Back in the Groove

I promised myself before Surf City that I would take a week off of running after the Marathon. It was really hard but I stayed true to my promise and I did not run for an entire week. The first few days it was easy not to run but by Thursday I was starting to feel the itch and by Saturday it was almost killing me!
Although I didn't run I still worked out... Run club with the kids, Buns n Abs and Jane's class. I did do a little bit of jogging with the kids but Kylie fell and scraped her hands within the first few minutes and it was almost all I could do to keep her walking for the alloted time. It was a struggle but we did manage to get our mile completed.

Friday night Kylie spent the night and on Saturday morning she went with us to meet the runners at the Diner for Breakfast. It was good to see everyone and Kylie showed off my super cool surf board medal.
Saturday afternoon Michele and I went to the Sporty Runner in Conway and I finally got a new pair of running shoes. Well actually I just bought a pair a couple of weeks ago, but those didn't work for me. I got the new Asics Kenyano 15's... I LOVED the 13's but can no longer find them in my size. I tried the 14's but did not like them, they actually really hurt the top of my foot.
I have heard good things about the 15's and they felt good when I ran in them at the running store.

Finally Monday rolled around and it was time to run! Arland and I had decided to run at lunch.
The weathermen were calling for rain later in the day but at lunch it was perfect. It was actually very warm but I am not going to complain about warmth in the middle of February!!!
I was so excited to put on my running clothes and new running shoes. It was a good run, my left leg calf/ankle area felt pretty tight and at first I thought oh great these shoes suck, but then I remembered this was my first run in a week and my last run had been a marathon. By mile 2 everything started loosening up and I was enjoing the run and then... my stomach :( the last mile ended up being a combination of stopping, walking, and running. It didn't matter I was just so happy to be running and I was kind of expecting stomach problems, especially since I was still drinking coffee at 10:00am.

Monday evening I went to Pilates at the Community Center, the instructor is great and I am so glad I have included it in my workout schedule. In just a few weeks of going back to buns and abs and adding the Pilates I can feel myself getting stronger, especially my core!

Tuesday the weathermen were calling for rain through out the day and storms in the evening. Jane and I were texting Monday night and she said she was going to run on the treadmill the next morning or at least she was hoping to. Jane and I are a lot alike and I knew the chances of her going were probably slim, so I offered to meet her. As usual the treadmill was torture and I only managed 2.25 miles. Still it felt good to be working out and jane and I always manage to make the best out of any situation. Running on the treadmill wouldn't be so unbearable if it weren't so stinking hot and they only have one fan for five treadmills. We usually walk on the indoor running track afterwards so we can cool off enough to put or jackets on and go outside into the cold.
The kids running club was moved inside because of the rain. The kids were split up into 3 seperate groups, one group would walk through the halls, one group played Wii, and another group was in the cafeteria where Jackie was giving a nutrition seminar. My group the kindergartners and first graders were walking the hallway first. It is quite the challenge to keep the kids motivated, they start off gung ho but after about five minutes they were getting very whiney... when can we stop, I'm hot, I'm tired, my side hurts, when can we stop, I'm tired, when can we stop, when can we stop!!!!!!!! Kylie was whining just as loud as the others and then you add in the fact that several of the kids were fighting over who got to hold hands with me well let me just say she was not a happy camper!! They were all very happy when they "finally" got to go to the cafeteria. Jackie asked the kids "where do you get most of your vitamins" one little boy quickly blurted out Wal-mart. I thought that was pretty funny but I bet a lot of adults might have answered the same way! The right answer was of course bright/dark color veggies and fruits.
By the time the time my group got back to the gym parents were there ready to pick kids up so they didn't get to play with the Wii. The rain had stopped by the time we finished run club and the sun was actually breaking through a little bit, so I called Jane and we decided to try to get a run in around 6:30. Karen also met us and we ran a very easy 3 miles, it felt so great to be running outside, actually I think Jane and I ended up with 3.25 miles. As we were stretching it started sprinkling, it almost felt like we were meant to run since the rain held off until we were done.

Wednesday the rain finally cleared out but the wind, oh the wind! Arland and I wanted to run at lunch but the wind was pretty intimidating, a couple of times at work the wind would blow open the front door and cause all the ceiling tiles to do a little dance! We had almost talked ourselves out of running but I knew I would be sorry if we didn't so I said, let's just do it, if it is awful we will just cut it short.
I think it was in the mid 60's but with the wind it felt cooler. I suggested a zig zag route so that we wouldn't be running into the wind for 1.5 miles. One of the advantages of this route is very little traffic, but it is kind of tedious running up and down lot's of dead end streets, it is also pretty "incliny". I guess we were both feeling pretty good because we ended up with a pretty speedy run and it felt especially good since we had to deal with the heavy wind! 3 miles 9:25 avg. pace.
Wednesday evening was Bun's and Ab's and Jane's cardio/strength interval class. Kelly our regular insructor was not there and I guess they had to scramble to find a substitue instructor, one girl started the class and about five minutes later someone else came in, well you could tell she wasn't too happy about having to teach the class... it was so bad that Michele left in the middle of class to run home. I stuck it out and it did get better but by the end I was in a bad mood and almost didn't stay for Jane's class. As soon as I saw Jane I knew i would stay and by the end of her class I felt ton's better!

Thursday... although I had plans to run with the girls Thursday evening when Arland mentioned running at lunch I was all in!! It was another beautiful day, 64 mostly sunny and breezy but not too windy. I didn't think I could run as fast as I had the day before but decided to just run however I felt and not worry about pace. We started off fast right away I didn't think I would be able to maintain that pace for the whole 3 miles but decided to just run it as long as I could. The last .75 of the run was the hardest, it is a long incline and the breeze was at our back so it got hot!! I really thought any second now I'm going to fall apart but I held it together and we ran 3.1 miles with a 9:19 avg. pace. I was very happy!! We have a 5K on Saturday and I had been thinking I would be happy if I could finish in 30 minutes. After two days in a row of speedy (for me) runs I knew I wouldn't be setting any PR's but at least I could probably finish under 30 minutes. Thursday evening I met Jane and Karen at Michele's house, I was wearing a skirt and short sleeve shirt but had thrown on a jacket before I left the house. When I got out of my car at Michele's it felt pretty chilly so I decided to leave the jacket on. It didn't take too long for me to warm up and I was starting to get uncomfortable, luckily we were running back by Michele's house so I threw my jacket off... not a moment too soon!! It had been decided early on that we were only going to run 3 or 4 miles, I had orginally wanted 5 miles but since I got to run at lunch I was fine with the shorter distance. When I was leaving the house Arland told me not to run as fast as I had at lunch, my response... ha ha don't worry, I don't think I could even if I wanted to. Well I was running with Jane and Michele and those girls are fast and next thing you know we were speeding along. I did slow down a couple of times and whined about them trying to kill me! but it was great and we finished 3 miles with a 9:28 avg. pace. I don't remember the splits exactly but the first mile was a 9:40 and the third was 9:14... the middle mile was a 9:20 something but I don't remember the exact number and I'm too lazy to go get the Garmin to check!! LOL
We ran one more mile at a cool down pace and ended up with 4 miles. It was great to run with the girls, and I was very happy that Michele was able to run with us!!

My legs were very happy to have a rest day today!!
Tomorrow we are headed to Russellville for the Valentine's day 5K. Although my runs this week gave me more confidence about the 5K I have decided that I am going to run with my young buddy Alex (Michele's son) I called him today and asked what his goal was for the race. He said 29 minutes but I think his fastest 5K was 34 minutes. I told him I didn't know if we could do 29 minutes but I would help him get as close as possible. His main challenge is pacing himself so I'm going to try to reign him in the first half so he will have the energy to run the whole thing. I'm pretty excited to be running with Alex hopefully we will have fun.