Little Rock Marathon Day Nostalgia

Happy Little Rock Marathon Day!

This time in 2013 I was recovering from the hardest run of my life, or so I said. I read through my race recap from back then, and little did I know I was about to start the year of no running thanks to an injury that manifested after that race.

But I did recover. And I ran my comeback race this past December. It was an awesome day. One of the best days of my life.

Lots of things have changed since December. I did have to nurse some nagging injuries, and I haven't been running consistently for various reasons....like the winter weather and general laziness.

For Christmas, Santa gave me entry into the Navy Nautical 10 Miler in Millington, Tennessee. Ten nautical miles is about 11.5 miles. And I haven't kept up with my distance running at all. But all that is about to change.

Thanks to all the photos and posts about the Little Rock Marathon, I have written myself a kick ace training program, and it seems to have happened just in time. It's 14 weeks til my next race day, and I've written a new training plan to reach my new goal.

I'm super excited about it since the weather should start to play nice, and Spring will be here before we know it. Plus Daylights Savings Time starts next weekend.

I like a progressive training plan that allows rest weeks, and I typically only run three days per week. Two weekday runs 3-5 miles depending on where I am in my training. I like to do shorter and faster during the week. Some days I will incorporate hills. Just depends, and I don't really plan those out as much since I like to see what I feel like on those days.

The long runs, however, are planned down to the day.

Here is what it looks like for my upcoming training season:

March
7th - 3 miles
14th - 4 miles
21st - 5 miles
28th - Omega Prostate Cancer 5K (Rest week)

April
4th - Capital City Classic 10K (6.2 miles)
11th - 7 miles
18th - 8 miles
25th - 4 miles (rest week)

May
2nd - 9 miles
9th - 10 miles
16th - 11 miles
23rd - 8 miles (taper)
30th - 6 miles (taper)

June
7th - Navy Nautical 10 Miler (Race Day)

For some reason, I always give myself a two week taper. I don't know why I do that, but it always makes me feel more prepared and rested. I mentally come down from the long run high, run some shorter distances, and then know my next long run is the race. It helps me. It's a weird thing I give myself.

I'm excited to be back on the training bandwagon, and I'm excited to see what I can do. I am not setting any insane goals. I just want to enjoy this one. Let it be what it is. And get some pretty sweet bling!

Via

Who's going with me?!

Daaaaaaaaaa Bears

Big things happening this weekend. My alma mater is having its first Saturday home football game. How bout them Bears?

Ever since I graduated college my loyalty to the Bears and UCA have grown X1000. I loved my school when I was there. But now that I'm not a part of such a great campus community, I find myself pining for the good ole days.

In preparation for this post, I searched old Facebook photos in hopes of finding some true gems to feature. And then I was hurt to find there are five, yes five, photos of me at football games over my college years. Let me just say, I know I went to more than five games. So how did this happen? Nobody can be sure, but I do know it makes me sad.

So this weekend I will fix this little problem. Photos will be taken. I can't let you get away without seeing the new purple and gray turf my four years of athletic fees helped pay for, along with everyone else. There will be tailgating, friends, fun times and football. Doesn't get much better than that.

Let's just hope the Bears pull out a W since they lost the last three games. #sigh. This will probably be one of those weekends where I pretend I'm back in college, and that can only mean two things. It's gonna be fun while it's happening, but I'm gonna pay for it later.

What was your favorite post-college fun where you acted like you were back in college?
Mine would have to be the time one of my sorority sister's was getting married. I attended a wedding shower that was accompanied with lots and lots of wine. And we had a reunion.

I remember running up and down the street with a glass of wine in my hand yelling about how my friend was getting married. Luckily, I didn't go to jail, which could have happened easily.

Valuable lesson I learned that night: Don't mix red and white wine. Not really sure why. It could have nothing to do with the mixing of the wines, but I'm sure the quanity did have something to do with this.

Do you have plans this weekend?