No Go On Running In The Dark

Last night I tried to get to bed at a reasonable hour, and set my alarm for 6am. When I woke up, I just couldn't help but think about how probably my whole run would be in the dark. I kept thinking about Sam's post on the Operation Jack blog, and about how a treadmill run would be a lot safer. Plus, I'd get another hour of sleep. So, I changed my alarm and went back to sleep. When I got up for real in the morning, I noticed that it looked wet outside, and on further inspection, it was snowing. So I was kind of glad, and felt extra justified that I didn't go for that run in the dark this morning.

I wasn't exactly looking forward to running on the treadmill, but it fit into my schedule nicely. I went and saw Mindy's class do their music show and tell, and it was really cute. Then Elle and I went straight over to the gym. It was still snowing.

I picked a treadmill where I could look out the window and watch the snowflakes leisurely float to the ground. It was actually a really cool thing to watch while running because it was interesting, but didn't really require any attention.

I had to run 7 miles today. Ug. I knew this would not be fun on the treadmill so I tried to mix it up a bit by adding in intervals. Fun hu?!

I started off slow, but got going at a 10 min/mile pace, then every mile I did .25 at 7:47 min/mile pace. I had planned on doing 6 of these, but after the 4th one, I was done. I actually thought I was done after the 3rd one when I had to stop and walk for a minute, but then Muse came on and saved me. It seemed like my ipod knew what I needed because Muse song after Muse song kept coming on, and my Ironman song (Foo Fighters: The Best), and even Gans Oben at the very end that made me feel like I was on top of the world.

Total Distance: 7 miles

Total Time: 1:09:59 (seriously)

Average Pace: 10 min/mile

So, not a great time, but at least I finished the 7 miles. For being a distance that I don't really have trouble with outside, it sure is a daunting distance on the treadmill. I was actually a little worried I wouldn't be able to finish it, but I did! I kept thinking about another one of my blog/twitter friends, Megan Killian, and how she did a whole marathon on a treadmill! Can you imagine?

Now it's time for What I've Been Eating

First of all, we're done with not eating wheat and dairy. I couldn't handle it. I was thinking we were definitely not allergic to either of those so why bother, but now I'm having questions about it.

Here I am after snowboarding at Tarahumara. It's a Mexican restaurant in Midway, Utah (If you're ever there, you've got to try it!) that we love. I'm eating corn chips and mango salsa (mmmmm), which I think might actually be ok, but I don't know.

Pete got the 2 burrito meal, and I got the papaya and chicken quesadilla and a salad with passion fruit dressing (probably sugar in that). I have to say, the next day I wasn't feeling too great. Maybe because of the flour tortillas? It could be a number of things, though so I'm not placing blame yet.

We cheated a lot this weekend because we got our food co-op stuff, and it included some white rolls and some bread that had some whole wheat, but some white flower in it. I tried not to eat too much of it, but it was so good! This sandwich I had Sunday morning, and it was with this peanut butter that we also got from the food co-op and a banana. Bananas are the new sugar. They are so good!

I think this was dinner Monday night. I just threw some pork in the crock pot with salt and pepper and let it cook half the day. Then I baked some sweet potatoes, steamed some asparagus and made this really yummy quinoa recipe that Sheila recommended in the comments the other day. It was so good. I actually ended up putting my pork on the quinoa and it was delicious! I couldn't get enough. Just as she suggested, I had it again this morning for breakfast with a fried egg on top. It was really good, but I waited to long to eat it so it was cold. My bad.

Here's what I had for lunch after swimming yesterday and it really hit the spot! I put some Olive Oil in the pan and cooked some onion and spinach in there for a little while, then I poured on the beaten eggs (mixed with a little milk and salt and pepper) and let it cook. When I flipped it I put cheese, tomato and avocado. It was really good.

While we were at Whole Foods finding the quinoa, I decided to try something different and got this coconut milk. We really didn't like it as a milk substitute, but I thought it might be good mixed up with some pinapple and banana in a smoothie! I made that the other day, and we all really liked it. Today I made it again, but without the ice, and poured it into these popsicle molds. It kind of reminds me of a banana cream sicle, but it doesn't have any sugar! Score! We'll see how the popsicles actually turn out. Funny that I made popsicles today when it was snowing all day.

I also made some whole wheat, oatmeal bread today since it was such a perfect day for baking. Now I'm having that same pain in my stomach I had after the flour tortillas the other day. And I only had 2 pieces. Ok, maybe I had 3 pieces. Maybe there is some connection there, I'll pay attention and try to find out.

I was really craving candy today. Particularly chocolate. Maybe it was the snowy day bringing out the natural urge to drink hot chocolate or make chocolate chip cookies. Or maybe it was because people keep giving us Easter candy, and we're hiding it away in the cupboard (with the girl scout cookies....) to save for Easter. We are going to have candy on Easter. I don't think there's any way around it. I just hope it doesn't ruin all the work we've done!

The main benefits I've seen to not having treats around are that I feel good, and that I actually have a much easier time going to bed on time! Isn't that weird? That's one reaction I wasn't expecting. It turns out that I don't stay up late to watch tv. I watch tv so I can eat treats. If I don't have a treat, or some kind of snack to eat, the idea of watching tv isn't as appealing to me. Weird hu? Maybe I'm also more tired because I'm not hyped up on sugar at night too. We'll see if it lasts.

Swimming!

Today I finally got back in the pool! Here's what I did:

Warmup
300 swim
200 kick
300 pull

Set 1
6x100 @:
1:38
1:45
1:48
1:48
1:49
1:53

Set 2
300 easy pull

Set 3
4x50 @ :43-:53

cool-down
400 easy

Total distance: 2300 m
Total time: 1 hour

It was really good to be swimming again! Even though I still have this cough lingering around, I felt great and was able to push pretty hard. I did shorten the workout a little, though. I felt good until we stopped at the store on the way home. I felt like I needed something so I bought a mix1 while we were there and drank that as soon as we got back to the car. Then during the drive home I just felt kind of light headed and sick to my stomach so I laid down for about half an hour when we got home. I don't know what that was all about. Maybe I didn't get something to eat/drink soon enough or something. Elle was so cute and got dressed herself and played really good for a little while so I got a good rest and felt good enough to make lunch after that. What a sweet girl!

Busy Weekend with 9 Miler

Friday

So, I was sick all week with a nasty cold. From Sunday until Friday morning, I didn't do any working out. Friday I wasn't feeling 100%, but I felt bad about missing my 2 other runs for the week so I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill on Friday. I was scheduled to do a 5k, but obviously I wasn't ready to race it so I just did a nice easy 3.1 miles at around 10 min/mile pace.

Total Distance: 3.1 Miles

Total Time: about 32 minutes

It was really hard, and when I got done I kind of felt like I was going to throw up. I think that was partly from me still being a little sick, and partly from overheating in that warm gym. I walked for a while, then got a good drink and took my time stretching. I just wanted to get home and get something to eat, but Elle insisted on finishing the episode of Dora she was watching in the childcare. When we got home, I decided I deserved a Mix1. I had a lime one in the fridge that I hadn't tried yet so I had that while I had a hot bath. It was SO good! I don't know if it was just the not having sugar for 2 days talking or if it was really as delicious as it seemed. I really enjoyed it, though. I felt a little better after that. I made sure to get to bed early that night so I would feel as good as possible for my long run on Saturday.

Saturday

I left on my run at about 9 and just wore a short sleeve shirt and capris. I was just a little bit cold starting out, but I was sure I would warm up. After about a mile I took a little detour to use the bathroom in a grocery store. I got over there, though, and it was closed for cleaning! Dang. I was ok, though, so I headed back to my normal route. At a little before half-way, I went off course again to use the bathroom at Einstein Bros. Bagels, and I was feeling really hot. When I went back outside, the cool air felt good. I thought I'd warm up again, but I didn't. I ended up just getting colder, especially my hands. Pete drove by with the kids on the way to pick up our food co-op stuff so that was fun to be able to wave to them.

At the 4.5 mark, I turned around and walked for about a block so I could drink my Hammer Gel and get a drink from my fuel belt without tripping. You can tell how cold it is by how thick the Hammer Gel is, and it was pretty hard to suck out of my flask. It took me the whole block, and even then I didn't get all of it. Oh well, I started running again and got to do the fun downhill part so I felt good for a while. Once I got back into the city, though, I was all in the shade, and kept having to stop at stop lights so I was getting really cold. I just couldn't wait to get home and get in a hot bath.

Pete passed me again on the way home, and this time stopped to tell me that I was waisting a lot of energy swinging my arms, but that he thought my shoes were helping because my form looked better. Nice!

The last mile before I got home was really hard. I was just feeling really tired pretty much the whole run. I'm blaming it on that dang cold. My Garmin beeped just when I got home. How perfect. Well, actually, it wasn't perfect. I was looking at it thinking, "8 miles in 1:20, that's pretty good... Wait a minute, why does that say 8?!" I seriously had to stare at my watch for a minute before I figured out that I'd gone 8 miles, not 9, because of the 2 detours I took before the turn around. While I was running, I thought the second one would cancel the first one out. But they were both before the turnaround, and I took the straight way home! I can NOT think when I'm running!

At first I just kept walking up my driveway thinking, "Well, I'm not running another mile." Then I stopped, and told myself it was just one more mile, and I needed to do it because next week is going to be 10 miles. So, I trudged out one more mile. Can you tell by my time on that last mile how dejected and tired I felt? I did it, though.

Here are my miles splits.

1. 9:37
2. 9:52
3. 10:36
4. 10:31
5. 11:07
6. 8:50
7. 9:31
8. 9:54
9. 10:39

Total Distance: 9 Miles

Total Time: 1:30:44

Average Pace: 10:04 min/mile

This was a pretty slow run, but at least I got the miles in. I'm just still recovering from being sick, and it was probably good I didn't push it too hard. Right?

My dad came and picked up the kids just after lunch, then Pete and I loaded our snowboarding gear into the Jeep and headed up to Brighton for one last time out for the season. To tell the truth, I was still not feeling well on the way up, and when we first got there. Even for most of the first run I was getting depressed about how bad I was and stressed about all the kids flying past me. Then Pete asked me if I was just going to have a bad attitude, and I realized I needed to change my attitude. From that point out, we had a great time. It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun. We ended up only staying about 3-4 hours because it had been really warm, and was starting to get colder so it was getting icy. Plus we were just really tired and wanted to leave while we were still feeling good. I'm starting to get the hang of steering and going edge to edge now! I'm so glad we got to go, it was a great day!

On the way to pick the kids up, we stopped in Midway at Tarahumara. It was our "cheat meal" for the week, though we'd also had white rolls at the resort...

Not too bad for a cheat meal hu?

Oh, and by the way, from a few hours before I woke up in the morning, while I did all that stuff I was just talking about, until 5am, Sonja was running. She ran a 100 mile race in Moab, and she finished as the 1st female, and 2nd overall! Wow! It was her first 100 miler too. Check out her blog, she's amazing! It was just really fun to follow her race on twitter all day, and her race report made me cry.

Today

After a nice rest day on Sunday, I went running again today. I even woke up at 6am to go, can you believe it!? I was worried it would be another hard run, but I was feeling pretty good. I didn't realize how sore my legs were until I started running! After about a mile, I stopped and stretched a little, then ran on to get to my hills. I went up, down, up down, back up, down, up and down twice. I was supposed to do 6:00 Total Uphill Time, but that's hard to time so I just did that and hoped it would be enough. Once I got those hills finished, and I started heading home, I was feeling great and had to flip through my songs to find one fast enough! I think I'm getting to be back to normal at last! :)

1. 11:16
2. 10:39
3. 9:31
4. 9:02
5. 9:14

Total Distance: 5 Miles

Total Time: 49:46

Average Speed: 6 mph

Whew, that was a lot to cover! I'll write a post about how our eating has been later.

Zoo Field Trip and More Food

Today I was feeling better, not 100%, but maybe good enough to go running, but I would have had to do it early in the morning. After trying and failing miserably to get up early and run yesterday, I didn't even try today.

I couldn't go running after dropping the kids off at school because I had volunteered to go with Mindy's class on their field trip to the zoo. I barely had time to get myself ready and head back to the school at 9 for that. There were so many parents that went that they were able to break the kids up into really small groups which was so nice! We had 3 kids in our group, plus Elle. I even had another mom, Anita, to help out in our group, and we still stayed pretty busy keeping any eye on everyone.

It was kind of a cold, windy day, but we had fun. When lunch time came around, I realized that I had only brought a bag of almonds for Elle and I to munch on, and that we'd probably want more than that. The school had given all the kids a sack lunch. I thought we'd just have to wait until we got home because there was no way the zoo would have something healthy to eat. I was wrong though! I was able to buy a salad that had cucumbers and ginger dressing, and I had them add chicken to it. The only problem was that I don't know how much sugar was in that dressing, and they put more on than I would have. I was pretty disappointed when I saw it, but it was actually tasted better than it looked. Maybe not worth $6, but pretty good.

Elle ate a few bites of it, but then Mindy started sharing her lunch with her so she wasn't interested in the salad any more.

One of the little girls in our group was so funny. She must have really trusting parents because she had a digital camera with her, and she had to take a picture of everything! She must have gotten hundreds of pictures on that camera! When she wasn't taking a picture, it was hard to get her to hold still as you can see in this picture with the tiger statue. (I told you before, we have to take this picture every time we come!) She was a cute little girl, though.

We enjoyed seeing the baby elephant and got to get really close to one of the tiger cubs!

Tonight, for dinner, I made roasted chicken with potatoes, carrots and spinach with dried rosemary sprinkled on top with the salt, pepper and olive oil. I thought it was really good. The kids complained about it a lot, and only Mindy ate a little of the spinach, but they did like the potatoes and chicken.

Oh, and I took a picture of breakfast yesterday. It was really yummy. Scrambled eggs, bacon and some fruit salad that Pete made by just cutting up some apples, banana and oranges. Water to drink, of course.



Breakfast is kind of hard. I'm getting a little tired of having eggs for breakfast every morning. I need to get creative. Does anyone have any suggestions?

It's also hard just because I need to make sure and get up in time to make something, instead of just pouring some cereal and milk or throwing some oatmeal in the microwave. Ug, I'm just so tired in the mornings! The kids haven't been late for school yet, though! :)

Lunch is hard too, but I think if I get a bunch of stuff for salads that will work really well. Maybe I can even cook up a bunch of chicken ahead of time that I can just throw on too. What would be a good lunch to send with the kids to school or with Pete to work, though? All I know is sandwiches...

Dinner is pretty easy, I've gotten pretty used to making healthy dinners, and there seem to be recipes everywhere so I'm not worried about dinner. You just have to get past the mind set that you need rice or noodles or bread to put everything on.

Eating REAL Food

The latest adventure our little family is embarking on is to try to only eat real food for the next 30 days. Pete came across this website on Sunday and it just made so much sense to us that we decided right then and there that we were going to try it. Here's my favorite quote from the article:

Let’s keep it simple: Eat real foods, preferably in their natural state. I think it’s pretty easy to figure out what is “food” and what isn’t. A few things to remember:

• Food grows and dies. It isn’t created.
• Food rots, wilts, and becomes generally unappetizing, typically rather quickly.
• Food doesn’t need an ingredient label (and probably isn’t in a package either).
• Food doesn’t have celebrity endorsements.
• Food doesn’t make health claims.

Let’s give some foods this simple test and see if we should eat them:

• Broccoli – Most certainly a real food
• Steak – Deliciously real food, straight off the cow
• Oreo cookies – Hold while I read the ingredients. Are you serious?
• Eggs – Bingo
• Walnuts – Check
• Spaghetti – I don’t recall seeing a spaghetti tree on my last hike
• Pop-Tarts – Just seeing if you’re paying attention
• Pasteurized/Homogenized Milk – Nope, not in its natural state
• Raw Milk – Yep, real food, naturally

I would highly recommend reading the whole article. It is so interesting, and like I said, it just really rang true to us. Basically we're going to try and only eat food in its natural state. Nothing processed and no sugar. For the first 2 weeks we're also going to cut out dairy and wheat just to make sure we don't have any allergies. I'm pretty sure we'll add those back in, but maybe not as much as before. We'll see how we feel on this one. We're also going to try and not eat peanuts for a few weeks. I don't know if this is possible, but I'm going to try it. I'm pretty sure I'm not allergic to peanuts because I practically live on peanut butter, but it's worth a try.

I had already made no-bakes when we made this decision, and we were running low on food so we just decided to start on Monday.

The first morning was pretty rough. I made scrambled eggs and bacon and the kids were not happy about not having cereal. I don't think Mindy ate any of it. For lunch we actually cheated because I wanted to use up the bread we have so we had PB & Js, but at least it was with whole wheat bread, natural peanut butter and simply fruit jam. After that, I went to the store and bought a ton of fruits and veggies and some fish. Look at all that good real food!

I also got sick on Sunday night, so Monday I wasn't feeling like doing too much so I just put the left-over whole roasted chicken we got from the store a few days ago, into the crpckpot with some water for a while. Later I added some carrots, onion, a sweet potato, a regular potato, some salt and pepper, and that was it. It was really good, and the perfect dinner for me after being sick sick sick all day.

Today was much better. I got up and just made a bunch of hard boiled eggs, and cut up some oranges to put on the table. Elle, Mindy and I also shared an avocado. Everybody dug right in to this breakfast and it was great! Most of the eggs got eaten, and all but one slice of orange. Everyone was happy and full when we headed out the door.

For lunch, I just salted some chicken tenders and put them in a pan with some X-virgin olive oil. When I flipped them, I added some broccoli, some apple cider vinegar and a little soy sauce. (This soy sauce was cheating a little bit because it has wheat in it. I don't think that's the case with all soy sauce, though.) It was really good, and Elle even ate all her chicken and broccoli along with 2 baby carrots.

It looks like I might have to do a bit more cooking since I usually don't cook for breakfast or lunch, but I think it will be worth it.

For dinner I made a recipe that we got from their free 30 Day Transform manual that we downloaded. It was fish, and I still was not feeling very good so I was worried about making this. I was also worried that the kids wouldn't like it because it's so different. Here's all it was:

Fish and Vegetable Curry

• 14 oz white fish fillets (I used halibut) cut into thick slices
• 14 oz coconut milk
• 2 Tbs. red curry paste
• 2 carrots, cut into thin strips
• 2 cups red cabbage, thinly sliced
• Fresh coriander (oops, I forgot to add this...)
• Place coconut milk and red curry paste into a pan on medium heat for 2 minutes, stirring until combined.
• Add fish, carrots and red cabbage. Cover and simmer for 4-5 minutes, or until fish has cooked.
• Serve with fresh coriander leaves.

Super easy. And would you believe me if I told you that the kids all ate it? Well, they did. Ethan even had seconds, and probably would have had more if there was more left. It was really good. I'm not big on fish, but I liked it. This is such an easy recipe that we could switch the meat and vegetables around however we want, and it would be good.

There were 6 no-bakes left after dinner, so I gave each kid half of one, had half myself and dumped the rest down the disposal. I think I even just ate mine because I felt bad waisting it. Luckily I used up the rest of our sugar making those cookies so all I have to do is not buy any more!

I'm not going to say this will be easy. I love baking, and have a hard time considering Sunday complete without making cookies or cake or something. But it's just not worth it. I don't like how I feel when I eat that stuff, and I'm really hoping if we cut it out I will stop craving it so much.

So, here we go. Feel free to jump on and ride the real food train with us for a while and see how you feel. I'll let you know how it makes us feel.

Right now I still feel pretty yucky because of this nasty cold that just hit me so suddenly Sunday night. I do feel better than I did yesterday, though, so I'm really hoping to be able to run tomorrow. I have been tempted to make juice, because I always drink a ton of juice when I'm sick, but I've just been drinking a lot of water which is probably doing me as much (or more) good as juice.

Running to Chuckawalla

This weeks long run was on location in St. George. It's always fun to mix it up a bit and run somewhere new. Since we were staying with Pete's parents who live across the street from the finish for the St. George Marathon, I decided to run up and back down the last 4 miles of that infamous race.

I left at about 9am and it was so nice outside! For the second time this year, I put sun screen on and wore a hat, but I sure enjoyed that sunshine. I wore short sleeves and capris, and that was maybe a little too warm. I was a little bit worried that I would have allergies because the trees down there are in bloom right now, but it wasn't a problem. It was just really pretty and just smelled nice so I lucked out.

Running the marathon route in reverse was pretty hard on the way out because it's pretty much uphill the whole way out of town. I was also running on the running/bike path for some of it which is much hillier than the road. I didn't really know where the 4 mile mark would be, and I was kind of shooting for the stoplight at Snow Canyon Parkway, but that wasn't it. I crossed the street, and sped up a bit because people were looking at me, and I wanted to actually look like a runner. (I know, I'm crazy like that) There were some pretty hard uphills on the path, and suddenly I was at Chuckawalla! We used to go climbing there a lot. Here's a pretty wimpy looking picture of me climbing there May 16, 2001 - I was 20.

When I got to the parking lot of Chuckawalla, my feet just turned in and I found myself running down the trail towards the cliff. I just wanted to see if people were climbing there and it was fun to have a little change of pace and do a little trail running. There were just two people there, climbing on the easiest route. It really made me want to go climbing, but Pete was sick and we didn't bring any of our climbing gear. Maybe next time.

I didn't run on the dirt/rock trail for long because I hit my 4-mile turn around point. When I got back up to the parking lot I was happy to use one of their outhouses. It was one of the most disgusting outhouses I've been to in a while, but I was still glad it was there just at the right time for me. Then I headed out and started back down to really finish the marathon course. I could have ran on the highway, I saw a couple people doing that. That would have been closer to what the actual marathon was like, but I decided to play it safe stick to the path.

The main differences between this run and last time I ran it were:

• I wasn't soaking wet
• I wasn't freezing cold
• The sun was shining
• My knees didn't hurt
• I didn't have a broken foot
• I didn't feel like crying
• I got to take advantage of the downhill and run really fast
• It was much easier after only running 4 miles instead of 22

I really did have fun running back down into town, and I kept around a 7 min/mile pace for a little while. I actually caught up with and passed a guy! I was even almost able to do a whole mile in 8 minutes (see mile 6!). Fun stuff!

I was a little tired for the last mile, but I tried to keep it strong and I finished the 8 miles in 1:13:27! That's 3 minutes faster than last week, and according to my favorite finish time calculator, my projected marathon finish time based on this is 4:00:33. Whew, cutting it close!

Well, I know you can't wait to see my mile splits, so here they are:

1. 9:44
2. 10:09
3. 9:59
4. 9:54
5. 8:30
6. 8:05
7. 8:34
8. 8:33

I am good at running downhill! :)

Total Distance: 8 miles

Total Time: 1:13:27

Average Pace: 9:11 min/mile

After stretching and showering and eating, we met our friends and their kids at the splash park on main street. I ran past it on my way home, and thought it would be fun. The kids had a blast, and it was so nice to sit in the warm sunshine and hang out with good friends.


We drove home when we got done there. It was a great trip to St. George, I'm glad we got to go and that I got to do a run there. Pretty soon it will be too hot, but right now it's awesome!

Easy/Hard run and New Shoes

I did go running on Wednesday, and it actually did make my neck feel better for a little while, but it was really sore again when the evening came along. I can't tell you exactly how far I ran or how long it took because I paused my Garmin at a stop light and forgot to start it for like half a mile. Then I did it again on the way home!

It was a hard run because I didn't really feel like going, but it was easy because it was such a beautiful day outside.

It was hard because my feet hurt for the first half of the run, but it was easy because my legs felt good.

It was hard because I was pushing the stroller, but easy because I took it nice and slow.

It was hard because I didn't know how far I had really gone or how long I'd been out (dang user error!), but it was easy because I wasn't too worried about distance or time.

At the end, my Garman said I had almost run 3 miles. I know it was at least more than three, though, but I ran around the block for good measure. I'm just going to say that I ran about 4 miles which is all I was supposed to do since this is a recovery week. Who knows how long it took me either.

Overall, I'll say it was a good run. When I got home, Elle was asleep in the stroller so I just stayed outside and stretched for a while. When I was done with that, she was still asleep and I was enjoying the weather so much I actually wanted to go run some more. I didn't, though. Elle woke up and I went in and had a shower.

Thursday I made a couple of calls and asked around for referrals for good massage therapist because my neck was still really sore. I wasn't able to get an appointment anywhere on such short notice, though, and we left for St. George at 4. Pete's got a cold and wasn't feeling good at all so I did the driving, and luckily my neck was feeling a little better so it didn't hurt to check my blind spots so bad. We slept at Pete's parents' house on an air mattress, and this morning my neck actually felt a lot better! Weird that it just took driving for 5 hours and sleeping on an air mattress to feel better.

The reason we came to St. George was for a wedding. We needed to be there at 9:30 this morning, but I forgot to bring dress shoes! Oh no, what to do?! First thing this morning, I made a quick trip to Walmart and was pleasantly surprised with what I found:

I got these ones for $9...

and these ones for $6!

They were so cheap, and I was in such a hurry that I couldn't decide so I just bought both. Wahoo, 2 new pairs of shoes for $15! I wore a pink shirt and a white skirt and ended up going with the heels. Mindy really liked the ones with jewels, though. Too bad they're not her size.

Bad Swim

Yesterday I went swimming and I was just dragging! I was going to do my warm-up then do 2000 meters. I was just not feeling the swimming groove, and my arms were a little sore from weight training the day before. I ended up going a little short on my warm-up (600 instead of 800) which I think was a mistake, and by the time I got to 14 laps on my main set, my time was already around 15:30 or so. Ug. I thought about just doing a crappy 1500 and being done, but I hate to whimp out on my workouts so I compromised. I stopped at 1000 and rested for about 5 minutes and stretched my arms and shoulders then did another 1000. That helped so much! I felt so much better right away and could tell I was going faster even on the first lap, and by the end I was pulling nice and hard. It's amazing how much a little rest can do! Too bad you can't do that during a tri. I guess if you did, it would just add 5 minutes to your time, thereby not really helping you.

Anyway, here's my workout in a nutshell:

Warm-up:

200 kick board/flippers

200 swim

200 pull

2 x 1000 with 5 minute rest between sets

1. 21:30-ish
2. 20:25

cool down

300

Total Distance: 2900

Total Time: 1:10

I felt pretty good when I got out, and I was glad I didn't give up even though it wasn't the best swim of my life. It's weird because I usually don't have bad swims. I pretty much always enjoy swimming. Oh well, I guess it's just like anything. There are good days and bad days.

When I was getting dressed I noticed my neck was hurting a little, and I just thought I needed to stretch it out a little. Bad idea. It just got worse not matter what I did. Turns out there is a big knot in my neck. It really hurt to drive home checking my blind spots, and it made me pretty grouchy all day. I rubbed it a lot during the day, and even took a nap which was scary because that could have made it worse, but it actually felt a little better afterwards. Pete rubbed it for me before I went to bed which helped a lot. I was really hoping I'd wake up with it gone, but it still hurts. I plan on doing a run with the stroller in a little bit so hopefully that makes it better, not worse.

Sick Again?

I haven't been very good about blogging this last week. I've been really busy, and haven't had much computer time. On top of that, this week was kind of a flop workout-wise because I woke up Wednesday morning feeling like I was relapsing back into my cold. Dang it! I thought I was over that!

I took Wednesday off just to be safe, and I was still feeling a little sick on Thursday, but I didn't really have a lot of time to workout that day anyway since I was going with Mindy's class on their field trip. More like following along actually. I had Elle with me, and she ended up being too little to go on the bus so I had to follow the bus up to the University and pay 5 bucks for parking. It was kind of annoying, and I felt bad because Elle was so excited about going on the bus, but at least we got to go and she ended up having fun anyway.

I did do a swim on Tuesday where I did 2 6x100 intervals averaging about 1:45, and an easy trainer ride on Friday for an hour. Then I did my long run on Saturday that went really well. I was a bit sore this weekend from that, but I was feeling pretty good this morning to do my 4 mile run today. Well, I was feeling pretty good considering we're still adjusting to daylight savings time change. Yuck. I hate changing the time forward. The kids had a really hard time getting up this morning too, and it didn't help that I had turned the heater off yesterday because it was too hot when I was getting ready for church. Mindy was just sobbing and I was trying to get her to hurry so she wouldn't be late for school. Poor girl. I need to try to be a nicer person in the mornings... I hate mornings!

I went back to bed for a few minutes after dropping the kids off, then Elle and I went to the gym and I did my run on the treadmill.

Total Distance: 4 miles

Total Time: 40:45

Intervals: 3 x 2:00 @ 7:47 pace (ouch!)

The first interval wasn't too bad, but by the time I finished the last one I had to stop and walk for a minute, and get a drink. Then I finished out the 4 miles nice and slow.

I looked at the clock when I got done and I had a lot of time until 11:00 when the chid care closes so I just went a head and did some weight training, crunches, pushups and planks. I thought I had like half an hour to spare when I got done, but then I looked up at the clock and it said 11:30! Then I look over and the lady from the child care was walking towards me. Oops! I told her I was so sorry, and she said that she had just barely come in a few minutes ago and had them check their clocks because they hadn't changed them yet! So I wasn't really going crazy! Luckily, the ladies at the childcare are really nice. I felt so bad! It was nice to actually get my weight training in, though!

This afternoon, I took my sister to Salt Lake Running Company so she could get some new shoes. She ended up getting a bunch of stuff (like socks, sports bra, shorts, nike+, GU) and spending around $200 (something I'm tempted to do every time I go in there!), but I think she'll be a LOT more comfortable now, and more prepared for our next long run. I'm excited for her!

While we were there, I had them film my feet running on their treadmill to see how I'm doing with my form. I think I looked pretty good. My gait looks pretty neutral. My left foot was landing really good, but my right foot did land on the heel sometimes. Not every time. So, I just need to focus on that right foot a little better. It's weird because it's the right calf that's the most sore.

8 Miles in Bioms!

This Saturday I woke up early and actually went running at 7am. I know, can you believe it? I've had such trouble getting up early lately. Well, pretty much always. I actually was really lucky and hardly ever had to wake up early to train for Ironman. I decided I should really start waking up early to go run so I can go outside from now on because it's getting so nice!

It was perfect weather for a run. I did wear a jacket, but I was kind of wishing I didn't because it got too warm. It was a good place to carry my phone and keys though. Next week I'm going to start wearing my fuel belt for long runs so I won't have to worry about that anymore.

I had worked up to 40 minutes in my Bioms, and I needed to do 8 miles, so I was totally going to do a 4 mile loop then come home and switch shoes. I started running, though, and I was heading for my favorite run up 2nd avenue, and every step closer to it I got, the more I wanted to just do the whole run in the Bioms so I could get up there.

I got to mile 2 and I was feeling great so I decided I'd go to 3. When I got to 3, I was still feeling great and I only had 1 more mile before I'd need to turn around so I decided to keep going. When I made that decision, it was like, "FREEDOM!" I had a great run, and it was fun run down the hill in those shoes because I've never really let go with them before. It worked out just great! Here are my splits.

1. 9:39
2. 10:06
3. 10:17
4. 10:09
5. 9:02
6. 9:02
7. 8:49
8. 9:44

Total Distance: 8 miles

Total Time: 1:16:45

Average Pace: 9:36 min/mile

Just a little slower than last week.

The last mile was kind of hard. My legs were starting to feel a little sore and my knee was hurting a little bit, but really nothing too bad.

I had plans to stretch really good, take a nice long hot bath, maybe do the foam roller a little bit then just hang out and get some cleaning done while Pete went and did his Krav Level 1 test. When I got home, though, he told me that they advised getting a ride because of how beat up you get during the test. Of course I had to take him, I didn't want him driving home about to pass out or anything.

I stretched as long as I dared, but Pete was already going to be late for the review when he informed me of all this so we hurried and got in the car before I was quite ready. I did have my recoverite with me, though.

We came home and had a nice breakfast of pancakes and eggs, and I had just started my bath water when I got the message from Pete that he'd forgotten his cup and could I please bring it because he didn't really feel like getting kicked in the groin this day. I still took my bath and rubbed my legs a little afterwards, but I kind of hurried, and we rushed back over as soon as I was done.

We just stayed down there to shop for a birthday present for our niece while we waited for Pete to finish. He was really tired and sore when he got done, but he passed! You can read about his test here. We had just about an hour when we got home so Pete took a little nap, and I finally got the dished done, then we headed back out the door to drive up to Logan for the birthday party. It was really fun, and I'm glad we got to go see everyone, but man, what a day! I was glad to get home, do the foam roller and watch a movie with Pete at the end of the day. I was mostly sore in my calves, especially the right one. I wasn't as sore as you would think after doubling my milage with a new running form. Well, maybe I've kind of transitioned that form over into my old shoes too, and that helped. It is exciting that I've proved that I can now just start running only in my Bioms. No more stopping to change shoes mid-workout. That's just not as fun. :)

Run #6 ALL with Bioms

This morning I woke up at 5:30 with my calf cramping. I just rubbed it for a little while and it went away. While I was awake, I thought, "I could just get up and run now." But then I couldn't think of a reason why I needed to do an early run today so I just went back to bed and enjoyed a nice leisurely morning since the kids didn't have school!

We had breakfast, everyone got dressed, then I got the kids in the car to go to the gym. It was at this time that my brother-in-law called me to tell me they were coming at 10:30 instead of 9:30 to drop their little boy off. Oh yeah, that's why I was going to do an early run this morning! I had completely forgotten so it was a good thing he called! Luckily I still had time to do my run and get home before 10:30 so it all worked out! The kids had a blast playing with their little cousin, and he was so good too!

I just needed to run 4 miles with hills today so I decided I was ready to do the whole run with my Bioms! I was so excited for this because it's kind of annoying to have to change shoes in the middle of your workout.

Total Distance: 4 Miles

Total Time: 40:30

Total Uphill Time: 5 min. @ at least 7% grade

I really didn't get any more sore than usual and I actually felt natural and had a good run! The uphill was hard, but that's to be expected. I stretched good before coming home, and rubbed my legs a little when I got out of the shower, but other than that I haven't done anything special and my legs are only a tiny bit sore. That could still be from Saturday too.

First Official Long Run & Snowboarding

Saturday I made sure to get my long run in. It would be my first official long run for this marathon. The first one was actually last week, but I skipped it since I was sick. Today the long run was just 7 miles, though, so no problem. I ran my favorite route, up the steep hill on 300 N. then down to North Temple and up 2nd Avenue. I really love running fast downhill, but it means nothing if you don't put in the effort to get to the top of the hill first. That's my favorite thing about running hills, it's an immediate sense of accomplishment when you get to the top!

Coming down was so fun, and I was actually able to hold onto about a 7:30 min/mile for quite a while, even after it flattened out a little! (see mile 5) Then it felt like 8 min/mile was slow, and 9 min/mile was like recovery pace - Awesome!

I ran while Pete was at Krav, and the kids were at my dads so I didn't have anyone to meet me at the top or anything for me to trade shoes, and I really didn't want to do a shorter loop closer to home to trade there so I just decided to take a break from the Bioms and run only in my old shoes. It was a really fun run, but I tried not to let my feet revert back to their old heel striking ways. I think I did pretty good too. Check out my awesomeness:

1. 9:14
2. 9:38
3. 10:19
4. 9:37
5. 8:25
6. 8:46
7. 9:01

Total Distance: 7 Miles

Total Time: 1:05:01

Average Pace: 9:17 min/mile

Wahoo! I looked up a finish time calculator on runnersworld.com, and it said that with this run, my projected marathon finish time is 4:03:17! That is so close to what I want it to be. If I had finished that run just one minute faster, my projected time would be under 4 hours! And if I put in my 10k from 2 weeks ago, it projects my time to be 3:55:06! Pretty cool hu? I find this really encouraging, especially because the Utah Valley Marathon is mostly downhill so I should be able to do that pace! It might really be feasible for me to finish in under 4 hours! I'm excited!

When I got home, I just had time to shower and get dressed before it was time to head up to Brighton. The reason my dad had the kids for the day was so we could go snowboarding.

I tried to get a picture of the mountain on the way up.

This was my first time going during the day. I had thought, "What could a day pass possibly have that would be better than a night one?" Well, I found that out!

It was just breathtaking up there. Here's one of many beautiful views.

They had more than just 3 little lifts open for one thing, and we got up to the very top of the mountain where you could even look over and see Heber on the other side!

And that's the beautiful Heber Valley! We kind of got in trouble trying to take this picture because we went too close to the edge. Oops, I'm just glad we didn't fall!

It was just so beautiful! It was also so much fun because I'm pretty much awesome at riding my back edge now so I hardly ever fell. :)

We got up there at about 1 and kept moving until about 5 since all but a few lifts close at 4. Then we took a break to get some food and rest in the lodge for al little while. My knees and legs were starting to get really sore and I was tempted to say, "Let's just go now," but Pete talked me into going on the bunny hill to work on riding my front edge. We did the bunny hill 4 or 5 times, and I was starting to get it so we decided to go on the big run (the biggest of the 2 night skiing ones anyway) one more time before heading home. For the most part I played it safe and rode my back edge, but there were a few times I was actually able to switch from back to flat to front without falling! It was pretty cool, and Pete said that was a little bit of what real snowboarding feels like.

Here's Pete.

This was just a really pretty place where we stopped to take a break.

It was fun such a fun day! I love days chock full of activity like that even if my legs are not happy with me by the end of it. My knees were really sore by the time we got the kids and got home, but I iced them before I went to sleep and they were fine the next day.

Swimming and Snow

This morning when I woke up there was snow on the ground and big puffy flakes were falling from the sky! What a difference from yesterday!

Here are some pictures I took on the way to the pool: (Don't worry, it was only at stop lights!)

I had to take a picture of this car because it was so awesome! It has a lighted sign on top that says, "Ron Paul for President 2008." Along with a Ron Paul bumper sticker there on the back.

Here you can see how much snow we (or somebody) got during the night. Weird that that seems like a lot. It's been a really light year!

I couldn't find my printout of the swim workout I've been doing so I had to just go by memory today. Here's what I did:

200 kick board with flippers

200 swim

200 pull buey

200 swim

5x100 @ 1:45 (goal) on the 2:00 (I wanted to do 6, but I was having a really hard time keeping track and think I only ended up with 5. I'm not sure if those are the right times either...)

actual:

1. 1:43
2. 1:45
3. 1:50
4. 1:46
5. 1:51

nice long rest

4x200 descending:

1. 3:55
2. 3:49
3. 3:48 (whew, that was a close one!)
4. 3:36 (this was hard, it was all out the whole time!)

200 pull buey

150 cool down

Total Time in Pool: about 1:10

Total Distance: 2450 meters

Run #5 with Bioms and Babies at the Zoo

I know, I know, that title is getting old, but I'm going to keep doing it until I'm totally switched over to the Bioms so it's easy to see how long, and how many runs, it took.

Yesterday morning was so beautiful! The kids were even up and ready early enough that I suggested they ride their bikes to school. They were so excited about this! I was going to just take Elle in the stroller and run with them, but then Pete said he could stay home long enough for me to run for an hour, which is what I was scheduled to run, so I left Elle home.

I ran with the kids to the school which took about 10 minutes. I was running pretty slow with them, and of course had multiple stops and slow downs.

Once they were in their lines and the bikes were locked up, I took off running again. This time I was able to run faster, and I felt really good!

I've realized that I don't really need to run on my toes. I just need to land more on the middle of my foot. Before I was so afraid to even let my heel touch the ground, but I've realized that it's ok if it touches, as long as I'm not landing on my heal. I also realized that I can run like this with my old shoes. It kind of makes me wonder if I should have just got some new Pearl Izumis and started being more careful about how I run. Of course, the Bioms are still working more muscles than the Pearl Izumis so maybe it really was a good decision and I will be stronger because of it.

Anyway, I ran with the bioms for half an hour, and my legs were just getting a little sore, especially around the hip where it was hurting before. I found myself excited to get home, not to change my shoes, but to use the bathroom. I hate it when I hurry out on a run and forget to go first! Arg! Anyway, I was tempted to not even change my shoes, but I did. I also grabbed my ipod which I forgot for the first half of the run, and changed into a short sleeve shirt because it was too hot for my long sleeved one.

It was fun running by time instead of distance, and towards the end I was really trying to hurry to see how far I could make in an hour. You have to remember, I wasn't hurrying the whole time, though.

Here are my splits:

1. 11:03
2. 9:23
3. 9:35 (changed my shoes towards the end of mile 3)
4. 9:09
5. 9:12
6. 9:06

Total Time: 1:00:07

Total Distance: 6.28 Miles

Average Pace: 9:34 min/mile

The kids had a half day today in school, and when I went to pick them up it was still really nice and sunny so I told Elle we could go to the zoo. By the time they came out and we started home on our bikes it was really windy and starting to rain! Crazy changing weather in Utah for ya! The kids were not going to let the zoo idea go so we still went since it didn't rain for long. It was pretty cold, and we had to run inside the buildings a few times to hide from the rain, but it was pretty fun. Going to the zoo on a rainy day is actually really nice because you practically have the place to yourselves! I took some pictures for you:

Here's Mama Giraffe. So elegant.

Of course my kids had to climb on the rino...

Cute "little" baby giraffe.

My cute babies on the tiger statue (we have to get one of these every time!).

The tiger cubs were really active, chewing up some cardboard.

The snow leopard cubs were even more active and we got to see them really close!

The baby Elephant is probably my favorite (other than my own babies of course) zoo baby. She's so cute! Her name's Zuri.

I was a bit sore the rest of the day, but walking around the zoo for a few hours probably helped a little, and using the foam roller before bed helped a ton!

Easy Swim Day

I did the foam roller on my legs last night. Ouch! This morning I was still a tiny bit sore, but not bad. Mostly I was just worried about my cough because I was feeling pretty yucky again last night. I really couldn't stand the thought of doing nothing again, though. I decided I'd still do a swim, as planned, but that I'd take it really easy and slow and just focus on technique so I wouldn't make my cough get worse.

Here's what I did:

200 kick board w/flippers

200 swim

500 pull

200 swim

100 6x6s

200 swim

100 cool down

By the time I was half-way through, we had 3 people in our lane so we were swimming in circles, and we even had 4 people for a little while before they opened another lane. It was actually fun to have someone to swim with, and it didn't bother me at all to have to stop for a few seconds every once and a while to let them get further ahead. I was glad that I had decided to take it easy today, otherwise I might have been a little bit frustrated. They were nice ladies that joined me, though, and not bad swimmers so I tried to enjoy it.

I usually don't do drills and I hate 6x6s, but my coach in Masters when we were in Heber used to have me do them a lot so I thought they would be a good thing to do. I only managed 100 because I just feel like I'm going to drown doing them. I figured out that it's much better if I just take a breath when I turn then put my head back in the water until I turn again. That way I'm not trying to breath the whole time while splashing water in my face. It was really good to focus on technique today. I need to do it more often. It was cool to see the difference in how I felt swimming after doing the pull buoy or the 6x6s. It felt like it really helped.

When I got out, the one lady left in our lane said, "You guys swim fast!" (talking about me and the other lady who had just moved to a new lane) I was like, "Thanks!" That made me so happy because I really was taking it slow. :)

Total Distance: 1500 meters

Total Time: about 40 minutes

I brought a bottle of water in case I had a coughing fit in the middle of swimming or something, but I never did. I felt totally fine the whole time. I just love swimming! I did take a few drinks during my workout just in case, though. I have had to cough a little bit since I got home, especially after the kids got home and I started talking (ahem, maybe a little too loudly) more, but I still am feeling good. I'm optimistic that I'll sleep better tonight and feel good for my run tomorrow! I hope the weather's as nice tomorrow as it was today! It was so beautiful!

Run #4 with Bioms

Yesterday I had to skip my run because I didn't get up early and I had to take Mindy to the dentist. I made her the appointment last week because she's had this baby tooth sticking out all crooked for quite a while. The permanent tooth is coming in and it didn't seem to get getting loose and she kept complaining about it hurting. Well, when I picked her up at school to take her to the dentist, she tells me that it's bleeding, and when I look at it, it's totally loose. It was just hanging on by one corner! Since we already had the appointment we still went, but I felt pretty silly going to the dentist because she had a plain old loose tooth. He just numbed around it a little then pulled it out with his hand. Luckily he said he wouldn't charge me for an extraction because it was so easy.

I had them do a check-up while we were there, and they found 2 cavities! Oh no, her first cavities! Sad. They had time to fill them while we were there so I had them do it so we wouldn't have to go back. We ended up with a lot more than we bargained for at the dentist that day I'll tell you. Mindy was so sad when we got home, we had smoothies then watched Inkheart which had just arrived in the mail from Netflix. It was really good, we liked it, and it was fun to just sit and watch a movie with the girls (though Elle ended up going down for a nap half-way through it.).

In the afternoon, I took Ethan to his self defense class and had the best intentions to go run at the gym while he was in class. When we got to the gym, though, we discovered that the childcare didn't open until 5 which was the time Ethan's class got over. We went to the park across the street from the gym, and I thought I could run around the park while the girls played. There was even a little hill right by the playground that I could run up. I've done that before. But once we got closer to the playground I noticed that the whole park was overrun with rough looking guys, using very foul language, playing Frisbee golf. I never knew Frisbee golf was such a tough guy sport! I didn't feel comfortable leaving the girls at all, even if it was to just run up the hill and around the playground! I just staying with them while they played for a little while before going back to get Ethan.

It was a really pretty view from the park. My iphone camera really doesn't do it justice:



Today was going to be another really nice day and I didn't want to miss my run again even though I still kind of have a cough which kept me up a lot during the night. Elle's coughing too and I would have felt bad bringing her to the childcare so I decided it would be perfect to do a run with the stroller. It was even more perfect because that way I could easily bring my old shoes with me to change into half-way!



I ran about 2 miles to where there is a really steep hill. Again, I had foolishly thought, "I'll just park the stroller and do a few hill repeats," but when I got closer I realized that I really just couldn't justify leaving my little girl alone like that. She was sleeping soundly, and wouldn't have noticed, but I would have worried myself mad and felt bad about it if I had done it. So, I just pushed the stroller up the hills! I figured it would only make me stronger!

It was really hard work because it was really steep. Luckily it's not too far (it took me like one minute) before it turns off and it kind of winds up and down this hill so it was perfect for hill repeats. I was supposed to do 4:00 of total uphill time, but I didn't really time it. Pretty much the whole way out was a gradual uphill, and I probably did around 3:00 on the really steep part so I think it was good.

I wore my Bioms for about 32 minutes before my legs started hurting very much, and I started hearing Pete's voice in my head saying, "Promise me you'll change your shoes if it starts to hurt!" I stopped at a bus stop bench and changed them, then started running again. I kind of thought I'd feel more comfortable in my nice squishy stability trainers, but they actually kind of felt weird too me, like there was something in my shoe. It was ok, though, and I had a good run the rest of the way home.

Total Distance: 4 miles

Total Time: 42:24

Average Pace: 10:35 min/mile

That's pretty slow, but I think that was pretty good for being in new shoes, pushing a stroller and doing hills!

This is what Elle looked like when we got home. She was pretty much out of it for the whole thing. It's nice when she can get a good nap and I can get a workout at the same time!



I didn't cough for several hours after my run, and I was hoping maybe it had cured me, but then I went and got the kids from school and the coughing came back. Coincidence? I guess I need to be more careful about yelling at my kids too much!

My legs feel good. Maybe a tiny bit sore, and I'm going to go use the foam roller now, but I feel really good about the 30 minute run in the Bioms. I'm really starting to feel like I'm getting used to them. Exciting!

Run #3 with Bioms

Here is an exerpt from Training with BIOM:

BIOM lets your feet move in their own preferred path, but first they need to adjust. Feet need to adapt gradually, over time. This is because BIOM gives you a very direct and dynamic running feeling with centered landing point under the heel, high flexibility in the forefoot and a close-to-the ground construction. In turn, your muscles adapt to the new pattern of motion over a period of four to six weeks, but it takes much longer for your tendons, ligaments and joints to adjust. Training the body is a gradual, long-term adaptation process. Let your body dictate the progress. Wear BIOM during your normal daily activities as you will also train your feet while walking normally. To start with, run slowly and only increase the number of kilometers/miles gradually per the training schedule below. Always run at a speed that you feel comfortable with.

Week 1

• Wear BIOM for normal usage for half a day every day you can.
• Run gently 2-3 times/week, 20 minutes including running drills, stretch after each session.

When talking to the lady who sold me the shoes she said she would even take it slower than that. For my first two runs I made sure to only run for 20 minutes. I went a little over on Saturday. Here's what happened:

I woke up feeling sick with a runny nose and sore throat. I probably would have just gone and done my 6-mile long run after breakfast, but then I had to go pick up our food co-op stuff. (I love food co-op days!) and when I got home I was not feeling good. I ended up going back to bed for about an hour.

Amazingly, when I woke up, I felt better. Usually a nap makes me feel worse, but not this time! I looked out the window and saw what a beautiful day it was and knew it would be a shame not to get out in it a little. I decided this just as Pete says to me, "Maybe I'll go for a bike ride." So, I asked him if I could just go out for 20 minutes while he got ready to go, and he said that was fine. We really didn't have a ton of time because his brother was coming over in about 3 hours.

Despite being sick, I felt so good on that run! I had been wondering if and when I would be able to have fun running in these shoes and I guess that run answered my question. It was really fun! Ironman came on and I was like, "Oh yeah!"

Being and Ironman is so awesome because now I can always say, "I did an Ironman, I can _____."

I can learn how to snowboard! (Pete actually pulled that one on me my first time out when I was having a hard time. He said, "You're tough, you did an Ironman! You can do this!")

I can get faster!

I can teach myself how to run more naturally/efficiently.

I can do a marathon in 4 hours! (ah! I actually still don't know if I believe that one... at least not for this marathon.)

I didn't want to go home when the 20 minutes were up, so I overshot my house and added another 5 minutes. Ok, so that's not a lot, but next week I'm just supposed to bump my running time in the Bioms up to 20-25 minutes so was happy that I could already do 25 and feel good. I took a hot bath afterwards, and massaged my legs a little, and they didn't get sore at all!

I was glad that I got running time in the Bioms in at all. I didn't get my "long" run done, but I'm not too worried about that. I probably almost did half of it at least. Right now I'm just worried about getting used to these shoes. I'm supposed to do an hour long run on Wednesday and 7 miles on Saturday so I think I'll be fine.

Total Time: 25 minutes

Distance: ?

I actually felt like I could keep running, but Pete was already getting his bike out of the garage when I got home so I was happy to let him go. He went up one of my favorite streets, up past the zoo. I can't say I wasn't a little jealous. Or a lot jealous. But I'm focusing on running, and I'll get plenty of bike rides in soon too.

I was excited to do 25 minutes, and I was even thinking maybe 30 minutes depending on how I felt, today, but that didn't happen. That's a whole other blog post, though, and I need to go fold laundry.