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.

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!

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

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!