Stretching

I have been pretty good with my marathon training and it has showed, but my injury prevention has been the pits and pains are starting to develop. I am the worst person when it comes to stretching and because of it I think I am starting to get plantar fascitiis and ITBS.

During the half on Sunday my hips started hurting and didn't stop until I finished the race. When I ran my hands along my ITB's I felt a little pain with increased pressure. Time to get the roller out.

After getting home and resting a bit, any time I would get up I gimped because my heels hurt like crazy. I kept stretching and doing the alphabet with my feet but it only helped a little. I put on some sandals with 2" heels and that helped a bit more. I eventually filled a bottle with water and froze it - that helped. I am now making sure I do the alphabet with the feet a couple times a day along with icing.

I am going to go get the roller now.

The Official Time

Gun time - 2:34:24.0

Gun pace - 11:47 min/mile

Chip time - 2:32:07.4

Chip pace - 11:36 min/mile

For me - this is absolutely fantastic!!

Split times:

First half = 1:18:38.6 (gun) / 1:16:22.1 (chip)

Second half = 1:15:45.3

Negative split!!! Wooooooo Hoooooooooo!!!!!!

Houston Half

Last year when I participated in this race it was my first "official" half marathon even though I have done the distance plus more on many training runs. Last year I accomplished it in 2:40:10.8 and this year I really wanted to beat that time, but didn't think I would.

Everything seemed to be going okay before I left my place, but then I started feeling a tad not so great in the car. I just prayed that I would be okay until I could get to a port-a-potty (I know - TMI!).

I parked, got all my stuff together then started hoofing it to the start. I looked down at my wrist to check out the time and that is when I realized I had forgot my Garmin on the kitchen counter hooked up to the charger. I was so ticked!

Back to the car I went to drop off my heart rate monitor (lot of good that was going to do me now!) then I made my way towards the start again.

I started feeling better, but still made a pit stop to make sure I was good to go once the gun went off. All I gotta say is that I really should not eat a lot of fatty food the night before a race (I had a tad too much cheese)!! Sorry, more TMI!

I finally made it over to the start and after a few minutes the gun went off. I kept looking for the official time clock as I got closer to the timing mats, but never saw one - all I could do was estimate that it took two to three minutes for me to get to the start line since I was so close to the back. And when I did cross I didn't hear a beep. I just hope that my time actually was recorded.

Since I did not have my watch set with my interval times, my plan was to run a mile then walk about a minute after each mile marker. And I would walk all the up hills.

My nutrition plan was to drink my 16 oz bottle of Endurance Gatorade during the first couple miles, then around one hour do my my first gu and then have another at the 1.5 and 2 hour marks. I really think this helped me a lot!!

I made it to mile marker one 13:34 after the gun. At mile two the pace caller said I was around a 12:50 pace. So much for beating last years time.

Then at mile three they said my pace was around 12:30.

Hmmm - I might get close!

Mile 4 around 12:15

Mile 5 around 12:05

Mile 6 - 11:58

Mile 7 - 11:51

Mile 8 - 11:48

Mile 9 - 11:45

Mile 10 - 11:43

Holy Crap!! I did negative splits for 10 miles!!! Can I keep it going?

Mile 11 - 11:43

Nope, but I'm happy, I stayed the same pace!

Mile 12 - 11:44 (time clock read around 2:08)

Yeah - a positive split, but considering who cares!!

Mile 13 - no idea, but I am sure it was a positive split because I was getting tired and took several small walk breaks!

Mile 13.1 - time clock read around 2:34:20!!!!!!

Woohoo!! PR!!

Then subtract a couple minutes from that and my chip time is around 2:32!!!!

O! M! G!

I PR'd by at least 8 minutes!!!

Yeah me!!!

CLOSED!!

Can you believe it? Registration for the BP MS150 has been closed! They reached 13,000 participants in less than a day - heck, I think it was less than 8 hours!

CRAZY!!

I didn't sign-up. I told myself I wouldn't do it this year and I stayed strong. If it hadn't filled up so quickly, who knows if my resolve would have held out!

Please stop

Why do people think it is okay to send candidate bashing or candidate loving e-mails to everyone in their address book?

Just because they hate/love John McCain or hate/love Barack Obama doesn't mean I do.
Just because they are pro-life/pro-choice doesn't mean I am.
Just because they are gun lovers/gun haters doesn't mean I am.
Just because they do/do not believe in global warming doesn't mean I do.
Just becuase they are/are not for the war in Irag doesn't mean I am.
Just because they are conservative/liberal doesn't mean I am.

I do not push my beliefs on them, why do they think it is acceptable to push theirs on me? I want to respond and say to not send me their political BS, but then I wonder if that would add fuel to the fire or they are family and friends.

I have made up my mind who I am going to vote for and none of your idiotic e-mails are going to get me to change my mind - so please stop sending them!

Loving the weather!

Are you loving the weather? I sure am! The loops around the golf course have been easier and faster. The air conditioning has been turned off in the car and the windows rolled down. If only it would stay like this all year long! I guess it makes us appreciate it even more when we do not experience it that often.

Viv has decided to have a little competition called the Marathon Season Independence Weight Loss Challenge. For a month all entrants monitor their weight and the one who loses the greatest percentage wins. Just a little harmless competition to get people motivated. Hopefully a little less poundage will make me a tad faster for the San Antonio RNR Half Marathon. If I am good maybe I can reach goal #3 - 30 pounds of total weight loss by Thanksgiving. This past month I did not lose anything. All I can say is at least I didn't gain any!

NOT!

The results came back and according to them I am not insulin resistant. I guess that is good news, but I really wanted an explanation and I still do not have one. I told my dietitian and she says we are still going to gear my diet towards me having it.

I went and bought a book at Courtney's suggestion: The Insulin Resistance Diet. Basically it says two things. First, you should not eat carbohydrates alone, but paired with protein so your blood sugar does not spike and your body does not store the excess as fat. Second, you should only have a max of 30 g of carbs in a two hour period with at least 14 g of protein. This is because they say the excess carbs are stored as fat. In people having insulin resistance, the glucose is converted to fat faster than normal people. Hence, it is concluded that the carbohydrates have to balanced by the optimum quantity of protein to maintain a stable blood sugar level.

My dietitian has previously told me that I needed to pair my carbs with a protein, she just never gave me a number to watch. I see her again on Thursday and I will find out what she thinks about this book and its theory. I already know it will be a little difficult - but only when it comes to my breakfast. I really like fruit in the morning, but I have to limit the quantity. I will have to start getting creative with my smoothies!!

Okay, enough of that.

This weekend I participated in the Race for the Cure. I was happy with my results: 35:49.88. This race was pretty much my first ever four years ago, and I have at least seen an improvement. I ran it last year, too, but I did it with a TNT participant (her first time) and even though I wanted to get a better time than my first, I figured doing the event with her was more important. And, it was. You only have one first time, but there are plenty of races to get better results.