I can do it!

For Father's Day, we loaded up all the kids right after church and drove to the Grand Canyon for "free national park day."  It was AWESOME!  The kids loved the day trip.  We didn't do a LOT of walking, but it was enough for me to feel the soreness in my quads.  It's not too bad, but I could tell that I definately did some downhill running yesterday.  We'll see how it goes tomorrow....

After all the exercising that I've become accustomed to doing these last few weeks, today felt a bit like a cop-out!  I slept in late (7:45!) then attempted to run a couple of miles on my slightly sore legs.  It felt good to get going again after the first half mile, and I would have done more if I wasn't with my daughter and if it wasn't so late.  I think these next few days are going to have to be mostly recovery, since my legs haven't adapted to serious downhill running yet.  I'm glad I'm starting now, so that I can be totally used to it by the time the marathon gets here!  :D

I woke up at 3:30 am and couldn't go back to sleep, so about 4:15 I got Elijah out of bed, had a power shake, and we went running.  4:45 am is actually a wonderful time to be running in Saint George, especially as summer wears on!  I felt fabulous!  I picked up a book at the library last weekend called "Chi Running," have read the first few pages, and I feel like it has already made a big difference in my runs...at least in how I perceive them.  I feel fully energized and am thoroughly enjoying my time on my legs.  Today as I rounded the corner to my house, I felt as if I could keep going forever...and probably would have continued running if my partner wasn't done, and if I hadn't already decided that I needed to try out my new shoes and pedals on my bike.  So I had a drink of water, switched shoes, and spent about 15 minutes practicing getting in and out of the clips.  I decided that getting out is no problem, as long as I remember to do it!  But getting my shoes IN the clips was a little more challenging.  Elijah wanted to come along for the ride, so I let him use my old mountain bike, and now I know what it must have felt like for Ben to have to wait for ME all these months!  I hardly had to pedal to keep at Elijah's pace.  A few times I opened up and let my bike fly, and just left Elijah in the dust!  What fun!  But then I would have to slow down and wait for him to catch up.  I'm excited to really get to try it out on my long ride tomorrow!  We'll see how good tomorrow's riding partner will be at keeping up with me....   ;-)

This morning began at 4:00 am. I woke up early so I could squeeze a run in with Ben before getting him off to work. We did a 5K run together, which I'm sure was painfully slow for him, but a nice recovery run for me. He had his Garmin on, so I actually have an accurate time - 30:45. He went on to do a little more running, and I went inside to make breakfast. After that, I met up with a friend to try out a longer ride on my road bike. We did 24 miles together at a very relaxed pace. I found myself easily conversing with her the whole time, and never really broke a good sweat. However, I think it was good for me to spend the time on the bike, as I'm still learning how to properly position my upper body. I finished with just a little tightness in my shoulders, so I probably need to adjust a bit. I have a shorter rehearsal schedule tonight, so I'm going to talk Ben into coming with me on the bicycle. That will add another 16 miles or so, but it will miles I'll have to work harder at, just to try to make Ben break a sweat!

Later.....I was able to cycle to my rehearsal, but we ended up running late, and I didn't get out of there until 9:20 pm.  So I had to get a ride home with someone - it was too late to cycle.  Bummer.  I was hoping to get a few more miles in with Ben, since he's so much more challenging to ride with.  AND riding to my rehearsal was uphill the whole way, and I was looking forward to the ride home!  :D  From now until the play is over, most of my evenings are going to be tied up.  But by the time we're finished, the weather will start to cool down again, so I'll be hitting the road on the bike more often!  Yay!

It was an easy day.  I did five slow miles.  I think the cycling last night gave me a better workout than I had thought, since my legs were tired this morning.  My knees also felt a little sore.  So I ran slow and easy, and felt good afterwards.  :-)

Friday!  Sleep in day!  I got up at 6:15 for my nice and short three mile run, then hopped on the bike to ride to work with Ben.  I had intended to swim this evening, but it didn't work out....I've felt like a slacker all week...but will make up for it next week, hopefully.  :-)

Today was a short long run day!  I ran with a big group of friends.  Everyone in the group was doing 12 miles, but I did twelve last weekend and am planning to do 14 next Friday, so I forced myself to quit at 6.  It was great running with friends!