4 days 'til 1/2 Marathon

Now that it's hot out I splurged and got myself an iPod armband. It's pink and cute and supposedly $2.5o went toward breast cancer research so there's my good deed of the day, especially considering I got the results of a breast sono I did a few weeks ago and though I have lumps in my breasts, they are not cancerous. Good news for me! I didn't really mention it until now because I didn't want to talk about it really. 

I've never been in a BIG race before so I am nervous as all hell but I think it will be a blast. I will have to update sometime during the week with my running accouterments. 

Half Marathon Trial Run!

I finally figured out how to use the nike plus webpage (after a whole MONTH of having the sensor, lol). In my defense, I had cookies enabled and I didn't realize nikeplus.com doesn't like firefox, and I have a mac so I had to make safari my preferred browser. OMG, the web features makes it EVEN BETTER! I am in so much love with this thing you have nooooo idea. I love love love that you can see how fast each mile was. I'm a little confused though--it told me my fastest mile during the 13 miles was 9'53 (!!) but it says 10'49 up there. Oh well! It's still pretty awesome. It allows me to see how fast I run over a long distance. Apparently I run pretty evenly, which means that I have a good perception of effort. 

Stats for 13.1 mile run:

Time: 2:29'28"

Avg pace: 11:23 min/mile

Calories: 1750

My favorite song to run to as of late? "Till I collapse" by Eminem, which...like...whatever..I hate Eminem, but it is SUCH a good song to run to. Gets shit pumpin'!

We had to stop several times during the run because the farthest one of my running partners has run before was 9 miles and her legs were hurting badly at some points, but we are tapering now (only doing elliptical and light mileage) and we are hoping and praying for sub 2:15. It is definitely possible. 

D Day approaching

Three weeks until my very first half marathon, the RexCorp Long Island Half. I'm nervous! The farthest distance I've run has been 12.5 miles. I know it shouldn't be a problem and I'm not looking for a certain time, but it's still nerve wracking. My family will be there. It should be a lot of fun. :)

Yoga, Half Marathon Training

My yoga class is KICKING my ass. Actually, it's killing my quads more like it, which is good because I have some super thunder thighs. I will happily murder them, haha.

Who's over the winter? I am definitely trying hard not to drag my feet around. Every time it's a nice day I bring out my new Spring purse. Desperate much? Though, after the spring comes the summer, and I have some not-s0-fond memories of puking gatorade like no one's business when it was 95 degrees and I had just run 5 miles.

I am soooo sore from Wednesday's speed work + yoga. 45 minutes of going from speed walking to all-out sprints? No joke. Possibly harder than running 10 miles. 2 hours of yoga? Serious business.

I'm doing the Long Island 1/2 in May. Yay! About time, huh?

First Post

If you're reading this, welcome! This blog will be all about my journey to getting fit, losing weight, and participating in the NYC Marathon, possibly next year. Yikes! I have a lot of training ahead of me! But that's okay--I'm armed with books, the interwebs, plenty of support, and a best friend who is also my weight loss and running buddy. :)

What you can expect to find here are weekly weigh-ins and training reports, as well as race reports as they come.

On Sunday I did my very first running race. It was a local race honoring the memory of a cop who died in the line of duty. It was a great first race--lots of camaraderie, lots of spirit, and my mom even went to cheer me on! It was an amazing feeling--my friend and I didn't stop once and we even kept at the same pace for the entire race.

Now that I have my first race under my belt, I'm looking to train for a half marathon. In the meantime, I expect to participate in lots of 5K races. More on those as I sign up for them.

If you want to see my results for the Hoban Run, you can click here. I'm #496. A 12:32min/mile pace is not bad, right?



Now that I've got my first race under my belt, I've been looking into improving my form, so after rooting around the internet I've discovered that I'm a heel striker and I need to correct this ASAP before I start doing LSD runs (Long Slow Distance).

I went out today with the intention to practice forefoot running (striking down on the ground with the balls of your feet FIRST before touching the heel to the ground), but I ran into a few issues and needed to come home hanging my head with defeat. First, it automatically made me run much faster than I am used to so I couldn't control my breathing the way I wanted to, and second, I was wearing loose sweatpants. I had no idea just how loose until I started running and was almost pantsed by gravity. Argh. Next time will be different!

When I talk about runs here I will talking about my usual running routes (Ft. Hamilton running track, Dyker Beach Golf Course, and around Caesar's Bay). Oh, and I may also talk about biking as I have recently picked it up. I ride my bike to and from school, which winds up being about 1 hour and 20 minutes round trip. I do that 3X a week, and usually run 2-3 times a week.

Whoever's reading, I hope you get something from this blog. :)