I'm a Presidential Champion Today

It's funny how "light snow for part of the day" turned into "heavy frickin' snow the ENTIRE day". I thought my treadmill runs were over for the season. I was planning on doing my easy run outside on the Clinton River Trail. Didn't happen!! I forgot both a jacket and my gloves and with the snowfall, I would have been soaked and frozen without them. *sigh*

It really wasn't so bad. This is how I put it in my RW training log today, "Very nice, easy run on the treadmill. Nothing special and nothing to complain about."

However, I momentarily forgot about something very special that happened as a result of my run today. I won my Presidential Champions GOLD AWARD!!! Now I thought after the gold award, I'd start over in the Advanced Presidential Champions program. But apparently, there is a "very special" platinum award that one can earn in either program that they don't advertise in their literature. Very cool! The number of points I have to collect to earn it is 500,000. Bronze was 20,000, silver was 45,000 and gold was 80,000 (completed today). So I have a LOOOOONG way to go to earn that Platinum. That's a major jump in point totals!!! Go me!

Coooold Hands.... And Longest Long Run to Date!

16 miles!!!!!!!! Longest long run to date! Yay! It was fantastic! Did it in 2:12! I even got a bit emotional at the end. I always do when I go longer than I've ever gone before. It was almost perfect, but 2 miles of extremely painful frozen hands put a blemish on it. Also, had a tiny bit of indigestion, but fortunately didn't have to make a pit stop. The frozen hand thing was weird. I stopped at my car after the first loop (6 miles) for my GU, Gatorade, tissues and Chapstick. I had everything laid out, so it took me less than 2 minutes to finish my ritual and hit the trail again. I didn't even take my gloves off! But in that time, my fingers started to get very cold and a half mile back into my run, they froze up painfully. How can such a brief stop with gloves still on make such a big difference??? I was planning on stopping again after my second loop, but decided I'd rather get a little fatigued from lack of calories, liquid and/or electrolytes than endure the nearly unbearable ache in my hands again. I finished very strong despite no fuel or liquid during the last 10 miles! Go figure.


Though I've taken a little time off from blogging (was not getting enough sleep!), I have still been running. The temps have dipped into single digits up here in Michigan and windchills have pushed the temps well below zero. Most of the past week's runs have been on the treadmill. I got a few really good workouts on them. I tried one of the treadmill workouts I found on Runner's World - one of the hill workouts. It was only so-so -- didn't quite work me hard enough. I think I'll add another repeat to each set and see how it works next time. I also did a tempo run one day. That was a great workout! And being on a treadmill, I was able to stick to a predetermined pace the entire time. Being fairly new to this sport, I'm still having a hard time with pacing.


Yesterday I earned my Silver Award in the Presidential Champions program! Yay!

Bronze Award!

You've won the following award(s):
President's Champions - Bronze 11/21/2008

I'm so proud. :-)

Matty's Gift!

I got Matty's Christmas gift today! He's going to LOVE it!!! Too bad I can't post about it cuz I know he reads my blog. Haha! Nice try, Bear! But believe me, it is WAY cool!

I am very close to winning my Bronze Award in the Presidential Champions program. If you're unfamiliar with the program, see my list of links on the right side of the webpage about halfway down (President's Challenge). It's a great program that I wish they promoted more! I just happened across it one day online and decided to check it out.

Another awesomely awesome long run today. A new distance record for the redster - 15 miles! Woo! I did it in 2:05. Not too shabby! If I can keep up that pace, I'll end up with a Boston Qualifier at my first marathon. Now, that'd be cool! I still absolutely refuse to make that an "official" goal for my first marathon. Too much pressure. I just wanna have fun!

Registration for the Bayshore Marathon starts December 1st. My credit card is ready!