Sometimes less is more...I hope

So this week's running hasn't gone exactly as scheduled. I had a really good run with Heather on Monday night it was just the two of us and since we live in the same neighborhood it only made sense that we just run from home. I love Heather and it was great to get to spend some running time with her, I had an idea for a new route, thanks to all my miles with Michele I have really learned a lot of new steets to run on and I was able to string us together a pretty nice route. We did have to cross hwy 89 twice and that always slows us down waiting on traffic and then right around mile 5 the dreaded stomach thing came up... first I slowed down then I had to walk and then I had to stop and cross my legs!! luckily after I let it calm down it did allow me to continue the run and we had exactly 6.5 when we got back to our neighborhood. We were in trouble though... Heather's husband was waiting for us at the entrance to the neighborhood and we got busted for running in the dark with no lights or reflective gear :( and then when I got home I got in trouble for running without my phone!!
We had a 10:20 avg pace which is pretty good considering the stomach thing and the traffic crossings!

I already blogged about my change in plans and great day on Tuesday.

Wednesday was a pretty full day. Jane and I ran 5 miles on Wednesday morning from her neighborhood, it was really humid and warm but we had a good run. I did have to make an emergency pit stop at the waffle house!!! I was wearing my pink skirtsports visor with a clip on light and when I got into the bathrrom I looked in the mirror and I looked hilarious!! because of the humidty and and sweat my hair was "huge" I wish I could get that much volume on a normal day!! my face was red and I had sweat everywhere... no wonder everyone gave me such strange looks when I walked in the door!! LOL
we had a 10:18 avg pace and this also included a little leg crossing and stomach calming time!! LOL also I'm really bummed because my stomach started up again towards the end, Jane asked if I needed to walk and at first I said no but I thought we still had a ways to go so I said yes I better walk so we walked for a bit and a little later my garmin beeped 5 miles... well darn if I had known we were that close I would have kept running!!
I don't put my contact in for my early morning runs so I usually can't see my garmin very well :(

Wednesday afternoon I met Michele at the Community Center and we went to Bun's & Ab's class, walked for about 15 minutes afterwards and then at 7:00 I met Kelly for a short run. She had minor surgery last week and she wanted to test out her legs so we just planned a short 2 mile run. I thought she did great!!! it was really warm and humid and I was huffing and puffing and felt really slow but we ended up with a 10:37 avg pace. So Wednesday was a great work out day!!

Thursday morning Michele Jane and I were meeting at the Community center at 5:00am for a run... about 4:35 Michele texted wanting to know if Jane was running, when she found out that Jane was for sure running she opted out.. she has really over extended herself lately and decided to just get some rest. No problem... well 10 minutes later Jane texted and she was not feeling well and wouldn't be running either. I did not want to run by myself in the dark so I took my running shoes off and got back in bed!! I ended up oversleeping and didn't get up until 7:30. The good news was I felt GREAT!!!
Last night I ran almost 2 miles with Michele and the kids but it was a tough run, Alex wasn't having it!!! He started out full of energy and in a great mood and then suddenly he was done and in a bad mood. When we got back to the house we waited on James to get home and then Michele and I set out to add on a few more miles. We started off walking... and we ended up walking and the middle was all walking. Oh well it was a good walk we definetly still burned some calories! Mentally it was just what Michele needed and I think me too!!

We have a big weekend planned. The Big Dam Bridge 100 miler is on Saturday, Arland will ride the whole 100 but Brenda and I along with several other's Bailey :) are riding 50 miles. It is a pretty hilly route so 50 is still a challenge!!
Sunday we have a 16 mile run on the schedule. I'm hoping that by having a lighter week I will have a great weekend!

Good luck to all the racer's and rider's this weekend!!

Time to Recharge my Batteries....

Tuesday morning I woke up feeling like I had been run over by a truck during the night. My stomach hurt, I was bloated, I just felt tired and blah. I always eat breakfast every morning sometimes it is a protein shake but I always have something but yesterday morning I couldn't even bear the thought of ingesting anything!! I didn't eat unil about 12:30 and I still wasn't even that hungry then.
I made the decision that I was going to skip the Tuesday Night Flyer's run clinic and instead go home with Kylie after the kid's running program and spend the evening with her

I can not think of a better way to recharge..refresh..reenergize..renew.... revive re- anything than spend some quality time with my girls Livia and Kylie.

The kid's running program was great, Jackie has always been very organized but each week improves as she see's what needs to be tweaked... she also had more help this week. Coach O was there and another Coach a young guy whose name I do not know... anyway their participation really helped Jackie

I stayed behind in the gym for a few minutes when the kids first went outside and I was very happy to find Kylie running on the track when I got outside, I could tell she was looking for me but at least she was running!!

The obstacle course is probably Kylie's favorite activity and i like it too but yesterday it was the "food group" activity I liked the best

They seperated the boys from the girls and had them form two lines, the coach or a parent would call out a food and if it was a good food the kids would run to the soccer goals ( in opposite directions!) and if it was a bad food they stayed put. The girls did better than the boys but they all did a pretty good job of recognizing good and bad foods.... all the kids started to run when the coach called out pizza!! that was funny and one little girl wouldn't run when they called out cheese... she said that's not a good food so later I had to explain to Kylie why cheese is indeed a good food. When the coach asked me to call out a food spur of the moment the first thing that came to my head was asparagus.. LOL... luckily Grace C. knew what it was and started running so the rest of the kids did too... several kids told me they had never even heard of asparagus!

After the clinic was over and Kylie got to play on the Merry go round for a little while we headed to her house where our activities included the following.

Barbies

Drawing

Bike Ride - Run

Dancing

"Spying"

The list goes on but suffice it to say we had a blast and after a delicious brazilian dinner I went home feeling much better than when I arrived!

I think my time with Kylie did more for my physical and mental health than any speedwork could have!!!

A little of this and a little of that...

Sunday was quite a mix of events! I started the morning with a run, Michele, Jackie and I met Jane at SSE to help her with her long run. My plan was to run at least 8 miles with her but unfortunately the 17 miler from the day before just wouldn't let it happen. I did manage 5.5 miles and then Michele and I left Jane in Jackie's hands and we took a short cut back to the school via Michele's house (bathroom). We ended up walking most of the way back we were both pretty beat but we did get in 7.2 total miles.

We met Jackie and Jane back at the school...both Jackie and Michele had to leave to take care of family but I had brought Francesca along and I got her ready to ride along with Jane. She only had 4 miles left by the time they made it back to the school and Francesca and I kept her company.

It was VERY foggy Sunday morning and during the run I had on one of those hat lights clipped to my visor, for the bike ride I also clipped a couple of blinky lights on the back of it.... it didn't even occur to me until we were back at the school..I had been riding without a helmet!!!!! DUH that was dumb!! :( Actually I was all ready for our next bike ride and Phil was waiting and when I saw him helmet I thought OMG I am an idiot!!!

Brenda, Phil and I left a little later for our 36 mile bike ride... we were taking our 28 mile loop and then Brenda and I were adding on at the end with a trip to Mt. Mudd. Phil stuck with us for the most part during the first part of the ride, he is about 10 feet tall and I swear Brenda and I have to pedal about 5 times to his 1 pedal stroke... not fair!

It was a pretty uneventful ride, Brenda and I were both really tired from the 17 miler on Saturday and although we didn't run together on Sunday morning we had both run over 6 miles,so we were a little whiney! lol or at least I was!

OH.... I guess you can file this under DUH moments too....

When I first loaded Francesca up in my car she felt kind of slippery, at first I thought hmmm maybe Arland cleaned her and lubed her up and accidentaly got some on the handlebars, and then when I started the ride with Jane I thought maybe it was the humidity. Finally a couple of miles in I remembered that I had used Armour All clean wipes to clean the tape after my ride last Sunday. That's not the end of my DUH episode, as we are riding my butt is slipping all over the seat, I had on new shorts and I thought geez these things suck and it was a pretty uncomfortable ride!! I guess we were about mile 25 when it dawned on me that I had also cleaned the seat with Armour all clean wipes and THAT was what was causing the slipping and sliding!!! DUH..DUH..DUH!!!! LOL

Towards the end of the ride I was really starting to fade and it dawned on me (another DUH??) that I had not taken in very many calories. After the run I had eaten a couple of pretzels left over in my fuel belt from Saturday and 1/2 of a Blueberry almond bar. It helped but was not enough I guess so we decided to stop by Knight's grocery store so I could grab something... well I didnt' want to walk all through the store so I just headed to the check out stand and was looking for a payday candy bar, they didn't have any, but I saw Almond Snickers got that instead... very yummy!!! and I could eat it almost guilt free :) I think a 7.2 mile mostly run some walking and a 36 mile bike ride burned off those caloreis!

After we got our iced coffee's and got back on our bikes we both were like whoa what happened to our legs??? we still had about 6 miles left and it was tough but we did it and finished up with 36 miles

I went home showered made myself a sandwich and relaxed for about an hour and then I headed over to Michele's house for some fun!!

We baked cookies, we went on a leisurely 5 mile bike ride and then when we got back we decorated cookies for Abbie's class.

It was somewhat of a miracle that the bike ride even happened!! Michele had invited Karen to come ride with us, Karen doesnt' have a bike so Michele told her she could ride her old Mt. Bike... well Karen is quite tall and Michele is kind of short and it didnt' dawn on her that the bike would need to be adjusted. Normally changing the seat height shouldn't be a problem but this is a really old bike and the seat did not want to budge!! Michele brought out 2 tool boxes and between Michele, Shauna and Karen I think they got the seat to move up a fraction of an inch not nearly enough for Karen to be ablet to ride it comfortably. Shauna's bike was a little bigger and she is inbetween Michele and Karen in height so they switched bikes. There were 7 of us all together, 4 adults and 3 kids we had a good time, except for Claire she crashed :( it was pretty dramatic but in the end she got back up on the bike and finished the ride.

The destination for this ride was once again Mt. Mudd apparently after last weekends bike ride Alex was looking forward to going back all week!

The girl at Mt. Mudd is starting to get used to seeing me ride up on my bike but she was a little shocked to see how many of us there were!

The fun part of the day was when we got back to the house and started decorating the sugar cookies! It was fun and I was very impressed with everyone's creativity!!

Oh I almost forgot when I very first got to Michele's house Alex and I played with the wei..how do you spell it??

Anyway first we played the boxing game... Alex knocked me out 4 times and finally I said enough!!! Next we played Tennis, now this was more like it I was actually pretty good!! Now I want one!

Another fun Sunday spent with the Martin Clan...and in case you are wondering where poor Arland is while I am off having fun???? He was with James on a 65 mile bike ride!! We both got home about the same time.

Thankful....

I have many things to be thankful for but for right now I am going to talk about just two of them.

1. Laundry Fairies.
The dryer is still broken despite Arland's best efforts but never fear we have clean laundry thanks to Livia and Michele.
Livia came to the house on Thursday and I didn't notice until Friday morning that she had taken an overflowing basket of towels home with her.
Friday morning Michele called and said she really needed some Mt. Mudd and for me to load up my dirty clothes and bring her some coffee and she would do my laundry for me. I told her I would gladly bring her coffee but I didn't feel right about bringing laundry! She insisted and well we were starting to get low on a few things so I gathered jeans, t-shirts and towels. I started looking around hmmmm where did that basket of towels go???? I knew right away Livia must have taken them for me.
This morning Michele brought me my clean laundry and took more dirty clothes home with her.
So although I have no dryer I have plenty of clean clothes and I am very THANKFUL!!!

2. A GREAT long run at the River Trail
Michele and I met Brenda and Andrea at the River Market this morning around 5:40, we were going to do the River Trail Loop. It was not as cool as it had been all week, no we couldn't be that lucky, but we were still lucky because it was about 15 degrees cooler than last week!! It was still 90% humidity but with 67 degrees instead of 82-85 like last week. There was also a very light mist which we really enjoyed.
We all stayed together for about the first mile and a half and then Bren and Andrea sped on ahead of us.
I was wearing my new Mizuno Wave Nirvana and as of today I have to give them a big thumbs up, although I probably should have worn them on a couple of shorter runs first. The bottom of my big toe never hurt! :)
We had a great run I never had any stomach issues and only stopped at the port a potty one time and that was just a quick trip. I should mention though that I did run into the Marriot Hotel just before we started and I did have some business to take care of!! I am so thankful I was able to take care of that before we even started running!!
The Little Rock Marathon training group was also meeting at the RiverMarket and I looked for Kim and Cheryl as we ran by but didn't see them. They start at 6:00 and we started about 5:45ish.
From the very beginning I felt good but I kept waiting for something to go wrong but it never did!
Michele and I stopped at the port a potty by the golf course/boat launch and as I came out and Michele went in two young guys came running up, at first I thought they wanted to use the port a potty too, but instead they asked me if I knew where we were.. I kind of chuckled and said yes we are near Burns Park. Poor guys they were only supposed to run 5 miles total for the day and were already at 4.5 and were very sad to learn that they had to turn around and go back the way they had come.. I guess they were hoping for some kind of short cut. They said they were really tired so I hope they made it back o.k.! they were young so I am sure they did :)
Lot's of unfriendly runners out this morning I can't tell you how many female runners that we said good morning to that did not acknowledge us... one girl even looked right at us but would not say anything back.. oh well the Bikers were pretty friendly today! LOL

Karen drove in and parked at Rebsamen Golf Course in Little Rock and ran the last six miles with us.
We slowed down quite a bit those last six miles... Karen is still building endurance which is more important for her right now than speed. I would sometimes have to run on ahead a little bit but for the most part we stayed pretty close together.
Our times really slowed down once we got onto Markham and closer to the River Market. I think we had to stop at every traffic light!!
To get 16 we had to pass by the River Market and on down to the President Clinton Library and and around the block a couple of times. Michele and I picked up the pace quite a bit at about 15.5 and raced the last 1/2 mile... it felt good but I just can't keep up with her!!
When I hit 16 I was done I started walking but Karen wasn't quite at 6 yet so Michele went back for her. I was just going to walk back to the car but then changed my mind and started running again. We were at 16.7 when Karen hit her 6 and you know I have a hard time stopping at an odd number so we ran on until we got 17 miles.
17 miles
3:10
11:14 avg. pace
1-10:51
2-10:11
3-10:12
4-10:21
5-10:29
6-9:53
7-10:11
8-12:06 Big Dam Bridge we took a nutrtion break
9-10:45
10-10:47 We met Karen at 10.5
11-12:17
12-11:38
13-12:04
14-13:42 It was right around here we started hitting all the traffic lights
15-13:29
16-9:50
17-12:01
We were feeling really good and I think we would have continued our pace from the first 10 miles easily but right now we really want Karen to have good runs!!

As soon as we stopped my calves started killing me!! We grabbed long sleeves to put on and headed over to the Market to meet Brenda. We all went to Andina's and had egg and cheese bagels and coffee.. YUM YUM!!!! I stretched a little bit and eventually the pain in my calves went away but my hip flexors have been sore all day!
After going home and taking a shower I was restless so I decided to head back to North Little Rock for shopping, luckily Brenda was in the area and we met at Target and spent some quality time together shopping and chatting!!

Escape from Cabot....

Wednesday ended up being a day off off running. By the time we finished the Bun's & Ab's class and then Jane's Latin Dance class we ran out of time for a run. I think it was probably a good thing! I am sore from Bun's & Ab's but I think doing Jane's class afterwards kind of helped and I'm not as sore as usual.. all the hip shaking and then the great stretches afterwards were just what I needed :)

Thursday started with a nice run with Jane & Michele. It was really cool probably around 57 degrees which is PERFECT running weather to me!! Cindy, Rock and Gary were at the CC when we arrived so it was nice to get to say hi to them and get a hug from Gary :)

When we first started running it took me a few minutes to realize that Jane and I were running ahead of Michele, not something we usually see!! I told Jane hey we better take adavantage of this while we can so we slowed down a little bit and all ran together. Of course by the time we made it to our first really long incline Michele found her second gear and we had to speed up to keep up with her. Michele asked if we wanted to go the same way we did last Thursday and go over the concrete bridge that caused Jane's bloody knees.. or another alternative, I stayed quiet and let Jane decide..she of course didnt' want to go over the "bridge of bloody knees" can't say that I blame her.
This run was a little quieter than normal a couple times I would have to say ok time for someone to tell a story!! LOL

My stomach started doing it's thing around mile 4 on one of the hills but luckily just by slowing down a little bit it subsided.... usually I have to either walk or completely stop for it to calm down. I was pretty excited and just hoped it would stay calm. Just before mile five it started again I would speed up, slow down over and over but somehow my stomach behaved. Finally at 5.8 it decided it started revolting again, I had to stop for a little while and then was able to walk and then back to a run I just prayed it would hold out... and it did. This was definately a much easier run than Sunday & Monday!!

6 miles 1:00:40

10:06 avg pace

1-10:37

2-10:07

3-9:38

4-10:00

5-9:38

6-10:35

I was home by 6:15 and got a lot of tidying up done before I had to go to work. I had a hair appointment at 10:00 so I actually got to work a little early to the shock of the guys in the office. I think it scares them a little if I show up before 8:30!! LOL

The gray roots had started getting pretty bad so I was excited to be getting that taken care of and excited to get out of Cabot for a few hours.

I was also playing delivery person for Team 1 and needed to go to our shop in West Little Rock.. well on the way is a speciality running shoe store and I just couldn't pass it up. I told the guy all my feet issues, pain under my big toe, and Plantar Facscitis in the past. I also told him how the Saucony's didn't work for me and that I had been running in Asic Keyano 13's for a couple of years and really loved them but of course now they don't make them anymore, I also told him that I had tried the Kenyano 14's but didnt' love them so based on all of that he brought me out several pairs tof shoes to try on and then would watch me run in them. First up were a pair of Asic's 3000 they only had size 7.5 and they just didn't feel right. Next were a pair of Nike Structure Air Triax 11.. I had just retired a pair of 10's well I don't know if they need to be retired they probably didnt' have that many miles but they just weren't feeling as good anymore... anyway I LOVED the way the 11's felt!! Next... Mizuno wave nirvana 4's, LOVED them!! It was between the Structure and the Mizuno... the Mizuno's were more expensive, quite a bit more, but since my Nike's didnt' seem to last very long I decided on the Mizuno's, hopefully they will last longer and end up being the better bargain in the long run. I really liked the guy at the shoe store, we talked a lot about long distance running etc.

I am wearing my new shoes at work today to help break them in, I really want to wear them for the long run tomorrow morning.

After the successful shoe shopping trip I headed over to Team 1 West, dropped off some stuff, went out into the shop and visited Jonathon for a little while. By that time I was STARVING!! I had a "Andrea" banana muffin at about 6:30 in the morning after the run and then I had run through Starbucks on the way to my hair appointment but both had worn off by noon. Luckily as I was talking to Jonathon where I was moaning about being hungry Arland texted me to tell me they were at a near by restaurant... actually the restaurant was right next door to the shoe place. They were all almost done eating but insisted I order something anyway so I ordered a turkey sandwich and it came out really quick.

The they I am talking about were some of Arland's business partner's and our new accountant.

After saying goodbye to the guys I headed to Target. I wanted some new picture frames... 30 minutes later as I was getting back in my car with my purchases I remembered them. I left with a new sports bra, new panties, and some vitamins... no frames :(

While I was in Target Jane called to let me know she was back in her office, we had discussed during our run the fact that I was going to be in the area and maybe it would workout that I could stop by.

Jane is a Trust Bank Vice president... I am used to seeing her all hot and sweating in running shorts and skirts. It was really cool too see her all dressed up in her proffesional attire :) She is beautiful.. inside and out!!

The Cabot Cruisers won the Team Spirit Award during the Tour D' Rock back in .. well whenever it was June or July???

It is a traveling trophy and Jane had picked it up and has had it in her office for a little while, now it is Team 1's turn to display it for a little while... I have to tell you though it was a little tough getting Jane to hand it over!!!!

Next I headed to our North Little Rock Team 1 to drop off there checks... I stayed and chatted with Neal for a while, I used to work at the NLR shop and although I don't miss the commute I really miss Neal!!!

It was almost 3:00 by the time I made it back to Cabot and I was beyond the point of being able to do anything productive. I did sort through some bills etc. but it was hard to keep my eyes open the last hour!!

We had dinner plans with "the guys" at Bennihanna's in Little Rock, I really did not want to have to drive home after dinner so I called Neal and persuaded him to drive to Cabot to pick me up and that way I got to ride home with Arland. It was really nice of him, he had to drive 16 miles north to get me and Little Rock is to the South!! :) I'm a lucky girl to have such good friends!

We met at the bar in the lobby of the Wyndham Hotel and I had a margarita... oh that was yummy!!! I haven't had a margarita in ages well since after the San Francisco Marathon. This one was really good and I sucked it down way too fast so of course I had to have another one. I really hope I don't regret those margarita's tomorrow morning during our long run!!

Dinner was great I ate too much, but really I don't know if I ate too much or if it was the margaritas because we took home a pretty big to go box filled with our left overs.

OHHHHH I forgot to mention that Michele made Arland Mexican Chicken the other night and brought it over!! So now between the Bennihanna left overs and Michele's mexican chicken I don't have to feel guilty about not cooking for the next couple of days :) LOL
When we got home I kicked off my shoes and looked down at my feet and they were swollen!! yikes not a pretty sight.. luckily they are back to normal this morning.

It was so nice to get to spend some time outside of Cabot for a change!!! especially on a workday ;)

It is a rest day today and then tomorrow a few of us are going to the RiverMarket and running the "River Trail Loop" for our 16 miler.

Run Fast... Run for Fun

My week has felt off... the run on Sunday night has thrown my timing off. We normally run on Sunday mornings and by doing it on Sunday night it now feels like that was Monday so I have been thinking it was later in the week than it is. Silly I know but it is funny how just one little thing out of the normal routine can throw you off.

The usual gang got together for a run on Monday night. Jane, Kelly, Michele and myself met at 6:30 for a run, and Michele had picked out a fun new route, NOT. We started out in her neighborhood and then she took us out to the Campground Hill. It is a pretty decent size hill but what makes it even more challenging is the fact that it is on a busy road with NO shoulders! I guess one good thing about that is it makes you run harder up the hill just so you can get off of Campground. Next we went down Stagecoach all the way to East Main, on the way to East Main we had some rolling hills and a nice downhill.... problem with that downhill was that the whole way down I knew we had to climb it coming back!! The whole time we are just running our little hearts out and our wind up toy Michele is as usual leading the pack.
The first 2 miles were kind of painful, my whole left side was kind of twingy and tight (from the hip down) but once we got to about mile 3 I guess I warmed up enough and didn't feel the pain anymore. After we made it back UP Stagecoach we hit Linda Lane and winded around all the normal neighborhoods. We had several more long inclines but nothing compared to Campground and Stagecoach.
We were once again running a really good pace and it wasn't easy but it wasn't killing me... my thought process was to just keep focusing on each mile.
I knew we were on pace to be as fast as if not faster than Sunday night and that also helped keep me going. We hit five miles just a little bit before Michele's house but we called the Scarlata rule and we walked when we got to five.

5 miles
47:20
Avg. pace 9:28
1-10:06
2-9:43
3-9:15
4-9:15
5-8:59 :)

We did a cool down walk with Jane and then Karen arrived and Kelly and I ran 2.6 more miles with Karen and Michele. I think they ran 4 miles and I really felt like I could have run all night but it was getting late and I needed to get home to my sick husband.

Tuesday with the kids at Magness Creek is quickly becoming the thing I look forward to most all week!!
First I get to pick up Harry from School and we have a nice chat all the way to Magness. He is quite the conversationist!!!
We headed to the Gym and I found Kylie lined up with the rest of the kindergarten kids. We quickly headed to the little girls room so Kylie could change into her running clothes. Most of the kids just run in whatever they wore to school which is fine but some of then looked pretty hot yesterday!
We didn't get to hang out with Madison yesterday since they broke the kids up by grade. It really makes sense and helps with the orgnization but we were bummed not to run with her.
There were several stations set up, an obstacle course to help with agility, and another area where they practiced high knees, speedwork, slow&low's and lunges.
The kids rotated through these stations as well as running on the track. There are a108 kids signed up for the program this year and having the stations really helps with the congestion on the track!!
After we ran our first lap we headed over to the water station and there was mass confusion.. the kids were all fighting over the coolers so I made them all line up behind me and I started filling cups for them. I did this until the crowd thinned out and then it was time for Kylie to change stations.
After the fun was over Kylie and I stayed and helped clean up the cups, and help pick up all the cones etc. that were used to set up the stations.
I absolutely love being a part of this program.. I LOVE seeing the kids outside playing and running and of course I love being able to share my love of running with Kylie and all the kids.
My Runner girl Kylie


When Kylie and I got to her house no one was home yet so we hung out in the car and blasted Hannah Montanna as loud as we could.. or as loud as my eardrums would allow!!
It was hard to leave Kylie but next on the agenda was the Tuesday Night Flyers.......

On the way Arland called and he sounded TERRIBLE... it kind of scared me and I told him I would come home and skip the track, but he said he was fine and for me to go on. I will admit there was a small part of me that wanted him to tell me to come home!! I wasn't really looking forward to speedwoork... but I always look forward to seeing everyone!!
Kelly and I decided that since our Monday night run could have been considered a tempo run especially the last 3 miles, we would do the intermediate workout.
We ran our warm up with Rick and then when we got back to the Track Jane had showed up :)
Kelly, Jane and I were doing the same workout so we started off together. First up we did 1x800 at LT pace, it was hard and I felt slow. Second was 1x1200 at LT pace this was really hard and I really felt slow!!!
I don't know if the Football team had practiced before we arrived or what but someone left behind a not so nice present on the track. Right in the first turn was a huge pile of throw-up... it was nasty, smelly, and gross. It got to the point where we were counting our laps by saying only 3 more times by the throw up... 2 more times etc.
Next we had 2x200 at interval pace..
It was a short workout but the way my hip felt after our last 200 I don't think I could have done much more. All the left turns on the track really do a number on my left sciatic nerve or whatever that is bothering me. We decided we would go off the track for our cool down so we ran around the highschool & CC for a mile as a cooldown.
I was really feeling bummed by how slow I felt and how hard it seemed to just run as fast as I did.... and then I got home and looked at my Garmin.
First 800 or .54 was in 4:24 which was a 8:12 avg pace my LT pace is 9:20 ....
The 1200 or .8 was in 6:42 which worked out to a 8:23 avg pace
The 2x200 were done in 53 seconds and 51 seconds....
Sooooo I guess I wasn't as slow as I felt.

Tonight is Bun's & Ab's and Jane's Latin Dance class... and maybe a short run afterwards???

How to recover from a terrible long run.....

I truly am Blessed!!! I have wonderful friends who care about me and make sure I know it!! I received phone call's, text messages and e-mails throughout the day on Saturday from these wonderful people checking on me to make sure I was ok and cheer me up.

I really didn't do much on Saturday after I blogged about the terrible run... I went to wal-mart to pick up a few things and bought a new book. I used to be a voracious reader I never went more than a couple of days in between books, but since I started running I either don't have the time or if I get still and quiet enough to read I fall asleep.

Tropical storm Ike was pushing his way to Arkansas throughout the day on Saturday and the weathermen had predicted severe weather well into Sunday afternoon. I thought a book would be the perfect way to ride out the storm.

Oh and by the way Ike spawned a tornado about a mile from my house!!! Too scary!

I spent Saturday evening reading with HGTV on in the background... very relaxing and just what I needed.

Sunday morning for the first time in ages I slept in until almost 8:30!! that was a 4.5 hour difference from Saturday morning.

When I got up I looked around and thought good grief I really need to spend the day around the house. Our dryer has been broken so laundry was piling up etc. My plan was to go to the laundra-mat, I HATE the laundra-mat!!! but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Luckily I was saved from laundry hell by my friend Michele. She texted wanting to know if I wanted to go on a fun bike ride with her and Alex. When I responded with a no and told her the reason she INSISTED I bring my laundry to her house. It is hard to say no to Michele and knowing her she would have come to my house and loaded up my laundry herself!!

I didnt' take ALL of the laundry but I got together some stuff , loaded Francesca in the CRV and we were off to Krooked Kreek.

I arrived just in time for breakfast :) homemade biscuits and gravy with eggs and bacon.. yummy!! Michele is a very good cook.

Arland also came over for breakfast and we all had a nice time chatting and eating and doing laundry. Michele even made me match all of Arland's socks for him!! LOL

After breakfast Arland left, James retired to the living room to work on taxes and Michele, Alex and I headed out on our bike ride.
I think I might have forgotten to mention that the weathermen got it wrong for Sunday morning!! When I woke up it was SUNNY and beautiful... still pretty windy but not the tropical force winds that had been predicted. I guess Ike moved through the state a lot quicker than they orginally thought.

We rode our bikes at a very leisurely pace all over Cabot... we went to Mt. Mudd and had iced coffee's and a frozen non coffee drink for Alex (he doesn't need the extra stimulants!!) we rode over to Michele's grandmother's house and had a short visit... we went to a grade school and Alex climbed a tree and we just plain ol had FUN!!!

We went back to the house worked on laundry for a few minutes, gathered our bathing suits and stuff and got back on our bikes and headed to the Community Center to swim for a little while... on the way we stopped at the high school track and ran/walked a couple of laps so that Alex could have a mixed up triathalon.

The pool was great, the water temp was cool but not too cold we grabbed boogie boards and kicked back and forth across the pool while Alex alternated between swimming and splashing us. I really didn't want to get out of the pool but it was almost 3:30 by this time and we still had the bike ride home.

Our total mileage for the day was 15 miles.... 15 fun, relaxing miles!!!

James had helped me with my laundry so when we got back to the house we just had to hang some stuff up put my stuff in the dryer for just a little bit and all that left was towels.

While we were waiting for my things to dry we looked at Michele's pictures from San Francisco... she and Cheryl both have really nice digital cameras and got some great pictures!! I need to go back over sometime and e-mail them to myself and Cheryl.

It was about 5:00 when I got home, Arland had a meeting to go to at 6:30 so I cooked him some dinner ate a littel myself and then got ready for my 7:00 run with Kelly, Jane and Michele.

I was a little nervous about the run I wasn't sure how my legs were going to feel etc. We started off at the CC and did our little CC loop before we headed off into the neighborhoods. Right away we were running at a pretty good pace, I was running along thinking oh this is going to be tough!! Michele was full of energy and as usualy she was pulling us along. I wasn't struggling but I was definately feeling the pace I told myself just suck it up it is a short run so just run as hard as long as you can, luckily I wasn't the only one feeling that way and Kelly said hey are we running a race or something??? LOL I was relieved to know it wasn't just me. When my Garmn beeped at the first mile I looked down and saw our first lap was 9:54... hmmm not as fast as I thought it would be... sure felt like we were going faster BUT either way a great pace for the first mile!

Michele was like a wind up toy, she had a string on her running top and she was just twisting away at it and I swear it made her faster and faster!! There is one road that we run on that is a long incline and most of the time this is where we will take a water break. Jane called a break but I couldn't walk... just like on Monday night I was afraid to walk because I was afraid I might not be able to start running again... so I just slowed way down to a jog that wasn't really much faster than there walk, it helps to get my heart rate down but then I don't have the stress on my hips of starting the run again.

We went through a few new neighborhoods which introduced a few new hills/inclines. Every now and then someone would say good grief why are we running so fast and we would all laugh and slow down a little bit but without even knowing it we would be back up to speed within a few seconds probably because our wind up toy Michele never slowed down!!

About 3 miles in we saw some other runners in the distance... actually they were running so fast that at first Michele thought they were bikers!

They were actually a couple of guys and a girl from the High School track team... Michele knew one of them and turned around to run/talk with them for a minutes. When she turned around I said oh good NOW we can slow down and we did for a little bit but then we had a hill to get up and we turned up the speed and just kept up the pace. We werent' worried about Michele I knew she would catch up with us and she did just that, we were running along when all of a sudden we could hear the pounding of her feet as she approached. It was dark so we couldn't really see her but we could definately hear her coming!! LOL

She of course was yelling at us for making her have to work so hard to catch up with us! ha ha

Kelly mentioned that we were almost at 4 miles in 37:xxxx .. we were just about to approach our last hill and I really wanted to see how fast we could finish the 4 miles so we all charged up and we hit 4 miles in 38:13 :)

I was thrilled... but that last charge up the hill didn't thrill my stomach and I had to come to an abrupt stop right after 4 miles. The girls didn't realize I had stopped and kept going, I could see the CC in the distance and just prayed i would make it. Luckily once i let it calm down for a few seconds I was able to run again and when I caught back up with the girls I even suggested we add on at the tennis courts so we could get 5 miles. I only needed 4.3 miles on this run this hit my weekly mileage goal but 4.3 is just too weird of a number to stop at!! LOL

We also claimed that we would make it our cool down....

5.01 miles

47:44 9:32 avg pace

1-9:54

2-9:26

3-9:38

4-9:15

5-9:28

Seriously I haven't had such a fast run in ages!! It felt great!!

But wow how do you go from barely being able to run at all to running faster than normal??? I guess I shed that other persons body I was running with on Saturday... and the lower humidity made a huge difference too!!

After the run Kelly and I headed to Jacksonville for our weekly Starbuck's visit. We had the choco-banana vivatno protein drinks and kicked back and relaxed and chatted for over an hour! I looked down at my phone and it was 9:30!!!!

The trip to Starbucks with Kelly was the perfect end to a perfect day :) It was a perfect recovery day!!