A blog re-appearance

So, actually I'm pretty terrible at keeping up with blogging.

But you knew that, didn't you?

I've been meaning to get restarted with blogging, but there has been so much running related stuff that's happened in the last 6 months, that it felt like an overwhelming task to try to get everything caught up in a blog post shorter than a novel.

Thankful for bullet points- because that's how we're rolling!  A quick bulleted month-by-month synopsis of all that has transpired so we can get up to speed!

• January 2013:  Fresh off my meningitis vacation, I began to contemplate my goals for the year.  Decided an even 1000 miles of running and 1000 miles of biking was going to be my lofty 2013 goal. Planned on training for the 1/2 marathon in May, but halfway through the month, I accidentally decided to train for the full marathon instead.  I couldn't wait till Summer to start another marathon training.  Began training for Fargo Marathon around the second week of January.  Since we were deep into the Winter season, lots of treadmill running took place (barf).
• February 2013:  Running, running, running.  The roads and weather were uncooperative for outdoor running.  Short runs took place on the 'mill, and long runs took place at a local indoor track.  8 laps= 1 mile..... Let's just say that 11, 12, 13 mile runs were... not exciting.  Glad for the lap button on my Garmin because, let's face it, I'd SO lose count of laps without it.
• March 2013:  The beginning of Spring, right?  WRONG.  Weather continued to be awful and some overwhelming apathy and frustration began to set in.  Started to move some of the long runs outdoors, but they were definitely not ideal.  Several runs involved jumping over piles of snow, stepping in massive icy puddles, and lots of frozen eyelashes.  Body was holding up well with the training though and I felt good.  Paces were starting to get faster (not blazing fast, but fast for me).  March was my heaviest mileage month- ran about 130 miles!
• April 2013:  Annnnnd the weather was STILL awful.  Like, seriously???  It was cold, snowy (!!!), and just overall a terrible month for running.  Started to sub one shorter run per week with a spin class, just to preserve my legs and to avoid the treadmill.  As a result, my April mileage went down a little, but was still feeling strong when it counted.  The longest of the training runs took place this month and they went surprisingly great!  The dreaded 20 miler was done in conjunction with a half marathon that we (Stacie and I) ran in St Cloud.  It was the Earth Day Half Marathon- a smallish, but well-organized race.  Originally when we registered, we assumed it would be a nice Spring-time race.  Instead we enjoyed 18 degree temps that eventually climbed all the way into the 30's.  On April 20th! Oof.  We ran 7 miles, had a short break to get to the starting line, and then ran the half marathon.  There were some hills that surprised us, but the race was great!  It was probably the best run I've ever had.  Our average pace for the 20 miles was 10:45.  Our typical long run pace is 11:30.  Started to think that a 4:50 time goal for Fargo Marathon was a definitely possibility.  A huge confidence boost!
• May 2013:  Marathon Month!  Taper Time!  STILL COLD!  I don't know how many times I made the bold statement "this is the LAST time I'm going to wear my lined running tights!"  Enjoyed some early morning runs with friends and tried to finish out my training strong.  
• Fargo Marathon- May 18th.  I'm losing steam here, and won't give a fantastic race report, but I'll try to sum it up in very brief fashion.  Weather forecast 10 days out was okay, but each and every day the forecast seemed to decline.  By race morning the forecast called for 60 degrees, rainy, and humid at the start and maybe some sunshine and 70ish degrees by the end of the race.  Let's remember that not ONE of my training runs occurred in anything warmer than 50 degrees.  Every long run was 40 degrees or cooler.  Not ONE run was done in humidity.  Great.  Race time temp was about 58 degrees and it had just stopped raining.  It was indeed humid, but manageable.  Goal pace was 10:45-11:00.  First 15 miles were pretty good.  Pace was on target.  Could feel some blisters forming on my feet by mile 8, thanks to the humid conditions.  Felt strong though.  The temps started to creep up and my energy started to fade a little.  Mile 15 happened and the sun came out... and it ALL fell apart for me.  Pace started to drop with every mile and by mile 20, I was D.O.N.E.  I saw a medical drop-out station and seriously contemplated quitting.  Stacie ran by my side the whole time and she was still looking strong.  She probably could have blazed on at the faster pace, but she ran with me instead.  My mile splits started to dip into the 12:00 min/mile pace and then into the 13:00's.  I SWEAR it still FELT like I was running 11:00's, but I'd look down at the Garmin and would be super discouraged to see that I was barely slogging a 13:00ish pace.  It was HOT.  I was getting dehydrated in spite of drinking lots of water and powerade.  I ran through sprinklers often and shoved ice cubes in my bra.  It was a huge mental struggle and it sucked.  Lots of walk breaks during those last 6 miles.  Knew my goal of 4:50 was WELL out of reach, but now it was a very real possibility that I'd finish slower than Twin Cities Marathon.  I didn't though.  Finished in 5:15:43 (TCM was 5:17-something).  So... still a PR, but it didn't feel like it.  I was pretty disappointed with how the race turned out, but after talking with a lot of other people who ran the race, they had similar experiences (good first half, bad bad second half).  Weather is SUCH a wild-card in running, and it's totally out of my control.  I'm proud that I stuck it out and finished it and I know that I have plenty more marathons in my future to try to nail a better pace.  (Although around mile 20 I SWORE that there would NOT be another marathon in my future!)
• June 2013:  And here we are, caught up to present time.  And presently, things are rough in the running department.  I began officially training for Twin Cities Marathon on June 3rd.  Decided to switch things up with training and try a more aggressive plan that incorporated more speed work and more of the really long long runs.  I *really* want to improve my speed and the only way to do that is to start doing faster runs.  The first couple of weeks of training have been difficult.  Weather has been humid and rainy, I had a bout of food poisoning that made me miss a run or two, and this week I've been sidelined completely with shin troubles.  I'm trying to be smart about it as the marathon is still 16 weeks out and I have plenty of time to train still.  So I'm TRYING to be patient and give my shin the appropriate amount of rest.  I hate skipping runs, but I'm doing lots of spinning and outdoor biking to compensate for the missed runs.  I know that the speed work is probably what is contributing to my injury and will have to re-evaluate my speed work once I'm able to run again.  I might have to scale back the pace a little.  This is a huge bummer because I've run virtually injury-free for the last year and a half, but I know that sometimes injury is a part of running too.  I'm skipping my long run this weekend and will continue to ice and stretch and will see where I'm at on Monday.  If there is still pain, I'm going to go to the sports chiropractor next week and see if that helps.

SO!  That's the "quick" recap of the last 6 months.  MAYBE I'll do a better job of blogging on a regular basis?  That remains to be seen!

Have a great weekend! :)