First long run in a month

...And it was hard. How can you lose so much fitness in a month? I gave myself permission to take walk breaks, and I don't think that is a good idea on a hot day when you are out running big fat hills. I ran 8.5 miles. My average pace was 15.05 per mile!!! Oh Good Gravy.

One very cool thing: At about 5 miles, two bicyclists were coming at me from the other direction. As one of them neared, he raised his hand and gave me a crisp salute! I smiled from ear to ear at him. What a nice thing to do. But after he passed, I started crying. I am not sure why. Maybe because I thought of my son (in Iraq), maybe because it was just a moment of silent communication between two nuts out in the middle of nowhere - getting our exercise. I thought about where we passed each other - no matter where you live, you would have to be at least 4 miles from home... I was running up hill, and he was biking downhill. It was special, I guess I can't really articulate why.

On hot days in the summer, I am going to have to get out earlier. I didn't hit the road until 8:30 a.m., and it was already 70 degrees then. By the time I got home, it was 89 degrees - and that is just tooooo hot for me!

-- I posted a picture I took during my run on Christmas Day - just because!--

Bike to Work Day

Today was Bike to Work Day at my workplace. I am the coordinator for the event there. It is fun to work on. I have someone who does the real work, like picking up the food and setting it up. I just show up on my bike and greet people for an hour or so... and try to drum up interest in advance of the event. It is fun.

So, 1 hour and 40 minutes of bike riding was my workout for today. And the ride home is a definite work out! Tomorrow is my rest day.

Running around

Yesterday was a rest day, and I enjoyed it. Today I ran a little over a mile and a half. It felt really good. The morning air was cool and crisp, and running in my neighborhood is an olfactory delight at this time of the year! I love to run past honeysuckle, roses, lavender, etc. It is fab-u-lous! I used to run this route routinely when I first started running. I used to think a mile and a half was a lot! It is enough to get a person sweating and breathing hard. It burns about 300 calories and it makes you feel like you did something, but not enough of anything to feel tired or sore.

My over all pace was just over 12 minutes per mile. I hate to admit that it felt fast to me! But that is the truth. Now, the other thing is that my Nike + iPod actually thought I was running slower than the Garmin. And here is my speculation on why that is: I absolutely believe the Garmin is accurate; but the Nike + can be "gamed" because it calculates based on footstrikes. So I can run in place and the Nike + will think I am really going to town, as long as it is counting a lot of footstrikes. This morning, I lengthened my stride and tried to really RUN, and therefore the Nike+ thought I was going slow.

Speaking of Nike +, for anyone who has one, they are doing the coolest thing. In October, there will be a Women's Half-Marathon to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. You just run your 13.1 miles wherever you are, whenever you want to, on October 21. You actually sign up, register, pay money ($45.) and get a shirt and a keychain when you are done. It sounds very cool and I think I may do it.

Have a great day everyone.

Triathlon

This is a picture of me and my twin daughters (I am the OLD one in the middle!) just before the start of the Tri for the Cure last August. I somehow talked both of them into doing the race with me. My daughter Laura actually trained. My daughter Megan (with pink skull bandanna) did not train at all. But I guess when you are 27 years old, you can go out and do a triathlon without training!

That race was my third triathlon. For some reason, I decided to try one in 2004. I have no idea really what possessed me to do it. But I loved it! And in 2005, I got my daughter Laura to join me, which was great fun. That year, my daughter Megan and her family surprised us at the finish line - which was a great moment, to hear "Mom!" "Nana!" and see that it was actually my very own family!!! As she stood and watched women finishing, she was inspired to do the race (just not train). Anyway, this is my triathlon history. They were all three sprint distance tri's. I don't know if I could do more than that.

So, I am now training for my 4th tri. I am not as excited this year. No one is training with me and it seems kind of anticlimactic after the half-marathon. I just need to find a way to put more fun into my workouts. I will do that!

Thanks to you commenters, I really so appreciate all your collective knowledge and support!

Brick

I did my first bike/run brick of the season this morning! And it even felt pretty good. The bike ride, of course, was wonderful. The run was actually OK. I rode 8.22 miles, and ran 1.96 miles.

I am going to have to figure out how to do this on my garmin. It appears that it is all one workout, I did separate laps for the bike and the run, but I don't think you can classify them as separate activities without downloading in between.

Yesterday morning I ran 3.1 miles. I really need to step up my mileage again. So far in June, I have run less miles than I have for probably 2 years. I have only run 20 miles in June. When I was training for the half-marathon, I was running 20 miles or more a week!

Have a great day everyone. And good luck to everyone who has races this weekend!

Rest Day

Today is a rest day. I am glad too. I am still sore from running 2 miles on the treadmill on Monday. Running a 10 minute mile on a treadmill is a whole different sport than running a 13 minute mile outdoors. I really LOVE slow long-distance running, and basically I don't even like running a moderate pace indoors. But I am sure I would get much better at running if I spent more time trying to go faster.

I ran 3.1 miles yesterday morning - outdoors. It was lovely. It was just at sunrise, the birds were singing, the air was crisp and cool, and I felt fabulous! And I was slow. Do I care? I am not sure.

Bikin' to work

I rode my bike to work today - and I took 7 minutes off my time!!!

The ride to work is 8.65 miles - 43:19 minutes
The ride from is 8.91 miles - 56:02 minutes

I think there is a difference because I work at a hospital and come in one door and leave by another, it COULD be .26 difference I suppose.

It was dang hot to ride up that big ol' hill at the end of my ride. By the time I pulled in front of my house, I was breathing so loud my neighbor could hear me! Oh well. It was a good ride.

Do you ever notice the different demographics on the bike trails? There are the jocks, turned out in their jersies and spandex. There are the recreational riders, in their shorts and tee-shirts, and doing stuff like stopping three abreast across the whole bike trail. Then there are what I call the "DUI guys" - guys going to work on their bikes, wearing work clothes with no helmets and looking angry. There is one particular demo that bugs me, but I will save that for another day... I am sure if I keep riding a lot, I will have to vent about this one.