EEW! The treadmill is sweating....

oh wait...that's me.

This morning I woke up to a horrendous thunder storm. I was bummed because I was looking forward to the track workout I had planned, but was really just TIRED. So I snoozed for another hour. Gotta love coming in late on Thursdays. :) When I got up, it was still storming, so I headed to the gym. Blah. I kind of hate the gym, but it's better than being struck by lightning I guess.

Today I had my first workout with mile repeats. WHOO! For my 5k training plans, I had been doing 400 m. so I was excited to switch things up a bit. The plan called for a 1 mile warm up, 2 x 1 mile at 7:46 mm, 800 m. recovery after each, and a 1 mile cool down.

I set to work and away I went. And on came the sweat. Phew. I think this is seriously the most I've EVER sweat. I was silently thanking myself for being smart and wearing black running shorts instead of something like that would make it look like I peed myself, yikes.

The first mile felt strong, but the second mile was a struggle. Oof. It would've been interesting to see this workout on a track as I had originally planned, to see if I would've been able to maintain the pace when I was tired on the second mile, or if I would've backed off and picked it up at the end to compensate (that's usually my style).

Holy freak out. I just went on to runnersworld.com to check my running log to post some stats from my run, and my log is coming up blank. Fingers crossed that's a weird glitch in their system, or I'm going to freak out!

Okie dokie. From memory, the first warm up mile was around 9:22. First mile repeat was 7:42, followed by 4:57 1/2 mile recovery. Second mile repeat was 7:41 with the same recovery. Cool down mile was around 9:40. If you want to add those together, you would come up with my total time for 5 miles. You would then be able to calculate an average pace.

At one point in the run I looked down at the control deck (?) of the treadmill and thought the treadmill was sweating. WOW! It must be REALLY humid in here, I thought like an idiot. Look at all the sweat spots on the piece in front of the actual belt that I'm running on. Yuck. Then I looked to the treadmills to the left and right of me. Weird, they're not sweating. As I again faced forward, I saw a huge thing of sweat fly from my arm to the treadmill screen (?), drip down onto the base on the treadmill. Oh. Wow. That's me. Awesome. :)

In other news, I think I need new shoes. On one hand: YAY! I love new shoes. On the other hand: Ugh. I'm broke. Can't you wait? Right now my shoes have about 270 miles on them (I'd give you the exact amount but a certain WEBSITE appears to have lost my INFORMATION!!!) I should end up hitting about 120 miles for my training this month, and will desperately need new shoes by then. Plus, I would like to have the new shoes broken in for the Wild West Relay.

Also, I'm not sure if it's because my shoes are wearing out already, or if it's because of the increased mileage lately, but I'm starting to get callouses on my toes in places I never have before am feeling some shin pain post-runs. I had horrible shin splints in high school and do NOT want those to reappear, so shoes will apparently be fit in my budget asap.

Asap as in Saturday. :) After my long run, I think I'm going to head to the local running store to have them do that thing where they check your running style or whatever (please insert the technical much smarter sounding terminology here) to make sure I'm in the correct shoes. It's not a gait analysis because it's not with the treadmill, it's the thing you stand on that determines where your weight naturally lies....I think anyway.

Asics Nimbuses (Nimbusi? Nimbuseseses?) have always worked, but I'm just interested to see what they say. If all goes well, I should be the proud new owner of these puppies by Saturday afternoon.

They're so...pink. And I'm not really a girly-girl/pink girl. But darn it they're cute. And they don't come in green, which would've been my first choice.

Alright, I'm going to go back to checking runners world obsessively to make sure they haven't lost my running data for the last 2 years, because that would be less than awesome. :(

New Running Clothes + Hissing Geese

Yay for new running clothes! I had bought a lavender running tank from Target to wear for my race a couple of weekends ago, without trying it on (because I'm an idiot) and when I got him it did not fit. As much as I love clothes that cling to the love handles, I think I'll pass. PLUS, since it was so um..form fitting near the hips, guaranteed that puppy would ride up big time once I started running. So back to the store she went.

I had just planned on getting the same tank in a bigger size, but shocker, they only had XS and XXL left. THEN I spotted the green bra I've been dying to get on SALE. Jackpot. I love these Target bras (although I know some of you despise them) and love when they're on sale for $12. I usually stock up. I will admit that 2 of the 6 that I own are "duds." They're super stretchy material and are about as supportive as, um...nothing. These two appear to be top notch, and CUTE.

Then I saw these tanks. Which...eh...are definitely not the cutest. But they're lightweight, the bank panel is a mesh-ish (hah funny made up word) breathable material AND, most importantly, they are lose on the hip area so no possibility of rideage. Nothing bothers me more than having to tug down my top every .15 miles. Last time I wore the "wrong" tank, I ended up tucking it IN to my running shorts so I wouldn't have to mess with it anymore. Talk about fashion faux pas. I felt like a wrestler, ick, they always seem to do the shirt tucked in thing when they workout. ALSO, the tanks were only 10 bones. Can't go wrong with a price like that. Plus since I was returning a $20 tank, it made me feel like this trip was so much cheaper than it really was. ;)

Last night, when I got home from work, I went to my fridge to cross off my 4 miler from the schedule, and -GASP- realized it was supposed to be 5!!! Of course I had a mini freak out (because one mile is a HUGE difference, side note: I'm an idiot.) Then I saw that Thursday called for an easy 4, and it would be an easy flop to just do 5 then. Which is probably a good thing, because another mile of hills yesterday would've probably been the death of me. I think I'm going to have to make a second copy of the schedule to post to Taylor's fridge, since I seem to be doing most of my morning runs from there. I'm sure he'll just love me bringing more crap over to his place. Hah.

This morning I had an easy 5 miler on the schedule. Because of the hills yesterday, my legs were a little sore/tired, so it was nice to take this one slow. There were a couple of random things worth mentioning from the run.

First, my run took me very close to the airport in town and I ended up running under a plane taking off. I wish I was a good judge of distance, but it was CLOSE, and it was REALLY cool, until I immediately thought, "oh crap! what if this thing crashes, I'm donzo!"

Secondly, I'm sick of geese. Seriously, I love all animals. But I'm starting to hate geese. There was a ginormous gaggle of geese (3 points for alliteration) on the trail this morning. Usually when this happens, I'll run off in the grass as far from them as possible to keep from making them mad. Well, of course, today a family of bikers was coming in the opposite directly and took their jolly sweet time getting through. By the time it was my chance to go by they were fired up and hissing at me. I let out a little yelp and started hauling some booty. Last thing I need is to be chased by a gaggle of geese :) in the middle of my recovery run! Stupid birds. Don't they see me waving to deer? I can't be a bad person. QUIT HISSING!

I ended up doing the fiver in 47:49 for a pace of 9:34 (supposed to be 9:46). But my splits were pretty darn close for the first 3 miles, after that I just got bored and wanted to go home to watch Saved by the Bell. ;)
1. 9:42
2. 9:42
3. 9:40
4. 9:28
5. 9:15
Oh Zach Morris, you are such a heart throb. :)

Holy Hills. Alternately titled: The Hills Are Alive, With the Sound of My Screaming.

Catchy, no?

True to my word, I switched up my Tuesday easy run this week, so I wouldn't have two back-to-back easy runs. Because, honestly, what do I need to recover from after an easy run? The boringness? But I digress.

Today I decided to do 4 miles of hills in preperation for the Wild West Relay. Granted my legs were a bit stiff from the long run on Sunday, but they loosened up pretty fast. They had to! I made them run hills! Suckas! :) The first and last .8 (roughly) of the run were flat, but the middle (umm...let me grab my calculator..) 2.4 miles were a DOOZY. At one point I looked down and my pace said 11:xx. Aye aye aye. Poor little leggies.

Well that's teensy tiny, so pull out your bifocals if necessary because that's my elevation from the 4 miler today. Keep in mind that this is #1 or #2 hilliest route in my town, so my primary source of pain/prep for the relay.

Gain: 391 ft
Elevation Loss: 484 ft
Min Elevation: 1,404 ft
Max Elevation: 1,529 ft

First leg of WWR (7.3 miles)

Gain: 601 ft

Loss: 267 ft

Min Elevation: 5,500 ft

Max Elevation: 5,950 ft

Baahahahah.

But seriously, I'm SO EXCITED for this relay, even if it is going to hand me my butt on a silver platter. :)

For the 4 miles I completed it in 38:30 for a pace of 9:37. My Garmin Connect won't let me access my splits, but they were pretty close to that. Apparently hills also slow me down, it's the craziest thing.... ;)

I must say it's a s-t-r-u-g-g-l-e to go back to work after a 4 day weekend. Yikes. I'm finding myself read for a nap and it's only lunch. Yikes.

And I forgot to mention after the 9 mile run on Sunday my dead/drown due to my sweat gnat count on my chest was 8. Inhaled gnats: 3, including one that lingered--not wanting to go up or down for at least 2 miles. Snorted gnat: 1. That was probably the worst. YEOUCH!

Long Run + Great Weekend + 1 Rant

Have I mentioned yet how much I love the 4th? It's great.  :)  Taylor and I went to his friend's lake cabin and had to use the wipers the whole way there.  Yup.  Rain.  :(  With no sign of sunshine in sight.  We got in around 4pm and since it wasn't sunny, decided to break into some beverages.  I had some Fat Tires.  My new favorite beer.  Yum.  Since his dad's house is insane, we played some pool, some shuffleboard (yes they have a shuffleboard table) and just kind of hung out.  It was a blast.

Saturday morning we woke up expecting to have sunshine pouring through the windows, but again, just clouds.  :(  We decided to go out in the boat anyway.  We loaded up the coolers and headed out.  Day 2's bevs were Lienekugel's Honey Weiss.  My 2nd favorite beer.  :)  We boated over to a friend's cabin to pick them up and headed out.  Many, many MANY bathroom breaks were had throughout the afternoon.  At least 10 or so by me.  :(  Whoops.  At one point we got caught in the middle of a rain shower, but it was still a blast.

Saturday night we ate some good grub and hung out by the water watching the fireworks.  There were some seriously awesome fireworks.  It was great!  I also played bartender and made the most amazing vodka tonics.  Wowsers.  So good.  :)  We ended up crashing EARLY and tented out next to the cabin since one of the guys inside kept us up ALL NIGHT Friday with his horrid snoring.

Of course, sleeping in a tent causes you to wake up at 6am because of the sun, so we were up and at em early.  SUN!  We ran to grab our suits and went out in the boat.  Too bad that the couple we were with had to leave by 10am to head to work.  So off to the waterpark Taylor and I went.  :)  Shocking.  Most of our friends were either there or on their way there, so it was a great time.  EVERYONE was questioning why I was drinking water instead of chugging the booze like them, and I had to explain again and again that I was running 9 miles that night, and didn't think the alcohol would help me any.  The responses I got was that I was crazy/9 miles was a LONG ways/and probably again that I was crazy 10x.  

After 7 hours in the sun, and dinner at Old Chicago with Taylor's family, I was ready for my 9 miler.  Luckily for me, the sun was beginning to set, and the temp was down to 75-ish.  The run was pretty uneventful so I'll throw out some highlights (and lowlights).  

First up, the RANT.  My run took me past one of the country clubs in town.  As I was running up, I saw a lady, walking backwards on the trail, in the middle of the trail.  Keep in mind that this trail is very busy, and bikes are constantly whizzing by me.  Behind her was a tiny little "purse puppy."  As I approached, she turned around and started walking forward, and I noticed her dog wasn't on a leash.  I assumed the dog must have great obedience skills, so I soldiered on.  Of course the dog ran straight at me, and I had to stop.  Jump over him.  And continue running on.  Who does this lady think she is?  After this incident, 2 cyclists went by also, and I believe yelled something at the lady about not having her dog on a leash.  It wasn't TOO difficult for me to dodge the dog, but I can't imagine if I was on a bike.  That's just a wreck waiting to happen.  In my head, I was already formulating my screaming match at the lady.  In it, her name was Muffy (totally the old-money type of country club go-er) and her dog, Poopsy.  Either way, I vented completely in my screaming match in my head.  :)

Other than that, I tried a new Gu at Mile 4 of the run--strawberry.  It was disgusting.  Yuck-o.  It did the trick though and the run was a success.  It was kind of scary running the last 3 miles as I was pretty far away on a part of the trail that is very infrequently used, and surrounded by industrial buildings, and it was getting DARK.  I get spooked so easily.  :(  I think it helped to make me run a little faster.  :)

9 miles in 1:23:33 for a 9:17 pace.  

1 9:34 
2 9:30 
3 9:22  
4 9:24 
5 9:23 
6 9:30 
7 9:22 
8 9:00 
9 8:27 

Very consistent, which I'm proud of, minus the last 2 miles where I picked it up a bit, because I just wanted to be home.

When I came home I found Tay zonked out, fast asleep.  I definitely felt like the cooler/stronger one in the couple by going for a long run after the exhausting weekend.  WHOO!  Post-shower I was practically passing out waiting for my leftover calzone to reheat.  Wowsers, the tiredness hit me like a ton of bricks, and I slept HARD.

I have the day off today too, yay go me.  :)  I think Round 2 at the waterpark is in store.  

Foto Friday

I love holidays.  Especially holidays that I get off from work.  :)  This morning I slept in until the wonderful time of 8am and then set out to do my 4 mile easy run.  It's the craziest thing, apparently when you work your legs HARD in a tempo run the day before, they magically settle in to what your "easy" pace is supposed to be.  Because of that, I spent the run not really being conscious of actually running, and just spent the 4 miles checking out the scenery.  Other than the moment that I thought I was going to get attacked by a flock (seriously 40-50) of geese, it was a pretty smooth, relaxing run.

I did 4 miles in 38:03.

I'm counting down the minutes until Taylor is done working so we can take off for the lake.  We're going to one of his best friend's cabins to spend the weekend.  Unfortunately it's cloudy and rainy, so hopefully that clears up before I'm ready to sun myself. :)

For foto Friday, I thought I would share some pics from the 4th of July weekend from last year.  

On the 4th we went to Lake Okoboji and it was a blast.  Here are some pics from that adventure.

Me & my old roomie post-lake layout getting ready to go out.

Part of our group taking a van/shuttle from the camp site into town.  My first adventure to Boji.  I needed a nap around this time.  Ha.

The day before the 4th we hit up the waterpark.  After a few hours spent drinking in the lazy river, we had an insane photo shoot.  I think over 200 photos were taken.  Here are a couple of those.

Our crew having fun in front of the splash play area.

Just getting some sun.  I heart summer.

Have a happy and safe 4th everyone!

Just Needed a Little SPEED to Put the Smile Back on my Face

Sorry for the woe is me and my boring training plan yesterday. Thanks for all your suggestions. :) I've never had a training plan call for easy runs back to back before, so I didn't realize how crabby it would make me. I think I'm definitely going to try some hillier routes on the Tuesday easy run, which will make it not easy anymore, and will make me smile. Then I will do an easy/recovery run Wednesday, speed workout Thursday, and easy/recovery Friday. Presto change-o, I'm a happy camper again. :) Also, to help with my training for the Wild West Relay, I may also decide to do the easy runs in one day--one in the morning and one in the evening. Just so my legs know what it's like to run 10-12 hours apart.

This morning I had a tempo run of 5 miles with the middle 3 miles at 8:14 pace and a warm-up and cool-down. It was a tough run, but tough in a good way. One of those runs that makes you feel a little stronger just by completing it. I gave myself a +5/-5 second range for the tempo miles, and pretty dang good.
1. 9:34 (warm up)
2. 8:10
3. 8:15
4. 8:10
5. 9:00 (cool down. for some reason it's REALLY hard for my legs to go slow on the cool down part of a tempo run. it just feels sooooooooooo slow after being speedy for a bit. oh well.)

My ab started hurting just the last .2 miles of the 3rd tempo mile, and I was bummed thinking that I would blow the time, thus ruining my tempo run altogether (very overly dramatic on my part, I know) but was ecstatic when the mile came in the same pace as the first. I must've been running stronger during the rest of the run to make up for it. Go me. :)

About my race on Saturday: I'm beginning to think it didn't exist. Seriously. No results anywhere. No friends or family there to see it. Still no plaque in the mail (as I was told by the race director). Did it only exist in my imagination???? Hah. Luckily I have the t-shirt, that can be my proof I guess. But I'm bummed that I'm not able to look over the stats. Secretly, I just want to know how many boys I beat, since I think only about 10-15 beat me. Heheh. Such a brat.

June in Review
I can't believe it's July already!! Holy crappers. This it the time of month that I look back fondly on my training and make you re-read some highlights for my own amusement. Seriously, how do I have any followers? jk. I hope you like my babble. :)

Total Mileage: 80.4 (increase of 6.1 from last month.)
Time spent: 11:52:52
Number of runs: 19 (I didn't miss a single run in this training cycle, ya me!)
Average run distance: 4.23
Highest weekly mileage: 24.6
Favorite run: 9 mile long run--the one that got me EXCITED for the SF 1/2
Favorite race: Salute the Troops 5k (which may or may not have actually existed...) The one where I PR'd, won my age group, and took 1st place overall woman. Holler. :p

Goals
Also, I've been inspired by aron at runner's rambles to set a mileage goal for myself for the year. Yes, we're halfway through it, so that's "technically" cheating, but I've never ran for a full year. Lame, I know. I usually only run from April-September and then quit.

For the first 6 months of this year, I ran 378.8 miles. A few years ago, when I had intended on running my first full, but wussed out, I had set a goal to run 800 miles in that year. Based on my first half mileage, and the 2 halfs I will be training for during the next 6 months, I would like to hit 1,000 miles. EEEK! No. Let me rephrase that, I WILL hit 1,000 miles. Stay tuned.

Day 2 of 1/2 Training...I'm bored...

I started my HM training this week.  I thought going with a new training program would spice things up again, but I'm boooooored.  The training plan calls for 4 runs during the week, Tuesday, Wednesday, & Friday easy and Thursday speed work.  I'm already sick of running 4 "easy" miles.  Blah.  Maybe it was just the fact that my bed felt oh so good this morning that has me "hatin' on" the easy runs.  I was thinking I might spice up an easy Tuesday with some hill work--maybe just once or twice a month to give me something different to look forward to.  Maybe I just hate the 4 mile distance, I dunno.  Rant over.  :)

Obviously, this morning I did an easy 4 miles, and my splits are eerily similar to yesterday's.  I a consistent creature, what can I say?  I did 4 in 36:05. for a pace of 9:01.

1.  9:36

2.  9:18

3.  9:13

4.  8:56

No crazy creature sightings, but I did run the opposite way, so that's to be expected.

Last night I had some delicious sushi.  I really wanted to take a photo of my raw kaisen salad (lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, kaisen dressing, and tuna, salmon, and two other kinds of sashimi).  IT WAS AMAZING.  How do the food bloggers not feel like complete weirdos taking pics of their food at restaurants?  I really wanted to but thought I would get some strange looks.  :)  Needless to say, the salad and my shrimp tempura rolls were amazing, and I left feeling full, but not painfully full, like I usually do when I go out to eat.  That's the thing I love the most about sushi, you never get that uncomfortably full feeling.  

Speaking of food, I'm going to go eat a leftover fajita for breakfast.  Probably the best perk about morning running, is I have an excuse to eat un-breakfast-like foods for breakfast.  A girl has gotta refuel!

[To get a chance to win some SWEET Zensah products go to Chic Runner's page.  Or don't because I REALLY WANNA win.  :)]