HEY

New school year. New obsessions. Stay tuned!!!!

The Race!!

So I ran the half marathon last sunday and it was great!

My results:

My time was 2 hours and 10min. I was hoping to be closer to 2 hours flat but I am pretty happy with my results. The last few weeks proved to be challenging to my training because I took on another commitment that required a lot of time. I think if I had had a few more long runs that I would have been closer to my goal time.

The race was really long. It's hard to stay motivated for so many miles, but it really helps that there are people cheering for you. It's kind of sad that each mile sign only comes every nine or so minutes and you are counting up to thirteen.

The last mile was the hardest, but as I was running it a woman came up beside me and we discussed the race a little. It's always nice when someone talks to you when you are running because it makes you realize that you are fine.

So overall it was a good experience. I do want to do again sometime, and even try the full marathon, but if I do I would want to train with someone. It's just really hard to train by yourself. They give you a smiley cookie at the end of the race!

Three Weeks Left!!!

So, there are three weeks left to train in. I'm feeling pretty good about my training so far. Today I ran 4 1/2 miles. Tomorrow is my long run.

Last year, when I ran the marathon relay I had been training with Kingsley swim team. And even though they didn't do much running, they did a lot of core exercises. I think in these last Three weeks I will start to do some of those again.

This is a diagram of an exercise called six inches. In this exercise you have to lift your legs up 6 inches and hold it for at least a minute. We did this every day at Kingsley. And it REALLY helps. I builds a strong core

Interesting Article

I found this interesting article in the times today, which gives reasons why NOT to stretch before running. I feel better now... because I always skip out on the stretching. I'm too impatient.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/reasons-not-to-stretch/?smid=pl-share

Eight Miles!!!

Sunday I had to run eight miles... That's a lot here in Pittsburgh. Everything is so compact. So, a good portion of my run was in Frick park. I had to write the directions on a piece of paper because I couldn't remember the names of all the trails. I only took one wrong turn but realized quickly and went back to the right way. All in all, it wasn't that bad, running such a long distance. I am confident that I will be able to run the half easily.

4 Mile Week!

This week is the four mile week as I would like to phrase it. Because the days that I run during the week: Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday I had to run four miles those days.

To the right here is the route that I did today. I'm not sure what I think about going over by the Highland Park swimming pool because then I have to go up this VERY steep hill to get up to the reservoir. I'll experiment with other routes throughout the week. My long run is 8 miles this week!

Long Run Tommorow!

So, Friday I ran 4 miles. I tried a new route...

Tommorow I will have my 7 mile run. I mapped this out and it's just short of 7 so I might add something short while running. It also has some nice hills as well so that I can get a nice variety.

Catching Up

I'd like to apologize about not posting any news lately. I have been running, it is just that my internet connection at my house has been unreliable... This past weekend the time changed forward which makes you tired, but when it starts to get light in the morning I'd like to run before school. My long run on Sunday was 6 miles. I ran to Highland Park in a somewhat weaving way... I still feel pretty neutral about all this running. But this morning my legs felt the six miles. Tommorow is an easy three miler.

This Past Weekend

I had a very productive weekend! I moved my long run to Saturday just because there seems to be more runners out on Saturday than Sunday. The designated distance for this week was 5 miles. I have come across a useful tool for seeing if the distance I am running is the right milage. I use this website called Map My Run (http://mapmyrun.com/ ). On the site, you can map out your run and it also has a useful workout log so you can map your progress. So here is the screen shot I took of my 5 mile run that I mapped out:

I also timed myself to see where I am. It took me 47:35 min to run 5 miles. So my pace right now is a nine minute mile.

On Sunday I ran 4 miles. I kept the same 9 minute pace as Saturday...

New Hat

I ran 3 miles today and yesterday. It has been not the greatest weather but I've managed. Yesterday it was okay because it was just cloudy. But when I was getting ready to run I couldn't find my hat!! I looked everywhere but couldn't find it. So I made a new one last night. It didn't really take me that long.  

So here is me with my new hat! It's good I made a new one because it was snowing when I got out of school!

Today

So today when I got out of school it was raining a ton and I decided not to run the three miles I was suppost to run today. I guess that was kind of a stupid decision because I ran in the snow the other day so rain should be nothing... anyway I'm feeling a little bit stupid about that. So I guess what I learn from this experience is to chack the weather at the start of the week. I should have switched the days and went running yesterday because it was warm. Might have to run it tomorrow to make it up.

On a happy note, I have a new running song!

Crazy by Gnarls Barkley

Status Update

So here is how this week played out:

Tuesday I went running as I had planned. I ran 3 miles but it was somewhat miserable. It was cold and snowing a little bit.

Wednesday I took the day off even though I had planned to run, because I really wanted to do well at my swim meet the next day.

The Swim meet was successful! It paid off to rest Wednesday. I shaved off 4 seconds from my 500 free and got a new PR (personal record) of 6:45 min! Also I swam a 50 in 29 seconds! Which is probabely a first. So it was a great cross training day.

Friday I took off because of a steel drum concert that I had to go to. But Saturday I was back on the road! I ran 4 miles Saturday, going from point breeze to Highland Park.

Today, (Sunday) I ran the same as Saturday.

So it was a loose week but I am hoping that next week I will be able to return to my regular schedule!

Change of Plans

 Today was my rest day so I didn't run.... but because of certain afterschool activities that I have to go to I am going to have to adjust this week.

Monday- Rest

Tuesday- Morning swim, Afternoon Run 3 miles

Wensday- maybe morning swim, run 3 miles afternoon

Thursday- Swim Meet @ Alderdice after school (so I can't run)

Friday- Steel Drum concert in Greenfield after school to evening...

Saturday- run 4 miles

Sunday- run 4 miles


I just had to move things around because I am busy Thursday and Friday.

This Week

This week was the first week of my schedule! And I'm off to a good start.

On the days where I had to run I ran three miles. Sometimes it is hard to get yourself to run after a long day of school, but it's actually not that bad, and I think I'm beginning to enjoy it.

Swim Team is still going on, but starting this week I have started to taper swimming along with starting my running program. This coming Thursday we will have our last swim meet of the season. Then I will be just doing running... and what ever cross-training I throw in.

I think the biggest obstacle this week that I faced was on Valentines (yes, even in high school) we had eaten SO much candy at school and so I was feeling sluggish at the end of the day. But I carried through and still went running.

The only change I had to make with my schedule was today (Sunday) which is suppost to be my long run day but it was really snowy and so I decided for safety reasons that I would only run 3 miles. But it took me about 45 min cause it was so snowy!

Here's a picture of all the snow. I wasn't alone though. There were other crazies running too!

On Schedule!!!

Today is the second day following the schedule I made for myself. It seems to be going good. Yesterday was a rest/ cross-train day so I went to swim practice and got in some cross-training.

Today was the first running day. The schedule had a 3 mile run planned. Since I didn't have my route exactly measured to make sure it was 3 miles, I ended up running for 30 minutes, which is basically the equivalent to a three mile run (probably even more than three miles because I don't run ten minute miles). It was a nice day to run today. Sort of a fall feeling. the hardest part is getting yourself out there.... Tomorrow's cross training!

Hula Hooping!!!

Hula hooping can be an awesome cross-training!

You burn the same amount of calories walking a mile as you do hula hooping for 10 minutes!

Look! Even my fat cat wants to try it!

To calculate calories burned for hula hooping go to:

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/calories_burned.asp

Getting a Game Plan!

So, I went running yesterday just to start getting into it but this weekend I need to come up with a plan for my training. I have 12 weeks.

Here are two plans that I found online:

http://www.halfmarathons.net/training_tips_schedule_beginner_runners.html

http://www.marathonrookie.com/half-marathon-training.html

One os these schedules may work but I think I am going to personalize it some. I would like one of my rest days to be on the weekend and I would also like to put in some cross training.... Here is the schedule that I have made up:

This schedule that I made up gives me three rest/cross-training days and the with one of those rest days on the weekend it allows for some flexibility depending on what is going on that week. Also, while swim team is going on the schedule may be flexed as well. Scheduled training starts Monday!!

Photos from my run yesterday. It was cold but once I started running it was fine. The reservoir was frozen and there weren't really any people up there surprisingly. Guess the weather scared them off. I ran About 3 miles and then walked another mile to get home. 

This Blog

Hello! I'd like to start off this blog by explaining it's purpose.

So, it took me a little bit to decide what I wanted to do for my personal project/senior project (whatever you want to call it) but I decided that I would make a blog to journal my journey training for the half marathon! So this blog is going to be a combination of my personal trip and also for bogging useful exercising tips that I find along the way!

My first cross-country coach would have us repeat this inspirational phrase before getting off the bus for a meet:

Today is a golden opportunity,

Today I will run further and faster than I have ever run before,

And I will never give up, NEVER!

This I promise to myself and to my team.

So this blog is named Today's Golden Opportunity, because everyday you have a chance to get better.