Running in the Middle

Well here goes for my first entry.  Been reading on the fast running blog for over a year and finally decided to add my own.  Ran 11 easy miles through four cities.  Discovered this new route last week, thanks map my run.  Start in Cedar Hills, then Alpine, Highland, American Fork, back to Cedar Hills.  I made myself go slow today, almost 9 min miles.  It was kinda nice, I felt so relaxed and really soaked everything in.  It was such a beautiful morning, I'm really loving this fall weather.  

I'm in training for my second half marathon ever, the Provo Halloween 1/2.  My first 1/2 I ran in Aug was not the best race experience, things were just going all wrong.  So I'm really hopeful that my second attempt at a 1/2 will be better.  

When I opened the front door at 6:40am it was really dark and cloudy outside.  I hate running in the dark, guess I'm just a pansy.  Went back in a stretched for ten more minutes hoping it would get lighter, it didn't.  So I tried to be brave and started on my way.  There was a nice gentle mist when I started which turned into full on rain by mile three.  Two miles up to the mouth of AF canyon felt slow, then three miles down the trail along the golf course felt fast and fun at 7:40 pace.  Finished last mile back to my house at 8:08.

Did not sleep well last night, my kids kept waking me up.  This made for a very groggy start to my run.  It was a beautiful morning and by the end I was really glad that I had pried myself from the mattress and put some semi decent miles in.  

Pushing the jogging stroller added in some fun resistance.  But that's what I get when I don't want to wake up at 6am.  I can't believe how hammered my shoes feel after only 220 miles.  I though these things were suppose to last twice as long.

This morning was beautiful, the weather was perfect for a nice long run.  Who knew that some chocolate flavored GU with caffeine was what I needed to have an awesome run.  Had one about 15 minutes before I went out and I seriously felt the difference.  Avg Pace 8:30, feeling really prepared now for my 1/2 coming up.

My run this morning felt more like a punishment.  Did not get enough sleep last night and I started out feeling like I had no fuel in the tank.  Stayed that way the entire run.  Running up to the mouth of AF canyon was like a wind tunnel, and I swear I was being pushed backwards.  I'm glad I made it through, some days thats just the best you can do.

My new shoes feel great.  Started using them already cause I'm just too paranoid about my stress fracture coming back.  Seeing as I have picked my miles up to get ready for my second half, I feel like I have to be extra careful to stay injury free.  My legs felt so well rested and relaxed tonight, they had so much power.  I ran really fast and my lungs could just not keep up.  It was a great tempo run and I beat my previous 5k and 10k PR's.  In a training run, crazy.  

I decided to cut back on my miles and try and take it easy for a few days.  So many little aches and pains nagging at me I don't want to push too hard and get injured.  Maybe I got a little too excited about my 1/2 coming at the end of the month and upped my miles too quickly.  I have a habit of pushing myself too hard, I need to learn how to pull back a little.

Felt great to get out and run in the crisp fall air.  I wanted to go further but it was getting dark and I hate running in the dark.  Have a race coming up on Saturday at Thanksgiving point, women only run.   Its 6k which is kind of a weird distance.  Hope I can have fun and that it does not rain like it did last year.

Tried to get a bit of a long run in since I missed this weekend.  A calf muscle has been acting up the past few runs.  But my chiropractor showed me a new way to stretch it, he said it was the soleus.  That really seemed to help because I barely felt it my whole run.  I'm lucky enough to go to the chiropractor three times a week for the past month.  Got rear ended in Aug. and I'm being treated for neck and back strains.  Lucky me.

Never done a race report before so here goes.  Have not done a race since springtime and for some reason I was feeling very nervous.  I tried to keep busy yesterday and not think about it, but it did not help much.  Got up early at 5:50 for a yummy breakfast of toast and apple juice.  Got there at 7:30, half hour before start.  Did a little warm up job, trip to the bathroom before the lines got long and then some stretching.  It was pretty chilly out, I'm glad I brought a big coat.  My sister-in-law arrived with her family to come run the race with me.  It was fun to have them there, my brother took a lot of pictures with his paparazzi camera.

 We started right at the front and that was a good choice for me, I felt like I had a great start.  Ran in fourth position for more then half the race.  Then someone came sneaking up on me when we got to the hilly part.  I feel like hills always tend to be my weakness.  She was pretty tiny and I could see she just did not have to hull as much "muchness" us the hill as me.  We ran the last mile neck and neck passing each other back and forth a bit.  After we were out of moves we just ran side by side till the finish line fighting for fourth place.  When we turned the corner and saw the finish line about 50 M away we both kicked in to full sprints.  I gave it everything I had but she got ahead of me and finished just a few seconds ahead.  I was actually ok with her beating me because I knew I gave it absolutely everything I had.  I was really happy with 5th overall.  It was a women's only race by the way.  

My time was 31:27 for 6k or 3.72 miles.  That is 8:25 AP.  That was great, I ran this same race course last year with a time of 33:46 and 16th overall.  So took more then 2 minutes off my time.  I'm happy.  I felt like I was running a lot faster then that pace, some people were saying on their Garmins they measured the course a little longer.  I don't have a Garmin, not quite that awesome yet.  But plan to get one for Christmas.   Probably the only 6k race I have ever heard of, sort of a different distance to race.  I got a medal for 2nd in my age division, that was cool.  This was fun, I should do more races.  Now that I have this one out of the way, hopefully I won't get so nervous for the Provo Halloween 1/2 in two weeks.

P.S.  I would have added in a cool picture but have no idea how to do that yet.

My legs felt a little tired after yesterday.  So I just did nice long slow run.  There weather was perfect, the temperature was perfect.  Not too many aches and pains to complain about either.  Everything is going good.

Put in some quick miles on the treadmill.  Too stormy to go out this evening.  The best part of my run was that all the kids were in bed and I could just zone out to my music.

Had to sneak some miles in on the treadmill while my girls watched Disney Jr. Some

Days I'm just lucky to get a run in at all. Now to see if I can get them to be good so I can have a shower.

Did not get in as many miles today as I would have liked.  Just getting over being sick so I tried to take it easy on my run today.  Friday I had a horrible stomach bug and to be polite all I will say is that I lost 4 lbs in one day.  Well I did want to slim down a bit before my 1/2 on Sat but this was not really what I had in mind.  I hope I'm feeing good and back to myself by race day.  

Super fun treadmill miles.  My stomach was really upset tonight, that made my run less then awesome.  Guess I'm not fully over whatever I had this last weekend.  Hoping all is well and back to normal by Saturday.  

Did some fine tuning to my costume last night.  Took it for a test run down my street and back.  Wonder if any of the neighbors were wondering who that crazy person was.  Going as Link from the Legends of Zelda.  Just had to make sure my faux boots and green hat all stayed in place while running.

Got to the University mall just before 6:30 am and got to stand in line for the bus for almost an hour.  Can I say FREEZING.  At least the buses were heated when we finally got on. Met jpark from the blog who was fun to chat with on the ride up.  I spent a lot of time on my costume (Link from Zelda) getting everything just right.  But once I actually started to run in my costume I ran into a major problem.  My stupid pants would not stay up.  They were new running pants that I had bought for my costume because they were the white color I needed. But I never ran in them before and I guess that was a big mistake, we live and learn right.  During the first four miles or so of the race I had to stop several times to pull my pants up.  I almost nearly lost them once and that would have been pretty ridiculous.   Maybe it was because it was so freezing cold, I saw a few other runners trying to hike their pants up too.   Once I got down into the canyon and the downgrade was not so steep and I was warmed up a bit the problem was not as bad, they seemed to stay up better.  

It was still pretty frustrating though, I was so concentrated on keeping my pants up for the first part of the race I wasn't really focusing on my running.  I was pretty sure my goal time was gonna be pretty hard to reach after such a difficult start.  On the upside my costume was pretty good and authentic looking, I got a lot of cheers from other runners which was fun.  I was hoping to do the course in 1:55 but fell a bit short of that.  Guess I can always try again next year.  My legs are so much more sore then any other race I have ever run, I had no idea all that downhill would effect them so much.  This race was big and exciting and it was a lot of fun, also a really great learning experience for me.   

Got on the treadmill tonight for some quick miles.  It felt great to run after taking a whole week off.  After I finished my half last Sat 27th I told my husband I was so exhausted I was going to take a week off, but I didn't really mean it.  The first two days after my race were surprisingly brutal.  My legs have never felt so sore after running in my life, that was crazy.  I literally hobbled around my house and my legs swelled up.  They were actually puffy looking.  Weird.  

Then I got sick with a bad cold and went through several boxes of tissues.  By today I was starting to feel desperate, still have some lingering stuffiness but ran anyways.  It felt great and I hope I don't have to miss a whole week again for a very long time.  I don't even want to mention all the buckets of Halloween candy I have downed the past few days, its shamefully regretful.  

Stuck on the treadmill again tonight.  It was good to get a run in, better then none.

Why does running on my treadmill feel like it takes so much more effort to keep the same

pace that is easier when running outside? 

I'm so glad my two year old woke me up at 6:30 this morning so that I could not use the excuse that I couldn't wake up and get out of bed for my run.  Since I was already up I just got my running clothes on and went.  It was so freezing I put on my new nike running sweater.  It wasn't even warm enough at first, just perfect in the middle, and way too hot by the end.

Treadmill again, too much snow everywhere.  I had a surprisingly really nice and enjoyable workout.  I played with the speed a lot to keep myself from getting bored.  Doing the intervals made it kinda fun.  Well as fun as a treadmill can possibly be.  AP 8:50

Feels great running on my treadmill in the garage with it being so cold.  Much better then in the summer time when it was roasting.  4 miles AP 8:23  I'm hoping to keep a base mileage of 20 miles per week through the holidays, after that I'm going to try and gradually ramp it up for spring time.   

3 on the treadmill.   I really need to get a long run in outside this weekend.  I'm pretty sure the snow capped mountains will make better scenery then the garage door.

Nice to run outside just before the sun goes down. A bit chilly, but that actually felt nice. AP 8:50

I really enjoy running outside when its 50 degrees, it does not get any better then that for me.  7.6 mile loop by the AF temple AP 8:57  

5.5 super fun treadmill miles.  And it was so nice outside today too.  If I just had a babysitter today at 2 or 3 it would have been so nice to go out in that sunshine.  Us mom's really have it hard sometimes.  AP 8:56

Beautiful morning for a run, had to go and earn my turkey.  I don't think I could have run enough miles today to counteract the pie buffet I'm going to sample tonight. :)  

It was beautiful and warm out today, amazing for this time of year.  Slowed down a bit today and just tried to enjoy my run.  Ran on the new murdock canal trail.  Not even sure if it is officially open yet, but there were a bunch of people using it so I thought why not me too.

Did a half mile warm-up then 5k tempo in 24:49.  AP 7:59  Threw in some intervals just to keep it interesting.  Intervals always make my treadmill workouts go by faster and less boring.  Half mile cool down jog and thats all she wrote.

When I first started running I felt really blah, guess thats what happens when two sick kids keep you up all night.  I just wasn't into it at all and did not think I could do more then 3.  Kept going, worked through the mental anguish of treadmill dreary and finally started to feel better after 30 minutes.  Started to feel so good I thought I could go forever. (thank you endorphins :)  Well I did not go forever, but I did run 8 miles.  AP 8:50

Went with the frog in the boiling pot of water analogy today to keep my treadmill workout interesting.  Started at 6mph and every minute moved it up .1 on the speed.  Took 20 minutes to work up to 8mph and held it there for two minutes.  Then started back down the speed mountain until I got to 7.0, it seemed a lot harder coming down then it did going up.  Put in 4 miles, AP 8:23

This workout was actually really challenging, I was huffing, puffing, and sweating like crazy.  But it was definitely interesting, so mission accomplished. 

PM- 1 hour yoga class with my friend.  This was my first time doing a yoga class and I liked it a lot.  There was a lot of focus on strengthening the core, which is what I really need. 

4 miles on the TM, did not really want to do it.  But I had to round of my week with 20 miles, so I made myself get through it.  Maybe tomorrow I will get a chance to go outside and that will be more fun.  I'm just in a mood and did not really feel like doing anything useful at all today.

I only took two days off and I feel like such a slacker.  I had two sick kids and just could not pull it together to get my running in.  Oh well, as least I had a good workout tonight and the kids are on the mend, mostly.  Half mile warm up, followed by 3 mile tempo, then two easy miles.  AP 8:35

7 miles on the TM, AP 8:50  I have not been very dedicated or motivated about my running this week.  Maybe its the cold weather and getting dark early.  Or the holiday season, that makes me want to sit around, watch TV, eat cookies all day.  Generally just be a big slacker and get fat.  I've just been telling myself that come the new year I will buckle down and get to work.  I am getting a new pink Garmin forerunner 10 for Christmas, maybe that will help give me some new motivation. 

Half mile warm up jog.  3 mile tempo.  AP 8:03  followed by half mile cool down jog.  Pretty frosty cold in the garage tonight, but TM running always makes me heat up quick.   I can't wait to read about what dedicated FR bloggers went out today in this weather for a little run.  My TM can be a real drag sometimes, but today I was grateful for it. 

Half mile warm up, 6 miles AP 8:50, half mile cool down.  Hooked my ipad into my treadmill speaker system for the first time and it worked great.  Watching a documentary on healthy eating while running was motivational and made the time go by fast.  And it was nice to run free of headphones.

I finally got back on my treadmill after a two week break.  This was a strategic break of sorts, had some aches and pains that were getting a little too serious and felt the need to take some time off.  But it was also nice to take a break for the Christmas holiday, that worked out well.  Did four miles tonight, 1/2 mile warmup, 3 mile run AP 8:50, then 1/2 mile cool down.  It felt so good to run again after time off, the treadmill did not feel half as boring as usual.  

I'm afraid I feel a lot fatter after my no running for two weeks and about a million Christmas cookies later.  Can I just say that I have absolutely no self control sometimes.  I'm just a full on sugar addict.  And people just keep dropping the stuff off at our door, so in my defense it was not really all my fault.  I'm hoping the new year will bring new motivation for me to watch what I'm eating a little bit better.