It's been a while......but I'm back

So, after the high of finishing my half, I sort of fell off the bandwagon training wise. It wasn't that I didn't have the desire to, but that when I had the choice between sleep, hanging out with friends, or most importantly school work, I inevitably chose those 3 instead of training. But here I go, guns blazing to get back into running, and most importantly get back in shape.

Back in high school, and the first half of undergrad, I was in incredible shape. I could endure, long and what seemed like endless workouts in the pool, and the gruesome dryland workouts which involved running, weights, plyometrics, and abs. I did track for a few years in Jr. High and High School and I knew I could do most anything. Even in college when the training wasn't as intense I could lace up my shoes and go for a 5 mile run, no big deal. I worked out twice a day most days and I was happy. When I found out I would most likely never compete in swimming again. I became depressed, and just gave up working out all together. I would have runs or walks and lift here and there, but it would never be that consistent. Two summers ago, I was consistent, and felt great, but then the stress of senior year took over and instead of turning to exercise which I used to do, I turned to food, and gained weight, and that habit stuck until now.

So, here I am ready to train for something again. It's not swimming anymore, but it's running. I said in my last post I am addicted to half marathons, and I can't wait to do another!!! I love the feeling of accomplishing something. I love the feeling of training for something. Running and swimming have a lot of the same mindset techniques. It's training your brain to allow yourself to push further than you've pushed before. It's knowing your body can do so much more than your mind allows it to. I'm here to treat my running training like I used to treat swim practice. When I was swimming, there was no excuse for missing practice. While I know that may not always be feasible in the almost adult world, I'm going to make every effort to workout every day that I plan, and if something comes up try to rearrange my training schedule.

In 26 days I'm running a 10k in Dublin, TX with my friends Sara, Jordan and Brent. Sara and I have begun training, somewhat consistently, well we've gotten at least 1 day of running a week :) but with just under 4 weeks left, it's go time. Along with that training, I'm beginning weight training again today. I'm gaining control of me again, and that feels good. Keep reading, or checking in, to keep me accountable. I'm ready for the change but I know it won't be easy.

HALF MARATHON DONE!!!!

So my friend Robyn was going to Dallas this past weekend to do the Dallas Inaugural Rock N Roll Half Marathon, and asked me if I wanted to go with her, being that it was Spring Break and I was doing absolutely nothing. I agreed, and then she proceeded to tell me that registration was still open and I could still sign up to do it. I kinda joked about doing thinking "who signs up for a half marathon and completes it with no training?" I mean I'm sure people do that, but not in the shape that I'm in, which is pretty much zero. If you've read my blog you know that I haven't blogged in over a month, which was pretty much the last time I ran, or did anything physical. My leg was in pain most of the time and so when I did run it wasn't very long or productive.

Well I went home Thursday night after talking to Robyn and called my parents and I knew that I was going to go to Dallas and for sure watch, knowing watching it would just give me motivation to start doing something. Friday night I went for a short walk/run which turned into a disaster. I got dehydrated, ended up with a massive headache and threw up most of the night. I was pretty sure I was NOT going to do the half.

Saturday came and it was time to head to Dallas, I was pretty excited. I was still 50/50 on actually doing the race although I said I was. I still needed to sign up, and part of me was hoping the race would be full. On the way there though, I got in the mindset that if I could do this half-marathon, in possibly the worst shape of my life, I could do just about anything. As some of you know I am OBSESSED with The Biggest Loser! I watch that show every week and watch past seasons, I told myself that this half was like the challenge that the contestants have to do on the show. I also told myself that if those contestants could go on the show and do hours upon hours of working out after sitting on a couch for 20 years, I could do this. I decided that I was going to finish this, if I had to walk the whole thing that was fine. I was going to shoot for 3 1/2 hours but if I didn't get that then I was going to be OK because I had NO training and it was just for fun and to prove to myself that I could do it. So Robyn and I got to Dallas and got to the expo and I just signed up right away so that I couldn't second guess myself. Then I got excited, as we walked around the expo it started really sinking in, I was really going to do a half marathon! All those times I said I was going to do one and started and then stopped for one excuse or another, I was finally going to do it!

Flash forward to the race....the morning of I was so nervous! All those years of swimming brought the competitiveness out in me and I wanted to RACE, but I told myself that this was just for fun and that I needed to take it easy and just do it and finish. It was hard and long, but I did it! I started out and it was kind of surreal and then about mile 4 it hit me I WAS DOING A HALF MARATHON!!! I alternated miles of walking and running and just focusing on doing it. For a lot of the race I was behind this guy whose shirt on the back said "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" and I kept saying that to myself. I knew that I was doing this through Christ, He was giving me the strength to finish this race. I was doing this because of Him. By mile 6 I realized that my pace was going to enable me to easily break 3:30 and that made me really happy and excited. Looking at my times and splits, I was at around 1:35 for my half way mark and I finished in 3:03.49 which means I negative split it! yay!!!

The picture at the top is right before I crossed the finish line. I was so happy! I cried right after I finished. Crossing that line, I felt like I could do ANYTHING! I had just finished a half marathon with NO training, in the worst shape of my life!!! I am now totally addicted to half-marathons! I have so much motivation to train for one and see what I can do once I get in shape, and in November I want to do a full!!!!

Marathon Training

So I have signed up for a marathon on June 6, 2010 in San Diego with Team in Training. This week marks the end of my first week of training. It started off well, I'm feeling good and my pace feels great!! My goal is to go around 4 hours and 30 minutes, but I would be happy with just running under 5 hours. In order to do that I need to run a 10:17/mile pace (4:30) or under 11:26(under 5:00). Today my run started under 10:00 and the slowest I went until I really hurt myself (which I'll get to later) was 10:20. So to my injury, I ran 2.3 miles on Wednesday and it felt really good until I stopped when I began having excruciating pain on the outside of my calf. I researched what that muscle is and it is my peroneus longus. So I took Thursday off and Saturday as well and then I did my long run today, or at least attempted. I was supposed to go 4, I pushed myself until I couldn't go anymore and that was at 2 miles. My loop was 3 total so I ended up walking another mile, which killed. So now I'm in a lot of pain and I'm really upset about how much pain I'm in and the fact that I cannot run right now. But I'm going to try and rest this up and do some stuff on the stationary bike and get this healed so I can train hard for this marathon again. In the mean time, I need to raise $3000 for Team in Training to go to this marathon so I'm going to work on doing that feel free to check out my fundraising page

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ntx/rnr10/alooke

Getting Excited!!!!

So I haven't blogged in forever, but I'm getting really excited for my training and the upcoming race!!! I got a bunch of running stuff for Christmas this year; new shoes, an amazing new training watch, 2 books (Runner's World Complete Book of Women's Running and The Nonrunner's Marathon Guide for Women), and then bought some new running clothes with my mall gift card from my dad. Yesterday I did my longest run in training so far, 4 miles. I've run further before but it has been a while. The first mile felt great, the second mile my mind wanted to play games with me but I let it walk for a little bit and then worked the last 2 miles. I think my mind was still in Christmas mode because my body could clearly do it being that my mile splits were 10:14, 14:30, 10:53, and 10:20 (I'll put the precise splits in later). After I got home I went to the track with my dad so he could calibrate his new nike+ watch and walked 1 1/4 miles with him so I could start breaking in my new shoes. I was so hungry I ate my entire omelet and coffee cake at Hobee's during our annual family get together. By the end of last night I was really sore but it felt good.

Today I wanted to do a recovery run to stretch out and to break in my new shoes so I went on a walk run. The first half I walked 3 minutes and ran 1 and then on the way back I ran 2 minutes and walked 2. It felt good, I was going pretty easy and I averaged a little under 12:30 miles. I'll probably update more detailed later but this is it for now.

Thanksgiving Coffee Run (literally)

Brayden had a great idea of us running to Peet's for a coffee. At first we tried to get our dad to pick us up from Peet's, but with all of the food stuff to do we decided we could walk back. So after running 2.21 miles in under 24 minutes (10:46 pace) we sat and had our coffee and then walked 2.31 miles back home. We were gone for 1 hour and 23 minutes but we sat in Peet's for probably about 10-15 minutes so our workout time was around a little over an hour. Now we are sore and tired and excited for Thanksgiving dinner! Brayden is excited he gets to eat a lot more food now. I'm excited because I burned over 700 calories (thanks to my nifty heart rate watch). We decided this is going to be our new Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve tradition. Maybe in the years to come Eric will be joining us as well! :)
Well I'm off to go shower and see if there is any help needed in the kitchen, it is already starting to smell amazing!

Run with my Bro : ))

So today Brayden and I went running which was fun....we didn't run the WHOLE thing but the majority of it was run. My knee was in a lot of pain from all of the sitting I have done the past couple days. We went 2.11 miles in 23:47, which averages to about 11:27 min/mile pace....not too bad, a little slower than my last run, but there was definitely more walking this time around. He said he wants to run with me the rest of Thanksgiving break so that will be fun and good bonding time since I miss him!

Feeling Good

Today I feel GREAT!!! I was a bit nervous for my run today because I haven't run in almost 3 weeks but it felt really good! I only had 2 short stopping breaks, one after the first mile for about 30 seconds and the other for a minute as I walked towards Ambler and crossed the street. Instead of thinking I had to run 2 whole miles (which used to not be so big a deal, but after such a long break and inconsistent running, it seems forever) I just broke it down into half mile increments which actually worked well with my route. Half a mile from the Grove to campus, half a mile from the point on campus to N Judge Ely, half a mile back around to Ambler and then half a mile back home. Each half mile I completed I congratulated myself and then encouraged to do another half mile before I walked. When I did walk, I did just short enough to be able to feel like I rested then started running again.
I'm really encouraged to keep at this and not give up. My goal this year was to do a half marathon before my birthday and I'm not giving up this time. January 30 is really the last chance I have to get one in before February 2, plus I think the fact that it is something Eric and I get to do together really pushes me to train for this.
TEXAS HALF HERE I COME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!