Tuesday, October 22, 2013

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.


Monday, October 21, 2013

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.

:)

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

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!