Category Archives: Run for the Dream 1/2 Marathon

1/2 Marathon Training Plan

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I’m back at it. My half marathon is the first weekend in June, and I’m so excited! We (my husband and I) ran the Williamsburg Run for the Dream 1/2 Marathon last year, and it is by far my favorite route in the world. I’m always looking for an excuse to run in Williamsburg, and I always look forward to those glorious 13.1 miles.
We have a lot of changes potentially coming down the chute in the next couple months, so I started my training a little earlier than necessary… just in case there are some ‘set-backs’ to my long runs.

Last weekend I enjoyed my 7 mile run in my favorite park, it was about 40 F so I was bundled up for the first couple miles and discarded my gloves once I warmed up. On the first mile, I found a brand new smart phone! I called a few of the last contacts and left it at the running store I was running with. Hopefully it found its rightful owner.  295550_345102265606645_866713775_n

About a week ago I ran on the boardwalk during the sunrise. I paused to catch my breath, and looked like a total tourist to take some pictures. I tend to do my shorter runs on the boardwalk because it’s about a 6 mile loop, and it would just be the end of the world if I had to run a lap or something. How can I not love running when it gets me our in God’s beautiful creation every morning while the rest of the world is still asleep?

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Where do your runs take you? When is the best time for you to run?

It’s Goal Time

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Breathe Deeply

We are spending the first day of the year flying back to our home in Virginia. As I opened my email, I received a great email from “The Daily Love” talking about goal setting. Since I was excited to talk about goal setting, I wanted to include the most inspiring quote:

“Make New Year’s goals. Dig within, and discover what you would like to have happen in your life this year. This helps you do your part. It is an affirmation that you’re interested in fully living life in the year to come. What would you like to have happen in your life this year? What would you like to do, to accomplish? What good would you like to attract into your life? What particular areas of growth would you like to have happen to you? What blocks, or character defects, would you like to have removed?”

Who doesn’t just want to sit down with a clean sheet and pen and create a list of great goals for 2013? I like to set a list for the year and break it down by month and wrote it in my daily planner to keep me on track.

These are a few of my fitness goals for this year:

• Run 3 half marathons – one of the is going to be the Williamsburg Run for the Dream!
• Sprint triathlon- reeeeeally nervous about this one… guess that means I’ll have to start swimming, right?
• Run 700 miles – should be easy to do that, but with picking up some biking and swimming miles… who knows?
• Do an hour yoga set at least once/week – I just get so tight that I need a full set on the weekend to be able to move normal again
• Group trainer certificate – HUGE GOAL! (so scared)
• Expand Girls Run Faster – aka write better, more informative, blogs
• Take the time to enjoy every moment… where ever God has planted me

Those are my goals for now… I’d love to hear about yours! In fact, if you blogged about them, leave a comment with your link and I’d love to peruse your post!

Happy 4th of July AND Goal Setting.

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Happy 4th of July to all my blogger/running friends! I hope you had an amazing break from life and were able to enjoy some serious BBQ and fireworks. We had a great BBQ with tons of food and it was so tempting to eat the the Strawberry Creme Pie because it had white chocolate (?!) in it! OMG. Heavenly.

Amazing 4th of July Pie by Shelby

Back to trying to eat healthy.

I think July is a great time to look back on the year and consider what we’ve accomplished.

Here are a few things that I did; and never thought I could:

If you set goals, you are more likely to achieve what you want, and do even more than you ever thought possible! This can be setting a goal to run a half marathon, or doing a couple in a year. Choose a goal and soon you’ll be crushing your half-marathon, setting a new PR, increasing endurance knowing you are being challenged and growing.


Tips in Goal Setting

Create a Plan.
I usually set a goal for the month for mileage for running, how many times I want to lift weights, and recently (with the gorgeous weather and awful parking situation at the beach) I’ve been adding bike mileage. When I’m training for a race, I have a strict run schedule that I have mapped out in my daily planner, and this forces me to plan around my runs. Typically my long runs are on the weekend, but that’s just because I work full-time. Do whatever day works best for you! I’m careful to add mileage slowly to avoid injury, and to be extremely consistent so I’m building on my past runs.

Join a Run Club.
I have a group of girls that I run trails or on the beach with. Mostly for motivation, but also for safety. We have a flexible schedule, and don’t make it out every week (mostly because I plan them and my schedule isn’t consistent) but they constantly push me… I’m so thankful for my running girls!
Here’s a list of free run clubs & classes in the Virginia Beach Area.

Mix it Up.
When it’s over 100F, I can’t run outside. I can hardly do it in 80F weather (remember, I grew up in Canada?). So I use a treadmill. Or run at 5:30am. Or run on the sand/water at the beach. It really depends what I can do. But I’m constantly switching up my runs. Get some hill training in. Cross training. Biking. Hiking. Speed training. I love getting out of town because there are so many great trails to explore!

While exploring LuluLemons website, I found this awesome little Goal Setting worksheet. There are more to life than running and health goals, and this little worksheet is great about combing all your goals to holistic health!

What are your goals?

Skinny Dip

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I’m taking some pretty rough classes this summer, and wish I woulda been smart enough to take the summer off. I’m really burnt out as far as school/writing/thinking/saying smart things is concerned, so don’t expect a lot. The only thing that is keeping my sane is my wonderful husband and running!

Sunday morning, before heading out for church I did a wonderful 5 mile run, which is the farthest I’ve run since my 1/2 marathon. When I’m running, I feel like I can do anything. I’m motivated. I feel disciplined. I feel strong.

My school doesn’t make me feel that way right now. So to help me cope, I’ve been eat a lot of chocolate. And drinking hot chocolate.

And skinny dip.

Went to skinny dip. Stalked puppies

On SATURDAY we took Nalla (my friends puppy. We don’t have one. yet.) to skinny dip, and after talking to a staff there who fell in love with Nalla and wanted to talk to her, shake her hand, and just hang out in the general cute puppy vicinity, she informed us that they sell little ‘doggy dips’.

You are kidding me, right?

Nope. I’ve never seen Nalla get so excited! She started chewing that ice cream… it was so cute! Awwww! This diversion was definitely worth skipping an hour of crying-over-algebra-textbooks studying.

Back from Vacation!

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Just came back from the best vacation ever! Tyler’s family is much more relaxed on vacation than my family was, so it was an adjustment… and I had to FORCE myself to slow down! We didn’t even have Internet.  Even though it was more relaxed than what my family does, we still did a lot of stuff, and kayaking was one of them! We went twice last week, and I got stuck a couple times because the water was so low- AND I almost died getting stuck over a water fall with rocks jutting out at the bottom! Don’t worry; we only had class 1 rapids on the first two miles, and the rest was pretty calm. :)

Since we were nestled in the mountains in the middle of nowhere, there were plenty of hills to train on. Not that I’m actually training for anything right now, but I can pretend. :)   I was seriously sore every day that I ran. I did a couple four-mile runs, but on those mountain trails, it felt like twice that! It was so awesome to run on such gorgeous trails.Williamsburg Run for the Dream

I did terrible on not eating sugar during our trip, and I’m going to have to pay for it for a couple days. So back to the strict diet from here on in! :) How are your summer fitness goals coming along? What do you find the hardest to maintain during the warmer months?

Williamsburg Run for the Dream

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Our lives have kind of spun out of control since the race last weekend, hence no update on how it went! The Williamsburg Run for the Dream was by FAR the hardest route I’ve ever ran in my life, and there was no way we could have prepared for it living in flat Virginia Beach!

Back to the beginning :)

It was supposed to be rainy and miserable all weekend, but Sunday morning rolled around and it was BEAUTIFUL 70F… and most of the race was in the shade. I was in awe of the trees and the gorgeous terrain. We took the shuttle down to William and Mary pretty early (about 6:00am) after checking out of our hotel room. Once we got down to the race site, we could pick out the serious runners who were in their routine. We kinda stretched and I rubbed Tyler’s back and neck for a while… until it was time to get into our corrals.

At about mile two, the HILLS started. This is about when Tyler and I split up, since our paces were not matching up with the hills. At first, I was determined to not let them beat me… so I kept a pretty good pace, and passed the 2:30 pace group. There was even a brief moment that I considered trying to catch up with the 2:15 pace group! I felt like I was doing pretty good until mile EIGHT when they had us track back the hills we JUST conquered. Screw that. By that point I was in serious pain and started losing time… so I walked/ran the rest of the hills that lasted until mile 12.

All I can tell you in that I’ve NEVER been happier to reach the end of a race and pass under the 2:30 sign, which was my goal!!

To be honest, this is one of the things I’m most proud of doing!

When I crossed the finish line and heard my name announced, I wanted to cry. I’m pretty sure a few trickling tears may have slid down my face!

This race proved a few things to me.

First, that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. This is a huge reminder to keep working hard to complete my bachelor’s degree this fall. Just like this race, it’s a mind game. I had to work hard to keep my pace every mile, just like I have to work hard to keep my homework up to date every day.
Second,  if I can run a brutal half marathon and hit my goal time, I know there are people out there that can start the “from the couch to a 5k” training program. I know there are people out there that can run that 10k race they’re afraid of… and I KNOW you can start training for a half marathon.

What am I MOST excited about?!?

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Oh my GOSH I can hardly take my running shoes off—I’m SO excited about our race next weekend! For some reason, I think if I wear my awesome new lululemon running shorts all week, it’ll come faster!? Cuz my second half-marathon ever, the “Run for the Dream” is only 8 days away!

Well… you ask… what you are most excited about!?

1. Honestly? Because my husband was medically discharged from the military, he is considered a wounded warrior (which means we spend a lot of time rubbing his back and running is very painful for him) BUT! they set us up in a hotel. With a hot tub. YES. (I know, I talked a lot about random things before I got to my point).

2. Running in Williamsburg. It’s gorgeous, I love running in the morning, and this will be the most challenging terrain I’ve ever run.

3. OH MY GOSH this is the 2nd half marathon I’ve EVER done, so I’m uber stoked to KILL it. I know I probably don’t have any new PR’s looming in my future, but I’m excited to do really well :)

4. WHAT?!?!?! BUSCH GARDENS!? Yes, we are also given free Busch Garden tickets for the day before/of the race. Seriously. So the day before we are planning on hitting up Busch Gardens and RIDING ROLLER COASTERS! So after running our poor butts off all morning, we get to try out their newest roller coaster the MACH TOWER.

Awesome.

I can hardly wait :)

 

What’s your favorite part about races? The support from people during the race? The beer at the end? The excitement from running with thousands of people at a time? There’s so many wonderful things about races that I can’t even begin to count them all!

My New Pink Shorts!

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Oh my goodness, this week has FLOWN by! I’ve realized, besides being the worlds worst blogger (haven’t posted in a week), I’m also the worst runner in the world. Haven’t laced up my super sweet running shoes in also a week. If I was biking or rollerblading or engaging in other physical activity, it wouldn’t be so bad. But I was literally sitting on my butt. All day. And all evening.

This isn’t a good idea with our next race a mere 15 (well, technically 16) days away!

So, we are heading to Williamsburg this weekend to scope out the trail (well, like 2 miles of it) and enjoy ourselves instead of running a 12 mile run like Hal Higdon advises! ;) I’m excited about the hot tub, walking around the quaint city of Williamsburg and eating unhealthy food.

 

Yesterday, my husband texted me during the day… telling me he had a surprise for me :) Of course, being the inner 5-year-old that I am, I was ecstatic! I LOVE surprises! I came home and he whipped out a CUTEST coral pink running shorts from lululemon you ever did see! I included the link for your enjoyment. It’ll probably be active for about 4 days because they sell out of everything so quick.

Naturally, this was all it took to get me out of my FUNK and out running during the gorgeous weather and on the boardwalk :) I did a quick little 4 miles to get back in the groove and sat at Starbucks with my husband on Facebook for an hour on his awesome iPad. Yes! I LOVE break week!

What do you log onto Facebook with? Your phone? Laptop? iPad? I usually log on with my phone, hence the short messages and likes I do… and occasionally (like yesterday) on a machine with a keyboard so I can actually write a novel that people are hoping I’ll send as a message!

Are you guys experiencing the same schizophrenic weather we’ve been having?! It’s seriously muggy and GROSS in the morning, gorgeous in the afternoon, and rains all evening. And then the next day it’s FREEZING. Repeat. Then back up to 85F… (which is not awesome to run in) hahah

Getting Stronger

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I’ve been running a 5 mile cycle pretty regularly now, which is my new 3 mile circuit. I’m still painfully slow, and yesterday had to walk about a half a mile to catch my breath… because my friend and I were talking so much. But it sure made the miles fly by… and we felt great when we were done! I’m still working on my Half Marathon Training for the Novice Runner by Hal Higdon, and it’s been kicking me in the butt!

I can feel I’m getting stronger, and running is coming easier, but who am I kidding? It’s still a struggle to get out the door and pick my route. My muscles have been in serious pain (I’m a wimp, I’m not injured or anything) so I bought a Stretch and Strength Foam-Roller with the super-awesome  amazon gift card my sister-in-law gave me for my birthday (YES)!  It’s purple and lovely.

I think it’ll help with my increased milage I’m planning for the spring.

Friday I’m going to do a lone run of 8 miles, and Saturday I’m heading out with a group of girls for a ‘chill’ 5 mile run (Since WHEN is 5 miles chill?!?). Hah.

YAY for the weekend!

Running Hills

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I am so proud… I ran 8 miles this weekend on trails with a friend… and I’m still feeling the pain! Hills around here are a little hard to find (without driving too far), so the park we went too is about the best we’re gunna get! It was lightly misting as we were running, and it was so muggy that we were soaked in the first 10 minutes of running, but it was wonderful =)

Our next 1/2 marathon is in seven weeks in the hilly town of Williamsburg, and we’ve got some serious training to do in order to meet our goals. I want to do the race in under 2:30 hrs, and Tyler is aiming for 2 hrs *GASP*
I realize I did our last in 2:34:54, but I know Williamsburg is going to be MUCH more challanging.

Tonight we are planning on running at Mount Trashmore, which will hopefully help with our hill endurance (and make my legs hurt EVEN MORE).

Here’s some helpful advice from HowToBeFit.com on running hills:
Different hill workouts can hit a variety of training goals.  Running hills, like lifting weights, is resistance training. Hills strengthen the leg muscles to meet the specific demands of running. By working hard on hills, you force the muscles to overcome the incline and resistance of gravity. This strengthens the driving muscles the hamstrings, calves, buttocks, and particularly the quadriceps, which don’t get much work on the flats. Fatigued quads are particularly a problem late in races, especially marathons. It’s hard to pick your feet up and move them forward if the quads are growing tired of this important repetitive task.  

I also asked the experts over at Runners World (my most favorite running magizine ever) how to run Hills:
“I once had a coach tell me that if you keep moving your arms, your legs have to follow,” says Erholtz, “so I focus on keeping my arms moving.” She says she also leans slightly forward into the hill. “I think a shorter stride is more efficient on the hill, with a more rapid turnover. Keep your head and eyes focused ahead, but not all the way up.”

I feel like we’ve got a good chance at this and we’re going to ROCK it!