Week 3 MSNR & A Long Run of Firsts

With a week of crazy high humidity temps my training went fairly well. Tuesdays tempo run had to be adjusted a bit as I was finding it very hard to breath and run a fast pace. After a 2k warm up I started out on a 5:22/k pace but after about 1.5k I had to slow it down to a more manageable 5:45/k pace. I was able to do my fully planned 9k distance so I was happy with that. Well, until I got home and realized that I had planned on adding an extra km onto this so that I could enter it into Toni's virtual 10K run and obviously totally forgot! Oops! So now my entry is going to have to be either the front or back 10 off of Saturdays 22k long run. At least Wednesday I remembered to get my 5k time for that entry. LOL I don't know why I enter virtual runs, I almost always forget about them. *sigh*

Saturdays long run was pretty epic. Originally I was going to do this on Friday afternoon because I got scheduled to work Saturday night. I haven't worked a Saturday night in years so I figured that we would be busy so I would need fresh legs. After speaking to some Saturday night girls I realized that Saturday's suck at work and fresh legs would not be required of me, so rather than run in the Friday afternoon heat for 2.5 hours I woke up fairly early on Saturday morning and got it done. I mapped out a nice shady route along Lakeshore, downloaded an episode of Cocktails & Creampuffs and was on my way. I've never gone far into Oakville, not really ever venturing past Shell Park but Saturday I went all the way out to Third Line before heading back. There were tons of cyclists and dog walkers (I saw a group of men with about 30 labs - soooo cute!) out but not many runners. Perhaps it was too early or maybe because of all the darned stop lights in Bronte?! About 10K in I had to go pee and knew that there was no way I could hold it for 12 more km so for the first time ever on a run I ran behind some trees in Shell Park and crouched down. LOL Woohoo look at me peeing in some bushes. :oP I could have run further into the park and used the washrooms, but this was going to be my longest run ever and I really wasn't in to adding any more distance than I had to! So with that done I got back onto the road and headed back into Burlington. NOW I started noticing more runners which was weird. Maybe people in Oakville don't run down Lakeshore? That seems strange to me because it's shady and flat, but who am I to try to figure out these Oakvillites?! I went down to Walkers Line and then headed back home. The last few km my legs started getting tired so I took a couple of extra walk breaks, but I was so happy when my watch finally beeped off that 22nd km! I've finally done it! Gone 1km past a half marathon. (Ok, if you want to get technical I went .9km past a half marathon, but I'm rounding up! ) Here I come Midsummer Night's Run 30K!

So my title says that I had a long run of firsts....here they are
1) first time going past 21km
2) first time peeing in the bushes on a run
3) first time that I got a chafe - from my running bra. Ouch!
4) first time that I ran out of fluids. Blah
5) first time that I got flipped off by a driver - all because I wanted him to turn before I went across the street. Wiener.
6) first time that I ran 22k, then walked 4k and then went into work. Probably this will be a last time too! Even though it was quiet my legs were still pretty achy.
7) first time that I found my Garmin to be a pain in the ass. I guess I swelled up from the heat and ended up getting a bruise on that bone that sticks up on the side of my wrist from it being too tight.

A runniversary and week 2 of 30K training!

So it was one year ago this week that I took the plunge and came back to running. I had been looking for a way to be active that would fit in with my schedule for quite some time and after I saw a few friends on facebook post about running in the local Moon in June 5K I knew what I was going to do! Run! I used to love running when I was in school and I was good at it. I was always on the track & cross country teams, and pretty well always brought home a ribbon, so how hard could it be to get back into it? Ha! Thank goodness my friend Sarah recommended that I find a program because after that first week of the Running Room's learn to run program I knew that I had a long way to go. I thought for sure that because I walked daily and work on my feet that I would be able to do this no problem. Boy was I wrong. My first day started off with Walk 2 minutes, Run 1 minute x7. EEK! I think that I covered probably about 2km that day. But I stuck with it and eventually made it all the way to the end of the program to the walk 1 minute run 10 minutes and then from there I just ran. Without stopping. For 5km. Then 10km. Then 15 & 20, finally up to 21.1km! When I started I had no idea that I would come as far as I have but I truly enjoy being out there and am so happy that I found my way back.

So week 2 of my Midsummer Night's Run 30K training obviously went  better than week 1. At least for the fact that I got my long run in. Patty S from Daily Mile invited me out to run 19.78km (her birth year) to celebrate her birthday on Saturday so I totally took her up on it! Just the excuse that I needed to get up early! Too bad she's not available every week to kick my butt into gear. LOL Tuesday's plan of mile repeats went out the window with the extreme humidity that I was running them in. I got one done and then settled on some 100m strides to make up for the rest. I have decided that I HATE mile repeats humidity or not, and may just trade them in for ladder workouts at the track. I'm not too sure on the difference between the benefits of each but I figure why do something that I can't stand for a hobby? Sure if I was a serious contender at races I'd probably stick with them, but I'm not so I won't. Maybe. LOL Ok, I'm a little wishy washy about them. Thankfully I have a tempo run scheduled this week for speed work so I don't have to decide today.

In other news, Kyle got his G2 driver's license on Wednesday which means that he can drive all by himself. It also means that my baby is getting older. *sniff* He was so excited to drive Wednesday night that rather than wait until his dad got home from work to use his car he asked if he could drive me to work and I could just take a cab home! LMAO Guess what didn't happen?!

All duded up for the school athletic banquet.

MNR week # 1 AKA Darnit Mother Nature, there's a reason that I run in the mornings!

So week 1 of my Midsummer Night's 30K Run training was supposed to look like this

But instead it looked like this

Since Friday was a PD Day for Noah I decided to bump it back a day rather than leave him home alone for an hour and a half. I was all ready for my long run on Saturday morning but Mother Nature had different plans. It pissed down with rain for the entire morning and a good chunk of the afternoon. I hate to run in the rain at the best of times, and to do it for 90 or so minutes just isn't going to happen. So I figured that I would just do it once the rain ended in the afternoon. Yeah. Right. I'm not sure who I thought that I was kidding with that plan. The reason that pretty much all of my runs are done first thing in the morning is for one reason. I. Am. Lazy. Very lazy. One of the reasons that I got a dog four years ago (other than the fact that I love dogs and their unconditional love) was because I would have to walk him twice a day therefore forcing me to exercise. I run first thing in the morning because the only real reason that I can come up with not to run is that I want to sleep longer. Usually I can beat back that excuse alright, but in the afternoon or evening there are 5000 other excuses that I can draw upon to not do something. That is exactly what happened on Saturday. I had to take Kyle out to practice his driving (G2 test coming up Wednesday - Lord help us!). I had to walk the dog. I had to paint my toenails. I had to watch both episodes of last weeks Hell's Kitchen. I had to do pretty much everything but run in the stinky heat. Boo on me. Thankfully it's only the beginning of the plan so it shouldn't hurt me too much. And doubly thankfully there is no rain forecast for this weekend!

Noah won two fourth place ribbons in the finals at track on Thursday! One in the grade 7 boys 100m and one in the grade 7 boys relay (he was the anchor).

And he still wants to run a 5K with me. He brought it up again on Friday when we were fixing up the garden. So the plan is right now to go out and run 5K together and then see how he feels about doing a race. I'd love to do a race with him, but 1) he is lazy like me! and 2) he is a sprinter. I think that maybe we'll try doing 5's & 1's to start and see how that goes, hopefully vamping it up to no walking. I'll let you know how it works out!

I got this water bottle in my race kit for the Toronto Women's Half the other week and finally tried it out at work today.

This is my desk at work. I don't have wood panelling at home! LOL

I've seen them sold at Longo's for $10. What a waste. This was weird to drink from (I had to suck on air half the time before I got any water) and then when it was almost empty it folded over and spilled water on me. LOL If you've seen these water bottles and have been curious, take it from me. Don't bother! :o)

Moon in June 5K

Burlington ON

Bib # 246

Chip time: 23:48

Official time 23:55

Pace 4:47

Place 85/655

Gender Place 23/427

Category Place 3/60

Race kit. A gym bag, gym towel, & vitamins. LOL

 So yeah. I won't beat around the bush. I rocked this race! I honestly didn't even know that I had this in me, and I honestly don't think that I'll ever find it again. But that's ok, I'm good with that.

Saturday started out as Saturday's usually do. I got up, showered, walked the dog, ate breakfast, etc etc. I went downtown to pick up my race kit in the early afternoon, showed off my finishers necklace from last weekend to the volunteers and came home to check and see what I got in my bag. It's been so long since I've run a race without my name on the bib I felt a little ghetto when I saw it. Instead of tshirts they gave out gym bags which is pretty decent I guess. I gave mine to my son because I'll never replace my pink UA gym bag. I love it too much. Instead of medals they gave out beer tickets which would have been decent if Kyle didn't want to take off to meet up with his buddies as soon as I crossed the finish line! Yes, you read that right. My boys FINALLY came out to see me run! And now Noah wants to do a race with me. Yay! I'll get back to you if this actually ever happens. There were a ton of kids running this event so I guess he figures if they can do it so can he. I'll believe it when I see it though. This is the kid who was asked to try out for every event for track last month (he's fast!!!!) at school and dogged the 800m because it's too long a run and he didn't want to be picked for it. LOL

We left home to go downtown just before 8pm. This would give me plenty of time because the race wasn't scheduled to start until 8:45pm. We got halfway there when I realized that once again I had forgotten something. This time it was my IT band wrap. I can usually run a shorter distance without it, but after the way my IT band felt after last weekends half I didn't really want to risk it so we had to turn around and head back. Thankfully there is lots of parking downtown so once we finally got down there it was just a short walk to the start. At around 8:35 I left my fam and got into the corral. I got as close to the front as I could, not something which I usually do but I wasn't messing around in this run. I had a time to meet and my plan was just to run my ass off and do my best. Starting off at the front rocks! You barely have to pass by anyone and there's hardly any congestion. I'm going to have to keep this in mind! I went out really fast that first KM, I don't even know if I've ever run a KM that fast before! I slowly reeled it in so that I didn't run out of steam and tried to just keep my pace steady. I was passed by a few people during the next KM but I was fine with that. Well, until a boy who I swear was 8 years old passed me! Even my kids chirped me for him coming in ahead of me. LOL I was pretty happy to see the water station at the halfway point. I stopped rinsed my mouth out and almost spit on the volunteer who was picking up cups (sorry sister!) had a quick drink and was off again. Around the 3KM point I was beginning to struggle mentally. This was a fast pace that I had been running for a long time. My body wanted me to slow down but my mind said no! I knew deep down that I could make my 25min time goal even if I slowed down a bit so I gave my legs the ok to slow down, and I felt better. 4KM came and I saw a guy walking and I just knew that that couldn't be me so I dug deep down and brought it home. I heard someone call my name (an old school friend Nikki) and after a quick wave I focused back on what I had to do. In the horizon I could see the finish line and a couple of young girls ahead of me who I knew that I had to beat. I kept them in my sights and then I sprinted down the home stretch and beat them by a 10th of a second! LOL Can't get shown up by too many kids! :oP My dads comment to me at the end of the race was "Well done sweetie. I saw you try really hard to beat that 6 year old". Ha! I was hoping to catch up with some friends at the end of the race but unfortunately my 16 year old had better things to do with his Saturday night so we had to leave. Boo! Oh well, I'm just happy that they got to see me finally run. And run fast!

A challenge and a plan and another plan

Amanda over at Run to the Finish is hosting yet another 30 day challenge. This month it's the Green Smoothie Challenge. I've been pretty lazy with my green smoothie's lately so this is a good way to get back at it. Of course there was only 1 scoop of protein powder left in the tub today so being the nice mom that I am (don't ask my boys to confirm this!!)  I left that for Kyle and went without. Amanda's got lots of good ideas for things to throw in there which is good. I usually just toss whatever fruit I have with the spinach & frozen berries and am pretty happy with that. Seeing as lunch is the hardest meal of the day to get into myself this is where the smoothies are coming in. Of course I'd much rather have the potato chip sarnie or sleeve of cookies, but unfortunately my body would rather have the green smoothie. Boo!

Doesn't look too green but trust me there's spinach in there! And cucumber too!

So tomorrow is the Moon in June 5K. I'm kind of MEH about this race but who can blame me after running a half marathon less than a week ago. I'm really hoping to at least get a new PB out of this race. My A goal is to finish in 25 minutes, my B goal is to get a new PB (currently 26:46) and my C goal is to have fun. I know quite a few people who will be there, and it's also a friend's first 5K so it should be a fun night. I took my new Garmin out for a spin yesterday (my friend Anita's loss is my gain. She is having issues with her feet and can't run as much anymore. Plus she just got a smart phone and is enjoying running & biking with that more) and my paces looked pretty decent. I think that with the speed of the people around me I should hopefully be able to make one of my goals......

I took the plunge this week and signed up for two new races. The first one is the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon (I'm not ready for the full yet for those of you who were hinting) and the second is the Midsummer Night's Run. Yep, I'm fully committed now. EEK! Actually at this point I'm feeling pretty good about it, excited even to be doing something new. My training plan is a bit of a hybrid between the Runner's World Smart Coach Marathon plan and the Around the Bay 30K training plan. I've tweaked it here and there and am pretty happy with it. For now. Being a woman I reserve the right to change the plan at any given time. I've also decided that I'm probably going to do the Oakville Half in September rather than the Milton. Nicole says that Oakville is easier and it is also closer to home so I'm thinking that Derek could just drop me off for the start and come home for a couple of hours until I'm done. We'll see though. I'm still reserving the right to change my mind.

With any luck the new ladies gym that I joined will be opening up this month. I'm really missing spin classes and stuff right now. At the moment my cross training is non-existent and I really need to change that!