Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured

Got up to run today and was not very happy about putting on the same clothes I wore in January and February.  Went to meet Paula and Jolynn at 5:45 and Jolynn slept in and Paula sounded horrible.  Sent her home to rest and I went home and went back to bed.  I could not bring myself to run in this winter weather.  It is acceptable in January, February, March and may be a little April, BUT MAY!!! Seriously!  I will have to make up for my lack of running the last two days tomorrow and Saturday.  I WANT SPRING!!!

Happy Running!  BOO WINTER! 

I am finally blogging my run today - 8 hrs later.    

Ran 3.26 with Jolynn, Paula is still sick.  Jolynn did great, it was her longest run with us and today was the fastest pace to date - 9:47.    She did a great job!

Ran 3.14 alone.  I really pushed the pace the entire time for this part.  The ave pace was 8:45- YEAH!  I had some serious GI issues today and was just grateful to make it home today.  My knees and calves were tight so it is a good thing I am seeing Josse today. 

Ave Pace 9:25

Happy Running!

 

Ran 7 today with Paula.  My leg was feeling so much better after being scrapped by Josse.  I felt really good today until the last mile and it was a very long mile.   We took a fairly easy route but ended up into the wind for about half of it.  I am so glad to have two good weeks back to back as I continue on the mend.

Ave Pace 8:53

Happy Running! 

Ran the first 3.1 with Paula  and Jolynn.  Today was our fastest for the 3 of us - 9:24 pace.  Jolynn is doing great!.

Ran the rest with Paula and we stopped by her parents to feed the pigs and then finished up. My leg was back to bothering me today - I didn't have time to stretch after Saturday's run, very bad choice.  I stretched good today and hopefully my scrapping tools come soon.  

I am so happy with the weather today - a perfect spring day! Shorts and a long sleeve T make for great running gear!

Ave Pace 9:20 

Another absolutely beautiful day!  

Ran 2.82 with Paula & Jolynn.  We took it fairly easy and chatted along the way. We were a bit slower today with a 9:42 pace

Ran 2 more with Paula and she wasn't feeling well and dropped her off and finished up with another 1.3 on my own to get 6 for the day.  The pace was 8:51.

My scraping tools came yesterday and I scraped my calf last night.  The pain was better today but I think is due to muscles pulling from somewhere else. 

Ave Pace 9:20

Happy Running!

Ran with Paula today.  Had a nice little run to the fitness center and back.  It was another absolutely beautiful morning.  Pretty uneventful except the list of everything I need to do over the next day and a half before I leave.

Ave Pace 9:16

Happy Running! 

A very slow 5 today.  The first 2.75 were with Paula and Jolynn and then the remainder with Paula.  I was so tired today and the legs had no go.   Very frustrating!  I wish I could get back to were I was and get some motivation along the way.  

Happy Running! 

Just made it to London. We spent yesterday in New York and it was freezing. Planning on running tomorrow.

I did not get into St.George and now not sure what I want to do.

Happy Running!

 Spent today wallowing in self pity for not getting into St. George.  Also spent the day in London and have on more before I am on to India.
 I tried to post some pictures but could not get it to work.  If anyone knows how - let me know , and I will post them.

 Thanks!

Ran in London today.  It was very warm and I was overdressed, I am just not used to running in beautiful weather.   Ran up past Westminster Abbey and the House of Parliment and then got lost in some residential streets.  I head towards the sun and wound up back down by the river and then I could find my way back to the hotel.  I  was very surprised that my pace was 9:12.  Still slower that what I would like but  I felt like I could never get going or into a rythm.  

We get to spend the rest of the day sight seeing before we have to leave for India.

Happy Running!
 

Made it to India!  No running today, just unpacking, catching up on some sleep and then at work for 10 hrs.  Running tomorrow.  We went to the mall to get dinner and got a new running outfit from the Addidas store.  It is quite a bit cheaper here. 

Happy Running!
 

Got up after 4.5 hrs of sleep to run today and found out that the fitness ctr at the hotel (it is brand new) has not opened yet.  UGH!  It is not safe to run outside so I went and got ready for work.  I have now been at work for 12 hrs and have probably 3-4 more.  I am planning on doing stairs tomorrow to get some sort of work out in.  Not really what I had planned.

Happy Running! 

Ended up not working out at all the last two days.  We worked about 20 hrs on Wednesday and then went back to sleep during Thursday day and go to work on Thursday night.  I woke up with the worst migraine I have had in  years.  Throwing up and barely being able to move.  It was horrible.  I had brought my medicine with me and took some but it took about 5 hrs to feel back to normal.  At that point everyone I came with and our friends here all said that I should stay back at the hotel.  I have now spent the last 8 hrs laying around watching TV and eating junk.  Not productive at all but I had to stay up all night so that I can get back on the same schedule.  I am feeling much better but tired of doing nothing and I miss running terribly.  

Happy Running! 

We left on Saturday and went to Jim Corbett's tiger reserve for the weekend.  It was an amazing experience.  We drove for about 8 hrs to get there through little village after little village.  It was such a humbling experience to see people who's way of life has not changed for the last 100 yrs.  We stayed at a "resort/spa" near the reserve and while the accomadations were luxerious by their standards, they left a little to be desired by mine. But well worth the experience.  We spent two days touring the reserve by Jeep looking for the Siberian Tiger, which, if seen is  pure luck and looking at wild elephants, boars, deer and lots of other wildlife.  We were lucky enough to see the tiger on our first day - it was amazing.  We got stuck in traffic on our way back and it ended up taking 10 hrs to get back to the hotel in Delhi. 

It was great to read the race reports from this weekend - Congratulations on a great job by all!!

Happy Running!
 

So glad to be HOME!  It was a wonderful two weeks but very, very busy.  The work went very well and it is so nice when you see progress and results.  

Got up and ran with Paula this morning.  It was perfect running weather.  All of my little ailments over the past few months were gone and it was nice just to go.  Unfortunately, my legs disagreed.  They were like Jello.  I am not sure if this was due to no running for two weeks or the fact that at JFK yesterday I had left something behind and ran back up an escalator going down.  Maybe a little of both.  Aerobically I felt good until the last mile and the last mile was hard.  I am so excited to be feeling better and ready to get back to training and not recovery.  

Ave Pace: 9:02

Happy Running! 

It was nice to be excited to get up and run today, it has been awhile since I felt that way. I was sore from yesterday so we choose an "easier" route. It is pretty flat with a slight incline the last 1.5 home. It is, however, one of the more mentally tough routes we run. I felt like I struggled the entire time getting into a groove and was really struggling to get a decent pace. I have been trying to work on my foot striking and centering of my body. Yesterday it came really easy but today was a struggle. I was surprised to see my pace for today at 9:04. I was expecting around 9:25 - 9:30, so of course I was happy. The next few weeks are the most difficult, it was the same after my first trip to India. I forget how hard it is to get back into the swing of things and build back up in both mileage and speed.

Happy Running!

Today was a recovery day for me.  My legs have been sore from not running for two weeks and then trying to push my first two days back.  We took the three miles really easy - I talked nonstop the entire time.  We then came back to my house and did some light weights and abs.  This is something we need to add a couple of weeks to our schedule, so I am going to be looking for a good routine to incorporate.

Ave Pace 9:55

Happy Running! 

Again another day that I was so excited to get up and run!  I am trying really hard to enjoy this extra motivation because pretty soon I am sure it will fade.  Our route today was 2.4 miles up hill .75 flat and then the remainder down hill.  My original thoughts heading into todays run were just to work on mileage - ignore the pace ( I am not good at this).   

Mile1:  Up hill and just tried to get going and into a rythm

Mile2 - 2.4: Up hill felt really good and started to push a little and ended up pushing and feeling really good at the top

Mile 2.4 - 3.1:  Flat and recovery - I was tired.

Mile 3.1 - 4.2:  Down hill or so I had thought for the past two years.  I realized today that there is a small incline in the middle of this section and I had never noticed it before.  Worked on leg turn over and trying to stay within a rythm

Mile 4.2 - 5.3:  Down hill and flat at the end.  Tried to stay in rythm and continue to feel good.

I ended up feeling great at the end.  I know I pushed but did not over do it.  This was probably one of the best runs since being injured. And the best part -

Ave Pace:  8:58

Happy Running!

Ran 3 easy with Paula and Jolynn.  Again I talked non stop - I need to work on this.  We did some weights afterwards but I lost steam really fast.

 I signed up yesterday for Hobblecreek.   I was suprised to receive the email stating that it was 1/2 full already.  This is the earliest I have ever signed up, usually we wait until mid June or July. 

Ave Pace 9:22

Happy Running!
 

I was a little afraid for today. We had planned on 7 miles but I was unsure how my body would respond because my training has left a lot to be desired the last few weeks. The first 3 miles were rough. I had a difficult time getting going and had eaten nothing but junk, a lot of junk, yesterday and it is the first time I can remember that what I eat has had that big of an impact on my running. I felt absolutely horrible. I finally started feeling better about mile 4 and then at about 4.5 really was able to get going (at my very slow pace). I felt great until 6.25 and then I started to really struggle. At 6.5 "Eye of the Tiger" came on my ipod and got me going and unfortunately reliving middle school band, which only forced me to want to finish sooner. The last .25 I pushed and finished running that quarter at 8:25. Overall, todays run was really good, the route is flat so it is a good assesment as to where I am at training wise. It was nice to push and work hard but at the same time incredibly frustrating because I am building back up my base miles - the same thing I spent the entire winter doing.

Two accomplishments this week:

1. First week ever running 6 days!

2. Highest mileage week since my injury!

Ave Pace: 8:59

Happy Running!