We went on a little trip to NYC last weekend to visit my brother and his super cool wife. And we flew. With both babies. And a husband who had just arrived home from China not even 12 hours prior to our departure. We are hardcore in our family. We don't just fly- we fly with 2 infants (first time for either baby on a plane) and 1 jetlager.
We didn't really have anything on our agenda- just Central Park mainly. I wanted to take Beverly to the zoo. So we did. And secretly I wanted to run the Central Park loop with my husband. It's 6.2 miles, which intimidated me a little. I know I needed to be running that kind of distance, but I was a little scared to try. What if I have to stop and walk? What if I start running too fast and just die half way through? Heaven forbid I just go out and run. Geeze. Anyway, here is the play-by-play of the run:
Both babies decided to take long naps so the husband and I decided that would be a good time to go run the loop. It was awesome to be able to go on a long run with the husband, just the two of us. I think it's super cool that we have running in common. It's like date night for nerds. "Hey baby. Wanna go for a run?"
The first part of the loop smelled like horse poop. Then I got hollered at by a girl on roller skates to "watch behind" me while I was running. I could seriously type for 3 pages about roller skater girl's comment, but let's just move on. We ran up around the reservoir for a short while too. Didn't even know there was one in Central Park. Then we entered into this super cool part of Central Park that doesn't resemble NYC at all. You couldn't really see any buildings or hear any street noise. It was like you could convince yourself that you were running on a hilly, tree lined road anywhere in America. I thought that was cool. And there was a pool. Then there was a garbage truck in front of us. Gross. I almost threw up. NYC trash smells worse than any other trash. Except for maybe in Korea. Korea definitely smelled bad. We ran some more. Then got stuck behind another garbage truck. Gross again. We ran some more. Then the smell of horse poop came back and I knew we were close to being done. And then we finished! It was one of my all time favorite runs. We ran the whole time at about a 10:00 mile pace. It was amazing.
It was fun to see how far Clayton's watch said we had ran (his uses GPS) and how far mine said we had gone. They were pretty close. In the end I think they were only like .1 miles off of each other.
We got back home on a Sunday and I went to the speed session Monday night. I hadn't been in about 3 weeks. It was an easier session which was fine with me. My running buddy wasn't there- sad. But I did "win" a water bottle holder hand grip thing. I did my lunges at the end of the workout the slowest. Who knew you'd win a prize for that??
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Saturday, August 18, 2012
I promise I'm still running!
I've actually had a pretty good month. Well, for me at least. I've been going to the Monday night speed sessions and I've been running every Thursday morning for the past month+. "Hey, 5am. How YOU doin'?" I've even managed to finagle someone into running one morning with me. But only once. My goal was to run at least one other day during the week- either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. That hasn't happened. Except for 1 race. I don't have a legitimate excuse but I do have reasons...
It's totally because I'm making other things my priority instead of running (which is exactly what my husband called me out on the other week). Sometimes its laundry or other cleanliness related thing. Sometimes its errands or little to-dos that need to get done. This is obviously a balance issue that I need to figure out.
Time for good news! Last weekend the husband and I did a 5k. It was an absolutely perfect morning for running! The nasty heat we've been having for the past few months finally broke so it was an amazing 70 degrees that morning. We even had to bust out the long sleeves! My goal was to break 27:00. I ran a 26:30. Yay! The watch really helped me on this run. It was awesome to see what pace I was going at and how far I'd run.
I've had to skip most of my running this week since husband is away on business. I managed to sneak in a little 4.1 miler at 9:13 pace yesterday though. I'm still deciding on a short run later tonight. I really want to give the double BoB a whirl so I'm leaning towards going. We'll see.
The next race I'm planning on doing is a 10k trail run down in Fayetteville at the end of September. I haven't really done any trail running and haven't run over 6 miles in like........ ummm...... 6 years?? Something like that. So needless to say I have a lot of work to do before then.
It's totally because I'm making other things my priority instead of running (which is exactly what my husband called me out on the other week). Sometimes its laundry or other cleanliness related thing. Sometimes its errands or little to-dos that need to get done. This is obviously a balance issue that I need to figure out.
Time for good news! Last weekend the husband and I did a 5k. It was an absolutely perfect morning for running! The nasty heat we've been having for the past few months finally broke so it was an amazing 70 degrees that morning. We even had to bust out the long sleeves! My goal was to break 27:00. I ran a 26:30. Yay! The watch really helped me on this run. It was awesome to see what pace I was going at and how far I'd run.
I've had to skip most of my running this week since husband is away on business. I managed to sneak in a little 4.1 miler at 9:13 pace yesterday though. I'm still deciding on a short run later tonight. I really want to give the double BoB a whirl so I'm leaning towards going. We'll see.
The next race I'm planning on doing is a 10k trail run down in Fayetteville at the end of September. I haven't really done any trail running and haven't run over 6 miles in like........ ummm...... 6 years?? Something like that. So needless to say I have a lot of work to do before then.
Monday, June 25, 2012
First 5K and other milestones
A couple items of note happened in my training world in the past few weeks.
1. I ran really far. 5.7 miles to be exact. It was another awesome run where Superman himself was running through my veins and I felt like I could go on forever. I set out determined to run until the sun went down, and that's exactly what I did. It was glorious. My next step is to do 6+ miles. I'm thinking I can make that happen next week......
2. I did the Cancer Challenge 5K this past weekend. I didn't do nearly as well as I'd hoped, but I ran what I felt like was a realistic (albeit sad and humbling) picture of where I am with training. I'll spare the details. I ran 3.1 miles in 27:30ish. I was really hoping for an under 9:00 mile pace. But at least now I have a starting point and it'll only get better from here!
3. Rush Running speed session happened today. How hot was it, you ask? 100+ degrees. But my running buddy was there so that made the heat at least tolerable :) It's amazing how having someone to run with makes the workouts and the weather not seem as bad as they would if I was by myself.
4. New training set-backs that I hadn't really thought about happened as well. (Or maybe I did think about them...... I'll have to go back to post #1 and see.) Husband out of town + highs in the upper 90s = no running for this lady. That could have been a partial contributor to my less than stellar preformance on Saturday.
August 11 is the next race that I know for sure I'm doing. Tontitown's Run for the Grapes 5k. I did it last year with a friend, pushing a stoller, newly preggo, and it was awesome! My goal this year will be 25:30. Game on.
1. I ran really far. 5.7 miles to be exact. It was another awesome run where Superman himself was running through my veins and I felt like I could go on forever. I set out determined to run until the sun went down, and that's exactly what I did. It was glorious. My next step is to do 6+ miles. I'm thinking I can make that happen next week......
2. I did the Cancer Challenge 5K this past weekend. I didn't do nearly as well as I'd hoped, but I ran what I felt like was a realistic (albeit sad and humbling) picture of where I am with training. I'll spare the details. I ran 3.1 miles in 27:30ish. I was really hoping for an under 9:00 mile pace. But at least now I have a starting point and it'll only get better from here!
3. Rush Running speed session happened today. How hot was it, you ask? 100+ degrees. But my running buddy was there so that made the heat at least tolerable :) It's amazing how having someone to run with makes the workouts and the weather not seem as bad as they would if I was by myself.
4. New training set-backs that I hadn't really thought about happened as well. (Or maybe I did think about them...... I'll have to go back to post #1 and see.) Husband out of town + highs in the upper 90s = no running for this lady. That could have been a partial contributor to my less than stellar preformance on Saturday.
August 11 is the next race that I know for sure I'm doing. Tontitown's Run for the Grapes 5k. I did it last year with a friend, pushing a stoller, newly preggo, and it was awesome! My goal this year will be 25:30. Game on.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Outta The Funk. At Least for a Day
My last run was a great run! One of those runs where you feel like you could just go forever. I was determined to make sure my run was longer than 3 miles. I did just over 4. I kept the pace easy going for the first 3 miles. For the last mile-ish I picked up the pace and tried to keep it at under 9:00. And I still felt great at the end!
I'm still planning on running later today. I have a feeling that it will either start raining or I'll get distracted by baking and end up not going.
Tomorrow is Monday which means speed session day. I do believe I will be participating again this week. We'll see.
I keep going back and forth between wanting to do the 5k or the 10k at the Cancer Challenge in a couple weeks. I've never done a 10k, only 5ks and a marathon. Kinda backwards, isn't it? And it's not like there are a ton of 10ks around. But at the same time, I need to work on speed and a 5k would be a good judge of where I am fitness wise. Decisions, decisions.
I'm still planning on running later today. I have a feeling that it will either start raining or I'll get distracted by baking and end up not going.
Tomorrow is Monday which means speed session day. I do believe I will be participating again this week. We'll see.
I keep going back and forth between wanting to do the 5k or the 10k at the Cancer Challenge in a couple weeks. I've never done a 10k, only 5ks and a marathon. Kinda backwards, isn't it? And it's not like there are a ton of 10ks around. But at the same time, I need to work on speed and a 5k would be a good judge of where I am fitness wise. Decisions, decisions.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
I Found Out I'm Slow. And I'm Commiting to the 4.
So I did end up doing a trail run after my last post. Well, part of the run was trail. I finally got around to running through the Crystal Bridges Museum trails. They are so nice! And so fun! I forgot how much fun trail running is and how different it is from running on paths and sidewalks. I feel like I could run forever on a trail. It's like every step is a challenge- where to put your feet, step up, step over, run through- it's a blast! I think I might try to trail run a couple times a month from here on out.
I did my first speed session last week. Just in case our local running store, Rush Running, wasn't awesome enough as it is, they put on free speed sessions at the track every Monday. I'm not even kidding that there are 70ish people who attend every week. Some people are super duper fast and some people have never even ran before. It's totally cool. Last summer Hubs and I would trade off weeks. Someone would do the speed workout and the other one would take little Beverly on a run in the BoB. I haven't done a speed session in almost a year. And it showed. Holy cow. We had to sprint 200m before we got into our intervals and I thought my legs were going to fall off. Really it was my quads. I decided that after each run from now on I'm going to do some sprints up and down my street. I can't even believe how slow I was. It's like my body forgot how to sprint. Weird, but I guess it makes sense.
I totally made one of the girls at the speed session run with me. Or I made myself run with her, I'm not sure. But either way it was nice to run next to someone and have them push you. She made me run more than I originally intended to and I appreciated that from her. Even though I thought I was going to puke after the last set. I've never puked from running before, but man I was close last Monday :)
I feel like I'm in a 3 mile funk. All my runs are right around 3 miles. I think it's time to up my game and Commit To The 4. I need to make all my runs at least 4 miles to get out of this funk. And if they are less than 4 miles, they need to be fast. Like under 9:00 fast. (Please hold your comments- under 9:00 is fast for me right now.) I'll keep you posted on how that goes.
I'm going to sign up for my first race soon. It's going to be the Cancer Challenge June 23 and I will be doing the 5k. I originally thought 10k. But that was before I realized how slow I am. So I'm going to use the 5k as a speed workout. If my splits are under 8:30 I'll be happy.
I did my first speed session last week. Just in case our local running store, Rush Running, wasn't awesome enough as it is, they put on free speed sessions at the track every Monday. I'm not even kidding that there are 70ish people who attend every week. Some people are super duper fast and some people have never even ran before. It's totally cool. Last summer Hubs and I would trade off weeks. Someone would do the speed workout and the other one would take little Beverly on a run in the BoB. I haven't done a speed session in almost a year. And it showed. Holy cow. We had to sprint 200m before we got into our intervals and I thought my legs were going to fall off. Really it was my quads. I decided that after each run from now on I'm going to do some sprints up and down my street. I can't even believe how slow I was. It's like my body forgot how to sprint. Weird, but I guess it makes sense.
I totally made one of the girls at the speed session run with me. Or I made myself run with her, I'm not sure. But either way it was nice to run next to someone and have them push you. She made me run more than I originally intended to and I appreciated that from her. Even though I thought I was going to puke after the last set. I've never puked from running before, but man I was close last Monday :)
I feel like I'm in a 3 mile funk. All my runs are right around 3 miles. I think it's time to up my game and Commit To The 4. I need to make all my runs at least 4 miles to get out of this funk. And if they are less than 4 miles, they need to be fast. Like under 9:00 fast. (Please hold your comments- under 9:00 is fast for me right now.) I'll keep you posted on how that goes.
I'm going to sign up for my first race soon. It's going to be the Cancer Challenge June 23 and I will be doing the 5k. I originally thought 10k. But that was before I realized how slow I am. So I'm going to use the 5k as a speed workout. If my splits are under 8:30 I'll be happy.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Quit counting and just run!
I've decided to quit counting days now. I do believe I have 3 runs under my belt since the last update. Now let's see if I can remember anything about them....
1. This was a short 2.6ish miler. I don't remember how I felt, but I do remember that I counted animals while I ran. I saw a turtle. He ducked his little head in as I ran past. Apparently I'm intimidating. I quit counting once I got to 9 rabbits. Although, some of those could have been counted twice since I did and out and back run.
2. Upping the distance here with about 3.2 miles. I was going to run by myself, but little Beverly was being high maintenance while I was getting ready so I decided to take her along with me. We went to Orchards Park to run. I drive past it and through it all the time and I keep wanting to run there. It was a good decision. There were an unbelievable amount of people at the park, which I think is super cool. There were soccer, baseball, softball, and sand volleyball games going on all over the place. I love seeing people outside like that. Bev was a superstar running partner and did awesome even though it was pretty much past her bedtime before we even got out there.
3. Yesterday. 3.3 miles. I was kinda in a hurry to get my run in. It's amazing how quickly your days fill up when you have a flex week at work (I can work, but I don't have to work during flex weeks. It's a pretty sweet job). Nothing fancy to report on this run.
I'm about to go do my run for today. I'm thinking I'll go back to Orchards Park and hit up the trails around Crystal Bridges. My trail shoes have been sitting, waiting, dying to be ran in for about a year now. Then I'm going to pick up the kiddos from daycare all stinky and sweaty. They're going to love me today :)
1. This was a short 2.6ish miler. I don't remember how I felt, but I do remember that I counted animals while I ran. I saw a turtle. He ducked his little head in as I ran past. Apparently I'm intimidating. I quit counting once I got to 9 rabbits. Although, some of those could have been counted twice since I did and out and back run.
2. Upping the distance here with about 3.2 miles. I was going to run by myself, but little Beverly was being high maintenance while I was getting ready so I decided to take her along with me. We went to Orchards Park to run. I drive past it and through it all the time and I keep wanting to run there. It was a good decision. There were an unbelievable amount of people at the park, which I think is super cool. There were soccer, baseball, softball, and sand volleyball games going on all over the place. I love seeing people outside like that. Bev was a superstar running partner and did awesome even though it was pretty much past her bedtime before we even got out there.
3. Yesterday. 3.3 miles. I was kinda in a hurry to get my run in. It's amazing how quickly your days fill up when you have a flex week at work (I can work, but I don't have to work during flex weeks. It's a pretty sweet job). Nothing fancy to report on this run.
I'm about to go do my run for today. I'm thinking I'll go back to Orchards Park and hit up the trails around Crystal Bridges. My trail shoes have been sitting, waiting, dying to be ran in for about a year now. Then I'm going to pick up the kiddos from daycare all stinky and sweaty. They're going to love me today :)
Thursday, May 3, 2012
The End of The Hiatus!
Holy Hiatus!
The eccentric exercises totally worked (even though I cheated and didn't do them at the gym or as often as I was supposed to). Today was a 1.85 mile run in 16:30 which is an 8:55 mile. It was hard and it hurt. It was great! I was so glad to be out there.
I think I'd better sign up for a race soon to make sure a hiatus doesn't happen again.
As a reminder to my future self, here are the reasons for said hiatus:
1. knees
2. rain
3. Hubs was out of town for 3.5 days
4. there are only 24 hours in a day and sometimes that just isn't enough to accomplish everything you want to. Especially during this crucial time when baby2 is super tiny and I just want to cherish every second of it :)
The eccentric exercises totally worked (even though I cheated and didn't do them at the gym or as often as I was supposed to). Today was a 1.85 mile run in 16:30 which is an 8:55 mile. It was hard and it hurt. It was great! I was so glad to be out there.
I think I'd better sign up for a race soon to make sure a hiatus doesn't happen again.
As a reminder to my future self, here are the reasons for said hiatus:
1. knees
2. rain
3. Hubs was out of town for 3.5 days
4. there are only 24 hours in a day and sometimes that just isn't enough to accomplish everything you want to. Especially during this crucial time when baby2 is super tiny and I just want to cherish every second of it :)
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