I Probably Should Make My Blog Public again

This will be a light running week.  I did the warm up and cool down, but had each of the four extra girls running today run 1/4 mile with my state qualifier to push her when she was not fresh.  She ran only one fast mile in addition to the warm up and cool down.  She ran the fastest one mile she's run since track (5:54).

Did 15 min. easy, 1 fast miles worth of 400s (1:27, 1:25, 1:26, 1:26) and then another 15 minutes easy.  I was pretty proud of myself during those 400s.  I wish I knew what a reasonable goal for 1 fast mile would be for me.  I've always wanted to break 6:00 for one mile, but I don't think I could do that right now.  I find that if I have a time goal that is realistic, I can usually hit it.  Maybe I'll try next week when life calms down a little.

This may be my last run this week.  Lots of stress.  Life will return to normal on Sunday--or so I hope.

Just a slow 5.1 to knock the cobwebs off my legs.  

My state runner took 37th overall.  It was a good race.  She ran beautifully.

An easy 3

I did 6 half-heartedly.  

I am finally done grading research papers!  Yay!  Now my life is a little less stressful.  The thing that is creating some stress for me is now that XC is over, my routine has been altered, and I have to find a new rhythm.  During the season, if I run at 3:30, I'm fine.  But not in season, when I get home at 4 or 4:15, I am starving and then I have to wait until Chuck comes home to take the kids.  But then it's almost dinner and I'm even more starving.  And then you factor in the darkness...I'll get back into it, even if I have to go back to treadmill running for a couple months.

I had a great run--nice up tempo.  

Splits:  8:56, 8:00, (then I had to go to the bathroom and ran inside and also took off my pants because it wasn't as cold as I thought.  I ran my .1 back to the house and then .1 back to the start of my mile markers), 7:56, 8:05, 8:06, 7:28.  All in all, I finished in 51:19, including the time that it took me to go to the bathroom and take off my pants.  I'm pretty happy with that, especially because it didn't feel that difficult.  I was working hard on that last mile, though.

Went straight home without picking up the kids and ran, since hubby was cooking at the K of C's.

Ran with my brother's dog for 1/2 of this.  He is surprisingly a good running dog--probably because he is such a spaz.  I clipped his leash around my waist, and this was good.  Periodically he would break into a sprint and I'd go with it until I'd had enough--and then I could slow him with the force of my body instead of pulling with my arms.

 After 3 miles we made a turn and he went a few steps and then lay down on the grass.  I wasn't too far from home because I didn't think he'd last my whole run.  When I told him we would go back, he took off at a dead sprint.  He really wanted to go home.  So I ran .2 home to drop him off and then continued.

Just an easy 3.  I've got this annoying, nagging cough.  I hope it stops raining soon.  

An easy 7.  Cold/cough is improving.

An easy run with a little bit of a push at the end.  Not too much push, but a bit more effort.  Didn't run with a watch.  Just went by feel.

My cold has migrated into my head, but it's actually not too bad.  Just hard to hear--feels like my ears are stuffed with cotton.  I'm trying to decide what I am going to race in the next few months.  I think I will try to do my race with Carolyn Saturday, maybe a 5K on Thanksgiving in the tiny town of Philo (maybe), a 5K on December 4, and a 7.6 mile trail race on January 2. 

I have not  really blogged about this, but we decided to postpone the baby-making for a few more months, so I'm also trying to decide whether I should do the Illinois 1/2 or the full in May.  I'm leaning towards the 1/2.

An easy run.

I'm so sorry Carolyn.  I feel like the biggest loser.  I didn't feel great after my run on Friday and I woke up on Saturday with some stomach issues.  I had my running clothes on, I went outside once, and got only a few steps before I had to turn back around and get to the bathroom.  I spent the day in bed and I couldn't keep anything inside my stomach. 

I'm not feeling so great today (Sunday) either.  I don't even know what to eat.  Nothing tastes good.  I am out of bed, though.  I will race my mile either later today (which is doubtful) or tomorrow.

I badly overestimated my skills!

My timed mile was 6:40.  The first 800 was 3:14 (I couldn't see my watch after the first 400).  I didn't think I slowed down that much, but of course I did.  The third lap was the hardest.

I'm going to try again in a few weeks (a few Saturdays from now, since I will be racing the next few weekends).  Maybe doing it first thing in the morning will make me faster.  Maybe not.

At least I won my age division :)

And right after I typed this the first time, my oldest started throwing up in the toilet down here.  Awesome.  I actually thought I had food poisoning or something.  I guess not.  My hubby doesn't feel good either.

An easy 7.  Raining today.  I guess it's supposed to turn into snow flurries around Thursday.  I could do without that.  I've been loving the mild weather.  

I wasn't sure how many miles to do today.  I alternated between 4 (since I'm racing tomorrow) and 7 (because I want to have more mileage this week) and then eventually settled on 6.  Why?  No reason, really.

It was raining again, but lighter today.  I actually didn't really notice that it was raining until I ran by puddles and could see the rain hitting the puddles.  I hope it isn't raining tomorrow, but it probably will be. 

I also wore too many clothes today.  It was a little colder than it's been, so I put on one more layer on top and bottom and wore a hat.  I shed the hat, but there wasn't a lot I could do about the rest.  At least I know how to dress for tomorrow!

Did a 3.2 mile warm up.  Ran the course and a bit with one of my runners--his family was in charge of the race. 

This was the smallest race that I have ever run in (in little Philo, Illinois).  There were probably 50-75 runners and I didn't see how many walkers since they started behind us.  It was also very casual.  No awards other than a turkey to the first male and first female of the under high school division and high school and over division.

The miles were not really marked, but my runner showed me approximately where they were, so I just looked at my watch at those times.  The course was simple to follow--just a backwards P, most of it on country roads.

BUT that was also bad because it was ridiculously windy:  15 mph winds with gusts up to 28 mph.  The first couple miles were fine and I was on track for some time in the low 22's (approximately, of course, to the garmin-less me).  I caught up with the 3rd place girl.

THEN after a little over 2 miles, we turned into a wall of wind.  I tried to use the 3rd place girl as a block for the wind, but it really did nothing.  For 3/4 of a mile we were running slightly uphill AND into the wind.  I lost a lot of time and lost my hold on the 3rd place girl.

Then the last 1/4 mile we got to turn and the wind wasn't so bad.  I tried valiantly to catch the girl, but I couldn't.  I heard footsteps behind me and bore down with everything I had left.  I hadn't been passed since about halfway into the race (by one guy) and I didn't want to be passed in the end.  I held on.  The guy behind me congratulated me--he said he was trying with all his might to catch me. 

I was the 4th woman, but 2 of the girls ahead of me were high schoolers, so I'm okay.  I don't know how old the 2nd place woman was.  I'm a terrible judge of age.  She could've been my age or maybe a little older.

Time wasn't awesome (23:02), but wasn't too terrible considering the wind.  I did roughly a mile as a cool down and now I'm off to give thanks!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh, and I ordered a garmin--it has already shipped.  I'm so excited.

Just an easy 6.  Today's the first day all week that it hasn't been raining. Off to Chicago today!

I almost didn't go running. I was planning on running at my sister's tonight and she changed plans on me and is coming here tonight instead.  By the time she told me I had already missed my morning window.

This morning I had the kids and my mom had errands to run.  So I studied for my upcoming school law test.

Then it was the zoo (what trip to my mom's is complete without a trip to the zoo?).  We took the neighbor boy and went.  Didn't bring a stroller because we were planning just to go to the indoor children's activity place, but it was so nice (high 50s) that we decided to walk around.  It was approaching nap time and Eli got tired after about an hour of walking around (we went into the reptile house and Tropic World--gotta see the monkeys--and saw the elephants).  I carried him for a bit and boy is he heavy.  Then he got a second wind when we went to the park.  Then the kids wanted ice cream (yes, ice cream) and I went with it and had some myself.  My mom refused to play along and ordered hot chocolate.

Then we came home and it was more studying.  Eli took a nap and during a study break I checked my email and saw all the fastrunningblog emails.  So I decided to go for a run since Eli was still sleeping. 

I wanted to run 7 to get to 40 miles this week.  I started to go an 7.5 mile route and then it got dark earlier than I expected and I didn't want to run along the river in the dark.  Instead I headed home and lengthened my run a little. 

So I am just under 40 miles, but I would've been a lot more under if I hadn't guilted myself into running!

This week my running schedule will have to change slightly.  I may (I stress the may) run a couple days in the morning, but it means I won't run as many miles.  Class on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and then I'm pretty much done with my classes for this semester.

These miles were very late and it was very dark.  I rushed to get at least something in.

Tuesday's run will be better.  I'm off to do that now, since it is, in fact, Tuesday.