When should I?

If you have been following me this week you would knowI have had a rough week. I still have not run and I was wondering when should I? I felt like I tiger stuck in a cage this morning. I don't know when I should try to run. I know that if I do I won't be on my own or I will use the treadmill.

I still feel like crap but I think it is because I have not used my energy up like my body is used to. UGH.

I also called my parents this morning and talked to my nephew...he asked if I was sick. How cute is that!! I told him yes and he is coming next weekend to visit. I was not able to go home for his birthday party and feel so bad. My sister explained to my neice and nephew why I wasn't there and why they are visiting me. I can not wait to see them and show them around PA!! They saw our house before we moved in.

QOTD: Has your family seen your house?  It has been 2-3 years and mine hasn't visited!!!

Tid Bits

1. You know you are really tired when cats wrestling on your back during the night doesn't wake you up.

2. I am an awful girl friend....I am doing an awful job making dinner this week!! Any ideas???

3. Kohls opened on Sunday and I still haven't gone!! What is wrong with me???

4. This post stinks! I have nothing positive to share sorry everyone.

5. I have not run all week because I am still trying to adjust to my new meds. I have been asleep atleast by 7:30pm.

Ever been slowed down by meds in your life?

Thank you

I want to start with a BIG thank you for everyone who sent prayers and such my way. I believe it all worked in my favor for sure! I got in to see my DR right away yesterday morning. Since I have not had seizures in my sleep before the Dr deemed this seizure stress/exhaustion induced. So marathon then half marathon not good idea for me...whoops.

I get to drive still just have to increase my meds again. I started right away with the meds yesterday. I have to pay attention to any side effects. All I know is that I fell asleep at 7:30 last night and I hit the pillow at 6pm tonight. I got myself back up though tonight. I can't miss NCIS!!!!

I am hoping that the meds settle down and the tiredness goes away soon. It was a long day at work yawning all day.

NCIS time!!! Have a good night everyone!

The good, bad and the ugly

Well I guess I will start with the really good. I won Julia's giveaway the other day and I received it inthe mail yesterday~ So excited about 2 new active bands!!! Thanks Julia your awesome!!

Now just the good I ran a half marathon yesterday and if you have been following me you know that this was 5 short day after I ran a full marathon. I just wanted to run it and most likely would not have a PR (since I haven't seen 1:40's since the day I got it) but also becuase it is a very hard hilly course. So the course started off at a tree farm and they had us run a loop in the MUDDY slippery field all hills before heading out on to the road. That would have been fun for a 5k but not the half. But anyways....first mile was close to a 9:30 due to that mess. I was good with that. The next 2-3miles were crazy all down hill so I dropped down to 8:30 pace and held it on the flat until mile 9. 10-13.1 was going back up to the top of the "mountain" to the finish line. I say "mountain" because we have PA mountains that are nothing like colorado mountains. But I took my grande old time between 9:30-10:00mins getting up there taking 3 walking breaks for 15-20secs. The last hill is 3/4of a mile long and I had to telephone pole run that but so was everyone else. UNTIL...this girl comes out of no where and flies up the hill like it was a piece of cake. I thought to myself...it would stink if I just got past with half a mile to go by someone in my age group. Well here is the bad....I had first place in the huge 31-under age group until that moment. Yes that is how crazy hard this course was...with my time of 1:58 (personal worst) I got second in my age group.

Ok so the good was second place and finishing the race. The bad was getting past by a girl that def did not look like she ran 13miles. Thanks again for all the good luck wishes that everyone sent of Friday!!!

Now the ugly....I lounged around the rest of the day. Did laundry and hit up Wegmans buffet for dinner as I waited for Bri to return from his guys weekend. When he got home around 7-8pm I wanted to spend time with him since I was leaving at 6am to head to my nephews bday party in NY. So I stayed up until 11ish watching Rio even though I was REALLY sleepy and hadn't napped at all. So I hit the sack read a few pages and went to bed. Next thing I know I am crying my eyes out and Bri is telling me I had a seizure.......the ugly. According to Bri within 10mins I was calmed down so it was not a long seizure at all and I did not pass back out. Which has never happened with me, I usually take about 45mins to come back out of it.

I have been seizure free since 2008. If you don't know the protocol with seizures this means 4months with no driving. I did that fine in 08 because I lived right next to a bus stop. I can't do that now. I will have to figure something out to get to work and back. Hopefully I can figure something out with my doctor. I do not want a med adjustment because yes it was a "break through" seizure I do not think it was a fail of meds. (Break through is when ur on meds but still have seizures).

The positive in all this is that Bri works at a sleep center and sees people having seizures once in awhile. He knew what to do and hold my hand and calm me down when I woke up. I was hysterical and I am sure it broke his heart. We have been together 7years and he has not witnessed me have one yet. Though it is the 4th one I have had in those 7years. If you are interested I will be putting little updates up.


Anyone else have a medical condition? Anything that has gotten in the way of running, daily routine?

Fitness Friday

Can it be Friday already? I swear I was just sitting here typing how nervous I was about my marathon and it has already been almost a week. Now I am doing a half marathon tomorrow!!! My legs are not sore anymore. I am going to do one more shake out run today.

I keep thinking about my marathon and how it really went. I do not plan on doing another full for awhile but I am already thinking how to do it differently. I made a poor choice and I believe it did affect me later on in the race. 

I left the 4hour pace group....I think that hurt me big time. I needed to hold back and conserve energy and I didn't. Around mile 16/17 when I started to have walk breaks the 4hour group passed me. They looked strong and probably finished real strong. According to my cheer squad they passed the line around 3:58. So even if I hung on as long as I could I would of CRUSHED my goal by even more.

But live and learn....till next time.

I also have thought about my training plan. I created my own and followed pretty much the same as I did for Disney. I did not do tempo, speed workouts, or weights. I did a few bike workouts during the summer for cross training. I really think I will get on board with the Run Less Run Faster training next time I train for a full marathon. I may introduce speed during my half marathon workouts. I have run a 1:40 on my first half marathon but haven't broken 1:50 since then. I was coaching xc and track at that time I got my PR so I was doing speed workouts and tempo with my kids. But I haven't done any workouts in my training since. I think that has made a huge impact in a bad way. 

What are your views on speed and weight training for half/full marathons? Have you done it without and had a good experience?

Have you stayed with a pace group in a marathon before?

Go check these out

Blonde Ponytail (who is awesome and I would love to meet someday) is holding a giveaway. It is for Family Fun Club clothing. Go check it out~

Also Vanessa (who I wish I lived near!!) is holding a Banjee Giveaway!!  It is the first I have heard of this but I am interested!

Tid Bits

1. Work has been hard lately. Identifing kids for Title I is a rough thing to do. It can be received in several different ways by parents, teachers, and kids. Hoping Monday I can start working the whole day with kids.

2. My run last night was awesome! I got 3.1miles in and was able to stretch out the last few sore muscles!

3. I run a half marathon on Saturday and it is a tough course. I hope to run have fun and finish strong!

4. I am by myself for the next 3 days. Bri is heading down to his friends house today through Saturday. I am trying to figure out dinner for myself and things to do in the evenings.

5. Lastly,  KOHLS OPENS ON SATURDAY!!! WHOOOHOOOO!!!!! I love love love that store and I am excited I no longer have to wait to go to my parents house to be able to shop there.


What are you doing this weekend? Any races?

Do you shop at Kohls??? Which celebrity clothing line do you like?

Giveaways!

First of all I won a giveaway yesterday whoohoo!! Thanks Julia I am excited for it!

There are some other good ones out there!


Skinny Runner is giving away Mission Athlete Care skin produts!

Hungry Runner Girl is giving away workout clothes.

Check them out!!

Race day

On Saturday my mom and I headed over to the expo. There were not many vendors (maybe 2) then Fleet Feet had a set up with race shirts and such. I bought myself a cute pink tech t shirt.
Goody Bag.....

I stayed at the host hotel so all I had to do was get up, eat and walk over to the start line a block away. It was so nice not having to deal with traffic race day! I even met a girl on the way out the hotel and we walked over together. We stuck together until the gun went off too! I love making friends LOL :)

 Start line sun still coming up...

 Everyone is ready to go (Oh sorry man that I caught the top of your bald head I just stuck my arm up and took the pic)

 On our way out of Rochester....

 OMG...is all I said as I snapped this pic of the guy running barefoot....Ok yes people do it. I listened to him say he trains all indoors on a treadmill.....THERE WERE 6MILES ON GRAVEL!!! I caught back up to him on that trail and he was trying to wipe the stuff off his feet every other step.

 WHOOHOO I am doing this....mile 9ish!

 Nice hill at 9.5 before I met up with Dud. I couldn't see a thing running into that sun!

 Ok so I didn't take photos for about 2hours....until I hit this....A HILL AT MILE 25 how rude!

 Bridge shot of the canal and downtown Rochester....home stretch!

 One more mile baby! At this point I knew I had a PR in the bag just didn't know by how much. Had to get through that last mile!

Those were the photos I got...waiting for the rest from my awesome family. Here are my cheer leaders!

Quick recap

I DID IT! I ran the Rochester Marathon yesterday and I got a 3min PR!! I will have a full pic review later. But I made it to the finish with lots of love from family who got to lots of cheer spots and great support from Dud who ran mile 9.5-22ish with me.

The arms went up when they called out my name WHHOOOOHOOOO!!! I told Dud I could get myself to the finish and I did! 4:12:13.

 I was dancing with the music below! A smile didn't leave my face the whole day. (well maybe when I sat in the ice bath LOL)

Thanks again for all the support from family, friends Dailymile friends and blogger friends! All your positive thoughts kept my mind from venturing far down a negative road, when I started doubting you all brought me back up!!!

Tid Bits

1. Scared out of my mind for Sunday. I know I can get through it but nervous I set too high of a goal. I also have a really sore throat and very tired.

Source

2. Brian's Dad is going to run some of the race with me!!! So excited to have someone help me along the way.

3. My dad is not coming to the race. I don't know for sure his reason but I chose this race because it is 30mins from their house and they could see me. Kinda hurt my feelings but we will see if he changes his mind.

The weekend and the countdown.....

What a weekend....it began Friday afternoon when I rushed out of the school building with out a thought of thinking about it till Monday AM. I headed over to get nails did with the girls....did I take any pics nope. I sat in the pedi chair without getting a pedicure but had the seat on to massage my back. It was a joyous 30mins.

Then....I did final touches at the cabin before it turned into a Bachlor party pad. Bri and I picked up the food for the rehersal dinner and headed to the firehall to decorate. It was a good time until this happened.....

I guess ONE sip of wine is not good for me. Yea no smile here....it burned like a sunburn and it was worse then this...this is after drinking one water bottle and 10mins. An allergic reaction to red wine or reaction to my meds who knows. But I lived it was just scary.

So that night we got the place decorated, the seating figured out then headed back to the town house to relax since it was already 11:30pm. We did a few gifts for the bride and went to bed.

Morning came quick. Everyone got up and around and the bridal party headed to get hair done. Amy (who was a great help that day) and I went to do final touches on things at the firehall and get the snacks ready.

Then it was time for the shin-dig to begin. Amy and I attacked the grooms car and decorated it and I got to work with my guest book attending :)

It was a beautiful wedding and great day after a rough week with flooding and other issues. Happy New Life together Mr and Mrs!!!

_______________________________________________________________________________

Now to the countdown.....6days until my marathon!!! YIKES. Yes VERY nervous. I really want to stick to my pace and PR. It is my second marathon so I am no pro at how to do this. Hoping I have a stress free week at school so i don't have a Stress-A-Beth moment before this marathon!


P.S. Girls on the Run begins tomorrow so i will have lots more running with 3rd-5th graders stories again!

Flood day and pictures

Workout: 4.5miles with progressively getting faster miles.

I had to do my run on the treadmill today since I AM HOME ON A FLOOD DAY. Yup you read that right I did not have school today. We will already have to make up a day and we are not even 2weeks into the year. Ugh. So when I got home last night I found this in the living room.



We had a little leak of course dripping right next to the T.V.

 So to help dry things out Bri started a fire....in SEPTEEMBER! This is craziness!

 Here is a pic of the road about 7miles from here. It is a road I ran on last weekend for my 20miler.

Ever had to deal with a flood before? Any stories of crazy reasons you got a day off from school?

Charlie Horse and Race recap

It was a very good long weekend around here minus the nonstop rain and some worrisome pain.

Friday night I was woken up by a SEVER charlie horse in my calf. I was screaming for several minutes because it hurt so bad. It took hours to finally fall back to sleep. I woke up and about fell right over. My leg was so stiff I could barely walk. After moving around a bit it loosened up but it was still sore. I was really worried about my calf being hurt with my marathon not more then 2 weeks away. I ate 2 bananas and took ibprofen to help out a bit. Sunday it was still bothering me...if I flexed my calf it would spasm. We spent the day at a 2yr old's bday and I tried to walk around as much as possible to keep it loose.

Monday AM was race day. This is a 5k we always do as a family. I had texted Manda Sunday night letting her know about my calf and how unsure I was about actually racing. I really didn't want to do ANYTHING to ruin my marathon chances. I got up and around and it was just a tiny pain but not as bad as it was. I put on the trusty Zensah calf sleeves and headed out the door.

I really wanted to race this race hard if I could but I made the decision to run a good race but don't run myself to the ground. I went out in the first mile in 7:52(it is all uphill too). The second mile is rolling hills that I completed in 7:32. At the 2mile mark we turn around and head down the hills we just came up. As I was approaching mile 2 I was able to count that I was the 7th women overall. I was happy with that. I could barely see the women ahead of me so I knew I wouldn't catch her. I also had a comfy gap behind me but I knew Hey Hey was VERY capable of pushing it down the hill and get me as well as Robyn!!! So the last mile I picked it up a iny bit and stayed with a group of 5 guys. One actually told me I had him beat when I was able to say hi to a volunteer I knew. But being able to talk was what I wanted! I did mile three in 7:28 and the last .98 in 7:06. My final time was 23:35 7th women and 1st in my age group.

Hey Hey came in very shortly after pushing one of her former students to the finish line. It was one of the only times I have seen a girl with longer legs then Hey Hey and beat her kick!!

Robyn also had a great finish!! Dud came in next pushing Ella.....everyone you must understand how long the hills are on this course. He was the ONLY stroller pusher out there that day!

Manda also had a strong finish kicking right past one of my students mother!

Overall my legs held it together for the race. My shin in my other leg gave me a little grief afterwards but I think i was changing my form trying not to aggravate my calf. So i iced up really good afterwards and headed to a rainy picnic!

It was a great weekend with lots of visiting friends and family. Next weekend is Manda's wedding weekend then the next is BDAY /MARATHON weekend!! WHOOHOO September is flying by!

First week of school....

is almost over! Welcome if you are joining me from the Blog Hop.

It is Friday and I have a day of testing and then we have our final reading activity that rolled over from the summer. We are having a pool party for all K-6th graders. We will also have a book swap happening to tie in the reading LOL! But it is going to be a long day again.

As far as my runs this week...I got a recovery run in Tuesday and Wednesday I tried to add some speed intervals into my 3mile run. I looked at it on my garmin and I got down to 6:30pace during the 400 repeats I did! It shocked me that I hit that fast when I wasn't on a treadmill!! My overal pace was 7:55 with a warm up and cool down. I was pleased with that. Today will be a easy run with the family after school. I am supposed to get one more mid distance run in this weekend before the marathon. I am not sure what I want to do yet. I have a race that is on a kinda hard course on Monday. So I might go with the flow this weekend and get what I can in so I can focus on the race.

What are your plans for the long weekend? Anyone else racing?