I Probably Should Make My Blog Public again

I can't exactly remember which days during the week I ran, but I know it wasn't many.  Just 3 total.

I'm fairly pleased with this run.  I got outside (it was about 25), but had to change my planned route because few sidewalks were shoveled.  The first mile and a quarter was snowy.  Then I just ran some loops on the streets in my area.  They were also snowy, but when I could, I ran in clear spots.  There's supposed to be freezing rain, but it and the snow should melt tomorrow.  This week is supposed to stay above freezing, so that's cool.

(9:23, 9:07, 8:55, 8:56, 8:52, 8:58, 8:59, 8:58)

Treadmill.

Treadmill

I had to work in the a.m., and then we went to my sister's. I packed treadmill running stuff.

My sister's treadmill doesn't exist anymore. Luckily, she and her husband own PT clinics, so she and I went there. I did one warm up mile and then did faster paced quarter miles and then .33 miles, then back to quarter miles, all alternating with the same distance. Even though I should have ended on an easy quarter mile, I kept up the pace. So about a half mile of the fast was at 830 pace and the rest was at 8 pace.

These were slow miles indeed.  There was a blanket of snow on the ground (2-3 inches) and snow was still lightly falling, which made it difficult.  I chose my route unwisely at first.  I headed toward the bike path.  I thought it would be plowed, but I forgot that today's a holiday.  Then I ran on the snowy roads.  I stopped to kick out my legs at 4 miles and 5 miles.  They were tight from the shorter steps and the effort to stop myself from sliding.  It's possible that I will run again tonight, but it's just as possible that I won't.

(9:24, 9:34, 9:25, 9:08, 9:16, 9:03)

I stopped after 3 miles, and then decided that I had one more mile in me.  I, as I always do on the treadmill, varied the speed throughout.

My right foot is weirdly swollen on the top.  It feels like I bruised it, but I don't remember doing anything to it.  Hope it isn't anything related to running.  Luckily it doesn't hurt or anything.

3 notable things about this run:

1.  The entire town of Rantoul has smelled like vomit/garbage/manure for the last 3 days.  No one knows why.  It bothered me at the beginning of the run, but I probably was mouth breathing for the rest of the run.

2.  I wore a Rudolph reindeer ear band, complete with horns that flopped around.  This is because I started my run from the youth center, had forgotten I needed a hat of some sort, and that was the only thing I could find in the car.

3.  It warmed up yesterday and melted some of the snow, but refroze over night.  It was warmer this morning (33 says my phone), but there were still some spots where I had to watch my footing.  It was also gusty.

(9:18, 9:03, 9:05, 9:00, 8:58, 8:47)

A relatively uneventful run.  The Rantoul smell is gone.  It was foggy.  My phone said it was in the 30s, but I was really overdressed.  I stopped at 2.5 to take off the shirt under my jacket.  A few times throughout I contemplated taking my jacket off.  I would have been warm enough...but I'm not much of shirtless runner.  Towards the end of my run, some fine middle aged to elderly gentlemen called out to commend me for my running.  They asked me how long I was running, and I told them 8 miles.  They then complimented me on my shapliness, so I gave them a thumbs up and kept running.  They yelled a little louder, and I'm guessing that they were either admiring my determination or they thought I flipped them the bird.  I was too far away to figure out which one.  My watch died in the last 2 miles, but my pace was just under 9 minute miles on the whole.  For some reason, I'm not able to paragraph this entry, even thought I'd really like to.

Wanted to do 2. Fit in 3.

Got new shoes. The top of my foot still feels bruised. Those 2 things aren't really related.

2 miles in the a.m. The rest of this week is busy.  I'm glad I managed something, even if it was only 2.

Thursday was a planned day of not running.  Friday wasn't.

I ran twice today, but the runs were not that far apart.  I had to come home halfway while Chuck dropped the boys off at practice because the baby was sleeping.  I ran 4 with a watch that turned off after 11 minutes.  I thought it just died.  My first mile was 8:41. 

I charged it a little, and then got out about 45 minutes later.  My watch turned off again a couple times, but I turned it on and it worked.  I'm sure it's on the brink of needing replacement.  It's pretty old.

My pace for the second 4 miles was about 8:40.  Because of the couple shut offs, I don't have real splits.

There was some snow on the ground.  I planned on 5.  At about 2.25, I twisted my foot when I stepped on something (a pile of dirt, maybe?).  It hurt like a son of a b.  I thought about calling Chuck to get me, but he and the kids were at Mass.  So I walked for about 5 minutes until it didn't hurt much, then ran home. 

It'll be fine, but I'm going to be a little cautious.  I'm icing now.  It does hurt a bit.  It's also, of course, the same foot that already hurts mysteriously.  Again, I'll be fine.

I suppose I should make this entry.

I flew out to AZ on Thursday and stayed with my cousin until I rolled out of bed at 2:45 to get ready for a 3 a.m. pick up time.  Then at 3, Burt texted me to tell me that whoopsie, he meant 3:30.  But he came and got me first so that was good.  After picking up the rest of our van mates, we got to the start.  Burt, a true gentleman, warmed up the porta potty that I used.  We watched an awesome video about safety, and then cut out before it was over because we needed to get a picture of Burt starting.

There were several dumb things that happened early on.  The only one that I remember was what Burt already recounted, which was Mike telling us that we didn't have a slap bracelet, and us deciding to go back to get one.  We left Burt, thinking he'd be okay on his own.  He didn't know what happened.  After we passed him we all realized that we should have looked at his wrist.  Turns out he had one.

Then it was a bunch of sleeping and bonding until my first run.  My watch, which I knew was on the fritz, decided that it didn't want to work, so I borrowed Mike's.  My first run was hot and flat.  I didn't check my overall pace when I was done, but I know that my first two miles were way too fast (a little over 8 min pace).  I do remember one being 9:44, which included a minute of walking and drinking.  After that run, I decided that I didn't really care about pace.  Continued later.

Except this thing is demanding a time, and I don't have one, so I'm just guessing.

My second run was pretty super awesome.  I started just after midnight.  All the silly Arizonians were bundled up, but I asked Burt before if I was crazy for just wanting to run in a t-shirt and shorts.  He suggested I was not, and I'm glad I didn't wear more.

I didn't have a watch, so I have no idea how fast it was.  I do know that I forgot to turn on my borrowed-from-Kristie LED blinker at the start.  Because we already had two safety violations, I was paranoid, didn't stop running while turning it on, and it fell.  Batteries, cover and everything went flying and 2 people passed me while I was messing with it and calling Burt.  It still was blinking, but Glen gave me another just in case.  I ended up carrying it.

I ended up passing about 5 people on the run, including both guys who passed me.  One of the guys ended up running with me for about 3 miles, and we pushed each other on the pace.  I could tell he was getting competitive, and I was too.  We didn't talk at all, just kept trying to pass each other.  The end was a slight uphill, and then we headed into the finish...where there was no one for me to pass off to.  We high fived and all that, but we had to wait for a few minutes for runner #7.

My second run was again hot.  And it was uphill for the first half.  No lies, I walked a few of the bigger uphills, but nothing more than a minute or so at a time.  Downhill was a different story.  See, I was supposed to run through the exchange to add on one mile.  I had no watch, and I was out of water about halfway through.  Mentally, I was struggling.  I walked a few small stretches in the second half, and I am not ashamed to say that I ran/walked about the last mile.  Well, maybe I'm a little ashamed.  My elevation climb was nothing compared to Burt's first leg.

When I got to the exhange, I was both relieved and angry that Glen was prepared to take on the mile that I was supposed to do.  But I handed off that slap bracelet like a hot potato.

So that's pretty much it.  The experience was pretty awesome.  I'd do another.

One of my favorite parts of the whole thing was getting to meet Burt's Emily.  She's pretty awesome.  I got to be part of her pit crew while we were waiting for our last runner and the end of our race.  She treated me like I was a long time pal, and that was pretty cool.

This was my first run this week for no real reason.  I was not sore beyond the day of the race.  Monday just started off kinda bad and busy.  I was thinking of just doing a round of 21 day fix, but carrying Griff is doing a number on my shoulder, so I kinda went round and round with myself for about 3 days.  Then on Wednesday, I just decided that since I hadn't done any exercise all week, I might as well just continue the trend.  Same on Thursay.  And on Friday.

I'm glad I stopped being so lazy on Saturday.  I ran to the youth center for Charlotte's game and then ran home.  On the way home I added a half mile so I could get to approximately 4. 

I need to get a new watch.  Don't thing I will be able to bring myself to spend the money for a while.  That's kinda why I was hanging on to the really really old one even though it kept shutting off during my runs.

Need to remember to blog my not running things.

I'm doing at least 2 weeks of 21 day fix, just because. Then in the third week I'll get more running in there.

Upper fix. Two of the kids started this with me, but didn't finish.

Lower fix.

Pilates.

Cardio fix ( was supposed to be done yesterday) and then half of dirty 30 before the DVD stalled. So irritating. I really don't want to do Beachbody on demand for the 3 times a year I do a program.

Yoga.

Total body cardio.

Doubled up on upper and lower fix.  Had a long day on Tuesday.

Pilates.  I don't love pilates.

Didn't work out yesterday.  Wanted to do cardio and dirty 30, but only got in cardio.

Will do dirty 30 tomorrow and probably resume running this week upcoming.

We got about 8 inches of snow today.  Happy Spring.  This was a treadmill run.

Treadmill

Treadmill.

I have been running the last 3 weeks, but just got out of the blogging habit during the week of March 4.  That was tech week for my kids being in The Sound of Music, which was fun for them, but not as much for me.  Ha.

The only miles I remember are last weekend I ran 5 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday.  I ran only once during this week.  Otherwise I did a Stations of the Cross workout one day and didn't do anything on Monday and Thursday.

This run was decent.  I still don't have a gps watch, so I had to just go by time and mostly known distances.  I would estimate my pace at about 9:15, and it might have been a little over 9.

Three Easter treadmill miles after Mass and before family came over.

Would you believe it snowed again? Another 2 or 3 inches. It melted the next day.

Treadmill

Treadmill

Ran outside. It's still unseasonably cold, like 40s today. Boo. I got my new garmin today, a vivoactive. I couldn't sync it with my phone before I ran, but did after. It's a smart watch, but I'm not sure that I am going to keep it sending me notifications. I've only had it on for a couple hours and it's kinda annoying.

Anyway. I ran 4, and it was at about 8:50 pace. So it felt okay. I'm not really speed driven right now.

This was a challenge.  I got to 8, stretched for a minute, and then tried to just relax the pace of my last 2 miles.  AP was 9:09.  I can't figure out yet how to figure out my splits.  I know the last couple miles were somewhere between 9:20 and 9:30, and I had 2-3 sub 9 pace.

I know I did more throughout the week, but I forgot to blog.  This was a not so great run.

I ran a few times throughout the week, but already I can't remember what days and what my mileage was.  It was never much.  Maybe 3 times 3 miles. 

I walked a little during this run, starting at about mile 7.  I would run a mile + .04 then walk .06.  I did that 3 times.  Why?  No reason.  I just needed it, and that seemed like a good plan to keep the walking at a minimum.  I had to run home (stopped at 8.35 miles) to drink some water and drop off my sweatshirt.  After that, I ran 2 full miles, walked .06, then ran most of the way home.  I did stop to fix my socks, which seemed to be bunching up weird in one of my shoes.

I am doing my annual half next week.  I'm not in racing form.  Last year I finished just under 1:55, and I also wasn't in racing form then.  This year, I will be slower.  I will be surprised if I come in under 2 hours.  Just the result of lackadaisical training.