Run Skirts and Pilates

I broke down and bought a running skirt. Actually that's not really what happened.

I went to Target to get #4 some Dr. P. and went thru the workout section to get there. I was looking for a couple of racer back tanks. I'm not 100% comfortable in the sports bra tanks I have so I wanted some loose fitting tanks and am a bit cheap. There were some clearance racks. BINGO!

The first rack was all shorts. Shorts that I would not wear as panties BTW. But sticking out was one skirt. My size. I almost need another pair of running shorts and this was such a great deal.

@ Target Champion Skirt reg $16.99, clearance $8.99

So I wore them for my long run on Saturday. I felt so cute. I'm not kidding, really cute. I did have to wear a loose tank over the tummy area, cuz that wasn't so cute. My inner thighs did not really enjoy the skirts under shorts so much after about 4 miles. Yes my thighs touch. I'll wear it again, but only for my shorter runs.

On a different note, I'm participating in a Biggest Loser challenge on Spark. I'm in a group that is all people that are at goal weight or within 10lbs of it. (I've actually lost 4lbs since it started, go me!) I've dropped the ball pretty bad with the LCW, but managed to do it this week out of guilt motivation.

I pulled out my old Winsor Pilates videos and did the ab one. I'm not sure how long I have owned these videos, but I'm sure it's been 10 years. I was a little worried that they were out of date, but Pilates is pretty old as it is so I'm gonna use these instead of buying new ones. I did mention that I was cheap??

It kicked my ass and my abs. All in about 20 minutes. Who doesn't have time to spend 20 minutes on something?? I'm gonna work at making this a regular part of my week.

How much can I squeeze into one post?!?

I would be first in line for to have a chip inserted in my brain IF it did certain functions. Namely, record and post all the wonderful bloggy stuff I think about while running, driving, showering and the many other activities I do while not in front of the computer. But since there is no chip yet, and I don't want to leave out anything good, I'll just see how much I can cram squeeze in here.

And because I am a little OCD, it will be in chronological order :D

1. I officially have a running buddy. One of the ladies in my Half training group is not going to be able to do the half with the rest of us, so she set her sights on one the following month. I was already planning to do it so I said I would do it with her. We now are running together every Monday and Friday mornings. Although we run different paces, we start together and meet up again after we are done. It really helps me to get out of bed knowing that someone is waiting on me.

2. The race weekend that wasn't. I managed to miss both of my free races. I wasn't totally planning on doing the mud race. It really didn't seem to be the kind of race that would be fun alone and I couldn't guilt get anyone into doing it with me. It was okay, because after my 6.4 half training run I was pretty exhausted. I was upset about missing the trail run. Our a/c unit shut down Saturday night and we were up til pretty late trying to see what was wrong with it and hopefully get it going again. But we got to go visit my DS again in her new town so it wasn't a total wash.

This is my DS Cori, and her BF Corey. I'm not joking.

3. More running, half training, blah blah blah. Yeah right, like that's not the reason I live and breathe! Monday of Week 5 felt like crap. I felt slow, had trouble breathing, wanted to stop. Wednesday we did a tempo run. I didn't do as well as the last time (maybe there is something to peeing on yourself). Friday didn't feel all that great either. I did a virtual 5k and posted my time at 33:37 at a 10:46 pace. Didn't really notice it until later. It was pretty doggone good for me.

4. New longest distance. 7.19 in 1:17:40 at an avg pace of 10:48. Go me!

5. Tried Yoga for the first time. It was AWESOME, except for the gnats. After Wednesday nights tempo run, FF had an instructor come and do a session with us. It was outside and that's where the gnat came from. I have never felt so good after a run. (I actually ran into to the little girl that did the class after my run yesterday, she does not teach anywhere anymore :( but did recommend some things for me to check into since my gym doesn't have a yoga class).

I'm gonna close it here. I did have half a diet coke this weekend so my memory is not 100% lol

A Brick and More Races

I let #4 slide on a bike ride on Sunday. He really likes to be lazy that day and since it is his only day, I decided to oblige. But I did trick him into committing to riding Monday night. The Half schedule called for a 40 minute run which is just under 4 miles for me. So I planned a brick workout.

We went to the lakes by LSU which has become my favorite place to run. Mostly because I can chose a route for just about any mileage and not have to do any laps. Have I mentioned that I hate laps?!? I planned for us to ride the 6 mile loop and then he could ride beside me while I ran the 4 mile loop.

Started out real good. I love my bikes! I do tend to ride all out tho. It just feels like cheating to coast. I brought my hard tail because the full suspension is just too heavy for the lakes and the road bike is too light. It's not really too light, but since I was "training" for a duathlon that I will use the road bike for I don't want to train with it. I want to train with something heavier. We did the 6 mile loop with no problem (other than there were a ton of people to dodge).

When we got back to the truck, I felt a little light headed. I should have taken a break but I prefer to push like I would on a race day. So we just took off. I truly understand the term Brick now! My legs were VERY heavy! I was running really, really slow. I only managed 2 miles of the 4 I had planned. My splits weren't too bad: 10:58 & 11:48. But I hit 13s quite a bit during the second mile. I knew the parking lot with the potty would be about the halfway mark so I decided to stop there.

We walked the rest of the way back to the truck. It took forever,  but was really nice to spend some slow time together.

What did I learn from this? That although I really want to do the Big VooDu, it just best that I do the Little VooDu. Does this mean I am wussing out? I hope not. I looked around at other du's in this state and the Big VooDu is one of the biggest so it makes sense that it NOT be my first du. To me and #4 it makes sense at least.

In order of event, not registration :D

10/30/11 The Little Voo-Dualthon: This race is a 2m/10m/2m du. The Big VooDu is a 5k/18m/5k. I've made the right choice. They also have a dirty voodu and 5k event. I'm pretty excited about this little race!

11/5/11 SJA Sticker Stampede 5k: a friend from High school who is training on her own for a marathon (or half) sent me a message on FB about this one. It's our alma mater and a good fundraiser. I may actually not show up for it tho. I noticed after that my schedule run for the day is 105 minutes. Although I will be in the same general area, if we don't start until 7 am I won't be able to make the 8:30 race start (unless I go a different route and just run right into the race lol).

1/15/12 - The Louisiana Marathon Half. After last Saturday's group run, one of the others was talking about not being able to do the BR Beach half with the rest of the class. That is the race we are all training for. She will be out of town. She mentioned that she was looking at doing the LA Marathon half instead. I mentioned that I was thinking of doing it as well. So we tentatively decided to do it together. I went ahead and signed up!

A new distance PR

In case you can't see it: I RAN 6 MILES!

I am very excited, can you tell???

The scheduled run for Saturday's group run was a 6 mile or 50 minute run. I was not planning to do 6 miles for two reasons.

1. I have never ran more than 4 miles before in my life (all at once).
2. I can not do 6 miles in 50 minutes even if I had run that distance before in my life.

This run we had the Fleet Feet girl coaches*. I was expecting it to work like before, breaking into groups and those of us that can't run the full distance doing an out and back. So far we have had 3 "groups". The first being those that can run under a 10 min mile. Second is those that can't. And the third being those that run/walk. I fit into the back of the second group.

The FFGCs explained the route. They also said that if we were running an 11 min mile, it would take us 66 minutes to do the whole route. then one of the FFGCs said something that changed my mind about my goal for the run. She said that if we all wanted to do the whole route, they would wait for us. How awesome is that?? 

I knew the route and was not worried about running alone or getting lost. I also knew there was a potty about halfway around! (Sad the things that get me thru.) After we started, I placed myself purposfully between the second group of runners and the walkers. I still was not planning to run the whole distance but was going to run at least my planned 4.5 miles. 

I wasn't really surprise that I kept up with the second group. We were running right about 11 min miles which is my current pace. About 1.5 miles in, one of the two runners in front of me (there were only 3, once coach and two runners) decided to stop at a water fountain. The other runner apparently really wanted to run in a pair and slowed down until she stopped to wait. I kept going. I wasn't running WITH them, except that we are in the same group. I am working really hard to run my own pace. So I just kept going. 

Right at mile 3 we got to the parking lot that had the potty. I really felt like I could go without stopping, but after what happened at Wed's group run I really didn't want to chance it. I turned around and saw the coach behind me and told her I was stopping. After I was done, I went out on my own to finish as much as I could.

It didn't take very long before I spotted the coach and other two runners in front of me. I was motivated by this because I thought I would be much to far behind them to see them. 

I had my RunKeeper app set to give my voice feedback every ten minutes. And I kept thinking, at the next feedback I'll go to a run/walk plan for the rest. But I was feeling good. Actually I was feeling great. I had none of the normal pains I get when running. Granted I have changed my landing from heel to mid-foot. I did have a little discomfort in my knees but heck, I was pushing it. Every turn (ran around lakes) I could still see them just motivated me to keep on going. Who knows, I may have been able to catch them! Not really :D

Eventually we got to where I could see the lot my car was parked in. No way I was walking in at that point. The coach that was with runners in front of me stopped when she entered the lot to wait for me. She was all cheery with a "yay you did it!" I was elated. I told her I had never run that distance before and never ran more than 4 miles before. She seemed surprised!

We stretched after and I learned that I am not very flexible. Need to get on a plan for that ASAP. I couldn't wait to get home and tell #4! About the run, not the flexibility. I posted it everywhere! 

I usually start out my runs with a mental beat down. I think things like "what are you thinking?", "you need to be happy with 5ks", "you know you could be sleeping right now". I was starting to believe there was no way I would be ready for the Half in December. I just seem so far behind the other runners. I think I know better now. Heck 6.2 miles is almost half of 13.1. 

My pace was pretty good too!

I got this!

* I really have no idea what else to call them but coaches.

HMT W3 D?, I've already lost count :p

Scheduled: 30 min tempo run, no route... out and back.

Coming off 4 really good runs, I was looking forward to this class. I had struggled for the other group runs, so I kinda wanted to show everyone that I wasn't a huge wuss. Not that I'm not, but they don't need to know that.

The first words out of the coaches mouth when he arrived were "this will be your first speed training run". Immediately I thought "whoa dude, it's a tempo run!". Glad I didn't say it out loud.  I assumed, wrongfully apparently, that a tempo run meant running a nice steady tempo. If only there was a book or website where one could look up such words and/or terms, then life would be sooo much easier. O.o

He explained that what we were going to do was take our 5k pace and add two minutes to it. Run 10 mins at that pace, then speed up for 10 minutes, then slow back down for the last 10.

Well I don't have a 5k pace. I have only finished two 5ks fully running in my life. The first was in 2006 and I finished in 35:04. And the other was the 5k I did in July that the course was cut short due to the other runners who made a wrong turn. Even though math is not my best subject, I figure my time would have been 32:15 for the full 5k. So that puts me around 10:45ish?!?

As with the other group runs, he plans to break us into the 10:00m/m group and everyone else. That put them setting out at about a 12m/m. I figured I could hang with that since I'm running around 11m/m right now. I did fine with that, pulling up the rear. I like the rear. It keeps me from running someone else's pace.

So at the 10 min mark, he hollers and we pick up the pace. I'm hanging good, still in the back. We turn around after 5 minutes. Not really sure what happened here or more importantly why, but I started passing people. I really was just running what I felt I would run in a race. It ended up being around 9:20. I know, greased lightning! I ended up passing all but two runners, and that included the two coaches. I heard them comment to each other about my pace. I even heard him comment about how the first day I barely finished. That made me happy :D

I finished the run just fine. However I did have an accident during. Yes, I am saying I wet myself. So embarrassing. But I'm pretty sure no one noticed. Now, I've read all about this. But somehow I just figured it was a race thing. Never imagined it to be an issue while training. My bladder should just be smarter than me. Needless to say, I ran straight to my car and went home. Barely even said bye. I am going to hope that with the cooler weather I just need to hydrate less?!?

HM W2R3 & W3R1

Tropical Storm Lee tried his best to put a stop to my Half class plans for the weekend. I truly woke up every hour - hour and a half Friday night and checked my email waiting for some notice about class Saturday morning. Scheduled was 5 mile or 45 minute run. I had planned to do the same route as last week and get in a full 4 miles. But at 6 am, the email came that the run was canceled. I was not surprised. It had been raining for over 12 hours with no end in sight.

Around 1 pm, I noticed it had stalled for a while. I checked weather.com and the site informed me that I had a window of opportunity until 3 pm. So my decision was made and I started to prepare. I got my drinks made and my fuel eaten. And at 2 pm I set off from the house for my run.

There were a few sprinkles on the way. No big deal. I need to learn to run in rain anyway just in case. But by the time I arrived at my route and parked my car, the rain had picked up. There was not another soul out there. Well, there were plenty of people driving but no one braving the weather. I thought about sitting and waiting for it to calm down but decided that was sure to be the quickest way to backing out of the run. So I just went.

It rained quite a bit for the first mile. Slacked off for mile 2 and 3. And picked back up for mile 4. I was soaked! I ran through puddles. I briefly worried that I was ruining my iphone. But I had a great run!

After I was done, I went home and had a nice warm shower. I also allowed myself to celebrate with a beer or two for getting out there and getting it done!

When Monday rolled around, I chose to sleep in since it was still raining. It didn't rain too much that day but my DD called and wanted me to go visit her in her new apartment in her new city, New Orleans. So I went and spend a few hours with her and put my run on the back burner. 

I got home around 6 and immediately went to get ready for my run. I was in a hurry! The temperature had dropped and I was worried that after dark it might actually be cold! Seems silly I know. I had the route to myself again. I guess everyone was BBQ'n or something. Another good run for me!

This makes 4 good runs in a row. I am hoping to be over whatever slump August caused for me. I have other things to concern myself with on this journey besides the 3-4 mile distance. 

Another new race?!?

I'm not really a lucky person. Now I don't mean that only bad things happen to me. I just mean that I don't win things. Actually I have won 2 things before. I won a blanket in a raffle at a school fair about 20 years ago and I won some Nuun from on of the HTC teammates. Truly that is it.

Well, now I can up that to 3 things. I have won an entry to a race.

Play Dirty Adventure Run.

Twitter announcement

This is a new race in my area. I think it is similar to other "mud runs" that are growing in popularity around the country. It seems like lots of fun. BUT I'm not planning to do it.

There are several reasons why:

• It's a saturday race and I have half class that morning. Class is a 60 minute run. The race has waves so I could make it if I wanted to.
• It's the day before the trail run I have already registered for (albiet free). But I think all three events would really be pushing it.
• This is not a race I think I would enjoy doing alone (and I don't have anyone to do it with). I have been trying to find someone since I found out about the race but have not been successful.

I'm disappointing no to do it, especially since I can do it for free. But I think it's the best choice for me. Not that I wouldn't change my mind in a heart beat if I found someone to do it with between then and now! lol

New Race - St. Charles trail run

I almost forgot to post about this. I've signed up for a new race.

NOLArunning

Since I started the Half class, I've had to re-think my "want to" races. Most races are done on Saturdays and that is the day my longs run with the class are scheduled. I'm not about to miss a class. So I've just been looking at Friday and Sunday races. They are in limited supply.

So yesterday, NOLArunning made some posts on Facebook about upcoming races. The trail run caught my eye. I love running the trails. We don't do it much because there are not a lot of trails in our area. This race was originally scheduled for early summer at a time that I would not be ready, even for a 5k. It was around the time that the Muddy Mississippi was cresting the flood level in Baton Rouge and the opened the spillways. As you can see from the picture about, this race is in one of the spillways. Needless to say it was flooded for a couple of weeks prior to the race so they rescheduled and  I forgot about it.

I made a note of it and went on with my business, I do have a job after all. At some point I got an email from Active Advantage (I have a membership that I had not decided to cancel or not). I didn't open it at first but it  caught my eye about 30 minutes after getting. "Deal Alert: St. Charles Trail 5" was in the subject line. I figured I'd get some extra bucks off the registration fee.

BUT it was better than that! They were giving the first 5 people that responded FREE registration!! I figured I had missed it since I didn't open it immediately. But I was the second person to respond. I was very excited!!

HM Week 2 additional run

I woke up this morning with stuffy ears. Not sure what that means healthwise. But I had a run planned and with all the rain coming from Tropical Depression 13 there was no way  I was gonna pass on it.

Today I planned to do the additional run on the training schedule. The schedule called for a "30 minute run @ a steady/moderately hard pace - push this pace". I got it done. YAY!

I went out for just a regular run and remembered after lap 1 (yes I did laps again) that this was the run of the week that I was supposed to push hard on. Luckily I have my app set for feedback every 5 minutes. After 20 minutes in, when I realized that I was on pace for achieving the assignment I kicked it up a bit.

Negative splits ;)

The weather, although wet, helped a lot. The temp was low, nice breeze, no sun. I also drank some accelerade before hand. I've always saved this drink for actual races because of the calories, but since I'm struggling with getting enough fuel I've decided to use it for training. I do have some Accelerade Hydro on order. I has half the calories and sugar of the regular kind.

I also sported my new Gracies Gear sports tank.

Sorry for the mirror shot but at least it's not in the bathroom

If you are wondering what is so special about this tank, it's that little while line in the middle of my chest. That is a special pocket sewn on the outside of the tank to put gear in, namely my iphone. I usually put the phone on the inside of my sports bra, over my heart. It doesn't stay there very well during a run. And it has actually cause bruising to a very sensitive area!

I don't really care for tank bras because I'm overly aware of my belly fat when I'm running. This tank fit well enough or loose enough that I was comfortable leaving the house with it on. And, just like the makers claim, it did not ride up. It is a bit pricey, $55. But they offered a deal a while back: buy two get one free. The free gets me every time.

They are made in the USA. But unfortunately the manufactures are a bit slow. It took about 2 months for this one to come in, and I am still waiting on the other two. Good thing I am a patient person. 

Now I am off to take some drugs, hoping to rid myself of this stuffy head before it gets worse. Hopefully TD Lee will play nice in the morning so that training class still happens.

Catching up with HM training (w. HTC ghosting)

I was a bit down after last Wednesday's run. It really seems like I'm going backwards lately. Struggling to get run for more than 15 minutes at a time when I worked up to 4 miles. By Friday morning I had decided to go all out again. Not really a smart plan in retrospec.

 HTC

My Ghosting schedule was a 5.64 mile job at 10:30 am and 4.11 mile at 8:34 pm. Originally I had planned to do the morning run inside on the treadmill and the later outside, because of the distances and the heat. Well, not sure what got into me but I decided to outside for the first leg. BIG MISTAKE! I chose a route that I thought would be about half shaded. WRONGO! I think I ended up runnning only 1 mile. I only got in 2.44 in 35 minutes. You can see from the route pics below that I seemed to be lost! I was looking for shade. Needless to say, I called it quits early and went home feeling all yucky again.

But come 8 pm, I had decided to go back out and try it again, OUTSIDE. I had hoped to run the full distance but did not make that goal. I did run for a full 30 minutes which was the assigned time for the day for my half class so that was good. I did also do the full distance.

Leg 1

Leg 13

All in all it was a fun experience. I was following 2 groups of teams. The spark teams were on facebook and the Nuun teams on Twitter. I paid more attention to the spark team since I was kinda participating. The nuun team will blog later and that will be easier to follow. It just made the desire to do a relay that much stronger. Gotta find a team now!!!

Saturday's group run was a 40 minute run. I was determined to do better and slowed my pace as advised. Technically I did well. I ran what I thought was the route (forgot to actually study the map before hand) and ended up doing 2.43m in 26:50 @ 11:03 average pace. Not as slow as I had planned but ran the whole thing. Only to find out we messed up the route big time. One of the coaches took a couple of us back out to make sure we got in enough miles. We did 1.13m in 12:54 @ 11:27 avg pace. Roughly translated into me getting in my full 40 min run! Yay go me.

Monday's run was not so good again. Schedule 30 minute run, I managed 25 and walked the last 5. I have come to the conclusion that I hate running laps no matter how big the lap is. I have decided to no longer run any of my routes by the house. I'll blog about that later.

I have also decided to get more cross-training in, so I went for a 30 minute walk Tuesday morning. I'm hoping to get more miles in on my bike for this since I do want to do a duathlon later this year.

Wednesday run was another 30 minute group run. I just made it: 2.72m in 32 @ 11:47ap. I was actually quite excited. It was about 93F outside and there was lots of sun beating down on me. I hate running in the early evening.

I think learning how to slow my pace and control it is really paying off. After all, completing the half running the whole time is my actual goal. I can worry about my speed later on.