Ummm... Whoops?

So I haven't done this in a while.

UPDATES SINCE JUNE!

• I am happily in training for Little Rock Marathon next March!!! I ran a lovely, quaint, rather easy 8 miler yesterday (no big deal) and despite some fuel issues (namely the fact that I completely forgot Gu/fruit strips/anything of the sort at all) and a sore butt today (we ran up Kavanaugh, AKA the Hill O' Death), it went amazingly! I feel more prepared for Soaring Wings on the 29th of next month than I ever did for Nashville, probably because I'm actually training now, rather than just building a fitness base. 
• I'm an obnoxiously proud New Member of the Epsilon Xi chapter of Delta Zeta!! I'm so amazingly blessed to have been invited to become a part of one of the most amazing groups of women I've ever met. 
• I'm teaching a Latin/Hip-Hop fusion class at UCA! Awesome because I'm also AFAA Group Ex Certified and that makes me legit (too legit to quit).
• Total weight loss: 60 pounds. I tried lifting a 60 pound dumbbell at the gym the other day and I looked like a moron. Then some guy walked up, grabbed both and did bicep curls. Whatevs. I'd also like to note that 60 pounds is the size of one of my little brothers. Or 240 sticks of butter (ewwwwww). Or three tires. Or 12 chihuahuas. Or Kate Moss. Long story short, it's a lot.
• New goal: Branson Ironman 70.3 next September. That's a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and a 13.1 mile run. I figure after Little Rock plus a month or two of active recovery I'll be in good enough shape to maintain and then train for this. 
• Long-term goal: I WILL be an Ironman. Maybe not for 5 years, maybe not for 10, but one day I will conquer the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and 26.2 mile run. It's gonna happen. Until then, this is what I look at every time I look at my phone...

795.5 Miles.

So yeah, I've got my running schedule planned out from this Sunday until the Little Rock Marathon next March. That 10th anniversary medal better be frickin' ginormous.

Because I know myself and I know how much running can suck sometimes if you're REAAAAALLLLY not feeling it (not a "ew I'd rather not run today" but an "I would rather use a toenail to give myself brain surgery and temporarily disable my legs than run" day. those happen. occasionally) I've built in enough time that missing a run (or two or three, since I usually get a lovely illness in late-fall/early-winter) won't be a problem at all. In 8 months, I'll have (hopefully, please dear God let me have) conquered my first (and perhaps only) 26.2. And I'll have the baddest-ass sticker on the back of my car to prove it. 

Cross-training will be used 1-2 days a week, and may be used to substitute for runs in the event of emergency. Sprinkle copious amounts of yoga and a dash of Zumba and you've got a winning recipe.

I believe the week of March 11th looks fantastic. If it's on the schedule, you have to do it!

Let's See How Far We've Come...

This is the picture on my license that was taken on my

 birthday in 2010... 16 months later, I'm down 50 

pounds, 5-6 pants sizes (depending on the store), I 

have a half-marathon under my belt, and I'm planning

 to run a full marathon and complete a half Ironman. 

I will NEVER go back.

Oh Hey...

I'm now a MEDIUM at Banana Republic and a size 8 at J. Crew. 

Hell. Freaking. Yes.

I would also like to acknowledge that I suck at this.

Sorry. 

Between finals, life, moving into my apartment(!!!!!!), and working (like a grown-up), I just haven't found time.

I would like to take this time to post what I had in a draft the day after I (ahem)...

 RAN A HALF-MARATHON!!!!!

Saturday was, by far, one of the most exciting, thrilling, terrifying, exhilarating, and completely exhausting days of my life. Sara Ann, Dad, and I were lucky enough to get a room in the hotel directly across the street from the start line, so Friday was spent going about our normal routines while pausing periodically to glance over at what would become the gathering point for one of the largest crowds I've ever seen. After a good night's rest, we woke at 5AM (ew) to go grab a bagel (which was nowhere near enough food, but oh well... you live and you learn), take the monstrous dose of Tylenol and Advil the nice doctor at OrthoArkansas told me to take so that I wouldn't be able to feel my bruised kneecap when it got mad, and try not to completely spazz out. At 6:45AM, we dropped our "swag bags" off with the handy UPS people and moved merrily/spastically along to the corrals... Merrily was Sara Ann, spastically was me.
CORRAL TIME:  At this point, it was abundantly clear that this was indeed my first time at the rodeo. I was freaking out as literally every possible scenario played through my mind of what could go wrong. Being trampled, hyperventilating, heat exhaustion, lightning strikes (it was sunny, mind you), re-spraining my ankle, tripping and looking like a complete moron, running and looking like a complete moron, and anything else that you could possibly imagine going wrong was shooting through my head faster than a Kenyan. (Sara Ann was wearing a shirt that read "In my dreams I'm a Kenyan... Very appropriate.) Cue more nervous twitching on my part and a separation of Sara Ann and I. (She was about 6 corrals behind me for some reason that I do not know.)

STARTING LINE!!!: It took about 30 minutes for me to get from my corral (ahem, 26) to the start line. Every step I took I was more and more scared. The same fears (see: Corral Time) were shooting through my mind. I made small talk with some girls around me, 'cause that's what I do, and put my game face on. When I actually got to the start line and finally got to the start, I was in the zone, and I was going.

MILES 1-5: I was going strong for the first few miles, and it was glorious. I found my pacer dude and was going strong with him until I realized A) the course map lied and B) I was spawning the blisters of the century. The course map said that there was the "big hill" around mile marker 3, and the rest was relatively flat. Well, my friends, that was bullshit. Up and down. Up and down. Up and down. The hilliest run of my life. It was also the hottest run of my life, and I adapted a very advanced method for cooling and hydration. At water stops, one cup went to the mouth, one went to the head. That worked well until I put my phone in my sports bra for safe keeping and then poured water on my head. Cue the spastic cleaning of the phone. I was gonna choke down a GU but it fell out of my belt, so I nommed down on some delicious, yet ridiculous to chew SportBeans. Sara Ann also caught up to me around mile 5, which was a good thing since she was running with partially healed shin splints and, in the off chance she should need to stop, I would know when I passed her. 

MILES 6-10: The extent to which the bastards lied about hills was completely evident here. I took some GU Chomps at about mile 6 and they were surprisingly delicious, considering the fact that GU itself makes me want to vomit. Continue running. I saw Dad, and that was a nice little morale boost. Keep on running. Cue "'Till I Collapse". Cue "Heart of A Champion". Cue "Bring It All Back" by S Club 7. I was chugging. I also took a course-provided GU at mile 10.4. So gracious of them to offer GU THREE MILES AWAY FROM THE FINISH. It would have been better used around, oh I don't know, mile 5?

MILES 11-13: We went down and up some more, and the hill to end all hills was from about 11.5 to 13. It sucked. It sucked bad. EVERYONE was walking. EVERYONE. Some volunteers hollered "ONCE YOU GET TO THE BRIDGE IT'S ALL DOWNHILL!!" I made it to the bridge. That was the most beautiful bridge I've ever seen in my entire life. 

MILE 13.1... AKA THE FINISH!!!!!!: I freaking sprinted the entire way from the bridge to the finish line. As soon as I saw it, I started crying. All the miles I've run, all the hard work, all the pain, all the blisters were worth it. I saw my dad after the finish line and broke down. After I composed myself, I got my picture made, got some food, found Sara Ann, and we hopped our exhausted asses on the bus (that got lost) and went back to the hotel.

BACK AT THE HOTEL: We hobbled up to the room, where we changed out of our DISGUSTING clothes and our appetites came in full force. We hopped over to PF Chang's and I devoured an ENTIRE Beef with Broccoli entree. It was delicious. I enjoyed every single bite. I then slept halfway coming home. Life was grand. 

THE FOLLOWING WEEK: I couldn't walk normally. I was sore, achy, hurting, but I relished in every single second of it. I've never felt more badass in my entire life. Will I keep running? Hell yes. Will I keep running the half-marathon? I LOVED the distance. Will I try a full marathon? One. Just once, just for the sticker on the back of my car. 

SOME SNAPSHOTS:

SHIRT: If found on ground, please drag across finish line! HEADBAND: Dear God, PLEASE let there be someone behind me to read this!

Pre-race icing!

For Maw-Maw and Pop-Pop!!!

SO LEGIT!

This now has a home on my rear windshield.

WHISKEY IS NOT OKAY!

START LINE!! MY CORRAL WAS NEXT!

Right foot, arch of foot.

Left foot, inner ankle.

WE DID IT!!!

I'm a badass.

ICE BATH. Whoo-hoo.

My fortune cookie from PF Chang's... SO true!

WE ROCK!! And were extremely sore!

The Two-Part Long Run

A fellow (probably more legitimate, and slightly more serious) runner whom I follow on Twitter (you can hit Scott from iRunnerBlog up here) introduced me to the idea of the short long run. Long story short, you take the distance you're to run that day, divide that distance by two, and run twice in a 24 hour period. So yesterday, instead of running ten miles at once, I split it up into two five-milers and ran twice. I feel that a pro/con list is the best for this situation. I love pro/con lists, and I especially love t-charts, but they're complicated to do in this posting thingy, so list it is.

PROS:

• It made dreadmill running far more bearable.
• I will say, dreadmills have an advantage over outdoor running in that I can mimic the elevation of the course with the push of a button and run something as similar to the course as I can get without being there.
• And there are TV's on every dreadmill. The Real Housewives kept me company yesterday.
• And I can keep my water, gatorade, fruit strips, and an actual bathroom nearby at all times.
• This needs no further explanation.
• The little twinge thing behind my knee didn't bother me at all. 
• I like anything involved with running that doesn't cause me pain.
• Being able to refuel properly between runs really made the last half easier for my body to handle. I've been having problems with having enough energy to finish strong recently, but yesterday wasn't a problem. 
• I've also got my run-walk-run ratio down properly.
• Wahoo!
• I went to the gym twice yesterday. It made me feel like a BAMF.

CONS:

• The blisters that developed in my first run made the second unbearably painful. I made it through two miles of the second and then hopped on the elliptical, cranked the incline/height up to 20 and the resistance up to 10, and finished the last three looking like a freaking ninja. People were looking at me like I was crazy, but honestly, even then I wasn't out of breath or sweating very much. It made me feel really conditioned, and for the first time in a while I felt in shape. It felt nice.
• The maximum for both is 20.
• I wore bad socks, so the blisters were totally my fault. Still though. It SUCKED.
• I'm not one to complain about pain, but I'll complain about blisters.
• I tried molefoam and band-aid blister protection things, but they slipped off... Any suggestions?
• Yeah, that was the only con.

So basically, I'm gonna be using this two-part method for the one long run I have left before my half and for all of the long runs I can for my full. Less exciting is the fact that my long runs for my full will be divided up into two parts that are each as long as two of my shorter long runs. But I can, I will, I am able.... I think.

Wow, I haven't done this in a while...

Real life has gotten in the way of my blogging. Lo siento, you guys. 

IN THE PAST MONTH....

• Total weight lost: Almost 40 pounds. 40. Freaking. Pounds. That's the size of a small kindergartner. No big deal or anything.

• Total inches lost: 26.5 inches. And I only started measuring 17 pounds ago. I've lost over 25 inches in 17 pounds and I've lost almost 40 pounds total. Yeah. I'm not even gonna try to do that math.

• Current pant size: 12. I bought like five pairs of real shorts (AKA not Nike shorts... I now own 9 pairs of those. I live in them) over Spring Break, and two pairs now need belts to not fall down. I was at least a size 18 when I started, maybe bigger. (The head in the sand approach was used.) That means I'm down at least three pant sizes. Hell to the yes. 

• Current length of long runs: 12 miles. In a row. Lately my body's been dragging so I'm upping my carb intake. I love carbs. Sara Ann and I may or may not have eaten macaroni and cheese for dinner last night. It may or may not have been delicious. (HINT: We did and it was.) 

• Piece of bad news: Injuries. Sara Ann's been out for a few weeks with stress fractures in her shins and I've messed up something teensy behind my left knee. It usually isn't a big deal, but towards the end of my longer runs, it starts hurting. Monday, it started acting up really badly and the pain started moving up my thigh at about mile three... I think I just strained something, but I'm just gonna buck up/take Advil/permanently affix an ice pack to my knee until the half. Speaking of which...

• I run the Nashville Country Music Half Marathon in 17 days. 17. Freaking. Days. Ahhh!!! Towards the beginning of this shindig, I really didn't think a half was a big deal... I mean, come on! It's ONLY 13.1 miles... HA. The one thing I've learned recently is to respect the distance. I honestly didn't. I didn't think a half was that big of a deal, but now, with every run, and every twinge of pain, and every damn walking break I take, I wonder if I'm really ready for this. Which brings me to this...

• Despite the fact that I will be finishing and I would love to do so in under 2 1/2 hours... I just don't think I'm gonna do it that quickly. I've been running for four months, and my body's just not conditioned well enough to sustain running 13.1 miles. When I started, I asked a professor at Hendrix who has run more marathons than can possibly be normal whether this was feasible. His first words were, "well you're gonna be running a lot, but you're gonna be walking a lot too." I didn't really believe him until I got to about mile 6 of my first 10 miler. I'm learning to respect my body and its efforts a lot more... I'm doing something in four months that takes most people years. Yes, I'm crazy for going for a half so soon. Yes, it's gonna take a while. But you're out of your mind if you think I'm not gonna give it my everything. And while we're on this topic...

• I'm also postponing my first 26.2 for this same reason. I don't think that next January is enough time for 26.2. I would be starting training in July, and that's only two months between my half and the start of training to build up endurance I need to be able to last through 16, 18, 20, 22 mile training runs (my legs started aching just thinking about that).  Instead, I'm gonna run the Little Rock Marathon next March. Two more months may not sound like a lot, but it'll give me a little more time and a decent little break for my body and the stress i'm putting it under. Also, Hendrix was going to be paying for my trip to WDW... And I'm not coming back to Hendrix in the Fall. Not because of grades or anything... It's just not for me.

• I think that's it? PS: new pic of Sara Ann and I. I already want to be back on the beach.

Oh I have lots to catch y'all up on...

Just got back from the beach.

I'm about to run my first 8-miler.

I'll give y'all the play-by-play later on.

PS: About halfway through my run is a hill that includes a 400 foot elevation change. I'll save you the math-- about 40 stories. Yeah, it's freaking huge.

Eek!!