Is it two much to do two half marathons with only 1 month in between. I'm already registered for the Va. Beach 1/2 on Sept. 2, but I'd really like to do Baltimore again because I had a lot of fun last year. That one is sometime in October. I believe the 16th (if that's not a weekend it's the weekend right around there.)

What do you think? Is that asking too much of myself? I'd really appreciate any input you all have.

In other running news:
Last Saturday I did not get my five miles in and I was so frustrated. I started out and was almost in tears I was in so much pain about 1/2 mile in. My shins were on fire and I could feel the knots in my calves getting tighter and tighter. Turns out it was time for new sneakers. In some ways it was almost a blessing in disguise. If my shoes had crapped out two days later I would have been back at school and not able to get my sneakers at the only running store I trust. (Mainly because all the employees are runners themselves and they are so friendly and let you take the shoes outside to run in them to decide if they work for you.) So it worked out OK. I was able to get my new shoes and bring them back to school and not really miss much training.

I was so excited to try them that on Monday I set my alarm for 6:30 with the hopes of getting a run in before I left for my internship. Turns out it's still pretty much pitch black outside at that point. I re-set my alarm for 7 hoping the extra half hour would buy me some daylight, but no luck. So I wasn't able to test out my sneakers until Wed.

But when I did it rocked. It was so nice to have cushioning in my shoes again. (Just extra info: I'm running with the Mizuno Wave Inspire 3's) The run itself wasn't the best. My legs felt really heavy because I had been so tired all day, but all the pain was gone.

I just got back from another run tonight. And it was amazing. My speed has naturally been picking up which really excites me. I also went out later tonight than I usually do and the sun was just setting but it was still light. It was nice and cool with a little breeze and everything about the run felt amazing. I feel AWESOME! :O)

As far as the cross-training goes: Swimming on Tuesday went really well. I went for 40 minutes. 4-100's with 10 seconds between 8-50's with 5 seconds between and I repeated it twice. My shoulders were sore the next day because swimming uses muscles I don't use a ton, but I felt great afterwards. I'm planning to get another 40 minute-ish session in the pool in tomorrow morning.

Apologies for the uber-long entry. It's been a while since I've updated and I had a lot to say. I'll try to keep it shorter next time! :o)

So spring is officially here, which meant free Rita's day was yesterday. And since Rita's Italian Ice is the best thing about summer, you know I hit that up. MMMMM gotta love their mango ice!

I got in two more quality runs this week. Yesterday I went out for 4 miles. I started out at a bit slower pace and was hitting my stride about a mile or so in. I felt pretty good throughout. My time was a little slower than my normal time, but my home turf has a lot more hills than at school and I think some of that might have taken it out of me. But it was good to be running hills again. I always feel so accomplished once I get to the top and can cruise down the other side.

Today I had planned to get in a nice easy recovery-ish type run. But I was feeling really good and turned it into a speedwork out. I went my usual shorter loops which I finish normally in about 33 minutes. Today I finsished in 28:30. I was pretty pleased with the pace I was going at. If I can work with that pace and get comfortable with it, I'd be happy to run my race that way.

Also the weather had greatly improved today. I wore my Under Armour tights and cold gear top and I was so hot by the time I finished. Not that I was complaining. If I can shed the cold gear for some regular long sleeve running shirts, I'm not going to complain.

I'm hoping the rain that's passing through will be out of here by Saturday. My goal is to get a quality five miler in before I had back to school. I'd like to work it in on Saturday so that Sunday I can focus on getting packed and heading back.

Oh and for my internship I'm reviewing this book called: The Nonrunner's Marathon Guide for Women by Dawn Dais. It is hilarious. I can totally relate to a lot of the stuff she talks about.

Here's an excerpt about BodyGlide:
BodyGlide Skin Formula looks like deodorant and applies like deodorant, but it's not deodorant. You can tell 'cause you never see people putting deodorant along their panty line and in their butt cracks. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

The basic purpose of BG is to uh, help your body glide and prevent chafing. It rolls on like Vaseline and helps ease the discomfort of body parts and clothing rubbing together. Some people swear by it and lather themselves in it even if they're only walking to the car. Other people (yours truly) forget about it altogether until marathon day, then cover themselves with it from head to toe. Unfortunately, those people (yours truly) are morons because BG can make your body parts glide together a little easier, it does nothing to help with the overall gliding of your body. At Mile 15, the word "tumble" would probably be a better word to use than "glide" to describe what my body was doing.

Well my Terps aren't dancing anymore. After a disappointing showing against Butler, they were eliminated from the tournament on Saturday. They came back in the end, but just couldn't do it and ended up losing by three. It was fairly heartbreaking. (Side note: My bracket has been busted. That's what happens when you have problems picking against your school and have them going all the way. That's also what happens when UNLV does good and Winthrop does poorly. Oh well.)

Remember how I was super excited to get home and get some quality runs in in the nice weather. Well mother natured crapped on that plan. We got somewhere around 6ish inches of snow on Friday (driving home in it was NOT fun). The weather definitely put a damper on my original running plans.

BUT.....my parents bought snow shoes for Christmas. So my mom and I headed over to the park to test them out. And it was actually pretty fun and a pretty good workout. We would have stayed out longer but I got stuck using my dad's snow shoes which were way to heavy for me and I was getting some blisters from the boots. But other than that it was really fun and it got me outside in the cold and the snow.

On Sunday, I hit up the pool. I haven't been swimming in ages, but my super heathly mom wakes up at like 4:30 in the morning to go swimming before work and then tries to go on the weekends too. Since there was snow all over the place and no chance for running, I figured swimming would be good cross training. We probably swam for about 45 mintues. I did four 100's with 10 seconds of rest in between as a warm up. Then did 8 50's with 5 seconds of rest in between. After that I did a 50 kick and a 50 breaststroke. Then I did some 25 meter sprints (maybe four?) and then ended with another set of 8 50's with 5 seconds of rest in between. I'm not really sure what that amounts to on a level of workout challenge scale. I just remember having to do sets of things like that during swim team practices back in the day so I tried to mimic something remotely challenging.

Today I got out for a decent run. My legs were feeling pretty fatigued so I only went for about 30 minutes or so. I was really annoyed though because people still hadn't shoveled their sidewalks. Hellllllo people it snowed Friday. You had all weekend to do it. Trying to find solid footing on really icey patches of snow was so not cool. But it was only in spots, other spots were really clear and I had no trouble finding footing. It doesn't look like this snow is going to disappear anytime while I'm still home for break so I guess I just have to get used to it. As long as the temps stay above freezing I should be able to get two or three more runs in before I head back to school.

It's so nice being home and not having to worry about school or work for a whole week. It's such a relief. I plan to do a lot more sitting around and relaxing and reading a book or two while I still have the chance.

Check out my Terps with their win over Davidson. And check out Duke getting knocked out in the first round. I LOVE VCU!!!! (just like to point out that I so had VCU over Duke in my bracket...poor Coach K, probably crying himself to sleep after such a poor showing hahah!!!)

Day one is almost over and my bracket's still in pretty good shape. (Knock on wood). We'll see what tomorrow brings though.

I head back to PA for spring break tomorrow. Just going home to relax. Take a break from work and watch ridiculous amounts of basketball. I could have gone home today after class, but I didn't want to be driving and missing basketball, so I'm leaving eraly tomorrow morning so I can make it home before hte afternoon games start tomorrow.

In running news, I got in a nice faster paced run on Tuesday and a medium paced run Wed. I was going to try to get out today, but I had a ton to do before heading home for spring break (packing, two papers, watching a video, returning books to the library, etc). Also my legs were exhausted and I was exhausted because I up really late studying for my psychology midterm last night.

Ohhhh in other super exciting life news, I got accepted into ODK (Omicron Delta Kappa) today. It's one of the most presitigous honors societys in the country and you have to fill out this really detailed application and then they only pick a very select number of people. So it's a pretty big deal to get in and I was so stoked. (I'm such a dork lol) Plus we have this really pretty fountain right in the middle of campus that you get your name engraved on if you get accepted. So that will be sweet.

I'm excited to get home and get in some quality runs on teh home turf....although it's supposed to snow tomorrow. Boooo.

Enjoy March Madness everyone!

1. My Terps got a number 4 seed in the tournament!!! WHOOOOO HOOO! (And in general the ACC beasted it up with a grand total of 7 teams...if I counted correctly!)

2. Did a little blog re-design as you can all see. I'm still working out kinks and stuff. My list of runner's blogs got deleted and I tried to put everyone back on it, but I think I missed a few. So please please please let me know if I forgot you. It wasn't on purpose!

3. Went on a really short run today with a friend even though it was a rest day because it was way to gorgeous outside to be sitting inside doing homework all day. We ran an easy 10 minutes out to the lake we have by campus, walked for like 5 minutes around part of the lake, and then ran an easy 10 minutes back. My legs were super tired though and weren't so much digging the run. I guess rest days exist for a reason.

4. Signed up to play in the softball league the place I'm interning at plays in. That should be a riot. I haven't played softball since I was in 6th grade. That was a way long time ago.

Anyway I'm off to go do a happy dance about my Terps. (You think I'm kidding, but really I'm not at all lol) Congrats to everyone else who's teams made the tourney!

Got out for a nice slow "distance" run this morning. I went at distance run pace, for the distance run mileage I was supposed to today, but I just have a really hard time considering 3 miles a distance run. Maybe I ended up going more than that. It was probably actually closer to 3.5, but still.

I felt really good afterwards though. Like I could have kept going for a good while longer. It was pretty nice outside too. Sunny, but not blindingly bright and with a slight breeze. I had gotten slightly warm in my fleece, probably would have been okay without it.

My running's felt really good as of late. I felt very in control, pace-wise today, which is something I've struggled with. I either start out way too fast or feel like I'm dragging my feet, but today felt like I'd hit a pretty happy medium.

For those Runner's World fans out there, I got to interview Bart Yasso (the editor) on Friday for a story I'm working on about how to introduce speed workouts into your training program safely. He was a really cool guy to talk to and gave me a lot of really good tips to use in the article.

In other news: The Terps choked big time in their ACC-tournament opener against Miami, but they needed a loss before the NCAA tournament. Getting smacked around by the likes of Miami will probably be pretty motivating for them now. Plus I'm sure Gary let me hear it afterwards.

Spring break starts next week. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm not doing anything too exciting. Going home and relaxing mostly. But first I've got to get through two midterms and two papers. Ew.

I'm so excited Daylight Savings Time starts tomorrow. Longer days!!!! Which means more time for me to work runs into my schedule! YESSSS!!!!

Anyway, that's all I've got for now. Don't forget to change your clocks tonight!

Went running again yesterday even though it was a frigid 20 degrees, maybe less with the windchill, I'm not sure. It made me have a newfound respect for all of you who live in places that are way colder than Maryland all year long. I don't think I could take running in the cold all the time.

Although something about yesterday's run was refreshing. Maybe it was the fact that even though it was frigid outside, it was still sunny and I started to get warm once I started moving. Maybe it was just the fact that I had missed running when it was really realllllly cold out and am enjoying being back into it. I don't really know, but needless to say it was a pretty great run. Even though I hadn't been running for a while I seemed to be able to maintain my usual pace for most of the run.

I'm hoping to be able to shave some time off my mileage times so that this time around I race a little bit faster. Unfortunately I know that means hitting the track for some intervals. EWWW-y lol. But I will definitely be putting those off until it gets warmer. Right now I just really need to focus on building my endurance again.

It's soooo good to be back!!!

Can't wait til I get to race in VA! (See previous post for details!)

A million apologies for my lack of updates. My internship keeps me busy even when I'm not there. And then there's this thing called class....and homework.....which sometimes I forget about until the last minute. Man I have seniorities hardcore and I don't graduate until next Decemeber.

But as far as running goes it warmed up slightly this week and I got in two fairly quality runs on Wed. and Thurs.

I got bored at work the other day and started looking into fall races to register and train for. I think I've set my sights on this one. My mom's going to do it too because they allow walkers. (She can't run anymore because of her knees.) We haven't registered yet or anything, but the plan is we're going to in a few weeks and then work out hotel arrangements.

Are any other RBFer's thinking about doing it?

I know it's way early to actually being "in training" but I just feel so much more motivated to lace up the shows when I have a race I'm working towards. So as of now I'm considering myself "in training" (Maybe that means I'll make more time to update this too :o)

Hope everyone has a great week!