Chug-along-chica!

I like to end with a little sprint.  It gives a little tingle . . . a little.  Know what I'm talking about?  I went very slow today bc I feel a little under the weather.  I'm not going to get moaning-and-shivering sick like everyone else in my family has been.  I never got the fever.  Thank you thank you thank you.

Good news about my 5k next Friday--it's in the evening!!!  Yea!  Plus it is for a good cause--fighting melanoma.  It is supposedly flat and fast.  It will be sweltering hot.  It will be my first 5K post high school.

I've been thinking about goals.  For this race I want to beat Paul Petersen's time: 30:45.  The only difference is that his time was for a 10K and I'll be running 5.  This may sound like it's not very fair to Paul.  But think of it this way--he's been running far more than twice as long as I have and has more than twice the natural talent, plus he is a man . . . it is only fair that he should run twice as far as me for the same time. : )  If anyone else on the blog has a faster 10K time let me know--I'll beat it.  But for now, you're going down, Paul!  (At least, your time is anyway--BTW good luck in Ogden.)

I ran .8 with my little boys (who are just getting over being sick) at 16:00 pace.  That's right, we were running, technically.  My little heart was just melting 'cuz my sweet little 6 year-old held my hand the whole way.

I was nice and warmed up, and only wanted to do 2 miles tonight, so I decided to do the rest as a tempo run.  You'll never guess!  I averaged 9:31 pace.  Yea!  It didn't seem all that fast to me.  (Remember I usually run around 11:15 on the treadmill at incline 1). I just kept thinking "I hope I'm running around 10:00--not above 11:00.  Please!"  I trumped the 10 mile girl--who is missing several toes and whose arms are tied behind her, but still.  So the bottom line is that if I were to run that pace next week in the 5k I would meet my goal.  Yippee! 

I didn't even feel any pain or anything.  I think the thing that gave me the most pause was the sound of my breathing.  In the past whenever I have had to breathe that hard in a run, I'm in pain.  So by association (like Pavlov's dog) I kept expecting pain.  The only uncomfortable thing was a little bit of burning in my lungs deep down.  It's probably because the air here is so dry.  I'm sure it is not the lack of cardiovascular fitness after sitting on my rump for about 10 years and not doing any regular exercise.   I was comforted in the knowledge that some extremely fabulous runners reportedly make strange noises when they push themselves--not naming any names . . .

Very easy pace.  2.5 on Fred, my treadmill.

I lost 2 lbs. again this week.  The WW lady looked at me a little strangely and said to make sure I am eating enough.  (I started out in my healthy weight range to begin with--but if it's up to me, I'd rather be at the lower end of healthy than the high end, especially for running.)  I promise I am eating well, but I need to factor my exercise into my eating plan.  I haven't been bothering to figure it out.  This next week I'm just going to try for maintenance.  I don't want to stress my body and get sick.

I bought new shoes!  They are Brookes Adrenaline GTS7.   They are supposed to arrive tomorrow.  Yay!  When I had my gait analysis done, I took the opportunity to get 2 really great running outfits.  They felt and looked perfect at the store, but I have to admit, I got home and looked at the cranberry colored one and thought holy pink!    I'm going to look like a flamingo running down the street.  Good thing I usually run when it is dark.  Hopefully it will fade a little with hard use!

.5 with my little tiny guys.  3 miles on the treadmill nice and easy.  I definitely feel I could run farther.  I'm just trying to be gradual about my mileage so I stay strong.

Good luck all you bloggers who have big races this weekend!  I am so excited you would think I was running.  Thought for the day: the fear of failure is worse than failure itself, because the fear of failure can keep you from trying at all!  You will overcome!

On treadmill, slow.  I ran in my new shoes today for the first time.   It felt a little weird.

1 mile with my little boys nice & slow.  Then a tempo mile in 8:50.  That's a new record for me since starting up again.  I guess the 9 minute mile girl knows who I am now.  She's relatively healthy, but usually only runs on her way to the donut shop.  Ug, I'm kinda tired now.  One strange thing is that I don't think my lungs were what kept me from going faster.  My legs keep sending me question marks.  (What the heck are we doing here?  You can't be serious etc.)  Also my arms got sluggish.  How to fix . . .

Next week I'm planning 4-5 slow miles on Mon., 2 on Tues.  3, 3, 1 and then my 5K on Sat.  Sound okay? 

Tonight I exceeded my weekly mileage goal of 15 miles by 1.  So that's a new record for weekly training so far!  

Wasn't it exciting reading all those race reports today?  It is so wonderful to see the race from all these exceptional runners' points of view.  Next time I need to focus I'm gonna pretend I'm finishing the Odgen Marathon 2 minutes ahead of everyone else--just about to set a course record. ; )  Or maybe I can get the focus off myself a bit and think about helping someone else have a great last 1/2 mile.  Sasha, that was so inspiring!

Warning:  Completely Non-Running Stuff

I had a sweet little thing happen today.  I took my kids swimming at a neighborhood pool.  I was sitting there at the side of the pool and a teeny little dog toting a retractable leash ran through the fence past a bunch of other people and jumped right into my lap.  It was soooo cute!  It looked like a German Shepherd, but was the size of a tea cup poodle.  I held onto it for a little while, waiting for a worried owner to appear and collect it.  Nobody showed up so I took my kids for a little walk and carried this exhausted little pooch towards some nearby houses.  The first door that opened when I knocked had a little girl sobbing over a lost dog.  The family asked me how on earth did I know which house to go to and said that I was an angel!  Little did they know I just walked up to one randomly (or not).  It was just sweet.  The dog turned out to be a short-haired Pomeranian puppy--just purchased a week ago.  Cute!