Let's do this!

24 minutes elliptical, then 20 minutes step mill. 

Strength training.

I ran on my calf today while my kids were playing in the park. I felt nothing. No pain, no limping. Nada. Don't you all worry, I will still wait one more week to make sure it's nice and healed.... I felt the arrow shoot to 10 on the excited ticker. I know this calf will fully heal. I know it.

im so sick of this no running crap. i want to run already. i wander around aimlessly in the gym. today was random weights an 40 min of elliptical hurricane. boring. im so disgruntled ppppffffffffhhhhhtttt

Was able to run 2 miles today without discomfort or pain. Nothing. I did some speed on/offs. I can still hit those low 6's. Going far is a different story.

I am so glad. However I can tell the endurance is lacking now. Of course that was going to happen. 

Easing back in. Won't run again till Friday (3 miles) Hopefully this is goodbye to that calf issue for good this year.

50 min elliptical and then came home and ran 4 miles on the river trail. avg pace 8:14. its good to be running. saw rachelle on the trail today. 

This is what happens if you are Lily Wheatfill, and you get injured running for 5 weeks. You start to build back muscle. I've been a weight lifting fool that last month...again. Now, just yesterday I started changing my diet to start 'cutting', so I will trim off excess fat to reveal the new bigger beautiful muscle. unfortunately, this means less food and no cheating. its really hard. But I've done it before, here goes.

Happy friday! Strength trained  this morn for 30 min. Then intense intervals on elliptical hell. Only 35 min of that because I had to go to Walmart before I went home. I felt like i didn't stop working out because I sprinted around the store getting my groceries. Walmart is a dump and the employees are a little scary, yikes. Got home and put all my groceries away. I felt cheated because I didn't run. So I got my 2 youngest some breakfast and got my oldest up to watch them (he is almost 13, crazy!) I ran 3.5 miles river trail loop style and picked up some speed. I felt so happy and free.  Almost felt like my normal self being able to run a little hard. Please keep me in your prayers. Well, my calf anyway. I really really want it to hold for the rest of this summer. I hope I gain my endurance back fully. Its lacking, I can tell. Good luck to anyone running UVM tomorrow. I am so sad, was supposed to be there but had to defer mine till next year. So run hard for me!  this is a run on blab fulla grammar errors. all credit to my awesome new htc vivid. hehe

went to the gym and worked shoulders, biceps and triceps in the weight. core too. then 41 min elliptical. left running with friends kira and julie for 3.5 miles. went down canyon road which is long and steep. tempo down for me, hit a 6:28 pace. felt great on the calf. returned to the gym where i got a text my uncle died. so heartbreaking. sadness.

ran 5.5 on the river trail this morning. leg feels good to go. I will still be careful for a couple weeks. i feel so happy to be running again. Love summer running.

Ran 5.5

strength trained. 32 min elliptical and ran 5 miles

No gym. Thank heavens. Woke up, dressed and stepped right out my door. River trail for 5.75 miles. Runners and sprinklers don't mix. I got hosed TWICE. Once by my own sprinklers in the face! Once by the giant sprinklers that water the sports park next to the river trail. 

Pace was nice and slow. Makes me worried that I will lose all speed.

They are bulldozing the end of the river trail to expand and hook up to the other part of the trail that begins at the mouth of Spanish fork canyon. It should make the full trail about 7-8 miles from beginning to end. I will take a picture today and post it tomorrow. 

Walked a 1/2 mile back to my house as a cool down. I am so glad to be back running. Even if it is slow everyday. 

ran 5 @5 am. to the gym. lifted weights. Husband met me there and we worked out together. Good times.

Oh, I run slow

4 miles to the gym, 25 min elliptical. Then did some speed intervals 1 min on off on the dreadmill for 2 miles. Hubby came and worked out again with me. He's on a morning roll! He usually works out on his lunch. 

6.5 miles. I left at 6:20 and immediately from the get go I FELT SO GOOD. I felt back to normal! Something clicked today. I was fearing the last week that I would never find speed again. I think I am wrong.

3.5 miles at a 7:40 pace. Then 2.5 miles of 400m speed interval on/offs. I hit 1:33ish each and as I progressed the splits came down and down each time. My speed is still there! I just need to keep at this once a week, find my endurance and I am good to go!! 

ran 6.5. incorporated tabata sprints into the last 2 miles. I am feeling so good. Still need to gain endurance. Tabata should help. 

I didn't run today. I am thinking about doing the every other day running thing. I don't hurt, but I did sprint hardcore yesterday and so I thought it best not to run today.

Strength trained for 1 hr. Then I did tabata training intervals on elliptical hell for 16x. Crazy sweaty when I was done.

Came home and walked for 30 minutes on the river trail. Saw a snake, the beaver, 2 prairie dogs. A guy in the water with the coveralls and rubber boots - he was fishing. 3 runners on the trail, 2 bikers.Lot's of active people out in Spanish Fork. My walk was stress relieving. No ipod, just listened to the river flow and birds. Nice.

Ran about 5.5 on the trail. Then I got to the sports park. on the grass there I did 9 tabata sprints. It kicked my butt. I got to 5:09 pace on most sprints. After the 6th sprint the pace dropped a bit closer to 6. There is only 10 seconds of recovery doing tabata, and you only sprint for 20 seconds, full force. Were talking over %100.  It's hard! My legs are very sore after, so I know it is doing something.  If you're curious about Tabata good, ole Wiki is a great source! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training

Ran 1 more mile home.  I may be under-guesstimating my mileage here, but I'm to lazy to walk downstairs right now to double check my watch.

Tomorrow I am trail running to the Spanish Fork Escalante cross. I am bring my phone and will take pictures. It isn't a far run, but there are several other connecting trails I will run as well.

I remembered last night my daughter had a dentist appointment early, so I would not have time for the escalante cross trail. I lifted weights and did 16 mintes of tabata on the elliptical. Sweaty beyond words. then walked for 40 minutes.

So glad it's friday. Going on a trip to lake powell this next week. It's so nice. We get a houseboat and take our own boat. Park the house boat on a beach. It's total forced relaxation. You can't leave to go run anywhere. This will be good for my body. And hey, I'm not complaining.

I ran 3.5 with Merri this morning. It was good to run again. Then I came home and took out my baking sweet potatoe I started at 5:20 lol. I left and ran to the Spanish Fork escalante cross. The trail is good. Lot's of red dirt. I saw a beautiful deer! Some spiders (eeewwww) and some black beetles. The trail is totally runnable both up and down. I gained about 400 ft of elevation. It was VERY windy up top. But it felt so good because I was hot! It was hot out today. Then I ran some connecting trails. The way down was a bit sliddy. I slid ALL OVER the place! My shoes took a beating. 

I have more pictures. But I am sooooo lazy to go get my phone and retrieve. I am lazy in the am.....yep 

And what went wrong in this pic? I peed my running shorts laughing. 

ran 2 whole miles. ha. 20 min elliptical

ran 6 miles on the river trail. Mixed in some intense quick pick ups. Speed is coming back. I can feel it. on my way to lake powell till friday. then running the lehi round up 5k saturday morning. Pretty daring running a race after vacation. All in good fun.

And I'm back! Lake Powell is a lot of fun, but EVERY year I come back a fatty McGee!!!! OMG. I swear I gained a good 10 lbs. Not to mention all the water weight. I look horrible! Tomorrows 5k will be a joke. I feel like I am carrying a ton of extra baggage. Grreeeeat.

I've decided that I don't make a great vacationer. I cannot sit still. Being stuck on a Lake Powell beach will a house boat drove me crazy. I couldn't go running. So I walked around on the beach a lot. I turn into a miserable girl. I probably drove my husband a little nuts.

This morning I woke up feeling like a beached whale. (Thank you water retention!) We didn't get in until 2 am last night. So I was trashed. I woke up at 8 am and ran 7 miles.Then I walked about 2 miles of cool down. What is up with all the smoke and fires?

I'm glad to be back. It's going to be a long month getting back in tip top shape. People, do not be like me and go to Lake Powell for a week and eat whatever you want! It doesn't work out that great after you are 30. FAT LARD.

I registered for this race 2 weeks ago just because. My leg isn't hurting anymore and yes, I've only been back running for about 2.5 weeks. But I just wanted to use this to gauge my personal fitness. I didn't go into it this morning thinking I could run something spectacular. I'm not dumb, I know I am not really in race shape. 

There were a couple very fit looking Women there. I knew a few would definitely come in before me. And they did. I tried to run smart and not push the pace until the last 1.5 and this seemed to work because I passed about 3 women in the final mile as well as a few men.  I can't get my splits off my garmin right now. I think I need to do a dump on it. I couldn't even find the workout afterwards. I know my last mile was a 6:12. The other 2,  I played safe.

Something interesting I wanted to note. I know there are some who thinks it's dumb to pray over running or racing. But I do it all the time. I pray almost every morning as I am training, so why not pray before a race? Well I did. I just wanted my body to be protected from injury. And I asked God to help me race to what I was capable of doing right now. Interestingly enough, I heard a little voice come into my head that said don't expect to do today what you have done in the past. You're body isn't ready. And you will run what YOU are capable of today.

From the results of my time, I did run what my body was capable of doing today.  I stopped running the last week of April and only ran a handful of times during that break. And of course have only been back running most days for 2.5 weeks. I also just got back from 5 days on a Lake Powell beach unable to run. So it all made sense. And I am okay with that.

I think God knows he can't mess around with me and not answer my prayers anymore. I seem to get my answers or thoughts of wisdom within seconds after uttering them.

I just read Alberto Salazar's recently released book called "14 minutes". He said something that came back to my mind this morning. He said history shows you race the way you train. And this is SO TRUE. I haven't been able to train the way I usually do. I started doing tabata sprints to help with my turnovers and I believe it has done something. But, I have only trained at subpar paces these last few weeks. So yeah, we do race the way we are able to train. And now that my leg isn't hurting, I am feeling better about immersing myself in longer and slightly faster intervals (on the road). And I am excited about upping my mileage ever so slowly these next 5-6 weeks.

btw- I still love running :)

Ran 2 mile cool down with Melody. She is the cutest