Let the Summer Training Begin

Summer has settled into Houston, Texas in full force now.  And that means really early Saturday morning long runs, late night week day runs and full force training for my December Marathon has begun.

Unfortunately the reality of summer leaves me feeling a bit more like a  puddle than a Happy Snowman.  

I'm pretty sure even Olaf would agree that running at 10 pm when the feels like temperatures are 95°F would be too hot.  :)  But I still got 5 miles done last night in the wonderful heat and humidity.

The drowned rat running look is in right?

I had a wonderful time running in Vancouver and on the Disney Wonder during my Alaska vacation in June.  Unfortunately I should have replaced my shoes before I left for vacation and not after as they were pushing worn out and went over the edge of worn out in one or two runs.  I pushed a little too hard on those worn out shoes and I am now nursing a plantar fasciitis/bone spur injury in my right foot.  

My foot was bothering me some in Alaska but then I came home and did an 11 mile run on it before replacing my shoes.  After that run I was in a lot of pain and went to the chiropractor/physical therapist to get it worked on.  I've been having the scar tissue treated for a few weeks and took 3 weeks off running to try to get it to rest and heal some.

My first run back was a slow 5 miles but I was so thrilled to just be out there running again.

I was planning to follow the Jeff Galloway for Time program for my marathon but with my foot my goal right now is to just make it to the starting line uninjured so I am dropping back to the to finish schedule instead.  I need to lay off the speed work and hill work for a bit.  

So it means I get to repeat my 13 mile run from last Saturday before increasing my miles again.

Getting up to run at 3:30 am to try to beat the heat is much more fun when you are running with a group.  The Katy Galloway Breakfast Club is great and keeps me focused on Saturday mornings!

Last week I experienced the madness that was registering for the Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend.  My sister and I are going for the Glass Slipper Challenge (10k Saturday and Half Marathon Sunday).  After I got us registered for that I decided that I am completely crazy and was lured into registering for the 5k (Friday) as well when I found out that it was going to be Frozen Themed in 2015.  I refer to it interchangeably as the Triple Crown and Princess Crazy.  It will be a good test to see if I even want to consider being Dopey in 2016.  

I'm hoping that when I go to registered for Tinkerbell in August to complete my Coast to Coast Challenge that Active will not have another major race open for registration at the same time.  Having the Princess and Big Sur Registrations open at the same time was a little more than Active's system could handle.  

I'm looking forward to doing a monument run in Washington DC for a training conference next week.  I love getting to run in new and different places.  If I'm lucky it won't feel like its 106°F outside in DC like it is supposed to feel here in Houston today.  

Here is my "Long Run" training schedule plans from now until Princess.  It is always subject to change of course.  It only includes my weekend runs except where I start doubling up my runs for the Glass Slipper Challenge Training.  I have color coded my Long runs and Races.   I'd like to run the Turkey Dash again at Thanksgiving but I'm a little nervous about doing that on November 27th with my marathon 10 days away.  Maybe I'll stick to the 5k this year, or run the 10k but not not race it for time.

		19-Jul	13 miles
		26-Jul	6 miles
		2-Aug	7 miles
		9-Aug	12 miles
		16-Aug	6 miles
		23-Aug	14 miles
		30-Aug	6 miles
		6-Sep	17 miles
		13-Sep	6 miles
		20-Sep	6 miles
		27-Sep	20 miles
		4-Oct	6 miles
		11-Oct	6 miles
		18-Oct	23 miles
		25-Oct	6 miles
		2-Nov	Katy 10 mile race (slow as a training run)
		8-Nov	26 miles
		15-Nov	7 miles
		22-Nov	6 miles
		29-Nov	7 miles
		7-Dec	San Antonio RnR Marathon
		13-Dec	7 miles
		20-Dec	6 miles
26-Dec	2 miles	27-Dec	9.5 miles
		3-Jan	6 miles
		10-Jan	6 miles
		17-Jan	6 miles
23-Jan	4 miles	24-Jan	12.5 miles
		31-Jan	6 miles
7-Feb	Katy 1/2 marathon  relay	8-Feb	14 miles
		14-Feb	4-5 miles
20-Feb	Princess 5k	21-Feb	Enchanted 10k	22-Feb	Princess Half Marathon

June 8, 2014 - Stanley Park Seawall Run

As I mentioned earlier - I love running on vacation - here is a summary of one of my favorite runs from our Alaska Cruise - The Vancouver Stanley Park Seawall run.


The morning started at 5:30 am when Alice woke up and came into the bedroom.  Considering the time change I was happy she slept until 5:30 am and my alarm was set for 5:45am to get up for my run so I wasn’t going to complain.  I got dressed to go for my run.  I started with my running skirt, short sleeve shirt and long sleeve shirt figuring it was cooler than it was.  I walked outside and it was already warm so I turned around and went back to the room and left the long sleeve shirt behind.  It was a few minutes after 6am when I got started on my run.  I headed out along the seawall towards Stanley Park.

When I got to the park I could see the 2 cruise ships that were in port today arriving.  There was a HAL and Celebrity Cruise ship today.  I continued along the seawall stopping for a few pictures along the way.  The following are some highlights of Stanley Park.  I could have spent a lot of time exploring Stanley Park but I settled for a great run.

Canada Place and 2 ships coming in.

 I finally figured out the proper way to do an Eddie McCoy Selfie :)

 Stanley Park Totem Poles

The 9 O'Clock Gun

Girl in Wet Suit

 Lion's Gate Bridge

 Lighthouse

 Siwash Rock

 Trailhead Markers

 Laughing Guy Statues.  

Success - 9.25 miles in less than 2 hours - perfect long run training pace, especially when you add in picture taking time.  I even got in a little bit of a hill workout.  What a great way to start off a vacation.

Next up Vancouver Hop on Hop Off and Aquarium