Running Without My BRF

Let me tell you about my best (running) friend.....



I'm sure you've noticed lately that my post-run selfies are missing a very important person: my BRF. Sadly, most of my marathon training thus far has been done without my BRF, Toni. I was so excited to train for a marathon with her but life happens, right? She has a super exciting opportunity not here (insert the crying emoji here, please) so I've been without my BRF.

It's crazy to think how close you can get with someone just through running all of the miles together. I joke that running with someone is like taking a shot of truth serum beforehand, because I end up just baring my soul on long runs with people. So many of our runs together were like free therapy sessions. In the course of all of our miles, we had 3 out of 4 parents diagnosed with cancer. We lost two parents. Work drama, life drama, all of the drama. All of the happy things, new jobs! New dogs! SO MANY PRS!! So many hard miles, so many miles that were full on unicorn runs.











Running best friends are just the best things on this planet, and I really hope you have the chance to find yours, random internet readers.

















I'm so sad to not be able to spend 30-50 miles with my BRF each week. There are honestly some weeks that I would spend more quality time with Toni than I would my own husband. Despite being so sad, I'm so thankful that she entered my life when she did. I met Toni a couple of months before my mom died, shortly before our family had the hospice conversation, knowing my mom's cancer had spread and it was only a matter of time before her body shut down. Running became my coping mechanism to deal with my grief, grief that I was struggling with from the time my mom was diagnosed with an incurable, fast moving cancer, that was essentially a death sentence. Having someone in my life who would just be there, to go for a run, or a walk, no matter how far, no matter how slow (we had to go sooo slooooowwwww), no matter how many times I'd have to stop because I'd get all weepy.





















All the love and happiness to my BRF on her next journey in life. And I assure you all, we'll still manage to wear matching outfits on our runs even when we're not together. :)

Philly Training + Running Buddy

Since I’m planning to run Philly with these two fine ladies, I’m making it a point to try to run with people.  News flash:  I really like running alone.  Running with people is hard for me.  Even in high school track when there were girls that were similar speed as me, I just preferred to chase the boys (real shocker there) than run with the girls.  It’s hard.  I’m always concerned that I’m slowing them down.  Or I’m concerned that I’m not getting the most out of a long run if it’s not the exact pace I want to be/feel like I should be running.  Unless you’re running with your exact pace twin, it just ends up being too much stress.

Well last weekend, I had a date for my 16 miler, but because of our alma mater’s homecoming festivities, and my need to sleep in, plans didn’t work out.  Which brought me to this past weekend.  I had 18 on the schedule, and had emailed Karla to see if she wanted to join me for part of it.  Karla and I have pretty similar race times, and she just destroyed her first full in the Twin Cities a few weeks ago.  She usually runs her long runs a smidge faster than me, but since she’s not actually training for anything, I hoped she’d be ok running a little pokier.  J  Of course I was surprised when she said she’d be up for the whole shebang!  I was doubly thrilled when she was on board for a late morning start!  Dear Fall, Your cool temps are amazing.  Don’t ever leave me.

When we started off, it was 37 degrees, and I knew I looked like a fool in a tank and shorts, but I also knew I’d warm up quickly.  Karla’s daughter recently joined the Dailymile and wanted to log some miles, so she joined us on her bike.  Around mile 4, her daughter got picked up by her hubby and we continued to just run and chat and chat and run.  We navigated through some construction to get down to the Falls, and the miles were just flying by.  Turns out, the nice part about a running buddy, is your brain has other stimulation outside of looking at your pace/time/distance/heart rate.  Who would’ve thought!?!?!  The first time I feel like I really looked at my watch was 13.33 miles.  That’s not a bad distance to zone out for!

Normally when I run with somebody, I run a lot slower, because talking throws off my breathing rhythm, and I pretty much feel like I’m going to die.  But not Saturday.  I’m not sure who the one pushing the pace was, but we were comfortably in the 9:15-9:25 range for most of the run.

Around mile 14 we both started feeling a little tired.  Luckily for me I had a GU to take at mile 12, and it kicked in around mile 15.  Not so luckily for Karla, she left her GU with her daughter’s bike.  She also started to have some tummy problems.  Poor thing.  At mile 16, we parted ways, and I took off like a cannon.  I have never had a second wind like that in a long run, and I owe it all to the GU Roctane.  Blueberry Pomegranite, my fave.  Mmmmm.

Since I was feeling strong, I decided to do a “faster finish” long run.  It felt great to run that strong after having 16 miles on your legs.  8:58 and 8:41.  Whoo!

Sadly, due to our weaving through the construction areas to get to Falls Park, I must’ve over estimated how much distance we had left, because I finished my run a half mile from home.  I like to cool down, and all, but I was out of water and thirsty.  And I swear to you, a G.D. horsefly followed me the entire ½  mile home, landing on me and annoying the poo out of me.

I did 18 miles in 2:48:33 for a pace of 9:21.  Other than our mile walk/running through construction areas (9:56) and our slowed down pace to fight Karla’s tummy issue (9:32) we were cruisin’!

After logging my 3 mile recovery run on Sunday (which sucked, hard), I was so thrilled to see that I was on the top of my dailymile board!  I know a lot of my friends a lot more miles than me, but I think the ones doing monster training are running NYC and have started their taper, so I win by default.  And I'll take it.  To be honest, 40+ mile weeks are a big deal for me, because my body always seems to start breaking down at the 40 mile point.  So three cheers to 45 and no issues (**knocks on wood**).

And just for fun, I was trying out a new filter for a camera app I downloaded and managed to get this gem of a photo after it's 27 rapid fire flashes.  I kind of love how terribly great it is.



Running Buddies FTW!

I've been in a wee bit of a running funk since Fargo.  I don't feel injured persay, but I also don't feel 100%.  Typically my motivation to get out there and get my miles in is the thought of a shiny new PR on the horizon.  Since I've been taking it somewhat easy with my runs, I haven't really had much motivation.  Blah.  Bahhumbug.  Woe is me. Etc. Etc. 

Enter:  The running buddy!

Monday night while sitting at Kyle's softball game pretending the skies would open up and rain out the evening's games I ran in to a girl from college.  She is a crazy good runner.  As in, missed qualifying for the Olympics in the steeplechase by 8 seconds good.  She mentioned that she was looking to get back to running regularly and wanted to tag along on some runs.  After reminding her repeatedly of my "easy" pace she still wanted to come.

Wednesday night we met up for an easy paced 4 miles.  She brought her dog and talked my ear off the whole time (because clearly our pace was akin to walking for her, ha!).  The run flew by.  It was awesome.  Afterwards we sat and stretched and talked about my running and racing goals coming up.  We were having such a good time, that we went for a long walk after the run to keep chatting.  She wants to help me out on my speedier days and some other runs to help her get her mileage back up.  Win WIN win. :)

We did 4 miles in 38:26 for a pace of 9:37.

Earlier in the week, I had a random friend from way back when send me a Facebook message asking me to accompany her on her 9 mile long run to help her get back in to some long run mileage territory.  Well it just so happened that my long run was 9 miles too, so perfect!  It was nice to have some company on a long run.  While our pace wasn't ideal for running that long together, it was fun to be someone's extra motivation to keep going.  Plus she's easily the sweetest gal ever, so it was fun to chat during our walk breaks.

We did 9 miles in 1:42:00 for a pace of 11:20.

Friday I was antsy to get a workout in but had a rest day on the schedule, so I wrangled Aaron in to hitting the pavement on our roadbikes.  More buddy workout fun!  My Garmin was being seriously wonky, but we ended up knocking out 15 miles for the day.

Saturday morning came and it was "third time's the charm!" for our local running store's running group.  It was nice meeting up with some old running friends, as well as meeting some new running friends.  It was insanely hot and humid when we were out there though, uff.  So glad it was just a 4 mile recovery run, or I would've been toast.  Ok, I was toast.  Even worst toast then I suppose.  But I got to run with Angie and talk about the Lennox 10k and our plans for the Sioux Falls full (her) and half (me).

We did 4 miles in about 40 minutes.  With my warm up and cool down run I was at 5.45 for the day.

Two solid thumbs ups to buddy workouts.  It's so much harder to ditch out on a workout when you have someone else counting on you!

10k Race Photos + Weekly Wishlist: Kate Spade Sample Sale Edition

After pouring through the 400 race photos that were posted from the Breast Cancer 10k, I was beyond bummed to not see one bright yellow sleeve in the bunch.  Imagine my surprise this morning when I get an email from Megan with race day photos attached!  In my bundle of raceday nerves, I forgot that we had even taken a pre-race photo, and her hubby ended up snatching some photos of me at the start and the finish.  YAYZIES!

Megan and I are Fargo road trip buddies this weekend. I love that she rocks a giant cheshire cat style smile as well! :)

At the start. One of my new favorite running pics. Go Meg's Hubby!

And nearing the finish line. It was weird as the 10k ended up catching up to the tail end 5k-ers. Weaving on tired legs is no fun at all.

Weekly Wishlist:  Kate Spade Sample Sale Edition

Kate Spade is currently having their sample sale, and everything is up to 75% off (ends tomorrow, 5/19!).  Sadly, my pocketbook said "no no no" Amy Winehouse singing-style, not Amy Winehouse to booze and drugs style, but that didn't stop me from some lusting.

I'm a sucker for stripes. I think they used to have it in navy and white which was super cute too. Buy it here.

I never do the wristlet style; if a book doesn't fit in my purse, it's not for me.  But this is super cute, and yellow is my new neutral. Buy it here.

So I may have succombed to the designer handbag cult in moderation, but I've yet to leap over to the darkside with matching wallet.  It's just hard to plop down the money that is in excess to most of the bags I own (I really only have one Coach bag, and one Kate bag.  And sold a Kate bag I didn't love to pay for the Coach bag that I *do* love.)  But I like the idea of non-matching.  Like black or white handbag and crazy bright wallet.

Buy it here.

Buy it here.

The color of this is the most beautiful thing ever.  However, I think the bag might be a little too "structured" for my style.  Still super duper pretty though.
Buy it here.

More yellow perfection. Buy it here.

Jeri, sucker, stripes. You get it by now, I'm sure.  Love that the lining is GREEN.
Buy it here.

Ok, so everyone go shop to your little heart's content and then let me know what you got so I can be a ridiculous girly girl and EEEEEEEEEEEEEE along with you. :)

Surprise Running Buddy + Inaugural 10k Race Goals

Signs Kyle and I have spent entirely too much time watching LOST:

This morning, Kyle and I were waiting at a stop light.  A truck drives by with a chick with long crazy dark hair. 

KK:  Huh.... there's Rousseau.....
Me:  Well, clearly she gets off the island.  SPOILER ALERT!!!!

::maniacal laughter ensues::

Tuesday I had a shocking surprise when I texted KK to see if he wanted to accompany on my run.  Instead of the usual excuse of nap/softball/washing his hair, he asked how far.  Uh.... as far as you want to go bud.  I headed out for 5 miles on my own, and then met him back at my apartment to go out for another 2 miles.  Keeping in mind that the kid hasn't run since we started dating, he did amazing.  Seriously.  I told him we could take walk breaks/stretch breaks, whatever as long as we did the total 2 miles.  Considering he had played softball for the first time since last fall and was already all kinds of sore, it was lots o' fun.  :)

The second half of mile one was much faster than the first half.  And after our 1/4 of a mile walk break at the halfway point, we hauled some booty to finish up the two miles.  AND his heart didn't beat out of his chest like he was convinced it was going to.  AND he must not have hated it too terribly much, because he had mentioned going out for another couple of miles after work tonight.  Yay KK.... brb currently signing us up for a race together......

This morning I had a 7 mile scheduled.  I was not feeling 7 miles from the moment I crawled out of bed, so I down-sized to 5 miles.  Well those miles felt like the first miles I've ever run in my life, so somehow they got downgraded to 4 miles.  Four heavy, slow, slogging miles.  Ugh.  Luckily those craptastic runs usually mean that a stellar run is just around the corner.

Oh hey speaking of runs just around the corner.....  This weekend I'm running my first ever 10k.  Yes, I also have no idea how I've run so many races without letting a 10k slip in there.  I'm guessing that upon finishing I will again be frightened of the distance and keep it at bay, after the dry-heaving stops, that is.

Since I've never run a 10k, it's an auto PR.  YAYZIES!  However, there are so many tools and calculators out there to tell you what your time could/would/should be, so I'll let you in on some goals.

Based on the McMillan calculator for both my half and 5k time, I should be right around 50 minutes.  It's on my 101 in 1001 list to break 50 minutes, so I might as well shoot for that.  Also, I'd really love to run a sub 8 minute pace for the whole shebang, which would ensure my sub 50, and then a little extra.  And then because I've heard that an accurate 10k estimate is your (5k time x 2) + 1 min, I would maybe possibly like to break 49 minutes.  Barfaroni.  (see above).

Granted, I had all these time goals in mind before my half marathon that tore my poor IT bands apart.  Hopefully the ol' bod will be 100% on Saturday so I can give it my all, because it's pretty clear that it could be awhile before I get tricked in to running another one of these puppies...