Early Morning 5 Miler

On Thursday morning I usually get up very early to run before work.  Before 6 I kiss my hubby goodbye and find a really hard core playlist to get me going.  Those early morning runs always seem to be my best quality runs maybe because my mind is totally void from stress and fatigue.
 Somewhere into the first mile I had this bad feeling that I should've reminded Jason to keep the door unlocked.  I brushed it aside and continued on, much to my regret, that was a bad decision!  After looping through the industrial area on Rosedale Rd for 5 miles I get back to find myself locked out!  I had no choice but to sit on the doorstep and wait for the property manager to help me out.  An hour later I beg for his help and all he could offer me was a ladder to climb to our second story balcony door.  Which meant I had to balance along a fence no wider than 6 inches and jump onto my balcony, swing my body over, and break in through the back window.  The day got even weirder after that but I'll leave the story at that since this is a running blog. 
All in all, I am a huge fan of early morning workouts.  The sun comes up halfway into my run and there are zero cars out-it's great.  wish me luck, today is a 12 miler!!

Week 1 Training complete

1 week down, 14 more to go.  I did 400M repeats this week and really struggled trying to find the right pace.  I felt like it was way too easy for me.  Next time they come up I'll make sure I map out a 400M loop precisely and get my pace exact.  The long run was 10 miles and it was quite enjoyable actually. New Zealand is so dang hilly that you can't avoid it but by now I'm used to that even on long runs.  My tempo run (3 miles) was easy because I got to count the 5K beach series I've been racing every Tuesday night.  Currently my overall ranking is 7th for my age group but there's about 5 more races to go! 

This map is where all the magic happens! We live here, I work here, and all my runs go down somewhere along the beach. 

North Shore Beach Series

Tonight I finished my 3rd 5K in the Beach Series.  It's worked out nicely with my marathon training and I very much enjoy walking to the beach from work, running a race, and going home feel totally awesome.  I could get used to this daily routine. I ran the 5K obviously much faster than what a 10K training pace for a marathon would be but how can you not when you're racing?  My time was consistent from last week's race at 24.40.  Not the best time ever but not bad for a normal everyday race.

And so it begins...

After several serious consideration and attempts at running the whole enchilada I've finally buckled down and signed up for a marathon.  Rotorua Marathon on May 1, 2010.  That's roughly 13 weeks away. Training starts NOW and I feel totally up for the challenge. I always said I would run a martathon before my first year of marriage and I'm sticking to my word.  New Zealand is quite ideal for training with the rather mild climate year around. I'll need to adjust to the unpredictable rainy days but that's a small trial compared to snow, wind, and nasty cold weather.  I'm training with the help of the FIRST marathon training program, which Kimmy introduced to me.  The program consists of running only 3 days a week with cross training at least 2 other days.  I like the makeup since it will allow me to continue on with P90X since Jason and I are half way through the training program. It's easy for me to type away about my training and the excitment of running a huge race but let's be honest, somedays it's going to be really hard.  I know my body is strong enough-I just have to get my mind to be there with it too.  I feel like I know the ins and outs of running after doing it competively, collegiatley, and now consistently for 10 years of my life. A marathon is unchartered territory though.  It's exciting and it's putting some spice in my everyday workout!   I'm going to complete it and I'm going to Love it.