ShufflingSista

Exciting run this morning, albeit too short! Awoke with a start a 6:15 and realized I was supposed to meet my running partner (who lives in the other side of town) 15 min. ago.  Opps- turned off the alarm in my sleep in response to my husband's watch alarm going off... In a fog obviously- I was really off to a Monday-ish start!

Got ready as fast as I could, sped to our route and drove a little to see if I could find her, realizing what was supposed to be a 5/6 miler was already cut by 1/2 hr- I only had 1/2 hr left to run.

Luckily found Buff (this was my first time in yrs. meeting up w/ her to run, I'm sure she's thinking I'm quite reliable now).  She was going a fast pace so I jumped in and suprisingly felt great! After about .5 mile the rain started, then the St. George flash flood! Good times! The street quickly flooded and the lighting was JUST overhead to the point I'd jump a little at each crack.  We were getting soaking wet and loving it.

This was getting fun and not the expected mundane Monday morning run- yippee.  Only wished it could have lasted longer.  2 miles in 19 min, 9:30 av. pace.

If the rain lets up I'll run 3 mi. tonight, since Sarah has inspired me to attempt 5 milers on a more regular basis!

Horray for the inklings of Fall! I was able to run at 9am without feeling like I'd get heat exaustion.  It was under 80! Did the pretty little valley loop (5 mile easy run) that I've only ran a couple times so it still feels nice & new.  Took me a good 25 min. to get into the run, but the last 2 miles were smooth sailing.  The bottom of my right foot was crampy and my left ankle was sore.  I think the foot cramp may be from switching from stability shoes w/ posts to cushion shoes with no posts.  I think I'm going to get an arch support insert and see if that helps.  The sore ankle is probably from all the mileage and I do tend to roll that foot a bit so I think that's why it gets sore.  ANYWAY- I stopped 2x to try to stretch & walk out the minor cramp, which did help a bit.  Then I ran into my VT companion and seeing there's 4 more days left in the month I thought we'd better get together, so I stopped to quickly chat w/ her.  So I think I can take about 3 min. off my time of 52 min. (had the stopwatch running from when I left home to when I returned again)  Hoping my pace was just under 10 min. miles....more like 9:48 or something...

New Update:

New running schedule for next week.  Thought I'd better write it down so I don't forget and this will hopefully commit me to it a bit. 

Mondays- Run (5 -ish),

Tuesdays- Weight Class at the gym (I've missed this the last few weeks and feel I need it to support my running muscles, plus I feel flabby!) (2 miles on treadmill before class)

Wednesdays- Run again (5-8),

Thursdays- Run with the St. George Running Club chics (I think they usually go 5-ish)

Friday- Run or Spin (Some days we'll have to do our long runs on this day)

Saturday- Long Run (If I ran long on Fri, then I'll do an easy 3-5 this day)

My goal is to maintain at least 30 miles a week until marathon

I got all excited that I thought I'd run a 5 mile course in 46 min. until I clocked it and realized it was only 4.7 mi.  Oh well, about 9:47 pace I think....

Pretty good run this am.  Thankfully had Buff to meet this morning to get me through the run.  I'm still really stiff, only felt good for the last mile of this run.  It was a hilly bear of a run too, ran 'Foremaster' in the opposite direction than I'm used to.  Nice downhill for first 2, then  tough uphill for .75, then steep down for .5, then gradual uphill for the rest. I think some Ibuprofen & Ice are in order. (I'm totally guessing on the break up of these hills, some of you locals may laugh if my estimates are way off)

This Sat. I'm running Peach Days 12K, so I'm trying to decide what my running schedule will be for next couple days.  I think I'll do at least 3 if not 5 tomorrow, then maybe just walk Fri, then race Sat. Don't want to over do it at the race because next week I need to build back up on my marathon training plan.  I'm not feeling too good about this race because of how sore I've been this week.  Maybe the ice & Ibuprofen will help.

So happy I got my run in this morning though, its giving me the energy I need to go grocery shopping, get kids off to school, work, etc, etc.... So thankful for running partners!

A little cross training today... Ok, really it was a 50 min. walk.  Met up w/ Heather this am for what was supposed to be a 3 mi. run and she met me with baby in arms.  No prob, she was going to grab running stroller- flat tires.  So grabbed regular stroller & walked.  I was a little disappointed but not too much since I'm trying to recover a bit right not and get ready for the race Sat.  We walked fast for 50 min, probably helped stretch sore muscles.   I plan on sneaking in a couple miles tonight and more for sure tomorrow morning before the 7.44 mi. race Sat...

I'm not sure how far Heather & I ran today.  I felt it was at least 3 mi. and I plan to go clock it later today.  I took 800 mg Ibuprofen this morning before running.  This is the first I've taken in years for running.  I have been stiff lately and I'm hoping it may help some of the inflammation.  I probably should have been taking it the last few days.  I felt stiff the first 1/2 mile, then really good the rest of the run.  Have no idea about pace either, neither of us took a watch.  I would guess 10:30 if I had to guess? But I'm a bad judge of pace so who knows.

Tomorrow is the Peach Days 12k . On this race you are supposed to forecast your finish time.  I put 1:04 which would be about 8:35 pace. I realize now that is probably too optimistic since I'm not in good race shape now and haven't been doing any speedwork lately.  I guessed this finish time based of my 10k and 1/2 marathon times from earlier in the year. Usually before a 5 or 10K I do a lot more speedwork.  Lately I have been doing daily runs that are too short, then really long runs and no speedwork- ahh! Gotta get in a better routine next week , goal is to have 5 mi. be my minimun on days that I run. 

Anyway- looking forward to the race anyway- if nothing else I guess it will be some long overdue speedwork and I'm anxious to see how I do.

Hurricane Peach Days 12K today.  Loved this race, remembered why I like to run! My friend Heather ran it with me.  Small race, probably about 50 people?  Lots of senior citizens who cruised and kicked my trash!  This was my first year running this race, apparently the course changes every year to keep people guessing.  No watches allowed on runners, we had to predict our finish time ahead of time and how close you get determines prizes at the end.  It was already in the 80's when the race started at 6:15 so I was worried about getting hot, but it stayed nice & overcast and heat wasn't an issue.  It was a nice flat course, but with 3 miles of dirt roads in the middle. I was worried the dirt would mess up my time, but luckily it didn't.  I really liked this course.  There was water at mile 2.5 (where I took 1/2 GU), at that point we entered the LDS Peach Orchards where we ran for about 3 miles through the orchards.  Then back to water again at about 5.5 and less than 2 mi. back to start.  The orchards kept things interesting and really broke it up nicely.  I had no clue what pace I was going, figured about 9 min. miles.  Just cranked up my IPOD loud enough that I wouldn't have to listen to my very labored breathing!  Was pleasantly suprised when I beat my forecasted time by 20 seconds! So much of it was mental.  After mile 6 I wanted to slow down, but I kept telling myself- "you have to live with this finish time forever" and "this is your race"  "you got it"  "your're cruising"  Yes- I'm a dork! I averaged about 8:34 pace.  I won $22 for being about the 7th person to most closely predict my finish time.  Heather beat her prediction (she predicted 10 min. miles) by 39 seconds and won $16.  I was very proud of Heather, this was a good pace for her, under 10 min. miles and esp. since she had to take about 10 days off when she was really sick!  14 people were within a minute of their predicted time- there were two 1st place winners took home a combined $160.  It was a couple who finished together within 2 sec. of their predicted time. Very fun race.  (Of course they're always more fun when we're happy with our time, aren't they?!) Would do it again!