Once again, I missed all of my shorter runs during the week and ran my long run on Saturday.
Gah!
My 5K time this morning at the Kinmundy Lions Club Run showed it, too. My official race time was 30:22, a pace of 9:47 / mile. I'm happy that my pace was faster than 10 min/mile, but I am capable of so much better than that.
This is the Last. Time.
Alarm is set.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Weekend Warrior, Week 2
Once again, I went last week without running during the week.
I went up and walked the new 5K course for the Labor Day run with B and A on Saturday. The old course was an out and back on a flat, desolate stretch of road. Booooring. This year will be the 12th year for the race, and B decided she would try to change it up. If the course works out well, she'll get it certified for next year. Saturday morning, we walked the course with 4 Garmins between us. Two of them read "3.11" at the end, two read "3.12". I think that's pretty good. The new course will run through the Pioneer Log Cabin Village. It is very shady and interesting with all of the cabins.
After the run, B made some stuffed mushrooms and chicken fajitas, which we paired with a bottle of wine from Blue Sky. Yum!
The pedicure/manicure that we had planned will have to wait until next weekend. I'll include my daughter on that.
Sunday morning, A came to my house and we ran my 9 mile loop. It wasn't the 12 that was on my training schedule, but I don't know if I could have done another 3 miles on my leaden legs. As usual, we were followed to my house by a random dog. This time, it was a Golden Retriever. I've seen this dog a zillion times, and it has NEVER followed me. Clearly, there is something about A and I together that is just irresistible to dogs.
When we got back to my house, I decided to take Tito for a walk. You remember Tito, little puffball?
I went up and walked the new 5K course for the Labor Day run with B and A on Saturday. The old course was an out and back on a flat, desolate stretch of road. Booooring. This year will be the 12th year for the race, and B decided she would try to change it up. If the course works out well, she'll get it certified for next year. Saturday morning, we walked the course with 4 Garmins between us. Two of them read "3.11" at the end, two read "3.12". I think that's pretty good. The new course will run through the Pioneer Log Cabin Village. It is very shady and interesting with all of the cabins.
After the run, B made some stuffed mushrooms and chicken fajitas, which we paired with a bottle of wine from Blue Sky. Yum!
The pedicure/manicure that we had planned will have to wait until next weekend. I'll include my daughter on that.
Sunday morning, A came to my house and we ran my 9 mile loop. It wasn't the 12 that was on my training schedule, but I don't know if I could have done another 3 miles on my leaden legs. As usual, we were followed to my house by a random dog. This time, it was a Golden Retriever. I've seen this dog a zillion times, and it has NEVER followed me. Clearly, there is something about A and I together that is just irresistible to dogs.
When we got back to my house, I decided to take Tito for a walk. You remember Tito, little puffball?
Yeah, I opened the door to let Tito come out for a walk, and he took off after that Golden Retriever like he was going to rip him up. I never realized what a badass Tito is!
Take 3: I'm going to attempt to get my weekday runs this week!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Weekend Warrior
Marathon training for Memphis officially began for me as of Monday, 8/17.
I did not run all week. Marathon training was NOT off to a good start.
This weekend, I was a good little weekend warrior; I feel like I'm all caught up for now.
Saturday:
I ran the Kirchenfest Strassenlauf 5K. This is always a good race, and I managed to finish in just over 30 minutes. The weather was perfect, low 60's with just a hint of the sun. I'm not sure of my "official" time. The race had a turnout of 640, the highest ever for this race. As a result, they were NOT prepared for it at the finish chute. When I finished, I stood in line outside the finish chute waiting to "finish" the race. My friend C said that the volunteers were dropping the tags when she finished, so we were not surprised when they had a problem with the results.
After the 5K, there was a 2K race that was mostly kids. I ran it with C and her grandson, it was a nice cooldown.
The awards ceremony was supposed to begin at 10am. It did not begin until after 11am. Since our friend S won the race, we stuck around and waited. NOT what any of us wanted to do with our Saturday morning. They weren't even playing music to keep us entertained! There was free beer until 11am, so I must hold my complaints to a minimum. They do need to use chip timing, though. I'll be watching for it next year.
Saturday night, my son played his second football game of the season. Of course, our boys ran all over the other team! We won 34 - 8. We were actually skunking them until the end of the 4th quarter. The weather at the ball game was football weather, for sure. I was wearing a jacket and still cold! The low temp on Saturday night was in the low 50's. Very strange for August in Southern IL.
Sunday:
This morning, I met my friend C at some bike trails near a local community college and we ran 13.1 miles. My marathon schedule called for 10 miles, but I went the extra 3 with her because she is still doing the "one half marathon a month" plan. The long run is just what I needed! Once again, the weather could not have been more ideal. I sure hope we don't have an unseasonably hot September to make up for this!
Now that I have my marathon training back on track, I just need to keep up with it. I have a couple of other longer races planned for the next couple of months, so I'll just have to work in the 18 and 20 mile runs in between.
I did not run all week. Marathon training was NOT off to a good start.
This weekend, I was a good little weekend warrior; I feel like I'm all caught up for now.
Saturday:
I ran the Kirchenfest Strassenlauf 5K. This is always a good race, and I managed to finish in just over 30 minutes. The weather was perfect, low 60's with just a hint of the sun. I'm not sure of my "official" time. The race had a turnout of 640, the highest ever for this race. As a result, they were NOT prepared for it at the finish chute. When I finished, I stood in line outside the finish chute waiting to "finish" the race. My friend C said that the volunteers were dropping the tags when she finished, so we were not surprised when they had a problem with the results.
After the 5K, there was a 2K race that was mostly kids. I ran it with C and her grandson, it was a nice cooldown.
The awards ceremony was supposed to begin at 10am. It did not begin until after 11am. Since our friend S won the race, we stuck around and waited. NOT what any of us wanted to do with our Saturday morning. They weren't even playing music to keep us entertained! There was free beer until 11am, so I must hold my complaints to a minimum. They do need to use chip timing, though. I'll be watching for it next year.
Saturday night, my son played his second football game of the season. Of course, our boys ran all over the other team! We won 34 - 8. We were actually skunking them until the end of the 4th quarter. The weather at the ball game was football weather, for sure. I was wearing a jacket and still cold! The low temp on Saturday night was in the low 50's. Very strange for August in Southern IL.
Sunday:
This morning, I met my friend C at some bike trails near a local community college and we ran 13.1 miles. My marathon schedule called for 10 miles, but I went the extra 3 with her because she is still doing the "one half marathon a month" plan. The long run is just what I needed! Once again, the weather could not have been more ideal. I sure hope we don't have an unseasonably hot September to make up for this!
Now that I have my marathon training back on track, I just need to keep up with it. I have a couple of other longer races planned for the next couple of months, so I'll just have to work in the 18 and 20 mile runs in between.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Orchard View Winery 5K Report
Saturday morning, I did NOT run a 5K. I went to the high school to pick up my son's game uniform for the Junior football league. Afterwards, the kids and I headed south for a little bit of shopping. We didn't have a lot of luck, although C found a good deal on Rock Band for XBox (we had to have it before the new version with Green Day songs came out) and A got Wii Fit. The purpose of the excursion, clothes for school, not so successful.
Anyhow, we grabbed a bite to eat and came back home to play video games. OK, they played video games, I started trying to come up with an excuse to skip the race. With no good excuse, it was off to Orchard View Winery for the 5pm race start.
What can I say? It was hot. It was humid. I managed to run anyhow.
I finished in a slow, agonizing, 30:43, according to Garmin.
Luckily, it was a small town race, and that was enough to snag first place in my age group. The prize for 1st in each age group over 25.... a bottle of wine! Yay! Finally a prize I can enjoy instead of throwing in a box in the attic.
The rest of the evening, we ate bbq and listened to the band that was there. It was a nice, relaxing evening.
Sunday, I had planned a 13 mile run, but Carol backed out, so I didn't run at all.
I've been off work the first part of this week. Monday, I took the kids and a friend to the Warped Tour where we were able to see a lot of screaming bands (and screaming teenagers). We actually got right next to the stage during Aiden's set, but then we followed a crying lady out of there after A's friend almost got squished by the crowd surfers.
Getting right next to the stage: Fun
Having people kick you in the head: Not so much.
Today has been spent doing a whole lotta nothing. A registered for school today (less than 2 weeks now), and C had football practice, but I didn't even have to drive.
It's back to the real world tomorrow... Much as I hate to admit it, I do miss the normalcy of going to work, although I would be forced to give it up if I were somehow made independently wealthy.
Anyhow, we grabbed a bite to eat and came back home to play video games. OK, they played video games, I started trying to come up with an excuse to skip the race. With no good excuse, it was off to Orchard View Winery for the 5pm race start.
What can I say? It was hot. It was humid. I managed to run anyhow.
I finished in a slow, agonizing, 30:43, according to Garmin.
Luckily, it was a small town race, and that was enough to snag first place in my age group. The prize for 1st in each age group over 25.... a bottle of wine! Yay! Finally a prize I can enjoy instead of throwing in a box in the attic.
The rest of the evening, we ate bbq and listened to the band that was there. It was a nice, relaxing evening.
Sunday, I had planned a 13 mile run, but Carol backed out, so I didn't run at all.
I've been off work the first part of this week. Monday, I took the kids and a friend to the Warped Tour where we were able to see a lot of screaming bands (and screaming teenagers). We actually got right next to the stage during Aiden's set, but then we followed a crying lady out of there after A's friend almost got squished by the crowd surfers.
Getting right next to the stage: Fun
Having people kick you in the head: Not so much.
Today has been spent doing a whole lotta nothing. A registered for school today (less than 2 weeks now), and C had football practice, but I didn't even have to drive.
It's back to the real world tomorrow... Much as I hate to admit it, I do miss the normalcy of going to work, although I would be forced to give it up if I were somehow made independently wealthy.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Are You Ready for Some Football??
I've been a bit MIA lately. Things are starting to get busy around here.
This week marks the beginning of my son's football season. That means practice every night from 7-9pm, changing to 6-8pm when school starts (August 17). It also means that beginning with August 8 (first game), a large part of my Saturdays will be tied up with football through October 3.
The practices will get monotonous, I'm sure - they always do. There are some good benefits of taking him to practice every evening:
This week marks the beginning of my son's football season. That means practice every night from 7-9pm, changing to 6-8pm when school starts (August 17). It also means that beginning with August 8 (first game), a large part of my Saturdays will be tied up with football through October 3.
The practices will get monotonous, I'm sure - they always do. There are some good benefits of taking him to practice every evening:
- My daughter gets more driving experience, meaning
- I don't have to drive.
- My daughter and I can go to the gym and work out or to the park and walk during practice (this has happened 1 / 3 days so far).
- I'm not sitting around the house snacking all evening.
There are also a few negative points to this:
- It's going to be tough to get my homework done.
- Tito (my dog) is feeling very neglected. He wants to come with us, which would be fine if we knew were going to spend the entire time at the park.
In running news, I'm running a 5K this Saturday. The bad news, it's at 5pm. It was 92 degrees at 5pm yesterday. The good news, it's at a winery and the age group awards will be bottles of wine (for those participants over 21). I'm hoping for a very small turnout.
Unfortunately, I'll have to keep the wine consumption to a minimum (even though I have a designated driver). I've made plans to run 13 miles on Sunday morning with C.
~~~~
As many other bloggers have, I also recently came into a case of POM Wonderful. As much as my daughter loves the stuff, I had actually never tried any of it. I was very pleasantly surprised by how delicious it is. You know, it's healthy, there is no way it could taste good, right? Go on over to their website to see some of the many health benefits of this stuff, if you haven't heard it before.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Run for the Bagel 10K
On Saturday, I went to the Run for the Bagel again.
The race started at 7:30am, meaning I had to leave at O'Dark thirty to get there.
I left my house at 5:20am and met up at Barbie's house. We picked up Shanna and her mom and were off to the race with plenty of time to spare. Once we got there, we were piddling around beforehand and wound up, once again, running to the start. I got to the starting line at 7:29am. Ugh.
It was a cool 65 degrees, which made the race that much more bearable. I've run this race several times, but as usual I was able to forget all about the course until the morning of the race. The course for the 10K is basically two laps of the 5K course. That's all well and good until you hit the second lap. The second lap is boring.
I was actually passing people during the second lap and feeling pretty good even though Garmin was being a brat. My Garmin didn't find the satellites until about the 2 mile mark, and I hadn't reset the laps since the last time I ran. So, I was basically running blind.
Barbie came out and ran in with me when I had about a half mile left. It was with her pacing that I was able to pass the couple that was pushing a baby stroller (he was pushing the stroller, she was turning around to see how far behind her I was). Yay!
I finished in 1:02:42. Not bad. I have no Garmin stats, bleh!
Shanna was the first overall woman in 39:40. Yay Shanna!
Barbie won her age division in 49:59. Yay Barbie!
I won nothing. :(
The race started at 7:30am, meaning I had to leave at O'Dark thirty to get there.
I left my house at 5:20am and met up at Barbie's house. We picked up Shanna and her mom and were off to the race with plenty of time to spare. Once we got there, we were piddling around beforehand and wound up, once again, running to the start. I got to the starting line at 7:29am. Ugh.
It was a cool 65 degrees, which made the race that much more bearable. I've run this race several times, but as usual I was able to forget all about the course until the morning of the race. The course for the 10K is basically two laps of the 5K course. That's all well and good until you hit the second lap. The second lap is boring.
I was actually passing people during the second lap and feeling pretty good even though Garmin was being a brat. My Garmin didn't find the satellites until about the 2 mile mark, and I hadn't reset the laps since the last time I ran. So, I was basically running blind.
Barbie came out and ran in with me when I had about a half mile left. It was with her pacing that I was able to pass the couple that was pushing a baby stroller (he was pushing the stroller, she was turning around to see how far behind her I was). Yay!
I finished in 1:02:42. Not bad. I have no Garmin stats, bleh!
Shanna was the first overall woman in 39:40. Yay Shanna!
Barbie won her age division in 49:59. Yay Barbie!
I won nothing. :(
Monday, July 13, 2009
Joker's Wild Half Marathon Race Report
Do you know how some people dread a race so much and then get started and think "hmmm, this isn't so bad after all"?
Yeah, I am the opposite. I can convince myself that a race that I have run before that is HILLY and miserable wasn't so bad. The Joker's Wild half marathon is HILLY. It is two laps of a hilly 6 mile loop.
Let me back up to the day before the race, though.
I decided that we would venture over toward St Louis in the afternoon. Time kept getting away from me, and we didn't wind up leaving the house until 3pm. My daughter drove. The plan was for her to drive most of the way there and switch before we got to St Louis. She only has her permit, and she has only had it for just over a month. She was NOT comfortable driving in St Louis. As we got closer and closer, she just kept on driving and wound up driving all the way to the hotel. She actually did a fine job, especially if I didn't watch the road. :-P
We checked into the hotel and ventured over to Westport Plaza to start looking for something for dinner (I drove). Instead of dinner, we wound up at Coldstone Creamery. Just like last year, we were sitting outside eating our ice cream when we saw my friend Carol and her hubby. Deja vu.
We chatted for a bit, and they went on to eat dinner. I needed to find something for breakfast the next morning, so we found a Target and did a little shopping. $320 later, we got out of Target. How do they do that to me every single time?
After that, we ventured over to the Galeria and ate at the Cheesecake Factory. Yeah, I know, such healthy choices, right? The kids had never been to a Cheesecake Factory, so I took them.
The next morning, I drug myself out of bed at 5:45am and got to the race start at about 6:40am (race start time was 6:45am).
Pre-race:
The first lap, I was feeling pretty good. I even ran up the hills. I started to remember how hilly the course was once we hit the first of the hills. Carol was struggling during the first lap, but she kept up and we ran the entire time together. Here we are running up one of the smaller hills.
We managed to get through the first loop, but I knew there was NO WAY I was going to run up all of those hills again. We walked several times during the second loop. A couple of the water stops of each loop were handing out ice cold sponges. SUCH a great idea. I probably looked like I jumped in a pool at the end of the race because I kept soaking myself with the water every time.
After suffering through the second lap of the race (the second lap was miserable), we finally came around the bend just before the finish line:
And finished!
Garmin said the race was 13.3 miles and we ran it in 2:34. Last year, I ran this race in 2:17. Ah, well, I'm about 15 lbs heavier. This is just one more thing to motivate me to stop being so lazy and to lay off the tortilla chips.
And, on the way home, my daughter got to drive in the rain. It poured on us all the way home. I'm glad I didn't have to drive in it! But, don't be so hard on me, she is required to drive at least 10 hours in inclement weather before she can get her driver's license. I didn't make her drive in the rain just to be mean.
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