"No one ever drowned in sweat."

5.5 miles around Herriman this afternoon.  It is SO warm today! I loved being out there without feeling covered head to toe in Underarmor! Hooray for SPRING!!! There were so many people out running today. I've decided that I love runners. They are always so friendly and positive. It is very rare that you pass a runner that doesn't at least wave hello. Must be those endorphins!

I am happy to report that I am feeling much better since I've been on antibiotics and I'm hoping that March will be a good month. No sicknesses this month...PLEASE!!! I really want a PR for the Salt Lake half! 

Here are my splits from today:

1 - 8:48; 2 - 9:09, 3 - 9:15; 4 - 9:29; 5 - 10:05; last .5 mile - 9:58 (can you tell I live at the top of a hill...oh well, hopefully it will make me stronger at the end of my races with some practice)

5.0 miles on the TM this morning. First and last miles at a 9:00 pace, miles 2-4 varied between 7:45 and 8:15 pace. 

I'm having trouble staying motivated this week (as you can see from my low miles this week).  I just feel like I have so much on my plate! Looking at my schedule I realized that I'm going to have to wake up at 5:00am at least 4 days a week to get my training in.  I did it this morning and I feel so much better now that I've got my miles in for the day, I just wish I could be more consistent. Any advice?

9.0 miles around Herriman this morning.  AP 9:18.  

I felt just a little bit faster on the hills I came across and was able to recover more quickly.  After running a hill, it usually takes me a while to speed up again, but today my legs seemed a bit stronger! Hooray! Maybe one day I won't dip down into the 10:00's when I'm running a hill!  It totally ruins my average pace goals, but oh well. It is what it is! 

5.0 TM miles this morning. AP 9:25.

 5:00am came really early this morning, but I feel SO much better having my miles in for the day! Hopefully I can keep it up this week. 

 I'm off to take my kids to the playground; what a nice warm day! 

6.0 TM miles this morning. Miles 1 and 6 at 9:30; miles 2, 3, 4, and 5 varied between 8:15 and 8:35.  

I got interrupted at mile 2.5 by my 2 year old.  I thought by getting up at 5:00am that I would guarantee no interruptions! He started screaming at me over the roar of the treadmill "STOP RUNNING MOM!!!" He told me he had gone pee pee in his pull-up and needed me to change him. So after a 15 minute ordeal of changing him and singing him a few songs to get back to sleep I had to go help my other child who got woken up b/c of Connor's screaming episode.

My husband was in the middle of studying for a test he had this morning, but was nice enough to come help put the baby back to sleep while I finished on the TM.  

I'm just happy to have gotten my miles in and was glad to have kept a fast pace (for me) for 4 straight miles! Wahoo!

I'm planning on running outside tomorrow morning, so unless I get hit by a car, I won't be having any interruptions!  

4.5 miles outside this morning at 6:30am...Wahoo! I got to sleep in today! AP 9:28. Lots and lots of hills! I LOVE running outside now! It's still chilly in the mornings, but the valley is SO pretty when the sun comes up over the mountains. Especially when there is no smog. 

I'm off to my in-laws for a few days w/the family.  My husband is off of school for spring break, only a two day break mind you, but I'll take what I can get!  

I wasn't brave enough to run outside in the snow/rain so I ran 7.0 on the TM at an AP of 8:35.  I kept getting side cramps in the first few miles so I started out a little slower than I'd like, but I think I made up for it toward the end.  My knees really started to hurt around mile 5 so hopefully resting on Sunday will prevent any injury from occurring.  

I'm excited for better weather this week!!!

I also need some advice on which races to run.  I've been invited to run the Wasatch Back with some women in my neighborhood, but I will be in a car with no one I know.  I've heard from a lot of people that it's a lot of fun, but I'm not sure if it will be worth it.  Also, if I run Wasatch Back, that will max out my racing budget for the whole year.  I may be able to do one other 5k or something, depending on how much it is.  I heard that South Jordan is holding a half marathon in July, I think it's the first year they are doing it, and I really would like to do that one. Any suggestions????

4.0 miles this morning. Mile 1 at 9:40; miles 2-3.5 at 8:35. At 3.5 miles I was feeling good so I sped up to 7:30.  I had to stop at 4 miles though b/c my left knee really started to hurt.  I must have been going to fast. I kind of hobbled around for about 1/2 an hour after my run, but it seems to be feeling a bit better now. I may take a rest tomorrow and just lift weights. 

5.0 easy miles this morning at a 9:30 pace. My knee bothered me again, but not nearly to the degree it did on Monday.  Luckily my training schedule has me only running 18 miles this week w/no speed work. Hopefully after an easy week I won't feel the pain I did before! 

5.0 miles this morning an AP of 9:15. My knee didn't hurt at all! I should have probably gone farther, but I only had time for 5 miles. I'm really hoping that resting this week helped b/c next week's schedule is going to be difficult. Wish me luck!

4.0 TM miles this afternoon, AP 9:30.  Sometimes I feel like I am going so slow at this pace, but this is the pace my training schedule said to run.  I am sure I will feel differently tomorrow.  I'm supposed to run 5 miles at a 8:13 pace.  I'm nervous I won't be able to since I took it easy last week and I'm worried my knee won't cooperate. I guess we'll see!

My knee bothered me a little bit today so I made sure I stretched for 5 minutes before and after my run.  Everything I read about preventing injuries suggests cross training, strength training, and stretching.  I'm not sure what my next race will be after the SL half. I don't think I'm doing Wasatch Back anymore b/c I can't find anyone to stay with my kids. Plus if I run it, I won't have any money left to run any other races the rest of the year.  Maybe I'll run a couple 5Ks or a 10K instead and try to get faster.  Either way, I know that I need to focus more on improving my overall strength so that I don't have any more injuries. 

6.0 miles at 5:00am this morning. Have I mentioned that I'm really not a morning person?

Mile 1 - 9:35; Mile 2 - 9:00, Mile 3 - 8:13 (I had a hard time maintaining this pace so I slowed it down), Mile 4 to 6 - 8:35 (still was pushing myself pretty hard, but I knew I could finish at this pace). AND...My knee didn't hurt at all! Hooray!!! 

My brother came down to visit from Logan so we ran together this morning around Herriman. He's also running the SL half and told me before our run that he thought he'd be able to run at about a 10:30 pace.  I wasn't opposed b/c I didn't know what would happen with my knee.  Our first 5-6 miles were in the low to mid 9:00min pace.  He did great! At around mile 9 my knee really started to hurt so we decided to walk/jog the rest of the way back.  Our goal was to run 10 miles, so overall we both felt pretty good.

I've been taking Ibuprofen on and off all weekend for my knee and have tried to stretch as much as I can. I think I might have to finish out my training on the darn treadmill b/c yesterday's run was not fun.  I hope it won't bother me too much during the race in a few weeks!

3.0 TM miles at a 9:30 avg pace. Sunday and Monday of this week, my knee was still a little sore just walking around.  I stretched, and iced it and hoped that by easing back into things I wouldn't hurt it anymore.  I still felt pain today, but nothing unbearable.  I need to do a 7 mile tempo run tomorrow and I think running on the TM helps as opposed to running outside so we'll see how that goes! Thanks everyone for all of your advice. It really helps A LOT!