day 279

it's so much easier (well, not sure easier is the right word) having a training buddy.

my roommate and i have been following our training schedule pretty religiously this past month. we started slow, like i said we would, to prevent injury and burnout. over the past three weeks the five minute runs have grown to 2 mile runs. we completed our first official 2 mile run yesterday morning. and while it wasn't my best work ever, (J did do some yelling and i did have some shin pain) we finished in about 20 minutes (those of you who care, that's about 10 minute miles which i'm pretty stoked about!). we usually run or cross-train as soon as i get home from work. which works out well, because i won't last much longer and she's been cooped up studying all day long so getting some fresh air and exercise is good!

i'm still trying to figure out why this run was so much more difficult than those in the past. and i think i might be able to contribute it to the first morning run of this training with six hours of sleep and no breakfast. i really need to remember that in the future. no sleep + no food = bad run :) but anywhoodle, i stretched and iced my one leg - ironically, not the leg i injured before. i believe that when we ran our 1.5 miles last week on the treadmill, that i may have irritated the heck out of my shins so i won't be doing that again, plus running on the treadmill is soooo boring! you run and you run and you run and where do you get - nowhere. i'm going to try and convince j to take a different path this week for our mid week runs so i can people watch (it's actually quite clever, people think that you are only concentrating on how you are possibly gonna keep putting one foot in front of the other and, in reality, you are thinking that they look pretty silly trying to run with their miniature chihuahua chasing after them) love it!

i'm heading to colorado this weekend!!! yay!!! and we shall see how i do going solo in the mountains for the second 2 miler on sunday - eek! the weather channel says high of 50s low of 30s and scattered showers - lungs, get ready to burn baby! (be prepared for an interesting post to come) but it's almost over and the 5K will be done (of course, we still have the marathon on the horizon, but let's not think about that now). on may 29, you will find me and j running around and in minute maid stadium for a good cause - the astro's race for the pennant 5K, supporting the astro's in action foundation http://houston.astros.mlb.com/hou/community/race.jsp

overall, it was a wonderful week! did some good running, some good cross-training, edge, saw the parents, sort of met george and barbara bush, hung out with the bayou group, celebrated my friends birthday, soaked up the sun and saw my sissy!! not too shabby for me :)

with God all things are possible

and... drum roll please..... i get to see this monkey in 20 days!!! yipee!!

day 299

life, it's a crazy ride - i suggest you enjoy it to the fullest...

Happy Easter to you all! how have your past 40 days been? mine have been epic!

the month of march was crazy full of fun, stress, new friends, old friends, hello's and goodbye's. rodeo houston was this month which is always fun! we went to the chili cookoff - yum! and ended up seeing rascal flatts, brad paisley and lady antebellum! although the bull riding, calf roping and bronc busting are the highlights of the rodeo i have to say that the calf scramble and mutton bustin are my favorite events - too stinking funny! if you don't know what mutton bustin is, it's little kids riding sheep across the arena floor till they fall off, they usually make it all of 6 feet :) don't worry parents, they are bundled up and fall all of one foot from off the ground, maybe two.

bayou awakening was also this month. i was blessed to be cookstaff head (although, now i'm not so sure how much of a 'blessing' it really was - more like a stinking lot of work!) where i was responsible for feeding 130 people 6 meals and two snacks over a three day period. it was a HUGE success!! i'm pretty sure i heard somebody say legendary (the good kind)! we served fresh bread, lasagna, burgers, chicken parmesan, chocolate chip cookies, dump cake with ice cream and cupcakes just to name a few. i'm so thankful for my wonderful staff! it would have been an epic fail without them. flour fights, chubby bunny contests (which i lost) and plenty of laughter made the weekend the wonderful experience that it was! of course, after months of preparation i've been at a loss as to what to do with all this free time i've stumbled upon.

one way i filled the time was by celebrating turning 24 years old - whoa! how'd that happen??!?! anywhoodle, i had two cakes, saw a midnight movie and went to the zoo! couldn't have asked for more. great friends, family and good times make it a super win in my book! and then i dove head first into staffing a junior high church retreat that weekend. it was fun :)

you will also be glad to know that all that free time (which actually isn't as much as i first thought) is continuing to be put to good use. drum roll please, training is back on!! i'm starting off slow this go around and making little goals to achieve along the way. so, as of right now i'm training for a 5K race at the end of may. then a 10K at the end of july, a half after that (naturally) and then the full in january 2011. and you will be happy to know that i'm not going it alone this time! my friends jessica, becca and amanda are going to be joining me in this quest for success! (note: it's in writing now my friends - no turning back, hehehe) so what was the agenda for today - running for 5 minutes, outrageous i know! just kidding, it actually seems kinda lame after have run 17 miles but i'm determined to do it right and to prevent injury so wish me luck as i add on minute by minute and mile by mile. and you will be thrilled to know that i can run for 5 minutes! i did it tonight and ended by going up a hill and then a cardio workout after that. i'm going to hurt tomorrow with all this conditioning (side note: there has been more conditioning than what i wrote here, fyi).

with God all things are possible

day 349

hello all!

it's been a good month off for rest and recovery. i am pleased to say that the time did what it was supposed to do and the knee is feeling much better! i haven't run on it since (unless you count the time that i ran from the parking lot to the theater ticket window to see when in rome with a friend - i was late - shocking, i know) but there really isn't any pain when i walk up or down stairs and walking in general no longer makes me want to stop and cry. so that means healed in my book! as of right now that is.

this past week i fought a losing battle with some sort of stomach bug (food poisening, flu, virus i don't know which) but it knocked me off my keester for two days of work and i still have trouble eating a full meal. thankfully, my nursing student roommate found it all very interesting and took care of me whilst i recovered on the couch under a mountain of blankets with a plethera of movies. anywho - i discovered that i lost more than seven pounds between tuesday night and thursday morning (probably not a good thing) and not a way to lose a few pounds that i would recommend to anybody, not even an enemy. but, it came at the perfect time as my co-worker and i are turning over a new leaf to eat healthier and spend less. if you have ever visited the downtown houston tunnels you know that you can find just about anything and everything that you are craving. of course, it comes with a price and, of course, if it's what i'm craving there isn't going to be any left overs.  so all in all, it was a good jump start to a new, healthy way of living.

drum roll please...
training starts next week! conditioning first and the running will come a bit later. however, in the mean time, i'm thinking of getting some of those barefoot running toe shoes. it might solve all my joint problems if i run barefoot - what do you think? they're actually quite interesting, take a look http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/products_footwear.cfm?CFID=6503165&CFTOKEN=93196439. 

let's recap:

• don't eat yellow snow....err.....i mean.....let your body heal
• putting your name on your race shirt makes all the difference in the world
• a marathon is the worst parade ever....according to some guy i ran by
• the show FRIENDS is very good medicine
• when you think you can't possibly throw up any more, just wait - you can
• my niece is the most beautiful, precious little girl EVER!

i shall let you know how the conditioning/training goes! till then


with God all things are possible

100 days yet to come

well, the hundred days are over. let's see what we've learned and what we've experienced.

1. i am soooo not a morning person
2. i might be a morning person if i could get myself to bed at a reasonable hour
3. no matter how cute the shoes are - the three inch heel is not a good idea, especially in vegas, baby!!
4. family are the best people to jump out and surprise you whilst running
5. mental strength is all the matters in the end
6. crying lets the boo hoos out :)
7. friends are the best to make you feel better....and chocolate!

so how'd the marathon go?  not so good :(

the weekend started off great! i went to the expo with my roommate and picked up my tag and bib - very exciting. then we went to lunch where i'm happy to say that i had no qualms about carb loading. got ready that evening, ate some pasta and went to bed at a reasonable time (for once). i did however, wake up at around 4am from a nightmare where i had overslept and missed the first two hours of the marathon and my roommate was watering the plants - weird. thankfully i did not oversleep. i got myself to the start line and stretched and waited with the 30,000 other participants. people are so nice before they begin a 26.2 mile jaunt.

and then we were off! and everything was great - it was a beautiful day and i was glad to be running. passed by the parents cheering me on and still felt great! then at mile 3 - yes that's right 3 - everything went to pieces. i started to feel some pain in my left knee. i thought - well, it kinda hurts but i can do this, just push through.

i kept running - walking just a bit until i realized the pain kept getting worse everytime i walked so i basically stopped walking. this of course meant that i ran much slower but i didn't realize how much until the half marathoners broke off and i was running pretty much on my own. so i'm running, staying positive, my knee is on fire, but i'm still moving forward which is a good sign right?! well anyway, i was going strong until this perfectly nice police officer told me i needed to run on the sidewalk until the next turn off because they would be opening main street to traffic soon. can you say crushed - i can - crushed. after that the emotional strength was holding on only by a straw. so a couple miles later, once the pain in my knee was causing so much pain that i could barely move, there wasn't much left to keep me going. thankfully, another nicer policeman had the good thought to ask if the runner who was crying and limping was okay. i calmly asked him where the next aid station was and when he said a couple miles i sat myself down on the curb while he called for a pick up and i cried my eyes out that i couldn't finish my run. at this point i also realized i was covered in a very thin layer of dirt - gross.

through some weird act of whatever i ended up sitting outside of shopping center waiting for my parents to pick me up - i know weird. but the nice jason's deli guy gave me a cold lemonade while i waited - that was nice. i got flowers, a bag of ice and the satisfaction of knowing that i had run 10 miles on an injured knee plus three more on a knee just waiting to act up.

the moral of the story, i'm supposed to be proud of how far i got - i'm getting there. right now, i'm still feeling the disappointment. this has however, proven to motivate me even more for next year. training starts in a couple weeks - ya know, once i recover from this one. and i have friends that are gonna go through it with me this time. registration for the 2011 houston marathon is july 27 - i'll be ready and waiting!!

i have 375 days to get ready for it - here i come!!

thanks mom and dad for the flowers! they are beautiful!

with God all things are possible

only two weeks left

so...i know that it's been awhile since i updated - my bad.

i left off with getting ready for a trip to vegas with my two best girls and that, my friends, is the beginning of the end. we had a blast where i made out with $950 extra in my pocket...oops sorry i meant $9.50 extra from my small brush with gambling :) darn those decimals. but did you know that the bellagio (yes! that's where we stayed) charges you money to use the fitness room?!?! crazy right - well, needless to say - i did not run while in vegas. however, wearing non practical shoes helped me get in some good foot conditioning - it's necessary to have tough feet to run 26.2 miles - right?

after vegas life calmed down - in my dreams that is. off to arkansas for thanksgiving with the fam! which was really fun. not at all what i expected - did you know that arkansas is really beautiful? and that the shopping is killer - it was news to me too! i drove up to dallas to meet my sister after work and then the next day we drove to arkasas - a good seven hours - it was fun too! unfortunately, i ended the week with a blow out on I-45 - bad news bears. it was a pretty terrifying hour of my life. even the guy who so nicely towed me away said he got out of his truck saying his last prayers - that's always a good thing to hear after the fact.

umm... let me think - what happened next? oh right - my brakes went out - great. went to the fix it place after work where the dude told me my brakes needed to replaced - but they close in 30 minutes so i will need to come back tomorrow. two death defying car rides later i had new brakes and now my car only shakes and pulls to the left (on account of the new tire i had to get). one more trip to the fix it place to fix the shaking and pulling left me with an $800 option or a less extensive $350 option, neither of which will fix the shaking or the pulling. so i asked if it was safe to drive as is and was told - sure - so i'm driving my shaky, pully car and gonna go car shopping soon - yay?!

christmas came and went in a whirl wind of crazy family adventure - super duper fun!!!! the whole fam came down and stayed in the same house - nine adults and one baby - can we say crazy again! annabel is even cuter and more the love of my life than before - if that's even possible. we had some good conversations and she managed to throw up on me a sufficient number of times - however, much to my suprise - the whole time i didn't have to change one diaper - not really sure how that happened. pretty sure the parents weren't too thrilled with that - oh well ;)

over the christmas weekend - i ran...can i get a drum roll please... 17.5 miles!!! yes you read that right - 17.5! can i get a what what!! i left the house the saturday after christmas and proceeded to carry myself 17.5 miles down the road! i was met at mile 9 by my wonderful brother, sister and brother-in-law who were my cheering section! it was pretty sweet to see them pop out to cheer me on - i did, however, proceed to run the entire rest of the way, in case they popped out again and catch me walking - oops. it was certaintly some good motivation.

10 miles this weekend finishes out my update.

extremely sore - check

painfully stiff - check

bottle of aspirin close by - check

the satisfaction in knowing i really can run this marathon - yeah, that's worth it!

love to you all - colleen

with God all things are possible.

day 68

epic fail...

being the crazy person that i am i spent this past weekend on a high school youth retreat. which was great, however, yes you guessed - no running. boo. i could try and defend myself by saying something like "keeping up with high school boys during team challenges can be just as difficult as running" or "my arms hurt like heck from everything we did when i got home," but don't you worry - i won't ;)

i thought later, that i should have taken my running gear and just gone before they all got up, but seeing as how i only got seven hours of sleep the entire weekend it would have probably have been bad news bears.

it was an interesting weekend all in all and looking back i would do almost all of it again! i am, however, just waiting for the weekend to come where i only have to run and chillax for the entire thing!!!! when will that be...?

in other news, i'm going to las vegas this weekend! with the best sisters in the entire world! and we plan on having way too much fun! now doesn't that sound good!?! and in preparation of said trip - i'm going shopping!! how sweet it is :)

gonna refocus this week after the time off and get back on track!

with God all things are possible

picture scavenger hunt required a charlie's angels pose!

we're gonna have so much fun! (minus andrew, he's having his own fun)

day 75

hello all!

sunday was the first day of daylight savings, so i hope you all have reset your clocks by now! what this means to me in my little world is not necessarily the one hour gain on sunday, but rather the hour at which it now becomes dark in the evenings. that's right, you guessed it - i must run in the mornings now. as i have previously stated, i won't run without the sun, it's just no fun. so this morning, being a tuesday, and being a day that i'm supposed to run, i woke up at 6am and hit the trail shortly thereafter - yes, i did do what i meant to have done! so before work today i ran 4.5 miles! i will have to figure out what to eat before these morning runs though, because you can't get far on an empty tank, as i now know. and that, my friends, is what's been going on.

oh, and a bonus - i wore my mary queen church t-shirt and a lady (as she was passing me) said she liked my shirt! very cool that, even while running, you can be a witness :)



with God all things are possible