little bit of everything....

I'm thankful for the cool down in the temps we are about to get for a few days.
Saturday mornings run should be a good one with the lower temps.
I'm still going to try to get out there before 7am, though.  The plan will be to do the exact same thing I did last Saturday but just add an extra mile to it.  (7.5 miles is where I'm at right now with the weekend run.) 

Since Monday, I've done ab ripper, yoga, IT Band stretching, another short run in the Newtons, & I ran 5 miles with the NRC.  I actually stayed with the 10 minute group for the most part.  Since it was hot I sure wasn't going to push the pace down or run hills. I figure I get enough hills in our 'hood, I don't need to run hills on Wednesday nights. Believe it or not, we do have a flat route we can do in Nolensville.  I finished the evening with 5.76 miles at a 9:52 pace (.76 of that was the short Newtons run)

After work today, I'm meeting my personal trainer for the first work out. For the next three months, I'm meeting him at our gym for one work out a week.  Let the IT Band/Hip strengthening begin!

We registered for another 5k on June 16th (Chance for a Change 5k in Nolensville). 
Of course after that we'll be doing the 4th of July Frankenmuth 20k race.
We'll be ready for the 1st Striders training run, which should be around the 3rd or 4th weekend in July, I think...14 miles Bongo to Bongo.  That is the only training run we didn't attend last year that they do.
Our plan is to do the striders runs every other week then on the off weeks run with the NRC.  There is another gal that's doing Chicago this year in our group.  I told her our plans so I'm sure I may end up running some with her.  Her goal is much like mine.  Get there uninjured & maybe, just MAYBE get a PR.  She needs to break 4:26 & I need to do better than a 4:17.  If it happens, it happens....if not, Plan B is in place.  Plan B is to take it easy in Chicago & treat it as a 26.2 mile training run.  In other words, if it's HOT, take it easy in Chicago.  We are registering for the Monumental Indianapolis Marathon, which is Nov 3rd.  If we do ok in Chicago, then we'll just downgrade to the Indy 1/2.  (And of course try to get tickets to the football game that Sunday, since the race is on Saturday.)

Yes, we have our plan, Stan!

a busy week!

*Joe's parents left Wed after Jessica's awards ceremony.
*I checked out our new gym that finally opened in our 'hood on Wed & ran 4 miles afterwards.
*I signed myself up for 3 months to work with a trainer once a week to help strengthen the hip/IT Band.
*We both have job interviews coming up that we need to prepare for.....yikes!
*I cleaned out ALL my clothes that are way too big or just old.
*We made a trip to Goodwill.
*Joe cleaned the carpets up stairs, on the stair way, & the carpet in our cars.
*We ran with the NRC on Saturday morning (I ran 6.5 miles 9:16 pace with some slight rolling hills)
*We ate breakfast at Mama's Java's with the NRC group Sat morning.
*We ate dinner with them Sunday night at the Burger Republic that just opened in our 'hood.
*We ran the Memorial Day Dash this morning....hot as hell with a temp of 77 degrees at the start. (I got 2nd in my age group with a 26:35 & YES, that time is FAR from a PR for me. Go Figure! I haven't run this race since '08 & I had forgotten about the hills so I walked some of them!  Joe did a 22:18)

*The rest of the run group did a different, more low key 5k in Cool Springs & dominated it!
*We rented two movies, "The Descendants" & "I don't know how she does it". Both ok, but glad I didn't pay to see them in the movie theater.
*We also managed to do some shopping....Fleet Feet: $191.00 with tax = 4 pairs of shoes!  I did some shopping to replace clothes at Opry Mills, too. 

*We both went to our gym today on Memorial day for a little while & now we are finally home to clean up.
*Hannah & Jeff are coming over later in the afternoon.
*I'm sure I will have no trouble going to be early tonight!!!

THANK GOD IT'S A 4 DAY WORK WEEK!

feeling good

Yesterday: walked over 5 miles & did Jillian Michael's Shred dvd
Today: ab ripper P90X & ran 3.33 miles (I promise that wasn't planned!)
I threw in a little speed work this morning along with the recovery walk breaks...9:30 pace.

It was 66 degrees & it actually felt really good to me.
Does that mean I'm almost heat acclimated?  Who knows...

The gym is opening soon & I'm going to talk to a trainer about hip strengthening.
I may even hire a trainer for the first time in my life!  ha!

Happy Monday!

5 things accomplished yesterday

I managed to do ab ripper & some IT Band stretching yesterday morning before I headed southeast to Coffee County for the day.
I got the Honda two belts, AC belt & power steering. The original belts were dry rotted. My '03 Civic has nearly 155,000 miles on it. She got her oil changed & tires rotated too. I hope she still loves me after I hand her over to Jessica in April of 2014.
I made a much needed trip to the 'homa for a haircut & eye brow job.
I got to hold a ONE day old little boy named Eli. His daddy coaches cross country at THS. We used to watch a lot of football together back in my single days so I think I know where the name came from... HA!
I also attended the Miranda Lambert concert at Bridgestone arena with a gal I first met when we were in 3rd grade. Fun times! (yes, Blake Shelton did show up)
I didn't get everything accomplished but I think I got the important stuff checked off. Thank goodness for next weeks long weekend.

"girl time"

Looks as though I'll get a little "girl time" this weekend.  Yeah!  I need it.
I'm having lunch with my friend, Elaine, that I've not seen in over a year tomorrow in the 'homa after I get my haircut.  Then I'm meeting Sharon, who I've known since 3rd grade, downtown Nashville for dinner & the Miranda Lambert concert. I'm not a huge "country" fan as you know from reading my blog but Sharon had a ticket that would go to waste if she didn't give it to someone. I don't have to get up at "crack-thirty" to run tomorrow or Sunday so I'm in.

This morning I was up at "crack-thirty" & ran 5 miles. 10:07 pace so I was slow but I'll take it after doing Jillian Michael's "Bun Burner" DVD yesterday afternoon.  I HAVE GOT TO GET THESE HIPS STRONGER!

Have a GREAT weekend everyone!

6.16 miles under-fueled...yes, I know better!

We went to the NRC Wednesday night run. Since Joe needed to take it easy, he ran with me. There was literally nobody at all running 6 miles at my pace. Some do just 3 or 4 miles. Some do 5. A few do 6. There are different routes & I'm learning them a little better the more I show up. The regular 6 miler & 5 miler routes are hilly as HELL. Hillier than our 'hood. When I do those routes I almost always walk up a few of the hills.  We started out fine. We were running between a 9:20-9:30 for a little while then I started taking walk breaks.  The IT Band started burning but what was worse is that I was STARVING & THIRSTY.  (Note to self: Replace little hand held that we pretty much destroyed last summer.)  The last two miles were torture for me. I ended up with 6.16 miles at a 10:26 pace. Our NRC choice for dinner this week was the mexican place that has recently re-opened. I wanted to run in there & devour every chip & bowl of salsa they had but I managed to control myself. For now on when we're standing around listening to announcements, I'm going to be eating a little something & I will be drinking a lot more water/endurolyte drinks on Wednesdays at work. 

Yes, even though I've met my goal weight, I still battle the cravings & I still log everything in myfitnesspal.com. Btw, a miniature hershey's chocolate is only 42 calories. ;-P   Lately, I have fallen in love with light muscle milk in the chocolate flavor.  
I won't say I've become obsessed with it but I will not eat anything until I know how many calories are in it.
Now I've got to find time to go buy some new clothes. I hate shopping so that's something I need to psych myself up to do. I look like somebody's younger sibling wearing "hand-me-downs" right now.

Yesterday was my 1st attempt at getting in some speed work over at the track area in Nolensville.  Anyone who lives over that way knows it's not really a track. It's more of an asphalt walking trail that runs around the ball fields. With games still going on over there it was a bit hard to run efficiently so I'm thinking we may just do these in our neighborhood until school is completely out & the games are done.  I'm a VERY long way from being able to do anything resembling "speed work" anyway. ha!

I've been doing the usual, yoga, ab ripper, IT Band exercises, & still taking it quite easy.  The in-laws will be here Saturday through Wednesday so those days are going to be sketchy with getting in workouts. I am going to be in the 'homa Saturday running my usual errands down there but I'm definitely getting in at least a 6 mile run by then.

I can't believe we are nearing Memorial Day!

Results from the relay

Yep, I knew we were 2nd all female team across the finish line  ;-P

Go "NRC!"

Rutherford Relay Report

"The Rutherford Relay" (53-ish miles total) was put on in order to raise money for Juvenile Diabetes.  Diabetes runs on my mom's side of the family so I thought it would be great if I could participate.  I first heard about it from David, in the Nolensville Run Club.  He was putting together a competive team & wanted Joe. ha!  Joe wasn't the one interested. So, I told myself to just wait & see if anyone else wanted to put together a team of 5 "so-so" runners. ;-)  The Nolensville run club ended up with 4 different teams out of the 34 or so registered.  We all had a blast!
Sure enough, Adriane, put together a team at the very last minute. I committed myself in a sleepy haze while getting ready for the death march, better known as the Country Music event. After I finished CMM, Adriane, who had passed me the last few miles, found me, & was seeing how I was at the finish line.  I must have looked very bad! ha!  Anyway, she talked me into it & well, I'm VERY glad I did it.  Our only REAL gripe was the greenway portion that Adriane ran.  She & many others got confused as to where to turn in order to get out of the greenway.  Apparently, it was poorly marked. She even called us on her cell to tell us she was lost.  We were stunned. We started asking other runners if they had heard from their runners on that particular "leg".  Anyway, long story short, they all made it out one way or the other, some ran a little more, some a little less. ha!
For a small, inaugral event, it seemed to go smoothly despite the greenway portion.  It started at 7am in Eagleville at a school & finished in Smyrna.  The slowest runners started at 7:00, 7:15, etc...we had a 7:45 start due to our reported overall speed.  One of our runners got sick & had to back out literally the afternoon before but luckily, Tandy's little firecracker of a runner daughter joined us.  There was no age limit. Jamie was already training for her 1st 10k race, does track, & cross country.  I had already heard how fast she was from Joe.  She keeps up just fine with the "fasties" of the NRC.  She was EXCITED to be doing it & we were EXCITED to have her.  She turns 12 at the end of July & wants to do the "Middle Half" in Oct as her first 1/2 marathon. We all fell in love with her during our journey yesterday. Super sweet, well mannered, athletic, & a doll.  She took the Runner 1 "legs" that were originally mine.  They started 5 runners at a time & as you can see from the picture below, she couldn't have started off with 4 bigger guys!  Hilarious!  She left them in the dust, too.  ha! Her "legs" totaled around 9.5 miles, I think...the measurement on the mileage was off on some of the legs so she may have run a little less than that. I took the runner 3 "legs" which were around 10.5 miles total. 
Adriane was runner 2, I was 3, Tandy was 4, & Saraya was 5.  They are all strong runners.  Meaning faster than me but I managed to keep respectable paces.  Thank God for the overcast skies & the temps staying reasonable for May in TN!!  The humidity really got to me on my last  two legs, though.  My 1st leg was supposed to be 3.7 miles but my garmin read about 3.3 at an 8:42 pace.  I was happy with that but wondered where we would make up the difference. I made it up during the my 2nd "leg".  :-P  I wasn't the only one showing differences in the mileage but we were ok with it.  It wasn't like we were out there alone in the middle of nowhere or doing the nearly 200 mile Ragnar Relay.  We passed the walk/runners easily, & honestly I think we were first team in at the finish that had a 7:45am start time.  We may have been the first all female team in at the finish line but we won't know until it's posted on the website.  That sorta cracked me up but this was all for fun & not for big time prizes or anything.  Our team name was "Sisters with Blisters" & we managed to keep the faster NRC runner's teams from passing us.  That was our only goal....that & having fun.  ;-) 

My 2nd "leg" had just two turns but it was torturous on mostly concrete sidewalks in Murfreesboro.  I ran down Main St, turned left onto S. Rutherford, then left again on Greenland handing off to Tandy right where the "Middle Half Marathon" starts.  That "leg" was supposed to be 3.3 but was 3.87 per my garmin & despite taking a lot of walk breaks during the last mile, I ended up with a 9:11 pace.  Again, thank God the weather was great for May here & this entire relay course was mostly flat.

My 3rd "leg" was well....to be honest, no words can describe running down hwy 840 past 4 ramps.  ha!  Thank goodness, Jamie didn't do this "leg" because it would have made her mom & the rest of us nervous.  I had to laugh through. They warned us to be very careful because you had to make sure traffic wasn't entering 840 or exiting 840 when you crossed the ramp areas.  I was so confused when I read the route before I started then I realized what I was doing & just laughed.  The asphalt was new & soft but the humidity had me sweating profusely.  I somehow hammered out 3.4 miles at a 9:05 pace & was extremely suprised.  It felt so SLOW!  I was so glad to be done.  We all threw a lot of photos on facebook but I'll put some here from our "Sisters with Blisters" team.  ;-)

Jamie throwing some intimidation on the 4 guys starting the 1st "leg" with her.

  Adriane taking the slap bracelet from Jamie.  She's a strong runner.

Me, running deceptively strong in the humidity. ha!

Tandy, always smiling & always a strong runner.

Saraya taking off on one of her "legs".

"Sisters with Blisters"

  One more thing, I have to brag right now about my 13 yr old nephew, Avery, he's been running a 5:33 mile in track this year. I about died when my sister told me this today.  ;-)

bats outta hell...

I absolutely love the NRC.  I love that we meet literally up the road & there's groups running at all paces.  (Even a few walkers sometimes)  BUT, I always end up running with a group going way to fast for me.
Yesterday, I ran with or rather tried to run with 3 of the 4 women on our relay team.  Right now, two of them are, obviously, faster than me.  (Back in 05, 06, 07, I would have blown their doors off, though...)
They said they were going flat for 4 miles & of course, I'm ALL ABOUT FLAT right now due to the ongoing drama with my IT Band.  I failed to ask at what pace but I thought I heard one of them say they had done speedwork the day before & they were sore.  So, I took off with them.  We literally took off like "bats out of hell".  Mile 1: 8:45, Mile 2: 8:34, Mile 3: I let them go for a while....Mile 4: I was walk/jogging back to Martin's BBQ, which is our start & finish place without them in my sight.  I did 4.3 miles at a 9:07 pace.  If I had run the first 2 miles at say a 9:00 or 9:05 pace then I could've held on no problem.  That's my only gripe with the group. Everyone says one pace on FB but they usually end up running faster.  Joe's group says 8:30-9:00 on Facebook but when they're finished, they've run 8:20-8:30's.  ha!  Cracks me up!  So, I'm learning who runs what pace by experience.  I don't know all their little routes yet but thank goodness I saw two guys running & followed them back to Martin's. 
Note to self: Hang with T. Bolton & his buddies, who don't take off like a bats out of hell.  I know after this IT Band situation heals, I'll get back to my old paces but until then I've got to run steady, strengthen the hips (the root of the problem!), have patience with myself, & avoid the groups that run faster than me on Saturdays & Wednesdays.  ha!  Next Tuesday, we're going to attempt some speed work.  I will be doing my own thing.  ;-)

I am looking forward to the Juvenile Diabetes Relay Saturday.  I know it won't be as much fun as the Chattanooga to Nashville Ragnar Relay we did in 2010 but I think I'll enjoy it.  It's not every day you get to run from Eagleville, TN to Murfreesboro, TN, & finish in Smyrna, TN.  ;-)   Sometimes it's not all about speed, hills, flats, pacing...sometimes it's just all about FUN!

feeling the burn

Well, I have almost no 2nd day soreness from "Bun Burner" by Jillian Michael's.  I was a little sore & stiff when I left work yesterday, though. I walked/jogged 3 miles (yes, I'm still "resting") to & from the Chiropractor.  Let me tell ya, the massage therapist nearly brought tears to my eyes.

Sean: "What did you do that I need to fix?!"
Me: "Calves & IT Band, pretty please."
Sean: "Good, I get to make you cry today."
Me: (laughing nervously)

He digs into the back of my calves. He finds the knots & tries to press them out. He does cross friction on my IT Band. He even dug into the hip some yesterday.  I get about 25-30 minutes of torture relief before my chiropractor adjusts me. Right now I'm going about every 3-4 weeks. Like I've stated before on here, I sure wish I had gone to them before the NYC marathon. Maybe, just maybe I could've curtailed some of that IT Band mess on the front end.

So far this week, it's been walking/light jogging, yoga, ab ripper, & my 5 lb free weights.  Next Tuesday will be our first speedwork session.  Now I need to review how to set my garmin correctly for that. Yes, it's been that long....  Unfortunately, the Nolensville track seems like the ghetto compared to the THS track but we'll deal with it.

I got a coupon code deal from gearbuzz today & bought these babies!  (Pro Compression Socks) They're lighter weight than CEP & way cooler than Swiftwick. (shhh, don't tell Joe I dissed his socks!) 

I got a running hat in today & I'll probably try it out tomorrow when I run with the NRC. Not sure how much I'll run or if I'll do hills.  I'm just playing it by ear right now with mileage in May.  June will be a different story. I'll be back to 8-11 mile weekend runs next month since July 4th will be my first ever 20k race.  I can't wait!

stuff

We met up with a few folks yesterday morning at 6:00am. I NEEDED to run flat & see what my legs had in them after two full weeks of me taunting the IT Band with two 1/2 marathons in a row.  3.1 miles in 8:55 pace  We then met the later group at 6:30am. I NEEDED to run slow.  So, I hung back after the first 1/2 mile or so then we saw lightening, the rain started, then thunder.  THEN A DOWNPOUR!  Joe & I cut it short so I think I had 2.6 on the 2nd run of the morning 10:17 pace, I think...  We were soaked to the bone.  (I later walked a very slow 2 miles to the Cinco de Mayo party in our 'hood.)  I logged every bit of this in myfitnesspal.com. 

I also met the other 4 gals in the relay. There's 5 of us & something like 55 miles to cover next Saturday.  Unfortunately, NONE of them could stay to talk about the relay plans.  So, I sat with the other NRC members & listened in on their planning.  We all laughed that we were all saying "Well, it's JUST 55 miles."  Just about all of us have done the Ragner relay so this should be a cake walk for most of us.  I'm type A with planning stuff like this so I listened to their plans & what they had learned about it. I'm not the team captain but I'm going to be prepared, ok!  So, I've suggested to "Sisters with Blisters" that we meet at 6:20am at Martin's bbq in order to get to Eagleville plenty early to listen to instructions before we run.  I'm runner 1 & my first leg is my longest, 5.2 miles.  The other 2 legs I do are just over 2 miles each.  I think I'm only running 9.6 miles & a good bit of it winds around Murfreesboro.  I need to study the map more today or this week.  The weather looks promising...better than CMM weekend!

Today, I did Jillian Michael's "Bun Burner" dvd for the first time.  Work out 1 was challenging but not too awfully bad. I can tell my core is a lot stronger than it was a year ago.  I've been working on my boy style push ups so that has really helped in doing some of these moves.  I then walked 4 miles fairly slow & don't have a heart attack but I took the bike out.  Took me forever to get the tires pumped but they don't appear to be leaking.  The breaks rub on the right side pretty bad so they need adjusting.  I took it out in our 'hood for 6.68 miles without clipping in.  I wasn't about to risk falling off that bike the week before a relay.  ha!

Now that I'm pretty much down to my goal weight, I'm going to work on strengthening the hips.  (Thanks Jill for the videos & links!)  I lack roughly 1.5 pounds getting to my goal weight so I adjusted myfitnesspal.com.  So, the goals for the next few weeks will be to do hip strengthening & get that 1.5 pound off for good.  I will attempt some speedwork with Joe & most likely that will have to happen on Tuesday nights down in Nolensville at their track area.  I've decided NOT to sign up for any short races in May.  I'm just focusing on the above & getting ready for the flat, hot 20k in July. 
There you are...my goals....now I need to be accountable.

Excited about running "The Rutherford Relay" for Juvenile Diabetes

The weekend....YEAH!!

I've had a SUPER BUSY work week so I'm ready for the weekend.
I'm attempting a somewhat FLAT run in the morning with the NRC.
I really don't know how far I'll go but I can assure you it won't be 13.1 miles!

We have the kids this weekend & it's Joe's 44th birthday.
Other than running, breakfast with the run club, & the Cinco de Mayo party in our 'hood, we have nothing else going on, thank goodness.  We are ready to lay low for the weekend.

I have an itch to get my bike out but it's been 13 months since I've got it out.
I hope my tires are ok.  I may pump them up & see if they go flat.
It would be nice to get it out this weekend even if it's a very short ride.

I registered for the Frankenmuth, MI Volkslauf 20k yesterday. Whoo Hooo!
It's the 4th of July & it's supposedly flat.
By then I'll be acclimated real well to the heat but I am hoping Frankenmuth is somewhat cool on the 4th.
Knowing my luck, it'll be warmer there than it is here but I'll take a flat course in the heat over a hilly course in the heat anytime!

I completed the Country Music Marathon/Half Marathon survey yesterday. 
After doing the 1/2 in 2004, Full in 2005, Full in 2006, Full in 2007, 1/2 in 2008, 1/2 in 2009, & the 1/2 in 2012, I'm done with giving them my money.  I told them that until they move it to another date earlier in the year or move the start time to 6:00am or even 6:30am that I'm NEVER running the Full or the 1/2 again.    As I said in an earlier post, I may volunteer but I'm done with this race.  Like the Moon Pie 10 Mile race in Bell Buckle in June, I've been there, done that...I don't want to do it again.

recovering & just plain busy

I'm recovering from the 1st 1/2 & the 2nd 1/2 this week with yoga, walking, ab ripper, & a whole lotta IT Band exercises. 

Next up...."The Rutherford Relay" with 4 other women from the NRC.