I love 22

Never have I been happier to see the number 22 as I was yesterday.....(to be continued)

For all of you who have lost toenails, who haven't been able to use stairs for days after a run, who won't cancel a run no matter how many schools and buses are closed for a snow day, who have no social life for a year before a big race, who will get up hours before work to run even when it's still dark out, and for those who organize your entire week around your runs...know this-you are not alone! There is a drive in all of us for something. For me, it's running. I can't explain it, I just love it. I see that same drive in people at races. So, I thought I would blog about it. I'm training for a marathon and I thought I would start writing about it in hopes to motivate others who are running or doing any other sort of exercise (or even those who feel like they might want to start). A number of years ago when I was running, a friend and I would email each other about our runs and we both found it motivational. I hope these blogs motivate and inspire (or at the very least, entertain) those who read them. I hope I don't discourage anyone from running when I write about the bad stuff that comes with the territory of training for anything this much.

To start off, I should have started this way back at the beginning in December when I decided I wanted to do a marathon in 2010 but I wasn't sure at that point if I would even make it to half without injury.

To give you some background, I've been running seriously for about 6 years, but ran when I was younger in school as well. I ran a few 5km races and joined the cross country team. I did ok with it, but lost motivation in high school and didn't really pick it up again (except for off and on runs during summer) until 2004. I started running with Ryan in 2006 and we began our races in 2007. It all started with the ENDURrace. We competed in only the 5km race (there is also an 8km) and I placed in my category which helped give me perspective as to where I stood in competitive running. I realized I didn't completely suck at running, haha.

After that race, we competed in many more, sometimes doing well, sometimes not. Later on in 2007, we tried a half marathon. Well...2 actually. Our inexperience with races of this size was shown when we signed up for the races 2 weeks apart. Since then we've learned doing a race of that size 2 weeks apart with the little training we did is a really bad idea. I was also injured (in my knees) for both races. My best time was 2:06. The following year we did more races and tried the half marathon again. I was injured during my training again and ran in pain for 2 hours and 30 minutes. I don't have a high pain tolerance but I have a high endurance level and this is why I kept running despite constant pain.

So, in 2009 I decided to focus more on 5k races, but was not able to get my speed to what I wanted. All in all, a frustrating running season. I also tried a try-a-tri and that's a whole other story in itself. At this point I realized how much better I run when I swim, bike and do a lot of core workouts. When it got colder, I decided to try to run outside as long as I could. The other option was the rec centre track, which I don't really like using. In December, I decided I'd like to try a full marathon. This required me being able to start running longer each week. Fortunately for me, we had a mild winter and I survived outside all winter.

So, the training began. I started running 3 times a week, 1 long run, 1 short run with sprints, and one medium run at a medium pace. After my runs, I would do a workout and on the off days I would sometimes go swimming. I increased my long run by 10% every week.

So....why do I love 22? Yesterday I hit the 22km mark. A half marathon is 21km and I've never run farther than 21km before, so I'm feeling pretty good. I'm not injured at all. This is monumental for me. My time this week was 2:19, which I'm ok with. It has taken me 6 years to figure out the proper training for myself to run without injury, so I'm just happy to finish. I'll tell ya, it's not easy to run that far. It's not as hard as it was in the past for me though because I've been building up properly. The swimming/workout sessions have been key in keeping my knees from injury.

So, that's all for now. Stay tuned....