Goodbye 2010...

How did everyone do on their New Years' Resolutions?

Mine were:

1. Run the full 8 mile Turkey Trot.
We ended up not being in town on Thanksgiving Day. But I did run two half marathons (Hills and Heels on May 2 and Dallas White Rock on December 5). I think that counts!

2. Read 25 books.
Only made it to 22, so close! But they were all great reads!
1. Ford County Stories
2. Dark Water
3. The Lovely Bones (re-read)
4. You Better Not Cry
5. Shutter Island
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey
7. The Lost Symbol
8. What the Dog Saw
9. American Wife
10. Freakonomics
11. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
12. Ticket to Ride
13. The Five People You Meet in Heaven (re-read)
14. The Girl Who Played With Fire
15. A Short History of Nearly Everything (re-read)
16. The Yiddish Policeman's Union (I gave up on this one over halfway through.)
17. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
18. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk
19. Life of Pi
20. No Country for Old Men
21. I Know This Much is True (re-read)
22. The Pillars of the Earth This one was a long one, almost 900 pages! I probably could have made it to my 25 goal if I hadn't decided on this one.

3. Keep my bathroom cleaner.
Fail.

4. Find a new strength training class.
I went to Cardio Muscle throughout most of the summer (and even talked Michael into coming along!) but it fell by the wayside once I started training for another half marathon. I've kept up yoga and still do old-school pushups after a run so I don't think I've entirely lost the benefits.

5. Cut back on drinking.
I did pretty good with this one! I still drink most nights but limit myself to 2 beers.

6. Pay off my car.
Did this in March! (I got laid off literally the day after I put the check in the mail, ha!)

7. Get gum surgery. (I have already met with a peridontist about this, yuck!)
Did this in August! It was expensive and painful and I never want to do it again.

Rock & Roll Half Marathon Training Week 3

Last week's workouts:
Sun: Rest
Mon: Power yoga class Yoga for Runners podcast
Tues: 2 mi intervals
Wed: Yoga or rest
Thurs: 2 mi intervals OR Power yoga class 1.5 mi fail
Fri: Run 5 mi
Sat: Rest Yoga for Runners podcast

Thursday I was off work and looking forward to a run in the cold. I set out for my usual 2 mi loop around the neighborhood, but when I stopped for a second to think about which way I wanted to turn, I felt dizzy. My heart was racing, my vision was blurry and all I wanted to do was sit down. I kept moving, I remember a trainer telling me that blood can pool in your feet if you stop moving too suddenly. Anyway, I had to turn around and walk back home. By the time I got back, I felt much better but it was still a little scary. Luckily I felt great for Friday morning's run!

This week's plan:
Sunday: Rest
Monday: Power yoga DVD
Tuesday: 2 mi intervals
Wednesday: Yoga OR rest
Thursday: 2 mi intervals
Friday: 5 mi easy
Saturday: Rest

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas! We just got back from a whirlwind trip to Lubbock (less than 24 hours) to visit Michael's extended family and I am exhausted! But our Christmas was great!

Christmas week!

Last week's workouts:
This week's plan:
Sun: Rest
Mon: Power yoga (+ ran about a half mile on the treadmill before class to warm up)
Tues: Run 2 mi intervals
Wed: Yoga or rest (Walked to and from work)
Thurs: Run 2 mi intervals
Fri: Yoga or rest (Walked to work
Sat: Run 5 4 mi

This week's plan:
Sun: Rest
Mon: Power yoga class
Tues: 2 mi intervals
Wed: Yoga or rest
Thurs: 2 mi intervals OR Power yoga class
Fri: Run 5 mi
Sat: Rest

I'll have to play things a little bit by ear since it's a holiday week. I have Thursday and Friday off work for Christmas (yay!) and I'm not sure how busy it will be Monday through Wednesday.

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone has a happy and healthy week!

Rock & Roll Half Marathon Training Week 1

Confession: I took most of last week off of working out. I did yoga once and ran 5 miles on Saturday, but I mostly felt like just taking it easy. So I did!

This week's plan:
Sun: Rest
Mon: Power yoga
Tues: Run 2 mi intervals
Wed: Yoga or rest
Thurs: Run 2 mi intervals
Fri: Yoga or rest
Sat: Run 5 mi

I need to do some strength training at some point as well. I've been bad about not doing any!

Dallas White Rock Half Marathon

Saturday I took the DART rail to Fair Park to pick up my race packet and check out the Health and Fitness Expo. There were a ton of booths and a ton of people, even though I had gotten there early to try to avoid the crowds. I got a few free samples, bought a pack of Honey Stinger Chews and checked out a few of the booths. I had been thinking about signing up for the Rock & Roll half marathon on March 27 so I stopped by the booth to get some info. They were offering a discount and free t-shirt for signing up, so I did! Guess I'm going right back into training.

Sunday morning started early, traffic was ridiculous getting to Fair Park. We made it at about 7:45 and I found my assigned corral, L. I knew they would be starting us in waves (22,000 participants, so it made sense!) but I had no idea how long it would take for my group to be able to start! We didn't get started until almost 8:45. I normally try not to start out really fast, but I tried to push ahead really early to get ahead of the crowd.



It was so cold when we started, about 33 degrees! I wore long pants, a t-shirt, my favorite thumbhole jacket and gloves that I didn't care about losing. There were tons of discarded clothes along the course, good thing the race organizers get them picked up and donate them. It took several miles for my muscles to warm up, my legs felt like blocks of ice for a while there.

Course support was great, there were people all along the course with signs, live bands and a lot of great scenery. Our names were on our bibs and so a lot of people would call our our names as we ran by. There were plenty of water and Gatorade stations and Run On even had Kleenex stations. What a great idea! I drank water and Gatorade at miles 3, 6 and 9 and took ate some chews at miles 5 and 10.

My goal for this race was to be able to run the entire way. At Hills and Heels in May, I ran up until about mile 9 then had to alternate running and walking. But when I got to mile 10 this time, I knew I was going to be able to make it the entire way! I did stop right after mile 10 to stretch and of course I had to stop for the water stations (has anybody mastered running and drinking at the same time?), but I felt so strong when I was near the finish! In fact, once we hit mile 12, I pushed myself to pick up the pace in the hopes that I would really beat my last half-marathon time.

I didn't beat my time as much as I wanted to. My official finish time was 2:19:27, only 29 seconds faster than my first half-marathon. But, hey, faster is faster! I will take it.

Next up: Rock & Roll on March 27, 2011! Let's see what I can do!