A Virtual Run and Fall Races

How was everyone's Labor Day Weekend?

Mine was great! I got to spend some time with my family and friends, watched a few movies, read, took my guitar out for the first time in ages, and, of course, got some good workouts in :)

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I did my first double-digit run since the Reykjavik Half today.  I joined in the virtual run hosted by Laura at Mommy Run Fast and completed 10 miles in a little under 2 hours. It was a really good run, even though it was way too hot for my liking by the end of it. I seriously cannot wait for the cooler weather to arrive!

Fall is my favorite season by far, and it's also my favorite time to race! I have 2 half-marathons coming up that I am really excited about!

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The first one is the Army Run, which is on September 22.  As I mentioned in this post, the Army Run 5k was my first race ever, and I've participated every year since (other than the year I was in Germany).  Last year I walked the half-marathon with my sister-in-law but I'll be running it alone this year. I know it won't be as much fun without her but I'm looking forward to running my first half-marathon here in Ottawa!

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The other race I'll be doing is the Run to The Beat UK in London :)! Yep, another international race; I think I'm getting addicted to those.  My mom and I have been talking about going to the UK for a few years now and we've finally decided this is the time to do it!  I knew I would want to run a race there and Run to the Beat looks like so much fun  :)

So, this means I'm running 3 half-marathons in 3 months and I'm not entirely sure how to train.  Since I don't really "race" races, meaning I stick to a comfortable pace, I don't think it will be overly taxing on my body. My plan is to stick to two 5 milers a week and a long run on the weekends, anywhere between 8 and 10 miles. But any suggestions are more than welcome!!

Do you have any Fall races planned?

Reykjavik Half-Marathon

Good news, I survived the Reykjavik Half-Marathon and I had an amazing time in Iceland :)

I landed Friday morning and luckily I was able to check in to my hotel early and take a nap since I hadn't slept in over 24 hours.  My first stop was the race expo to pick up my kit, and then I wandered around the city for the rest of the day, but I did go to bed early so I wouldn't be exhausted for the race. I didn't have high hopes going into the race Saturday morning considering I wasn't feeling 100% but I decided that I would run as much as a I could and walk the rest if need be.

Things started out much better than I expected and I was feeling great until mile 4 when my camera and IPod fell out of my waist pouch. I had a little panicky moment when all I could think was "I can't run 9 miles without music!!" but thankfully my IPod and camera were both okay.  Once I recovered from that things went smoothly for the next 5 miles or so when I started to feel my energy waning so I took a few Honey Stingers and a walking break.  After that I felt okay until about mile 11.5 when I started walking again and I walked until a little past mile 12 where I was able to pick up the pace again, knowing I only had a mile to go.

I somehow forgot to turn on the GPS on my watch, so it was running on my shoe pod and I thought I had finished in 2:30, which was my time for NYC, but apparently I finished in 2:28 so I guess that's a PR! Had I known I was going to come in in under 2:30 I probably wouldn't have walked as much, but on the bright side it means that I was running faster when I was actually running :P  All in all I'm happy with my time and I really enjoyed the race.

The course was nice, especially the parts along the water and the crowd support in the residential areas was awesome. At one point there was a whole band just playing in the driveway and there were quite a few people out with their own instruments to entertain the runners :)

I have quite a few pictures of Iceland I'd love to share with you guys so I'll post those and tell you more about my trip in my next post  :)

2 Days until Half-Marathon # 2

Hey Guys!

I'm writing from the airport in Halifax, on my way to Iceland :) Our flight was delayed but thanks to free wi-fi I've been keeping myself entertained!

As most of you know, I'll be running my second half-marathon this weekend. In all honesty I don't feel as confident about this one :S I've done my training but I wasn't as excited about it this time around. I think it's because I didn't have a new distance to look forward to every week; when training for my first every long run felt like such an accomplishment! It's also been hot and humid (and I'm a wuss when it comes to running outside in less than perfect weather) so a lot of my runs were done on the treadmill and seriously, there is not much on tv in the summer to keep me entertained while I run! Add to that the fact that I'm getting over a bad cold and I really don't have high hopes for this one. Regardless, I know I will have an amazing weekend in Reykjavik and the course route looks absolutely gorgeous so even if I walk some of it it will be amazing :)

In other news, I joined Pinterest today. I have NO idea what I'm doing but I'd still love for you to follow me (Jogging on Coffee). Hopefully I'll figure it out soon enough.  I'll add a "follow me on Pinterest" button here soon; for some reason my connection here won't let me do it. Or, I'm just super useless when it comes to technology, which is also a strong possiblity ;)

Hope you all have a great weekend! I'll let you all know how the race goes, here and on Twitter!

A Family Tradition & Trail Running

For over 40 years my extended family has gathered in Syracuse for a week of camping. It is by far one of our most cherished traditions and something I look forward to every single year!  I didn't take the whole week off work since I have a few other trips coming up this year, but I did drive down there for the weekend and it was a great 3 days :)

My grandparents had 13 kids (seriously, I don't know how they managed!!) and it's rare that everyone can get together since some of us are scattered across the country.  Unfortunately some people couldn't make it this year, but we still were quite the crowd, I think there were 45-50 of us there :)

This picture is from the night we had our big campfire and sing-along (which I'm sure our neigbors loved ;) ).

Other than spending time with family, and of course shopping, one of my favorite things about this camping trip is the trail around the 2 lakes.

This is the place where my runner envy really kicked every year. I always wished I were one of the joggers rather than just one of the walkers on the trails, and this was the first year that I was :)!

I ran 8 miles on Friday, 5 miles on Saturday and 4 miles on Sunday.  It was challenging and I was slower than I am when I run in the city, but I loved every second of it. 

It felt so good to finally be doing what I had wanted to do for so many years but didn't think I could. Not to mention I had this beautiful scenery to take in!

I wish I could run here all the time! I'm already looking forward to next year :)

What are your favorite family traditions?
Do you enjoy trail running?