Looking on the Bright Side

So I was about to write a post about how dismal my running efforts have been lately but then I decided, "You know what? I'm not doing that bad!" I mean really, the last 3 weeks I have literally gone from one "vacation" to the next. A trip to Maine, a trip to Utah, and then having my sister and her 3 kids out to visit for 10 days straight. With all the busyness of trips and being off my schedule I'm actually proud of myself for getting any running in at all! So instead of whining about my low mileage I'm going to celebrate the fact that I've pulled off a run in all my vacation settings.

In Maine I did a lovely 4 miler on the beach. In Utah I got to run a nice 3 miler with my younger sister who is training for a half marathon in September. And While my older sister was in town I managed to get out twice for a 3 and a 2. Nothing impressive but I keep going back to a quote my friend posted on Facebook that has really helped me lately, "Some is better than none." : )

We have more travel plans and visitors coming in the next two weeks but I'm hoping when things settle down I'll finally be able to get back on track and sign up for a race. I'm thinking a 10K would be fun since that's the one distance I haven't raced yet so it would be an automatic PR : ) Until then I'll "just keep swimming" and hope that my small efforts will help me maintain enough fitness that I'll be able to get right back into it!

Setting a good example

One of the coolest things about running is the way it has impacted our kids. Brinley isn't even 2 yet but if she wakes up in the morning and Daddy's not there she'll ask, "Daddy wunning?"

It's neat that they know that's what we do. One of the best compliments I ever got was when we were driving in the car and Teya saw a toned athletic looking woman running down the street. She looked out the window and said, "Hey mom, that girl looks just like you!" Total ego boost : )

We've brought them to a couple races and even did a 5k pushing them in strollers. Teya loves the race atmosphere and has told me several times, "I can't wait till I can run a race!"

We take turns running on Saturdays and last time after I ran, I got the girls all ready and we drove out to find Taber and cheer him on. Teya brought a spray bottle to cool him off when he passed us by. It was the cutest thing.

You can see the little pink spray bottle in her hand. She might've just squirted his fingers but it was a sweet gesture. : )

We caught up with him again closer to home. This time Teya gave his behind a nice squirt : )

After seeing her Daddy run Teya wanted to do it too. I had to take a picture of her charging down the street with her down going full steam ahead. When she got to me she was out of breath but she looked up with a smile and said, "It doesn't matter if we win mom, it matters that we have fun." Wise words from a 4 year old. Makes me think that even though I've never come close to winning a race, I'm still teaching her something worthwhile : )

No Excuses

Last week was a bust as far as running goes. I had a great 6 mile run last Saturday and then NOTHING until today. I haven't gone that long without running since my infamous break last winter that led me to basically starting over fitness-wise. I really don't want that to happen again. Luckily today I didn't feel like I had lost too much, maybe a little speed but I managed 6 miles in 55 minutes which is a little slower than usual but not bad by any means.

I'm still just a little bugged that I let that much time go by without running. I had some decent excuses, my foot hurt on Monday so I skipped my run. Tuesday the temperature was in the 90's and we ended up spending the day at the beach. Wednesday was still super hot so we skipped town and joined Taber on a business trip in Portsmouth. There was a gym at the hotel but Taber was working the whole time and at business dinners till super late and I couldn't really leave the girls in the room by themselves. Anyway, lots of excuses but the truth is, if I REALLY wanted to I could've fit it in somewhere. Yeah it would've been tricky and probably inconvenient but definitely possible. The truth is, finding time to run as a mom is always tricky and inconvenient. When I start letting the excuses take over that's when it starts slipping away from me.

I have an article from Runners World that I cut out and taped on my motivation wall by my work-out calendar. It's about a mother of 6 children who despite raising such a large family has still managed to train for and finish 15 marathons, her fastest time, 2:50!!!! How does she do it? Her alarm goes off at 4:45 am every morning so she can get in a 10-12 mile run and be back in time to make lunches and get the kids off to school. Amazing! I'm sure a mom with 6 kids has millions of good excuses not to run, but she does it anyway. I'm bummed about my week but I'm going to chalk it up to a learning experience and remember that life gets crazy but if I stay focused on my goals, no excuse can stop me from reaching them.

Therapy Run

Oh how I have missed running outside!! Today was the first time I've done it in weeks (not counting my race) and it was so therapeutic! I was reminded once again why I actually enjoy running. Treadmilling and running are not the same for me. Treadmilling is work. It's monotony. Pounding out the miles like a rat on a wheel. Don't get me wrong, I do in fact love my treadmill and am grateful that it allows me to continue running even when the weather is bad, it's dark outside, or most commonly, I don't have anyone to watch my kids. Still, I don't get off the treadmill and whoop for joy like I did after running the trails by my house today.

I couldn't have asked for better weather, it was cool and overcast. Perfect. My neighbor's daughter who is in 6th grade came over after school and I paid her 5 bucks to watch the kiddos while I did my little run. Best 5 bucks I've spent all week! I was planning on taking it easy and staying around a 9 minute pace but I forgot, it's so much easier to run faster when you're outside! Mile one beeped on the Garmin with an 8:49 split. I took in the gorgeous scenery, everything is so full and green right now. Mile 2 beeped at an 8:24 split. I felt like I was running through a thick wooded hallway of lush mature trees. I saw a beaver and ducks cross the trail as I neared a little pond. My lungs relished the fresh air. It was so superior to watching minutes and miles slowly tick away surrounded by the grey concrete walls of my basement. Mile three beeped at an 8:04 split and I decided that was good for today.

I slowed up and jogged another half mile back home to stretch. I could not stop smiling and felt like my babysitter was the best person in the whole world for giving me that therapeutic half hour. Tomorrow I'm sure I'll be back on the mill, but I don't mind treadmilling because it just makes my outdoor runs that much better : )

Not sure what to do with myself...

Taber's out right now for a 7 miler. He signed up for a half marathon in September so he's slowly ramping up the miles. I'm in my "in between races lost at what I should do with myself stage." Last summer at this point I was gearing up for my marathon with a half marathon and Ragnar relay on deck as well. This year is tricky though because what I really want to do is get pregnant. There, I said it. Brinley is almost 2 and I'm not gonna lie, I'm baby hungry.

We've been trying since my half marathon but you know, nature has it's own timeline. While I'm waiting for it to happen though it's hard to know what to do. Should I sign up for races not knowing if I'll be prego or how far along I'll be? Is it safe to push for speed right now? Will I be able to keep running though the morning sickness phase? Is it safe to increase your mileage after you get pregnant? I just don't know. I've been searching around the web for info on running while pregnant. I've found a lot of fabulous blogs and am amazed with these women that are putting in up to 50 miles a week in their 2nd trimesters! I'm not even doing that right now so I'll be happy if I can do 15-20 mpw. I guess that's what I'll shoot for right now since I'm kind of in running limbo. If I can get 20 miles a week in right now that seems like a good place to start.

Anyway, this post is kind of all over the place but just wanted to put that out there and if anyone has any pregnancy running advice or experience I'm all ears!

Boston Marine Corps Honor Run 5K

Well Saturday was awesome and I'm happy to say I came home with a new PR. You can read all the details Here on my family blog.

I'll warn you, the post is kind of long, but I couldn't help it. It may have only been 3.1 miles but the effort it took to do it the way I did it was pretty big. I worked out 6 days a week, even when I was tired after a long day of chasing kids, even when there was no convenient time to get it in, I did it. I did some tough speed training; tempo runs, intervals, mile repeats, and long runs. It wasn't just the race, it was all the work it takes to get there.

When I started "running" a year and half ago I always felt a little self conscious calling myself a runner. I had no previous experience, no team training, nothing but the articles I could find online and in magazines to help me figure out this new hobby. And while it seems pretty simple, put one foot in front of the other, I still felt like a wanna-be sometimes. After this race though things changed. I was walking back to the car with Taber, it was pouring rain and I was exhausted from my effort. I was trying to process how I felt about the race and finally the words came, "I feel like I'm a runner now." Taber laughed, "Well of course you are!" But no, this time I really really feel like one. I ran fast. I was 117 out of 1063 runners. I was 20 out of 287 in my age division. Of 22 pages of results, my name was on page 3. These are probably silly statistics to a lot of people but to me they felt like a reward to my efforts. Like a confirmation that the more you do, the more you become. And I've gotta say, I think I've become a runner : )

Ready for some easy runs...

Last night I did a 3 mile tempo run at an 8:00 min pace the whole way (7.5 mph on the treadmill). That's pretty fast for me and I ain't gonna lie, it was brutal. I was drenched in sweat and really had to fight at the end to keep going. Speed work is good, and I really want to run fast on Saturday, but I'm kind of excited to just get this next race over with and run just for the fun of it again. It's been awhile since I've just run to relax, not worrying about pace or speed. I'm looking forward to a few weeks off after this one to just run some nice easy runs for nothing more than the sake of running!

5K this Saturday

Taber and I are signed up for the Boston Marine Corps Honor run this Saturday. Hoping for a new PR to beat my old time of 25:46. I've been doing some speed work and feel like it could happen. I'm just crossing my fingers that it's not too hot! I did a 6 miler on Saturday around noon and the heat was awful! The same course I ran last week in 50 minutes took me 53, and I felt horrible when I was done. Still even if it's hot, and even if i don't PR, it will be awesome to run down by the beach and best of all, to have Taber running there with me! Can't wait!

Hauling BOOTY!

So Taber got a Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS watch for his birthday and on Saturday he was nice enough to let me try it out! HOLY SMOKES! That thing is dang awesome! Our old Garmin told you your speed and distance based on a foot pod, so it wasn't always 100% accurate. It also didn't show mile splits, maps, or overall average pace unless you calculated it yourself. So yeah, I was pretty pumped to run with real satellite tracking.

I decided to do the route that I trained for my half marathon on. It has a really nasty hill that goes up about 114 feet in elevation over a maybe a .2 mile distance. I've only been able to run the whole thing a couple times. Anyway, on Saturday I wanted to see how fast I could run 6 miles so I was going for speed and I vowed I wouldn't walk that hill.

I took off pretty fast and finished my first mile in 8:32 min. It was so cool having the watch beep and show me my average pace on each mile. Mile 2 was 8:24, and then I tackled mile 3 which included the nasty hill. I was huffing and puffing but I made it to the top without stopping and it felt so awesome!! I thought I was going super slow but my pace was 8:40 for that mile so not too bad. Mile 4 included coming back DOWN the hill and I did it in 7:58. Mile 5 was 8:21, Mile 6 was 8:31. My finishing time was 50 min 31 seconds for an overall average pace of 8:24 per mile!!

I felt pretty awesome the whole time and really think the cross training I've been doing has made a difference on my speed and ability to take on the hills. I've been running 3 days a week and doing an hour of strength training the other 3 days, (don't work out on Sundays) and it's making a difference. If I want to run a 25 minute 5k I need to average an 8:03 minute pace. That's pretty fast but I think I'm on the right track! I'm looking at a race in 2 weeks. We'll see how it goes!

Running: good for your heart, and your marriage!

So Taber has recently gotten back into running again. It's been tough since he doesn't have a gym at work anymore and is working way more hours with a commute to top it all off. It's been hard for him to figure out when he can fit it in, but he finally just decided he was going to do it, even if it was late and he was tired, he was going to run. He signed up for a half marathon in September and has his eye on some 5Ks and 10Ks this summer.

I gotta say, seeing him work so hard to get his runs in is attractive. I kind of feel the way I did when we were dating and I'd see a neat quality in him and think, "wow, that's the kind of guy I want to marry." So now we're married and I tell you what, it's still pretty darn attractive to see him doing things that I admire!

I also love having a common past time and something to get excited about together. It's so fun asking him about his run and comparing workouts. We subscribe to Runner's World magazine and I like talking to him about the articles in there and getting geeked out over runner celebrities like Ryan Hall and Kara Goucher.

Last night after the kids went to bed he ran while I did a work out DVD. Then we came upstairs and watched the Boston marathon that I had recorded earlier. It was an awesome impromptu weeknight "date" : )

With kids and work, life can get crazy and it's easy to get consumed with the day to day grind of making our household run smoothly. But running gives us something fresh, a common bond to escape some of the chaos and to see each other in another role besides homemaker or breadwinner. For a small part of our day we are "athletes", training partners, team mates : ) Even though we aren't running together we're both running, and I'll be the first to tell you, it's definitely been good for our marriage!