Life is great

Yesterday ran with some friends. did about 6 miles. Went to the gym last night and did a body works class. Taking off today, need some retail therapy. The weather is beautiful and I know Hal says to rest today but....................

Book Review: Age is Just a Number, by Dara Torres

My first love is definitely swimming. I just bought this book and I really enjoyed it. Last summer my husband and I were able to watch the Olympic swimming trials and we saw Dara Torres win the 50 freestyle in the finals!! It was AMAZING!! She is an incredible athelete. This was her third Olympic comeback her first being in 1984! You should read this book!

Here are some pictures of the trials from last year. I thought I had some of Dara Torres but couldn't find any. The guy standing by the blocks is Michael Phelps. I am pretty sure that's a relay in the prelims.

No running today, but I will be hitting the pool!

Boston????

So my mom is really funny! Boston is OUR goal? I think my mom could totally qualify for this in her age group. The qualifying time for 55-59 year old females is four hours, fifteen minutes (9:43 mile pace). She could probably do that in her sleep!

The qualifying time for my age group 30-34 is three hours, forty minutes, (8:23 mile pace). I have never ran that fast in my life, let alone for 26.2 miles! That is soooo speedy!

I'll keep it as a goal though, I have to visualize my finish time and running fast without complaining! I think it would be fantastic if we both could qualify, but we'll see.

Training today: 6 mile run and a coffee stop!

Our journey to the finish line

We are off to a great start. The New York Times has a great site for training. Check it out. My daughter is a fabulous swimmer and soon to be fabulous runner. She is right she does like to complain a lot. That's okay I just tell her to buck up. I believe over the next few months she will improve dramatically. I would love to run the Boston Marathon with her. That's our goal. I ran today with some of my friends who are all 50+ and tomorrow will run with my daughter. Life is great and keeps getting better.

Girlfriends Half Marathon

This is a picture of mom and I at our first half marathon: The Girlfriends Half Marathon in Vancouver, WA. This was a great event and women only, a fun and supporting atmosphere. 

Guess what? My mom totally kicked my you know what in this race too! The plan was to stay together and we did until mile 9 and I could no longer hold the pace anymore and told my mom to go ahead, which she gladly did. I didn't finish too far behind, but I was excited that we both finished our first halfs! 

I will be doing this race again in October with my best friend who will be walking the race. My mom was supposed to sign up and when she did it was already filled up. It should be a fun girls weekend and a chance to PR!

The marathon training plan for this weekend is as follows:

Friday: Rest (no running), I will be biking today with the hubs. 

Saturday: Bike and swim for me. We were going to do a five miler but the Rock N Roll half and full marathon is taking place in Seattle and  many roads are closed, which makes it difficult to meet somewhere to run. 

Sunday: Five miles at Greenlake. One of our favorite places to run. It's a nice 3 mile loop around a lake and we ALWAYS go to coffee afterwards. That is one thing that keeps me motivated to keep running... coffee and a snack!

Team Whimsy Starts Training!

The Marathon:

About a month ago my mom and I signed up for our first marathon (Seattle)! Official training began today. We have decided to go with Jeff Galloway's training method, because our goal is to train and finish without injury.  Today we ran for 45 minutes at Greenlake and did a 4 minute run and 1 minute walk, about a 9 minute mile pace. I love taking walk breaks and well, my mom does not but I think the farther we get into our training the more mom will want to take breaks. 

We also bought super cool pink fuel belts today so we can be ready when those long runs come around!

Team Whimsy Running History:

Mom: Has been running for a very long time. She is super fast and one day I will be faster than her. That's right my 58 year old mother is faster then her 32 year old daughter! For her second half marathon (Mercer Island Half) she was first in her age group!! Go mom, go!! She is my running inspiration! 

Me: I have been running for about 5 years. At the begging of my mom I signed up for my first 5k. The Jingle Bell dash in Seattle. Training was horrible, I could barely run 10 feet without being out of breath. I hated every single minute of it. My first 5k time was about 46 minutes. I AM the queen of complaining too! Every time I run something isn't right, but my mom is used to it and we just keep going!

I can't say that I love running like my mom does but I certainly have improved and my 5k time is now down to 28 minutes. Again, not super fast but much better. I would rather be in the pool swimming for 2 hours than running. But I love running with my mom and plus we get coffee after our runs. 

Training for the next few days:

Friday: rest day (already!), I plan on going on a bike ride as I have a triathlon coming up in mid-July. Mom probably won't be resting either!

Saturday: 5 mile run and I have to hit the pool for more tri training!

Let the Marathoning begin!!!