Final Week of August Just Crazy

  Okay, I haven't blogged since Sunday's long run so I am going to have to smash 3 other runs into this blog. 
  Monday morning I got 5 miles in, with a temperature of 68 degrees and humidity of 100%, elevation gain only 77 ft. I ran the 5 miles in 56:06 with an average pace of 11:13 min/mile so I kept it really slow and easy.
Laps/splits were:
Mile 1 - 12:06
Mile 2 - 10:59
Mile 3 - 11:00
Mile 4 - 11:18
Mile 5 - 10:41
   Wednesday I wasn't able to go for my run in the morning, Dorian wasn't about to let me out of bed so I had to get my 6 miles in that afternoon. With 91 degrees and sunny, I was thankful that the humidity was around 44% but the sun didn't help a lot. I ran the Greenway, had my hydration belt with me and I am extremely grateful that I took it. Ran 6 miles in 59:44 with an average pace of 9:57 min/mile so I'll definitely call that a progression run even for the heat.
Laps/splits were:
Mile 1 - 10:27
Mile 2 - 10:04
Mile 3 - 9:50
Mile 4 - 9:32
Mile 5 - 9:40
Mile 6 - 10:08
   Friday morning I was able to get out and run my 5 miles and it was definitely a slow and easy run. Temperatures of 75 degrees and humidity at 89%,  I ran the 5 miles in 53:25 with an average pace of 10:40 min/mile.
Laps/splits were:
Mile 1 - 11:21
Mile 2 - 10:50
Mile 3 - 10:26
Mile 4 - 10:47
Mile 5 - 9:59

    Other than the two 4 mile walks on Tuesday and Thursday, I topped off August with 103 miles of running, my second triple digit month. Pretty awesome, though hopefully September will see 110 miles, or at least more than 105. Today I am going to pretty much rest and hope I survive the 10 mile long run tomorrow, it is supposed to be 75 degrees, humidity between 85-90% and dew point around 71 but supposedly cloudy and 30% chance of rain so maybe I will get lucky and get rained on. Next Saturday I have my 15k race and it is supposed to start cooling off this coming week, I am so ready for summer and the heat to be over with.

My 1st 11 Mile Long Run

  After a sleepless night due to what I assume are night terrors that Dorian is having lately, this run was was a bit tiring though I only stopped twice, the first time was to turn on my stupid phone alarm between miles 3-4 and then the second one for a breather and to take my shirt off at mile 9. Today was my first 11 mile long run, I've only ran 10 miles as my longest run until this morning and it was tiring. Just into the run, another toyota (SUV) didn't bother to move an inch, causing me to get off to the side quickly and I think I recognize this one as the biatch who has her face stuck to her phone every time I see her and normally she swerves at the last second but this time didn't bother. I know a lot of runners have toyotas, but I hate them and around here most toyota drivers are inconsiderate of others and think the world revolves around them.......... though a lot of large trucks act the same too.
   I got out the door just before 6 a.m, temperature of 64 degrees with humidity at 88%, not bad though I know the temperature will get to 90 something today. Elevation gain of 156 feet and loss of 151 feet, I finished 11 miles in 1:50:49 with an average pace of 10:04 min/mile so not bad for being tired though I am pretty sure I am going to be useless for the rest of the day now. 
My splits/laps were:
Mile 1 - 11:25
Mile 2 - 10:06
Mile 3 - 10:01
Mile 4 - 9:57
Mile 5 - 10:02
Mile 6 - 9:56
Mile 7 - 9:53
Mile 8 - 9:59
Mile 9 - 9:57
Mile 10 - 9:55
Mile 11 - 9:35

   Strange that the elevation gain was only 156 feet, but then again I did kind of stay on a flat route. With this kind of pace I would finish 13.1 miles in 2:11:52 minutes but hopefully I will have a well rested night's sleep and it will be much colder that morning.

Going Over Things

   It's crazy to look at the calendar, the YMCA 15k is only two weeks from this Saturday and the Evansville Half Marathon is only 43 days and 13 hours away. Then the first of the two Indianapolis Half Marathons is two weeks after the EHM, then my final half marathon is 2 weeks after that one. I remember just a month or two ago looking at 60 days, and 3 months ago over 100 days. Gosh, pretty soon I'll have to be looking around for the first half marathon of 2014, other than the Hearts on Fire 5k in February and the Run of Luck 7k in March, I'd like to have a half marathon in there somewhere.
   As much as I wouldn't mind running the Go! St. Louis Half Marathon, I would kind of rather run one I haven't ran yet. There is the Southern Indiana Classic Half Marathon, of SIC Half Marathon but the last 3 years have been very humid and warm so I am not sure if I would want to run in that weather especially after 6 months or so of running in cold weather.
   Anyways, warm and humid weather is back so sadly Summer is not over and most likely I will not have another wonderful trail run like I did last Wednesday. It would be nice to add an extra 2 or 3 miles to my August mileage but I am fine with what I've got planned as long as it means ending August with at least 100 miles.

A Scary Run this Morning

 Well, luckily I am not in a hospital or dead on the road... this morning I got out the door around 6 a.m for my 6.2 mile run ( the extra .2 to even out my mileage for August) and things were going well.... people were off to work and school and the temperature was 70 while humidity 100%, not sure what the dew point was. I always stay on top of the white line if I can help it when a car is coming my way, trying not to inconvenience them too much. Well, here comes this black Toyota Land Rover already way over the speed limit (30 mph) and I am sure they were reaching 40-50 mph. The asshole (not sure whether guy or chick, but they had a narrow face) kept their sideview mirror right on top of the white line, I ended up jumping off the road just to avoid getting taken out by the mirror, and the asshole stared right at me as they raced past (we made eye contact). I turn around called them a prick and flipped them off, I was hoping they'd come back and get out of their car, I was going to kick the shit out of them and then pepper spray the shit out of them (I was very angry at that moment, and that was exactly what I was thinking). They kept going, what pissed me off more was the fact that I didn't have my phone on me this time so I couldn't call the police or even 911 if I had been hit, or DH. Not to mention I would have been most likely sidelined for weeks and most definitely not running my 3 half marathons this Fall, another thought that really had me infuriated. From that point on every time a car was coming up behind me I would look to make sure it wasn't the same vehicle, thinking if I had already turned around and was going the other way, would the jerk had swerved over just to hit me from behind and I would never have seen it coming. 

  From now on, no matter how tired I am, I will be waking up at 5 to go for my run rather than getting out the door at 6 when people are headed to work or school. I remember why I avoid running out there after 6 a.m. One of my biggest fears almost came to life this morning, being hit by a car while running. There's been jerks who haven't moved just a bit over before, but normally they are going pretty slow while this guy/girl was over the speed limit and could see me for a quarter of a mile away before our eyes even met.  Yeah I am pissed and I will be keeping an eye out for the asshole from now on.

   Other than that, 6.2 miles in 59:10 with an average pace of 9:33 min/mile and elevation gain of 116 ft and loss of 120 ft. The first mile was pretty slow, I figured this wasn't going to be a progression run but things got faster. Just before mile 3 was when the jerk tried to kill me.
Splits/Laps were:
Mile 1 - 11:17
Mile 2 - 9:34
Mile 3 - 9:19
Mile 4 - 9:24
Mile 5 - 9:12
Mile 6 - 8:46
.2      - 8:17 

That Last Couple of Runs

I haven't posted since I think Wednesday, I am such a slacker haha. Friday I ran 4 miles to recover from Wednesday's 8.5 miles (2.5 was spur of the moment). Ran the four miles in 42:49 with an average pace of 10:42 min/mile, temperatures at 61 degrees, humidity of 88% and I believe it was cloudy.
Splits/laps were:
Mile 1 - 11:22
Mile 2 - 10:37
Mile 3 - 10:38
Mile 4 - 10:10
   Not bad at all, Saturday I walked around took photos so I think I walked about 3 miles. Sunday morning I got up and was out the door by 5:23 a.m which is actually pretty early for my long runs on the weekends. The temperature was 64 degrees and humidity 100%, blah, some nice stranger drove by and gave me a reflector vest because he said he couldn't see me, granted my apparel for that run wasn't bright or reflective. Total elevation for 10 miles was 214 feet with a loss of 223, not bad for trying to involve hills. I ran the 10 miles the slowest I have this year, with a time of 1:44:28 and an average pace of 10:26 min/mile but it was a good run.
Splits/laps were:
Mile 1 - 11:28
Mile 2 - 10:43
Mile 3 - 10:30
Mile 4 - 10:40
Mile 5 - 10:40
Mile 6 - 10:40
Mile 7 - 10:20
Mile 8 - 10:16
Mile 9 - 9:44
Mile 10 - 9:24

   A good run, strange lap times but overall it was good and I felt great afterwards though I was wiped by the afternoon. This morning I really didn't want to get out of bed, but I was out the door by 5:57 a.m for a 4.5 mile easy recovery run. Strangely it says total elevation of 102 feet which I just can't honestly believe. I ran the 4.5 miles in 48:50 with an average pace of 10:51 min/mile which is really slow for me this year, oh well a recovery run is supposed to be slow.
Splits/laps were:
Mile 1 - 11:43
Mile 2 - 11:06
Mile 3 - 10:52
Mile 4 - 10:24
.5      - 9:31

Some Amazing Weather Today

   This morning I was up and out the door to a wonderful 57 degrees and like no humidity, it felt amazing to be out. I was so giddy with excitement, I wish everyday could feel like this, all day it didn't get above 76 degrees. Total elevation was 111 feet, I ran 6 miles in 59:22 and an average pace of 9:59 min/mile. The only issue was my empty stomach, but that wasn't much of an issue anyways.
My splits/laps were:
Mile 1 - 10:44
Mile 2 - 10:17
Mile 3 - 10:00
Mile 4 - 9:47
Mile 5 - 9:41
Mile 6 - 9:24

   It was an awesome start to the day, so awesome that I wish I was able to run 10 miles instead of the 6. Well, apparently the 6 miles wasn't enough and I needed more. On a spur of the moment decision I decided to go for a trail run, break in the new trail shoes I bought back in June and enjoy this beautiful 73 degrees as much as possible, humidity was down to 41%. This was also probably my fastest trail run, I meant to only run 2 miles but ended up running 2.5 in 24:53 with an average pace of 9:57 min/mile.
Splits/laps
Mile 1 - 10:39
Mile 2 - 9:30
.5      - 9:27

    It felt great, the whole day has felt great and just wonderful. I wish it could feel like this all year round, 365 days a year and I would be very happy. Today gives me 8.5 miles, I might cut back to 3 miles instead of 5 Friday just to avoid any possible soreness or injury, I still have a 10 miler Sunday.

The YMCA 10k Race

  My goal at the beginning of this month... probably a month or 2 ago actually, was 58 minutes while my almost impossible goal was 55:59 or under and I didn't except that but I hoped it. By this morning I just hoped I could finish, after Wednesday night's horrible run I was feeling pretty nervous and worried.
  My alarm went off at 4 this morning to get up and eat a little something, so I ate half of a cinnamon raisin english muffin with a tbs of peanut butter and a tbs of honey, drank 16 oz of water and went back to bed. Second alarm clock went off at 5:00 a.m so I got up and took 10 minutes to decide on which shorts to wear, I didn't want my really loose ones but my favorite ones would have been showing my butt cheeks so bad I would not be posting pics of them, I finally decided on my regular running shorts that are a bit tight but don't come up past my cheeks which is good. I pinned the bib on my shorts, though due to retaining water I wasn't planning on taking my shirt off. All of this while drinking a cup of coffee, then I went for a 1.5 mile easy run to loosen myself up and thought Oh My Gosh the humidity! I was really feeling down at that point, and was thinking of excuses not to do the race.
  By 6 a.m I get little bit up and feed him and then get big bit up so we can go, on the expressway/hwy thing I'll be honest that I lost count on how many times I tried to talk myself into turning around and going back to bed. Since starting my running "career", I've backed out of probably 5 races on intuition and never really regretted those decisions.... but this time I knew that if I listened to my fears and doubts I would regret it. I just told myself to finish the race, even if it would be a slow one, I just wanted to finish.

   We get there with time for me to go to the restroom, DH talked me into taking my shirt off so I did, then I stepped into the crowd of fellow crazies. The temp was 73, humidity at 89 and dew point around 70-73, my stomach was in knots, my fears and doubts were taunting me but I ignored them. Soon we were off, I didn't push past anyone really, I wasn't about to waste any energy doing that so when I saw a window I took it gradually. I kept my mind on the people around me, if I recognized anyone or who would make for a great photo subject. 
   First mile my watch said 9:18, pretty good and I felt okay except for hints of mutiny from my stomach. I just reminded myself to go by feel, try to keep a challenging pace but not to the point of puking or worse.
Mile 2 - 8:50
Mile 3 - 8:52

   I tried to keep it around 8:50 and below 9 min/mile, I was doing much better than I expected for this race but I was only half way done and anything could happen still.
Mile 4 - 8:41
Mile 5 - 8:49
  At this point I had found a few people to tag along with, and I kept reminding myself I was almost done. This stretch is probably always the hardest for me at this particular race, the finish is just parallel to me and a block over, we pass it to keep going down the road before we do the little loop/turn onto that street and head to the finish. I let myself pick up the pace just a bit, with a stomach still threatening mutiny and to make an ugly scene.... I really wanted to give it a better kick but... eh.
Mile 6 - 8:32  and I thought "thank God!", I gave what little kick I had and that little last bit (.2) saw 7:24 min/mile though I highly doubt I could have kept that up at this point.
   Coming across the finish mats and stopping my watch, it read 54:39 with an average pace of 8:47 min/mile................. I beat my crazy goal by 1 minute and 20 seconds at a race I figured would end with misery. I reminded myself how glad I was that I didn't listen to my fears and doubts and ran back home to hide, if I had I wouldn't have set my new PR for a 10k today. Not only did I set a PR, but I placed 3rd in my division F 25-29 so this year I've placed 1st in a 5k, 2nd in a 4 miler and 3rd in a 10k... and I have another freaking trophy!!!!!!

 My little guy is so cute!!!

This Morning's Not so Awesome 4 Miler

   Lack of sleep basically had me drained this morning, I didn't want to get up and go out and I found myself making quite a few excuses in the first mile to turn around and go back home and to bed. Dorian and I went to bed at ten last night but he tossed and turned quite a bit, which kept me up just a little but it wasn't until 4:30 that he really woke up and I decided the only way I'd get out the door was if I got up, red him and held him in the recliner until he went to sleep. We got back in bed just five minutes until 5 and I stayed in bed until my alarm clock went off at 6 and even then I had to force myself up. The run wasn't awful, though I am glad that tomorrow morning I will get to sleep in until 7-8 a.m. My legs were a bit sore, but it was a nice 61 degrees with 100% humidity that wasn't really noticed until the sun got a little higher in the sky. I ran the four miles in 41:40 with an average pace of 10:25 min/mile, not bad but I had really wanted to run 5 since I don't know if I am going to run Thursday or Friday as I have a 10k race this coming Saturday. We'll just have to see, Wednesday morning's 6 will just be an easy 6 miles with no attempt of speed play. 
My splits/laps were:
Mile 1 - 11:22
Mile 2 - 10:45
Mile 3 - 10:10
Mile 4 - 9:20

    Overall, not a bad run and I haven't fallen asleep so far since though I figured I would be falling asleep by now lol. Glad I got it done, and hopefully I'll gain some energy before Saturday's race because I hope to do my best.

A Tough Ten Miler

  This morning's ten miler was tough, but first I don't think I said anything about Friday's run. A 5 miler, easy and slow with a finish time of 51:54 and an average pace of 10:22 min/mile and not a bad run overall. Friday night while doing the plank position I finally reached 5 minutes, totally awesome and I am so excited but I made the mistake of doing the plank for 4 minutes yesterday and during this morning's run I felt it in my stomach. I will take two days off from the plank position to give my stomach a break.
   Saturday afternoon I went for a 6.74 mile bike ride with Dorian, and it was tougher than I thought it would be, the heat and the sun sucked major butt. Anyways onto this morning's run, 10.1 miles and tough with 66 degrees and sunny. Elevation total was 221 feet with a loss of 208, I had to switch my plans of more hills due to yesterday's bike ride. My stomach wasn't cooperating when I ran past the gas station at 1.4 miles, and by mile 6 I only had a corn field to hide in and believe me I learned to never use cornstalk leaves ever again. Anyways, my finish time was 1:38:55 for 10.1 miles with an average pace of 9:48 min/mile which isn't bad and I think I could have held the a pace around 9 minutes for anther 3 miles but to be honest I was ready for the run to be over. The final .1 of the run was a large hill which is why it slowed me down.
My splits/laps were:
Mile 1 - 11:25
Mile 2 - 10:20
Mile 3 - 9:43
Mile 4 - 9:56
Mile 5 - 9:42
Mile 6 - 9:40
Mile 7 - 9:50
Mile 8 - 9:28
Mile 9 - 9:24
Mile 10 - 8:32
.1     -    9:02 

    So not a great run; but I got over and done with and I am going to relax and try to take it easy. Blah on this crap, hopefully tomorrow's easy recovery run tomorrow will be better.