Accidental half marathons and new goals

Xmas break is all but over and, delightfully, I managed to stay on point and not drop my training regime - although did have to modify it.  I spent Xmas in Vegas and, thankfully, the MGM has a great gym (even if it did cost me $15 a day for the privilege).   Four of the six days I was there I worked out, a little on the treadmill (which I really really loathe) and on the stairmaster (which I really really love).
Arriving home I then proceeded to run the "accidental half marathon"!  I had mapped a route to run 11 miles, this based around dropping the rental car back and creating a loop with the car yard as my start point.  Hmmm, so slight hitch with the car and I ended up starting the run from home and slightly altering the route along the way.  Good grief about 3/4 of the way in it occurred to me that this wasn't going to be a 11 mile run - but what do you do?  You are already out there???  So I just kept to the path and ended up doing  12.8 miles (not far short of the half).  I did feel really great though, it wasn't until the last mile that I began to feel some real discomfort (and my pace dropped accordingly) - still I ran it in just over 2hrs so that's made me optimistic for the actual half in February.
I am back seeing Case and our second (and last work out for 2009) turned into a big one.  Case bought along the weight vest and we proceeded to put me through a very high intensity work out wearing, what he claimed at the time, 10lbs in the vest.   I really should have picked it, especially when I started to do the box jump and very near smashed into the damn thing....need to jump a little higher/explosively when wearing the vest.  Didn't give up though and mastered three sets.  At the end of the work out we get me and the vest on the scales.....17lbs thanks very much.....even Case was shocked - we both laughed though because he even had me doing lunges with two additional 10lb weights and added a 25lbs weight to my plank (not giving up, not giving up, not giving up).  Delightfully we also discovered I'd lost another 3.5lbs and 2% body fat over the last three weeks, this startled both of us.  This also prompted a discussion around new goals for 2010.  I've still got my heart set on the NYC Marathon in November so we discussed what would be an optimal weight goal.  Case thinks if I lose another 5lbs then that would be awesome (his words)...so new goal.

10 miles and counting!

Ran 10 miles today (well 10.3 to be precise, 1hr 36mins, I'm happy).  This was grand (as the countdown clock shows).....Feb 7 is racing towards me.  The course has a three hour limit - Case tells me when you line up everyone is grouped based on their anticipated finish time and, more importantly, everyone lies!!!!  Gawd racing is tricky, me being me I would never have thought to lie.

New challenges

Omg, Case is continuing to find new forms of torture for me.....I mean it in a kind caring way.  For the non-runners/gym goers on the left is a bosu ball.  It can be used for different types of torture (much like the box I mentioned in my last post).  For some months now I have been using it to do push ups - you turn it over so it has the ball side down and them hold the sides and go for it.  New world, no more girl pushups, it's all boy push ups from now on.  One exercise I've done from the beginning is the plank.  Put your feet on the top of the ball, straighten your body into a pushup or rest on your elbows, hold your stomach muscles in and count the minutes!  Case has variations on this now too.  Go into the plank and he adds a 20/30 or 40 pound weight to my back, depending on how he feels - now that has you focused on holding the plank so the darn weight doesn't slip off.  One of my favs is he turns the ball over and I stand/balance on it, he hands me a weight bar and I have to crouch and stand up, over and over and over again.  It's not easy but that one is really good for the stabalizer muscles in my ankles i.e. reduces the risk of injury.  When I first started I could hardly balance on the ball, let alone hold a weight - Case told me I'd get good at it and he was right.  Getting good with the bosu has been one of those deeply satisfying things where you see improvement relatively quickly - now that appeals to me.

On to new things

Moving along.  My first race is done and there will never be another first.  Well yes I guess there will be the first half marathon then the first marathon but now I have done my very first race I at least have some idea what happens. Case is wasting no time.  Today I ran 9 miles....in a thunderstorm complete with lightening.  It was all okay, my focus was on distance not time but I did it in 1hr 26mins, which was better than I had expected.  Toward the end my right knee started to ache a little - I am completely paranoid about injuries now, I haven't got long until the half in Feb and in-between I am going to Vegas so will have to spend a hideous week only being able to run on the treadmill, which I have decided I dislike intensely as it seems really hard on my body.  
On a sweet note, over the last months Case has commented that my legs are very strong. We have been doing these hideous exercises that involve leaping onto a box.  It's really all about having explosive muscle power, or some such thing.  Anyway this week he had me literally jumping onto a box just below my waist height!  Honestly if you'd told me I'd ever be able to go from flatfooted to leaping that high anytime before Tuesday at 7pm I would have laughed you out of the room.  Just because he's Case he also had me do 5 of them after I had already completed 20 jumps on the medium box and don't go thinking getting my toes on the edge was enough either - hell no, gotta land in the middle on top of the box!  I got a high five out of it and a few claps from the audience....sweetly gratifying!

Today I showed up

My race is done.....it was remarkable, nerve-wracking and a great thing to do, I will do more.  The stats are important because what's measured matters.  1hr 05 total run - I didn't break 1hr (a little part of me is disappointed....) but I beat my best by 6+mins, I'll reconcile it.  84th in a field of 213, boys and girls (beating boys matters to me, it's an Army thing, when you are me in the Army it was always tough to beat boys).  4th in my age group of 21 - Case had me see this matters, his text "4th outta 21? WOW...now thats what im talking about....CONGRATS..." ends "yay Jody".  It was cold, really cold....I had to decide to run with my running jacket - point being that when you begin you have to decide a whole lot of things, how you dress being one, I didn't regret it.  I got to see the 1st and 2nd place runners come in from the 50k and 50mile runs, remarkable - I didn't get to see the first women come in but I did hear two women next to me talk about wanting to see them too - I would have stayed but I was cold and had run the event with no support at the end, I wanted to go home, needed to get warm so I left.  It was grand and it was fun and it was unexpected.
Half marathon in Feb - I'll bring some pals to help, it would be nice to share in the moment, but if they can't come (they would have today to btw, but it wasn't possible), then I'll do it again, just me and love it.

Counting down

The clock is ticking down to my "race".  I am starting to feel a little nervous - silly really as I've run it before it's just the thought of all those people is freaky.  There are 200 men and women in my 10k. Case says I will be more prepared than most (that is why I love Case, he is good for my confidence) - I don't much care about where I place so much as I run well (okay I am not keen to come in last either).  Nerves are supposed to be good; hrumpf really?  I guess they only hit me when I think about it so maybe the answer is to not think about it and just remember to turn up on the day!

Wilder Ranch and breaking the 9min mile

I had the sweetest thing happen on my run today.  I went to do a 7 miler through Wilder Ranch (which is this lovely State Park that offers expansive views of the ocean, grassy meadows and winding trail runs through the trees).  I was literally trudging up a rather steep incline when a guy on a bike comes flying down the hill, big grin, puts out his hand and we high five on his way through.  Way cool and completely inspirational. So glad as I was going to turn around but kept going and discovered the most delightful track.  Then as I hit the end of the downhill I look across to a trail nearby to a woman on a mountain bike grinning at me - we'd met in the carpark way back when i.e. before I'd run 5miles and she'd biked I don't know how many - sweet interactions with folk!  

Best achievement of the week.  I did my standard 3.8 miler and hit 8:49min miles.  This is amazing because when I first started that run it took me over an hour, now I can do it in a little over 34mins....wow.