Create.

6.5 recovery miles

20 miles

Another big week for me. I am very happy with how my body is handling this higher mileage. The only thing that has bothered me is my tummy. Nothing too bad, but it just feels a bit sick quite often. Lame. I do think I will take a step-down week next week just to be safe.

We had a GREAT group this morning! I hope I don't forget anyone, but I am going to try and see if I can name all who were there: Me, Smooth, Kathie, Rachel, Lowell, Toby, Karen, Matt, Brooke, Tom Slick, Marty, Adriane, Kim, Kendi, Rick, Annie (my SIL) and Nic (my brother). :) :) :)

I ran the first 5.7 miles with Annie and Lowell. Annie is running her first marathon on the 16th (Salt Lake). There is something magical about the first! I loved being with her and listening to Lowell's hilarious stories. According to Lowell's watch we ran about a 10:15 pace.

My next 14.3 miles were with an AP of 8:21. I ran 5 by myself, then 3 with Matt, a couple more by myself, a tad with Brooke, a couple with Smooth and Rachel, and then a couple more by  myself. Changing running partners like that made the run extremely enjoyable.

Smooth had OJ, chocolate milk, yogurt and bananas for everyone at the end! I just love her!!!!! :) :) :)

Happy Saturday! :)

*** Okay, I have a question: I seriously have been eating way more than I usually do. I am hungry all of the time. Should I really have this drastic of a change with my appetite with 20 extra miles per week? Also, I am craving things that aren't looked upon as healthy: like salt. I have allowed myself to eat whatever I am craving, but that could come back to bite me. I am not concerned about weight (at least at this point), I am more concerned about how the foods I am craving are going to affect my running. I eat healthy most of the time, but also have allowed myself to eat big cookies and quite a few protein bars. That's another thing, are protein bars really healthy? I would love to have the time to eat the way I should all of the time, but I often eat what is convenient (and fruits and veggies just don't fill me up).

morning:

8 miles

(2 wu, 6 x 600 m w/200 m jog in between each, then a little under 3 easy)

* The 600s were not as fast as I would have hoped. However, I have a lot of miles on my legs so I am not going to let it discourage me.

evening:

30 minutes lower body strength training

13.1 miles, AP 7:44 (net loss of 600 feet)

Salt Lake Half course

I ran hard, not max hard, but hard enough that I was ready to be done before I was done. Wind was bothersome at times, so were the lights on State St. Other than that it was pretty fun. Stopped to asked if I could use Jolley Pharmacy's potty -- they said, "No." Maybe I looked like a thug. :)

I stopped my watch whenever I stopped. Including when I stopped at Liberty Park to refill my water bottle. I was so thirsty today.

morning:

6 recovery miles: 2 by myself - AP 9:40, 4 with Ry - AP 9:08

Legs felt very heavy and tired.

evening:

5.5 recovery miles on the TM - set it at a 10:00 pace and left it alone

**Note to self: When you take the SIM card out of a phone it can still be used to call 911. In other words, if hypothetically I give an old phone to one of my sweet trouble-makers (name to be witheld) then hypothetically he will dial 911 repeatedly during his recess only to hang up when someone answers so that they hypothetically trace the location of where the number is being dialed from and send the police to the elementary school of the hypothetical student.

11 miles, AP 8:39

Felt much better than I did yesterday. :)

**I am so so so glad that I ran this evening. KristyAnn just brought over a big plate full of the BEST peanutbutter bars that I have EVER had!!!! I already ate two of them and am eyeing a third. It's times like these when being a runner pays off big time!!! :) :) :)

7 easy miles

20 miles, AP 8:33

AWESOME run with Matt (The Running Professor) and Vuyk (JohnnyV). :)

All our kids' games got canceled today, so we postponed our run until 8:00 this morning. Ran the first 11 with both Matt and John, and the final 9 with John. We stopped a couple of times to refuel and use the bathrooms. (I drank 20 oz of fluids and took 1 gu.) I was a bit worried that I would struggle during this run, but strangely, I felt great throughout (other than being a little wet and cold at times)! :) YAHOO!!!! Three high mileage weeks for me and I feel fantastic! I am definitely taking this coming up week much easier though. Want to play it safe! :)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/78121589

Reduced mileage week

7 miles

TM speedwork. 6 x 400 meters a little faster than 5K pace with roughly 200 meters jog in between. Then one 1600 meters at 5K pace.

For whatever reason, the song Scenario by A Tribe Called Quest (I know this is dating me) seemed to have the perfect beat today. I must have replayed it a dozen of times. Funny!

Happy Monday!! :)

6 miles - medium effort

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/78973194

*So why is it that ducks don't seem to bother me but geese totally freak me out?

7 easy TM miles, AP 9:15, while  watching The Biggest Loser.

10.5 easy miles on the TM (it was too dark and windy outside and I wanted to finish watching The Biggest Loser).

I found myself itching to run faster ... that's a good sign. :)

(I did throw in a couple of 400s just for the taste of it.)

Just kind of ...ish again. Not awesome, but certainly not bad. :)

A few mishaps: gun went off while I was in the POP; dropped my inhaler twice and had to run back to get it each time; and I got lazy around mile 9. I had it in my head that I wanted to run a sub 1:40 (hard-hard but not max out) and once I knew I had that my umph kinda disappeared. I know I didn't run as hard as I should have because once I saw Andy (whom btw, did AWESOME) with about a mile left and he told me to pick up the pace, I realized I had plenty left in the tank. Oh well, at least there won't be any recovery time involved! :) I didn't think about running this race until a couple of weeks ago when my SIL asked me to pace her the last 10K of the full marathon. That is where my heart was, and that was by far the best part of the day (that and seeing Brooke so many times during my half -- I just love her and was grateful to toss my inhaler to her at mile 7ish so I wouldn't have to worry about that dang thing dropping again)!!!!

A HUGE congrats to my SIL, Annie http://andrea27.fastrunningblog.com/ for finishing her first full marathon!!!!! :) :) :)

Fun day!!! :)

What a morning!!! :)

I planned ahead so that I could skip classes and watch the Boston Marathon. I slept in with the plan of watching it on television as I ran on the treadmill. Showtime. I turn on the tv and NO BOSTON MARATHON!!!! I hate DIRECT TV!!!!! Never had that problem with Comcast. Anyway ... after spending way too much time on the phone with Direct TV (who informed me that I needed to upgrade my package if I wanted to watch the marathon) I found a site online that had live coverage for $4.99. Done deal. But then I couldn't get my order to process! I was getting upset. Finally the order went through. The women had just hit the halfway mark. I still wanted to run and so I frantically took apart my sectional couch and put the long piece on its side in front of my treadmill so that I could sit my laptop on top of it. I had two sets of earphones, one hooked to the laptop and one hooked to my ipod. It was SO SO SO fun listening to my music in one ear and the marathon in the other. The cowbells, cheers, etc. sent an excitement through my body. Also, I had my cell phone in the cup holder so that I could get the splits via texts of our friends running it! It was GREAT!!!! I am done with my run but am still enjoying tracking everyone's progress. Smooth sent me some pics from this morning. Everyone looked GREAT and ready to rock 'n roll!! GOOD DAY!!! :) :) :)

11 miles including 5 X 1200 meters at 5K pace w/ three and a half minutes jog between. Perhaps it was the excitement of Boston, but I feel good! :)

am

6 easy TM miles

pm

5 easy TM miles

14 miles

Physics labs are done! Hallelujah!

Ry dropped me off at Wasatch Blvd this morning to begin my run. :)

1 mile on Wasatch Blvd, 1.5 miles up the canyon then back down to the JRP, on the JRP for 1.5 miles, then home.

I wanted 14 miles and misjudged the distance so had to add the parkway portion on. Next time I will know better. I feel good, just not a lot of zip in my legs and got really hungry mid run. Had 11 ounces of gatorade with me and drank every last sip. If these higher miles don't end up paying off I am going to be so  mad!!!! :) :) :)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/80396183

PM

strength training: arms and shoulders

am

7 recovery miles

pm

4 easy miles

strength training: glutes and core

9 miles

strength training: chest (or should i say lack thereof?) and back :)

20 miles

YAHOO!!!! My highest mileage week EVER and I feel pretty dang good!!! :) :) :)

3 MP miles by myself

13 miles with the Professor (time sure goes by faster when you have good company, thanks Matt!)

3 more miles by myself (2 MP and 1 Threshold)

Then one cool down mile with Bish (turned my watch off for this mile, I'm guessing it was around 9:20).

** At mile 18 I saw Bish. I asked him to run ahead for 2 minutes and then I would see if I could catch him. This gave me a two minute break to muster up the strength. :) Worked out perfectly!!! I felt much better than I thought I would during that mile. Then I ran a cooldown with him.

Fun morning.

(18 oz of gatorade, 1 gu)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/80984474

12 miles including 10 X 800 meters with 400 meters jog in between.

3:29, 3:29, 3:27, 3:27, 3:25, 3:25, 3:23, 3:23, 3:20, 3:16

Ry is home today, so I am looking forward to a fun afternoon!!! :) :) :)

am

7 recovery miles

pm

4 recovery miles

strength training: legs and lateral hip rotators

14 miles

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/81930245

Solid effort. Legs still a bit heavy and tired, but overall a good run. :)

 Looking forward to tapering. :)

(1 gu, 12 oz gatorade)

am

7.5 recovery miles (slow recovery pace but increased incline .5 with each mile)

pm

3.5 recovery miles

core workout

5 easy miles with a handful of strides. Felt good! :)

strength training: back

I have never felt this strong on a 22 miler before. The pace felt very comfortable and I was able to really enjoy this run and Matt's great company. I wanted to see if I could push it the last three miles. I was thrilled with how good I felt. Thanks for a GREAT run, Matt!!! The hay is now in the barn!!! WAHOO!!!! :) :) :)

Funny story: I got back to my car and immedicately began to freak out because I couldn't find my phone. I was sure that someone had broken into my car and was relieved only by the fact that I didn't bring my wallet with me. As I began to pull out of the parking lot I saw Ry and the kids pull up. Not having much control over my emotions I almost broke out in tears and told them that someone broke in my car and took my phone. They told me to pull over and we would look for it. As I was checking for scratches around the key hole they sat a package on my seat. When I got back in the car I immediately noticed a little note that read: "It's A Mother's Day Miracle (one week early)." Inside the box was the new G2X phone. I was so excited ... I hated my phone!!! I can't believe they let me suffer with panic for so long!!!! :) :) :)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/82551342

2 gus, 20 oz gatorade