4.51 mile run (2/28/12)

Yesterday for the first time I met a running group, People Who Run Downtown.  One of my coworkers founded it and has been telling me about it for 6 months.  I will definitely be going back again.  It was nice to meet some more runners.

We met at Bettis Grille and I barely made it, but I did make it in time!  I wanted to try for a 10:30 pace but the people who run that had already left.  There were some people there who usually run around a 9:30 pace but they let me tag along and said they'd been planning on running a little more slowly than that, anyways.

We ran from the Bettis Grille around the Casino, over the West End Bridge, and kind of through part of the Southside to the Smithfield Street Bridge.  The rest of the group kept following the path that was laid out- it was a 6 mile run.  I wasn't sure I wanted to go that far, so I split off that point and tried to figure out the best way to get back to Bettis Grille.  I didn't go the most direct way, but I did get 4.5 miles in, which was my goal.

The first 3.5 miles were with the group and they were going faster than I thought I could be comfortable with.  However, I didn't even notice the miles and was talking pretty much the entire time.  So maybe I need to start running faster in general...  I'm still trying to figure all of this out.

Here's the map of my run:

And the mile splits:

Distance	Split	Sum
1	09:49	09:49
2	09:44	19:33
3	09:50	29:23
4	10:43	40:06
4.51	05:23	45:29
	Avg pace	10:05.0

Week 7 half marathon training

Week 7


Plan miles:  16 miles running plus some cross/strength training
Actual miles:  19.03 miles in 3:32:29 and 80 minutes of cross training (23.8 miles on the bicycle)


I think it's time to retire my first pair of running shoes- the teal ones.  I was fine on the treadmill, twice, and my knees didn't hurt.  I generally wear the purple/newer shoes on the treadmill to break them in and keep them cleaner.  On the long run, I met 5 other people at North Park and at 3.5 miles in my knee was hurting pretty badly!  In fact for a little bit I was limping.  So it made the long run really hard.  When we finished the first loop (5 miles) 3 of the 6 people left but during discussions someone mentioned needing new shoes and it clicked that when I've run with the teal/older shoes, my knee has hurt pretty consistently.  I keep blaming it on other stuff- for example, running in the sand on Tybee Island, then running a race the day after that, etc.  But maybe it's as simple as the shoes.  I'll try out my next long run with the purple shoes and see if it makes a difference.

Before the long run at North Park.
2 of us are signed up for the full marathon and 4 of us are signed up for the half marathon.
Photo credit to a random runner who was at his car.  :)  And Colleen's camera

My longest run was supposed to be 7 miles and I made it a quasi 8-10 miles, depending on how you count it.  The first loop (5 miles) was with 6 of us and we ran in intervals of 4:1.  The average pace was 10:17 so even with walking intervals I consider that pretty good.  However, with my knee hurting...  I wasn't sure how far I'd go.  Sarah and I ran the 2nd loop together.  I needed 7 miles and she wanted to do 8 so I agreed to run 3 more with her if she'd be willing to walk the last 2 with me back to the cars.  That was a good plan in theory but didn't really work out.  When I'd start running, my knee hurt quite a bit.  But if I pushed it would start to feel better for awhile, and then really hurt again.  So we would run a little while, then I'd force us to walk.  Then we'd try it again.  Without doing any real intervals (although each run was more than 4 minutes- I wasn't timing, just going by how my knee felt).  I pretty much made sure we actually ran 3 miles to get to 8 but it took until about the 4th mile of 5 to get that in.  So I almost think I could count the "run" as 10 miles, or 9 miles with the last mile being a walk.


My short runs are now up to 4.5 mile runs and I'm even doing them on the treadmill, which is an accomplishment.  Right now it takes about 2 Friends episodes to go 4.5 miles.  I'm not sure what I'll do in a few weeks when I have to bump that up to 5!  Also, I'm actually starting to run those straight through without stopping or walking.  My last treadmill run was on Thursday and I hopped off at 4 miles but only to tie my shoe and I got right back on the treadmill to finish out the 4.5 miles.


I can definitely tell I'm in general getting stronger.


Mileage on shoes

Teal: 362.8 miles
Purple: 31.8 miles

I came across a good running quote this week: My sport is your sport's punishment.  That made me laugh and think of tennis in high school.  So true!

Tybee Island

Especially after getting some snow this weekend (although our winter has been extremely mild so far), our pictures from last weekend look so warm!!!

Dave and I visited the lighthouse on Tybee Island after my sister and I ran on the beach and around other areas during her break for lunch from work.  I'd been to the lighthouse before, but Dave hadn't.  It has a good view of the island.

Looking straight down

The headkeeper's cottage

Hilton Head

I much prefer beaches in the offseason.  Sure, we couldn't swim but I don't care so much about swimming in the ocean.

Hmmm, how cold is the water?

Don't ask what I was thinking.

Jellyfish!

Love my sister!

Aw, how romantic!

Grove across the street

Hesse Bear Stomp Recap

When we went to Savannah to visit my sister, I decided to just look and see if there were any races that weekend.  There was one, and it ended up being the first annual 5K to raise money for the athletic program at an elementary school.  I have to say, they really did a good job organizing this, especially for it being the first year for this race.

The weather in Savannah was just awesome.  I've been used to bundling up but I was able to run in just a t-shirt and shorts, so amazing in February.  (I know, it's not amazing for that area but it was for me, even if our winter has been super mild.)

My sister and I ran this 5K together.  I was really happy we got to do something like this together.  We are very different from each other and who would have ever thought we would actually go running together.

Megan picked me up bright and early at our hotel, which was actually fairly close to the start of the race.  (As we were driving there, Dave pointed out that if I was doing real training for the half marathon I could have run to the race and back.  Except that would have been further than I've gone so far and not in my plan.  Good thought, but not yet.)

I couldn't figure out what to wear so I ended up just putting on a pair of capris and a t-shirt.  Dave (great guy that he is) agreed to come along to take pictures so I knew I could hand him a sweatshirt if I kept that on for a little bit.

For the first time putting on a race, this one, like I said, was really organized.  There were several people standing on intersections to point racers to the parking lot and there were even two people actually in the parking lot directing cars to the spots.  It might have been a little too much (it wasn't a very big lot) but wow they definitely get an A for effort and careful planning.

We walked across their track to get to the school where the race started.  Too bad I don't have a picture of the t-shirt we got- it was green with a bear on it and stuff.  And they had coffee, which I haven't really seen at any other races.  It definitely looked like some people appreciated that.  (I don't drink coffee, though, plus  I try to not drink too much before a race so I don't have to go to the bathroom during.  Don't ask me what I'll do for the longer ones!)

Showing our Steelers gear

The start and finish line

They did a fun run for the kids first (it was not where we were and we wanted to make sure we didn't miss the start of the race so we stuck around the start line).  Then some of those kids came back to run the actual 5K.  I guess a number of parents ran with their kids for the first time.  It was a really nice family atmosphere and fairly small.  They were hoping to get 75-100 and they had over 200.

We took off and we started out pretty fast.  In other recaps, I've said before that I have a tendency to start too fast and I can't maintain it.  So I was pretty nervous.  And Megan, who has always been a better athlete than me (by far) was ahead of me by a step or two.  Which is amazing in itself because we have stories about her walking slowly on family vacations and stuff.  But wow, when she decides to run, she runs!  I whined at least a few times during the first half of the race.  I admit, I lectured a little as well.  I know that made her a little cranky.  (For example I tried to explain negative splits which she already knew about and of course I was a bit condescending there... but I really was just trying to say that I didn't know if I could personally maintain the pace the entire time.)

The first mile was 9:43.  Which is pretty good for me, but did worry me.  I really wanted to try to run the whole thing.  But apparently Megan is the perfect motivator for me and she didn't mind staying a bit slower so I wouldn't actually die.  She says that was a good pace for her, but let me tell you.  There were a few times I told her to slow down so I could breathe and the entire race she could talk just like we were walking on the beach.  Just like it was super easy, haha!

The support during the race was really good as well.  They had two water stops and at each turn there were people there to point which direction to go.  At one point, two of the people actually set up pinecones as a blockade to make sure you didn't turn the wrong way.  And some of the students were handing out water and cheering people on, which I thought was REALLY nice.  Everyone was also really friendly, cheering everyone on and stuff.

Megan kept telling me to pass people.  Colleen uses this trick as well.  And it's something I sort of used when I got a PR last June (PR = personal record).  So we kept trying.  When I realized how small it was, I also started to wonder if there was any way we might be able to place in the age group.  So when I saw someone who was female and could be around our age, that really motivated me.  And our 2nd mile sped up a little bit- we completed it in 9:32.

By that time, though, I was tiring.  Meanwhile, Megan was still always a step or two ahead, pushing along.  At one point I told her (whined) that if she didn't slow down I was going to walk.  But she was good- when I said I needed to catch my breath or whatever, she did slow down.  And let me be the one to start to pick it back up (although she still was about a step ahead of me even when we slowed down).  What a good pacer buddy!

Look how in sync we are, running.  (Click on the picture to see it bigger)

I'm so glad she ran this race with me.  We actually kept speeding up and our 3rd mile was 8:55!  I have not run a mile under 9:00 yet.  And we sped it up a little bit more at the end, even though I had told her I wouldn't have enough energy to sprint it out.  Just at the very end she let me pass her up so I came in one place in front of her.  We finished 59 and 60 out of 230 with a time of 29:23 and 29:24.  It's not a technical PR for me but I think it actually was.  The garmin said the course was longer (or maybe we didn't cut corners enough) and the 3 times I've run in under 30 minutes, I'm pretty sure it was less than 3.1 miles.  We hit 3 miles at 28:11, which has to be my best 3 mile time yet. (And it was definitely longer than 3 miles- we were running at less than a 9:00 pace but didn't get to the finish line until 29:13 which is more around a 10:00 pace for .1 miles.)

I'm dying and there she is, smiling away!

Proof that she dropped back to let me go ahead even if she won't admit it. :)
(I did speed up but I know she had the energy to speed up as well.)

I wasn't crazy about the timing system but it worked.  They handed cards to the runners in order as they finished.  Then you walked back to a table and wrote down your name, age, gender, etc.  But I was so sweaty and stuff my handwriting was just atrocious.  The lady who took the card had to re-write my last name because she couldn't read it.  Also, because of that, I couldn't see official times for anyone or if there was any chance we might have placed.  Megan had a birthday party to go to, so she needed to get out of there, but I insisted we stayed just in case we did place- I wanted that trophy!  But, unfortunately, we didn't place. Oh well.  I know it wasn't a great time overall, I mean as far as being competitive, but you never know with a race of that size.

Filling out our timing cards

When I did see the official results, we actually came in 4th and 5th for our age group (out of 31 total).  And the person who came in 58th (right before us) was the 3rd place for our age group.  Doh!  It will be pretty rare until I can get even faster for me to be able to place in my age group.  But I'm going to keep trying at these smaller races!  (The 2nd place time was 29:03 and the 3rd place time was 29:11, so if we had been just 30 seconds faster we both would have placed.)

I would definitely run a race with my sister again, although I do think that if she had run on her own she probably would have placed in our age group.

After the race, waiting for awards

I should also point out- Megan wears sweatshirts to prepare for the summer running when it's ridiculously hot and humid.  And next time I would wear shorts instead of capris.  I think when we left the hotel it was less than 50 out but by the time the race started it was warmer than that.

Savannah Creepy Crawl

I visited my sister by myself in December 2010 and we went on a ghost pub crawl.  It was a LOT of fun.  So I asked Dave (well maybe told, not asked) if we could do that again and have him go along.  One of the main reasons I wanted to do this was to see the 2nd floor of Moon River Brewing, which is REALLY creepy.  But unfortunately on this trip we didn't get to go there.  (Megan and I did the first time we went.)  So maybe we'll have to go again.

It ended up raining pretty heavily, and forecasts were bad enough that the owner, Greg, called me the day before to make sure I didn't want to cancel (24 hour cancellation policy).  They had 29 people signed up for the tour, but a bunch didn't even show up.  There were the 4 of us (Dave, Megan, Stacey, and me), another couple from Charlotte, and a bachelorette party (11 girls- wooooooooooo girls for sure!).  The other people didn't even show up.

We started at Six Pence, and we had some conflicting information on when the tour was.  Online it said 8pm and our reservation said 9pm.  It turns out they had two tours- one at 8, and one at 9.  But since we didn't know ahead of time we ate at Six Pence and started out already drinking quite a bit.  (Oh and Wet Willie's before that, even.)

At Six Pence

The 2nd bar we went to was McDonough's.  They told ghost stories about the buildings at both places.  And honestly I don't remember what the story was at McDonough's.  The Bachelorette party was a bit annoying.  We went in to get beer and the 6 of us stood outside for quite awhile while the girls lived it up inside.  Who knows what they were doing but it was pretty obvious they were there more for the alcohol than for the ghost tales.  I don't know why they even bothered to pay the $ for the tour because drinks aren't included and they weren't really paying attention to the tour guide, Brittany.

At McDonough's

There was a tour guide in training and I can't remember his name but he had done tours on the history of Savannah so he also added some facts and things like that, especially while we were waiting for the bachelorette party.

As we walked to the next bar, some of the girls were starting to complain and saying they just wanted to drink.  They had also requested the tour guide to get some names into her stories (which was fine- she warned us ahead of time) and when the tour guide mentioned that it was so moist out (the rain) the girls all really started laughing, screaming, and wooing.  Oh boy! ;)

We stopped at a cemetery on the way and the tour guide was telling more stories.  At one point it got quiet and we looked back and the girls were a little bit away in a circle under their umbrellas, talking to each other.  The tour guide ignored that and just kept talking- they hadn't been paying attention anyways.  The next thing I knew, I turned around and the girls were gone.  I was definitely ok with that one!  After that it was just the 6 of us.

Our next stop was 17hundred90 for more beer and stories.  This one is about a girl who was married but was going to run away with a sailor and her husband found out.  She ended up falling out of a window (the husband says jumping out but the whole thing is shady) and her ghost haunts the hotel, especially the room where they were fighting and she ended up falling to her death from.

At 17hundred90

Our last stop was Abe's on Lincoln.  I asked the bartender to just make me a drink and whatever it was (Jim Jones or something?) it was almost all alcohol.  And bright blue.  But it tasted good so that was fine.

At Abe's on Lincoln

Unfortunately, at least partly because of the long wait at McDonough's for the Bachelorette party, at that point it was midnight and the tour was over.  The tour guide actually was out there longer than she was supposed to be but I have to admit I was pretty disappointed we didn't get anywhere else, especially to Moon River.  She actually had told us ahead of time that we probably wouldn't get in Moon River because of a private party or something like that- but she had planned on calling to see if there was any way we could get in.  But it was too late for that.

We headed to Isaac's, which was a stop on the pub crawl when just Megan and I were on it last time, and is also a Steelers bar.  We closed that bar up after chatting with the bartender and hearing her own ghost experiences.

At Isaac's

Then we headed to Retro because one of Megan's good friends works there and some of her other friends were out there as well.

At Retro

It was a good night.  I drank a lot more than I have in a long time and we were out until 3am which also hasn't happened since... who knows when for me.

Week 6 Half Marathon Training

Week 6


Plan miles: 8 miles running plus 5K race and some cross/strength training.
Actual miles: 7.74 miles in 1:17:04 plus 5K race with no strength training or cross training  (5K race was 3.18 miles with a time of 29:39 on my Garmin watch, no official time yet)


This week was a ramp down week with an actual race. It was supposed to be more running early in the week then rest before the 5K.  I did the opposite.  We were busy earlier in the week so I ran mostly at the end of the week.  


I did walk- both just around Savannah and one day Dave and I walked around Lake Mayer (1.45 miles) but it was pretty slow and I guess walking doesn't count as cross training....?  I'm still trying to figure that one out.


The runs themselves were awesome.  We visited my sister in Savannah, GA, and my "long" run ended up being a total of 5.17 miles.  I met her during her lunch on Friday at Jaycee Park on Tybee Island.  Before she got there, I ran 1.03 miles myself.  After she got there we did her normal lunchtime run, which was mostly on the beach and was 2.78 miles.  Then we wanted to clock the loop around Jaycee Park and that was another 0.50 miles.  Finally, I ran from Jaycee Park myself to Huckapoos, a bar where Dave was having some beer waiting for me.  That ended up being another 0.86 miles.  The weather was unbelievable and just from the run on the beach my face was a little pink.


The Garmin data is cool, too- you can tell we were on the beach because it looks like we're running in the water.  (This is just the 2.78 mile run.  I kept resetting my Garmin because I was running separately and we wanted to clock the actual loop at the park.)

I'll recap the 5K separately, with pictures, when the official results are posted.  I think it was around 29:23 though (based on pictures) and it was slightly more than 3.1 miles.


I was going to run on Sunday as well but we were out REALLY late Saturday night and drank enough that I didn't feel 100%, plus there was a thunderstorm.  I would have really enjoyed one more day of running in the nice weather.


Mileage on shoes
Teal: 352.8 miles
Purple: 22.8 miles

Valentine's Day

I don't really like Valentine's Day as a holiday.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE getting flowers and the romantic type stuff.  But to make a holiday out of it?  Seems to me it's a day to get men to spend money.  Not to mention, if you're single, it just reminds you that you are and makes you feel bad.  That's actually the reason I don't like the holiday so much.

Dave and I never go out to eat on Valentine's Day, just to avoid the rush of making reservations, crowds, etc.  In fact, this year we stayed home, had chicken for dinner, and shared a growler of beer from Southern Tier Brewing (Pumpking).

Last year we were in San Francisco so we booked an evening tour of Alcatraz on Valentine's Day.  I figured it might be less crowded and it would keep us out of the restaurants and that craziness.  The weather was perfect- for the atmosphere.  Gloomy, rainy, and a bit chilly.

Dave does usually do something for me, though, even if we don't go out to eat and I insist this is a stupid holiday.  Monday I got a delivery at work and here is what he sent.  So pretty!  (Dave does a really good job spoiling me- he gets me flowers every so often and sometimes "just because."  He definitely knows me well!)

Southern Tier Brewing

My parents and sister went to visit my other sister around Christmas time, and with our busy schedules (on both sides, where do you think I learned this busyness from???) we didn't get a chance to have our own Christmas until this past weekend.

We planned it in advance, and wouldn't you figure- we get one of our only snowstorms.  Looking out the window in the morning, the plow hadn't gotten to our road yet (which is pretty typical actual) and it was still snowing and projected to snow the entire day.  I actually considered postponing but it's already February and we still haven't even exchanged Christmas presents?  Who knows when we'd get together next.

Driving North on 79.  Yes, this is a 4 lane highway!

So the snow was coming down as we were driving- we were in the middle of the storm.  It actually wasn't a bad storm except that the road crews couldn't really keep up with it.  Total inches it wasn't too bad, we just happened to be driving in the middle of it.

And it got worse as we kept going...  I kept telling Dave that hopefully the roads would be better once we crossed into NY.  They tend to do a much better job of clearing the roads (one of the few advantages of the higher taxes).  But for whatever reason, the roads weren't really much better in NY than they were in PA.

After the somewhat stressful drive (Thanks, Dave, for driving it- I never would have gone and done that by myself.) we met my parents in Jamestown at a restaurant called Taco Hut.  It was Mexican and was pretty decent.  We exchanged presents there and I shared a chimichanga with my mom. That was perfect- not too much to eat at all.

Then we headed to Lakewood to Southern Tier Brewing.  Dave and I love this brewery.  We've been here several times, mostly on the way to either Buffalo or my parents' house.

Dave and my parents went on the tour (which is some good beer tasting and you can keep the glass- it's $8 a person).  I stayed with Allison in the bar area since you aren't even allowed to go back for the tour if you're under 21.  It was nice to catch up with her a little bit and we had some pub chips with homemade french onion dip.  Yummy!  They don't really have food there, just pulled pork sandwiches.

See any family resemblance?

I don't have any pictures of it but my mom also made my favorite cake (angel food with my grandma's frosting recipe) and we had that with beer.  It was an, er, interesting combination.  But I love both beer and cake so it's all good.

Half Marathon Training - week off

In my last training post, I said I might slow down this week because I'd been ramping up a lot.  Well, on Monday my calves were feeling sore, especially walking up the stairs.  I don't mind actual muscle soreness but by Tuesday it was starting to feel different.  The side of my right calf was hurting.  Not a sharp pain or anything, but it was weird enough that I decided I better take a break.  I'd rather take a few days off of running to avoid an injury than to actually injure myself and be done for weeks at a time.  One of my friends said if you get a stress fracture you can't run for 6 weeks.  That would make the half marathon very hard!


So I don't know if I was close to injuring myself but I didn't want to take the chance.


I wanted to exercise, even if it wasn't running.  I got in 3 days on the exercise bike.  30 minutes 2 of those days and 40 minutes one day.  I also went ice skating but I'm not sure that really counts because I was just out having fun and talking to Dave in between and stuff.


And I did run one day, on Sunday.  The weather has turned more normal and it snowed most of the weekend.  They get to our road pretty late compared to everywhere else.  We're in a housing plan on a cul de sac and sometimes they even go to the stop sign before the last part of our street and stop there.  Anyway, with all the snow, I decided not to attempt a run outside.  Besides, if I was feeling sore or something, it would be easier to just get off a treadmill instead of being halfway around North Park and having 2 miles or so to walk/run back to the car.


Even with that, my knee started hurting.  So I hopped off twice to get some Gatorade and see if a little rest would let me keep going.  We'll see how my knee/calf feels the next few days.  My current plan is to do Week 6 this week.  But instead of being a ramping down week, now it's going to be a ramping up week.


Total for the week:
Running 4.52 miles in 0:48:00
Biking 28.9 miles in 1:40:00


Mileage on shoes
Teal: 344.4 miles
Purple: 20.2 miles

Ice Skating - Schenley Park

We went to another NA-YGN/work event.  This time it was ice skating at Schenley Park.  I'm not a good skater by any means but I do like to ice skate.  My parents got me ice skates for my birthday awhile ago (years now, I don't even know how many) and it's nice to use them instead of renting skates.  I don't get blisters on my feet.

One of my friends is the president of NA-YGN and she takes pictures at most of the events.  I never realized until I saw these how much I put my hands out to balance myself.  I feel pretty comfortable skating but I wish I was one of those people who can skate and make it look like you're just walking.  Maybe someday...  (And I think this is more proof that I do NOT have any athletic abilities.)

And here's the group that was out for the first skating session.

The skating rink at Schenley Park is outside and it was snowing, so it was really pretty.  All of these pictures were taken by Colleen, and she was trying to figure out how to get the best settings for the pictures.  I wonder if snow might have been part of the problem getting it to focus (focusing on the snow instead of the person?)

Dave and me, after skating

Colleen and me.  This is the only picture up from the event that she didn't take.

I wish we could have skated the 2nd session.  It was later so there weren't as many kids and from the pictures it looks like more coworkers were out there.  (We left soon after the first session ended so I didn't see who stuck around.)

Even if we had stayed, though, I wouldn't have been able to get my skates on.  Stupid me, I was trying really hard to tighten the shoelaces on my skates and I got really bad blisters on my fingers.  Bad enough that the skin is now rubbed off several of my fingers.  Ouch!  I didn't even notice until I was done and looked down and one of my fingers was bleeding.  I tried to tell Dave that it's a sign I can handle pain (or work through it) but he rolled his eyes.  I'm sure he was probably thinking it's more like I'm stupid and if something hurts I should stop.  I've never done that before, though, and I've worn these skates a lot of times!  I wish that instead of laces I had a pair that you can click shut like my rollerblades.  Even with what I did to my hands, I wish the skates had been tied a little more tightly.

One of those days

Have you ever had one of those days?  The days when you just feel off or don't want to get out of bed?

I'm having one of those weeks.  All week I've just been tired- going to bed early and not wanting to get up when the alarm goes off.  It almost feels like maybe I'm getting sick or something.  And with some soreness in my calf, I've been ditching my running plan/training for the half marathon completely.  I'm still exercising but haven't run at all.  I'm trying to do low impact workouts to make sure the soreness isn't the start of an injury.

Anyway, this morning just proved to me how out of sorts I am.  On my way to work, I was driving and realized I didn't know what shoes I had put on.  It wasn't like I was rushing out of the house, either.  I was just kind of dragging.  I started trying to figure out what shoes I had on based on how they felt and realized I had slipped on a pair of clogs I use when I run out just to start the car if there's frost on it in the morning.  So right now I have on a fairly dark purple sweater, very dark gray pants, black socks, and a light brown pair of clogs.  Wow this looks stupid.  At least I have a pair of sneakers (white), which will probably look better than the clogs.

I also have a pair of jeans with me and it's going to be VERY tempting to put them on instead of my work pants.

Oh and I just realized I never fed my cat before I left the house.  Oops.  It's a good thing Dave is still there and can take care of that.

Week 5 Half Marathon Training

Week 5


Oops, I screwed up what the plan was supposed to be last week.  Maybe I should actually print out the plan and start marking a hard copy up like a little birdie suggested.  Even though I'm a little off, I'm using Week 5 from the plan since I'm on the 5th week and I'm still on track with (and actually ahead of) what the plan thinks I should be doing.


Plan miles: 14 miles running plus some cross/strength training, or 16 miles running with one less session cross training
Actual miles: 20.13 miles in 3:26:06 with no strength or cross training 


My longest run was supposed to be 6 miles per my plan and my longest run was 7 miles.  I have to give a caveat, though, because we did briefly stop at the cars so there was a break around mile 5.  


I ran my long run with Colleen at North Park. She had already run one loop when I got there so we ran another one and she warned me beforehand it was pretty warm.  So I took off a bunch of layers before we even started. (It wasn't even 35 when we started the run- just crazy.  But it was sunny and must have felt warmer than the actual temperature.)  


I ended up running with a short sleeve shirt and a new long sleeve shirt over top of it and my running tights.  I like being able to unzip the top of my outer layer and the turtleneck was bugging me so at some point I took off the outer shirt and just ran in the t-shirt.  I think that was probably about halfway around the loop, around 2.5 miles.


My arms were cold but it was much better than running with my throat feeling constricted.  I think that shirt would work if it's cold out but I didn't need it today.  So when we finished the loop and were back at our cars, I left the outer shirt in the car and put on my arm warmers with the t-shirt. We also both drank some Gatorade to refuel.  Since we stopped, I suggested we run up the hill that I talked about here and we did another 2 miles.  (I realized as we ran the loop that I would only need 2 more miles to get the week over 20 total.)  I wanted to do the last two miles slowly (11:00 pace) but we don't seem to be good at that and I'm finding that I am extremely bad at judging how fast of a pace I'm running.  We actually ended up at an average pace of 10:24 with a few walks mostly during the 2nd mile.


My knee started hurting, so I think that was a good distance and I shouldn't be pushing it more.  It makes me worry about future weeks because the miles just go up and up, overall.  Plus I've been spoiled by this awesome winter weather and running outside.  I can't go as far or as fast on the treadmill.  (But I'm not complaining- at least I have that option at my house.)


The longest run was in intervals again, but I did run 5 miles earlier in the week without stopping.  I blogged about it in the same post I referred to above with the hill.


Also, the mileage on my teal shoes went up slightly more than the mileage I am reporting for training this week.  One of the days I ran around my neighborhood and my neighbor was on her way out to walk her dog as I was finishing up.  I decided to walk with her and I did log it on my GPS.  I did not count it as cross training since it was right after a run and more of a cool down, and I did not count it as part of the plan since it was all walking.  But I wanted to get that mileage on the shoes since I had them on.

Mileage on shoes
Teal: 344.4 miles
Purple: 15.7 miles


I looked at the plan for next week and it actually slows training down.  I was going to say here that I'm going to do that anyways.  I've been ramping up a LOT and I keep reading online that sometimes it's good to slow down for a week and back off a little bit.  My calves and IT bands have been pretty sore most of the week so I'm going to take that as a sign to just back off.  Besides, with Dave and my schedules this week, I'm not sure I will be able to get many runs in that aren't either around my neighborhood or on the treadmill.   I probably won't push it more, even if I do have the time.  


The plan says to skip the long run and do a 5K race.  I kind of screwed up the planning of that though!  The following week I'm registered to run a 5K with my sister.  So I'll see how this week goes and maybe swap Weeks 6 and 7.  Or mix them together somehow.

Mixology 101

For Christmas, Dave found some coupons to a mixology class on Google Offers.  We redeemed them for the class "Paris With Love" which was held at Olive or Twist earlier today.

It ended up being a lot of fun.  We had no idea what to expect but they used gin as the base alcohol (which I have always said blech to) and we made three drinks on our own.  They told us how to do it and they are supposed to send us the recipes later.  I found out I do like gin, if it's the right kind of gin, and mixed the right way.

The setup before everyone got there

Bluecoat, the gin we used (much better than Tangueray!)

This is how each station was set up

Our first drink - White Lady

Dave pouring the gin to start his second drink

Our second drink, Paris 75

Pouring the gin for our 3rd drink

Yum- gin, orange juice, and grenadine

Our third drink, Monkey Gland

Since the theme was From Paris With Love, they were all cocktails that originated in Paris.  We had a fun night and will probably go back and do this again.