Chug-along-chica!

This morning I finished my first ever hour-long weight class. That was interesting to say the least! I did the smallest weight I could for every exercise and it still kicked my hiny. I was so impressed by some of the people in that class. The guy right in front of me really looked like he was at least 75 years old and he did 3 times the weight than I and held up better throughout the class. I want to age like that! Then there was the lady that must have been 7 months pregnant that was just tough as nails! Wow. It would really be good for my overall health to do something like this a couple of times a week. And my kids love the play place. It's really clean and has fun stuff like a rock wall for them to climb etc. The catch is that it costs money. Choices, choices.

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Soooo, I just got back from my run and I am still freaking out!  Weirdest, scariest run of all time for me.   Christine wasn't able to run tonight so I ended up just going with Sparky.  I forgot my pepper spray.  So I was running around a neighborhood after 9 pm and a van pulled up next to me.  At first I thought it was someone that I knew, but it wasn't.  They passed me really slowly and pulled to the side of the road.  When I passed them, they drove along side of me at my pace--much too close for comfort.  Then we turned a corner and I realized I was heading right into the secluded back stretch in that neighborhood that is NOT lit.   I got a serious case of the willies and cut across a yard and turned around to go the other way.  The van immediately sped up.  The way the neighborhood loops around I knew that if the van wanted to, it could be back to me in just a few minutes.  I picked up the pace a bit, but I did not see the van again.  But just as I was about to leave the neighborhood 2 really huge scary looking guys started walking purposefully towards me.  And, of course, being  in a really freaked out state of mind I was convinced  it was the creepy driver of the van and his blood-thirsty accomplice.  He he.  But Sparky came to the rescue!  He growled quite menacingly as they approached, the guys gave me a wide berth, and I skeedaddled home with my tail between my legs.  I've spent a lot of time trying to teach Sparky not to bark at people--for once I was grateful he's so over-protective.

I promise I will not run alone after 9 pm ever again!

Sparky was bushed after 2.7 and could not be persuaded to run more, and our treadmill is on the blitz again, so today will just have to be short, cuz' I'm not going out there again alone!

10 Miles all spread throughout the day.  I feel like I can trick my body into accepting more miles without falling apart when I sneak in several runs.

This morning I went with James to cheer for him in his half marathon.  He got a great PR & I'm very proud of him.   I didn't realize it, but this race, "London's Run" was started by a family who lost a little 6 year-old girl to cancer.  It was so touching.  Before the race, they not only had the national anthem and a really sweet prayer, but then her mother got up and told London's story and how cheerful she was throughout all the difficult treatment she received before she died.   She ended by saying that we all have difficult things to do, and we should try to follow London's example and still enjoy our life even through the hard times--and that is what we were all here to do: run a long race, feel the pain of it, and keep going.  I was crying like a sprinkler by this time.  Ever since I became a mother things like this just gets to me so much more.  London's mother came in 2nd in the 10K, I think.  What a great way to honor someone's life!

While I was waiting for James to come it I ran a rather quick 3.5 miles.  Later this evening I ran 1.5 miles with my 7 year-old, .8 miles with my 5 year-old, and about .5 with my little 3 year-old.  Then I finished the rest of the miles with Sparky.  That's definitely a PR for him in terms of daily mileage--around 4 miles.  My fastest mile was 9:37.

Day 2--So far Christi is winning the sleep challenge. (Ah!) I got all panicked last night when I read her entry, so I booked it to bed, and laid there--trying frantically to fall asleep. (Which, as we all know, just doesn't work.) So it took me a long time to fall asleep and I ended up getting only 8:10 again. Well, today I am going to work hard so I'll be really tired and sleep a long time. This is getting serious!

This is Monday's report btw.  I wrote it on the wrong day and am feeling too lazy to change it.  (Why isn't there a cut and paste?)

Day one of the sleep challenge with the famed Shuffling Sista!

I got 8:10 last night, which is respectable, but I am hoping to get more tonight. I really want to be rested enough to increase my mileage. Last week was 28. From now until the Striders Half (april 5th) I plan to keep it above 30, and hopefully up to 40 for all of March. I will need fabulous recovery to pull that off without hitting any snags.

45 min. walking with Sam & the dog.

The above was supposed to be on Sunday's entry.  Oops!

5 Miles outside with my beloved dog.  It was quite a PR for him.  I stopped to give him water a couple of times, but I'm really proud of him.  Ave. pace was 10:37, including stops for Sparky's VPBs.  Dogs have it easy.

Day three of the sleep challenge. As of yesterday, I was behind by 70 min., I think. But with my 8 hours and 50 min. last night, I gained 1 hour and 50 min.! That puts me ahead by 40 min. I believe. Yea! But I must not underestimate the Shuffling Sista, as she has shown great propensity for champion sleeping. He he he. As a special bonus, I am feeling remarkably well rested. :)

3 Doggie-be-good miles with Sparky. 10:05 pace on ave.--felt fabulous.

2 more miles tonight in the dark.  Christine wasn't able to make it for some reason.  I would've gone longer, but I got scared--some guy on a bicycle was trying to talk to me.   After last week's adventure I guess I am a little jumpy.

8 Hours and 20 min. of sleep. Hope that is good enough to keep me in the lead!

I just finished an hour long martial arts-themed workout class at that gym. It was pretty fun, but after running so much, it didn't seem to give me that good of a cardio workout. Probably because at least half the time I was standing around trying to figure out what to do! Let's just say that I have very little Bruce Lee in me. Maybe next time I'll try spinning! I signed up for a 2 week trial membership at this gym. I may spring for the year membership...I'm still going back and forth.

5th day of the challenge, and I put in another 8:10 of sleep.

After a relatively reluctant start, I did 5 miles outside with the jogging stroller.  I really miss chocolate on days like this.

Oops. There goes my title as Sleep Champion. I'll tell you what, the Shuffling Sista is NOT to be trifled with! She is the Queen of the Quilts, the Champion of the Chaise Lounge, the Princess of the Pillows! Let us take a moment to offer obeisance...........okay, that's enough.

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3 miles outside with the double jogger and the dog. I rigged it up so that the dog pulled the weight of the stroller, and I just ran. (At least it worked that way for the first half of the run. The second part, I was dragging both the dog AND the stroller.) Don't kill me, but it was 71 degrees. A little hot for my pooch--I had to stop in the middle and give him water.

Barring unusual circumstances (which actually happen quite frequently) I will run 3 more with Christine tonight. Well, Christine bailed on me, so I ended up running 2 more miles alone around 8:15. I guess I am STILL freaked out from that one scary run last week. I just can't do this night running alone anymore! I was running through a short dark alley in my neighborhood, when I saw some movement from behind a bush. I was startled by a piercing scream...until I realized it was coming from my own darn throat! The "movement" turned out to be 2 teenagers who had been *ahem* lying down, and suddenly sat up. I was SO close to pepper spraying them, thinking they were a big dog or something. Well, I hope they will find somewhere else to be sneaky in the future. Otherwise I will be there to scream at them, and threaten them with pepper spray. I'm gonna need therapy if these sort of things keep happening on my runs....

Many good things to report about this race!

1.) I took 1 min. 51 seconds off my post high school PR.

2.) I placed in the top 10 chicas, which I have NEVER done in my entire life for a race over a mile. I was 8th for the women, 4th in my division, and 27th including the guys. There were about 300 participants, I'd estimate.

3.) I beat "Ded Moroz," the 8:00 guy. My average pace was 7:56, and that is not accounting for the slightly long course.

4.) My improvement in time was not because it was a super-easy course. There were several smallish hills and gradual inclines. It was an out-and back course. I asked several people with Garmins what the distance was, and they all said 3.14-3.16. So this is an official old lady PR, people! The footing was excellent, though--mostly paved, and some hard packed dirt. The temps were also ideal. I was MOST appreciative that it ended with a little downhill section.

The only unfortunate thing was that I didn't get one of the beee-yootiful medals they were giving out. The Super-Chicks who came in #1 and #2 overall were both in my age division, and I had high hopes that they wouldn't count them for the age div. awards, but they did. : (

I can't remember much about the details of the actual run. I just kept thinking about keeping up my rhythm. My music really helped--and I had it turned up LOUD! I didn't want to hear the sound of my jagged breathing.

Mentally, I think I handled this race pretty well. There were a couple of times when negative thoughts tried to bog me down. The worst are the thoughts like "you won't be able to hold this pace" or "you are not doing very well", but I just dug in with a strong "YES I CAN!" and "YES I AM!" and they went away. One thing I think I am really gaining from running is the ability to outlast stuff like that. Just refusing to give up and keeping on keeping on through discouraging moments usually yields very good results. I see this in other areas of my life than running, so I am grateful for that.

You guys are going to laugh at my race attire--the FRB singlet and HOT PINK shorts!

This was taken AFTER the race, so I am a little frazzled, but you can see that I was not completely wasted. I didn't look like I needed to go to the hospital, so that is definite improvement!

Overall, I am very pleased that running easy has produced such good results. I train at 10-11:00 pace. Often even slower! (Wonder if Sasha will allow me to go faster now...) And I do zippo speedwork.

My mile splits were pretty consistent 7:45. 8:03, and 7:54. I felt that I could have sustained that pace for at least another mile. Whoops! Gotta go teach some piano lessons. Happy running everyone.

Nice nap.

Wow, I am sore EVERYWHERE. It is much simpler to list the places that I am NOT sore, which include the top of my head, my facial muscles, my hands and forearms, and the bottoms of my feet.

Now I'm off to my first session with this All-American track star turned personal trainer.

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Well, ########## was the personal trainer at this gym who supposedly is an expert runner. He was a track star in shorter distances, I guess. I was not that impressed in his theories on distance running. He tried to sell me on the idea that you really don't need to run more than 20 miles a week if your goal race is the 5k. He also said I shouldn't try to get a certain time in the Striders Half, I should just see if I could finish. He says I'm going to die with the altitude. I never thought of that. Am I going to die with the altitude difference? I train at something like 2,500 ft.

One thing ########### is an expert at is speed. I think he set a world record for the number of times a person has offended me in under 5 min. He expressed shock and disapproval that

1.) I got married so young (I was 20)

2.) I have so many children (3!)

3.) My high school 5K PR was so slow (I'll give him that one)

4.) I run 30 miles a week (excessive?)

He also told me that he has some kind of biophysical issue that prevents him from doing well at distance events. Evidence: he said that the first 2 miles of a 5K will be 5:00, and then his 3rd mile will be 7:00. I told him he just needed to up his miles a bit (I think he does something like 15 a week) and he'd be right up there. He laughed.

ANYWAY, I ran 4.5 outside tonight really slowly. I intended to do more, but my muscles gradually got tighter and tighter as I ran until I started to feel concerned. So we'll see how I do tomorrow.

3.1 Miles with Christine and then 2.1 more miles alone late at night.  

And I am exhausted!!! This whole day I don't think I've sat down for even 5 min. all day.   Thing to thing to thing to thing to thing to thing to thing all day!  Blech!  I'm gonna have to hang out in my pajamas all day tomorrow to make up for all this busy frantic running around I did.   That'll be so cool when I go for my run...

Running in pajamas--that's an interesting idea.  Anyone ever done it before?

3 extremely easy miles outside with my little boys and the dog. Time to put away the long sleeve shirts! It's getting darn warm out there.

3 more tonight with Christine.  Yea!  It seems like a long time since I've put in 6 in a day.  My right hamstring is still bugging me a little from the race.  All the other places I was sore went away, but this one little area has not. 

 We took a little family vacation today, but we didn't go anywhere.  James stayed home from work, and the boys stayed home from school.  We caught up on some together time and just did not stress about anything all day.  It was heaven.
 

2.1 With the whole fam.   2 little boys in the stroller, one running, and the dog tagging along too.  We're quite a sight when we all go out together. 2.9 More alone. 

I thought you guys would get a kick out of this... Guess what James got me for Valentine's Day?  A Stick! It's a therapuedic device for runners--for rubbing out sore and achy muscles. Romantic, huh? James is a great gift giver, always something I really want. He he he.

Groan... My poor little 3 year-old had croup really bad last night. He not only had the croupy, barky cough, but also that terrible stridor when he is struggling to inhale. Yucky scary stuff. We ended up taking him to the hospital after trying everything we could think of and achieving minimal improvement. They gave him steroids and a cool mist breathing treatment. One thing they really emphasized is the importance of cold in treating croup. My usual strategy is to steam up the bathroom and sit in there for 10 min. or so with him. Usually that works for us. But they said that the heat from the water counteracts the benefits of the steam. So when we finally got home I opened his window and let his room get really cold. It was raining, too, which was a boon. Cool moist air in AZ? What a blessing! Thankfully he is doing beautifully right now.

 Well it is raining outside, and the temps are glorious.  I love rain, and I love running in the rain (probably mostly because I don't have to do it very often.)  However, Christine doesn't like rain-running, so I did these 5  miles with my faithful training buddy, Sparky, who slows me down big time, but really makes it more interesting...to say the least.

I am on schedule to break my all-time weekly mileage record tomorrow.  I'm excited about that.

This is just my first run--I want to do another fiver when James gets back from his run. I know, I know, it's dark, but don't have a fit. I'm taking my attack dog, Sparky, with me to intimidate any possible trouble. I also have my pepper spray. Well, if I succeed in getting in my other fiver it will be a weekly mileage record for me at 36. Pretty good (for me) considering this week was kind of a recovery week from an all-out 5K last Sat. I've also had rough and interrupted sleep a couple times, so it's been a little bit hard. I think that what pulled me through it was just running really easy every day. I want to get up to 40 miles a week as soon as I can, so it looks like I'll be running easy for a while. When I adjust to the higher miles I will start running a little harder, methinks--at least, faster than the walkers who are almost keeping up with me right now! Well, some of those power walkers are darn fast! : )

My main thought whenever I run is just please oh please let me be triumphant in the Striders half in April! The race is just 2 days before my birthday. It is basically my last chance to make age 30 the best year of my life!

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Bleh.  I am finally done running.  5.13 outside.  Time to celebrate my all-time weekly mileage record by crawling into bed exhausted.

6 Miles outside, continuous. 59:13 for the whole run (9:52 pace). That's a pretty decent pace for me, although I'm not sure why it was a little faster that usual. I ran to Christine's house, 3 miles with her, and home again. Gorgeous night outside tonight--60 degrees. You are all invited to come down here and enjoy the beautiful temps while they last. Better hurry, though. Summer arrives in April!

The moon looked sooooo amazing tonight! It had a huge, bright, perfect circle all around it. It was almost mystical looking. I took it as a sign that I was going to break 2:00 at the Striders Half. Ha ha.  It looked kind of like this, without the abominable guy in snowsuit:

I woke up this morning feeling stiff in my right knee--on right side of it. I stretched a lot this morning and just tried to be good to it. I ran a little bit around lunch time--1.3 at 13:00 pace (!) and I felt it a lot so I cut it short. I have to repent of neglecting my lower back exercises and piriformis stretch. My piriformis is all bunched up again.

I ran this evening with Christine at about 11:15 pace. My knee felt better than at lunch, but still a little bothersome. As long as it doesn't get worse I'm gonna keep running the same mileage and just slow it down. I hope to keep getting better and better.

Have you guys seen that awesome show "Blue Planet"? It's a nature show on steriods. Absolutely amazing photography! I love it. But last night I got all traumatized from this long scene of a pack of killer whales killing a baby grey whale. Anyone seen it? I'm gonna need group therapy to get over this...

Not so good in the running arena. 1.5 miles with my boys and my knee bothered. 2.5 miles with Christine and my knee bothered some more.

It is storming here. I love lightning and thunder! But we did get shafted a little tonight, because we couldn't see the full lunar eclipse because of clouds. Rotten luck! There are hardly ever any clouds. No more lunar eclipses until 2010.

Great nap this morning.  My two younger boys are sick, and they both konked out for an early morning nap today.   Makes sense, since they were both up a hundred million times in the night.  Actually, my night sleep has been 1 hour at a time (at most!) ever since that night we had to take Adam to the hospital.   Probably that's part of why my body is falling apart.  

I took the day off running, but I did go for an hour walk. 

I bought the most beeeautiful plant today--a calla lilly.  I potted it with basil all around its base.  So it not only looks good, but smells delicious too.  It is making me extremely happy.

Well, I've been resting my knee.  After my long walk a couple of days ago, the pain started to bother me even just while walking.  I feel it when I extend my leg from mostly straight/just a little bent to straight.  There is also a grinding sound coming from the meniscus (I think?).  So I'm going to set up an appt. with a Dr. and a chiro. for next week, if I can.  In the meantime, it's couch potato time.  I hope I get it all out of my system, so that when I can run again I will not take it for granted. : )

Today I had a HUMONGOUS piano event (300-400 students, 80 teachers, 22 pianos on stage, and a standing-room-only audience of a couple thousand).  The most notable thing that happened was that my close friend D'Net--a fabulous piano teacher--tripped in the parking lot and completely busted both bones in her leg right above her ankle.  She sent her 8 year-old daughter back inside to find me.  We called an ambulance, but I ended up driving her to the hospital.  It was a terrible break; very hard to see her in such pain.  It reminded me that every day you do not break your leg is a GREAT DAY!

Ho-boy! So I am totally taking this week off of running. My knee is already feeling MUCH better from the rest. But.....oh man! I feel like such a dork; I HURT myself today. I was doing some deep cleaning when it happened. (See, this is what happens when you scrub on your hands and knees!) I was all hunched over and scrubba dubbing away, and I....sheesh...how do you explain it? I had a sharp pain in my back like one of my vetebrae exploded. Then I rolled onto my side and just laid there for 15 min. All the muscles in my lower back seized up, and basically throw a fit if I move. This has happened 2 times before. Usually it takes about a week to get back to usual. I still can't really stand up straight, (although I am much closer than before my chiropractor appointment this afternoon). And walking hurts. And running is absolutely the last thing on my mind. I'm sure I'll be almost 100% by Thursday, though! But forget cleaning--cleaning is the devil.

This is what comes from too much anticipation. I like to call it "preparation," but James is more partial to calling it "freaking out." I am feeling lame--in more than one way.

And 2 of my kiddos are sick. STILL. This bug is taking forever to go away. I'm the only one who hasn't had it. Pray I don't!

Today my back felt so much better!  Have I mentioned how much I love my chiropractor?  Yea!   Tomorrow my plan is to get up early (for a change) and got for a walk in the morning with the dog.  Hold me to it!  I've developed into quite a morning slug these days.   And my knee seems to be almost better, too. I only felt it (discomfort) once today--just for a second.

I have to admit I am rounding up my mileage a little here.  I probably ran like 18 steps--but they were QUALITY steps.  He he he.  It didn't take me long to feel a movement in my back and a second by my knee that we adjourn the running.  Not quite ready, I guess.  

Sooooooooo  Sasha and Sarah and their adorable kidlets arrived today.  There has been much rejoicing, a fair amount of noise, and more than a respectable amount of gabbing just as fast as we can.  Sasha and Sarah are fascinating people to talk with!  If you ever get a chance to hang with these guys you should definitely take it!   It will make you want to run more, that's for sure.

Good luck to the Del Sol Relay team!