Head for the Hills

Time: 26:53 min.
Distance: 2.15 mi.
Pace: 12:56 m/mi.
Time of Day: 6:15 a.m.
Weather: 80°F, humid but breezy


A new route today. Instead of turning left out of my subdivision I turned right and headed out to run some hills. As I've said before, I live half way up a hill. At the bottom of the hill is a river. So I ran almost to the river this morning. I have avoided this area simply because it is all downhill on the outbound, and, of course, uphill all the way back. But it is going to be a good way to get in some hill practice. 


I'm pretty pleased with my performance. I didn't walk at all and to run up a fairly steady incline about a mile long at a 12:56 pace--well, I think that was pretty good. 


BTW, I'm feeling the ab workout yesterday. 


I'm out of town the rest of the week so my workout schedule looks like this:
Wednesday-yoga in the hotel room
Thursday-treadmill for 3-4 miles
Friday-rest
Saturday-Probably an additional rest day since I will be traveling.
Sunday-long run

Hot Time, Summer in the City

Non-running day. I worked on abs this morning. I think my abs are really weak which, in turn, adversely affects my running. I have noticed that as I get tired when running I tend to slump forward. I thought I needed to strengthen my back, and I probably do, but I also think that it might be due to weak abdominal muscles. Gotta keep working on strengthening them.

Excessive Heat Warning—No Kidding!

Run Time: 24:16 min.
Distance: 2.03 mi.
Time of day: 5:33 a.m.
Pace: 11:58 m/mi.
Weather: 75°F, humid


The Love woke up early this morning, took one look at the The Weather Channel and woke me up to go run. At 5:30 a.m. it was already 75° with high humidity. 


Sunday's are my easy run days, after a long run on Saturday. But since I was running on the track I took advantage of the flat surface to do a few speed workouts. Not wanting to overdo, on a couple of laps I went all out for 50 yards. It's a start. 

Long Run

Run Time: 1:07:40
Distance: 5.14 mi.
Time of day: 6:59 a.m.
Pace: 13:10 m/mi
Weather: 70F, cloudy, slightly humid but a nice breeze


I had a great run this morning. My last run longer than 3 miles was back on May 29. So even though I felt great, I capped the run at 5 miles. 


A big thunderstorm rumbled through the area around 3:30 a.m. It cleared some of the humidity and left a nice, but short-lived breeze that helped propel me along. I felt really good running. Less humidity made breathing easier, but after about mile 4 my legs began to feel the workout. It was a good kinda hurt. 


There is an excessive heat warning for the remainder of the weekend. Good thing I only run 2 miles tomorrow. I will get up do it early. 

Me and Wii

Rest Day


Since I don't have a gym membership any more I have to do strength training, etc. at home. My fabuloso kids gave The Love a Wii for his birthday earlier this year. We have played around on it so I am looking to it for fitness workouts on my non-running days. 


The strength training section focuses on the lower body, but the Yoga and balancing sections are great. Also, I did the beginner running activity and was smoking! 


I also have a plethora (inside joke) of fitness videos I can utilize for general body toning and upper body workouts. So I think I'm set.

A New Goal and A New Training Schedule

Time: 38:19 min.
Distance: 3.09 mi.
Time of day: 6:50 a.m.
Pace: 12:24 m/mi.
Temperature: 76°F. Humid, overcast, getting ready to rain. (In fact, it started pouring down rain as we closed the garage door after running.)


I have decided to run the Lewis & Clark Half Marathon on 10/3/10. And, with that race now on my calendar, I worked out a training schedule yesterday. Because I am still a beginner runner (as Coach Jeni occasionally has to remind me) I had her review my schedule and make appropriate changes.


So my actual goal is to finish this half marathon around 2h 45m. That will shave about 10 min. off my Go!St. Louis race time. Coupled with the warm weather and the need for speed, I have my work cut out for me.


So where did this decision come from? 


In the goody bag from the Go!St. Louis race was a postcard about the Lewis & Clark race. I had laid it on my workstation back in April as a reminder that maybe I would want to run in the race. I was cleaning off my workstation last week and picked it up. "Hmmm," I thought. I mentioned the possibility to Coach Jeni and she thought it was a great idea—an early fall race would be a great reason to keep running all summer. 


Yesterday I was going through a stack of CDs & DVDs I had accumulated around my computer and found one I had received back in January when I bought my running shoes. It was a program that originally aired on PBS about training for and running the GO!St. Louis Marathon. The program follows 3 or 4 runners training for the half and the marathon. It was so inspirational! It brought tears to my eyes a couple of times. It reminded me why I started running in the first place and how good I feel when I run consistently. 


So that did it. I immediately worked on the training schedule and sent it off to Coach Jeni. It officially starts Monday, 06/21, but I got back out there today and will run again Saturday and Sunday. I'm so excited!

North Shore Half Marathon - Not!

Sunday, 05/13/10 - North Shore Half Marathon/5k

Time: 37:15 min.

Distance: 5k (3.11 mi.)

Time of day: 7:15 a.m.

Pace: 11:50 (m/mi)

Temperature: 63°F, cloudy, cool, light rain—A perfect day to run!

My enthusiasm for and commitment to running flagged the last month. The abrupt change in weather on May 21st really played havoc with my mind and my body. 

Up until May 21st the weather had been cool and rainy with highs in the 60's. On Friday, the 22nd, the sky cleared, the clouds parted and summer descended in one fell swoop. The temperatures soared to the 90's with humidity levels in the 60-70% range. It has remained like that ever since. 

My body had no time to acclimate and I found myself struggling to run 8 miles on my long run that week. That failure weighed on my mind and I started a downhill slide. I switched to running early in the morning (5:30-6 a.m.) and still I struggled. The air was always heavy and thick. My legs were wooden. I came back from my runs completely wiped out. I realized there would be no way I could log enough miles to be ready for the North Shore Half. No problem! I would run the 5k instead. 

But that decision allowed me to slack off training even more. After a week had passed I was beginning to feel like a quitter. So after a couple bad starts, I started running on the school track while The Love walked. With his encouragement I ran a couple of miles everyday. The race was approaching and on Friday, 06/11, I logged 3.1 miles. 

The race Sunday morning was really good. I paced at 11:59 m/mi. I even passed some other runners. I feel good about my performance, but a part of me wishes I had been able to run the half.