Yay!

I seriously was not going to get up this morning. My alarm, once again, annoyed me @ 5:15am. But I was feeling like crap: my calves hurt, my head hurt, I slept crappy, my hip hurt....how OLD am I? Geez. John finally got up and said he was going to run because he was already awake, so there was NO WAY in hell I was going to let him do a run while I laid in bed!! ;)
We headed up the hill that we live on...the hill from hell that defeats me every single time. Well I conquered that bad boy today! I ran every single step of my 3.27 mile run! Woot woot! Gotta celebrate the small victories, right?! And it was hot, but I welcomed it instead of fighting it. I found that when I focused on each little milestone along the way {run to the pole, then run to the sign, get to that small rock...}, I am able to get through every pain in my calf, every voice in my head that tells me to stop....instead of looking all the way down the road and think "holy crap, I still have to run all the way there!" I felt fantastic! I think by this weekend I will be ready to kick my mileage up a notch....actually, I don't think I will give myself a choice. I HAVE to up my mileage...and I can do it! :)

Lame :(

Friday night, half of our Ragnar team had our first team meeting. We were trying to come up with a name, which by the way, we didn't agree to one. My husband & another husband wanted the team name : "Poker in the front, Liquor in the back"...funny, but not sure how I feel being a chick and having to wear that on my shirt. I thought "Tortoises and Hares" would be cute, with the fast runners dressed up as rabbits, and slow pokes (uh, ME) dressed up like turtles. So cute! So that was as far as we got that night.


Today was supposed to be my 5 mile run......let me rephrase that: today I was going to ATTEMPT a 5 mile run. I'm lame. 2 of my kids each had a birthday party to go to, then my hubby wanted to go shopping. Soooooooo, here I am, sitting here at 8:30pm feeling guilty cause I just couldn't get my ass out the door today. And in all honesty, my calves are feeling really tight, so maybe I should take that as a sign and just rest them another day ;)
I will try again tomorrow. Each day is a new beginning...or something like that, right?

I am AWESOME!

LOL! I didn't do anything spectacular, but my run this morning felt great! I am really using this internal self-talk to get myself through a run when I just want to quit. Have you ever noticed that 5:30am comes really quick? John didn't look like he was ready to get out of bed anytime soon, but when I couldn't fall back asleep {thanks to my very tiny bladder} I decided to go ahead with the run before it got too hot. It helps for me to keep in mind that I am training for Ragnar...11 other people are counting on me to do my part, so it's only fair I try my best every chance I get. When I forget that, I find that I'm likely to deny running when I'm not feeling up to it {which is often}.

I feel like mentally, things are getting better for me. I find that I'm actually looking forward to my run time, maybe not the run itself, but I don't DREAD it as much as I used to. It's time I'm actually ALONE. Just me. No one needing something from me or demanding that I watch them as they do something I've already seen 5996 times, dammit! I've stopped using my ipod since I normally run by myself & don't want someone sneaking up behind me to fondle me or stab me in the head, if you know what I mean ;)

John got up to run with me today, but OH.MY.GOD! I love this man...God knows I do, but holy shit...he's like a frikkin' chick! When I get up to go running, I'm up & out of the house in 15 minutes TOPS. But no, everything is an event with him. Going to the bathroom is an 18 minute ordeal, then he wants to drink a cup of coffee, then he's watching "Millionaire Yachts" on the travel channel. Then he's making a toast/peanut butter meal that he has to enjoy, while perusing the yachts...good GOD! I finally told him I was leaving. Mind you, I had been up for 20-something minutes by this point, dressed & ready to go.....He forgets that running is really hard for me, so I don't want to run when the sun is at it's highest, where he can run 6 miles in the heat of the day & is fine. I hate him. And see...it's 10 after 7:00. I've been home for 25 minutes & he's nowhere to be found.
Ok, thank you for listening to my rant. I'm good now. I have an hour long massage lined up in 2 hours, so I'm going to start my morning. Have a great day!
PS- guess who JUST walked in the house ;)

Back in the zone!

There's officially only 4 and a half months left of training before Ragnar!

You know what I wish? I wish I were one of those runners who could go out and do my 12 mile run everyday...and if I only happen to log 10 miles, I would consider it a bad day. *sigh* I got back into my training today after taking off since Thursday. I tell ya, when my alarm rang at 5:15, I was pissed. I thought I turned it off {and was prepared to go back to sleep}, but the snooze buzzer rang 10 minutes later and suddenly I was wide awake. I got dressed, brushed my teeth, ate a banana and did some light stretching...then I was off. It was kinda nice. I saw a little bunny hop across the road and for some reason that made me happy. I guess if I was going to get up and running {literally} so damn early, I had better see some freakin' wildlife! Then I saw another idiot like myself going for his morning run and I thought "why in the HELL would someone choose to go for a jog at 5:45 in the morning?" Seriously. Why would we?

Today was a pretty good run day. Only did my 3 miles {not yet ready for 4}, but my first half was awesome. I did it with no problems at all. I think the way back from a run always messes with me. I start to think "oh my God, I have to run all the way back!" but honestly, I worked super hard on my mental thoughts and for the first time ever, I {internally} talked my way through the entire run home....and I didn't even want to puke until I stopped moving ;)

That's when I laid myself down on my cool tile, thankful for the peace & quiet in my house until I was able to regroup myself. Now I think I will brew some coffee and watch my tivo'd Bachlorette from last night :)

My run is done & out of the way for today...and I feel awesome!!

Triathlon

NO...not me!!

I thought I'd brag a little about my awesome kids! My 2 sons (ages 11 & 5) competed in a kids triathlon this morning & it was one of the cutest things I had ever seen! They both swam 50 meters, did a 2 mile bike ride & ran 1/2 a mile. So adorable!! My 11 year old took 3rd place in the boys division in his age group and my 5 year old took 2nd in his division (they obviously got their athletic skills from their dad!). I had such a fun time watching them and I couldn't be prouder! I'm already looking forward to next year :)


Good job to all the kids who participated! Awesome job!

Day 3: OUCH!

5:40am sure comes early! Thank God for the snooze button! But hubby & I got up were out of the house by 6:05 for our 3 mile run {ok, I can't lie...I only went 2.75 miles today. Booooooo!}. I knew right off the bat something was wrong, cause John did not smoke my ass in the first mile, and normally he's just a little speck by the time I get around the first corner. It was not a great day in terms of how my body feels....run wise, it wasn't too bad.

I have to learn to accept that I'm no longer 25, no matter what my mind thinks. My BODY definitely does not feel like it's 25. I think I will have to spread my runs {jogs, whatev.} out a little bit. Running everyday does NOT feel good. My calves are in burning agony, my hips hurt, my periformis muscle hurts, my shins hurt....so, so badly. I will take a break tomorrow & hopefully that will give my body a small, glorious break then try again on Friday. If I feel good on Friday, then I know an everyday run is just too much and the following week I will go every other day. All in all, on a scale from 1 to 10, I'd rank today's run a 5. I pushed a little harder than I normally do, but hopefully with some recovery, I will do better. I am SO happy today's run is out of the way and I can now focus on my kid's last day of school!! I'm now off to limp my way into the shower. Enjoy your day!

Day 2: Ugh

Today's run walk sucked!! My original plan as of last night right before bed, was to get up @ 5:45am and head out for a 3 mile run before the sun came up. That didn't happen. By 9:30am, I was so not in the right frame of mind to run that I simply gave up half way. Here's what I have learned from today:

1. I, personally, should never eat peanut butter before a run. I've done it before & wanted to vomit it up during my last 5K, and I did it again today & still wanted to vomit it up.

2. Never, and I repeat...NEVER run @ 10am in June if you live in Vegas. Holy crap. I thought my husband was going to have to scrape me off the asphalt.

3. If you DO decide to run @ 10am in June in Vegas, have the smarts to at least take your 5 y/o kid along with you on their bike, so that you can use your child to take walk breaks while you push their bike up the hill.

4. Take extra water.

5. Good-inner voice never wins in my head while running uphill. I need to find a way to kill that damn BAD-inner voice.

6. I will never, ever make fun of my stupid dog when after a long run or walk, she comes home and plops her fat ass on our cold tile. I understand now.