I can run that far.

This week was tougher. I was scheduled to run 4 miles on Monday, 8 on Wednesday and 4-5 on Friday and then 6 on Saturday.

Monday was great, did the 4 miles early morning, the weather was beautiful and I completed my goal.

Wednesday came and I didn't want to get up early. I had a major attack of the lazy bug.

So I didn't run early morning on Wednesday, however after teaching Sculpt my friend Stephanie said she planned a long route for us to run. It was a 5 mile route. She said, "You can do the 5 miles now and then go home and do 3 later." So we ran 5 miles. It was a hilly route that about did me in and it was slightly hot out and very sunny. But we did it. However I never did run 3 more miles later in the day.

I decided to do 8 straight miles on Friday. That's exactly what happened today. I got up at 5:20 to get Daniel up (he is taking care of someone else's dogs this week). Anyway then I prepared for my run and left around 5:41 to be exact.

I was running for 93 minutes.

There were two really massive hills in the route I picked and those were very hard that I ended up walking up the end of the hills to make it to the top. Other than the small amount of walking up those massive hills I ran the rest of the way.

I am really glad I was able to do it and feel very ready to run 6 miles tomorrow (yes in a race again).

Then next week the schedule is 4 miles Monday, 9-10 on Wednesday, and then 4-5 on Friday and then 3 on Saturday.

Then week after next is the Half Marathon. Yes I'm crazy.

Only 19 Days to Go

As the title reads, only 19 days left until the Half Marathon (13.1 miles)

My goal was to run an entire Half Marathon this year. I have one scheduled on September 11th in Waterloo, Iowa.

I'm excited for the race, and extremely scared at the same time.

I have been running every other day to every other 2 days for the last 5 months. Mostly I have been running 2-3 miles, but recently realized that I should be running further than 3 miles to train for the race.

I looked at many different training schedules online and found one that fit what I felt was safe and doable.

According to the schedule I had to run 3 miles on Monday last week, 7 miles on Wednesday, 3 miles on Friday and then 3 on Saturday. I accomplished that.

This week is 4 miles today, 8miles on Wednesday, 1-2 on Friday and 6 on Saturday

Next week 4 miles on Monday, 9 miles on Wednesday, 4 miles on Friday, 7 on Saturday

Week of my race 3 miles on Monday, 3 miles on Wednesday, Rest on Thursday, 1 mile on Friday and then 13.1 for the race on Saturday.

I sure hope I'm able to do this. Running is super difficult for me.

2010 Lone Tree 5K--Lone Tree, IA

Had a great race in Lone Tree, Iowa today. It was their Fall Festival and they had a 5K Run/Walk and a 1-Mile Fun Run. I'm still not sure how you can call running fun, but it's slowly getting easier.

My friend Stephany drove me to this race. She had an excellent time of 29:05 her best time ever. She placed 2nd in her age group.

Best thing about this race was I won a door prize. A $10 Gift Certificate to Sheels (a local sporting goods store)!

My time today was 31:04 better than last week, but slower than a couple of my other 5K times. I feel like I'm getting slower for three reasons.
1. My muscles seem so tight lately. I'm sure it's the amount of classes I teach along side trying to train to run.

2. I'm running longer distances more often and to do that you have to really pace yourself. My long distance pace is an 11 minute mile and I think I just run too slow the entire way.

3. I really don't know what I'm doing.
This past week from last Saturday to today I have run 22.6 miles. To me this is amazing since I went from last year of NO running ever and not ever planning on it to running at least 10-15 miles a week now.
Last Saturday was 6.2 miles, Monday 3.1 miles, Wednesday was the long run of 7.1 miles, yesterday 3.1 miles, then today the race of 3.1 miles.

I'm currently training for a half marathon (13.1 miles) so to do this you have to have a long run each week and it has to be longer each time.

Here is what is scheduled for this week.

Sunday REST
Monday 4 miles
Tuesday Cross Train (I consider this my Zumba classes and Body Sculpt that I teach)
Wednesday 8 miles
Thursday Cross Train
Friday 1 mile
Saturday 6.2 (10K race)
Sunday REST

If only I had a 2nd day to rest. Maybe that's all I need for more speed in my running, not sure, so if you are reading this and are good at running, please post any suggestions on getting faster and enduring to the end.

2010 St. Judes Sweet Corn Festival 10K Race--Cedar Rapids, IA

Today my friend Stephanie and I got up super early to go to Cedar Rapids to run a race there. Here is a picture before the race.

This is my 9th race of the year. I never thought I'd like running, but today I actually had a great time. My time was 1:04:14 this beats my last 10K time of over a minute. I placed 13 out of 17 in my age group.

Here is a list of the races I've done so far this year:

May I did a 5K in Marion
June I did a 10K in Iowa City then a 5K in Burlington, Iowa
July I did a 5K, Half Marathon and the Bix 7 mile
August so far I have done a 5K and a 10K

I have a few more races planned, but the one I'm actually looking forward to is the Half Marathon on September 11th. My goal is to run the entire race because my first Half Marathon I walked half of it.

These are all small steps towards the ultimate goal of a Marathon by next October 2011.

2010 Okoboji Half Marathon and Triathlon--Okoboji, IA

Jason and I were recently in a couple races over the weekend in Okoboji, Iowa. He did the triathlon and I did the half marathon. Both were extremely hard races and I thought personally that I wasn't going to make it to the end of mine.

Jason said he felt great about his race and now feels ready to do an olympic distance triathlon soon.

Here are the details and a bunch of pictures on our family website:

http://lewisnclark.blogspot.com/2010/07/okoboji-races.html

New Gyms--New Opportunity

A place called "A New You" in Coralville, Iowa http://www.anewyouia.com/ hired me to do Zumba for them.

At first I was going to teach Tuesdays and Thursdays, however I just don't have the time to give up 2 nights a week. When I looked at my calendar, and the all the children's activities and with Caleb on tour I just don't have a 2nd night to give. So I agreed to just Tuesday nights.

This place has many unique weight loss methods and they encourage all employees to try out everything so we can tell everyone about it, so I see a European wrap or Algae wrap in my future. They both sound interesting and since they are free to me I am curious to try them.

The other place I'm working at is the North Liberty Recreation Center. I will teach Zumba one day a week there, and Body Sculpt 3 days a week. The pay isn't as great and isn't a sure thing, meaning if only 2 people sign up for your class then your pay is maybe only $7.00 for that hour. However if 8 people sign up for your class then you'd get $28. for that hour. This could be an incredible opportunity or a waste of time.

Like for instance the Body Sculpt so far has 5 in it, at least on Monday it did and with the rate per class that they are doing I will get $10.50 for Monday's class. That class really needs 10 in it to be worth my time for the pay I want and deserve per class. But then there's Zumba, with just 6 people in the class it would be great for pay.

So it's my job at the Rec center to make sure I advertise and get people in my class. I hope to grow the numbers and get lots of people there, otherwise I'll have to have them raise the price per person per class and I really don't want to do that. Typically $3.00 a class is what people like to pay, but then there are places (the big gyms) that charge $7.50 a class and people pay that.

3rd Race of the year

Here is a link to the place where I blogged about this race.

http://lewisnclark.blogspot.com/2010/06/5k-race-in-burlington-iowa.html

2010 Dam to Downtown 10K Race--Iowa City, IA

Jason and I did it. We ran our first 10K.

The official times are as follows:

Jason ran a 9:50 mile pace for a total time of 1:01:06

and I ran a 10:37 mile pace for a total time of 1:05:58

Had I not walked up a couple of those massive hills I would have had a better mile pace. I'm just glad I finished and that I wasn't last. At mile 2 I was ready to give up, my ankle and hip were hurting and I just didn't feel like running. It also rained on me the last mile and that was completely miserable. However I plugged along and finally crossed the finish line.

To see more about this race go to http://lewisnclark.blogspot.com/2010/06/dam-to-downtown-10k-race-in-iowa-city.html

Emotional Day

Wow today hurts big time, one disappointment after another, it's hard to think about without crying, so I'll blog about it, then hopefully move on to better things.

Today I found out through a Grapevine (love the grapes, hate the vine) that the Ladies only gym that I teach at (5 classes a week) is closing at the end of June.

Not only will this be sad because I won't see certain people twice a week, but the extra financial help won't be there. ($450 a month may not sound like much, but it's a hard blow to our finances and seriously I'm not sure what we will do cause things are already so tight around here)

The thing that is so upsetting is the owner still hasn't notified me about this.

I called her this afternoon and left a voice message that said, "Hi it's Michelle and I heard through one of my Pampered Chef consultants that you are closng the gym. I hope this is just a rumor, please call me and let me know what's going on, here's my number. . . . Thanks"

so that was hours ago and still nothing.

So there you have it. I've cried enough, now time to move on I guess. Just hoping that tomorrow I feel tons better cause today I feel like run over garbage.

Ok so call us crazy.

The other day knowing that Jason wants to do a couple triathlons this summer I told him about one at the U of Okoboji on July 17th. The reason I think that one would be great is because on the same day there is a 10K, Half Marathon and a Marathon at the same time. So I thought while he is doing his triathlon I could do a race as well. We would travel there the day before as to celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary and have a day all to ourselves!

So I go online to register and get this crazy idea. I thought, "Well my goal this year is to do a 5K, 10K and a Half Marathon so by next year I could do a Marathon. AND since I've already done a 5K, and next week is a 10K, so since this race is 6 weeks away I could be ready for a Half Marathon by then, maybe just maybe."

Ok so yes that was a crazy thought since a Half Marathon is over double the distance of a 10K and technically haven't done the 10K yet. So who knows if it's even doable, really.

So I'm online and I register Jason for his event, then I get to my event. I noticed that the 10K cost the exact same as the half marathon, so I went ahead and just did it. I registered for that monster half marathon which to those of you who don't know it's 13.1 miles.

I'm actually excited and have a long run tomorrow of between 6.5 and 7 miles, this will be my last long run until after my 10K race since next week is the 10K.

Jason's triathlon has a .6 mile swim, 18 mile bike ride and 5.5 mile run. He is excited yet nervous as well. I know he will do fabulous since he can definitely swim that far, bikes at least 25 miles at a time at least once a week and the running, well that's a different story, but he is doing the 10K with me next Saturday and that is 6.2 miles so when he runs that he will show that he is able to do that distance. I will be sure to get pictures of him before and after the race there are photos taken by the race.

I will be sure to post updates on our training. Wish us luck as we are both very new to races.