The next featured runner!

I know, I know.

We haven't had a featured runner up here in a loooong time, and for that I take full responsibility.  Life has been bunches of crazy, and this poor blog has been one of the things I let fall to the wayside.  Thanks to Christy for being so faithful with her Marathon Mondays, otherwise this blog would be a ghost town!!

Anyway, for the next featured runner, since it has been way too long since there's been one and since you all have nominated fellow bloggers, I decided this time that I would just utilize random.org and enter all of our followers and choose one that way.  Well out of our 68 followers, random.org came up with no. 18 which is...

Cynthia O'H from Balls in the Air!!

Congrats, Cynthia!  Email me {Chloe} at chlooeee[at]gmail[dot]com to get you set up to be featured!  Excited to start doing these again!

{Oh, and for those of you who are interested, here's a brief race recap of my recent half marathon from my real-life blog.  Sorry I never got around to posting on up here! Bad, bad blogger.}

Marathon Monday

Hey everyone! I hope you've all had a wonderful week training!

I...did not. I only ran twice this week and only for about 3 miles each. I missed my 18-mile long run and all of my workouts. I was at the UN from 6am to sometimes 10pm every day last week and had class and school work and my body was not in any shape for an 18-mile run this week, so last night, in place of my 18, I did a 5k on the treadmill and then swan a couple of laps.

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But my schedule is definitely calming down this week and I'll definitely be training this week since I'm running my Half-Marathon on Sunday!!

So since this week is Race Week, I'll be training but taking it easy so that I'm fresh for Sunday!

The plan is as follows:
Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday: 5 miles
Wednesday: X-Train
Thursday: 8 miles
Friday: Time Trial
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Half-Marathon!

Depending on how my race goes, I may try and throw in an easy 5 miles on Sunday after my race just to increase my mileage for the week so that I'm on track for the race since I'm slightly behind =/ We'll see how I feel though!

I'm now officially 2 months away from my Marathon and feeling pretty good, although as this month draws to a close and I reach the half-way point of my training, my goals for the next two months leading up to Race Day which I'll be incorporating into my schedule next week are:

• Start running 5 days per week
• Run no less tan 32 miles in any given week leading up to Race Day
• Incorporate at minimum 2 cross and strength training workouts per week

I've got a lot of work ahead of me, but it's definitely going to pay off! I'm just 2 months away from crossing #1 off of my 25 Before 25 list and I can't wait!

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Marathon Monday!

Sometimes you just have to let anger be the fuel for your run.

As I predicted, I did not get many of my training runs in last week. Out of what should have been a 32 mile week, I had a 16 mile week. And I am perfectly ok with this. I knew I wasn't going to have time. I needed to catch up on my school work and that took priority. So I did what I could. I ran 6 miles on Thursday and switched my plan 16-mile SLR (Sunday Long Run) for an easy 10 miles.

Here's where the anger kicks in. There's a guy who I've seen running in Central Park lately (on the pavement, in the bike and/or runner lanes, no less) who likes to run the park while kicking a soccer ball around. He also likes to kick it up right behind your feet and then just as it hits the back of your heels, he kicks it out from underneath you. Well, Sunday, I accidentally kicked his ball away and the asshole, if you'll excuse my language, had the nerve to go off on me! I was SO pissed and I was trying to shake it off and I just couldn't. I immediately resigned to the fact that this run was going to suck.

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And then I realized that I was running fast. Faster than usual and I could feel the power in my legs and I could feel the anger just fueling me. I still wanted to shake things off but I kept running. And then I had a guy on a bicycle in the RUNNERS' LANE ring his stupid bell at me just as he was about to hit me. I got pissed. And I just kept letting things get to me and I let them fuel my run, but I turned the anger into positive fuel so I wasn't angry while I ran, I was just fueled. Does that make sense? And you know what? I went on a 10 mile run without any fuel (no GUs, Energy Blasts, etc.) and I think that's what did it for me. The best part? Lance Armstrong coming in my ears at the end of my workout to say that I've reached a new personal best for my fastest mile recorded on my Nike+. 8:05. And that felt awesome.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I want to be this angry on all of my runs. To be honest, if I ever see soccer ball man again, I probably will punch him in the face, but it was an important lesson learned on how to transform that negative energy that had me thinking this was going to be an awful run, into positive energy. And that's what this blog (and marathon training) is all about, right? Lessons learned?

On that note, here's my training plan for the week:

Monday: Rest Day (although I was on my feet all day)

Tuesday: 5 mile run (this will be tricky to squeeze in)

Wednesday: Cross-Training (so will this)

Thursday: 1 mile Time Trial (may have to switch Tuesday and Thursday...)

Friday: Rest Day

Saturday: 4 miles

Sunday: 18 miles

Total Miles Planned: 28

*That doesn't seem right...may have to look at my schedule again...maybe the Time Trial is next week before the Half? We'll see!*

Anyway, this week will be tough again, but I will get all of my workouts in. I'm volunteering at the United Nations HQ in New York for the General Assembly/Millennium Development Goal Summit and I'm up at 4am every day this week to be at the UN. It's tough and I'm off to bed right now at the early hour of 8:30, but it's an awesome opportunity and I met 2 1/2 presidents today because of it! (Half because I only stood next to one of them and didn't converse with him (= )

Happy Running everyone!

Here Goes Nothing...

Hey running friends!

Sorry I've been a bad co-blogger,

and sorry there hasn't been a featured runner in while!

Let's just say, things got a little crazy.

Because that's what you're supposed to say

when you're busy, right?

Anyway, for those of you who don't follow my

real-life-non-running blog,

{on which I actually talked about running today}

this Sunday, I am running my first-ever half marathon!

But, sad to say, I'm not excited about it.

I didn't train as well or nearly as much as I should have,

and thus, my odds of reaching the oh-so-coveted

sub-2 hour half marathon

seem pretty slim.

And my pride is already hurting

for my inevitable 2+ hour time.

Dumb, no?

I haven't even run the race, yet I'm already resigned.

Oh well, my pride could use a little humbling.

Pray for me!  I'll let you know my eventual time as soon as I know!

Any long runs/races going on for you this weekend?

Do share!

Marathon Monday!

Happy Monday everyone!

I hope you've all had a great weekend and that everyone is getting in some great runs in prep for upcoming races! It seems like everyone is racing these days...I guess it's that season!

I had a great training week last week and managed to run my furthest run yet: 15 miles! And it felt great! In the middle of all this, I've started grad school and have met tons of runners in my program, including my Advisor who will be running his 10th NYC Marathon this November! How exciting is that?!

In other exciting news, I started running in Central Park and have finally after a bout of 2 months in a running rut, been able to finish my runs at an average sub-9 pace! I've also been able to run non-stop! I ran 15 miles on Sunday non-stop (well, I stopped to pee, but not because I felt like I couldn't keep going!) I absolutely adore running in Central Park! It is the most incredible run I've ever been on! The only thing I don't like about it is that it takes me about half an hour to get there from my apartment because the NYC subways suuuuuuuuuck!

So it's raining in New York this week and my schedule of reading and work to do in preparation for each class is absolutely overwhelming! I have no idea how/when I'm going to fit in my weekday workouts! On top of all that, I started a new job today and am even more busy than I expected to be! How do you all manage to run during busy weeks? Before you all jump on the: "I run in the morning!" kick...realize that it takes me half an hour to get to Central Park and half an hour to get back, so a 6 mile run, which takes me about an hour to run and stretch actually equals 2 hours! And then showering, getting ready etc, we're looking at close to 3 hours and waking up at 5am and getting on the subway is just not in the cards! So if any of you have any suggestions, they would be much appreciated!

In the mean time, I'll be trying my absolute hardest to fit this training into my schedule this week:
Monday: Rest Day! (Much-Needed!)
Tuesday: 6 mile run
Wednesday: Cross-Training
Thursday: 5 mile run
Friday: Rest Day
Saturday: 5 mile run
Sunday: 16 mile run
Total Miles Planned: 32

I'm at that point in my training now where every run is further than I've ever run before and I love it!

Happy Running everyone!

Marathon Monday!

Hey guys! Christy here! I'm so sorry I haven't been keeping up with my duties as a co-blogger here at Confessions...there have been quite a few things going on in my life, including the fact that I sold my computer and was computer-less until today!

So every Monday I write a post on my blog called Marathon Monday where I talk about what's going on with me and my training for the Philadelphia Marathon. I write about everything from diet and nutrition to maximizing rest days to posting my planned workouts for the week. I've decided it's time to stop boring my non-running readers with my Marathon Monday posts and move them over to here!

Since it's getting late and I have school tomorrow (yikes! i start grad school tomorrow!) so I'm just going to post my training plan for this week and leave you all with a link to my post from a previous Marathon Monday!

Monday:  Rest Day
Tuesday: 7 mile run
Wednesday: Elliptical Hill Workout
Thursday: 6 mile run
Friday: Rest Day
Saturday: 6 mile
Sunday: 5k race with 2 mile warm-up and 1 mile cool-down
Total Planned: 25

My training plan has no long run this week which is good because I think I'll need the recovery time while still getting in the same mileage. And speaking of recovery, here's a Marathon Monday post I did awhile back about recovering from a run!

Happy Running!

Review: The Tytenz Go Belt

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It came! It came! It came!

Remember how I ordered a running belt the other day (for which I only paid $2.24.  GOLDEN)?  Well it came today, just in time for my 10 miler tomorrow, and so far and I already love it!  I didn't get a choice of color because I bought it via amazon.com, and they ended up shipping me black.  Disappointing when I realized I could have gotten pink, but I realized black will blend in better with my running shorts and won't be as LOOK-AT-ME as something neon-colored.  Ha.

Alright, so I probably shouldn't be posting a review until after I actually run with the thing {unless you count trotting/bouncing around my apartment while singing along to The Killers}, but I just couldn't resist.  This thing is awesome!  Here's a picture of it on me [don't mind the jean shorts.]

So first I tried it with some gels and my phone.  Not bad.  It didn't weigh me down or bounce or slide. Granted it was jean material, but again, bear with me on the lack-of-actual-usage-part.  Then I decided to stick my trusty iPod touch in there, and dreams of running armbands free starting swirling in my head.  This is also when The Killers sing-a-long commenced.

And that lumpy thing you see to the right?  Heh, that's my phone.  The one major qualm I have with the belt is that one pocket it WAY smaller than the other one.  So my phone sticks out awkwardly through the super stretchy fabric.  We'll see if it makes a difference in the bounce-age.

...but running arm-band free seems like a dream come true.  Can't wait to try it out tomorrow!

Oh ps. other exciting news!  There's a big half-marathon going on this Sunday not to far from us, so Josiah and I are hitting up the expo tomorrow (I going fully armed with birthday money) and we're going to stay to see John Bingham interview Frank Shorter, Jim Ryun and Greg Meyer.  Is it bad that I'm most excited about seeing John Bingham? LOL.  Should be fun!

Happy long weekend everyone!

What long runs or races do you have going on?