How am I gonna be an optimist about this?

Uh.... yeah. Not cool. I thought my days of running in 90% humidity were over! No such luck. I'm trying to remain optimistic about this, but things are not lookin great. The silver lining is that it is Texas and weather can change on a dime here! (what does that saying even mean?!)


So yeah, hopefully these jamz will help get me through 26.2 miles of hell!







It's only about 4 hours of music, but whatevs, hopefully there will be some great bands out and I won't have to depend so much on my jamz :)


Good luck to all those racing tomorrow - may the odds be ever in your favor!


-Candice

20 mile training run... check!

Yup. I did that shit! I think I may actually be ready for the marathon is just over 2 weeks! Whoa, never thought I'd ever say that! Here's how it went down, in case you're interested (although I'm sure you couldn't care less!)


6:30am - roll outa bed and make some coffee before I have to go to the Y and stand in line for free family Friday... it was my turn this month.


7:45am - woo hoo, I was able to score Feb. 14th (vday date night baby, and with an extra hour, woot woot!), head home to get ready to run.


8:00am - eat a piece of toast with PB and half a banana, get water bottle and shot bloks ready to go.


8:30am - hit up the restroom and put my running clothes on. the weather is AMAZING today!

9:00am - head out the door to stretch and wait for the Garmin (aka my running buddy) to find a signal.

9:13am - Start- Bam, here we go! I head out down to the trail behind my house, but because of the golf course, I have to go the long way around and it actually takes about a mile and a half to get to the big trail. Then I take off towards the end of the trail, where I plan to then turn around and head straight on to the other end of the trail and back again. Around mile 7, I was getting a little hot and decided to take my pullover off and tie it around my waist. At this point I am making really good time, averaging about 10:45, which is exactly where I was trying to stay (my goal was to keep the whole run under 11 min miles, and too either get negative splits or keep them all relatively the same pace throughout).

At 10.5 miles I had made it to the beginning of the trail (which also happens to be at the YMCA, where the hubs and kids were). I ran inside to pee, and then jumped on the treadmill for 2 miles (so that I could just run straight home from there). After that I stretched a little bit, refilled my water bottle and threw a lemon lime nuun tab in, and was feeling pretty good! I set out on the trail again. I got really pumped once I reached 14 miles and could not wipe the smile off my face, b/c I had just ran further then I ever had before! The jams were pumpin', the weather was awesome, and I was feeling pretty good, no real aches or pains or cramps lawd knows I've had my fair share of shit-uations, nahmean?!

Around mile 16 I started thinking to myself... "who ever thought running this long was a good idea?! This sucks! I am never running a marathon again!"

Yes. This. ALLLLL of this!

... let me just say training all by yourself with no running buddies suuuuuuuucks. But alas, none of my friends are dumb enough to take on such a challenge. Seriously, I started to feel like Tom Hanks in Castaway, but instead of a volleyball named Wilson, I had a watch named Garmin that I had conversations with!

  = 

The only things getting me through those last few miles was knowing I was in the home stretch, but I was also terrified because I knew the last mile and a half were all uphill! Yuck! I was still managing to avg around 10:42-10:50 pace as I tuned off the trail to head home. I had never stopped running (except to pee and stretch at the halfway point) and I wasn't about to walk the last mile, I knew I would have to dig deep. I took my last shot blok and started hoofin' it up the hill. It is very possible that my walk would have been faster then the hobalong jog business I was doing, but I didn't care, I was all "I can't stop, and I won't stop!" and "who gunna stop me, huh!" - channeling my inner Miley and Kanye to just.keep.going.

Finally, I made it up the hill and I knew the quarter mile home was relatively flat, and I made an attempt to go as fast as I could and finish strong, although my body was pretty well spent, and I think I topped out at 10:30 (but felt like I was going much faster than that!) Finally, I rounded the corner and could see my house! I looked down and saw that I was going to be just shy of 20 miles, but I did not give 2 shits - f'ing close enough, right?! (it was 19.3 if you must know, but I rounded that shit up and added a little more time) Jason was in the driveway and I stopped the Garmin and threw my hands in the air and said "OMG I F*CKIN' DID IT!" at which point J told me to take my headphones off because I was talking wayyyyy too loud - oops! Sorry new neighbors, I promise I'm classier than that yeah right.

So yeah, BAM! almost 20 miles in 3:34. Man am I glad it's over! And the crazy thing? I felt GREAT! I took an nice ice bath ugh I hate those! followed by a steaming hot shower, threw on some compression calf sleeves, comfy clothes, and shoved a hamburger and French fries in my pie hole and attempted to take a nap. Yeah, the nap didn't happen thanks Emma. We had a sitter coming that night so that we could go out, and J was very concerned that would not be able to hang, since I was pretty much done-zo after all my other long runs/halves, but I stretched a bunch, drank some coffee felt AWESOME for the rest of the night! Woop! I think I crawled into bed around 12:30 with no Tylenol or anything like that. I was pretty nervous that I would not be able to move come Sunday morning, but imagine my surprise when I woke up the next morning and could actually walk like a normal human being?! Holy crap! Are you kiddin' me right now?! How is this remotely possible?? Amazing. Just absolutely amazing. I have no explanation, I just know that I never once felt sore or overly exhausted after that run.


Due to the wonderful winter weather we received on Tuesday, I was not able to get my 5 mile run in, and I let other life stuff get in the way on Wednesday, so I did get my 10 miles in then either, but I was able to get 5 in yesterday (speed work on the treadmill - 47:15 - pretty pumped about that). Now I have 12 on tap for tomorrow, 8 next week and then the big day. Can I just tell you that I am so sick of running?! Ugh! for reals, I cannot wait to take a nice long vacation from running!

Anywho... My goal is to finish the marathon in under 5 hours, ideally in the neighborhood of 4:45, but we shall see :) My hubs reminded me that either way it will be a PR :) Love that man! Pretty sure this will be a one and done for me - nothankyouverymuch! I think I will stick with the half crazy folks from here on out! So yeah, I'm kinda proud of myself, and am constantly amazed at how far I've come, I just really hope that my race day goes as well as this 20 mile run did!

Happy Friday y'all!

-Candice

Mastering the Negative Split

Hey hey hey! Who's got two thumbs and PR'd in her 3rd half marathon over the weekend??? THIS GIRL! Woot Woot! Holla! To say I'm a little excited might be an understatement! I kinda knew and expected to PR in this race, seeing as it was pretty much all downhill, but I didn't want to count my chickens before they were hatched, nah-mean! It's weird, at no point during my training or leading up to race day did I ever feel nervous, false confidence? I don't know, but it was strange. Now, thinking about running anything longer than 13.1... now that scared the crap out of me, and this weekend will seal my fate on whether I take the leap into the world of 26.2, or stay in my half crazy little world! I am going to try to run that 18 miler again, annnnnnnnnnnd maybe 2 more miles on top of that - eek! IF, I can do it without dying, I will go ahead and pay the astronomical $135 registration fee (so ridiculous) and run the Austin Marathon in, oh you know, 25 freakin' days! Holy balls Batman, I'm freakin' out just thinking about it, even after the high of this weekend's awesome race. So speaking of the race, check out who is finally starting to master the negative split, baby bay-bay!

how stinkin' cute are the signs the hubs made?! Love him!

Austin 3M Half Marathon Splits


1 - 9:51
2 - 9:35
3 - 9:37
4 - 9:26
5 - 9:25
6 - 9:21
7 - 9:21
8 - 9:12
9 - 9:26
10 - 9:42 (there was a hill)
11 - 9:26
12 - 9:00 (tried like hell to get in under 2 hours...)
13 - 9:21 (but realized there was no way)


Unofficial time (stopped watch at 13.1)-  2:03:43, Official time- 2:05:15 (avg pace 9:27)

you bet your ass I ate an S load of Girl Scout Cookies after the race! Holla! #iheartsamoas

They say that the key to a successful race is running a negative split (your second half of the race is faster than your first half), and I have been really trying to do this in my training runs. In previous runs, I have struggled with going out too fast and burning out toward the end. So this time I really had to talk myself down coming out of the start line, because you get so caught up in the excitement that you just want to take off, all like this girl is on fi-ya, but you gotta tell yourself, yo, slow your roll girlfriend, save it for the end! And that is exactly what I tried to do! I've certainly not mastered it by any means, but I'm improving, and progress is progress my friend, and I'll take it where I can get it!




I took yesterday off, as my thighs were kinda thrashed (downhill races are killer on your quads, and running them correctly is an art form in itself, one I clearly have not mastered - eh, add it to the list), but I was back at today. I hit the pavement for a 5 mile recovery run. Gotta keep on keepin on, right! I started off slow so I could get my poor muscles nice and warmed up. I was very pleased to find that I had negative splits again, and without being a slave to my Garmin - woo hoo! If I can get this whole pacing business down, I just might be able to go the distance and earn that 26.2 sticker on the back of my car. We shall see.




In other news, there are only 10 more days left to SHOP FOR A CAUSE!




Have a fabulous week everyone!




-Candice

3M Half Marathon Playlist

Here's the list of jamz I selected for tomorrow's race. Hopefully these tunes will give me the motivation I'll need to push harder than I ever have before and leave it all out there and end the day with a PR baby! Good luck to all racers this weekend!


Pompeii - Bastille
I Wish - Cher Lloyd
Love More - Chris Brown
Survivor - Destiny's Child
Let the Drummer Kick - Citizen Cope
Acapella - Karmin
Best Song Ever - One Direction
'Til I Collapse - Eminem
The Monster - Eminem
Wanted - Jesse James
Roar - Katy Perry
People Like Us - Kelly Clarkson
Catch My Breath - Kelly Clarkson
Story of My Life - One Direction
Wild For the Night - A$AP
Run This Town - Rihanna & Kanye
Stay the Night -  Zedd
Slow Down - Selena Gomez
Red - Taylor Swift
Timber - Ke$ha
Holy Grail - Jay Z & JT
Midnight City - M83
We Can't Stop - Miley Cyrus
My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark - Fall Out Boy
Niggas In Paris - Jay Z & Kanye
Paper Planes - M.I.A.
Brave - Sara Bareilles
H.A.M. - Jay Z & Kanye
Get 'Em High - Kanye
Winner - JT & Jamie Foxx
Midnight Memories - One Direction
Revo - Walk off the Earth
No Church in the Wild - Jay Z & Kanye


And check out the shirt I just whipped together for Jason to wear :)

It's certainly not perfect, but whatevs, it's still funny! Happy racing everyone!

-Candice