Hello Lover! Introducing Polly Sunshine Light....

Cue Miss America Music.....Isn't she lovely???? :)

I have been looking on craigslist for a bike for over a year now. I knew I wanted a beach cruiser type bike, but didn't know whether I wanted one that looked old school or actually was old school. When I found this beauty I was in love. After a weekend without internet, I jumped online a week ago Monday to find that her listing was gone. I was heart broken. A few days later I had an email from the seller asking if I was still interested. It was destined to be. :) She joined my family on Monday and it's 2rue love 4ever 4 sure. When she first arrived I immediately started thinking of names: Sunshine, Banana Split (yes apparently I was taking names for My Little Ponys, whatev), when it hit me--Polly. My buddy Matt cued the middle name as Sunshine, and the rest is history. Of course Monday was 40 mph winds, and yesterday I didn't have time to take her out, and today is 30+ mph winds again. I still may take her for a short jaunt to the local library. I'm so happy. Heheh. :)

On Monday night I decided to say pooh-pah to an easy run and do my speed workout that I had scheduled for the week. I wanted to do 2 speed workouts this week, and thought my legs would be fresh to do them on a Monday, recovered enough to do another one Thursday, and then be good to go for the easy long run on Saturday. Plus I love me some speed work (have I mentioned that before :) ?)

I haded to the gym with my old running buddy Matt (who was doing his second gym work out of the day, crazy kid) for some 400 m. repeats. My fave. Sidenote: Absolutely NOT MY FAVE when I had to do them in high school, but I digress. I was to do 5 miles; 1 mile warm, 6 x 400 in 1:35 (6:20 pace) w/400 jogs in between, and 1 mile cool down.

Since I had the crazy bike purchase after work, and didn't hit the gym until 8pm, I was STARVING. Definitely not the way to start an intense workout. Uff. I started the workout at a very leisurely 10 min mile pace for the first mile. Then it was ON! After the first 400 sprint/jog, I did have to switch it from jogging 400's to walking .15 as I didn't want to waste any of my waining energy on jogging. Lame, I know.

1 mile warm up 10:00

Interval #1 1:34 (6:16 pace)

Recovery jog 2:35 (10:20 pace)

Interval #2 1:27 (5:48 pace)

Recovery walk 2:34

Interval #3 1:29 (5:56 pace)

Recovery walk 2:38

Interval #4 1:29 (5:56 pace)

Recovery walk 2:42

Interval #5 1:31 (6:04 pace)

Recovery walk 2:44

Interval #6 1:33 (6:12 pace)

Recovery walk 2:44

1/2 mile cool down 4:53 (9:46 pace)

Uff da, I was dead tired after the run, and ooooooooooh soooooooo hungry. But nothing feels better than running fast and hard, that's for sure. It is kind of crazy to think that in 7th & 8th grade (when I ran distance for our HS team, actual high school years, I sprinted) I ran my miles at those paces, only without .15 walk breaks. That's crazy. I think my best mile time was 6:07. I can't imagine doing that now. :p Although it would be fun to see what my mile time is now....hmm.... interesting... :)

Yesterday was a boring, I mean easy, 4 miler. I grabbed my gear after work, had the garmin look for the satellite and I was off. Whoa, Garmin is telling me I'm running a pace of :45. That's kinda of crazy. Then all hell broke loose, it was beeping all over the place, mile 1 clocked in at :02, mile 2 at :04. I stopped, walked back the 10 feet to my apartment, and by the time I got there it read 3.14 for the distance. Does that count as a new 5k PR? I think so! I tried to tinker with it, but decided it wasn't a big deal since it was just a junk mile run. I fished through an old drawer and pulled out the old running watch stand by. This baby has been with me since I started running in 2005. Looks so much cuter on my wrist than man watch aka Garmin. :) We made a good team.

vs. 

The run was pretty boring, legs were a little tight/tired which is to be expected. Stretched really well post-run. I did the 4 miles in 39:15. I was keeping track of the splits, but gave up.

1. 9:57 ish

2. 9:40 ish

3. ???

4. 39:15-9:40-9:57-??? :)

I spent the evening running to Walmart to get a bike lock for Polly, dropping off the pics from the wedding (they're HILARIOUS!), get ingredients for cookies (nom), and stop by the grandparents for some supplies I was missing for an art project.

Last day without internet.  Can't WAIT for tomorrow.  :)

My Adventures to "The Cities"

Just a little background story: I hate to drive. In fact, I loathe it. I didn't own a car until I was 23. I didn't have my license until after I could legally drink. I drive to work and that's about it. Any time I can walk, I will. My longest "road trip" has been to home about 45 minutes away. After Taylor was no longer my date for my friend's wedding in Minneapolis, I started to freak out. Surely, I couldn't get there by myself. I sent text messages, I posted facebook messages and status updates begging for a ride. Nada. Then my best friend from college (who has been in Korea for the last year and a half) called to let me know that she was in Chi-town at her mom's and was going to bus up for the wedding. My new mantra in my new chapter of life is: Fearless. I decided to be fearless and go by myself. EEEEK!!!!

Friday night was spent reuniting with the college gang and college bestie over some Italian style pizza and beers followed by a dive bar where another college alum's band was playing. Unfortunately, both myself and Megan forgot our cameras at home, so no pics to document the evening.

Saturday we woke up and set out for a run along the river. My college buddy Rhode led the way, and I fell. in. love. Seriously, I am not putting it out of the question to movie to Minneapolis in the near future. And I am almost positive that I'm going to do the Twin Cities 10 mile next October, because I think 10 miles would be a fun racing distance. Again, I wished I'd had my camera because it was just a beautiful run, and I rarely get to have my friends come as running buddies. Imagine sweet bridges, sweaty smiles, and lots of catching up on each other's lives.

We did 4 miles in 36:37. Rhode was super obsessed with our mile times (obviously he fell in love with the Garmin a bit). We were pretty crazy consistent with the pace.

1. 9:09
2. 9:09

3. 9:16

4. 9:00

After the run we hauled our sweaty butts (literally in my case, light green shorts SHOW SWEAT, eew) to Chipotle. Eh, not that great. I think I prefer Qdoba. Then it was on to get beautified for our beautiful friend, Kathryn's wedding. Us three chicas were pretty much a packaged deal our senior year of college (randomly we didn't really meet/become friends til then). We did manage to miss the wedding, because of poor directions on how to get from the restaurant we ate dinner at to the wedding. I logged at least 10 miles (or what felt like it) in hooker-high high heels. At least they were cute I guess.

See? Tres cute shoes. :)

We did get disposable cameras, so hopefully I'll get some good ones to turn out, but in the meantime, we took full advantage of the photobooth that they had at the reception. Please enjoy. :)

It was easily the most fun I've ever had at a wedding, and it was a blast to be reunited with my college pals. My feet did NOT have nearly as good of a time as I spent most of the night carrying my heels and walking barefoot. Poor bruised foot pads. :( Totally worth it though.

Sunday was spent lying on the couch watch the Vikes game (boo!! Go Pack Go!) as Rhode is a huge fan, and procrastinating the trip home. I finally decided to get ready to go at 1. I started off for home and within a few minutes was confused as to why the speed limit signs were slowly waaaaay down, and then there were the random stop lights. Hmm...not sure why there would be stop lights on the freeway.... And then I realized a street marker indicating that I was NOT on the road I had thought I was and must have exited accidentally (who knows how long ago). No problem, I can just turn around and take the exit to get back on the free way, right? Wrong. I ended up in a residential area, in some quaint downtown looking area, all over the place.

I tried to use my Spidey-sense to figure out which direction I had come from and somehow made it back to the freeway, but the one that runs east-west instead of the north-south one that I was looking for. Something brilliant in side of me reminded me that the two must connect at some point. So I drove on. Eventually I ended up in St. Paul (ie: the WRONG way) and finally asked for directions. I stopped at a gas station, and after some heckling from the people inside (yes I was wearing a Packers shirt, it is Sunday for goodness sakes, I don't care if I AM in Minnesota, fools!) was finally turned in the right direction. After an hour detour, I was finally back on track and headed for home. :) Despite the detour, I still managed to make it home in 4 1/2 hours, and the way up was 4 hours, so not too bad. Hahah. I think I've put in my driving miles for 2009, I think I'll stick to my running miles now. :)

The Speedwork that Was (finally!) + Long (short) Run

Phew. I didn't ditch the speedwork on Thursday. Finally. Although it did take place at the gym. Oh well, I find it easier to do speed work on the treadmill because then I don't have to look down at my watch so stinkin' much. :)

I had 1 mile warm up, 3 x 800 m. in 3:43 (7:26 pace) with 400 m. jogs after, and 1 mile cool down on the agenda. While running, I positioned myself in front of a college football game. Suddenly I realized, I'm officially too old to chase after college football players. Sad. Unless they're 5th or 6th years, I suppose, but that either means they're dumb (boo!) or highly injury prone. Hah.

My legs felt pretty good during the run, and I was excited to finally speed things up a bit. I haven't done speed work since the week before my half (Sept. 4th!! geez!)

1 mile warm up 9:31
800 m. #1 3:33 (7:06 pace)
400 m. recovery 2:36 (10:24 pace)
800 m. #2 3:32 (7:04 pace)
400 m. recovery 2:33 (10:12 pace)
800 m. #3 3:36 (7:12 pace)
400 m. recovery 2:28 (9:52 pace)
1 mile cood down 9:48

Total time: 37:37 for 4.25 miles in 8:52 pace. Speedwork pace: 7:07 for 1.5 miles.

I had a bit of tightness in my IT Band during the cool down, but no real significant pain anywhere else. A little rolling pin action did the trick just fine post run. I do have to comment on the gym gawkers. FYI, when working out at the gym at night, the full length windows = mirrors. If you're staring at a girl's booty while she runs, she WILL be able to tell that you're ogling her goodies. Jeepers. It was almost comical how many people didn't realize I could tell exactly what they were looking at while ellipticallizing (make up word, pretty sure.)

Or is it a short LONG run.....?

Friday I got to scadaddle out of work at noon because I had come in on Saturday (blech). I was heading up to Minneapolis to one of my best friend's weddings, and was going to meet up with my best friend who is back from Korea before she heads to Cambodia, and to see a bunch of other college folks. Before I left I had to squeeze in a long run. By the time I got home, I realized there was no time for 9 miles, and down graded to 7. Who needs to run 9 miles when training for a 5k? Not this girl. :)

It was a pretty uneventful run as it had been raining most of the morning, so the trails were pretty dead. I hadn't eaten any food prior to the run, so I was definitely dragging until I took my first Gu at mile 2. I really don't remember much about the run except that I almost ditched my long sleeves to go in just my bra. Not sure how the weather can change in one hour from cold enough to need sleeves to too warm to wear a shirt. Icky.

1. 9:39
2. 9:38
3. 9:29
4. 9:25
5. 9:24
6. 9:13
7. 8:39

7 miles in 1:05:32 for a pace of 9:22.

I tried to keep my pace pretty conservative since I had a hard speed workout only 16 hours before, but couldn't help put push the last mile. I was on a time frame (I literally had an itinerary drawn up so that I could get everything done I needed to and get on the road by 3, my goodness!)

Still to come, why I want to move to Minneapolis, and pics from the most beautiful wedding ever. Also, if you would like some entertaining tales about my adventures driving to Minneapolis and getting lost, let me know, it could make it into the next post. Haha.

Just "running" some errands...

...NBD (no big deal). So my co-worker and I have this thing where we like to abbreviate absolutely everything. Hense, the NBD. It's getting to be quite ridic (ridiculous) but makes the work day much more comical.

Moving on. Tuesday I was a Slacker McSlackerson, and after a pal suggested I "take a rest day" because my legs were sore, I did. Even though my legs were no longer sore/tired. Grrr... Wednesday night I was set to do a speed workout, but a volleyball league meeting ran late, and it's hard to do a tempo run when you can't tell what pace your Garmin is showing you. Instead I did an easy 4 miler.

Silly me forgot to drop off the movie I checked out from the library. Why not run it there? Ok! I probably looked like a fool running with a DVD in my hand, but I got the job done. :) I ran a weird highly populated route, but knew that it would be well lit, so I dealt with the intense exhaust fumes. Blech. I ran TRES slow, as I had planned on waking up this morning to finally knock the speedwork out of the way. (What do you know, I decided to put it off until tonight!! You're killing me Jeri!!)

I don't have my exact splits but I know they ranged from 10:20 for the first one (running through lots of grass w/DVD in hand) to 9:58. My average pace was 10:10. At mile 3, I almost took a detour to look at Halloween costumes in a store that appears to have cropped up over night (as they often times do around Halloween season). I decided not to, but now totally wish I would've. Sweaty and all, looking at the most scandalous costumes they carry. Haha. Jk. Kinda.

Tonight I'm doing a speed sessions fo REALS. :) I decided to do the 3 x 800 with 400 jogs and mile warm up and cool down that my legs didn't feel up for on the schedule from last week, instead of the tempo run I (obviously) have been less than inspired to do. Hopefully all goes well. My apologies for the sporadic posting, but I'm finally getting cable and internet next Thursday, so I will be back in business. :)

Before I go, here are some official race pics I came across from my half. Sadly, there were no finish line pictures. :( Enjoy.

Did you miss me?

Sorry for the extreme neglect in the blog world. I've felt pretty uninspired to write, but luckily, extra inspired to run, so my apologies for that. My world's been a bit crazy. Anyway, moving on.

When we last met, I was limping through 1/2 mile. And pouting about it. After spending some time rolling my IT bands with a rolling pin, I felt soooo much better! Thursday morning I woke up, did some more rolling and stretching and headed out for a run. I did a 3 miler at an easy pace. When I first started out I had some pain, but once the legs warmed up I was golden. I was letting myself cut it short at 2 if I wanted to, but leggies wanted 3, so I gave it to them.

3 miles in 28:40 for a 9:34 pace.
1. 9:35
2. 9:29 (whoopsidaisy, need to pull the reigns in a bit)
3. 9:36

Friday I was toying with skipping my run after work, because I just didn't feel like running. Then I remembered how BADLY I wanted to run on Wednesday and couldn't, and decided to take advantage of my legs feeling good.

4 miles in 37:27 for a pace of 9:22.
1. 9:25
2. 9:25
3. 9:20
4. 9:16

Friday night was not-so-fun and resulted in me getting a whopping 2 hours of sleep before my Saturday shift. I may or may not have been prompted to sprint a 1/2 mile or so barefoot for reasons that shall not be revealed. The one thing I thought the next morning, "dang, I wish I would've had my Garmin on. I was bookin it." :p

Saturday was less than stellar and my stomach was KILLING ME. I couldn't eat or really even drink much, so doing a run was not even an option. I did go on a loverly walk with one of my favorite people in the world to talk/vent/brainstorm life ideas. We also may or may not have cut down fabulous spirally branches for her wedding centerpieces. I kept watch. :)

Sunday (is this play by play boring or what? this is what I get for not posting for a week. so sorry!) I finally had some food for fuel in preparation for my 9 miler. It was such a beautiful run. The leaves have started to fall so every step was a crunch-crunch. There is something just so blissfully beautiful and calming about fall. I think my 9 miler served as my therapy session for the weekend, and I'd be lying if I said some tears weren't shed. But there was also a lot of smiling and a lot of thinking.

I took the pace slower than I had been taking my long runs while training for the half, mostly because the legs still only feel about 95% and there's no sense getting hurt running 9 miles while training for a 5k. :p And yes, in case you were curious, it was happy couple evening on the bike trails apparently, and it was quite annoying. :)

I did 9 miles in 1:24:25 for a pace of 9:23.
1. 9:33
2. 9:23
3. 9:25
4. 9:31
5. 9:32
6. 9:27
7. 9:12 (chasing down a couple of runners here. stupid competitiveness. :p)
8. 9:14
9. 9:03

Somewhere in the aftermath of the long run, I forgot that I typically ice bath for runs longer than 8 miles, and just jumped in the shower instead. My legs were quite sore on Monday. Arrgh. Stupid Jeri.

Monday I did an easy 4 miles to loosen up the legs. I did a different route than normal and ended up doing a really hilly route. Lame-o for a recovery run. It helped me to keep my pace slooooow which I'm grateful for.

4 miles in 39:12 for a pace of 9:47.
1. 9:46
2. 9:51
3. 9:45
4. 9:44

It was ridiculously cold yesterday. Oh my. I had to bust out the running tights and a long sleeved shirt!! Unfortunately for me, I couldn't find my running underoos, so I spent the whole run freaking out about the possibility of splitting my running tights for the whole city to see. Ay ay ay, that would be no good. :) Beautiful fall weather, where did you go? The cold weather did prompt me to watch Elf, which always leads to a happy Jerbear. I love me some elf & Christmas.

Today the legs actually feel 100%. I might still do an easy run and then tackle a speed workout tomorrow. I've desperately missed my speed workouts. I feel the need for SPEED! Wow, that was the lamest thing ever.

In exciting news, I have a HUUUUUUUUGE list of crazy crafty-ish projects that I'm going to be working on in the near future, so keep your eyes out for some pics and sweet ideas. When life throws you lemons, make a list! :)

The First Run Back...That Wasn't

Today marked the day I was to get back to running.  WHOO!  2-3 miles at a snail's pace was on the schedule.  Um...I think I spent more time getting ready for the run and stretching then I did running.  :(  As soon as I started out I noticed a deep pain/tenderness/soreness in my right quad.  I decided to run for a couple of minutes to see if it needed to loosen up or what.  By the time I got to the end of the street (.33 miles) it was still pretty painful and I was starting to run with somewhat of a limp, although there wasn't any pain on the gradual uphill the last block.  I decided to head back for home and call it a day at .5 miles.  I hobbled the remaining .17 and then just walked the rest of the way home.  At one point, I actually realized that I was full on, bottom lip protruding, pouting.  Hah.  I guess I was looking forward to the run or something.  :p

.5 miles in 4:56 for a pace of 9:52.

I got home and stretched then decided to do some pushups and situps.  I haven't done pushups since the Sunday I got back from the Wild West Relay (whoops!) so over a full month ago, but I have been doing yoga fairly regularly.  I was excited to see where my upper body strength was.  I was able to knock out 20 in a row.  Heck ya!  I think the most I've done prior was 18.  I did my sit up routine (minus the ones that caused my leg to hurt ie:  bicycles, leg lifts, etc.).  Then I did another set of 20 pushups.  I felt STRONG.

After chowing on some dinner, I spotted something in my kitchen that I thought might help out my aches and pains--my rolling pin!  It felt so good/bad/good!  I just rolled out my thighs in all the areas that were sore.  I went back and forth between the right leg and the left leg until they felt 900% better.  I may or may not have packed the rolling pin in my bag to take with me to Taylor's tonight.  :)  Post-shower I coated the quads in a layer of the Biofreeze.  Oh.  So.  Good.

I'm supposed to do an easy 4 mile run tomorrow.  Hopefully I'll be able to get in at least a couple of miles pain free.  I'm itching to get back into training if you couldn't tell.  

Also, I signed up for the Run for Rita 5k on October 10th.  Oooh how I love to race.  Hopefully it hasn't snowed by then, that might hurt my chances to PR if I'm running through snow drifts!  :)  

In super sad news, part of the race photos from the half are uploaded to the website, and there isn't a finish line photo of me.  :'(  There are 2 pictures where you can see my shoulder sticking out behind a runner, but no finishing photo.  I'm so bummed.  Good thing I had such awesome photographers there to snap some great pics of me.

Hit up chicrunner.com for details on how to win a $75 gift certificate for Zensah.  If you win, you can get me a sweet gift for telling you about it.  :)

I'm a Television Star + Recovery

So I probably wasn't the smartest runner post-race.  I was so super crazy excited about how well the race went that I spent a long time just standing in the same place.  After the crowd cleared out a bit, I made my way to the line for the massages--bah!  More standing, no stretching.  Then, of course, as soon as I got home, I started looking at race results online, delaying the ice bath.  Because of that, my legs were a bit sore yesterday and still today, mainly my quads.  Given they are NOTHING compared to past races when I've wanted to die rather than walk up/down stairs.  :p

Yesterday I did a 30 minute Sun Salutation yoga routine.  I actually had to stop halfway through it to "regroup."  It did get my muscles nice and warmed so I could stretch them out some.

Today I had planned on doing some biking and yoga.  I went to the gym and did some easy rolling hills for 45 minutes at a low level of difficulty, we're talking 3-4 here.  I went 7.88 miles and when I was done my legs felt like jello.  Considering I haven't biked in probably 4-5 months, I suppose that's to be expected.  I stretched really well afterward, but the area of tenderness/soreness on the outside of my quads seems to be unstretchable.  I did try out some Biofreeze that I scored during the Wild West Relay and that seemed to help.  Hopefully I'll wake up tomorrow and be healed.  :)  I do have my first run post-race planned for tomorrow for an easy 2-3 miles.  I hope the legs are up for it, because I'm going a bit stir crazy without running.

In more half marathon news (yup, still riding a bit of a high from Sunday), I made the local news!  Yes, you officially "know" a celebrity.  If you'd like an autograph, please send a self address stamped envelope to me and I will send back an official finisher photo with my John Hancock on it.  Jk, I never buy my race pics, you think I'm going to buy one for you?  Heck no!  :p  Anyway, watch the video below (who's impressed that I was able to embed this video?  ME!).  I make my brief appearance around 8-10 seconds in on the far left side in green, obviously.

In other post races news, I do have some race statistics that I didn't report previously.

Division Place: 45 out of 148

Gender Place: 132 out of 559

Overall Place: 357 out of 971 After winning the 5k earlier this summer, Taylor's friends have it in their heads that I'm this awesome runner.  One of them asked what my place was, and he was shocked that I didn't know.  #357 is not one that really sticks in your head.  :p Also, the Vice President of my agency came down to my office today to see how my race went this weekend (!!!!).  I was shocked.  I had mentioned that I was running it at a potluck lunch we had about 2 months back and he said he used to be a runner back in the day.  I thought it was very sweet that he actually remembered and cared enough to seek me out to see how I had done.  :) And finally, as I mentioned in my half-marathon race report, I had tried to run BTTW for the final 5k of the race.  After quickly calculating my time for the last 5k, I realized that I had run in it 26:03 (or close to that, I don't feel like double checking my mental math).  When I got to looking at the 5ks I've done this year, I realized that the 5k I did in March, which was a PR by 45 seconds, was a 25:48.  In less than six months, I have improved my speed and endurance enough to run almost the equivalent after racing 10 miles immediately before.  I am shocked, but really just very proud of the dedication and effort that I have put in to training for 2009.  I'm excited to see what else these legs can do, hope you'll continue to join me for the journey. Thanks sooooo much for all your comments, congrats, etc.  They are all greatly appreciated!  :)