Time to FOCUS!!!!

Ok, as of today I have 25 days until my Marathon.....
25 Days!!!!!
That's not a lot of time, and with my little rib set back and all of my traveling, the nerves are starting to kick in!!! I know that I have already overcome the hardest parts of the training, now I just need to stay on track and keep myself healthy. Las Vegas really knocked me out (I partied like a Seasoned Rock Star when honestly, I would barely qualify for Rock Star Pre-School)! I didn't make it out of the house for my run last night, then totally slept through my alarm this morning. I have my clothes with me and will be heading out for my run right after work.
Here is my question - I have to do a 20 miler this weekend (was going to do it Friday with a teammate, but now she can't get off of work). My Team is meeting Saturday morning at 8am, I have to be at the airport by 11:15 to go to Dallas. Should I -
a) Suck it up and do the 20 miler by myself (if I go by myself I'll "make" my Dad meet up with me at some point so I'm not totally alone). I've never run more than 10 miles by myself.
b) Go to the group run early (like 6am) and get in 2 hours by myself and finish up with the group by 10 am then clean up and head to the airport. Keep in mind the flight is about 4 hours.

Here are the other things I need to a grip on, ASAP!!!!!!
*Weight - I came back from Vegas 5 pounds heavier than I left, I'm down 2, so 3 more to go.
*Nutrition - MUST start eating better. I was doing great, but the past 2-3 weeks have been less than acceptable. Have to bring a better lunch to work and have a better dinner (more veggies, brown rice, chicken, and so on)
*Water - Seriously, I am not drinking NEARLY enough!!!! Starting today the minimum will be 90 ounces.
*Running - Wait, how did this end up at the bottom....MUST STAY ON SCHEDULE!!!!!!


Question: To those of you who have done a marathon before, when you started the race in the morning was it "cold" outside? If you answered "no" you can skip this question, if you answered "yes" then continue.

Did you start out with a long sleeve shirt on? Where did you pin your number? I just ordered this race belt that I can put my number on, plus it has 2 pockets that I can put my gu and stuff in. Any thoughts/experience with these?


I think that's everything, I just don't want the Marathon to get here and feel like I could have trained better at the end.
Feel free to add your thoughts / advice!!!

Viva Las Vegas!

Seriously, I could never make it as one of those "socialite girls" that party every night!!! Let's put it this way, on Friday and Saturday night we were out so late that it made more sense to eat breakfast BEFORE we went to bed! Saturday night we went to Prive and I danced from 11:30pm until nearly 4am, which by the way I decided was equal to running 8 miles! As for running in Vegas, the only running I did was while shopping (as in "running in and out of stores!)!!!
My rib is feeling pretty darn good, major improvement over last week. So now it's time to buckle down and get back on schedule! My plan is to run Monday, Wednesday, and do my 20 mile long run on Friday.
Hope you all had a great weekend!!!

Back on the Run!

Cut to the chase.....I ran 4 miles, and I felt GREAT! My plan was "to do 3-4 and do them on the slower side". I did 4 and I finished in 39:24 (which is not my "slowest side", more on my "normal/feeling good side")!
Rewind to the beginning of today...I started off really early this morning and headed downtown to pick up stuff we needed for our conventions. On my way back I stopped off at my chiropractor (he's known me for YEARS) to run the whole "broken rib" thing by him. He was a little skepitcal of the whole thing, but once he had a chance to poke around the area, he said that definitely seemed to be the case (of course w/out the x-ray it wouls be hard for him to say). His thoughts were that most of my pain at this point was coming from the cartilage between the ribs being totally irritated and slightly torn. Then he did a bone density scan on me, and my bones are nice and dense! Wooo hoo!
Then I was off to work, totally busy all day, especially since I am LEAVING FOR VEGAS in the morning! Finally I got out of work and headed home.....the took a detour to the hair salon. See, I got my hair done on Friday and I didn't "love it". The color was very pretty, but too natural looking and plain (I like lots of chunky color and high lights!), so I stopped in and this new girl was able to squeeze me in (I was sooooooo nervous)!!! She did an AWESOME job, I left with tons of Blonde chunky highlights, totally love it now!
Then I made it home in just enough time to change and get to the trail to get my run in before my nail appointment (seriously, this makes me sound super high maintenance), and now I'm finally home. Oh yeah, I still have to pack, and it's 9:41pm and my flight is leaving at 9:40am....I better get off of here and get to packin!
I'll try to update from Vegas! Hope you all have a great weekend!

I Miss You....

Dear Running-
I just want you to know that I miss you. I hope that you know the reason I haven't "been" with you for almost a week is not by choice. I haven't been off having all sorts of fun with Gym, Bike, Weights or any of the other guys that I knew before you. Without you my evenings feel so empty, my weekend without our usual LONG date felt insignificant, instead of my body aching because of you....it is now aching for you! I knew that you meant a lot to me, I just didn't know how much until now!
So my Dearest Running, I will be back before you know it! Just another day or 2 until we will meet again.
All my heart, sweat, blisters and broken rib-
M*J*C

Seriously, I miss running. To most of you that are reading this you are probably thinking, "of course you do, did you really think that you wouldn't?" Well, sure I knew I would sort of miss it, but I'm missing it on a whole lot of levels, and maybe it was a good thing for me to learn that now, so I can appreciate it more through the rest of my journey to the Marathon.
I am getting a little worried about getting back on track. With the Marathon being only 5 weeks away from this coming Sunday I am getting into the critical point of my plan with the "REALLY Long Runs" (this is another term that I have new respect for)! So, here's what I'm thinking....
I am hoping to run 3-4 miles on Wednesday, then leave for Vegas Thursday. I would like to do 5 miles on Friday, and then maybe another 5 on Sunday (if I didn't party too much on Saturday....). Scratch that, I AM going to party too much on Saturday, come home on Sunday night and then run on Monday. I'll go for 7 Monday, 5 Wednesday and then do my long run on Friday (so I don't have to jump right onto a plane after it on Saturday). My schedule called for a 20 miler this coming Saturday, but I missed the 18 miler this past Sunday. So, I will shoot for 18 miles on Friday.
Any thoughts, suggestions, words of wisdom??? Feel free to share! *keep in mind, I know that all of the above is based on it all "feeling good"...it goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) if there is major pain in the rib area I'll stop and re-evaluate.

What Can I Say???

I have no running report for you today since there was no running for me this weekend. I did however manage to eat lots of salty picnic food on Sunday and wake up weighing 4 pounds more...lovely!
Note To Self: If you don't run 18 miles you can't eat like you ran 18 miles. Got it? Let's not make this mistake again!
On the bright side, I'm leaving for Vegas on Thursday and CAN NOT WAIT!!!!
Hope you all had a great weekend and ran a few miles for me!!!

I've been keeping a secret from you...

So, about 2 weeks ago on my 15 mile run I had a sharp pain in my side after a water stop. A REALLY SHARP PAIN. I thought Holy Mother of God, this is the Motherload of all "sidestitches"!!! I was running with my TNT buddy Chrisie (thank god that I have a witness!!!), and I said to her, OOOOH...I gotta walk a minute, you go ahead without me. Then I finished my 15 miles and went on with my day. The pain has not gone away, I figured it was a pulled oblique of some sort. I didn't want to blog about it because it seemed so "lame". Keep in mind, since then I have done a 1/2 Marathon, all my weekday runs, and another long run of 14 miles. Even ran 5.5 miles last night. The pain has still been there, particularly when I twist, sneeze, cough, laugh....hmmmmm, sounds like something else....can't be though...can it?

Finally after not being able to sleep last night I went to get it checked out and they did an X-ray, Drumroll please.................

Yep, I have a BROKEN RIB! NOT a fracture or a crack, BROKE in 2 pieces. Rib #9, that bitch!

So what does that mean for me....thankfully it's not a deal breaker. Just NO lifting, pushing, pulling of any sort for 10 days. Lay low on the running for 7 days, and then re-x-ray.

For real, who breaks their rib running? I guess I must run SO fast that they just break...LOL!!!

On the bright side, I am HARDCORE!!!!!

Song of the day - Break Stuff by Limp Bizkit

QUICK Question

Anyone know of anybody else in Blogland that is doing Marine Corps Marathon???? If so, I'd love a link to their blog!!!