Believe to Achieve

8 mile progressive run in the heat.  Left at 9:45am.  First mile 9:51 last mile 7:56.  Hilly route.  I was joined by my daughter Courtney on her bike.  We searched for the sprinklers and only found a few but they were very refreshing.  Felt so nice to take it easy.  Left toe/bunion acting up big time.  New shoes corrected hip problem but now my foot has issues.  I think I am crooked.  Did squats and planks with daughter following some excercise cards I got from IHC.  Time to get back to basics and help my daughter too.  AP for 8= 8:51.  Plan this week:  8 (done), 4, 8 (w/ 4 miles @MP), 4, 4, 17.  DONE.  : D.  Work tonight, then Wed. and Thurs. nights.  

Slept three hours.  Left house for my 4 miler at 1237pm!!  High noon runs are quite the thrill.  Finding a sprinkler or two was heavenly-- I didn't douse myself, just let them sprinkle me.  I am trying to get my body use to the heat.  I was so not ready for it at Bryce and now that it has been hotter for over a week I am starting to acclimate.  Felt totally tolerable.  Progressive wake up pace, 9:31, 9:02, 8:43, 8:06.  Felt really good allowing myself to go easy.   Worked on widening the forefoot of my left shoe before leaving by flexing the shoe and surprisingly NO PAIN on the run.  I babied it by not pushing off with my toes but it was WELL WORTH IT.  I really like these new lighter shoes!!!  Inner thighs a little sore from my excercises with Courtney but more of a "hurt so good" sore.  AP for 4.1= 8:49.  HOT HOT HOT SWEAT SWEAT SWEAT-- feels great!! : D  My goal is to find the "runnin' feeling" again and it is slowly coming back to me.  I hadn't been getting a runner's high since Ragnar and mostly felt running as tortuous.  Easing back helped tons and starting back up steadily and cautiously really is motivating me.  I will follow my plan.  Tomorrow 4 @ MP of 6::53- 6:58.   

Yay!!  I did it!!  Totally mental (with a little physical) right now.  I have a lot of repressed pain from Squaw Peak I am working through but I am working through it.  I am getting back to myself slowly.  And it just wasn't Squaw Peak.  I was working too much and not sleeping and running tons of other races on top of each other.  I was expecting too much from myself and now that I have hugged myself I feel better.  : D.  Not 100% but really getting close.  Rode my bike to the AF Rec. center (2.8 miles) then hopped on their TM.  I like theirs better than PG rec centers.  They don't bounce all over the place over 8mph.  So I think I will fork out the extra $1 to go there.  Its worth it.  Ran a two mile warm up which averaged 8:30 pace.  I felt really good from the start.  1% incline again.  Ran 3 miles @ 6:58 and 1 @ 6:48.  Cooldown for 2 miles at AP of 8 min/miles.  Total AP for 8 miles=7:38.  Biked home nice and easy.  Humid out.  Nice.  Reminds me of New Hampshire summers.  Arms and middle body with Courtney at home.  I feel GREAT!!  Finally. 

my planned 4 miler.  Courtney rode beside me.  It is quite humid out.  At least the temp is down.  I was dripping sweat by the end.  AP 8:46 (9:30, 8:57, 8:37, 8:08, 8:31).  Just takin' the easy days easy.  Its about time : D.   Lower body with Courtney.  Fun.   It takes me a few miles to wake up.  I am really nervous about day shift.  I can stay up so easily at night now and sleep exactly three hours.  Today however I slept 4.5!!  Yippee.  I am just nervous about the time it will take for me to adjust to waking now at 5:20 am (silly I know I was a day shifter before)!!  So glad I am a mile from work.  I am also sad to lose my nursery shifts.  A regular day nursery shift is hard to come by.  I will have all master float shifts  so I will go in the nursery when it is busy (level 2).  For the most part I will be working mother/baby (still fun) and the NICU at UVRMC instead of American Fork Hospital.  Since I worked there for 17 years that doesn't stress me in the least (except the 25 minute drive home in traffic).  I worry about perfume however because the night shift has so nicely stopped wearing theirs for me.   When the dayshift comes on it is very intense sometimes.  Just a few nurses.  I get to go home when they go home and now I will be there all day with them.   My allergies are getting better but it is probably because exposure is low.  There are also a lot of Dr/nurse contact.  I hope none wear much cologne.  I don't think any of them do wear it that I remember from when they are on-call at night.  Worry, worry worry!!  I just got to be brave.  

Yesterday I ran at noon in overcast humidity.  Today, NO overcast and was sweltering in my 1pm run while Courtney biked.  Glad I went an extra 1/2 mile yesterday, so I could take a 1/2 off today.  Just followin' the plan : D.  AP 8:49.  I always start out slow and after three miles I am "awake".  It was kind of a detox run since I was dripping sweat just after the first mile.  At work there was a chocolate fountain...cream puffs, brownies and fruit to dip!!  YUM YUM.  Tomorrow the BIG 17 miler.  I will do the same course I did in April (up two miles starting at the fork in AF canyon and down a nice rolling descent ending with three flat to uphill miles) but turn it down a few notches.   Hoping to keep AP at 7:30.  Since I ran it at AP at 7:11 (not incl. 4 stops) in April I think I can do it.  I am just not sure where I stand compared to April especially in this heat.  

Oh my.  Tough run but did it!!  Slept from 1140pm to 630am (alarm).  Should have gotten out earlier but still wasted from the three night shifts this week and 3 hour a day sleep.  Should have gone to bed earlier but Courtney and I stayed up to watch more of A & E's version of Pride and Prejudice.  She just finished the book.  She reads tons.  Had to finally just turn it off.  The first mile  I could tell my lack of sleep was going to wear on me but I still felt I could accomplish my goal with a little push.  It was extremely humid out for Utah and I was just dripping sweat when  I got back and walked inside my house.  Had three water stops.  Ran significantly slower than in April as far as through the canyon.  I just couldn't push out the 6:30s and really isn't time to do that on my long run.  I hope to peak a little later.  I ran this run about three weeks before Ogden and SGM is 9 weeks a way.  No need to rush, right?  The heat began to wear on me.  I left at 7:04 (per garmin).  Started at the fork and ran up over 300 feet 2.15 miles (the Dam) and turned around without stopping.  The garmin lost satellite coverage twice on the west side of the road by the canyon wall.  It said  I ran a 7:02 second mile ( a huge lie), not sure how it did that?  It even calculated my distance longer than in April by 0.3 miles.  Why did it do that?  The map doesn't reveal them as short but I course tooled it at 2.15 like in April.  Of course I figured that in to my calculations and negated my stupid garmin.  I reset it at the top and started on the east side down and had coverage the whole way then.  AP for next 13.1 miles= 7:10.  Slowed the last two miles to make 15 miles @ 7:18 average.  Oh well.  I was so tired and so sweaty.  I dipped my shirt in the river and my hat and it just felt even more humid doing that.  Total average=  7:32 for 17 miles due to the two miles uphill.  Glad its over.   The nerves in my legs are doing the same thing they were doing.  Sure hope it passes quickly.  Iced in AF river for 10 minutes.  Toes were froze.  Slowest mile 9:03, fastest mile 6:40.  Last mile 8:13.  Ate one Gu and one block.  Water x 2 and gatorade  x 1.  BTW  it was biker o-rama out there.  They sort of protected me as they were riding up the same side I was running down so cars saw them first and slowed. Saw a few runners as well. Leaving late was not good as the car traffic was pretty significant.  I can't run with music until out of the canyon because I am too nervous.  Forgot about my music until mile 11.  Geez.