A Midsummer Morning's Run...

Today I met up with my sis-in-law Melinda to go for a rigorous morning run. There is a great major trail that runs near where we live so we picked a spot between my house and hers and met there. We started off with a few pictures to commemorate our little training session as we prepare for our upcoming races. After a few cute/silly photos, we were off. We ran and ran.

A bird chirped angrily as we passed it.

We got passed by trail patrol...Trail Patrol? I've never seen them before...what an awesome job, I would love a job like that! ...Ahhh sorry I digress.... anywho, we kept running and conversing about this-n-that.

We were passed by a few bikers and by a few hunky runners coming from the other direction (suck in your guts girls...lol...). Nothing makes you run with better form then running past someone...especially hunky guys....lol.

We got overtaken by an older runner who came upon us and then zipped on by.... good for him!!

I saw a few snails on the trail... no they weren't passing us...lol.

Along the way we even saw a snake. He looked something like this guy:




I almost stepped on him as I was running. Good thing at that moment I happened to be looking at the ground and could avoid him... and squeal...and jump 2 feet in the air...lol...

Nothing like a good scream to spice up a run. We finally did complete our run after an hour and fifteen minutes. Not too shabby a time really. That's my longest run so far... 5.5 miles.

As i sit here scratching my deerfly bites I can now say that I've proudly broken another P.R. this time for distance!

So Totally Psyched....

I just had my best run ever!!! Wow that makes me soooo happy. I did a little run I have mapped out near my house. It's 1.78 miles, just a little loopy. It only crosses the main road twice and the rest is nice residential. It's 80 degrees and cloudy. Hardly a breeze and on the humid side 48% to be exact. (I'm a weather freak) But it was awesome. I started out running and it was good. My mind was buzzing with all kinds of random thoughts. Flowers were in full bloom everywhere and everynow and then a puff of breeze would lightly endulge me with the sweet scent of lilacs. I LOVE lilacs. The run itself was going great, I sprinted across the main road with the ease of a gazelle and when I got home again and stopped to stretch I then realized...I was DRENCHED with sweat. I figured wow...it must be really hot out. Never thinking my run had any special time or speed to it... till I looked at the timer. I did 1.78 miles in 18 minutes!! that's the fastest I've EVER gone...in my adult life anyway. I'm so proud. So my sweat was well deserved and VERY satisfying. Now I'm in like the best mood ever....

I'm walking on sunshine, woooah
I'm walking on sunshine, woooah
and don't it feel good!!

Running..... it's my Prozac!!

Intervals & X-training

I thought I might mix it up again.... So this time I did some intervals instead of my straight 3 miles. I decided I'd do a faster pace (for me)and pop it up to 6.2 MPH. I thought the easiest thing to do would be just week one of the C25K again this time just at the much faster pace. So that's what I did...

Five-minute warmup then...
Alternate 60 seconds of jogging (6.2 MPH)
and 90 seconds of walking (4.0 MPH)
for 20 minutes

That ended up being about 1.6 miles, and I wasn't dead, amazing! I figured at that pace I might not be able to keep up and toward the end I'd shoot off the back of the treadmill...lol.



But I didn't!! It was a challenge...but a doable challenge and it felt GREAT!
After that I did some exercises with my stability ball.

Ball Squats



And

Leg lifts


After all that I felt like I got a pretty good workout.

The Run thru Purgatory is getting closer and I'm starting to get butterflies now...First Race....Scary!!

Just a Quickie

Today instead of my 3 miles, I thought I'd just do 2 miles and try to ramp my pace up instead. I thought it might be good to mix it up a little and to be honest... I'm still having some muscle fatigue from my outside run. So I got on the treadmill and really pushed myself.

5 minute warm-up at 3.3 MPH.
21:25 run at 5.6 MPH for 2 Miles
5 minutes cool down at 2.5 MPH.
Pace: 10:41

That's a bit of alright!

I'm pretty pleased with those numbers, I am getting better!
As far as the muscle fatigue goes...the weird muscles in your leg are what's tender on me...like my ankles, the muscle on the inside of my leg on top of my knee, and the back of my knee that muscle is tender too. My thought is that these must be the muscles I use to stabilize myself on rough terrain and they haven't been used much since I've only ran on the treadmill. But sore muscles mean in a few days I'll have stronger muscles so that's a good thing.

Goin' Outside

That actually felt pretty good...
I ran outside for the first time today. I figured since I'd been bummed out about my weight and my running a change of pace and scenery might do me some good. It was a nice day for a run too... 61 degrees, Mostly sunny, winds out of the WNW sustained at 7MPH with gusts up to 29MPH.
Starting out I was running straight into the wind and the gusts were strong enough at times to almost stop me dead in my tracks. But on the way back of course the wind was at my back pushing me along which really made me feel great. I think the run outside was a nice break for me. I had been fearing it for a while now, just because I've spent all this time training indoors on my treadmill. All in all for my first time out in the world I'd say I did pretty well.

8 minute warm-up to get out in the open.
38:30 run at 4.92 MPH for 3.16 Miles
8 minutes cool down walk back to the house.
Pace: 12:11

I'm considering this Week 9 Day 2

Fickle Feelings

It’s weird how one day you can be gleeful over a good run, and then the next day beat yourself up about it. This week things are not going as planned because of a MINOR surgery and I mean M-I-N-O-R. I had a tiny cyst removed from my lower back. Just a ¾ inch incision; just one stitch. But between that and trusty Aunt Flo … I didn’t run practically all week. No running, means no weight loss and in fact my weight has gone up three pounds in 4 days!! It's the same few pounds, over and over again..lose them gain them, lose them again....AGGGGGHHHHH. I’m eating essentially the same…not the greatest food choices but not horrible and I’m trying to watch my portion sizes. But that scale just seems to hate me.

Besides weight, running has me down to...I know a few days of laying around isn’t going to ruin my running progress forever, but I also know that it’s not going to get any easier and I won’t get any faster if I’m not running; and since I ALREADY feel like a land monster when I run… well, it just makes me sad. Not to say that I feel fat when I run… it’s not that. I just feel slow; real slow, like sloth slow. I feel like I’ll never be fast or even normal. I get wild expectations like 5K in less than 28 minutes which for me right now is virtually impossible. But rather than cut myself some slack and say,” hey I’ve only seriously been running for a short time and what I’m doing is good for where I’m at right now”…. I opt for the beat myself up head games that get me to the point where I want to give up or work out so hard that I risk serious injury. This time around, I’m not doing either of the aforementioned options. I’m just sitting here knowing how I should look at it… feeling bad… struggling to look at this in the right light…and pondering why I do this to myself.

Week 9 Day 1....Finally!

Yes that's right...I finally decided to go on to week nine. Today was the first day of 3.0 miles and I did it! At mile two I had to stop for a second to take a potty break, but then I was right back at it. The run was hard but manageable which was nice. It gave me a much needed boost of confidence. After week nine I'm considering taking it outside...gulp!! I hope being outside doesn't slow me down too much. I don't wanna feel like I'm starting all over again. That would be a hard blow for me to take.

5 minute warm-up at 3.0 MPH for 0.25 Miles
36:05 run at 4.99 MPH for 3.0 Miles
5 minutes cool down 3.0 MPH for 0.25 Miles
Pace: 12:01

Not too Shabby!!

Week 8 ..... Day 4?

Yeah Day 4...lol...I don't wanna move to week nine in the middle of a week like this, and I don't wanna commit to run 3.0 miles every time just yet either. I did however run the 3 miles today, just to see if I'd survive and I did! YEA! lol.. I'm pretty please with that. Now I know that I can in fact finish the 5K. So that's got me pretty stoked! I also figured kicking it up a notch and doing the 3 miles vs. the 2.75 would help burn a few more calories so that maybe...just maybe, I can lose some weight for the Independence Weight Loss Challenge I'm taking part in.(see bottom of page) The timing of that challenge is just fabulous since my first 5K is Saturday July 05, 2008. Hopefully I'll drop a few pounds and be looking nice and svelte for the race.

Here's the nitty gritty on today's run...

5 minute warm-up at 3.3 MPH for 0.27 Miles
36:45 run at 4.9 MPH for 3.0 Miles
5 minutes cool down 3.0 MPH for 0.25 Miles
Pace: 12:15

I feel pretty good about that!

Week 8 Day 3

Another day another run. Not so good a run. That's ok though since I worked all night then had an orthodontist appointment and then when I got home decided that was the time to run...yikes. So i'm not gonna beat myself up too much over it. At least I got a run in anyway.

So today run went like this....

5 minute warm-up at 3.3MPH for 0.27 Miles
34:50 run at 4.7MPH for 2.75 Miles
5 minutes cool down 3.3 MPH for 0.27 Miles
Pace: 12:40

So now I"m off to get some much needed sleep!!!