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...

So Far So Good...

Well I am about a week and a half into my half marathon training program and I am proud to say that I have not had to stop and walk once in the middle of one of my runs *knock on wood* My left knee has been bothering me. It's wierd because it doesn't bother me when I run, only when I stop, hmm....

On another note, I have officially signed up for the Rock n' Roll Seattle Half Marathon woohoo! I am really excited because this is my first major race that I've actually thought about ahead of time (Lost Dutchman doesn't count because Stephy and I did it just for the hell of it). My Mom also signed up for the half and my Dad signed up for the full. It's going to be a fun trip, hopefully the hills don't kill me...

On yet another note school has been going pretty well, my procrastination is starting to kick me in the butt though, so what do I do? Procrastinate more and make a blog post...go me! Next week I have 12 pages of an essay due, I currently have 3. My pencil test for my final Animation project is due. I have a project for New Millennium Studies due as well as a project for Digital Image Design...FML

Fun, yet lazy weekend...

Well...over the past week I didn't run as much as I probably should have. Monday I did 20 minutes of cross training. Tuesday, I ran 5 miles, and Wednesday I ran 2. Then on Wednesday night Eric and John came to visit. Thursday Eric left, then Patty, John and John were in town. Friday Patty and John left, Eric came back and Pat also came. Friday John, Eric and I went to see RENT. It was amazing and I got to meet Anthony Rapp! Saturday Eric and I went for a 3 mile run, needless to say I cannot run as fast as him but oh well. The rest of Saturday Eric, John, Pat and I hung out and had an awesome time. Sunday Pat left and Eric went to visit some of his family members. John was supposed to fly out that day also but all of the flights were booked, so we went and saw "I Love You Man" and he flew out early this morning. Around noon today Eric came back and we hung out untill he had to leave to catch a 7:30 flight back to Seattle. So, as you may be able to see, I've been extremely busy this week, but tomorrow I expect to be back on track with day 1 of my half-marathon training program!

Marathon!

Alright first things first, school has been going great, I have officially changed my major to Computer Animation and I am really excited about that. I have also started running in hopes to run the Rock & Roll Seattle Half Marathon. I decided to take it all the way and run the 2009 Chicago Marathon on October 11th. I registered last night and it's time to start training! So I thought it would be a good idea to use my extremely non-eventful blog to start a running journal. I will TRY to write here at least once a week and since I now actually have something to write about, but we all know how that has gone in the past...so if anyone actually reads this then get on my case about posting more if I start to slack off!

Wish me luck!