Mardi Gras Half RR

After spending most of my days last week at a physical therapy convention and most of my nights entertaining 4 of my graduate school friends in New Orleans, I wasn't too optimistic going into Sunday's half marathon. Despite my efforts to eat healthy and not drink, I succumbed to peer pressure on more than one occasion. Hmmmmm beignets, hand grenades, margaritas, wine. Ooops. I didn't want to be a bad hostess!

Regardless of my shenanigans, I was able to bust out a PR Sunday. My plan was to go out around a 7 minute pace and see if I could hold it. My goal time was a 1:30-1:35. And although I ran in college, my experience running the half marathon distance is truly lacking. I wanted to use this race as a fitness assessment to start the season and help build my confidence for the 70.3.

Unlike my usual triathlon race reports, I feel like they aren't too many details to bore you with. I went out around 7 minute pace and held it. I felt awesome. Very awesome. Until mile 10 that is. My body started tightening up a lot and I found it harder to hold my pace. I started dropping to 7:20s. The last mile I was able to pick it up a little. One of my teammates and I duked it out to the end. Luckily my old middle distance days were good for something: a kick. Final time: 134:38.

It was a very well organized race. I had a blast and the crowd support was unbelievable. A++++ from me.... I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an early season half/full marathon next year and a good after party!

Speaking of after party, I spent some of mine hanging out with Miss Fancy Pants! Great girl with amazing style! Check out her blog if you haven't already.

And in other news my other half has left his very own Bahama island and has returned to me in the cajun swamp lands. Oh does it feel good to have him back.

I know I've been absent over the past week but stay tuned for a giveaway, barefoot running blog, and a swimmer's shoulder blog. Lots of good stuff to come :)

Let's Get It Started

Super stoked for this week for a number of reasons...Most importantly~I get to spend the rest of the week with 4 of my favorite grad school friends from the University of Pittsburgh.

This week we are all taking a much needed break from our clinical rotations to hit up a physical therapy conference in New Orleans. So excited to spend some quality time with the girls. Especially with the hubby away for another week. And who knows maybe I'll line up a job for after graduation!

I'm topping off the week with the Mardi Gras Half Marathon and some post race beverages with Miss Fancy Pants.
I have some lofty goals for this race and hope that things don't get too out of hand during the week. As sad as it sounds- this is the first half I've trained for seriously outside of triathlon. We'll see what happens.

Who else is doing the half or full? And more importantly, who's with me for the post race party???
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Changes

I know I've been quite absent over the last week in the blogging world....I've been dealing with some clinical problems. The good news is that I've made the appropriate changes and hope that things will get better over the next couple months. More to come on that later.

But I've made some other changes:
Most of you have already seen... I was SOOO over having the same look for the past 5 years and decided to do some chopping! And I want to wear cute pigtails when I race like Julia :)

On the training front, NOLA 70.3 and Mardi Gras Half training begins next week. I've started to get a few more workouts in here in there ~working my swim back up to 3000m and running up to 10 miles. Before I buckle down officially, I'm hoping to squeeze in some off season snowboarding, drink lots more wine, catch up with Pennsylvania friends, and to do a few Cathedral Climbs at the University of Pittsburgh.

Who ever thought climbing stairs would be so fun? Anyway Heidi is "burgh" bound again. Yay for a white Christmas!