One Mile Madness

Sometimes I'm a little confused about how tough a mile can feel.  I get that my miles have been outside and there are slight inclines throughout my neighborhood, but really?  I mean I'm running for 10 minutes.  It shouldn't feel so crappy.  I've been going through the reasons (it's morning and I'm still sleepy and not quite loosened up, the only thing I've had to drink is coffee, etc, etc) but nothing really seems to be a valid reason.  Seven miles should not feel easier than one mile, period.  Maybe it's my mentality or maybe I'm just bored doing basically the same run on my mile days.  It just seems kind of silly to drive out to the trail to do a mile run.  Who knows.  Maybe one day I will come up with the reason.

On the plus side, I am coming close to a milestone in my running for the year.  By the end of June I will have run over 80 miles.  I get that a lot of runners run about that in a week.  I have no idea how.  I love to run (most of the time) but I also love a lot of other aspects of my life.  At this point, I have run about 50 hours this month.  I'm kind of addicted to looking at the graphs on the Nike website.

As you can see, April and May were not so hot.  

Granted, the runners who are doing high mileage are not nearly as slow as I am, but whoa that's a big chunk of time!  I guess you prioritize and make time for things you care about.  Maybe one day I'll get this guy a nanny (or a baby jogger...hehe kidding) and I, too, will join the high mile crowd.

On my awesome ten minute run today, I debated whether or not my training plan is going to be effective.  I guess at this point I am a month in and I know my fitness level is improving, but I have also been doing my miles in between.  Is running 3 days a week really going to be the best plan?  Yes, when I get back to work it will be nice to only HAVE to do 3 days, but over the summer I have more time to dedicate to getting in shape.  All the runners I read about got better by....are you ready for this.....running.  I suppose if I keep doing my strength moves (abs, arms, butt) and do some other cross training in the mean time I will be ok.  Lately cross training has been the dance game for Wii.  I'm practicing my Party Rock skills for my reunion with my sister on the 4th of July.  She better watch out.  I probably shouldn't change a plan until I see how it works on race day I suppose.  I'm just a little worried about the looming high mile runs and "speed work" coming up in the near future.

Because I have had a lot of unexpected expenses (grown up life can be so fun sometimes) I have been on a saving money kick and trying to use what I have and stick to buying essentials for my fridge (I'm pretty sure wine counts..).  On that note, I am off to attempt to make my own granola!  Keep your fingers crossed that it turns out as well as I hope it will.  I have to improvise a little bit, but I think it will turn out ok...

Summer Vacation Rocks

I love summer.  I wish I loved to get up early (ha, kind of kidding) because I had a hot, hot run the other day.  On Thursday I had to run my 45 minutes.  I'm not worrying too much about the "magic mile"  because I am doing all the other miles in between training days and some of them have been fast.  Also, my watch isn't really calibrated so I don't actually know what pace I would be running.  Even if it was correct, I'm not sure how you stay on pace without looking at your watch the whole time.  Yes, I am new to running and technology.  My Nike sportsband is just fine with me and its noncomplexities. I set my alarm for 6:30 and then hit the snooze button until I finally just turned it off altogether.  I got to the trail and began running at 10:00.

Highlights of the run?  There is now a portapotty in the parking lot.  I hope it sticks around.  Obviously, with the insane heat I had to hydrate and I may have been a little overzealous.  I also have a very weak bladder.  Regardless, it was clean and it had a foot pedal to flush.  A clear winner in my book.  I should have taken a picture.  Other than that, there wasn't much good about the run other than I finished it.  I kept the run between the car and the water fountain about a mile and a half away which worked ok, but I think I may have been too over cautious.  Perhaps this has to do with the fact that my mom's words to me as I went out the door were "Don't die of heat stroke."  Even though I'm technically an adult, I still try to not get on that lady's bad side.

Other than that, running hasn't been too remarkable.  The best run of the week was with my favorite running buddy!  Maddux woke me up incredibly too early for a Saturday, but my dad was downstairs getting ready for a run.  By the time I was ready, there was a towel for my sweat (my dad knows me so well) and a Gatorade waiting in the truck.  I am NOT a morning runner as mentioned above.  Everything feels stiff and I feel like it takes me a while to get going (especially pre-coffee!!!!), but I was so excited to be on a run with my dad again.  I did run a strong 7 miles on the treadmill on Sunday.  I had to rearrange my running again this week because of traveling, but I think being flexible has helped me stay more mentally in the game.  While the last couple miles were tough (my butt and thighs were feelin' it big time) I overall felt proud of the effort.  I also had a guy cheering for me at the gym.  As he left he clapped and said "Keep running, girl!" in a non creepy way.  It was nice to have some friendly gym going support, especially since I was dripping with sweat.

Today is day 29 of the Runner's World Summer Run Streak!  Only a week a couple days left! At first I thought it was going to be sucky and hard, but it turns out that running at least a mile a day isn't so bad.  The first month of it has actually gone by really fast.  Yay running!

I was totally going to add some pictures in here for viewing pleasure, however, that would require a little more effort than I am willing to put in at the moment and The Bachelorette will be on soon (hurray!).

Happy Summer! :)

Lindsey Sucks at Posting

As was seen from past blog activity, I suck at posting consistently.  I am glad I don't have any readers relying on me for inspiration, because I have had to adopt a new running blog to read when I need a kick out the door because not one, but TWO of my favorites have been slacking on the blog front, too.

Anyway, some updates from life:

Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in March: Goal met?  Oh no, no, no.  In fact it was significantly (as in way, way, way, way) over where I wanted to be.  You know what though?  I had a lot of fun.  Running through the city was amazing and I got to see lots of sights that normally I miss because I am driving and cursing traffic.  After thinking a lot (way too much) about this race, I realized that I couldn't  have expected this run to go well.  I didn't put forth the work that I needed to, and as you can see from the majority of the posts I actually got around to writing, I ate like crap.  I let myself off way too easily. You live you learn I suppose.

New Year's Resolutions: So far, only one is officially met.  This little guy made it to dog school!  I am proud to say that he graduated and is ready for the next step up.  He is doing so much better on walks.

Despite what you may think, no, you have not seen a cuter dog than this.

I am also signed up for my second half marathon of the year!  It will be an October race and I am BEYOND excited!  It's also put on by one of my favorite racing companies, J&A Racing!  I have been following a training plan for a few weeks now that has been going really well.  I am slowly building mileage in, and I am even going to attempt to add speed work.  That will be an interesting part of the plan.  Basically, the plan goes twice a week running 45 minutes, then once a week a long run or speed work.  The 45 minute runs are considered "maintenance runs" and have a few minutes to a mile of "race pace"but I'm still trying to figure out exactly what that should be.  I've realized I'm not a very confident runner.  I need to work on that.  For example, yesterday was BEAUTIFUL out.  But, thanks to my friend's wedding, I was feeling reaalllly stiff and tired from a night of dancing and drinking.  I decided to stick to the 'mill because obviously it was going to be a hard run and I just knew I was going to have to stop for water every two seconds.  Yeah, it turned out to be a pretty great run.  Nothing spectacular, but I ended up running my 6 miles in 56:05.  I had set the treadmill timer for 62 min.  See where I'm going with the confidence thing?  On the flip side, I know I push myself harder on the treadmill.  I think part of it is secretly knowing I can stop and get water whenever I want.  I have also determined that because the bride of the wedding is a triathlete it must mean you can party all night with her and you are destined to have a good run.  She is amazing by the way.

On another running note, I am doing the Runner's World Summer Running Streak.  I was a little apprehensive because I have never run every day before.  I asked friends and my ultimate running advice go to (my dad!) how this was going to work out.  I was reassured several times that yes, I can do it.  No, running a mile isn't going to wear my body down.  I'm twenty something days in now, and have found that my legs have been a lot fresher because of it.  I would definitely do this again, although there has been a lot of laundry.  I'm an avid sweater and the majority of my clothes I have not been able to re-wear.  Speaking of sweating, I am excited because my favorite blogger, Ali,  is selling I <3 Sweat shirts to benefit the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation.  I had been thinking of getting one for a while, but I finally made the plunge today.  I mean, who doesn't love a good sweat.  When I finish the streak, I am thinking of getting myself a "yay, I did it!" prize.  I know it's just a mile a day, but running 38 days in a row is a pretty big deal.  Not gonna lie, I have definitely written every single workout, but RW streak wise and training plan in my planner.  It feels good to check them off and has kept me on track.  I am thinking of buying the Nike running watch with the GPS in it.  I am obsessed with my Nike+ sportsband, but now that my runs are going to be getting a lot longer I think it would be nice to have a more accurate read.  I'm pretty sure it can still upload to my Nike running account, so I can still have all my information up there to see.  I love being able to look at my mileage, pace, and overall comments.  The new and improved website is pretty cool, too, now that I'm getting used to it.

Ok, this is getting to be a really long post.  I guess it was only right, seeing that I have months to make up.  Have a happy Monday! :-)