oops.

I thought my first 4-mile run was this Monday, but when I looked at the training schedule again, I saw that it was next Monday (June 4). Ack. Well, this week will be my first week running 3 miles for all 3 days, at least.

I'm disappointed and relieved all at the same time. Just as well, though, as we have a tropical storm moving in tonight, and we're expecting a lot of rain through Tuesday. I'm hoping that tomorrow morning there might be enough of a break in the rain so that I can run 3 miles, as the worst of the winds should be gone by then. Maybe that will be a good motivator for me to not stop running for the entire 3 miles so I can get it done sooner and miss the rain.

Accomplishment.

Wednesday was to be another 3 mile easy run, but I wound up only running about 2.5 miles of it. Even though that's only a half mile shy of it, I still felt disappointed in myself that I had stopped to walk several times. The only thing I felt good about was the fact that the total distance ran/walked was about 3.5 miles total.

Then yesterday, I decided to get back to doing the Ironstrength workout. Again, I felt a little discouraged that I had to do a very scaled down version of it, and even then, I was huffing and puffing. On one of the exercises, I really struggled.

Today, Smartcoach told me to run 2 easy miles. During the run, I started thinking about how I've been viewing myself and my running, and realized that I've been expecting to perform Olympic feats in order to have that sense of accomplishment. Okay maybe not Olympic feats, but much better "feats" than what I've been doing. And I realized... I've been too hard on myself.

I am unique as a runner. I can't compare myself to anyone else, or even to any plan out there that expects me to be at a certain level by a certain time frame. I haven't been an athlete all my life, and it wasn't until the past couple of years that I have set out to become one. So I need to go easier on myself, not compare myself to anyone else, and allow myself to feel the accomplishment of simply getting out there and doing it.

Sure, the woman on that Ironstrength workout makes it look easy as pie. But I'm not her. Who cares if I couldn't do the full version of it and struggled with one of the exercises? I am at where I am at, and I will get better over time. At least I'm attempting it. At least I got out there and ran today, despite sore legs from the workout yesterday. I could have stayed home and enjoyed the air conditioning.

The 2 mile run went better, by the way. I didn't stop, despite wanting to. And I felt accomplished at the end. :-)

Tomorrow I plan to do the Ironstrength workout again, then Monday will be my very first 4-mile run. Since my husband will be off that day for Memorial Day, I'm thinking about maybe driving to a park that I love to do it. It will have to be early, though. I really don't want to run 4 miles in the heat. Wish me luck. I'm not going to expect myself to run the whole 4 miles without stopping, but I am going to expect myself to feel good about trying.

Better run, yet still tough.

Interesting way to think of sweating. Might not mind it so much next time.

Today's "3-mile Easy Run," or actually, 3.1-mile run, as it turned out, went much better than Saturday's run. Somewhere between mile two and three, however, it started to get tough. It was heating up, my leg muscles were getting tight, and the sweat was pouring off of me.

Got.to.get.up.earlier.to.run.

I finally looked through all the information yesterday from the race packet of the 5K Race I ran in April (do I procrastinate, or what?), and discovered that there is another 5K race on June 9; however, the cost to register would be much higher than most ~ $70 at this point, since I missed early registration. It sounds like it would be a nice run, on the beach, but I just don't know if I want to shell out $70 to run my butt off. The women do get a nice necklace just for finishing, but I don't know... we'll see.

In September there's a 10K run. I'll have to think about that one. Would I be ready for a 10K that soon? Do I even want to run a 6.2 mile race yet? Right now running just 4 miles seems daunting to me. (Still need to get that ipod, by the way.) We'll see how I progress through the summer.

Officially met Mr. Whiz-past-me and his doberman

I like Doberman Pinchers. As long as they stay on the other side of the fence, that is.

I love how strong and fierce and sleek and fit they look, though. I wouldn't mind having a body like that someday. Strong, fierce, sleek, fit.

Speaking of Dobermans, I officially met Mr. Whiz-past-me and his doberman yesterday. More on that in a minute.

Saturday morning I didn't make it to the 5K race. Many factors played into it, but I'll spare you the details. It's just as well, though, because Saturday evening, I decided to take my daughter in the big Graco stoller and go for my own 5K run on my usual 5K route, and realized pretty quickly that if I had tried to run in the 5K race, I probably would not have done too well. It was one of those days when your body just isn't up for running. I wound up letting my daughter get out of the stroller and we ran/walked together for the 5K route.

Along the way, we met Mr. Whiz-past me and his doberman, who was actually walking this time, with a friend, who also had a dog, a boxer. My daughter saw the dogs first, and yelled out to the guys, asking if she could pet their dogs. They said it was fine, and as we walked over to them, I started to recognize who one of the guys was, and we introduced ourselves and started talking. Turns out, he runs mainly for his health, because he his cholesterol is too high. You would never know that looking at him, as he looks very fit. Just goes to prove that you don't have to be overweight to have an issue with cholesterol.

After that meet and greet session, we started to run again when my daughter spotted a puppy in someone's yard, so I reluctantly stopped again so we could get the skin licked off our faces and necks and meet the puppy's owner, a big guy of African descent, and discovered he was a personal trainer. My daughter had a great time playing with the puppy (another boxer, by the way) while the guy answered my questions and gave me some tips and advice. He said that when I was ready, he'd write me out a plan for strength training. I asked him about the Ironstrength workout, and he said that was a great one to do to build my strength as a runner, especially my core strength.

I need to get back to that workout, by the way. I've been slacking.

This week will be interesting, as the Smartcoach training plan will be upping the ante a bit. I'll be running two 3-mile runs this week instead of just one, tomorrow and again on Wednesday, then a 2-mile run on Friday. The week after that it will be three 3-mile runs. The Monday following that week will be my first 4-mile run.

I'm looking forward to it, because it will challenge me and I love a good challenge.

Drizzly Run

Today was supposed to be an easy 2-mile run, but I did NOT feel like running due to some nausea and feeling a bit tired, and I almost didn't.

But then I remembered reading recently somewhere online about an Olympic athlete with a gland infection who ran against his doctor's advice and wound up performing his best ever, and then remembered a quote by another athlete to not let anyone tell you that you can't run that far, or that fast, or jump that high, because the human spirit can be indomitable. So I figured, I had it in me, I just had to decide to do it.

I walked into my bedroom to change into my running clothes and stared at the bed for a moment. The covers were calling my name. But I told myself, "Just get your running gear on, and then if you still don't feel like running, then don't." Once my running gear was on, I then switched gears and said, "Okay. I'm just going to do it, despite how I feel."

The run wasn't a total misery. I was a little tired starting out, but then it got easier at about the one mile mark. It was cloudy with a light drizzly rain, which made it a little bit cooler. Still humid, but cooler than if it had been sunny. My pace: 11:29.

The Spa Me 5K race is three days from now. As of right now, I am planning to run in it and just have fun, so I will skip Friday's run on the training schedule and let Saturday's 5K race be my 3rd run for this week.

3 mile run, and a sigh of relief.

Relief.

Friday morning I ran another 2 miles at an 11:22 pace, then today was my Long Run Day and the Smartcoach Plan told me to run 3 miles at an easy pace of 12:31, which is one second slower than the previous recommended pace. I had to laugh at that. One second slower? Um, okay. I'll try my best to make my overall pace today for three miles exactly one second slower. LOL. All kidding aside, the main point was to run a little slower, which I did, and wound up running an 11:30 pace.

I was actually sort of dreading today's run, only because it was longer and I hadn't gotten sufficient sleep the past couple of nights. I would have rather relaxed and did some work on the computer, or even just did some housework. But I made myself get my running gear on, and just went.

Then I was surprised that it wasn't a bad run at all. For the first time in a long time, running 3 miles seemed almost easy. Because I was running slower, I didn't feel like I was killing myself. The only thing that bothered me was the heat, but it was so much more bearable at the slower pace.

It was such a relief, and very encouraging to me. I think I might be able to do this.

Smartcoach.

Instead of a coach whistle, I decided to post the above picture instead. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

On the subject of whistles, I'm hoping the Smartcoach running plan from Runnersworld.com will be just the "whistle" I need to motivate me again. If today was any indication, I should be good to go. Many thanks to my DailyMile friend, Mr. Brent A., who suggested it to me.

Smartcoach set up an 11-week plan to train me for my next 5K race (not the one on May 19, obviously--I'll just have fun with that one--but the July 21 race), and I was surprised at all the EASY runs it would have me doing. And when I say easy, I'm talking a 12:30 pace! That's even too slow for me, LOL. More on that later. It will have me increase my distance, but gradually, and still at a slow pace, throwing in only occasional speedwork and tempo runs. By week 7, my long run will be 4 miles, then 5 miles by week 8, and 6 miles by week 9. 

Needless to say, I had been getting ahead of myself. Quite literally. I've been pushing myself too hard, too soon. Not distance-wise, necessarily, but pace-wise. No wonder I've gotten discouraged lately. I was making it too hard for myself, and it was becoming a drudgery. It might be different if I had been athletic all my life. But I haven't. My idea of being athletic up until the past year or so was pushing myself away from the computer several times a day to go use the bathroom. Okay, maybe not that bad.

The Smartcoach plan predicts that I will be able to run the 5K Race in July at around a 9:57 pace, which would put my time at 30:54. That sounds pretty reasonable, but I would love it if I could do it in 30 minutes flat.

I did the first run of the plan today. "Easy run, 2 miles, @12:30." Not at 12:30pm, haha, just thought I'd throw that in there. A 12:30 pace sounded slow to me, but it's funny how it motivated me at the same time. It screamed, "EASY!" The heat didn't deter me one bit this time. It felt like a drill sergeant had just told me, "At ease." I could relax, maybe even enjoy the run a little. And knowing it would be an easy run, I started off right from my house this time, instead of doing my usual 5-minute warm-up walk, which made the majority of the run under the cover of trees, making the heat much more bearable.

I tried running at what I "thought" was a 12:30 pace, but in the end, wound up averaging 11:07. I think I would have had to drag my feet to run any slower. LOL. But just knowing I could slow down even more if I wanted to made for a very relaxing run. It felt good.

Dogs and Motivation

Dogs crack me up. I love their motivation to do things they want, even when it gets hard. They don't give up easy, that's for sure. Maybe I need to get a dog, it sure would help on those days when I don't feel too motivated.

Like today. And a lot of days lately. I'm not sure where my passion for running has run off to, but I'm not liking it one bit. Maybe this is just a phase and I'll get through it?

Yesterday morning, I wimped out and did the elliptical for 30 minutes instead of running. I was thinking, "Run in the heat and humidity, or stay inside and do the elliptical in the air conditioning in front of the TV?" Option B just sounded so much better. I simply wasn't in the mood to deal with the heat. What I want to know is, though, is why wasn't I motivated enough to get up earlier and run so that I didn't have to worry about the heat?

I have no idea what is wrong with me. Then again this morning, I woke up early, yet couldn't motivate myself to get out of bed. When I returned home, I set out to run at least 5K, but only ran 2.1 miles. The motivation just wasn't there.

Guess I just need to hang in there and "keep doing it" even when I don't feel like it. Maybe my passion for running will return soon.

Trail Running.

Today I did some trail running at a beautiful park that is, unfortunately, a good distance from my house. The picture above is not from that park, but resembles it somewhat. I was too lazy at this late hour to upload my own picture. Later I do plan to upload a picture of it, though, as it is by far my favorite place to run.

I do think I'm going to try and swing running at this park least once a week from now on. It is just too good of a place to run not to. It has a trail specifically for runners and is a perfect one mile loop, so no measuring required.

This was my first run in about five days and it felt great to be out there again. For some reason I wasn't feeling well for a few days, and my motivation was lacking, but now I feel better and can't wait for my next run. I need to prepare for my next 5K race, after all, which will be on May 19. Today I was pleased to see that my pace had improved some. Even though I only had time to run two miles, I was able to maintain a better pace for the entire two miles, which is an improvement from my normal habit of slowing down after the first mile.

Trail running is different, that's for sure. You can't just run absentmindedly. You have to be very present and alert, navigating around roots, rocks, pine cones and uneven surfaces, making sure you don't take a wrong turn and wind up in the middle of a lake. Oh and did I mention dogs? They and their owners like those trails, too. And they leave presents. At least they're cute to watch as you run by. Most of them don't even bother to bark. They're trail hardened and runner immune. Oh. It's just another one of those "I'm-only-teasing-not-really-going-to-attack-you" running humans. Never mind. I'll go back to marking my territory now.

It's never boring, as running down long stretches of straight, paved, sidewalk and telephone pole-lined roads can be, and I like that. And I also like the fact that there are no cars whizzing by, no stares from the people inside them, no exhaust fumes flying, no music blaring. Just the sound of the rustle of leaves, lake water splashing, ducks quacking, geese wings taking flight, squirrels scurrying. I definitely want to do more trail running.