catherine's running efforts

I haven't FRBed since we left on our vacation, so I'll try to catch up. 

In the winter, running in warm California is a million times better than running in Utah. And I love running around the Rose Bowl. It's almost exactly a 5k, there are potties that don't stink too much, and there are lots of people to watch and weave through. A couple of days I took Elliott and Tigger in the stroller, and they liked it too. It's so much easier to run every day when it's nice outside. And when there are grandparents to watch Elliott.

Our drive back home took about 5 hours longer than it should have because of all of the people going to Vegas for New Year's Eve. That part sucked a lot.

And tonight I had my free fitness assessment at the gym. The trainer spent about 30 minutes building to the big finale which turned out to be that if I do weight training 3 times a week I'll be 2.2 pounds heavier in 6 months (not worth it), and then he led me through some exercises that trashed my quads. I didn't think I'd feel like running after that, but Maid in Manhattan was on in the cardio cinema and I figured it'd be good to shake out my muscles. I'll probably be pretty sore tomorrow, though.

Happy New Year!

Another 3 miles on the treadmill at the gym, this time to Biggest Loser and some show on E making fun of Biggest Loser. Both motivated me to complete my run. 

What *didn't* motivate me was the incredible soreness in my legs from yesterday. It's like my muscles are on fire. After the little training session I was thinking to myself, "Self, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing to do some weight training and stuff." But today I remembered why I'm okay with no muscles. I really hate being sore. 

Kind of a doubles day - 4.5 miles in the morning(ish), and 1.5 in the evening. Robin Hood was in the cardio cinema and I could only take it for about 2 minutes. I hate movies that are heavy on woods, bows and arrows, or elves. That's why I've never made it through any of the Lord of the Rings movies. But then I watched that Scouted or whatever show and was happy. 

My new favorite quote: "And I got to wear these amazing Christopher Dior sunglasses. But you probably don't know who that is." 

Elliott is 7 months old today! And we think we see her first tooth. 

On Fridays this semester Eric works in Salt Lake, so he takes Elliott to stay with my mom so that I can have the whole day to work. I'm thinking that I'll be most productive if I just go to my office on campus all day, but then I have to figure out what to do about pumping. 

I ran with music for the first part of my run and wanted to match the beat of a song so ended up doing .4 at 6:13. Later I did another .1 to make it an even half mile at 6:13, but other than that it was a pretty boring 3 miles. I can't even remember what was on TV. But I'm on track toward my second 20-mile week in over a year. Eh. 

Remember how I was all sorts of on track toward a 20-mile week last week? Big fail at the end. 

So I'm trying to front-load this week a little bit so that I don't end up missing the chance and thus screwing up my week on Saturday again (poor planning). Tonight's was a good run, and it made me look forward to when 5-6 miles every day will be no big deal.

A long time ago I had a coworker who had played football in college. He was pretty strong, but also pretty soft. Now and again he'd talk to me about weight lifting and such, and I remember that he would do only 15 minutes of cardio three times a week because he was afraid of getting too small. This is what I think about when I see the big guys at the gym. 

It was a pretty good run tonight. I'm very grateful for our gym membership in the winter.

As part of my free fitness assessment thing at the gym last week the guy had me do one of those hand-held body fat testers. It came up as 17%. I told him I thought it was closer to 25% because I had done the bod pod before I got pregnant when I was in a lot better shape and it was 22% (ish, I think). He said that it was +/- 3% and so I could be 20%, but not more than that. I still thought he was wrong, so today I did a bod pod test at BYU. And oh my gosh it was 28%. 

I realize that 28% is in a normal, acceptable, average, whatever range. It's nothing to freak out about. Also, I'm still pumping for Elliott, so I'm sure I've got some fat stores or something going on with that. But first of all, what's up with the big difference between the two types of measurement? If I would have believed the gym guy, I'd be skipping around all happy as a bunny with my cookies/pop-tarts/diet soda diet thinking that I'm one of the lucky ones with a crazy metabolism. Second, what the heck? This is what's wrong with thinking that BMI is a good indicator of health. I wrote a few weeks ago about having to dress heavy for our health insurance physicals so that my BMI would be in the normal range. But I'm about 3 pounds (of fat) away from the "excess fat" category. That doesn't seem to match up with being "underweight." Third, say I have a goal of 20-22% fat (according to the chart I saw today, this would put me in the "lean" (but not the "extra lean") category). And say I get there by mostly losing fat (and not so much by gaining muscle). Seriously I'd have to weigh less than 100 pounds? That doesn't seem right. Finally, back to the idea that 28% is average and stuff, who wants to be "average"? Probably no one on this blog. By the way, did you know that (according to the CDC (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5431a5.htm)) between 1960 and 2002 the average weight for people in the US increased by 24 pounds?

Anyway, after the test I was pretty bummed so I pigged out on some yummy bread from Kneaders (makes sense, right?). Then I did a mile at the gym because I'm coming off of two 6-hour nights in a row and that's how I roll.

Three miles before a meeting and 2.6 after (was supposed to only be 2 after, but Pretty Woman was on and I like that movie (maybe because I wasn't allowed to watch it when I was younger?)). 

The second time I went to the gym there was a guy I recognized as a runner - he didn't look super boundy like a lot of people do, he was very lean, and he was wearing shorter shorts. I thought to myself, "Self, someday you should look like a runner." Then I went to the store where I usually see this checker who always asks me about my runs (I often stop by the store on the way home from the gym) and tells me about how he's planning on running the Salt Lake Marathon. He doesn't run very far or often, though. And I realized that he probably sees me as a runner in a similar way that I saw the gym guy as a runner. But maybe not; I've never done a marathon, and to a lot of people that's what runners do.

I was disappointed about how today went, but I guess this is the kind of thing I was planning ahead for earlier in the week. I thought I'd leave campus to come home at around 4 or 5, but I was being a tiny bit more productive than normal so I left at around 7:30 instead. By the time I was ready to go to the gym after taking care of Elliott it was only about 15 minutes until closing time, so I ran down the block a bit so that I wouldn't have to have a completely zero day.

Five in the late morning, 3.3 just before the gym closed. I was going to do 3.3 in the late morning so that I'd hit my 20 for the week and then go back later if I had time, but once I was there I figured I should run as much as I felt like running. I started to feel a little bit tired as I was nearing 5, so I quit while I was still having fun. After that I was pretty close to 25, though, so I went back in the last half hour that the gym was open to get the rest.

See Elliott's teeth? :)

For the first mile and a half I was pretty bummed about post-baby stuff that I've talked about a bunch already on this blog, but then I decided to suck it up (at least until the next time I get bummed). I figured that I'm doing what I can, and beyond that I should just focus on reaching my goals. Some things I have control over, and some things I don't. And some things I have control over but I psych myself out about them, but that's another story. 

As I was nearing 5 miles I was having a good time so I thought about continuing to run until I didn't feel like running anymore, but then I thought that I'd probably be more likely to be consistent through the week if I kept it to 5. Afterward I told my core who's boss and did 60 hanging leg tucks and 40 crunches on the incline.

There are few things that motivate me more than watching Biggest Loser. Also, I think I've said this before, but I love going to the gym because I see people I'd like to be like and people I never want to be like, and watching everyone around me helps me want to keep going until I get to where I want to be. 

Also 40 leg tucks. 

Two miles in between getting home from school and my online class meeting. Really I wanted 3 today so I thought about going outside for a mile after Eric came home, but it's way cold and dark and stuff. And it doesn't seem worth it to drive back to the gym for just a mile. Even though some days that's all I do anyway.

Elliott has funny bald spots.

At the gym on University in Orem because it was late (our gym closes at 7:00 on Saturdays) and because I was curious about the new treadmills Running After Babies had blogged about. It's nice that there are new treadmills. I didn't try any of the incline options, but Eric's super excited about the +30. 

At the gym. It was supposed to only be 5, but I had to see who got the final rose. I was happy with his choice. 

Also 40 hanging leg tucks. While I was over there there was a pretty hot woman doing ab exercises. It was kind of fun to watch how everyone (even the girls) kept looking over at her.

I wanted another 5 today, but last night was kind of an all-nighter* and even though I got a couple of naps today (thanks, Eric!) I felt extra tired. So I was just going to do 3, but Biggest Loser was wrapping up (ah, Biggest Loser...remember when that girl sat on the steps and cried because she didn't want to work out?). 

*Until 5:00. But Elliott does this thing where she wakes up at about 5:15ish and fusses/cries until we put her in bed with us for the last hour or two until we get up (I know, we shouldn't have ever let this start). It sucks. We're trying to make it stop. Two mornings ago we let her fuss for an hour and a half. She'll fall back asleep if we go in and hold her hand or comfort her or whatever, but somehow she knows when we leave her room. Tomorrow we're just going to try getting her (and us) up when she wakes up. Even though we're so so tired.

Also, if anyone knows how to make her want to eat solids...we've been trying for about 3.5 months, and she's still not interested in rice, oatmeal, bananas, apples, mangoes, pears, carrots, avocados, peas, or sweet potatoes. In a spoon or in her hand. Sometimes a mesh feeder works for a few bites, but that's not really a sustainable solution.

Remember how yesterday I talked about how Elliott wakes up early in the morning so today we were just going to get up when she first woke up? Today she didn't do it. And we slept through our alarms. And Eric missed a class. And I didn't prepare for my class. But at least we weren't tired (for probably the first time this semester). 

I was going to go for 4.5 but at about 4 I felt a tiny twinge in my IT band. I haven't had IT band pain since about two years ago when I switched to a forefoot strike; before then I'd have it pretty consistently every time I ran more than about 6 miles (though stretching made it better). So I stopped and did the foam roller when I got home.  

Yesterday I was the only person in a row of 9 treadmills and a girl picked a treadmill right next to me. Tonight there was a group of guys near me who were stinking up the gym with their cologne. These are my biggest gym-related peeves. Buffer zones should be respected when possible, and fragrances are inappropriate when people are sweating together in an enclosed space. 

Tonight I had a rough start when my [former] favorite treadmill started wigging out (you know how sometimes they'll do that thing where they start decelerating on their own?), but I moved to a new one (and got away from the stinky guys!) and had a good run to Sex and the City and the Republican debate. I don't know enough about his politics to say for sure, but I kind of like Ron Paul. And if we're not going to have a woman president, at least we could have one who knows a vagina inside and out. 

"I'll sit in the chair, but you can't make me eat."  - Elliott

Probably Fridays are my least favorite day to run. I don't know why. 

I'm a little disappointed in my Kinvaras. For awhile I thought they were my favorite shoe ever - they felt super light and springy, and I liked how the flexiness made me feel really grippy - like I could dig in or something. But they seem to have a really short feeling-nice life. My old ones have fewer than 300 miles on them, but they feel like my Launches did after almost 600 (I start to get little pains when I'm running, and they've lost their springiness. I know this isn't very "born to run" of me, but I prefer a bit of cushy springiness). Anyway, my newer ones feel great (except for a hot spot I got today that probably had more to do with my socks and the shoe tongue), but I think after this I'm moving on to something with a little more staying power. But I think Jun posted something on facebook about insoles, so maybe I'll try that. We'll see. 

6 miles at the gym, treadmill switch at 3.5 to maintain some personal space, and last mile at 6:58.  

Another all-nighter last night. I told myself that night is socially constructed. It worked until the afternoon when I felt like I was going to break. But at least I got done a lot of what I needed to do. 

I was inspired by RAD's recent post on running on an incline, so tonight I did my 5 miles with the incline set to 6, nice and slow. I'm not sure if I'll be sore, but in another strike against the Kinvaras I got a blister on that one spot and a bloody toe (gross!) on the other foot. It was one of those things where I didn't know anything was wrong until I took my shoes off. 

And is it just me, or does Courtney have kind of thick legs for a model?  

I wasn't sore from yesterday, but my hips and feet were a little tired. For sure I need to eat better and sleep more. 

I was home all day today so I didn't shower. This morning or last night. Even though I got pretty sweaty last night at the gym. I still don't want to shower (but I'm going to). I hate showering. Eric thinks that's weird.

Today I focused on eating more real food (instead of just snacking on yummy snacks all day). I felt a lot better during my run. 

The newer Kinvaras have broken in and are finally comfy. But I'm still going to order some new shoes. Because Eric keeps telling me I should. And I can only say no to new shoes so many times. Speaking of so many times, since we've been married Eric has ordered probably a million pairs of shoes. Maybe I've written about this already? He'll decide that something's not quite right with what he's got, so he'll spend a few days doing research and reading reviews and finding deals, and then one day there will be like 7 boxes of shoes on our front step. Then Eric will wear them around the apartment for a day or two, and then he'll decide that none of them will work. He goes through phases where he'll do this over and over again. I think he's only actually purchased 2 pairs of shoes ever. 

Tonight's run felt a little harder, but this week was the first time I did 5 miles 4 days in a row since December 2010 so that's probably why. 

Happy 30th birthday, Eric! Way to join the grown-ups. :)

I don't want to make any spoilers, so I'll just say that I'm glad my favorite is still in the game on The Bachelor. 

*Great* run tonight, by the way. Problem I've been having since June=fixed. :)

Also, today I started doing all my runs about 30 seconds faster.  

Today I had an energy drink, pop tarts, cheese, milk, english muffins, a whole mess of those chocolate-covered fruit juice pieces from Costco that masquerade as chocolate-covered pomegranate seeds, about the same amount of Cheeze-its, and some frozen pizza. So after 2.5 miles I took a break from the tummy sloshing and did 1 mile at 4.5/4% before I finished out the run. I've repented and am going to do better tomorrow. After I stay up all night tonight to finish all the stupid stuff I have to get done. 

To me cheese is healthy food. Like milk and yogurt. So I don't really get these ads. 

Also, my mom and sister joined the blog. Yay! You should go say hi!

I didn't pull the all-nighter I had planned for last night. At about 3 I decided that it would be better to go to bed and just wake up early, so I got about 4 hours of sleep. I think Eric got about 3. 

And have I mentioned what a dumb idea it was for me to promise a multiple-choice section on the midterm? Such a dumb idea. Multiple-choice questions are whack.

So anyway, I'm still working on the stupid test (and getting more behind on everything else) and didn't make it to the gym in time to finish my 5 before they closed. Gyms that close at midnight are whack. 

Also I got the PureConnect shoes I had ordered. First, when RoadRunnerSports says "free shipping," really they mean free outbound shipping (if you buy their stupid 1.99 membership) and 9.95 to send shoes back. The customer service person I talked to said that they'll waive the return shipping, but we're still not ordering from them again. Second, there's a lot of cush in the arch and the heel feels thick (even though the drop is the same as with the Kinvaras). I'm going to keep looking for my dream shoes.  

I love that I love running again. I even wanted to run one more mile but it was getting a little late and I needed to go home so that Eric would be able to make it to the gym before it closed. 

My run was bookended (?) by cadbury creme eggs. They were delicious.  

At the gym. I was super tired after another 4 hour night and a long day, but I did it.

We did this race because my mom was running it and because it was on the same course as one we did in November. I was looking forward to being a little faster than last time (just because I've been being more consistent; I don't really do any speedwork). Eric wasn't feeling like running fast so he and Elliott ran along with me. Running with Eric is one of my favorite things ever, and it's fun that now Elliott gets to come too. 

The biggest difference for me from November was that the race just felt easier. In November I wanted to run the first mile in under 7 minutes and it felt like almost all I could do. That was my goal again today, but it felt almost comfortable and definitely manageable. And after the first mile I didn't stop trying (like I pretty much did in November) - I slowed down a lot, but physically I felt fine and mentally I still felt like trying a little bit. About half through I was pretty winded (after about the first slightly downhill mile the course is a slight uphill until near the end), but even then I didn't *really* feel like quitting or anything. Overall I think I gave around 80% (physically; I still hold back a lot mentally because I'm afraid of something (but I'm not sure what)), and it was comfortably uncomfortable. 

Splits: 6:51, 7:34, 8:01, 7:00 (for 0.1)

(Splits in November: 6:59, 8:29, 8:45, 8:24 (for 0.1)) 

After Eric and I finished we ran back up the course to find my mom. She looked great! It was fun to see her finish. Then we went to see my brother kick some trash at the state swim meet (and I met his super cute girlfriend for the first time), and after we came home I slept for a couple of hours (thanks Eric) to try to catch up from the week. Then I had some awesome salad (spinach, strawberries, light raspberry vinaigrette, feta, and glazed pecans ("recipe" from the glazed pecan package)) and went to the Orem gym for 5.3 more miles to get to 9 for the day. 

Wrong choice, Ben. 

I thought I'd be a little tired from Saturday, but tonight's run felt great. Last week I upped my normal pace by about 30 seconds, and I'm thinking about doing it again after this week (but that would still be pretty slow). I did the last half mile tonight at 6:31 and it was very satisfying.

Eric's parents sent us some vanilla Joe-Joe's (sandwich cookies from Trader Joe's) for Valentine's day and now I can't stop thinking about the Joe-Joe's we had over Christmas. They were amazing - like if an Oreo and a Thin Mint had a way cuter baby. 

After the gym I was craving pecans but I couldn't find any snack versions at the store. And I hate almonds, and macadamia nuts have a crazy amount of fat. So I got yogurt and soy milk. Probably I really just wanted protein.  

Songs that made my run happier: It's Tricky (Run-D.M.C.), Everybody Dance Now (C+C Music Factory), You Make My Dreams (Hall & Oates), Another One Bites the Dust (Queen), Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics) 

I had a really hard time getting myself to the gym tonight, and once I was there I didn't feel warmed up until I was half done. But the last half was great, especially since Grease was on. 

After I got home Eric and I had a plank contest. He won, but I wasn't wearing shoes.

Songs that made my run happier: Simarik (Tarkan) (I like this song because it was a samba favorite at BYU even though the lyrics are probably dirty), No Diggity (Blackstreet) 

I hit my pre-pregnancy weight today! To celebrate I had Cheeze-Its and Jelly Bellies for dinner and then felt like I was going to puke for my whole run. Good times. 

Mellymoo crawls now.

I timed my run so that I could watch Grey's Anatomy. It was okay. There was a story line about a woman whose 24-week-old baby had to be delivered because the woman was having a pregnancy-induced heart attack. Definitely the kind of thing that would have whacked me out to watch while I was pregnant. Yay for normal hormones. 

I wore my old Launches and still like them.  

When I got to the gym one of the people at the desk said, "You're here late." I said, "Whatever, foo. You only think it's late because your whack gym closes at a 6-year-old's bedtime on Fridays." Or maybe I just said, "I wish you were open later." 

Remember when the FRB was down for like two days and I told myself that as soon as it came back I was going to back up all my entries from the past three years and then when it came back I didn't do anything?

And also remember that time when Eric went running with Jun and found out that we might be the only ones who say FRB like ferb and FRBers like ferbers?  

I've been thinking that I want to do my Saturday runs outside, so this morning my brother and Eric and Elliott and I met up at Liberty Park for 7 miles. It was my brother's longest run ever, and maybe my longest post-baby run? It was great. For probably half the time Eric and I talked about how much we miss being able to run there whenever we want. Elliott slept and watched and jabbered in her stroller. The pace was about 30 seconds faster than I've been doing my treadmill runs - maybe I was self-conscious about not slowing down Eric and my brother, but it didn't feel like I was trying to go too fast. So starting next week I'm going to try all my treadmill miles at that pace. 

Later I went to the gym for 3 more miles (last 1.5 about a minute faster than normal) and 2 sets of 25 hanging leg tucks. Also I ate a ton of food today.

Songs that made my treadmill run happier: Survivor (Destiny's Child), Imma Be (Black Eyed Peas), If I Were a Boy (Beyonce), Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Green Day). Imma Be (at least for the first half) and If I Were a Boy were perfect for the faster pace.  

Since Eric and I had the day off we went to Bountiful this morning so that Elliott could have her first swim and I could have a lesson from my swimmer brother. It was fun. Elliott was super cute in the water. 

I also got new shoes today - after listening to Eric rave about his New Balance Minimuses, I decided to try them out. So far I like them a lot, but I think I got them a half size too big. We'll see, I guess. Also I did my run about 30 seconds faster than normal, as planned, and it went well even though my tummy was pretty full of yummy dinner. In a couple of weeks I'll try to kick things up another 30 seconds and then stick at that pace maybe forever or so. 

Eric makes amazing chocolate chip cookies. They're so good because he makes them with love, and tonight they were even better because he used dark chocolate chips. They're kind of what I had for dinner before my run. I ended up regretting this during my run, but now I'm over it and back on the cookie-eating wagon. 

I can't emphasize enough how much I hate it when someone gets on the treadmill right next to mine when there are a million open treadmills. I always move now. I know this makes me sound unfriendly, but I need my space.

Remember the new shoes that are too big? I emailed Running Warehouse and they're going to take them back even though I ran in them. They're awesome. Way better than that other place where Burt gets everything for free. I think I'm just going to go back to Launches for reals this time. Even though that probably means I'll have more injuries.*

*I don't really mean this.  

For about a week it's been harder to get myself to the gym. I think I might just be getting tired. Also it's harder as the semester gets busier - there are always a lot of other things I could be doing. But, you know - goals and stuff.

Today Eric and I were talking about shoes and he mentioned a blog post Jun had written about Altras and he said, "It's too bad the FRB doesn't have a search function where you could search blogs and not just the forums. And then you could have searched for something like incontinence and seen which runners had dealt with that." (It turns out the FRB does have a search box (right on the front page!), but we hadn't noticed this before.) I said, "Yeah, but you can do it through Google." So I searched for Altra (site:fastrunningblog.com in Google) and found like 100,000 entries because of the shoe manager. Then I searched for incontinence and only found a few entries, but my blog wasn't one of them because I think I always called it the "pee problem." So I decided that when I FRBed tonight I'd put something in about incontinence so that if anyone were ever searching for blogs that mentioned incontinence they'd find this post where I talked about incontinence.

I also wanted to mention incontinence again because it seems like something that's actually pretty common (at least stress incontinence after childbirth and/or as women get older) but that people don't talk openly about. It also seems like sometimes people think that it's just something that happens and is something people have to deal with. Maybe I'm naive and stuff because I've only had one kid and I'm only in my 30s, but I think that people should see incontinence as something that isn't embarrassing, isn't someone's fault (kegels aren't always enough), and that can and should be fixed (and not with diapers). There's enough that women and post-birthers have to put up with. Incontinence shouldn't be one of those things.

And on the shoes - the NB Minimuses are out (I want more cush), so I'm still debating between Altras and Launches. I really like how the Altras feel, but I had really good times with two pairs of Launches (and I'm more forefoot than midfoot so the heel on the Launches doesn't get in my way). Also, I kind of don't want to get Altras in the same way that Eric doesn't want to buy Apple products, and the different names for the road shoes kind of bug me (to me instinct=urge and drive and intuition=sensitive and hanging back, and when I'm running I think of myself as a predator out to pick off the slower, weaker prey (Eric says I like to have a carrot)). But I think there needs to be a girl AltraManiac and if there were auditions I'd want to audition and it would be weird if I were wearing Launches.

It *looks* like I've done 10, 9, and 8.5 mile runs for the past few Saturdays, but really I've broken them up because I'm afraid of doing a "long" run. But Eric said that I needed to start doing the miles all together, so I plotted a little loop that included the gym (water and potty) and set out for my 10. But then the wind slapped my butt and I came home. And even though I was less afraid of doing 9.5 than 10, I still procrastinated the rest of my run for pretty much as long as I could, making it to the Orem gym just in time to get it all in before midnight. 

One of the things I did during my day of dallying was finally get those Altras. Yes, I love Launches, but they're not perfect; I love the cush, but they don't fit exactly right and they don't feel as fast as my Kinvaras. And I love the Kivaras because they feel fast and flexy, but they seem to wear down/out pretty quickly. And they're a little too narrow. So it made sense to at least try Altras. And even though runningwarehouse.com is amazing I got them at 26.2 so that I could have the option of exchanging them within 10 days (fear of commitment, yo). 

The first thing I noticed after I put them on was that I had fewer injuries. The second thing was that my feet were super cold outside - that mesh upper is for reals. Once I started running on the treadmill I felt like the shoe stayed out of my way; where I usually scuff or skid on my normal shoes there was nothing. That was nice. The shoes also felt pretty good - not as cushy as the Launches but still cushy, and almost as flexy/fast as the Kinvaras (and much roomier). I started with the thinner insole because I figured that I had already gone through the crazy calf pain of getting forefooty and so would be fine. My calves didn't hurt, but I noticed some stretching in my arches and a little twinge to the left of my left achilles. I probably should have switched to the "support" insole as soon as I felt the twinge, but I didn't switch until my 3-miles-left bathroom break. I iced it when I got home. I think it's just sore.

While I was running I watched that Justin Bieber movie on my phone. Cute kid, cute story. I hope that there's a Justin Bieber for Elliott when she gets a little older. The ending was pretty inspiring. I did two quarters at 6:00 in the last mile because Justin said "never say never." Also because I switched the treadmill to the -3 decline. During the first quarter I had some uncomfortable friction on the balls of my feet, but Eric says this might be because my feet haven't found their home in the insoles yet. Later I read some comments on Netflix and felt dumb for being inspired by a kid whose hard knock life included becoming a millionaire in his teens and stuff, but whatever.  

When I got home Eric showed me that there are purple Altras and I wanted to cry because purple is my favorite color. Oh well. 

(Also - if you're on facebook and don't mind a facebook app, want to vote for our picture?) 

My left achilles area is still tight, so I wore my launches and took it a bit easy. And it looks like we're heading for the ending I fear the most on The Bachelor.

I ate three meals today. We're trying to set an example of normal eating for Elliott. It was weird to feel less snacky. 

Also did 20 fake pullups and 20 fake dips (70 on the orange machine).  

In general I don't eat well and I don't get very much sleep (6 (interrupted) hours is a good night), so it's no surprise that sometimes I don't feel like running. Tonight was one of those times. I had eaten pretty recently and so felt a little sickish, and my legs just felt tired and heavy. After the first mile I slowed the pace down, and then after two more miles I was ready to call it quits. I was off the treadmill and ready to walk out, but then I thought, "Self, you're a pansy butt if you can't get back up there and do 2 more miles." Madonna's "Vogue" came on Pandora and saved me for almost a mile, and by then I was able to stick it out until the end. 

Guess what? I didn't run yesterday. It was the first time since the first week of the year that I missed a day (that wasn't Sunday). But after not feeling so hot during my runs on Monday or Tuesday I was feeling kind of burned out, and I decided that it would be better to take a mini-break and get to bed a little earlier (I usually run at 8 or 9 or 10). But I didn't get to bed earlier, and once I was in bed I felt all sorts of antsy and so didn't really fall asleep for a couple of hours. 

But tonight I was happy about running again. My tummy was still full of yummy dinner, so after a couple of miles at my normal-for-now pace I slowed things down. On Tuesday my Launches hit 600 miles and my achilles is all better from Saturday, so I'm officially into the Altras as my everyday shoe. I still like them - they're not magic, but they're very comfortable and they stay out of my way. 

Songs that made my run happier: Madonna's Vogue (again) and that "Like a G6" song. I feel like a dork about it sometimes, but there are some songs that just make me want to dance and that make me feel like I can do anything. Those songs can turn any frowny run upside down.   

Also did 20 fake pullups/dips at 70 on the orange machine.  

My plan was for 3 miles, but I only made it to our super-early-closing gym with enough time to do 2.5. They were fine. 

I finally made myself do a legitimate "long" run. (The quotation marks are because 12.5 miles isn't a long run to a lot of people, and even though it feels like a long run to me right now I feel like it's still just not that long.) *And* I didn't wait until the last minute before the last gym closed (it was the last minute before *our* gym closed, but our gym closes stupidly early). 

Even though it was a nice day it was still colder than I'd prefer, so I watched parts of Good Will Hunting, Sliding Doors, and Footloose (the old one...I guess there's a new one?) as I trudged along on the treadmill. Things didn't get uncomfortable until after about 8 miles. After that my legs and feet started to be a bit achy, and I was afraid I'd be sore later. But I told myself that if I kept going I'd be better able to stick other runs out, and it didn't ever get too bad. 

When I was done I was glad I had run what I had planned, but it made me realize that I don't think I like running for longer than about 2 hours. Sometime I'm going to do a marathon because it's something I'd like to do at least once, but really I think half marathons are the perfect Catherine distance. 

Later Eric and I dropped Elliott off at Eric's sister's house and we went to the Orem gym to chillax in the hot tub. It wasn't very hot. We also tried the hot room and the steam room. The steam room scares the bejeebees out of me. I'm pretty sure that if I don't suffocate in there I'm going to get gutted by some crazy hiding in the corner with one of those big fish hook stabber things. 

I've been down with some sickness for the last couple of days - something coughy in my chest. So I only did a few miles (kept myself from walking out after just one, though, so that's something) and then sat in the steam room for a bit. I'm not as afraid of the one in American Fork because it's smaller and better lit (so I can see what's what before I go in). Tonight there were four guys in there. Two were speaking Spanish, and after a few minutes one of the other guys said, "Can you guys speak in English?" They said, "Yeah, we speak English. We're American." But not in the way I would have said it. They were really nice. Then the stupid guy said, "I just wanted to know what you were talking about." Then one of the Spanish-speakers said, "We weren't talking about you." The stupid guy said, "Oh, I know. I just don't like it when I can't understand someone." Then a Spanish-speaker said, "We were talking about taking some classes at BYU." Then the asked how long the guys had been in the country (14 and 12 years). I was embarrassed to live on the same planet as the stupid guy. Then I started talking to one of the Spanish-speakers and it turns out he has his master's degree in mechanical engineering, so we talked about grad school for a bit. Then the stupid guy and his mute friend left. 

I made a video about how there should be a girl AltraManiac. If there were, maybe her name could be A-Bound. I wanted to set it to Final Countdown but it was taking me longer to figure out than I wanted to spend in iMovie. Also there's another version where Eric doesn't pan down at the end, but I fell over a little bit in that one. 

Finally the I'm-sick-and-I'm-going-to-die feeling subsided (really it's just a cold), so today I went to the gym for 3.5 miles before dinner and 4 miles after. I didn't feel like I was going to cough out my lungs, and my legs felt nice and rested. Bonus. 

After my class (guest speaker! Didn't have to prepare a lecture!) I did the 3 mile loop around campus in the beautiful sunshine. Maybe sometime my legs will be tan. Right now the whiteness highlights the cellulite. I saw a lean runner girl on the track and committed myself to eating better. A mile later the smell of burgers at the creamery reminded me that I had only eaten a few graham crackers all day. And a half mile after that I ran past some Girl Scouts selling cookies, and I committed myself to buying some. I got the peanut butter ones, the lemon ones, and the Samoas (they're still called Samoas?). I like thin mints, but really to me they're just like the grasshopper cookies that are available all year. 

After I got home I went to the gym for 4.38 more miles. Then I came home and had bacon and a green smoothie (new blender!).  

I had all sorts of plans to make up for my two sick days. I did what I needed to do to catch up on Thursday and Friday, and then I planned to break up the 12 miles I needed on Saturday since I still wasn't feeling my best. So I went out for my first run of the day with Eric and Elliott...and then that was it. We had friends over for dinner and that went later than we had planned, and then Elliott puked when we tried to give her baby tylenol (she got the sickness I had) so I hung out with her for a bit, and then I just wasn't in the mood to drive to the Orem gym at 10:00. 

I was pretty bummed at messing up my mileage graph and giving in on my goals. I've been being really consistent and getting my runs in no matter what, and this week I just lost the game. But Eric says that what matters is whether I stick with the old (new old) pattern of consistency or if I adopt this new (old new?) pattern of less consistency. I want the consistency pattern, but when I miss days/miles I think of myself as a person who misses days/miles and it's easier to keep doing that. So I'm trying to think of myself as a person who doesn't miss days/miles but who got sick. Plus, I've been afraid to go from 30 to 35, so maybe having dropped down for a week will make it easier to take a step up.  

Just a mile on a bike path Eric wanted to explore. The path was a lot shorter than he thought it was. 

*I moved this mile over to Monday because it bugged me that it didn't count toward that week on my graph.  

When I got to the gym I realized there were only 10 minutes left of Monday-Bachelor night! Fortunately there was a whole other hour on after the main show. 

Last week I was chillaxing and I saw a flier advertising a visit from one of the professors at the school where I did my PhD coursework. I talked to some people and ended up at a dinner tonight with him and a few professors in the department where I teach. I had all kinds of anxiety about the dinner - I was pretty sure someone was going to call me out for being adjunct or for being a grad school dropout or for reflecting poorly on one or both schools. Yeah - I have zero academic self-esteem right now. But really the dinner was kind of fun and I realized that in real life no one is as hard on me as I am on myself, and I had a really good little talk with the guest professor about what I would need to do to finish (which was why I wanted to go to the dinner in the first place). It's nice when things don't go the way I'm afraid they will. :)

Also, Elliott still has the cold I accidentally gave her and it's so so sad.

*I moved over the mile from Sunday so it would count on this week's graph.  

A bunch of the women in my neighborhood get together for lunch every so often, so today I went. One of the women runs a few times a week, so we made plans to make plans to run together sometime. It would be nice if there were someone nearby that I could run with once in awhile. Plus, she runs in the mornings, so that would help me transition to morning instead of night running (like I've been wanting to do but haven't since most of the time I can't bear to get out of bed before Elliott makes me). 

I still like the Altras, but I think they stretched.  

Ever since we had some chicken Jun made a couple (few?) weeks ago, Eric and I have been thinking about chicken. We had a bad experience with some chicken from Smiths a couple of years ago and hadn't bought it since (we're not huge meat eaters...or dinner eaters), but the chicken at Jun's house was just *so* good. So I got some at Costco (Costco=safe) and we've had it a couple of times. Eric made some tonight with a bunch of butter (sometimes I think he takes for granted being skinny), bread crumbs, and that garlic spread stuff (also from Costco) and it was awesome. But I went to the gym about 20 minutes after eating, and at 3 miles I got a crazy side ache. Usually I can head off a side ache by focusing on breathing in every two steps and out every two steps, but that didn't work. Then I remembered that someone had talked about this on the FRB and there was something about imagining that you're trying to blow up a balloon. Or something. But that didn't work either, and at about 3.18 I had to stop. But it went away pretty quickly and the rest of the run was uneventful. 

Boring story, I know. But that's how it went.  

Quantum of Solace was on in the cardio cinema so I just ran in there. It's an excellent treadmill movie. 

I'm doing the Rex Lee 5k on Saturday and I can't decide which shoes to wear. The Altras are wonderfully comfy, but they're pretty roomy and even though I've never even almost tripped on them I'm afraid that I won't be able to try to run fast downhill in them (and to be clear, my goal is just to be under 23 minutes so I'm not actually going to be running fast), and I would really really hate to fall down. Especially in front of a bunch of people. So then I think about wearing the Kinvaras, which I used to love so much and are a lot more snug, but then I think that maybe I'll trip myself on *them* because I've been running in flat shoes. It's a hard decision. Even though it shouldn't be because, you know, it's 3 miles and I'm not trying to PR.  

I wanted to wake up and pump for Elliott so that she'd have fresh milk when Eric took her to my mom's house for the day, so it was easy to hit the gym after and start my first day as a morning runner. And I noticed that the morning people don't mess around - usually I feel pretty good about myself when I'm at the gym in the evening, but in the morning people are a lot less soft. I wore the kinvaras and decided that they're too small (huh...Eric was right...), but I might still wear them tomorrow. 

Just 4 miles on the treadmill (after a mile I realized that the sound was playing out of the TV and not through my headphones and I was mortified. That's one of my peeves - it's so rude when people do that. So I turned off the TV and went to a different treadmill on the other side of the room), with .1 at 6:00 every quarter in the last mile.  

I had been nervous about today's 5k because I wanted to be faster than I was at my last 5k, but then last night I realized that the course is long (3.24 according to the website) and there are like a thousand people in it. So I decided not to take it too seriously. I still wanted to try, though. So I started in the third row back and ran with my elbows out for the first quarter mile or so, and then I tried to have a pushing-but-not-all-out pace for the first mile. Usually my first miles are the fastest, but the first mile in this race is entirely uphill and I don't like running up hills. That first mile was 7:44.

The second mile is completely downhill, so during that mile I tried to visualize falling forward (using the decline, not tripping) and told myself that the hill was helping me rest and got 6:33. During the third mile I thought about this girl that had been ahead of me for awhile. She looked like someone I should be able to beat, and I remembered something I had read on someone's FRB about how if you can see someone near the end of a race you can catch them. The third mile has a bit of uphill to it, so I thought about keeping steady. I got a little closer to the girl, and I decided that I'd try to pass her if I got the chance. (Third mile was 7:33.) At the end we have to run around the BYU track, so as we started on that I totally passed the girl and then just held steady. Then she surged and passed me back a few seconds later. By then we were coming around for the last bit of track, and I thought about passing her again. But you know that thing about how people will suddenly sprint and go way faster at the end of a race than they've been going the whole rest of the time? It's super awkward to me. Of course I think that people should do what they want to do, but if you've got enough energy to all of a sudden go twice as fast at the end as you have been going, wouldn't a person rather go a little faster throughout? Or maybe the excitement of being at the end gives people extra adrenaline. I don't know. Anyway, I didn't want to do that. Also I was kind of self-conscious about the whole trying-to-beat-someone-in-front-of-a-bunch-of-people thing, especially since it's not like we were super fast. So she was a little ahead of me. (Last bit was 7:23 pace.) But guess what? It turns out that if I *had* beat her, I would have gotten 1st (instead of 2nd) in my age group (I think). So now I wish I had tried to beat her. Especially since it would have validated that mile and a half where I was thinking about how I could totally take her. 

I was a little bummed because my goal had been to be under 23 minutes, and as I was coming around the track I knew I wasn't going to make it. But Eric points out that since the course was long, if we assume that I would have gone the same pace for just .1 that I went for the .22, my time would have been around 22:34. That makes me feel better.  

Remember how last week I said I had anxiety about going up to 35 miles? I decided to skip that and go straight to 40, so a few hours after the race Eric and I dropped Elliott off at my sister's house and went to the Gold's Gym in Sandy. They didn't have the fancy new treadmills (even though when I called and asked the person who answered said that they did (liar!)), and there were only a few channels on the TV. But it was nice to be running "with" Eric. The first 6 miles were fine, but when I started on the second 6 I was feeling kind of sore. And the last 2 sucked so much. I even went faster so that it would be over sooner. But I'm glad I did it.  

I was looking at my race times over the past couple of years (thanks, FRB!), and I noticed that on Saturday I was 20 seconds per mile faster than I was on the same course at the end of August, and I was 10 seconds per mile faster than I was on an easier course about a month ago. And I was 20 seconds per mile slower than I was on the same course right when I got pregnant (or the day we found out I was pregnant) in 2010. So that's good, right? And maybe I would have gone faster if I hadn't been about to finish my highest mileage week ever (though still not that high) and planning on running 12 more miles that day. But maybe not. 

Today was day 2 of Catherine-runs-in-the-mornings. I only did 4 miles because my quads were a little sore and because Eric and I are doing the Buffalo Run 25k on Saturday (but really 16 miles) and I only want 35 miles this week. Also, it feels a lot harder to run in the morning. Maybe because my body isn't warmed up from the day? 

Also - according to the race results, that one girl was 3 seconds ahead of me on gun time but 7 seconds ahead of me on chip time. So now I'm a little more on the side of being glad that I didn't try to pass her again, because thinking that I beat her and finding out that I didn't would have been a bummer. 

This morning I ran with a couple of women in my neighborhood. I was thinking that it would be similar to when I ran with Melody and her fast friends a couple of years ago. It wasn't like that at all. The run this morning was slower (expected and welcome), but also quieter. I had kind of expected that they'd be pretty chatty. Maybe they are when I'm not there. 

I thought that the weather would be warming up this week so I just wore shorts, a long sleeved tech shirt, and a lightweight running jacket (and knit gloves and a headband for my ears). I never really got warm, and my hands and quads started to hurt from the cold after about a half mile. I stuck it out and continued with the main running person after we dropped off the other person, but I was glad to head back home once my watch chirped at 4 miles. Unfortunately we had been doing a loop so I didn't get the 5 miles I wanted for the morning, but there's no way I'm going out there again today and I'm not sure it's worth it to go to the gym for a half mile given what I need for the week and Saturday's planned 16 miles. 

Five miles at the gym in the morning. I love getting the run out of the way, but I hate that my only TV choices are local news, informercials, or Charmed. 

Morning Runner Catherine ran in the evening today. It was my night with Elliott (we switch off) and she woke up a few times between 2:30 and 5:30 (but nothing like RAD's night a few nights ago...what the gravy) so I stayed in bed for as long as I could once she was asleep again. She was super fun later in the day, though, and I made it to the gym for a few miles before going to bed. 

I was back in the morning runner saddle this morning for a quick 1.5 at the gym after seeing Eric and Elliott off and heading to campus. It'd be nice if 1.5 a day was always enough. Or if I had a time-turner. 

Going into the race I wondered if I was about to make a huge (little) mistake. It would be the longest distance I've run in about 2 years, the first trail run in about a year and a half, and maybe the fourth time running uphill in about a year. But I wanted the distance, and it would be our third year going to the island for the races, and I was curious about my fitness level compared to a couple of years ago when I went into the race with more trail and hill running but a lot less consistency and fewer miles. Two years ago, when the race was 16 or 16.1, my time was 3:03:28. This year I had 2:51:?? for about 16.5, so definitely better. 

I ran with RAD for the first maybe quarter mile, but she soon found her carrot or rabbit or whatever and went off to chase it. Once we stopped going uphill I enjoyed the course, and I settled in a bit and tried not to think about the switchbacks that I knew were coming. I told myself that I didn't have try to run the switchbacks. I stayed with about the same people for most of the race; they'd pass me on the ups, and I'd pass them on the downs. Once we hit the switchbacks I listened to Temperature over and over again - it was a nice marching beat. On a less steep part of the switchbacks I started jogging because a lot of other people were too, but then I told myself to stop getting peer pressured and I went back to my march.

I enjoyed the course for the first half, and for awhile I was thinking that Eric and I should come out and do it about once a month. But after about 8 miles my mood soured and I thought about how much I hate running up hills. I don't mind some trails - I love the pipeline trail, for example (even given some unfortunate experiences there), and I enjoy the Mountain View Trail half marathon course, and I'm almost fond of the stretch of the BST that goes from about Shriners to about Memory Grove. But I just don't think it's fun to try to charge up (or down) things like the Buffalo Run mountains or that Sapper Joe mountain, and I'd only go up that mountain in the pancake run (Grandeur Peak?) if someone were paying me a lot. Or some. I'd probably do it if someone offered 100 dollars. But that would never happen. Anyway, I think it's okay to not like certain kinds of running. Everyone's different. Or maybe it's like how I don't like trying to do pushups or pullups - maybe I'd like it more if I had some muscles. Maybe I'd have some muscles if I tried it more? After the bigger hills I listened to No Diggity over and over to keep myself going, and I was able to keep a pretty consistent pace and pass several people. 

Eric and Elliott made my day by meeting me at the blue tent near the end (when I was thinking, "What the heck? Where in the gravy is the freaking finish line?"). I really really hated the part up the road to the finish, especially since I had been planning on 16 miles and not 16.5. My mom and her parents were waiting at the finish after having explored the island and visitor's center a bit. I felt bad because I wasn't in the best shape for about 20 minutes after finishing (my feet, hips, back, and shoulders hurt pretty bad) and didn't feel like visiting, but it was nice to see them. Before going home we stopped at the Bountiful rec center to play with Elliott in the lazy river and take turns sitting in the hot tub, and after that we stopped at a cupcake place in Salt Lake to cash in a gift certificate for free cupcakes that we've been carrying around since about January 2011. 

I dawdled a little bit getting out of bed this morning so I only had time for 3 miles at the gym before I had to be back home for Eric to leave. My legs felt fine running, but my quads hurt (from Saturday) getting on and off the treadmill even though I had taken a mess of ibuprofen a couple of hours earlier. 

After Eric got home I went back to the gym for two more miles before having to be back for final presentations for the online class I teach (you know who hates group work more than students? Instructors who have to listen to students complain about how much they hate group work). My quads felt like they had fevers before and after, but running made them feel better.  

Nothing. 

Way too soon after yummy dinner at CPK. I couldn't get through the first mile without a crazy sideache, so I just hiked on the 15% incline for a mile until Eric came to pick me up from the gym. 

Three miles at the gym until it closed, then 5.35 outside until Eric got done at church. Bummer week. 

We're nearing the end of the semester, so it's been a pretty busy week. I think next week might be a little worse (I have to write the final for my class and grade final papers and Eric starts his finals), but after that it should be a lot better for the rest of the summer. Also, remember how Elliott doesn't really eat food? Now we go for food therapy appointments once a week.

Anyway, Monday was in the morning and Tuesday was in the evening at our gym. Wednesday I didn't wake up early (since Elliott doesn't eat food she wakes up a couple of times a night to eat, and Tuesday nights are my nights) and was going to that "what it's like to be gay at BYU" panel in the evening, so after my class I took Elliott to the gym day care for the first time. I was afraid that she'd come away with scratches on her face or bite marks from another kid (hugs to RAD :), but everything was fine and she seemed to enjoy playing with another baby there (I didn't love the toy she was chewing on, but whatever). Today I woke up with a sore throat but popped some ibuprofen and had a lovely run to The Green Hornet at the cardio cinema. 

My plan was to do 20 miles at the gym today - I felt like I had had an easy couple of weeks (running-wise) and wanted to just do it and move on. Also a couple of days ago my weather thing said that today's high was going to be 59, and I knew I wanted to run earlier in the day and I really really don't like running outside when it's cold. Plus, the gym has potties and water and is climate-controlled, and it's always easy to stop early or go longer when doing so doesn't make you any farther from or closer to the intended ending spot. I had read about Toby's 18 miles on a treadmill last week and liked the way she broke up the run into groups of 6. So I planned to do 4 sets of 5 miles. 

The first set was fine (watched Jerseylicious or something), and afterward I ate a gel (Jet Blackberry?). It was a little bit gross. As I started on the second set (listened to itunes) I opened up the plastic water bottle I had filled with a can of Diet Dr. Pepper, and the cap exploded off and made a big popping sound (kind of like when my little brothers use dry ice to explode plastic water bottles) and hit me in the face and then landed a few treadmills over. I was really embarrassed and my face hurt, but I acted like it was no big deal. Then about a mile later I was trying to get my top layer out of the cup holder where I had put it and somehow I tripped and my shoe made a big skidding sound and I grabbed onto the treadmill to brace myself and luckily hit the stop button but really was so close to falling down. That was embarrassing too. I had some kind of tropical gel and a bunch of water after the second set because I was so thirsty, but then I had a sideache and had to walk for a few minutes. I knew I didn't have time to do the full 20 miles because of how late I had started (I needed to get home in time for Eric to do his run before our evening plans), but I figured that if I did 5+2 I'd have 35 miles for the week. The third set didn't feel as good as the second set (watched an episode of Friday Night Lights), and during the last mile my feet started to hurt. I went back to music for the last 2 miles after the third set and felt a little more motivated, but I was glad to be done. I think I could have done 3 more miles, but I think it would have been uncomfortable. 

Eric says that maybe I need to change my socks for long runs - I just run in these little cotton-ish socks that came in a set from Costco. I like them because they never come off my heels, but when I run more than about 8 miles I get kind of a frictiony pain on the balls of my feet (on the skin, not inside the foot, and it's like they're blistering or like I've been slapping them down, and when it's happening I feel like it would feel better if I ran without shoes on). I remember feeling like that after a half marathon in my Launches a couple of years ago, so I don't think it's the Altras, and I don't think I need new insoles because I felt the same pain/discomfort the first time I ran in them. Any ideas? Maybe I just need to put in more time on my feet to get used to it? 

Last week was busier than I prefer. But Eric is halfway done with finals, my class is taking its final this week, and it looks like smooth sailing for the rest of the summer. 

Since I didn't run in the morning I made an appointment for Elliott at the AF Gold's child care at a time when they said there would be the fewest children. I guess fewest means about a hundred, but when I dropped her off they said that a bunch of the kids were about to leave. There were two adults there - one who seemed to be occupied at a desk, and one who was hanging out in the play area. They said I could put Elliott wherever I wanted, so I moved an exersaucer into the play area and left instructions for them to call me if she cried for more than a couple of minutes since she's not a crier (their normal policy is 15 minutes). When I came back 30 minutes later there were still a hundred (maybe 100-5) kids, there was only the adult at the desk, and Elliott was crying in the saucer (and who keeps a baby in a saucer for a half an hour?). The desk girl looked at me and said, "She did great! She was happy the whole time." Seriously? 

Lessons learned: wake up earlier, and no more AF gym child care.  

I woke up earlier so I could go to the gym before Eric needed to leave for school. I really wanted to stop after about 30 minutes, but I kept going until I needed to go back home. I didn't have a TV treadmill so I got to watch the people. There are some super buff 40-something women there in the morning. 

Eric's spending the day on campus to finish up his last final of the semester (go Eric!), so I took Elliott to my mom's house in Bountiful so that I could run and do school stuff. Five miles at the Gold's in Bountiful (it's small but pretty nice) and then some solid study time at the Centerville library. Thanks, mom. :)

Today I ran on the indoor track at the Orem rec center while Eric took Elliott to her swim class. I felt super speedy (maybe because I was only planning on 3.5 miles and maybe because I wasn't on a treadmill) and ended up running about 2 minutes per mile faster than I usually do. I got confused when I was trying to keep track of the laps, though, so I'm just counting 3 miles even though maybe I had 3.5. It was 6+ laps to a mile and apparently I can't count when I'm running. 

I'm starting to get excited/nervous about the Thanksgiving Point half next week. It's the first race in a long time that I'm planning on trying to do my best at, and of course all I can think about is all the things that could go wrong.  

One mile on the treadmill at the gym in Bountiful in the morning, two miles outside with Eric and Elliott in the evening. 

Outside. I'm entering this a few days later, so I can't remember where I went. 

I really really didn't want to run today. But I told myself that I just had to run for 2 hours and that would count (and for some reason that seemed better than telling myself I was going to go run for 15 miles) and so was able to get myself out the door. I self-defeating-behavior-ed myself out about a half hour too late, but given how I was feeling it was awesome that I made it out at all. I had been building up running in my mind since Friday or Saturday to the point that I was thinking about never doing it again, and I knew that the only way to make that stop would be to just go. 

My first few miles were a lot slower than normal, but I was on an out-and-back road that would be uphill for the first half and I was just trying to be out. After a couple of miles something clicked and I was really glad to be running. It was the perfect temperature, I was away from our ghetto neighborhood, there were other runners out, the air smelled like springtime, and the sun rising over the mountains and trees was very peaceful. I decided that I'd probably have enough time to turn around after 5 miles. And at almost exactly 5 miles I saw a park with a potty that was unlocked and pretty clean! And there was a running fountain like the one at Liberty Park! It was a running miracle. I had the gel I had brought (experimenting with different types) and it was delicious - a tangerine cliff shot with almost the exact taste and texture of the orange Triaminic that I used to love. As I ran home I was filled with joy at the wonderful route the running gods had blessed me with (I thought about writing a thank-you note to Alpine for having the bathrooms open early in the morning on a weekday, but what if it's a mistake and they fix it after they get my note?) and I really did feel like my performance was boosted by at least 8%. And just like that I loved running again. 

Splits: 10:28, 10:09, 10:06, 9:43, 9:59, 9:39, 9:17, 8:45, 8:32, 7:37 (9:26 average) 

I had a crisis of confidence* last week. I had been planning to run 15 miles on Saturday, but with Eric's "race" and taking Elliott to Bountiful my plan slowly unraveled. I ran out of time to run outside before it was too warm, and I had technical difficulties getting ready to run once I was at the gym. I had just finished a mile on the treadmill when Eric called me saying he had bailed, so I very willingly bailed on my own plans and went to pick him up. I thought I'd do the run in the later afternoon, but we dawdled getting home and I ran out of time for that. Then I thought I'd do the run Sunday morning before church, and Eric even volunteered to drive me 15 miles away and up the canyon so I could practice running downhill. But once we entered AF canyon (is that what it's really called?) I saw that the wide and safe shoulder Eric had described didn't exist and I got scared and decided to not do the run at all. Then I thought I'd do it on Monday, but since Elliott had an eating appointment at 9:00 I realized I'd have to pump before running instead of after, and I didn't want to have to wake up an extra hour earlier when I could instead just do the run on Tuesday. But although Tuesday's run was one of the best I've ever had (see Tuesday's entry), it wasn't 15 miles.

I'm not afraid of 15 miles. I've done it bunches of times. I'm just afraid of getting closer to the end goal (eventually a marathon). I do this with the other monkey on my back (school), too; even though the smaller tasks that lead to the end result are totally manageable and un-scary and are things that I've done bunches of times before, fear of the end goal makes me very much avoid the baby steps that lead there. Lame, yo. 

Anyway, I submitted the final grades for my class about an hour ago, so now I'm catching up on entering my miles for the last few days. Today's run was ouside in the happy, sunshine-y, perfect-weather-y morning before Eric had to leave. I really really really like this time of year. 

Splits: 9:55, 10:05, 9:37, 9:29, 9:03, 8:26, 8:05, 7:31 (9:01 average) 

*I couldn't find a clip that included the part that leads into this where the crisis of confidence is explained, so this might not seem funny if you haven't seen the show.  

I heard from my peeps that today was going to be colder, so I went to the gym for 3 miles before Eric had to leave. I didn't want to wear headphones so I hung out in the cardio cinema to watch some dance movie where the main character's mom was pushing her to be the dancer the mom never got to be. Except that really the movie was about rugby. 

Last night I found out one of my neighbors was planning on running 9 miles out of the canyon after the half today, and I thought about doing that with her. But then I found out that RAD et al. were doing 5 before and 4 after, and I thought, "Self, you know you're not going to go run 9 miles after you finish." So I decided to go with them. Because I wanted the miles and because I knew that I wasn't going to PR anyway.

I met RAD, Toby, Smooth, and two other people who were very nice but whose names I can't remember right now at around the starting point, and we went out and about for awhile before the race started. I was worried about finding a potty and meeting up with Eric (see how I put "finding a potty" first so that it wouldn't sound like I was meeting up with Eric in the potty?) so I just got 4.42 miles then (9:24, 9:14, 8:51, 9:05, ~10:00 for .42).

Zero and Drop were at the start! I hung around them for the first mile (until they dropped back to spread the love) because they're kind of a big deal and because Zero was doing his accent for a bit. I was hoping that we could pretend that the whole race was some sort of wildlife hunt, but I know that's a lot to ask. They did tell Eric that they loved him. He appreciated that.

I felt really good for the first few miles. I had had one of my yummy Triaminic-flavored gels at the start and one again after 5 miles, and after each I'd take water at the next aid station. After the first downhill I dropped into a potty to make sure the tank was empty, but really I could have gone the whole run without (yay yay yay probiotics for fixing the 2010 battle with the trots). When we were halfway done I started regretting the earlier miles just a bit, but when there were 5 miles left I had my third gel and felt good to go again (the gels have 50mg of caffeine each - how much is too much? Should I alternate caffeine/no caffeine?). The area was pretty, but the course was a little distracting with the ups and downs and twists and turns and I didn't ever really feel like I could just think about what was around me. I had read that the pacers ("pacers") would be banking time early on toward the golf course and so I was a little nervous about what the golf course stretch would be like. At the time it wasn't my favorite, but in retrospect I guess it wasn't that bad and maybe I'd do it again sometime. I was also a little bummed a few times through the race because I knew I wasn't being fast, but I kept thinking about a quote I had read on someone's FRB yesterday (I can't remember whose it was) about how comparison is the enemy or keeps us from our goals or something and I tried to just run Catherine's pace. At the end I wasn't unhappy with my time given the day and my training ("training"), and I felt ready to do at least a few more miles as long as there weren't any hills (7:57, 8:33, 8:01, 9:03 (potty stop), 8:39, 8:51, 8:51, 8:33, 8:35, 8:23, 8:53, 8:39, 8:35). 

I lollygagged around at the end with Eric, Elliott, my parents, and others before a couple more miles with the peeps from earlier (11:05, 10:27, something for .46 but I forgot to stop my watch) until I wanted to go back to see our FRBers win their prizes (I knew Melody and Lily were first and second in the 5k) and meet up with Eric again. It was fun seeing Melody - I don't think I've seen her for about a year and a half? and I was *so* impressed with how full-on legit athlete she looked. We read on her blog about how hard she's worked, but seeing her really kind of drove it home. And of course she and all the FRBers I saw today were so sweet. I love our FRB community and am grateful it has space for fast and slow alike. :)

Later in the evening Eric and Elliott and I went out for another couple of miles to round things up (9:30, 9:17, 9:38 for .2). I'm glad that I get to be married to my favorite person to run with.  

My calves are a little sore, but other than that so far I feel surprisingly good after Saturday. I did notice on our tiny hike yesterday that my right achilles hurts a bit when going downhill, so I've been thinking about my shoes. On real downhills (like coming down some of the streets perpendicular to 11th avenue or that one little stretch toward the beginning of the Des News 10k) sometimes I try to just kind of let go and go - no thinking about form or anything, just kind of pounding down and hoping that my legs catch me and that I don't have to try to stop suddenly. It's pretty hard on my quads but a nice rest aerobically as long as I remember to breathe. So I wonder if my achilles was sore from Saturday because of the Altra/downhill combination? I run between the midfoot and the forefoot but go more toward the midfoot when I'm going down a steeper hill. Am I going to hurt myself if I try to pound down a real hill in flat shoes? What if I heel strike down the hill to kind of put on the brakes?

Anyway, I procrastinated my run until right after dinner and some brownies. My legs felt heavy and my tummy felt rumbly and I want to try last Tuesday's run again tomorrow, so I just kept it to 2 miles. 

Yesterday was just a bummer day all around, so I got some extra sleep and didn't run. I was looking forward to this morning's run, but about 3 miles into it my right IT band started hurting. This kind of worried me because a long time ago, before I became Forefoot Catherine, I had IT band pain all the time and it kept me from running more than a few miles at a time. I powered through today, stopping to stretch at about 6.5 when it hurt kind of a lot, and I went straight to the foam roller when I got home. 

The Internet suggests several causes for IT band pain. I've been ignoring some minor hip pain for awhile and I hardly ever stretch, so I'm hoping that my pain is because I need to stretch more and do some strength stuff and not because sometimes I run a bunch and sometimes I don't run at all. 

Yesterday I realized that Toby runs within blocks of my house, so last night I asked her if I could run with her this morning. We planned to meet up at 5:25, and it actually didn't feel *that* early when I woke up this morning. My tummy was a little queasy from a late dinner, and I wasn't sure if my knee was going to hurt, so I was glad that I knew Toby would be waiting for me if I didn't show up because otherwise I think I would have just skipped it. But my knee *did* hurt, so when I made it to her I told her that I was going to go back home. I had to walk for the last block. 

I went to the PT at the student health center (I'd really like to go to someone who does ART, but since last year I quit the job that gave us the awesome benefits now we just have crap student benefits, and we've already shelled out a bunch this year to fix the pee problem and for Elliott's feeding therapy so on this one I think I'm just going to go ghetto student style) and they did some stuff and gave me some exercises and confirmed that yes, it is the IT band (but I was sure that was what it was anyway). I think that it was the course on Saturday - almost all of my runs until a couple of weeks ago were on the treadmill, and I kind of just plopped down the downhills on Saturday (plus there were a lot of turns). I don't think it has to do with mileage. So I'm going to stick to running on an incline for a bit and see if that helps.

In other news, remember when I did the bod pod in January and was bummed because I was only moderately lean (and moderately lean is also moderately fat)? I did it again today and was really expecting to have bumped down into the lean category since I've lost about 5% of my January weight and can see leg muscles in my race pictures, but I was still just moderately lean (even though I was about 4% lower). I was outraged. Outraged! Then I thought, "Oh, self, who are you kidding. You had 4 KFC biscuits and some bacon for dinner last night." So I stopped by Krispy Kreme on the way out of Provo. The frosted maple didn't really do anything, but the raspberry filled one helped me feel better about myself.  

I made a plan to just run on an incline on the treadmill until my knee is better, but this morning that hurt. So I just hiked for an hour at 8%. I know it's not "running" running, but it's not like I'd cut those miles out of a race if I walked up a hill. So I'm counting it. 

Good luck to everyone racing tomorrow! We're going to be in Provo to watch Eric's sister do that marathon, so maybe we'll get to see some awesome FRBers.  

This might be a lie. I really can't remember. I'm pretty sure it was at least 2, though. 

After I hiked a mile at 9% (I know many run at that, but I don't) I stopped in the bathroom for a sec and heard someone talking about an awesome class that puts muscles in between the ribs. So I went to it. It was the pilates toning class and it was pretty much core stuff and exercises similar to what the PT told me to do for my knee. And some stuff that's like doing the barre on the ground. I liked it. Then I ran 3 miles at 4%. 

Only 4 again, but this time it was running the whole time at 4%. Using the incline makes me sweat a lot more. It's pretty gross. Still not like how Eric sweats, though. When he does the stair machine it's like it's been raining. And my knee hurt during the last mile, so I think I'm moving into more of a long-term-fix mindset. 

Zumba. 

Hiking and climbing in Rock Canyon. 

Hiking in Battle Creek Canyon (?). 

With Eric. Was supposed to be 10, but I couldn't do the last 3 because my knee hurt too much. 

This isn't true. I just wanted to fill in something for the week for my graph. 

Last night we realized there was a free 5k a few blocks from our house this morning, so we registered and made a plan to run to the start. But somehow in between both of us being up with Elliott we turned off/slept through our alarms and didn't make it to the race. So we just did an easy out-and-back on the bike path. It's an uphill/downhill route, and my knee didn't hurt at all until the downhill. I was really hoping it would be healed since I've taken so much time off, but it's not. Whatevs. I don't know what I'm going to do about it, but there's enough else to be stressed about right now that I'm not going to add not being able to run very much to the list. 

I wish we had gone to the race, though! It sounds like there were at least a few FRBers there (congrats, Melody!) and the course covered some of our normal running roads.  

A quick 2 miles before going to a doctor to talk about my knee. I'll write more about that on another day. 

Eric's counting these miles, so I will too. Even though I wasn't carrying Elliott. Grove Creek? It was beautiful. 

I know I'm behind on FRBing. I'll catch up probably on Wednesday. 

I didn't catch up on Wednesday. Happy Monday. 

Last week I was going to write about my trip to the doctor for my knee, but now it's been awhile since that happened. To sum up, I wanted to go to the doctor that people had recommended for Lily, but in order to get a referral I'd first have to go to the orthopedic person at the student health center. But he said that I didn't need to go to another doctor and that really I just need to avoid running on hills and running long distances. Super. Can I say again how much I hate student health insurance at BYU? And also doctors who see running as something that hurts people instead of something that makes people healthier? And yes, he was overweight. Yeah, I went there.

Anyway, this morning I was all ready to go back out there and take life by the horns, and then my *other* knee started hurting after 2 miles. I was already on my way back home and didn't have a phone (also, who calls for ride with less than a mile to go?), so I walked a couple of times and then decided to just push through so that I wouldn't have to be seen walking in my own neighborhood. I also tried running barefoot; that didn't make the pain go away, but I was able to run for longer without it making me stop. I noticed, though, that my heels were kissing the ground a little more passionately than they did last time I ran barefoot, so I think that with the lower heel in the Altras I changed how I run a bit (more midfoot than forefoot) since there's more space. I've written before about how I really believe that the forefoot strike is what stopped the knee pain of years past, so tomorrow I'm going to try old shoes with a higher heel and see how that goes. Also, though, I was running slightly downhill and would be less forefooty on a downhill anyway, so I'm not ready to make any firm conclusions. 

PM: .5 around the track barefoot to check things out. My knee seized up pretty bad at the end, so nothing helpful there.  

A few miles with Eric and Elliott out and about and around the cemetery. My knee didn't hurt at all. Maybe it's all in my head. 

The leg/hip exercises I do (sometimes):

The side-lying clam thing (with theraband)

The hip tilt thing on a stair

Lying leg lifts - up, side, back (with leg weights or theraband)

Wall sits

Squats against a wall with an exercise ball on my back (I think this is more for quads and core) 

Eric and I were going to run together again, but after we got ready my calendar alarm reminded me that my online class meeting was supposed to start in 10 minutes. I guess it's good that I remembered, but Elliott started getting fussy when I finished up, so we kind of missed the running together window. I was going to just go to bed and skip the run, but I was already ready and everything so I decided to just do a mile (it was dark outside). No knee pain. Maybe I'm healed. Maybe a mile isn't long enough to be able to tell.  

A nice run with Eric and Elliott on the bike path. We have to run a couple of blocks to catch it, and then we follow it back and through Art Dye Park and then up a little hill until it ends and we turn around. If we tack on a little bit at the end we can come up with 5 miles. 

I thought my knee would hurt for sure on the way back because of the hill, but it totally didn't. At all. The whole time.

Miles were 9:03, 9:05, 8:44, 8:17, 7:48. The last mile was a little hard for me because we weren't going downhill anymore (and I'm kind of out of Catherine shape right now), but I figured that pushing even though it was uncomfortable would be better in the long run. Plus, it was a celebration of no knee pain.  

Down the block and back. It was pretty late, so this was more of a symbolic run. 

Two miles in the morning. A little warm because it was later than it was supposed to be. No knee pain. 

The Relief Society in my ward started a running group that runs twice a week, so this morning I went and ran with them (4 other women). The pace wasn't what I'd need every day (um...I don't run every day...), but it was really fun to run with people and to listen/talk. I evangelized the FRB to them because I love the FRB so much. Also maybe I wouldn't have run today (again) if I hadn't had people to meet. 5.5 miles with them, then 1.5 by myself to shake things out. No knee pain at all. 

9:48, 11:07, 11:25, 10:51, 10:39, 9:38, 7:51 

Friday 5 with Eric and Elliott. We didn't leave until 10:00 and it was *so* hot and the drinking fountains along the path didn't work (we do an out-and-back on this bike path in AF - goes through Art Dye park and up a hill) and we were going a little faster than last week and now I'm so so thirsty. 

My knee didn't hurt at all, but I don't like how gun-shy I am. I feel like I'm having to build up my confidence all over again. I know I can run X miles, but can I run X miles without my knee hurting? What about if there's too much of a downhill? Will it hurt if I go too fast or too slow? If I start doing too much too quickly? I don't like worrying about it.

9:16, 8:59, 8:54, 8:45, 8:33. 

I'm so excited for the wedding 5k tomorrow! Yay Allie and Fiddy!

Allie's Wedding Bells 5k was awesome. And I got to meet the amazing Bonnie. Loved it all. Except for the part where I learned about what it feels like to try to run faster than I should. Eric and I had a plan to split the 5k in half, but I got all caught up in the excitement and ran my first lap and a half in a pace that's about 3 minutes faster than I usually run, so I kind of tanked and ended up forcing Eric into a switching-more-frequently plan (and made him run more than me). Also I forgot to stop my watch when I wasn't running (so I just guessed at a race time). But it's fun to watch it on the garmin player. 

Afterward Eric and I did a mile and a half around the park with Elliott. It was hot. We'll probably go out again later this evening. 

PM: Dry Canyon with Eric and Elliott. Probably my hardest hike so far (at least the first mile) - I don't know if that's because we went up the steep part (the way we came down was a lot more Catherine-friendly) or because pretty much all of my miles this week were since Thursday. It was beautiful, though. 

At the gym. It's sweaty there. I watched Grey's Anatomy on my phone because I'm really into that right now even though I've already watched all of the episodes. 9:05/mile, 1% incline for the first 3 and 2% for the last 2. 

I miss my Altras. They feel a lot better on my feet. But I'm afraid to wear them because they were what I was wearing when my knees were hurting. I'll totally take blisters instead of knee pain. 

Also I've been noticing from the pictures of the Wedding Bells 5k that my legs don't kick up like the legs of the faster runners. If I ever think about what my legs are doing I just try to think about being relaxed and easy, and it looks like this makes them stay pretty low. If I try to have more range of motion will I go faster? Or will I have more range of motion if I get faster? 

I'm not really trying to get faster right now, though. Right now I just want to run a little bit more than I did last week and take care of all the other stuff I'm supposed to be taking care of.  

My legs were *so* tired and heavy and slow this morning since it was only about 12 hours since yesterday's run. But I pushed through and stuff. First mile on my own, 2nd with the ward women, and the rest on my own again (they were having a shorter morning). As I was running on 100 E I saw someone coming toward me on the sidewalk and from far away I thought maybe it was Toby even though it was later than Toby runs, but it wasn't. But whoever it was was running with a group that included Lindsay Dunkley so I said hi. I wish she still FRBed. :)

9:18, 10:45, 9:26, 9:51, 9:15 

At the gym. The first 6 were in the Cardio Cinema with Ocean's 11, and the last 6 were in the main area with Grey's Anatomy. The problem with my Kinvaras is that, while they're great shoes and I loved them a lot pre-baby, my feet got bigger with pregnancy and I didn't buy a bigger size when I got a new pair last year. And Eric keeps telling me to buy a new pair of shoes in the bigger size, but it's not like money grows on trees for us. So now there are a couple of spots on my left foot that rub on the shoe. I almost stopped after 10 miles today because of one of those spots, but then the blister popped and all was good again. 9:30 miles, 1.5 incline for the first half and 1.0 for the second. 

I think I'm going to try to go back to the Altras next week. I love how much room my feet have in them. And I went almost 300 miles in them before my knee started hurting, so probably it's not like I'm going to put them on and all of a sudden have knee pain again. If the knee pain's even related to the shoes. Though my knee didn't stop hurting until I switched shoes, and since then I haven't had any pain at all. But I hate to blame the shoes. They're so comfy. But I hate being injured.  

Woah. It's July. 

Three miles in a loop around my house. I left at about 8:00 and it was already warm. I wore my Altras and my feet were happy, but maybe I felt twingy in my left knee? But I wonder that every time I run. I feel like the shoes pull me down into a midfoot strike, so I'm maybe going to try some insoles that have a little bit of a heel. But maybe that won't help; in my other shoes, there's kind of a sweet spot at about the balls of my feet that almost propels me forward, so maybe that's what I need. And now I feel like I'm being a drama queen about my shoes.  

9:21, 9:08, 9:02 

Three mile loop. My legs felt pretty tired. 

Friday 5 with Eric and Elliott. I taped up the spot on my toe that's been blistering so it wouldn't hurt, and I didn't have any knee or leg pain. The last half mile of our out-and-back is always a little hard for me because it shifts back to a slight uphill and we're trying to make the last mile our fastest, but I felt rested and springy and enthusiastic even though it was hard. I wish I felt that way all the time. And I wish I could remember that feeling when I'm trying to make myself get out of bed and out the door in the mornings. 

9:34, 9:20, 9:07, 8:24, 7:34 

A fun morning run with Toby. I was really glad because it was earlier and harder than the run I would have done by myself, and it was fun to have someone to talk to. The hills were tiring, and the wind near the canyon felt like it was in our faces no matter which way we were going, but we pushed through and conquered. Plus, the route she had planned had potties and drinking fountains. Best!

9:50, 9:43, 10:07, 9:48, 9:36, 9:48, 10:20, 8:54, 8:47, 8:58

I've been having this goal to run a little more each week, so I kind of planned to go out for another couple miles later on, but we had a little family hike instead. Also I realized that I didn't run more miles this week, but I *did* more - on Tuesday I did the 4-mile Stewart Falls hike wearing Elliott and her carrier on my back (an extra ~25 pounds), and 3-mile family hike was brisk. I'm not putting those down for running miles, but they still helped me get stronger. 

This isn't true. I just wanted to fill in something for the week for my graph. 

I didn't run at all last week. A couple times I got all ready to go and then decided I didn't want to. We found a place to move to in Provo, though, and I got a bunch of my stuff packed up. 

So today's run probably felt harder than it would have if I hadn't taken last week off. At the gym, 9:30 pace, 2% incline.  

Some speedwork with awesome Toby. She's so consistent. And tough. She kept getting faster while I kept getting slower. 5 laps with a half lap in between (this was nice because yesterday when she said 400s I had it in my mind that that was 2 laps), and some running before and after. 1:27, 1:30, 1:29, 1:31, 1:36 for the laps. Everything else was nice and slow. 

Another fun run with Toby. Plus it's great to be all done and showered by 6:30. 

Eric drove me to meet her because I was afraid of the dark, and then we did a nice out-and-back. 4.43 miles for me.  10:03, 10:10, 9:12, 9:29, 9:29 for the 0.43. 

My hamstrings, upper quads, and inner thighs are sore from yesterday. But absolutely no knee pain. Best.  

Today's hopefully the peak of the soreness from Tuesday's run. Three mile loop from my house after sleeping in until 7:00. :) 8:52, 9:43, 9:06. 

To and from the post office. 10:07 (with books), 9:13 (without books)

There was a woman there shipping something to China and the post clerk was being kind of jerky to her because of her accent. Then the clerk said, "They don't have powdered milk in China?" (I guess because she thought it was weird that the girl was spending 60+ to send this little package.) And the girl (girl? woman? probably early 20s) said that she was sending it to someone whose 11-month-old is really small because the mom wasn't making enough milk and in China they don't have medicine to increase a mom's milk supply like they do here, so she was just hoping that what she was sending would help. Yeah, I cried a little bit before it was my turn in line. 

I'll write a report later, but the little story is that I made my goal of a post-pregnancy 5k pr, I should run more if I want to run faster, I was 2nd in my age group (but 6 minutes slower than the person who was 1st), and Eric got beat by a couple of strollers because he and Elliott ran with me. 

*The report that I wrote later:

I was nervous about this race because I wanted to have a post-pregnancy PR (PPPR) even though I totally didn't deserve one. I was pretty consistent this year until knee-gate (*cough* altra-gate *cough*), and then I totally fell off the wagon. I've had weeks in the past few months where I didn't run at all, lots of weeks where I ran just a few miles, and I haven't run more than 22 miles in a week since the end of April. FRB keeps me honest, so this wasn't a "I'm going to PPPR even though I haven't trained because I think I can beat the system." I was just hoping I hadn't regressed. I was up late the night before looking up running stuff, and I found a comment thread on JakeK's FRB about how he would never race in Kinvaras. I had a mini freakout about my shoes, but then Eric reminded me that I'm not the kind of runner where the structure of my shoes is going to really matter. :)

I knew the course pretty well - it passes our house, and I ran it and drove it a few times before the race. The first about .75 is easy, the next about .8 is uphill some, and the rest is a gradual downhill. In my mind it's similar to the BYU 5K course, so I thought it would be fair to shoot for faster than 7:17/mile (what I did at BYU in March).

Usually in a 5K I start too fast and I get this funny feeling in my head and arms and stomach (also happened at Tuesday's track workout with Toby) where I feel like the blood is rushing away and I wish that I had eaten something. So I had a gel about 20 minutes before the race. I didn't get that feeling, but I also didn't start as fast. I knew the hill was coming, so my goal was just to have the first mile under 7:00 (other 5K first miles this past year have been 7:44 (up the BYU hill), 6:51, and 6:59). When we started on the uphill part I was watching my watch and saw that our pace was creeping up. I kept increasing the effort, but I couldn't keep the time down. Our (Eric and Elliott were with me) first mile was 7:12. I knew that we'd hit the downhill before the second mile was over, so I tried to push through and not watch the time until we were going back down. Second mile was 7:31. 

I like thinking about using downhills to rest my lungs and push my legs, so even though we were too slow after the 2nd mile I thought we'd be able to make up some time before the end. We did, but we also didn't pass very many people. We were both surprised at the big group that was with and ahead of us; usually a lot of people start faster than they can sustain, and we pick them off before the end. But we never saw a ton of people that were ahead of us. We did pass the purple shorts girl (Eric called her grape butt) I had picked out to beat early on, but she sprinted at the end and beat us anyway. We didn't ever catch the two stroller guys ahead of us (sorry, Eric). Third mile was 7:02, and the last bit was 7:23 pace. 

So...I'm glad I (barely) made my goal. I'm glad that I have some fall races planned. I'm glad that even though I won't PR at the Des News 10K, I'll still be a lot faster than I was last year. I'm glad that I'm not injured. And I'm glad that I'm happy with where I am and where I can be in the future instead of bummed about where I'm not. 

A mile around the neighborhood at noon. Hot, but I wasn't out for very long. I wanted to just run easy since we're doing the 10k tomorrow (and this was kind of just running to not have 0 on the calendar), but I saw that I was going at about a 9:00 pace and I thought, "self, maybe it's time to change your easy speed." So I finished in 8:30. And then I thought, "self, let this be a lesson - you can always find 8 and a half minutes in a day. Don't be such a slacker." 

Good luck to everyone running/racing tomorrow! Say hi to me and Eric if you see us.  

We met my parents at the race start this morning so my dad could watch Elliott, and we were all able to make our potty stops before the race began. I remembered that I hate weaving through all the people at the beginning, but at least I wasn't stressed about it like I was two years ago - my goal was just to be faster than last year, so losing a few seconds around people wasn't going to make a big difference. Once the people spread out, I had a great couple of first miles. My first mile was 6:32, so I made a goal to keep the same pace for the second mile (6:29). I had a gel at 2 miles because I think they really do make me feel less tired (I swear I felt it kick in at 4.5, but that's also when I was running slower so who knows). Then we were on some flat and uphill parts, so my goal for the third mile (7:34) was to keep my overall pace under 7:00. Then I wanted to see if I could have a fake 5k PR, but I was about 15 seconds off. I did my first-ever running water grab at that aid station on South Temple and it was intense. My next goal was to have the first four miles under 7:00, and I got it with a fourth mile in 7:19. Then I told myself I just had to stay at that pace until 4.2 so that I'd only have two miles left. I didn't really stop trying for the last two, but I gave myself some slack for the slight uphill (7:34, 8:12, 7:47 for the last bit (0.18 on my garmin)).

I was pretty confused about the course toward the end; at some point on 300 E I asked someone next to me if we weren't supposed to be on the parade route, because I remembered always turning onto that from South Temple, but he said that we'd merge into it. So for that whole stretch I was trying to think of reasons why they wouldn't have wanted the runners to do that whole part next to the parade-watchers (my best guess was that the race organizers were afraid of runners slipping or tripping on spills or garbage). Then when we did go down to 200 E there were people running on the other side of the cones, and I was afraid I had gone the wrong way. But there were tons of people around me, and someone asked the people on the other side what they were doing, and they said they were 5K runners. Except that the 5K shouldn't have started yet. So maybe they were confused about which race they were in. After reading people's race reports it sounds like someone messed up and sent some people the wrong way at the beginning? I'm glad someone figured out how to fix the distance problem by the time I came along, but I'm sad for the people whose races got shorted. 

After the race Eric and I and Elliott saw RAD and Glider Girl and met JD and someone else? (I'm sorry for forgetting who). We hung out and saw Fritz win (remember when the race talker made him run back onto the course after he was finished?) and Allie do awesome and Sasha say "CROCKS!" and had an accidentally long walk (and fun talk) with Glider Girl back to our car. 

I'm happy with how my race went. I'd like to get stronger/have more endurance so that my pace doesn't blow up, but I'm glad that my legs could go as fast as they did at the beginning (even though the hill helps so much). I was surprised that my first two miles were so similar to two years ago. And for sure the endurance will come if I just run more consistently.  

Also, overall I'm happy with where I'm at. The FRB (and, you know, Des News articles about women who win races after having a c-section 4 months ago) makes it easy to compare one's self to other people. Sometimes this can be bumming, but most of the time it's helpful to see how A leads to B, and people don't get to B without A. And some people get to C, but those people have pre-A. Or something. Anyway, maybe I should chide myself for not trying to be excellent, but right now I'm enjoying running and am glad for its place in my life.

2009: 55:32 (pre-garmin, no splits)

2010: 43:49 (6:28, 6:31, 7:20, 7:16, 7:10, 7:29, 7:32 (0.2))

2011: 57:01 (8:33, 8:11, 9:05, 9:07, 9:37, 10:14, 10:54 (0.2))

2012: 45:04 (6:32, 6:29, 7:34, 7:19, 7:34, 8:12, 7:47 (0.2)) 

A very pleasant recovery(for me)/taper(for her) run with Toby. I'm always so glad to run with her in the mornings - last night Elliott woke up for a bit, and if I hadn't been meeting someone there's no way I would have woken up early to go run. But now it's done and I don't have to stress all day about when to run and the world is a happy place. 

I was really afraid that today my knee would hurt from all the downhill yesterday, but it totally didn't! My legs were sore and tired, but so far they're not even *that* sore. I've been doing lots of hip stretches and foam rolling on my butt and quads to try to keep the can't-lift-my-legs soreness away, so we'll see if it works. 

9:57, 10:07, 10:18, 10:33 for .35 

Still sore, still afraid that my knee will start hurting, but still in the clear. Elliott's been super needy lately and it makes me crazy trying to figure out what to do with her in our apartment, so as soon as she woke up we jogged over to the park. I'm pretty sure she sat in some dog's poop, but at least she was happy for awhile. I was super slow with the jog stroller and our dog who likes to suddenly stop every 5 minutes or so. It made me appreciate all the races Eric's done with Elliott. 

A half marathon was pretty close to my house and Toby was running it, so I told her I'd meet her and run part of the race with her. I didn't realize that there was also a marathon, so I was confused for a bit when I was running backward on the course and the first people I saw didn't seem very fast. But then I saw the half people coming, and they were super speedy. I met Toby at about the mouth of the canyon and tried to think of some stories to tell for the next couple of miles. But then I got the poops and I had to leave Toby to find a potty. Bad race buddy! But I found her again at the end and she looked like she had had a good race. And I was home by 8 with the miles (including some nice up and downhill) I needed for the day. 

9:43, 9:50, 10:30, 10:03, 8:42, 8:48, 9:19, 9:33 (9:34 ap) 

My first run this week. I met Toby for a fun out-and-back. She's the perfect running buddy. After we parted I went to the track to just do a faster lap because I was feeling rested (you know...not having run since Saturday) and bring my total up to 5.  

10:09, 10:04, 9:55, 9:42, 8:35 (9:40 ap) 

I hope everyone gets a chance to read Lindsey's comment on her recent race report. I don't run as much as I could, and I don't have nearly as much going on in my life as she does, but I understand her perspective on priorities/making tradeoffs. I admire her and all the other people who are very successful (with multiple definitions of success) runners while also balancing work, spouses/partners, children, and life. I'm grateful that there are so many here on the blog who are willing to share how they do it. 

After yesterday's nice run I thought that I'd maybe do 5 miles in the morning for the rest of the week. But last night we found out that Tigger has ringworm. We were planning on leaving early this morning for St. George and then heading to Mesa and Tucson tomorrow for a cousin's wedding and to see my new nephew (and to try to meet up with Arizona FRB friends!), but I guess ringworm's pretty contagious and my sister didn't want us to bring Tigger and we couldn't find anyone who could watch him. I was pretty sad last night so I stayed up late crying a little bit and emotionally eating some cookies (ginger lemon cookies from Costco - so good) and slept in a bit this morning. Then I stayed home with Elliott and packed some more for our move. 

I thought I'd go to the gym when Eric got home but I was hungry so we just had dinner, and by then it was pretty late and I was about ready for bed. So I just went out for a couple of miles (slow because my tummy was full, but not as slow as it felt). I was proud of myself because usually when I'm ready to go to sleep I just don't run. 9:25, 9:19, 8:54 for .25 (9:19 ap)

Also we got some pepper spray the other day for me to carry when I run because where we're going to move in Provo is a couple of blocks from the river trail (aka rape trail) and I'm usually only scared running by myself in the dark, but what the what! people get attacked there in the daytime. Eric and I did some practice shots with the spray and I took it with me tonight and I felt fierce. I'll probably still try to get Eric to come with me on the river trail when we move there, though. Eh...those attacks just make me so flapping mad. I kind of want to go all vigilante and spend all my time patrolling the trail with the zombie slayer the local gun store sells. Except that I don't think I believe in guns. And that gun scares the crap out of me. 

Friday 5 with Eric and Elliott. Elliott wakes up a little after 9:00 and I didn't decide I wanted to join the run until a little after that, so we didn't get started until about 9:45 and it was pretty hot. Usually I try to do these runs so that each mile is a little faster, but today I wanted to keep each mile under 9:00. I felt like I was comfortably pushing, but by the end my legs were heavy and my quads were tired. I think this is a good speed, though - not for every day, but maybe for twice a week.

8:55, 8:54, 8:58, 8:27, 8:36 (8:46 ap)

Eric takes care of Elliott on Saturdays so I totally slept in until she was banging on some pots and pans and Tigger was whining. Then it was too hot outside for running so after I had 3 mini mint patties and a few sips of diet dr. pepper I went to the gym. 8 miles, 9:05 for each, 1% incline. There was some cinderella-type movie on, but with a dance competition/audition twist. It was okay. Then I stopped by the new fabric store and wanted to buy stuff but didn't, and then I bought a caramel apple on the way home because I was stressed about this next academic year and I'm totally an emotional eater. 

My sister came over. The first thing she asked was, "Is there a Smart Cookie store here?" We ran up to the track together and ran around and then ran home. She doesn't run very much and doesn't like it yet, so she does a run-walk thing. But when she's running she goes at around a 9:30 pace. And when she stops to walk she's still talking well. I asked her what makes her feel like she needs to stop to walk, and she said it's her soul. 

Our legs are the same even though she doesn't run (though some would argue that I don't run).   

And we both like cookies.  

With Toby for her speedwork. She was doing 3 sets of 800 with a 400 cooldown. I was late getting to the track so I only did 2 sets. I gagged a little bit after the first 800. Plus there were sprinklers. My 800s were 3:12 and 3:16, and my ap for the whole morning was 10:02. I was *so* tired running back home, and the sides of my lower right calf were pretty sore. Hopefully I just need to stretch.  

I ran 2 of the 4.5 miles around the lake after driving to Pinecrest, CA with Eric and Elliott. A whole lot of diet soda and some candy and other junk throughout the day made for a pretty unhappy tummy. It was pretty outside, though. 

Practice run with the rental jog stroller. It pulled to one side. Beautiful place to run, though. 

My family goes to a cabin in Pinecrest, CA (off the Sonora Pass in Stanislaus National Forest, kind of between Yosemite and Sacramento) every year, and Eric and I have been able to go have our own family time there for the last few years. But this year was the first year that we were able to participate in the annual Pinecrest Lake Run. 

We didn't have anyone to help watch Elliott, so we decided that we'd rent a jog stroller and I'd do the fun run (1 mile) with Elliott and Eric would do the real run (5 miles). Usually Eric pushes the stroller when we run, so I was a little nervous about how it would go. But the stroller we rented was pretty cushy (thanks to the awesome bike/stroller rental guy who replaced the (broken) first one before the shop opened) and my race was short, so it went pretty well. We mostly ran around a cabin road and then cut through the forest for a quick stretch before ending on a lake path. The only thing that was kind of a bummer (aside from Elliott's race number covering her face most of the time) was that the course was short. I slowed down just a bit after about .4 thinking that I had a half mile left, and when my watch hit .75 I started trying to visualize doing a lap on the track with Toby on her Tuesday speed days, and then all of a sudden it was over. I wish I had known how short it was before we started.

Anyway, it was a really fun morning and probably one of my top 5 Pinecrest experiences out of all the time I've been going (since I was a little girl). One of our favorite places to be in the world, with our awesome little family, doing a race with friendly runners. I got a little certificate for being the first woman in the fun run (I would have been embarrassed about winning a "fun run" except that I was pushing the stroller, so really it was Elliott's race), and Eric did well in his race even though he wasn't feeling great before he started. And we made a few new friends who we can look for next year.