New and Improved Blog

I finally decided that I'm ready for a nicer looking blog. Come check me out over at my new and vastly improved blog:

http://milehighjess.wordpress.com/

New pages, new info. It looks so much nicer! I still have some formatting to work out on some of my other posts but that will be where all the new updates go from now on.

Heart of the Rockies Half Marathon

This was by far the smallest half marathon I've ever done.  When Shanna and I arrived in Loveland we barely spotted the check-in tent. It was the easiest check-in ever! In about two minutes we had our bibs and went back to the car to stay warm. When we finally decided it was time to hit the porta potties and head to the starting line it had warmed up quite a bit.  One probably with the starting line...we had no idea where it was!

Finally someone made an announcement that we were all going to walk to the starting line together. We finally got to a super narrow path.  I didn't hear the official start but Shanna and I finally saw a tiny sign on the side of the trail that said start. Um...yeah, this should have been better marked.

Being a small race there was no chip timing or waves, it was just a go for it kind of race. Unfortunately since we didn't get right up in front, we got stuck in a huge crowd of people which didn't break up for a couple miles. At this point I decided you know what, I'm going to run with Shanna and just enjoy the scenery.

I enjoyed the scenery right up until we ran by a dairy from about mile 6-8. It stunk! Check out the cows. 

Not how I pictured an organic farm either. Josh was on his bike doing a great job being our personal papparazi.

Yep, I rocked green KT Tape. Around mile 9 I decided I just needed to pick up the pace a bit. I speed up a little bit to just hurry and finish. I was getting hot and it was the longest I had run since Nashville back in April.  This goes down as my slowest half on record but it was fun and nice running with Shanna.  Plus how could I not enjoy a 70 degree day in November?

Time: 2:25    Distace: 13.14 miles    Avg. Pace: 11:02...yikes I know.

Gearing Up for Race Day

It's already race time! Tomorrow morning is the Heart of the Rockies Half Marathon in Loveland.  Did I get in those speed sessions I was planning on? Nope. Did I do another long run or two? I did one. Ten miles last Tuesday. I don't think my five miles on Wednesday count as a long run but they felt nice. Since my knees acted up on that last 10 miler I decided to give them a break. I might have to break down and use some KT tape tomorrow but we'll see how they're feeling.

Today I'm rocking my compression socks and continuing to try to get hydrated.  Even though I've had at least 3-4 large bottles of water just at work alone, every day this week, I'm still thirsty like I'm sitting out in the summer sun. It's crazy!

Speaking of summer sun. Can you believe this forecast for the weekend? Looks like I'll be rocking shorts and a t-shirt again for this race. I can't believe it! Hello global warming is all I can say for nearly 80 degress in Colorado in November. Can't complain though I'm not looking forward to the commute to/from work once the snow hits.

  

So tonight I'll be eating some of this...

and this...

...while I relax and drink 5 more bottles of water and Gatorade. Hopefully I won't feel as blah and exhausted as I have the past few days when I wake up tomorrow morning. Race report to come.

Say What!?! Chilean Miner to Run NYC

So I was perusing the news as I always do during my lunch break where I saw this article.  My first thought was what? How is this Chilean miners who was stuck underground for months going to be ready to run a marathon. I continued reading and it said he ran 5-6 miles per day down there. Ok, that's good he stayed active, but 5-6 miles/day equals about 35-42 miles/week. Running 5-6 miles at a time and 26.2 at once is a huge difference.

I continued a littler further and saw that he listened to Elvis on his iPod. I thought to myself, eh, horrible running music, but then it came to me, how did he keep his iPod charged?  Mine barely stays charged for a week let alone two months. I haven't read all the details about what they did or did not have down there, but I just never thought an iPod charger would be one of them.

I wish him the best of luck and can't wait to see how he does.

I Have a Problem

Hi, my name is Jessica and I am a travelholic. Not kidding, I am obsessed with finding vacation for Josh and I to go on. I know he said that we should take a break from Europe but Espana is calling.  I can hear it loud and clear. Probably doesn't help that Josh's good friend Jeff is over in Madrid right now preparing for FOCUS to participate in World Youth Day.

I get emails all the time with the latest travel deals. I think my problem is that once we had fabulous vacations in Italy, Paris and London (yes I'm still working on those posts 2 months later), I just wanted to keep doing it. Here's what on my list for the next few years:

Spain
Costa Rica
Hawaii (Josh has never been)
Germany (Visit my uncle and meet all my cousins)

Now if only I had more vacation days. We're pretty good about figuring out how to time vacations with work holidays so that I get an extra day off. We don't have any real vacations planned at all right now. So I figure maybe I'll just start tenatively planning one in say May.  You never know maybe I can talk Josh into it.

Fingers crossed an unbeatable deal comes up for a last minute vacation over New Years. Might not be as great at it was ringing in 2010 but I could go for a vacay to ring in 2011.