Mrs D - you are awesome! You give me courage and inspiration to keep going. I hope you realize that we are in this together and cheering each other on. I, too, am trying to go with the pants-o-meter and having a tough time breaking from the scale.

Nilla- I am doing 4:1 intervals and plan on doing some type of an interval through all my training and into the marathon itself - no shame in walks. Someone in my group realized her time was better with the intervals and recovery was easier, too. Figure what works best for you.

Today I did 40 min and part of the route for our 10 miler on Sat. It was uphill and TOUGH! I probably did about 30% of the total hill and a mile or so of the actual run. I will be a hurting puppy on Sat, but onward and upward. It will also be getting hot and humid again (of course). I just got a 70 oz hydration pack, so that will be its test. BTW - it came without directions. Do I need to do anything special after to clean it or just let it drain and air dry?

There has been some discussion in my running group about ChiRunning and Daniel Dreyer. Anyone know anthing about it? I put the book on reserve at the library so we will see what he has to say. I am very unfamiliar with the philosophy, but agree with strengthening the core and running from more than just the legs and feet. I'll let you know more after I read it.

Hi Cool runners,

MrsD - Great about the pants !! Congratulations !!

For me the scale does not move at all, I am hanging around the same weight now for the past 6 months. however, I have the vague impression that pants are looser, and that I am seeing some more definition in my legs. I get my motivation to continu from reading all the effort that the others at 3FC put into this.

Today i started lifting again. i did UBW, and my R elbow has survived. Also i ran 3.3 kms.

have a great day,
rabbit

First of two long weekends in a row here, so I got to "sleep in" until almost 7am and still go running when I got up. Baby dd still has her cold though, and was up coughing on and off from 3am onward (although she seems fine now and ate a huge breakfast) so I don't really feel like I slept an extra hour. Anyway, I went out for a 9k run to make up for not going out yesterday and was back before 8am.

Sweater Girl, sounds like you have a challenging schedule with combining the two clinics. I think the only way to truly know your race pace is to run a race. I did a 10k time trial by myself two weeks before my last race, and was a minute slower than my race time. And I thought I was going all out. But being able to pace myself with other runners during the race pushed me out of my comfort zone. Which half are you training for?

Leanne, Sounds like your new program is perfect for you. Since you already know you can run 10k, a lot of novice programs would be a bit too easy. And wow! Good luck to your husband with his training for the ironman and "mountain man".

MrsDawsondn, WOW! Congrats on the new SIZE 18 capris! You don't really need to throw in intervals unless you want to. One easy, fun way to do it though, is using fartleks. So, after warming up for a few minutes, tell yourself you're going to run a bit faster for, say, one block. Then jog slowly to recover. Then go as fast as you can to the light post on the corner. Etc. There's no formal distance or speed to the intervals, so you can make things fun and shake up your workout.

Ellen, good luck with 10 miles this weekend. It sounds like a challenging course.

Rabbit, looser pants and better muscle definition are a great improvement.

Way to go Mrs. D! Sounds like you are doing great!

Its going to be a HOT one here today! Luckily it is my day off. HOpe everyone has a great weekend.

SJ

YAY to me - made the 10 miles in 2:20. It was a tough hill course for the first five miles and a down hill course for the next five. As one other person said to me, "this is where we separate the wheat from the chaff" and find out who will actually follow through the program and who will give up before it gets really hot here in DC. This is the toughest of the 10 mile courses and will be repeated at least 2 more times before Oct. I guess this was my baseline. Now I know I can do better the next time when I have more training under my belt. Of course, a few hours ago I was thinking "half marathon?" and before that, while in the run "am I nuts?". Amazing the difference a few hours (and a nap) makes

Gee ellen that's awesome time!!

I need to run tomorrow...I haven't in a couple of days

lol, tomorrow is my "big run" of the week...my program is in MILES...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH, yeah 4 miles sounds all nice b/c it is a round number, but when you put it into KM's it is ODD....hahahaha, oh well!!
I am still liking my program, hard for me to not want to PUSH and run more than I should, so I am working on taking it day by day and working harder to get FASTER!!!

Good Luck everyone, hope you have a great weekend

Leanne

I did 5k yesterday afternoon in the heat and "only" a 16k long run early this morning before it got too hot out. It was hot enough already to slow me down a bit though.

YAY! Ellen on finishing your first 10 mile run.

Leanne, if you want to run in kms instead of miles you can always round up or down a bit to get more even numbers. So, 3 miles=5k, 4m=6 or 6.5k, 5=8k, 6=10k, etc. A few hundred metres either way here and there won't matter much in the overall plan.

Ellen - That sounds like a great time to me! I'm sure you would be able to do a half-marathon.

Leanne - I know what you mean about miles vs km, but in the other direction! I have so much trouble thinking about how many km's I am running. The only thing that's easier is that the indoor track at my gym is 200m, so 5 laps is a km, but 8 is a mile, and 8's are weird numbers to count in!

I hope you're all beating the heat! It's broiling out here today (yesterday too). My bf and I ran a little under 4 miles this morning, but it was slooooow because I was so hot. I was totally exhausted, even though I usually run a lot faster than I did today. Lots of water fixed that problem! Friday morning I set a new PR for a mile . . . 11:04! My previous one (a week and a half ago or two weeks or something) was 11:27, so I think that's a great improvement! Hopefully I'll be able to do a 10 minute mile someday soon!

Stay cool!

Clippy -- That's great improvement!!

I did 12K this morning and dang it all it took me 1h40.... I walked the last 1.5k though but still that is sooo freakin' slow... But it was hot by 8:30, that's what hubby keeps telling me, since I've been harping about this since this morning .... I'll blame it on the heat too.... I floated in the pool for an hour afterwards and fell asleep too... I do this all the time, my g/f says I'm gonna drown someday

WOW ellenwu great!!! congrats in that race sounds great!!

LeanneM83 sounds great getting that interval training in

And only me thanks for that advice I may try that tomorrow running one block then slow down for the next block that sounds good.

4rabbit those pants sizes will be coming down in no time with you weight training I'm sutre of that and I knwo what you mean about the plateau. I haven't weighed myself since Last week so I'm looking forward to this saturday. i'm trying to avoid the scale as much. I can feel a difference I know that the weight is coming off.

Unfortunately I haven't run much this week but tomorrow is a new day and I will be out on the road pounding the pavement and in to report on it
paperclippy don't feel too bad about all of that heat, we've had smog alerts all weekend up here because of the heat it's been terrible.

Thanks for the encouragement skinny jeans your so sweet!

MrsD -- I fogot to congratulate you on your new size 18s, awesome work...