Madness Week

Here it is - madness week (oh, I mean marathon week).  Let the madness begin.  It's already started as I feel so many aches and pains (imaginary or not).  I told hubby last night that I probably would not be able to run since everything had started hurting.  Of course I understand that this is not true but it feels real at the moment.
 
I weighed in yesterday at my lowest adult weight ever and so a good thing about this process as Coach Lizz pointed out is that most people gain weight while training for a marathon.  I eat and some days I eat a lot but I have been trying to eat smartly.  My husband makes fun of my "gourmet" dinners.

But I quite enjoy them and they are filling.  Now today is a different story. We had an ice cream truck at work with homemade ice cream - a treat for the employees for getting through our inventory in a timely manner.  Most of my co-workers were telling me that they probably had "diet" ice cream but as I told them, there is no point in that.  I do like a good homemade ice cream.  And it was yummy!
 
111 hours to race start.  And it looks like it's for real because they show me with a bib number.

St. George Marathon BIB Number Assignment

Suzanne Martin

Your BIB Number is: 8546 I will sign off now for a week of tapering, worrying and a lot of self talk.  More to come next week!

Weight loss and running a marathon

I remember very clearly the moment that my legs and knees stopped rubbing together during a workout run and when my arms hung down straight to my sides. If one has never been heavy, it’s a hard feeling to describe.  At that point, I had only lost a fraction of where I am now. I have recently hit the 90 pound loss mark from my very heaviest, 55 of those pounds lost in the past 4 years.

Then

 

And now

I also remember the day that we had to run 2 miles for our Saturday gym workout. I ran the first mile and had to walk most of the second and my hip flexors hurt for a week. And now I am getting ready to run my one and only full marathon.  I can hardly believe that in 9 days I will be at the start line of the St. George Marathon.  After running 23 half marathons in the past three years, a full never really was on my “bucket list”.  I sorta, kinda got talked into it by a friend and my hubby.  I am trained and ready for it.  I will not break any kind of speed records but I will finish it.  Then I never have to do one again.  I quite like the half marathon distance, it’s a reasonable time in which to finish and the training time doesn’t suck!

I’m in the taper madness phase of this upcoming race.  Still doing a little something something but cutting back on frequency and intensity.  And don’t even get me started on the eating.  I know it is okay to eat a little more in the days leading up to the race but this hunger is beyond what I have normally experienced.  My mantra this week has been “trust your training” so I need keep repeating it and know that I have done everything I can to get to the race start!

This has turned into a little bit of a rambling post so I’ll close for now.

Bear Lake Brawl-Olympic

 

 

This one worried me. Of course, all the new distances give me that feeling but since I have already done an Olympic distance in the Burley Spudman race, I wasn’t worried about the bike and run, it was swimming a mile without the current. Bear Lake was my first sprint open water tri and I remember standing on the shore looking at the buoys, thinking how far out they looked. It was the same on Saturday only now I had to swim around them twice!

 

My wave was the last wave to start but we had to get there early before transition closed so it was a good two hour plus wait for me once I set my bike and run stuff up. The air temperature was a brisk 46 degrees but the water was about 65. Darlene and I swam out to one buoy on Friday night so I knew the water was going to be good. I got in about 20 minutes before my wave started to warm up so I was ready to go when we counted down.  I swam the whole time, meaning no stopping, no breaststroke, or backstroke. My goal was under 46 minutes so with the .15 mile from water to transition being included in the official swim time, I made sure to check my Garmin when I exited water – 45:30! I know that is not fast by most standards but it’s a huge accomplishment for me.

Both the bike and run were two out and backs which I’m not sure I really liked but they were non-eventful (except for the white truck that tried to pull out as I was making my first turn around on the bike-WTH?). I passed a few people on the bike and then got passed by a few on the run. Between 4-5 miles, my left foot went numb which is a little tricky when on a run! I will have to check the laces before I use my tri shoes again.

Since the Olympic female wave was last, there were not a lot of people at the finish line but it was fun to have the cheering going on by the few who were there. I was grateful to Sylvia and Darlene for cheering me on and taking pictures! I received my finish line card saying that I had taken 2^nd in my age group but when the official announcement came, I had been bumped up because the gal before me took 3^rd overall. 1^st place Age Group!  That meant 2 medals-and we know it’s all about the medal! It was a pr (personal record) for me to since I’ve never done it!

 

 

The Bear Lake Brawl is a great venue. Joe and his crew do a wonderful job of organizing and making it a good race.

Now I’m in the count down mode for the St. George Marathon – 12 days and counting!

Ta Ta!

 

 

Busy Week

Wow, what a week last week was.  After speaking to my niece's group there was no rest.

In addition to getting in some training in spare moments, I had the test to become an NASM Certified Personal Trainer on Thursday.  I've not been so nervewracked over a multiple choice test ever.  Could be because I had not been able to dedicate as much time to studying as originally planned but mostly it was that I really wanted to pass it!

And pass, I did! I'm not quitting my day job but am excited to work with GPP (www.gppfitness.com) in some form or another.  Neil and the GPP crew have been instrumental in getting to me to where I am physically now. And I would love to give back something.

After the test on Thursday, I was ready for the family to start arriving for the mini reunion/birthday party we had for my hubby's family at our house.  It was my mother-in-law and a cousin's birthday so we have been planning this get together for about 6 months. Family came from Nevada, Toronto, Arizona, Wyoming and St. George.  Most all stayed with us and for the big dinner on Saturday, we were planning on 19 people.  It was such a blast having the brothers and cousins and kids all together.  We were missing quite a few people but had a good representation from all families.

A 10 mile run was on my training plan for this weekend but in the interest of time and being able to have family time, I split it up and ran 6 miles on Saturday morning and 4 on Sunday morning.  Saturday, a bunch of us girls went to a hot yoga session where we dripped sweat for 90 minutes. We tried to not giggle too much and disrupt the class.  Some went to the Museum of Natural History but mostly we sat at home, talking and reminiscing!  We sent most everyone off Sunday and some today.

I have 4 more races coming up starting with the Bear Lake Brawl Triathlon this weekend.  It will be my first lake Olympic distance so more to come on that.  19 days until the St. George Marathon (trying not to dwell!).

This sight greeted me as I was leaving the neighborhood for work this morning.

I love rainbows!

Have a great week

Giving Back

13 years, 7 months, 21 days (but who's counting).

This is how I began my talk last night.  It was meant to be funny but maybe it's just accountant humor!  My cute niece, the social worker, had asked me months ago if I would speak at her recovery group.  The subject was sobriety and fitness.  I was honored and touched that she would ask me.  I promptly forgot about it until last week when she sent a reminder! (must remember to put EVERYTHING in my calendar!)  Anyway, I made it to the meeting and found out it was more than just a few people sitting in a room, it was a big event that had been planned out and I wasn't the only speaker.  The first person started and I got so excited, he was from a group called AddictIIAthlete.  I had never heard of them but definitely want to be involved.  They use physical fitness, mainly running, to help people work through their addictions and live in sobriety.  It was such an inspiring time to listen to several people tell their stories and successes.  The concept makes such great sense.  I love sharing my story on the chance that it will help even one person to know they're not alone.  Bottom line of my message is that "I can do hard things" and it is the reason I keep signing up for one more thing.

*update on my legs - I finally feel like my legs are apart of my body again and not fighting me. Day 4 after Mt. Nebo, just in time to run again.

Have a great day!

Inaugural post

Beyond sore.  That is how I felt yesterday and still today.  The good thing is that I know it will get better.  I ran the Mt. Nebo Half Marathon on Saturday.  This is the course –

 

 

It was an 11 minute pr for me over my last year’s run.  I cannot imagine running any faster than I did Saturday.  That being said, I remember thinking the same thing last year.  It’s all about the training.

 

It was a fantastic event put on by great people.  Definitely worth doing.

 

This is the first of my blogging.  Hopefully, I do it right and it is helpful to someone to see how an old, out of shape, recovering lady can get into shape and do some of the things I have done.

 

Toodles for now!