Chug-along-chica!

Look at my guys!  Halloween was good to us.

2.8 with Christine.  I would've thought that I was going sub 10 pace, but actually we went fairly slow today despite moderate effort.  Probably related to the yucky night of sleep from all the *coughing* chocolate I ate last night.  I've been off of my no-sugar diet since my 2nd son's b-day party, btw.  Time to get back on, though!  How can I gain that much in one stinkin' week?!

2.5 Running my son to and from school.  I broke the law today.  Well, I break the law everyday, but today was different because I did it about 6 feet away from a policeman (NOBODY TELL SCOTT ZINCONE!).  Let me explain...

Unfortunately, I am forced to J-walk across a 5 lane road everyday to and from school with my 3 kids in tow.  I would love to cross at the light, but there is some kind of nasty construction complication on the other side that renders it impassable.  Luckily, it is not a busy road at the times when I have to cross (and I always wait until there are practically NO cars in sight!) 

I have always been a little uncomfortable about this situation--especially because there are jillions of parents in a huge traffic jam in the school parking lot who are bored, and stare at me when I do it.  I've been a little concerned that someone would object.   So today when I saw the policeman sitting there on the sidewalk with his mototcycle right where I cross, I feared the worst.  As soon as I was within blubbering range, I immediately launched into an explanation/plea bargain of why I have to cross there.  His eyes glazed over after a few seconds, and he starting talking on his phone without even waiting for me to stop.  He never even said a word to me.  I still wonder if he was there to apprehend me, or was just  having bike trouble or something.  Anyways, since he seemed preoccupied, I just crossed the road as usual.  So this is why we pay taxes, people.  Just think about it.

Ran with Christine this morning.  9:59 average pace.  I'm feeling not so hot (queasy and headache) so I am skipping my evening run to save my strength for the run with Mik'L and Shauna tomorrow.  So, taper, I guess.

I got a letter from my son's principal about jay-walking today.  She said that if a policeman were to see me jaywalking, he would give me a written violation.  Sam's principal is a dork. 

1.) Spelled my name wrong

2.) Made a parallelism error (grammar)

3.) Called the police on me before even talking to me about it 

4.) Sent a warning letter which would clearly arrive AFTER I had encountered the policeman she had called

5.) Quoted laws in the body of the text that clearly indicated that what I was doing was NOT actually jay-walking  (I guess there must be a working traffic signal on BOTH sides.  On one side in this case, there is an intersection with no light.)

6.) Apparently had not even noticed that the sidewalk and shoulder along the route she recommended was completely obstructed

7.) Most likely could not run furthur than 400 yds. without passing out

I am slightly miffed.

Lovely little twilight run with Mik'L and Shauna.  It was my first time to meet Shauna--what a treat!  I hope we can do this again sometime.  We ran around  a humoungous lake--crossing over it twice on suspension bridges.  It was fun to talk.  I discovered that running in really deep sand can hurt as much as a very steep hill!  Lucky for me the sandy stretches weren't that long.  Ave. pace 10:34.

James and I got up at 4:30 to watch the trials.  I was quite shaken by the death of Ryan Shay!  This is partly due to the fact that I've had to come pick up James from an ambulance after a run.  I just feel so sad for his wife and family...

Congratulations Paul and Sean!  You are a credit to the blog and to distance running!  Logan, I am so sorry it didn't turn out as you had hoped, but I am so grateful you are okay.  You have only just begun to see where your talent and dedication can take you!  Nobody makes the Olympic Trials in marathon after only 3 years of running!   It is just amazing.

There.  A nice round fiver to get the week going in the right direction.  I MUST MUST MUST reach my goal of 30 miles this week even if I have to tether myself to the car and have James drive me around.  3rd try is the charm, right?  So far illness and injury have been getting in the way.  Means I need more sleep, probably.

You know what I've realized about sleep?  Sleep and eating are connected for me somehow.  If I get a really crummy night's sleep, I totally fall for the forbidden fruit (which resembles a candy bar more than fruit) the next day.  And then, if I eat crappy  (especially chocolate) I can't sleep, or WON'T just go to bed when I should.  Vicious cycle!  How do I get off?  Tonight I'm going to bed early, so hopefully tomorrow will be better. 

Can't believe how my life has changed since I started running.  I used to try to go to bed by 11:00, and I never could.  Now it is 8:45 and I'm ready to hit the hay.  I'll be snoozing in half an hour, with any luck.  Goodnight everyone!

2.85 in the AM with Christine just a little under 10:00 pace. 

Then ran my son to and from school with the double jogging stroller at, like, 15:00 pace.  Does it still count when it is that slow?  I always tell my kids to just keep going, and if they are are tired to just slow down a little.   So we go majorly slow.

I set a new Lybi world record today--in the most miles run with a jogging stroller division.  Today was ALLLLL double jogging stroller miles.  1.25 miles were with only one kid, though (35 lbs.), which seemed deliciously effortless compared to both (at 75 lbs total).

I also ate extremely healthy food all day today.  Yea!  I don't think I ate a single thing today that Sasha wouldn't have eaten--other than nonfat milk.  (There really should be bonus points for drinking that watery stuff, btw.  Blech!)  Sometimes it takes me a while to get going on eating better, but once I start I'm good for a while.  So until Thanksgiving, I imagine I will be good to go.

Oh!  Only 2 more days and 10 more miles and I will finally reach my mileage goal of 30, after trying and failing twice.  I'm gonna make it this time.  I can FEEL it!!!

So I am toying with the idea of eating a whole avocado right before I run tomorrow and seeing if it makes me yak.   Sasha says because it is "natural" and a vegetable source, I should be fine (trust me--he probably won't like that quote--but still).  Eating a whole avocado at once is not very natural behavior, so no points against Sasha science if I toss it.  But anyway, I'll need encouragement to try it--probably at least 5 comments.   And feel free to tell me NOT  to do it, because I hate yakking. 

9:50 ave. pace for my run with Christine.  Then ran my son to school.

One final mile alone in 9:55--just to get me above the prerequisite 5 a day.   Now I'm gonna stretch and go to bed early!

I read a talk by Joseph B. Wirthlin about the love of God today that really touched me.   Here's a little quote:

"Oh it is wonderful to know that our Heavenly Father loves us--even with all our flaws!  His love is such that even should we give up on ourselves, He never will.

We see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today.  Our Heavenly Father sees us is terms of forever.  Although we may settle for less, Heavenly Father won't, for he sees us as...we are capable of becoming."

This was given in a talk during which this tiny old man was shaking so bad I thought he was going to fall over.  I was distracted by this when he was speaking, so I didn't hear much of what he said.  But after reading it, I think I practically need to memorize his talk and internalize it.  

I finally got to 30 miles in a week. Hooray!!! 30.7 to be exact.

Nice 5 miler today with Christine. Splits of 9:52, 9:56, 10:15, 9:37, 9:38. It felt pretty easy. The hardest part is the first little bit, when the whole run is is front of me.

Honestly, I am looking forward to just taking it easy the rest of the weekend. This last week I felt like I was constantly running. How the heck do some of you put in 2-3 times as much as this every week!?!

I think my body is holding up pretty well, but I do feel a little sore in my calves, quads, and gluts. I should probably hang out at 30 a week for the rest of this month to get used to it before increasing. Does that sound right?

By the way...if you are planning on doing the Canyonlands half marathon on March 8th, you better make your room reservations soon. There is info on Paul Peterson's blog from yesterday about cabins that sound really cool. There is also Moab Valley Inn, $107. a night, including tax.

Three in the wee hours of too-early-to-truly-be-called morning. One with Holly, one alone, and one with the dog.

2 A couple of hours later with my sons in tow.

Happy Veteran's Day!

Since I'm sure you are all dying to know the ridiculous everyday adventures of my life, I will include an embarrassing story....

I have 2 rings that I wear on my left ring finger.  First, I have my beautiful wedding set, which is pretty, but not overly practical. After scratching my babies with the diamond a couple of times I decided I really wanted something less dangerous to show my marital status.  James kindly gave me a very nice ring with the center stone set down in a pressure setting for our 6th anniversary.  Very nice.  This is the ring I use for everyday.  It has 2 colors of gold and is so smooth and practical.  After missing this ring for a couple of days, I finally located it...in the VACUUM cleaner!!! To say that it is smooshed is an understatement!  Completely crumpled, broken, and missing the center stone is more like it.  I cried.  I don't think I have a single possession that means as much to me as that ring--except my wedding ring.  For Christmas I have asked Santa to get my ring fixed--even if they have to melt it down and start from scratch!   So I have been wearing my fancy wedding ring since then. 

On my run today, I stopped to let the kids play in the park.  While I was watching them, I noticed some really strong sprinklers.  I had this FABULOUS idea to hold my beloved ring in its spray for a few seconds and let the water blast it sparkly-clean.   Who wants to wait for it to soak in one of those ring-cleaning thingies?   Well, my plan worked famously for about 1 second, after which I suddenly found myself...not...holding...onto a ring anymore.  It had shot off somewhere into the deep grass.  DOH!  I win the prize for stupidest way to dispatched several of my prized possessions within a 3 day time frame.  Don't be too alarmed, though.  I located my wedding set within 5 min., but I had to get pretty wet to do it.  Ha ha.

Ran 3 this morning with Christine after a HORRIBLE night's sleep. I was in bed by 10, but I didn't get to sleep until around 2:30 am. (My kids are sick.) But my respect for Christine is such that I bounded out of bed at 5:30 to run with her. I have never ever missed a run with her. That's pretty good for me!

Now I am dragging badly...but I finally got those last 2 in.  Goodnight!

5K in the morning at 9:59 pace on average.  (Much better than 10:00 pace, doncha think?)

1.9 more miles this evening with my boys.  Sssslow!

My little 5 year old is having oral surgery tomorrow.  Nothing serious or dangerous, but I always feel a little scared when he has to be anesthisized.  Ug.  Here we go again.... Prayers appreciated.

2.85 miles in the morning with Christine in 27:52.   Felt a bit brisk. 

2.2 miles tonight alone.

Harrowing day--Joey's oral surgery went well.  He really is a stinker when he is coming out of anesthesia, though.  Croaking and screaming.  What a nightmare!  I was so frazzled tonight I REALLY wanted to skip my evening run.  So I was so surprised to see how much better it made me feel.  It is a cool night--fresh from a recent rain and so invigorating.  Why is it that we (I) tend to resist what really will help us (me) feel better?

Register for the Canyonlands Half! 

Here is a link: https://secure.marathonguide.com/register/moabhalfmarathon/Canyonlands/index.cfm?EID=362

• Click on "search for your group"
• Search for "fastrunning bloggers anonymous" 
• Click on "join group"
• Accept the release
• Enter all your info, and you're done! 

6 people per group, so there are only 2 more spots in the 1st group.  If you want to join and it is all filled up, comment on Michelle's blog.  She'll create another group just for bloggers if we need one. 

Yea!  I cashed in most of my commando points today for my BEST running high ever: my first 6 miler since I've started running again. 

I took it out nice and slow.  I never really looked at my pace--just tried to run easy.  I haven't run over 3 miles at once by myself for a long time, so I thought it would be hard.  Here's the wierd part-it was hard and slightly aggravating the first 3 or 4 miles, but it just seemed to get better from there.  I was still feeling really fresh around 4.7 miles so I decided to pick it up a little.  It felt soooo good.  Up until today, I don't think I've EVER understood why Sasha says sometimes says that he just didn't want to slow down.  How could you not want to slow down?  That's like saying you don't want to open your birthday presents or something--or so I thought.  So I was bopping along at a slightly faster pace, but when I looked down at my Garmin, it said I was going 2:00 a mile faster.  Wow!  I wasn't even breathing faster or anything.  It didn't even FEEL harder.  It just felt good!  I've felt like I was on death's door  going slower than that in races!  I could've gone another 2 miles, I know it!  But I promised James that I wouldn't be gone longer than an hour, so I brought her in.  But this helped to revive my enthusiasm for running, so I am happy.

59:19 for 6 miles.  Splits of 10:02, 10:14, 10:20, 10:29, 9:50, 8:21.

Oh yeah, and I had someone yell a swear word at me out the window of a car.  That's a first.  Plus, I almost got creamed by a motorcycle.  Don't pedestrians have the right of way when the sidewalk crosses a parking lot entrance?

And one other thing...I met Abdi Abdirahman today at James' race.  (Remember he is based in Tuscon.  He wasn't running--he was just there for publicity.)  He looked just like he did on TV only skinnier.  It would take a whole passle of scientists to figure out how in the heck that man keeps his jeans from falling to his feet.  But he was really nice, and confirmed that he does, in fact, eat liver for breakfast every morning.  Now THAT is dedication.  (Urp.)   I thought about asking him to join the fastrunning blog, but I lost my nerve.  Ha ha. :)

5 Miles at 9:52 pace on average.  (There was a 3 hour break between miles 3 and 4, though.)   I'm off to North Carolina for the week!  Not sure how much I'll be able to blog, but I hope hope hope I will still get in all my miles this week.  I am a little impatient to move to running 5 1/2 or 6 miles a day.  I am having delusions of grandeur about the Moab half in March.  :)  Happy Thanksgiving!  I am grateful for you guys!!!

I ran with my much faster hubby James today in North Carolina.  The whole route was rolling hills.  I feel humbled!  I am so used to training on mostly or completely flat surfaces.  My breathing was still fine but my legs were spent after...oh jeez, couldn't have been more thas a mile.  (But there were a lot of really steep hills in that mile!)  So James started letting me hang onto his shirt on the uphills.  Then he would do a fartlek up to the top--dragging me behind him like a short blonde caboose.   It was classic.

Even though I really enjoy hanging (sometimes literally) with James on runs, it is a little depressing, because he has a very effortless stride, and I always feel a little pathetic running next to him.  But isn't he a sweetie to drag me along?

Run in North Carolina surrounded by trees in splendid color.  The hills here are REALLY steep and plentiful.

1st-14:26 with my little boy

2nd-11:46  I am feeling wimpy over the hills

3rd-11:32  Trying not to die

4th-10:09  I finally get in a groove and it's all over

I was going to run another mile later with my other son, but we didn't geta chance.    My shins were pretty sore from clomping my way down all these steep hills.

5 Miles in NC untimed.  Beautiful landscape.  Happy Thanksgiving!

James took 1st in his age division at his race today.  GOOO JAMES!

5 miler in the morning.  11:02 ave. pace.  That's at least a min. per mile slower than a typical run for me. These hills are really kicking my hiny!  Now I realize that I am a definite flat-lander.  What am I going to do?  The Moab half is rolling!  Dread.  I'm going to have to find a freeway ramp and run up and down it a million times once a week or something.

We got home from NC last night at 1:30 am(!)  Good to be back, and nice to have some down time with the fam. before jumping back into our normal routine.  Here are some quick stats about our North Carolina trip:

No. of days I ran-5 (100%)

No. of hills that kicked my butt while we were there: 1,826,927 (estimate)

No. of pounds gained: 3 (blush!)

No. of falling leaves I caught in my hand while running-1

Ave. pace slow down due to very steep rolling hills-1 min. a mile

How many times more beautiful the Autumn leaves are in NC compared to Arizona-8 (at least)

Number of HUMONGOUS falling tree limbs that almost squashed me during a nature walk-1

Well, I had a GREAT run today!!!  I wanted to duplicate that great runner's high I got last Sat., so I did the same basic stats--5 miles slow and then a tempo mile.  All without any kind of refueling or rest stops.

Mile splits: 10:08 (headwind), 9:54, 9:38 (tailwind), 9:32 (tailwind), 10:09, and (here is the mile I am really proud of) 7:51.  That's 29 seconds faster than my tempo mile last week!  Yipee!  I think I could have cranked out at least one more sub 9:00 mile.  I feel fine right now.  I'm super stoked that I still had gas in the tank after 5 miles.  5 used to completely wipe me out.  Progress feels good.   As an added bonus, I had a perfect mileage week at 30 during a trip.  Take that, Ashman!  How could you doubt? :)

I'm going to get a foul for excessive celebration one of these days...

P.S.  BYU RULES!

2.5 Miles this morning alone

1.25 running my 7 year-old to school.

I was looking at my monthly mileage last night. Check this out:

July-46.65

Aug.-61.28

Sept.-83.59

Oct.-106.75

Nov. I am scheduled to be over 120 if I have a perfect mileage week this week.

So I've almost tripled my mileage in 5 months! I want to be up to 40 miles a week (160 miles a month) by February. So Dec. better be close to 140, I guess.

***********************************************************************

PM Ran 1.25 to get my son from school. I was running late, so I had to BOOK it!  Fastest half mile I've run in a while, although I didn't have the Garmin.  I was tired running back, and wouldn't you know it--I fell. Not a dainty little trip where I catch myself halfway down--I was all splayed out on the sidewalk like roadkill!  And right in front of the school too...all those witnesses!   *Blush*

Bedtime: 9:45

3.5 miles with Christine. 9:58 ave. pace. I struggled a little this morning. My knee aches a bit from yesterday's...ahem...event, which does NOT bear repeating. I hope I didn't damage anything. This is what happens when you count your goose eggs before they hatch (into 5's and 6's).

I am skipping my run tonight because of my knee, which feels a little worse.

BT: 8:30

One more rest day for my knee, I guess.  Tomorrow I am definitely getting back out there, though.  I went to the chiro today and it is feeling much better.

PS I am in the depths of despair.  No not really, but I AM slightly down.  I wonder if this has anything to do with hearing my alarm go off every ten minutes from 5:20 am to 7:00 am this morning (new Lybi world record for how many times I've hit the snooze button btw).  I'm going to bed!

3 Miles with the double jogger at a nice and easy (slug's) pace. My knee felt pretty good. I think I'm ready to get back to training as usual. I wanted to run a race this weekend, but I am not finding one that is not ridiculously far away or at a time I can go. But hopefully next weekend!

 Another run with the jogging stroller after lunch just to help my little boy fall asleep for his nap.  It took 2.23 miles to get the job done.   Better than the 15-20 min. of driving I usually do!

119 miles for the month! A new record by over 12 miles.

2.85 Miles early this morning run Christine. 9:56 ave. pace. I felt extremely sluggish--like I was running 9:00 effort, but just couldn't seem to...wade through the molasses or whatever.

2.55 Miles tonight in the rain. REALLY sluggish. And my knee is not happy.

Part of this sluggishness is that I was up too late last night, I'm sure. I got all excited about this mopping robot I read about. I want one sooo bad!!! I HATE mopping. Mopping is my least favorite job of all time, other than scrubbing the inside of toilets. Blech. I guess that doesn't really explain why I was up late, but I was doing all this research on the internet, and of course, trying to find a good deal on one on Craig's List or ebay or something. I am STILL very excited about it. Just picture it! After dinner I'll

1.) Let my dog Sparky in to eat the big stuff off the floor*

2.) Then I'll turn on my mopping robot to get the smears and, of course, the dog slobber. He he he. Now I want someone to invent a shower cleaning robot and I'll be all set.

This is what it looks like:

I'll probably run again tonight to get to 5.

* My kids don't get their calories from actually ingesting their food, so much as just flinging it around. They probably absorb some of the nutrients through skin contact or something. Hence the extreme need for moppage, and the ensuing mop burnout, experienced by many beginning runners--or at least one.