catherine's running efforts

Cemetery loop, 27:02

Hotel treadmill. 

33:39

In St. George. **So** hot outside. No me gusta. 

Hotel treadmill.

1:43:09. Most of Eric's BST loop. I can't believe he does that several times a week. It was rough. 

Today's splits compared to 2 1/2 months ago (for the first 5 miles, since those are when I was for sure on the right trail (yeah, I share Eric's propensity for getting lost)) -

Mile 1: 10:07 (11:31); Mile 2: 12:00 (11:30); Mile 3: 13:07 (14:40); Mile 4: 15:54 (16:14); Mile 5: 15:08 (15:14).

It's nice that I was a little faster even though it felt like I was barely moving. That probably says more about where I was in March, though.

Sugarhouse Park with Eric. 11:42

Up and down the street in between working 11.5 hours. 

Another really long day. Hopefully the last one for awhile. 

Kind of like when you just read one verse in your scriptures so that you can say you read that day. Less effective. 

I was looking forward to this race because I feel like I've been getting a little bit faster and I wanted to have a better half-marathon PR. I also thought I had gotten over the whole needing-to-go-to-the-bathroom-during-a-race thing, and yesterday or today Eric said, "This'll probably be your first half where you don't have to stop to go to the bathroom." It wasn't. 

It wasn't as bad as my first half marathon (when I went to the hospital after) or my second (when I spent about 20 minutes in a port-a-potty), but it wasn't as good as my third (when I just ducked behind a bush (on Antelope Island) to pee). I still met my goal of finishing in under 2 hours, and up until about mile 10 I was still below my target marathon pace, but it's disappointing that I might have made my *dream* goal of finishing in 1:45 if I had been feeling better. Stupid trots...but I guess that figuring that out is part of the training game as much as anything else.

Overall it was a good experience (even with the rain and cold). I like road races, and at least there were port-a-potties to use. Like always, my favorite part was seeing Eric at the finish line. 

Splits (can you guess where were the two stops?):

Mile 1: 7:25

Mile 2: 8:11

Mile 3: 7:37

Mile 4: 8:09

Mile 5: 8:11

Mile 6: 9:21

Mile 7: 8:18

Mile 8: 8:44

Mile 9: 8:12

Mile 10: 8:20

Mile 11: 8:36

Mile 12: 12:14

Mile 13: 7:58

This week I'm trying to do my runs in the morning so that I don't get to the end of the day with only 5-10 minutes left to go outside. I don't know if it was because it was early, or I was tired, or I was a little sore from Saturday, or I was just kind of lazy, but today's cemetery loop was the slowest I've ever gone. 

Memory Grove loop with Eric. 34:46. 

Cemetery loop with Eric. Not as slow as Monday, but not as fast as other days. 28:10

Just a mile after icing my foot for most of the day. 6:58. 

Two miles with Eric on the track. 18-something.

A coworker said he and his son were probably going to run the Strawberry Days 5K, and Eric and I needed to be in Provo (anyone know of anyone who wants to rent an apartment near BYU to two responsible adults and their non-shedding, non-puppy 10-pound dog?) later that day, so it seemed like it'd be a fun race to run and I was curious to see if I'd be much faster than my 5K in January. 

At the beginning of the race I did my usual those-people-look-more-fit-than-me-so-they're-probably-going-to-beat-me thing (which is hardly ever accurate...like at the Sapper Joe 15K when tons of people who I thought I could have beat passed me hiking up the hills...oh, and they were doing the 30K...), and Eric reminded me that I was just racing against myself.

Then the crazy machine gun/shotgun thing went off, and I started running and felt super hungry. But I knew I could do at least one mile just under 7 minutes, so I tried to do that. Then I tried to see if I could keep the second mile under 7 minutes, and I could. Then I got tired. I knew I was the second woman (it was an out-and-back), but I knew that the first woman was in a completely different league running-wise, and I figured that anyone who passed me deserved to be ahead of me. Only a few guys passed me, though, so when I crossed the finish line I was still the second woman. That was fun. So was seeing super-supportive Eric with his big smile.

Afterward Eric and I went over and met the woman winner and took a picture with her. It turns out she's a fastrunningblog-er too (Allie), but we didn't know it until looking at today's race reports.

Splits: 6:58, 6:59, 7:34, 6:55 (0.10)

One mile barefoot with Tigger. 

Liberty Park loop before work. I'm so much slower in the mornings, but it's nice to get the run done early.  

1.2 barefoot with Tigger after work. 

Liberty Park loop. I'm not a fan of the cinder track (it's so wobbly), so all the trucks and stuff blocking off the sidewalk at the park are kind of annoying. 

Liberty Park loop. Donuts smell good along 700 E. 

The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Jeppsen two today.

Right now an 8:30 pace feels easy enough for several miles, so I thought that a sub-45 time for this morning's 8k was completely realistic. Sure it was a trail race with some uphill, but there'd be downhill to balance that out, right? My goal time was still 10 minutes slower than last year's winner, but I thought I had a good chance of being in the top half.

At the starting line I scoped out the other women and did my usual thing of guessing who would be fastest based on people's leanness and outfits. I picked out who I thought would win and decided to try to be able to see them for at least the first while. They took off at a pace that felt a little fast but totally sustainable for five miles. Then we got out of the parking lot, and I remembered that I prefer running on roads/sidewalks. When we hit the first hill I remembered that I don't really have any muscles. And on the second hill I started walking on the ups, not really caring on the flats, and trying not to fall down on the downs. 

I guess I can't really expect to be good at trail running (or even enjoy it) if I don't ever run on trails, even if some of my runs include hills.  And I'm used to being kind of bummed out about being slow after trail races, but they're usually a good experience overall because Eric likes them so much and often does really well. This morning he had talked about maybe just running with me because of his knee, but he took off at the beginning and I was glad to not see him for the rest of the course because I thought that meant he was getting back to normal. It was kind of depressing to get to the end and realize it hadn't gone well for him, either.

After the race it was fun to see Jun and his son, and I got to talk a little bit to an awesome (because she was fast and had really cute kids (one had these crazy little squeaker shoes that kept scaring Tigger (it was funny))) woman who was sitting near us, and Eric and I were both rewarded (despite our mediocrity) with door prizes. Then we went and signed a lease for an apartment in Provo (yeah...Provo...). Maybe when we live there I'll try adding a few trails like this morning's to my runs. It's short enough that I could do it often-ish, and maybe then I'd have a better time at trail races.

Splits: 9:42, 15:44, 10:02, 10:21, 9:21. Third in age division (like an hour longer than the winner), 44th overall (including men), bottom half.

A mile with Tigger in the morning, 5 miles on the treadmill with Eric in the evening. 

Austin's (work friend) Memory Grove loop at lunch (3.2). He kicked my trash, finishing about 45 seconds before me on the way up and a minute before me on the way down. He does the loop almost every day in the heat, though, so I'm okay with him being faster than me.

After work - went to the gym with Eric for 2.8 more miles on the treadmill. You know what I don't get? People who make noises when they're lifting weights. I probably just don't understand because I've never really done it, but it seems like if you have to make noise to get the dumbbell off the rack, maybe it's too heavy for you. So maybe what seems annoying, gross, and tacky to me is actually an important part of getting buff.

On the treadmill at the gym with Eric after work. No grunters tonight. And today marks 8 weeks of 6 days/week running! Some of those days were pretty sketchy (like the time I ran 0.1, or the night we "ran" home from temple square), but I guess everyone has to start somewhere.