Whoa

Whoa, whoa, whoa! What the heck? How did this marathon creep up on us so fast? I was just busy teaching and living life and of course training, but here it is. I am trying to be positive, like watching Nike commercials etc. to get pumped for the pain. Actually the last two I have done have not hurt. When I did the half in Leadville I was going too darn slow to be sore. And the marathon last year, just was not sore.

Well I have a good friend in Flagstaff that would tell me I did not go hard enough if I was not sore. So Saturday I will be sore! I will give it every ounce and by golly I will set a pr if it kills me! And yes Rebekah you can take off, stay, or do whatever you need to do to take care of yourself while I am spasming out!

I have come up with a plan that goes against all running rules. The deal is it is cool for about the first half of the marathon. Then that wonderful sun comes up and it heats up, fast. My plan is to run the first half faster than the second half. Now I know all the books say opposite, but they aren't running a marathon in Tamarindo at 98% humidity and about 89 degrees.

We also have the guys in our court and they will be keeping us in the coconut water for our trek. Man this is going to be fun!

The Great Mountain Climb

Here is a big Happy Birthday to the worlds best big brother! You know you really love your brother when you are willing to climb from 10,000 ft. to 13,000 ft. just to celebrate the big 50 with him! Well not with him exactly, but for him is a better way to put it. Though he did give me his 5 and 0 from his cake so I could use them in 15 months!

We all enjoyed some really good times. Here we are all enjoying a laid back breakfast the morning after. The amazing thing is I was not too sore. The truth was I could not go up fast enough to get sore, and could not run down fast enough to get sore. Going up it was all I could do to stay upright, man does that altitude make you nauseaus. Coming down the rocks were killers and I was just trying to not fall on my face!

I have to say Leadvlle Colorado is a beautiful spot. Here are the bros and significant others and I enjoying the park with the kiddos. The weather was pleasant, except at the top of the mountain where wind and more wind prevailed.

Pretty cool medals they got ha? Once again I worked my butt off to complete a race and ended up with no medal. As soon as I crossed the line the lady apologized to me that they messed up their order and sent them too many full marathon medals. That is the second race in a row with no medal. What is the lesson in this for me? Get faster so I can actually get a medal! I was 17th in my age group out of 20, not too bad. And I finished in 4:58, under the five hour goal I had for myself.

Here I am coming down the home stretch. Thank goodness the last three miles is all down hill and on dirt road. It was so good to see hubby waiting there and waving to me. I just wanted to cry, I was really wiped out.I could not eat anything the whole climb as the altitude made me really sick. So just lots of water and gatorade, took some real recovery for that one.

We all lined up together. Only three of us completed the race, but my other brother was a great help in getting me to run on the downhill when I really did not want to. He helped me make up enough time that I could go with my goal. Aren't brothers the best?

Summer Fun

Well as if we weren't busy enough, we added the Tamarindo Marathon again. I know, I know we complained bitterly about it, but that actually played in our favor. My daughter left a comment on their fb today and the director finally responded to her complaints. He apologized profusely for us not receiving our medals, and my plaque from last year. Then he offered us free entry if we wanted to race this year.

How could we say no? That is like someone giving you a hundred bucks. Of course that means we have to run a lot of miles, but hey it will be worth it. Of course I say that because I have been training for my half in July, but my daughter is a little more panicked. She has not been able to run much because of knee problems.

She has some IT band issues and it looks like I will have to work on her and get her better so she will be ready for the race September 12th. That also means some really early mornings for me as we will be having class the last six weeks before the race.

We do love a challenge and I am excited that we get to have a do over on this race. It should be a better race this time since we know what to expect. Hot, really hot, and humid and hilly. The three h's. Of course after doing Leadville it will probably feel like a walk in the park, at least there will be oxygen!

Hiking

Every Saturday I get the extreme pleasure of "taking a hike". As I have mentioned I am training for the Leadville Heavy Half Marathon in July. I found this hill heading up to Monte de la Cruz with the steepest incline, and the most altitude in the whole valley area. There are a few volcanoes with more altitude but would take me half the day just to ride the bus to them. So instead I walk out my door, pic 1 and head up, and up, and up, for about 7 miles until I get to Tirol, the Swiss Chalet at the top. Nestled in the pines at about 5,000 ft.elevation it is beautiful. It is so nice when I finally get out of the hot sun, traffic and really steep hills and into the hilly pines. I have to say it is the best of both worlds and I am enjoying the heck out of this training. Oh yeah and I mention the really rockin run down with the awesome view?

Energy Meter

O.K. I think the energy meter is running on low. Feeling like the energizer bunny that finally ran out of batteries. My daughter says it was the double work out last week and I have not recovered, hahaha! Though it could be. I am trying to "rest" up for the big week next week. I will be starting the Leadville heavy half marathon training. I found a training program that should work with my "schedule". By schedule I mean is not too hard, does not include speed work, or anything that might get me hurt :)

I have incorporated lots of hiking into the program, hiking uphill to be exact. I will be hiking up a hill to Monte de la Cruz and hope to be able to hike all the way up by the end of the next few weeks. It will be a doozy, as my ears already pop when I start hiking up, it is steep.

It will not really satisfy my need for altitude, but that is about all I can come up with. I have been having a few anxieties about the whole 11,000-13,000 ft. elevation thingy, but hey I can always walk. That is the advantage of being on foot instead of a bike. I would die before I would ever, ever, ever walk a bike up any hill! But I am not too proud to walk when I am on foot. Sometimes I can walk faster than I can run anyway on the really steep hills.

The good news is I had a great workout, and my daughter made some most excellent granola today, four bowls later I am ready to crash.

Half Marathon

I can't believe I committed to a half marathon. Not just any half marathon, but the Leadville heavy half marathon. It actually climbs to 13,000 ft. altitude. I am going to be sucking air big time, if I even survive it. I am doing it for my brother. We will be doing it on his 50th birthday, so I relented. So far two brothers and we are still trying to talk the third brother into doing it with us. Is that the sign of one sick family that we celebrate birthdays by hurting ourselves?

There was one hitch in the whole thing. I told my brother that 15 months after we did this run he had to join me in Cozumel for the Ironman on my 50th. His excuse that he sinks just does not hold water, no pun intended. I told him he could just come and watch and eat. He was fine with it as long as he does not have to watch me puke! He did agree to bring the defribulater and we are going to talk my Dr. bro into bringing the oxygen, I should be fine.

Actually I am more worried about the half marathon than the ironman. The whole not breathing thing has me really worried. I am thinking spending the month before the run in Flagstaff might not be such a bad idea. Two of my brothers live at altitude, the other and I are about sea level. I am planning on running up in the mountain here once the volcano settles down. I can probably get to about seven thousand feet running up the mountain. Wow sounds fun.

I have decided to include some track work for this run. Not to increase my speed, though that would be nice, but to teach me how to suck air more efficiently. I am not real good at that since I usually keep my heart rate really low when I work out. In fact my coach brother has reminded me that I need to get my heart rate up while I work out, since it is going to go sky high at that altitude. Man I hope I survive without any altitude sickness!