Lots of Reading

I have been doing a lot of reading over the last few weeks, and of course, it is running related. I am definitely addicted to running and cannot ever see myself not running. I already told you about one book that I have read, Grete Waitz’s book “Run Your First Marathon: Everything You Need to Know to Reach the Finish Line.” After I read that book, I went and bought 3 more running books to read. So far, I have finished one of them and I am currently reading the other two.

The first book is a “Women’s Complete Guide to Running” by Jeff and Barbara Galloway.


You can get the book here: http://www.amazon.com/Womens-Complete-Guide-Running-Galloway/dp/1841262056/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282852531&sr=8-1

I really enjoyed this book, not only for the tips and information, but also for the inspirational stories throughout the book. Truly amazing!


The second book I got was “How Running Changed My Life: True Stories of the Power of Running” edited by Garth Battista.


You can get this book here: http://www.amazon.com/How-Running-Changed-My-Life/dp/189136930X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282852796&sr=1-1

I am 100 pages into this book and enjoying every minute I spend reading it. The stories are definitely inspiring and illustrate how running can truly change your life, if you give it the chance to do so!


The third book I bought was “Nancy Clark’s Food Guide for Marathoners” by Nancy Clark, MS, RD.


You can get her book here: http://www.amazon.com/Nancy-Clark-Food-Guide-Marathoners/dp/1841262064/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282852907&sr=1-1

I am only about 30 pages into this book, but am finding it to be very helpful. I really need to get reading this book some more, but I am sure that I need to be eating more than I have been. I am continuing to burn more and more calories every day and every week. This book is helping me to know which foods and how much of these foods to consume every day.

I want to learn as much as I can about running. It is definitely changing my life! It can change yours too!

A Cool 7 Miles

Today was another great day for a run. The temperature and humidity were wonderful, especially for a late August day. We started our 7 mile run at 4:45 pm. At run time it was 74 degrees with 69% humidity. This combination made our 7 mile run feel awesome! It was partly cloudy and made some of the run even better.

We finished our 7 mile run in 1:18:56, which is an 11:16 minute per mile pace. We probably could have run it a little faster, and had a couple of quicker splits, but we also didn’t want to run too hard in the beginning knowing that we had 7 miles to run today. Despite a couple of really slow splits, compared to what we had been running, we ended up with a pretty good pace.

Here are our splits for this run:

Mile 1: 11:19:76
Mile 2: 11:05:56
Mile 3: 11:07:25
Mile 4: 11:41:03
Mile 5: 11:59:64
Mile 6: 11:02:33
Mile 7: 10:41:19

Once again our last 2 miles were our fastest, so we finished pretty strong, but could have probably been stronger. I had a small stitch for the last mile, but I was able to run through it. I wish I would have been able to finish a little stronger, but there is always tomorrow.

Still a great run! The runs are getting easier and easier! :)

Today's run summary:

Miles---7
Time---1:18:56
Cool Down---14.04.44
Total Time---1:33:00
Total Calories---1181

Total Miles Run---146

Next run: Thursday, August 26---4 miles!

Thanks for following our journey!

Amazing Run

Today was a great day for a run. The temperature was finally bearable and so was the humidity. We started our 4 mile run at 4:50 pm. At run time it was 80 degrees with 77% humidity, which felt great, plus it was partly cloudy so we didn’t have to run in the hot sun the whole time either.

We finished our 4 mile run in 43:06, which is a 10:46 minute per mile pace. Still about the same pace we have been running our 4 miles. We are always faster the last mile, but pretty consistent the first 3 miles.

Here are our splits for this run:

Mile 1: 11:05:94
Mile 2: 10:47:92
Mile 3: 11:01:02
Mile 4: 10:11:71

Today’s run felt amazing. It is amazing how much easier a 4 mile run is after running 14 the weekend before. :) Another great run! We are looking forward to Wednesday’s 7 mile run, as long as the weather cooperates.

Today's run summary:

Miles---4
Time---43:06
Cool Down---16:54
Total Time---60:00
Total Calories---782

Total Miles Run---139

Next run: Wednesday, August 25---7 miles!

Thanks for following our journey!

A New Personal Record

Wow! Today we set a new PR (personal record) and accomplished something we NEVER thought we would be able to do. While it was definitely not easy, it was something we knew we COULD do, and something we did TOGETHER. All of which are very important to the both of us. So what did we do? We ran 14 miles! Yes, I just wrote 14, and no, that is not a typo! That is over a half-marathon, which is 13.1 miles. As I am writing this, it is still hard to believe that we actually ran 14 miles today, except for the fact that we are exhausted! :) But, it is a welcome exhausted and a great feeling.

We started our 14 mile run at 8:00 am down at Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis. We really like doing our long runs there because the trail is mostly shaded, which makes the run a little cooler. It felt really good temperature wise in the beginning, but the humidity was way up. At the beginning of our run it was 63 degrees with 100% humidity, and the temperature had risen to around 80 degrees when we were on our way home. We can’t wait for this humidity to drop again…and the temperature too!

We finished our 14 mile run in 2:50.53, which is a 12:12 minute per mile pace. It was not as well as we were hoping for, but we finished the whole 14 miles. That is really good considering we really slowed down the last 4 miles, or at least felt like we did. I was fighting off a sore right knee and thigh the last 3 miles, and really had to slow the pace down. If it wasn't for the knee and thigh pain, I would have been fine, as I felt great otherwise. I was determined to finish the 14 miles!

I was a little disappointed with our overall time, until I got home and looked back at some of our other previous long runs and compared the times. Upon looking back at the last few weeks, I noticed that we ran our 10 mile long run in 2:01.50, which is a 12:11 minute per mile pace, and we ran 14 miles today at a 12:12 pace. So, I guess we did better than we thought after all.

Here is a breakdown of our times:

Miles 1-5: 59.46.12
Miles 6-10: 1:00.53
Miles 11-14: 50.15.96

Overall, pretty good run and a new PR!

Today's run summary:

Miles---14
Time---2:50.53
Cool Down---22:07.61
Total Time---3:13.00
Total Calories---2516

Total Miles Run---135

Next run: Monday, August 23---4 miles!

Thanks for following our journey!

6 More Miles

Today we ran the 6 miles we were supposed to run yesterday, but didn’t due to the time we got to start our run yesterday. Today’s run went really well. We both felt amazing throughout the run, and we were able to finish it just a little bit faster than we did last week. For today’s run I kept track of our splits again. Here are the splits:

Mile 1: 11:29.75
Mile 2: 11:14.08
Mile 3: 10:53.73
Mile 4: 10:53.88
Mile 5: 11:31.26
Mile 6: 10:07.59

Once again we had a pretty strong finish and two really consistent miles (miles 3 and 4) for this run. We are trying to be more consistent runners throughout our runs.

Today’s run was 6 miles and we wish we would have been able to run them yesterday when it was cooler, but we had to be flexible with our training schedule. Being flexible during your training is very important! We started today’s run around 5:30 pm, still a little later than we would have liked, but it was too hot to get out there sooner. It was definitely warmer than yesterday. By the time we started our run, the sun was starting to go down, and was pretty much behind the trees after the first 2 miles of our run. This made the 6 miles much easier to run. It was around 85 degrees with the humidity around 80% when we left for our run.

We finished our 6 mile run in 66:10, which is an 11:01 pace per mile. It was our fastest 6 miles by 5 seconds a mile.

Another great run!

Today's run summary:

Miles---6
Time---66:10
Cool Down---21:90
Total Time---88:00
Total Calories---1147

Total Miles Run---121

Next run: Saturday, August 21---14 miles!

Thanks for following our journey!

Running In The Rain

We finally got to run in the rain! It was nice and refreshing, since it was a light rain. It actually felt really good to run in cooler weather. We took it pretty easy today and only ran 4 miles instead of the scheduled 6 due to time, so we will run our 6 miles tomorrow. We started out at a slower pace than usual because this was the first time we had run in the rain, and really didn’t know what to expect. We picked up the pace after the first mile and a half, and ended up running just under a 9 minute mile the last mile! The fastest mile we have ever run!

Today’s run ended up only being 4 miles, since we didn’t get to start our run until around 6:00 pm. It was about 75 degrees with 100% humidity for our run, but the light rain made it feel even better.

We finished our 4 mile run in 43:56, which is a 10:58 pace per mile. The pace is about what we had been running our 4 miles in, and set a new PR (personal record) for ourselves with a sub 9 minute mile. It was amazing!

Great run in the rain!

Today's run summary:

Miles---4
Time---43:56
Cool Down---14:44
Total Time---58:00
Total Calories---746

Total Miles Run---115

Next run: Thursday, August 19---6 miles!

Thanks for following our journey!

Another Hot Run

Today we began week 6 of our marathon training. It is hard to believe that we have already been training for 5 weeks. We are really starting to see some great progress during our runs, and continue to surprise ourselves with how well we have been running.

Today’s run was only 4 miles, and it was a good thing because the weather was back to being hot and humid. We are still hoping that this hot and humid summer we have been having will start to break soon. We started our run around 4:15 pm and it was HOT! It was 91 degrees with 84% humidity and we felt every single bit of that. Due to the extreme heat, we had to slow our run down, especially after the first couple of miles. It was just too hot! Despite the heat, it was still a pretty good run and we felt good afterwards.

We finished our 4 mile run in 46:13, which is an 11:33 pace per mile. A little slower than we had been running 4 miles, but sometimes the weather just slows you down a little bit. Overall, it wasn’t a bad run and we still got a good work out in.

Today's run summary:

Miles---4
Time---46:13
Cool Down---23:87
Total Time---70:00
Total Calories---877

Total Miles Run---111

Next run: Wednesday, August 18---6 miles!

Thanks for following our journey!