Wednesday, May 21, 2014

My Big Return to Training!!

I am back and it feels so good. Ooh, feel the burn!!

History time! In 2009 I noticed a couple friends posting about running. My friend Holly gave me some tips on how to start, and in September I did my first run of the Couch to 5K program. I was coming up on my “graduation” when I got H1N1. A week before my first race and I get Swine Flu. Awesome. I recovered in time to race and early on a December morning I was running in 27º temperature over ice with my family and dog cheering for me. I loved it! Shortly thereafter I found myself in Walt Disney World at the 2010 Princess Half Marathon expo with a goal to run my first 5K with zero walking. I was so proud to be there, and then humiliated at “only” doing the 5K while everybody else was doing the half marathon. That day I told my mom that next year we would be back and I would do that as my first half marathon.

For the rest of 2010 I did 5Ks, 10Ks and the Great Urban Race while training and saving my first half marathon experience for Disney World in 2011. The rest of 2011 I was constantly training and running half marathons. I ended up with 12 in a year and didn’t back off in 2012. 2012 actually increased with training … I set PRs left and right, east and west, from Boston to Eugene, I was on fire! As practice for Goofy in 2013 I decided to train for and run the 2012 Portland Marathon. 20 mile runs in the dead heat of summer, ugh, so draining. My life was a calendar of scheduled runs. I kicked ass for the first 17.5 miles of Portland, until my left leg knee out on the St. John’s Bridge and my right leg followed a mile later. I still finished, tears and all, and was not going to give up on Goofy. January came and there I was doing a 5K, half marathon and marathon back to back, bringing home tons of Disney bling. Seriously, once you do Goofy it’s like you feel you can do anything! Half marathons feel so short. A 5K is nothing. A 10K is just a warm up run. Goofy is awesome!! BUT getting to that point was exhausting.

2013 was my “rest” year. I continued to race and occasionally run, but I decided to focus on other things for a while. I got married, traveled, started buying a house, dealt with the annoyance of Meniere's Disease, quit half of my job, relaxed and enjoyed life. And now here I am in 2014 and I really missed that hard work of 2012, crazy as it was! Ragnar was my first race of the year and last weekend I did my first half since December. I never go that long without a half, and I don’t want a gap like that again!! So now here I am, back in full training mode. I have a calendar with all of my training until November’s Wine & Dine Half Marathon all planned out. I am so excited. Hills, speed, fartleks (insert a giggle from the 12 year old boy in me), long runs, short runs…. So pumped!! And this year will be a good one race wise. I just did Portland Rock’n’Roll, and at that expo registered for Seattle and Vancouver, BC, CANADA!! In between those I have Eugene Half Marathon for the third year, and of course my annual standard, the Prefontaine Memorial Run. This is going to be an awesome year. Time to bring out the compression socks and sunscreen!



3 comments:

  1. Sounds like a good year! I'm doing Eugene as well =)

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    1. Very cool - a long way from home! Are you doing the half or full?

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    2. I'm doing the half. Checking another state off the list!

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