mellymell: (homer running)
I finished! I mean, I didn't have any doubt that I would finish, but I got a PR and despite the hill in the last half mile, I was still able to sprint the last .2 miles of the race to the finish. I guess having some slight to moderate hills in my training in about the same place is a good thing.

They didn't allow headphones, so I was a little concerned about pacing without music. But I met up with [livejournal.com profile] smileypv and we stayed together pretty well and talked through the whole race. It's been a long time since we've seen each other, so we had a lot of catching up to do. In fact, I bet people around us were pretty pissed off, because we were pretty loud and jovial and were kind of in the back of the middle of the pack where the women who are really struggling to get through it are.

Jennifer was a little disappointed in her time, but I think her slightly faster speed helped pull me through a little quicker than I could have done on my own. I just hope I didn't drag her down too much.

Now, I'm ready to go for another run, like RIGHT NOW! And, I'm ready to keep training and try to get my time down a bit. When's the next race? :)

ETA: Stats, for my reference: time was 38:15, which is down from 43:15 from my first race and down from my training PR of 39:45. I was 20th in my division (of 22) and 129th of 171 finishers.
mellymell: (homer running)
I had my second run at a ~3.5 mile distance last night. It was also only my second run this month. *shame* But I ran on June 30th! *no excuse* I also hiked about 5 or 6 moderate miles at a slow pace last week. *still no excuse* Ok, whatever, I've been slacking.

Anyway, I started back at it on Wednesday night not paying any attention to my time and just ran the distance very easy.

Last night, I set up a quick(er) paced playlist and tried to keep my strides in beat, though still not watching the clock. I shaved 4:25(!) off my time from the night before and added .1 mile to my distance (I ran out of road the night before so I added another cul de sac). I also increased my sweat production by about 300% I think. I could have used a longer cool down and more stretching, but I was trying to get into bed quickly. I'm a little stiff this morning as a result, but I've got today as a rest day before the race tomorrow. I might do some gentle yoga in a bit to loosen up, but I'm not working out today.

I feel very confident for my race tomorrow, though.
1) I was not this far along in training before the first race I did.
2) I'm running .3 miles beyond what a 5k will cover so I definitely have the distance.
3) Typically my third run of the week is the money run where things feel easier (and my race will be the third run this week).
4) I know the course and know it's fairly level and I've been running a couple of challenging hills in my training.

I've so got this. I'm not going to set any records (maybe a PR, but that's not saying much), but I know I can finish with a time with which I can be happy.
mellymell: (homer running)
I'm currently in Week 5 of 5k training... again. The surprising thing when I started back after 10 MONTHS OFF *kicks self* was that I hadn't lost too much of my stamina or distance. I mean, the first week was hard and I had lost about a half mile, but I was still able to run 2 miles without stopping and without feeling the need to hurl after. I've been running in the evenings because it's just too damn hot the rest of the time. Also, I'm not too keen on pushing a jogging stroller anymore now that my passenger weighs over 35 lbs. So, Chris and I take turns at night. Sometimes he's able to squeeze in his run before dinner. But I go after, usually after putting Jonah to bed.

As of last week I had worked my way up to running 2.75 miles and feeling really good about it. I'm kind of sick of pussyfooting around to build up to a 5k distance, so I decided to just go for it last night and see how it felt. It was hard, but doable and I think I'm going to hang out at this distance this week, then push it up to 3.5 miles next week and go from there. My aim is to get up to running 4 miles per day 5 days per week and sustain that for a while, working on getting my time down and such. So far, I've only managed to squeak out 3 nights per week, but it's definitely better than nothing.

There's a race in Huntsville on July 17th that I want to run. It's only a $10 registration and it's at UAH, right around the corner from my in-laws. It's a Twilight 5k (NO, not that Twilight, the time of day. I don't think I could handle 3.2 miles of body glitter and Hot Topic merch). [livejournal.com profile] smileypv is running in it and I thought it would be fun to do a race together. Plus, it was the perfect timing to reach a goal, without any lag time for slacking.

So, that's one positive thing to balance out all the negative I have a tendency to post here. More to come...
mellymell: (Default)
I've got a long, (though shorthanded) entry in the works to recap my very busy week last week. The week that I thought was going to beat me into submission at around Wednesday, but I owned it. I freakin' OWNED IT!

Anyway, today, as Nikki of Moms who drink and swear or more specifically, Nikki's Blithering Blog* would say, Thursday is my bitch!

*I can not thank [livejournal.com profile] cleopatramwi enough for sharing those nuggets of unorthodox joy

Wednesday dragged me down into a pit and attempted to drown me, much like last Wednesday, actually, but more emotional. But Thursday? No, Thursday is MY BITCH!

Let me show you it. )
mellymell: (Default)
I know a lot of people don't make them because they never keep them. The fact that I never keep them, however, doesn't mean a lot to me. I've got to have very specific goals to have a direction to head in. Otherwise I just feel like I'm floating. Every year around this time, usually for several weeks, I put a lot of thought into figuring out where I want to go this year. Since I'm a multifaceted kind of person, I typically set specific goals in each area of interest.

Exercise )


Home Organization )
mellymell: (Default)
For those of you wondering, yes, I do exist outside of Twitter and direct email and comments on other people's LJ or responses to my Facebook status updates (which are just regurgitated tweets). I've even been keeping up with everyone fairly well. But I've got a backlog of things I want to put up here. I know a couple of the entries will take a little while to hammer out, so I've been avoiding them in order to work on things that were more important like OMG 1ST CRAFT SHOW EVAR! Now, most of that is over and I've got a couple of weeks of normal busy before OMG JONAH'S 3RD BIRTHDAY hits. So, I'm going to try to knock those out in the next few days.

In the meantime, what I've been up to:

A list, yay! )
mellymell: (homer running)
As has been mentioned, I got in some yoga last week. It hurt later, but I was glad I did it and will continue to try to fit in an hour or two a week. Unfortunately, since my mother-in-law came up on Saturday and I decided Sunday needed to be spent weeding and cleaning up the front bed, I didn't get my runs in on two gorgeous weekend days. It's really hard to get weekend runs in. So, that means I only ran twice last week. So much for catching up on what I missed the week before. This week I'm on schedule at least. But, here's last week:

Monday - rest
Tuesday - 2.25 mile straight run without stroller; 2.8 miles total in 35.19 mins
Wednesday - rest
Thursday - 2.5 mile straight run without stroller; 3.14 miles total in 40:55 mins
Friday - 1 hour of yoga
Saturday - rest
Sunday - rest

Mileage Totals:
Week - 12.22
Month - 22.88
Year - 110.43
mellymell: (homer running)
Still didn't get all four days in last week. Was all set to go yesterday, walked out the front door starting the stopwatch and everything, but heard some thunder and noticed it was starting to rain (and was still quite slick from the rain earlier in the day). So, I came in and did laundry instead. Would have much rather been running, for sure!

Monday - exhausted from the weekend!
Tuesday - rest
Wednesday - 2.25 mile straight run w/stroller; 2.53 total miles in 33:38 mins
Thursday - 2.25 mile straight run w/stroller; 2.8 total miles in 38:05 mins (do not go in the heat of the day! DUH!)
Friday - rest
Saturday - 2.25 mile straight run w/o stroller; 2.8 total miles in 35:27 mins (AWESOME run! felt great!)
Sunday - rest (I tried, I really tried)

Mileage totals:
Week - 8.13
Month - 10.66
Year - 98.21

Exciting, my next run will put me over 100 miles this year! I know, that's not a ton of running for 7 months, but I'm proud of it. It's a lot more than I've done in certain years past. Hell, I could barely push through a mile in high school and I thought I was in much better shape then.

Since I missed a run last week, I'm going to try to work in 5 runs this week, the first of which will be another 2.25 mile run (tomorrow). Then I'm going to bump up to 2.5 miles for the rest of the week. Next week will be 3 miles (almost there!). The week after, I'll take it to 3.5 miles. I'm debating on if I should try to go to 4 miles before I start working on speed (which will extend my 5k plan another week). I'm devising a plan to alternate various speed and endurance workouts once I finish the initial 5k plan I'm doing right now. I hope to have that hammered out by the end of the week and will post it here for opinions. I really want to get down to a 10 minute or less mile by the end of the year. I'd love to be able to run the zoo 5k in January right at or under 30 minutes if I can.

Today was supposed to be a yoga day. Put Jonah down for a nap and went in the office to take care of a couple of things and the next thing I know, it's 4pm. I swear, I have a hard time watching the clock on days when I didn't get much sleep. I also have a hard time with my internal clock. Usually I have a good idea of how much time has passed when I'm working on things, but today, I've just been lost. Must do better tomorrow. Jonah's going back to school for the first time in two weeks. So help me god if I get a call that he's got a fever. . .
mellymell: (homer running)
No, I'm not giving up already, I promise. I just forgot to post it.

Monday - 2 mile straight run w/stroller; 2.53 miles in 34:51 mins
Tuesday - 2 mile straight run w/o stroller; 2.53 miles in 33:19 mins
Wednesday - rest
Thursday - 2 mile straight run w/stroller; 2.53 miles in ~34 mins
Friday - unintentional rest (got busy in the garden and never got around to running)
Saturday - rest
Sunday - hungover

Mileage Totals:
Week - 7.59
Month - June = 5.06 July = 2.53
Year - 90.08

And even after all that telling people the $20 registration for the Halloween 5k ended on June 30th, well, I forgot to freakin' register. D'OH! So, $25 registration ends July 31st and let's try this again.

Increasing distance this week for the first time in. . . forever. I'm just taking a gulp and doing it and not over thinking it or second guessing if I'm ready or not. Did it yesterday and today, actually. Added a quarter mile to make my runs 2.25 miles now (or at least for the rest of the week). I'll try to up the distance again next week because, well, that's what my plan wants me to do and I'm going to try to stick to it. Also, instead of bouncing back and forth between 2.25 mile runs and 2 mile runs like the plan says to do, I'm just making the increase and sticking with it. At this point, I don't really see the point in bouncing back to 2 miles and it might even be detrimental. Also, also, I'm going to stop trying to run 5 days a week (not that I was succeeding at that anyway). I'm cutting back to 4 (again, not that it's really cutting back since that's the most I've run so far this year). On my running rest days, I'm going to do an hour of yoga. I really need some cross training and I simply do not have the time to workout for 2 hours a day. I can pull an hour though, so with 3 days of yoga and 4 days of running, we'll see how that does for me.

Let's see, also, I think I'm going to rework my route for a little while. I'm feeling some soreness in my leg again (no popping anymore though) and I'm starting to think it's from a certain section of my route. It's usually fine until I get to this point where the pavement is sloped and it puts a little extra strain on my right leg. If I alternate and do that section backwards, the wear might be a little more even on my body. Also hoping the yoga will help to stretch and strengthen that out a bit. Another reason to change it up is that now at the very end of my run, I've got an incline. It's somewhat gradual, but enough to wear me out and make me hurt right at the end. I'm thinking if I cover the neighborhood in more like a figure 8 sort of pattern, I'll get the hills out of the way when I'm still fairly fresh (first mile or so) and then I can also do that uneven section with the left foot for a while. Win, win!

Also in the win, win department, I believe I made an idle wish to start running again and to start making jewelry again in the month of June. By the skin of my teeth, I did both in the last week or so of the month. That's procrastination for you.
mellymell: (homer running)
Thursday - 2 mile regular run / 2.53 total miles / 33 mins / no stroller
Friday - rest
Saturday - rest
Sunday - 2 mile regular run / 2.53 total miles / 34:14 mins / with stroller

Mileage totals:
Week - 5.06 miles
Month - 5.06 miles
Year - 82.49 miles

Mental notes:
1. Get some running skirts/shorts. It's too freakin' hot for long pants. Also some compression tank tops/t-shirts that will wick better than cotton t-shirts.
2. Don't try to run to Death Cab. It will only drag you down.
3. Get out right after breakfast before it's 97 degrees out.
4. Wear sunscreen on at least my face. 30+ minutes in heat of the day sun is going to age me at best and burn me at worst.

Tomorrow is the last day for early bird registration on the I Run For the Party Halloween 5k. It's $20 now and goes up in intervals of $5 to $35 the day of the race. Think I'll go ahead and register. Maybe I'll have Maleficent done by then and can do the race as her.
mellymell: (homer running)
Well, I went running today for the first time in 8.5 weeks.

The good news: I can still do two miles without hurting too bad. Breathing was actually easy. Never got a catch in my side and no burning in the lungs or heaving. The heat and humidity are good for something, at least for me. I don't think I've gained much weight in the past two months that I've been off the wagon. I feel like I have, but the scale says otherwise. I may have started to lose a bit of muscle. Which means I'm probably going to be couple of pounds heavier tomorrow, because, well, that's just how it seems to work with me. I think because of how I lost the weight I managed to lose before, it's stayed off more easily. That gives me hope for weight maintenance in the future.

The bad news: I've lost a couple of minutes of time (overall, still not timing individual miles) and my legs are very tight even after extra long warm up/cool down and stretching. I'm anticipating it taking a good week or so to get the kinks worked back out again. Then, of course, my yoga DVD should be here so I'll start doing that and cause all sorts of new kinks for a while. This was kind of the last straw. I'm feeling aches and pains again that were around before I started running (knees, that pesky ankle thingy though it's not as bad as it was, lower back, shoulders, etc.). I'm also just generally feeling unhealthy, what with no exercise paired with things like bacon wrapped smoked pork loins and homemade sausage and such.

I'm really going to try to get back on this. I feel like my life would get back to normal just by changing this one aspect. Also, I don't know why I wasn't running when I was in full time contemplative mode. Half an hour, 5 times a week to be alone with my thoughts. Why didn't that make perfect sense? And the weather was so nice then, aside from tons and tons of rain.

So, here goes. I've missed all the early summer races I wanted to run because, well, I wasn't running. Here's what I'm pondering now (because I'm just the sort of person that has to have a deadline of some sort to procrastinate against):

Sept. 12th - Broken Wheel Festival 5k in Nolensville (just because it gives us an excuse to go to Nolensville and therefore go eat at Martin's Barbecue after the race, thereby undoing all the good work I will have done that morning by running a 5k, heh).

Sept. 26th - Shelby Bottoms Boogie 15k/5k

Oct. 10th - Germantown 5K Bier Run (no link yet)

Oct. 17th - I Run for the Party Halloween 5k

Oct/Nov ??? - Superhero 5k in Asheville, NC (they still have their Ninja 5k info up from May so no info yet).

Not saying I'm going to run all of these, they're just the ones I'm looking into. If I can do 5 days at 2 miles a day next week, that will basically be week 1 of the 5k plan I was doing before.

In addition to this, of course I'm going to start using the yoga DVD as soon as I get it. It's the show I used to do when we had satellite, but since we no longer have satellite, I spent $15 on his DVD. It's Kurt Johnsen's Yoga for Life, if anyone is interested. Also, I'm going to start doing push-ups and sit-ups again. Just a few at first, like maybe ten of each per day. I just noticed that I was getting a lot more toned with a lot less mileage when I was doing some calisthenics along with the aerobic exercise.

Ass kicking and cheerleading are welcome.
mellymell: (homer running)
So, I wasn't just absent on teh intrawebs last week, I pretty much spent the entire week in my head and didn't even run. I managed to mostly keep up with house work (which was a little easier without a working vacuum) though that was about it. I'm also fairly certain my homicidal mood was not only because of Twilight krappenfest overload, but also because I wasn't exercising. But I did run three days the week before. Let me show you them:

Week 12 (Mar 23-29)
Mon - 2 mile straight run; 2.53 miles in 29.45; 1st mile 10:53, 2nd mile 10:49
Tue - 2 mile straight run; 2.53 miles in 31:09; 1st mile 11:46, 2nd mile 11:05
Wed - Rest
Thu - 2 mile straight run (w/stroller); 2.53 miles in 30:45; 1st mile 11:19, 2nd mile 10:53
Fri - Rest
Sat - Rest
Sun - Rest

Mileage Totals
Week - 7.59
Month - 22.77
Year - 72.37

Two new rules I'm imposing to get out of this rut and upcoming races I'm considering to fulfill one of those rules. )
mellymell: (homer running)
I've only run three days in the past three weeks. I still have not lost any endurance (hanging in there with two mile runs still) and my times are improving (though I'm still not up to PRs again). For the first time since early February, I had two miles under 11 mins today. Just barely under (10:53 and 10:49) but under. I'm amazed at how shaving 1-2 minutes off my total time has me burning an extra 100 calories over the course of my run. Anyway, I'm not here to talk about this week yet and I'm going to refrain from making any projections or setting any goals. I'm just going to try to get through the week, one day at a time and see where it takes me. Here's my measly 3 runs for the past two weeks (omitting noting the rest days because it's not resting when you just dick around and don't run):

Week 10:
Wed (3/11) - 2 mile straight run (w/ stroller); 2.53 miles in 31:54; 1st mile 12:01, 2nd mile 11:15

Mileage Totals:
Week - 2.53
Month - 10.12
Year - 59.72

Week 11:
Thurs (3/19) - 2 mile straight run; 2.53 miles in 31:15; 1st mile 11:49, 2nd mile 11:12
Fri (3/20) - 2 mile straight run (w/ stroller); 2.53 miles in 30:53; 1st mile 11:24, 2nd mile 10:53

Mileage Totals:
Week - 5.06
Month - 15:18
Year - 64.78

The ankle weirdness comes and goes. The more I run, the less problem I have. It no longer feels like my ankle rolling. It now feels like a probably weak muscle in my leg above my ankle giving way on occasion and causing a slight pulling feeling in my leg. I'm really going to try hard this week to make myself do some yoga, even if it's just an hour. If that and more running doesn't help get rid of it, I'll think about seeing an orthopedic physician for a diagnosis and consult my physical therapist neighbor for some strength training I can do to fix it.
mellymell: (homer running)
Week 8 (Feb 23-Mar 1):
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - Rest
Wednesday - .9 mile straight run w/Chris (w/stroller); 1.46 miles in 21.25 mins; .9 miles in 11:26
Thursday - 2 mile straight run (w/stroller); 2.53 miles in 30:35; 1st mile 11:16, 2nd mile 10:54
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Rest
Sunday - Rest

Mileage Totals:
Week - 3.99
Month - 25.03
Year - 49.60



Week 9 (Mar 2-8):
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - Rest
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - 2 mile straight run (w/stroller); 2.53 miles in 31:55; 1st mile 11:36, 2nd mile 11:19
Friday - 2 mile straight run; 2.53 miles in 30:34; 1st mile 11:25, 2nd mile 11:03
Saturday - 2 mile straight run; 2.53 miles in 32:05; 1st mile 12:12, 2nd mile 11:16*
Sunday - Rest

Mileage Totals:
Week - 7.59
Month - 7.59
Year - 57.19

*Just to make myself feel better about this run, I wanted to note this was after spending all day outside working in the yard, planting a tree, helping Chris set posts for the fence and chasing Jonah around all day. I went really late at night (8:30pm or so) and just felt sluggish the whole time like my legs were made of lead.

Needless to say, I'm going to be doing week 1 of my plan again this week. I certainly hope this is the last time I have to say that. My focus this week is to try to get my times and effort level back down to where it was before I got sick. I'm not looking to set any PRs this week, but I'd like to get my miles back down in the 10:45-11:15 range at least. That 12:12 mile really bugs me. And I have GOT to get 5 days in this week. The most I've managed all year is 4 days in a week. I've been so sporadic about it, but I've got to just make it one of those unavoidable and inevitable things of the day again. There's no choice about it, I have to run everyday!
mellymell: (homer running)
I totally forgot to post this last week.

Monday - 2 mile straight run; 2.53 total miles in 29:29; 1st mile 11:04, 2nd mile 10:35 (PR)
Tuesday - 2 mile straight run (w/stroller), 2.53 total miles in 31:18; 1st mile 11:41, 2nd mile 10:53
Wednesday - SICK
Thursday - SICK
Friday - SICK
Saturday - Rest
Sunday - Rest

Mileage totals:
Week - 5.06
Month - 21.04
Year - 45.61

The stroller definitely slows me down, so I made note of it. I hadn't been running with Jonah much in a while, so I thought I should start again. It's kind of an extra workout. Of course, I got sick and haven't been running since then, but that's my plan when I can get back to it.

On the injured ankle front, I've noticed for the second time today that it seems to be much better on days when I'm on my feet more. I'm going to start walking for 30 minutes everyday until I feel back to normal and perhaps consult my physical therapist neighbor on any exercises I can do to restrengthen those muscles. I want to get back to running as soon as possible. I'm going absolutely batty without it! I feel almost caught up on everything else from being sick last week. If I could get back to running, all would be back to normal (and I know I'd shake the last bit of congestion I've got lingering, too).

Also, I had joined the [livejournal.com profile] runners community when it was featured on LJ spotlight a couple of weeks ago (along with the rest of the world it seems). Although I've found a great source of inspiration and knowledge there, I've had to create a custom friends group that excludes that community so I can filter my friends page in order to keep up with everyone else. There's a new post at least once an hour there, if not more. Too much!
mellymell: (homer running)
Last week was a week of listening to my body and doing what it thought it could do, instead of the scheduled runs. Nothing went as planned and I only got 4 days in, but some excellent progress was made. I'll take that happily.

Monday - 1 mile straight run; 1.79 miles in 22:06; 11:12 min mile
Tuesday - rest
Wednesday - rest
Thursday - 1.44 mile straight run; 1.96 miles in 23:27; 1st mile 11:24, 2nd .44 mile 4:07
Friday - 1.9 mile straight run; 2.53 miles in 29:17; 1st mile 10:38 (PR), 2nd .9 mile 9:27
Saturday - ~4.5 mile hike in 2:48:00 (Mossy Ridge trail in Percy Warner Park)/2 mile straight run; 2.53 miles in 30:16; 1st mile 11:09, 2nd mile 11:21 (logged approx. 7 total miles this day give or take)
Sunday - rest

Mileage Totals:
Week - 13.45
Month - 15.98
Year - 40.55

Reflections on last week, projections on this week and how running is changing my life. )

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