Happy New Year!

I suppose it's time to make my list of New Year's Resolutions. I "tried" to get in better shape last year...and I was doing ok for a while. But after the last race, I pretty much just stopped. It's a New Year so now it's time to start training and see how I do.

Ran the races..woo-hoo!

It's been a long time since I've blogged...eep! After the Run Hit Wonder, I took a week off from running and then the week after that I was sick. I pretty much kept up training by working out on the elliptical machine :) I know it's not running but it's a lot easier on the joints.
The Run Hit Wonder race was a blast. However, running 5 miles, not so much fun but at least I finished. I was happy Mike was taking his time and stayed with me to help me to run. He had an injured knee and he still could beat me to the finish if he really wanted to.
Today I did the Bucktown 5K. What really sucked was that my IPod went wacky the night before and I couldn't figure out how to fix it. I think it's working alright now, but the battery was low before the race. I was kinda nervous about this race because it was being timed. I think i did alright for me. My time for running the Run Hit Wonder was about 1:14 (it's excluding the stop at the port-o-potty and watching the bands) and my time for the Bucktown Race was about 44:00. Overall, I think i did better this race in time. Woo-hoo! Hopefully I'll try to keep training, at least for the next couple of months. :)

2 more days!!!!

I've been able to keep up with training the past week. I took Friday off from it. I ran for like 3 miles on Saturday and went for 4 miles on Sunday. Monday night I worked out on the elliptical machine for an hour. Today I'm gonna do some running and see how that goes. I basically do a run/walk. I haven't really gotten adjusted to doing a continual run, I tire out pretty fast. I'm nervous, but I suppose it doesn't really matter if I finish last in the race tomorrow...at this point, I just care about crossing the finish line. Today I did a run/walk of 4.64 miles in approximately 1 hour and 11 mins.

Countdown...1 week!

I have one week before my first race...I'm feeling a little nervous about it. I've been making decent progress I suppose. On Monday I did a run/walk of a little over 4 miles. Tuesday I was on the ellipitical for about 45 mins. Wednesday I ran a little under 4.5 miles in about 1 hour and 15 mins. Today I'm hoping to hit the elliptical machine for at least 45 mins. I hope I can time myself and do a little better before I have the race.

Gotta Focus!

Although I've been exhausted a lot lately, I've been able to squeeze in some training. I did 40 mins on the elliptical on Tuesday, and on Wednesday I went 60 mins on the treadmill and covered about 3.40 miles, Thursday I did 45 mins on the elliptical. Friday I used as my off day and was able to go out with the ladies from my softball team :) We went to Hogs & Honeys and took a ride on the mechanical bull. However, my knees feel really messed up from it because after I was thrown off the bull and landed on the inflatable padding, some guy wanted to get up and ride the bull...he jumped over the gated area and landed on the padding...which made me fall to my knees...needless to say the bouncers threw him out of the club. Saturday my knees felt sore so I did about 45 mins of elliptical. Today, I tried to run outdoors...I'm still not used to it. I probably did about 2.5 miles in under an hour. I have about 11 days to run 5 miles...I'm so nervous! I guess I'll just have to do better tomorrow.

Panic Attack!

I am so ready to panic....I have 2 weeks to run a 5 mile race. However, I haven't been able to train, I was doing alright with training at the beginning of last week. I did a 2 mile walk on Monday and then I tried running outdoors Tuesday morning before work. I got up at 5:00 A.M. to do it. I think I did about 3 miles in 50 mins. I'm not too sure because I don't have a stop watch, and I don't really have a pedometer. The rest of the week killed me though because I was stuck at work for about 11- 12 hours a day all that week. I couldn't get up to run because I was exhausted from working so much. I would get up at about 6:30 A.M., leave the house around 7:30 A.M., and get to work around 8:30 A.M. Then somehow I 'd get stuck there with a bunch of things to work on, and before I realize it, it' s 8:00 P.M. I drive home and get there a little before 9:00 P.M. but then I have to eat dinner, and then I have to go to bed so that I could start another day of being exhausted from working. I figured I 'd have time to do some training over the weekend, but again, I was at work. I was there for about 6 hours on Saturday and another 8 hours on Sunday and then went to my softball game right after...I haven't had a day off since the Bon Jovi concert.
This morning I did a little work out of 20 mins on the elliptical. got home a little before 9:00 P.M. and decided to do a little more training...I did a run/walk of 2.36 miles in 40 mins on the treadmill...ideally I wanted to see how I'd do in an hour...but it's so hot! Damn the heat wave! But at least I did some training...my game plan now is to try to do my training at night and shower, so I can just get up and go the next day for work...hopefully I won't be too tired out.

The voices! The voices!

Yup! I've been hearing those voices in my head that prevent me from reaching my full potential in training. This week has been long and hard. For the most part I've been stuck at work for practically 12 hours a day. That was because I went to go see Bon Jovi in concert! I tried to get as much work done as I could, but I kept getting bombarded with samples at work to take care of and I'd be getting home pretty late and had a difficult time getting up in the morning to run. Yesterday I attempted at running outside...that didn't quite pan out. It feels so different compared to the treadmill. I only lasted about a mile...most of which I walked. This morning however, I went outside again to run, and I did a little better. I did probably 3 miles in like under 50 mins. I really don't know because I wasn't really keeping track of time or distance. I wonder if I should go high tech and get one of those devices that tell you your distance and pace, etc. But anyways...I'm thinking maybe Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" should be my mantra or something to get me to really work at it and run. I finally burned songs from a few of my CD's and put it onto my IPod. I'm hoping that Bon Jovi will be the voice in my head instead of the other ones...lord only know I need a "prayer" to get me through the 5 mile race.