Cheers to To A New Start in 2013

I am regrettably ending 2012 on a bad note. I had a 16 mile run scheduled for Sunday and couldn't drag my butt out of bed to do it. I justified skipping it by running 4 miles with Ryan and telling myself that I would run the 16 miles this morning before going into work tonight. It is 11:45am and I am still in my PJ's on the couch. So at this point it does not look like it is going to happen.

I don't think that skipping this run will make too big of a difference in my two upcoming marathons. (or at least I hope it wont). I feel like I am in marathon condition and would rather just run races then force myself to do these long boring training runs.

Exciting stuff coming up in 2013

• Possible color run this Saturday, I have not registered yet....
• Disney Marathon in January, plus a few days in Orlando with my family.  
• ING Miami Marathon, the end of January.
• Trip home in March, possibly the Rock n' Roll Marathon in DC if Chrissy will agree to do it with me.
• I turn 30, yikes.
• My 3rd Marine Corps Marathon in October, the great thing about the MCM is that you can defer your registration. So I am going to go ahead and sign up and then I can always defer if I cant or don't want to run it.
• Puppy purchase, I have been toying around with the idea of getting a dog. Right now with my work schedule it does not make too much sense, but if something changes I really want to get a German Shorthaired Pointer or Treeing Walker Coon hound.
• Lastly I am definitely going home for Christmas in 2013. This year was the first year I didn't go home. Not that I didn't have a good time with Ryan's family.....but there is just something about being "home" on Christmas. Plus... it is so weird celebrating Christmas when it is 80 degrees outside.

I hope everyone has a great New Years Eve. I will be working tonight...boooooo.

New Kicks

New kicks to start out the new year right! Although my Asics were good to me, I decided to go back to the ol’ standard Nikes. I am hoping these will give me a little motivation to get out there and actually run. So far this week I have been majorly slacking. I felt great after my 10 mile run last Sunday….but have been extremely lazy since then. Probably a result of my over eating and drinking on Christmas Eve and Christmas. On top of that I tweaked my neck somehow while sleeping on Christmas Eve.

Another motivating factor should be my new gym, 24 hour Fitness Super Sport. It really is “super.” All of the machines are new and have TV’s, it has a pool and hot tub, complimentary towels, and a really nice locker room. It is a real step up from YouFit. Yes, it costs more…but I definitely think it will be worth it. I didn’t even want to use the bathrooms at YouFit. I have already gone swimming once and hope to try out the spinning and body pump classes on top of my hours on the treadmill.

I have a BIG month coming up with the Disney Marathon on January 13^th and the ING Miami Marathon 13 days later on January 27^th. I am excited to complete my goal of 4 marathons in 4 months. I had every intention of taking a MAJOR break from racing after running Miami…….BUT I just booked a flight home for St. Patrick’s Day Weekend AND there happens to be a Marathon in DC that weekend. I could be really fun to run in the morning and then drink green beer all afternoon. 

How not to PR

I ran the Weston Rotary Half Marathon this morning. This was definitely not a race I was training for, but it fit into my training schedule so I decided to go ahead and do it. I had no intention of a new half marathon PR....but in the back of my head I was hoping for one. Based on the weekends events I am lucky I even finished.

• We went out for dinner and drinks in Friday and I had way too many beers and a Jameson shot (good idea Nikki)
• I woke up Saturday feeling OK, but failed to drink any water all day. Not even one sip.
• Chocolate chip pumpkin pancakes for breakfast
• Chipolte for Lunch
• Pizza for dinner and two glasses of red wine
• I was supposed to leave my house at 5am this morning, but got confused and set my alarm for 5am...so I was running very late
• My Garmin didn't charge for some reason, so I started the race with 11% battery remaining, it died at about mile 3
• I got lost on the way to the race. I don't even know how that happened considering I live about 15 minutes from Weston Town Center which is where the race started
• I didn't have my regular pre-race meal which is a PB&J, I ate two leftover pancakes and drank a coke zero
• My plan was to get there early enough to stretch and eat a banana before the race started, but since I was running so late I had to dash straight to the start line

The race went surprisingly well, I felt good the entire time...which is shocking considering my preparation for this race. Since I didn't have my watch I had to rely on the race clocks. Around mile 11 I new I was on track to finish with a decent time and a new PR was possible. I booked it the last two miles (Another reason I wish I had my Garmin, I am dying to know how fast I was going) and sprinted across the finish line. The clock at the finish line was broken! Are you kidding me!

The official times were just posted, no PR but pretty darn close. I finished in 2:01:55, which is about 1 minute slower then my half marathon PR. I was 6th in my age group. The winner in my age group finished in 1:53:51. It was obviously a small race because that is not a very fast time.

Now it is time to lay on the couch and watch football all day... although it is going to take me awhile to get over the fact that I missed my PR by a minute.

Impromptu Half Marathon Tomorrow

I am randomly running a half marathon in Weston tomorrow. I was planning on running 10 miles anyway, so I figured I could add 3.1 more without too much trouble. It is really hard not to focus on setting a new PR. I am just going to try and enjoy the run rather than obsessing too much over the PR. It should be a very small race.....I hope there are a lot of water stations on the course. Sometimes the smaller races are not very organized.

On another note I am very excited that I might be joining a new gym. I have a free 7 day pass to the 24 hour fitness in Sunrise. I am pretty fed up with my current gym. The treadmills are always broken and the ghettoness is increasing more and more everyday. The 24 hour fitness is a lot more expensive, but it looks pretty clean and as an added bonus has a lap pool.  I still wish we had a Lifetime Fitness down here.....they are by far the best gyms ever. I don't understand why we don't have one in Fort Lauderdale......people down here would pay good money for a top of the line gym.