catherine's running efforts

Barefoot (because I didn't feel like changing out of my regular clothes/flip flops) on the treadmill at the hotel at Eric's family reunion for a half mile (because that's how long it took before I started peeing myself). 

I'm registered for a 5K on Monday - a bunch of people in Eric's family are running it or the half marathon (Freedom races in Salt Lake), and I thought I'd be able to beat the cousin who had her baby 10 weeks ago. But she decided to upgrade to the half. *And* she can breastfeed her baby. I'm such a dud. 

On the treadmill at the hotel with Eric. His parents watched Baby for us. It's the first time we've exercised together since back in the day. 

A bunch of people in Eric's family were doing the Freedom half marathon or 5k today. I had registered for the 5k a few months before Elliott was born just in case I'd be able to run, and when she came 11 days early I figured the race would be a good goal. Even though I wanted to beat everyone in Eric's family who was running it, I was going into it thinking it would be kind of a practice fake-long-run for me. 

Eric's parents met me at the capitol building to watch Elliott (Eric was already off doing the half), and I rode the shuttle bus to the start with two of Eric's cousins and an aunt. They were talking about run/walk strategies and waiting for people at the finish. I didn't want them to feel like I was going to ditch them so I didn't really talk about my goal of finishing in under 30 minutes. I used the port-a-potty about 5 times in hopes that I wouldn't have bladder problems, and then we moved to the start and began.

I tried to go only a little faster than was comfortable. I had the adrenaline at the beginning, and my first mile was 8:21. I felt pretty good, but I kept slowing down. My second mile was 8:45, and after that I got super tired (probably because I only got 4-5 hours of sleep last night because of Baby, and I've only run up to 2 miles since her delivery 4 weeks ago). My third mile was 9:35, and the last 0.08 (the course was a little short according to my Garmin) was at a 7:51 pace. My average pace for the race was 8:52.

So I did beat everyone who was doing the 5K, but they weren't trying to race me and they don't run much. And Eric's sister beat Eric's cousin in the half (though the cousin didn't know he was racing the sister), so Eric and I won a thing of Jelly Bellies from Eric's brother. And the cousin who had a baby 10 weeks ago finished the half in about 3 hours and wished that she hadn't tried to run it.

When we were hanging out after the race we saw Allie and met Fiddy. He seems very British.

Overall it was a good experience. It's a lot slower than I was last summer, but it's faster than I was before last year. Cardiovascularly I was fine, so I think I'll do better once my body gets used to running again. As with the other running I've done since not being pregnant, it feels a lot harder than it should. It's no fun being out of shape. And I'm going to be a bunch sore in my back and pelvis region. But my starting place could be a lot worse, and if I keep doing things that are a little hard they'll become easier.

Also I really need to stop being an emotional eater so I can drop the rest of my preggo weight. That'll help too. :)

Barefoot at the track. Just to do something. 

It was too hot to run outside by the time Eric was home and I was on a break from feeding Baby, so I went to the gym for some treadmill time. Three slow miles, and then walking for a half mile to stretch out a bit.

Every day this week I've wanted to run, but it's been really easy to find excuses. We're still struggling with the breastfeeding so the early morning feeding lasts around 2 hours (but the feeding-pumping-feeding routine must be working, because yesterday Baby was 7 pounds 6.5 ounces (2 pounds above her birth weight)), and I never feel like getting up an hour or two later to run before Eric leaves. By the time I can leave Baby with Eric in the evening I'm so tired that I just want to go to sleep. But there are tons of people on this blog who have babies and who still get their runs in, so hopefully I'll be able to suck it up and do better next week.

Down the street right before going to bed just so I didn't have to have 0 for the day. 

I picked Eric up at school so that he could watch Elliott while I ran on the treadmill at the gym. It was nice to get a run in when I wasn't too tired. 

I tried .1 mile at a faster pace and it kicked my trash. I can't believe I used to run a bunch of miles at that pace. But my body is still getting used to running again, so probably it'll be easier later. 

So...I'm afraid of the dark. I never run outside at night when it's dark unless I'm with someone else. Eric got the book Free Range Kids for us to read, and from that book I know that something bad happening to someone doesn't mean that there's an equal risk of something bad happening to me, but when I run outside in the dark alone I feel like there are killers and attackers lurking in every dark shadow.

Anyway, I had to watch presentations for the online class I teach tonight, so I missed the window during which I felt like going to the gym. So I headed outside just before bed for a quick "run" (another one like Monday's, but hopefully a little longer). A couple of blocks away I heard a guy on a phone walking toward me on a perpendicular street. He said, "Hey, what up, dude? No, this is Biscuit, man!" I assumed he was a drug-dealing attacker and that Biscuit was his secret gang name, so I casually turned around and ran back home.

Here's a picture of Baby. She smiles now. 

A mile and a half at the gym before I had to watch presentations for the online class.

After the presentations (but before it was dark) I went out for a loop (3.5) around the Mt Timpanogos temple that I've been wanting to do since we moved here. It was a little rough. On the way up I was thinking that I didn't want to wuss out on the hill, and then the thought of the jelly bellies and two servings of ice cream I had had earlier kept me going. By the time I was a little over half done I wanted to call Eric to come get me. But I kept going, and even though I was super slow I'm glad I finished.

I signed up for the Tour de Donut on Saturday. Mostly because I want the excuse to eat as many donuts as I can. Partly because it raises money for the Huntsman Cancer Institute. I haven't ridden a bike since last fall-ish, but hey...the donuts...

Here's a picture of Baby.

I ran part of the walk with Eric and Elliott. Let's call it a taper.

I also practiced on the bike for tomorrow. I felt like a little kid learning to ride.  

Last Sunday I found out that a few of the women in my ward were planning on running in a 5K this Saturday. Eric tells me that several of them run in the early mornings, and I've been curious about whether or not they're fast. So I signed up for the 5K to see. 

It was kind of a hard course - hilly, and steeper than rolling. I was a little worried as we drove to the start, but it ended up going okay. The race wasn't competitive at all (the winner was an 11-year-old in 21:50), so I didn't feel too frustrated about being out of shape. I was annoyed that they started almost 10 minutes late, because the Tour de Donut was an hour after the 5K start and was 20 minutes away, but it worked out. I ran close to the same time that I ran an almost completely downhill 5K two weeks ago, so I feel like I'm making progress.  

I was a few minutes late starting the Tour de Donut, but it was okay because it was chip timed and I wasn't going to win anyway and I was kind of nervous about starting with 600 other cyclists since I don't have a ton of experience on the bike. Plus it was fun passing the people at the back (except for the weaving kids who made me super nervous).

The race is three 7-mile laps with a donut break between each. There's a 3-minute time deduction for each donut consumed. The donuts are really why I registered for the race; I thought it sounded fun when I heard about it a year or so ago, but when I was reading Fat Cyclist's blog earlier this week I was super hungry and I wanted the excuse to eat junk. I was able to eat 4 donuts after the first lap, but during the second they didn't feel great in my stomach. Also, I figured that since I was going to be slower than most people regardless, eating more donuts wasn't really going to help anything. So I skipped them after the second lap.

It was a super fun day. Eric was very sweet to wait until later for his run so that I could do my thing, and he was very supportive and encouraging. My mom watched Elliott for us, so Eric rode the last two donut laps with me. It was nice to have the "alone" time.

Elliott had a good day, too - until the ride home when she woke up and was hungry.

No, I couldn't tack on the extra 0.08 to make it 3 miles. 

I've decided it might be easier to get my runs in in the mornings, so I went out this morning at 7:00 for what I wanted to be a 3-mile out-and-back. It did not go well. I was kind of tired after having the 2-6 shift with Elliott (she wasn't awake the whole time, but the sleep I got was spotty), and my feet and calves and shins and back were sore from Saturday. And I got pretty crampy (not sure if it was poops crampy or post-pregnancy crampy) after a mile. It was one of my slower runs since Elliott. It ended up being more of a loop that brought me home just short of 3 miles, but I was very ready to be done by the end.

The frustration of being so out of shape has been a good lesson to me. I guess it's okay to get out of shape because of making a person, but it would be a huge bummer if I ever got out of shape just because of laziness.

Speaking of babies, Elliott's going bald. Every time we wash her head or put lotion on some of her hair falls out. Did that happen to anyone else's babies? It seems a little normal according to the Internet, but I'm wondering how long it takes for the new hair to come in.

At night before it was dark-dark. *So* tired. 

Around the neighborhood at night.

I feel like I'll never be un-tired. 

No running today. Elliott was up *all* night last night. We think it might be because of the two diet Dr. Peppers I had at dinner. Stupid, stupid, stupid. But to be fair, I didn't know that would happen. 

Still *so* tired. I went out for my little 1-mile loop, and as I was passing our house and about to go around the cul-de-sac a bug flew into my mouth. Usually I can be tough about bugs and not let them bother me, but somehow the idea of it got to me and I puked. I staggered into our house and puked again in the bathroom and some of it got on my shoe. Gross. 

Here's a picture of Elliott. She was up to 8 pounds 9.5 ounces yesterday.

The distance was beyond my current fitness level, but I wanted to do this race for tradition since I've done it the last two years. 

I started at the very back since I had been waiting in line at the start for a potty, so I got to pass people almost the whole way. It was neat for the first couple of miles to be able to see the big mass of people down the hill ahead of me - it reminded me of when I did the Country Music Half-Marathon and could see a sea of people filling the street. A little way in I saw someone wearing a "The Quiet Pirate" sign on her back, so I ran up to her and asked if she was The Quiet Pirate. It turns out it was bye-wing, and she said that RAD was ahead with the same sign. So I looked for RAD for the rest of the race, but she was way too speedy for me to catch. I loved the idea of signs, though - I vote we all wear FRB signs at all of our races so that we can meet each other.

I liked when the motorcycle escorts and the lying-down-bike guy passed. It made me want to be at the head of a race with a motorcycle escort someday. Maybe after I'm done childbearing I can find a race that's big enough to have motorcycles but small enough that it doesn't attract people who are fast. Or men. Because they only have motorcycles for the lead, right? Not for the male and female leads?

Since a 10K is out of my current range, I was really only happy for the first 4 miles. Then I wanted to quit (the race and running in general). My feet were killing me, and my legs were about out. But it was about when the race joins up with the parade route, and I felt all sorts of social pressure to not walk in front of the parade-watchers. And I tried to think of Elliott and how I want to set an example of not quitting for her. I can't say enough about how much I don't like that 200 E stretch, though, and the bit up toward the park is worse. Even when I'm in shape I hate it.

I did have a kind-of goal to beat my 2009 time (55:32). I was pretty much just in "finish" mode, but I thought that since I was faster in 2010 I'd be a little faster now even though I pretty much took the last 6 months off. But I didn't make it. Based on my splits and how I felt, though, I'm pretty positive that I would have been at least a few minutes faster if I had run just a little more in the last couple of weeks. Gosh - how many times do I need to learn the consistency lesson?

I wrote in my last year's race report that it was interesting to see how different I felt in 2010 compared to 2009. I was *so* sad at the race in 2009 - I had just left all my friends in Pennsylvania, and I felt really alone. One of the things that made me cry (I cried every day for at least a week after I moved (I'm not good with change)) was seeing all the people waiting for people at the finish line. I specifically remember a woman finishing and running over to her man-partner and baby. I thought it was really neat that they had been waiting for her. At the race in 2010 I was super happy to be with Eric and stuff. And even though I felt like crap (and stupid for doing too much), the end today was the best so far.

Splits: 8:33, 8:11, 9:05, 9:07, 9:37, 10:14, 10:54 (0.2)

(Last year's splits: 6:28, 6:31, 7:20, 7:16, 7:10, 7:29, 7:32 (0.2))

On a pretty bike path that parallels a little river. 

Eric took Elliott to work today so that I could get some school stuff done at home, so I slept in a bit after helping get her ready to go and then went to the gym since it was pretty warm outside. Two easy miles on the treadmill. Felt okay, but my lower legs were a little sore from Monday. 

It's nice that a mile feels super easy again. Still slow, but that'll change as I get more miles. 

As I was out on my little loop through the neighborhood, a truck of guys passed and whistled. I flipped them off (I know - super uncouth), but my timing was a little off and they were already past me, and it looked more like I was directing the gesture toward an oncoming car. Now I'm afraid that it was someone from our ward. What if it was, and what if they recognized me and waved or something, and what if they think I gave them the bird in response? How embarrassing.

Elliott was 9 pounds and 1.5 ounces today, up to the 15th percentile from the 5th a few weeks ago. She's turning into a little tubber. :)