Hello. I am not dead. Rather, I'm simply a very bad blogger. I have always hated it when a blogger I have followed disappears with no explanation. Irony. I could offer all kinds of apologies, but that would probably just be annoying rather than making anyone happy. I will say that I never intended to take an 8 month hiatus from blogging. It happens as these things do often do. I went into a bit of a funk post-Rainier and something had to give. That something was the blog. I'd meant to take a week or two off. A week or two became a month, etc. I also "missed" the cut-off for renewing my web domain address.
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| Really Mommy? You expect them to take all that? |
I am not going to promise weekly posts or anything crazy like that. Mostly because my life is just not that interesting these days, but I will make an effort not to disappear for quite so long without an explanation beforehand.
So where have I been? What has been going on?
Detroit Marathon - I finished in 4:22:27. I made the rookie mistake of staying with the pacer even though they were going too fast for me to maintain throughout the marathon distance. I wound up taking 2 potty breaks and walking periodically from mile 16 on in an effort to preserve my legs for a better effort at Philly.
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| Yes, I made them pose with me like this. |
Philly Marathon - I finished in 2:11:17. I turned at the half. After an hour in the port-a-potties line, I missed my starting corral and started late. I quickly caught the corral in front of me and the sudden change of pace along with the rutted Philly streets caused a day that didn't feel good at the start to become even worse. I was exhausted at mile 9 when I saw the first sign for the half marathoners to turn. After calculating when I would finish the marathon and whether or not I would have time to shower before I had to check out of my hotel, and whether my hip soreness was something to be concerned about...I made the smart decision and turned with the half marathoners. Lesson learned? 4 weeks is two short between marathons for me. I need to stay an extra day for out-of-state races so that hotel check-out does not influence decisions to finish the race.
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| I told her we had to do pouty faces because we both turned for the half. |
Santa Hustle Half Marathon - 2:11:46. Conditions were crazy and blizzard-like. After running in inches of snow, I decided to run for fun and not for time. Definitely the right call. I did spend the drive back to Columbus trying to convince Lynne that we could run the Antarctica marathon.
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| Gotta love Northern Ohio in December! |
All of these races were partially impacted by a major medication change that I undertook about a month prior to the Detroit race. (Hindsight: never change medications so close to a race). The same medication changes caused me to gain about 5 lbs a month for 4 months. Nonetheless,iIn December I signed up for the Xenia Marathon that was schedule for the first weekend in April. Why? I loved the half when I ran it the year before, and when I went to sign up - it was the same price for the marathon as for the half marathon: $25.
After my 2nd 20 mile training run for Xenia, my legs took almost 2 weeks to recover. After a few more attempts, I made the right call and emailed the race officials to switch to the half marathon distance. I ran the race in 2:34:45. I ran it for fun with a friend and had a blast laughing and chatting the entire race.
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| Me and the best running wife a gal could ask for post race. |
What is the biggest change since my last post??? I'll let Avery tell you.
I am due Nov. 8th, and we couldn't be happier. Although, I ran that 2nd 20 mile training run shortly after becoming pregnant, the difficulty I had in recovery and in subsequent runs convinced me that a pregnant marathon was a bad idea. Pregnant half marathons on the other hand...
Luckily, the pace team I run with was able to accommodate my slower pace these days, and I was still able to pace the
Cap City Half Marathon at the beginning of May. I paced the 2:50 finish time, finishing at 2:49:38. I had an absolute blast. I talked and sang myself hoarse. I'm sure there were many people who would have gladly taken my pace sign and beaten me with it. Especially when I was belting out Build Me Up Buttercup somewhere around mile 12.
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| Who wouldn't want to run with that kind of obnoxiousness? |
Where is my running now that I am 16 weeks pregnant tomorrow? I'm still running about 15-20 miles a week, but I'm running about 2 minute per mile slower than my pre-pregnancy LSD pace. I'm keeping all my runs to an LSD effort because that's what I'm comfortable with while pregnant. I'm still strength training 2x a week with my trainer, but I'm resting much more often between sets. It is what it is.
I think that's enough of 8 months worth of catching up. I probably should have led with the pregnancy bit instead of making y'all read everything else first. HA! For the record, I have been reading the blogs I followed before my disappearance, despite my lack of comments, and will endeavor to actually type comments instead of thinking them from now on! ;)
How has everyone else been?
