All kinds of NEW Goodness!

In order of occurring:

1. New clothes

Wednesday nights, as you know, are half class run nights. Well this past one turned out to be cooler than I expected when I packed earlier in the day. I packed a long sleeve shirt, short sleeve shirt and shorts. And shorts weren't gonna cut it after the sun went down. So I headed over to Academy Sports for some very moderately priced gear because I am cheap. It was a successful trip, new un-needed but coordinating long sleeve shirt and capris for $30 total.

Then off to my mom's for some free fabric scraps for my Halloween race costume (you'll have to wait for this one). I got dressed there and low and behold I forgot something. I forgot my running bra. The one thing you just can't go without huh ladies?!? After a short self-debate about whether or not to go back to Academy for a $12 bra, I decided to splurge. Academy is the opposite direction of where class is AND class is at a running store. I figured I would just get the cheapest they had and be happy. Good choice since I hit the mother-load of traffic.

I walked in the store and straight to a bra, picked my size and went straight to try it on. I've spent the last 9 or so Wednesday nights in this store for at least hour each time, so I know the merchandise. Bra fit so I was good to go. As I would later come to realize, this bra was amazing!

Moving Comfort Alexis

I run with my iPhone, using the Run Keeper app to track my stats. I put said phone in my bra since most of clothes are pocketless. The phone travels a lot during my runs. NOT ANYMORE! The phone stayed put. I almost forgot it was there. Halfway thru I added my lip balm and car clicker. I could not feel either of those either. I would highly recommend this bra. And the price was reasonable, $34. Of course I had store credit that I didn't know about and scored this baby for $4!

2. New distance PR

I made it to double digits!

WooHoo

I should show the route. I actually made it back to the starting point at 9 miles. I refused to stop, and did a few extra laps around the parking lot to get to 10. I'm pretty sure the rest of the group thought I was nuts!

3. New Race

Who Dat! I'm not a real big Saints fan. I will root for them since they are the home team, but I don't own any Saints clothes or anything like that. They had a great game last night, and to celebrate the Rock 'N Roll New Orleans Marathon powers that be are giving a discount. Each time the Saints win, they are giving the point spread as a discount for a 12 hour period the following day. Right now the registration for the half is $90, I got it for $35! Who Dat!!

Pretty darn good weekend!

A new distance PR

I have to hurry to post this because it will be old news tomorrow morning when I get a new new distance PR!

Last Saturday I ran 8 miles. I have to admit I was very nervous going into it, for several reasons. One, because the runs preceding it were at a new pace for me and I KNOW I can't hold that pace for long distances. Two, because it seems like such a  huge number.

I purposely set out at a slower pace.

I was originally planning on 11:30s for the half. I feel more confident that it is doable. I really don't want to walk any of it. My little handheld just barely held enough fluids for this run. Good thing #4 will be packing a fresh on for me at the half. Not sure if he'd be game to do that for my training runs tho :(

All of our Saturday runs are done close the LSU campus. It really is the best place to run in town. Last Saturday the LSU/Florida game was scheduled for 2pm. This is always a big game. I don't know why it didn't occur to me beforehand that people would already be out on campus.

We normally don't run on campus, but this was actually a treat. I have no been tailgating in years. This is something like what I got to run through:

Source

The smell of BBQ and beer was almost overwhelming!

Cool weather is a runner's best friend...

Mine at least.

I still consider myself an 11:30 runner.

This is from Saturday's run. The plan was a 6 miles. I think they were hoping for more none half training runners to come out for the launch of the new Brooks Pure Project shoes. (I want some so bad!) I think the cool weather kept people at home. We only had 5 show up for our group run, and I was the only slow one :(

I know I started out too fast. We started from a different point. I love change but it was a downhill. My first two miles came in under 10. I was sure there was no way for me to keep that up for a third much less four more miles. I kept telling myself to slow down but just couldn't get my body to listen. I even passed on my normal potty break!

For most of the run, I could see our token dude (only one male in the class) ahead of me in his bright green shirt. Every time he caught my eye I thought "I shouldn't be able to see him anymore". At the end, he said he saw me still back there about mile four and thought the same thing!

The funny part is that after Wed. nights intervals which I was shooting for 2:45/3:20 and doing 2:15/2:45, I got to thinking that there was no way I would ever be able to hold that pace for a 5k. Now I am thinking a sub 30 minute 5k may be in my future. I'll have to wait until November to find out tho. I've already registered for a race then. I was planning  on doing one this month but I got a different better offer for my money:

Run for the Hills is running a marathon and raising money for St. Jude's at the same time. It's a great cause, and there are prizes, so my money was put to a much better cause. I can wait for my PR.

Currently I am in week 7 of Half training. It's still far enough away that I'm not getting nervous yet (I'll over-achieve in this later). And I'm still impressing myself with what I accomplish weekly so I am still real motivated. As for the weather, I went on a 3 mile run Monday and did it in 10:05. I'm gonna enjoy fall.

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 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.