Its official, in less than 4 months, I’ll be running my second marathon. I’ve registered for the Rock ‘n’ Roll USA marathon which will be held in DC on March 14, 2015. I’m toying around with a few different marathon training plans for this race, but I think the biggest thing I want to change is to focus on adding another 20+ miler into the training plan. For my first, I did a 20 miler and a 23 miler before the race, but I’d like to add another one in there too. Since I’ve been doing halfs all year and I’ve increased my mileage in the relay race I did in September, I think it would be beneficial to focus on the (even) longer distances. I also need to add in core work as part of my training plan so that I can keep myself on track with those exercises instead of just saying “I should do more of that.”

After looking at the Cool Running marathon training plan as well as a few others, I decided that I would go back to the Galloway training program but make sure to add another 20+ miler this time around. This also allows me to run fewer times during the week but still get my long runs in on the weekend. I really do think that the training plan I had for my first marathon was good for me, I just had a bad day. I’m also planning to keep my soccer playing to a reduced schedule this time around, so I can add in some additional days of just running in the middle of the week as well as the aforementioned core workouts!

Just like last time, I’ve put together a marathon training plan for this one and as I finalize more of my 2015 racing calendar, I’ll update that as well. I’m hoping that I can add a race or two into the weekends where I have my long runs planned so that I can do like I did last time and just add a couple of miles before the race starts. A couple of races that I’m looking at are:

• January 24 – Rain Run, Seattle or January 25 – Rock ‘n’ Roll New Orleans
• February 14 – Savannah Love Chocolate Half Marathon or February 22 – GRU Augusta Half Marathon

Top (right-to-left): Ragnar Relay team campsite, Bruceton Mills, WV;  Flight 93 Memorial, Stoystown, PA
Middle (right-to-left): Quincy Market, Boston, MA; Portland Lighthouse, Portland, ME; Potomac River, National Harbor, MD
Bottom (right-to-left): BB&T Center, Sunrise, FL; Old Town Alexandria, VA

A full moon on Friday the 13th? Sounds like a great day to run in the middle of the woods!

My Facebook wall was blowing up the past few days with this challenge and I’ve decided to join in. The last time I tried a “do something everyday” challenge, I failed miserably. I have a lot coming up in June with work events and races almost every weekend, but core exercises are one area where I know I need to get better and there will always be an excuse available, so why not now? 

Each week, I’ll do an update on how successful I’ve been at keeping up with all of the exercises. Who’s going to join me?

So it’s been over 2 weeks since I’ve posted anything and I’ve been trying to figure out why it’s been so hard to get started writing again and I’m just going to blame it on the post-marathon blues… and the fact that it’s been beautiful outside so any chance I get, I’ve been working in my yard. I actually ran a 10k race on May 17 (recap coming soon), but other than that, I haven’t done any running outside of soccer. I always feel really good once I get up and actually start running, but I definitely haven’t been motivated to get out and do any solo runs lately. I’m finally getting back on track with my running with a 10 miler planned with a friend today, and I’ve got some pretty substantial races coming up in the next two months, so I’ve tried to come up with a plan to ensure I’ll be ready for them:

• May 31: 10 mile run
• June 7: 5k race
• June 13-14: Ragnar Relay trail race (14.8 miles over 3 legs)
• June 21: 5-7 mile run
• June 28: ROC race – fun obstacle race (targeting 5-7 mile run this weekend)
• July 5: 11-12 mile run
• July 10: The Bear (5 miles, 1541′ of elevation gain)
• July 19: The Scream half marathon (2445′ of elevation loss)

Check out Instagram for more #rockthetutu photos. 

Well, I definitely won’t be winning $1 billion for my NCAA bracket and that’s only partially because I didn’t get one submitted on time. When I fill out a bracket, I use the same one for every contest I enter, so the one I filled out for work is the same as the one I did on espn.com and would have been the same for the Quicken Loan challenge. I, like most of the rest of the country, had Ohio State winning the first game. In fact, after the first game, over 80% of those who entered the contest were eliminated – 80%! After Duke got upset in today’s game, there’s only 16 people left in the contest with a perfect bracket. No one in my work bracket (of 18 people) picked Duke to lose. I was only one of 4 people who picked someone other than Duke to make it to the Elite 8, half of the group picked Duke to make it to the Final Four and 3 people had them winning it all.

One benefit I have being an outsider to NC basketball is that I have no allegiance to UNC or Duke and I’m very aware of the limitations of my college team, Pitt. If anything, I’m more conservative than most of my coworkers when it comes to Pitt and the tournament. When they made it to the Elite 8 in 2009, I had them out after Sweet 16 – one of my coworkers had them winning it all! Being a Pitt fan and watching them dominate regular season play only to choke in the Sweet 16 (or earlier) throughout my time there gave me an appreciation for the fact that the regular season record goes out the window as soon as the tournament starts. I had a lot of coworkers chiding me for my bracket in 2009, but when the last (and only other) time Pitt made it to the Elite 8 was in 1974, I certainly had my reasons for the picks that I made. 

Having watched NC basketball for several years, I was very interested to see how Pitt would do in their inaugural season in the ACC. The ACC game is very different than the old Big East. As a complete basketball novice (honestly, I only watch the playoffs and NCAA tournament), the ACC seemed so much faster and more skilled. The Big East was built on teams that played a rough and tumble type game. I mean, Pitt once had a player who poked an opponent in the eye causing the player’s eye to pop out of its socket. Those teams played basketball like it was football – the more contact in a game, the better! So, I was expecting Pitt to have some major challenges as they changed conferences this year and adjusted to a new style of play. Pitt played a good game against UNC in the ACC tournament and surprised a lot of people by winning that game, especially given how the last 10 minutes played out. At one point, the announcers said: “One of the biggest comebacks in ACC tournament history. It was 61-41 Pitt with 7:22 to play in the ball game. I know the Pitt fans, they can’t believe that this is where it is…” (Pitt only up by 6 with 1:03 left). I posted to my Facebook wall that clearly these announcers don’t know Pitt fans – I wasn’t surprised by that and judging from the comments on my wall, neither were those I went to school with. It’s not that we don’t want our team to win, we will root for them all day every day, but we’ve also built a defensive shield not to get our hopes up if things start to look too good. If it looks to good to be true, it probably is and the only thing that matters is what’s on the board when the buzzer sounds.

Tomorrow, Pitt takes on Florida and while I’ve picked Florida to win the game in my bracket, I will be watching and rooting and yelling at my TV the entire game for Pitt to win. I hope I’m wrong about my pick and my bracket will crumble, but I’ll take a Pitt win over a perfect bracket any day. Hail to Pitt!

Even though I’ve been focusing on my soccer responsibilities over the past two weeks, it hasn’t stopped me from looking at other races I can do this year and today was a deadline of sorts for me – I had to make a decision about whether or not I was going to commit to a few different races.

Women’s Health published the 25 signs you’re crazy about running a few months ago, but it popped up on my Facebook feed today, and some of them definitely resonated with me!

Do any of these (or the others in the article) hit home for you?