Chug-along-chica!

3 Miles with Christine at 10:08 pace.  I feel soooo good about deciding to run the half this weekend in Provo.  

YIKES! What a run! I ran 2.85 with Christine, which was uneventful, and then headed out for 1.15 more barefoot with Sparky, which was a little TOO eventful. Whenever I run with Sparky I always try to get him to "meet" the other people and dogs that are out on walks so he can learn how to do it without going crazy.

Anyway, there was this little old lady walking a HUGE black chow mix. As I approached her I said "Is it okay if I let him meet your dog?" She was just starting to say that it probably wasn't a good idea, when her dog lunged, broke his leash and came tearing off after us. Let me just let that sink in for a moment... Big dog, frothing at the mouth, tearing after Lybi in her bare feet and her little dog. Thank goodness I watch "The Dog Whisperer" just about every day (he he he). I knew that if we ran he would bite us. So I just stood my ground while the dog chased Sparky around my bare legs while I tried to block him with my stance. I had the wild thought that there was no way I was going to let that dog hurt Sparky--he'd have to go through ME first.

Meanwhile, the other owner appeared too afraid of her dog to do anything! (I can see her point, though, that dog was dang frightening.) He really seemed like he wanted to ELIMINATE Sparky. I kept trying to grab Sparky and, finally succeeding, quickly turned his rear towards the attacker. That's what dogs want--to sniff each other (according to Cesar Millan). And nose to rump is safest because eye contact is what triggers attacks usually. So that humongous dog made a big ol' deal about sniffing Sparky up most abusively, but at least he did not bite. Sparky was so scared he had an accident. I don't blame him a bit--I almost did the same thing, to be honest. After a couple minutes of this, and with both dogs somewhat calmer, I kept waiting for that lady to come get her dog. But I finally had to say "can you come get him, I think it's okay now." I felt quite heroic at the time, but I think I would've rather skipped the whole interlude and left my courage untested.

Interestingly, I got my very first barefoot injury, although it is of little consequence. The other dog stepped on my foot and scratched me with his toenails. A mark of courage!

Look! It's a taper. Tomorrow early we will be leaving for Utah. I'm SO excited. 

(I never did get out!  Stayed up WAAAAAAY too late packing for our trip.)

Ran in Provo with James and Sasha. 2 miles in 18:48. I am feeling massively encouraged by all the analytic-sounding but supportive stuff Sasha said about my running. Now it's off to bed, so I can sleep well! The next time you hear from me I will be slightly tired from running my first half marathon ever. : )

Oh!  I forgot to mention that I got to meet PaulT, just for a moment.  He looked really fit.  Always fun to shake a fellow-blogger's hand. 

Well, that was different!

I had a troupe of people helping me accomplish this little race, and I have to say that I don't know if I would have made it to the end without them! It was kind of a relay, and I was the baton, of course.

I started the race with Adam (Calcio) from the blog. He took me to the 3 mile point. He was pleasant and laid back--he's a young guy who has lived all over the world. It would have been interesting to talk to him, if I hadn't been breathing hard. During these miles, my main thought was that it was feeling way too easy and that I couldn't believe I was running faster than my usual 11 minute miles. By the end of those three miles, my average pace was 8:50. Calcio took off at mile 3 to finish the rest of race with a speedy 10 miles to finish at 1:42.

My husband James was waiting for me with 2 little 3 year-olds in a jogging stroller to take me through miles 3-8. It was REALLY nice having James with me for this portion of the race because, with the addition of the humongous stroller, he cut a wide swath through the wind. This portion was WINDY! Every time we turned, I thought that the wind would HAVE to finally be at our back, but it really seemed like it was either a headwind or a unfriendly cross-wind for 90% of the time. The course turned onto the Provo river trail for most of these miles, and I was immersed in the lovely sights and sounds of nature UNTIL my little son started crying, and wouldn't stop around mile 6.5. Other runners would run by and try to comfort him. It was aggravating/pathetic to listen to him cry and not be able to do anything about it, so I finally told James to take off and get him out of the wind around mile 7.4 or something. By the time I got to mile 8, my average pace was about 9:11 for the whole race to that point. I did slow down, obviously, but there were a lot of gradual inclines and that darn wind in this section, so I felt it was acceptable. If the race had ended there, I would have been quite proud of my efforts. But it goes on...

James ran the kids back to his parked car, and left to pick up Sasha from the finish line to take me the rest of the way. So mile 8 was the only mile I ran alone. I was still feeling pretty good on that mile.

Now comes the rest of the race, which I would prefer to leave out, but I will include it for the sake of posterity.... Sasha joined me at mile 9. I had been visualizing exactly how the end of the race would go: Sasha would appear, he'd tell me to go faster, I'd respond appropriately, push myself through the pain and end triumphantly. That was the dream. But real life is sometimes cruel, and the main point of the next 4.11 miles was that I was rather pathetic and ended up with an almost embarrassing last couple of miles. Sasha tried everything with me, he sang "BINGO" and "Come, Come Ye Saints." I had told him that it would help if he would sing, but the truth is that I just wanted to make him jump through some hoops to show his dedication. (Evil Snicker.) I began to feel like there was a thick rubber band binding me to the 11 min. girl. I could pull against the rubber band for a short burst, so I could obediently go give Sasha a "low 5", but then the rubber band would snap me back into and even slower pace. I began to run with my eyes closed for most of the time. It is slightly unsettling to see someone running with you who looks like they are just taking the most leisurely pace possible, while you are running as fast as you can. So I just listened to the almost constant encouragement, and peeked out every once in a while to make sure I wasn't wandering into the road. The absolute hardest mile was 11, and 12 too, and 13 was no good either (he he). One of those miles (I can't remember which) was my only mile at over 10 pace (10:30 to be exact)). That darn stupid mile was full into the wind (Sasha does not stop much wind) and uphill too. It made me angry, which delighted Sasha. I think I punched Sasha 3-4 times during that mile. He encouraged me to get really angry, but of course, as soon as he told me to, all the fun of it was destroyed and I just kept dragging along. I took off my shoes with about 2 miles to go & finished in my socks. I thought it would allow me to fun faster without dragging all that extra weight, and it worked like a charm...for at least 20 meters.  Very shortly I was back in drudgeville.

Michelle Lowry, the Queen of the Blog, joined us for the last mile and a half or so. I really enjoyed having her there, and I think she may have saved Sasha's life just by being close enough to be a witness.  Calcio joined the party with about half a mile to go, and I was doing my best just to keep upright at this point. It was weird. I thought I would be battling pain, the way you do in a 5K, but I didn't. My knees, hips, feet, everything felt no pain at all. But WHOA, there was just a complete lack of energy that was almost impossible to wade through. It was hard to even care that I SHOULD want to go fast. But all I really wanted was to lie down and sleep. I think I did kick a little for about 50 yards at the very end. Whatever, I finished the darn thing, and I only walked through 2 aid stations (I kept getting gatorade up my nose, and those times I wanted to actually DRINK it) but I did walk just a few steps on a monstrous overpass climb, which was cruel beyond measure.

Overall, I feel kinda proud that I did it, and kind of embarrassed about those last few miles. My ave. pace was 9:26, or something like that. 10 miles at 1:32:08, which is a huge PR for me.

Sasha got the "quote of the day" award after the race. I looked at myself in the mirror and said "my face looks puffy to me, does it look puffy?" To which he answered "yes, but no more puffy than usual." Sometimes I think it's a really good thing that guy's so fast.

A little over 2 miles tonight with Christine, mostly barefoot at 10:31 pace.  Hamstrings felt a little tight, but overall,  I'm not as sore as I thought I would be.  This leads me to believe that probably my trouble at the end of the race on Sat. was really more due to running out of glycogen than anything else.

Christine was absolutely baffled that I would want to run today.   Actually, though, I couldn't wait to run!!!  It was a busy busy day with traveling back from Utah, teaching a back-log of piano lessons, and having birthday festivities.  But I finally got out.  And I just have to say: don't let my rather morose race entry fool you, I was under the influence of exhaustion when I wrote that.   I am more excited about running right now than I have ever been in my whole entire life, and that's no joke!  That whole experience was a top five moment of my life, non-family related category.

I see now that it is an absolute privilege to be trying to push the limits a little more and more.  Someday I want to run a half and be able to RUN the whole darn thing, not just survive it, and ooze my way through the last couple of miles.  Hmm.  I have to be careful, though.  I am at higher risk for injury while I am recovering from this weekend. 

P.S.  This has been one of my very best birthdays ever and thanks so much to everyone who was so supportive of my race and everything.  It was really fun to meet a lot of you and the Blogger Open House on Sunday.  *Yawn*  Gotta go, I'll catch up with you guys tomorrow.
 

1 Mile this morning with the double jogging stroller & 80 pounds of kid.

2 Miles with Christine tonight at 10:21 pace.

I continue to feel better and better about having run a half. I feel like I can do ANYTHING now. It's probably a good time to hit me up to do a multi-level marketing scheme. He he he. (Just kidding, please don't!)

I know what I need to tackle next...EARLY morning running. It is a sad fact, but summer is just around the corner. Running around 5 am is absolutely essential to surviving the heat. I should make the adjustment now, while I am all pumped up. OK. Tomorrow, I'm going running at 5:30 am. If I don't...then...I'll...do 30 push-ups in one day (it would take a full day to accomplish this, since I can only do 1 at a time--laugh if you must.) But no worries, because I'm going running at 5:30! Time for some WOMAN POWER. (Kind of like will power, but it fluctuates a little more.)

Hey, check it out! Thanks to Adam for pointing out this picture to me. This is me finishing the Provo City Half Marathon in my socks. I see now how puffy my face is. JK.

I can tell exactly what I am thinking by looking at this picture. The Pachevs have a lovely, deep, cushy couch in their front room. I was thinking 'I'm gonna lay down on that couch and not move for at least an hour!' And I did.  (Actually, I think this is when I first saw my three little boys waiting for me just across the finish line.  But the couch truly was an inspiration to me during miles 11-12.)

One mile barefoot today at the crack of dawn, 10:17 pace

3 more tonight at 9:55 pace, shod.  Gotta calm down, that is just a little fast for me in a recovery week.  Everything feels good now except possibly my hamstrings, which are just a little tight.

2 Miles with the jogging stroller. 10:47 pace, which is fast for me with the stroller. The other 2 miles I had planned for after my missionary appointments did not happen, much to my chagrin. (I got home at 10 pm!) I opted to try for a somewhat decent night's sleep so I could wake up darn early Friday morning. I feel okay about it (only 2) since it is a recovery week.

1 mile barefoot in the darn stinking early morning hours.  Groan.  But is was beautiful--50 degrees and birds chirping and everything.  Then 2.1 more miles after stopping to shoe-up.  I think it was all around 10:30 pace.  I feel sleepy.  Possibly I will run with Christine tonight.

1 token barefoot mile with my psychotic but also majorly cute dog.

2 more miles with Sparky (shod), in an effort to induce the kind of exhaustion that will keep him from barking at every single bug he finds in the back yard. Our beloved next-door neighbors have very sensitive ears for barking. (I don't blame them. Well, maybe just a little teeny bit I do.)

5 more miles just to induce the kind of exhaustion in me that will prevent any unnecessary household cleaning. There was a very stiff wind. Headwind on the way out (agony!) and tailwind on the way back (bliss!). 10:17 average pace for the 8 miles.

2 miles barefoot with Sparky SOOO early, 10:08 pace.

2.68 Miles later with Christine at 10:20 pace, and I almost pulled a Superfly 'cause I had just drunk a biggish orange julius and it didn't want to stay put. Blech. But I have an iron stomach, so I was spared any extra humiliation, which is good, as I had already had my fill today.

Today has been all about humility. This morning on my barefoot run I was starting to feel really proud of myself. I hardly even feel it anymore when I run over little tiny rocks. My feet are like IRON! And just as I was thinking this, I stepped on a big, poky rock right on my forefoot, between my big toe and that skinny toe right next to it. It HURT, and I stumbled--nearly falling to the ground. Strike one. (I'm okay, though--don't think I even bruised it.)

THEN, later, I was at the grocery store with my precocious 3 year-old. I just had to grab one quick thing, and I was in a hurry. I was whipping around that huge, long car-shaped cart, and my 3 year-old says "Mommy, you are going the wrong way!" I hate it when my kids tell me what to do, so I said "Adam, don't tell me where to go...I know where I'm go..." and just then I bump into a large aisle display of ranch dressing, which collapsed, knocking bottles everywhere. I couldn't even figure out how to put the thing back together. But anyways, my little guy thought it was really funny. And for me, well, it's always nice to meet new people--especially grocery store employees. And nothing grounds you better than, well, getting on the ground and picking up lots of stuff. Strike two. So anyways, now I'm off to bed before the pitcher gets the better of me.

It strikes me that I may possibly be making headway on my goal to become tougher and have more self discipline. I bounced myself out of bed at 5:30 this morning so I could go run 2 miles barefooted with my dog before becoming fully conscious. I've got to tell you, I am still feeling reeeally excited about running. 3 more miles planned with Christine tonight.

Christine couldn't make it, and I just went out for another 2.17 at 9:37 ave. pace.  Most of it was at 10:05 pace, but the last .5 I was around 7:45 pace, which is my goal 5K pace.  I just wanted to get home. 

2 Miles barefoot before sunrise with Sparky.  I am starting to feel really comfortable with the early wake-up.  It's the 9:30 bedtime that is giving me fits!

Of all the ignominious running injuries one can possibly sustain while barefoot, I think I have located the stupidest: dogs stepping on you.   Remember that chow that attacked us recently?  He stepped on my bare foot and scratched my foot with his nastly ol' toenails.  That was my first barefoot injury.  Well, today Sparky lunged after a barking dog behind a fence, and ground my pinky toe into the pavement as he took off.  Now it is swollen and stinging.  Da!  He only weighs 17 lbs.!   I hope it is not broken, again.  Humph.
 

My little toe has been a little bit problematic for running.  Pretty swollen & difficult to get in my shoes.  Also hurts barefoot, though.  I find that the toes have a more more active part to play when running barefoot, and this particular toe seems to have decided that it needs a vacation from active duty.   Anyway, I didn't get in all my miles yesterday, which bugs me.  But today I was able to squeeze my running shoes on and go for a leisurely 4.25 at about 10:40 pace.  

So far 2 for today.  1 mile barefoot, which was pretty comfortable in most respects (no dog).  9:30 pace (I wasn't looking at my Garmin, usually I try not to go below 10:00 on an easy run.)

1 more with the pooch in shoes at 10:40 pace, and my right knee started to really bug me.  It is the same kind of bugging that I have had within 2 weeks of most of my races.  Feels like referred pain, not a real injury, but it still does hurt and causes a limp.  I am going to try to scrape the heck out of my quads and gluts with (don't tell Josse) the back of a butter knife and see if that helps.  He he he.  Don't slay me, it feels exactly the same!

I've decided not to register for the St. George Marathon this year.   Sasha's advice was to wait until I could run a half in 1:50:00.  He said that with 3 months of solid, uninterrupted training, I could probably do it on a favorable course.  But to me 3 months of perfect training seems a little out of reach at this point.  Maybe next year.  I am perfectly happy to focus on the shorter distances for another season.  Well, not perfectly happy, but happy enough.  (BTW don't bother leaving me a comment that I should just chuck Sasha's advice, because I won't.  As far as I'm concerned he is practically psychic when it comes to all things running.)

Update: 1.1 miles after scraping, barefoot, 10:30 pace.  Knee felt very good!  And there was much rejoicing...yea.

1.15 a little later, still barefoot.  I am beginning to really not trust my shoes.  Tomorrow I've gotta go try on new shoes.  10 miles planned for tomorrow.  If I get them in, all the credit goes to Adam for the swift kick. : )

GOOD LUCK AT THE SALT LAKE MARATHON TOMORROW FRBers!!!

4 miles at once--all barefoot. So that's a new barefoot distance record for me. (But I did wear socks.)

2 miles in shoes that shall remain nameless. I am chucking my old trainers--I think they hurt my knees. BUT I can't run anymore barefoot tonight because I am on the brink of getting a blister on my forefoot. And I HAVE to run 10 today (because of blog persecution). So I had to improvise. 4 more to go. The night is still young.

2 more miles...2 to go.

2 more. How tedious! Longest 10 miles I've ever run. The good news is that my knee feels absolutely fine. I think it is a combination of scraping, and chucking my running shoes that has done the trick. Next week I really have to get new shoes of some kind, though. Possibly Nike Frees or something like that.

Pictures! Can you guess which toe got smooshed by my dog?

Still, he's not ALL bad. Cuteness covers a multitude of sins.

As usual, he is completely under my control for the photo shoot. Just like he always is...at all times. ;)

What a lovely little run tonight! Felt fabulous. 4.37 miles in shoes at 9:54 pace on ave. The moon looked like a big golden coin hanging in the sky.

Today was a good day--check out the good fortune....We are replacing out air conditioning unit/furnace (which is actually a bummer, because if I wanted to spend that much money on the house, I'd much rather it be for something FUN like new carpet or countertops, or something). Anyway, these big sweaty guys were working on installing it ALL day. But they couldn't fit it in our attic for some reason. I felt very sorry for them--they worked long and hard, and ended up having to remove the stuff they had worked so hard to install. The good part, though, is that the AC company is now going to give us an even better system for the same price. But I have to stay home and babysit the house again tomorrow, which is a little bit blah.

Another fun thing about today is that I was able to connect with 2 long lost friends--my adopted brother, Gokalp Ekremoglu (who lives in TURKEY!) and James Nuttall, who was a college bud (hi James!) on Facebook.  So I take back all that terrible stuff I said about facebook.  He he.  Don't worry though Sasha--the blog is still the best ever.  :)

Congratulations to all the BRAVE SOULS who ran in the Boston Marathon today! Can't wait to read the race reports..

2.85 at 9:41 pace early this morning.

*Whew* Christine and I are switching back to early morning running together. So now I have absolutely no way out of waking up at 5:30. That's good. Can't leave important stuff like that up to groggy will power.

1.28 barefoot tonight at 10:02 pace.   I'm exhausted.  

2.85 early with Christine at 9:47 pace. The side of Christine's knee was hurting a little bit. So we decided to run a little slower and take it easy. However, neither Christine or I have a very good sense of what speed we are going and ended up running faster than usual. Weird. Usually I try to run faster, and end up slower. The speed that we go is usually dependent on what we are talking about at the time. If we are excited about it, we go faster. At the end I taught her how to scrape her quads. Hope she'll be okay tomorrow.

1.65 More with James and one kid running & the other two in the jogging stroller. I think Sam ran 1 mile in about 10:05 or something like that, and Joey ran .65 miles at 11:10 pace or something like that.

This is Christine. She's an athletic chica! In addition to running, she lifts weights, jumps ropes and/or does some other form of cross training every day. You'd never guess that she was old enough to have a daughter starting college this fall, would ya?

Ditto from yesterday. 2.85 with Christine early at 9:57 pace. Christine's knee started hurting with just .1 to go. That chica just does not slow down! I try to slow her down (for her own benefit!) and she just gaps me. Hope she'll be okay.

Early morning solo run. 2.63 at 10:10 pace. I'll run another 1.5 this afternoon with my kiddos.

Today will be my first full day of homeschooling. Wish me luck! No...PRAY for us. Pray very hard!

Had a really fin day with the kids.  1.37 more miles tonight barefoot.

Nice longer run (for me) with James. We got a babysitter and spent 1:27:00 just running and talking. 10:22 pace. Really more like 10:40ish pace for the first 7 and 8:50 for the last mile and a half. It was really nice spending the time with James.

The only annoyance was that I KEPT getting rocks in my crocs, I mean, shoes. Okay okay, I'll admit it, I've been running in crocs for the last week. I didn't want you to know because I didn't want to seem TOO much like a Sasha wanna-be, but my broken pinky is still swollen, and all other kinds of shoes squish them.

So here is my official product review of $4.88 fake-o crocs from Wal-Mart :

Pros: Very lightweight, very comfortable, very wide toe box to facilitate pinky mutilations, seem very cushioned, but you can still feel the ground a little (esp. when you step on a rock or something) inexpensive, widely available, did not cause any aching knees or hips. I had absolutely no hint of injury this week.

Cons: Rocks get into them--not just every once in a while, but EVERY SINGLE RUN--at least once. Today I had to stop probably 5 times to dump out a little pebble that had hitched a ride. Also they do not stop thorns. I got poked a little by a thorn I stepped on today, although it did not break my skin or anything. They also seem to be very short for the size. I usually wear 7s, and I had to buy an 8 just for my toes to fit without rubbing against the front.

This was a good week for me.  I got out every single morning at the crack of dawn!  Consciousness not required--just miles.

2.85 this morning with Christine at 9:46 pace. Feeling busy these days!

Last night I dreamed that I easily beat my old high school record for the 5K in a local race. It was such a nice dream.   A dreeeeeeeeeeeam is a wiiiiiiiiiish your heart makes...

1.15 more tonight barefoot.  I have achieved a very deep level of exhaustion today just working with my kids.   Can't wait to hit the pillows tonight.

2.85 with Christine at 9:57. We were both dragging like roadkill this morning. I don't think I even opened my eyes all the way until we were a mile out. Why am I soooo tired?

Mmmmm.  I feel soo much better after taking a quick nap this afternoon.  Thanks for the tip, Kim!  2.15 barefoot miles this evening at 10:25 pace.   Felt really good.
 

2.85 with Christine at 9:46 pace on ave.

You know how you are supposed to check your smoke detectors once a month to make sure the batteries are still good? Well, it is very inconvenient to get out the ladder and hike up there so many times. It is much easier to do what I did yesterday and basically burn some scrambled eggs to ashes, and get those alarms all going off at once. The only drawback is that it stinks, and it is noisy for quite a while. ;)

Later....For dinner tonight we ate at McDonald's. But I abstained. I just kept thinking about that 1:50 half in my future. So I came home and ate Raisin Bran instead. : )

2.15 barefoot tonight at 9:40 pace on ave. I focused on relaxing the whole time.