Hello my running friends! Haven't been around much lately, but I have been running, I promise (better be, now that I've signed up for a marathon). I was in NYC last weekend for a mini-vacation and went for a run in Central Park with my girlfriends. We didn't go far, maybe 3 miles in total, but it was a lot of fun! The jogging path there is just crazy - way too many people zipping along with not enough space (suppose that's true of Manhatten as a general rule), so I don't know that I could make it my regular running route if I lived there, but it was fun to try it out. And being New York, there was also a fashion shoot going on righ next to the jogging path!

Lisa, I am soooo excited to read your coaching reports. I think it is amazing that you decided to do this, and I am very proud of you (as is your hubby, I'm sure).

Broke the 12 minute barrier!

I ran 2.2. miles in 25 minutes. Better and better each run.

It's got to be said. You all are SO inspiring!!!

Grrrrrrr...

No running for me for a while. I tripped over the puppy when taking him for a walk yesterday and wrenched my ankle. It's not to bad (iced and rested it) and I can walk if I keep it in the same position, but no running for now. No aerobics DVDs either. Yuk!

Ah well, nothing much I can do about it. Keep running everyone (who can!).

Snuggles,
Jax

Aww Jax -- I'm sorry about your ankle! But it will heal and you'll be back out there!

Tricia, you're doing so great!!

Rachel, I'm proud of you too -- a marathon, wow!! I don't know if I'll ever get to that point. I had a moment during my 13-mile run this morning when I thought...hey, I'm pretty comfortable with these longer runs now, so maybe I'll eventually get to the point where I can train for a marathon. Then, in my 13th mile, I sort of crashed. It was a REALLY good run for the most part, though -- I ended up with an average pace of 11:47, which is good for me when I'm doing more than 10 miles. I felt pretty strong.

I had to skip cross country practice to get my long run in, but I'll be with the kids again on Saturday. It's fun, even if most of them can leave me in the dust! I'm still working on getting the girls to stop all that walking and to pace themselves.

Fitting my runs in will be pretty tough from now on, as today is my last day off. School is here again -- eek!

I did 2.15 miles in 25 minutes today. Just a tiny bit better speed wise. Tomorrow is my last 25 minute run and I am going to try to do 2.2-2.4 miles, but we'll see. I am still just happy finishing the runs at this point.

I had a really good run on Monday, and followed it up on Tuesday morning with a gentler and slower recovery run. Then on Tuesday evening I made the mistake of getting very drunk, which really killed me on my run on Wednesday evening which was an 11 mile off road route which I had no way of getting out of doing, even though I really wanted to. It was a recce for a race in a couple of weeks which isn't marshalled and involves you following quite complicated directions, so you really need to run the route beforehand to know where you're going, and I didn't have the mobile numbers of the people I was doing it with to rearrange. I got to half way and begged them to let me stop, but the second half was actually better than the first, thankfully! No running yesterday, I wasn't hungover any more but was very tired after being out three nights in a row, and I went out and did another 4.4 this morning which did feel a lot better so hopefully the tiredness has worn off a bit. Tomorrow is my rest day, and I'm planning a long run on Sunday.

Yikes, sounds like a rough go Helen. I can't do much on a hangover, let alone an 11 mile run!

Did not enjoy my 3.25 yesterday. It wasn't that hot, but I ended up having to take a considerable walk break because my dog just refused to keep pace with me at some point. He didn't look so good and I didn't want him to overheat. Anyway, it was one of those runs where by the end you're thinking, "please god just let it be over I want to die now". And I had a side stitch. Blah! Anyway, got it done.

Supposed to be cool and perhaps a bit rainy tomorrow, going for an early morning trail run by the lake.

Awww, crap... tried to up my speed on the treadmill today to 6mph (not exactly Speedy Gonzales!), managed 10 minutes and then walked. Tried to run again after five minutes walking - nope, today is NOT a running day. I bet I feel more 'up to it' tomorrow

Hope all are well!

Heather

Oh man Heather we must be cosmically connected. I tried to start out at 5.6 made it about 10 minutes and forced those last 15 out so I didn't have to repeat. Went down to 5.3, choked, went to 5.2, died, went to 5.0 and pushed it. Went back up to 5.6 for the last 2 minutes but man I shouldn't have tried to start out that fast. Big time mistake.

I am entering week 8 of C25K on Monday. Three extra monutes isn't going to effect me much, but when I am going to be conditioned enough to not be puffing and panting after 5 minutes of running? I thought by now I would be doing less heavy breathing.

I know I've said it many times before, but seriously...you guys doing C25K really shouldn't worry so much about speed. You'll get faster in time. Heck, you're already going faster than I do half the time, and I've been running a bit longer. I worried a lot about speed at first but I've seen that with time you really do get faster sort of naturally as you build up your mileage, so I'm trying to be patient about it now. It's better to do slower, easier runs at a pace that you can sustain for a while. You can do those intense shorter runs later after you've built up mileage. And keep in mind -- you're doing GREAT! I'm very impressed by the progress you've made.

I did 3.5 miles with the cross country team this morning through lots of wet grass and dirt and such. There were big storms here the other day, so we were leaping over lots of fallen tree limbs -- it was quite a little adventure! I probably shouldn't have done it, though, because I'm having some pain in my right ankle (the one I broke a few years ago). It's been hurting since my 13 mile run on Thursday, so I need to keep an eye on it.

Thanks, Lisa - I REALLY needed to hear that today! You know, I'm sure I promised myself I'd do 3.25 miles three to four times a week at 5.2mph for ALL of August... so why did I try to push it? Bizarre.

Okay - if you guys see me posting that I put the speed up on my treadmill, please give me a good, swift or ! Come on, !

Of course, if I happen to sneak up the incline, that's another story!

Heather

PS - Cakses - I'm not running today either - I walked the dog this morning, and MAN, my calves are KILLING me!! I'll try again tomorrow

Cakses--I am with you on the breathing thing. I did 25 today, and I did pretty well, though I admit to coming to a full stop to wait for traffic both directions when crossing a busy road. I was grateful for everyone of those cars, thank you very much. None of that running in place stuff for me!

Slow down you guys! I really don't carefully track my distance or speed a lot of the time. I have a couple 3 to 3.25 mi routes near my home that I run and use my watch, but on trail runs I wouldn't even know how to figure distance accurately. I figure I can pace myself to get through the amount of time I want to run, and I never feel like I'm taking it too easy, so that's good enough for me.

GLORIUS run this morning. It was cool, a light drizzle, and I made it through 45 min. I'm guessing about 4 miles, felt really good. Quite a few friendly joggers/runners and dogs out on the trails, love that.

Had this crazy idea that I should be able to do a full hour soon. My runs during the week are usually 30 - 35 min, if I only run longer once a week should I be able to build up to that reasonably soon? I was thinking I could just tack 5 min on to my longer run each week. That would get me there in just 3 weeks.

that is a good plan shananigans!

been running but not much time to post lately 15 today, 10 yesterday, 7 on wed. A little weaker than pre illness but not too bad.

Rachel - I hope we can meet up when you come to portland

Rachel and Ennay, I'm totally going to be jealous if you guys get to meet up in Portland! That's much too far away! We need to plan a race we can all do in the center of the country or something!

I'm not running today because my ankle is still hurting, and it's kind of killing me not to run. I'm seriously craving a run, and I'm having to talk myself out of it. What a change from my former life!

I believe I'll do some yoga instead...