Happy Easter, Feliz pascua!

3 miles in 26:50 on the tread yesterday.

3 miles in 26:08 on the tread today to celebrate Easter.

I'm feeling 100% after the marathon less than a week ago. But, am taking it easy because I'm still recovering from the 26.2 and those wicked hills.

I don't want to fall into the "marathon blues" rut I got into after Nike womens marathon last year- so I need to keep focused on the big picture of:

1. Breaking 1:50 in a half marathon (preferably 1:45) so I can qualify for a seeded corral for the Chicago marathon in October. It's totally doable in the next few months.

2. Qualify for Boston 2013 with hopefully a 5 minute cushion. Lofty goal considering I need to cut almost 50 minutes from my PR time, but I know it's possible if I don't get injured *fingers crossed* and put quality miles in with my new family at Chicago Endurance Sports. Training starts June 4th with them!!

Until then, I have 2 half marathons, a 10 miler and a 5k to work on. I'm hoping for PRs in all of them. I like to dream big. I'll have at least 2 more halfs to do 8 weeks and 4 weeks before Chicago to see where I'm at in the fall.



Looking beautiful, Chicago.

How do you stay motivated after a big training cycle/race?

- the first time was a failure for me. I had a half marathon and 5k to train for but didn't. I just ran them when they came up and would "train" like 3 times a week for 3-4 miles. This time around will be different.

Happy Easter from the yawning CB.



-Xaar

Chi-Town half

Woke up to this today.





Some leftover snow/ice from last night. Had to take CB out last night and the wind/frozen stuff flying made it really difficult to keep our eyes open.  high predicted for Race morning, 34 degrees!  :(

Dear winter,

Get out of here!

Kisses,

Spring. <3


This Sunday I'm running the Chi-town half marathon. It's my first race of 2011 and first race since moving to Chicago. This is also the inaugural running of this race. I have no idea how many entrants there are. But it's a certified course!! Yay!! I'm really excited and kind of nervous. For the past 6 weeks I've trained with more focus than before and also pushed myself harder.


(he is too serious!)




(CB is my personal trainer. He makes sure I   R.I.C.E. If I have a pain after a workout.)

The main goal is break my pr of 2:00:05. Should be easy since I've hit it on my longer runs in the past few weeks. I also need to remain healthy for my upcoming races for the year (a 5k, an 8k, a 10 miler, about 7 half marathons, and 2 marathons)

I also want the PR so I can get into a corral for the soldier field 10 mile "finish on the 50". I'd rather do it with this half than risk it on a sub 44 minute time for the shamrock shuffle 8k on April 10. (I'd like to just coast on this one)

I have no idea what I'm capable of for Chi-Town,  and would love to go all out, but I need to remain focused on the larger goal right now and not blowup.Ive just been taking it easy this week- minus the intervals on Tuesday. I'll probably take off tomorrow, and then do a shake out run on Saturday.  then 8am Sunday, Game on!!

Can't wait for packet pickup tomorrow after work!




My dinner from Monday. A burger with bacon, cheese, hash-browns, and an egg on top. YUM!!!

-Xaar

16 miles, felt like poo

Planned to do 20-22 miles on Saturday. Ended up with 16 in 2:29

33 for the week
200 for the past 5 weeks.


Not too shabby you might say. However I just felt heavy, fatigued, and like I was struggling to put one foot in front of the other. Around mile 11 my favorite underwear for long distances decided to act up and cause wedgie after wedgie which I couldnt seem to fix. Don't like the chaffing that resulted.This run was the first bad run ive had in recent memory. I couldn't pinpoint it to anything specific, guess it was just one of those days. Weird thing was i only averaged 4 seconds a mile slower than my 18 miler last week. But I felt so good last week. 







On the way back around mile 11

It was a bit chilly. More than I expected because it was so sunny I assumed it would be warm out. I'm glad I brought my gloves. It was 34 with some nice wind.





Almost got run over by some senior citizen who decided to drive on the trail. He almost caused an accident trying to get back onto the road a half mile down the trail. He should NOT be driving anymore.












Soldier field in the distance!






Less than 2 miles to go!


So I ran out a little more than 8 miles so I could walk a few blocks home. I pushed the last mile to 8:20 something to make up for the crappiness of the previous 15 miles. It felt good to walk a few blocks back. When I got home all of a sudden I started feeling like I was going to puke and have major stomach issues out of nowhere! Bam! Luckily I started feeling better after drinking some more water and later on some mt dew. It cures any stomach issue I've had. Maybe because I never drink soda except while I'm sick- it was pretty awesome how it fixed me so fast!





(the water really did look like that yesterday... Crazy!)

Decided to take today off to recuperate. This week sucked. I. Stomach flu earlier in the week and now this. I'm feeling good about this coming week.

On the menu for this week is the Chi-Town Half marathon. My first race of 2011, and first race as a resident of Chicago. Im excited and cannot wait to PR in this race. Im in better shape now than when I was training for the Nike Women's Marathon last year.

Off to make a new pasta concoction..

-Xaar

4 miles on the lakefront trail

Ran with my favorite redhead tonight.




He takes running seriously. I think he was mad we had to wait for the garmin to locate the satellites instead of hitting the pavement at full throttle as soon as we stepped outside.









It was beautiful and the warmest day here this year. The trail was packed with walkers runners cyclists and rollerbladers.

Cb might have to stay home next time because the cyclists are going pretty fast while passing the people on foot.



-Xaar

All you need is rest

After running the past 6 days, I decided to take off Monday and also today. Today was due to some sort of stomach ailment (hangover?). Since I felt weak and sick half of the day the last thing I needed to do was go run. I've come so far in the past 4 weeks, no need to derail and create problems now.

I ate chicken noodle soup for lunch.

And drank sparkling orange fish juice



On the way home I took some photos of the daly center fountains which were celebrating St Patricks day.




Sometimes rest is good and needed.





-Xaar

18 mile LSD

Did 18 miles in 2:46. About 9:14 a mile. I didn't plan to go out quite that fast but felt extremely comfortable. I never tried to push the pace and felt great the entire time. I ran on the lakefront trail all the way to the hood where it ends. The only bad thing was all the bathrooms were locked (until april- from what I could read on the internets.) Oh well. Now I know not to drink too much before- during a run.

Had some orange bloks and some cran apple chomps and a salt stik every 5-6 miles.









About 6 miles into the run. It was about 35 degrees with 10-15mph winds.









Saw this on a side of a restaurant near my place and decided it was what I needed post run.









To celebrate my 18 miles, a Sam Adams Boston lager. What could be more fitting??!!









Sam Adams with fully loaded chili! Delicious!

167 miles for the past 4 weeks!! 60 miles this week!!!!! Yay!






Sears tower celebrating St Patricks day.

Cheers!

-Xaar

My love affair

Dear outside,

I am sorry I havent stopped by in a while. I do enjoy our 2 mile walks each day but for running I have been seeing someone else.

This may come as a surprise, and it was/ is a huge surprise for me too, but I really am starting to enjoy running on a treadmill.

Ever since moving to Chicago I have run outside one time in the past 7 weeks. The weather is a big factor in this.

I miss running on the trail in alameda and running from my apartment to the Oakland airport runway and watching the planes take off. (and not worrying about slipping on ice)



And seeing a cool skyline not obstructed by snowy stuff


Cb was always game to go for a run. Now he is like "go have fun. It's too cold, I'll stay here."


There is also no eye candy Outside here in Chicago because it's too cold.


Please tell the person operating the weather machine to turn it up to the mid 40's to 50's. And no rain!

Now when the weather warms up I will be faced with a tough decision. My loyalty is to the tread. How will I ever run outside again?

Especially after last night. I did 6 miles, when I had planned to do 4 or 5. I just felt so good I decided to do 6. I wanted to do more but that made 9 for the day 3 miles in the morning) and I decided to stop. Maybe it was because of the cran apple chomps I just got in the mail.



Cb looking at the busted box from RRS filled with goodies for me.


Yay!

This weekend will be scary. The weather is looking good for an 18 mile run outside. I need at least 3 more long runs before i start to taper. How will I break the news to my mistress, the treadmill that it will not get to share Saturday morning with me? How will I feel about running along the lake? My garmin will be very happy to be used again. But I will feel guilty about not spending time with the tread. Or will I?

-Xaar

6 weeks, wow!

In the past 3 weeks I've logged 107 miles. I had planned to do more last week, but fell short due to feeling sick a few days.

This week is going to be better. More running, no snow, great weather. It's going to be awesome!

I was bummed to no be able to run outside this weekend. The snow and rain came and turned into a slushy icy mess.




I had to stay motivated by channeling the power of the banamex puma on the tread. I also do not look at how far I've gone until I've heard 4-5 songs on the taio Cruz or ke dollar sign ha or cold war kids pandora station. That helps to not constantly see how much I still have left to do on the dread.




I also realized that for every 3 minutes off the clock (including commercials and timeouts) of the uconn notre dame NCAA basket ball game, I would clock 1 mile.





I also spent the time looking out the window at the snowy windy rainy stuff outside. By nightfall there was at least a inch of snow on the ground. And it was slippery.


I'm super motivated and plan to continue on like this for a while.

I also registered for the chi-town half marathon on march 27. It will be the first race of 2011 for me. Originally it was going to be the shamrock shuffle 8k april 10. I'm super excited for this race and hope to pr.


Cheers!



-Xaar