Clocked

My knee is feeling great and I was able to log 22 miles last week.  Once my knee started to feel better, I eased into a few shorter runs and then Saturday set out to try and get at least 6 miles in.

 And while I was on a long stretch of quite road just north of town, I was even clocked by this speed limit machine!  Don't worry, 6 mph is well within the 40 mph speed limit. :)

It was a humid and rainy morning, which soon turned into a rain filled long run.  However, there was no wind and most of the time it was a light rain which actually wasn't bad to run in at all.  I felt great and was able to run 11 miles!  It wasn't fast by any means, but I did pick a very challenging route with many hills.  Including running the huge hill on Kimball at mile 9.5! While these hills are no fun, I know that the first 8 miles of my next half will all be on HWY 77, which is almost entirely made of "rolling" hills, so I want to try and train on as many hills as possible for the next few weeks to prepare.

This week my training plan backs off with a long run of only 6 miles.  After that it will be one more long run of 12 miles before I start to taper again.  One month and two days until my 10th half marathon!

New Ride

We have left the minivan world behind! We finally traded in our 2007 Uplander that we have had since I was pregnant with Collin.

There was really more hate in this love-hate relationship with this van. It was great when the kids were young. But then we hit a rough patch where it had several costly repairs that didn't seem to end.

But once our commuting days ended, we were able to keep the van going and enjoy some payment free years.

We were all excited for this upgrade and Ben Kohl always treats us right at John Kohl Auto Center in York, NE! It's worth the drive and we wouldn't buy a vehicle from anyone else.

So now we are the proud owners of a brand new Traverse! It's everything I wanted and a serious upgrade for our family.

I'm still trying to heal up from my fall last Saturday. I ran about 13 miles last week total and then had planned to run a 10 mile run around Friday. However, my right knee that took most of the force of my fall has really been hurting again. More rest and a  possible doctor's visit could be in my future this week.

Crash and Burn

Well, it happened.  While on a long run on Saturday, I fell. It was about 2.5 miles into my 8 miles and I have no idea what I tripped on, but I fell hard.

Thankfully, I had a wonderful friend from school and running buddy who came to my aid!  Kim was on her way to meet me for part of this run and graciously drove me to her house so I could get cleaned up and complete my run.

  I am still sore today with a swollen knee, but I think I'm going to come away from this with only scrapes and bruises. But falling when your 37 vs 7 is a whole new feeling/experience and hurts a lot more than I remember when I was a kid!!

My first picture from this post is from the end of the Wamego Wicked Half Marathon!  I was 12th in my age group (out of 37) and right in the middle of the pack for overall runners in the race.

And now I have jumped back (or fell back into) training for my 10th Half Marathon on May 23rd!  I am hoping that my swollen knee will be good to go on Monday for a 4 mile run.  I have not run two half marathons this close together since 2011.  Here we go again!!!

My 9th Half Marathon

It was an early-morning Wamego, Kansas. The temperatures were chilly but the sunrise was beautiful!

One of the best parts about this half marathon, is that I didn't have to travel far from home. And that also meant lots of wonderful and familiar faces too.

I knew Chad and the boys planned to be at the race and that they were making posters for me. But I had no idea just how awesome they would be!

If there were an award for best signs, they would definitely win!

But my two favorite signs were "my mommy kicks asphalt" and in big bold letters, GO MOMMY!

I felt great for this half marathon! I Felt strong the whe way and even ran the first 7 miles averaging a 9:50 pace!

It was a beautiful course, and I had lots of mental things to look forward to along the way. Having Chad and the boys there was just wonderful!!!

The last 2 miles were the only point of the race where I struggled a bit. Everyone that had been running around me suddenly either stopped to walk or fell behind me and there was one huge hill at mile 12. Luckily Chad and the boys were there cheering and Mitchell ran the last mile in with me to the finish. It was definitely a finish that I will never forget with him by my side!

My official time was 2:12:12 with no walking! After being sick last week, I wasn't expecting much out of this race and was just hoping to possibly finish somewhere around 2:20:00. I was very happy with this time! While it was not my fastest, it certainly was not my slowest race either and I beat my time from my previous years half marathon by over 10 minutes!

48 hours

It's now less than 40 hours until my ninth half marathon!

Good, bad, or otherwise my training is complete and this week I am logged over 200 miles so far for 2015!

Now all that is left to do is rest, eat some pasta and wait for the start time Saturday morning!

Unprepared

It's five days away from race day, and I am feeling very unprepared. After taking it easy last week to heal up, we ended the week with a crazy stomach bug virus that seem to hold on for several days.

I was finally feeling well enough to run again today. I am feeling very nervous about the upcoming half marathon in Wamego on Saturday due to this illness and my lack of recent running.

On a brighter note, the weather is looking great for Saturday! While the end of spring break illness has thrown a curveball into things I am still just focusing on my goal of finishing this race....with no other expectations other than to complete my 9th half marathon.

Spring Breakers at Work

Other than having a great weekend trip to Nebraska to see Chad's family, the boys and I have been having a stacation spring break at home.

I completed my 12 mile long run last week on Wednesday and then ran another 7 miles over the weekend while in Nebraska. After taking a 3 mile hike with the kids on Monday while our good friends the Ingram's were moving to town, I decided it was time to let a few injuries heal up this week.

This is hard for me to do, however I know if I don't they will just continue to nag at me until my race on the 28th.

But that doesn't mean the boys and I haven't been active so far this week! Yesterday and today we have been working hard in the yard clearing off flowerbeds and hauling away a massive amount of leaves.

The sad part is, that this giant load is only from the first three quarters of our front yard....ugh.

But the dreary cold and wet weather didn't get us down and we cleared most of the leaves in the front yard today. The boys have been a huge help and we will now move on to the backyard tomorrow. We are spring break backyard warriors