My "behind the gates" moment (AKA: The day I decided to become a runner!)

“The thing about making it big, and doing it fast, Heather, is that invariably the first steps will be small and slow. Which oddly, for many, is the same reason they don't take them. You know better, huh, Heather?

Huh, huh, huh?

The Universe"

Tanya & Heather
Flying Pig 10k 2009

Wow….that note from the Universe hit home.  It immediately made me think of the day I started running, and the attempts at running those first few months.   I blogged about those runs over on my weight management blog back then.  I look back at those posts & chuckle to myself.  I was so proud when I could finally run a quarter of a mile without stopping! I would get home, log into mapmyrun.com, map out the route we took, including individually mapped snippets of the portions I ran [which is how I would get my grand total], print them, log them, calculate, plan, blog, prepare.   I had no clue about pace, gait, good sports bras, Garmins, hydration, Shot Bloks, or which shoes to wear.  I complained about the heat & humidity a lot [Cincinnati is hotter than hell in the summer!].  There’s a part of me that wishes I could go back to that simpler time.  Small and slow.  The first steps will be small and slow.

Sunburned & sweaty...
but still smiling at mile 5!

Anyway, while trolling through my other blog searching for something non-running related,  I found a recap of Cincinnati's Flying Pig 10k I participated in May 3, 2009.  I literally started running that day - during that 10k race.  I was there with my friend, Tanya.   Of course, I inflicted my "let's start running to make our time better" torture upon her! lol  We ran all of the downhill portions of the race.  [If you’ve ever participated in The Flying Pig, you are fully aware of the hills.  There are plenty of downhill portions to run.]  Small and slow.  The first steps will be small and slow.

When we got home from the race that day, I put together a little video montage with pictures & a small video clip I took during the race.  I ran across the finish line for the first time in my life that day, and could have burst into tears on the spot.  I was so proud of myself for running at all….much less across the “finish SWINE”.  Luckily, I had the video camera rolling at the time.  Here’s what I captured by photo and video.  Please watch all the way through.  The last few seconds contain a message that must have been sent to me from above.

“If you’re BEHIND the gates this year
you can be INSIDE the gates next year.
Just start training NOW!”

Did you hear what the announcer said? Those words would literally change my life from that day forward. It’s as though he was speaking directly to me.  Not to the spectators who really were outside the gates.  Just me...and I listened.  I’m so glad I did.   My “behind the gates” moment was being there as a walker.  I made to point to be “inside the gate”, as a runner, from that moment on.  Small and slow.  The first steps will be small and slow.

The Universe sure is right about the “small and slow” thing.  Sometimes I feel as though every step I take is small and slow.  Other days, not so much.  Never the less, I’m thankful I took those first small, slow steps to be ”inside the gate”.  They’ve helped me grow in so many ways. Ways I cannot put into words in a blog post.  Not because I don’t want to share them with you, but because I don’t think there are words to describe it all. 

I'm writing this today so you'll know where I'm coming from with the whole running thing.  Though this might not explain all of it, it allows you to see how I got started (quite literally).  Many friends of mine have started running lately, and I want them to know it can be done.  Even if you're starting from a big, fat ZERO.  No matter where you’re coming from or headed to with your running journey, from just starting out to bouncing back from an injury, remember that the first steps will be small and slow.

I would love to hear your "behind the gates" moment! 

What inspired you to become a runner? 

What motivates you to keep going?

HM Training Day 89 (Wed 3/30/11)

3.75 miles
41 minutes
10:56 pace (boooo!)
{216.5 miles run so far in 2011!}

Same hill route we always do.  We walked the downhill portion because running down the giant mountain behind my house kills my IT band.
{the good} It wasn't raining!  Oh, and I got to wear my capri skort since it was warmer than usual out.  :)

{the *f*ugly} Must I always say it?  H-I-L-L-S!

HM (Cross) Training Day 88 - Tuesday 3/29/11

Elliptical Machine
60 minutes
5.2 miles
Intervals the first 30 minutes
Easy pace with no incline the second half

I really really really enjoy watching people at the gym.  I've already started to give them pet names behind their backs.  I can brag about this guilt-free because I'm pretty certain they've done the same to me. :)

{the good} I got myself dressed, took the cherubs to school, and worked out.  Even though my legs are still tired from Sunday's 10 mile run.  Positive, positive, positive.

{the ugly} "Bitter Purple Shirt Lady (With A Sour Face)" sat and waited for my machine even though there were at least 7 others available at the time.  She must have seen how awesome I was doing & thought that machine was magic or something.  My knee started feeling tweaky (IT band) about midway through.  So I decided to keep the pace up, but crank the incline WAY down.  All the way down.   

10 mile weekly long run - HM Training Day 86 (Sunday 3/27/11)

10 miles
1 hour 51 minutes
11:07 pace
{207.6 miles run so far in 2011!}

My legs and glutes were trashed today.  Why did I do so much elliptical work on top of regular mid week runs????  Why did I work all day yesterday tearing apart the deck with Kent (it required a LOT of squatting which wears out my legs).  What the hell was I thinking???  I paid for it today.  HOWEVER, I am not whining.  I am not going to beat myself up over the pace.  (We ran the exact same route in 1:44  last week with a 10:30 pace, and I was super tired and worn out from putting in a new front yard the day before.)  I got my ass out there and ran my long run for the week despite feeling like I couldn't....and I did it!  Two weeks in a row of major yard renovations.  My finish time from today reflects my low energy level & fatigued muscles, but my spirit & determination keep tickin' along!

Today's route.

The elevation map.

 

Oh, and I finally remembered to snap a picture of Vancouver Lake!  However, it's a sucky picture. It's much prettier in person.  Pinky swear....

{the good} I got run with Kent, Nikki & Rachel!  YAY for having fellow road rats to hang with during long runs.  They really did make the time fly by.  Rachel, it was so nice to meet you today!  I hope to be as fast & as strong as you someday.  Nikki, it was awesome to see you again.  I wish we could have met up with you and your hubby at The Rock after the run.  Instead, we sat around chatting & ate pancakes. lol 

I don't even remember the first 4 miles of this run.  I was blabbing my fool head off as usual.  Hey, it helps the time go by.  I take that back.  I had to pee really bad, and I let everyone around me know about it over and over and over. That's really all I remember of those first few miles, though.  We knew big time rain was headed our way, and managed to stay dry until mile 7.5 or so.  It steadily grew heavier as we finished this run.  At least we made it through most of the way dry!  Needless to say, we were soaked to the bone by the time we finished.  Socks and all.

{the ugly} The cold rain those last 3 miles.  My knee feeling tweaky during the ENTIRE friggin' run.  The chafing.  Have I mentioned the chafing issue before?  I get a regular chafe mark on my chest no matter what brand, size, or fabric sports bra I wear.  When we lived in Ohio, it usually happened once the humidity kicked into high gear.  Here, I get it when it rains.  I can usually control it a bit better if I remember to use Sportslick before we take off.  However, today I neglected to do so....

It doesn't look bad in this picture, but it's actually very blistered & red.  Several spots are raw.  There are two other spots lower down my chest AND other private areas that I cannot share via pictures here on the blog since I don't do money shots.  Oh, the joy of running! 

HM Training Day 84 (Friday 3/25/11)

4 miles
40 minutes (at the gym)
{197.4 miles in 2011!}

{the good} I got up, got dressed, hauled my fanny to the gym.  I wasn't feeling it.  Every muscle in my body aches due to switching up the workouts.  My arms are killing me!

{the ugly}  Ugggg, the treadmill.  I don't see why anyone likes them.  It's so much nicer to go outside and run.  The TM totally changes my posture and form....not in a good way.

My first gym workout in about a year (yikes)

3/23/11 Elliptical Workout
60 minutes
5.3 miles
Interval workout

Yes.  I know.  A year is a long time.  Life has been very....chaotic.  We packed up & moved across the country.  Lived in motels.  Lived in an apartment.  Bought a house.  Moved again.  BLAH!  I am just now feeling settled enough to join a gym.  Time flies by so quickly.  It seems so strange to say I haven't been to the gym in a year.  It's as though someone plucked a year out of my life, and I don't get that time back.



Gerald & Lawrence

A couple of months ago, my physical therapist really wanted me to get crackin' with cross training.  Especially elliptical workouts & swimming.  Swimming is out of the question.  I feel like a character in the old Martin Short / Harry Shearer Synchronized Swimmers SNL skit when I say, "I'm not a strong swimmer."  I can swim.  Just not in a straight path from one end of the pool to another.  It's actually kind of sad to watch.



The past few weeks, I've spent a lot of my "free time" (do you like how I say that as if I actually have free time) researching local gyms.  I ended up touring several, and joined one this morning.  It's part of the Vancouver Parks & Recreation department, and is actually a really nice facility. It's not at all like the rec center I attended as a child.  This one has state of the art equipment, a fabulous indoor pool that my cherubs are sure to love, and tons of classes (most classes are included in my $40 monthly membership fee).  

I've been itching to get started on the elliptical again.  (We were going to buy one, but really have no place to keep it.  My bedroom already looks pretty ratty thanks to a treadmill & a spin bike.)  I was sweating like mad by the time I was done. I need to remember to put my gym towel back in my car.  I haven't needed it for a year, but I sure could have used it this morning! lol  Today, I set a distance & time record for myself on the machine. 

I would have stayed on longer, but I felt like the gym police were ready to lock me up.  There are signs everywhere stating the machines have 30 minute time limits.  Since there weren't a whole lot of people using the equipment, I stayed on for a full hour. Unfortunately, when I passed the hour mark, the screen wiped out all of my super cool interval dots, time spent on the machine, & stride info.  It kicked into cool down mode.  D'oh!  I took a picture of it anyway.

Until today, the longest I had ever stayed on was 30 minutes.  My, oh, my things have changed in a year.  I'm so much stronger.

HM Training Day 81 (Tue 3/22/11)

3.60 miles
37 minutes
10:21 pace
{188.1 miles in 2011}

I ran mile 1 with a pace of 8:37!  THE ENTIRE FRIGGIN' MILE!!!!!  Woohoo!  It was a comfortable mile, too.  I knew to slow it down before my knee started to bug me.  Also, running at that speed totally wears me out....which showed for the remaining 2.6 miles of hills throughout the WSU campus. lol  Oh well.  I'm still proud of my 8:37 mile.  :)

{the good} My PR for mile 1.  It was light out during our entire run (still is as I sit here writing about it).  I saw all kinds of things we have never even noticed during that run simply because it was daylight. Amazing!  Check it out...

{click to view larger image}

{the ugly} Hills.  I hate this route.  Kent loooooves it.  He's angry over a tax issue, and needed to run his favorite hilly route.  I didn't complain because I knew he needed to go have his "angry run".  We all do now and then.  Oh, and my sock was bunched up under my damn foot again.  These are new socks, and I did NOT wear my liners.  I wanted to see if it was these particular socks causing a problem.  The answer is YES.  To the garbage they go.  Or I could save them for yard work socks. lol

HM Training Day 79 (Sun 3/20/11)

9.91miles
1:44 time
10:32 pace
{184.5 miles run in 2011!}

Today was supposed to be a nine mile run, but there's really no good route around here to get in a niner. So we aimed for 10 instead.  It worked for us.  There were TONS of people out running this morning.  Everyone was so friendly.  At one point a guy shouted out from across a busy road to ask how many miles we were running today. I told him 10.  He shouted back that he was doing 12.  I told him he was doing an awesome job.  It's nice to see so many other runners out and about.  I feel as though we all have an eye out for each other. 

The new route listed below created a good distraction for us.  We had fabulous views of Vancouver Lake, but I was in my own little world, and neglected to take any pictures.  It never even dawned on me to do so until I sat down to blog about the run. lol  I had a lot on my mind, obviously!

As you can see from the elevation map, there were two good size hills involved.  Luckily, they were stretched out for us throughout the miles. 

The splits weren't so great. Then again, neither was our pace.  I made sure to take my minute long walk break for each mile.  So the pace, as always, includes my walk breaks.  You can for sure tell when we hit those big hills!  Even the downhills are slow because they're such a drastic drop. 

{the good} The new route was GREAT.  I wish I would have taken a few pictures of our lake view to share with you all!  My knee did fine, and the "crampy balls of my feet" issue did not come up at all today (thank God!).  I did not wear socks.  Only the Injini liners.  [Did I tell you I finally bought some liners?  I might have forgotten to write about them.  I've worn them three times now, and really like them.  Wish I would have worn them Thursday night.  That might have solved some of the foot issues I was having during that rainy, cold run.]  Wearing the liners without any other socks seemed to work well, but it also wasn't raining at all.  So for all I know, that issue is only going to surface during rainy runs.  Who knows!  Only time will tell.  Here's the BEST NEWS about this run.  It was our longest run since October.  I felt myself beaming ear to ear running down the road as I realized this fact.  Nothing like a proud moment in such an ordinary training run.  :)

{the ugly} Running through Hazel Dell means you face lots of traffic.  We never felt unsafe, but did have to deal with many, many speedy vehicles zooming past us.

HM Training Day 77 (Thur 3/17/11)

5.25 miles
00:53 minutes
10:05 pace
{174.6 miles so far this year!}

This run was difficult.  It felt a lot colder than it really was, and I'm certain the rain had everything to do with that feeling.  I had to stop and walk several times because my feet were cramped up like you would not believe.  Under the balls of my feet, up by the toes.  The longer I ran, the worse it got.  It's a miserable feeling.  I've noticed they do this when it's really cold out.  They also do it when my feet are soaking wet.  I was simply doomed yesterday! lol  [I did fine during Sunday's 9.5 mile run, but I had on a pair of Injinji liners under my socks.  I honestly thought my feet were dry during that run.  It wasn't until I got home & took my shoes off that I realized my shoes were soaked.  So this is one of those "note to self" moments. Clearly, I need to wear those liners on rainy days.]

We knew it was going to rain, but come on.  It was DUMPING run on us 98% of the time.  Soaked to the bone.  I could hear Kent's shoes squish with each step.  Even he was miserable, and that normally does not happen.  He has the ability to hammer it out no matter what.  At one point, he had blood pouring down the front of his shirt from a spot on his chest that had been rubbed raw (and that was WITH a tech shirt & taped nips!).  So, I think that might explain exactly how miserable we were.  I look forward to a nice, dry long run on Sunday.  This running mama is sick of the rain!

{the good}  It's over with.  It go in 5.25 miles.  That's a very good thing considering we haven't been able to run since Sunday's 9.5 mile race.

{the ugly}  Blood.  Rain.  More rain.  Cramped feet.  Wet shoes.  Wet clothes.  Cold.  Did I mention RAIN?  I forgot my Garmin.  We were in such a hurry, I left without even thinking of it.  I'm pretty sure it needs to be charged anyway.  So I had to look at a my cell phone clock for the time.  How boring!

Late Bloomers rocked the Shamrock Run 15k (2011)

We had a great time at Portland's annual Shamrock 15k!  This was race number 3 of 11 as far as my 2011 goals are concerned.  It was yet another wet, dark, cold Oregon morning.  Jody & I stuck together for the entire run.  She kept her steady pace. I would fall behind to take pictures, but then sprint to catch up with her.  Because I did this over & over & over & over & over....I consider this run as my long run for the week AND my weekly fartlek training run.  Nothing like killing two birds with one stone.  By the time we hit mile 6, I was spent from sprinting uphill repeatedly. It was such a great workout, though!

If you ever have a chance to run the 15k in Portland, do so.  It's a beautiful route.

The rain fell heavier toward the end of the race, but we made it through with little complaints.  Oh, and so much for my theory of it being uphill to the halfway mark.  We seemed to go up and up and up until mile 6 or so.  Oops.  Guess I should have researched that a bit better.  Oh well!  In this case, ignorance was kind of bliss. lol


This 500 foot climb felt like 10,000 by mile 5! lol

Since we started running late in life, we call ourselves....Team Late Bloomers.
"All glory comes from daring to begin."



Ready to take on 9.3 miles of the Shamrock 15k!  Heather, Nikki, Kent, and Jody.



32,000 participants showed up to run either the 5k, 8k, or 15k! 

Trying to walk across the start line while taking a self portrait.



Pictures don't do this sight justice.  You simply had to be there.  (So run it with me next year!)



This race could have REALLY used more honey buckets.  Ridiculous!  We wasted 11  minutes standing in line & NEVER got to pee.  We took on the "hold it in we all win" motto.  It worked for us, thank goodness.



The monorail going up to OHSU.  Like many things in life, it literally went over my head!




One of the MANY pictures I snapped of the city.  We had awesome views after climbing so high.

I so badly wanted to grab some coffee to sip for the remainder of my run! lol



Wet.  Cold.  Too wet & cold to stand in line for our free beer.

This will easily be an annual run for us.   Kent and I loved the course, scenery, vibe, excitement, and crowd.  I hope the weather is a bit better next year.  I would have liked to suck down my free beer and salmon chowder.  We were simply too cold and wet to give a shit this year! lol

HM Training Day 70 (Fri 3/11/11)

6.01 miles
59:30 time
9:54 pace
{160.05 miles run so far in 2011}

Today was "date day".  We kicked it off my heading out to Lacamas Lake today for a quick 6 mile run on the trail. 

{Kent running under a mossy fallen tree.}

{Me running by the lake.} 

{Not sure what this critter is by Kent's foot, but I almost smooshed him.}

{Here he is up close & personal.}

After the run, we headed home to shower.  Then we headed over to Fire On The Mountain in Portland for some lunch.  YUM!  I had a fabulous Buffalo Chicken Salad.  Grilled chicken that was chopped & dipped in wing sauce.  On top of a huge bed of romaine lettuce.  Garnished with red onion, quartered tomatoes, and blue cheese.  Of course, blue cheese dressing.  YUM!  After we ate our meals, I headed back to the cash register & ordered some Cajun tots.  They sounded sooooo good.  Guess what?  They were as tasty as they sounded.  :)

 {Fire On The Mountain Cajun tots}

We were going to head over to Costco, but time ran out.  The kids would be coming home from school...so we headed on home.  What a great date day!

{the good} No sock bunching!  It was warm out!  The sun was shining!  I ate my weight in Cajun tots!  Gotta love all of those things.

{the ugly}  Other than consuming WAY more calories at lunch than planned, I was going too fast while running & needed to stop a few times to catch my breath.  My first 3 miles, I averaged 9:13 pace.  For me, that's like....lightning speed. lol



Migraine trouble (confession time)

I skipped last night's training run due to a migraine.  *GASP*

I am so sick of getting these.  They totally wipe me out, and I'm starting to see a pattern between consuming gluten & getting these migraines.  (Also with hormone cycles and migraines.)  I'm feeling better today, but still feel.....off.  Dizzy.  Today, I can still hear that "noise".  I've heard it for several days now.  It's almost like a humming.  Imagine walking under a huge power line, or near a power plant.  That buzzy, humming noise they make....that's what I hear when I have a migraine.  My temples are still pounding, but it really is better than yesterday afternoon / evening.  At least the barfy feeling has left the building!  Thank God for that.

Anyway, Kent has taken tomorrow off work.  We're going to make a date day out of it.  He has planned a nice, long run for us.  I normally would hammer out a run today trying to make up for yesterday, but I think I'm going to take it easy since I'm still feeling so gross.  [Just being near the window in my office with the light coming through is killing my eyes, but it's all so much better than yesterday.] 

Like Jody & her fondness for charts, graphs, and spreadsheets - I do the same.  Yes, I've started a gluten/migraine spreadsheet. I'm off to log my recent findings.  I consumed gravy with wheat flour in it the other evening during dinner.  Silly me for thinking "I can have a little bit". No. No, you cannot.  Silly head. 

Celebrating a new PR (kind of)

So, this is not directly related to running.  I'm actually celebrating a new PR of sorts.  9 years of keeping off 80 pounds.  It has been quite a journey.  I feel the need to post about it here on the running blog because I certainly would not be running had I not lost all that weight.  :)

And to think I was whining just a bit ago because it's raining out & tonight is a run night.  I guess writing about all I've accomplished made me have a "suck it up and run" kind of moment.  lol

Here's a link to the post.... 
http://www.leadingtheweigh.com/2011/03/happy-9-year-goal-weight-anniversary-to.html

Oh, and the necklace came from Gracie & Me Design in Wisconsin.  Barbara makes lots and lots of adorable necklaces for runners.  Be sure to check out all of her stamped jewelry items in her Etsy shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/GracieAndMeDesign?section_id=7137383

HM Training Day 66 (Mon 3/7/11)

6.6 miles
1:20:40 time
12:13 pace
{154.04 miles run so far in 2011}

Run on a Monday?  I know.  It's sort of "taboo" for me.  However, a new running buddy from DailyMile.com wanted to get in a run while the bright orb in the sky was shining, so off we went.  [We're supposed to get hammered with rain the rest of the week.] 

We took the loop that has made up my weekly long run the past month or so.  We walked the first half mile or so, and I forgot to turn the Garmin on until we started running.  So we actually ended up in the 7's as far a mileage is concerned, but I don't think either of us really cared. We were too busy blabbing. lol

Nikki warned me when we got started that she's a "really slow runner"...."in the 13's" with her pace.  Around the 1 mile mark, I looked at the Garmin, and it was clocking us at a 10:46 or so. That's a far cry from 13!  She was doing perfectly fine, and we were able to keep that pace up until mile 2.  The big hill....

....is what killed the pace.  Well, that and the fact that I forgot to turn the Garmin OFF when I stopped to use the porta potty.  D'oh! 

{the good} The sun was out!  It was beautiful out.  No sock bunching occurred (always a good thing). 

{the ugly} Ugggg, I forgot to hit the bathroom before we started this run, and I was about to float away by the time we hit the porta potty (mile 4).  Oh, and the raw spot on my chest is still bugging me.  I wonder if some moleskin would do the trick? 

HM Training Day 64 (Sat 3/5/11)

8 miles
1:25:33 minutes
10:41 pace
{147.44 miles so far in 2011!}

WHAT a BEAUTIFUL day for a long run!  It was sunny.  55 degrees.  Not humid at all.  My legs weren't hurting a bit.  Clearly, the stars were in alignment with this one.  It was one of the best runs I've ever had.  The last quarter of a mile, my sock "bunched up" under the ball of my foot & was causing some major friction/burning sensation issues.  Other than that, I could  have kept running for several more miles. 

We took the "Felida Loop" again.  This seems to be one of the more convenient long runs for us given our location in Vancouver.  We actually only run 3 miles on the trail with this route.  The rest is on a road that parallels the trail.  In order to get in a full 8 miles, we have to leave the trail again, run along the street, back through the parking lot, and run another quarter of a mile on the trail again.  It sounds complicated, but it's not.  Here's a map of what we did...

This route is hilly.  Not as hilly as the path we take around our neighborhood, but trust me when I say it's bad enough. I did something during this run that I had never done before.  I ran up the entire big hill on 119th St. without stopping!  I was moving at turtle speed, but I did it.  GO ME!  You can see it on the chart below starting right about the 2 mile mark.  My legs were already kind of tired from the gradual incline we had from the start of our run until mile 2. However, I kept chanting over and over (in my head) "stop at the top....stop at the top....stop at the top".  Whatever works!  I stopped at the top.  Grabbed a drink of water.  Then I took off running again.  Around the 3.5 mile mark, we start heading down to the trail.  It's a STEEP incline.  I call stuff like this, "knee killers".  My IT band is very sensitive to downhill inclines.  I made a point to go nice and slow down that hill even though it's so much easier to go fast!

We made sure to take dedicated walk breaks throughout the run.  We seem to jive well with the run a mile / walk 1 minute ratio.  So that's what we do.  When the Garmin "beeps" at each mile, we stop and walk for 1 minute.  Here's what it looks like graphed out....

All in all, our average pace was slower than the last time we ran this route.  However, my knee does not hurt.  So I'm taking that as a good sign, and not stressing out about my pace.  Looking at the splits chart, you can for sure see where the big hill was involved! lol



{the good}  Everything.  It was for sure a great run.  Loved every minute of it.  Oh, and I didn't get the raw/rubbed spot on my chest during this run!  (It started happenening again during my Thursday night run.)  I have issues with sports bras, no matter what brand or how well made, rubbing me on top of my breast bone until it's raw.  Especially once the weather warms up.  Running while living in Ohio was miserable due to the heat & humidity during spring and summer.  I loosened the straps on my Fiona bra before this run, and it was all good.  This is GREAT.  Especially considering I forgot to "glide up" before this run.  (Oops!)

{the ugly} My bunched up sock.  The sock thing has been happening more and more lately. Especially during long runs.  It always seems to start bugging me around mile 5, or shortly after.  It starts off as a burning/friction feeling.  From there, it feels like a wad of sock is under the ball of  my foot.  Then, my toes go numb.  THEN, I start running stupid because of my numb toes.  THHHEEENNN, all hell breaks loose.  By 7.75 miles, my entire foot was cramped up because of the sock issue.  Knowing I only had a quarter of a mile to go, I kept on truckin'.  I went to REI today in search of Injinji Liners , but they don't carry them at the Clackamas location.  (Of course, grrrr!)  So I'll order a pair from Amazon.com this afternoon.  [I feel like my everything I own comes from Amazon, Costco, and Goodwill!]  Hope they make it to me by next week's long run.  I'm hoping  the liners will provide me with whatever it is I'm needing between my toes....minus the bulk of regular Injinji socks.

HM Training Day 62 (Thur 3/3/11)

5.25 miles
52 minutes
9:54 pace
{139.44 miles run so far in 2011!}

My right foot was loud & "klompy" tonight.  Really slapping the ground hard.  To the point where Kent stopped me to let me know how loud my foot was hitting the ground. I thought I could hear it, but ran with an ipod tonight so I really couldn't hear much of anything.  I knew my shins were hurting.   I'm not sure what the hell was going on with my form, but it was clearly not good.  I took my ipod off so I could listen to my feet.  It got a little better, but took a LOT of effort to do not slap the ground the way I had been.  After we turned around at the half way point to use the porta potty, I started running in regular/proper form.  Gahhh!  Without any effort at all.  I don't get it.  I can't figure out what I did to change things (other than pee! lol).  I tried and tried during the first half of the run, but couldn't change/fix the problem. 

{the good}  There was a little bit of light in the sky. It didn't rain on us which is amazing considering it's monsoon season here in Washington. We normally only do 4 miles during the week.  It was nice to do a little more than that.

{the ugly}  My shins were hurting a lot during the run (but feel fine now).  My klompy right foot drove me nuts.  I have a love/hate relationship with the ipod when I run.  I normally don't use it, but have been lately.  Not sure why.  I had to stop and pee...which I normally don't do while running.  It got dark on the trail which made it BEYOND CREEPY.  I know.  I'm full of complaints tonight.  Sorry.  I've been feeling so bummed out lately, and I don't know what my problem is. I need to get over it.

Costco has running skirts (skorts)!

I walked in yesterday in "rushed mommy mode".  Trying to grab a bunch of fresh veggies for the week, and hoping I could make it home before the school bus drops off my kids (Don't worry...I made it home in time!).  Anyway, one of the "come and get me" displays upon walking through the door was a MOUNTAIN of running skirts.  I was beyond thrilled. 

The mountain of skirts at Costco.

I bought 6 of them.



Love the stretch of the fabric, and also the "split" on each side.



A shot of the shorts (3" inseam).

$9.99 each.  Shorty shorts under the skirt (OK for hot summer or indoor treadmill runs).  The only color I didn't buy was navy.  (It simply wasn't.....cute like the other colors.)  Of course, I doubled up on black and pink. 

If you guys buy one or already have one & have used it, I'd love to hear a review!  I haven't worn these yet.  It's too cold here. I won't have a chance to check them out fully until late spring.  I'll hang on to the receipt just in case. lol

HM Training Day 60 (Tue 3/1/11)

4 miles
44 minutes
11:00 pace (ouch!)
{134.19 miles run in 2011}

I ran the entire hill, 

I ran the entire hill! 

This is NOT the same hill I've chattered about before.  Well, it kind of is, but not really.  I'm talking about the ginormous hill coming out of the WSU campus...which is actually the backside of the "Monster Hill" that runs behind our house. Let me be the first to tell you, running up the backside of this hill is just as horrible as taking it on from the front.  It's awful.  I'm already so spent by the time we reach campus, I seriously question how I will make it up the hills on the campus trail.  To end the run with a GINORMOUS, quarter mile long, uphill mountain....is pure torture!

For months and months, we've made a point to stop once the campus trail ends (which is at the bottom of this hill), walk up the hill, then keep walking down the other side 'til we reach our front door.  All in all, it's a mile of walking after our run.  The past few weeks, Kent decided he would start running that hill.  Leaving me to walk it all by myself.  During one of our training runs last week, I decided to walk for about 30 seconds once the campus trail ended (just to catch my breath)....then start running that hill.  I did what I set out to do.  Last night, I decided to run the whole damn thing.  Again, I did what I set out to do.  It might have been at the pace of a turtle, but I did it! 

{the good} We started off with light in the sky.  Reached the campus....still light in the sky.  Got to the top of the hill, and there was STILL a little light in the sky.  Spring is near.  YAY! There was a time not that long ago when it was dark by 4:30.  Glad to see that turning around (finally).  My knees were fine during this run, even though I never "found the love".

{the ugly} The pace.  My legs felt like they were filled with wet sand.  I simply could not pick them up and get them moving.  Not painful.  Just heavy.  Slow.  I was having a hard time breathing.  Still a leftover from the respiratory illness I had a couple of weeks ago.  It was a foggy night (which always makes it more difficult for me to breathe).  As a matter of fact, it was so foggy, my eyelashes were dripping water down my face.  My hair and clothing was SOAKED.  It was kind of a gross night as far as weather goes.

March 2011 activity trackers / calendars

If anyone is in need of an activity chart for March, head on over to my weight management blog to print one.  :)

Click here to view all of the calendars.