Coach Jen B

Where has the time gone?  Seriously.  When did I become a mom to a 3rd grader?  One of the things I hate about teaching in another district, is that I am never going to be around to see Tucker off to school on his first day of school and I have to rely on the husband to take horrible pictures.  I guess I shouldn't complain, at least we got one, right?  But, hey, at least Tucker got a ride to school in the cute little Austin Healy (see the plate?)! 

I started to write this yesterday, but just as I finished typing, we lost power!  Ugh.  Thank goodness for autosave.  Here it is.... So far, I've been super lucky to not have any chaffing with my long runs.  Last week I did have a little rubbing on my collarbone area from my camelbak.  I didn't even feel it, just happened to notice it in the mirror the day after our run!   Yesterday I did something silly.  I wore different shorts.  I usually wear my Nike tempos, but for some reason I put on my New Balance shorts.  Although, it could have been the pad I was wearing too (I had just started my period 1st thing in the morning).  Sorry about the TMI. When I was in the shower, I noticed a little burning in the "area" and sure enough, I had some chaffing going on there.  Ugh.  Not a lot.  I didn't feel a thing during the run and I don't feel it at all today.   Perhaps it is time to try out some anti-chaffing glides/lotions.  Have you used any?  What do you re

This morning was the day Jess and I took on 20 miles.  It was supposed to be tomorrow, but that darn hurricane is coming our way and we thought it would be better to get it done earlier just in case she hits earlier in the day.  Ugh.  Personally, I wanted it to be tomorrow because Ward had to work today & I really wanted him to be here with me so he could be the parent and make me food.   That's exactly what I did for him when he was marathon training, so why wouldn't I want it?  I guess I'll have to make sure he's home for the next 20 miler I have on my schedule! Anyway, those plans were not in the cards for today, but the 20 miler was for sure.  A special thank you goes out to Jill and Wade for taking the kids today so I could run!  Jess and I opted to take our favorite (and super easy) rail trail this morning.  We actually went up the trail, through downtown Augusta to Mill Park and came back into Gardiner.  This accounted for 15.5 miles.  We had our potty brea

Jen & Terry at Yoga To Run have been featuring each of the athletes in the marathon program.  Today is my turn!  Check it out HERE !

Yesterday was another glorious day and with a little over a week left of summer vacation, I felt I had to get Tucker out for a hike so he could use his new Sprout backpack. Of course he wanted to bring his best-buddy Jackson.  Off we went to Bradbury Mountain State Park in Pownal, Maine .  It's a cute state park, close to Freeport, which meant a nice little hike with the boys, then lunch and some shopping in Freeport.  Win win. We ended up doing a 2 mile hike.  The boys had so much fun with their hydro-backpacks.  Tucker had his Sprout and Jackson was using Ward's Camelbak. Next week is my last week before school starts.  We have LOTS of fun to accomplish!

We did it!  That's right, Jess and I took on the 16 mile run Monday afternoon.  It was a drizzly type of day, and about 65 degrees.  It actually felt perfect for running.  Jess met me at my house and we took off on our run.  The cool thing about this run is that Jess lives about 8 miles away - so we ran to her house and had a potty break and then ran back to my house.  We also altered our route so we didn't run on the same road out and back, and we ended up making a big circle instead.   Leg #1  The entire route The highlights: - We went over the highway - two times! - We passed by two farms with cows - stinky - We tackled some pretty nice sized hills and we actually walked two hills near the end - oh well - We did stop to stretch out our legs because we felt our calves tightening up and both of us nearly fell over and made some horrible grunting noises trying to reach down.  That was a sight. - We came home to my house to pumpkin scones, chocolate milk an

Okay, probably not.  I'm sure it won't.  Today was supposed to be a 16-miler day.  BUT, since my running buddy is out of town, we are going to do our 16 miles on Monday.  I know I could do the 16 miles on my own, well, at least I think I can.  I just didn’t want to.  My plan for next week was Monday -  5 miles, Tuesday – rest/x train, Wednesday – 8 miles, Thursday – 5 miles, Friday – rest/x train, Saturday – 18 miles, Sunday – rest/x –train.  Since I completely suck at following plans, (I am sorry Jen and Terry!)  I opted to swap out the midweek 8 miler with today’s 16 miler and then push back next Saturday’s 18 miler to Sunday.  So, now my plan looks like this…Monday – 16 miles, Tuesday – rest/x-train, Wednesday 5 –miles, Thursday – 5 miles or x-train, Friday – 5 miles or x-train, Saturday – rest/ eat, and Sunday – 18 miles.    What was I thinking when I signed up for a FULL marathon?  Jeez.  Is this the point when I’m supposed to start getting nervous, because I s

Today was day 2 in trying out my new Merrell Pace Gloves. Actually, I've been wearing them to school the past 2 weeks, but I haven't run in them until yesterday.   Run #1 was yesterday.  I took them out for the 1st mile of my 4-miler, came home changed into my Brooks St5's for the remaining 3.  I really could have gone a little further in them yesterday, but I was still feeling a bit sore from B2B and didn't want to overdo it.  It was funny how I felt like my Brooks were so soft after the Merrells- they actually felt like pillows.  Other than the achy calves and quads I felt before the run, I didn't feel any ill-effects from run #1.   Run #2.  I wasn't going to run today.  Today is scheduled to be a cross training/yoga day.  I did do my yoga, but I was feeling quite overwhelmed, so therapeutically I had to get out for a run.  I only went out for 3 miles and it wasn't a fast one.  But I did take the Merrells out again.  I know you are supposed to start

This year we finally had some spectators come to the Beach to Beacon - Joe, Jess, and Nichole - AND they took some pictures!  Now I get to share with you.... Ward  I seriously need to get him some fun running shorts - do you know how many nearly balding men wear black shorts and run shirtless?   Me!  A little blurry - but I was just too darn fast to catch.  Ha!

Yesterday was the Beach to Beacon and boy it was a hot one.  It really wasn't so much the temperature, it was the humidity.  At times I was able to feel an ocean breeze, but those moments were very brief.  As always, several incredible spectators offered the runners relief with their hoses and I took every opportunity to run through them.  I even took water at the water stations, took a small sip and then poured the rest over my head.   photo courtesy of http://kevinmorris.photoshelter.com/ Anyway, I am not complaining.  I love this race.  As I said before, it is Maine's largest road race and is organized by my running idol - Joan Samuelson.  While I didn't get to see Joanie at yesterday's race, I have seen pictures and news clips that prove she was there running the show.  I also love this race because the finish line is at my mom's most favorite spot - Portland Head Light.  And again, I teared up again coming in to the finish area when thoughts of my mom over

P at An Average Athlete put together this incredible bloggy exchange & today I've been featured at Sophia's Tales of An Ambitious Slacker .   Please head on over to Sophia's blog and check out her running adventures too!  

I was just looking at my logyourrun.com data tonight and realized that last July (when I started using the site for my running log) - I ran 52.1 miles.  (I need you to know that back then I thought that was a lot of miles!  Silly me!) And this July I have logged in 102.1 miles.  That's nearly double the mileage! Then I looked at my 2010 year totals and my 2011. Ward suggested I figure out how many miles I run a day, so I added both yearly totals together to get 1211.4 then divided by 396 (365 + 31 for additional month for all of July) and my daily average is 3.06 miles!  Basically, I run a 5k a day.  (well, just a little shy of that) What a great pick-me-up while I sit around "resting" for the B2B!  And I was feeling bad that I didn't run today.  Nope, not anymore.

Please check out Stef's blog.  Her blog is hilarious AND I am her featured blogger today!

Hi, I’m Marisa and I blog over at  The Pace of my Life .  I am a wife and mom of two wonderful kids, as well as, a full-time teacher to 32 six-year olds, and I love to run (among other things)!  I am currently training for The Giant Race, a half marathon in San Francisco and will be running my first marathon in December, Rock n Roll Las Vegas. This summer my husband and I were able to get away together a few times and believe it or not, we used that time to run together!  It doesn’t happen too often, so we can take advantage of it when we can.   Last month, we hit the Dipsea Trail.  If you aren’t from California, you may not have heard of Dipsea.  It is a historic trail that travels from Mill Valley to Stinson Beach.  It is a little over seven miles long and travels some pretty tough terrain.  Included in that terrain are nearly 1500 steps and about 2,200 feet of vertical ascent and descent.  Sounds fun, huh?!  Well, we decided to do a double...Mill Valley to Stinson Beach and back! 

Saturday is the day: we are running the Beach to Beacon !  Because it's the largest road race in the State of Maine - there's quite a bit involved with this race.  Not only for the organizers but for the runners too.  We can't just show up 15 minutes prior to the start of the race at all.  This will be our (mine and Ward's) third year running this race and I think we have a plan in place. First Year Mess Ups  The first year we ran the race, Ward and I were stuck on the Casco Bay Bridge for at least 45 minutes.  I remember being so panicked about making the race AND having to pee so bad.  We parked at the high school just as the VERY LAST shuttle bus came through and we had to sprint to the bus to make it.  Our warm up consisted of the sprint to the bus and the run from the bus to the starting area. Since we got there so late, we could not "self seed" - and were stuck in the 9:45 pace.    Okay pace for me at the time, not an okay pace for Ward. The start is