Konig Ludwig Half Marathon!!

The drive through the Alps on the way to Munich-
a beautiful day!!

I am now caught up with my blogs!! A week and a half ago Josh and I drove up to Munich for the half marathon! I was so nervous because in the two weeks leading up to the race I didn't run as much as I would have liked. The longest run I did was about 8 miles before the race (I planned on doing at least one 10 mile run). It was a fun race, but it was strange because the race was in the evening, it started at 6:30 PM. It started in Fussen and looped around the town three times. It was hillier than I was used to, but not too bad! The minor hills and interval training that I did really helped! My goal of finishing in two hours went out the window because I decided to run with my friend Laura instead of pushing it. Since my training leading up to the race was not ideal, I figured it would be better to run a little slower and not injure myself. Laura was sick and her foot was injured, so the fact that she kept up for the first two laps was impressive!

Lap one was fairly easy, although the first look at the hills was a little rough. The second lap I wanted to pick up the pace, but kept telling myself "hold back so you have energy on the last lap". Since my longest run was only 8 miles, I was nervous that I would be dead on the third and final lap. Well, on the final lap I still had a lot of energy and the adrenaline was definitely kicking in! I picked up the pace a bit (or at least I thought I did), but still finished a lot slower than my original goal.

We had cheese in our bags at check in

Getting our game faces on (and trying to stay warm!)

My final time was 2:09:41. They clocked each lap and my times were:

Lap 1	00:43:52
Lap 2	00:42:53
Lap 3	00:43:31

The day was chilly so I wore longer pants (about capri length) with my running shirt, but it was freezing by the end of the race!! It was so cold I couldn't feel my arms from my elbows to my hands. When we went back to the car to change, the car said it was 9 degrees celcius outside!!! Thats 48 degrees farenheit. For a girl that has been used to upper 80's, low 90's, that was brutal!! Thanks to Josh for cheering us on and taking pictures! Even he was inspired by the race atmosphere. He isn't a runner, but said that he may be willing to run a 10K with me this fall in Italy :)

The view of the mountains

The medals we received at the finish line

Josh enjoyed a Konig Ludwig beer in between laps
(thats part of the course in the background)

We finished!

In addition to the race in Fussen, we also spent some time with Laura in Munich and I FINALLY saw the Godfather! Everyone talks about it, but I never knew what they were talking about. Now I get it! We also visited the Hofbrahaus and a few other locations in Munich before heading back to Milan on Monday morning. All in all, it was a good weekend and I'm happy I finished the race! I'm also proud of Laura for finishing her first half marathon in spite of her sickness and injury.

Sunday, enjoying some hard earned beer :)

3 weeks until the half!

Here is what I have done this week! It's short and sweet...

Monday: 7 miles, 1:04
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: cardio run (2 miles, 8:43 pace), plus intervals
Thursday: off
Friday: pilates
Saturday: 8.1 miles, 1:14:30

Only three weeks to go until the Konig Ludwig Half in Germany! I'm excited :)

Some things I saw on my 8 mile run this morning... a lot of runners in Milano- this is definitely inspiring! I noticed that the Duomo opens at about 7 AM (for those of you wanting to worship early in the morning). I also saw a woman smoking that may have been pregnant... That really bothered me. A few other sights that I ran by include the Castello Sforzesco, Parco Sempione, and the Arco della Pace (a mini version of the Arc de Triomphe that was built by Napoleone). It was a beautiful day for a run! A nice cool breeze, about 65-70 degrees, warm morning sunshine, and lots of runners and bikers out with no pedestrians yet. I love Milan in the early morning!

4 weeks until the Konig Ludwig Half!

SO... Here is what I've done in the past week! It was really difficult because I was recovering from that sinus infection, but I was able to push through and get in a few decent runs. Now... it's time to increase my distance already!! Even though I've been battling sicknesses, my body has felt really great. No knee issues this time around, and I've felt really great after my runs. I must be doing something right- I just need to remember to take my vitamins so I don't get sick again!! With all these little setbacks I'm a little nervous that I won't be ready for the half, but I'm going to push through anyways!

My long run ended up being on Monday because we had too many things going on this weekend. I'm realizing that I need to do my long runs on Friday mornings (especially in the upcoming weeks) because we have things going on each weekend that will make it extremely difficult to schedule a long run. Next week we will have visitors, and the following couple of weekends we will be traveling.

Anyone have thoughts on schedules with this kind of limitation? I was thinking about doing runs M, W, F (with the long run on Friday), T, TH will be pilates or cross training, then just walking on the weekends. Will this be enough?

My schedule for the past week:
Monday: 5 miles, 49 minutes
Tuesday: core training, 30 minutes (sit ups, pushups, wall sits, etc)
Wednesday: 6.5 miles, 1:04 (man it was hot that day!! and more hills than normal, I had to walk for five minutes after 3.5 miles, but I pushed through it)
Thursday: off
Friday: cardio run (2 miles in 18 minutes, walk two minutes, then 11 minutes of intervals*), core training- situps/pushups
Saturday: off
Sunday: walked 4-5 miles around Milan
Monday: 7 miles, 1:06
*when I do intervals, I usually do 60 seconds at a jog (just barely slower than race pace), 45 seconds at a run, 30 seconds sprinting, then back to a jog for 60 seconds... then repeat for at least 10 minutes. This helps me to increase my endurance and speed. I haven't done intervals in a few weeks, and with my illnesses putting a dent in my pace, I thought it was time to reintroduce them to my training. Hopefully it will allow me to be a little faster in the upcoming weeks.

5 weeks...

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the late posting on this one. Last week was a tough week- I came down with a sinus infection that put a major dent in my training schedule. Unfortunately the last two weeks have brought my training to a stand still. It's very frustrating! But, I have been able to at least keep going at my current rate and not go backwards. Although, it has slowed my pace a bit, but that will change!

Here is what I was able to do last week:
Monday: Pilates
Tuesday: 4.8 miles, 44 minutes
Wednesday: Pilates
Thursday: sick
Friday: sick
Saturday: walked around San Remo (about 1-2 miles)
Sunday: sick

This week I've been able to do a little more, even though I'm still recovering. I've been working hard this week and hope to do a long run this weekend. Stay tuned...

6 weeks until the Konig Ludwig Half!

So, this week I found some new and interesting challenges in my training. I wanted to start working on hill training since it didn't really occur to me that there might be some big hills to climb in this race! The race is in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps... not sure why training for hills didn't occur to me sooner! After talking to Laura about that, I decided that my challenge this week would be hills. So, on Tuesday I started working on that.

I ended up running my long run on Sunday last week instead of Saturday as planned. We were in Venice with Josh's uncle Craig last Saturday and Verona on Sunday. As a result, it was difficult to get in the long run until we got home on Sunday night. And, of course, it started raining while I was running. Not so fun, but it made me run a little faster :) During that run I also realized something… Previously when I would train at a 10 minute mile pace, my feet would go numb at about mile 3 or 4 and stay that way for half a mile, then go back to normal. On Sunday I had that happen when I tried to hold myself back and run at a slower pace. When I relaxed and just let myself run at a more comfortable/natural pace, my feet were fine and the numbness went away instantly. I haven't had a problem with the numbness running at a faster pace, so it seems my body likes running at a 9 minute mile pace instead of a 10 minute mile pace. This could also be a result of different shoes. I now have Saucony running shoes; before I had Mizunos.

So, here is what I've done since last my last post:

Saturday: walked 4-5 miles around Venice

Sunday: ran 6.5 miles, 57 minutes

Monday: off

Tuesday: 4.35 miles, 51:30

Wednesday: off (sick)

Thursday: 1 hour Pilates

Friday: off

Saturday 6.10 miles, 55 minutes

I think my run in the rain last Sunday gave me a touch of the flu... I was really achy this week and my stomach was a mess. So that was another challenge this week in addition to the hills. On Tuesday I wanted to start my hill training, so I started running on an incline. After about 32 minutes my hamstrings were screaming at me! So instead of continuing and possibly injuring myself, I decided to walk for another 20 minutes on an incline. When I woke up on Wednesday I felt awful, so I decided to take the day off and rest. Then I decided to take it easy for the rest of the week to recoup. Man, taking off two days makes me feel like a lazy bum!! Even if I am sick…

The time off this week was actually really great. I feel like it was a much needed mental break for me in my training, not to mention necessary for my body to recover. Now I feel really great and I’m ready to continue my training with renewed enthusiasm. Bring on the new week!

7 weeks until the Konig Ludwig Half Marathon!

At the end of July I am running the Konig Ludwig Half Marathon with my friend Laura. It looks like an amazing race that goes through the base of the Bavarian Alps outside of Fussen. The race path runs by a beautiful lake near Neuschwanstein Castle (Mad King Ludwig's castle). I'm so excited for this race!! It initially caught my eye because it has my maiden name (Ludwig), and it is also named after a FANTASTIC brand of beer :)  When I was a kid, my dad had a poster of this castle hanging in the hallway at home. I used to dream that I was somehow related to this King Ludwig and could go to live in my distant relative's castle. Of course, we all grow up and realize that it is now just a tourist attraction. But the enchantment is still there.



The reason I am writing about this is because I need to stay accountable in my training. With all of the traveling we have done in the past few weeks, and the inconsistent schedule I have in Italy, it's difficult to stay on a set training schedule. To be sure that I am staying on task, I am going to write about my training each week. Hopefully this will keep me going since I don't have any running partners to hold me accountable.

If you have any suggestions on things I can do to improve my pace during my training please let me know!! My goal for this half marathon is to run it in 2 hours or less. I basically just started my training by running at a quicker pace than usual, and kept up with that. Hopefully it works in the end!! So far, it has helped me to increase my pace.

This week was week seven of my training, and there are seven weeks to go until the race. This will be my second half marathon- my first being the Gary Bjorklund half (at Grandma's) and I ran it in about 2 hours, 10 minutes. At the beginning of this training, I started from pretty much nothing since I hadn't been running for a few months. If I was lucky I would get a mile run in from time to time, but nothing serious. This week I was able to run five miles twice which was a big accomplishment for me. For some reason, the five mile mark is a big barrier for me- everything after that seems to come a lot easier. So... this was a big week in my training! Here is what I have done so far for this week:

Monday: 5 mile run, 47 minutes
Tuesday: 1 hour pilates
Wed: off
Thursday: 5 mile run, 45 minutes
Friday: 1 hour pilates
Saturday: 6.5 mile run planned  

I am very happy with my progress up to this point. Since I can remember, I have always been a 10 minute mile runner. Slowly I'm starting to change that :)