Chug-along-chica!

4 Miles outside in New Mexico with my sister, Laura.  She is my ultimate running buddy.  It was really fun for me.  One odd thing is that my leg turnover was about twice as fast as hers and we have the same leg length.  How'd THAT happen?  My leg turnover increased a lot during the period when I was barefooting more.    Ug, Laura made me run FAST at the end.  I thought I would have to slow down a little to stay with her, but she sprinted like greased lightning with about .1 to go and the truth is that I ran as fast as I could and couldn't seem to quite keep even with her.  Sheesh!  Who is the one who's been running longer here? 

4 miles, mostly outside at 9:42 pace. Last quarter of a mile on the treadmill. Soooo, you may have noticed that I didn't break my most consecutive days of running record. Man, I hate falling short of my goals. However, I was prepared to cut myself major slack because for the last 2-3 weeks I was seriously convinced that I was expecting. It turns out, though, that my body was just playing a little joke on me. It is a stupid joke, and I have heard it before, yet I somehow fell for it once  again. It is easy to believe something you would like to be the truth. Anyway, no harm done other than a week-long vacation from running. It was a pretty good vacation. I got a little more sleep and got my legs nice and rested up. Now it is back to the serious business of surviving the summer heat. I need a snow cone.

4 miles on the treadmill at about 10:30 pace on average.  I was watching "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"  and just kind of keeping a wary eye out for making sure I don't step off the belt.  

4 miles . Half outside, half on Fred.

Our internet connection was down yesterday so I couldn't blog my run. One whole day off the blog! It seemed like an eternity. I don't see how anyone can run without being part of the Fast Running Blog Community. :) I know I wouldn't.

Those of you newer to the blog probably don't know how I started running. I married this really fast guy who seemed to need running like I need sleep. Although I ran in high school, I saw no point in running without a team to run for. Anyway, one day James told me that some guy he met on the internet and his family were going to come stay at our house for the weekend. I was a little bit ??? James, are you SURE they are not murderers? But murderers seldom travel with children, do I was willing to give it a try. So Sasha and Sarah and their adorable kids stayed at our house during the Del Sol relay--back when the blog was too small to support a full, fast relay team without including many non-bloggers.

Anyway, while they were down here I gave Sasha a 10 min. piano lesson and he ran 1 mile with me (which was an accomplishment for me!) So since then Sasha has played the piano every single day and I have become a runner. Although Sasha never misses a day with his piano practice (and I definitely have missed days of running) I am still winning, since I spend a LOT more time running than he does playing the piano (just kidding, Sasha).

I think the reason I wanted to start running was because I saw how running could be a family sport--with the kids involved and everything, instead of just being James' weird compulsion. So far it has produced a lot of positive results. My favorite is probably that my little boys were all able to come off their asthma medication. But being able to run a faster 5K than I ever did in high school was also very nice.  I have to remember these things at times like this when I am struggling just a bit.

Wow! Today was SOOO much nicer.  Best run I've had in months!!!  It poured last night so today it was cool and fragrant.  YEA!  There is an inverse relationship between the temperature and my running enthusiasm. 

I got all excited today looking at upcoming races.  I want to run the Moon Valley Grasshopper Bridge 5K BARE FOOT this year and hopefully get a new personal record.  (Shauna, you must come if you can--you are my lucky charm.  What else explains my last 5k PR?   I've heard that elite athletes are very superstitious...so, if I can't be as fast as them, I figure that at least I can be as susperstitious... )  There are also some local half marathons coming up that I am...hmmm...seriously starting to...possibly consider...at some point.

Tomorrow we are heading off to Florida for a week.   I am SO excited about that.  (But geez, has anyone else noticed that we are gallavanting off to a different state every other week?!)    Anyway, I packed running clothes!  But I won't be able to blog.  Take care, bloggies!  I'll catch up with you guys when I get back.  Be good:  just say "no" to carbonated drinks.

I intended to run today, but I had to pack in the evening when I should have been running.  Minus ten points for poor planning.

We traveled to Florida all day today.   We had quite an adventure when our taxi never showed up to take us to the airport.  We ended up having to dash down there and park in the airport parking.  We were hideously late, and I was very grateful we run with our boys.  You should have seen us in the airport running with our suitcases and our three little boys following close like ducklings.  It truly was cute, and frantic.

We finally got in around 10 pm and I went for a frightful run alone in the parking lot.  I felt scared the whole time and finished as soon as I could stomach.  I though it would never end.  I had to do so many loops! 

Today we went to church in Fort Lauderdale Florida.  The people were so nice and friendly!  They must be used to having visitors.  Also, fully half of the congregation was late for church, which was just interesting.

We took the kids beach combing and we gathered a big ol' pile of shells.  They were absolutely everywhere!  Even the sand was made of small pieces of shells that had been worn smooth and it sparkled beautifully.

I went to run on the treadmill, but the gym had closed already.  I didn't want to run in the parking lot again!

4 miles on the treadmill in a resort gym in Florida.  It was boring except for the lively dudes who kept yelling out how many bench presses they had done, followed by excessive manly sounds of triumph. Those guys were yelling the whole time I was there and I was really glad to leave.

I think this was the day that we went to the science museum. This was one of my favorite things on the trip. We got to see lots of live animals on display in the everglade exhibit. My absolute favorite was the AMAZING frog exhibit. So many frogs! The little venomous ones from the rainforest were the most adorable. There was a little luminescent one that is so venomous that even if it just touches you, it would be quite dangerous. The exhibit said that it was more venomous than any snake or spider on earth. Imagine that! There were also these little dime-sized ones that were SOOOO cute.

Now try to tell me that that's not cute! What you can't tell is how tiny he is. He would fit on my fingertip.

2 miles, unshod.  I wanted to have a nice barefoot run in Florida.  Unfortunately, there weren't sidewalks for most of this run, and though I enjoyed the temp and the scenery I ended up with horrible blisters on my feet that made it quite painful to walk for a day or two.  Dang!  I think it would have been okay if I didn't have to keep getting my feet wet.  Every time a car passed me I jumped off the road into the lush grass on the side of the road, which was invariably soaked.   Having dry feet is imperative for preventing blisters!

We spent most of this day in the resort pool, which had water slides and other fun stuff for the kids.  My 3 year-old was brave enough to do the water slide!  I was impressed.   The thing I enjoyed most was watching the daddies from our group play water volleyball with 4-5 year-olds in their arms.  Every time the big beach ball they were using went over the net, the dad would lift the kid high and the kid would hit the ball.  The kids felt like a million bucks getting to play in an important capacity like that, and the dads all got a major upper-body workout.  It was adorable. 

I missed a couple of days of running here, but my feet needed to heal a bit anyway.  What I really enjoyed during these days was swimming in the ocean.  I liked to swim out past where I could touch the ground and just float like a piece of kelp, and enjoy the slight feeling of danger, since I'm not that great of a swimmer.   There were little tiny fish that swan around and tickled your toes.  They added some fun.  Something stung me though--probably a jellyfish?  It wasn't a bad sting.  I only felt it for 20 min. or so.  Just glad it was me and not one of my kids.

I didn't run today but I did walk around almost continuously for, count 'em, EIGHT hours.  The girls all went shopping today at this HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE mall.  My mother-in-law is a shopper!  I never thought a 60 year-old lady could walk that far, that fast, for that long.  I most ly tagged along, but I got some really fun stuff too.  All the chicas were sore the next day.

4 miles early in the morning in Florida.  It was hard for me to run early in the morning while we were there because of the time difference.  6:00 felt like 3:00 am!  Anyway, I finally did it and got really lost and found my way home again within 4 miles.  Thank goodness for Garmins!  Only slightly disappointed to not see an alligator (he he).  We spent most of the rest of the day packing and traveling home.  We also saw that  kids' movie ,  "Wall-E."  I liked it!  It was really different from all the other Pixar movies.  Nice ending, I thought. 

1.4 miles barefoot, and the rest in crocs. It was just as humid as the east coast, but at least it was relatively cool. The clouds made a beautiful sunrise.

My feet are still a little sore from the blisters I got in Florida. I want to barefoot as much as I can in the next 2 months so I can be ready to race barefooted in September. The race directors aren't going to give me a hard time, are they? There are no rules against running a race barefooted, right?

Wait...if there are rules against it, don't tell me.  That way I can at least plead ignorance.  ;) 

2 miles barefoot at 9:30 pace. I got out a little late this morning and didn't have time for more. But I hope to run a few more miles tonight.

And by way of confession....

I may have accidentally ingested some chocolate on my Florida trip. This is a picture of a pitcher of melted chocolate overcoming my resistance to temptation.

2 barefooted miles in the morning.  I had a limp from the knee that I fell on yesterday.  I  have a bruise right on my knee cap and it is a little swollen.  I just kept it really slow, like 11:30-12 pace.  

My knee felt better throughout the day and I really should have run last night but I had a stubborn moment and stayed in. 

James was home sick.  I felt bad that he was miserable,  but I must admit that I liked having him around.  He has a very soothing presence.

2 miles on the treadmill this morning, watching "Groundhog Day".  Felt great today!   I gradually increased the pace until I got to 7:30 pace at the end

2 BF miles this morning outside. I forgot to set my alarm last night, so I slept in until 7:00 (which means I got 10 (!) hours of sleep last night! It was absolutely heavenly. The bad side was that I had to face a little more heat than usual because of the lateness of the hour.

I started out at 10:40 pace, and gradually increased the pace until I was going quite fast at the end. My average pace for the run was 9:05. It was a nice invigorating run. Then I took the boys to the library and the Phoenix Science Center for the rest of the day. Fun times!

2.15 barefoot miles at 8:57 pace on average.  I pushed a little on the last mile, and ran the last .1 as fast as I could.  It was a really nice morning--not too hot!  The only item of interest was that I got behind a walker with her ipod cranked up just a little to high, and I almost ran into her because she did not hear me repeatedly saying "excuse me."   I was going to go around her, but she stepped sideways a little to avoid something on the road and almost got smooshed by me.  I'm amazed she didn't scream.  If I were her, I would've screamed.  I mean, here it is, 6:00 am, you're completely alone, and then out of nowhere a runner materializes right next to you and almost collides with you.  Very ominous.  It probably helped that I was wearing my pink running clothes today.  It's hard to be scared by someone in pink...

2 miles outside BF. I had to hurry a bit to be back in time for Shark Week on the Discovery channel.  Happy Shark Week, everyone!