glidergirl

• 6.35 miles along Main Street with the new jogger, 9:55 AP

I can see me and baby girl enjoying many runs together with our new jogger, it's amazing what a good product can do for your enjoyment! :)  We jogged to the end of Main Street, turned back, stopped off at the grocery store, switched the jogger to walk mode and walked around to get our groceries, then ran the 1/2 mile back home. Beautiful day and lots of sunshine.  Slice of heaven today. :)

• 5 TM miles, 9:02 AP
  • 1 mile warmup
  • 8 x 400 meters at 7:30 AP with 400 meters at 9:52 inbetween
• abs with 1 x 1 min plank

Fastest TM run in the last 4 months ;)  Me and TM have come a long way!

• 5 miles on (beautiful) Bountiful Blvd with the jogger

• 10 miles, Parrish Lane loop, AP 9:26 while listening to conference!

I did this same route last week, but I was 22 seconds/mile slower.  Today felt MUCH better....I made sure to eat a small bowl of cereal when I first woke up this time.  What a difference breakfast makes when I can't go out till later!

Anxious to read SGM reports, hurry and post them. :)

• 5.6 miles on the treadmill in 53:50 (9:36 AP)
• abs with 2x1 min planks

After running outside more than not last week I already hate the treadmill again! But the BOB's tire has a leak and I couldn't find our pump...had to get the run in before nap time was up!

Today: ordered new shoes, signed up for the SGM Runner's Series and registered for the Snow Canyon half. :) 

• 6 miles on Main Street with the jogger, 9:27 AP

This is one of our favorite routes together!  Last week I did this same route with a 9:56 AP.  Jogger or not, I'm getting really sick of the high 9's, so my goal today was 9:30!

She definitely out planked me today...

• 5.5 easy miles, 5th south loop
• abs with 2x1 min planks

Utah Half Marathon this Saturday. Never done a race with this much elevation gain, so this will be interesting!

Changed my blog name from glidergirl to Brooke just to keep things confusing (again). But then you will all know exactly who I am when I win a marathon or something cool like that. ;)

Excited for the half tomorrow which is good because that elvevation incline is crazy!

• According to my Garmin: 1:54:41 (8:45 AP)

Gonna throw all modesty out the window here....I am so proud of myself right now, woot woot!  I just beat the downhill half from 3 weeks ago by 41 seconds!  I wasn't going to do this race because of those huge hills (I shy away from those kinds of races), but I couldn't pass up RAD's coupon for $10 bucks.  I would have never known that I could actually do a race with hills. :)  Last night I estimated my pace at each mile of the race based on  the elevation map and realized that I could maybe beat 2 hours if I tried hard.  So that was my goal and I was a little nervous because it seemed lofty, but I'm hungry to get back to where I was two years ago and then get even faster so I was going to go for it dang it! 

I started out at a decent pace, not going too fast so I could get in a groove and not even a mile later we started the climb.  And we climbed and climbed.  Up until a year ago we lived up by the U so I'm familiar with those climbs. I'm glad I learned that although they are hard, steep hills actually help you run faster once you get past them...whether it's because the flats seem easier or because they condition your cardiovascular system so you're more efficient or both.  Either way, it helped me not hate the hills so much because I knew it would open my lungs up. I felt like I was going dog slow on the steep parts, but I kept running!  When there were less steep parts, I would try to slightly increase my speed.  I knew I couldn't go fast, but I could increase my speed a little at a time so that's what I did.  I did this "incremental increase" strategy throughout a lot of this race, even on the flats and downhills and I think it really makes a difference.  At around 4.5 miles we were done with the bulk of the elevation gain and I felt like I could trust my cardio system, so I put down the first "hammer" LOL.  I was able to really pick up the pace and not worry that I would fall apart.  I love it when it gets to that point.  You feel like a well oiled machine, all systems are a go and you can just step it up and feel free.  Aahhhh. :)  And that's when I started having LOTS of fun. :)  We would get to some downhill parts and I just let it fly.  I got my pace down to 6:29 and that was fun.  I stayed on my forefoot instead of going on my heels for stability so I was flying.  Then we'd get to some flat parts and some hills so I would just try to keep it up.  I could feel my energy reserves get a little low around mile 7 so I was glad they had GU's (I had 2 total); the snack at 5:15am was wearing off.  I threw another hammer down around 9.5 miles because I knew there was less than 4 miles left and I realized that I could actually beat my time from the Big Cottonwood Half 3 weeks ago!  Holy cow!  I thought beating 2 hrs was good, but beating 1:55 would be a-mazing.  I would need an avg pace of 8:47 or lower for that, I was at 8:49.  Then I got cocky and thought I could maybe even get to 8:30 because I thought the rest was downhill and I was still in the mood to fly.  Come to mile 10.5 and we had to go back up hill!  Agghh!  I was not happy about that.  My avg pace went back up to 8:51 so I knew I had to push it in order to get those 2 seconds back and then beat 8:47.  I just went for it and decided that it's about time I start getting out of my comfort zone.  I did NOT want anything left in me at the end of this race.  It's hard to do that, but it's so rewarding and you realize it's worth it and really not that hard to just step it up.  We finally finished the uphill and it was flat with some downhill the rest of the way so I just tried to keep up the pace.  I was so freaking happy when I saw "1:54:xx" on the clock as I came into the finish line!!  I think I maybe could have gone a little faster, but I was almost wheezing once I stopped so I that was a good sign.  After getting some water, a banana and an orange, I went to the finish line and watched Jake K and Allie finish the 5K after just finishing the half!  Awesome!  I think Jake won the 5K and they didn't even realize he was a 5K finisher because it wasn't until about a minute or so later they announced "and here are the first 5K finishers coming in" LOL.  The race was well organized, had lots of POP's and good fuel stations and volunteers. 

For some reason I am still struggling with some mental barriers, so this helped me break through a few of them.  Part of it is that I am still out of shape and I do have extra weight still to lose (+/- 20 lbs to get to my previous ideal running weight), but 80% of it is from me thinking I'm not able to step it up yet for various reasons.  But I want to be faster so I've got to just figure this thing out!  Yes, I need to give it time to get back into shape and loose the weight, but what I need even more is to just get out of my comfort zone more often and get more quality runs in! 

Another fun running day for the books, I love running!

8:37, 9:22, 10:22, 9:44, 9:22, 8:16, 8:47, 8:26, 8:09, 8:10, 8:11, 8:17, 8:08, 7:33 (.11)

• 5K on the TM in 27:08 (8:44 AP)
• abs with 2x1 min planks

Inbetween 2 night shifts and no babysitter during the day so I ran on the TM while baby girl played with her toys waiting for her to get tired for her 2nd nap so we could both get some sleep. :)  Felt good to get moving.  Legs feel great after Saturday, much better than after the Big Cottonwood Half. 

Decided to take a long nap during naptime and was really glad I did.  Don't usually do two in a row without a babysitter, so it was good to take the day off running.

• 5.8 easy miles on Main Street with the jogger (and weather shield, it's getting cold!), we had fun
• abs w/ 1x1 min plank

5 miles on Bountiful Blvd with the jogger in the late afternoon.  Beautiful day for a run!

10K on the treadmill, 55:49 (AP 8:58)

abs with 3 x 1 min planks 

C'mon down AP!!  Hahaha.  Finally got out of the 10's for good, now I want to see more 8's!  Don't ever injury your achilles (3 months off running) while in nursing school and then get pregnant right after without cross training adequately enough or you'll be finding yourself writing posts like this!  ;) 

8.5 miles, Pages Lane loop, 1:21 (9:38 AP)

Did not want to leave my two loves this afternoon to run, but I did it and I'm glad I went (saturday mornings are much easier because they are both asleep!)  Went hard for the last 1.5 miles....wow, that is much harder than I thought it would be, but it turned the easy/slow run into one that has left me a little on the tired side with my lungs nice and open all day, just the way I like it! 

• 5 miles on the treadmill in 47:00 (9:24 AP)
• abs with 2x1 min planks

I'm back!  I was feeling rundown and runover so I took out the one thing I can (running) to get some sleep and get caught up on a few things that I never get to (because I'm usually running).  It felt gooooood.  I know it won't get me faster anytime soon but it sure is nice to have the choice to take a break.  I new it was time to run again when my appetite was WAAAYYY slower than what I was eating hahaha. :)

5 miles on the treadmill

1/2 mile intervals doing this: warmup, sprint, recover, hills, recover, sprint, recover, sprint, cooldown

My blog is pretty boring this week!  Vacation to St. George next week means lots of shifts in a row with little sleep this week and early next to avoid using PTO.  I can't wait for the Snow Canyon half next Saturday! :)

• 10K on treadmill in 51:30 (8:17 AP)
• abs with 3x1 min planks

Ahhhh...back to normal running, life is good!  I hated last week so bad.  I needed today's run.  I really pushed myself because I know I'm better than 9's on the treadmill.  I know this because everyday I run these past couple of months I feel pretty much normal that night.  I mean, I feel it, but I want to feeeeeel it.  I don't want to FEEL it, because I can't workout that hard all the time, but you know what I mean...I just want to feeeeel it. :)  Honestly, this run was thanks to all you runner friends and bloggers who I know push past the mental barriers and valid excuses and feeling crappy or tired or whatever.  It helps me just suck it up and get it done. 

Just for reference, my fastest AP ever on the TM is 8:44 (I just started using the TM for all types of runs this summer out of necessity :)  oh and that AP also tells you how much I have hated the TM...but we are figuring each other out!)

6.3 miles, 9:10 AP with the jogger

1.3 on the treadmill then baby woke up early from her nap so we took the jogger out and enjoyed 5 miles out in the sunshine :)  Beat my jogger AP PR by 18 seconds per mile today woot woot.

5 easy miles on the treadmill today