Half-marathon selections!

So I have found three half-marathons that I am considering.

1. Quad Cities. I have run this before, and it's a nice course. I wouldn't have to pay for a hotel because my grandparents live in the area. It's only $40 to register, which is really good, and I love the post-race refreshments (pizza, hot dogs... :D). The only downside is that I would only have 16 weeks to train, whereas I would have 20 or 21 weeks with the two races below.

2. Des Moines. It's in-state, and I've never done a half-marathon in Iowa before. I could stay at my friend's dorm at Drake (I assume) the night before, so again, free lodging. My dad did the full marathon a couple years ago and said it was pretty nice. And it is in October, which gives me 4 more weeks of training than Quad Cities would, but it costs $15 more.

3. On the Road for Education (Mason City). My dad is running this full marathon, so I could tag along with him and run the half. My only concern is that it would be really small. I sort of like medium-sized races best. I don't know how much it costs. But one huge perk is that it is the Sunday of my school's fall break, so I wouldn't have to worry about homework that weekend.

I'm back. I think.

I haven't updated this since January. I know. Shame on me. I don't know if anyone even looks at this anymore, it's been so long. But I think I'm finally over the hill with this tendonitis thing. My knee has been doing better and I'm starting to gain back (a little) of my speed. Since January, I've gained about 12-15 pounds and lost a lot of fitness, so it's been a struggle the last couple months to get back to where I was probably a year and a half or even two years ago.

I need to set some goals for myself, now that I am able to run 3-4 miles easily, about 5 times a week. That's how my weekly miles should be, 3-4 miles, and I should be able to start running longer on the weekends (and that is very exciting).

So I need to find a fall half-marathon (because I am determined to run another one; I haven't run a half since last April!). I need to come up with a training schedule. I've been keeping a notebook this week to keep track of my runs: my route, my splits, etc. I've been doing pretty even splits, too, which is new! I need to send my Garmin in and have it fixed because it keeps getting WAY off on time, so I've been using just a regular watch-stopwatch and that's been nice.

Today I am going to go half-marathon shopping online and try to find one I can train for. In the short-term, I am going to try to work on my 3-mile pace because I want to do well on the 4th of July 5k in town (I doubt I will be able to do an 8k comfortably by then). I'm excited. This knee is finally starting to work itself out! :D

I also need to change the header on this blog. It's past May 16, I didn't wind up training for the Green Bay marathon... so that needs to change, for sure.

But most of all, I need to shower. 70 degrees (at 6:30 am!) and 99% humidity means very sweaty. (And by the way, 6:30 is late for me now. During the week, I work from 7 to 3:30 at my new job, so I get up to run at 4:30 just like my dad does. It's crazy early, but it's always cooler and very pretty!)

I will definitely update this blog when I've found my half-marathon choices. I'll have to sleep on them for a while, but I'll definietly be browsing today!

So it has been almost a month since my last post. I've been doing a lot of cross training, and slowly getting back into running. I've been biking 8-12 miles on the days that I work out, and run 1-2 miles. I've been trying to run 2 a day the last couple days I've ran (Thursday and today). The knee is definitely getting better. I'm running with a patellar brace strap thing on and that helps. I'm looking forward to being able to do 3-4 at a time, and getting back on my old half marathon schedule. Hopefully, I can do a half this spring and still train for a full sometime in September or October.

Once I stop biking and start running fulltime again, I'll have to start updating my blog regularly. But until then, I don't really see the point in documenting my recovery workouts. It should be another 2 weeks until I'm good to go and am weaned off the bike. :) See you then!

Days Thirty-Five and Thirty-Six

Miles: Big fat 0

So... went to the doctor. She says I have patellar tendonitis. So I'm probably not going to be able to run for a couple weeks. I'll be cross training back at the fitness center at school as of Monday, when it reopens, but still... :( I like running better!

This sucks. :/

Day Thirty-Four

Miles: 6
Time: 53:34
Pace: 8:56
Splits: 8:44, 8:54, 8:45, 9:10, 9:10, 8:53

I HATE MY STUPID DUMB KNEE!

So I managed to get my dad to run with me, since he is home from work today. We ran 6 miles outside. The Weather Channel said it was about 10 degrees out and felt like 4, but our house thermometer said it was 24 degrees. It felt more around 20 than 4 degrees, so I am guessing the Weather Channel was just on crack.

Today's run was really, really painful; not gonna lie. My knee was starting to actually hurt around 1.75 miles, which is never good when you are running for another 4.25 miles. It wasn't feeling good when we turned around at 3 miles and around 4.3 miles, we went under an overpass and something twinged in my knee and it hurt REALLY bad. At 5 miles on my watch and about 5.1 on my dad's (our Garmins are way off from each other, it's weird) we went up this hill to go on a bridge on the trail and my leg slipped in some snow a little and my knee hurt a lot. And I just stopped and rubbed my knee and started crying. I felt totally pathetic and really frustrated.

We took it kind of slow the last mile back to the house, but my knee hardly hurt after the brief stop while I was crying like a baby. :/

But I have a doctor appointment set up for Thursday at 8:30 am. So I should be getting some answers soon. My dad told me not to run 8 miles tomorrow. I'll probably just do 2-4 before work. I'll wrap up my knee after I take a shower, and hopefully that helps. Meh. :(

Days Thirty-two and Thirty-Three

Miles: 10
Time: 1:29:00
Pace: 8:54
Splits: 8:36, 8:39, 8:18, 8:51, 9:33, 8:42, 8:57, 9:08, 9:19, 8:52

FIRST: The 9:33 split is about 30 seconds slow because my Garmin screen went off training mode and I had to stop to get it back to normal and discovered that the time was running the whole time. Oops. That permanently upset my pace for the rest of the run (but not by much, looking at the later splits).

Okay, so it was cold out. Around 15 or so degrees, about 6-8 mph breeze. My mom dropped my dad and I off at this park at the top of the canyon only to find that the trail was closed. So my dad and I ran around 3.5 miles down the side of a highway to this park where we could get onto a cleared section of the trail. Then we found that the trail still had snow on it (but just a little bit) so we ran on that for about a mile until the parts that had basically no snow (during which time my Garmin got all funky).

Around 5 miles, my knee started to get tight and act up. By around 5.5 miles, it was a lost cause. By about mile 7.5-8, the miles just seemed to go on forever. I seriously had to try really, really hard to keep myself from getting upset and crying. Like, my miles weren't THAT bad for the last 3 miles, but it just hurt and was really frustrating. But I made it! 10 whole miles! :D

I really, really want to get my knee checked out. Just so I can figure out what to do with it so I'm not running half+ of my runs in pain anymore.


Miles: 4
Time: 35:08
Pace: 8:46
Splits: to be posted

Getting used to the altitude... only to go home Monday. Woooooo! It was really cold, about 8-10 degrees, but without the bitter Iowa wind which made it far more tolerable. It was mostly flat, which made it easier. Knee didn't bug me too much, so that is good. My breathing was horrible though because it was so cold and the whole second mile was a gradual incline. It got much better on the way back to the car.

Day Thirty-One

Miles: 4
Time: to be posted
Pace: 9:17
Splits: to be posted

It is official, I hate higher altitudes. I can't breathe enough for running! :( I feel like I have bronchitis all over again. Ick.

Run today was slow. There was a lot of ice covered in a thin layer of snow, so my dad and I were running really cautiously. I almost fell about 12 times, and my dad hardly ever almost fell but did for real fall with about .40 left of the run.

I have no idea where/how we are going to run 10 miles on Sunday. My lungs just suck with the cold, dry, high altitude air. But we'll just get it done... very slowly. :/

My knee bothered me, as usual. But I have been wrapping it and that makes it feel better afterwards. So that's good at least.