Blogs and Babies

Workout 

Saturday – rest day. whoa. I can not remember the last time Saturday was a rest day. probably about 2 years ago.  that sounds right.  It seems to go against the laws of the universe and running to not run on the god-given day of long runs. but, I did rebel. I did the long run on Friday and didn’t think twice about not lifting a finger all day saturday. except to chase around my monkeys. sometimes a little rearranging of the schedule is all it takes to get the runs in.  good training in being flexible. which I am not always good at. I’ve been known to be called rigid.  I’m ok with that. mostly because I got my 50 miles on for the week.

The hubs was doing a long training run/hike in the white mountains. Pretty sure he did a trail up and around mount Washington. But, I can’t be certain. I do listen intently to the details of his training, as he does with my mile splits, speed work sessions and my all around crazy daily shenanigans – but the specifics he gives doesn’t really stick. All I know is it was one of the toughest trails in New England, something like 8,000 feet in elevation gain.  Naturally, he had to do it.

And he wants to take me there next weekend to do it again.  that’s love.  what a romantic he is. who needs a nice dinner and perhaps a relaxing night away in a little beach town when you can go hike 24 miles in “the whites”. I’m in. my kind of hot date. now about those kids…any takers?

Sunday – recovery run, from Friday, 10 miles, easy.  8:18 pace.

Funny thing, those easy miles. Once you get into them, it’s amazing how the “easy” pace doesn’t always feel so easy.  I felt like I was working such different muscles running that pace, that my legs were actually really tired. and I just wanted to get the run done. but there is a very definite purpose for the easy pace runs. that’s what forces me to slow down and do them.

Monday – prescribed rest/xtrain day. yet, I attempted to run with Luke this morning, and a couple things happened:

– my right hammy/glute got angry and tight. fine.

– I saw a friend out on the road who was power walking. the power walk and chit chat replaced the run I wasn’t supposed to be doing.

4 miles run/walk. 30 minutes stair master. 20 minutes The Dailey Method DVD.  hammies were over the moon excited about this decision. not only was it a great, quick strength session, it gave me a great stretch as well. win win win win. all around.

I finally pulled myself together today, took a shower and got all dressed up. just in time to pickup my little camper and start making dinner.

It is a glamorous life. that requires a glamorous wardrobe.

What a weekend we had over here in my little wonderworld. Hiking, swimming, babies, running, church picnics, blog meltdowns.  Non stop action. as usual.  This pretty accurately portrays the condition of the fam by last night:

movie time.  done. tired. time to end the day. and start another one at 4:45am.

Babies!!!!

I’m an auntie. My baby sister had a baby.

Sebastian Carter. cutest little baby ever. or in the past 2.5 years since Luke was born. but Luke actually wasn’t very cute right after birth. this little person, however, is heart melting adorable.

and as bummed as I was that they kicked us out as soon as I got there with my girls, it’s probably a good thing. otherwise I might have gotten a huge, gnarly, infectious bite from the baby bug. something about babies still at the hospital that makes me want to have like 12 more. I don’t know why. after I had my kids I was ready to register for nursing school and head directly to the labor and delivery department at the closest hospital.  and pay them to let me work there. I loved it. so we left before I could touch the little bugger – because they didn’t want non sibling children around the little newbies. kind of understandable, but near impossible to explain to a 4 and 5 year old who have been through the roof excited to see their new cousin. such is life. we will smother that baby plenty this week.  and we will wear infectious disease safety gear to ensure his health and well being.

Blog Meltdowns!!!!

So exciting. I’m switching to self hosted. in my amateur, computer and technology lacking mind, this was going to be a quick and simple hop, skip and a jump to the new blog. oh no no. more like hop, skip, jump, climb a mountain, through a forest, swim the English channel, make lots of friends at hostgator – thank you Thomas R. for chatting with me for 2 hours on a Saturday night. splendid.  all while praying that when I get to the destination, the new host likes me and and my guests stay for the ride. please stay. because all I’ve managed to do thus far is change nothing but get rid of all of my subscribers. and waste a lot of my precious hours.  delightful.  the site will be just www.msfitrunner.com.  That’s what I’m told anyway.

If I follow directions properly and my stuff propagates nicely, things should be switching as we speak. or as you read.  Propagating will be underway. fun word.  Little technology tidbit I picked up along the way.  I hate it when my stuff fails to propogate. first rate problems. but in the switch, a number of things could happen, including, but not exclusive to world war III breaking out. it’s a waiting game. other things that could happen while propagation is occurring, is the blog will be unaccessible. again. And I’m just here to tell you, that you will be ok. if I can make it through this difficult time, you can too.  or, you may see a completely unfamiliar site.  lacking a lot of features. unlike my super high tech current site. truth is, I don’t know what will happen. but be patient with me because when I have it switched over, I will have a super sweet giveaway for you!!!  Hopefully by thursday or friday.  It might have something to do with the workout DVD I did earlier today. the one that every runner should do.

Ok. here goes nothing. propogation begins.  I hope I can find my blog tomorrow. wish me luck. it’s going to be a little search and rescue mission on the world wide web.

Does your longer run happen on a day other than Saturday?

Tell me about the weekend in running?  In relaxing?  And I probably won’t reply because I can’t, but I will be reading, excited and happy about it.

The Lucky One

 I may have the voice of a songbird and I’ve been told I carry melodies like an angel, I will not be bursting into any Allison Krause ballads anytime soon. no worries. I will leave that work to my amazingly beautiful and talented Nashville transplanted little sister. but, I am the lucky one. we’ll get to that in a minute. first things first. 

 

 

Workout

Run. 13 miles road + 4 miles treadmill (that can be explained) for 17 miles total, for those of you that can’t do simple math.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had to switch it up and do the long run today because I do not have the ability to do it tomorrow. This whole week was kind of upside down in terms of running. I did 2 stroller runs, which is about 2 more than I’d like. then I did my long run today, without properly preparing for it with easier runs beforehand.  17 stroller miles before a long run isn’t really necessary. preceded by a tempo run. more silliness. and bad planning.  It was hard today. I wanted to inject a few (6) marathon pace miles in the middle.  before I get yammering about the psychosis that happened during and after this run, let’s just look at it. Note – 6 injected marathon miles turned into 4. full disclosure – pfitzinger would have had me do 8 marathon pace miles today. I was not in agreement and we settled on 6. because P man and I are tight like that.  6 turned to 4…and the yammering begins…hold that thought, here are the splits

 

 

 

Miles 1-5 warmup

7:35, 7:39, 7:44, 7:29, 7:35

These were hard, to which I over compensated for feeling hard and went too fast for warmup miles.  fail. 

 

 

 

 

Miles 6-9 marathon pace (6:51)

6:49, 6:48, 6:44, 6:47

These were actually not hard. until the 4th. but couldn’t get out of my head that I have to run 26.2 at this pace

 

 

 

Miles 10-13 cooldown, finish the run and get one more speedy marathon mile

7:16,7:51, 7:21, 6:40, 7:53

just let the miles flow as they may, aside from the 6:40, worked on that one. 

 

 

This run took me down.  for a bit.  It was hard from the start. I was discouraged that I didn’t even do the 6 marathon pace miles I was shooting for.  because I was loosing form.  and just being a punk in general.  buh bye 17 miles, hello 13.

 

 

 

There was a little double D party going on during my run.  not on my chest.  Doubt that I have the capability to hit my marathon goal, and discouragement that the paces didn’t come more easily.  that’s annoying. because I’m stronger than that. I have the ability to run well. I’m thankful for my run today and I have a very new outlook on every run. Some are good and some are bad. I am very critical of certain runs that have a purpose. That criticism use to breed negativity. now it’s productive. I know what happened today and it will lead to positive change in training. The old Katie would have pushed harder because this wasn’t a great run. This productive Katie has a pretty good idea of what todays run was about. by the time I got over the fact that my son lost all of his hair while I was running…

 

 

 

Daddy had fun with the hair clippers!!

 

 

and I walked back in my house, doubt was gone, and I was confident in my goals and my abilities to get them. maintain the confidence built from knowing what I can do, and no one gets hurt.  I have the confidence to acheive my goals at my next marathon.  make it happen. and make it happen without stress. this is fun. 

 

 

 

 Some thoughts:

– Lack of sleep is a big one this week. I’m not sleeping well. That greatly impacts my 5am runs.  or any run for that matter. 

 

 

 

– Lack of fueling. I am having a hard time keeping up with the calories required to run these miles.  My mileage is not big big mileage, but big enough for me to see that I need to be more diligent in getting enough food, especially for a run like today and especially if I choose not to fuel during a run.  

– Lack of rolling/stretching. gives me tight muscles that make me nervous and anxious on a run that I’m overdoing it and going to injure myself. slight self sabotaging actions. no more. roller is going to make more appearances. 

 

 

 

– Lack of listening to my body. too many miles. I need to cut back on the miles a bit. #1, because I’m getting a little too focused on hitting a certain # of miles a week, regardless of how I’m feeling. How I’m feeling kind of has to be in pretty good balance with the plan, otherwise I will start a sad downward slope into overtraining way too early in the game. overtraining should preferably never be “part of the game”.  avoid at all costs. 

 

 

– Lack of proper timing. doing a strength workout and too many hard miles the days before a long run with marathon pace miles isn’t the best idea for me. but I just got this DVD and I had to try it. twice. and I LOVED it. 

 

 

 

 

 

The one on the top – sorry, my non transformed blog doesn’t know how to make it right – the Dailey method. more on that later. but it left my legs more tired than they already were. not smart. 

 

 

 

Instead of pushing it harder next week because I felt like this weeks runs were unnecessarily hard, I’m taking that as a cue to take it easier for a week. fuel up. rest up. regroup. get faster. get stronger. balance the plan and the feeling.  

 

 

 

The treadmill miles happened because I grew increasingly annoyed that I didn’t finish the run this morning. for no good reason. I am not running at all tomorrow and decided that if I run on Sunday, my pace will not exceed 8:30 min/mile, so I wanted to finish this day strong.  stronger than it started.  4 treadmill miles @ 7:30 pace. watching olympic marathon trials. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

this is rare. running on the treadmill at night. rare as in I don’t think it has ever happened. but it was so enjoyable. this is what I’m usually doing at night…

 

 

 

Laundry/iPad action. crazy wild nights. 

 

 

 

onto an easy week.  

 

 

let’s start the easy week with a little froyo. because we’ve only had it 3x already. I had to show Anna how it’s done properly. she has not had good instruction.  Alex was at camp and Luke was not with us and that’s all that matters. it was just me and my little bam. this is how it’s done. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

chocolate.  no berries. no mango. no sour worms. just chocolate. good stuff. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

little lady and I are sitting there enjoying our froyo and I’m thinking what a rare moment this is. just the two of us. and how lucky I felt at that moment. to be completely, 100% present with my amazingly quirky, fantastic little 4 year old who spouts out the most random little thoughts and requests to listen to her idol, T. Swift, while we sit there chowing down. She doesn’t think twice about singing along why you gotta be so mean while sucking on a gummy worm. she even gave me two of her cherries. I really am lucky. cheesy peasy, but there was no place I would rather be.  

 

 

 

 

except for maybe with the Luke man, requesting, insisting on having hot dogs with syrup. intense craving. 

 

 

 

 

 

are you pregnant, luke?  is there something you aren’t telling me?  This is just strange. 

 

 

 

 

we continued on the super lucky mama spending so much fun time with the kiddos afternoon at the pool. this also might have been considered operation run the kids ragged until their little eyelids can’t stay open and they slumber like little bear cubs tonight.  we’ll find out if this operation worked in the morning. I have one singular picture of the pool experience. because 1 mama, 3 kids, 1 pool and picture taking don’t jive. a number of things could happen – child drowns because mom was taking pictures or phone drowns because mom was taking pictures.  It all points back to me. I don’t need that controversy.  

 

 

 

but I got the muscle shot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

somehow, the buzz cut hair has most certainly put the crazy in full drive. as if he could get any crazier. 

 

 

 

I think that’s quite enough for one night. now that you have finished reading the memoir of Katie, you can get on with your life and more productive things. like washing your hair.  painting your nails. cleaning out the lint filter.  on with it. no more procrastinating.

 

 

 

ps – notice how the spacing is all crazy?  working on that too – I do most of the posts on the iPad, and they don’t transfer very well. man, the more I blog the more whacky it gets. work in progress. 

 

Stay tuned!!! I have a super terrific giveaway coming up!  There is reward for persevering through and reading these fantastically informative blog posts. 

 

 

 

 

Making it Work

Workout 

Yesterday

Run. 10 miles total. broken up as follows:

5 miles on the hateful/grateful treadmill (@7:30 pace), 5 miles with sleepy jogger stroller boy.

Trying to prevent overheating. too bad he woke up about 5 minutes later. my two hour afternoon little peice of heaven naptime just got turned into a 20 minute stroller nap. sad.  for me. 

Today

Run. back in the jogger. 7 miles, 55:52.  with my little love bug.

he wasn’t loving it so much. he was hating it. and letting me know it for 3 miles. so. much. fun. I promised him a ferry ride later. I will try to deliver. but you and I both know it probably won’t happen. over promise, under deliver.

It is a hateful machine, that treadmill.  I don’t care what anyone says. but I am truly grateful for it, for otherwise I would have missed half my run yesterday. oh, what a love/hate, can’t live without you but cant stand to look at you relationship we have.

Yesterday was all about making things work. on many levels. some levels were not totally successful, but it’s always a work in progress. so I consider the day a success. because I tried and gave it my best shot. let’s take a look.

Make it work – Running

Running in general is tough, on a good day. finding the motivation is tough.  finding and actually putting the right lululemon skirt is tough.  choosing the perfect pair of sneaks to wear can be tough. it can just get so complicated. then, add 3 kids. that makes it even tougher. add 3 kids who are all very little. tough. then, add a husband. ok, that’s not tough, that’s helpful and delightful – add a husband who trains for crazy races, another element of tough. two peeps, one home, 3 kids, two schedules, lots of miles, too much training, 3 meals a day, lots of snacks, countless activities, twenty four hours, little sleep, 37 trips to the geocery store, kids up at 5am.  make it happen. and that’s what has to happen – you just have to make it work. knowing that it will not flow like honey for quite a few years. if ever. embracing every crazy moment of it.

My husband had long bike rides planned for yesterday and today, meaning the morning slot was occupado for any running activities for me. last night was booked too. which meant somewhere between the 5am wake up and bedtime, with 3 kids and activities, I had to fit in 10 miles. how does that work.

1. Commit to the miles

More than I needed to get 10 miles in, like it was a chore, I wanted to get 10 miles in. I was looking forward to it. I committed to getting the miles in and it was going to happen. I knew that it was going to take some more thinking than just go out and get my run in, so it did require some planning.  and it required me to use the machine that I was not thrilled about using.   I have a plan. a marathon training plan. to get me to my goal. that accountability gets me on the treadmill, and gets me getting those miles in. instead of sleeping until 10 am not running because I have negative feelings about my treadmill.

2.  Make a plan, Commit to the plan

If you fail to plan, than you plan to fail

Someone very wise said that and I don’t know who. but it’s true. and please don’t sue me for saying it.

Apparently I plan to fail in a lot of things. because I rarely have a plan. working on it. look ahead. plan. see what needs to be done. my life would flow a lot more smoothly if I planned things. like meals, and activities, and schedules. I’m well aware of this. admitting I have a planning problem is the first step, right?  let’s work on it.

I made a plan for yesterday, in regards to running, because I knew that it would be tough to get it in. 5 treadmill miles early am, 5 miles with the boy while the girls are at camp. done. put it in the day and get it done. planned, success. no stress. I could have planned a rest day as well, but I knew that I needed that day to run.

3.  Make it a priority

If it happens, it happens mindset doesn’t really work for me with certain things – like running, eating healthy, loving my family and taking care of my kids. these things have to be a priority. running is certainly one of them in the grand scheme of life. then, in just my day to day, sometimes running has to be a priority in the schedule over other things. sometimes it’s cleaning. sometimes cleaning takes priority over running. rare, but it does happen.  it all depends on the day. in terms of making a workout happen when the schedule is crunched, the workout has to become more of a priority than I’ll fit it in if I get a chance – more than likely, that chance won’t happen.

4.  Know what you are up against. and be ok with it

Life.  Do your best and leave the rest. I have become much better at going with the flow and realizing that as much as I try to make something happen, my schedule is not the only one I am working around. kids, life, stuff happens. some days, as much as I schedule, plan, commit, offer up my firstborn child in return for a run, it just won’t happen. that is ok. not a deal breaker.  life goes on and there is tomorrow and next week and next month. live and learn.

5.  Use what you’ve got, even if you don’t love it

Treadmill, jogger stroller, stair master, elliptical, whatever it is. Every situatiom is not going to be ideal.  move on.  do your best with what you have. If its raining cats and dogs and you don’t want to run outside, and you only have workout DVDs, do it. or get on your treadmill. no excuses.

Make it work – Living

I don’t always want to just get through the day, which is sometiems my mentality.  I want to enjoy the day. But sometimes, I’m just exhausted and exerting any extra energy to do anything outside of hang around the house and let the kids have a free for all is just too much. Luke’s little stroller nap actually opened up the afternoon time yesterday, when he normally would be sleeping and Anna and I would be stuck at home. let’s go play, mama says, and make it happen.

Let’s go tear the Whole Foods dining area apart!!  Yay!!!

Kids ate pizza and played a bit, I snacked on some sushi and calamari.

Luke singlehandedly emptied the hand sanitizing machine. he’s clean. so is the floor around the hand sanitizer.

up next was GNC. I needed a couple things.  to be quite honest, the man that works at GNC gives me the creeps and I hate going in there. I used my kids as a shield and a diversion so I could get in and out without giving him my entire summer recap thus far. my little helpers.

What a good boy. helping his mama. protecting from the GNC man.

I promised a trip to Sweet Frog for an outing well done.

I don’t know where my children came from, but they get the absolute WORST combo of flavors and toppings. Luke used to have no preference, and I could make his how I wanted it and steal bites. Somewhere in the last two weeks he has a very strong preference for pomegranate and mango with captain crunch and sour worms and chocolate sauce.  putrid. Anna’s is even worse. where’s all the chocolate and cookie dough?!?!

we made it through with only one yogurt spill. I won’t tell you that we were also there the day before and made quite the scene. thankful that we are friends with the owners. although, after we come in they are probably not so thankful they are friends with us.

Make it Work – Parenting

My 5 year old is in day camp. 9-3. they do day trips. when I signed her up I said there was no way I was sending her on the day trips an hour away to the amusement/water park. my hubs kinda thought I was crazy. but could kind of see where I was coming from. She desperately wanted to go. In my world, I would keep her in a bubble and be at her side every minute.   She’s my firstborn.  She’s my baby.  I knew she would be in good hands, but she wouldn’t be in my hands. And that’s kinda the way it’s going to be. She wont always be in my hands.  The older she gets, the more she’s going to experience. and I need to start building in her the confidence that she can do things without me. or maybe I need to build that confidence in myself. I want her to be strong and independent, secure and capable. So she went. And she had a BLAST. and I’m glad she had that experience. I’m glad I let her go.

Even with CRAZY grocery store meltdowns causing me to bribe them with a movie and checkout line pez dispensers to let me get out of the store in one piece, it was a great day.   #1 survived camp, #2 had fun with #3 and I had fun with them all. until 6pm. then it was deemed early to bed night because I was done with the day. 

We made it work.

Make it work – Blogging

I spent far too much time last night attempting to beautify this silly little blog and make it easier to use, easier to work with. and look – its just as stupid looking as it was before I spent 2 hours trying to make it nice. I know what I’m not good at, and it’s anything technology related. I’m still trying to figure out my major issue with the commenting. What I know is that I need it to be self hosted so that I can do simple things like reply to your comments. That’s the direction I’m going in. Soon. I’m going to make that happen. Until then, if you comment, I try to respond, but you still have check back. Please email me directly if you really want a response and do not want to look back through posts because I don’t always comment back right away.

I have no questions for you today. Because quite frankly I’m exhausted. And I don’t care to think about questions for you lovelies.  my brain wants to take a nap. How about you ask me some questions. And I’ll respond, and you won’t get an email because my blog is super cool, but you can check back in at my thoughtful response. Fun.

Have a super night.

Tempo Tuesday Talk

Workout (back track to yesterday)

Run. 9 miles total. 3 mile warmup, 4 mile tempo, 2 mile c/d

Tempo miles:

6:40, 6:27, 6:30, 6:27

Misery. It was not a pleasant run. yes, for someone reason I thought this was going to be an easy breezy beautiful tempo run. and I also fart flowers. Sometimes I dont live in reality. since when is a tempo run supposed to be an easy run. If it were an easy run, it would say 9 mile easy run, in the plan. it definitely didn’t say that. I double checked.

It said lactate threshold run. that is even more frighteningly intimidating than a simple tempo run. but synonymous, nonetheless. as much as I dislike the word fartlek, it’s not a scary running word.  It sounds like something my 4 year old would say while sticking her butt out at me.  I’m thinking some of these other crazy named runs should be disguised and renamed so that they are a little more inviting and not so serious – perhaps froyo fast run run, so that when you have worked your little tucas off, you can treat yourself to a little delight. better yet, lulu run – sprint to the nearest lululemon and have at it. I’m in. but lactate threshold run kinda makes me want to either start nursing a baby or throw up before I start.  in the most, oh my good golly this is going to be so fun and hard and rewarding way possible. don’t let the name scare you. It’s really very simple. according to pfitzinger of Advanced Marathoning….

Lactate threshold runs are tempo runs in which you run for at least 20 minutes at your lactate threshold pace. This coincides closely with your current 15k to half marathon race pace….

Tempo runs provide a strong stimulus to improve your lactate threshold pace which leads to similar improvement in your marathon race pace…

…done after a 2-3 mile warmup and should be followed by a 10-15 minute cool down. 

These are actually some of my favorite runs because they are real work. you can track your improvement. they are like little mini races in the midst of training. they make you run all out for a definite period of time. according to pfitzinger, these are done at 82 – 91% of maximal heart rate.  wah wah wah. thats what I hear in those bold italics.  I don’t get all the maximal heart rate, heart rate reserve talk yet – but what that statement does mean to me is – run pretty darn fast, but not quite 100% all you’ve got. but close. for a period of time. all about the training.  and the body adapting.  eventually that time will get longer.

This combined with progression running are at the top of my favorite running activities list. and going to the track. but I prefer to do the tempos on the road because it makes it a tad more challenging with slightly changing elevation and I think it makes it more real for when it comes time to actually race.

What is not my favorite is running said tempo when my alarm is set for 4:55am. oh my.

what makes that worse is that I didn’t get to bed until almost 11pm. oh dear.

Even worse is that I couldn’t sleep last night. crazy dreams. tossing and turning. cruddy.

I knew this was going to be a hard run because I was running on very little sleep.  I was starving from the first step, but I don’t give myself enough time to eat anything before I have to get out the door.  and if it doesn’t seem like the world is crashing down on me yet, wait till you hear this lame sob story – the first three warmup miles, run at a reverse progression from 7:45 to 8 minute pace (I’m talented at the useless reverse progression, as well as positive splitting in races) were really hard. and I felt like I was really pushing it and not warming it.  but for some reason, in the back of my head, I’m thinking about my 4 mile race last week at 6:15 pace with hills and heat and god awful humidity and being ever so confident, makes me think I’ll breeze through four tempo miles today at 6:30 pace. killer. don’t bring an entire race experience with you into a run, a race, an anything. total set up for failure and just a difficult time. bring with you the knowledge that you are capable of doing a certain run – knowing that today’s legs could be very different from last weeks racing legs. and today’s body and mind are probably in a very different place from last weeks racing body and mind. on any given day, the running body is in a totally different place than it was at another stellar performance race or run. I made this mistake with my April marathon. could be called over-confident. I took the november marathon race with me as a whole and said I should be able to nail a PR at this race. Thoughts like, I was running with a super bum knee at that fall marathon and I’ve been training so much better now.  Its a given.  It’s not.  don’t do it. be confident in your abilities and your training.  remember those good training runs, but don’t put so much weight on them that you expect them to support you through every hard run and race you face.  my new running motto – run your best run, run your best race that you have in you at this given moment. and you may surprise yourself. I usually do.  I did today with a couple tired, sub 6:30 miles.

I wanted to quit this tempo run and call it a bad day. and move on. really, where does that get me?  And what about, I love tempo runs, they are so fun and fast and rewarding and oh my goodness lets just tempo all the time. yeah. let’s tempo. so I got back out of my mental case running head and took it one mile at a time. mile 2 was better than the first. mile 1 was hard. mile 3 I was getting into a groove and by mile 4 I felt like I was getting it. I was supposed to be in the 6:30 – 6:40 range, so I was happy with it in the end. I either was not recovered from the weekend running, I’m pushing it too hard on not hard days, I was not fueled properly, lack of sleep or a combo of all these things.  either way, I finished it with my run with what you’ve got today mentality, and it got me through. with that mentality, it didn’t matter in the end if I ended up doing 7 minute miles for the tempo, because I was running my best. It made me see that my body generally has more to give and is stronger than I think it is, even on a bad morning.

9 miles done and I was ready to be a functioning human being. a good mother. a nice wife. I even pulled myself together before we had to get out of the house for the camp run.

no, those are not red lululemon leggings. they are bona fide, forever 21 cheapo skinny jeans. 

When I got out of the bathroom I found my little monkey hanging out in the sink.

He doesn’t see a problem with this. I do. His feet weree dirty. or so he claims.

I can’t turn my back. he was just holding up the shelf. looked like it was about to collapse. 

I’m enjoying my one on one time with Luke, but I’m getting a little taste of what this coming fall will bring with my two little beauties at school all day – call me crazy, but I’m going to miss them terribly. I kind of lament, a lot, about how crazy life is right now, running here there and everywhere. Now full day school is upon us, and I’m not quite sure I’m ready. My 4 year old will be starting full day kindergarten and my 5 year old first grade.  my babies are on the very young side.  they are ready.  I’ll be ready in 6 weeks. I’ll start training now. Off to day camp we go!

Luke and I stopped off and got a little treat at the coffee shop. I let him pick out whatever he wanted. which is what he does anyway. he says jump, I say how high. Little stinker always picks out the messiest pastry there.

 He was quite disturbed by the amount of crumbs it produced. and couldn’t eat any more of it.

 I asked him for a little piece and this is all he gave me.

I think he picked it off his shirt.

We moved on to whole foods to pick up a couple things. try on a couple things.

Get it touch with his inner fashionista. or his inner elderly gentleman look.

And then this was waiting for me from ms. mail lady when I got home.

My absolute favorite water bottle. when I do carry water on runs, this is the best.

My hubs picked one up last summer and I wasn’t sure about it. The part you drink out of is really tough and you don’t get a ton of fluid out at one time. which turns out to be a good thing when you are running. with normal water bottles, the water ends up all over me and I usually end up choking on it and making a big mess.  The little spouty part tucks nicely away when you are not drinking it, keeping you mess free. maybe it’s not a water bottle I need but a lesson in how to make it through life in one piece.

And when it’s time to take a swig, you just pull it out and it doesn’t spill all over you. just perfectly designed. in my opinion. but it does take some getting used to.  It comes with a great handheld carrier that I can’t find from my first one. which is a big bummer because I’m afraid I might have gotten rid of it. Again, the design of the case makes it so that it stays snugly and comfortably on your hand and doesn’t loosen up.   well done Ultimate Direction.   

I got it on amazon and was convinced it was a Nathan bottle and couldn’t find it for the longest time. that’s because it’s not a Nathan water bottle. smarty.  this is the only water bottle I will bring with me on a run. If I don’t have it, I just don’t do water.

Thanks for all the dress comments – I think it’s a keeper

Now for the shoes…

The apron shirt is going back.  although, I could use a cute apron…

Now off to attempt 5 stroller miles with the boy. he did very nicely this am while I was on the treadmill.

I think the loud hum and the feet stomping kept him calm. and he might have been slightly delirious from no nap yesterday and a super early wake up. I know I was.  Off we go!

Do you have a favorite water bottle?  Please share:)

Do you ever compare your runs and races to past races or training runs?  Does it ever make it harder to just be in the run or workout you are trying to do?

How many hours of sleep a night do you need to function?  I can make due with 6, but then we start getting cranky and miserable and unable to function very well.

Can’t Catch Me and Apologies

Workout

Rest day. yay. with a side of 6 pull ups on my way to do laundry, 5 minutes of Jillian to appease the 4 year old and a game of tire the boy out can’t catch me chase chase around the kitchen, at least 50 laps.  call it 1/8 mile speed work, lots of picking up, couch throwing and tickling, resulting in one sweaty mama, and one little boy with a fat lip who was not tired. I’m ready for a nice 9ish mile run in the early am. one rest day really leaves you refreshed and ready to go the next day.

Even though it was a rest day and there was no working out to be had whatsoever, I couldn’t figure out how to put on real clothes like a normal human being.

 I’m not really feeling badly about it, but slightly concerned that I might end up going to a wedding or something decked out in lululemon. and not see a problem with it. I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

For now, I’m fully aware that appropriate wedding attire is not spandex and sports bras. which is what brought the boy and I to TJ Maxx this morning. We have a wedding next weekend, and I needed to find a dress and a few other tops that I didn’t know I needed until they were in my cart. The girls have camp this week, so I had a few hours to spend with my precious little lad. he’s not a big fan of Tj’s because he has to sit in the cart. I feed him lollipops the whole time and he attempts to get out the whole time by saying I have to go to the bathroom really really bad. Ok, just because you said really really, I’ll let you out to terrorize the store.  no.  I can’t be had by a two year old, you are not potty trained yet, not likely that you will be anytime soon, and you are in fact wearing a diaper so I’m not falling for it. stay in the cart. pee in your pants.  shopping at any store with Luke is not conducive to actually trying things on – its more like a grab n go and hope it fits type situation. this is what I came home with, and I’m undecided on most things, and I’m pulling off the athlendy look as well – athletic and trendy meet

I like that blue color. the sports bra underneath just makes it very special.

I wanted to like this one, but it felt like an apron. I don’t need to feel more housewifey than I already do. undecided. although, the wunder unders and bright urban camo bra do add a nice touch.

And this little thing to throw on over the kitchen apron…

stunning ensemble. I better just stick to athletic wear. I’m out of my comfort zone here. at least I’m trying.

Here’s the dress I found…by Jessica Simpson.  It’s like a split personality dress. party on the right, business on the left. fun.

If you can see it through all the handprints on the mirror. kinda fun. I’ll hold onto it unless I find something better.

Party animal side. with a touch of tricep for your viewing pleasure.

Onto more randomness for the day…because its monday and I don’t quite have any organized thoughts. check back in tomorrow. I might have something then.

1.  I foam rolled the other night. for possibly the first time in 2 months. felt darn good. here’s my trick – foam roll first, stretch after. if necessary. I think I pull more muscles stretching tight muscles than I do actually running. I feel like rolling first helps loosen things up a bit. and makes the experience nice and pleasant. my muscles would agree. if they could. Its nice to do something nice for your body. rolling is in the nice category.

2.  I’m not confident we have enough eggs.

I might have gotten a bit over zealous with the egg shopping, but we’ll go through them.  because I make a lot of eggs. and egg whites. and things like this…

3.  My lunch.

with my jug ‘o coffee in the background.

really just egg whites, but sometimes a whole egg finds his way on there.  on a white plate. because that’s what the fancy food bloggers do –  one of which I will never be. I can barely be a regular blogger, let alone adding nice food into the equation. too much.  but the sammy wasn’t too much. it was delish. I switched from the flat out wraps to this …

4.  Udi’s bread. my exciting new find. it’s gluten free, but the millet and chia is what caught my eye.

Udi is pulling out all the stops with throwing words on there like fiber, omegas and protein. oh udi, you had me at fiber.  and then it just got better.

I like my bread to have some substance, nutrition. at least some fiber and a little protein. udi delivers.

The kids even like it. or so I thought. I had been making it for them, then this morning, all buttered and ready to go – the girls say, we don’t like this. at $5.99 a loaf, I almost gave them a little knuckle sandwich. and threatened to take $.50 out of their piggy bank if they didn’t eat it. I’m not that mean. I don’t steal from or abuse small children. but they did eat it. and they liked it.

5.  Why someone hasn’t called me out and said  –  you know Katie, you’re a real jerk, you make us suffer through these horribly long blogs, always promising to someday write something useful and applicable to anything in life, we write nice comments all the time, and then you don’t even respond to them  –  is beyond me. I have just realized that this whole time, you LOVELY people out there are commenting away and asking questions and engaging in lovely dialogue with me, and are probably wondering why you don’t get a response. or not wondering why at all and have stopped wasting your time. either way, I just realized that whilst I am responding away and actually taking time to reply to as many comments as I can, and thinking they are getting emailed right back to you, they are not. So unless you physically go back and check the comments on the post – which you probably don’t – you have no idea that I do care deeply and fondly for you and have taken the time to comment. this is why I should probably not be allowed on the world wide web. because I try, but don’t really know what I’m doing. I’m on this free WordPress site, and I guess it was too much to assume that this stuff just happens – they tell me I can respond and you will get a nice email, but it doesn’t happen. so, until I figure out how to make you get my responses, you will have to check back, or click a box that subscribes to commetns, or something. I don’t really know. I’m going to work on it. ASAP. my apologies.

6.  Let’s end on a happy note and not a we hate this blog because she’s so mean and doesn’t respond to us note. Here’s a happy thought…my sleep fearing son slept in until 6am this morning.  and it just happened to be my rest day, which couldn’t have been a more wonderful rest day gift because I got to sleep in too. this is fantastic. and probably won’t happen again for another 6 weeks but I not care, this is a happy thought.

Thoughts on the dress?

Thoughts on the udi bread?  Ever had it?  Ever had anything better?

Thoughts on egg whites?  I’ve heard of egg white protein, anyone ever tried it?  

You can comment and I will respond, but you probably won’t get it, so respond at your own risk and know that I am commenting in spirit if you don’t get an email.  much love. 

Can any WordPress peeps help me with my commenting issue?

Run Paces, Fueling, Personalities

Workout 

Yesterday

Run – 14.2 miles. slowly but surely, creeping the mileage back up there on my Saturday runs. I do believe this was my longest training run since sometime in early march. 

Hilly, no fuel, no fluid, no music, no fun. No, it was fun. no, it actually wasn’t. I was pretty sore from my strength routine the day before.  everything hurt.  so I didn’t have high hopes, or any hopes for this run, other than to complete it.  the actual running was fun and fine and fabulous, but the fact that it was hard and exhausting wasn’t fun. I have a LOT of endurance work to do. The happy thing is that it was hot and humid and sweaty like crazy and I didn’t have to pep talk (you can eat a whole chocolate bar if you finish) myself to finish. I gave myself a pretty big window of miles. It was a medium long run, so it had to be between 11 and 15 miles. So I hit just over 53 miles for the week. THAT was a lot of work. for me.

I used the garmin just so I could look at my splits after the run. I kept it on the watch screen, so I never looked at my pace. The only time I knew my pace was when each mile beeped. I LOVED running like this.  As with most runs now, there is a pre- prescribed pace range that I intend to stay in. If that range is on the slow/easy side, like today, there is no need for me to be looking at the pace because I know I will be able to run that pace without putting out a lot of effort.  I just wanted to run what was comfortable, whatever that may be.  But, if I constantly look at my garmin, I get frustrated and stressed if my pace is slowing down to the slower end or it gets harder than I think it should be.  just nonsense.  so complicated, my little running mind.  If I don’t look at the watch, I can just run. And get clued in to the pace at the end of each mile instead of 374 times per mile. unnecessary. and not conducive to any aspect of healthy living, running or existing.  stress makes you sick. I don’t need it on something that is supposed to make me happy. no. thank. you. every mile was its own mile. whatever the legs were feeling.

It turned into a fairly hilly run – 1130 feet in elevation gain. 

Here’s how it looked…

Mile 1 was more in the 7:30 range because it took the garmin about 1/4 mile to realize we were in this run together. 

Then, I was clueless to my paces and ran by feel. 

Miles 2-8

7:29, 7:32, 7:52(uphill), 7:13(back down), 7:45, 8:11(back up), 7:30(down we go)

Miles 9-13

7:15, 7:58, 7:53, 8:07, 7:43

Last mile

6:45

I am really trying to finish most runs stronger than I start them. I want the last mile, or a good portion of it to be the fastest mile of the run. Physically, it’s good training for me and mentally it’s really good to know that I can run strong at the end, even when I feel dead tired. and I felt dead tired after mile 13. 

Paces

I’ve been referring to my Advanced Marathoning book just for some general guidance on what the different runs and paces should look like. then I just tweak it if I need to or adjust things like distance. I figure out my pace for the different runs from Mr. McMillan.  The only place in my life that I am type A personality is my running/training. which is probably extremely aggravating mainly to my husband who would probably love it if that type A-ness extended more to meal planning, cleaning and organizing.  in time.  

I plugged in my marathon goal and with that came prescribed paces for different types of runs.  So for Saturday, I was doing a medium – long run. according to pfitzinger, these should closely mimic the long run pace.

According to McMillan, my long run pace should be between 7:20 – 8:20, or 30 – 90 seconds slower than marathon goal pace.

This is the pace chart that I got after I put in my info.  you probably can’t read it. I don’t know how to make it clear. but you can go to the website and check it out for yourself.  

Average pace on this run was 7:35.  I’d have to say I nailed it perfectly. thanks to my type A personality as it applies to running only. 

Food and Fluid

My goal for my long runs that are run at a long run pace is to do them without fuel. I’m not one that really ever feels the need for fuel on a run – it comes more from everyone says you should do it, so why not do it, not because I feel like my body needs it.  and I need to save my stomach for the marathon – if I “gu” too much now, I wont be able to tolerate it at all in a marathon. but that’s discussion for another day. I don’t use too much gu or gel in a marathon. I don’t generally eat breakfast before either. However, this morning I was up at 5am – surprise surprise – and my stomach felt like it was going to devour itself if I didn’t put something in it. I had a small bowl of steel cut oats about an hour and a half before. 

Since I knew this was going to be a slower paced, not too long run, without any pace pickups, it was a good one to do without fuel. the basic idea is that you teach your body to burn fat for energy instead of glucose. we all have a pretty unlimited amount of energy from fat – even the leanest of runners.  I don’t know the exact science behind it, but you need to run at an easier pace in training to make this happen, otherwise your body will still resort to glucose.  I want to work towards teaching my body to tap into the fat for energy so that it can conserve the more rapidly depleted glycogen.  Glycogen is just far more readily accessible as energy, whereas fat takes longer to convert to energy which is why it takes a longer time to train your body to do so.  One way to do that is by not fueling with glycogen or carbs on longer runs.  I’m so good at talking about things of which I have no clue.  someday I really will have a clue.  google can back me up on this one.

I also chose not to bring water because 1- my favorite water bottle is broken. I ordered another one but it isn’t here yet, 2- I just don’t like carrying water unless it’s absolutely necessary, like 20+ miles and 95 degrees out. or something like that, 3- I drink water like its my job every single day, so I felt very hydrated going into it, 4- it was warm and very humid when I started, but it wasn’t hot yet, by the end it was hot and 5- I stayed no less than 3 miles from my house at any given point and passed my street twice if I was dying and needed to get water. I also brought money with me in case I changed my route. I really like to make the training runs a bit challenging so that when I go into the race and have all the perks of a marathon, like tapered legs, fluids, carb loaded and hooefully not 95 and humid, my body has been toughened up a bit and hopefully the actual race will be that much “easier” when it’s time to run. make any sense?  didn’t think so. Make the training conditions harder than the race conditions so that your body makes necessary adaptations. 

Today 

I got to sleep in. until 6:30. Glorious. Happy. Sunday. Depending on the Sunday, sometimes I get up early and get the run down before church. I wasn’t feeling like that was a necessary decision today. I was feeling like there would be time to run after church. My feelings were accurate. And I had a nice 7.5 mile recovery run midday. 

According to my chart, my recovery run was prescribed to be between 8:20 – 8:50 pace. this is unfortunate because I had it in my head that it was supposed to be between 7:50 and 8:20. Naturally, type a, competitive runner katie always likes to keep it at the low end of things and was aiming for the 7:50 side, if it happened. I was fully aware of the recovery part of this run though, and the purpose of it, which was to recover and not cause more damage to recover from, so I really didn’t push the pace. only the last mile. My average pace was 7:46, it was close. but the last mile was a 7:22, which brought the average down. For what I was shooting for, I was happy with it. I ran it slower. Next weeks recovery will be even slower. promises. 

We had a pretty low key weekend in the Edwards’ homestead. running, hiking, training. that’s what goes on. Hubs is getting closer to HIS RACE.  I know, he’s crazy, and he apparently didn’t get the memo that I race. he chases kids. not true. He’s my ultraman. he prefers to get all of his racing miles out and done in one single race. he’s really the smart one. I spread mine out all over the place and still probably don’t race as many miles as his one race. he’s gonna rock it. He is finding the children to be very useful in his training. 

Children = Hiking weight. In the back pack. For an hour and a half. I think they had some pretty deep transcendental conversations about life, childhood and the impending kindergarten career she is about to embark on next month. and then they might have gone swimming in the river. and caught some trout with their bare hands.  hardcore.  rough life. 

And another week is upon us. joy. summer fun. trying to remember that priority list I made. I’ll have to take a peak at that again and see how I’m doing.

How was everyone’s weekend?

What type of personality are you?

What kind of “fuel” do you prefer on longer runs?  I’m always looking for new things to try!

Anyone ever been to Leadville, CO?  Know anyone who has run Leadville 100?  Live near or around CO?  I LOVE Colorado/Utah/any state around there with mountains and hot, dry weather. I’ve never been to CA, but would LOVE to go out there and run a marathon. preferably a flat one. actually, I’d run a marathon in any state out west. a flat one. 

Driveway Races and Strength

Workout

So, I fear the days of my rest day Friday are over now that marathon training has commenced. My rest day is Monday. and that’s it. but Fridays will be a fairly light day because of long run Saturdays. 

Run – 3 miles easy and 30 minutes strength. 

I was doing my driveway workout while the kids played and was then forced into JM 30 day shred by my overly energetic 4 year old. she loves her JM. she also loves her t. swift. and will sing with her one day. so she tells me. 

Let’s talk about strength workouts. in the driveway. and wherever else they may happen to happen because I go where the kids go. 

But let’s first chat about the happenings of the day. because I’m feeling chatty and I’m feeling an extra special long post. because my posts are always so brief and to the point and lacking random nonsense. everyone needs more of someone else’s random nonsense in their lives. let’s begin. 

1.  For some reason, instead of buying and making our own coffee, we have been just getting coffee at the coffee shop. My morning iced coffee is one of the greatest parts of my day. pathetic. but true. somehow, every day, it’s a wonderful surprise when I look in the fridge and see my iced coffee sitting there. waiting for me. however, today, I was disappointed. I ran out of my stevia and I had no sweetener for my treat. I tried brown sugar. I was desperate.  no go. I tried sugar in the raw. still a no go. It tasted not so great, but I felt compelled to drink it. So I am still drinking my morning coffee.

2.  I only had to run a few miles today, so it was nice to wake up early but not have to run. note- I did not wake up early because it was nice to do that. I woke up early because my energizer bunny in the next room was pounding on his door. he was ready to get the day started.  as usual.

3.  Gymnastics camp is over for my limber little girls. I would be sad that the three hour window in my afternoon when my house is quiet is gone, but they start camp on Monday. all is well. 

4.  I had a brief moment of panic when my garmin would not function today. I have been talking down on the garmin lately, saying how I don’t need to run every run with it anymore. perhaps it was just giving me a taste of what it would be like to not have it at all. no thanks. I need you garmin. hubs fixed it. the world keeps turning. 

5.  I stumbled upon the wide wide world of photo editing. oh my. Instagram is fantastic, but there is more. pic stitch is just pure fun and excitement for this stay at home mom with no life. possibilities are endless. get ready. 

6.  We did some driveway racing. the kids raced each other. I raced the kids. good times. Healthy fun. awards were presented. 

Alexandra was very nervous to race me.  she beat me by at least 3 strides. it must have been the crocs. wave of the running future. get on that Mizuno, croc inspired sneaks. 

Back to strength. I love my strength workouts.  I wish I took more time to do them.  what strength does for me:

– it makes me feel strong. wow. what a brilliant thought.  but really, it’s a good good feeling. I barely did half of JM, and I was drenched, and out of breath. granted, it was crazy hot out, but still. I was working. 

– I like being toned. Toned is nice. I know there’s this thought that lifting is not conducive to running, or distance running in particular.  I’m fairly certain that my 5-10 pound weights are not going to turn me into the hulk. and hinder my running abilities. 

– likewise, I have zero proof and have composed nary a research paper to present to you that lifting weights will improve your running abilities, but I’m fairly certain that it’s probably beneficial, and there probably has been research done to support my unfounded thoughts – and it will probably help you in the long run. Ha. I’m so witty. If anything, you will just feel better about yourself and feel stronger and be a better runner in return. but don’t get all hulky on me. no good.  

– strength training doesn’t only have to be in the form of weight lifting. There are many outlets for strengthening that have no weights involved. I’m a big fan of the P90X yoga, Pilates, (I just ordered some new DVDs) and a plethora of other avenues to strengthen without ever touching the gym or using weights. That’s exciting because it breaks up the running and adds a little depth to the fitness activities. 

– I can do these workouts whenever and wherever the kids are. I can play with them while I’m working out, tend to their every need and be where they are. super convenient to do with kids around.

– strength training enables me to make these wonderfully beautiful facial expressions. that only come out whilst I am heaving my 10 pound dumbbell. serious work happening. 

I do not know why lululemon and shape mag are not knocking down my door to get me modeling their goods. so attractive. that beauty of a mug. 

Here’s the workout from today, thanks to pic stitch. 

I try to pick a few exercises and go through a circuit of them 3 or 4 times. that usually gets a little muddled, extras get thrown in and some get taken out and there usually is no real order due to kidling interruptions and driveway racing breaks. I do my best. 

there’s that face again.

I don’t know what this one is called, but I love it. It’s this dynamic stretching/strengthening. I like using words like dynamic stretching.  I did pick up some info from when I started studying to get certified as a personal trainer.  which is back on the short list of things to happen very soon.  using big training words makes me feel like the personal trainer I aspire to be. that, and a certified running coach. BIG life goals.  gonna make it happen. back to the workout – I like this because I have a finicky IT band and I think it helps strengthen those muscles.  my legs like to alternate which IT band will flare up in each marathon I run. fun. then I just hold the weights at 90degree angle in a static position to work the arms a bit.  whoa. bustin’ out all the terms I’m not qualified to use.  swing your leg out to the side and cross in front of other leg, for prestated time, then switch sides. 

Next. 

Another beauty of a face. don’t know what these are either, but it’s a static squat tricep press, which means you stay in squat for the duration, with a straight arm tricep push back. pretty basic.  keep your arms straight and push them back. 

Next. 

Pushups. never underestimate the basic exercises. pushups with a twist. work the back. and then downward dog pushups.  And curtsy lunges with an overhead shoulder press.  fun. 

1.  Pushup on weights.  pull weight back when you straighten arms out of pushup position for back work.  And a lot of other muscles. Alternate sides for each rep.  

2.  Curtsy lunge. just what it says. lunge into a curtsy position. shoulder press when you move into lunge, and arms go back into static bicep curl when you come out of lunge. I know, it doesn’t really make sense to me either when I write it out, but it works. 

3.  Downward dog position, and push up. Awesome. courtesy of JM and a plethora of other workout DVDs. 

Next. 

Little bit ‘o abs. 

 V-sit abs, extend arms and legs out at the same time. return to V sit. get a little arm work in there. 

voila. I’m done.  Please note – I am not certified in anything other than talking about what works for me. the preceding exercises work for me. proceed with caution if you choose to follow. don’t do anything you probably shouldn’t be doing. 

onto dinner. which looked suspiciously like last nights dinner. with organic chicken sausage instead of chicken.

I’m lacking originality lately. and it doesn’t bother me. there is food. Its fairly healthy.  no one is starving. I did get creative and added honey mustard to my little bean salad. so much better.

This night has been deemed a blog free, computer free  night of movie watching with the hubs. signing off until Monday. 

What’s on tap for the weekend??  Races??

Ps – I ran the race in my Mizuno mushas. Love them more with every little race. just thought I’d share. sneakers are an important part of running. probably the most important. and mr. Garmin.  can’t forget about him.  don’t want it to get pissy and shut down on me again. but sneaks come first. make sure they are good ones.

Pps – if you are on instagram and want to follow me, I’m Lcat19. try that. it should be me. 

Humid, Hot, Hilly, Happy – 4 on the 4th

Hello my midweek holiday celebrating friends!  That was a tough one for me. my brain could not understand that it was Wednesday and not Saturday.  and that everyone was off from work. very difficult. we pulled through. the Wednesday wannabe Saturday was exacerbated by the fact that I ran a race. because races are always on the weekend. but this was a Wednesday. a Wednesday race was a first for me. what was also a first was running a 4 mile race. but now we are getting ahead of ourselves. let’s backtrack and talk about some workouts leading up to and through today. that’s a lot of running, so I’ll try to keep it brief. which shouldn’t be a problem because I quite honestly can’t remember much past yesterday anyway.

Workouts

Tuesday – 6.25 miles easy. truly, it was easy. I kept it just under 8 minute miles.  because I was running a race the next day. and because it was getting late in the day and it was really hot. my legs wanted to go more like 7:20-7:30ish pace, but we persevered and kept 8 near and dear.  trying to conserve as much energy as possible.

Wednesday – 1 mile w/u plus 4 mile race plus 6 mile recovery run = 11 miles for the day. 

I ran with my watch for the 6 mile recovery, but didn’t look at the pace, just ran comfortable and it was right around 7:45. good.

Today – 6 miles really easy. 8:20 pace easy plus 3 treadmill miles for 9 total in 73 minutes. My legs were really tired from yesterday. I put very little effort into this run and just let it be what it was. It was very pleasant, but also SUPER humid and hot at 5:30am when I left.  I needed to get about 10 miles.  instead of getting up when my alarm went off, I chose to lay in bed and not sleep but think about how much of a bad mood I would be in if I didn’t get my bum out of bed. It took about 10 minutes for me to firmly decide that a foul mooded mama was not in the best interest of anyone today and it was now or never.  at which point I only had time for 6 miles before I had to be back for the hubs to hit the gym. hence, the undesirable little 3 mile stint on the home mill.  It had to be done. I’ve got to sneak those miles in somewhere.  It’s not easy to get 50plus miles in a week.  for me. I feel like I’ve been running a TON and I just hit 36. not complaining. just think I should be able to add some honorary miles for feeling like I’ve been running more.

RACE

My crew. love them to death. 

This was a last minute race. my kind of race. I was told it was hilly. I already knew it would be hot and suffocatinlgy humid. none of those H’s failed to represent. although, I feel the hills were a little misrepresented. agreed, this was a very hilly 4 miler –  but we were not climbing everest. some expreienced looking runner tells me this is the hilliest race you’ll run and I think, good lord what have I gotten myself into. he obviously didn’t run the colchester half. that was hills. these were significant rollers, the whole time.   and one or two real hills.  enough to make it very challenging. but not killer.

Before we get into the race, let’s take a look at what happens behind the scenes for the lucky spouse that doesn’t get to race…hanging out with 3 little cherubs with sassy attitudes in hot temps…

no explanation

that didn’t happen for very long. he doesn’t like containment. 

little knuckleheads. 

post race crazies. heat was getting to them. and possibly the sugar from the free soda. that we let them have. 

GOALS FOR THE RACE

# 1Goal was to RUN MY BEST RUN

I would have been ecstatic with a 6:15 pace. I had no idea what that equated to for finish time, and I have no idea where that number came from. completely arbitrary. and very aggressive. I thought. for a hilly run. on a hot day. with high humidity. 

Aggressive pace or not, I knew I would have to hold back for the first couple miles because I always go out way too fast. and was capable of doing a 5:40s first mile and a sub 6 second mile then crashing. I didn’t want to crash. I wanted to run my BEST run that I had in me that day. and that was a smart run. and a run that was going to be good practice in mental strength. I truly wasn’t concerned with the outcome. I just wanted to run well, and strong. 

I was dripping sweat at the start. It was about 80 degrees and 80% humidity.  I did a 1 mile warmup. and waited about 10 minutes for the start. I LOVE seeing all the different people toeing the start line. 8 year old boy kept shoving me out of the way and two men in their 70’s were chatting up a storm next to me. behind me were a group of goofball high schoolers that would run sub 25 with ease. 

Horn blows.  Runners start cruising. 

holding back. staying in the low 6’s. I kept seeing 6:06, 6:04…slow it down a tad

I was in the front. with a pack of guys. no idea who was behind me. 

I LOVE these short, fast races. so hard from the start. so beneficial to the grand scheme of distance running. so mental. 

Miles 1 and 2, I felt like I was on cruise control. very comfortable in that pace. 

6:19, 6:12

 Hills started within the first 1/4 mile.  I didn’t let the hills psyche me out. I took them head on. 

Mile 3 was equally strong.  I felt good that I hadn’t wasted all of my energy in the first two.  but I almost blew it on this one. at the end of mile 3, you come back near the finish and EVERYONE is cheering. There were a lot of people. something about a lot of people cheering in a small race seems to give the runner some sort of magic ability to grow wings and just soar. effortless. I think I even saw fairy dust. maybe a unicorn.

5:54

5:54 is never effortless. for this girl. people are gone just as fast as they appear. crowds die and mile 3 is over. and you find yourself smack at the bottom of a hill after running a 5:54 mile. not cool. my legs felt like lead. I saw 6:40 on my watch and for a split second thought I blew my run. a split second later I got back in it and didnt care what my watch said. I was running. and I was going to bust out whatever I had left. pants peeing, dead leg running, gut it out pace.  one mile.  and more rollers.  I tried to start picking off the guys, which is tough when they are all running sub 6 minute miles. I didn’t know who was right behind me. and at this point, I didn’t want some girl taking my first place when I had worked for this position. 

6:25

Before I knew it, the finish was ahead and I could see 24:42 on the clock. I had no idea what my time was until that point, and I sprinted to get in under 25. done. 

24:59

1st female

17th overall out of 730 racing peeps

6:15 average pace

2nd girl was just over 2 minutes behind me. glad she wasn’t nipping at my heals.

I ran my run. I couldn’t have done it better. Happy I won, but happier I ran smart and strong. in heat, humidity and hills.

These short runs are purely mental for me. right now. the pace is what it is and I push myself, but i want to feel strong and present and in control when I run.  you start out hard and finish hard. and strong. physically and mentally.  I lost my mental edge a bit these past few months. I’m going to get it back doing races like this. 

Lululemon speed skirt and cool racerback top. that speed skirt is my favorite skirt. they don’t carry it now. but you could probably find it for twice as much on eBay. 

and that’s my last minute race. onto the next one.

By the time we got home, I put Luke down for a nap and scootched out the door to finish up my miles for the day. before it got too hot. it was already in the 90’s. I really do love running in the heat. that is why I love fall marathons. you have a full summer of hot running and training and then ease into some nice fall weather. if all goes according to plan.

but the heat takes everything out of you. my body wanted to be doing this…

seriously. give me a binky and a bath and let me chill out on a giant stuffed animal.  wrapped in a towel. rough life. 

not moving a muscle.  at all.  But my kids wanted to be doing this…

running around like maniacs, slip and sliding all over the yard. they win. 

moving. a lot. and it was the 4th of July.  meaning we had a long day and a later night ahead of us. and we would be bad parents if we made the kids leave the partay that night before te fireworks.  we played. and played some more and hung out with friends and watched some fireworks. perfect ending to a hot, hectic, hilly, fantastic day. 

and I pay for the late night and early morning, today.

they chose to ambush me at the grocery store. 3 on 1. no fair. two of my three decided to have a little soliloquy of screaming throughout. delightful experience.  we quickly moved our way through the store, as to ensure that I did not choke my kids out in the cereal aisle. surprisingly, I remained calm despite the ear piercing notes coming from their sweet little mouths. oh, stare all you want. I really don’t mind. I ran this morning. and I might have perused lululemon this afternoon.  always a mood lifter.  especially with all of their fantastically bright and exciting new colors. nothing can shake me. I can’t hear you, little screamers. but it was slightly exhausting.

somehow I managed to come home with something for dinner. Go me. randomly throwing items in a cart works. we had chicken and a nice little tomato/white bean/scallion salad. yum.

tomorrow will be a different story. I’m pretty confident we will be back at the grocery store. hopefully fully rested and with our happy pants on.

How was everyone’s 4th?? 

Who got some running in?  Racing?  

How do you stay sharp in a race or a long run?  Mantras?  Mantras really work for me. love ’em.

Bulk Bins and a Leg Workout

Workout

Strength/Crosstrain

I did a similar thing as I did the other day with my strength. I love strength workouts, but for some reason I have very little attention span for them. It works well for me to hop on the stairmaster in between sets to keep me going.  Changing things up just a bit is a great way to stay focused and get a workout done that would otherwise probably not get done.  due to pure laziness.  I ended up with about 20 minutes of strength and 25 min on the stairmaster. It was a nice, fairly easy workout. I love doing my Jillian 30 day shred, but I need a couple more to throw in the rotation. I just ordered a couple on amazon. I’ll share what they are when I get them.

Here’s another great leg workout. attach a small child to your lower leg and lift.

look at that face. pure bliss attacking his mother

a reason to run – muscle and strong legs. amazing. 

Kids are really great for doing things other than making a disaster of the house, fighting with each other or incessantly asking for things. use them as weights. I used to workout a lot with the kids when they were wee babes and immobile. front carrier infant = pretty stellar workout. as well as in the jogger.  no excuses. another thing that I love about my kids is the cuddle potential immediately after wake up.

I’ve got about 5 minutes of pure sweetness, then it likely turns sour pretty quickly with this guy. but it was my lucky day and he kept the mood pretty stable. crazy person.

million dollar idea – invent a compression sock for my forehead. that vein needs some help. it’s growing. go. 

we completed the afternoon with a trip to whole foods. I needed things, like I always do, and I went without a list, like I always do, so when I walked down the bulk bin aisle, I wanted a little of everything, like I always do. I chose three things, two new and one that I’ve had.

I obviously don’t know how to edit my photos. upside down pics are charming.  you would think I actually know how to blog, but I’m still learning. Be patient with me. I will pull it all together at some point.

Hulled barley, adzuki beans and cranberry beans. and coconut flour.

Cranberry beans, have you ever heard of such a bean??  I had to try it. I’m one of those people that gets excited about a stellar nutrition label, like healthy fats, lots of fiber and protein and recently I’m on a potassium kick – the more the merrier. when I looked at the label on the cranberry beans I think I almost fell over, it was so fantasatic. I cant remember what it was, but the fiber and the protein were out to impress.  I’m always trying to minimize the amount of meat we eat, so finding other good sources of protein is right up there with hitting a deal on designer duds.  Kind of but not really. I’m almost confident I will not like them at first because I have no idea what to do with them, but that will not stop me. I can sautée and cook the heck out of anything. likewise with the coconut flour I purchased.  it looked like something that should be in the pantry and I totally got suckered with the HIGH FIBER screaming at me on the label. fine, fine. I will buy you, but only because I am a sucker for marketing and they know high fiber is in right now and I will surely fall for it.  I’m kind of a follower. on matters of nutrition. trying not to be.

These cute little things were also irresistible and had to be part of dinner tonight.

 multicolored spuds. yes please. I will roast those babies up and throw them together with some broccoli and cauliflower. purple potatoes are actually supposed to be really good for you. I’m not exactly sure why. my mom said she read something in an article about them. she reads about a lot of things in articles and I just listen and do what she says. purple potatoes was one of them. they were a tasty addition to my rainbow of potatoes. 

It looks like I am running a four mile race on Wednesday.  Four on the 4th, the name of the race.  Last minute races are kind of better for my tender little running heart and mind. it gives me less time to get anxious about it. I’m going to run my best run. 

Now, you can go vote for this SUPER SPEEDY MAMA to win the spot as the cover model on Womens Running magazine!!!  How cool would that be. It literally takes half a second, one click and you are done! Do it. please.

AND, if you didn’t win my Mizuno giveaway, you can try again on this COOL MAMA’s blog!!!  Shes giving 5 pairs away!!  have at it!

Please fill me in on what to do with my new beans?!?  I need help. with my beans. 

Is anyone racing on the 4th??

Did/do you workout with your little babes?

Roadtrip

Workout 

Yesterday, 10 miles, early. no watch, but nailed just about exactly an 8min/mile. perfect. I was tired from life in general, not to mention the 10 hot miles the day before. 11pm bedtimes dont agree with 5am runs.  no more of that.  slow was necessary. so was a 5am start on a Sunday morning. for one, it was already really humid, for two, we had lots of family fun planned for the day. more like lots of time in the car, but if we call it family fun – its more fun. 

I snagged a couple things on the fly when I was at target the other night, put them together and called it an outfit. I want a pair of those shorts in every color.  elastic waist.  not only for pregnant women and toddlers.  heaven.  I think it worked. 

Perfect outfit to wear for sitting in the car for a few hours. and it was just about way too hot to be existing yesterday, so tank and comfy shorts it was. 

We had a birthday party to go to in NJ, which was about a 2.5 hour ride. we were crossing everything that the would be no traffic. on a holiday weekend. it worked. we made it. 

pleasant children = happy parents. no one had to be left on the side of the road. when they are not happy children in the car, the hubs and I just tune out…

that wasn’t this trip, but it’s a lovely solution to unruly children. I think it started out as my hubs trying to tune me out. oh no no. share the love. one free ear to hear the little screaming banchies in the background and one ear to be enjoying some tunes. nice. 

I woke up at 5am and had a moment of what kind of person gets up at 5am on a Sunday morning to run. really. 

It would be the kind of person that knows the importance of starting the day doing something active. the kind of person that knows the day will be a better one for doing that active thing. the kind that knows it will ALWAYS be BRUTAL to get out and get moving that early, but 3 strides into the run is feeling fantastic for being out there.  Sweating.  Moving.  It would also be the kind of person that has early rising kidlings so a true sleep in wouldn’t happen anyway. or, the kind of person that has a busy day ahead and was planning accordingly instead of letting the run get lost in it. It would also be the type with a hubs that planned a 20 mile bike ride for 6:30am – meaning the wife had to get ‘er done before that. I was approximately 1.27 minutes late getting home for my hubs to leave on his bike date – to be noted for scheduling next time. 

All in a day – 10 miles for me, 20 mile bike + 3 mile run for the hubs, feed the little monsters which usually ends up being a restaurant style a la carte affair, wash car, get kids pulled together – my little hot mess, where to begin with him…

and beautify myself only to melt in the heat, drive to NJ to party hardy, thank the good lord that Luke slept for 2.5 of the 3 hour, thanks to traffic, drive back. 

tuck the kids in and crash. and finish off what we didn’t start the night before. 

for a long, full day well done. 

I dont have a clue what is on the agenda for the day. now that marathon training has begun, my schedule is a little turned around. I think today is a rest/cross training day, where that is typically Tuesday for me. throw me out of my routine and I get a little crazy. breathe. take it one moment at a time. pretty sure I am not running today. it will probably just be a strength day. and run tomorrow. who knows.  I’m sure I’ll pull through. 

Who has begun training for a fall marathon?  Who is doing NYC??