Run log

September ~ 

My birthday month and the first month I didn't make a single post in this blog ~ 

Getting used to being without children.

School is in full swing.

Cross Country takes my afternoons.

Marathon training gets squeezed in.

Got our Team Beef Ohio swag this month.  Totally love my backpack/coaching bag.  It's got all the pockets I could ever want, a place for shoes in the front & a place for a water bottle on the side.  We also received gloves & a visor & a check for $300 in race reimbursements {sending in the race receipts was a little shocking ~ seeing what we spent in races last year}   And this week we got STEAKS ~ and tonight we ate the filet mignon.  Best steak I've eaten.,

We went to Mount Union to see Jacob in his first collegiate tennis match ~ he played exhibition doubles ~ we missed the match due to me having to be in CPI training ~ but he won & we got to watch the varsity play & then take JB to Applebees for dinner.  It was great to see him & see him happy at Mount.  Sitting at the tennis courts, looking around at campus, I realized that none of the buildings I could see were there when I was a student.  The tennis courts are new, the two dorms are new, the athletic facility is new.  The only thing that was there was the football field & even that has been redone.  Sad in a way...but not bad.

Mike and Dodd ran the Run for the Grapes 5k over Grape Jamboree weekend.  I chickened out...ran 11 miles to the race, 2 miles during, cheering them on & 3 home to make my 16 for the day.  I had a great time running & cheering.  However, my husband seems to think I'm slightly obnoxious with my cheering.  I think I embarassed him.  Doing a little research, no one seemed to think you could cheer too loudly and told me to keep up the cheering.  So I will cheer for all except for Mike...who will get a dismissing pffft and flick of the hand. {maybe...I probably won't be able to stop myself from cheering}  Back to the chickened out part...Just not ready to race a 5k and run a 26...27 minute 5k.  I've gotten so SLOW.  My legs finally feel ready to go faster.  Maybe it's been the cooler temps this week.  I certainly hope so.  I miss being able to easily run 8:30 -8:40 minute pace.  9:00 minute pace has not been an easy pace recently...and I'm sad about it.

September ~ my birthday recap.  I came downstairs for the first time as a 48 year old to balloons ~ Happy Birthday Princess, no less ~ a breakfast & my lunch ready to be packed.  And a new Garmin

watch! I love it.  It has activity tracking so I'm rather obsessed with my daily step count.  It also has sleep monitoring...but I've yet to wear it to bed.  I really don't think I want to know how little sleep I get per night.  However, to continue my amazing 48th birthday story...school was fun and Couch gave me a tiara ~ which I wore, of course, until it started to hurt my head.  Then I came home after practice and my run {with my new watch..."new record, fastest mile"  "new record, longest distance" new record, fastest 5k"...gotta love a new watch} and Mike and Dodd were preparing a dinner of steak, shrimp and crab legs.  The Dodd boys told me they were my birthday surprise.  It was a great birthday!  Wish my boys could have been here ~ but I got sweet birthday messages from both of them.

Friday was twin day at school.  Couch and I needed to wear our tiaras ~ so we donned matching shirts & were cowgirl princesses.  So much fun to work with these peeps!



Running for the month.  Lots of segmented runs...some with the team and then a few more miles after practice.   Some early morning runs.  {every early morning run, I've run into other runners.  Pretty cool.}  The long runs have all been done... some with people and some alone {we figured we better practice running alone so it wouldn't be a total shock in the marathon}  It's gotten better.  I've started to inch my pace to sub-9 minute miles.  Some of it is lack of practice, but most of it is lack of confidence.  My body broke once while running...I don't want that to happen again.
Cross Country is going very well.  Today we hosted our U Wanna Come Back invitational.  Only one middle school team signed up & I'm so glad they did.  The kids ran VERY well & I didn't screw it up.  Art is in Denver ~ so I was in charge...and I don't do well under pressure.  The only goofy thing I did was hitting the wrong button on the start of the boys race.  Luckily Mike was my back up timer so I knew I was 3 seconds off by the time I got it going.  I had to add 3 to all the times...but it wasn't a problem.  Hopefully more the high school teams come back next year & bring the middle schoolers.  It's a good course ~ even if it's not very spectator friendly.

The marathon is less than a month away.  Mike is running Northern Ohio Full tomorrow as his last long training run.  Dodd and I are doing the half. Next week will be our final long run and then a three week taper.
I'm starting to get less anxious and more excited. starting...

September Running Log:

September Totals:

141.26 for the month 
1093.38 miles for the year 

242.32 miles in my Gortex Ghosts ~no Gortex runs this month

469.15 miles in my Old gray Brooks Glycerin 13 My Camp Stig Shoes 

321.74 miles in my old defective pink Brooks Glycerin 13 

115.19 miles in my NEW PINK Brooks Glycerin 13 ~ and guess what...they are pulling away from the soles just like the other pink ones.  Must be a pink thing.  I'm not going to complain.  I'm just going to run in them.

43.34 miles in my NEW teal/blue Brooks Glycerin 13 ~ funny to have two new pairs of shoes.  I'm rotating them like crazy.  I shouldn't need new shoes until late spring.

Training for:     MARINE CORP MARATHON, October 31, 2016! and along the way ~ Northern Ohio Half Marathon, October 2.

Podcasts I'm listening to: Marathon Training Academy, Dear Sugar, Story Corp & Reply All

My WEIGHT: 140.2 on September 30.  Not bad considering all the eating I'm doing!

Some interesting facts:

Longest run this month:   20  Went much better than the 18 I did in August.  Still hot and humid...but we got it done and done well.

What hurts?: NOTHING!

Highest  weekly mileage this month:  52.11 miles from September 4 to September 11

Favorite place to run this month: Geneva Bike Path.  Ran there between rain storms on Thursday.  The Lake was angry, the sky was blue, gray, black and full of big clouds.  Very cool run.

Monthly mileage record: 156.69 ~ March 2015 {purposely ran 8 (on a treadmill) on March 30 to beat the August 2013 record}
Highest mileage ever-at-one-time:  26.36 ~ May 17, 2015 The Cleveland Marathon

PR's:
5K: 22:30 (Run For the Grapes 9/28/14)
10K:  49:40 (Greenway 10k 3/20/16)
10-miler: 1:21:29 (Hermes Cleveland 10-miler 4/28/12)

20-miler: 2:45:15 (20 mile Drop 4/10/16)
half-marathon: 1:44:42 (Northern Ohio Half Marathon 10/4/15)
marathon: 3:57:31 (The Cleveland Marathon 5/17/15)