TexasLindsey

5 miles at 10:17.  Side stitches... don't know why?

11 miles at 10:00/pace.  6:30 am with group at Trinity.  Felt great. 

5 mile race.  Started out at about 8:30 pace.  Stopped at 1.5 mile water station for less than a minute to swallow goo and quickly drink water.  Continued at about 8:45 - 9:00 pace through several hills.  Finished strong- beat out a guy I'd been following the whole race.

6:30 pm with group.  100 degrees outside.  Ran 3 miles.  First 2.5 miles at 9:15 pace, but then I felt like I had a ton more energy so I ran last half mile at a 7:30 pace.  Felt like I had more energy and could run longer but the strength training workout was next.

Strength training class for 1 hour.  Core, legs, arms

5:30 am.  Went the 5.2 route on streets around my house.  Watch wasn't charged so I don't know pace.  Started sluggish, finished strong.  Felt great!

Awesome run!  5:30 am.

Ran 5.3 total.  Avg 9:28 pace

Humid and cloudy

Carb loading the night before really works!!

Great run with my running group!  6:30 am at Trinity River.  Very humid at first but then started raining second half of run and cooled me off.

Ran 11 miles total.  First 2 miles I went about 10:15 but I felt like I had a ton more energy so I caught up to a faster group.  Ran about 9:15 for miles 3-9.  Then I felt like I still had more energy and with only 2 miles left I ran them in 8:15 each.  Felt like I could've run another 3 miles but decided against it because I didn't want to push it and get hurt.

2 miles pushing Jake.  New running stroller pulls to the left... very annoying!  I slipped on slime in the road and skinned knee.  It was hot.  Jake was screaming because weeds were too tall along this one section of sidewalk and were slapping him in the legs.  Stopped a couple times.  Pitiful, pitiful run.  I don't even know if I should count it.

6 miles at 5:30 am - avg 9:55/mile

First mile was at 11:00, miles 2-5 were between 9:30/10:00 pace, 6th mile was at 9:00 pace

6 miles at 5:30 am, averaged 9:55 mile. 

Cramps!  Finished strong... last mile was at 8:56 pace.  Waking up early is working out great!  Less hot outside.  I'm figuring out some great routes to take around my house.  Best of all, babies asleep so I don't feel guilty about my husband babysitting.

6 miles.  Forgot to charge my watch so I don't know how fast.  Felt great though... I bet it was less than 10 minute a mile. 

Milage Total:  6.8

Started at 5:15 am.  Felt sluggish first mile going up a big hill but got faster every mile.  Feeling stronger every day.   

Splits:

11:20

10:21

10:20

10:13

10:10

9:34

9:02

Ran 8 miles at 6:30 this morning with my group.  I'm so excited about this run because I felt so strong and I did so well.  Averaged 9 minute pace, but the first two miles I was 10 minute pace... so I was in the 8's the majority of the run.  I think increasing the milage this week really helped me get faster even though I pretty much kept my pace at 10 minutes all week.  Also, I went to bed last night at 8:30 pm, so I think that helped.

The first two miles I hung with the 10 pace group.  I like to do this as a warm-up.  Then at the 2 mile water stop I peeled off with a girl who has a 3:33 marathon PR.  She and I ran between 8:00 and 8:45 the remaining 6 miles.  I was surprised because it wasn't that difficult for me.  We talked most of the way.  However, the last couple miles felt like a tempo to me where I could only get out a sentense here and there.  I still felt like I could have kept running more when we finished. 

Here are my splits according to my garmin.  I don't ever stop the watch for water breaks or anything because I figure they won't stop the clock in a race either.

9:54 (stayed behind 10:00 pace leaders)

9:59  (stayed behind 10:00 pace leaders)

9:28 (including a water stop -maybe 25 seconds.  Peeled off from pace group after that)

9:44 (including about 1 minute stop for goo and water)

8:43 (big long hill but held the pace)

8:45 (actually we were faster, but had to cross busy street which held us up about 10-15 sec)

8:47 (another busy street had to wait another 10 secs or more to cross)

8:04 (felt really effortless to speed up at the end)

GREAT RUN!!!  

Ran 8 miles at 5:10 am. Just took it really easy. My left calf muscle ached a little while I was running. Didn't even look at my watch until I got back.

Splits

11:16

10:19

10:25

10:09

9:53

9:49

9:44

8:52

Ran 6 miles at 5:30 am.  Since I've been increasing my milage these last couple weeks, most days I try to keep it easy.   I've noticed that what feels "easy" seems to get faster as I run more and more.  I just don't want to get injured as I ramp up my miles.  This week I'm planning to run 40 miles.  Last week I did 35.  The week before 29.  Prior to that I was ranging between 20-27 miles each week. 

Splits

10:33

9:59

9:42

9:47

9:51

9:01

Easy 6 miles at 5:30 am. 

I was feeling a little achey this morning.  I think the extra miles is making my muscles sore.  My left leg especially.  The calf and the hamstring... maybe the IT Band too... it's not bad pain, just kind of an ache.  That left knee makes a popping noise every once in a while when I walk too.  

Not sure if I should take a rest day tomorrow or run less miles tomorrow or just stick to the plan and keep running easy 6 milers every morning this week.  Sasha's article on training mistakes says I should stick to the plan.  Maybe I should and just try to run it slower. 

Splits

10:36

10:05

10:12

9:52

9:55

9:05

My left leg was a little achey yesterday.  I decided to take it slower than normal today but keep the plan to do 6 miles.  I went a slightly different route though and it ended up being 5.6 miles.  I averaged 10:26 a mile.  I also went to bed at the same time as my 3 year old last night around 8 pm... so I got roughly 9 hours of sleep (minus all the times I woke up to readjust the sleeping position or give a bottle to my 5 month old).

There are several hills around my house where I've been running lately.  Several steep ones of around .3 miles long and one long gradual big hill of .65 miles long around mile 3-4 of my 6 mile loop.  Now keep in mind--> when I used the word "steep", this is relative to where I live!  Ha, ha!  I live in Fort Worth, TX.  This is mostly just flat praire land here... but around my house there are some rolling hills...  but I'm sure people who run in Austin, TX (hill country) or especially Colorado would just laugh at what I'm calling "steep"... Hey, for what I'm used to, it's challenging, ok!  Ha, ha! 

I used to drive to the Trinity River to run on the crushed limestone and generally flat path there... but that's a 15 minute drive each way.  By running around my house and at 5 am, I can get in more miles, more days a week without getting a babysitter.  It really works out. 

It's just now that I think about it, the hills around here might be the reason my legs are sore.  I haven't only been increasing my milage and frequency of running, but (by running around my house instead of by the river) I've been increasing the amount of hills I run.  If I can just take it easy as I'm increasing my aerobic base (as to avoid an overuse injury), over time this is going to really going to help make me faster!

Splits

11:24

10:37

10:29

10:13

9:40

10:01

Started out at 7:30 this morning instead of 5:30 like usual. Much more humid and hot.

Earlier this week I was having some muscle aches in my left leg which had me worried about my IT Band. Two years ago I had an IT Band injury which made me have to stop running for 2 months. I thought about not running as much as planned but instead I took it easy yesterday and I got 9 hours of sleep these last two nights in a row. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!! I felt great today. My legs were fine.

I did 7.2 miles at a 9:47 avg pace. Thought about doing more but the sun was a beat down and I figured I save some energy for tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'm running 12 miles with my group at the river. Tomorrow I'd like to see about running with the 10 min pace group for the first 2 miles and then speeding up to a 9:15 pace for the remainder of the run. If I have energy during the last two miles, I'll speed up and do a tempo 8:15 or so. We'll see... sometimes it all depends on who's there for me to run with. If there's no one around that is game for what I want to do, I may just end up with the 9 minute pace group the whole 12 miles.

Ran 11 miles with my group this morning. I thought we were going to run 12 but I misread the schedule. It was a good run. Alot of people weren't there today because they are running a race tonight. My running store, The Fort Worth Running Company hosts a 25k and 50K starting at midnight called El Scorcho. Would be fun, but I've got babies so I can never participate.

I ended up running with a pretty dang interesting woman for the first 8 miles. We averaged between 9:00 and 9:45 a mile. She is 65 years old! But I would have guessed she was in her 50's if she hadn't told me that! It took her a couple of miles of nonstop talking to explain to me all the sports activities she does during the week. Wow! She plays tennis, does weights, sprint track workouts, racquetball... she runs half and full marathons all the time. Her marathon PR was 3:20 something. She's run Boston and NY. Pretty cool lady! She also recently went on a missionary trip to Africa.

Then the last three miles I told her I wanted to speed up to a tempo run because I wanted to be able to say that on my FastRunningBlog! Ha, ha! Really, I said that!

So I caught up to this 22 year old girl who agreed to run 8:30 with me. We did 8:30 for two miles and 8:06 for the last mile (which included a big hill). Felt Great!

I felt strong the whole run. When I was running in the 9 minute miles I really felt held back. I honestly think I could have run 8:30 the whole thing and talked the whole time! On Saturdays I just have so much addreline, I run so much faster than normal. I look forward to it all week. A- I get to run with other people. B- I get to run at the scenic river. C- There's electrolites and water every 2 miles and on my normal daily runs I run without anything.

Splits

9:46

9:34 (included quick water stop)

9:39

9:47 (included water stop)

9:15

9:56

10:03 (included water stop)

9:04

8:55 (included water stop)

8:33

8:06

8 miles this morning at 5:30 am.  I woke up Sunday with a sore throat.  I think I have a minor sinus infection.  I didn't feel like getting up this morning but I convinced myself by saying I could go as slow as I wanted and I would only do 6 miles.  I went really slow for the first 4 miles and then I just started feeling much better so I sped up and decided to run an extra 2 miles than I had planned. 

Splits

11:31

10:35

10:28

10:28

10:03

10:01

9:59

9:12

8 miles at 5:10 this morning. Took it slow and easy. I'm going to try to run 8 miles every morning this week and then 12 on Saturday. That will be 52 miles for the week, which is another increase from last week... so I'm just taking it nice and easy so I don't get an overuse injury.

Kinda funny thing happened today... I always encounter alot of bugs as I pass through this park on my route. 1/3 of my morning runs I either get a bug in my mouth or my eye. So today I was running through it on my way out and I decided to keep my mouth closed... but then after a mile, I started getting a stitch in my side. I guess not opening my mouth affected my breathing. It took me another mile to get the stitch to go away. So on my way back home when I was going through the park again, I decided to just take my chances and breath normally. Of course, I get a bug in my mouth. Yuck! So it's either stitches in the side or bugs in the mouth. Or maybe.... hmmm, I wonder if other people saw me running with a surgical mask through the park if they would think I was weird.

Splits

10:59

10:45

10:45

10:40

10:30

10:17

9:51

9:03

6.5 miles at 5:30 am.  Was planning on doing 8 again but I decided to cut run short and just take the final miles faster.  Still have this minor sinus infection... feels like my sinuses are clogged.  Legs felt great though.

Splits

11:23

10:22

10:05

9:43

9:20

9:18

8:09 (last 1/2 mile)

8 miles at 5:15 am. I didn't get much sleep. I've been going to bed at 8 pm with my 3 year old these last several nights. Yesterday he took a 3 hour nap and he wouldn't go to sleep at 8. I didn't get to sleep until 10. Then I woke up several times with the 5 month old. I had to change a diaper and give a bottle at 4:30 am so I was wide awake at that time and I considered skipping the run this morning to try to get more sleep.

What got me out of bed was thinking that through... It's not like "sleeping in" is truely an option for me. It would be very disruptive sleep that would ultimately end with me being jolted awake by either a crying 5 month old or a wimpering 3 year old with a poopy diaper. It really wouldn't satisfy my desire for more sleep... so I would end up starting my day resentful about not getting enough sleep and feeling guilty that I didn't run... Then I'd spend the whole day trying to arrange it so I could go run that evening. I would spend the whole day thinking about whether I felt like running in the heat.

OR I could decide not to wimp out and go run this morning my planned 8 miles. I would be back in time to make breakfast for everyone. I would wake up under my terms and after the run I could start my day feeling happy. I wouldn't have to worry about fitting any run in later in the day. 

Funny!  There was a time that I thought having 2 kids would be an impediment to me running... when actually it's what making me run more than I ever have.

Splits:

11:37

11:06

10:46

10:12

10:04

9:50

9:50

9:10

Today's run was awesome!!  It's runs like today that make me LOVE running!  I ran 12 miles all between 8:00 and 8:45 pace (which is really fast for me).   The route included a very steep hill.  I plugged it into www.mapmyrun.com to see what the elevation was.  It was about 1/2 mile long hill that went up 250 feet.  The grade was 8%.   It was a tough hill...   But last year, I thought it was alot tougher.  Today I did the mile that included that hill in 9:45.  My legs felt strong the whole run.  Even the hill didn't wear them out.  I must say I am really impressed with myself.  My best race before I got prego last year was a 20K (12.4 miles), in which I ran 8:34 per mile... today, I did almost as good as that and I felt great!  I can't wait to see how I do at the half marathon in a couple weeks. 

I did all this while running all by myself and without an ipod (it broke today)!  There was no one running my pace in the group today.  There were a couple girls doing 7:45 miles and a group of 4 guys who were running 7:00 or 7:30 miles... and then the next fastest was the 10 minute group.  I was in between.  I kept doing a slinky thing with the guys.  They were taking longer at the water stops because there were 4 of them so I'd catch up with them there... then we'd start out again and I'd fall behind and catch up with them 2 miles later at the next water.  

The advice I got from Sasha's article about increasing my daily miles and frequency has made a tremendous difference!  I can't believe how much faster I am now.  During the week I just run easy 6-8 milers everyday.  Then I show up on Saturday long runs with my group and run faster and faster. 

Splits:

8:41

8:52

8:50

8:40

8:29

8:45

9:45 (included the HUGE hill)

8:23

8:10

8:44

8:40

8:13