Day 4 of 31, I proclaim STREAK!

He is the quick "run" down of tonight:

New Asics Gel Kayano 16's - 1 pair (YAY!)
Taco Bells - 2
Bakeries - 5
Law Offices - 3
Insurance Companies - 4
Car Parts Stores - 3 (2 of which for foreign cars)
Pizzerias - 3
Mid-East Restaurants - 2
Mid-East Restaurants named "Kabob" - 2 (Kabob and Mr. Kabob)
Burger joints -2
Photographers - 2
Consignment stores - 3
Frosty Freezes - 1

Miles covered - 2. (All of these were in 1 mile, it was an out and back!)

Did you catch the 5 bakeries? Yeah. WHOA.

Berkley - We Care... about redundancy.


The Stats:
Days ran: 4/31
Miles ran - 7.25
5 bakeries passed

Top that Royal Oak!

Celebration. Make it a daily thing!

This past week was phenomenal for me as far as consistency goes. I bought new running shoes for a motivational pick-me-up and boy did it work!

Monday - 2 miles on the dreadmill to make sure my new Gel Kayano 15's are the ones. They are.
Tuesday - ran 4.5 miles
Wednesday - Rode mountain bike at Maybury, got injured, then ran 3 miles at Indian Springs.
Thursday - Rest day
Friday - Ran/walk 4 miles with my friend Kathleen who is in training fo rher first 10k. Tripped and fell and hurt all remaining appendages.
Saturday - Ran 9 miles averaging 11:28. Not too shabby for an long slow distanced run.
Sunday - Rest day
Monday - Ran 6 miles (goal was 5) out at Maybury on the paved trail, averaging 10:57 pace.

The runs have been fun and attainable while still needing to work at them. While I am still in the mid-range for distances (running between 4.5 and 9 miles at a shot) I am being really consistent.

One thing that I did which really has had a mental impact is that I went back to celebrating each run. I was talking to an old running partner of mine this week and told him about how I missed when we first started running.

Yay we just ran our first half-mile!

Yay we just ran our first mile!

Yay I just rana 5k straight through!

At what point did the celebration stop and the expectations grow?

I have no idea, but I am reversing this trend.

So on all of my runs this past week I took all expectations off of the table with the exception of celebrating every mile and rejoicing in the run that I accomplished. Each and every run was that much more meaningful to me.

So today, no matter what you do, if you find a rut in your life or your sport try going back to basics like when it was all new and every milestone was to be celebrated.

It is key to remember that while some activities define a moment in your life, they do not define you.

Trust. It is harder than you think.

I know that part of following a schedule or plan is following it as close to 100% as possible, not only just when it suits me. Well, another part of following a plan is trusting in that plan. If you felt compelled to search out a training plan to help you achieve your goals - be it finishing a certain distance, finishing that distance in a certain time, or just maintaining what you already have, you picked that plan for a particular reason. That reason is that the plan should work.

Well, plans only work as good as we work the plans. You get a personal trainer, but it is still you doing the work - the trainer is giving you the tools. At the end of the day the personal trainer cannot make you workout, likewise at the end of the day just having a plan will not guarantee success. You are the deciding factor to all of this.

Part of following a plan is trusting that the plan we have selected is the one for us and will indeed give us the tools and untimately the roadmap to get to our destination. All good plans have workouts, rest days, and some even go the extra mile of providing a "mental athlete" plan as well - I like these because they address the mental aspects of training such as balancing multiple things at once like work deadlines, family emergencies, child care and getting in some personal non-training time all in ADDITION to training.

That is one tall order!

A good portion of following said plan is knowing that the plan is your roadmap to the ultimate destination. It cannot predict traffic along the way, nor can it predict roadblocks. It is up to us to know that sometimes we have to take a detour to stay on track. That correlates to knowing when to let go of a workout should something come up.

I am just now, in all of my 5 years of running, realizing that if I miss a workout or two in a week, trying to cram them in on rest days or before other workouts makes the whole process seem so... laborous. And when things become laborous, don't they seem more like a job than fun? And if things become more like work - you can get discouraged, burnt out, and walk away from the activity all together. Heh. Welcome to literally every single year of my life since 2003.

This past year I have realized a real joy in letting go.

A real joy in being flexible.

A real joy in being able to say yes or no to any given thing that I do.

In this world of chaos and instability, I have learned to embrace those real joys more and more each day. You cannot control every aspect in life, so why think that you can control every aspect in training? That attitude will lead you right to discouragement and frustration. And that is a dark and lonely place.

So with the addition of the realization that going slow is OK... I also have realized that taking rest days isn't optional. It is mandatory. Add to that the new found freedom in being able to let a workout go instead of trying to cram it in somewhere *cough*rest days*cough*, or being flexible enough to rearrange the schedule without sacrificing rebuilding and regeneration... you have fun again.

I have changed my language in training. I no longer say what I HAVE to do. Quite simply I do not have to do any of this. I do not get paid for this, so technically the only negative to not doing all of this is purely personal, affecting only me.

I leave you with this thought today, because it is a cross training rest day - and I needed to remind myself that rest is not slacking. Rest is building!

If you find yourself in a rut - start to take mental note of how you are approaching your schedule in life. Are you looking at your training as have to's and work? Or are you looking at your training as want to's, able to's, and fun?

Sometimes changing the point of view can give you a whole new outlook.

Trusting in her plan more and more each day - })i({RunnerGirl

Speedwork day and a realization about long slow distances...

Todays prescription? Aside from ridin' donkeys and more cowbell that is...

Simplefit L1D3 AKA "the burner" for time: 2:22 total time

• 10 pullups,
• 21 pushups,
• 21 squats

100 pushup challenge day 3

• 10
• 8 (oopsy did 9)
• 8 (oopy did 6)
• 5
• max (min. 10) I did 11!!

Speedwork run day!

• 1 mile warm up 13:53 (hey look at that - if I walk a lap or two I can hit a 13 minute mile pace. That is all it takes? )
• 1600 @ 10:30, 9:59 actual
• 800 jog 6:51
• 1600 @ 10:30, 9:58 actual
• 800 jog 6:41
• 1 mile cool down, 10:21actual - for a total of 5 miles

I felt like such a slacker yesterday. I actually forced myself to take a complete rest day. No running. No strength. No bike or even swim. It was hard, but I was tired so that helped out some. PLus, I was travelling for work and getting my credentials for this weekend's Grand Prix, so I really had little time to do anything else but it in a car all day.

My goal is that after the half marathons, I will have reached a new base. If I can maintain a 16-25 mile a week run base, then upping my swimming come November should be an easy add. My tri club re-starts Saturday pool swims starting September 13th, so I am pretty excited to be getting in some LONG swims again.

Thank you everyone for your kind words about inspiration. It has taken me a while to realize that it is OK to run at a comfortable or even slower speed to get in some time. And yes I am still working on how slow to go... knowing that I need to run slower than I am capable of has taught me a lot.

While one school of thought may say that long slow miles creates long slow runners... sometimes it is good to teach your body that it is OK to go long. My new thought process is that this is just like getting T.I.T.S... time in the saddle... on the bike. In order to bike longer, faster, and stronger you need to have hours in the saddle to teach your body that it is OK to be in that position for some time.

The added bonus to T.I.T.S. is that you can now focus on strength and speed because the endurance part (being in your seat for hours) is already taken care of.

You need to experience time being upright for running. Running is physically harder than the other sports because you are either sitting or laying down for the bike and swim respectively, but in running you are standing upright which means that our body is supporting our bodyweight 100% of the time. Very few of us have jobs or lifestyles where we are walking or standing most of the day.

I think part of my fatigue in running is purely that my body had become weak from not supporting itself for periods of time throughout the day.

I am taking the slower runs as getting my body used to supporting itself for periods of time, as well as teaching my legs that it is OK to turnover when tired. My hope in all of this is that if I can stand being mobile via foot for hours on end this will make my runs more enjoyable, speedier, and bringing a marathon my way in 2009.

I figure that even if this does not pay out in a 2:30 half this year, I am only setting myself up for success in the future by providing my body with a solid base, both structurally (strength), mentally (mental endurance), and physcially (fitness).

Plus every minute I am running today is getting put in the bank of base fitness for my HIM next year.

Run happy! })i({RunnerGirl

Did running just become... dare I even say it?

Did running just become fun and.... gulp... enjoyable again?

I do belive that it has!

Today's schedule was for 3 miles at a 12:47 pace, I completed 5 at a 12:32 pace. I have decided to really work on taking it easy on the easy runs. That is a lot harder than I had imagined! I am a two speed girl - run and stop. I am getting closer to taking longer runs at a truly easy pace. And for fun, during some of the miles I kicked it up a notch just to see what happened. What happened is that I ran faster, but did not get tired. The numbers for today are here.

You know that you are enjoying something when you cannot wait to get out for the run. I decided after fooling around with the Smartcoach (TM) on Runner's World online that I really want a good solid running base for my Half Marathons. I don't purely want to finish. I want to finish STRONG. I want to be able to say - "wow that was fun!"

I do think that is possible.

So with that I am upping my weekly mileage, and my short run will be 5 miles per the plan. Occasionally I have a 4 miler in there (down weeks, etc.), and on my own I may do a few 2 to 3 mile shorties for fun, but I feel strong and am ready to take my running to the next level both mentally and physically.

To that end, in my world there have been two personal truths that held for running.

1 - I can call myself a runner if I ran 10 minute miles (sub 11's to be more technical).
2 - I can call myself a serious runner when going out for a 5 mile run is fun and easy to me.

For some reason, 5 miles is the magic number. Odd.

Well both of those two things have happened this year. The pace is coming along, although now I am focusing on endurance not speed. But the distance is coming along much quicker than I thought as well! Today personal truth #2 happened.

Today's 5 miler seemed both fun and relaxing. Never once had I thought, "oh jeez when will this end?" I enjoyed it. Could this be my new base?

Amen for strength. Amen for ability. And amen for being able to do slow for miles.

})i({RunnerGirl - Remember - The road belongs not to the swift, but to those who keep running!

When 7 miles becomes 7.63 and you don't notice... life is good.

Today was prescribed 7 miles at 12:54 pace. I did 7.63 by accident, and averaged 12:02 per mile. Oopsy.

I felt great out there tonight, very strong! I have hope for the halfs I have coming up, and to top it off triathlon has had a HUGE impact on my fitness! I haven't ran over 4 miles since March - now look at me.. hitting nearly 8 without issue.

I LOVE RUNNING.

Check out the details on the Step by Step blog... link is on top at the right. ;)