Grrrrr-armin

Air Force Marathon training Week 11

Monday- Spinning

Tuesday- 5 miles in the humidity at 6:30 am

Wednesday- 8 miles around the neighborhood

Thursday- Rest

Friday- Long run.  18 miles! Longest run yet.

Saturday-rest (road trip to Detroit)

Sunday- rest

beautiful morning sky on Friday

 Carrie and I met Friday at the high school at 6 am and set off for a nine mile loop.  It was super humid (around 90% when I checked before leaving this am).  My hip has been been bothering me a bit this week, so I was a bit nervous that it might not let me finish the run.  It was ok, I could feel it the whole time, but it really wasn't until I stopped then started up again that it really hurt.  I'm going to keep stretching and foam rolling and hopefully that will do the trick. 

My one irk was my Garmin stopped showing the stats and showed only the "% battery remaining" screen. Has anyone had that happen to them before? So when I started fiddling with it I stopped the workout.  Grrr.  So started it again, then accidentally put it on "distance workout" and it was limited to 5 miles so it appeared to stop after 5 miles but I chose not to mess with it.  It continued to do the splits. 

 Anyways,  we decided to do the loop backwards after a quick pitstop at the school for water and Nuun.  The way we always go seems to have long uphill stretches so we thought we'd have an easier time of it, but all we did was find hills we never knew/noticed existed. 

At the end, I was spent.  The last mile was so hard.  I kept thinking, how am I going to run another 8.2 miles? That's another hour running!  Also, I feel like I've gotten so slow.  I used to run 8:30 miles easily now we're pushing 10 mins a mile.  I'm hoping it's just the heat and humidity of the summer.

In happier news, my dh and I had our 12th wedding anniversary a few weeks ago.  My dh had order for me a medal hanger for all my running medals.  I love it! Especially since I'm not a jewelery type of girl.  

It says "Run faster Mommy" quote from Buster at a race.

So my questions for you, my dear readers...


1.  Anyone have a Garmin that acts up on a run?  What do you do?
2.  Hip problems from running?  I think it's my hip flexor or my piriformis muscle.  
3.  Anyone have doubts about finishing a marathon?

Air Force Marathon Training week 10

I wish I could say that I've been so busy that I haven't been keeping up with my blog...but I've just had a pretty boring week.  

We've been working on our house a bit.  Finally got an electrician in to install some new outlets for our computer area and install a few lights.  It's amazing how much of a difference a light can do.  

We also finally peeled off the Winnie the Pooh border that has been in Buster's room since we moved in.  It was never my taste, but when we moved into the house we had an 18 month old who was into everything and we were both starting new jobs.  Needless to say, baby # 2 or Buster inherited the room and he's almost 6.  Buster picked a spring green/lime green color for the room.  It's very much his personality.  Bright and Excited!  

New lights, bright paint and new shoes!

Air Force Training Week 10 (already?!) crap, only 8 weeks left!

Sunday- Ran the trails 13 miles.  It was a horrible run for me.  I was tired from after the first 3 miles, my legs were sore and the humidity was awful.  I was just happy to get this one on the books.

Monday- spinning

Tuesday- 4 mile at 6 am (humid)

Wednesday- 8 mile run (felt a bit better- today-still humid) I think I wore the most god awful yet so practical running outfit this am.  Normal top and bottom (aqua tank, pink shorts- then I wanted compression socks for this run, only had my purple Run Love socks, and my new bright yellow Mizuno Wave Rider 15 running shoes)  I don't care.  I could be seen on the road at least.  Shoes I have no control on the color (I guess I do, but I choose not to care when the shoes work for me) 

Thursday (today)-rest.  Birthday dinner for my dh!  Happy Birthday, sweetie!

Friday- 17 miles - Longest run since 2001. I'lldoing this a day early since my running buddy can't do it this weekend.  We're going to try to do some loops around the high school so we can stop and get Nuun and refill on water.  

The nice thing is after this- I'll have 2 days of rest. Yay!

How's training going for you? 

I'm getting nervous about the higher mileage runs. Does it ever get easier?

Quiet life

 

It's been a pretty/relaxed few weeks here.  Last week we were trapped most of the time inside since the temps here in the 100s.  The kids were going stir crazy.  There is only so much time they can handle together before they are whining/picking on each other... until all the neighborhood kids show up, then it's outside time in the hose!

One of the problems, is Cub (my oldest) loves to read- he has his nose in a book from the time he wakes up and I have to take books away from him at night so he sleeps.  I love it.

But...little brother Buster hates it.  He wants Cub to play with him.  Buster has never been the kid who will sit down and play by himself.*  He was actually ripping books out of Cub's hands and demanding that Cub play with him. 

*He only plays "CalvinBall" which is a very soft stress ball which he kicks around the living room and makes up points and teams- which is great but lots of running around in a small space.  Good thing- he's got amazing foot action for soccer.

My training was pretty good last week- despite the heat- some early mornings!

or earlier...

Air Force Marathon Training Week 8

Monday- Spinning class

Tuesday- muggy 4 miles at 6:30 am

Wednesday-4th of July- rest day

Thursday- 7 miles at 6 am

Friday- rest

Saturday- 15 miles! 
Sunday- rest

Saturday's temperature was going to be 111 degrees, with the heat index at 117.  Super hot. I wore my new Mizuno Wave rider 15s (bright yellow-love!), new water belt, and I forgot my Garmin. What could possibly go wrong?
 We started at 5 am, ran 4 miles on our own, then at 6 met up with the Up and Running group for another 6 miles, then did another 5 miles after.  15 miles run before 8:30 am.  Yay!  It was nice to break up the run as well.  The 5 am part felt completely different, running in the dark and the humidity was brutal.  6 am was actually cooler, beautiful sunrise.  7 am part - well- we were almost done- so didn't really care at that point. Thank goodness, my shoes felt great, figured out  how to get rid of the bounce in my water belt, and Carrie had her Garmin.   I just wondered how am I going to run another 11 miles on top of that.
The rest of the day was on the couch, watching the Tour de France (not looking good for Cadel this year) and hanging out in awesome compression socks!  I love having a legit reason to laz around.

Air Force Marathon Training Week 9

Monday- Spinning

Tuesday- 7 miles at 6 am

Wednesday- 4 miles at 6am

Thursday- Spinning class tonight

Friday- rest or 4 miles (haven't decided yet)

Saturday-rest or Spinning class

Sunday- 13 miles on the trails (It's a step back week on long runs)

Love this quote- don't care if you're Armstrong haters.

Lightning, thunder and dogs, oh my!

Air Force Training Week 7

Monday- Spinning class
Tuesday- Run 4.2 in 36 minutes- awesome running weather
Wednesday-7 miles in 60 minutes (new step in mid week runs- 7 miles instead of 6 like the last 3 weeks)
Thursday- Spinning
Friday- off
Saturday- 14 miles with the  Up and Running running group.

So my first big run past 13.1 miles since 2001...was interesting.

storm damage from last year to our house , July 2011

We had a huge wind storm on Friday that affected a ton of people in Ohio, well, everywhere it seems.  Anyways,  it was the first time that we haven't lost power in a major storm.  I totally feel for everyone who has lost power since we've had a heat wave over the last week.  I've been there- last year in fact.  We lost power for a week, lost a car, roof, siding, fence and a huge tree.  I don't think we have much left that can fall in our yard.  So, for once, we were ok.  Yay for us!

Anyways, I got up at 5 am on Saturday to go to Up and Running to run our 14 miler.  I checked the weather since it was going to be super hot, and wanted to have an idea of what to expect. There is a huge red cell of rain to our west and was going to be hitting around 6 am.  What to do? Do we run in it? Wait it out? I knew it was going to be getting pretty hot if we waited another hour? Called my running partner- she was already in Centerville and the power was out.  Hmmm.  Ok- off I go, since Carrie was already close to the store.  Guess we better training in this stuff, since it might be that way race day.

We show up and it was dark, clouds were menacing and the wind was cold and blustery.   We headed out on the first 6 mile loop.  About a 1/2 mile in the heavens open, huge heavy drops that pelted us.  Carrie wanted to stop and I would have but since this was the first time with this group, I didn't want to get lost, so we kept going.  Lightning and thunder  were in the now moving in. Yuck- not what I wanted  but what do we do?  So we kept on running...  Finished the 6.2 mile loop in 57 mins.  By the end, the rain had stopped.  Thank goodness.

Here's a link to running in storms- we totally failed on taking the advice
Running during storms

So we had 8 more miles to finish.  We headed out with a smaller group that consisted of the 2 group leaders who were running 22 miles that morning.  We ran to one of their houses about 2 miles from the store to use her bathroom, since (I'm assuming) the store was closed (no power).  Then we wondered around Kettering for the next 6 miles.  I'd paused my Garmin at some point so my overall mileage was messed up for the rest of the run.

Exactly what I saw coming up behind us.

At one point, a ferocious German Shepard came out of someone's back yard and about bit the backside off of one the group.  I turned around and saw teeth and froze.  (I was taught by UPS back in college to never run from a dog since they will always beat you).  Anyways, pushed by the woman who was literally trying to save her ass, we moved quickly enough and must have been out of his yard so he backed down.  Adrenaline works way better than a Cliff Shot BTW. :-)  Finished the rest of the run w/o incident.  Legs felt tired but not hurt, foot felt great (except for waterlogged toes!)  Finished the 8 miles in 1hr 20 mins.



Have you got caught on a run when the weather has gotten bad? What did you do?

Anyone been chased by a dog or bitten?  

What about getting lost with a new running group?