekday run later in the week, and it's either too hot in the evenings or my bed is much more comfortable than the treadmill in the morning...

Source: RunDisney

Next race up is the Dumbo Double Dare Challenge.  And challenge is precisely the right word.  The 10K and Half combination is exactly what I did at WDW in January with Minnie and Donald, but it wasn't part of a combo race, so the pressure wasn't on.  But they've released the medal designs, and they're awesome, so I'm going to do everything in my power to have that bling around my neck by the end of the weekend!  I'm also counting on some extra motivation from my excellent race partner, Nikki, who may have to drag me through parts of that half marathon course, but I think we'll get it done.

Source: RunDisney

I mean, those are worth dragging my ass through 19.3 miles of L.A. heat on Labor Day weekend, right?  Definitely.

I'm not going to make any promises about trying to be better about posting...I'm just going to go with the flow...posts will happen when they happen.  :-) 

2015 WDW Marathon Weekend Races in Pictures

I'll spare y'all the details of my lackluster races...long story short - I got to see and spend time with great friends and family, both during and outside of the races, and I earned awesome bling, which were my two real goals for the weekend.  So, to make things less boring, I'm just doing a weekend recap in pictures...

At the Expo on Thursday morning

My 10K outfit - Mary Poppins inspired

Dad & me before the 10K on Friday morning

  

Some of the group before the Half Saturday morning - it was cold!

My Half Marathon outfit - Minnie

Nikki & Me in front of Cinderella's Castle

My bling from the 10K & Half

We saw a bride arrive at the Wedding Chapel

Tea @ The Grand Floridian Saturday post-race

CheEARed for friends and family during the Full Marathon on Sunday morning

Day at Magic Kingdom with the family on Monday