It was the best of times...

Alas, as I usually do, I have neglected this blog.  Why, may you ask?  Because that's what I do.  I have no idea why, but I do.  Maybe it's because I take on too many tasks and like to think of myself as an overachiever?  Maybe I just forget to highlight my runs as I feel when I'm running...or maybe I'm just being lazy.  Whatever it is that makes me this way, I apologize to you, my dutiful reader, and would like to present to you my picture collage of my FIRST EVER HALF MARATHON!!!

As silly as it sounds, running my first half marathon was a lot easier than I thought.  Yes, I said it!!  Being that my first half marathon was the Austin Half Marathon (home of the awesome hills), I made that course my b*tch.  In all seriousness, it wasn't until the last mile that I started to struggle.  From what you can see above, I shaved a good couple of minutes off my 10 mile time, but finishing at 2:49:52 was just amazing and I finished at 10:00 a.m. on the dot.  Unbelievable.  

So I say to anyone that wants to run their first half marathon.  If you can run a couple of 10 mile loops before the race, you are good to go.  I did short miles during the weekday and 10 miles on Saturdays.  With the time change and working so far from where the 10 mile loops is located, I could only do it on Saturdays.  Also, run at the time the actual race would start.  I LOVE running in the mornings, so it was good for me.  The weather was a bit muggy and damn, but very enjoyable.  Ahhhh, to run the Austin Half-Marathon again.

Onto the next...

Longer, Stronger

So this past Saturday I woke up for my usual morning run with my friend Tami.  We both planned on doing the 6 mile loop, so I was a little excited but more tired than anything.  I wake up at about 5:45 a.m. to try and get to her house by 6:30 a.m. and I promised her that I would try my hardest to get up and go.  Little did I know how cold it was going to be and I still needed to take my dogs outside to go potty (apartment living).  Anyway, I got to her house at a respectable time and started my run at 6:45 a.m.  As you can see my splits below, I was really impressed I kept my pace at a good tempo with mile 3, 4 and 5.  I even sped it up at mile 5, which was pretty impressive considering I felt like I was not going that pace whatsoever.  I literally lagged the last 2 1/2 miles and I stopped quite a few times, so when I saw this, I was really happy.

Now is where I write to you about my slight anxiety about this half marathon, but after this weekend, I feel that I am slowly getting better and building endurance.  I take two days out of the week to run 2 1/2 to 3 miles and stay at a constant motion, which is something I rarely do.  Last Thursday I was really excited to see that I had a constant motion when I ran 3.19 miles.  That was probably the first time ever that I ran straight without stopping and a lot of factors have been playing a big part in my routine.  I stopped running with music, I've basically feel each run and focus on listening to my body and I carry a hand held water bottle.  Since I'm not much of a water drinker, I just fill it half way, but surprising it feels like I'm not even holding anything.  Those are two major changes that have improved my run.  Regardless, I am taking it one day at a time and I'm not going to start freaking out until the beginning of February.  As of today, I'm stickin' to the plan.

:)

Entering a Groove

This week was a bit more productive than previous weeks.  Maybe it's because I'm mentally psyching myself up to this half marathon in 162 days, but whatever it is, I happy to be finally getting back into a groove.  The last 10-ish months I've been off and on with running, more off than on.  I think a lot of it had to do with my personal life changes and adjusting.  Now I feel like I am at peace with everything in my life and now it's time to get back into what I loved to do, RUN!  As you know I was never a runner growing up.  I had really bad asthma as a kid and I couldn't even run down the block so I basically just never attempted to run.  Now, within the last year I've became more focused with the idea of getting myself to run.  A lot of it had to do with being in Austin and admiring the activeness of the city.  Plus I love to eat and hate doing certain workouts, so running is what I decided on.  To make a long story short and after a mud run, 5 mile race and 10k, I registered for my first half marathon.  So with that being said, I feel like September has been a great time to start mentally preparing myself and trying to be as active as possible.  This week was the first week in a long time that I ran 7 miles.  I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but with my schedule, I am happy that I got to do even that.  I really thank my friend Tami for being with me on Saturday mornings at 6:30 a.m. and being such a positive partner.  I must, however, break her from apologizing to me for her pace.  Pace, right now, does not bother me.  I love getting up early, having chats while running and focusing on distance.  So even if I do 2-3 miles during the week at my regular pace, I can always have my Saturdays with Tami.  I enjoy them.  Plus, I can always run on Sundays, which I plan on doing tomorrow.  For now, I will leave you with this awesome picture from one of my Saturday morning runs:

How beautiful is that sunrise view.  I could look at it all day!

Satisfying in September

Since I live in Cedar Park now and not Austin, is it appropriate to keep my blog name Rachel Runs Austin?  I THINK SO!!  Plus, Cedar Park is just A LITTLE BIT outside of Austin, North West.

The ninth month of the year is upon us and I believe now that I'm settled and set, it's time to make new goals for this upcoming Austin Half-Marathon in February 2014.  I mean there are only 167 days to go, who's nervous?  I AM!!  The past few months have been so slack when it comes to my running and training for this epic run.  A lot of you might not think it's epic, but this is my first Half-Marathon, so I'm just a wee bit nervous.  I did, however, end up getting new running shoes and a running watch to track my progress:

I absolutely LOVE them too.  Brooks feel so great on my feet and when I run, it's literally like I'm running on clouds.  Who would've thought that?  I did enjoy my Nike Run Free 3.0 shoes, but to start being serious and committed, I needed something with more support and that will work well with my stride, step and impact.  This was possibly the best birthday gift I received and the Garmin watch (which happens to be my in my favorite color) is so nice.  I don't even miss caring my phone anymore.  When I do run, since I run with my camel pak, I just put my phone and my keys in there.  It's nice not to have anything stapped onto my arm.  This purchase was sponsored by Rogue Running in Cedar Park, which is an amazing store with wonderful employees.

To tell you about my progress of sorts, I registered  for two races in September.  One is the 80's 8k (5 mile run) that is happening September 15th and the other race is the Rogue Rescue Run which is a 5k (3.1 mile run).  Then there is the Turkey Trot in November (5 mile run) and I believe those should somewhat push me into the right direction because right now I'm only doing 2 miles a run.  If, by the end of this month, I can get to running 5 miles, possibly 6, I will be so happy.  I can definitely get to 13+ miles by January, but I want to pace myself in a good way that I don't get burned out or injured, which reminds me that I have to read up on my Chi Running book to get some of the exercises out of there.  Another thing that I'm doing to help me prepare is yoga (on my Wii Fit) and maybe two days a week I will go to the little gym in our apartment complex and indulge on the elliptical.  I'm trying to do as much outside running as I can because come November the time will change and it will get darker at 5/5:30 p.m.  which will mess up my schedule big time because of my work schedule.

So for now, I leave you with this:

This is my half-marathon map.  I will mentally prepare myself for this.

My time

So it's been a month and a week (I'm not sure if I'm exact) since I last updated in here.  My life and time has been a bit chaotic with an issue, a search which ended up turning into a move and a BIG CHANGE in my life.  For the better, I think so.  Well I BELIEVE it will be the beginning of the rest of my life (turning 33 in 12 more days).  Not only is moving such a stressful event, but it basically changed my every day routine.  I now live in the City of Cedar Park, which is a suburb outside of Austin,Texas.  To be exact, it is North West of Austin and it's on the cusp of the Travis/Williamson County line.  I'm not sure how many of you (my lovely regular readers) have an idea about the traffic to get into Austin, but it is considered the 4th worst in the United States, so when choosing a place to live, I based it on the following:

1. Relying on public transportation (there is a train that goes from Leander (more North West of where I am) to Downtown (where I work).
2. Living somewhere where buying a house would not cost you an arm and a leg (Cedar Park, at times, has houses $30-$40k cheaper than South Austin (the ideal place I'd like to live).
3. There has to be a place I can workout, walk to, ride my bike, etc.

Seeing as two of the three meet my standards, we picked a pretty nice apartment (my boyfriend and I).  It's been, going on two weeks, since we've been there and I can tell you that I do like it.  It is weird not being 10 minutes from work, but rather a 40 minute train ride, but I do enjoy being able to read a good  book.  Luckily our apartment complex has a little gym that I have yet to try out AND also a park (Brushy Creek Lake Park) that I can run at.  So this post is just a big excuse.  They say running releases a lot of stress, but I don't know if being older has something to do with it, but I can't deal with stress like I used to.  So this weekend, possibly starting tomorrow, I am going to try out the gym.  It has a treadmill, weights, MIRRORS (oh la la) and one of those weight stations.  Then, if I'm feeling frisky, I'm going to take little Ells to Brushy Creek Park with me, since he is the only one that would like to be running/walking with me, and check out the trail.  I have about 6 months until the half-marathon and 2 1/2 more months until the time changes.  I really would like to re-work my workout schedule and get back on track.  Maybe for my birthday I will get a cool running watch and/or new running shoes (::cough cough:: Brooks).

Until next time.