Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured

Today was incredibly rough.  I woke up in a cranky mood and it affected my run.  We had planned on meeting up with Jolynn but she did not make it.  When we run with her we do 2 short routes, but since she did not make it we opted to just run a normal route.  It absolutely kicked my butt!  We ran out for 2.6 miles and when we were to turn and finish with a little more up hill to 3 miles, Paula suggested we could turn around and run back and we would have 5.  I am ashamed to admit that I chose the easy way out.  Even going back down was hard.  Hopefully, I somehow benefited from todays run, because some good should come from it.

Ave Pace: 9:06

Happy Running! 

Ran with a better attitude today.  It was still tough, though.  I was expecting last week, being my first week back,  to be the hard week but felt great the entire time.  This week, however, is a different story.  I came to the realization today that it will be this way for a while so I better get used to it.  

On a more positive note:  An absolutely beautiful sunrise today!  I also know that summer is just around the corner because instead of avoiding the sprinklers today,  I actually sought them out, very refreshing!

Ave Pace: 9:05

Happy Running! 

Nice easy 3 with Paula and some sprinkling rain.  We then did some light weights and planks.  Pretty easy day. 

During this building back up phase, I really wanted to incorporate six days a week.  In doing this I have two really light days - 3 miles each- on Wed/Fri.  I am wondering about the effectiveness of this.  Is three miles enough with a consistency of 6 days a week? Or do those still easy days need to have more mileage?  Something to ponder......

Ave Pace 9:30

Happy Running! 

Kind of a hodge-podge day:

Paula called and canceled due to the monsoon this morning.  At first I thought that I would go down to my treadmill, but as soon as I stood up my head hurt incredibly bad.  I laid right back down and slept for 2 more hrs.  I felt the missing of my run for most the morning.  I dragged myself to work and sat and pouted and was lazy for about 2 hrs.  Finally got into gear and got busy!  Ended up with a really productive day.

 Go home from work and my kids were celebrating the last day of school and my husband was busy covering the baseball draft for work.  We needed to go to Costco tonight for  6 mo. food stock up  so I suggested to my husband that I run to Costco and meet him there.  I left thinking that I would get there about the same time as him.  He ended up leaving 10 min earlier then I thought so I only got in 2.52 miles, but my ave pace was 8:40.

Frustrated that I my first run was cut short, I asked him to drop me off at Harmon's on the way home and I would return our Red Box and then run home.  I pushed really hard the first mile and then slowed a bit on the last .5  and finished with a total of 1.6 with an ave pace of 8:34.

My kids are wanting to run with me and then run the WestFest 5K at the end of the month so tonight I ran with my girls and their friends and ran 1 mile in 10:34.

 All over the place but in the end, got some miles, some errands done and time with the kids.

Happy Running!

An easy 3 with Paula and our friend the wind.  My legs were a little tired from last nights run and the fact that I did not properly refuel at 10:30 at night and hydrate well enough.  Lessons learned.

Off to an early day at work so I can leave early and spend some time with playing with my kids this afternoon. 

Ave Pace 9:23

 Happy Running!

 

Ran my favorite route today - up through Westridge golf course. The first 3.5 miles are all up hill and then you get absolutely gorgeous view of the valley and the Great Salt Lake. Today we could see all the way up to Emigration Canyon. And then you get to go home, back down hill.

I had forgotten how tough the up hill is - it kicked my butt. I knew that I had lost quite a bit while I was injured and in India but today made me realize just how much. It was one of the toughest runs I have had in a long time both physically and mentally, a few tears shed along the way, a lot of pep talk in my mind about never giving up and a little Tim McGraw's "How Bad do You Want It?" and we finally reached the top. The splits going up were 9:34, 9:26 9:47, 8:36 (the last is rolling hills).

We stopped at the top to enjoy the view and apparently I forgot to stop my watch because the split on this mile is 13:24 - apparently we enjoyed for a while. On the way back down I saw a runner ahead of us and soon realized we had closed the gap and pretty soon I had decided to pass her before the light. Nice to finally be able to kick it into gear and a little practice for next week.

The last 2.2 miles are a little more gentle down hill then how we go up but Paula had a pretty good pace going so I decided to just see how long I could hang with her. I soon realized that we were at a sub 8 min mile and decided to see if I could finish the mile that way. Picked it up and pushed the last half of the mile to keep it sub 8 and finished with a 7:49 mile. The rest of the run was pretty uneventful and finished with 8:18 and 7:57 for the last .21.

As tough as the first half was, finishing this run was both important to me physically and mentally. I need to run it more often. I am extremely happy with my splits on the uphill portion because I would have expected all of them to be closer to 10:00 if not over.

Ave Pace: 8:57 ( even with my messed up mile at 5)

Happy Running!