Moving

Hey everyone, I am moving my running blog to elisaruns.blogspot.com

Thanks!
Elisa

All downhill from here...

Today I did the CARA Ready to Run 20-Miler. I finished in about 3:50 which leaves enough time for me to break 5 hours if all goes well during the race =)

I feel pretty good all things considered. I actually had enough energy the last 2 miles to pick up the pace. My knee is starting to act up a bit again, I've been icing it and hopefully it'll be fine.

This past week I ran a grand total of 40 miles. Crazy I know, the absolute peak of my training. So now it's time to start tapering, 3 weeks till race day. It's all downhill from here.

Chicago Half Marathon

Today went alright. Not my best race ever but definitely not my worst. 2:35:07 was my official time. I was hoping to set a new PR but conditions just weren't in my favor today. It was extremely warm and humid, it also didn't help that the sun was just reflecting off of the concrete making it feel even hotter. At the start of the race my right leg was feeling extremely stiff, but after 3 miles it loosened up and was feeling alright. Unfortunately I didn't get much sleep the night before so I was also pretty tired. Not to mention my birthday celebration on Thursday...So a combination of those things led me to run slightly slower than I would have liked, but like I said, definitely not a horrible race. Next stop, the full marathon!

School also started this week, so far so good, I like all of my teachers and my classes seem fun. I'm a little skeptical of my programming class at this point, but I'm sure that with some outside research and work I will do just fine.

Addicted

I think it's official, I am now totally and completely addicted to running. This morning I did an 18-miler with some new friends and I feel great. I definitely don't feel like I just ran 18 miles =)

Since moving back to Chicago I met some great running buddies. Although I've only gone on two runs with them I feel like I have been running with them for years. It's amazing how much running with someone makes a difference.

In other running news, I'm running the Chicago Half Marathon this upcoming weekend, hopefully with the flat course I'll be able to set a new PR. I also signed up for the CARA Ready to Run 20-Miler.

For the first time I truely feel like I can do this, I really feel like I'll be able to knock down 26.2 in 5 weeks. It's a great feeling =D

Confidence Boost

The running gods have answered my prayers! Today I ran the Somerset Stampeed 1/2 Marathon. My time was 2:29:04, which beats my Seattle time by 16 minutes.

The course was extremely challenging, it was like running on the edge of a lasagna noodle, constant steep up's and down's the entire time. The majority of the course was on dirt which was good for my knee, the last 2 miles are basically a trail run through the woods which was a lot of fun. Conditions for this race were perfect, nice cool weather, mostly cloudy, not humid and it rained the night before so the parts of the course that were sand had been packed down.

I am extremely happy with the way this race turned out. I've been having trouble with my training and today gave me the confidence boost I needed to keep my head up and keep hammering towards Chicago.

Since the race...

...I've been having a heck of a time with my training. Everything feels 10 times harder. Physically my body is having issues handling the distances. I think this is due to the fact that I literally went from sitting on the couch to doing long distance training. It has only been 5 months since I started running, I ran a half marathon about 3.5 months after I started running and I'm approaching my full marathon. Even though my body hasn't been agreeing with me I am determined to finish this race. After the full I will probably take a small(ish) break from the long distances and focus on the shorter 10K distances and potentially a couple of halfs. We will just have to see!

Rock 'n' Roll Seattle

I FINISHED! My knee was not happy with the situation though. About 5 minutes into the race it felt like a knife was stabbing me in the side of my knee cap. So I did what any runner would do, I kept running. About mile 4 my knee started to feel better, and it felt good through about mile 7. Then it really started to hurt, I walked a bit around mile 9 and I finished with a time of 2:45...extremely slow but I did what I could given the circumstances. Overall not too bad for my first half marathon. Now I just need to get my knee checked out so I can continue training for the Chicago Marathon.

The rest of my Seattle trip was a lot of fun, my friend Danielle who lives in San Francisco came up and hung out with us for the weekend.

My parents sister and I flew in Thursday evening and later that night Eric, John, Danielle, Stephy and I went to Eric's friends house to play flip cup...it was a great idea to do this BEFORE the race I know...

Then on Friday we went to the race expo and walked around Queen Anne a bit. Saturday was the race. Sunday we went out to breakfast and walked around downtown and the market.

It was a short but awesome weekend in Seattle and I wish we could have stayed longer. Oh well, I guess that just means I will have to go back soon =)

Injury...

OK so, everything was going great and I was feeling great and my runs were great...you get the picture. Then all of the sudden my legs started acting up =( I've been taking it easy this past week but today I went out for an 11 mile run as my last long one before Seattle. The first 5ish miles were tough but then I started to loosen up and I was feeling fine. Then at about mile 7 it started to go downhill...my knee started acting up and I had to walk a bit at mile 9. The last 2 miles I had to run/walk to finish. Now when I walk I look like a stroke victim...it's rather unfortunate. I had Stephy tape up my knee and I've been icing it and it's starting to feel better. Hopefully with enough rest I'll be ready to run 13.1 in a week...

Dexter-Ann Arbor 10K

In case you didn't get the hint from the title of this post, I ran the Dexter-Ann Arbor 10K this morning! It was a lot of fun and I felt great the entire time. My time was about 1:06 which is what I was expecting. I wish that I would have pushed myself harder though because it didn't feel like I worked hard at all during the race. Oh well, live and learn.

I have been going to many of my friend Zack's cycling races. I've been helping his team out a lot working the feed zone and at the last race I drove the support car for the Cat. 3's. I really want to get into cycling so I can do duathlons and potentially triathlons. Unfortunately money is a slight issue. Mostly because it looks like I am going to need to get a new computer because my current laptop doesn't have a large enough hard drive to support all of the animation, design and programming software that I am going to need in the upcoming years. Maybe some of my new cycling friends will be able to hook me up =D

The countdown for Seattle begins, 27 Days!!!

Well...so much for that.

I said I was going to blog every week with an update on my training. As you can see that failed. I've just been so busy with school I haven't really had time to blog. But other than that my training has been going really well. Last weekend I was supposed to run 6 miles, but I couldn't see the street signs and I overshot my turnaround point. I ended up going about 7.6 miles instead...oops. It didn't feel like I went that far though, which is good. Then this past Friday I ran the Advance Packaging 5K here in Jackson. My time was 31:09, about 2 minutes faster than I was expecting =D

On a non-running related note, I am not living in Chicago anymore =( I have moved home for the summer and I am taking a math class at JCC. This past weekend I was in Ann Arbor visiting some friends and helping out at a cycling road race. I told some of my cycling friends there that if they could get me a bike, shoes, helmet and kit I would do a race at the end of the summer...we'll see if that actually pulls through...