pre-race trial run.

today I did the last of my long runs before my first 1/2 marathon.

I wanted to get as close to race conditions as possible.
make sure I knew exactly what time I needed to be up to be ready with time to spare.
I made sure I had everything gathered up so I wasn’t wasting time looking for gear.

I went back and forth this morning about wearing my long sleeve shirt too.
at one point I had it on and ready to go, but then I walked outside to hide my keys and realized it was warm enough for just the tshirt.
I didn’t actually head out until about 930…30 minutes after the REAL race will start next weekend, but I just wanted to have an idea of what it would be like at 9 so I felt fully prepared. I kept telling myself, “its only going to get warmer.” so I took off the long shirt, and I’m really glad I did!

temps when I left my house were right around 46*
when I got back…61*
I was sweaty to say the least.

I did awesome on my way out. the first 5 miles I averaged just at (or a little under) and 8 minute/mile pace. awesome! I was hoping to hit an 8:15 minute/mile pace for the whole thing. when I ran my 9 miles on sunday I averaged a 8:27 minute/mile pace. let’s just say cutting 12 seconds per mile is not as easy as it seems.

when I turned around at 5 miles I was immediately greeted with a nice head wind.
it pretty much blew the wind out of my sails.
I knew 5 miles going back in was not going to be as great as 5 miles coming out.
I didn’t even feel the tail wind going out.
I had to take a few walk breaks today. that wind literally killed me. and it wasn’t even really a wind. 6-8mph.
when I hit miles 9 and 10 my legs felt dead, and I had hills to complete. miles 1-8 I averaged nothing less than a 8:36 minute/mile pace. but miles 9 and 10 were 9:05 minute/mile pace. I was beat. I don’t know what I could have done differently. I drank water. I took my shot blocks. I just think that wind really wore on me more than I expected.
that’s ok though. I needed to experience a “windy” situation.

I immediately jumped into a ice bath when I got home.
I’m experiencing a sore achilles tendon and will most definitely be taking two full rest days before my race. it doesn’t hurt while I’m running, unless I take walk breaks. but it is a little sore now.

overall. I guess I’ll say I’m happy with the first 8 miles. miles 9 and 10…I wish I had a little more left in the tank. but we all experience that. we all wish we could have done better.
10 miles was a personal distance record. I’m happy I did it. I feel ready for my 1/2. I mean…really I just did 10 miles, whats 3.1 more?

when I came downstairs this morning I noticed we had a

MAN DOWN!

see the blue and orange duck?
see the white “guts?”
that is Twogs’ handy work.
poor duck.

Hubby and I are off to good ole trasper (casper), wyo for a wedding this weekend.
I hate that town.
we try to only spend short bursts of time there.

girls day

since the Hubby went fishing yesterday, Twogs and I were left home to do our own thing.
so I decided to spoil her!

I looked out back to see her sun bathing.

I wanted to join in, but was afraid I’d get too cold.
so I asked her if she wanted to go to the park!
she couldn’t contain her excitement.

we had the whole park to ourselves. it was perfect out. the sun would come and go.

we hung out in the park until Twogs started getting worn out and hot.
then we moved to the creek!

I can say that water isn’t too warm, but she didn’t seem to mind!

she looks so little when she’s all wet!

after the water we went back up to the park so she could dry off.

once she was dry enough (mainly her paws) we headed home to relax. she was a pooped puppy and a little sore. she scraped up both her front pads on her paws some how. poor thing. she now has socks up to her elbows and her wounds are healing with a little vaseline so she doesn’t lick them.

today’s weather. I woke up to rain, snow, and wind. its been a warm 35* all day. with lovely 25 mph winds. I’m just hoping this isn’t what its like on friday when I do my last long run day before my 1/2. or even on race day. I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to race in. since the race starts at 9am…I’m hoping it will be warm enough for me to run in shorts and a tshirt. I don’t want to have to deal with that whole sheading clothes idea. but I think I’ve figured out a way if that’s what ends up happening.

since I moved my 9 miles to sunday this week. I took yesterday off, besides walking around with the little blondie. I went to the gym today to do 5 miles, but then started calculating total miles for this week. I’d be adding to many extra miles the week before my race and I don’t want to injure myself. so I chose to do 2 miles.
see I’m running my 10 miles on friday instead of saturday because we are going to be out of town and super busy that day. I didn’t want to do my 10 miles on sunday, because I wanted to give my body a full week to recover to get ready for my 1/2 marathon on the 7th. I hate that I’ve had to switch up my running and hopefully it doesn’t come back to haunt me with my 1/2 marathon.

please tell me it won’t.

a nice night to walk

with it staying light outside later at night Hubby, me, and Twogs are free to enjoy some late walks together. its easier because its less busy and we are able to let Twogs off the leash on the paths.

it was a little chilly, but not enough to keep us inside.

the walk was enjoyable.

Hubby has been trying to get Twogs on pheasants so she knows what to do. she just needs to flush and not be afraid of them. we think she gets the scent. she’s definitely got her little nose on the ground working the entire time.

Hubby was taking Twogs off the normal trail to see if they could find some birds, but no luck.

once we got on the upper part of the path Twogs ended up finding two birds all her own and flushed them. Hubby was super proud of her to say the least. I wasn’t about to let him let her continue to go after them for fear that we would get the cops called on us for harassing the wildlife. but when Twogs came running back, we made sure to give her extra lovins so she knew what she was doing was the right thing. she was very proud and almost strutting the rest of the walk home.

 

we got home and crawled into bed immediately. we were all pooped. Hubby was out til 0230 the night before playing poker. I had run 9 miles and was a little short on refueling calories so I wasn’t feeling well.

Hubby went off for a fishing trip today. I was invited, but chose to stay back. I wanted to go, but didn’t want to be out there all day, but I didn’t want to hold the boys back.2

my 9 Easter miles

if you remember, I had company so I switched up my training plan.
I was planning to do 9 miles on friday, but the weather just didn’t cooperate. I didn’t feel like competing with the wind.
so I pushed my 9 miles back to today.
I’m glad I did.

I did an out and back route.
it was me, myself, and I.
plus shoes, clothes (thank god!), garmin, water pack, shots blocks, the road, and an audience of cows!
as I hit halfway I began thinking (after I noticed some cow pies on the highway) “thank god they aren’t moving cows somewhere today. I would be SCREEEEEEWED!”

today was also another trial and error day. but no error!
I used Hubby’s knockoff mini camelbak that we bought from walmart. this was before he was a serious day hiker…and before I decided I didn’t want to be the pack mule on day hikes and he needed to learn to carry his own crap! don’t get me wrong. he offered to carry the pack when we only had just mine, but it makes me work harder and keeps me a little warmer. did you happen to notice who was carrying the packs for our mini hike up tongue river canyon?

that’s right, me and Twogs!

anyways back to today…
the knockoff “camelbak” worked perfectly! I was actually surprised that it didn’t bounce as much as I expected.

so its decided. I will wear the water pack for my half marathon.

it is just a gorgeous day here!
ok, maybe the pasty whiteness is a natural thing for me. you caught me! I can usually only get two different colors: lobster red and white.

9.12 miles were amazing.
I didn’t take any walk breaks!

my garmin helped me pace.
I’m totally in love!

I’m going to jump in for an ice bath (and beat Twogs away from the ice) and then I’m going to go outside and enjoy the weather.

guess what??!?! only 1 more long run before my FIRST 1/2  marathon!

HAPPY EASTER!

tongue river canyon

we headed towards the mountain this afternoon for a little hiking!
the mountain looked like it had potential to be a little wet. we weren’t wet, but it was definitely muddy!
luckily we got up and back before we got drenched.

tongue river canyon is at the base of the mountain. just barely onto national forest land.

Sister had to do some GPS-ing for one of her college classes so we went in search of a cave. although all the caves are closed, we could still locate the cave and look into it at least.

Twogs was all suited up!

snow melt hasn’t happened yet. the snow levels are still really high in the mountains which keeps river levels down, but once it all melts its going to get flowing!

the water was pretty crystal clear!

I would like to know how much this sign really stops people from going into the cave. its closed because of a bat disease that wildlife-ers are trying to stop the spread.

here’s another great picture of my white complexion. this time…totally the flashes fault. honestly.

there’s our cute little family!

hiking out.

once we got back to the vehicles and out of the canyon the mountain was completely socked in. we chose to wait until a later day to explore more miles of the trail. we found the cave and that’s all that was on our agenda!

off to a new to us restaurant!

bar hoppin’ sheridan wyo

Sister recently (ok maybe not recently) became legal.
Her request this weekend was to go to the Mint Bar.
And to the Mint Bar we went.

I blew up this picture. their faces are priceless.

the Mint is actually really cool. there are brands from wyoming all over the walls and ceiling. its not a very big bar and I can see it be very crowded when there isn’t something else going on in town. we played two games of pool and called it good there. things were already getting a little out of hand.

ignore my pasty white complexion. it must have been the lighting. I’m typical a gorgeous tan color.
I was cleaning up my spilled drink. I’m pretty sure I spilled more than I had actually drank. this was my only alcoholic beverage of the night. I returned to high quality H2O.

after having a nice fresh smell of smoke on our clothes.

we headed off to the next “bar.” there was a country western band in town. Chancey Williams and the Younger Brothers. they make their home in Laramie, WY. they’re up and coming I’m sure of it! I

Sister fell in love with the bass player. and being her she had to stalk and get a picture!

he’s pretty cute!

there was a cute boy sitting in front of us. Hubby and I were trying to give Sister some pointers. I told her just to wink at him. she was getting pretty bright red. then Hubby came up with this plan.

take a drink and wink!
I don’t think it worked. or was even put into motion.

we did leave her alone so she could talk to him.
this was the result of that.
she spilled half all my water.

we had a good night. Sister was the only one that was “drunk.” I’m growing out of that phase. we made it home by midnight. I didn’t want to stay out too late.

off on our next adventure!