Bye Bye 2013

2013 has been quite the year.  I've accomplished a lot of things that I never knew could happen to me or even happen in my lifetime.  I ran my first 10 mile run, which to me, that was the biggest accomplishment ever.  Also, in 29 weeks, I ran 100 miles.  I know it's not much, but I think it's an improvement.  I guess training for this half marathon has made me think a lot about how my body moves.  Going to my happy place and just clearing my head has been the best thing.  I know some runs I've done have been a struggle, but I've managed to get through it.  So here's to you 2013.  May 2014 bring me many more surprises.  I know for one thing, running a half-marathon will definitely be a surprise upon itself.  I am more focused on finishing than time, so for my first half-marathon (and definitely not my last), I think that is a good mindset to go in with.  I'm excited, yet anxious to get on with it.  I will do well.  Another resolution I would like to accomplish will be to BLOG more.  I always say blog more, but with the many extra activities that I do, it's difficult.  That, I will promise to do as much as possible.

Anyone have any resolutions? Sometime you want to share?

xoxo

The Longest MILE

A lot of thoughts when into my mind starting Friday night leading up to the moment I arrived at Lady Bird Lake Hike and Bike Trail to "test" the 10 mile look.  After two weekends of putting it off (one reason was because it was days after the big flood that happened down in Austin and the second reason is that after going to Fun Fun Fun Fest on Friday, I woke up with an allergy headache from all the dust), I finally set my alarm and decided Saturday (11/16) was going to be the day.  I did my usual morning routine when I go running on Saturdays, except this time the dogs took a little longer to do their business so I did not get out of the house until about 6:30 a.m.  I made sure to have a pot of coffee and I grabbed a banana as I headed out the door.  Walking to my car, I noticed how crazy the clouds were looking and I almost forgot we were supposed to get some rain.  I don't remember what the chances were, but as I drove down to Austin (I live in Cedar Park which is about 22 miles NW), I saw some sprinkles land on my windshield.  Very set on not turning around, I decided to drive all the way down there.  Worst case scenario, I could time my drive for the next time if I ended up getting there and it was pouring rain.  Much to my amazement, there were tons of runners and the weather was decent.  Not only was it decent, it was better than I expected.  As most of you know, lately, I've been running WITHOUT music and for some reason it has been working.  What I did was set my RunKeeper app, I had my iPod shuffle on and also my watch.  Since I had a bit of technical difficulties with my Garmin watch, I decided to walk across the MoPac pedestrian bridge and start on the south side.  Once I got there, I was ready to go.  No music, just my mine concentrating on breathing, listening to my body and legs as each foot hits the floor.  Mind you, I've never been on a run for more than 6.25 miles so mentally I went in there with the fact that I would be doing a lot of walking and not to be mad at myself if that happened.  Little did I know how my body would take such a long run.  When I got to about mile 5, I needed a bathroom break.  Thankfully there was a bathroom, WITHOUT A DOOR, so I had to put the garbage pail in the way.  After that, I felt good and continued to run.  Checking out the scenery, I started to get to familiar ground, which was where I usually do my 3 mile loops.  I couldn't believe it.  I looked at my watch and I was at mile 8.  Nothing felt better than knowing that, especially since I wasn't as tired as I thought I was.  I did do small little stops, but when I continued, my body just kept wanting to run, so I let it, without exerting myself too much to burn all my energy.  Once I got to about where Lamar was, I could see that breaks were coming more and more frequent.  I took about a 5 minute walk and then the end was close.  Finally getting to the point where I couldn't run anymore, I stopped my watch and looked at it.  9.13 miles of ACTUALLY RUNNING.  Just running more than 6.25 miles, I felt like it was quite the accomplishment.  I can't wait to try it again!

As seen on my run, the lovely photos of Austin, Texas and also my shoes -- wanted to show how they got so dirty from the trail.

'Till next time!

Night Call

When I wake up, the first thing I do (besides pee) is put on my clothes and take my dogs outside.  Two (mini) flights of stairs down and the same up, do the same thing one more time because I have three little ones.  After the dog-scapade, my mind is on go.  I think about what I'm going to wear, remind myself what day it is and start moving.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I run with Tami since I need to log in some miles and her neighborhood is more "runner friendly" than mine is.  I literally have a strip that I can run that is about 3 miles, but it's always fun running with friends.  As of late, I feel that I started to slowly increase my endurance with doing shorter miles during the week and keeping at a slower pace than usual so I can keep my body at a constant motion and I did just that.  Today, I ran 3.29 miles without stopping once.  I did slow down the pace a little and the last .75 miles speed it up, but I felt absolutely great.  Here is just a picture grid:

I rewarded myself with an amazing banana and almond butter soy protein shake.  There is something about running in cooler weather that I love, except I keep forgetting to put chapstick on before I head out the door.  All in all, Thursday will be my next run and I think I'm going to try and go for 4 miles.  We shall see.

Longer, Stronger

So this past Saturday I woke up for my usual morning run with my friend Tami.  We both planned on doing the 6 mile loop, so I was a little excited but more tired than anything.  I wake up at about 5:45 a.m. to try and get to her house by 6:30 a.m. and I promised her that I would try my hardest to get up and go.  Little did I know how cold it was going to be and I still needed to take my dogs outside to go potty (apartment living).  Anyway, I got to her house at a respectable time and started my run at 6:45 a.m.  As you can see my splits below, I was really impressed I kept my pace at a good tempo with mile 3, 4 and 5.  I even sped it up at mile 5, which was pretty impressive considering I felt like I was not going that pace whatsoever.  I literally lagged the last 2 1/2 miles and I stopped quite a few times, so when I saw this, I was really happy.

Now is where I write to you about my slight anxiety about this half marathon, but after this weekend, I feel that I am slowly getting better and building endurance.  I take two days out of the week to run 2 1/2 to 3 miles and stay at a constant motion, which is something I rarely do.  Last Thursday I was really excited to see that I had a constant motion when I ran 3.19 miles.  That was probably the first time ever that I ran straight without stopping and a lot of factors have been playing a big part in my routine.  I stopped running with music, I've basically feel each run and focus on listening to my body and I carry a hand held water bottle.  Since I'm not much of a water drinker, I just fill it half way, but surprising it feels like I'm not even holding anything.  Those are two major changes that have improved my run.  Regardless, I am taking it one day at a time and I'm not going to start freaking out until the beginning of February.  As of today, I'm stickin' to the plan.

:)

In with the new...

Half marathon training in full effect.

Just a Tad Bit of a Change

In order to blog more and not feel like I'm neglecting this, I decided to blog once a week, possibly on Sundays, which will be my rest days.  I decided that I'm going to log everything into a composition book and see if it works that way.  Maybe that would create more lengthy blogs or maybe it will just make my post more.  I suppose I can start bringing my laptop with me and blogging on the train if need be.  Either way, I will make this happen, especially considering it is the first days of the month and I have about 137 days until the Austin Half Marathon.  Ready, not yet, Nervous, definitely, Excited, ABSOLUTELY!

The Calm after the Run

Today, well actually yesterday, marks my first long run since...April, when I did the Statesman 10k.  Between now and then, I've only been running a measly 3-4 miles, if that.  But now, I can say I can and  I WILL reach the 5 mile mark by the end of the month.  There are only 152 days until the Austin Half Marathon, but who's counting?  Not me (looks around)!  This evening, as I right this post and think about all the things I could've done to improve my time at yesterdays run, I mapped out a little path to run at my neighborhood.  One way is about 3.3 miles, so a round trip run would be 6.6, which is exactly what I need.  I will slowly conquer that, but for now, I must do a little bit of cross training to get back into the swing of things.  I almost feel like a broken record saying that, but I really need to focus and get on the ball.  I really want to do well for the Austin Half Marathon and every other race between now and then, which are the Rogue Rescue 5k on 9/22, I might do a run next month, but I'll have to find more details, the Turkey Trot 5 mile run on 11/28 and that is possibly it at the moment.  For now, I leave you with my race results from my 80's 8k on 9/15/2013:

Congratulations on finishing the Run Free Texas 80s 8k Community Race on September 15, 2013.

There were 29 finishers in the Female 30 to 34 age group and 153 finishers in the race.

Your overall finish place was   115 and your age group finish place was 22.  Your overall finish percentile was 75 while your age group percentile was 76.  Your time of 55:32.3 gave you a  6:59 pace per KM.

I was surprised by the amount of hills there were on this run and I don't mean small little hills,  I mean gradual inclines that when you look back, you can see the highway and beyond.  I'm an amateur at hills for sure, but I will need to get over that.  I feel like there is so much for me to do, but I am excited about getting back into this training in full force.  This will be my mantra:

Word to live by!

Entering a Groove

This week was a bit more productive than previous weeks.  Maybe it's because I'm mentally psyching myself up to this half marathon in 162 days, but whatever it is, I happy to be finally getting back into a groove.  The last 10-ish months I've been off and on with running, more off than on.  I think a lot of it had to do with my personal life changes and adjusting.  Now I feel like I am at peace with everything in my life and now it's time to get back into what I loved to do, RUN!  As you know I was never a runner growing up.  I had really bad asthma as a kid and I couldn't even run down the block so I basically just never attempted to run.  Now, within the last year I've became more focused with the idea of getting myself to run.  A lot of it had to do with being in Austin and admiring the activeness of the city.  Plus I love to eat and hate doing certain workouts, so running is what I decided on.  To make a long story short and after a mud run, 5 mile race and 10k, I registered for my first half marathon.  So with that being said, I feel like September has been a great time to start mentally preparing myself and trying to be as active as possible.  This week was the first week in a long time that I ran 7 miles.  I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but with my schedule, I am happy that I got to do even that.  I really thank my friend Tami for being with me on Saturday mornings at 6:30 a.m. and being such a positive partner.  I must, however, break her from apologizing to me for her pace.  Pace, right now, does not bother me.  I love getting up early, having chats while running and focusing on distance.  So even if I do 2-3 miles during the week at my regular pace, I can always have my Saturdays with Tami.  I enjoy them.  Plus, I can always run on Sundays, which I plan on doing tomorrow.  For now, I will leave you with this awesome picture from one of my Saturday morning runs:

How beautiful is that sunrise view.  I could look at it all day!

Satisfying in September

Since I live in Cedar Park now and not Austin, is it appropriate to keep my blog name Rachel Runs Austin?  I THINK SO!!  Plus, Cedar Park is just A LITTLE BIT outside of Austin, North West.

The ninth month of the year is upon us and I believe now that I'm settled and set, it's time to make new goals for this upcoming Austin Half-Marathon in February 2014.  I mean there are only 167 days to go, who's nervous?  I AM!!  The past few months have been so slack when it comes to my running and training for this epic run.  A lot of you might not think it's epic, but this is my first Half-Marathon, so I'm just a wee bit nervous.  I did, however, end up getting new running shoes and a running watch to track my progress:

I absolutely LOVE them too.  Brooks feel so great on my feet and when I run, it's literally like I'm running on clouds.  Who would've thought that?  I did enjoy my Nike Run Free 3.0 shoes, but to start being serious and committed, I needed something with more support and that will work well with my stride, step and impact.  This was possibly the best birthday gift I received and the Garmin watch (which happens to be my in my favorite color) is so nice.  I don't even miss caring my phone anymore.  When I do run, since I run with my camel pak, I just put my phone and my keys in there.  It's nice not to have anything stapped onto my arm.  This purchase was sponsored by Rogue Running in Cedar Park, which is an amazing store with wonderful employees.

To tell you about my progress of sorts, I registered  for two races in September.  One is the 80's 8k (5 mile run) that is happening September 15th and the other race is the Rogue Rescue Run which is a 5k (3.1 mile run).  Then there is the Turkey Trot in November (5 mile run) and I believe those should somewhat push me into the right direction because right now I'm only doing 2 miles a run.  If, by the end of this month, I can get to running 5 miles, possibly 6, I will be so happy.  I can definitely get to 13+ miles by January, but I want to pace myself in a good way that I don't get burned out or injured, which reminds me that I have to read up on my Chi Running book to get some of the exercises out of there.  Another thing that I'm doing to help me prepare is yoga (on my Wii Fit) and maybe two days a week I will go to the little gym in our apartment complex and indulge on the elliptical.  I'm trying to do as much outside running as I can because come November the time will change and it will get darker at 5/5:30 p.m.  which will mess up my schedule big time because of my work schedule.

So for now, I leave you with this:

This is my half-marathon map.  I will mentally prepare myself for this.

My time

So it's been a month and a week (I'm not sure if I'm exact) since I last updated in here.  My life and time has been a bit chaotic with an issue, a search which ended up turning into a move and a BIG CHANGE in my life.  For the better, I think so.  Well I BELIEVE it will be the beginning of the rest of my life (turning 33 in 12 more days).  Not only is moving such a stressful event, but it basically changed my every day routine.  I now live in the City of Cedar Park, which is a suburb outside of Austin,Texas.  To be exact, it is North West of Austin and it's on the cusp of the Travis/Williamson County line.  I'm not sure how many of you (my lovely regular readers) have an idea about the traffic to get into Austin, but it is considered the 4th worst in the United States, so when choosing a place to live, I based it on the following:

1. Relying on public transportation (there is a train that goes from Leander (more North West of where I am) to Downtown (where I work).
2. Living somewhere where buying a house would not cost you an arm and a leg (Cedar Park, at times, has houses $30-$40k cheaper than South Austin (the ideal place I'd like to live).
3. There has to be a place I can workout, walk to, ride my bike, etc.

Seeing as two of the three meet my standards, we picked a pretty nice apartment (my boyfriend and I).  It's been, going on two weeks, since we've been there and I can tell you that I do like it.  It is weird not being 10 minutes from work, but rather a 40 minute train ride, but I do enjoy being able to read a good  book.  Luckily our apartment complex has a little gym that I have yet to try out AND also a park (Brushy Creek Lake Park) that I can run at.  So this post is just a big excuse.  They say running releases a lot of stress, but I don't know if being older has something to do with it, but I can't deal with stress like I used to.  So this weekend, possibly starting tomorrow, I am going to try out the gym.  It has a treadmill, weights, MIRRORS (oh la la) and one of those weight stations.  Then, if I'm feeling frisky, I'm going to take little Ells to Brushy Creek Park with me, since he is the only one that would like to be running/walking with me, and check out the trail.  I have about 6 months until the half-marathon and 2 1/2 more months until the time changes.  I really would like to re-work my workout schedule and get back on track.  Maybe for my birthday I will get a cool running watch and/or new running shoes (::cough cough:: Brooks).

Until next time.

Time Lapsed

I really wanted to be that person that would set a goal and stick with it, but with the week I had, it was hard to even concentrate, let alone blog.  I know running is suppose to put things into perspective and it is a natural anti-depressant, but I did not do any of that in the last week (or two).  I have totally neglected my half marathon training and I feel horrible.  It's been about two weeks since I've had a decent run and I just feel like I'm starting over again.  Every time I stop, it's always like starting over.  I could fill this entry with words of what happened and why, but right now I'm going to focus on today, right now and the future.  Now it's a matter of going back to basics so what I plan on doing now is incorporating my workouts in my training routine, which I should have done from the beginning.  I would, however, like to share a picture.  The picture below is my first pair of running shoes I owned and actually ran in.  I used to wear running shoes just for the style (which I quickly gave up after my high school years), so when I bought these, I literally felt great and I wanted to achieve something active in my life.  I bought these shoes when they were on sale at DSW and I have loved them ever since.  Why I went from these to Nike Free Run 3.0, I don't know, but yesterday I did a light jog with my boyfriend (in 100 degree temperatures) and I felt great.  My feet, my shins, my knees -- it's like I forgot what support felt like.  So here you go, my first pair of running shoes:

I ran my first 5k in these shoes and I have a feeling they will take me a long way, especially since right now I can't afford to get new shoes.  I hope, after today's post that I will get back on track and continue to post about my workouts and half training marathon sessions.

Till next time!

A Time and a Place

In a few days time, I will be traveling to the place I called home for 28 years.  A place that defined the person that I am and sometimes I think it prevented me from becoming the person I never wanted to be. All in all, South Florida (Hollywood and Miami) is my hometown.  This will be an interesting trip because I will be bringing along my boyfriend and enjoying some much needed beach time.  Even though I am not a huge fan of the ocean, I do miss it.  Living in Austin, Texas makes me miss it more than I would ever have missed it living in South Florida.  Another reason why this trip will be interesting is because my boyfriend has never been to South Florida.  I honestly cannot wait because I do miss my friends and family and the culture of Miami.  PLUS the food is amazing.

So you might be asking yourself, "How is this running related?"  Well I will tell you because I plan on running sometime that weekend.  I know I haven't been the most effective person when it comes to trying to maintain goals, but I've had an issue with my right lower leg (shin area) which has given me problems before.  I honestly think it has to do with my running shoes so what my plan is is to dust off my old running shoes (my first pair) and add them back to the rotation.  They are an old paid of Mizunos that I bought at DSW (Designer Shoe Warehouse) that were on sale and I admit, they are very comfortable.  I ran my first 5k in 28 minutes in those shoes and every time I think about that, I feel all nostalgic. I've replaced them with Nike Free Run 3.0 and I think it's time to go back to a brand that will support my feet, that will make me feel good again (not that the Nike Free Runs haven't) and keep me injury free.  So yes, there is my running blurb for you!

“Running is a big question mark that’s there each and every day. It asks you, ‘Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?’” – Peter Maher,

Weather Report

Today is Thursday and I feel like it's been forever since I went on a run, but in reality, it was 3 days ago. I've had some minor delays with my schedule, which I don't mean them to sound like excuses.  On Tuesday, I went to a show that ended at 12:30 a.m.  Since that was WAY passed my usual bedtime, I slept in. I did do a walk 2 miles with my boyfriend (he is not a runner, btw) to kind of keep my body moving.  Since my night the night before was extended 'til the wee hours of the morning, I got through the work day yesterday but literally passed out when I got home.  NOW, with it being a new day today, I decided to run after work.  I know, I like to torture myself with 90+ degree runs, but I am going to break in my new camelbak to see how it would be to run with it.  For those of you that don't know what a camelbak is, it is a little bookbag of sorts with a plastic water container and a straw type hose that lets you drink while doing an activity (i.e., biking, rock climbing, walking, RUNNING).  I got the idea from an Instagram friend of mine who is also a runner so why not try it out.  

Anyway

The point of this post was to put up a photo of the weather in Austin, Texas so you can see the temperatures I will be running in.  I know it doesn't seem like it's that hot, but I feel like the heat in Texas is stale and intense, ESPECIALLY when the sun is out.  In the morning it is pretty hot and muggy so I sweat a lot, but when you run in the sun, it is a lot of work.  As long as I get through the Summer, I will be fine (which next Friday, June 21st is the FIRST DAY OF SUMMER).

My Layout

When I decided that I wanted to train for a half marathon, I needed to come up with a plan and a realistic one at that.  At work, we have desk blotters (desk calendars) and the one that I have has the months listed for the year.  So now, since we are in the month of June, the months start from May 2013 and end in April 2014.  You get it, right?  Anyway, what I did was set jot down the average monthly miles I expect and hope to run, without injury of course.

Here are my realistic goals for the next 8 months:

• June 2013 -- average 3-5 miles
• July 2013 -- average 3-5 miles
• August 2013 -- average 4-6 miles
• September 2013 -- average 6-7 miles
• October 2013 -- average 7-8 miles
• November 2013 -- average 8-10 miles
• December 2013 - average 10+ miles
• January 2013 - average 10+ miles
• FEBRUARY -- HALF-MARATHON

As you know, running in Texas during the Summer time is extremely intense, so I decided that between June and September, I'd keep my mileage at a minimum but with a slow increase.  One mile per month should be a good to start with.  What I would like to do is run the minimum during the week and do a longer run on the weekend.  I decided to do it that way because I still have to work and if I do a 3 to 4 mile run in the morning, I will have time to get home and get ready.  I really hope this plan works.  In between my running days, I plan on going back to the gym for cross-training.

Let the good times roll!

To Infinity and Beyond

So this morning I did one of my weekly morning runs when I realized that today was a special day.  Not only did I have a great run, but I officially made it to 200 miles. (see photo below)

When I think about this, making it to mile 200, I think about how it all started for me.  I remember thinking about starting to run, but I wanted to make it as though it was not a chore for me.  I wanted it to be something I wanted to do when to relax and keep my mind free and running definitely did that for me.  It has been about 3 years that I've lived in Austin,  I'm officially going on my 4th and I found it to be somewhat different than what I'm used to.  I'm used to my friends being at a 10 - 40 minute drive and having family around.  Moving here, I had to make new friends, which I love the ones I have in my life, but the family aspect of it was still at a distance.  Little by little, I grew to become used to living here with finally getting a great job and surrounding myself by good people.  As of late, well 7 months today, I've been in a committed relationship with my boyfriend.  I guess what I'm trying to say is is that everything happens for a reason.  The reason I took up running was to make things a little easier in a sense with my mood and possibly meeting new people.  Since then, I've met quite a few new faces and people who actually inspire me to keep moving forward.  So  I dedicate this post to my 200th MILE.  If I were to tell myself when I started running that I would run 200 miles, I would laugh because never in a MILLON years would I have thought that I would run even a  mile let alone 200 in 13 MONTHS.  This just goes to show you that anyone can do anything they put their mind to and the outcome could be one that would be surprising, no matter how difficult you think it would be in the beginning.

::smile::

I found this on Pintrest and I wanted to share.  TGIF!!

Music that Moves

I like to run to music that moves me.   Out of my 20k+ songs listed on my iTunes (yes, I LOVE music), it is difficult to just select a two hour plus playlist.  Regardless, here are a list of songs/albums that I enjoy to run to.  Even though some of my choices can be quite embarrassing, I will list them anyway (not in any specific order):

• Junior Senior - Song: D-D-Don't Stop The Beat, Album: Move Your Feet
• A$AP Rocky - Trilla
• At The Drive In - One Armed Scissors/Enfilade
• Bassnectar - Vava Voom (ft. Lupe Fiasco)
• Best of Bootie 2011 (Album) - tee hee
• Fatboy Slim - Dance Bitch (Album)
• Les Savy Fav - Song: The Sweat Descends, Album: Inches
• Peaches - Impeach My Bush (Album)
• Rage Against The Machine - Renegades (Album)
• The Rapture - Pieces of People We Love/Echoes (Albums)
• Steve Aoki - Pillowface & His Airplane Chronicles (Album)
• Santigold - GO!
• The Strokes - Reptillia
• System of a Down - Toxicity (Album)
• Tame Impala - Lucidity
• The Thermals - A Pillar of Salt/When We Were Alive
• Tsunami Bomb - Not Forever/Take The Reigns
• Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (Album)
• We Are Scientists - With Love & Squalor (Album)
• 2 Many DJ's - As Heard On Radio Soulwax Pt. 2
• Boys Noize - Oi Oi Oi

This playlist is a little bit all over the place, but for the most part, as you can see, I like mash-ups.  For some reason, they are the best songs to run to (for me) because the beats and the type of songs they fuse together is magical.  In a few weeks, I will probably be coming up with another playlist because I think I've been running to this playlist for almost a year.  YES, A WHOLE YEAR!!  I think it's time for an update.

HIDDEN CONTENT HERE

Early Morning

Good morning and Happy Wednesday.  Today, I achieved my goal by waking up and getting my butt out to the trail for my first early morning run.  What I mean by early morning is waking up around 5:30 a.m. - 5:45 a.m. to leave my house by 6:00am to be running at the trail by 6:30 a.m.  I did, however, realize that I can leave earlier than that because when I started running, the run was up (not fully, but there was light), so I might even start at 6:00 a.m. rather than 6:30 a.m. only because it allows me more time to get ready for work.  The temperature difference between running at 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. is a whopping 20 degrees!! When I started my run, it was 72 degrees and the high today will be 92 degrees.  I was still sweating just about the same, even more this morning, but I always feel like early morning runs are my best runs.  Maybe it's because I'm waking myself up and my energy is focused more on running rather than exhausting all of my energy on work and forcing a run after work.  Who knows, but I'm sure that is the reason.  Another reason why I love running so early in the mornings is because there is not a crowd of people you have to pass.  Serious runners run that early and I'm not saying serious runners do not run at 6:00 p.m., but the traffic is less, which I like.  Also, something about being able to go with the flow.  That is exactly what I like about running in the mornings rather than the afternoons.  

Today I ran a good 2.70 miles, but it wasn't my best.  I started having a little pain in my right calf, like I had previously, so I am probably going to start running with my compression sleeve.  I really think I need to consider getting new shoes because I feel like my Nike Free 3.0 need to be changed out.  I believe I logged about 190 miles.  WOW -- to think I have ran 190 miles in a little over a year.  It's surprising considering I don't think I would have ever thought of running ONE mile let alone ONE HUNDRED NINETY!

Anyway, I'm writing this blog still in my undergarments, so I must get ready for work.  But to leave on a good note, here is a photo of lovely Downtown Austin at about 6:38 a.m.

ENJOY!!!

Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday

Okay, the second day of the week -- yipee!!  I just want to express myself about yesterday rather than today since I did not get a chance to get online and blog about my run.  As you know, Texas is a pretty HOT state.  What I mean is, I'm from South Florida and I know what HOT is, but Texas heat is a little different.  It's dry and intense.  When I complain about the heat and people ask me where I'm from and I say South Florida, they laugh because they think I should know what HOT weather is like.  Granted, it's humid as hell in South Florida, but this is a lot different than Texas heat.  I'm not sure most of you know that I am not a long-time runner.  I literally started running about 13 months ago and running in the Summer was a lot tougher than I thought it would be.  Anyway, to get back to how HOT Texas is, yesterday was my first 90 degree run.  Since I did not get up in the morning to run, which was a big mistake because it was so cool, I ran after work.  A few key points to why I HATE running in the afternoon rather than the morning are as follows:

• I feel like most of my energy is used to do my actual work and I have nothing left for a workout;
• At 6:00 p.m., I want to go home, not to the trail so it messes up my train of thought;
• It's the Spring/Summer season, the temperatures are going to get to 100+; and
• When I finish my run, I come home and I have so much energy that I can't sleep when I'm supposed to.

Those are just a few things about running in the afternoons rather than in the mornings, but sometimes when I read over them, I just feel like I'm making excuses for myself.  But hey, at least I RAN and logged miles.  It's not about how many miles I run, it's about training myself to listen to my body as I run and work up to 13.1 miles.  This is the whole purpose of blogging about my runs.  Here I add a picture of me on the Lady Bird Lake Trail.  This was my half way point and I just wanted to share:

 Geared up with my glasses, headband and lovely MIAMI DOLPHINS SHIRT!  

Problems

Just this very minute I registered for the Austin Half-Marathon.  As nervous as I was thinking about doing that half-marathon or the 3M half-marathon, I received a text from my friend saying that she registered for the Austin Half-Marathon.  With that, I went ahead and put in my information to pay for the Austin half-marathon and as soon as I hit SUBMIT, a pop-up screen said there was a problem with my registration and I would have to call.  I pick up the phone to call and their business hours are M-F.  With just a bit of frustration under my belt, I re-read the error message I received and it specifically said NOT TO SUBMIT ANOTHER REGISTRATION to avoid being double charged.  I will go ahead with the fact that I am registered, so I'm EXCITED.  I did look up the course maps for both the Austin and 3M half-marathon and the 3M course map looked awesome.  Who knows, with the training i'm going to be going through in the next few months, you think it's possible to do two half-marathons in a matter of months?  I guess it's up to how my body handles everything.  I would definitely be interested in the idea, so we shall see.

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Technically, My Real FIRST!

To start this first post, I wanted to share a photo of Austin:

This photo was taken on my run this morning and I wanted to share it.  I woke up at 6:30 a.m. to be out on the trail and start running at 7:00 a.m.  The funny thing about today was not only was it June 1st (singing in my head, "It's the First of Da Month" by Bone Thugs -N- Harmony), but I had a lot of energy as I started slowly rolling off my bed.  When I got to the trail, I set my iPhone to the Nike Running app and began my trot.  There are a few things I think about when I'm running.  (1) How many times will I have to jump over dog poop?   (2)  Eyes ahead, you don't want to run into anyone. (3) BREATHE and (4) The end will always be a few feet away.  What I love about running at Lady Bird Lake (Town Lake) are the loops.  This morning I wanted to start small since I'm getting back into the swing of things, so I did the 3 mile loop.  Then the 3 mile loop turned into 2.34 miles with a 9'55 pace. I will not be excited about this pace until I can do 5+ miles at that pace.  Way back when, about 7 months ago, I was doing just that.  It all ended with time change and then winter rolled around.  Nonetheless, I am here, letting y'all know that I am starting over and working towards completing my first half-marathon in February 2014.  So for that, you have me, telling you about my experiences and showing to you that no matter what, once you stop, it's hard to get back into the rhythm.

Enjoy!

Quotes to Live and Run By

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift." - Steve Prefontaine