Accountability Monday

I wish I could come up with a clever catch phrase for this post, I'm at a loss however.  It's Monday and I want to start recapping my previous weeks workouts on Monday's.  So here goes.  This week really kind of sucked in all sorts of ways.

Workouts

Monday
Plan:  3m Easy run + Yoga
Actual:  3miles, 10:40 avg pace
Treadmill, 1%

I had the day off work.  It was supposed to be a nice way to get a jump start on the week. However, in the early AM hours I was dealing with a barfing 6 year old.  As such I didn't sleep well at all.  I was up again at 6:15am to get Baylee off to school, back to bed.  Up again at 7:25am to get the boys off to school, back to bed.  I then slept away my morning.  When I woke up I had a text message from my mum that she'd decided to tell her bully boss to shove it and was now out of work.  This turned into lunch with my mum which got me back home barely in time to meet the kids home from school.  Come 7:50pm and I still hadn't run, I was hungry for dinner and dinner was ready.  Instead I changed and headed down to the treadmill and knocked out those miles. Knowing that I couldn't start out the week behind.  No regrets there.

Yeah .. no Yoga.

Tuesday
Plan:  Barbell Strength Class
Actual:  Barbell Strength Class

This was another near miss. I got a call at 2pm that my daughter had taken a spill at school, refused to get up.  Refused to get on the bus.  I was needed.  In a panic I called the doctors office to get an appointment ($20 office visit > than $40 instacare visit).  Rushed to her school.  Ankle looked ridiculous swollen...

After 2 hours at the doctors they determined it was a bad sprain.  It was 5pm, class started at 6pm so I RUSHED home, threw Baylee in the front door changed my clothes and walked into Barbell class literally with about 1 minute to spare.  So glad I still powered through and went to class.

Wednesday
Plan:  6m Pace run
Actual:  1 mile warm up at 5.4mph + 5 miles at Marathon pace 6.0mph, 10:01 avg pace
Treadmill, 1%

Today started with Wyland staying home from school because he had a stomach ache.  I always dread pace runs.  But this run went well.  It was easier than I expected and came to an end relatively quickly.  While my plan calls for all miles at marathon pace I always start with one mile of warm up, so I guess technically I'm cutting them all short by one mile.  As we went into the evening kid #2 started barfing.  Awesome!

Thursday
Plan:  Barbell Strength Class
Actual:  Barbell Strength Class

Class was AWESOME!  I love the music of the Thursday instructor way better than the Tuesday instructor.

Friday
Plan:  3m Easy
Actual:  3 miles, 10:33 avg pace
Treadmill, 1%

My legs felt GREAT!  I enjoyed some Vampire Diaries on the treadmill.

Saturday
Plan:  11m long run
Actual:  11 miles, 10:29 avg pace
OUTSIDE!  24 mph wind, some rain for the second half

Had a babysitter and my husband and I headed out.  I do love long runs.  It was supposed to rain and snow.  We were hoping the weather would hold out for us.  I started with a tank top, long sleeve, with my rain jacket on top.  A mile in we were stripping out of our rain jackets and stayed like that until after our turn around.

Love long run dates!

It was the perfect long run!  I ran the last mile at marathon pace. I always like to pick up that last mile to see how the legs feel at that point. It was comfortably hard.  My HR on the way out was labored, mainly I think due to the wind, we were running into it.  But then after we turned around and picked up the tailwind I felt pretty good.

Sunday

Plan:  Rest

Actual:  Rest, and grocery shopping (no couch time)

It was a solid week of training and everything felt good.  I'm ready for my little 3 miler today before I head home.

Eats

Weight Watcher Weigh In:  1.6 lb loss.  

Not really earned but I'll take it.  I didn't track at all all week.  

What I did well:

While I wasn't tracking, I did still keep things in check.  My portion control was pretty spot on.  I ate mostly pretty healthy dinners and even though we ran long Saturday morning and went out to breakfast I had my traditional egg white, mushroom and avocado omelette.  Then had movie popcorn for lunch (I know, I know, not great) but thin crust pizza for dinner.  I didn't have many sweets, just some chocolate cake last night.

What didn't go so well:

I didn't track my points.  I know that I need to.

What I'm going to focus on this week:

It's Thanksgiving and my birthday AND my wedding anniversary.  All on the same day.  So I'm going to continue to focus on portion control.  I know there will be tons of veggie options for Thanksgiving dinner so I'm not really worried about that. I'm more worried about the birthday/anniversary meals out!

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How strictly do you stick to your training plans?  Especially when it comes to warm up/cool down?

Do you have a game plan to stay on track this week with the holiday?

Still here .. still running

I'm not sure what the deal is with Blogger. I tried to blog last weekend as well only to find that I couldn't upload picture then either.  So I figured out the whole Picasa web albums in the meantime.

I haven't blogged in ages.  But I have still been running.  A lot actually.

Speaking of a lot.  It's been snowing A LOT here in Salt Lake City as well.  Last Winter I think I lucked out because it was pretty mild. I  prided myself on not missing a run because of any silly rain or snow.  So far this year I've skipped one long run completely because of a nasty snow storm.  It's ironic really because I would be more than willing to run in a few inches of fresh snow if it's only for say six miles.  But when it's for a double digit run I just can't do it.  The thought of soaking wet feet for over two hours is just too much.  It sure is beautiful though.

I did run in that above, only for six miles.  It was so peaceful.

Oh, it hasn't just been snowy .. we've also had single digits for like two weeks.  However, the temp doesn't deter me at all.

For two days straight it's been snowing again.  I planned to run 12 miles this morning.  There was no way I was going to slog through 12 miles in several inches of fresh snow. 

Off the the gym I went instead.  It wasn't a good start.  I went with my Kindle Fire in hand with the plan to watch a movie.  I figured that would consume a lot of my running time.  I don't know what the heck was going on, whether it was my Kindle or the wireless connection at the gym but I could not connect to their network to save my life.  The first 5 miles just plain sucked.  What's funny is I trained for my first 5k solely on the treadmill but since then I've really been a 100% outdoor runner with the exception of speed work.  I prefer to do intervals on the treadmill just so I know I'm hitting my paces.  Now the treadmill feels a million times harder than running outside.  This actually leads me to believe I should do this more often to help build some mental toughness.

I basically spent the first 5 miles feeling really angry and irritable because of the technical issues.  I settled into a slow (for me) 11:15 pace.  It felt hard and dreadful.  The treadmill hit the automatic cool down after 55 minutes (it had one of those 60 min max settings on it).  So I refilled my water and decided to get situated with my iPod tuned into the radio station so that I could watch their TV's.  Once I settled in and could get my Kindle to turn back on I also started reading as well.  Ha .. well you know .. not at the same time.  That helped and the next 5 miles kind of flew by.  I had to tough through the last 2 miles but I did it.

It's kind of funny when you're been running on the treadmill for that long and reading a book, once you get off it's like stepping off a cruise ship.  It feels funny to walk.  All in all I'm really happy to have had the mental toughness to run that many miles on the treadmill.  I'm very grateful that I have that option when it's this yucky outside.

Workout:  12 miles  (2:20 mins)

I'm also doing Weight Watchers right now.  I've had a really good week thus far.  When I plugged my workout into my tracker it spit out that I had earned 24 activity points!  I only get 26 points a day.  That means I basically earned a days worth of points .. I just found that funny.  I won't eat those points, I never do.  I'm really trying to find the balance with WW's and running.  I have been very low energy with my runs this week .. another post for another day.

Happy Treadmill Running Friends!!

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Have you done double digits on the "dreadmill"?  What did you do to break the monotony of it?

Several inches of fresh snow .. do you run in it anyway?

Training Cycle Complete

Well this week I completed my training cycle for the Salt Lake City Half Marathon this Saturday. I used the Hal Higdon Novice 2 plan this time around.  I really liked the plan because I had heavier mileage on the weekend (when I'm not working) and shorter runs during the week (when I did have to work).  I didn't miss a single training run this entire cycle.  It certainly helped that we have had such a mild winter here in Utah this year. 

This past weekend I peaked with my 12 mile long run.  It was the longest I've ever run on a training run.  I felt amazing until about mile 9.  And then those last 3 miles I was miserable.  Both of my knees were killing me and I was just physically done.  It was really strange and honestly freaked me out a ton.  I had done long runs where I could pull out a 9ish minute mile the last mile only weeks before.  But on Sunday I was running 12 minute miles the whole time and I had nothing left those last three miles.  It was all I could do just to put one foot in front of the other.  I would be lying if I didn't say it shook my confidence big time.  I'm a big believer in sticking to a training plan and you will be successful. 

Here are a full family of deer we saw right in the middle of our run.  Beautiful!

I tried to figure out what I had done differently that led to a bad run.  I had hydrated well the day before. I hadn't had a "bad" dinner (I've made that mistake before).  I was wearing my calf compression sleeves for my run and I haven't been wearing them, but that shouldn't cause my knees to feel so awful.  I've run long runs before wearing them.  I ran an extra day during the week that week, perhaps that had a negative affect.  I mean maybe my legs were just plain tired.  That's possible I suppose. 

So I adjusted my schedule this week.  I had originally planned to run 3 miles on Tuesday, 2 miles on Wednesday and then rest two days.  Instead I ran my 3 miles on Monday, 2 miles on Tuesday and picked up an extra rest day before the race. I hope the extra rest helps. 

I'm also a little worried about my pacing strategy going into Saturday and I guess I'm still a little undecided.  My first half marathon I finished in 2:45.  I knew I could have ran it faster.  At the end I really wasn't spent the way I felt I should have felt.  So I know I will PR this weekend, it's almost a given unless something tragic happens.  My goal I feel comfortable that I could push myself decently and still accomplish is 2:20.  My pie in the sky goal is a 2:15.  When running my pace runs on my training plan I ran them usually between 9:30 and 10 minute miles.  Based on that I should be able to run a 2:10 race.  But I just don't know that I can hold that kind of pace for 13.1 miles.  I feel like that's way too aggressive.  But could I maintain a 10:18 pace the whole time?  That should shoot me in at 2:15 and I think it's "possible".  It's a slightly downhill course, with a moderate hill from mile 11-12.  I don't want to bonk at that hill.  They have pace groups too, 2:20 and 2:10, but not 2:15!

*sigh*

See my dilemma?  I also had one training run where I went out way too fast and I had to walk just to get my heart rate down.  I don't want that to happen on Saturday either.

My sister in law has lofty goals for a 2:10 and by brother is running with her.  Do I try and keep up with them some?  My brother was a great rabbit for me when I ran my PR 5K back in November.  Do I use him again? 

*sigh*

I have trained in rain and snow this time too.  Evidence here:

However this Saturday lookie what we have: 

SEVENTY NINE DEGREES!!

I'm thinking the 7am start will not be the usual chilly we've started with most Sunday's.  So that's good. But with a 79 degree high that day I bet by 7am we could be close to 50's.  And that is perfect running weather to me.

I guess the only thing I know for sure is what I will be wearing:

Lululemon Race Back Tank (matching my sister in law)

Running Skirts Sparkle Heart Skirt (matching my BFF)

They don't actually match that great .. but I will match my two ladies and that means more to me anyway.  At least I know what I'm wearing right?

I'm really excited that this will be my husbands first half marathon.  And we will be running it together, unless of course he leaves me behind like he did the last long run we did together.  It was actually kind of funny.  He came with my run buddy and I.  We all started together.  We joked about how it was like having our own bodyguard.  Then when I was dealing with some Garmin issues he pulled ahead.  But he doesn't have a Garmin and he hadn't started his Runkeeper app on his iPhone.  So I kept wondering how the heck he would know when to fuel and when to turn around.  Well he didn't.  After about 4 miles Rebecca dropped back and so the three of us were very spread out on the trail.  I started closing the gap on him and once he saw me coming he sped up some more.  At which point I was like, whatever.  As we hit the hill and also hit the turn around point I called his name (he listens to his music really loud) and he didn't hear me.  So I turned around to find a guy coming up close behind me.  He laughed and said, "he missed the turn around didn't he?"  YEP!  It was funny.

I digress .. hopefully he doesn't pull ahead on Saturday and leave me in his dust.  haha.

Well there you have it.  I've dropped off the face of the blogging world for over a month and here we are. 

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Does anyone have any advice .. suggestions  .. experience they can offer me with regards to my pacing debacle?  I would really appreciate any help.  I've got to figure this thing out and soon.

A bit of randomness.

Training is going really well.  These past two weekends I've done my long runs with my husband.  And failed to take a picture of us together on both.  My normal long run buddy has been on vacation.  So Jeramie stepped up to fill in.  Since he's currently training for his first half marathon he's using the Hal Higdon Novice 1 plan.  I've been using the Novice 2 plan. Which means shorter runs during the week and running longer sooner on the weekends. I've really liked the way this plan fits into my home life.  I have more time on the weekends to fit in the longer miles than I do during the week. 

When we started out on Saturday it was unbelievably windy.  I kept saying to Jeramie while we were driving, "this is gonna suck."  I guess I shouldn't have been so negative.  But wind is probably my least favorable running condition.  As we got started I kept thinking that at least we were running into the wind on the way out, so it would be at our backs coming back and with quite how windy it was it would practically carry us!  We're talking SO windy that when I talked to Jeramie spit would fly out of my mouth! haha.  And oh did it make my nose run.  Ironically enough the direction we ran our turn around point ended up being literally across the river from my work.  We could see the building when we turned.  Then on the way back the wind completely died down.  So much for it carrying us back!  It was a good solid 8 miles.  My legs felt strong all week. 

I did notice that one thing I don't love about running long on Saturday's as opposed to Sunday's is that normally after my long run on Sunday I meet up with my mum and head out to do our grocery shopping together.  So I'm on my feet and moving the rest of the day without really thinking much about it.  But these past two Saturdays after we run we've basically come home and I feel exhausted and don't even want to move my butt from the couch.  It's amazing to me how much it feels like it takes out of me. And yet I love it and look forward to it so much. 

As I was stretching after our run I noticed how pretty the mountains looked behind me.

  I had to share the view!

One of my favorite pieces of running attire.

My vest.

I love that it keeps me warm when it's windy, but I don't get hot.

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So tell me, what's one of your favorite pieces of running attire when it's windy out?

Week 10 - Recap

I was a blogging failure this last week.  It was a crazy week at work and I just didnt' feel like I had anything of interest to share.  Today's post isn't really interesting per se.  However, as I come to a close of my official training plan I know I need to document these last couple of weeks.  So we'll jump right into the recap of my training this week:

Monday - Yoga.  Complete.  I had both my big boys clamoring to join me on my yoga mat.  Wyland is actually quite proficient at his yoga poses. Jackson is a little more lazy about it.  But it's cute seeing them want to exercise with me.

Tuesday - 5 miles.  Complete.  Ran outside and it was a gorgeous day!  I think I passed the entire Accounting Department as I was headed back in to the office.  They were all trying to get their slice of the beautiful running weather pie!

Wednesday - 3 miles.  Done and was easy.

Thursday - 5 miles.  By Thursday's I'm normally feeling a little more tired. But this week I really focused on enjoying my runs.  This one also felt easy.

Saturday - 60 min Cross.  Fail. 

Sunday - 9 miles.  Complete.  I was really excited about this weeks run.  I mean, NINE miles!  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 .. umm that's a LOT!  And dare I say this one did not feel hard.  My BFF Rebecca has been kind of side lined with an ITB / Hamstring injury the past couple weeks.  I am so bummed for her.  She's worked so hard to run this race with me and was really looking forward to it. But today she came out anyway and rode her bike next to me the whole nine miles. We talked the entire time and it's my favorite run together to date.  The time flew by as we chatted.  Plus she said it felt like I was running fast because it was easier riding next to me than she expected it would be.  Well really I wasn't running fast but it was such a nice run.  I'm actually not worried at all at this point about my ability to complete 13.1 miles 2 weeks from today.  I know I'm going to do great.  And even with the injury I have a suspicion that Rebecca is still going to do much better than she expects. 

Lessons this week:  One thing I really tried to focus on this week was making sure that I didn't go out fast on ANY of my runs.  I actually didn't focus a lot on pace at all.  And I feel this really worked well for me.  Same thing with my long run today. I think it was the difference between feeling tired at the end and not.  I know the biggest thing I will focus on in Vegas is not getting too caught up in the excitement that I go out too fast.  I hope to help Rebecca do the same.  I also made a conscious effort to hydrate yesterday and not eat a total garbage meal last night for dinner.  I think perhaps all these things combined made for a very successful long run this week and I plan to repeat these habits next weekend.

So coming up this week:

Week 11

Monday ~ Yoga

Tuesday ~ 5 Miles

Wednesday ~ 3 Miles

Thursday ~ 5 Miles

Friday ~ Rest (or Black Friday Shopping!)

Saturday ~ 60 min Cross

Sunday ~ 10 Miles and MY BIRTHDAY!!

Week 8 Recap

This was a self portrait taken just after my long run last week.

Well that's another week checked off the list.

Felt good.  I don't know why 8 miles felt like some sort of milestone.

But it did.

Next week is a bit of a taper week which will feel nice.

My next big milestone is going to be 10 miles.  Which coincidentally falls on my 37th birthday!

What a great day that will be.  My last long run prior to Vegas.

And my birthday.

I LOVE my birthday.

Okay so on to the recap of Week 8:

Monday:  Yoga.  Fail.  It was Halloween and I just didn't have time to do it.

Tuesday:  4.5 miles, complete.  I was a little nervous this morning.  I woke up to rain turning into snow.  Then it cleared by lunch time so off I went.  It turned out to be an awesome run too.  I felt really strong.  Maybe it was that extra rest day.

Wednesday:  3 miles, complete.  Another good one.  All my weekday runs were done from work this week.  As we slide into the colder months running at the warmest part of the day is a wonderful thing. It will be very interesting once we turn hot again how I do.  I can't imagine I'll be running at lunchtime when it's 100 degrees outside.

Thursday:  4.5 miles, complete.  I ran with a co-worker this day.  A BOY *gasp*.  He's a cool cat.  He's married as well and his wife runs.  While I actually really love my solo runs, normally I only run with a partner on Sunday's.  But he's nice to run with.  We run north on the trail, which is the opposite direction than I normally run by myself.  He told me the first time we went out that he wouldn't recommend running north because he's seen more bums and stuff.  So I never do.  The other nice thing about running with him occasionally is that he pushes me to run faster. It's nice to know that I can run 4.5 miles and maintain my almost 5K pace the whole time. I was out of breath a lot with the chatting and faster pace.  But it was definitely a confidence booster.

Friday:  Rest, complete.  I did a lot of shopping this day!  Running Warehouse had 25% off of the sale price of everything already on sale.  I got some great Christmas presents and I also ordered my anniversary present (thanks Honey!).  I'll share my purchases when they arrive this week.

Saturday:  50m Cross Train, another FAIL.  Seriously I need to work on this big time.  Even if it's just going out for a walk with my daughter.

Sunday:  8 miles, DONE.  Rebecca and I headed out feeling strong and ready for the 8 miles ahead.  Rather than our normal 7am we headed out at 9am this morning.  It was much warmer. I wore my newish Brooks running tights.  And my legs were golden!  I felt so warm. Not like last week when I was chilled to the bone when I got home.  I was amazed and what a difference the pants were.  I noticed as I was cutting the tags off last night that they said ideal for less than 40 degrees. I didn't realize that they were designed to be that warm when I got them. Or maybe I did and forgot because I bought them awhile ago thinking I was going to need them sooner.  What a great purchase. These babies will get me through this Utah Winter for sure.  I wore my coat this morning too and ended up taking it off at the halfway point.  We also tried some Honey Stinger gummies.  They were tasty. I liked that they weren't as gooey as the Clif Shot Bloks and GU Chomps.  My legs took a LONG time to warm up this morning though, that kind of sucked. I don't think I felt truly good until after the halfway point.  But we were also running into a pretty strong headwind on the way out too.  That didn't help either.  All in all it was a good run and I felt strong.  It felt like a bit of a challenge that last mile, I could tell my legs were getting a little tired. But we finished strong.  I came home and popped some Ibuprofen and am still wearing my CEP Calf Compression Sleeves. 

Observations for the Week:  Eating a egg white breakfast burrito in the morning before I go to work seemed to work really well for me this week.  I wasn't quite hungry for another meal before my noontime run, but I also wasn't trying to scarf down a yogurt real quick before I have to head out to run.  I'll keep doing that this week.

WOW .. we're almost there!!

Week 9:

Monday ~ Yoga

Tuesday ~ 5 Miles

Wednesday ~ 3 Miles

Thursday ~ 5 Miles

Friday ~ Rest

Saturday ~ 50m Cross Train

Sunday ~ 10K

Week 7 - Check

I can't believe we're down to less than 5 weeks before Vegas.

This week was pretty easy.

I really love the structure of having a training schedule.

And I know without a race hanging over my head I would not have the willpower to stick with it.

Week 7 Recap:

Monday:  Yoga

This was pretty easy. I popped in my Jillian Michael's DVD and just did it.

Tuesday:  Run 4.5

I hit the trail at lunch time from work.  My legs felt really strong for a Tuesday.  Usually I feel sluggish on Tuesday's.  I saw a guy from work on my way back. I said hi, he said nothing.  That always makes me mad when people can't be polite.

Wednesday:  Run 3

I really tried to focus on not thinking about the short distance. I don't know what it is about my Wednesday runs but they always seem so much longer than they should be.

Thursday:  Run 4.5

I rocked this one.  Felt awesome.  Had the right amount of layered clothes on.  I'm now always running in long sleeves midday.  Which means since I don't have a ton of long sleeve gear I'm doing more laundry which kind of sucks.

Friday:  Rest Day

And rest I did.

Saturday:  Cross Training 50 minutes

FAIL.  I did no cross training. In fact the husband and I went on a date.  I had a delicious Bleu Bacon Burger (I know I know, not good for me) and went to see Footloose.  It was awesome!

Sunday:  Run 7

I felt strong going into this run.  It's a distance PR for me, but I was 100% confident I would complete it with no problem.  I ran with my friend Rebecca.  It was dark when we started out but lightened up quickly. But it was darn cold the whole time.  Like 37 degrees cold.  I was shivering when I got home.  I don't think that the burger helped my tummy that morning.  I definitely felt a tad bit queasy but all was well and all the cookies stayed where they should have.  I was a little cold most of the run so next week I will dress warmer for sure.  I may have to give my long pants a try.



I seriously have been trying to get this post written all darn week!

Week 8:

Monday ~ Yoga

Tuesday ~ Run 4.5

Wednesday ~ Run 3

Thursday ~ Run 4.5 + Strength Train

Friday ~ Rest Day

Saturday ~ 50 min Cross Train

Sunday ~ Run 8

Week 6 - Complete

So week 6 of my Half Marathon training is complete. 

Observations in Bullets:

• The first mile of my short runs (this week 2 miles total) feel SO hard.  Yet, when I do twice the total distance the other days those first 2 weren't as hard.  Definitely mind over matter.  Clearly knowing I only had to do 2 made it seem like they should be REALLY easy.
• My calves felt a little sore this week.
• Today when I did my long run (6 miles) the last 3 felt easier than the first.

So basically I'm really kind of buying in to the whole distance running is half a mental challenge.  I'm getting that now.  While I haven't run any miles on the treadmill lately, it's almost making me nervous for when I don't have any choice but to log some mill runs.  Am I ruining myself?  I used to LOVE my treadmill and had absolutely no problem running 6 miles on there.  We shall see.

This weeks plan called for the following:

Monday  -  Yoga.  It was easy and I have to admit I really enjoy Yoga Monday's.

Tuesday - Run 4 miles.  I ran by work and it was a little sluggish.

Wednesday - Run 2 miles.  I felt really sluggish but then it was over.  A little dodging and weaving around classrooms of children.

Thursday - Run 4 miles.  It felt good to get out this day.

Friday - Rest day and rest I did!

Saturday - Cross train 40 minutes.  I didn't do a thing.  I'm not good at this cross training stuff.  It feels like such a chore to get it in and Saturday's are so busy for me.  I need to think about how to get better at this.

Sunday - Run 6 miles.  I was up at 6:45am and my friend Rebecca picked me up.  We headed down to our usual spot and logged the miles quickly.  We tried our first round of "fuel".  Blueberry/Pomegranate GU Chomps.  They were tasty.  Sweet .. but tasty.  Well .. okay .. they weren't gross.

I can't believe that we have passed the halfway point in our training and it just gets harder.  I keep questioning whether my body can handle it.  I read blogs by all these other runners and the vast majority of them are so much younger than me. I never really thought of myself as "old" but kind of I do these days.  I will be turning 37 exactly 1 week prior to race day.  Gosh I feel old.  I beat up my body as a teenager.  I played all kinds of sports including softball, basketball, volleyball,  and swimming.  The softball took a serious toll on my body I think. I have bad knee's because of it.  So now I wonder if I've ruined parts of me.  Not to mention I've carried 4 babies and had 4 c-sections, the last one was less than a year ago.  But I am a classic Type-A personality. I will push myself because basically I get a rush out of doing it.  Plus I'm uber competitive.  And it feels good to be pushing myself athletically again.

I digress .. again.  So this week we're upping things again.  Here's what we've got on the schedule, I'd be lying if I said it didn't intimidate me.

Monday - Yoga
Tuesday - 4.5 mile run
Wednesday - 3 mile run
Thursday - 4.5 mile run
Friday - Rest
Saturday 50 min cross train, I really hope to get on the bike
Sunday - 7 mile run (I've never run that far in my life)

From this weeks long run on, they will all be distance PR's for me. 

Deep breath ...

I'm a little scared.

Oh .. but look at my cute family!  We took some family pictures last weekend and I love how they turned out.  These weren't professional (I feel like I should point that out).

Week 4 Recap

This was this morning.  I met up with my running buddy Rebecca (there she is walking the wall).  It was dark when I got up and I actually was dreading running the trail in the dark. But by the time we rolled up it was light out and we were just dealing with a little fog.  But the fog made for a really pretty run.  We encountered some snails, as well as a baby deer.  It was a great run.  I enjoyed running with my buddy, even though we don't actually talk while we run.  It's just nice to have foots pounding next to me.

This weeks workouts went great overall.  I had a rough week at work and having my running during my day was such a relaxer for me.  I felt great that I wasn't taking time away from my kids by running when I came home from work.  And I had more time in the evenings too.

Monday - Strength and Stretch.  So I hit up Jillian Michaels for some Power Yoga.  It kicks my butt every time.  I was feeling it in my arms for days afterwards. But I love how I am able to hold poses a little bit longer than last week.

Tuesday - Run 3.5 miles, 11:09 avg pace.  I hit the Jordan River Parkway by my work for a lunchtime run.  It was beautiful weather.  Cool but not wet.  The miles felt pretty easy.  My hip was still a little sore so I didn't want to push my pace.

Wednesday - Run 2 miles, 10:12 avg pace.  I hit the Jordan River Parkway again. Since it was a short distance and it was drizzling with rain when I headed out, I attempted to push it a little more speed wise to see how the hip felt.  Overall it still felt great. And I liked being able to let loose with my legs a little bit.

Thursday - Run 3.5 miles, 10:39 avg pace.  Same time, same bat station.  This day sucked.  As the time approached lunch I was itching to get out the door and runaway from it all.  This run was EXACTLY what I needed to clear my head and start the afternoon fresh.  This was a huge moment for me this week.  Like another, "I'm a runner" milestone.  I NEEDED that run!

Friday - Rest Day. 

Saturday - 40 mins Cross Training.  I headed out on my bike.  Pedaled out 7.76 miles.  I felt the burn in my thighs which was good.  But man I wasn't prepared well.  I regretted not having my heart rate strap on.  I really want to get a better idea of how many calories I'm burning on the bike.  I wished I had had music.  I also need to invest in a pair of cushion-y bike shorts.

Sunday - 5 miles, 11:48 avg pace.  Felt great.  My hip is really starting to feel better which was good.  The slower pace was nice too.  When we run our half marathon in December our goal is about a 12 min pace.  So these long runs at this pace are right on.

So Week 4 of my Half Marathon training plan is complete. 

Up next week:

Monday - Yoga
Tuesday - 4 miles
Wednesday - 2 miles
Thursday - 4 miles
Friday - Rest Day
Saturday - I'm racing a 5K.  Supposed to do Cross Training for 40 min.
Sunday - Supposed to be 6 miles.

The 5K is kind of throwing a wrench in my schedule.  I could either run the course twice on Saturday and then move my cross training to Sunday.  Or my 5K that's supposed to be my run next weekend, bump that up a week and then just move my 6 miles to the following weekend.  I need to figure it out before the weekend for sure.

Anyone have any suggestions??