Running Mom's Motivation

I am still out there doing my thing. I have to train for my half marathon after all. My boss ended up having to have surgery last Tuesday. They were supposed to do it with a scope, but when they got in there, they realized that they would have to open her up. I don't know when she will feel well enough to return to work.

This surgery came up kind of suddenly. Consequently, I have been working a lot more hours than I had expected over the last couple of weeks. I have barely seen my kids. Grace has a killer cold. Rachel has pinkeye. I don't know when the last time that I balanced my checkbook was. But I am still running (at night and during my lunch hour).

Hopefully the craziness will end soon. I have told them at work that I will not work the day after Thanksgiving. I just need a break. And next week is Grace's birthday, so wish me luck in planning for that.

Total Miles Today = 7 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 642

Posted in: on Sunday, November 18, 2007 at at 9:55 PM 0 comments  

I forgot to say what the other reason that so excited is. My buddy Maria is getting me a pair of Yak Tracks or Stabilicers or something else like them for free!!! It pays to know people who know people.

Posted in: on Monday, November 5, 2007 at at 10:21 PM 0 comments  

My half marathon training officially began tonight. I have sixteen weeks to prepare. I want to do the best I am capable of, but other than that and finishing, I don't have any real goals for the race. Today was supposed to be a rest day according to my handy training plan from the Runner's World website. I decided to take some good advice from my friend Maria. She suggested some time ago that I get in my quality workouts whenever I could. That way if I can't run every day I planned to in a week at least I got in two quality runs each week. So tonight, I did my tempo run.

I didn't want to run when I got home tonight. It is getting cold out there and I was tired after a long busy day at work. David had a long day too, so by the time we got the kids from daycare and got home it was about 8pm. After getting the girls in bed, it was hard to get ready to go for a run. I have to remember this every time I don't want to run, because tonight's run was awesome. I am so glad I went.

I can set my pace for my tempo run a couple of different ways. I can use my heartrate monitor or I can time the run with my watch and try to stay at my tempo pace as determined by my training plan. I couldn't see my HR monitor or my watch tonight, so I used neither. A tempo run is supposed to be done at a "comfortably hard" pace. So I decided to set my pace based on effort. The first mile of the run is a warm up and the last mile (or 0.7 in my case) is a cool down. I ran both of those at an easy pace. The middle three miles were supposed to be at tempo. I decided to do my cemetery route again tonight. It is kind of hilly, so I wasn't sure that I would be able to keep my tempo up for the whole three miles. My tempo pace was determined from my first 5k race time and was supposed to be 11:51/mile. This was such an awesome run that even the hard parts felt great, but I had no idea what my pace was until I got back to my house. I ran the entire 4.7 miles in 50:40. That is a 10:43 pace!!! What's even better, is that my 3 miles of tempo were done at 10:04 pace.

I am so geeked. But as great as this run was, I know that they won't all be like that. I know that there will be days over the next 16 weeks when I won't be able to maintain a 12 minute pace. And I know that I won't always win the battle of the will and get myself out the door when I don't feel like running. But I am very happy with my start and am looking forward to the training that I have ahead.

Total Miles Today = 4.7 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 612

Posted in: on at at 9:59 PM 1 comments  

This morning I was supposed to go running with my neighbor kid. But being the 17 year old punk that he is, he didn't get out of bed so I left him! I took the dog with me and was planning on running through my neighborhood, but since it was six in the morning, I figured I might fair better with the zombies in the cemetery than with the city folk of Lansing. Besides, the cemetery is my normal 5k route.

I love running through the cemetery because it is quiet and pretty hilly. Phantom (my dog) and I had a great time, and he only had to stop about 7 times to relieve himself ;). Just after we entered the cemetery, we had our first encounter. Luckily we didn't see him, but I sure did smell that skunk. As we made our way to the back of the cemetery the hills actually seemed pretty easy. Maybe it was because I couldn't really see them. The last time that I ran through the cemetery when it was dark, I was on edge. I wasn't at all scared today. That is until the two deer ran out in front of us with no warning. I had no idea they were there, and my heart just about came out of my chest.

We finished up the cemetery and headed back through the streets of my neighborhood. My time was 34:05. Slow, but not too bad for me. I have been finding that I have been taking off way to fast on my shorter runs lately. It is like I got a bug up my butt once the cooler weather hit. Each time I would go out for 3 miles it would be a little faster than the last. There have been two problems with that. First of all I think that is how I injured my knees. Secondly here lately I have been taking off fast enough that I can't even run the whole three (sad, sad, sad). So I was happy with today. I started off better and was able to maintain it for the whole run. So hopefully I am getting back on track before starting to train for the half.


Total Miles Today = 3.1 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 581

Posted in: on Friday, October 26, 2007 at at 7:25 AM 1 comments  

If I had the money, I would definitely get LASIK surgery done on my eyes. Why? Well, first of all, when I ran DWD back in August it was a little difficult to keep the glasses clean. Last night I went for a beautiful run. It was a little short of 5 miles. I haven't been able to run more than 3 miles for a while and it was really nice. I forgot how much I like running longer distances. Not that 5 miles is very far, but I realized that I was getting my groove about half way through the run. A little over a mile into my run it started raining. Not a downpour or or anything, but it was steady. The dog was soaked through when we got done. I absolutely loved it. To be out in the dark and rain was exhilarating. The only problem was that my glasses got great big water spots all over them and when the lights would shine on them I could barely see anything. So you see, I NEED to ditch the glasses and I hate contacts because my eyes dry out way too fast with them.

It is amazing to me that you can spend so much money on running. When I started running I really needed to lose some weight and get more active. I didn't have money for a gym membership and figured I wouldn't go anyway. Running appealed to me because it would be cheap. I had some shoes. All I needed to do was strap them on and go. Yeah...Right! The shoes didn't fit right and I knew I was going to get a blister...time for new shoes. I am on my 3rd pair now. Then I was running in the cold so I really needed some clothes to run in that would keep me dry and warm. Then I didn't want to push too hard and injure myself, so I started saving for a heartrate monitor. More summer clothes and bodyglide... Endless bottles of gatorade... Race entry fees... Water resistant shell... As you can see, I am obsessed. Now I really want some YakTracks for winter, a Garmin forerunner 205 so that I can measure my distance and speed better, and LASIK surgery that I so desperately NEED. Yep, running is cheap.

Total Miles Last Night = 4.76 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 575

Posted in: on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at at 8:42 AM 1 comments