10k

On Saturday I ran 6 miles! WOAH! Longest run yet :)

I know I need to get a practice race in before the real deal. There is a race nearby this upcoming weekend that has a 5k and a 10k option. I wanted to wimp out and do the 5k, but after running six miles, I knew I could do the 10k (about 6 miles). That night when I got home, I signed up! Ready or not, here I come :)

Just ran 3 miles tonight on a treadmill. It's been a couple weeks since I've run inside because it's been so nice. I forgot how awful it was. Hence the short mileage. It was after dark before I could run, so I didn't really have a choice.

Thursday I'll run more miles, and outside :)

Plant Brain

So yep, this picture is what I discovered today on my run. It fell from a tree. It looks like a ball and it's the size of a softball. Very strange. I have decided to name it plant brain.... because that's what it looks like :) I have a friend who is getting his PhD in horticulture and therefore knows a lot about plants! He informed me that it was Maclura, which is apparently also called Osage Orange. It did kind of resemble an orange.  Well, there's your fun fact of the day!

Ran 3 miles this afternoon. This crazy huge cloud mass over NC needs to hurry up and blow over because I am not a fan of this humidity. It makes me sweat while running, and I already sweat a lot to begin with! Just saying.

It's official....

....I think I can officially classify myself as a runner.....

Why, you ask?

I was almost finished with my 3 miles that I had planned on running today, and I thought to myself, "I can keep going a little longer until 3.5 miles." ....and that turned into, "Well, I've done 3.5 miles, might as well make it a whole number and run 4 miles!"

Yep, it's official.  I'm crazy.  I mean really, who in their right mind runs one more mile just for fun?  I guess this kid does.  I'm glad that it's finally getting to the point where a mile goes by pretty fast.  I hope this keeps up for all those 13.1 miles... eek!


I've learned that if I plan a day ahead the days I am going to run, I am in a better mood when I go because I mentally prepare and psych myself up!  Thankfully, that was the case today :)

The plan was to run 3 miles, and up my intervals a little bit.  I've been doing 3 min run, 1 min walk for the past few weeks.  I've decided that on my runs during the week, since they're shorter, to run 4 min and walk 1 min.  And I will say, I was successful!

So it turned into 4 miles today!  I was really into my music.... I might have done some singing/dancing as I was running... of course, this was at points where there was no one around me ;)

Goose Poop and Puddle Jumping

This has been a busy week with Meet the Teacher night (longest school day ever), as well some other things.  Since Sunday, I didn't get another chance to run until Thursday.  It was still 90 degrees when I left work, so I ran 3 miles on the treadmill.  Nothing too exciting about that.

But today was pretty eventful!  I knew going in that I had to run 5 miles today (farthest I've done so far).  What I love about fall is that since it's cool all day long, you don't have to wake up at the crack of dawn to run because it's cool.  So I enjoyed sleeping in some :)  Well, I looked out the window and it's raining - a little harder than a drizzle.  I opened my porch door to see the temp and it was pretty cool.  I had decided at that point I would go to the gym and run due to the rain. I was disappointed because I had been looking forward to running outside today.

I hopped in the car and started driving to the gym.  The road I drive down to get there is a popular road that many running groups train on in the mornings.  Well, despite the rain, I passed multiple people and groups running.  I thought to myself, "If they can run in the rain, so can I.  It's not raining THAT hard."  So, I pulled a u-turn and drove myself over to the outside trail I run (thankfully it was pretty close to my gym, so it wasn't a big deal to turn around!).  I also realized that the trail is mostly covered with trees, so that would block some of the rain.

I'm glad I made that choice!

I LOVE the sound of rain on the trees.  It's so calming. The rain accompanied me for the first 2 miles of my run, and then it ended and it was just foggy.  I felt pretty good today, in terms of my energy, as I was running.   Towards the end of miles 4 I was starting to drag, so I took a couple extra minutes to walk, and that helped give me the boost I needed.  The last half mile I got an adrenaline kick and that got me through the end!  Hooray!

I run a trail around a lake, and there is a creek/river that flows into it.  First off, there are always a lot of geese and ducks that hang out at the lake.  Today there was more goose poop than normal.  Not sure the reason of that, so I was strategically planning my steps so I didn't land in some!  Success.

Also, the river sometimes floods when there is a lot of rain, or the sand/dirt along the trail gets washed onto the trail.  So I did some puddle jumping (both in and around) the puddles.  Let's just say the shoes are a little muddy!

It was an enjoyable run, and I'm glad I made the decision to run outside in the rain.  It made it more fun, and I know I would have been miserable if I had tried to do 5 miles on the treadmill.  I also run faster when I am outside and accomplish more.  I also have come upon the theory that when I get tired and want to stop, that the more I run, the farther I go... and the faster I get my distance accomplished :)

So it's a good day :)

Girl Power!

Life is officially back in full swing!  So that makes finding time to run more difficult.

Since my last post, two days later I did my cross training class.  I was feeling ambitious that night and decided to do a Zumba class right afterwards.  Not the best decision.  The next morning my ankle hurt, and after teaching all day, it was pretty swollen.  Bummer.  I think it was a result of a lot of the jumping activities involved in both classes.  So I iced it down and propped it up!  I knew going into the weekend that it'd probably be better to take a couple days off so I wouldn't mess up my ankle even more.  Well, conveniently (I guess), I woke up Saturday with a fever and a cold (that's what happens when you work in a germ-breeding zone!), so that meant lots of rest for the weekend, which allowed my ankle to heal back up!

Last Tuesday, I still was congested, so running still wasn't an option.  Kind of have to be able to breathe when you run - it always helps ;)  So I opted for swimming!  It was fun and it brought back a lot of college swim team memories!

Thursday, I finally got back around to running.  It had been a little over week since I ran and so I knew it wasn't going to be fun or easy!  I did three miles, but did more walking than usual.  It was not a very good workout (as in when I finished, I didn't feel like I had accomplished much).  My ankle hurt a little bit, but was fine by the end, and is still fine now :)

Saturday, the plan was to get up and run in the morning since the mornings are finally cool again! (yay 60 degree weather!).  Well..... the school week caught up to me, and I woke up later than planned (go figure, what's new?!).  By the time I got up, was alert, and got to the trail, it was already 11am and it was warming up quickly.  The high was supposed to be near 90.  I planned doing 4 miles, but after the first 2 mile loop, I was hot and tired, so I ended it short.  BUT I told myself that since I ended early, I would HAVE to get up Sunday morning and run before church.

And I did :)  4 miles. And there was this pretty sunrise to accompany me on my run.  If you know me, you know I LOVE sunrises/sunsets, so it was awesome.

Oh, and there were these two girl runners (about my age) I passed a couple times going the opposite way around the loop, and every time I passed them they would say "You go girl!  Girl power! Yay girl runners!"  and then they gave me a high five.  So fun :)

I'm a week behind or so on my running plan since last weekend I was sick.  But, first off - I am NOT a hardcore runner, so sticking to the plan doesn't bother me too much, and second off - my theory is as long as I'm running (no matter what the distance), I'll be okay.  So, yeah.

Sorry that was a lot!

Side note - I've had a couple friends who have told me that I've inspired them to get into running again, so that's pretty cool :)