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.