Happy St Patricks Day!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

We started our St Pattys Day with a 4 mile run in Fairfield. It was really cool because it finished along the beach right where the half marathon finishes in June! It was really awesome to run up the same finishing stretch that I know I will be running in just a few short months :) 

Tim and I ran the race today with Tim's dad Sky and Tim's friend Keith. It was really windy and super cold, but once I hit 1.75 miles I was sweating and so happy that I didn't have a hat or gloves on!

 Tim and I before the race! 

My big goal for today was to finish under 45 minutes, which I knew was going to be pretty hard. It would mean I would have to keep up an 11 minute pace for four miles. I havent really even come close to that yet:

Yesterday: 11:20 first 2 miles, then 12:35 for the second 2 miles

March 5th: 12:41 pace for 4.5 miles

January 12: 12:13 for 4 miles

So, this meant I had to keep a quick (for me -- not for most runners!) pace without stopping to walk. I figured it was impossible, but I came super close, which I am actually weirdly happy about. I missed it by 12 seconds according to my watch. I'm still waiting for the official results to be up. I didn't stop to walk (I had to slow down at one point, a car ran the stop sign), but I never walked! In fact, I really told myself to turn it up on the last stretch. I was able to drop my pace even lower in the final mile, which made me feel great. It makes me feel like I'm really ready to try some longer distances.

Snapshot of my run today

Distance: 4.0 miles 

Time: 45:12

Pace: 11:20 

Temperature: 35 degrees

Miles on my Kayanos: 35.3 miles

I also have some more exciting news! We had another donation to our TNT page! 

Thank you so much to Sky & Amy Wells, Tim's parents, for your donation!

According to our training schedule, we have the day off from running tomorrow! Woohoo! So we are free until Tuesday, when we have to run 4 miles.

See you later in the week!

Our TNT-filled Day!

We had a day full of Team in Training things! 

Our morning started at 6:15 -- we had our first Team in Training run with our teammates! Tim and I got to New Canaan at 7:30 am for a 4 mile run. We were able to meet our mentor, Jennifer and our coach Cindy for the training runs. We ran as a group, because our coach told us that they don't leave anyone behind! It was pretty cool. 

My running buddy :)

We ran a little over two miles to the New Canaan train station, where our coach Brian had water and Gatorade waiting for us. After a two minute refuel, we ran back through Waveny Park to our cars. Our last tenth of a mile was a HUGE hill! But with the help of my mentor Jen and another teammate Kate, we were able to get up the hill without stopping to walk :)

What an awesome place to run! If any of you reading this are local, definitely check this place out. Beautiful trails.

Image is from http://www.waymarking.com

The Team in Traning (TNT) experience was really cool. While we were running, some of the coaches who weren't running drove in their cars along the way cheering for us and ringing cowbells! It really helped to keep me motivated. It was so cool to have people cheering us on! I loved meeting the people on our team -- lots of whom have never run a half-marathon, either! I am excited to go through this journey with them.

Because today's run was broken up technically into two, and because I remembered a quarter mile into my second run to turn my watch on, the numbers aren't an exact picture of a 4 mile run for me. But close enough I guess. I guess what my run told me today is that with the encouragement of my teammates and coaches, I can keep improving! Here are the basic stats anyway:

Distance: 4.2 miles (split into two runs)

Time: 49:15 

Pace: 11:20 first 2 miles, 12:30 last 2 miles

Temperature: 32 degrees

Miles on my Kayanos: 31.3 miles

Today, Tim and I ordered some small tokens of our appreciation to give to everyone who donates to us. We cant wait for them to arrive and to mail them out to everyone who has supported us thus far! We have been really blessed with a lot of support. I want to take a minute to say thank you to the following people for their contribution, but more importantly, for their encouragement and support! 

Carol Giroux

Michele Perry

Stephanie Riley

Faith Girard

THANK YOU all so much for your help and love.

We also got our training schedule, which I LOVE! It is outlined much better than the previous one I had been using. I will go into more detail in a future post. Tim and I are signed up to run a 4 mile race tomorrow for St Patricks Day. Hope my legs stay attached! :-P

See you tomorrow! 

My Uncle Tom

No runnin the 'hood for me today, lots of wind! I am only slightly sore from doing the 4.5 yesterday, so I am pretty happy about that! We are expecting some snow in the next few days. Hopefully I can cross train tomorrow and then get back out this weekend.


So I figured I'd take the time to remind you of just why I am doing this.


My Uncle Tom was diagnosed with Lymphoma after feeling some pain in his lower back. He thought it was just some muscle pain from work he had been doing around the house and yard. Turns out, it was Lymphoma. He fought the disease off for 20 months before finally losing his battle in August of 2010. Just one short month before I met my husband, Tim. It makes me so sad that Tim never met him!

The great part about it though is that Tim has heard all of the wonderful stories about my Uncle. Like how he made a raw clam opener out of a knife and a block of wood. And how he one time climbed up on the roof at one of our family reunions to retrieve a stray balloon-rocket-thing. How much he loved good food, good wine, and even better music. How much time he spent building a dollhouse that still sits in my aunt's dining room. How much my uncle impacted everyone around him -- volunteering, giving advice, fixing things around the house. The list goes on!

But one thing that I personally will always cherish is learning from my Aunt and Uncles marriage. Here is a picture of their last Christmas together, nine months before my Uncle Tom lost his battle with Lymphoma. They were very much in love for their entire marriage. The kind of relationship we all strive for -- full of compromise, communication, and most importantly I have found in my six short months of marriage, support.

It would really mean a lot to me if you could donate to support a cure. I would love for there to be a day where no one has to lose their loved ones to a blood cancer, like we all lost my Uncle Tom. Every little bit counts -- $5, $10, whatever you can give. I would love for you to donate to either Tim's or my personal donation pages. We have to raise a total of $2,400 in order to race. I would really love to raise even more than that!

So I would love if you could please donate to my TNT FUNDRAISING in memory of my Uncle Tom.

Until a cure,
Erin

Remember I said he climbed up on the roof? ;)

A+ in Possum Anatomy

YESSSS! I did it :)

I just got back from running 4.5 miles! It is the longest distance I have ever run in one shot. I did stop quite a few times, which you can see in the graphic below. The red spots mark the places where I stopped to walk. 

I thought I had a rock in my sock, so I would stop to try and jiggle my foot around to wiggle it loose. I even stopped at one point right before the 4 mile mark to take my shoe off and shake it out, but the damn rock wouldn't come out! So, I gave up and kept running. When I got home, I took my sock off to check out the boulder that had been with me since mile 2 only to find out it was a blister!!!! No wonder it wouldn't come out when I shook my shoe ;)

I just feel the need to mention that if I never see the insides of another dead possum while I'm running, I'd be good. All this road running has definitely made me an expert on the anatomy of possums, squirrels, and birds. I also saw some other things on the road that would turn this blog from G rated to R rated real quick so I will just leave that up to your imagination.... ;)

SNOW in the forecast for the next few days, so I will most likely be cross training the next few days. No, I will definitely be cross training the next few days. 

Here are today's stats:

Distance: 4.50 miles

Time: 57:10 (YOWSA!)

Pace: 12:41 (all that walking sends my pace into a tailspin real quick!)

Temperature: 46 degrees and so wonderfully sunny :)

Miles on my Kayanos: 27.1 miles

Next run: 3.1 miles. I think I'll do a 5K and work more on my speed. Hoping for 5 miles by the end of next week! Woohoo!

Now, I am off to reward myself:

Tagalongs and Teen Mom 2... YESSS!

Something New....

What a busy weekend! I am totally pooped!

I know I said I would do a 3 miler today, but I did one better. I cross-trained instead and tried something totally new! I decided to try Pure Barre. Team in Training offered a free class down in Greenwich for any TNT participants. The best way I can describe it is mostly pilates with a little ballet and a touch of yoga. It was a hard workout! Its basically an hour of toning. There's no cardio or anything like that. Just small movements that absolutely KILL followed by some stretching :) They focused on arms, thighs, butt, and abs.  I would love to do it again! I am just weighing if it is worth another 45 minute drive......

Here is a video on Pure Barre if you want to learn about it!

It was so great to meet some of the other girls doing TNT. Two of them are running a half marathon in a few weeks. They did a 12 mile run before going to this class! I cant even imagine how sore they will be tomorrow.

I checked the weather for this week and it looks pretty good! It is supposed to be near 50 degrees here this week, so I am excited to get out and run. This week, Im going to try to do 4.5 miles, which I have never done before. By the end of next week, I want to be to 5 miles. Im almost back on track with my training, despite being sidelined for a few weeks after we got 3 feet of snow!


And now, even though its only 7:30, I'm off to do a little of this.