jello legs

I actually don't know why I'm writing today.  I don't have anything super excited to really talk about other than to keep you all apprised of whats been going on since my race on Sunday.  So as I briefly mentioned, I had 10 miles total for that day.  Normally 10 miles isn't that big of a deal ( to me), but add a race in the mix and it becomes a tough day and left my legs pretty tired.  You would think "oh, well she had a hard day so obviously the next day would be an easy run, right?"  NOPE!  The week started as if nothing had happened and I had a track workout set for Monday.  I just had to laugh, and thought there would be no way my legs would come around enough to get even remotely close to hitting the times I would want.  Added to that fact that I still had a nagging head cold - I felt better, but still not 100%.  Here is what I had for Monday. 2.5 WU, 6x800m ( 2:30 jog recovery), 4x400m ( 3:00 jog recovery), 2.5 CD.  When I originally got my plan it had my 800 times at 3:08 and my 400 times at 89 seconds.  I have been beating those times, so I don't really use them, but decided to use them as a guide line since I wasn't sure what my legs would be able to do.  I got my WU and dynamic stretching done ( remind me to talk about this later!).  Jake came with if for no other reason that to keep me from going to the dark side and sitting on the track crying.  He also wore his shorty running shorts (laundry day), with tall socks - let that image sit in your brain for awhile.....too bad I didn't get a picture.



pretty close to the real thing



Well I was crazy surprised that I was able to run pretty much the same times as last week, I even hit a 2:59 for my last 800m.  400's went the same, pretty dang great - my fastest one was a 1:17.  My energy was pretty low, but the fact that I could pull out the times I did was a success in my book.  Also a success, I made a new friend :) There are hardly any other people at the track, so when I see someone else, especially someone who was also wearing flats, I want to know who they are.  We introduced ourselves and turns out she ran track in college so hopefully we will become training buddies and she can help me run fast!
The CD was a death march - lets not talk about it...


I did have an easy run on Tuesday, but my calves are still pretty tight from getting used to my flats, so it was pretty slow going.  It was also about 85 degrees so at about mile 5 ( of 6), I had so much sweat in my eyeballs I was surprised I could still run in a straight line.  Yay Summer!

Yesterday I had another hard workout.  At this point I knew that after this I was toast.  It was another hard effort/easy effort run.  It was also 83 degrees with about 97% humidity, and I'm not being dramatic.  I also have officially ran in just a sports bra twice (TMI?), not for vanity reasons though ( trust, there is no six pack going on, not even a 2 pack...), but for pure necessity, I'm afraid I would overheat and end up a puddle on the side of the road.  I gave the hard segments my best effort, and it actually went much better than a similar workout I had last week, but by the time I got to my cool down I was done, legs were trash, and felt like wobbly noodles.  I'm pretty sure I could walk faster than I was "running".  I don't mind going slow, but the thing is, the slower you go the longer it takes ( you're welcome for that obvious revelation), but I honestly couldnt have gone faster so I was just stuck out there in the blazing sun.

* FYI,  if you weigh yourself after a run, especially after a sweaty run - the lbs you "lose" aren't real, so don't go celebrating your fake weight loss, just drink more water.  Pretty sure I lost 6 lbs worth of sweat - made up for that with water, Skratch Lab, (another topic for another day!) and a chocolate milk :)

So with all that nonsense, its my day off today, and I have a hot date with my foam roller later tonight.  I have easy runs for the next couple days with my longest (12 miles, yippee!) since Fargo on Saturday.

It was a tough few days, but I feel like I'm getting stronger - the fact I was able to get these hard workouts done while being less than 100% is proof of that I think.

A Musky Fest weekend and new shoes take 2!

Hi friendlies and happy Monday!  I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  I know I sure did, so lets get to it.

As I mentioned Jake and I were headed back up to Hayward, WI for Musky Fest and to run the 5k and 10k races on Sunday.  The one bummer of the weekend was that Jake's bike race that he was supposed to do was cancelled.  I guess the area got 4-5 inches of rain so they had to postpone the race until a later date.  I felt bad since Jake put in some decent training for it, but on the plus side, he was able to just chill this weekend and join us for the race on Sunday.

So Friday after work we packed up and made our way to Hayward. 


stella make the trip again too! 


We were staying at the Porath's cabin again this year.  It so nice of them to let us bunk up there.  Their cabin is on a beautiful lake, I could have easily spent a week there.  There is just something about being up north, I love it :). 

So once everyone was there we had a great dinner, went out on the pontoon, and watched a movie before we all headed to bed.  Saturday Jake and I were up fairly early ( when did I become a morning person?!), and the only other people up were Nathan's parents.  So we hung around with them and had coffee, then went out and played a few games of bean bags.  I love lawn games!  So fun :)  We had oatmeal/pancakes for breakfast and by that time everyone else was pretty much up.  We all had to get in our respective runs, and Nichole set out for hers' with their dog Mesa (who is a running star too!), and Jake and Nathan joined me on mine.  I was excited about this run because I got to test out my brand new pair of flats.....again.

Ok, so here's the deal.  I know I said before that I got a pair of Mizuno flats and I was all excited about them and blah blah blah.  Well turns out, they were way too big.  Like about a 1/2 size too big.  I really had my heart set on racing in flats, so I was bummed that I had to return them and knew I wouldn't get a replacement in time.  Enter the most awesome friend ever, Nichole to the rescue!  She offered to stop at a running store on her way up and pick out a pair, and I would just pay her back. So let me introduce my actual new shoes!

SO SWEET!

These are great.  She brought 2 different sizes to see what would work, and wouldn't you know, the ones that fit were a 7 1/2 ( I usually wear an 8).  Plus this was the better color combo anyway :).  So I tested them out on some striders during my run.  They feel so much better than the other ones, and fit my foot really well.  Although, since they pretty much force you to push off and run more on your toes, my calves are pretty tight.  I will definitely be adding in some ankle and calf/lower leg strengthening to my workouts.

Once we all got back we had some lunch, then headed into Hayward to pick up our race shirts and putz around the vendor booths that were there.

the awesome shirts this year :)

Once we got back to the cabin, we were in charge of dinner, so we cooked up the typical pre-race dinner of pasta, grilled chicken, bread, and salad.  We took off on one more pontoon ride, watched another movie and hit that hay.

Now for the race report, I should preface this by saying that for the past 3 days I've been dealing with an annoying head-cold of sorts.  Not enough to really put me out, but enough to make me feel not quite right.  I woke up Sunday pretty congested.  I took some ibuprofen to hopefully help my head not hurt so much, and still held out hope of a good race. The race started at 9, so we left with time to get a warm up in.  I got in 1.5 miles, changed into my flats, and we got ready to race.  Jake and Nathan did the 10k and Nichole, myself, Nathan's sister, cousin, mom and dad all did the 5k.  Since the 10k was just two loops of the 5k course ( ugh, sounds awful!), Jake stuck with me for the first one, and I'm SO glad he did.  Per-usual, the first mile felt good, looked at the watch and saw 6:40 pace and though "sweet, this feels good, I can definitely stay here, yippee sub-21 PR!), but at about mile 2.5 that's when I went to the dark side.  My head felt foggy, and my legs just hurt.  ( Thinking back on it, I'm pretty sure that if my health was 100%, then I would have been just fine.  I can deal with my legs hurting, but the combo of my legs and head cold, I just could get a grip on it all).  My breathing was really labored - I was breathing out loud for pretty much the last 2 miles, which I hardly do, even in my toughest of track workouts.  My pace was all over the place and I just couldnt get myself to relax.  I would slow down randomly, then try and pick it up - nothing felt even or controlled the whole race.  If Jake hadn't been there, I probably wouldn't have gotten the time I did, which was a 21:09.  I should be happy that given the circumstances I was only 2 min. off my PR, but I really want that damn 21 to go away! 



I still got first in my age group though ( thanks to Nichole for getting overall win and getting bumped out of age group prizes :))


Nichole won the 5k for the women (even she wasn't happy with her time, the humidity wasn't great that day either), but she still did great.  Jake had a great race, so did Nathan, who won for the 10k.  Everyone else in the family had a good time as well.  After the race, Nichole and I still had some miles to get in ( I had 10 total for the day), so we finished up what I had left, and I hopped in the car with Jake and Nathan, to drive back.  Nichole set out for her last few miles and we were going to just pick her up on the way, but not without a pit stop for ice cream first.  We got some for Nichole and met her along the way.....



how's that for service!

We got back to the cabin, had a quick lunch again, then it was time to pack up and head out.  It was such a fun weekend and we all agree is turning into a pretty fun tradition.  I'm already looking forward to next year :)  Who knows, maybe by then I will be gunning for 19 min. PR.




oh my god...shoes

please tell me you guys remember this?!  An oldie but a goodie.  Speaking of shoes, look at these beauties that showed up this afternoon

dont they just look FAST?!

My new running flats!  I cant wait to test them out.  There are super light, like its almost stupid, I picked up the box and it felt like nothing was in there.  If you are interested, I got the Mizuno Wave Universe 4.  I did a little searching and found a sweet deal on them here.  I have come to really love this brand.  I am on my 3rd pair of their training shoes ( 1st pair was the Wave Inspire, now I am hooked on the Wave Rider - awesome shoes), and this is my first pair of flats.  I am pretty brand loyal and when I find something that works I tend to stick with it.  I looked at some other brands/options for flats but kept coming back to these, so I figured to just go with what I know.  I have a feeling this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship :)

I wish I had these yesterday for my track workout - I wonder what kind of difference it would have made.  But flats or not, I did have another successful day at the track.  I had a ladder-type of workout that consisted of 4x200m, 2x400m, 1x800m, 2x400m, 4x200m. (with equal recovery).  With a warm up and cool down it was a total of 9 miles.  I honestly wasnt expecting much out of my legs.  My run the day before had been heavy and slow.  It's like my legs are "creaky" and just need to get used to a training cycle again.  I was surprised that they were able to move quickly though.  We did away with any sort of times for this workout and just ran.  I did have an idea of where I wanted to be, but for the most part took each one at a time and told myself to do my best.  When I looked up my stats on the computer I was happy with what I saw. I think I'm on the right track and will only (hopefully!) get faster and stronger -thats pretty awesome to think about :).

I do have one more hard workout this week that I'm hoping to test out my new shoes on.  I really want to break them in a little before I race on Sunday. 

So thats all for me folks!  I wouldn't be surprised if I sleep in my new shoes tonight :)


*Anyone else brand-loyal to a certian running shoe? Let me know if i'm missing out on anything!

deja vu workout

Hi hi hi!  Ok, I wasn't planning on posting anything, but I just HAD to.  I had my first track workout of the new training cycle last night and I swear I'm still smiling from it.  I tried to recruit people to join me but didn't have any takers.  Jake was going for a bike ride, so I was on my own.  This was the first track workout that I've had to do alone.  I knew one day I would, and I guess I just had to suck it up.
The workout was 2 mile WU, 4 striders, 10x400m in 1:44, 2 mile CD.  Total of 9 miles.

I got to the track and ran two loops around the high school for my warm up.  As I was running I noticed another person on the track - yes!  I wouldn't totally be alone!  I got my striders in, shook out some nerves and got to work.  Here's how it all played out...
1. 1:23
2. 1:28
3. 1:28
4. 1:28
5. 1:25
6. 1:24
7. 1:24
8. 1:25
9. 1:23
10. 1:20
* I probably wont do these kind of time details for many workouts on here because its probably boring ( along with the rest of this garbage) but just for comparison I wanted to get them out there.

Ok, so not only did I blow my predicted 1:44 time out of the water, check back to when I did this exact same workout at the end of January.  That's just crazy-sauce!  See, this is why I blog, it is such a great way for me to get things recorded, and it's so neat to go back and read.  But trust, this workout didn't feel any easier than it did back then.  That's the thing, it never gets "easier", you just get stronger....I love that :)

So I walked away from the track last night extremely happy that,  1. I was able to focus and knock it out all alone, and 2. that maybe I haven't lost any speed in these past few weeks of recovery, that maybe I've even gotten faster.

So don't think I'm done bugging people to come join me.  I don't care if your faster, slower, or just want to come make fun of me running in my spandex shorts. 

Oh!  Nichole mentioned that I may want to look into getting some racing flats for these workouts and well and the 5k's I have coming up, and truthfully I had mentioned the idea to Jake last week.  Any ideas?  I have never worn them before.  I would prefer to get Mizunos since that what I run in, but am open to suggestions :)


Alright kids, it's a beautiful day out there, go do something fun!

let the fun times begin!

ok, is it wierd how I excited I was to see this in my email last night?

I think I was checking my email all weekend waiting for it.  The second I got it I opened it up and looked it over.  I had such a different feeling this time around.  Last January when I looked at  my plan, I was scared, intimidated and worried I wasnt going to be able to do it.  This time, I'm excited, I'm ready, and I cant wait to see how I improve and get stronger with this cycle.  My "base" is so much different than last time, so that makes me even more excited.  I feel like I can really get to work right away.  Of course, there are some intimidating workouts, but I feel so much stronger that I know I can do it.  My head is definetely in a different place, a better place.

This first block of training we are going to focus on getting my speed down, specificaly my 5k time.  So you will be seeing a lot of interval and track workouts.  This is similar to what we did last time too, except I wont have to try and run on the track in the dead of winter :)  We are also going to be working on figuring out my heart rate, using my easy days to not go above a certian number.  This means I will need to SLOW the F down!  This is an issue for me.  I'm getting much better, but I still have it in my head that faster = better (even on my easy days, which is stupid, thats how I hurt myself last fall), and that if I'm running "slow" people will think I'm some bump on a log that doesnt know how to run (even more stupid!).  So I have a feeling this will teach me some very valuable lessons, plus I totally trust Nichole and know that it will make me a better runner.  So I guess that means I will just have to run along and enjoy the scenery :)  I am also hoping that by having to force myself to slow it down, it will help with recovery time and on my harder days I'm able to push a little more - we'll see!

So what's my first workout of the plan you ask?  Oh, well, it's a tough one - REST DAY!  Ha!, funny to start it off that way, but I havent had a day off in about 10 days so my legs sure to appreciate it.

Oh!  I almost forgot, Jake and I will be making our way back up to Hayward/Cable, WI with Nichole,Nathan and their family for good ol' Musky Fest and the Chequamegon bike race.  Jake will be riding in the bike race again on Saturday the 22nd.  Then we will all be running the 5k on Sunday.  Maybe it will be my lucky day and I can shave off those pesky 7 seconds and finally get a time with the numbers 20 in front. 


So with that, let the games begin!  This is going to be a good summer :)

Also, Jake had the brilliant idea of getting a kiddy pool so when we get back from long runs and stuff we can just use that for an ice bath....I think its a genius idea, I'm sure our neighbors will disagree though...

yep, you'll have to know a secret handshake and everything

Have a great Monday friends!

my non-plan plan, my heart, and a love/hate workout

Hi friends!  How's everyone's day going?  Just wanted to pop in and say a quick HI and give ya'll an update on what's been going on.

Since the half, my running has been very casual, and loosly scheduled.  I have had an esitamted total miles to shoot for, but as far as the actual workout, it's been up to me.  I will be glad when things are a little more structured though ( and thats coming up soon!).   But is has been kind of nice to decide how far or short I feel like running, and everything has been at a very casual slow pace.  I dont think I had a choice but to go slow, my legs are just now starting to come around.  I swear, if you could have seem me my first "run" after the race...yikes!  I say "run" because I dont think what I was doing was resembling running in any way.  It was more of a slow hobble for 3 ugly miles.  I apologize for anyone who had to witness it.  In fact, that whole first week back into it, it was as if my legs forgot how to run, just felt awkward.  Anyone else get that feeling after a hard race? or am I being a big baby?

Since then things have gotten better, and last week I did a total of 33 miles - not much, but I'm working my way, and this week I am doing a little bit more - I had a track workout last night and I have a hill workout on Thursday.

The reason for those workouts is to test my heart rate.  We are doing a little experimenting with my HR to try and figure out a couple things in regards to my pacing and stuff, (Ex.  right now my tempo and my 5k pace are exactly the same, kind of strange, stuck at about 6:45, and we are trying to figure out what we can do).  So a couple weeks ago I ordered a HR monitor to sync with my Garmin, and it showed up last Thursday.  I've been wearing it on my easy runs, and yesterday was my first test for it.  Nichole wrote up a 1k test for me to do at the track.  I havent done any speed or track work in a LONG time.  I was excited, but each time I step onto the track I get this pit in my stomach, because I know it's going to hurt, and hurt it did!  On my last 1k I totally thought I was going to lose it, even Jake thought I was going to puke.  After my 1k's I had 4x200m to do.  No set times, just an all out pace to see where I'm at.  Jake wanted to try his hardest too instead of stick with me, which was actually ok, it gave me something to focus on and "chase" down.  Although I never did catch him :) 

It's funny how when I'm in the middle on these harder workouts, and I'm about 100 yards from the end, my brain says" I hate running, I'm never doing this again, this is the worst ever, this hurts to much, I think I might puke!", but then 5 seconds after I'm done,  I suddenly love it again.  I guess thats why I keep doing it, because I know I dont really hate it, I'm just mad at it for a little bit :), and I really do love it, and it felt great to move fast again.


But this is kind of what I felt like after my 200's






Thats pretty much it for me folks, sorry I dont have anything more exciting to day.  Maybe I should practice, " If you dont have anything to say, dont say anything at all", oh well, too late.  Happy Tuesday!