Week 12...

First run of week 12 went not that great. A combination of not hydrating well enough, still feeling the affects of my 6 miler on Saturday and running with "daddy-long-legs" (AKA Tom) kinda got me down a little. BUT I got out there and did it. Also, it has been several weeks since I have gotten myself out of bed and on the road on a Monday morning. Now that I will be adding a run day this week for the remainder of my training plan I REALLY need to get out on Monday mornings and run. Even when I don't want to. If I don't then I'll be running too many days in a row OR pushing my long run to Sunday. Sunday really isn't a good option with church all morning and the opportunity to watch football with our peeps in the afternoon, that should be enough for me to get myself out the door on a Monday...I hope.

I'm over half way to my first Half Marathon and if I were to think in terms of how today went, I would say that my first half will be a complete and total disaster! Thankfully there are still many weeks left and I know that I'll have not so great days...just wasn't expecting an easy 3 miles to be so difficult.


Wednesday will be better! Couldn't get worse...or could it?

A Speedy Compromise?

Yesterday I thought that I would be doing 800's at the track today. Coach Tom had other plans and decided that I would be doing 1320's or 1200's instead. At first there was talk that I would be doing a tempo run...whoa there...I did tempo LAST week...not doing that again! So - 1200's is different because I don't know what my time would be for a .75 of a mile distance.

So we arrived at the track, sufficiently warmed up and Tom informed me what I would be doing and I was a little put off because it wasn't what I wanted to do, but hey - this is more brain training!

Started off the first interval feeling pretty good and actually continued to feel good through the last lap. It was weird not having to run another lap, but then at the same time it was a little odd to not stop after two. Man, I must have really wanted to run 800's! My first time was 8:47 (I think). Since the last time I did speedwork was a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't remember what my time was for the 1600 - I only remember long enough to get it recorded and then I promptly free up that space for new memories :)

Interval #2 was a little rough, felt tired, which meant I push a little hard - but in the process of pushing harder I speed up faster than I think and actually end up running the 2nd interval faster than the first...by more than 30 seconds. I am unsure of what my final time was because I was too busy trying not to die at the end and just wanted to stop and get some water. I really wasn't paying attention when Tom was calling out the times.

So, there we have it. My speedwork session was less than the prescribed, but more than I had envisioned. I guess that's a happy medium!

Will finish out the week with a 6 mile run on Saturday. Actually, I think we'll get out tomorrow and do a super easy run to make up for the distance that I didn't do today and the bit that I didn't get on Saturday.

Yes, I'm that obsessed about numbers...don't judge me.

Next week is all easy 3 mile runs, but there will start adding an additional day to the routine. Seriously, there is no rest for the weary....

Holiday Half here I come!!!

All Is Well, really...

This past Saturday was supposed to be a 6 mile long run. It turned out to be five and a half - I may have walked about half of it. I was not feeling good at all.

The morning started off a little rough and I was not in a good place emotionally to actually want to move forward with my run. Instead of doing a route that would take me away from Salmon Creek, I remapped a route that would take me close to six miles around Salmon Creek and got going.

I knew almost immediately that things were not good. I had no motivation - was stewing over the fact that I would be in company with a difficult person later in the day...I was upset with Tom and all around unhappy. Usually a run will help, but for some reason this one didn't. As I was nearing the end of the route and was about a mile from home I decided that I needed to quit trying so hard and just walk AND not beat myself up over my failed attempt.

For some reason I thought I would be feeling better and get out early on Monday, but that didn't happen. All I can say is that rude people suck and those people suck the life out of me.

So yesterday I HAD to get out, otherwise I would be trying to make up 5 miles before the week is over and that is not an option. Tom and I were out earlier than I normally would be out on a regular 4 mile run a little before 6 I think. It was dark, dark, dark!

What a difference a couple of days of rest makes! The other difference would be that I had some GU before we left - I felt as if I had some energy, crazy!

So, with my longer than usual first run of the week out of the way I am now looking forward to doing speedwork at the track tomorrow morning. Back to the 2 x 1600 routine - although I may discuss with Coach Tom the idea of doing 800's instead, just do more of them. I like that idea better :)

All it takes is one really good run for me to LOVE running again and to have a better day. I'm also pretty excited that I'll be retiring my shoes that I have been running in since March after tomorrow's run - 300 miles baby!

Just two more not so easy runs - speed work and then a 6 mile long run on Saturday :) Next week is all easy - 3 miles, but I'll be adding a run day. OYE...

Run Baby Run!

A Lesson in Food Choices

A couple of weeks ago I was on vacation. You would think that my running routine would be okay - it wasn't.

The week started off not terribly great as I had a couple of doctor's appointments and I didn't really have the time between the appointments and napping to actually hydrate well for my run the next day.

Tuesday rolls around and I had the worst run ever - well, not really, but it certainly didn't feel good. I'm just glad that it was only an easy 3 miles. All I remember is that I had to TRY really hard to actually run the 3 miles - which isn't usually a problem. It was painful - but I was good and did it and tried very hard to not beat myself up over it as I am prone to do. I was, after all, on vacation.

We were set to take the train to Seattle and we needed wanted food to bring along with us. So after spending some quality time at "our" Starbucks we mosey'd over to Fred Meyer and took a walk around the store to see what looked good. I settled on some popcorn chicken, you know the breaded and fried kind...as if there is any other kind. Then to make that choice not horrible I got a little veggie tray with ranch dressing to go with it. Yeah, that's a REALLY good choice - especially the ranch dressing! I know that I got at least one Odwalla bar, possibly two and I think a bag of chips, but I don't remember that.

I was set for lunch!

So we happily nibbled on our lunch choices during the ride to Seattle and were "fat and happy" upon our arrival. Our next meal was dinner - and since we had arrived close to dinner time we decided why not eat food at the stadium? Well, duh...why not?!

The hotel is directly across the street from Safeco so we rested up a bit and then walked over to start our first baseball experience. We had our tickets scanned and were promptly informed that our tickets were worth $10 on concessions or purchases from the Team Store.

WHAAAAT?!  COOL!

I, of course, wanted to go to the team store...but with the Tuesday discount, I still had a little bit left on the ticket for concessions. Sooo, what to have for dinner, hmmmm???? After walking around the entire stadium, we decided on Ivars - I know, exotic! Halibut and chips please. It was good and I was starting to feel the affects of all the fried foods that I had been consuming at my two main meals so far. I didn't stop there....oh nooo, I was informed that the Garlic Fries are a must. So about the 7th inning I decided I "needed" to get said fries and ingest even more fried yumminess.

OMG - I wasn't feeling so great afterwards.

But wait, there's more! Breakfast the next day....I could have gone somewhat healthy, but why would I do that on my vacation? Nope, I ordered a mimosa and corned beef hash with a fried egg. Okay, now I'm really not feeling all that great...blaaaaaah...it might have been the mimosa - bahahaha!

Just when I thought that Tuesday's run was bad...Thursday was somewhat disastrous. I did quite a bit of walking and didn't feel bad about doing that.

Lesson learned - fried foods taste good, but bring bad results. Drinking water is better than drinking a mimosa...yeah, it was only one, but still. In the couple of weeks since then, I have felt MUCH better and have been keeping on top of my hydration and nutrition...mostly.

Little secret - I would totally indulge again...

Memory Refreshed

With all the rain and wind that happened last weekend I had to do some rethinking on my long run. First I thought that I would just skip Saturday and run on Sunday morning. After watching the news a little more and seeing that things would be getting worse and not better on Sunday I decided that I would run on the treadmill at work.

Yeah, that's the ticket...I haven't used the treadmill in MONTHS.

Well, on Saturday morning I was reminded of how much I loathe the treadmill. I don't think that I was even on it for more than two minutes and KNEW that I was done, but I couldn't be done with my "run." I drove all the way to work (only about 6 miles) to run on that stupid thing after all. So I decided to do half of my long run on Saturday and finish up on the road on Sunday before getting ready for church.

First, I don't remember how to work the stupid machine and it wouldn't allow me to use the setting that I wanted - Strike 1. Then my shoe felt a little loose so I decided to pause and re-tie my shoe. In the process of doing that, the treadmill turned off - Strike 2. Strike three would be having two strikes already in my head. I was not into this at all.

The two and a half miles took FOR-EVER...I thought I would die...but I held it together and maintained some sense of composure. When I finished I could not get out of there quick enough, but not before a couple of minutes on the elliptical.

Yeah that thing sucks too.

Road runs all the way for this girl!

run, Run, RUN!!!