And Three Months Later........

Wow!!!  Where does time go?

Every week I sit down and plan to get back on here, and then by the time I get through with work, working out, and a few other things I crash when I sit down.  That whole not planning ahead thing really comes back to bite me in the backside on things like this.

So - as a new month approaches, I'm hoping a new plan and process can keep me on track with my blog.

A decent amount has happened in the past three months.........vacation, a birthday, lots of races, and marathon training just to name a few.

Our family vacation to Perdido Key, FL was great.  My grandmother treats us all to a week away every summer.  It's a time that she enjoys to have her two daughters and their families all together.  There were 8 of us that spent the week there.  There are now 4 generations that come from Memphis, Itta Bena, MS, Jackson, MS, and Dothan, AL.

I've also experience another birthday.  I'm officially in my mid-thirties now.  I can proudly say that this year on my birthday I was 10 lbs lighter than last year and in much better shape over all.  So my birthday gift to myself was definitely my health.

And speaking of losing weight and health.  I'm still working on that but with marathon training in full swing the focus is more on listening to my body than trying to lose weight as my top priority.   At this point the weight has stalled in the 138-140 lbs range BUT my body fat % has continued to drop.  I'm still taking that as a BIG win.

Training has been going GREAT.  I'm on track to be able to take 45 minutes to an hour off of my time of 5:50 last year.

I've had several races over the last few months that have given me a real confidence boost with my running.  I'm still not the fastest one out there (or anywhere close to it), but I have PR'd every distance that I've run since July!!!

I signed up for the Road Race Series this year through MRTC and have run at least one of each distance so far (the series consists of 10 races, 2 of each distance - 5K, 5 Mile, 10K, 10 Mile, and 1/2 Marathon).  Only the 2 Half Marathons remain and I've got to figure out a way to work at least one of them into my marathon training as they fall on the weekends of my 20 and 22 mile training runs.

I also ran the Cooper Young 4 Miler.  It was a blast as usual!!

I did something completely new for me as well.  I finished my first Triathlon - the Annie Oakley Super Sprint.  It consisted of a 400m swim, 11 Mile bike, and a 2 mile trail run.  I finished it in 1:29:12 (18/28 in my age group and 95/129 overall).

My running buddies Anna, Heather, Rachel and I before the start of the Annie Oakley Tri.

Here are my running races and results since we last talked.......

Road Race Series 2nd 5K

30:56 (9:57 pace) New PR***

82/129 Age Group

389/715 Female

824/1268 Overall

Previous PR for this distance was 34:15.

Road Race Series 1st 5Miler

54:35 (10:55 pace)  New PR***

70/117 Age Group

345/646 Female

732/1168 Overall

Previous PR was for this distance was 1:00:25

Road Race Series 1st 10K

1:07:04 (10:47 pace)

59/101 Age Group

333/616 Female

714/1109 Overall

Previous PR for this distance was 1:09:39

Cooper Young 4 Miler

39:34 (9:53 Pace) New PR***

100/291 Age Group

418/1324 Female

1021/2263 Overall

Previous PR for this distance was 44:35

Celebrating with Anna (on the right) after great runs at Cooper Young 4 Miler

Road Race Series 2nd 10K

1:03:06 (10:09 Pace) New PR***

57/113 Age Group

293/601 Female

636/1074 Overall

This was a PR of 4minutes over the same course 2 weeks earlier!!!

Road Race Series 2nd 10 Miler (AKA The Beast)

1:50:26 (11:03 Pace) New PR***

51/83 Age Group

548/854 Overall

Previous PR for this distance was 2:02:19

Lots of hard work has gone into this.  I still have plenty of room to improve - but I'm thrilled with the year that I've been having and hope it continues on through the races I have planned.  

~Kathryn