All it takes is all you've got

Hi.  I'm new here.  After reading Allie's blog and browsing a few others, I'm thinking this is a good way for me to track my mileage, follow what other runners are doing, and get training ideas and suggestions.  I just registered for the TOU marathon in September and the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon in August, so I figure its time to start getting serious about my training and bumping up my mileage.  Up until now, I've just been running 4 or 5 days a week, probably averaging 25-30 miles a week.  Now I'm going to get up to 45-60 miles a week as I train for my marathon.  This is only my second marathon, so any and all comments, suggestions are welcome and appreicated.  Thanks for reading!

Monday:  Ran out and back on the Big Dry Creek trail by my house.  Ave. Pace 6:53. Total of 800 feet elevation change over 8 miles.  Felt great and very happy with my effort.

Aaron had an early networking meeting and I slept in too long, so I had to go to the fitness center and put the kids in child care .  Ran 4.5 miles, mile 2 and mile 4 were 6:00 pace.  Ave. 7:13  Glad I ran fast because the child care people paged me just as I finished and said my baby had been crying for 20 minutes.  Guess I better go more often so she gets over that separation anxiety phase.

Walnut Creek Trail.  Ave. 7:22/mile

Counter clockwise Walnut Creek trail loop.  Ave. 7:13/mile

Out and back on big dry creek trail.  Felt awesome!  Saw a coyote running on the trail in front of me for a bit around mile 9.

6:47 avereage

Aaron was out of town today, mountain biking with friends in Fruita.  So I was on my own.  Was planning on going to the fitness center to run on the treadmill, but people kept calling and saying they wanted to come look at these cabinets I have listed on Craigslist, so I had to stick around home...and the Cabinets are still not sold.  Ugh.  Got a ton of work done around the house though!  And finally at around 5 p.m. I fixed my bike tire, hooked up the bike trailer and toddler seat and toted the three kiddos over to the grocery store to get a few things before tomorrow.  It wasn't really a workout until we started coming back UP the hill on the way home.  With the weight of the groceries, 42 lb Abe, 30 lb Breanne and 20 lb Ali....yes, it was quite a pull.  I actually had to get Abe and Breanne out and they ran along side me up the steepest part.  Kinda neccessary when I couldn't even keep the front tire on the ground at one point.  :)

Anyway, long story short, I'm calling it 1.5 miles of running effort to make my week an even 35 miles.  I'll gradually build up to more weekly mileage, but this is the biggest week I've done in a while, to be honest.

Easy run around Standley Lake.  Ran on the trail for the first couple of miles, but then had to go o the street when I started forming mud platforms on my shoes.  The street route is suprisingly shorter than staying on the trail.  Lots of beautiful sights this morning; the awesomeness of the Flatirons (they look a little more distant from here than they did in Superior, but still just as breathtaking).  I envied for a moment, the waterskier who was cutting nice walls on the glass that is Standley Lake on weekday mornings.  Also saw some wildlife; two pelicans and a coyote.  I love living in this area that is surrounded by open space and wildlife.  I do admit, the coyotes can disrupt my pace and make me a little jumpy, but I've never had any problems with them.  They always just prance away from me or stare at me as I run by.  A couple of times I have encountered barking coyotes, and I assume it is because they are protecting their young or just made a great catch and want it all to themselves, so I just run a good distance around them and they hold their ground. 

Total 7.5 miles, average 7:30/mi. 

13:00 Warm up, 2 miles @ 12:18, jogged a few minutes, 1 mile @ 5:51, jogged a few minutes, 1/2 mile at 2:52

Total miles: 7.7 avereage pace: 6:59 

Left hip had a little twinge during warm-up, but it went away once my muscles warmed up and I stretched. I stretched it really well after the run and I'm icing it now.

Easy 10 miles around Standley Lake and some.  7:28 average

Slept from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. minus a few minutes to deal with a crying baby around 1:30 a.m.

I felt very rested.  I think 10-6 is my ideal sleep time. 

5.5 miles 7:30 pace 

Lifted weights yesterday for the first time in months and it felt great! I was pretty sore this morning though so I just did an easy run.  My plan is to gradually build up my weekly mileage to 50-60 mpw after years of only doing 0-25 mpw.  The past 5.5 years have been pretty pitiful running wise because I chose not to run during my 3 pregnancies.  I've gotten so sick during pregnancy and its hard for me to gain weight so my midwife advises me to save my calories for the baby. And when I have a newborn and its pretty hard for me to get motivated to run a lot due to sleep deprivation, breastfeeding, and just being busy.  The only time in the past 5 years that I've run a lot was two years ago when I ran 40-45 mpw for a few months to train for the Ogden Marathon.  I used to run 45-55 mpw in college and was able to stay pretty injury free at that mileage, so I'm hoping to be able to work up to 60 mpw without injury in taining for TOU.  I will also start lifting a couple of times a week.  I did "planks" or stability workout this morning for the first time in months and felt pretty weak.  I guess I know I have room for improvement!  

Long run with 4 mile marathon tempo in the middle at 6:20/mi.  Total: 11 miles 7:00/mi ave.

Perfect running weather, overcast and 55 degrees.  Around mile 10 the sun finally started to peek through the clouds and it seriously made my whole body tingle.  

I put The Killers on my Ipod Shuffle last week and have been enjoying a new variety to my playlist.  My favorite song this morning was  "I Can's Stay." 

Looking forward to a fun weekend!  Tonight is a Coctail party (just water for me, of course) with Aaron's networking group of savvy real-estate investors.  Tomorrow my Mom and Step-Dad come to town and we'll be sight-seeing in Denver all day.  For the evening they've offered to watch the kids and tuck them in so we can take our Accountant and Executive Assistant and their husband's to a fun dinner/music place.  I'm excited to get to know them better without the kids pulling on my sleve. 

Just this week I decided I wanted to run a 10k soon, so I found one on July 4th and planned a little get-away with some friends for that weekend.  It will be us and 3 other families staying in a big vacation rental home in Breckenridge for three nights.  There will be plenty of mt. biking, running, swimming, gaming, hiking, ect. and a 10k race on the 4th, of course.  Looking forward to a fun vacation!

Easy 6 around the neighborhood.  7:13 ave.

Easy 4.5 at 7:18 ave.

Had a lot on my mind, so I just did a short easy run to sort things out in my head. 

10.34 miles through the neighborhood south of Lukas Elementary.  Beautiful wildflowers along the trail.  Out to Wadsworth Blvd. and back on 88th and around Standley Lake.  Ran mile 4 at 6:18, miles 6 and 7 at 6:45 average pace (gradual uphill), walked for a couple of minutes, then ran mile 8 at 5:53 (gradual downhill).

Felt Great!

Yesterday I lifted weights for 45 mintues and didn't have any soreness today, so that was nice.  Also my baby is adjusting a little more each time to being left in child care.  They haven't had to page me since the first time, but they do say she cries off and on every time.  Hopefully she can fully adjust and it will become a fun play time for her.  At least my two older kids enjoy it. 

Random loop I just made up.  8 miles 7:30 ave. 

Then later in the morning I put the kiddos in the bike trailer and bike seat and biked to the rec. center to lift weights.  Then we biked to King Soopers to get some lunch and over to the neighborhood pool.  Swam/relaxed with the kids for a couple of hours at the pool and biked home.  Nice warm day! 

7.7 miles around Standley Lake.  Did a 2 mile tempo in the middle at 12:17 (6:08 ave).  The rest of the run was easy pace.  7:00/mi ave.

Thinking about going to the running store today or tomorrow to get a water belt.  Something that I can carry water/electrolyte drink, and possibly gu packs or power bar pieces.  I notice that when I run for longer than 10 miles I really start to need some liquid and calories.  I have a 12 miler planned for Saturday so I want to be prepared.  When I trained for my last marathon, for long runs I just went out the night before and placed bottles of water/gatorade with powerbar pieces in plastic bags every 4 or 5 miles along my planned course but sometimes the powerbars would have bunny nibbles on them....so I'm looking for a better option.  Any suggestions on a good way to carry food/liquid on long runs anyone? 

Easy 7 miles at 7:30 ave.  

Went to Road Runner Sports by my house yesterday and got some new shoes and a water belt for my long run tomorrow.  Thanks, Allie and Jon for your recommendations.  Also ordered honey stix online per Allie's suggestion.  Tomorrow I'll probably just take 8 ounces each of gatorade and water, and maybe a half of a granola bar.  I'm only going 12 miles, but I felt extremely depleted after last week's 11 miler with no hydration or food, so I'm not going to let that happen again.

Tested out my new shoes this morning and they felt GREAT!  I have been rotating between 3 or 4 pair of running shoes I've had for over 2 years, so I figured it was time for a new pair.  Did the gait/foot strike analysis and the sales associate thought I needed a little bit of stability since my left foot falls in a bit.  So I got Nike Zoom Structure Triax.  Any other high arch mild pronators out there have a favorite shoe recommendation? 

12 miles out and back on big dry creek trail.  7:19 ave.

Tried out the water belt with 8 oz water and 8 oz gatorade.  Drank almost all of it throughout the run and felt a ton better than I did on my 11 miler last week.  Felt like I could have gone another few miles today, whereas last week I was absolutely finished at 11 miles.  I realized that 12 miles is probably the longest run I have done since running the Ogden marathon over 2 years ago.  And a 50 mile week is definitely the most mileage I have done in over 2 years too.  And I feel great!  So that is encouraging.

Had to run at the gym on the treadmill because Aaron left at 5:30 a.m. to do a 60 mile ride with friends and I wasn't interested in waking up at 4:30 to run in the dark.  Ali had a fever from teething though so I also knew that putting her in child care could be hard.  Ran 5 miles at 7:00 pace and the last 2 miles at 6:08 pace, for a 12:16 two mile threshold.  Was going to cool down another couple of miles, but just a half mile after my threshold, the child care paged me and I quickly wiped my sweat off the treadmill and went to Ali.  I fed her a bottle and asked the child care if they could put up with her for a bit longer so that I could do a quick lifting circut and shower.  30 minutes later I was back.  Lifting wasn't as effective and thourough as I would have liked, but at least I got 7.5 miles in.

Poor Ali.  She has been SO sad the past few days.  She is cutting two new teeth on the top and has these bright red, puffy gums and a mild fever all the time.  I hope it is over soon.   

Easy 8 miles 7:30 ave.  

Took the kids on a hike afterwards and the 2 mile hike was more mentally draining than my run.  Ali screamed pretty much the whole time from her teething pain/fever. Breanne apparently woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning because she hasn't been able to stop whining about every little thing today.  Abe was awake before me this morning which never happens, and by 8:30 when we left for our hike, he was ready to go back to bed.  It has just been one of THOSE mornings.  And now the kids are all taking naps, so I think I will too.  

Had a stomach ache...must have been something I ate last night.  I didn't sleep very well either because Ali kept waking up from her teething pain, I assume.  Took it easy on my run.  7.8 miles around Standley Lake.  7:28 ave.

I will probably do my long run tomorrow since I am racing Saturday.  That will give me Friday to take it easy and hopefully I'll feel good Saturday morning.  

We are remodeling our kitchen.  I just sold our old cabinets this morning and we and are picking up our new cabinets tomorrow morning.  Hopefully we can get the new cabinets up fast because we have the granite people coming Tuesday to do the template and Thursday to install.  Looking forward to a new kitchen!

The long run gets a mile longer each week.  Went out and back on big dry creek trail again for my long run.  Its a perfect route for the long run because it is a nice easy trail and it goes on for miles (probably over 15 miles one way) and the trailhead begins .1 mile from my front door.  It is pretty flat; I guess a gradual downhill all the way out and gradual uphill on the way back.  Starting elevation: 5567 ft, lowest elevation (around the turn-around point): 5238 ft.

Wore the water belt today but stashed it for the middle 3 miles to give my bellie a break.  I think once I start getting over 15 miles I'm going to stash water and just pack food in my shorts.  I drank 16 ounces of gatorade and since I got my honey stix in the mail yesterday, I took a couple of those...YUM!  Thanks for the recommendation, Allie!

Speaking of Allie, MY Ali continues to be overly sad over her teething woes.  I hope she can start feeling better soon.  I didn't sleep very well again last night because of her bursts of crying and I am really looking forward to some more peaceful, fun daytime activities with a happy instead of screaming baby.  And here comes the screaming baby now.  Gotta go!

Got to Breckenridge last night.  Nice house we're staying in!  The kids are loving being together.  

I went out this morning for a short run to check out the course for the 10k tomorrow.  Its going to be a HILLY one!  There is no such thing as flat here in Breckenridge.  Its a way cool trail run though.  Through thick wooded areas.  I'm looking forward to a fun time...but not anticipating a very fast time, considering the elevation gains and tricky footing.   

That was an awesome race!  The midpoint was 800 ft. elevation higher than the start, so basically we ran up a mountain the first 3 miles and back down the mountain the second 3 miles.  There were some extremely steep sections where I couldn't even hold a sub 10:00 mile pace.  I really enjoyed the course because it was different than anything I had ever raced, and very thick forest of shade and turns.  The only somewhat annoying thing about the race was that they decided to start the women 10 minutes after the men because they had more entrants than they had ever had and they didn't want the trail to be too bottlenecked.  So I had to pass a LOT of men throughout the race and I'm sure it slowed me down some..but whatever, I wasn't going for time anyway.  Just wanted to have fun and hopefully win...so both goals accomplished!

Here is my split breakdown: mile 1 (uphill) 8:03, Mile 2 (steeper uphill, started passing men) 8:50, Mile 3 (extremely steep scramble up the mountain passing many walking men) 9:49, Mile 4 (flat for a bit, then starting the descent and passing more men) 6:50, Mile 5 (more decending with lots of sharp turns and passing men...one guy took a turn too tightly while I passed him on the outside and he slipped down...he'll have a nice bum bruise tomorrow...sorry man), Mile 6 (only .75, I guess they decided to make it shorter than an official 10K because of the insane amount of climbing) I'm not sure my pace on the last .75 because I forgot to stop my watch at the finish...but it was probably around 6:30 pace.  I think my overall time was around 45 minutes, but I'm not exactly sure since I forgot to stop my watch.  I'll check the results when they post them.  

Good Times! 

UPDATE: Went to pick up my prize later this afternoon and found out that the male winner came in at 38 and change.  My official time was 44:24 and the 2nd place woman was 46:36.  Got a free North Face backpack for winning.  

On another note, my husband, Aaron did the Firecracker 50 mile Mt. Bike race today in Breckenridge too.  It was the USA Cycling Marathon Mountain Bike National Championships for the pros.  Aaron was entered in the open clydesdale division!  Haha.  190 lbs, might as well compete against guys your same size, right?  Anyway, he had a blast and I'm happy he did it.  He has been pretty overworked in his  business lately so I think it was nice for him to take a fun 50 mile supported mountain bike ride through the beautiful mountains of Colorado.

Easy 8 around Countryside.  Lifted weights at City Park Fitness center afterwards and took my shower there because our water is turned off while we are in transition between kitchen sinks/cabinets.  Oh joy.  I also filled up a couple of water bottles at the gym so I don't die of thirst today.  I'll be glad when the home rennovations are over.  Oh, I also found out I can do the Pilates Reformer class at the fitness center since one spot opened up.  The class is 14 sessions every Tuesday and Thursday until the end of August. Starts tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to strengthening my core!  Now if my kids will just get on board with the child care! I seem to have trouble with one, two or all three of them every time I go.  Today Ali cried sporatically they said, and she was very upset by the time I got back to pick her up.  I try to bribe Abe and Breanne with special priveleges if they be good while they are there and go without a fuss but unfortanetly as I picked them up Abe was pestering a 2 year old boy and one of the child care girls was trying to get him away from the little guy.  So when I got in the hall I had a little chat with him about being nice while he's in child care and I told him I was sorry he chose to have a privelage taken away because he was a bully.  He did NOT like that and bawled as we walked to the car.  Breanne was well behaved until we had to walk down the staircase to leave and she suddenly out of the blue started wailing that she wanted to go a different way.  That is the only way to go I'm not sure where she got the idea there was another way.  I think she must have just been feeling left out because the other kids were having cows so she assumed that was her cue to melt down too.  When we got in the car to drive home, I decided to start having cows too and we had a nice whine fest to get everyone's frustrations out.  Mine was pretend and very obnoxious (think "most annoying sound in the world" on Dumb and Dumber).  Anyway, it all ended with the kids laughing at me and now we're home and the girls are asleep.  Ahhh....

Moral of the story; please dont judge Moms with whiney kids when you see them in the grocery store, gym, ect.  It is usually not their fault.  Kids have their own free agency and are usually whining because of a poor choice they have made. Oftentimes they whine for no apparent reason at all despite the Mother's best efforts to be patient and loving.  I've sure gained a greater appreciation for my Mom through the past few years.  As my kids have episodes, I have flashbacks in my mind of being in their shoes.  I remember being 4 or 5 years old and often whining in the grocery store.  Mom would open the loaf of bread or box of granola bars to silence my mouth so she could finish shopping.  In fact, it seems that every time she took me grocery shopping we had to apologize to the checker for some food item being open because I needed a snack.  One time (I was probably 8 or 9) I remember laying down in the middle of the mall because I was so tired of walking around all day looking at boring stuff.  Mom had to bribe me with a big pretzel just to get me off the floor and to the car.  And now the Karma comes back to me.  :)

Must nap later.  Aaron and I were up 'till 1 a.m. installing our cabinets so the granite installers can do an accurate template today.  Then they will fabricate the granite and install it Thursday.  

Ran an easy 9 miles around Standley Lake.  7:20 ave.  Felt pretty good but really tired when I got back.   

Feeling like some type of illness is coming on.  Slight body ache and sore throat.  Better take it easy and get lots of sleep. 

Full blown flu hit last night around 5 p.m.  I literally hit a wall; fever, body ache, migrane, at least I wasn't puking.  Called Aaron to come home early but the earliest he could make it was 6:30 p.m. and by the time he got here I just handed off the kids and went to bed.  Slept 12 hours and still felt pretty gross this morning.  Did not go running this morning but felt good enough by 11:30 to go to my pilates reformer class so at least I did that.  

Feels like my body is slowly conquering this bug and hopefully I'll feel completely better soon.  Body ache is not as overcoming and headache is less intense.  Don't know if I'll get a long run in this week since I was planning that for this morning and Aaron is leaving for a guys trip tonight so I'm on my own to find child care for the kids.  I guess I'll just see how I feel and call a sitter to come over Saturday morning if I'm up for a long run.  Tomorrow I may just go to the gym and get in some treadmill miles. 

Called the neighbor girl to come watch my kids for an hour while I went running since Aaron is in Yellowstone fishing with his Dad and brothers.    Ran easy since I am still feeling pretty weak from the flu.  Every time I tried to push the pace a bit I induced a hacking fit.  Almost coughed up a lung once, but at least I didn't puke.  Decided to just take it easy and averaged 7:39 min/mile.   I asked the neighbor girl to come back again tomorrow morning so I can run again.  If I'm feeling any better than today I'll try to go for 12 or 13 again, but I think I'll wait to bump up the long run distance to 14 until I am completely recovered next week.  

I also emailed the coach of a running group in the area to see if I could jump in on some Saturday long runs and possibly a few Tuesday evening speed work sessions.  I think I'll join them next Saturday and see how I like it.  He said he has a few guys training to go sub 2:45 this fall, so I should definitely have people to push me. 

Still feeling pretty weak from the flu that may be turning into an upper respiratory infection based on the amount of coughing and congestion I am having.  Ran easy again today 7:34 min/mile ave.

One year ago today I was going on walks every few hours in an attempt to progress labor with my third baby.  Around 2:00 p.m. I sent Abe and Breanne to their friends house and labor really started to pick up.  I called my midwife and she arrived about an hour later.  Aaron and I labored together in our bedroom and the midwife and her assistants came in to check on us every 20 minutes or so.  Around 8:30 p.m. our sweet baby Ali joined our family!   It was another peaceful, amazing homebirth and Ali was a healthy 8 lb 20 inch bundle of joy.  Now she is a happy (most of the time), exploring, giggly, fun 1 year old!  Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Easy run around Standley Lake with Aaron's sister, Ashley.  She is training for TOU also and happens to be in town for a few days visiting from Utah.  Aaron's other sister, Elisse and all their kids are also here.  Its a full house!  12 people in addition to our family of 5.  Fun times!

I am still feeling pretty under the weather.  I assume it is an upper respiratory infection that is dragging on.  The wicked cough is pretty annoying.  Anyone have any good remedy recommendations? 

Another easy run with Ashley.  I feel pretty crappy still.  But I called the Dr. this morning and decided that I just can't rationalize spending $150+ just to have a professional tell me I do indeed have an upper respiratory infection and then proceed to take antibiotics that will probably not even speed my recovery.  Been there, done that.  Would rather just rest and hydrate a lot and save my money thanks.

I'm finally starting to get my lungs back! Yeah!  This morning I started to feel a little bit better, and was able to push the pace a little without coughing my lungs up.  I'm still a little congested and coughing a bit, but my energy level is stronger.  8.5 miles at 7:14 ave.

2 miles warm up to the high school.  

800 M. at 2:45 - 1 lap jog

1600 M. at 5:56 - 1 lap jog

3200 M. at 11:55 - 1 lap jog

1600 M. at 5:57 - 1 lap jog

800 M. at 2:49

2 miles cool down

Drank 10 oz of water and 10 oz of gatorade as well as one honey stix throughout the workout.

Felt pretty great.  Not an easy workout, but I definitely feel good about doing it!  Tomorrow I'll recover and Saturday is long. 

Easy run on Big Dry Creek.  Felt pretty sore from doing my first track workout in probably 3 years yesterday.  Started to loosen up after a few miles though.  

I think I'll join in on a group run with a training group tomorrow.  This group called Runner's Edge of the Rockies does Tuesday track workouts and Saturday long runs for marathoners.  The coach said there are some guys shooting for sub 2:50 marathons in the fall so I can run with them.  I will see how I like it on Saturday and consider joining.  I'd really like to run with other people to push my pace a couple of times a week, but I just don't know if I can commit to the extra travel time. 

Joined the Runners Edge of the Rockies group run since they were meeting just 5 minutes from my house.  Seems like a pretty cool group.  They have about 250 people in the group and about 80 of them were there for the group run.  It was nice to have water and gatorade every few miles so I didn't have to wear a water belt.  I ran with the 3:15 marathon group for the first part(the sub 3:00 hour marathon pacer was not there today).  After a few miles a guy named Jason came up from behind and ran with us too.  He is shooting for a 2:40 marathon in October, and we pushed the pace for 5 miles around between miles 7-12, running 6:30-6:40 pace.  Average for the whole 14 miles was 7:17 min/mile.  I think I'll join them for next week's run in Golden.  They are doing a max of 18 miles but I'm not sure I'm ready for that since today is the longest I've done thus far.  Maybe I'll do 16 or 17 next weekend.

Ran with a new friend from my ward at church, Lindsey.  She has done a few marathons, but is trying to improve her 5k time right now.  We did a pyramid track workout.  

2 mile Warm Up 

400 M. at 80 sec. - jog

800 M. at 2:56 - 1 lap jog

1600 M. at 6:01 - 1 lap jog

800 M. at 2:54 - 1 lap jog

800 M. at 2:57 - 1 lap jog

400 M. at 80 sec.

2 mile Cool Down

Total Miles: 8 

I still felt a little flat from my long run on Saturday.  I think the 5 mile tempo made me pretty tired.  I took a two hour nap yesterday after Church.  If I go hard like that again on a Saturday I think I'll wait 'till Tuesday to do tempo work again.   

Easy 9 around countryside subdivision.  7:29 ave.

There was a violent hail storm for about 15 minutes last night around 10 p.m.  We still have a big pile of hail in our front walkway from pouring off the roof.  I saw 5 dead birds on the sidewalks this morning.  Poor birdies.  :( 

I'm going to check out a new gym this morning, Ballys.  It is actually closer than City Park Fitness Center where I've been going.  My friend Lindsey said its pretty good and the child care rates are great...only $5/month per kid.  That is unbeatable! 

2 mile warm up

4 mile tempo 6:09, 6:23, 6:15, 5:54

2 mile cool down

Felt great!

I decided to join Ballys gym yesterday because its just 10 minutes from my house and I went to check it out and they offered me $30/month including child care.  That price is unbeatable, in fact I've been paying $10 a time for child care and entrance to city park fitness, so it was a no brainer price at Ballys.  It will be good to lift weights a couple of times a week in addition to my pilates reformer at city park.  They offer pilates reformer at Ballys too, but the reformer carriages are just out in the middle of the gym and not in a separate room, so I'm skeptical about the quality of the class...I'll try it out though and see if I like it as much as city park.  I really like the instructor, Trudi at city park.  She is from Boston and has a cool accent...and she is hilarous!

Easy run around Standley Lake.  Had to go early because Aaron left at 6:30 a.m. to go mt. biking with friends in Evergreen.  7:23 ave.

Will take a nap later... 

Easy 5 recovery run.  

I had a free session with a personal trainer last night at the gym I just enrolled with, so I took advantage, and she kicked my bum!  It was a great anaerobic workout and I was pretty tired this morning.  Tomorrow I'm going to run 16-18 on my long run...depending on how long the group I am running with goes. 

And the long run keeps growing...

Did 16 this morning in Boulder with Runner's Edge of the Rockies again.  I really love running on the Boulder Creek Path (when I'm not dodging cyclists..haha...one guy rode past me RIGHT on the middle line commenting "stay on your side!" as he almost clipped my left arm).  But that guy is not the norm...most people in Boulder are really cool.  The path, besides being just really scenic and peaceful is also shady and cool AND you get to see lots of "interesting" wanderers (for those of you who have been to Boulder, you know what I am talking about).    :)

 Anyway, the run was fun and felt great and I sat in the creek up to my waist for about 20 minutes afterwards (while eating a PB&J sandwich) ohhhhhh yeeeeeeahhhhhhhhh.  

7:30 ave. 

Easy 9 around Standley Lake at 7:26 pace.  Felt good.

Went to Ballys and lifted for an hour.  The kids seem to like the child care better there...what a relief! 

Easy 9 around Countryside.  Took the kids to the dinosoar playplace at the mall this morning and then went to pilates reformer at noon.  Put the girls down for naps after lunch and took a nap while Abe played computer games.  Feeling much refreshed...gotta do some kind of tempo work tomorrow.  Aaron is riding all the way to the top of Mt. Evans (the 14,000 ft. mountain that is the backdrop of Denver in all the postcards) on Saturday morning, so I'm going to do my long run on Friday and just run on the treadmill at the gym on Saturday. 

2.5 mile warm up to the track

5 X Mile at 5:57, 5:57, 5:59, 5:56, 6:00 with 1 lap jog in between each one

2.5 mile cooldown

Left the house around 5:30 a.m. and got back around 7:00 a.m. so Aaron could go on a ride with Eric.  What a BEAUTIFUL morning!!  My favorite running weather; 57 degrees and partly cloudy.  This was not an easy workout; my legs were pretty tired for the last couple of laps of each repeat but I pushed through it.  I feel pretty great now and I'm going to take a nap here in few minutes while my kids are napping. 

Nice easy recovery run 7:34 ave.  

I added some new songs to my ipod the other day and I almost laughed out loud at this one that I found on my husband's playlist and decided to put on mine.  Code Monkey

Long run this morning.  Stashed water bottles last night so I didn't have to wear the fuel belt.  Carried Clif Shots and sour slices.  Ate about 250 calories over 18 miles, which is a little bit more than I have been doing on my long runs, but I think it was beneficial.  I never felt totally depleted and was able to hold pace all the way to the end.  I planned on averaging 7:30 pace, but it just felt more natural and very comfortable to run 7:20s.  Around mile 6 this master's Iron Man Triathlete guy creeped up on me and we started chatting and running together.  I had to laugh because I think I have fallen victim to other competitive men for the last three long runs in a row now.  They seem to want to run a half stride ahead of me and the pace keeps getting faster.  Last week was the same scenario, this guy I was running with could NOT seem to run slower than 7:10 pace even though he didn't have any reason to run faster and I told him at least 5 times that I didn't need to be going that fast.  Finally when he took a pee break, I spotted a porta-potty and ran off without telling him so we could "accidentally" get separated and I could run slower the last few miles.  This morning seemed to be the same.  The guy kept talking about his running accomplishments and kept running faster each mile...a half stride ahead of me of course.  We ended up doing about 6 miles together between 6:30-7:10 pace...so that brought my overall average down quite a bit.  Two weeks ago it was a different guy in the Runner's Edge group who seemed to want to see me suffer and threw in a 5 mile tempo at 6:30 pace.  I think he just wanted to get me beyond conversational pace so I would shut up or something.  Then afterwards he expressed that he was pretty impressed and a little threatened because he didn't want to be "chicked" by a mother of 3.  Haha.  

Anyway, this morning after the masters guy was finished I still had 5 miles to go so I slowed back to a comfortable pace around 7:20s.  Overall I felt GREAT and I am WAY excited to race a fast half-marathon next weekend.

Total for today: 18 miles @ 7:07 average. 

Went to the gym and ran 6 miles on the treadmill.  Just locked in at 8 min. mile pace and took it nice and easy.  I wa going to lift weights too but I only did a few lifts before the child care worker, Adel paged me because Ali was exhausted and ready for a nap.  

Going to pick up my race packet for the half marathon today so I don't have to drive up there the night before or early the morning of.   After that I'm driving to Idaho Springs to pick up Aaron and Eric after they finish their climb to the top of Mt. Evans and cruise back down to Idaho Spgs.

Three random loops around countryside.  Saw my friend Lindsey and ran with her for a few miles.  It was nice to chat for a bit.  Maybe I'll do a fartlek tomorrow and then just mileage until Saturday when I race!!  I am SO excited to race!! 

Warmed up for 20 minutes 

Did a 5X4X3X2X1 Fartlek with 1 min. recoveries.

Cooled down

Total: 9 miles at 7:04 ave. 

Feeling a little tired.  Better go to bed earlier and get really rested for the weekend. 

Recovery run around Standley Lake.  Felt pretty tight the first couple of miles, but then I loosened up.  Some old man who could hardly understand or speak English was staring at this sign posted by one of the trails leading to Standley Lake.  He waved me to stop and proceeded to attempt to aske me if he could fish in the Lake.  "No Fishing?"  "I fish in the lake?"  "Permit?"  I told him I didn't know the rules as I had never fished in the lake, but as I started to read the top couple of lines of the multi-paragraph sign, I saw that he needed to get a permit, so I just told him to go to the main lake entrance and get a permit.  He had a blank stare and replied "No Fishing?"  I just pointed to the Lake entrance and told him to talk to the park rangers.  He probably didn't even have a State fishing liscence either.  Oh well, I hope he found a park ranger to explain things...preferrably one who speaks Russian. 

Yesterday I did pilates reformer from 12-1 p.m., took a nap from 2-3 p.m. and went to the gym to lift weights from 4-5 p.m.  The in between hours consisted of lunch, playing with kids, cleaning, ect.

And now we're off to the Butterfly Pavillion!  The kids love that place. 

Easy 8 miles in 7:30 pace.  

Went to the gym with Lindsey to lift weights and then went to the park with the kids afterwards with a few other Moms.  Now my kids are hungry and tired, so we're eating and resting.  I'm supposed to go to my pilates class at 11:45 but I'm not sure I want to wake my girls up for it...I just did too much with them this morning, I think.  Better go to the gym on non-pilates days from now on. 

Easy 7 on the Big Dry Creek trail.  Saw a coyote...haven't seen one in a while.  7:30 ave.

Decided to put the cereal boxes in an upper cabinet this morning after sweeping up Cheerios four too many times in the past month.  Thanks, but no thanks, Ali.  Gotta love 1 year olds. 

WARNING: LONG POST 

What a beautiful and fun course!  It was a point to point course, so I parked in Idaho Springs, found the bus pick-up and waited in line for 30 minutes to catch the second to last bus to Georgetown.  Arrived at the starting line 12 minutes before race start (would have preferred a little earlier, but I didn't arrive early enough to avoid the long bus line).  There were hundreds of people in line for the potties so I jogged down the road a bit to find a tree to squat by.  This guy had the same thought and started creeping into my secluded area as I was peeing, but then he saw me and politely turned around and waited his turn.  Haha...long lines for the porta johns and even lines for the trees.  :)

The race started and I chatted with another girl named Bean who I met last fall (cool name, eh?) She said she was shooting for 1:25 so we ran together for the first mile or so.  There was another girl who went out ahead of us in what must have been sub 6:00 pace, but didn't kill myself to keep up with her at first.

Mile 1 - 6:11 pretty flat, actually a little bit of ascent according to the Garmin.

Mile 2 - 6:22 rolling, one short steep climb and some descent, Bean slipped right behind me into her own groove and I and kept my own comfortable pace with my eye on the leader who was a good 25 seconds ahead. Had some water at the aid station.

Mile 3 -  6:01 gradual descent on a dirt road

Mile 4 - 6:01 more gradual descent on the dirt road that turned into a narrower path.  Popped my first gu right before the water station and chased it with a cup of water.  Getting into a nice groove, noticed I was creeping up on the leader.

Mile 5 - 6:13 caught the leader, her name is Kara.  Ran with her on the dirt trail, flat.

Mile 6 - 5:54 descending a little more, Kara and I are pacing together. Took water again at the station.

Mile 7 - 5:54 very gradual descending, Kara starts to run a half step behind me

Mile 8 - 6:07 descending with one short somewhat steep climb where Kara seemed to slip off. Popped another gu right before the water station and chased it down, or almost breathed it down with what water I could get...for some reason they stopped the paper cups and started giving plastic cups at this point, which are much harder to sip from, so most of it ended up on my face and shirt, but at least I got enough water to tame the sticky gu mouth until mile 10 when I could fully wash it down.

Mile 9 - 5:58 dropped off onto the road and it was nice to have a smoothe surface

Mile 10 - 5:50 loving this road and the descent that is coming with it.  Had some gatorade at the pit stop...had to slow down more so I could actually gulp it down, but it was worth it.

Mile 11 - 5:46 more descending on the road while trying to catch some men.

Mile 12 - 5:51 this smoothe surface is really helping my splits and the descent is nice too (about 100 feet of descent per mile).  Had another sip of gatorade at the pit.

Mile 13 - 5:44 getting excited to finish and starting to feel the energy of the crowd near the finish line

Mile .2 - unsure about my pace here..probaby 5:40 pace or so.  Ran across the finish mat and for some reason my time chip did not register, so a few seconds later as I was watching for my family the finish line attendant ran up to me quickly to say I needed to run across the mat again...what?  So I ran back and finished for the second time by stepping on the mat more adamantly.  Chip time was 1:19:07, but when I looked up at the finish clock as I came across the first time, it said 1:18:47.  Whatever.  At least no women came in between my two finishes.  Just a couple of men who can feel good about the fact that they didn't get "chicked" (at least on paper).  

Overall I felt GREAT and had a wonderful time!  I was really glad I took liquid at every pit stop and the two gu's helped me feel strong to the finish. The trophy is an aluminum gold-mining pan with some tinfoil looking runner scupted and glued to the pan.  Woo. I got what I went for...a great race and confidence builder.  And it was fun to see my kids afterwards...they were so excited.  My husband is such a stud for bringing them up and supporting me.

Garmin says total ascent: 1,072 ft, total descent: 1,974 ft, average pace: 5:59 (that is when I stopped my watch at 1:19:16 after all the double finish fiasco.  If my real time was actually 1:18:47 like I saw when I crossed the line, my average pace would have been closer to 5:58.  Wahoo!

My sister and her family are in town so I took her on the single track trail around Standley Lake, she rode my Mt. Bike while I ran.  My legs still felt pretty dead from Saturday.  Averaged 7:47 pace.  

My sister rode my Mt. Bike while I ran again.  I took her up on the dog park trail.  It is somewhat hilly and uneven.  We had to hoist the bike and step over the Emergency Do Not Cross tape to get to the trail.  The sign said that the prarie dogs and rabbits are suffering from the Plague, so the "authorities" don't want people walking their dogs up there so as to not spread the plague to the dog population, I assume.  I didn't see any prarie dogs or rabbits the whole run.  Maybe they all died.  I did see one field mouse.  He must have had one of those itty bitty mouse sized pandemic masks.  Lucky him!  And we also saw one coyote.  He looked hungry.

10.5 miles, 7:43 average.

Legs feel a little better, maybe I'll try to do some pick-ups tomorrow. 

Warmed up for 20 minutes and then did a 5X4X3X2X1 fartlek

As I was doing the workout I realized that I did an accelerated fartlek last week with only 1 minute rest in between each pick-up.  I guess it has been too long since I've don regular Farteks.  Last weeks was more like a tempo.  Today I did equal rest in between each pick up and was able to push it pretty hard.  

My Mom comes into town today just as my sister and her family leave.  I asked my Mom to support me on a 20 miler tomorrow and she was like, "I don't know if I can ride my bike 20 miles!?!  That will be the longest I have ever gone!!"  I am confident she can do it though.  She is fit and thin and has been biking a couple of times a week ever since we bought her a new bike for Christmas.  Besides, what better way to celebrate turning 60 than to ride your bike further than you have ever ridden?!!  That is actually the reason for her visit, she just turned 60 last week, I am turning 28 on Friday, and my Mom's sister who lives in Littleton turns 65 on Sunday.  So we're all going out to dinner together Thursday night to celebrate our birthdays. 

I also decided today based on how good (recovered) I feel that I'm going to do a 10K on Saturday.   It is a pretty easy, flat course starting and finishing at the City Park (on the same trail where I do a lot of my long runs).  The race is in conjuction with the Westminster City Fair.  Unfortunately Aaron will not be able to join me because he has the opportunity to be our friend, Eric's photography assistant at the Leadville 100 on Saturday.  Eric is an awesome photragher and got his biggest job ever as one of the only 3 photographers hired to cover the race and he needs Aaron to come help him identify cyclists that he is supposed to be capturing and carry gear and what not.  Lance Armstrong and a few other big names will be racing and I'm sure Aaron and Eric will have a blast rubbing shoulders with the elite.  SO I asked Mom if she could bring the kids over to watch the finish of MY race on Saturday and then we can stay and let the kids play in the bouncy houses and do any other fun fair activities.  

What a FUN week!! 

Ran 20 while my Mom biked next to me.  She carried the camel back with gu, granola bars, gatorade, ect.  I decided I actually like eating something with a little more sustenence on long runs when I stop to eat anyway.  I had this yummy fruit/nut bar with all sorts of good fat and protein along with the carbs and it stuck with me longer and tasted yummier than just eating a bunch of gu.  I did have one gu too.  And lots of water and gatorade.  

I mostly just listened to Mom chatter and gave my two cents where I could, but really enjoyed having the company.  Mom really enjoyed the long ride too.   We had nice cloud cover and I didn't even bother putting my sunglasses on.  Perfect weather!

7:10 ave. 

Took it easy today.  Just needed to shake out the ol' legs so I can race tomorrow.  Mom rode next to me again and when we got back we realized we had locked oursleves out since we had left out of the garage and not unlocked the front door.  I knocked a couple of times because usually Aaron and/or the kids are awake by 7:30 but the only one who came to the door was my 1 year old, Ali.  She was standing up peering through the glass on the side of door mumbling her baby talk "Yagodubidaboo! Mamabagabaloo!" in an effort to tell me that Dad and the other kids were still asleep.  I remembered that the back door was unlocked so we came in that way.  Apparently Aaron had let Ali out of her crib 45 minutes earlier and fallen back to sleep (in an effort to catch up from his 2 a.m. night the other night).  My three year old was awake too, just getting changed in her room.  These little ones pretty much take care of themselves, ya know.

Ran a small out and back trail race this morning, the Holy Cow 10K in conjuction with the Westminster City Fair. 

Ran from my house, 5 miles to city park to warm up and get a few extra miles.  7:25 ave.

Registered for the race and ate a gu and some water.  Did a couple strides and potty visits. 

Race start was a little disorganized.  The police officer who was leading the race on his bike was still talking to the guys he thought would be the leaders to tell him he was leading the race and ask if we had any questions.  Suddenly some guy over a megaphone says "Ready GO!" And we weren't even in start position rather 5 or 10 feet behind the line chatting and shaking out our legs.  We all went anyway and laughed about it.

Mile 1:  5:52  Pretty flat, no other woman really stayed with me at all, so I knew it would be a race to beat as many guys as I could.

Mile 2:   5:53  A few rollers, but overall pretty flat.  Ran around a few diferent guys as we were trying to get into our own grooves.

Mile 3: 5:51 Felt good, little downhill

Mile 4: 6:02  Took a sip of water at the turn-around.  Gradual uphill after the turn-around. Realized that there were only 4 guys ahead of me and the next woman behind was about a minute back.

Mile 5: 6:10 Headwind and a few rollers.  Caught another guy.

Mile 6: 6:03 Pretty flat, getting pretty tired.

Final .2:  5:50 pace, finished strong.

Garmin said average pace was 5:58 and total elevation change was around 700 up and down, so definitely not a flat course. 

Was pretty happy about the fact that only 3 guys beat me.  Obviously it wasn't a super competitvie race.  2nd place woman was a minute behind.  I got a trophy and a $100 gift certificate at Road Runner Sports!  Yeah!  New shoes!

Took the kids to the fair afterwards and they had a blast in the bouncy house and slide.  Good times! 

Easy 9 around Countryside.  Legs felt tired from last week still, so I needed the slow recovery run today.  Last week was the biggest week of my life, come to think of it.  I never ran over 55 miles in a week in college or after.  Having completed 60 miles two weeks ago 65 miles last week, I'm paving new territory here.  And I feel pretty good!  A little tired, but no severe aches or pains.  Thank goodness!  I think I'll go back down to 60 this week and see if I can hit 65 again next week before I start my taper for TOU.

Went to bed pretty early last night but Ali kept waking up and moaning in her bed.  She's been teething, I think.  So my sleep was pretty disrupted, but at least I was in bed for 8 hours.

I was going to try and do some intervals today but after a few miles my legs still didn't feel quite ready, so I decided to wait until tomorrow.  I just didn't want to try and push it hard before my legs are ready.  I think they appreciated more long slow miles.

10.5 miles on big dry creek trail 7:39 ave. 

2 mile warm up

Stretching and 4 strides 

10X800M at the track with 200M jog in between each

2:50, 2:51, 2:53, 2:52, 2:53, 2:51, 2:47, 2:51, 2:52, 2:44

The first 5 were actually the hardest because I was pretty daunted by the idea of doing 10.   Once I passed half way I started feeling better and just taking them one at a time.  I took my fuel belt with water and gatorade so I didn't die of thirst.

2 mile cool down 

Tired legs from yesterday.  It took me about 5 miles to finally loosen up a bit.  Thank goodness I have my pilates reformer class today.  Aaron is watching the kids tonight so I can go pick out some new training shoes with my gift certificate from the race last week.  Maybe I'll go get a massage while I'm out too. 

Aaron took our 5 year old, Abe with him to look at houses yesterday.  They looked at 23 houses, 5 of which are homes we already own that are in rehab mode.  The other 18 are bank owned houses that are going up for bid at the Denver County Auction this morning, so Aaron wanted to check them out to get a better idea of what he is willing to bid on them.  Abe came home and told me how fun it was to go to work with his Dad.  He told me how usually the lock boxes are on the front door handle, but sometimes they are hidden on a pipe on the side of the house and it is like a treasure hunt to find them.  And one time there was no lock box, so Aaron lifted him through a half-open window and he went in and climbed up on the couch and unlocked the safety lock to let Aaron in. Abe totally loved the private detective role he got to play...although it just occurred to me how unsafe that may have been.  I think I ought to have a talk with Aaron.  I guess it is pretty easy to tell which houses are vacant and which are not...but still....sending your 5 year old into a "vacant" house that may or may not have scavengers living in the basement?  Aaron did tell me that he made Abe stay in the car when he came upon an occupied property and had to talk to the tenants.  I'm glad Abe is learning all about how to become a Real-Estate Investor.  He is really good with numbers already and obviously has is Dad's entrepreneurial personality. (He likes to do things his own way, is very strong-willed, creative, and passionate.)   I think our college savings plan for him should be to help him buy his own rental property and teach him all the details of rehabbing it, renting or selling it and how to maxmize his cash flow.  If we can help him manage his finances in a way that he can eventually own a couple properties outright, he'll have no problem paying for his tuition.  Of course, if he is really like his Dad, he'll probably get too wrapped up in doing his own business and not even finish college.  

Another easy run today.  My body warmed up after 2 miles instead of 5.  Another day of sleep and recovery always helps.  Not to mention the deep tissue massage I received last night.  ahhhhhhhh.

9 miles, 7:26 ave.

Lifted weights for 45 minutes this morning, then took a nap after lunch.  

Abe starts Kindergarten on Monday so he had his "testing" today to see where is is reading.  He was pretty shy at first; didn't want to be left alone with his teacher.  But he finally warmed up to her after a bribe that I would take him to the bouncy castle if he answered Mrs. Fuente's questions. Mrs. Fuentes said she was very impressed with how smart he is and excited to have him in her class.  Go ABE!

Pretty easy run.  Averaged 7:26.  I got bored in the middle, so I threw in a marathon pace mile to see if I actually even know what 6:20 feels like since I've been racing and doing intervals at 6:00 or under pace and most of my other running is 7:30-8:00 pace.  So I did a couple of strides to quicken the pace and then ran mile 8 of my 14-miler in 6:19.  Felt pretty comfortable.  We'll se how comfortable that feels after 20 consecutive...its not likely to be at all comfortable after the first few but I'm up for the challenge.  Maybe I'll do a longer tempo run at 6:20 pace next week to get a better feel for the pace.

Next week I'm going to do one more "long run" (22 miles), probably on Tuesday.  Then I'll cut back the rest of the week to taper for a fast 5K in Denver Saturday night.  My friends talked Aaron and I into doing the Skirt Chaser 5K with them (it didn't take much convincing, as you may imagine).  The race is put on by Nicole DeBoom, elite triathlete and owner of Skirt Sports in Boulder and the rules are that Women start 3 minutes before the men and the over-all winner gets $500.  I think 3 minutes is favoring the women, but I guess Nicole DeBoom's goal with the race is to empower women and she obviously hopes that there is a female winner in all the Skirt Chaser races she holds around the country.  Women get a running skirt instead of a race tee with our entry.  Men get a tee advertising Skirt Sports.  Honestly, I don't know that I will ever wear my running skirt, but I'll see how comfy it is, I guess.  Anyone else love running skirts?  

I am excited that Aaron is doing the 5K with me even though he hasn't been running much lately AND he has the major disadvantage starting 3 minutes behind me.  We considered the idea of him wearing a long wig and me wearing a Baseball Cap with my hair tucked in and letting him start with the women and me start with the men to see if I could catch him, but then we vetoed that idea when we learned that there is prize money for the overall winner.  So I think he's hoping to come in no more than 6 minutes behind me (3 minutes with the conversion).  When we were engaged and newly wed Aaron used to run with me a lot and he was in GREAT shape.  He once ran a sub 39 minute 10K!  He likes to brag that he HAS actually beat me ONCE in a running race.  It was a downhill mile a few years ago.  We trained at the track together to prepare and on race day he ran 4:46 and I ran 4:55.  I claim that I had a major disadvantage because the race was VERY downhill and he had 200 lbs of weight pushing him down the hill while I only had 120 lbs, in addition, his legs are AT LEAST twice as long as mine, so I had to take two strides for every one of his strides (tounge in cheek).  Those theories could be debated obviously but I'm sticking to 'em.  By the way, Aaron HAS beat me in countless triathlons, so he still has plenty of pride in tact.  I am pretty horrible at swimming and not much better at biking, while he is very well balanced in his swim, bike, run abilities.

Easy 8 around Standley Lake. 

Abe's first day of Kindergarten!  He'll go every day from 11:45-2:30.  Now I can take naps at the same time as my girls after lunch and not feel guilty.  :)  I am really excited for Abe to learn new things and make new friends too.  He's a really smart kid, and I'm sure he'll do great!

Of course my baby chooses the night before my long run to cry from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.  I guess she doesn't really have a choice when those teeth decide to descend.  Poor thing.  So I only got 5 hours of sleep, but at least I got a nap this afternoon.  And believe me, I'll be going to bed early tonight!  22 miles is exhausting!!  I went alone early this morning.  Didn't make it out last night to plant water bottles so I just carried the fuel belt and stashed it at mile 7.5 since I knew there would be water at my turn around point and I could pick it up on the way back.  Then I stashed it again on the way back at mile 17 and planned to go pick it up later, which I haven't done yet...guess I'll be taking the kids for a ride this evening.  I like the fuel belt for its convenience but it does tend to give me a bellie ache after more than 5 miles.  The route I have been doing for my long runs has drinking fountains at mile 1.5, 5.25, and 10 anyway so its easy to improvise but I do still like to have gatorade instead of water for the energy.  I don't mind carrying a couple of gu's in my hands though...much better than wearing the fuel belt. 

I noticed the billions of prarie dogs near the sewage treatment plant between miles 7-9 and again coming back through  miles 13-15 are starting to look very plump and well-fed.  I guess the grass and weeds are very fertilized in that area.  The plumpness of the prarie dogs must mean that fall is coming.  Those lil' dogs get so fat right before winter and then I dont see them for 6 months and they re-appear in the spring looking all skinny and hungry.  Funny how this cycle is pretty much opposite for me.  I get skinny after working out all summer and then I usually put on a few pounds through the winter/holidays and when spring comes its time to go get skinny again.   

As you can see, 22 miles all by my lonesome can get a little boring.  I did have one exciting event right near the end that captivated my thinking for a few moments.  I saw a person on a cruiser bike that I SWEAR was a man dressed as a lady.  S/He was all decked out in a nice silk sweater, purple polka-dot hankie over his/her wig-looking hair, pressed green capris, and a calm, serene look on his/her face...almost as if s/he was asleep; looked a lot like little red riding hood.  I only noticed him/her for a few moments as we passed, so I didn't get a great look...but I was pretty alarmed with the masculinity of his jaw and largeness of his clean shaven legs.  BURT?  Did you happen to ride your bike through Denver today? 

Went to bed early last night, and slept in 'till 6:30 a.m. ahhhhhhhhhh.  9 hours!  That is amazing!!  Luckily Ali slept through the night too.  She must have been exhausted from the night before.  Aaron left at 5:30 a.m. to go Mt. Biking in Salida with friends so I just slept in and took the kids to the gym later today to run on the treadmill.  I am not a big fan of treadmill running, but I don't mind it about once a month.  I just put the ipod in and tuned out.  My body felt pretty tired from yesterday, but the 7 easy miles loosened me up a bit.  After the first half mile extra slow, I locked in the pace at 7:41, which felt pretty good.  Stretched for a long time afterwards.  Aaron finally got home around 7:40 tonight and he is pretty exhausted too after 35 miles of Mt. Biking on beautiful single track in southwest Colorado.  I guess we'll be going to bed early again tonight.  I don't think I've ever appreciated sleep more in my life than I do right now...'course this is the most consecutive weeks of high weekly mileage I have ever done in my life too.  Time to start the taper.

Got another nice long sleep last night.  Thank goodness.  Ali did wake up crying around 3 a.m. but I just put my pillow over my head because I was too tired to get up and I think Aaron got up and helped her calm down.  I also slept through my alarm, or I guess I got up and turned it off quickly but don't remember...which is SO unlike me.  But I must have needed the sleep.  Woke up around 6:45 and ran 8 miles at a slow recovery pace again.  Stretched for about 30 minutes afterwards and am feeling quite a bit better now.  My last pilates reformer class of the session is today and I have a chiropractor appointment tonight, so I should be feeling even better by tomorrow. 

More recovery running.  The last part of my body to feel recovered is the lateral parts of my calves...I believe its called the peroneous longus muscle, if I remember correctly from Anatomy 101 at BYU.  That muscle used to get super tight when I did a lot of steeplechase drills and hurdle work in college.  Apparantly 22 mile runs aren't too kind to it either.

I feel pretty good though, other than the tight calves.  I'll ice more today and roll out on the foam roller and stretch a lot so I'm ready to race tomorrow night. 

Jogged an easy 5.5 miles this morning to shake out the legs some more.  Got home at 7:00 a.m. and woke up my family to get dressed and walk over to Standley Lake.  Our friends invited us to go waterskiing with them this morning at 7:30, so we just walked the 0.1 mile to meet them at the dock.  It was super fun to get out on the wake board again...its been about 3 years since I've done that!  After waterskiing for a couple of hours we took the kids to their primary party at the church for about an hour and came home to eat lunch/take naps.  I really appreciated the nap as I was pretty tired from the busy morning.  Slept for an hour and felt a lot better and ready to race.  Picked up our babysitter at 3:00, got changed, and left for the race at 3:30.  Arrived in Denver around 4:00 and waited in line for a bit to get our race numbers and my skirt/Aaron's shirt.  Jogged back to the car to change into my running skirt and leave our race bags.  This is my first time even trying on a running skirt....pretty comfy actually.  The only thing I don't like about it is that it feels too immodest to do any sort of inner thigh stretching and also when I run fast, it feels like the skirt is flying up in back and revealing my bum, but my husband promised me it wasn't, so I trusted him.  

Warmed up for about a mile and did 4 strides.  Legs felt a lot better than they have all week, although maybe still a little tight. 

Race started at 5:00.   Went out with the lead lady, a professional triathlete training for her second Ironman in November.  We ran together for the first 1.5 miles.  After about the first mile and a half I started to feel pretty comfortable at the pace we were running and remembered that the men had started just 3 minutes behind us so I'd better push it if I wanted to win, so I picked up the pace a bit and the other woman slipped back.  

Mile 1- 5:45, mostly uphill, felt pretty tight.  Mile 2- 5:45, half dowhill, half uphill, starting to loosen up.  Mile 3- 5:32, finally in the groove, half uphill, second half downhill, decided to leave it all on the course since the prize money was on the line and I knew that if a guy caught me any time in the last half mile I wouldn't have a chance of staying with him, so I guess you could say I was running scared.  Finished in 17:27, average 5:37 pace.  The first guy was 20-30 seconds behind me, a tiny Kenyan lung on a stick...his time must have been around 15:00.  

After I finished I had some water and jogged back to run in with Aaron.  He was pretty maxed out, but finished strong right around 20:00.  Not bad for a 200 lb guy who has only been training 0-25 miles a week sporatically over the past 5 weeks.

We ate free Chipotle Burritos afterwards and bypassed the free beer, opted for chocolate soymilk instead.  YUM!  Awards ceremony was part of the block party afterwards, got my $500 claim certificate and met Nicole DeBoom, former Ironman World Champ and owner/race director.  FUN NIGHT! 

Recovery run around the neighborhood.  I looked like a speedwalking grandma for the first half mile or so as my calves refused to give me any spring in my step.  Still pretty tight from last week.  I finally warmed up though and ended up averaging 7:53 after a very SLOW first couple of miles. 

I had a hard time sleeping last night because I took a TWO HOUR nap yesterday afternoon.  Ahhhh, it felt nice though.  Aaron was kind enough to play with Abe all afternoon so I could sleep while the girls napped.  Then we just played with the kids and had dinner Sunday evening.  Ali is really starting to walk really well now.  She can walk all the way across the room without falling, it is super cute.  Her mobility has made her into quite a handful in Church every Sunday though.  She is not at all interested in sitting still or playing with toys by my side.  She wants to walk everywhere and socialize with everyone.  Yesterday I brought in her little stroller and let her push it around like a walker at the back of the gym behind where everyone was sitting during Sunday School so I at least go to hear part of the lesson.  During the 3rd hour Aaron took her and she did fall asleep finally for a few minutes near the end.  Gotta love one year olds at Church.  4 months and 12 days until she is old enough go to nursery and I can fully participate in my Sunday classes again. 

Rolled out on the foam roller and Aaron massaged my calves last night for a long time.  This morning I was even more sore than yesterday. I guess all that rolling/massage losened all the lactic acid and now its still working its way out of my legs. ???   I finally started to feel warmed up after about 5 miles.  Wanted to go 10, but needed to be back by 7:15 so Aaron could get to an early networking meeting, so I cut it short a bit because my pace was slower than expected and I had to stop to stretch after a couple of miles.  As it was, I didn't get back until 7:20 but Aaron was still getting ready to leave so at least I didn't make him late.  Aaron and I talked last night about the possibility of getting a babysitter once a week so I can join a group for speed work in preparation for my next marathon.  I guess I'll start asking around to see who I can get to take good care of my kids for a few hours once a week.   I probably wont start doing this until the beginning of October though, so I have some time to find someone.  

I was going to do some tempo work today but my legs still feel pretty hashed from last week.  I couldn't seem to warm up until after about 5 miles and even then I still didn't feel very good so I decided to just cut the run a little shorter and try for tempo tomorrow.  Maybe I should start another session of pilates reformer.  The session I was in ended last week and now I am going without that nice stretchy hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

My route this morning was around Countryside and over by Standley Lake High School.  Ran on the dirt paths as much as possible, probably 5 of the 7 miles.  I love how every time I run by the High School in the morning I smell the powerful scent of freshly spritzed cologne.  Way to schmooze the ladies, guys.

Finally starting to feel recovered from my race last Saturday.  Ran out and back on the Big Dry Creek Creek trail.  5.5 mile warm up.  3 mile tempo at 6:18 pace.  5.5 more miles around 7:30 pace.

14 miles 7:13 ave.

Went to the Cheescake Factory last night with the ladies dinner club from my ward.  I ordered the yummy chipotle chicken pasta.  My new friend Callie confessed to me that she googled my name and had been stalking me on the fast running blog.  She then proceeded to express her amazement with my training/racing pace and distances. I knew she must be a runner by the level of understanding and excitement she was portraying.  Come to find out she is a St. George Marathon finisher!  And in all fairness I had to google her name too; so I found out she also has a very accomplished deep list of 10ks and half marathons she's raced too!  Calling all runners!  No more lurking in the shadows!  Confess your running fanaticism and join the fast running blog too (Callie, I'm talking to YOU).  :)

Easy 10 around Standley Lake and neighborhood to the East of the lake.  Felt pretty good, but a little tired.  Ali woke up twice last night but went back to sleep on her own.  I wish I could go back to sleep faster or at least be able to sleep through Ali's night wakings.  She is two rooms away from me and I still hear her.  Usually when I wake up in the middle of the night it feels like forever until I fall asleep again.  Probably only 20-30 minutes, but that is 20-30 minutes too long.  I'll be glad when Ali sleeps through the night without any disturbances.  My point is, I'm tired and am looking forward to a nice restful Sunday tomorrow.  I think I'll wear ear plugs tonight.

So I decided to run the Park to Park 10 miler this morning.  I actually registered at Road Runner Sports last Thursday which was a great option because they just gave me my number and shirt right then and I didn't have to do a packet pickup this morning, which was nice. 

The race was SO organized and well thought out.  I realized afterwards WHY it was so organized because it is co-directed by a woman, Maureen Roben (former elite marathoner now coach/race organizer).   I'm giving all the credit for the details that made this race great to her because sorry guys you just don't have the same attention to detail as us women.  I mean, I'm sure her co-race director, Alan Lind did a TON of coordinating and scheduling and millions of other things that go into executing a 10 mile race though a huge city, but I'm guessing Maureen added the finer touch.  The things that stood out to me about this race were CLEAN porta potties and PLENTY of them.  Also, tampons had been conveniently placed in each porta potty. Not that I needed one, but how thoughtful that was for those few woman that did suddenly need one!  Our race numbers had a little tear off tag with corresponding number on them so we could tie them to our drop bags and when I went to find my drop bag at the finish they were perfectly organized in numerical order, layed out in neat lines and I found mine in about 3 seconds.  Each mile marker had a worker yelling out cumulitive splits in loud, clear voices.  Each intersection had police officers blocking traffic (and there were many intersections, as this race ran all throughout downtown Denver).  Water stations had water and powerade with plenty of workers holding the cups as high and still as possible.  I was quite impressed.  As you'll read later in my report, I did have one little mishap in the last mile but I think I was just zoned out and a little delirious at that point, so I take full responsibility for my blunder (okay, I'll tell you now...I ran off course by 20-30 seconds...oops!)

SO here's the sum up:

Miles 1-4 - 6:02, 5:57, 5:59, 5:57  I ran with the lead ladies;  Uli, the girl I went out with at the Skirtchaser last week, Bean from the Boulder Running Republic group and a couple others I hadn't met yet.  Pace felt pretty comfortable.  The first 4 miles were pretty flat, maybe a few insignificant rollers.

Mile 5 - 6:14  Gradual uphill.  Other women started to slow a bit but for some reason I decided to stick with this guy up the hill.  There was a bit of a headwind and I think I just didn't want to lead a group, so I decided to let another guy pull me along.

Mile 6 - 5:56  Pretty signinficant uphill but also some downhill that I cruised down to make up for lost time on the up.  Wondering if I should have just stayed with the other women, pretty sure they're just 15-20 seconds back, but kind-of in a zone at this point.

Mile 7 - 5:44  Garmin says 203 ft. gain, 203 ft. loss, so I guess it was a pretty flat mile.  I think this is when I started seeing my husband Aaron.  He drove out with the kids and had borrowed our friend's awesome sports camera so he kept stopping to take pictures of me.  It was nice to see someone because I found myself running completely alone at this point.  No men in the visible distance ahead of me and I didn't bother looking back.  I don't like looking back.

Mile 8 - 6:00  396 ft. gain 375 ft. loss, so not flat.  Still alone.

Mile 9 - 5:55  Still alone.  This is where I got lost.  I guess I was supposed veer left to run on the road that drives through Washington park but there were tons of morning joggers on the trail to the right and I didn't see any racers ahead of me so I just kept going on the trail, which added about .14 to my total race distance.  I didn't even realize I missed the route until I was approaching 9.6 miles and there was no cheering or fast racers in sight.  I kept asking the joggers if they knew if I was on the race course but they either had Ipods blasting in their ears or just had no idea there was even a race going on.  That made me pretty nervous.  Finally one aware woman jogger yelled, "NO, you're supposed to be up on that road!!"  So I hollered "THANK YOU" and sprinted across the grass up to the road and immediatly started hearing finish line cheers.  

Mile 10 - 6:03

.14 more miles as I sprinted to the finish line.  Garmin says my pace for the final .14 was 5:13 min/mile.  As I was coming down the finishing stretch the race announcer said, "She has 12 seconds to beat the course record, can she do it?"  I certainly gave it my all and ended up tying the course record in 1:00:33.  Crazy how a 10 mile race can come down to the exact second.  Next time I'll try to pay more attention and not run off course.  :)  I'm sure it was pretty obvious which way to go I was just delirious being in the last mile of my race and all.

Aaron and the kids were there at the finish and we exchanged some sweaty hugs and high fives.   We ate post race goodies together, the kids jogged a little cool down with me and played by the pond while we waited for the awards ceremony.  I got $500 and a free Ipod Nano.  Very fitting, I thought.  I chatted with a few of the other lead ladies afterwards and was encouraged by the fact that a couple of them had been to the Olympic Trials in the Marathon in previous years and are running in the USA Marathon Championships in Twin Cities next month.  Another confidence builder and fun race!  

Easy 6.5 around Countryside.  My legs didn't feel as beat up as I was afraid they would...but sometimes two days after a big race is worse than the day after, so we'll see.  I slept pretty good last night but still feel pretty tired.  Hopefully I'll have time for a nap today.  Getting caught up on housework today after a weekend of play.  You know, 6 loads of laundry, vaccuming the whole house, cleaning bathrooms, mowing the lawn...all that fun stuff.

Easy run on the trails around Standley Lake.  7:45 ave.

My legs feel better today already then they did the whole first half of last week.  I think it is a combination of running fewer miles last week, no really long run last week, and also the little cool down I did after my race on Monday.  I did not do a cool down after the skirt chaser because the burritos were smelling too yummy, but I think a cool down may have helped me recover a bit faster.  Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the fast, tapered feeling.

Saw geese flying south in formation today.  The air was a bit cooler too.  My arms were pretty cold when I got back.  Is it already time to get out the long sleeve running shirts?!  Fall is creeping in upon us!  I love it!!  My favorite season.  :)

Best song on the ipod this morning:  Young Folks.  Gave me a little energy boost as I was finishing up my last half mile. 

Easy 6 recovery again and a pilates reformer class at the gym afterwards to help limber up.  

I'm glad to see Sasha finally got ads on the blog.  I mean he ought to be making money with all of the hours of work he's put into this!  Nice move, Sasha. 

Whew!  Busy day!  Ran 9 this morning.  Finally felt warmed up by mile 6...so the last 3 felt okay at least.  Still lots of residual fatigue in the legs from the race Monday.  

Went to pilates reformer again and lifted weights for 30 mintues afterwards.  Then I ran some errands which included putting my race winning checks in the bank...cha-CHING and returning my Comcast cable box because we NEVER watch cable anymore.  Facebook, fastrunningblog, and Netflix has outpaced and brutally defeated cable TV in our house.  Which is fine with me.  TV is just an annoying invitation for ads and unwanted messages to me anyway...never anything good on (except for most of the month of July when the Tour De France is on, which we'll have to find online next year.)  We didn't even get General Conference on our cable here in Denver.  I think you CAN get it if you pay for some gold platinum bling bling package that costs an arm and a leg OR you can just get the whole thing on BYU TV and LDS.org.

Anyway, that is the first half of my day.  Then I came home and put the girls down for naps and took a little siesta myself.  Now I'm off to walk Abe home from the bus stop, take him to his Karate class, and then go to a Fantastic Super Duper Friday activity at the Church.  Hold on to your hats ladies and gentlemen, its going to be a SCREAM!  Or the next best thing: a bunch of women chatting it up and making crafty things together while the kids annihialate the nursery room. 

Easy 7 around countryside in 7:30 ave.  My legs are finally starting to feel mostly recovered. The last thing to feel great is the peroneous longus again.  But at least I felt good only after a mile today instead of 5.

Fall is in the air!  Its 57 degrees outside at noon!  I slept in today because Aaron went for an early bike ride with a friend.  Ali got up at 6 as usual, but Aaron just gave her a milk and changed her diaper and she went back to sleep.  She ended up sleeping in until 9 a.m. which is unheard of!!  She has NEVER slept past 8, and usually wakes up between 6-6:30 so this was pretty unusual.  Abe and Breanne woke up around 7:30 though, so that is when I got up.  It felt great to get some extra zzzzzs. 

Nice relaxing weekend.  Got a nap yesterday afternoon and lots of sleep last night.  My body is feeling really great!  Decided to do a 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Fartlek (my favorite non distance measured sharpener).

Ran 5:20-6:18 average mile pace on each one, some were faster some slower because of hills.

Total average for run was 6:58 for 6 miles. 

We're watching our friend's 3 year old boy for a few days this week so they can go backpacking. Once you have three kids adding another 3 year old into the mix is no biggie.  The kids will love having a little buddy around and I'm looking forward to the payback when she watches my kids for a few days so Aaron and I can go on vacation without kids too.  Doesn't seem very fair that she leaves her one kid with me and agrees to exchange for a 3 day vacation while she watches my three kids.  Maybe I'll have to make it up to her by offering to watch her boy some more afternoons or another weekend.  Anyway, kid exchanges are golden.

Easy 6 miles 7:45 pace.

Got all the details for TOU arranged.  Flight to SLC leaves Friday at 4:30.  My sister-in-law, Ashley who is also running the marathon is picking Aaron and I up at the airport and my Mom is picking up the kids.  Mom will take the kids to her house in Bountiful Friday night and bring them to the finish line Saturday morning.  Aaron, Ashley and I will call for take-out at Robintinos in Bountiful and then eat and drive to Logan, pick up race packets, and stay in Smithfield with my BYU track buddy, Holly Haguewood (also running the marathon).  Aaron will borrow a road bike from Ashley's husband so he can get some exersise Saturday morning and watch/film/photograph parts of the race.  Our photographer friend, Eric Wynn will also be coming up to get some shots.  Holly, Ashley, and I will drive to the shuttle bus pick-up together before the race.  Mom will meet us with the kids at the finish line.  My brother Dave will be getting race updates through text and forwarding the texts to my other 3 fans (Mom, Aaron, and Callie).  Dave and his wife Christina will be appearing at the finish line with smiling faces and loud cheers.  After the race we'll go back to Holly's to shower, go out for lunch, and come back later for the awards at 1:15pm.  After that my siblings, Mom, and Step-Dad are getting together for a BBQ at Dave and Christina's in Layton.  And a few hours after that, Aaron's family is getting together for a post marathon celebration and games at his sister and brother-in law, Ashley and Matt's house in North Salt Lake.  Sunday we'll visit Aaron's sister, Emily at her newly purchased home in SLC and fly home Sunday night.  What a FUN weekend!

There is my pre-race report.  Now after the race I can just post my finish time since you all already know everything else that happened. 

Easy 5 around the neighborhood.  

Went to my massage therapist last night for some deep tissue trigger point massage on my legs.  He did not hold back; had me wincing in pain many times.  We found a nice big knot in both hammys and my glutes were super tight too.  So I was pretty sore on my run this morning, but I stretched for quite a while and am already feeling better.  I'll rest tomorrow, run easy and short Friday, and I'm sure I'll feel great by Saturday.

No running today.  Rest, foam roller, and stretching.  Went to bed super early last night.  By the time Aaron got home from work at 7:30 p.m. I was almost done tucking the kids in because I was ready to be finished being the Mom for the day.  I had given Abe a haircut which is usually not that difficult but for some reason he was FLIPPING OUT the whole time.  He does the same thing when I clip his nails.  Like hair and nails have feelings or something. I think he was just tired from running 20 minutes yesterday afternoon for his school fundraiser.  After the haircut he took a bath and decided it would be fun to throw water all over the floor.  When I went in to get him out of the bath I found 1/2 inch of water all over the floor.  Then he melted down when I told him to clean it up and he spend a long time in his room.  After that I asked the kids to go play downstairs while I made dinner and when I went to get them for dinner they had opened a box of cereal from the food storage room and spilled it all over the carpet in the basement.  I asked them what happeded and Abe said "Daniel tempted me to do it."  Nice try, buddy.  Asking them to clean it up just gave me three little blank looks.  So I resolved to just vacuum it later.  We ate dinner and I brushed their teeth, read them a book and put them to bed.  Aaron cleaned up most of the mess after he got home because I was trying to relax in my room.  He also gave me a back massage and I went to bed around 9:00 p.m.  All I had to do this morning was vacuum the cereal in the basement.  Gotta love kid messes.  My kids are usually pretty good at cleaning up their messes but I just didn't have the patience to enforce the cleaning up yesterday.  Today we've agreed to keep messes to a minimum because I have to do laundry and get packed for our trip.  

5.5 miles easy with a few pick-ups.  Just enough to come home and get a gooooood stretch.

Gotta get packed and take Abe to school, then as soon as his school is out we're picking him up and going straight to the airport.  Utah, here we come! 

What a fun day!  I'm just sitting here at my sister-in-law's house with Aaron's laptop while family plays Agricola. I'm pretty tired, I admit....but everyone else is hanging out, so I will stay up with them a bit longer.

The race went GREAT!  I was pretty nervous yesterday; not about my pace goal, more about the 26.2 mile distance itself.  After all, this is only the 2nd time I've completed that distance in my life, and I was pretty sure those last 5-6 miles were going to be intense.  

We arrived at my friend, Holly's house in Smithfield Friday night around 9:00 and chatted with her until 10:15ish, so I was in bed at 10:30, but just kept tossing and turning, thinking about the race, unable to shut my brain off. Finally at 11:45 I looked at my phone one last time and fell asleep shortly after that.  At 4:00 a.m. I spontaneously awoke, bright eyed and ready to get up.  Alarm wasn't set to go off until 4:30, so I just lay in bed for 30 minutes, resuming the race thoughts that were keeping me up 4 hours earlier.  Finally 4:30 came and I got dressed, ate some oatmeal and a banana, and Aaron drove Holly, Ashley, and I to the shuttle pick-up.  

Got up to the race start around 6:20 and stood in line for the pots.  20 minutes later, got out of the pots and decided to stand in line again. (3 women, lots of nerves, and nothing better to do, I guess).  6:52 a.m. out of the pots for our second round, announcer says the drop bag busses are driving off in 3 minutes.  We jogged about .137 mile down to the drop bag busses, took off our warm clothes, put them in our drop bags, and tossed them through the bus window.   

Chatted with a few FRB-ers at the start including my favorite FRB-er, Allie. Race started and I just went out at what felt comfortable.  Hands and feet pretty cold for the first couple of miles.  I recall realizing warmth in my feet finally around mile 2.  Started chatting with a young man, Daniel who said he was shooting for 2:45, he is 18 years old, turns 19 soon, and is planning on leaving on an LDS Mission this January. We ran together for the first 10 miles.  It was nice to have someone to chat with and pass the time.  Around mile 7 we came upon a guy who had his running shorts on backwards.  As I approached him I asked him if backwards running shorts were good luck or if he just got dressed at 4:00 a.m. in the dark?  "Something like that," he said, "I just noticed they were backwards at the Starting Line."  Oops.  

Miles 1-10: 6:10, 6:19, 6:16, 6:04, 6:09, 6:10, 6:11, 5:57, 6:02, 6:10

After mile 10, Daniel disappeared.  I ran with other men for a few minutes at a time, but from here on out, was mostly running alone.  Appreciated the Half Marathon clock; time was 1:20:45ish.  Aaron was out on his road bike to take pics, hand me more gu, and hand Sasha his homemade energy drink, which he disclosed the recipe for: Gotu Kola and Marionberry made into tea with honey and sea salt.  Did I remember that right, Sasha?  Right before the half marathon point, Aaron handed me another gu.  I had taken my first two gu's at mile 3 and mile 9 and I wanted another one for mile 13.  Nice tailwind brought us out of the last mile of the canyon.  Mile 14 brought lots of spectators as we exited the canyon.  I saw my former BYU teammate, Katie Moon (forgot your married name, Mooner, sorry...you'll always be Mooner to me anyway) on the sideline cheering, and was happy to see a familiar face.  Mile 16 ended with a quick potty stop (9 seconds, according to the lady who shouted it to me after I bolted out).  Mile 17 ended with another urgent, more serious potty squat next to the only available visual obstruction, a large trailer parked on the side of the road.  Only a female spectator with young child in stroller standing right across the street had to endure full visual of my squat.  I gave her a thumbs up and smile as I ran off and I'm sure she was laughing inside.  Saw Mooner (as in Katie Moon, not another squatter) a few more times.  Thanks for coming out to cheer, Katie!  Miles 18 and 19 is where the fun stopped and the pain train picked me up.

Miles 11-20: 6:16, 6:03, 6:09, 5:53, 5:47, 6:07 (#1 stop), 6:20 (#2 stop), 6:12, 6:30 (slight uphill), 6:35 (more slight uphill)

So the fun has ended, and the serious dig deep painful endurance has kicked in.  I start to feel quite lonely and pray that my final 10K is not disasterous.  Passed a Kenyan who has stopped to stretch (found out later he actually dropped out of the race).  Passed a couple of other men who were blowing up.  Just kept praying I wouldn't blow up too.  At this point I had about a 6:09 overall average though, so I was comfortable with the leeway I had given myself by using the downhill in the canyon to go comfortably fast.  I knew that I could run 6:30-6:40 for the final 10K and still get a decent time.  My legs were feeling quite exhausted so I just kept pushing as well as I could and telling myself I could do it. My brother and his wife were cheering at mile 23, Mooner showed up again in there somewhere, and Aaron handed me one last gu at mile 24.  I was grateful for the momentary diversions.  I was also glad to hear more cheering of the spectators near the end.  I entered a blurry state of delirium around mile 24 and just prayed my legs would keep moving forward and I wouldn't pass out.  Apparently I didn't because I do recall crossing the finish line to a bunch of cheering and looking up to see 2:44 and blur.  Yeah!  I  was finished!  And I  broke the course record!!!  After I finished my legs almost seized up on me, but I kept walking hoping that they woudn't.  Saw lots of family and friends with big smiles and cheers. Feeling SO grateful for the strength and support I received from family and friends, especially Aaron, and what a blessing it was to run strong, PR, and set a course record!!

Miles 21-26.2: 6:13, 6:25, 6:31, 6:31, 6:31, 6:41, .2 at 6:34  pace. Woah, three miles at 6:31, now that is even pacing.

26.2 miles, 6:15 average.  2:44:10

It was nice to meet a bunch of you FRB-ers in person!  Congrats to everyone who raced TOU today.  What a great course and beautiful day, eh?!

P.S. My race buddies Holly and Ashley both PR'd too; Holly ran 3:14 and PR'd by over 15 minutes.  My SIL, Ashley ran 4:04 and PR'd by 30 minutes.  Congrats, ladies!

Just woke up from my second nap of the day.  Ahhhhhhh.

My body is SO worked.  I  don't recall ever feeling this worked over from physical activity.  Post childbirth is the closest thing to it, but its not aches and pains in the same way.  The physical exhaustion is similar though.  Yesterday I almost passed out at Church.  I really struggled to keep my eyes open during the classes and then with only 10 minutes left I had to go find an empty classroom and lay down.  I probably should have gone to an earlier Church and planned on sleeping all afternoon instead.  Or I could have at least brought water and food to get me through the 3 hour block.  I did take a short nap when we got home from Church at 4:00 but then we had to eat dinner and get to the airport.  I was glad we flew instead of driving this trip because it was a quick trip home to my own soft bed.  I slept SO deep last night.  Thank goodness my kids are exhausted from the weekend also.  We've all been taking it pretty easy today and I've slept both times that my 1 year old has taken her naps.     

Slept in again today and upon rising, went immediatly to the dentist to get two cavities filled.  She gave me the tooth anesthesia and I thought my teeth were numb when she asked me if they felt numb, but then they didn't feel that numb when she started drilling.  I kept thinking in my head maybe I should ask for more anesthesia.....nah, its not that bad.  OUCH!  That was bad.  Maybe I should ask for more.  Nah, I'm sure she's almost done...clenching my fist and wincing my eye......argh...maybe I should ask for more anesthesia....oh that area didn't hurt....I'll just let it go...OUCH..maybe I should ask for more.  This cycle went on for a good 10 minutes, so I finally let her know it was pretty sensitive and she's like "Oh, do you want me to give you more anesthesia? 'Cause I'm finished drilling now."  Naturally. Just when you think you cant bear any more pain, the pain ends. So true to life.

I can now do stairs somewhat normally and my energy levels are slowly rising.  I feel like I could use some sort of exersise, but am perfectly okay waiting until next week to run; I think my body needs the rest.  Maybe I'll go to the gym tomorrow to stretch and lift weights.  And I do have my pilates reformer class Friday morning.  I also scheduled a massage Thursday night.  My body could really use a good deep tissue massage.

Went for an easy bike ride this morning because my body just needed to move.  Forgot to change the sport to biking on my garmin so apparently I ran a 3:58 mile pace for 10.39 miles.  Sweet.  

Finally starting somewhat recovered.  Not fully recovered, somewhat recovered. 

Went to the massage therapist last night and got a full body massage with a little bit of deep tissue on my legs, neck, and upper back.  My back was pretty sore this morning, but luckily I had my pilates reformer class to help limber up and decompress.  I attempted to lift weights after pilates but didn't have much strength, so I resorted to spending more time on the foam roller and stretching really really well.   Then I took Abe to school and brought the girls home for naps.  I took an hour nap and Ali woke up.  Then I relaxed in a hot epsom salt bath for 45 minutes.....ahhhhhh.  I'm just trying to do all I can to recover so I can feel good before I start running again.  I followed Sasha's advice and bulked up on the fresh veggies and fruit at Costco.  If any of you have ever bought the bag of Spinach at Costco, you know I have some work to do to get through it before it wilts.  So I have been pounding the spinach salads with all sorts of other yummy veggies, feta cheese, and shredded chicken......mmm.  I am also trying to focus on drinking a ton of water to flush my system and getting lots of quality sleep.  Luckily, Ali has been sleeping through the night all week so I've gotten some good zzzzzs.

Aaron is taking Abe to the Colorado Rockies game tonight so that means Girls night IN for me, Breanne, and Ali.  Maybe I'll paint their nails and let them eat chocolate chips.  (Thats about as good as it gets for sweet treats in my house right now).  Haha.  Good times! 

11 hours.  Hows THAT for sleep?  

For some reason I felt super tired today so I slept in, took a morning nap when Ali did and took another afternoon nap when Ali did.  The closest thing to physical activity today was mowing the lawn this morning, but since my lawn only takes me about 12 minutes to mow, it was barely even a warm up.  Actually I think it helped me loosen up my back.  I had this kink in my upper back muscle next to my spine and I couldn't seem to release it by pushing it to death, but now 4 Motrins and two naps later, its finally feeling a bit better.  I also had a rough headache this morning when I woke up, but the naps have diminished that too.  I think my body is probably fighting something because my kids and husband have all shared this nasty cold and my husband is still trying to kick his.  I hope I don't get it too. I'm certainly sleeping enough to expect that I can avoid it.   

First run back since the marathon.  I felt better than I thought I would, actually.  An entire week of rest doesn't hurt.  My legs were still pretty fatigued, but at least there weren't any nagging pains anywhere.

7 miles, 7:54 ave. 

8 miles out and back on the big dry creek trail.  7:53 average.  My legs are feeling a little bit better.  My right heel is still a little sore, but it warmed up and felt better after 3-4 miles.  The Fall smells are SO yummy right now. One of the houses that backs to the open space must have a wood burning stove because there was this strong campfire smell around mile 2.  Then the sagebrush was especially fragrant around mile 3.  And the mist coming off the creek was so beautiful too.  OH, I'm glad to be back running again.  I LOVE running in the fall.

Dropped my kids off at my good friend, Erin's house and drove to Denver to run and chat with Maureen Roben, Park to Park 10 miler race director, former elite marathoner, and running coach.  I wanted to bounce some ideas off her and get a little input on my training since she has "been there" and run in the Olympic Trials in the Marathon 4 times.  I REALLY enjoyed chatting with her and getting some good suggestions and recommendations.  She is very easy to get along with and SO encouraging and friendly.  She has a very similar running philosophy as me; family comes first, then running, Sunday is a great recovery day, its important to recover well and not overdo it on the weekly mileage; just because Deena Kastor is doing 140 miles a week doesn't mean I should.  She also thought that running the St. Jude Marathon on December 5 is not the best idea for me as it is not enough time to recover and then train hard again and try to match or exceed the all out effort I gave at TOU.  So I'm considering doing the half there instead.  After all, I would REALLY like to run some FAST half-marathons and bring my PR down at that distance, which I think will bring my marathon PR down too.  So I'm going to re-evaluate my 3 month plan and maybe just run some fast half-marathons and shorter races between now and Grandma's marathon in June, 2010.  I also want to get my weekly mileage up to 70-80 by adding a few PM runs per week and/or cross-training and see how my body responds to that.  

So while I was there, I did a little workout to see how resilient my legs are after the marathon. 

2 mile warm up

1 mile at goal 10K race pace - 5:37

1 lap jog

400M fast - 76

200 M. jog

400 M. fast - 79

 My legs are really starting to feel a lot better.  Yesterday after Abe got home from school I went to the gym and lifted weights for a bit and spent a lot of time stretching and on the foam roller and exercise ball stretching some more.  I think that really loosened up a lot of the fatigue in my legs and gave me back a little spring in my step.  Thank goodness!

Ran 5.5 miles at 8:00 pace at 11:00 a.m. after returning from taking the kids to the dentist because Aaron was dead to the world when I tried to wake him up at 8:00 so I could run before the kids' dentist appointment.  He hadn't gone to sleep until 4:00 a.m. because he had a super busy night researching 12 properties that were going to sale the next morning, needless to say, he was wasted.  And the stinky part is that he didn't even win anything at the auction.  But at least he got a really good property the day before at the Adams County auction.  I just feel bad for him when he stays up SO late working under the time crunch to bid on properties the next morning and then he just gets outbid.  I suspect our Tuesday and Wednesdays (the days before all the Denver area County auctions) are going to be super hectic for about a month because he just sold a bunch of houses and now has 500K of his own investment capital, plus another 500K of his auction partner's money back in the account ready to be spent again.  

For lunch, we had an appointment with one of his investors, Cindy Liu (sp?).  She treated us to the International Buffet.  I don't normally choose Buffet style cuisine, but since it was Cindy's treat and Cindy's suggestion, we obliged.  The food was pretty good, but the company was even better.  It was Aaron, our assistant, Shawna, Cindy, Breanne, and Ali (Abe missed out because he was at school).  Cindy is a very nice woman and I really enjoyed chatting with her.  She is originally from Singapore but moved to CO to start her own business.  She owns an antique shop and invests in Real Estate.

8 miles around Standley Lake at 8:00 pace again.

The little germs that have been scaling my body trying to get in as my immune system is still a little supressed from the marathon have officially set up camp in my lungs.  I have this nasty phlegm cough and lightheadedness that started setting in yesterday and is running its course.  At least I don't have any fever or body ache.  Just fatigue and an aggravating cough.  I'm pounding the vitamin C and trying to get extra rest so that those little germ dudes will break down camp and take a hike soon.

I also went to the gym this morning for pilates, stretching, and lifting.  Felt good. 

Easy 9.5 around Countryside at Noon.  Aaron went Mt. Biking early so I went running after the morning session of Conference.  It was such a BEAUTIFUL day here in Denver!  Cool Fall air, sunny skies, and gorgeous Fall colors.  I felt pretty good on the run, minus some stomach issues that caused me to have to visit the trees 4 times.  Must have been those 4 chocolate chip cookies and bowl of ice cream I ate at my friends house last night.  My body is not used to that much sugar at one time.  It tasted good in the moment, I just payed for it today on the run.  And now I need to refresh my intestines with a big yummy spinach salad for dinner.  Yes, I'm still chipping away at the Costco spinach bag.  Its not quite wilting yet.  Anybody want some?  

Today is the best I have felt since the Marathon.  My cough is starting to get better, my legs feel better, and my energy is better too.  Of course that two hour nap yesterday afternoon didn't hurt.

10 miles around Standley Lake 7:40 average.

We're taking the kiddos swimming tonight and they are STOKED!  I don't really love swimming but I DO love seeing my kids have a grand old time.  All their smiles and giggles are so worth it.  I also love the family temperature hot tub that the pool that we're going to has.  Its a "warming tub."  Cool enough that I can sit in there with my kids for a good 8-10 minutes before we start itching for the pool again.  Ahhhh... 

7 miles in 7:51 ave.  Felt a little tired so I took a nap while the girls napped this afternoon.  Then I went to the gym to lift weights and stretch and work my core.

Somewhere in my first mile this morning I was crossing a street where a woman in a minivan was stopped trying to turn left onto another street.  As I was approaching her car she caught my eye as she gave me a big smile and an adamant Thumb Up as if to say "kudos for being out on your morning run, neighbor."  It made me smile and feel grateful that I am healthy and able to run every morning in this beautiful life. 

8 miles out and back on big dry creek. 7:40 ave.  Feeling Halloween-ish in my hunter orange TOU shirt. 

I guess its time I start thinking about races I'd like to do in the next couple of months to give me some motivation to do speed workouts again.  As fun as it is to just do mileage every day, I really do love racing, and racing fast, so its time to look at the race calendar and set some goals.  Maybe a Thanksgiving 10K and a Halloween 5K.  I'll see what I can find.  The nice thing is that Colorado Runner Magazine has  a GREAT race calendar with all the local races, so it shouldn't be too difficult.

6 miles in 7:15 pace. 

Cold, windy, and misty rain this morning.  Went a little faster in an effort to warm up but I was still pretty cold, at least my face and hands were.  Also I was running late because Aaron went to bed at 2:30 a.m. last night after working a 17 hour day to prepare for the Denver County auction this morning.  He did win a good one, so at least his long hours weren't in vain this week.  But I didn't have the heart to wake him up early to watch the kids after he stayed up so late.  So I let him sleep as long as possible but finally left for my run at 8:15 a.m. and had to be back, showered, and leave to take Breanne to a joy school group we tried out today at 9:15 a.m.  So you could say I was a little rushed on the run.  We got to the joy school group 5 minutes late.  I'm trying to decide it I want to commit to doing this joy school group for sure.  Its just once a week on Thursday mornings.  Breanne is a very social, fun 3-year-old and really enjoyed herself at the group but its a 20 minute drive to get there and she already plays well with Abe at home in the mornings anyway.  That is the beauty of having three kids close together, they do play well together (most of the time...when they're not screaming at each other.)  I may just keep it simple and wait until next year to do pre-school with her.  One year of pre-school seemed to work well for Abe.  And Breanne is a lot less shy and just as smart as he was at 3.

Ran 9 miles around Countryside in 7:31 pace.  I normally see at least a few other exersisers out but I didn't see ANY this morning.  I hope this cooler weather isn't scaring people off.  Its really quite pleasant with warmer clothes on.

Went to pilates and lifted weights afterwards.  Then I took a nap while the girls napped after lunch.  We're watching our friend's kids overnight tonight so they can have a night off.  They have a 5 year old boy and a 3 year old girl just like us, but no toddler.  It'll be a fun-filled night for all.  We got Monsters VS Aliens from Netflix and I'll pop some popcorn on the stove.

It was pretty cold out today.  22 degrees.  It warmed up a little from the 15 degrees and snowing that was going on this morning, but still very chilly.  Beautiful though with the dusting of snow we got last night.  I need to remember to wear two shirts when its that cold.  My arms and hands were pretty numb when I got back.

10 miles out and back on Big Dry Creek 7:35 ave. 

I took a little trail off to the right after mile 4 and ran through a neighborhood for the middle couple of miles.  I had to stop for three different potty breaks and accidentally mooned a biker on the last one.  Oops!  Maybe I should jog further off the trail...I just thought I could wing it quickly because not many people were out braving the cold.  Thats what I get for running in the afternoon after eating a big breakfast and drinking a lot.  We had our friends kids this morning until 9 a.m. though so I wanted to get up and make them waffles before they had to leave.  Then Aaron took Abe and Breanne to the gym with him while Ali took her nap and I cleaned the house.  I continued cleaning after they got home 'cause I was in a zone.  You could say I was doing Marathon race pace cleaning  possibly even 10K race pace cleaning.  Three hours later I had pretty much cleaned everything...ahhh....I love having a clean house.  Too bad it doesn't last long with 3 kids and Aaron and me living in it.  Not to mention our Executive Assistant and Accountant coming in and out on week days (they don't make messes, I just feel compelled to vacuum their office and clean their bathroom often so it doesn't get gross down there.)  One time Breanne decided to use the downstairs bathroom in the middle of the day and a little while later our Accountant, Judy came upstairs to use the kids bathroom (which is never very clean except for the first 10 minutes after I clean it.)  She found me afterwards and said, "I hate to be the one to inform you, but the basement bathroom needs a little attention."  I went down to discover little Breanne poo smeared ALL OVER the toilet seat.  I just burst out laughing because that was the worst it has ever been.  It was like she didn't even attempt to use toilet paper, she just smeared it off.  Hahaha.  I have to be very patient with her, after all she's still pretty new at the wiping by herself trick.

Saw a man sitting in his hot tub with a beannie on this morning.  Thought it was kind-of a strange thing to be doing at 7:30 a.m. on a Monday.  Looked relaxing though.

Aaron went running today for the second time in three weeks.  His lower back has been injured and his right knee is tempermental too.  He returned in a very humble, sheepish state confessing that he stooped to a new level today.  He tried to get me to guess what happened, and after three guesses I still had no idea.  He tried to prompt me by reminding me that he always makes fun of these people.  Its an olympic sport.  Thats right, he race walked.  After running a few miles, his right knee siezed up on him (probably due to the cold air and lack of training.)  After his knee stopped working he was just going to walk home but then realized that it would take him a long, boring time if he just walked slowly home, so he started walking FAST.  And the next thing he knew he was swinging his arms and swiveling his hips as his heart rate shot up to 170 and he was pushing and pushing to get that mile pace down to a 10 minute mile.  The good thing is that he gained a whole new appreciation for race walkers. And he gained a new sense of hope and optimism at the fact that he can still get an extremely good workout in even if his knee is refusing to run.  He can race walk.

I first witnessed race walking and met some pro race walkers when I went to the Jr. Olympic Training Camp at the San Diego Olympic Training Center my Senior year in High School.  Ever since then I have greatly respected race walkers.  I think it an extremely challenging sport because not only are you maxing out your lungs and aerobic muscles, you also have to have perfect form.  Race walkers are seriously TOUGH and very fine-tuned athletes.  I would be happy for Aaron if he decided to pursue a race walking hobby.  He would actually probaby be very good at it because he is tall and has long legs.

Here's a nice fluid race walking video:

Totally unrelated, but equally interesting, I also found this video and had to post it since it gave me all sorts of warm fuzzie nostalgic feelings from my former steeplechasing days:

Sunday I stayed home with our 15 month old because she puked before Church and again on the way over, so I just dropped Aaron and the older kids off and went home to nap with Ali.  Apparently Breanne and I picked up her bug because I awoke at 5 a.m. today with stabbing pains in my stomach, chills, and whole body achiness/weakness.  After attempting to sleep until 7:30, all the kids had finally woken up and I asked Aaron if he could feed them breakfast and take them to the gym with him so I could have an extra hour and a half of sleep.  He did that and I finally woke up around 9 a.m still very weak and nauseated.  I wished I could have just puked and gotten it over with...you know that feeling?  But no, the nausea went on another 3 hours and my chills and body ache got worse until I finally puked.  It did feel better to puke, but my body just feels hashed and weak all over still.  I cannot seem to regulate temperature because of my fever.  Oh and as Breanne played in the child care at the gym this morning, she puked too.  The child care worker just asked Aaron to roll up the rug she had puked on and take it home to clean it ourselves and bring it back later I guess because she didn't want to spread those germs.  When Aaron and the kids got home Breanne continued to puke 3-4 times over the next few hours and we have just been laying around like a couple of week, fever-stricken blobs together.  Aaron has been super helpful driving Abe to school and cleaning up Breanne's messes...which I hope doesn't mean he will be getting the stomach bug tomorrow.  But at least it appears to be a 24 hour flu because Ali is already feeling better besides still having the runs.

Gotta love those winter germs!  Needless to say, there will be no exercise for me today.  Hopefully I can restore fluids and get out for some movement tomorrow.

Slept 10 hours last night and had weird dreams and night sweats, but woke up feeling a TON better this morning.  Ate breakfast and hydrated while Aaron slept in (he was up until 2:30 a.m. again working on auction comps).  Then when he finally woke up around 9:00 a.m. I went running.  While I was running Aaron puked.  He also got a text from our administrative assistant reporting that she has been puking all morning too.  So apparently its their turn today.  Abe is telling me that he is feeling sick too so I'm going to keep him home from school to avoid him puking all over his classmates.  The good news is that it is just a 24 hour bug.  Breanne and I feel completely better today.  It felt good to go sweat it out on my run.  I think I'm still a bit dehydrated, but I'll take in extra fluids all day.  

We also have some friends, Kyle and Lizzie staying in our basement this week who are still uninfected.  They have been gone working all day and only home in the evenings, so they have so far avoided the germs.  I'm going to sanitize all the door knobs and light switches today and cross my fingers that they don't get it.  Our accountant, Judy ususally comes in on Wednesdays and Fridays so she was supposed to come in today but we told her not to because we're the sick house.  Hopefully we can be a safe zone again by Friday so she can come to work then.

7:45 pace

Left for my run at 8:50 after letting Aaron sleep in again.  He was up until 4:00 a.m. last night.  Crazy.  The weather was SO nice this morning!  Sunny and 60 degrees. 

7 miles, Pilates Reformer, and weights this morning.

We're taking the kids to a skating rink with bouncy houses this afternoon for a Halloween Party.  We also have a Halloween Party just for Aaron and Me on Saturday night at the Church.  Aaron is going at Napoleon Dynamite and I will be Deb.  I was suprised how easy it was to find some awesome women's jeans from the 90's at Goodwill.  There were like 5 pair in my size to choose from.  And then of course all the bright colored jewlery and 90's shirts are the "in" thing at Wal-Mart right now, so my costume was an easy find.  Here's a link to the jeans I'm wearing.

10.5 miles at 7:41 pace.  Out on big dry creek to Westminster City Park and back.  Suprised to see the water fountain still on.  I thought for sure they'd have it off so it wouldn't freeze. 

Saw the Pomona High School CC team out running on the trail and the Coach jokingly tried to corral me in with the group.  Then he saw my Knights shirt and thought I was associated with a High School in Boulder.  I told him it was actually a team I used to coach in Utah, the Lone Peak Knights.  Then I wished him good luck with his season and took off again.  Ahhh, the good ol' Lone Peak Knights.  Good times.

Our Halloween party is tonight.  Aaron got his Napoleon Dynamite costume in the mail yesterday.  I'll post pictures tomorrow. 

Heres the link to the Halloween party and pics of Aaron and me as Napoleon and Deb.  http://picasaweb.google.com/nankennard/2009_10_17HalloweenParty#5394090953936976498

The party was super fun.  Good food, fun and folks.  My favorite part was watching Aaron and Owen (another guy who dressed as Napoleon) do Napoleon's famous dance.  I was so glad that our friend's Karaoke selection included Jamiroquai so that we could enjoy Aaron's dancing.  Aaron also blessed us with a little "Ice, Ice, Baby," and a few other sweet songs.  He is a natural entertainer.  He actually used to be a lead singer/trombonist in a Ska/Punk band, Tom Elvis and the Prestleys so he knows how to rock it.  Good times!

9 miles around Countryside at 7:41 pace.

I had my closest encounter with a coyote this morning.  Well it wasn't really an encounter because we didn't speak to each other or attack each other.  We just gave each other the evil eye as if to say "Stay out of my open space!"  Usually I see coyotes off in the distance prancing away.  Or they just sit and stare at me as I run by and if I clap or yell they run off.  Once I saw a few of them barking at me from about 100 meters away and I avoided them, assuming they were protecting young or fresh meat.  Today I didn't even see this coyote as I approached but then as I passed him he ran across the trail just 10-15 feet behind me and then stopped to stare at me.   It kinda startled me but he looked more threatened then I was.  I've often review in my head what I would do if a coyote were to approach me.  I'd probably just wind up and kick it as hard as I could in the face and then bolt away as fast as possible.  I highly doubt it will ever happen though because I've seen over 30 coyotes in the 4 years that I've lived here in CO and not once have they approached me.  They are always shorter than waist height to me and obviously don't think they could take me.  They're right.  They couldn't.

I decided to join back up with a running group that I ran with for a month last fall, Boulder Running Republic.  The Coach is Darren De Reuck.  He coaches his wife, Colleen who is an amazing runner (2nd at the USA Marathon Championships in Twin Cities earlier this month in 2:32 and 1st in the USA 20K Championships last month at the age of 45!!)  He also coaches a recreational club, Boulder Striders and this smaller more elite group, the Running Republic.  Darren has organized group workouts on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

This morning we met at 7:00 a.m. in Boulder.  Aaron gave the kids breakfast and took them to the gym with him so I could go to Boulder.  Then he dropped them off at our friend, Silvina's house afterwards so I could come home, take my shower, eat, and then clean the house.

We did a fartlek workout this morning. 

20 minute warm up with 4 X 25 second strides

2 X 3 min @ 10K effort/90 sec easy - my pace was around 5:58 on these

4 X 30 sec quick turnover/60 sec easy - He had us count our strides, so each time my right foot hit was one stride, and mine were 53, 54, 53, 54 which was about 5:25 pace

2 X 5 min @ half marathon effort/2 min easy - my pace was 5:57 on the first and 5:47 on the second.  I finally started to feel good and warmed up for these.  The sun came out and I took my long sleve off after these repeats.

4 X 60 sec fast/60 sec easy - my pace was 5:13-5:30 ave

10 min cool down

Total time was 1:12:55, 9.47 miles with 7:41 ave pace

GREAT workout!

Darren and I also talked about a 6 month plan for me in racing.  He reccomended that I focus on going for a half-marathon PR at the USA Half-Marathon Championships in Houston on January 17, 2010.  Then go for a marathon PR in the elite section at Boston in April.  He thinks Boston is a lot better for me than Grandmas because it is two months earlier and gives me better timing to recover and train for another fast fall marathon.  There is a more competitive field at Boston, but the prize money isn't neccessarily better unless I really think I can run sub 2:35...which I'm not sure is within reach for me yet.   I do agree that the timing is probably better if I want to go for another marathon in the fall though.  And I do like the idea of seeing Boston since I've never been there.   

Ran with Carolyn in Colorado today.  She was kind enough to make the 50 minute drive from Littleton to join me on a nice long run on Big Dry Creek.  It was about 32 degrees and lightly snowing.  I enjoyed getting to know Carolyn better and having someone to pass the time with.  The pace felt great as a nice recovery pace for me after my fast workout yesterday and Carolyn pushed it for a nice long tempo run at her half marathon race pace.  She ran impressively well especially considering that she did a fast workout yesterday too. 

My watch said 8:35 average pace for 11.5 miles.  A solid 1:39 on my legs.  Thanks for the run, Carolyn!  We'll have to do it again!

Easy 6 around Countryside.

My legs were pretty tired because I had them worked on for over an hour last night by Aaron's massage therapist, Sherry.  She does Push Therapy Technique, which is quite different from just a standard Swedish or Sports massage.  She also uses essential oils, so I smelled very fragrant when I left last night and all through my run this morning.  The work she did on my legs and feet felt good.  The jury is still out on whether I like it better than deep tissue massage for tightness in my legs or not.  We'll see how I feel over the next few days.  This is actually my second time going to her.  She is a very nice lady and interesting to listen to. 

I think I'll go to Las Vegas now and hang out with my sister-in-laws in the mid-80 degree sun.  Its girls weekend!  Gotta get to the airport!

8 miles around our rental house in Las Vegas, NV.

 Ahh it is beautiful weather here in Las Vegas.  Mid 80's and clear skies.  I was actually really hot on my run in the desert sun this morning.  I slept in until around 8:00 a.m. and left for my run around 8:30 a.m. but it was already very warm at that time, so I ended up just running in my sports bra and shorts.  As I was coming back I saw a biker out with arm warmers on.  'Cause to the locals it must be cold?  Before coming here I think I was almost acclimated to the 30 degree mornings in CO.  I hope a few warm mornings here doesn't spoil me and I have to re-acclimate.

Girls weekend has been fun.  Last night we stayed up late watching a movie and eating chocolate and popcorn.  Then we all slept in and I woke up and went for a run.  After my run I soaked in the 72 degree pool and ended up swimming a few laps and taking a few dives off the little diving board.  My sister-in-laws all thought I was crazy for getting in the "cold" water, but it was actually quite refreshing after my hour run in the heat.  Then we showered and went shopping.  I got some new winter running clothes and shoes at the Nike Outlet and a few shirts at Aeropostale.  After that we got pedi/manicures.  In all my 28 years I have actually never actually gotten a pedicure or a manicure, but I decided to try the pedicure on my callused runners feet.  It felt very nice and my feet currently look more pristine than they have ever looked.  Then we came home, took naps, and made beaded watch bands.  My sister-in-law, Dawn has a large plethora of beads and brings them to all girl-gatherings.  I decided to make a watch since everyone else seemed to be really into it, and I actually really like it!  Nothing like a girls weekend to help me become more in touch with my feminine, fashion side.

Gotta Go!  Off to Cheescake Factory for dinner! 

Went with my sister-in-laws, Chris and Elisse to the bird nesting grounds that we saw on the map thinking it would be a beautiful place walk around, then I could run back to the rental house from there for 7 miles.  It took us a good half an hour to find the place as it was nestled back behind the waste management plant on a dirt road and was not extremely beautiful, but we did walk around and we did see one bird.  It was just a dry open space with a small stream running through it and trees growing right around the stream.  It was fun to chat to Chris and Elisse while we walked through the desert oasis.  They are my only two other homebirthing sister-in-laws (like me).  But they also homeschool and I am not on that band wagon.  Actually, Chris recently put her 4 boys back into public school.  Elisse is still completely against the idea of public school and I was trying to understand why.  After probing for 20-30 minutes I think I got closer to understanding her reasons but I just dont subscribe to the same train of thought.  I really love that Abe is being taught by someone other than me and socializing with other kids his age at school.  He is experiencing lots of things I could not provide for him at home.  But I do respect Elisse for her homeschool decision.  After all, very few of my friends and family agree with my decision to homebirth, but I appreciate their respecting my decision and recognizing that it is what I believe is the best option for me.

Anyway, back to the run...

After our walk I took a potty stop in the bushes and started my run back to the rental house.  It was almost noon by now and starting to get very hot (probably close to 90 degrees) in that Las Vegas sun.  I only got 2.5 miles before I had to stop in a Casino and use their drinking fountain.  I wanted to just stay in the cool air-conditioned building a bit longer but the cigarette smoke was bringing me early death, so I took off again.  I did some strides and attempted a 2 mile tempo run.  Ran 13 minutes for 2 miles and it was not easy.  The heat gave me an extreme headache probably because I am used to 30 degree Colorado mornings.  After my tempo segment I stopped in a grocery store and guzzled more water.   I was going to do another 2 miles tempo, but my head was pounding and I was starting to get extremely hungry as I had not eaten breakfast yet (staying up late and sleeping in really messes with me).  I just ran easy the rest of the way home and returned home extremely overheated.  Immediatly upon my return home I downed an entire 20 ounces of fluid in about 4.6 seconds and jumped in the now 68 degree unheated pool.  It was the most refreshing plunge into cold water I have ever experienced!  I had been looking forward to that plunge for my entire run, actually.  And it felt great!!  Seeing me swimming in the cold water and actually enjoying it, a few other of my sister-in-laws decided they just had to be a part of the fun and suddenly I was swimming with Chris, Michelle, and Dawn.  Chris and Michelle were already in their swimming suits enjoying the sun so we just counted down together and jumped in.  Dawn was the most hilarious of the group.  She had been inside and was the last to behold our swimming and was suddenly very impulsive about wanting to get in the pool so she didn't even bother putting her swimming suit on.  She just slipped her shirt off and jumped in au natural.  At that point all the sister-in-laws were either swimming or standing poolside laughing our heads off at Dawn.  And that is when the craziness of the day began.  After swimming and some more shopping, we went to the Strip and had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, rode the NY NY Rollercoaster (awesome), and decided to go dancing.  I actually had never been to a club in my life and was not super excited about going (I was also VERY tired as I am not  a late night person), so I was just going to drive home and take whomever else was tired with me.  But as we were standing outside the club trying to decide who was going to go home with me and who was going to go dancing, Dawn and Shauna had been working their magic with the guys that worked the club and we ended up getting in free on someone's guest list (instead of having to pay $20 each).  So I went in for a few minutes and tried to muster some energy to dance, while laughing at my sisters all gettin' jiggy with it.  I was most impressed by my 60-year-old mother-in-law who is a very good ballroom dancer.  She grabbed my SIL Emily and started swinging her around with fancy feet and much skill.  Then she swung my other SIL Ashley around for a bit too.  She was definitely the best dancer on the floor as everyone else was just doing that jiggly bounce that seems fitting to loud thumping music.  After about 30 minutes, I was done and decided to leave.  Four other sister-in-laws went with me and we went home to sleep.  Ahhhh sleep.  The other 5 sisters stayed another hour and a half and reported that they had a blast.  Clubbing isn't really my scene, I doubt that I will ever do it again.  I thought it was a unique activity for 10 married, non-drinking (for the most part) women to do together, but it was pretty funny and fun for a bit.  I guess thats why they say, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas."

Flew home from Vegas.  Got to the gate to board my flight and they asked me to be bumped for a $200 plus the cost of my flight, which was $160, equaling a $360 travel voucher.  I strongly hesitated as I was very tired and anxious to see my kids and husband.  But then I thought, hey this is a free flight for Aaron AND me to Houston in January or Boston in April.  Its worth it.  So I agreed and they confirmed me on a flight that didn't get to Denver until 10:45 p.m. Ugh. It was going to be a looooong day in the airport.  But then I had him put me on the top of the standby list for the next 3 full flights to Denver and prayed that I could get on the next flight just 50 minutes later.  My prayer was answered!!!  Someone missed their flight and I was the lucky standby person to get on!!  So I got a $360 travel voucher for just waiting in the Vegas Airport for an extra 50 minutes!  Score!  I got home around 4:00 p.m., gave my kids some little souveniers I had picked up for them and enjoyed the evening with my family.  Its SO good to be home.  And I looked online and discovered that my travel voucher will all but $50 cover our trip to Houston OR Boston, whichever I decide to use it on.  Sweet! 

Easy 9.5 around Standley Lake.  The water level is way down so I decided to run on the beach next to the water until my shoes had an inch of mud stuck to the bottom.  I scraped the mud off on a fence post and ran on the road after mile 6.  

I was super tired today after my weekend of staying up too late every night so I took a nice long nap while my girls were napping and Abe was at school this afternoon.  I love sleep.  Sleep is good. 

Ran with Boulder Running Republic this evening.  The weather was 50 degrees and holding all day until right as we started our workout, the temp started to drop, wind started to blow, and rain started to fall. 

We did a 20 minute warm up and strethched together.  Then we did some strides and started our workout.

1 minute at 5k effort-5:27 pace

1 minute easy

2 minutes at 5k effort-5:40 pace

1 minute easy

3 minutes at 10k effort-5:42 pace

1 minute easy

4 minutes at 10k effort-6:23 (uphill into the wind, hail pelting my face at one point...fun)

2 minutes easy

4 minutes at 10k effort-missed the split on this one. Watch says 6 minutes in 6:50 pace

2 minutes easy

3 minutes at 10k effort-5:24 pace (downhill with wind at our backs)

1 minute easy

2 minutes at 5k effort-6:00 pace (uphill and into the wind again)

1 minute easy

1 minute at 5k effort-5:14 pace

Jogged an 8:06 mile back to the car.  Watch said 7:40 ave for 8.3 miles.  At the end the rain was picking up and temp was  still dropping.  I put my rain jacket on and we all chatted for a few minutes.  Then I drove home and it started snowing as I was driving home.  Now I've taken a hot shower and eaten dinner and I'm feeling a lot more comfortable.  I really like that group.  There were probably about 15 people there tonight and a couple of the guys were really pushing me. I'm sure there will be more runners pushing the pace at the front once everyone recovers from their marathon. A handful of them did the Columbus marathon together last weekend so after taking the entire week off las week they were just running easy tonight.  My next workout with them is Saturday morning.  Looking forward to it!

See snow day pics here.

AM: Slow run this morning in the snow.  6 miles in 9:06 pace.  Felt like 8:06 pace effort though.  Probably because I'm tired from the evening workout yesterday and also because I was running in 3 inches of snow with wind that seemed to change direction so it could always be blowing me in the face.  Light snow was falling.  I was wishing I would have worn a hat with a brim to protect my eyes from the snow, but as it was I just pulled my beanie way down half way over my eyes and that helped a little.

Its SO beautiful out there!  I love the snow mornings.  I left my ipod home today because there is just something amazingly quiet and peaceful about fresh snowfall and I didn't want to interrupt it with music in my ears.  I didn't see any other exersisers out but I did see a few tracks from people who had walked their dogs.  I was suprised to find when I got home that all Jefferson County Schools have been cancelled today.  I told Abe and he's pretty stoked that he gets to stay home with us.  The roads really aren't too bad but I guess they are worried that the forecast says its supposed to snow heavily all day and they didn't want to mess with sending kids home mid-day.  Watever, I'll take it.  I have a Chiropractor appointment this morning and then maybe we'll go play in the white stuff and go to the gym later for a few more miles on the TM and some stretching/lifting.

PM: Went to the gym for another 4 miles on the TM.  Originally I resolved that it would take 32 minutes to run 4 miles (8:00 pace) but I kept getting bored and wanting to be done sooner as I pushed the speed up arrow.  Finished in just under 30 minutes (7:30 pace.)  Felt good to go faster than my earlier snow run.  After running I stretched and lifted weights for 40 minutes.  It was a good workout.  Looks like I'll be heading to the gym again today for running on the TM.  As much as I enjoy running in the snow, 2 feet on the sidewalks isn't condusive to running any sort of decent pace.  I hope I can get my car to the gym and I hope the gym is open.  Guess I better call first.  If not, maybe I'll dust off the snow shoes and go for a hike.

Another snow day for Abe's school. Here's a picture:

Went to the gym and ran on the treadmill for as long as I could until the child care people paged because Abe had a bloody nose and Ali was extremly tired and fussy. 

8 miles in 7:45 pace

9 miles on the TM again.  7:55 pace

Attempted to go outside this morning around 8:00 am but after running 0.1 mile and slipping 7 times, I decided I'd rather run 9 miles on the TM than ice skate my way to a broken collarbone.  I've broken my left collarbone twice so I have a small fear of falling on ice.  Gladly, I did not fall on the TM. And after I had run 5 miles, my friend Lindsey showed up and ran the last few miles with me.   Aaron also returned after being so kind to drive home and get Ali a bottle of milk (she would not go to child care when we first got there so Aaron volunteered to drive her home to get the milk and return in the hope that she would go to the child care if she had her milk.)  She did in fact go for that plan and we were able to get our workouts in. 

This afternoon was Abe's class party and Halloween parade.  I took a plate of fruit and joined them for the festivities.  Gotta love Halloween.

10 miles with Boulder Running Republic.  Thank goodness the sun came out yesterday and today and melted the sidewalks.  We ran on a clear bike path in Boulder in pleasant 45 degree morning sun.

20 minute warm up.  Stretching, 4X25 second strides.

20 minute tempo at half marathon effort - 5:56 pace (a couple of miles of  gradual downhill with a tailwind, then last 1.3 mile gradual uphill with headwind)

4 minutes easy

6 minute tempo at 10k effort - 5:50 pace (one hill and some headwind)

3 minutes easy

6 minute tempo at 10k effort - 6:03 pace (last .2 mile was pretty uphill and into the wind and I was very tired).

20 minute cool down

Coach Darren invited everyone in the group to race the Longmont Turkey Trot 10k together on November 14th in place of our Saturday workout.  I ran this race last year and I think I was barely under 40 minutes.  I'll shoot for sub-38 minutes this year.

We had a family vote yesterday while eating breakfast and it was unanimous...we need to drive to Utah next weekend to go to the They Might Be Giants family concert at the Murray Theater.  Immediatly after our vote, Aaron went online and purchased 4 tickets to the Concert.  Our kids are HUGE fans of their music; especially the new Here Comes Science album and also other kids albums, ABCs, 123s, Bed Bed Bed, as well as a plethora of other songs they sing.  Actually I can't think of a TMBG song that I DON'T like.  They pretty much bring it in every song they've written.  So Aaron and I are just as excited as our kids for the concert.  We'll drive out Friday, go to the concert Saturday, and drive back home Sunday afternoon.  Maybe I'll find a little 5k to race in SLC Saturday morning so I dont have to run my tempo run alone.  Anyone know of a good cheap race in SLC on the 7th?

Oh, and if any of you have young children and for some absurd reason you haven't yet been listening to TMBG, you really need to get your kids the Here Comes Science album.  It rocks.  It comes with a DVD and CD.  The videos are awesome too.  My son listens to the album quietly every night as he falls asleep and he cant help but sing along.  Its hilarious to hear him belting it out for about 4 songs and then he kinda trails off and zonks out.

10 miles around Standley Lake.  Warmed up, did 4X25 sec. strides and ran the remainder of miles.  7:41 pace

I am loving how easy it was to get up at 6:00 a.m. this morning.  It had been becoming progressively harder since it wasn't getting light until 7:00 a.m. but this morning I ran in complete sunlight!  Yeah!  I love daylight savings.  

All that 2+ feet of snow we got last week: GONE.  There are just a few traces of it in the fields and random spots, but the trails and sidewalks are completely clear.  Gotta love Colorado sunshine!  We're back to our usual mid-50s/low 60s Fall weather.