No Earbuds Required

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.