For those that have been reading my blog for a while you might remember the incident with Pop’s Clock.  Well yesterday was another Pop’s Clock experience.

When my parents sold their house one of the first things I did was snatch the lighthouse out of their front garden.  This lighthouse is only about 18 inches tall, but it is solar powered.  It was a Christmas present to my grandfather about the year before he died.  During the sunny days Pop would move the lighthouse around making sure it got optimal light so that in the evening it would light up for the entire evening.  The lighthouse hasn’t worked for several months now, which I found very disappointing.

A week ago I was cleaning up the garden (cutting back the mums I should have cut back several months ago) when I noticed that there as a green leaf poking out from under the lighthouse.  I moved it to find a full daffodil plant had grown underneath it.  Aside from being a little on the yellow side the plant was actually the largest of the daffodil plants in the garden.

Yesterday, St. Patrick’s day, was one of my grandfather’s favorite days of the year.  He was Irish and damn proud of it!  I pulled into the driveway after leaving my parents and did a double take as I noticed that the lighthouse was once again lighting up.  I got Pop’s message loud and clear and took Tillie for a walk.  😉

Today I returned to working out after being sick.  I got in a FIRM sculpting workout, a half mile jog on the treadmill and a 30 minute yoga workout.

Yesterday I woke up with a headache and a feeling of weakness in the extremities.  Not the way you want to feel on the morning of a race.  I layed on the couch all morning hoping to feel better then hopped in the shower thinking the steam might push whatever it was out of my body.  It didn’t happen.  I didn’t do my Shamrock 5K.

I am very disappointed because this is my favorite 5K.  There are always lots of people and energy.  The race overall has a great feeling to it.  Oh well, no use crying over spilled milk.  I gave my Dad my race shirt and will be recycling my bib.  I also need to take the timing chip back up to the local running shop. 

Today I am still feeling stuffy and a little tired and weak.  I came to work just becuase I know there is too much work to be done not to be here.  I will skip my workout today and hopefully try to run tomorrow if I feel recovered.  I haven’t ran since last Thursday so I am feeling a little…I think puffy is the only way to refer to it. 

This week’s Take it and Run Thursday topic is Building Miles and Going Long.  When it comes to going long I have always been one to end up with my foot in my mouth.  I started out saying I was just going to train for a 5K to say I did it.  Before I knew it I had done several 5Ks but I was never going to go any longer.  Then I saw an advertisement for the Zoo Zoom 5 miler.  Maybe just this once…  Before I knew it was registered for the Minnie Marathon 15K.  Again I was just going to do it once to say I did it, but I would never run further than that.  The story continues and before I knew it I was training for my one and only full marathon. 

I am not a very fast runner, but I am competitive by nature.  I think that drive is what made me turn towards distance races.  It is one way for me to challenge myself and compete with myself without trying to beat the clock.  Increasing my mileage was a slow and natural progression in my training.  I started with one goal and then once I reached it I set my eyes on the next prize making sure it was far enough out for me to slowly build my mileage.  Increasing too fast or adding in things like hill or speed workouts without building up to them can lead to overuse injuries, which can be long and frustrating to recover from.  A good guideline is not to increase your mileage by more than 10% a week.

I am a 3 day a week runner.  This typically involves 2 tempo workouts during the week and a long run during the weekend.  If my weekend log run is over 7 miles I try to bring some hydration and nutrition along with me.  I used to be a Jelly Belly Sports Bean girl, but when I was training for my full marathon I found the sweetness got to me after mile 14, so recently I started using Clif Shot Bloks. 

Your body isn’t the only thing that will be feeling the strain of you new found distances.  Keep an eye on your shoes.  as you increase your mileage you will be putting more wear and tear on your soles.  Personally the first place I feel a worn shoe is in my knees, so I always make sure to keep an eye on my mileage and change them around ever 250 to 300 miles.  Some people can go as long as 500 miles, but it all depends on your weight, stride, and shoe.

I have a feeling that my worn out shoe will end up stuck in my mouth again.  My competitive nature doesn’t want to stop at a full marathon with a time of 6:59:50, but until my body completely forgives me for the training I put it through for this full marathon this will have to do. 

To read what others have to say about Building Miles and Going long head on over to the Runner’s Lounge.

According to the weather forecasters I had two options this weekend.  Either run today in the 40s and pouring down rain or run tomorrow in the 30s with 20 mph winds.  I opted for the first option. 

I woke this morning and downed my breakfast.  I usually wait till later in the day to go for my long runs, but I think having more food in my stomach slows down my runs, so I opted to go out earlier, just after breakfast.  It was about 15 minutes till 8 when I opened my door and took my first few steps. 

I wasn’t planning to track my splits.  I just wanted to run at a comfortable pace and see how it went.  I did look down a few times when my watch beeped.  The first mile appeared to come in at 11:07.  Probably my fastest mile in over a year.  I saw three more splits, 11:30, 11:30 and 11:27.  When I finally got close to the 6 mile mark I saw that I was right around 1:08.  That was really closed to the 6 mile PR I saw last week.  I started sprinting because I didn’t want that clock to turn over the 1:09.  I hit the 6 mile mark at 1:08:57.  When I got home and put my numbers into RunningAhead it told me my pace was 11:30 for the whole run.  That betters my most fastest paced run this year by 20 seconds per mile.  Talk about a runner’s high.  😀

I had lunch with my Dad this afternoon and he actually called me a “hardcore runner”.  I think that was the first time someone called me that.  Can’t help by say it felt pretty good.  Me?  Hardcore?  Who would have thought that 3 years ago when I started the C25K program?

So people are probalby wondering what happend with my “Sad” post from a couple weeks ago.  Well I have cleaned up my eating, but I have been choosing not to talk about it.  Rather than obsess over it I just want to do it.  I think the past I have become so wrapped around my diet that I created too much pressure on myself and eventually I cracked.  This technique is working great for me so far.  I am down 7 lbs from the “Sad” day and I have loads of energy.  I have been counting my points and planning my food and that’s it.  No obsessing going on here.  I don’t even feel the urge to go over to the next row to get a donut.  :)  That is probably all you will hear until I hit some major milestone of some sort.  Maybe my 10%.  It would be nice to hit my new 10% before going to Disney in May.  That would be 20 lbs… We shall see.