Hi!!

Just a quick post to say I'm still alive!

-Last week, work was very crazy and it will be for the next month or so.  
-I took a couple days off from running after my half marathon so I really didn't have a lot to post about. 
-Then we went out of town for a friend's wedding this weekend and just got back.  So I'm finally getting around to posting again.

Back to last Sunday-- I felt pretty good later in the day after the half.  I wore my Zensah leg compression sleeves for the rest of the day, who knows if it helped...?  Monday my quads and the muscles above my knee felt tight when I woke up.  I made Monday through Wednesday recovery days, only walking the dog and doing some crunches. I think I could have done an easy run Wednesday night, but I got home late from work, had planned to make dinner, and there was a small amount of lingering muscle soreness so I talked myself out of running.  No need to rush back in to it, I guess.  Thursday morning my leg muscles were back to feeling 100%.

Thursday night I went to boot camp where we did all kinds of arm and chest and ab things with some quick cardio things mixed in (i.e. burpees, and a couple laps around the indoor track), then I did an easy 2 mile run outside because it was too nice not to.  I did not let myself look at my Garmin until the whole first mile passed which is sooo hard for me to do-- I wanted to run at an easy/comfortable pace without worrying about the numbers for the first time in a long time.

Here are some not great race photos from last week.  Nothing to write home about. The ones of me crossing the finish line were not any better.

 Why Am I Staring at my Foot!? I just finished my first gu here.

 This was at Mile 8...right after water sloshed out of my cup and into my eye.  

5.2 miles later, this point in the course is also the finish line.  Beware of those pasty legs of mine.

I need to remember to do something cool when I see the race photographer...you know, like smile or look at the photographer!


I will obsess about my failed timing chip one last time...for now.  Using starting line photos and the race results, I looked up the chip start times of those around me at the beginning of the race. 

Where's Waldo??

The metal archway is what was supposed to read my chip at the start line.
 

There was not any weaving in and out or thinning out of the runners for about a quarter of a mile, so this is pretty much how everyone started the race.  

As you can see, I started after 59 and 454, who crossed the start at 8:05:21 and 8:05:20 respectively.  

I started before bib numbers 24, 22, and 76 who all crossed the line at 8:05:22.

So if I started at the same time as bib number 454 (at 8:05:20), and I crossed the finish line at 10:24:15 am (as recorded by my chip) that would mean my ACTUAL race time was 2:18:55.  Just sayin'...

Photo-based time: 2:18:55.

Garmin-based time: 2:19:07

Gun time: 2:19:33.

Quick Poll:   I'm working on putting together my next training schedule.  I asked on Twitter last week, but didn't get a huge response...

After running a ~2:19 hilly half marathon, how much do you think I can expect to improve my time on a flatter half marathon that is 6 weeks away?

(Thanks to Heather at Miss FancyPants Tris)-

:15 off my pace would be a 10:21ish average pace, which would be about a 2:15:35 half.  That's actually toward the faster end of the range I was training for - for this past half marathon, so I think that would be doable. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts! I don't know how much progress to expect in a 6 week time frame.