Week 8: #itsgoingdownatphx

The 10 week countdown begins!!!

Monday, December 11th–Stretch, Roll

I took the day after Scottsdale Half Marathon off to recover. I rolled like the good runner I am 😀

Tuesday, December 12th–5 miles

Thankfully, the plan called for easy miles and I milked it. Met up with my early morning crew for a fiver at 9:15 pace.

Wednesday, December 13th–Strength train, stretch, and roll

Did some MYRTLES and some core vids. Exciting stuff. Although, I do have to say that I feel my hips/glutes getting stronger. I try and devote an hour to this stuff on the days that it calls for.

Thursday, December 14th–7 miles

This was a tough workout that I was excited/nervous about–2×1 mile at 10k pace (7:10) and 4×400 at (6:55).

7:07
6:55

6:42
6:36
6:36
6:20

It was hard but it was actually….fun?

Friday, December 15th–Nada

I chaperoned my daughter’s Kindergarten field trip so that was my morning. In the evening, I went to a holiday party with some friends and had a pre-birthday celebration 🙂

Saturday, December 16th–12.16 miles

I met up with two Moms Run This Town friends and got in two miles before I ventured out on my own for the last 10. This was an AMAZING run and was the best way to start year 33 😀

I don’t know who I’ve become.

Later, I had two holiday parties and I realized that I didn’t even take an official birthday picture, lol!! True sign of aging, jaja!!!

Sunday, December 17th–5 miles (Heroes in Recovery 6k)

Did a warm up mile before this special race. I ran it last year in celebration of my brother and father’s sobriety and now, more than a year later, they are both still going strong ❤ Because of them, I am a believer of prayer, of God’s strength–and I thank Him everyday for His power to ignite change in my two heroes.

I wanted to negative split this 3.7 mile race and I was well under way, until I saw the course was going to be long and then my spirits sank, i.e I ran out of gas, LOL

Nevertheless, I managed to finish 9th FOA and 2nd in my AG–all of which of course was for my my dad and brother ❤ I often think of them when things get hard in a race. How hard must it be to give up an addiction, to continue every day without something you thought you couldn’t live without? That’s hard. So I go to them in tough times and find strength in their strength.

Weekly Total: 29.25 miles

–Do you run a race that means something special to you?

 

Heroes in Recovery 6k–Last Race of 2016 and a Special One

Sunday marked the last race of what has been an incredible running year for me. It’s fitting that I ended with a race that meant something to me and that was for a special cause.

Heroes in Recovery has a simple mission: to eliminate the social stigma that keeps individuals with addiction and mental health issues from seeking help, to share stories of recovery for the purpose of encouragement and inspiration, and to create an engaged sober community that empowers people to get involved, give back, and live healthy, active lives. It takes a heroic effort to live clean and sober each day, and a Heroes 6K* celebrates that effort. The sixth kilometer separates a Heroes race from a typical 5K to symbolize the extra effort it takes to sustain recovery. The six kilometers also represent the six letters in the word HEROES.

If you’ve been a reader for a while, than you know that my brother is a big inspiration to me. I’ve shared his story before, and I’m so proud to say that he continues his life of sobriety to this day. And still runs!

What I haven’t shared, and I’m not completely ready to share a lot, is that my dad also battled with drug and alcohol abuse his and my entire life. What I do want to share is that the beginning of December marked SIX MONTHS of sobriety for him.

I’m so incredibly happy you guys. For so long, I wished and prayed for this for my family. I know the battle will be tough for my dad, that he’ll go through rough patches, but I’m comforted knowing he’s in the best position he’s ever been to be successful this time.

*****************

The race didn’t start til 9 a.m. which was nice because whoa was it cold. I had a ton of friends who were also running and we all huddled together for body warmth. And took pictures of course 🙂

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It was a smallish race so I knew if I had a good day I could maybe snag an age group award. There was prize money for the overall winners and 2nd, 3rd, and 4th male and female, but I knew I had no chance for that.

My friend Ashely–who I ran with for a bit at the Scottsdale Half–and I settled in near the start to avoid the crowds. I wanted to be around the 7:30 mark for the first mile and then go from there.

Yeah, no. Mile one was 7:22 . Close, but because I wanted to negative split it meant having to go faster than that and that was a little scary.

The course went through the Riparian Preserve and it was really pretty and scenic.

There were two out and back sections that went through the canal but the whole course was flat and fast.

So fast, that my second mile was 7:08 .

It was then that an old familiar sensation crept in. PANIC . I felt myself start to freak out at having done that mile so fast. It was just like old times where I started yelling to myself, “Helly, you’ve blown it!! There’s no way you’ll be able to keep this up! You have more than a mile left! Are you crazy?? You’re for sure going to bonk now!!” I felt myself slow a little as I battled the thoughts in my brain. I felt fine, like I wasn’t going to be bonking anytime soon, but the thought that I was so close to a 6 scared the shit out of me.

Mile 3, 7:18 . I was bummed I didn’t get the negative split I wanted but I knew it was because I had lost the mental battle.

I told myself to hurry up and finish as I had counted myself 9th female and my chances of age group placing were good. I ran the last .77 at a 7:12 pace–

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A top ten finish and second age group win made the race a success, but like I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the real winners are my brother and dad, who every day in their recovery show me that we can do hard things ❤

love you brother, love you dad

love you brother, love you dad

–Who are your running inspirations?

–How do you overcome mental battles while you run?