TexasLindsey

8 miles at 5:30am.  Weather=67 degrees, 80% humidity, 61 dew point, 6 mph wind, dark.  Average pace=8:49/m.

My watch wasn't charged so I don't have the splits.  Tim told me our average pace after we were done.  Ashley ran with us for the first 4 miles.  My left quad hurt for the first 6 miles. 

8 miles at 4:45 am. WEather=61 degrees, 65% humidity, 49 dew point, 3mph wind, dark. Average pace=8:58/m.

Did same route as yesterday. Ran 1 mile to corner to meet Ashley and Tim. Ashley ran with us for 3 miles then she went home. Tim and I did another 3. Then 1 mile home.

Ashley's just getting over an injury so she is building back up gradually. Actually, she has been kinda pushing the pace a little when she runs with us, which is ok with me. I think I tend to go slower without her around. Tim just matches our pace usually. These are his slow runs. He ran 8 with me slow yesterday morning and then ran 12 in the evening at 7:22 pace for a total of 20 miles yesterday. He says he's going to start doing more doubles and ramp up his training now that corporate tax season is over (he's some kind of accountant).

I guess I really need to get my butt in gear too. I've been complaining for weeks and weeks about not having enough babysitting so I can do tempos or speed workouts. I'm sick of hearing myself whine. I think I've been focusing on "why" I couldn't instead of "how" I could. Therefore, I'm going to attempt to do a good tempo on the treadmill today or tomorrow when my 1 year old takes a nap. I'll see if my 4 year old will watch cartoons and let me run. Normally, I use his nap time to catch up on dishes or laundry or computer stuff... but if I'm going to take my training to the next level, I'm going to have to figure out better ways to manage my time. I can do it. Positive attitude.

8 miles at 4:45am. Weather=76 degrees, 57% humidity, 59 dew point, 3mph wind, dark.

No watch today. Ran with Ash and Tim. Tim said average pace was 8:55 but we had some faster miles of around 8:30 in the middle.

My 1 year old is such a restless sleeper. He wakes up at least 3-4 times a night now and I'm the one who has to get up to check on him. I'm really suffering from chronic lack of sleep. I feel so... unenthusiastic about everything lately. Blah, blah. How can one exercise as much as I do and feel so down?

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5 miles at 1 pm. Weather=71 degrees, 50% humidity, 10 mph wind gusting to 22 mph, mostly cloudy. Average pace=8:56/m.

My sister is babysitting my 4 year old today. The weather was so nice I decided that instead of doing the responsible thing and catching up on housework, I would take Ryan to Trinity Park and push him in the running stroller. It worked out really nice because he fell asleep. The miles ranged from 8:45 to 9:05 pace depending on whether I was going against the wind. I would have kept running but it started to sprinkle and I didn't think Ryan would enjoy getting wet.

It occured to me that maybe I've felt kinda down lately because I'm vitamin D deficient. I run in the dark in the morning and then I stay indoors all day avoiding the heat. Now that it's getting cooler outside during the day, I need to get myself and my boys outside more.

I'm feeling great after this afternoon run. Still really fresh... I don't feel like I ran at all today.

6.2 miles at 4:45am.   Weather=53 degrees, 80% humidity, 50 dew point, 6 mph wind, dark.  Average pace= 9:13/m.

10:30, 8:54, 8:51, 8:36, 9:26, 9:31

Perfect running temperature today.  It was wonderful!  Tim and went a little faster in the middle but then we started talking and slowed down.  He is running a 5K race tomorrow at the Rahr Brewery.  It's a fun race and afterwards they have free food and beer.  They even have beer pancakes apparently!  I'm running 14 miles with the group at the store and then I'm driving over to the Brewery to hang out with them.  The group run starts at 6:30am and the 5K race is at 9am.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get there in time to see the race. 

It was difficult for me to wake up today because I was so tired.  I went to bed at 9pm but I had to get up a couple times with the baby.  I am going to have to do sleep training with him or else I'm going to go crazy.  I can't continue doing this every night. 

When I got back from running, I took a nap of about an hour until the kids woke up. 

13.8 miles at 6:30am.  Weather=63 degrees at start, 69 at finish, 50% humidity, 5 mph wind, dark then sunny.  Average pace=7:45/m.

mile 1- 8:39

mile 2- 7:55

mile 3- 7:59

mile 4- 7:51

mile 5- 7:49

mile 6- 7:48

mile 7- 7:38

mile 8- 7:27

mile 9- 7:17

mile 10- 7:43

mile 11- 7:44

mile 12- 7:44

mile 13- 7:44

mile 14- 6:59

Great day today!!  It started out Jody, Melissa and I.  Melissa is a 24 yr old girl who was new to our running group in June and ran with us a few times but then she went out of town for awhile.  Today she was back and she brought her two older brothers who are also her roommates.  The brothers were the only people ahead of us.  It's funny because before I knew they were Melissa's brothers, I was running behind them and thinking, "those two guys have like exactly the same gait"...  later in the run she told me they were her brothers and it made sense. 

So the first 3 miles, I was having trouble with the pace.  I was keeping up but I thought maybe Jody and Melissa had much more energy than me.  I felt like I couldn't keep up, but I did anyways.  By mile 4-5 I started to "wake up" or the caffeine started kicking in.  We caught up to the brothers and passed them in fact.  Melissa hung back with them.  Jody and I went ahead.

At the turn around Jody and I ran until our garmin's said 7.2 miles because we thought that would get us closer to 14 at finish.  The second half of the loop was shorter than the first.  However, Melissa and her brothers, who were behind us, turned around at 7.0 miles.  When I realized this, something clicked in my brain.  We were now 1/2 mile behind them, whereas before we were ahead.  Before this happened, I didn't think I could maintain our current pace... but once I saw that 1/2 mile gap, I got this huge second wind.  I was like DETERMINED to catch up to them. 

This will explain the really faster times in miles 8 and 9.  By the time I closed in on the mile 9 water stop, I was about 150 yards behind the brothers (Melissa had already fallen behind and was now running behind me).  But those brothers took a 5 second stop at the water stop and kept running.  AHHHHH!!   I had to stop.   I needed gu and water... geez!

So I waited for Jody and Melissa who were just behind me and we ran rest of it together.  Melissa was falling behind in between water stops because she was having stomach trouble.  I was feeling really energetic today though.  Moreso than normal.  So that last mile I just let it loose and it felt GOOOOOD!  I was on fire and I knew it!   My ipod was playing just the right songs at just the right time too.  Oh, and I wore some older shoes today and my blisters were not bothering me in the least.  I figured that would be a gamble but it worked out in my favor.  So lots of good stuff.   Where was all this energy last week for the race???!  

Well, one thing that helped other than the lack of blister pain ---> today I was taking gu!!  I could be a gu representative after these last few weeks of experimenting with and without it!!!!   GU is so important to my performance!

Anyways, so I finished really happy.  I had fun talking to Jody after the run.  She gave me alot of good ideas about structuring my training during the week.  Then I drove over to the Rahr Brewery 5K and watched Tim and Ashley run.  It was fun to be a spectator for a change!   THEN I came home and got ready in a hurry and went to the TCU football game!!!!!  My mom babysat.  We rarely get babysitting so this is a rare treat!!! 

GREAT DAY!   I'm very happy!!