Last Week Running – 3rd Edition

July 9, 2017July 8, 2017 / Amy / 2 Comments

This week I’ve been all messed up about which day is which, since the holiday fell on a Tuesday. My office wasn’t closed on Monday, but I took a half day and worked that half from home, so it felt like an extension of the weekend anyways. If there was some way I could work 4 hour days from home and still get paid the same; I’d sign up in a second. But who wouldn’t?

I had another fairly good week with my running, looks like I’ve figured out a schedule that works for me. Finally! Now to figure out a schedule that will get me to study…that’s my next mission.

Saturday – 6 mile long run. I started watching Grey’s anatomy on Netflix and it made the run fly by. I feel slow on these long runs, and it’s bugging me. I fit this run into morning nap time for Mr. Baby, but I ended up going over a bit and waking him up from his nap about 5 min late. I want to be able to fit these runs in while Mr. Baby is sleeping, but they’re getting a tad too long for morning nap.

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Sunday – Family run to the playground. These are supposed to be easy, but guys…ooooffff. Haha…I still loved it, though. Having a Gatorade break at the park, sliding down some slides, and swinging is perfect. We live at the top of a hill, and always run up on the way home even if we take walk breaks throughout the run. Someday it might feel easy?

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Tuesday – Short easy run. I think I only ran a little over a mile. I wasn’t really feeling this one, so I promised myself I could stop once I hit my step goal. I might try and do this more often as a way to get my steps in.

Then, after a promising start, the week petered out with no intervals. ☹ Work was really busy (quarter end) and I got home late Thursday when I was planning to do my intervals. I probably could have made it work, but opted to relax instead. Then I didn’t want to do the run on Friday because I was planning to run 7 miles the next day. So, I just let this one go.

Studying – I did a half hour on Tuesday. Again, bad. I was planning to do Assignment 1 for my Corporate Finance Online Course, but chickened out. Once I start, I only have 24 hours to do it and I’m terrified of not finishing. I can’t figure when would be the best time to start. I need to just bite the bullet and do it.

Steps – Needs Improvement. Didn’t really make an effort this week.

Around the House – I FINALLY was able to start painting the deck! YES! I LOVE LOVE LOVE painting. I estimate that it will probably take the entire month of July to get the painting done, and probably August, too. Between the weather, work, and only painting while Mr. Baby is sleeping, I think it’s a fairly realistic estimate.

What I’m Watching – I picked up “Logan” at Target. I really like the X-Men movies. This one wasn’t my favorite, but it was good. I’d say it was better than the Japan Wolverine one (what was that called?), but the others in the series are better. We’ve also watched “Moana” twice now. The music is so great! And the story is okay, too. I liked it better than Frozen, which has great music but the story line bugs me.

Up Next Week:

Running – 7 mile long run (maybe incorporate those missed intervals?), Family Run to the park, 7 (or 8) x ¼ mile intervals, easy run.
Studying – SERIOUSLY….get this assignment #1 done already.
Around the house – Keep making progress on the deck, Organize my clothes, Clean/Organize the guest bathroom.

A Week in Review

May 8, 2017May 7, 2017 / Amy / 2 Comments

Over the past month, I’ve written several posts but have just gotten around to adding the finishing touches and posting them. If you know me in real life and are confused that some of this stuff is old news, it’s because this post is really from April 10^th. Sorry for the delay!

Back in the day when I used to blog and run regularly, I did a Monday post recapping the prior week and posting the current week’s goals. I can’t promise that I’ll start this up again every week, but I’m bringing it back for today at least. Combined with a recap of some non-running activities to add a little content.

Week in Review –

Monday – No running. Went for a walk with Jeff and Mr. Baby after work. Had my weekly Skype call with one of my best friends and then baked angel food cupcakes. Hit my step goal for the day. (Currently 6k steps.)

Getting ready to inhale the cupcakes!

Tuesday – Could not convince myself to run, but I walked on the treadmill. Hit my step goal again.

Wednesday – Work was super busy and meetings got pushed back AND ran long. I ended up staying late, and got home about an hour later than normal. Was exhausted by the time Mr. Baby was asleep, and again didn’t run. Didn’t hit my step goal, either. I ate cupcakes…yum.

Thursday – Again, no running. I kind of suck at getting runs in during the week. I didn’t hit my step goal, either. We were having work done on our house (moving our laundry room), and it finished today, so we ordered celebratory pizza. It was delicious!

This is going to be amazing.

Friday – Finally it has stopped raining (kind of). We met up with my sister in law at the nearby state park to go for a walk. I brought along Jeff and Mr. Baby, and she brought along her dog. It was a tad chilly and a bit rainy, but a good time. And, I hit my step goal again finally!

Saturday – Did a 6k run on the treadmill while Mr. Baby napped. I’m slowly eeking my way up to 10k in order to earn my virtual 10k medal. I’m hoping to go up to 8k this weekend and then do the full 10k the next week. I switched my treadmill over to metric so I could see my progress toward 10k in kilometers rather than miles. I have no concept of how fast I’m going at any given time, and the k’s add up much quicker than miles do. It’s been kind of great.

Sunday – On Sunday I took Mr. Baby for our first ever stroller run. It was SO AWESOME! I ended up not getting out until the afternoon because it was too chilly for my passenger in the morning and then I had to work around naps and meals. Pushing the stroller isn’t really too difficult, but I am definitely sore now from all the hills! Originally, I had hoped to go to a (flat) rail trail, but because I went so late I decided to go to the state park instead. The roads inside the park are closed to cars this time of year, and I figured that there would be tons of people out and I’d want a wider path to run than at the rail trail. In that respect it worked out great, but the hills! Yikes!

There were so many people out. I don’t know how I managed this picture.

This week, I’m keeping my step goal of 6,000; once I get a week’s worth of hitting my goal I’ll up it to 7,000. I also plan on running 8k at some point (probably Saturday) on my mission to hit 10k. And, it would be nice if I could get a run in during the week. I have a hard time motivating myself to do that, but I really would like to get back on the horse, so to speak.

Hope you had a great week! Do you have a step goal? Ever run with a stroller? Am I the only one who falls apart when I have to stay late at work?

New blogging rule and BIG news!

August 15, 2015August 15, 2015 / Amy / 10 Comments

Let’s just assume from now on that I am not going to post on a regular basis, and will therefore not bother with a “hey, long time no see” opening sentence. Hopefully, I’ll get back to a more regular/frequent blogging trend, but who knows when that will be, so from now on, I’ll just jump in as if I do this all the time.

And now, for some big news….I MOVED!

Why do some signs say Southborough and some say Southboro? What’s up with this Massachusetts?

I suppose I’ve been keeping a secret from you all. In March Jeff and I started house shopping, a task that consumed most of my non-working, non-studying brain power. I didn’t really intentionally leave this out of the blog, but I was posting less, so wanted to keep my posts about running. Anyways…the (semi) short story is that we found a house in April, put in an offer which was accepted (yay!), but then it fell through (boo!). So, we continued our search while also working on getting our condo on the market (and working, studying, and occasionally running).

There is of course a hidden fort behind this wall of boxes.

Then in May we found another house. An even better house that we liked even MORE. We put an offer in on this one and it was accepted (yay!) and didn’t fall through (Woo!).

In June we accepted an offer on the condo, in July we closed on the house and then moved in, and in August we closed on the condo, and that’s that! Well, there was a lot of driving between the two places, packing, unpacking, and cleaning going on in between, but you get the idea.

The house came with stairs!

So this is my first post from the new house! 🙂

Unfortunately, I don’t have any running things to talk about. I’m not injured or anything like that, don’t worry. I’m just a big wimp who is reluctant to run in a new place. I know, I know, it doesn’t make any sense; it’s just how I am. Running outside isn’t the baseline status quo for me. I started my running career on the treadmill, and never really ran outside (aside from a race) for the first 4 years. I don’t like having to figure out where to go or watch where I step, and I get lost easily. Very easily. So I haven’t been overly eager to get out there. Not to mention I’ve been getting in my fair share of physical activity with painting, cleaning, moving things, and unpacking.

My last run on my normal running route. Ah, I’ll miss this view.

I’ll have to get out there sooner or later because I’m signed up for a half in October that’s going to require some training! Luckily, I’m also signed up to run the Kicking Butt for Crohn’s 5k with my sister in law which is NEXT Saturday, so I’ll definitely be running again soon.

Inconsistent Blogger Award!

July 19, 2015July 19, 2015 / Amy / 7 Comments

Okay, yeah, that’s not a real award. But, if it were….I’d get one. 😉

I was doing better in June, but then I went off the rails again. I blame it on my 10 miler. See, it takes a long time for me to write a race recap, and writing quick posts was the thing that was getting me back on track.

So, after nearly a month, this is going to be big race recap, right? Haha..no. I still haven’t really written it. Maybe I’ll get a quick version up sometime this week. (Just try not to plan your week around it, okay?)

This morning, I went for my first run in over a week. July has been super busy. First, work was crazy with the end of the quarter, and I’ve also been in super study mode. My third actuarial exam was this past Monday. I passed! WOO! Seriously, it was such a relief. I failed this test in March, and even though I studied very hard and knew the material as well as I could, I was still very nervous. When work is super busy, I actually feel more motivated to go running. But when I’m studying, I like to get started early in the morning, and then I get caught up in it, so it’s more difficult to get a run in. It’s strange that the two situations would have opposite effects on my running, but there you have it.

This morning’s run was very humid. And when I was in the sun, it was surprisingly hot for pre-8AM. I know it’s the middle of July, but it seems like the summer weather hasn’t really been consistent until recently.

Selfies are hard. At least I remembered to smile.

I ran 2.5 miles this morning. The past two summers I’ve been marathon training, and would have been doing a MUCH longer run at this point, but I didn’t even feel bad about it. The weather was fine for 2.5 miles, but would have been awful to run in for hours. Plus, I had things to do today, so finishing up before 8AM was great.

My plan for this week is to run the same 2.5 mile route that I ran today every morning before work (or most mornings). I don’t have to start studying for my next exam for at least a month or two, so I may even get some posts up.

Thanks for putting up with all my nonsense. 😛

This week, I went running.

February 2, 2015February 1, 2015 / Amy / 6 Comments

I’m back! Monday was my first run after my 3 week break, and it was just delightful!

I ran in legwarmers. I had worn them to work, and they were soo comfy!

I was let out of work early because of the impending storm, so I was able to head outside for (probably) one last outdoor run of the season. I planned to take it easy for 20 minutes and just see how everything felt. My goal was to have fun, and not push it. It would be totally insane to get hurt by coming back too fast from an “injury prevention” break.

You can’t even tell it’s about to blizzard, right?

I headed to the ocean, my favorite view. But the view wasn’t the only reason I wanted to run out that way. On the previous Saturday, Jeff and I had gone out to the park to play in the snow, and I wanted to see how our snowman was holding up. (Hint: not good!)

Snowbert on Saturday.

And, Monday night.

By the time I had reached the beach, the wind was kicking it up a notch, but it didn’t really start snowing until after I had made it back from my run. I ended up with about a mile and a half for my 20 minutes. I took it slow, and there was a fair amount of slowing down for ice, pictures, and snowman investigation. I saw 3 other runners (one who waved and said “what blizzard”…haha…it was on it’s way dude), all trying to get in one last run before the storm.

It wasn’t much of a run, but it was certainly fun, and that’s exactly want I was looking for.

After that first run back, I ran twice more (both on the treadmill) to bring my weekly total to 3 runs (and just over 12 miles). Wednesday’s run felt pretty tough, but Saturday’s went really well. I’m obviously not at my fastest, but I’m pretty happy that running doesn’t feel awful.

When was the last time you built a snowman?

Ever run in a blizzard? (I have…but not this one)

P.S. The Pats JUST won the Superbowl!!! 🙂

I wore a headband on my run today, but this post has nothing to do with that.

November 23, 2014 / Amy / 3 Comments

I finally got my act together and went for a run! Yay me! I didn’t end up going to the gym with Jeff because it was practically a heat wave (44 F), so I went outside instead. I ended up going 5.5 ish miles, and even though I had a pretty good time, it was a tad harder than I would have liked. My legs felt kind of cement-like. I think I need to do more stretching and foam rolling, or you know…any stretching and foam rolling.

I don’t look like myself with a headband. Also, the face I’m making is a little odd, too.

After farting around for an hour and a half, I finally got out the front door around 8 this morning. I ran over the bridge (will this ever get easier?) and then around Salem for most of my run. I like this route. I despise running up the bridge, but it’s a very nice view. I love running by the water. 🙂

Only one boat left, that’s how you know winter’s coming.

I can’t believe Thanksgiving is this week. I feel like the entire month of November has flown by. I’m looking forward to visiting with my family and friends that I don’t see very often. And of course, I’m thrilled to be running the Buffalo Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. My brother in law agreed to join us for the run this year, which is super exciting. I’ve never run a race with him before, and I love racing with family.

As for this coming week, I’m planning on a short run Tuesday night before I finish packing for our long weekend in WNY. Then, the Winter Running Streak starts on Thanksgiving, so I’ll be running at least a mile a day for the rest of the year. I think that I may have went on a skipping binge this week knowing that pretty soon I will not be skipping at all. 😉

How do you feel about headbands?

What changes around your neighborhood when the weather gets cold?

Are you excited for Thanksgiving?

A little of this, a little of that

October 3, 2014 / Amy / 6 Comments

I’ve been having the worst time with running motivation lately. I’m still enjoying the weekend long runs, but the shorter weekday runs just aren’t doing it for me. If I didn’t have a marathon at the end of the month, I’d probably take a bit of a break. I think one of the reasons that I’m dragging is because I am not enjoying my weekly speed work. I go out feeling like it’s something I have to do, and that’s not really any fun. Hopefully, when I enter taper mode after tomorrow’s long run, I can regain some motivation. I’m thinking of trying to find a short race to do in the next few weeks to jump start my excitement a bit.

In the meantime, I’ll try and focus on some exciting things:

I got new kicks and they are AWESOME! I went back to the Newton Gravity. I love them so much. I tried out Brooks Pure Flows for my last shoe (because Newtons are expensive), and while they weren’t terrible, I did have some problems with foot pain. So, when my mom asked what I wanted for my birthday I pointed her toward the Newton store! I’ve been wearing them every chance I get so they will be broken in for the marathon.

Limited edition orange w/ blue laces….it’s like they read my mind that I thought the regular color (pepto pink) was hideous.

It is fall. According to the calendar and the weather and everything. My run yesterday was one of the first where it looked, felt, and smelled like fall. It was nice. Cooler temps, faster feet. My marathon takes place on the weekend before halloween, and they have a candy station at mile 17. They polled on facebook, and candy corn was a big winner! I think I’ll hold off eating any candy corn until then, and it’ll be even more delicious.

Look at that red tree out there across the water. 🙂

It was a bit windy.

I signed up for the Turkey Trot! I love the Turkey Trot, and I can’t wait! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and this is an awesome tradition. This year, we’ve convinced my brother in law to sign up, too! The more the merrier.

Family + Turkey Trot = ❤

I entered the t-shirt design contest for the Turkey Trot! It was a tad bit frustrating. They needed a file type I’d never heard of, and they require a high resolution file. Ha! My graphic design skills are limited to paint. I had to download multiple different free programs and create the design three times before I got it in the right format at the right resolution. But, I did it! And, it was pretty fun to do; worth it, even if I don’t end up winning.

My design is top secret!

Starting 26 days out, Cape Cod Marathon has been posting a picture countdown to race day. It’s making me excited about the course. I think it’s going to be really beautiful. 🙂 They started with a picture of Mile 1, and are now up to Mile 3. I think it’s a really cool thing of them to do.

I assume I’ll be running up that hill, but at least it’s pretty. 🙂

What are your tips for getting out of a running funk? Anything you’re excited about lately? Have you ever entered a T-shirt design contest?

21 miles of mental training

September 20, 2014 / Amy / 10 Comments

OOoooff. That is the best word to describe my long run this weekend. Well, I suppose it’s more of a sound than a word, but you get the point, right? It was a toughie. AKA: An opportunity for mental training…hooray.

Pre-run selfie. I think I suspected what was coming?

The morning was chilly, in the 40s when I set out at 6:45ish. It was my first run of the season in long sleeves, and I didn’t regret them for a second. I did regret forgetting my sunglasses, which I think was due to the fact that the sun wasn’t really out yet when I left the house. It could also be attributed to my “mad dash” out the door.* I crawled out of bed at 6:07, which is apparently before the sun rises these days, and I was out the door in less than 40 minutes…practically a record for me. I barely had time to even check facebook, and I certainly didn’t have time to read any running blogs for a little motivation.

I opted for a full sock today and not just the sleeves. Warmer ankles, but I missed my smart wool socks.

So, anyways, I went outside and started running. Then I just kept that up for a long time. 😉

I could tell pretty early on that I wasn’t feeling quite as spunky as last week. Something felt harder. The beginning miles passed as quickly as normal, and my pace was in the same range as last week, so it seemed that it was just my brain that wasn’t feelin’ it. Unfortunately, by the time I hit 9 miles I suspected that my legs weren’t really feelin’ it either. I usually have an inexplicable burst of awesome from about mile 9 to 14. Everything is sunshine and rainbows, and I pick up speed and have a grand ol’ time. But not this week. This week, I was counting down the miles I had left. I was feeling okay, but not great, and that was disconcerting.

The one exception to the mediocrity was unexpectedly running into Jeff, who was on his own long run, at mile 10. We don’t usually see each other out running, and it was a nice surprise.

When I hit 15 miles, I felt okay about having 6 miles to go, but somewhere in that mile things started going downhill. Actually, that’s not too far off from what actually happened in mile 16: rolling hills. Things were quickly going from “okay” to “not bad exactly, but definitely not good”.

At the 3 hour mark, I was scheduled for my 4th gu and, more excitingly, a walk break! I decided that I’d rather have a Gatorade again than choke down the gu, but I couldn’t make myself wait for the store to take a walk break. And this is where my pace went out the window. Until this point, I was still averaging a pace around 11 min/mile. The walk break didn’t kill it, but together with the stop for Gatorade (which involved waiting in line for someone to get a breakfast sandwich), I lost something like 5 minutes. And I couldn’t make that time up. My legs were toast; I couldn’t even stop myself from losing more time. But I kept chugging along.

At least I could enjoy the view. Well sort of, after a certain point, I have to keep an eye on the ground so I don’t trip over things.

And this is where the mental training comes in. Just after hitting mile 18, I ran by a shortcut home, and towards the bridge. I could have gone home, but I didn’t. I could have stayed in a flatter area until I hit 21 miles, but I didn’t. Instead, at 18.65 miles I ran over the stupid bridge. Then, at just over 20 miles, I ran BACK over the STUPID BRIDGE. And finally, when I was over the (stupid) bridge, I ran up yet…another….hill…before the final, blissful quarter mile of gradual decline that takes me to my front door (love).

These last hilly miles were hard. I kept telling myself “well, this is not awful”. Ha. I don’t like to think of a run as “bad”, I prefer a “it could be worse” attitude. I kept reminding myself about what good mental training this was, and thinking that “hey, at least I didn’t trip and fall”. It’s important for me to stay positive in the last hilly miles of training because my marathon has a hilly second half. If I’m going to get to the finish line, I’m going to have to not give up on the hills.

I ended up finishing 20 minutes slower than last week, which was only 1 mile shorter. Bummer. But I wouldn’t call it a bad run. Just a hard run. A necessary run. And now, let’s hope for smooth sailing for the remainder of training.

Is it cold where you live? Are you like me, or do you curse every step on a “bad” run? If I feel like this during the marathon, how on earth am I going to run 5.2 more miles?

*Why must I leave so early if I don’t need to beat the heat? Well, Jeff and I have a standing Saturday lunch date. And we like to leave the house at 11AM. Yeah, we could go later or on Sunday, but we don’t want to. So, I leave the house as early as possible considering my personal “do not get up before 6AM on a weekend” rule. I may complain about having to rush, but it’s totally my choice to do so. (Also, FYI, we left after 11 today because I was slow.)

Recovery Week: Group Run!

July 23, 2014 / Amy / 8 Comments

Aside from gallivanting around Western Massachusetts, another fun thing I did last week was my long run. My two sisters-in-law and I have been talking about doing a long run together for quite a while, and it finally worked out! It’s a little tough to get all together with everyone’s schedules, and I live a bit far away from them (about a 40 min drive), so I don’t often get to join them. But this weekend was good for everyone, so it finally happened.

The two of them live fairly close to each other, and they also both live near running/bike paths, so we picked one of those, and met up for our run on Saturday morning. The plan was to run 8 miles together with the option of adding on extra to the end if anyone wanted to. I ended up sticking with 8, but both of them went longer (I think 10 and 12 miles).

My niece also came along for the ride in her brand new jogging stroller! I think she slept most of the way while her mom did all of the hard work. I took a (short) turn pushing the stroller towards the end of the run, and while it wasn’t as physically difficult as I imagined, it was really tricky having something else to focus on. Maybe next time I’ll take a longer turn and get a better idea of the difficulty. We’ll see.

Sunglasses, check! Camelbak, check! Giraffe, check!

Before heading out, I was nervous that they would be a little too quick for me, but I really shouldn’t have been. I told them I was worried about it, and they agreed to take it slow if I needed to. In the end, we ended up around the same average pace that I have been doing in my long runs. The whole thing went by really quickly. With three of us, there was at least one of us talking the whole time, and that was a great distraction.

We discussed whether to run a fall marathon together and which one to chose, and it seems like we’re pretty close to a decision! All the races we’re looking at have price increases at the end of the month, so we (I?) set that as an unofficial deadline to figure it out for sure. Regardless of whether we sign up or not, I think there will be more group runs in our future. 🙂

Do you think long runs go by quicker with friends? Have you ever pushed a running stroller? Do you bring a giraffe when you exercise?

What’s Up? Niawanda Park, Easy Running, Intervals

June 12, 2014 / Amy / 4 Comments

Hey, it’s Thursday! When did that happen? I’m still a little behind from my short trip, I guess.

Let’s talk about running!

Last Thursday Jeff and I hopped in our car and shuffled off to Buffalo. I made sure to get as many of my planned weekly runs in before we left so that Thursday could be a rest day and we could spend several hours visiting Baby C (our new niece!) immediately upon our arrival. It’s a nice thing about my training plan that it doesn’t matter which days of the week I do which runs, so I can mix it around and then spend 8 hours in a car followed by 6 hours on a couch holding a tiny two and half week old baby.

I hate to say it, but: more fun than running!

Because I front loaded my week with running, I only had one run to complete while visiting the City of Good Neighbors. My schedule called for a 45 min run at a medium pace/effort. It was technically my long run for the week, but my long runs aren’t currently very long (I ran longer in my speed work on Wednesday), so I’m not really sure what to call it.

Normally when I run from Mom’s house I just run around the neighborhood, but this time I wanted to get a little more scenic. So, Jeff and I made the short trip over to Niawanda Park to run along the Niagara River. And, scenic is just what we got. It really is beautiful over there.

That water’s heading to the falls, folks!

We started out running towards the Grand Island bridge, I thought this direction was more scenic than running towards the Canal, but it resulted in us running into a pretty decent head wind. Along with the dead legs feeling I have at the beginning of most runs, this had me feeling like I was running in molasses. We ran along the path for 25 minutes and then turned around, I think we also took a walk break sometime in the first half and/or around the turnaround point. The sun was feeling hot, and neither of us were feeling very fast.

After turning around, I slowed us way down for about a half mile. My super easy pace is uncomfortably slow for Jeff to run, so normally when we run together I try to limit the amount of time spent at that speed, but I just knew that if I could only slow down for a bit things would turn around. And it worked, when we picked up speed again, I finally started to enjoy the run.

I even felt up to snapping a picture!

Look at this cute little bridge Jeff is running over!

The second half of our run felt like it went by much quicker, and we had picked up our pace for a decently quick last mile and a half. I’m glad the good half of the run was the second half. I wouldn’t have been in a bad mood if the whole run had felt hard, but it’s nice to finish on a high note.

Overall, I had a pretty good time running along the river. The view was nice, and of course I was reminded of all the times I had walked down/around there as a kid with family and summer camp. There weren’t too many other people out because it was Friday, but I imagine it might get busier on the weekends. The path is pretty much dead flat (as is most of the area), so there were no uphills to whine about or downhills to give me a little oomph!

I would definitely run here again when I’m in the area, especially if I have a longer run on the schedule. The one complaint I had was that there weren’t enough trees. I suppose they might block the view a bit or get in the way of some of the open spaces, but I know we both would have appreciated some more shade on the path.

After running last Friday, I didn’t run again until Tuesday. We got back home late Sunday night, and I was too busy missing my little BFF (baby C) to get a run in on Monday. Tuesday’s run was an “easy” 25 minutes. Easy is in quotes because I didn’t really take it easy – effort wise at least. I think I need to do a better job of warming up and starting slowly, so my legs don’t feel like concrete blocks so often.

Then, yesterday, I ran intervals. It wasn’t the first time I’ve run intervals, but it was a first in a few different ways:

1. It was the first time I had run 800m intervals. In the past, I’ve done 400s on a regular basis, and last week I did 8 minute intervals, but this was my first time with 800s. It was tough!

2. It was the first time I ran measured intervals on the road rather than a track or treadmill. Our local track was redone a year or so ago, and now there are ALWAYS people using it in such a way that I cannot. Harumph! I mean people playing sports on the field in the middle and watching from the bleachers outside the track and/or standing on the track, or people from the high school track team using it for practice. So it’s not as available as it used to be. I didn’t even bother checking it out yesterday, I just decided to run my intervals on the road.

I picked a long straight stretch of road that’s about a mile long and ran back and forth until I was done (4 intervals). I wasn’t really sure what pace to run the intervals at because the road is not flat. I tried to stay in the 8’s and I think that worked for the most part, although it’s hard to tell if I stayed consistent over all 4 intervals because my speed was impacted by the inclines and declines. My overall pace, including warm-up and 3 minute recovery, came out to 9:45/mile. This is a bit slower than I’d like, but hopefully I’ll improve.

And, that brings us up to date on my running adventures. Next week we should be back to our regularly scheduled programming.*

*In case you noticed that this is not a Throwback Thursday post and you are concerned (not sure why you would be, but just in case), let me explain. I love and am excited about writing the Throwback Thursday posts, and they will continue, just not today. I had some more recent runs to recap.

Okay, one last picture with Baby C because it’s my blog and I said so! You can’t tell but her onesie says “Auntie is the Best” (that’s me – auntie…bet you can’t guess who got her that!)