loquacious - reading your challenge to give money to a charity you dislike made me laugh out loud. that is a creative way to motivate yourself!

Back at it! Just easing back into running after a hip injury - ran 37 straight minutes on the treadmill today! Yay! Ran 3.1 in under 43 mins - working my way to under 40! Slow for some but fast for me! LOL!

Sorry, I've been MIA for a while - busy running! I've got one more half marathon to go for this season, on Sunday. That makes 5 halfs in 5 months for me and the third since Jan 31.

It's counterintuitive, but I've actually gained a few pounds since the New Year. I always end up this way ... I run fewer miles between tapering a bit for the race and recovery (burning fewer calories) yet I eat more to fuel the race and recover afterward. OK, I re-fuel too much, I admit it. After this Sunday, I'll get back into normal training mode for a few months, pull my eating back onto plan, and hopefully see the scale settle back down where I like it. I have been running well this year, though, so it's not all bad! And I've been able to stay injury-free, which is the greatest blessing.

I've got big, big plans for next season .... a full marathon in Idaho in September (with my sister), the Goofy "race and a half" challenge in Jan 2011, I've already signed up for 2 more halfs in Jan/Feb 2011, and who knows what else. I'll be starting to seriously ramp up mileage again in just a few months!!

Happy running ....

Hi all, just a drive by post....

Since having a later HM date I got to ease up on training for a bit; went out for 7 miles today and ROCKED it. Felt really good, and really happy with my pace. And... I love my new shoes!

I went for a half jog/walk on the track, and wow. It felt SO GOOD. If the front of my calves didn't feel some kind of way, I would have kept going.

Hi all computer problems have kept me away for a bit. My running has been less this week due to an angry IT band. That's never happened to me before. Beach running on very very tired legs. I was chatting with my chiro about my hammy issues the last few month and he thinks it is due to disproportionately weak hamstring muscles. now I have to try to fit lower body weight training in too. Fun. I don't mind the weight training per-say it's just more of a complication with my run/ bike schedule. DH and I are planning a two day 200 mile ride in July, so my bike time needs to ramp up .


FP: how goes your no sugar resolution? You inspired me to add refined sugar to my yearly resolution. No refined or artificial sugar except for training purposes . Not as hard as I thought, but I'm literally dreaming about having a coke zero. On the bright side: I baked a super yummy cake, carried it on my lap to a party, and happily watched everyone eating it without feeling deprived in any way. My 11 year old thinks I'm INSANE.

Anyone else give up something tough for lent?

Hey everyone!

Glad to see some new faces. Everyone is doing awesome.

Momof5k- congrats on the sub 10min! That is something I hope to accomplish one day.

MBN- you are an amazing woman! Ur my inspiration!

So since I haven't been able to run, but still itching to use my garmin 305 I just got, I tried out the hrm during a few workouts and I am really disappointed. Either it's broke or I'm not doing someting right because during Chalean extreme, it says i burned 28 calories. 45 mins of intense weight lifting and i only burn 28? I decided to give it another try, this time with 45 minutes of INSANITY. 15 calories burned. WTF??? Yep. Somethings wrong. The calories burned seemed to work right when i ran with it but it doesn't work right with stationary type workouts. anyone else have this problem?

Oh and I have a physical therapy appointment next week!

Eve, I've never tried my Garmin with stationary workouts, so I have no clue. I do notice a slight difference between my Garmin calorie count and my Polar F7 calorie count (Polar is higher) on runs, though.

Geranium, thanks for asking about the great sugar experiment. The first week was really tough... I was having cravings for sugary things that normally don't appeal to me (pink snowball cookies, anyone?) Now it's not so bad that I am almost 3 weeks into it. It AMAZED me how much sugar I was consuming via liquid form. If anything, it has really opened my eyes to how many calories I was drinking. Interesting stuff. I totally understand dreaming about sugar.. I did that, too!

Hi all! Been missing a couple of weeks. I have been sick and it sucks. I went out for a run yesterday...first time in a week and 1/2. I ran 6 miles easy, it was an awesome run. I actually ran to my mom's house and had dinner with my family (sweaty , but they didn't care). Then they drove me back home since it was so dark out.

Oh Oh OH I got a black toenail, courtesy of my 10 miler I did rt before I got sick!!!! I was so pleased

MBN - That is INSANEly AWESOME! Keep up the great work.

Momof5- WTG on your sub 10 mile.

Blueridge - Speaking of weight training that is what I really need to work on....I keep saying I am... Yay for first races. Its an awesome feeling! Congrats

Eve - have you entered like hieght and weight info and are you wearing the chest strap? I know you're like "duh" but I just wanted to make sure.

Fatpants and Geranium - I gave up diet coke and cursing. Hard very HARD. I keep daydreaming of an ice cold diet coke with condensation dripping down the can. Cursing is going O-Kay, at least I NOTICE when i've said a curse word now!

NYgal - I have noticed that my chins burn badly when power waking but once I start to run the burning goes away...go figure

Congrats on all the forward movement ladies.

Eve: Maybe it has something to do with being indoors. Call Garmin and see if they have advice for you.

Cake: Is it gross that I got a little drool reading about the condensation dripping down the side of the can ? I day dream about the light chest burn from the first really long drink............... Heaven.

SG - Nope! Not gross at all. I daydream of the same thing .

I had a great time with my cousin. She is just starting out (in her adult life, she used to be a track runner, like me in our teenage years) running and I am "training" her. I felt so neat that she asked me. We had a great time ended up jogging 3-1/2 miles of the 4-1/2 total. I will meet with her again on sunday.

That's the funniest thing I've heard all day!

Running has sucked this week. After my 7 miler on Saturday, I haven't run since... fighting off a cold and my energy is totally drained. I have a race on Saturday so I would like to get a run in today or tomorrow... maybe I will run a few miles before conditioning class tonight.

I'm hoping I can get some advice from some more experienced running girls...


I just finished C25K and would like to increase the number of days i'm running. I'm thinking of running Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. That's not to much for a beginner is it? Also, how do you work on increasing speed? I'm still not quite up to running 3 miles yet. Should I just work on reaching that and then working on speed?

Hello all! I just realized that I hadn't actually subbed to this thread so I missed a bunch of posts thinking "boy this running thread sure is quiet" D'oh!

Thanks for all the congrats! I felt good to break that barrier..if only by a second and when only running the one mile. I have seen my long run pace improve a lot though too over the last few months so I know that I am making decent progress.

I am still working through Hal Higdon's 10K training and it's been going fairly well. This week should be my longest run ever (5.5 miles), i am just not too sure when I'll be able to fit it in. My hubby's 40th birthday is Sunday and I am planning a surprise party for him on Saturday night so....my long run may have to wait until Monday.

Zephyr524: I am not an expert by any means but I followed the same path you did (C25K) and had the same questions when I was done.

I just kept on working towards increasing endurance so I could actually do a whole 5k, and the speed has been increasing on it's own....as I run more and as I lose more weight. Keep working! It will come

I am going for the same goal.. a sub-40 5k. I have a 5k race scheduled on the 20th which i am crossing my fingers for! Last year i ran the same 5K in 41:47, so we will see.