Week 1 on the road to BQ (+I have a nacho problem)

I guess it's fitting that my first week of training-to-run-a-BQ meant that it has been nearly 2 weeks since I've blogged.  In reality, I've been busy drinking beer, enjoying Loopville, and enjoying life--every time I sit down to bloop, I realize I should really go to bed!

But, I digress.  We'll get to the fun later.  The backstory of my dream of a BQ begins with the Grand Canyon.  When I was 25, I took a road trip to the Grand Canyon with my mom and sister.  I remember reading a sign about a girl who had not taken enough precaution taking a hike and ended up dying of heat stroke.  It stated that she was Boston Marathon finisher--a nod to the active types that she was in great physical shape.  I hadn't run a marathon at that point, but the story stuck with me.

Flash forward to late 2009 when I ran my first marathon in seconds over 4 hours.  I remember thinking that it was going to be pretty impossible to run 20 minutes (at the time) faster than what I had just accomplished.  I was satisfied with being a marathon finisher and happy just to cross the finish line on my own 2 feet.

I ran my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th between 3:50 to just under 4:00.  At some point, they reduced the 18-34 year old women's time to 3:35 for a BQ.

In March, I ran 3:43:18 on a hilly Atlanta marathon and felt amazing at the finish. 95% because I had smashed my PR and felt absolutely physically wonderful and 5% because I knew that I was only 8 minutes from a BQ.

When the Rehoboth Beach marathon idea started getting tossed around, I didn't even really think about the BQ thing at first.  It seemed still too fast for me and I didn't want to disappoint myself by failing.  But then I realized that I would never know until I tried.  Just like trying my first marathon, I had no idea if I could, but I didn't want to live life sitting around wondering if I had it in me, but never tried.

I still have tremendous self doubt. I will with every training run.  I will with every mile of the race.  But life will go on whether or not I BQ and if I don't, I will likely try again.

I stepped out the door Tuesday with my training plan in place.



This week's schedule:

Tuesday: 5 easy @ 9:22 Actual: 5.2 @ 8:24
Thursday: Tempo 6 (4 @ 7:56) Actual: 8:19, 7:30, 7:16,7:25, 7:23,7:53
Friday: 5 easy @ 9:22 Actual: 5 @ 9:05
Sunday: 10 LSD @ 9: 22 Actual: 10 @8:01

So.....it was a bit fast.  Oops...

In other exciting news, Adam liked the idea of a training plan to walk his 5K and so I put together one last week.  He is walking a 5K on October 6th, while I run a half-marathon.  Last week, we walked 4.9 miles over 4 days and this week, he will start his 'official' training program:




I've agreed to walk with him whenever I can, so I'll be padding my miles with some cross-training walks.  Good for our bodies and great to talk to each other without interruptions (re: healthy for marriage too!)!

What exactly have I been up to the past 12 days when I wasn't blogging?

Well, I've been busy helping my sister getting her wedding festivities underway by planning an engagement party for her:




I'm in charge of the food (duh), so I've been pouring over cookbooks and Pinterest trying to get great gluten-free ideas for the party:




I've been enjoying apples from our (finally) fruitful apple tree in the backyard (with homemade peanut butter to boot!):




And drinking lots of smoothies to compensate for all the beer from the beer challenge:




Which is just silly because I have been eating and drinking like a college kid.

So many nachos:







And burgers........




And beer......


And jalapeno infused tequila because it was on the menu....


But I've mostly been hanging out with my favorite dude, watching the Braves, Big Bang Theory, and doing fun things like ride our friend Jeff's waverunners:




All this fun can be very, very exhausting: