DAY 219
Sunday was a rest day. I took T Junior for a walk in the sun in the morning. I didn’t wear my Garmin or anything. We just went out to enjoy the sunshine on a little stroll around the neighborhood. And T Junior actually left his sunglasses on! Then Mr. T joined us at the little park near our house.
T Junior loooves to swing all of a sudden. Just a few days ago he would cry if I put him in the swing.
Now, he cries when I take him out.
Yeah, we’ve reached the tantrum stage. I guess I knew it was coming. He is almost 2. Is it bad that I laugh when he does this?
DAY 220
I couldn’t wait for the Olympics to start, but now that they’re on, I can’t wait till they are over. NBC shows all the good stuff past 10 p.m., so like everyone, I’ve been staying up too late and then hating life in the morning.
Still, I managed to get out from under the electric blanket on Monday morning (after hitting the snooze button at 6:15). On the training schedule was a 5-miler.
Monday’s run was really tough. I had to talk myself out of quitting numerous times.
It was cold (although, I feel like a wimp saying that when some of you run in much colder temps). At 5 minutes to 7, I was happy that it was clear and already light out, but going from the warmth of my living room into the 30-degree weather made it hard for me to adjust my breathing. I felt like I had to sneeze for the first mile and my eyes were watering so bad I could barely see. The cold stung my wet cheeks, and I jogged in and out of cul-de-sacs with one eye shut and one lid blinking madly.
Even though my route is mostly flat, my legs felt heavy like I was running uphill the entire time. I never made it out of the 11-minute pace. I willed my feet to turn over faster. But they wouldn’t.
The first time I wanted to quit was at about .15 miles into the run. I realized that I did two things wrong before I even left my house: stay-cool pants and no music.
What was I thinking?
First, it was cold out. In my mind at 6:30 a.m., long pants meant warmth. I forgot they have that moisture-wicking stay-cool technology. And, second, I didn’t feel like hassling with my Zune. I was running late. I had to be home by 8, so I just wanted to get out the door. In hindsight, I probably would have finished my run faster with those two things.
My legs just never warmed up. After 2.5 miles, I stopped to stretch thinking that might help. That didn’t work, but my hands got really hot and then I was stuck carrying my gloves because the fleece I was wearing does not have zippered pockets and I could not get the gloves to squish in my iFitness belt with my phone.
My other problem was that I wanted to run some hill repeats. There’s a significant hill in my neighborhood, but at the top of it is the bus stop for the junior high school (I think that’s how old the kids are). I didn’t feel like running past judgmental teenagers over and over again, especially with all the jiggling I was feeling back there.
Luckily, I sort of know when that bus picks up because in the past I’m just finishing up my early morning run when it blasts by. This morning, running later than usual, I thought, Oh, they’ll be gone by the time I get to the hill.
Guess what? That’s the same spot for the high school bus and the middle school bus and some other bus. Why so many busses?!
So I ran five hills with random kids either at the top or the bottom of the stupid hill. The weirdest look I got was from one kid’s mom, who was driving her son to the bus stop. Probably so he didn’t have to walk up that brutal hill.
Actually, I’m not sure where this hill rates on the brutality scale. It’s about 1/10 of a mile long, and I don’t know the elevation. I can’t figure it out on my Garmin, but it looks to be a 10% grade, I think.
I switched over to hills when I was just shy of 4 miles. I did 5 hill repeats, resting for 30 seconds at the bottom. I couldn’t remember if I was supposed to walk down after running up or if I was supposed to run. I walked down once and then decided jogging down would be better faster.
After I was finished with the hills, I felt warmed up and knew I could run more, but it was almost 8, so I headed home and didn’t quite make my scheduled 5 miles.
4.36 Miles – 2/22/10 – 48:43
Average pace: 11:10
Mile 1: 11:13
Mile 2: 11:04
Mile 3: 11:07
Mile 4: 11:17 (hills, but not bad, eh?)
.36 miles: 11:02 pace
Before I hopped in the shower, I did 80 crunches on Mr. Bouncy. After I was done, T Junior leaned on the exercise ball and yelled, “One. Two. Ten!” I wanted to do arms, too, and some leg exercises, but I ran out of time because we were headed to story time.
So, what did I learn Monday?
1. I need to run to music.
2. I don’t run well early in the morning. Especially when it’s cold.
3. There are a lot of school busses in my neighborhood.
4. Even though hills are tough, I like them.
What did you learn this week?
COMING UP: Elliptical adventures, more reviews, Nuun Giveaway winner! That reminds me, don’t forget to enter my Nuun Giveaway before Wednesday is over!
15 comments
Like I said on FB, nice job. And if people wnat to look at you funny, let them, I bet they haven't ran a half marathon before!
I just wouldn't run in 30-degree weather. I wouldn't know where to begin. More power to you.I got to run in sunny 60-something degree weather today. woo hoo! That's more to my liking 🙂
Oh man! Rough run. We all have them. I like to think that every time I have a rough run it is more and more likely I'll have a good run on race day! Great job though just sticking to it! Quitting is easier than toughing it out! Unless you have become a runner, then quitting is HARD! =)
Love T Junior in the sunglasses & the counting on the ball. That's my kind of counting when doing crunches!! Good job sticking it out on a tough run.
Sounds like a bit of a tough run, but you still pulled most of it off, because you rock! Yay, for hill repeats 🙂 …which I have yet to try.
Way to stick with it and awesome job tackling the hill repeats (I hate those!).It is not wrong that you laugh at a tantrum. I find myself doing that almost every day!And I learned not to eat pancakes before a run … but you already knew that!
I think it's good you laugh at the tantrums. What else can you do? Here the 3's were the terrible years.Way stick it out on your cold morning run! I totally agree with you all the good Olympic stuff is on waaay too late!
I'm always slow on early morning runs… I couldn't get my legs moving very well at 6am this morning. The important thing is that you got out there!
I absolutely know how you feel. I've gotten in the habit of dragging my butt out of bed in the morning because I like coming home from work and relaxing. But man it's hard. My ipod broke last spring and it was actually nice not having music…until now when it's cold and dark 🙂 I think I'll be getting a new one soon!
I miss getting outside with the jogger!! As much as I hate pushign that thing around corners, I miss being able to get out in warm weather and clean streets and pushing my little dude around in it. I hope spring is around the corner ….
I'm not good first thing in the morning either and no ipod is a big no no for me. I need the distraction.
Running in the morning is so much harder for me as well…I do much better with early morning Spin class! I like to run at lunch or the early afternoon, but sometimes it's hard to get away from my desk.
You get points just for making it out of the house and attempting to run, no matter how tough it was. But music I can never run without, so now you know not leave home without it:)
i think you are doing great! and i admire the things you do.
Oh hills! They help but they suck at the same time! Loving T Jr's stunner shades!! He's a little rockstar too!