No Earbuds Required

So, I was super optimistic about running in my second week of school, and I would say I was somewhat successful. By Tuesday night I had done 3.5 miles, but an unexpected performance away from school combined with parent night Thursday kept my mileage low. I could have run Friday but was leery of doing so with a long run the next morning. My group said we would hit 6 with a turnaround before our target turnaround spot, so I was somewhat dismayed when MapMyRun said I had only gone 5.7 miles. But that is still my longest run to date. I did it, and did not die. My left IT band was kinda mad at me afterwards though. I soaked and massaged and stretched and it is better. Now. Today, I wanted to hit the hills with my buddies bright and early but life had other plans in the form of the stomach virus my daughter brought home this weekend. Let's just say I lost two pounds and it wasn't from exercise. Yuck. No parent meetings this week, just my usual obligations, and my new duty s...

This week I discovered something very important: If I make time to run, I will run. Even though there is no kind of tired like first week of school teacher tired, and even though I was still adjusting to the 5 am wake-up time, I made it happen. I ran on Tuesday and Thursday evening, Tuesday partly on the track and partly on the treadmill, and Thursday on the treadmill. Thursday, I did 48 minutes at a solid 3 minute run, 1 minute walk the entire time. 3.5 miles. Saturday, I dragged my butt to Turner for the last hill workout. Can I get an amen?? 8 hills, 70 minutes, and I made it back to the track in time to do the core exercises with the group. This week's goals: run on Monday and Wednesday on the treadmill, take the kids to the track to walk on Tuesday and Thursday. Friday, I see a margarita in my future, but just one, because running again on Saturday. I also ordered a Nathan Trail Mix 2-bottle belt, which should be here before Saturday. Also: charity update, I have no...

Monday I made a couple of mistakes before I went out to run. Number one, I left my Nuun water sitting on the kitchen counter, leaving me only with about half an old bottle of sort of warm water from my car to drink. Number two, I think it may have been a mistake not eating anything before hand. Lunch had been big, so I thought I shouldn't. All that being considered, I think I did pretty well. The main part of the run, which was through the neighborhood, over to the hill, and up and down it four times, was 3.84 miles, which I ran in 55:04, average pace 14:19. Probably a total of five counting the run back too. We ran mostly a 4:1 interval until I just couldn't hang with it, then I walked short intervals when I needed to. No shame in that! Avg HR was 171 (too high because I wasn't drinking enough), highest HR was 193. Next run Wednesday, probably on the track with my kids. :)

Today I joined PARR for 5.29 miles of running to the bridge, up and down it six times, and running back. Whoo! My average pace for the warm-up/hill portion was 15:22 and best pace was 6:58. That had to be for only a couple of moments, ha! Avg HR was 154 and I stayed hydrated today and kept my max HR down to 185, which is probably much better than pushing 200. I realized that the reason it was going so high at night was I wasn't bringing water out there in the heat. Also, this! I am running for Team Bel Inizio, a charity that helps disadvantaged women develop self-confidence and life skills through fitness and nutrition.

At first I thought it would be 90 degrees plus when I ran this evening, but Mother Nature had other plans and after a 100+ day outside we had a whopper of a Texas thunderstorm blow through! My kids were upset that we lost satellite signal, but I didn't need a satellite signal to run on the treadmill. Tonight I tried playing with my cadence for the first time, having read things that say a faster cadence (around 180 bpm) will help prevent injury and improve my form. So I found one of those YouTube playlists organized by tempo and went to it. My Mio was acting up so I had two separate readings: Part 1 (cadence work): .93 miles, 12:07, avg pace 13:00, best pace 6:50. Part 2 (going for endurance, not speed): 2.49 miles, 36:13, avg pace 14:31, best pace 8:27. Total: 3.48 miles; max HR tonight was 196, avg HR 151. Thursday's run was again on the dreaded treadmill! This time I found a great Spotify playlist. 4.09 miles, 52:14, avg pace 12:44.

I missed the first two weeks of hill work, so I missed the days where you only had to do three or four hills. Today was five (one hill being up + down the other side.) I ran 4.09 miles, including to and from the bridge, 59:32, 162 avg HR. My monitor said my avg pace was 14:32 and best pace was 7:29 during that time. Pretty good since I forgot to pause it during my water break! That makes almost 11 miles for the week :)

Ran a pace booster for the first time! Wondering about the accuracy of my heart rate monitor. It said my average HR was 173 but I took plenty of walk breaks and could pretty much talk the whole time. It blinked red at me a lot but I don't care. Said my max last night was 209. I didn't think that was possible. Oh well! Maybe I need to start bringing water with me. Been avoiding the whole water belt thing. Last night my average pace was 14:14 and average speed was 4.2 mph. Ran 4.03 miles in 57:27. Just going to keep running three times a week and see where it takes me. Nothing hurts too much today, pretty sore when I got out of bed but that can happen even if I didn't run 4 miles. Onward! I have run the equivalent of a marathon since July 13. I think that is pretty cool.

Avg HR 166, 45 minutes after warm-up, 2.55 miles, pace 17:21. Solid! Mio says I burned 542 calories. Best part, I don't really hurt at all today. Back again Thursday!

So, despite yesterday's knee soreness/pain, I got up this morning and went to Turner to walk the hill anyway. I walked over 6,000 steps from the parking lot, to the hill, went over the bridge and back once, and back to the parking lot. Saw old friends, made some new ones, it's all good! Most importantly, shoes still feel great and knee is sorting itself out. I definitely think I will be ready to run again on Tuesday. I have to remember that distance running is about endurance and gradually building that up in a way that is kind to my body.

Today's stats: 53 minutes, 3.6 miles, avg HR 162. My first 5K on the road since high school! Average pace was 15:25, fastest pace was 7:50. The Mio GO app says I burned 643 calories. Whoo! The ladies I was running with were quick but I managed to keep up. The only thing that concerned me was that toward the end of the run the outside of my knee started to tighten up a little bit. Nobody's got time for injuries! I have spent the better part of the morning stretching out various surrounding muscles and read an interesting article online that said gluteal weakness is responsible for many IT band issues because other muscles compensate and get overworked. So maybe I literally need to get my rear in gear. LOL

I am the proud owner of a new pair of these beauties pictured above! The awesome folks over at Wild Pear Running  helped me determine that I need neutral shoes, not stability shoes, and I tried on Brooks, New Balance, and Saucony before the Asics Gel Cumulus blew me away with how they felt perfectly nestled around my foot. Like wearing a perfect little cloud. How fast am I ditching the old Nikes? So fast. But I know I'm not really supposed to wear my running shoes for everyday, so I will restrain myself and wear my old kicks if I feel like I need to wear athletic shoes someplace like HEB. I cannot. wait. to get up at 4:30 tomorrow for my 5 am run. I am mentally ill. What is happening to me?

I'm building up my distance, not necessarily my speed, right now. Which is okay. Tonight was 2.79 miles, 48 minutes, average HR 145, pace varied between a 9 minute pace at times to a 23 minute pace. Average was just over 17. I am working out some kinks with my Mio app. I had to delete Fitbit because the Bluetooth was getting confused. I'm running again Friday am with the early morning Liberty Drive crew, and then doing hills on Saturday am, up and down the Bailey Rd train track bridge. Funny that the bridge over the train tracks is the only "hill" to be found for miles and miles. Maybe someday I will go run over some real hills!!

So last night Angie and Lisa from PARR messaged me and said hey, there's someone in your pace group who wants to come in the morning. Great, I thought. I set my phone alarm, passed out and jolted awake at 4:45 am, fifteen minutes after they got started. I was so mad! I had everything set out and ready to go and I missed it. I knew I couldn't go back to sleep so I put on all my running clothes and remembered I had a guest pass to the rec center. They have an indoor track! It's really short and you end up taking these tiny loops around and around, but I knew running is running. So I worked out with my Mio Alpha 2 for the first time. It's nice because the colored LED lights let me know what heart rate zone I am in. Here are the stats: 2.52 miles, 44:41, pace for the first 30 min was 18:05, the last 15 minutes pace was 16:57. Good "easy" run to build up my miles and my endurance. My ankles, feet, shins, all hurt at the beginning but the longer I went the bet...

I walked 12000+ steps every day, had salad three times, Mexican food once, and only two expensive cocktails. Most importantly, I am still excited about running this week. I'll be there at Turner Stadium at 7:30 pm on Tuesday for my next workout, Mio on my wrist and ready to go! Let's dooo this!

My athletic activities for the next four days will consist of walking, lots and lots of walking, around downtown San Antonio. I plan to continue logging food and my goal is to eat at least two vegetables per day, not counting salsa. Ha! I am bummed that I probably won't be able to sync my fitbit while I'm gone because I don't have the software on my school laptop. But I will keep charging it, so when I get back, I can see just how many steps I walked each day. Confession: the run last night didn't seem very difficult and I felt like I could have run for a LONGER TIME if I had wanted to. Who would have known that the secret to not being miserable is to just go slower? WOW!

Scratch that, no hill work.  2.74 miles from Turner down to Magnolia and back, 40:47 min, average HR 145. According to fitbit, I spent more time in "cardio" zone this time than "peak" zone like I did Monday. I've found some great ladies to run with but I don't know if I'll always be able to train with them at this time once school starts. I may have to go back to the treadmill occasionally. Boo treadmill!

At 4:30 a.m. just like magic, there were five other people in the parking lot ready to run. Wow, we are all crazy, I thought. My training run was supposed to be 30-40 minutes of "easy" running. Well, it probably didn't qualify as easy, but I did 2.5 miles in 34.19 minutes. About 13:40 pace. Not too shabby! I was able to carry on a conversation the whole time, which super helps. I need to find someone else training for the Half Marathon who would like to run at 4:30 am with me, so we can be a little slower and steadier. You know, to win the race. Like tortoises. Ha!!!

Tomorrow I have to set my alarm for 4 a.m. for the first of many, many times. It kind of makes me want to puke a little. But you know, having a newborn in the house is way worse than that. Can I get an amen? At least I don't have to get up at midnight, and then 3, and then 4, and then 7... because I've been there and that super sucks. So, my AMAZING MOM wanted to help support my new running addiction, and I needed something to monitor my HR and track my pace. Tracking my pace is supposed to be super important for making sure I don't run too fast and hurt myself. So she got me this super awesome wrist-worn HR monitor that will also give me great data like pace, distance, and stuff, It's the Mio Alpha 2 . When you use the special promo code MIOFRIENDS through the end of July you can get it for only $154 which is WAY better than having to pay over $300 for a similar Garmin. Christmas in July! Anxiously awaiting the UPS man...

Today I went to my first meeting of PARR and saw lots of awesome friends there. We were supposed to run our fastest mile and I gave it my best shot. Running outside feels very different from running on a treadmill. I ran a mile in 12:25! So pleased to come in under 13 minutes! Next stop: Monday morning training at 4:30. That's right, 4:30 am. But that is something I can do during school, also. So no more excuses about not having time to exercise. I will have to try to sleep more.

2 miles, 34 minutes, average HR 146. This is getting easier! LOVE the Enell bra. I want more of them. Also, today I drank a little water, one small cup of coffee, and some Emergen-C before running, but no water during the workout. Did not sweat buckets this time. Got a little thirsty but I did not die. Wore this headband: It was very good at staying put and did a fair job of absorbing the sweat. I still want to try this one: ...because everyone says it is awesome!

I may walk today or something else. Not supposed to run again until tomorrow. Let's talk about sports bras! I have had limited experience with sports bras and they always looked something like this: Ya'll may not know that having two kids and generally being overweight has upsized my "girls" to a generous 34DDD. If I am going to run successfully, I have to keep them contained and supported. So I searched the interwebs for bra reviews. Now every time I go to any website I see bra pop-up ads. Deleting cookies...now... The clear popular favorite of my fellow large busted ladies was the  Enell Sports Bra . I loved this quote on their website: "With my ENELL bras, in the space of nine months I have gone from only being able to run to the end of my block, to being able to whip out a 5K distance. Your bras really are the functional equivalent of unhooking your breasts to leave them home for a run. WOW Y'ALL. That is amazing. I was sold. We'll ...

Day 2, check. 37 min, 1.79 miles. Today I was supposed to be running two, walking four. Sometimes the walking four felt like too much walking but I tried to stick with it. I don't want to get hurt. Just one more treadmill workout before I get to run with people! I am curious to see how the PARR plan differs from the Women's Running plan.

Holy crap. Now I have to figure out what to wear. Erm. I think I may have some things that will work for Day 1. As far as goals are concerned: I think that assuming training goes well I should do these two races: This 5K: http://universityofhouston.runhouston.com/ A 10K a month later, on Halloween morning... https://www.sportoften.com/register/23212/alaina-dixon-halloween-5k---10k And maybe, just maybe, this half marathon:  http://www.usafitmarathon.com/ Gulp.

"Ugh. I only run if something is chasing me." Words I have said many times. I decided last week that I hate running less than I hate the idea of my body slowly changing into a shape I don't recognize. I hate the idea of having weak bones as an older woman. I hate the thought of weighing 50 pounds over my high school weight at my reunion next year. So I will choose to run away from those things that are chasing me. One step at a time, I will choose to take care of myself, something I have not done enough in the last ten years of starting and raising a family. I love myself, and I need to treat myself accordingly. I am aware that even when I feed myself with nutritious food and exercise daily, the scale may never look the way it did when I was 17 and I couldn't appreciate my curves. I am okay with that. But I am going to keep running. And maybe I won't always hate it. Here is the training plan I am going to start out with. Today was Monday, so I did Mo...