I'm not crazy...I'm just bored!!

Did step at the gym this morning and then went out to the treadmill to do a few easy miles. I can't look at the display while I run, so I don't know what the speed was - somewhere between 8:30 and 9:00, I adjust it up a few down one and back and forth through the run as I'm 'feeling' it. I had a hard time running through without Kelli there to distract me; however, I was finally feeling good and ready for a little more speed when time was up. Dang nursery! I would've gotten in one or two last faster miles. Oh well, there's always tomorrow with the lovely promise of hills!

Met the BBK's for early miles this morning and wow, they were off! I was ready for a nice slow warm-up, but there was none of that today. I think we started at a 9mm and I usually like to drag more of a 9:30 plus - especially today I was just tired. I was feeling better after the 3 warm up though and ready for the hills. I thought for sure we were going to do Lampton again, but no such luck (yes, I said luck). Peggy took us to the S curve hill behind the county pool and we were to sprint up, recover about .25 mile at the top, then push downhill as well and recover again about .10 mile. I was pushing it and at first thought the S curve would be easier - push the curves then glide the straightaways, but nope! It was definately all good up hill. It was really good for me to push myself, and as always loved the downhill pushes! 3X of that and then an 'easy' push uphill to meet at the top. We then did .25 mile sprints with a .25 recovery, all flat. I thought I should've been able to push the sprints a little more, but the hills had done in my legs. 4 repeats of the sprints then back down to the car. I finished at 10.25 miles with an AP of 8:56! With all those hills I feel rather vindicated with that time. I did have one mile during the sprints that was 8:21, with the recoveries and everything that felt good. Then I hit the gym for resistance traning and another 1.75 at an easy 10 mm at 2 % to even things out. Now, I'll be working on that nap.....

I went to the kick-boxing class at the gym, then ran 3 on the treadmill. I ran the 3 at a decline of 3% and it was amazing, it felt so effortless (imagine that). So I kept uping the speed. I was comfortable at about a 7:10 mm - which was crazy to me...I didn't even realize it was that fast until I looked at the very end WOW! If I could run a downhill race I might be able to keep up with some of you :) I then finished off with the last 15 minutes of Ab's class. It was a great morning and I feel refreshed and ready for the day.

Met the BBK's for a great tempo workout this morning. We had a 3 mile warm up, and while we were on a neighborhood street I steped on a dirt clod in the road and completely landed on the side of my foot instead of the bottom. Eric was running next to me listening to me whine about my neighbor discounting my race since it was at sea-level and didn't have any elevation. Anyway, I basically fell into him and grabbed onto his arm - Eric saved my life! If he wasn't there I would've been on the road for sure, and thats a long fall; so thanks Eric I really owe you one! My ankle is just a little tender, but luckily its on the ankle bone and above, forward and back motion doesn't bother it just 'around'. The tempo run was great we did 2 minutes at marathon pace and the 1 min at 5K pace. I actually really liked pushing for just the 1 minute, then getting a little 'recovery'. I felt really strong this morning and I have no idea how fast my 5K or marathon pace really was, but my splits were around 8:00-8:30 mm. So, I figured they had to be pretty good (for me) - my overall AP was 8:32 for the 10 miles.

After then run got the kids off to school then went to the gym for yoga and then 30 minutes of my own stretching -I've got to use ALL the nursery time I'm alloted :)

Today I did the body building class at the gym and then rode the upright bike for 30 min (6 miles). Got a lot of errands to run today, but I'm ready for my long run tomorrow - I think I'll hit 20.

I have a request. I'm leaving for a cruise next Friday evening for 2 weeks. I don't know how to 'train' while I'm on vacation. I just can't run long distances on the TM, they do have a running track that is 5 laps/mile so its not too small, but I still don't think I could do 15-20 on a track. I'm nervous about loosing my training for these 2 weeks. Does anyone have suggestions about what to do while I'm gone? Or somewhere I can get a training plan? I think I'm making too big of a deal out of it, but with Ogden being just over 2 months away I don't want to have to start nearly over again in training...help, please!

Do you know how amazing it is to know that your feet can carry you 20 miles?!? Wow, I feel so accomplished today I feel like I need a medal :) - (I already rewarded myself with french fries and icecream).  I ran from my house in Herriman to my mom's house in West Valley along Bacchus Hwy. It was so invigorating...when I was done. I had to scream (with joy) when the garmin clicked over to that 20.0 and I got to stop! I did a few water drops yesterday and I got really worried because the first stop my water was frozen nearly solid. I was banging it on the concrete to break it up enough to get the middle out to get a few sips with the GU. This was the first time I'd used GU (Power Bar variety), and I could feel an energy difference, but a mile after the second one (1@ 7; 2@ 13.5) my tummy was telling me I'd had enough, so I didn't do the 3rd one when I had planed at 17, I just had water. The water at the other 2 drops was fine, not even icy. Everyone tells me that 20 is the wall at a marathon, but today it was about 15 for me. I just couldn't believe I was still so far away, my knees were hurting my tummy ached and I thought about stopping, but when I stopped at 16.8 I knew I only had 3 to go and it was easy to rationalize going that far after a short water stop and stretch...especially knowing it was all downhill from here! My AP for the run was 9:07 - I was really suprised by that, because Bacchus has some GOOD hills, even going 'down' it. I thought I'd be closer to a 10 mm. I did start out slow, but I guess its just the Kenyan in me :)

Here are my splits 1-9:42

2-9:27

3-10:14

4-9:45

5-8:21 (I finally felt warm and ready to run!)

6-8:45

7-8:41

8-9:12 (dodging cars in the mud on Bacchus, one time I came out of it with an extra 5 pounds on my shoes!)

9-8:43

10-9:00

11-9:21 (hitting those hills for this one and the next three!)

12-9:31

13-9:05

14-9:11

15- 9:23 (this was my wall! No hills, just bad mental capacity :(

16-8:43 (feeling much better - obviously!)

17-8:42

18-8:58

19- 9:06

20- 8:39 (Happy to be almost done, lets go!)

I had a great run, and now that I'm feeling a little recovered I'm feeling great and mentally ready to tackle 22 next :) However, first I'll scale back for a couple weeks and enjoy the cruise -- YEA!