My first track workout

Yesterday I went to my first track workout, and it was actually quite fun! I thought for sure I would be the slowest person there, and that I would hold people up...but I didn't. I hung in there the whole time and felt pretty good. After Jack told us the workout, we all just lined up on the track and took off. Well some people took off; I just kind of did my thing. Our workout totaled 4 miles, but with the warm up and warm down, I did closer to 6 miles in total. Thanks to Jack, I definitely did my workout faster than I would have on my own. I think I'm heading back for more next Tuesday!!

Where have I been?

First off, the past few weeks have been quite busy. Not only have I been training for a marathon, fundraising for Dana Farber, working two jobs, and trying to keep up something of a social life, but I have also been planning for our July wedding. Am I making up excuses for why I haven't blogged? Perhaps I am. But it's all true!

Here's my (long overdue)running update: I'm up to a 14 mile long run, and I am continuing to run around 9:15 pace (give or take), which I am happy with. I'm especially happy with that pace considering all of my long runs include the infamous heartbreak hills. Last weekend I skipped the group run and opted to run on Saturday, the warmer day of the weekend instead. Thankfully a teammate, Shifter, set up an organized run for 7 or 8 of us. He was nice enough to put out water stops and provide us with maps of the course. It was definitely nice to get the run over with, and not freeze to death like our unfortunate teammates who ran in single digits on Sunday. Thanks Shifter!

Today we had a group run; the best group run so far, I think. I ran with Beth, a teammate from Marblehead, who ironically enough attended the middle school I teach at years ago and even had some of my colleagues as teachers! So we certainly had a lot to talk about. Deb and Anne were running with us for most of the way too. All of us kept each other going the whole way, and even talked about potentially running together later this week. It's definitely nice to have a group to talk with, that's for sure.
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I'll try to keep up with my blogging on a more regular basis. I swear I have "blog worthy" material daily, but getting to the computer and actually typing it in never seems to happen.

I think I need Yak tracks

Saturday's long run consisted of 12 miles of running, sliding, walking, and nearly falling. The ice was pretty intense in some areas which meant we had to run on the roads for much of our run or in more dangerous areas where the shoulder was not big enough for us to run on, we had to brave the ice. It took us a good half hour longer or so to do our run because of the conditions, which leads me to my conclusion that I need yak tracks.

I've read a lot of my teammates' blogs praising them...and I'm sold. They are only a 30 dollar investment, and they sound like they will be worth it especially for those long, icy runs.

Working towards 34 miles this week...

So far this week, I've logged 22 miles and am hoping to add 12 on Saturday to make it 34 miles. I did 10 on Sunday, 6.5 on Tuesday and 5.5 today. I'm pretty happy with my mileage; although, I could be happier with my pace. I'll get there.

Today was about 33 degrees and icy. Deb and I ran around 5:30, so it was dark and hard to navigate through the poorly lit and poorly shoveled route we took. It wasn't bad, although our run was REALLY slow considering all our obstacles. I plan to rest tomorrow or do something light on the elliptical at the gym to get my legs moving without the heavy pounding. Hopefully that will leave me nice and rested for my long run on Saturday! Wish me luck :)

Happy New Year!!

I hope everyone had a restful holiday like mine! I was in Key West soaking up the sun and lounging by the pool. It was a very unorthodox Christmas...but SO great. I highly recommend trying it one year :) So there is a lot to say about my vacation, so here are the highlights:

1. I discovered my love for key lime pie...mmmm...just thinking about it makes my mouth water. (apparently I am hungry since that is my #1)
2. I snorkeled with a shark.
3. I got a new book!!!! I'm 300 pages into it; it's a Margaret George book about Henry the VIII.
4. I drank margaritas.
5. I ate delicious, fresh fish almost every night...all cooked by David of course
6. I relaxed by the pool every day.
7. I got engaged!!!! (this is really my ultimate highlight...I just put it down here to make sure you kept reading!)
8. I saw Ernest Hemingway's house.
9. I got tan.
10. I watched the sunrise on the beach one morning with David.

Those are my top 10 highlights~

I gotta run...literally. I am off to do a short 5 miles or so with Deb. Cross your fingers that my blisters don't get worse. Oh I forgot to update about my insane blisters. Stay tuned!!!

Merry Christmas Eve!

It's 8:32 in the morning, and I'm all packed, fed, dressed, and ready to go. Our flight is at 11 this morning, and will hopefully remain that way without a delay. In just a few hours we'll land in sunny, warm Key West and begin our relaxing week of vacation! I can't wait! I'll try to post while I'm down there, but I might be super busy relaxing that I forget :)

Don't worry, though, I won't forget to run. I packed all my running gear, and I've even mapped out a 10 mile run for the weekend. For some reason running ten miles in Key West sounds so much better than running ten miles on the "dreadmill" like I did last weekend.

Until next time...

Winter Wonderland

The snow is STILL falling...now we have maybe a foot and a half out there. It looks pretty right now, but the weather is supposed to get ugly and wet tonight. Then we'll welcome freezing temperatures, which will turn everything to ice. Good thing we're leaving for Florida in three days! I can't wait!

In the meantime, this weather has temporarily halted my outdoor running until, well probably until I get back from Florida. Speaking of running, I bet you are wondering how I did on my long run yesterday. Hmmm...I contemplated leaving that out of my blog since I am not too proud of it, but you read my blog to get the truth (the two or three of you that read my blog). Well, I HATED every second of my time on the treadmill. I didn't quite complete the 11 miles I should have; I only did 10. And boy was that 10 hard. I rarely (if ever) stop during a run, and I probably stopped 5 or 6 times yesterday. I told you I wasn't proud. Thankfully David was there doing 10 right next to me, but he's faster than me and finished first. But he stayed on the treadmill for most of the time I had left and told me I could do it...and I did it (finally). Anyway,
I hope I don't have to do too many of my long runs on a treadmill because I'll cry.

Well that's all for now. Oh, one more thing: GO PATS!