The Birds and the Bees and the Smell of Fallen Trees

Oh Spring, how I LOVE you.  My run today was absolutely beautiful!  A perfect 56 degrees and the sun on my face!  <3

If I haven’t mentioned it before, I am training with no music.  I found out that I cannot wear my ipod or anything like it during the triathlon (makes sense… don’t want to get my ipod drowned in the first leg, lol).  And when I found that out I decided I needed to get used to running without good tunes to help me through.  It has been interesting, trying to come up with things to occupy my mind, especially as the runs have gotten longer.  Today the sounds of spring really did me good.  The birds were chirping, all the dogs were out barking (which I find adorable, as long as it’s not Maverick barking at the neighbors for the thousandth time), and the chainsaws were going.  Time for yardwork!  There was a huge fir being felled, and boy did it smell like spring to me!

All these things made my 25 minute run feel not as long as I thought it would feel.  Today finished off week 6 of Cto5K!  And I officially have no more runs that include any sort or recovery walk in the middle.  :/  Because my runs are now longer, I am going further and this is what I had to encounter halfway through my run today…

A hill!  And not a little one either.  And yes, I took this picture on my phone while I was running up it!  I definitely ran slower the second half because of this hill, but since my runs will go this long in the future, I am hesitantly looking forward to better results!

On another hesitant note… I’m going to do a 5K… in a week!!  So I might be jumping ahead a little bit, but my Mother-in-law found a 5K for us in Olympia that is perfect for beginners.  It is next Saturday at 8am, two loops around Capitol Lake.  I’m going to love the fact that there are no hills!!  It is all flat, and fairly scenic too!  Let’s hope it is a beautiful day like today!  I am really excited to see what kind of time I get from this first 5K.  And it is going to be really awesome to have a running partner for this race!  I’m a tiny bit worried about the fact that I won’t have run the distance before the race, but when I ran the half marathon I only ran 10 of the 13 miles before the race, so if I accommodate for the smaller race it might be ok.  Hopefully the adrenaline and excitement of Race Day will help… it better, ‘cause I’m running it either way!

Not sure if I will have time for another post before then, so wish me luck!  ;)

Sam

A Niece, a Nose, and a No-walk Run

This was an absolute whirlwind week!  Monday morning I started getting text messages from my SIL at about 4:30am… she was in labor!!  Yahoo!  I spent all day at the hospital waiting with family, and my new niece, Scarlette, was born at 11:31pm Monday night!  She is the most precious little girl!  Aaron and I didn’t get home that night until around 1am, and I was still pretty wired from the excitement so sleep was not easily come by.  But she is so worth it…

Tuesday morning, I had to go to work, and even though I was super tired, I went back to the hospital afterward so I could cuddle that little darling for a few hours!!

Needless to say, by the time I got home Tuesday night, I was so exhausted… there was no way I was going running!  Wednesday I was supposed to work, but that morning between the exhaustion, some dehydration, and a small head cold (can we say congestion and runny NOSE)… I could hardly stand up.  So I spent Wed and Thur recovering! 

Finally, Friday… today!  I worked this morning and then went for my final Cto5K Week 5 workout.  And I did it… 20 minutes straight of jogging!!  It was so not as bad as I thought it was going to be, especially after a few days off!  Don’t get me wrong, I can already tell my hamstrings are going to feel it, but I finished!  This may sound weird, but to keep myself in motion today I concentrated completely on my breathing.  In fact, I counted… all 685 breaths of my 20 minute run.  And knowing that I take 4-5 steps per breath (in and out as one) I ran around 3000 steps!  And estimating from that I think I ran a little under 2 miles… kind of fun, huh?  I am probably going to take the car one of these days and find out how far I really am running.  See if I really might hit 3 miles in 30 minutes when I get there.

Now I am going to go watch some Cake Boss, and dream about eating cake ;)

Sam

The Ominous Week

Ok, besides the fact that this last week has actually been ominous for the world (earthquakes and tsunamis and such)… I was dreading getting to this week as far as running!  Week 5 of the Cto5K plan starts to change, so every single workout is different and they start ramping up to continuous running!  I’m going to miss my recovery walks!!!  Week 5 workouts are as follows:

Week 5, Day 1 – Brisk 5 minute warmup walk.  Jog 5 minutes, walk 3 minutes, jog 5 minutes, walk 3 minutes, jog 5 minutes.  5 minute cool down walk.

Week 5, Day 2 – Brisk 5 minute warmup walk.  Jog 8 minutes, walk 5 minutes, jog 8 minutes.  5 minute cool down walk.

Week 5, Day 3 – Brisk 5 minute warmup walk.  Jog 20 minutes.  5 minute cool down walk.

Today I finished the Day 2 workout… in the very brief time it didn’t rain.  It was hard.  The first 8 minute jog wasn’t so bad, but the second one was painful, there was definitely some wheezing in the lungs at the end of that run… but I pushed the last minute.  Had to finish strong!  I am so scared for my run on Tuesday… 20 minutes straight?!  That will be the longest period of time I have run in years!  I know I am still young, but I can’t imagine how I ran that half marathon in high school.  It does not seem possible.  Oh well, I’ll take what I can accomplish now!

On another note of accomplishment… I am proudly down 3.5 pounds since a week and a half ago… a better diet and working out consistently is finally making a little bit of pay off!  Yahoo!  That is encouragement enough to keep on going!  Soon, I am going to start adding in the other aspects of the triathlon, slowly… but I’m excited!

Have to go guard my knees now… husband and dog are playing rambunctiously on the floor and keep running into my knees!  Gotta save them for runnin ;)

Sam

Dodge the Puddles!

There was no way around running in the rain today.  It was absolutely pouring rain this morning, so the first little break I saw, I changed my clothes, put the dog in the crate, and off I went!  Today was awesome.  I know it might not be huge, but this was the third workout of week 4, and I saw improvement in the distance I was running since I went the first time on Saturday.  I turned around at the same place, but the end of my last run was almost all of the way up the huge hill that is usually the beginning of my cool down walk.  Talk about an exhausting end to a workout, but the signs of improvement were all there.  J

I think my favorite part of today was actually dodging the puddles.  I get bored really easily when I run, so I try to figure out things to think about to keep myself from thinking about the running itself.  Since it was pouring rain, there were lots and lots of puddles!  I spent pretty much my whole run trying to not step in one... which meant that today I spent a lot of time varying my stride length!  In the end, I think my legs got more of a workout today than they have just with normal running.  Who knew the Washington rain would improve my workout?!

However, I’m still wishing spring would come sooner!!!!

Sam

Hope and Hail

Finally back on track!  I didn’t go on my run the morning after my last post as planned… I woke up with a hacking cough, and round two of my cold.  After resting a few more days I finally did my last Week 3 work out of the Cto5k series on Thursday the 3^rd.  It was painful!!  Let me tell you, this system only works because you go running every other day or so… not every week!  Since Thursday, I have run every other day.  And today I completed the Week 4, Day 2 Workout which is:

Brisk five minute warmup walk; jog for 3 minutes, walk for 90 seconds, jog for 5 minutes, walk for 2.5 minutes, jog for 3 minutes, walk for 90 seconds, jog for 5 minutes.  Then a 5 minute cool down walk.

And thankfully I finally have some hope in the fact that I might really be able to do this!  I ran further than I have in a long time, and I didn’t totally die at the end of the workout!  Yahoo!  Seems kind of amazing to me since in Week 3 you are running a total of 9 minutes, and then it jumps up to 16 minutes, I was skeptical, but I did it!  Also, I think the weather has actually really helped me get back into the groove.  Every time I have gone running this week it has been sunny, but still with a breeze to keep me cool!  Such a mood booster!  Today it started out sunny, but the clouds moved in quickly… and I was worried because I wore a sweatshirt today, and they get heavy when drowned in rain.  It didn’t rain though… it hailed!  Definitely gave me something funny to think about… something along the lines of out-running the rain.

In my non-running days this week I have been doing a lot of Kinect workouts!  I’m loving the “Your Shape” Program.  Once you get past the demos for each exercise, it seems like an effective personal training program.  I know I have definitely had some sore muscles from it this week! 

As far as food, I know I said I wasn’t a fan of “crazy diets”, but I did start on the Special K diet this week.  I felt like my food in moderation wasn’t cutting it.  Even though I’m not in this specifically for the weight loss, I haven’t lost anything since Christmas… bleh.  I like this diet because it is easy, and it doesn’t get rid of anything completely.  Cereal for breakfast, cereal for lunch, and a normal dinner!  Plus, all the fruit and veggies I can handle.  J  Last night for our normal dinner… Pulled Pork Nachos with Crimson Fire Cheese and black beans!  Yummmmm.  (In moderation of course).  ;) 

Enough for today… I think I used enough exclamation points to keep me happy for a few days!

Sam