cheryl

I was up bright and early and at the Rec center at 5:30 to do Lisa's circuit class.  We rode the bike and worked on upper body exercises.  Then I went upstairs and did some back and ab exercises, then I did the stairmaster for 8 minutes.  Later on,  I ran on the treadmill and got in almost 3 miles.  Two miles were at 8.5 with no incline.  Always enjoyable to try and run fast on the treadmill.

Dean led the workout today.  We met at a church in his neighborhood, and then broke the run up into 3 segments.  I liked that because we were able to regroup and see all the members of our group at each regrouping.  It was cold out, but besides my hands being a little cold, it was fine.  I'll take the cold over the wind any day.  I was able to talk to several people, which was fun.  I felt pretty strong during the run.  I think working on my core strength by doing yoga and other exercises has helped me feel stronger.  Last year (speaking of pre-St. George marathon time) when I didn't do those things, I always felt a little weak and struggled to keep up with the group.  Plus I struggled with injuries.  So I know what to do if I want a better year of running in '09.

Since I now have a Garmin, I thought I'd put in the vital stats of the run:

Interval 1:

Time:  16:47

Distance:  1.84 miles

Avg Pace:  9:06

Best:  7:06

Interval 2:

Time:  17:45

Distance:  2.09 miles

Avg. Pace:  8:30

Best::  7:25

Interval 3:

Time:  20:43

Distance:  2.4 miles

Avg. Pace:  8:38

Best:  7:00

A lot of times at night, I have great ambitions about getting up early and running.  Then when early comes, I talk myself out of it.  That's what happened today. I had to be at my 9 year old's class at 9:00 to help with reading, so that's what I did first.   Everyone in his class is a pretty good reader.  Then I found a book that totally grabbed my attention and I had trouble doing anything besides reading it.  Don't ask what it's about, let's just say it has something to do with orange juice and a glove and stuff like that.  Those who know me well and my obsessions may be able to figure it out.  Anyway, I finally put the book down and got on the treadmill and ended up having a very nice run.  I went very easy for about 30 minutes, then cranked the treadmill up to 8.5 mph and ran that for one mile, then eased back down and ran for another mile at a slower pace.  It was very enjoyable. 

I met with the group at 5:45 at Parkway Palisades.  One of these weeks I'm going to make the 5:15 group, but I'm not quite ready for that yet.  Peggy had us do 3 approximately 2 mile runs.  I must need a lot of time to warm-up, because the first two I was struggling, feeling uncomfortable, having trouble keeping up.  By the third, I fit right in, felt good, stayed up with everyone.  I was sure they had slowed down for that one, but Peggy said she thought they were running about the same pace.  Here is the info from each run:

1-  Time:  17:43; Distance 1.98 miles; avg. pace 8:56; best 6:53

2-  Time:  16:40; Distance 1.71 miles; avg. pace 9:45; best 7:29

3-  Time:  16:35; Distance 1.95 miles; avg. pace 8:29; best 7:13

It was a fun workout.

I managed to get up and make it to Lisa's 5:30 class at the Rec Center.  Usually, I talk myself out of going, but today I made it somehow.  We worked on lower body strength.  I like the class because we do a lot of the exercises my physical therapist says I should do, but I never do them to the extent she has us do them.  Lunges, squats, planks, core work, all that stuff I need to do to run injury free.  Plus, we jump and do other things that are good that I seldom do on my own.  So I was glad as always that I went.

Later I took my dog to the canal road and ran a little.  I wanted to run for a while at a very comfortable pace, just to see what that pace is.  It turned out to be 11:30 minute miles.  Pretty slow, but it was comfortable.  I then ran for 5 minutes comfortably hard, and averaged 8:36.  I then did one minute pretty hard, and that average was 7:25.  The Garmin is great, I can experiment with different paces.  Is this the last nice day before the snow?

I went to bed last night thinking I would meet some of the running group at 6:30 to run 10 miles, if it wasn't snowing.  I didn't set my alarm because I always wake up around 5:00 or 5:30.  Well, guess who didn't wake up until 6:15.  I figured it would be too much of a rush to get there in time.  Plus, it looked cold and a little windy outside, so it was easy to talk myself into staying home and just running on the treadmill.  I ended up having a nice treadmill run.  After the initial warming up, which takes like 30 minutes, I was able to increase the speed and run fairly fast for about 20 minutes.  I varied the pace throughout, which is always a fun way to do it, so the treadmill doesn't get boring.  Then it was off to do my first real Christmas shopping this year.  We had fun at Best Buy, Costco and the mall.  Missed all you guys I could have run with this morning, maybe next time?