this week so far

Monday- I ran 5 miles with my running partner. It was a nice run
Tuesday- lifted for 1 hour. I did P90X chest and back and holy cow are my chest and back WEAK! I also did abs for 10 minutes. The P90X ab ripper makes me want to throw up so I can't do the whole thing yet. Again it shows me how weak my abs are and later that day I sat down and stretched for 20 min.
Wednesday- I ran for 5. 3 miles and it was a nice run. Pretty rainy but nice. My left hamstring is bugging me so hopefully stretching will help take care of that.

booti buster challenge this week

Okay so this week has not exactly been how I pictured my first week of hte bootie buster challenge would be. However, it has been a great week and I have earned a few points so here is how it adds up this week.
sunday: Since this is my rest day every week I didn't get points for exercise but I did get points for the fruits and veggies. That may sound pretty easy to some but this is very hard for me. I have to really work hard to eat all my fruits and veggies.
Monday: Zero points for me. My poor baby was sick with 105 degree temp sunday night so we ended up spending three hours in a doctors office Monday morning to find out she had pneumonia. The rest of the day I was so tired it was all that I could do to just make it through the day.
Tuesday: I earned four and three quarters points. I couldn't finish the last quarter mile had to get home in time for my hubby to get to work. I went on a great run in the morning. We woke up to like less than an inch of snow here in Oregon. To most Oregonians this is pure pandamonium. Schools are cancelled people call in sick to work its crazy. For me coming from Idaho and Colorado this was funny. I actually like runnning in the snow. It was crunchy and peaceful all at the same time. It didn't make me miss the snow but I enjoyed for the half of the day that it was here.
Wednesday: yay,, company in my house and I will just admit pure laziness
Thursday: Great 6 and a half mile run. Wished I had an Ipod but it was a great run.
Friday: My running partner called up and we went out for about five miles. It was nice to have a partner. My legs felt tired and my hamstring was sore I think I need to start doing some more stretching to help my hammy and my points.
Well next week I will do better got get more points than this if I wanna have a chance.

Bootie Buster Challenge!!

Okay so I am terrible about keeping a journal but I have been running and my running partner is back in action so now I have someone to run with as well. Today I started my bootie buster challenge that this blog is doing. I may not win anything but I am sure gonna try and if anything we will all be winners when we don't feel like plump turkeys come Jan. 1st. I am kind of excitied to do this challenge it has given me new motivation to wake up early and exercise. Today I got to run with a group of women. I am pretty sure I was the oldest and that I was the only one who didn't compete in track in college but it was still a fabulous time. We ran 6 miles and they flew by for me. It was great listening to others talk and laugh about what is going on in their lives. I have never had a group to run with so I am excitied that these ladies want to meet Saturday mornings and run. Now I have to decide if I am going to sign up for the Newport Marathon. My crazy husband did last night so now it is up to me to get comitted. Can I do it?

Bootie buster challenge numbers

6 miles

love no schedule!

I am loving exercise this week. Started lifting again this week and boy did my legs remind me of that. However, I am kind of crazy and I like waking up the next morning to sore muscles. It reminds me that I worked hard the day before and I know if I get up and get moving those aches will slowly go away. I have been trying the P90X workouts and I kind of like them. The dude reminds me of a Ken barbie doll with his plastic hair and all but the leg workout it great. I especially like it because he does a lot of single leg squats and this is great for runners because we are in single leg stance a lot. I went for a run yesterday morning and again had no agenda. It was still dark outside but so quiet and peaceful. As I ran the first mile warmed up my sore legs and I was able to tackle a small hill. I kept running and noticed a runner ahead of me in all black. I thought is this woman crazy it's dark out here and she is in all black. I had to catch this person it became my challenge for the morning. I did catch her and it was my friend from church, Lynne. She is seriously the sweetest lady you have ever met. Her pace is slower than mine but I ran with her anyway and loved every minute. She is so up lifting and positive that you can't help but feel good after talking with Lynne. We left each other at mile 3 1/2 and I picked up my pace to make it home. I felt AWESOME. I wanted to run more but had to get home so my hubby could get ready for work.
I love no agenda but I really love positive people and running with them. That has to be the best combo ever how can you not have a runners high after those two things.
Hope you have a runners high today.

Where have I been!

AAAH, keeping a journal has never been an easy thing for me. I always have the best intentions to write everyday, but as you can painfully see I have missed a few days. However, I do have good things to report. I went for a run on Saturday and stuck to my motto whatever happens, happens. Well that day I happened to run4 miles and was still a bit discouraged cause it still felt like work. (I know running is work but it use to be fun work) I didn't let this get me that day because I said this month was a break month and I was just going to do whatever. So, Monday rolls around and I played hookey. Yep I slept in but it felt good and it was a good thing I did. Monday night my little girl didn't sleep much at all so that meant I didn't sleep much either. THe next morning I thought I would be dog tired but all I really wanted to do was run. So, I dropped my son off at school, packed my baby girl in the B.O.B. and off we went. I am happy to tell you this run was A-W-E-S-O-M-E. The morning was a crisp fall morning which I love. I took my GPS but didn't look at it until I was done. I enjoyed every step of my 4 1/2 miles. Running with no expectations was so perfect for that day. I had planned on only doing 3 but my baby girl was doing great so I took an extra turn. Running with the stroller also helped my work on my form. Stand tall, feet underneath me, kick my butt, and knee forward. That might not make much sense to any of you but it totally does for me. I think I might actually like running once again. I have started looking my a marathon to do in May of 2011 so if there are any readers out there and you know of one please let me know. Gotta get running have a great one!

change of scenery: change of plans!

So today I want you to know (all of about no one but myself) I woke up at 5 am. As I layed there awake in my bed I just couldn't wrap my mind around jumping on the treadmill to 5x800meter today. I remebered as I layed there that today was Tuesday and I wouldn't have extra kids at my house today. (I watch my nieces mon, wed, and Fri.) Then I remebered that the weather here in Oregon has been awesome. So, I made an informed decision that I would run after dropping my son off at school and I would push my little girl in the stroller. I went over by the river. I use to run here a lot before we moved. As I ran down the path pushing the stroller I found myself enjoying my run. Everything was peaceful and quiet. The river was flowing in the same direction I was running and it seemed almost softer today. I went on today's run with no expectations for pace, or distance. I just ran. I only ended up running 4 miles but I stopped when I felt like I was done and I felt good. My effort for the day was just what I needed. I felt strong something I have been missing on my runs lately. My mind relaxed and I wasn't worried about the numbers on my GPS. I LOVED IT! So, I decided today that for the month of October I am just going to run. I am not going to follow a plan, I am not going to worry about pace, I am not going to worry about distance. I might even go out and by a new MP3 player and listen to good music as I run. Usually I don't run with music so I can just think but the music might just add some more fun to my run.I am still going to run the 5K at the end of the month but I am going to do it just for fun, just to see where I am at.
I am thankful today for a change of scenery and a change of mind.

Today:
4miles
don't know time
don't know pace
I know it was great!

5 AM how I love you and hate you.

Hello 5 Am,
Man 5am you come really early. I try every night to get to bed early thinking I will be ready when you come around but nope every morning the alarm goes off and I can hardly believe you are there, AGAIN! You know 5 am I have mixed feelings about you. On the one hand you are ever so consistant. You show up each and everyday without fail, but on the other hand you show up each and everyday! There are days that when you show up and I do win the tug a war that my pillow is playing with my head and I do get up. These days are so great. I get up, I exercise and then I seem to have tons of energy and I get so much done during the day. However, there are days when you show up and my pillow has extra help from the covers and they win the tug a war battle and I stay in bed and push exercise off for later in the day. These days seem to be a little bit harder knowing in the back of my mind I still need to fit in my exercise between taking care of kids, house, and everything else that might come up that day. Oh, 5am you see from the two days that I have to choose from that it shouldbe easy for me to always choose to meet you with a smile, but I am sorry its hard for me. Now please know 5am it's nothing against you its me. I am weak and I am ever so great at procrastination. However, I have adopted a new motto and it's: I can do hard things! So, tomorrow 5am I will be there when you arrive. I can't promise I will have a smile on my face but I promise I won't let you down. Thank you 5am for being so consistant I hope I can follow your example.
Sincerely, a woman who can do hard things!

Period

yep that is the title of this post and you as a woman know exactly what I mean by it. UGGGG! The things we women have to deal with and it totally affects our running. I felt tired, and heavy yesterday as I ran my six miles. I know they say exercise is suppose to make you feel better during this special time of month but I think they are totally lying. They have to be. Can anyone please explain to me how you are suppose to feel better exercising when you feel tired, bloated and crampy. I think a man must have come up with this one. Man, I sound bitter. I will say that I ran six miles and I did my very best to just run and not worry about what my watch said. I set out with the intention of just running comfortably that morning and I wasn't going to let pace bother me. It was really hard not to look down at my GPS and check my pace out, and I do confess that I did check a couple of times. All in all I did pretty well and I was really glad that I went for a run even though I had to take Aunt flow along.

Heres how the run looked when I was all done:

6 miles

50min 48sec

8:27 average/mile



Need to work on:

Strength- core

flexibility - need to do yoga at least once this week

How did you do?

I snotrocket

Okay so this morning as I was doing my tempo run I had many thoughts for titles for todays post. I.E. I can do hard things, Why Tempo? Oh my hammy! but nope I picked the one thing that I did well at this morning, and that was snotrockets! I know disgusting right but you know I wanted to post something positive about my run and this was the best I could come up with. I mean for me getting up before the sun to workout is not an easy thing. I had planned to run five miles the first was a warm up and then three at 7:30 pace and then one to cool down. Well, my first mile was a great warm up but I averaged around 7:55-8:00 min/mile and that was hard. This just showed me how much I had let my running slip this summer because at the beginning of the year 7:30's felt great. UGG, Oh well like I said back to basics I will give myself a pat on the back and say way to go and things will get better and hey not one of your snot rockets hit your face. way to go me!! well if anyone is reading let me know, What do you do well at? (come on share)
Tempo run
1mile warm up
3 miles at 7:55-8:00 m/mile
1 mile cool down

Starting fresh: Back to Basics!

Well, I have to admit that marathon in June really took the wind from my sails. I had worked so dang hard and then to get injured and have the worst race of my life really made running suck. I still ran this summer but I have to admit it was have hearted. Then last Saturday I woke up and it was raining. I love running in the rain. When it's raining it's quiet and peaceful. As I ran lots of thoughts went through my head. The biggest thing was that I needed to start over, start from the basics and start fresh. That five miles was not my best five miles but I was so glad that I had gone. I came home and looked up some races and figured out a 5k and 10k that I can do and it got me excitied to run this week so yesterday I ran some intervals. They were slower than I had been running them at the beginning of the year butI was okay because I knew when I was done I had given myself a good workout. I can hardly wait until tomorrow go out and do a tempo run. You will have to check back and see how I am doing. Have a great day and keep running.

intervals

Well this morning I woke before the sun was up and put on my running clothes. I never know how to dress here. I am so use to it being cold in the mornings that I usually wear many layers. These layers have turned out to be way to many here. Today I didn't put on as many layers and wouldn't you know it I was FREEZING!! Oh well. I met up with two running buddies and we headed over to the local track for some 800's @ 3:23 pace. I have really been liking the track the past few weeks because it gives me a boost of confindence, but not so much today. Okay, so I ran faster than 3:23 for all of my 800's but my running partners ran even faster. My legs felt very heavy today and I am not sure why. Last week running the mile repeats felt better than the 800's did today. UGGG! Maybe this just isn't me week or something. Isn't it funny how from day to day the way you feel during a work out can vary so much. Does this happen to anyone else I wonder? I wonder if it has anything to do with my baby not sleeping real well the past few nights, or it could do something with my diet. I am not sure but that is why I am keeping a journal maybe I can see a pattern over time and find out what works and what doesn't. I shouldn't be so hard on myself. I did run faster than the time that I had planned but I hate being last I am way to competitive to come in last it totally kills me. Come on self you can do this and meet your goal!! Today I have set eating goals and I did my exercise goals so hopefully this will help. Have a great one!

I need a big kick in the butt!!

Okay I am really just using this blog as a journal but I almost wish there was someone reading it and that they would give me a swift kick in the butt. I woke up this morning to work out but so did my five month old baby. So, I had to postpone my workout to nap time. Which is fine I still got 40 minutes on my bike and some core workout in. However, I keep reading these other people's blogs and they talk about all the exercise they are doing and I wonder how are they doing this. Like one girl ran 16 miles today. I would love to have time to do that and also love to have the determination to do that. Then I read another blog about a lady and she posted her workouts for the week and they put my work outs to shame. How do they do it what gives them this motivation to work so hard? I want to be like them. Infact I dream about working out harding than I am but then when it comes down to it I never do. WHy do I do this to myself? Am I afraid of something? What is weird is that deep down I know that I could work hard and be better. In fact I have always had a dream in my head about the type of body I want and the type of exercise I want to do but I continue to defeat myself. What truly is stopping me from becoming who I really want to be? Then when it comes to my eating habits I am just horrible. How do people have the self control not to eat food that you shouldn't? As soon as I set limits for myself with this aspect of food then that is all I can think about.
These are some pretty personal thoughts that I have about myself that I really don't share with anyone. So, if there is some crazy person reading this I hope you will be nice when you give me my butt kicking.
The crazy thing is, is that I constantly give my self kicks in the butt. I think that the problem here is that sometimes we are harder on ourselves than we would be anybody else. I need to cut myself some slack and realize that other people have things that they deal with. I need to learn to be nicer to myself and not give up. I need to resolve to just try again the next day until I get it right. I need to just work harder at becoming who I really want to be and realize that there are going to be ups and downs along that path but that if I just keep trying I can get there. So, tomorrow is new day and I resolve to better tomorrow than I did today. Right now I am going to go make a plan for my tomorrow and see if I can stick with it. I will let you know how it goes.

Cookies Cookies Cookies

Holy cow my new name should be miss cookie monster. I love cookies. As long as the cookie doesn't have nuts I will eat it and love it. My favorite are straight from the oven chocolate chips, or snickerdoodles, but wait lets not forget gingerbread, peanut butter, and soft sugar cookies!!! So, why am I talking about cookies on my running blog. Well, first because if I didn't run then I would really be in trouble because of all the cookies that I eat. ( I am being serious here. Cookies are like popcorn to me. I just keep eating them) So, this weekend as I was eating yet another cookie I started to really think about my goal for this marathon. I started contemplating whether all the cookies I eat will really help me get that Boston Qualifing(BQ) time or not. HMMM! This one was a tough one for me, but I decided that cookies will be my treat at the end of the week after completing all of my workouts including the long run!! It is only Monday but I am already asking myself if I can really do this. I might have some withdraw symptoms hit me tonight after dinner when I really will be jonesing for a cookie. Now, I know some people might just think this is silly. Cookies do nothing for them and they don't understand my obsession for them. (ya, right like anyone is really reading anyway) Well, this will be a good thing for me weight wise, training wise, and mentally. I CAN DO THIS!!
After this morning I can now mark off one workout complete and that much closer to my next cookie. I woke up early before the sun was up (which was sad because today was a gorgeous day to run in the sun) and I went for a 7 mile tempo run. My partner and I laughed and felt very confident about this run. After last week we felt 7 miles felt easy and the pace felt normal and not to hard at this point to us. It was a great run and I am excitied about tomorrows workout on the bike and with the weights. Run on and enjoy a cookie for me!!

the long run

Okay the end of my first week of training is done. This morning I went for a 13 mile run. I averages 8:30's over all but had a few miles in there that were a little bit faster. I have decided that instead of being lazy like I was yesterday that I should instead do a really easy day on Friday to kind of stretch my legs out. I really need to find a yoga video that I like and do in on Fridays. I keep reading about how great yoga is and I find myself having a hard time trying to like it. Well, I enjoyed my run today. So far each of my runs keeps giving me more confidence that maybe my goal is really attainable.I have been running with a partner and it has been a long time since I have had a running partner. I have to say I have mixed feelings about it. I really like her and I love having someone to run with because you know the saying the best motivation is accountabilty. It is just that over the years I have become so use to going for a run all by myself and running just for myself. So, now to run with someone is totally great but I forget that on long runs you tend to talk and I have gotten use to running by myself and just thinking and getting into a zone. So, don't get me wrong it is nice to have a partner but different from what I have been doing for the past few years.
I keep reading about ice baths and I kind of wonder if I should be doing these but I am such a cry baby. I don't like being cold, but it would probably help my aching calf muscles right about now.
Well here is the workouts for this week:
Monday: 6 mile tempo 2miles warm up (8:30) 2 miles (7:30) 2 miles (8:00)
Tuesday: bike 40 min 9 miles (both kids decided to wake up during my workout)
Wednesday: Bike 60 min @ 90+ cadence 13 miles
Thursday: Intervals on track: 15 min warm up run: 3X1600 at 7:00 Ran these a few seconds
faster.
Friday: rest day ( need to do something from now on)
Saturday: long run 13 miles @ 1:49:05 Averaged 8:23/mile A little faster than planned but
made it.

So, first week done and now on to week two. Goals for next week. Add in one to two days of lifting, 3-5 days core work and easy work on Friday. Hope I can get it all in.

16 weeks and counting!

So really I think the only person in the world that will read this blog will be me. To be honest that will be fine. I just want to use this blog as a journal for my running and my running has always been just for me. Running for me keeps me sane. I am a stay at home mom and I realized that running is my thing. It is the thing that keeps me going. It makes me feel good, and it is something that I am finding that I am good at. Now when I say good I don't mean winning gold medals good but good enough for me. I am finding as I run that I am learning just what I am capable of. When I push myself running it shows me just how much I can push myself in life. Running makes me feel more confident about myself and I love the way I feel after a good run.
So, the purpose of this blog is for me to track my running and help me prepare for up coming races.
Right now I am training for a marathon the first week in June. This week starts out my sixteen week count down. I have a big goal for myself. I really want to run a 3:40 and qualify for Boston. I really think that this time is within me to get if I just do the work. I have chosen an unorthodox training plan. It is called the less is more plan. Essentially you run three days a week with cross training on the other days. This plan came out a few years ago and they have been testing it. You can find the plan on www.runnersworld.com. For me with the time that I have this plan fits great plus it allows me to ride my bike or swim which are things that I also like to do. The one thing that I haven't liked about previous marathon training plans is that you only have time to run. So, I bought the book and I am following the plan for a 3:40 time. So, far I have been able to run the paces they have asked and I feel really good doing it.
So on Monday I ran a tempo run of 6 miles. The first two miles were warm up which I ran at a 8:30's and then the next two I ran at 7:30's and finished with 2 miles at 8:00's. Felt great. The next two days I rode my bike on a trainer in the garage. Not as much fun as going outside but right now I don't have that option so the trainer works great. Today, I did a track workout. I warmed up for 15 mins and then did 3x1600m with 1min rest @ 7:02. Really I think I ran a Little bit quicker closer to 6:55's but I set my watch wrong and the times didn't get recorded right and then I finished with a cool down run home. All together it was just over 7miles. I felt really great on the track and decided that the track is really giving me a boost of confidence. (I have been doing track workouts for the last three weeks in preparation for the start of this 16 week program) so we will see how this goes over the next 16 weeks. Now just need to rest today and get ready for my long run on Saturday. Maybe tomorrow I will do an easy three to stretch out my legs we will see. Run on!