running is fun, except when it's not....

Hey friends!  Well, its been while since I talked to ya'll last, but to be honest, nothing super exciting has been going on, and I didn't think you would want to hear all about my awesome boring life....but maybe you did, cause you have nothing better to do like me.

Anyway, I'll do a quick recap and let you in on my fun weekend plans!  On the running front its been a little frustrating.  I started out last week really strong - two 6 mile runs in a row!  Well I should know better, and I do now, that was a recipe for disaster cause I ended up really hurting my shins/ankles.  It was a case of going to far to soon, I should have just stuck with what I had on the schedule for the day, and I probably wouldn't be in the mess.  Anyway, I took a few days off last week and attempted a treadmill run on Thursday - HUGE mistake.  I made it a mile and a half and had to stop, my right shin and ankles were killing me! (can I just call it a shankle?)  So I hopped on the Octane machine and did a hard 6 miles on that - I was pretty discouraged and upset with myself. 



I probably looked like a mental patient on this thing I was moving so fast - reason # 1,856 I don't love the gym, I make a fool out of myself


I took another day off and ran a SLOW 3 miles on Saturday to test it out.  It hurt for the 2 miles, but then seemed to loosen up, and was OK when I finished.  Since then though I haven't ran a step. I could feel it when I walked and knew that if I tried to run I would just make it worse, so I figured it best to just not do anything.  Unfortunately this leaves me feeling bummed knowing I pretty much did it to myself, and since I have a constant case of I-eat-my-feelings-syndrome I have been munching like crazy for the past week and a half.  I have a 5k coming up Sunday and I know it will just be a death march, hopefully I don't barf at the end, if I do I'll make sure to post a pic fo-sho!

so if I dont get an award for running, at least I could win a barf award...gross

Enough with the negative nelly vibes, lets get on to something positive.  This weekend we have some fun plans.  As I've probably mentioned before J-bo has a 100k mtn. bike race on Saturday up near Hayward, WI.  I got into mountain biking for about a year, but then it lost its luster, aka I fell off my bike, got a tiny scratch and cried "never again!".  Yep I'm a winner right here.  So I sold my mtn. bike and left that hobby to someone who's clearly braver than me.  But if your someone who likes dirt and mud and falling down, check out the race he's doing - its seems pretty sweet.  Chequamegon 100. 

So that's on Saturday, then I have my 5k on Sunday.  Its part of the MuskyFest in Hayward.  Sounds pretty redneck awesome right?!  I've decided given my current state of fitness (non-existant), that I would do this race for just the fun of running - which it always should be right?! :)  I'm not going to be concerned with hitting a certian time - I will go for that on my next race (4th of July!). If you are ever up in the Hayward area, or feeling taking a sweet va-ca to check out some muskys, here's the place to be.

One last tidbit to make this a blastie weekend is that my co-worker/our friend is going to be up there with her hubby as well.  They are staying at her in-laws cabin for the weekend and graciously asked if we wanted to join - heck yes!  I was chatting about this race with her a few weeks ago, and she said they go and run it every year - small world, kind of :).  Anyway, the thing is, I can talk about running my piddly miles all I want, but she is an ACTUAL runner, like she ran the Olympic Trials in the marathon this year kind of runner.  She super fast and her hubs is too, but she is so nice, and it should be fun to hang with them this weekend. Maybe I can get tips on how to be not slow.  If you want some inspritation or just be totally jealous that we all cant be fast, check out her blog here and say hi!

I will try and take pictures this weekend and will be back to tell ya all about it!

weekend in pictures

my new duds, I feel faster already!

Lake Harriet - don't mind the green sludge, look at the cute ducks :)

gettin' geared up - don't worry, my eyes were open when I ran

ready to rock and roll - and go to the bathroom for the gazillionth time

thanks J-man for being my personal photographer

sweaty and done!

This is the place where bakery dreams come true...

cute little macaroons!

Italian Nachos!!!

 turns out crusty old bins and a can of spray paint make a pretty cute project!

my weekend in words

Hey hey friends!  I tried to post this up last night but my computer was being a total turd nugget so it goin up now.  Also, I promise some pics in the near future.  Once I wrote up the post I realized it was really long with lots of links to look at, so I figured it best to give the pics their own post - theres some high quality images that obviously need their own.  So lets get to it,  I had a pretty eventful weekend – shocking I know,  so there’s lots to talk about!

Saturday I had the Walker Methodist 5k at Lake Harriet in MPLS.  The race was at 9:05am - which is late for a morning start, and it was supposed to be around 90 degrees that day.  We got the race at 8:15 so I could get my bib number and shirt.  Oh, backtrack to yesterday, per usual, I used this race as an excuse to buy new gear.  The tempo shorts were still on sale so I picked up another pair along with a tank since it was supposed to be ungodly hot.

So we got to the race, and by that time it was already about 80 degrees.  I got my stuff together, set the Garmin and my ipod, and at 9:05 we were off.  The course was one big loop around Lake Harriett.  It was really pretty, the lake on one side, and ginormous mcmansions on the other side.  They were really cool to look at.  It was super hot running but I tried to keep my pace for as long as I could, and kept it under 8 for about 2 miles, then it started to go down.  I never let my pace drop to much, and still had some kick left for the finish so I tried my best to sprint it in.  I finished in 25:22 (26 min. slower than MedCity and my pace was 9 seconds slower as well), but I chalk it up to the heat.

 I did get 2^nd in my division and 24^th overall.  Goes to show how slow the numbers were if even I did that well.  I still had a fun time though, and was really happy that I didn’t completely bomb the race.  Afterwards I made myself look presentable – aka, spray copious amounts of dry shampoo in my nasty hair, and we went to my fav. bakery, Patisserie 46 and got some treats.  If your ever in the area, this is a place you MUST go, seriously………go now!  We took our time getting home, ate lunch at a local café in town, putzed around at home, and later we met my mom and Paul at an outdoor restaurant called Vino in the Valley for dinner.  This place is great, it always has good food, but it’s the atmosphere that I go out there for.  It was such a great way to spend the evening.

Sunday, I took a rest day from running and slept in.  J-Weezy went for  a bike ride with a buddy, and when he got back we got busy ;)…..with yard work……get out of the gutter sickos.  We had to tackle the other side of the fence project.  Am I the only one that feels like this is the project that never ends?  I had some major yard cleanup to get done so I trimmed bushes, pulled an obscene amount of weeds, and pretended I was Martha Stewart  and spray painted these metal bins (found in our dungeon of a basement), and used them as planters.  I just love them!  I have 2 more bins that I think I will do the same thing to, I just love the way they turned out.  Talk about a cheap project.  By the time we got done with everything it was about 6pm so we grilled up some grub, played with the dog, and called it a night!

So keeping with the trend, I wrote up a new training plan, a few changes though.  My last one, I felt like my legs were just dragging the whole time, and I felt pretty sluggish, so hopefully this will work better.  I have another race on the 24^th in Hayward, WI .  Jake is doing a 100K mtn. bike race that Saturday up there, and there just happens to be a 5k the next day so I figured it would perfect timing.  Maybe the top prize is a giant musky - fingers crossed!

So here’s the training plan to take me though till then.  As always, if anyone knows better (cause I sure as heck don’t), let me know.

Sunday - rest
Monday - 4.5 miles - no pace 6.3 miles! I felt so good I kept going, just call me Forrest :)
Tuesday - 50 minute training pace
Wednesday - strength & core
Thursday - 45 minutes training pace
Friday - 3.5 race pace & strength/core
Saturday - speed : 4-6 600's @ 7:15 pace
Sunday - rest/walk
Monday - 55 min. no pace
Tuesday - 45 min. training pace
Wednesday - strength & core
Thursday - 60 min. training pace
Friday - 4 mi. race pace
Saturday - rest : Jakes bike race
Sunday - 5k race!


So there you have it, stay tuned for life changing pictures of everything I just talked about....lucky you

that was a GREAT run! and by great I mean totally craptastic.....literally

* consider this your warning, if you have a problem with bodily functions (that are totally normal by the way!), or have a brain still stuck in 3rd grade and you giggle every time someone says the word "poopie", then this isn't the blog for you.

Happy Wednesday and National Run Day everyone!  Hope most of you were able to get out for a little jog of your own today, even if it was just to the mailbox, it still counts!

So I'm still following my "training" plan that I wrote up last week, and today was my long run (5.5-6 mi.) day.  Unfortunately ALL day I thought I had an easy 3 miler....until I checked the plan and saw the long run on the docket.  Once I realized that I kinda psyched myself out, thinking it was going to be really hard and I was going to be really slow.  Now, these runs are only at training pace, which I want to keep at 8:30's-8:45's, and my race pace is about 7:45's-7:55's.  Considering I've been a bit sluggish this week, and my yesterdays strength workout focused a little to much on my legs, I wasn't looking forward to 6 miles.

When I got home from work I did my best to get in a good mood, and drove to the start of my run.  The plan was to go down a road that turns into gravel and run 3 out and 3 back.  So I started out and was keeping about a 8:18 pace, well below where I needed to be, so I tried to slow it down. I was feeling good until about mile 1.5, and that's where the ish hit the fan.  My stomach started cramping and got the unfortunate feeling of needing to go to the bathroom. Damn you I.B.S!  I was at a point where the gravel could end and I could hop onto a bike path - so I did that, thinking the gravel roads were jumbling my stomach a little to much, and that pavement might be better.  Well it was better on my ankles, but by the time I got to mile 2, I was thinking I might have to duck in the woods and do the business.  I had to stop, I hate stopping, its such a bummer.  I walked for about 45 seconds, and my stomach stopped cramping, so I though I was ok.  I turned back and started up, no better, I literally was thisclose to either sharting in my pants or jumping in the woods, and no body likes a poopy diaper, so the woods were looking good, but everytime I spotted a good tree to squat behind, some biker or runner would pass me so I couldnt.  I made it to mile 4 and stopped again, walked for 30 second and started again.  I made it about a half a mile and stopped again.  I had about .2 miles until I could get my car so I did my best to not lose it, and made it to my car, raced home and ran inside.

I was still totally bummed I didn't do the full 6, so after I relieved myself, I headed back out my door and did another 2.3 miles.

This was such a bummer of a run, but I'm proud of myself for getting it done, even if it wasn't all at one time.  I also magically managed to keep a 8:40-8:45 pace the whole time (with the exception of when I had to stop), so I was still in the "training" range, I just wish my stomach wasn't such a giant turd.

yup, and I think I had one to many cups today, lesson learned

Here's to hoping tomorrow is A LOT better :)

I'm a loser for life

Top of the mornin kids! I got up and did my run early this morning cause I have a baby shower to go to this afternoon and wanted to get it out of the way.  I wish I could be an early morning workout person, but it was a struggle to get up.  Once I got out there it was nice though.  Hardly any cars on the road and it was a great temp for running.

Also, a good friend of mine is running her first half marathon today too! I'm not gonna lie, I'm a tad bit jealous of her. However, considering on my wimpy 3 mile training run I felt like I was wearing cement brick shoes and my legs weight about a million pounds, I couldn't imagine running another 10 miles. I wish I could, maybe someday. Also I'm sitting here icing my shin cause I'm a real winner

please excuse the dirty socks and man-calves

Maybe someday I wont be so lame and will suck it up and run farther than 2 feet without getting winded....today is not that day

So good luck to my friend Emily!  I know she will do just awesome.  If you want the deets on the race she's running  here they are.  So if you're ever in the Minneapolis area, check it out!

Have a great day everyone, now lets hope I don't drink the baby-koolaid at the shower today, or else I'll have some 'splainin to do to ol' J-bobby....yikes.

they are!