Heat relief... FINALLY!

I've been a bad runner!  But to my defense, it has been brutally hot here in the lower mitten!  Record breaking temperatures nearing (or over) 100 degrees.  Overnight it would cool down to the mid 80s. I was supposed to run twice in the last 4 days, and set the alarm, but when the time came, it was just too damned hot out. I did get out and walk on Thursday, and went along at an okay pace, but didn't put it in my running log, and (obviously) didn't write about it here (until just now).

This morning it was 70 degrees when I went out and 73 when I got back home, an hour later.  Not too bad!  My pace was slower than I would have liked, but not bad.  I've certainly been a whole lot slower!  We had a lovely thunderstorm in the night (I love thunderstorms, especially at night) that ended just 2 hours before I got up to run, so it was quite humid out, making my breathing a little harder than normal.  I ran all over our neighborhood, covering few places twice, and hitting every street, but one.  First time I've done that route.  Decided not to hit the gravel roads after the rain... I don't want my running shoes to get all dirty!

Before I run I usually have a class of water and about 8 oz. of coffee to give me my initial boost.  Sometimes, I also have a Fiber One bar for a little bit of carb energy.  Today we didn't have any bars in the pantry, so I had an oatmeal, chocolate chip, walnut cookie instead.  Probably not the best pre-run snack, but it tasted good!  Sometimes, when I'm doing a race and don't have any coffee, I'll drink a 5 Hour Energy, but don't like them very well.  I don't really like any of the pseudo-carbonated soda-pop-like energy drinks, especially not before running. I have a neighbor who loves him some Monster!  Enough to put ELEVEN stickers on his car that I can see from one side!  Seriously... there are 11 of them!  If you don't believe me, you can count them yourself!  Now, I'm all for showing support for the brands that you're loyal to, but I think this is just a little extreme.


Close to the end of my run I got to see Charlie and he loudly encouraged me to go, go, go!  He's quite the cheerleader and I did, indeed, speed up a little when he said that I should.  I barely had a chance to say hello to his person!

Next run is Tuesday morning. I think it's supposed to stay a little cooler this week (cooler being upper 80s?) so I'm hoping for comfortable mornings for running.  Rock 'n' Roll Chicago is 2 weeks from today and I want to do well there but my Mackinaw Bridge Run is in less than 3 months and I'm not at the pace I need to be for that.  I may need to be more aggressive with my training (meaning not be such a wimp about the heat and get my butt out there, anyway!)  The half marathon is just 2 weeks later, so the clock is ticking!

First Goal Accomplished!

I ran this morning at the Feet and Friends Fighting Colon Cancer 5K (they also had an 8K but I stuck with the shorter distance).  It was great!  The starting horn sounded at 8:45 on the dot.  It was 37 degrees and the 11 mph wind resulted in a wind-chill temp of just 30!  Brrrrrr!  My fingers were frozen and I was seriously wishing I had thought to bring my running gloves.

I had a little bit to eat this morning, hoping that it would help my stamina a bit.  Seemed to work!  I had my best pace so far!  My average pace today was .17 mph faster than my previous PR, so I was thrilled with that.  My goal was to not come in last in my age division, but when I saw how much my time had improved I didn't really care where I finished in relation to anyone else.  I did NOT come in last, though.  I was 18th out of 38 women in the 40-48 age division.  Yay!  AND, overall, I came in 114th, out of 281 people!  They had music at the finish line, and just after I got done they played Joan Jett.  It couldn't get any better than that.

Teammate extraordinaire, Corey, accepting his award for
finishing 2nd in his age division!

Actually, it did get better, when my DetermiNation teammate, Corey, came in 2nd in his age division.  Go Corey!  He finished 14th overall (5K in less than 24 minutes) - and I was thrilled to be only 100 behind him!  While they were announcing the winners and handing out awards, the sun came out to warm us all up a bit, and many of the runners seemed to stick around to see the awards presentation.

It was a great time and I had a chance to get to know some of my teammates a little better.  I can't think of a better way to have spent my chilly Saturday morning. After the run we hit up the local coffee shop for some caffeine and sandwiches and hung out for a while.

I'm excited to continue on from here!  My next race is 2 weeks from tomorrow and is the Cinco de Mayo run in Detroit.  It's actually on Seis de Mayo, but that's close enough.  Definitely looking forward to that run through Mexican Town. I imagine I'll be running again on Monday - I'll know when Luke updates my training program based on today's run.  Till then...

I’m the fast girl your mother warned you about!

Um… NOT!  I started the next week of C25K this morning and felt amazing!  Amazingly SLOW, that is!  I went to bed early and got a solid 6 hours of sleep, but when I got up to run I felt sluggish and really wanted to stay in bed.  I figured that my little burst of activity would ignite my energy fire, but when I got back home, I still just wanted to crawl under the covers and go back to sleep.  I’m thinking that this may just mean that I require more than 6 hours of sleep each night, although going back to work, after a great  weekend, can be quite the energy zapper, so that might be part of it, as well.  To boost my energy for the rest of the day I got a triple espresso on the way to work and am getting ready to go get my 2^nd cup of office coffee (which tastes watery after my espresso), and I have a 5-Hour Energy for this afternoon.  If my heart explodes this noon when I am taking a walk with my co-workers, please don’t blame the guy at the coffee shop for not cutting me off after a couple of shots. Blaming my employer, with the watery coffee would be much more lucrative.

Finally figured out how to use my Nike+ in combination with my C25K app, which confirmed my lack of speed - in case I wasn’t already quite aware of it.  Despite my slowness, I really did feel good about this morning’s “run” and enjoyed my selection of music, which included The Dollyrots, The Knack (Jack Kevorkian’s attorney, Geoffrey Fieger’s, brother was the front man of that band – who’d-a thunk? ), Sammy Hagar (going to see him in a couple of months), Joan Jett, and several others that I can’t remember without looking at my iPod.  The highlight may have been about halfway through today’s program when Eye of the Tiger played.  That inspiring music, written at the request of Sylvester Stallone for Rocky III might have made me run ahead, arms victoriously in the air, if I hadn’t been lamenting the flight of stairs that I was climbing in my mind.  I concluded I don’t even like climbing imaginary stairs.

All said, I’m looking forward to Thursday run, and having more energy (and not having to run up any stairs – even imaginary ones)!

C25K2-1 run environment:

55 degrees at 5:45 am, with a light breeze