Getting ready for race day

Tomorrow I have my first race of the season... The Wildcat 5k!  I am so very excited!   The Wildcat 5k will officially be the 4th 5k I have participated in and I will not lie I want to set a PR on this one.  My fastest 5k so far has been a virtual 5k that raised money for ST. Jude.  I ran it on my treadmill in 36:33.   I have always had much faster times on my treadmill.  Tomorrow will be different.  I will not be able to push a button to force my legs to speed up.  I have put in the effort, logged the miles, did my cross training and now I am excited to see it all pay off!   I hope to to pull this 5k off in at least 36:30... well to be honest what I really want is a 35:59 but I will be happy with anything under a 36:30.  

Physically training for a race might be tough but I tell you what getting ready the day before a race is tough too.  There are so many logistics to plan out when you have a family.   Ryan has school tomorrow which means not only can he not watch the race, or the kids, he can not help get the kids ready.  Two of my three kids are going off with their Papa to a MI State game while the youngest is going to his friends soccer game to cheer on his buddy.  I have to make sure I have EVERYTHING all planned out, laid out, and figured out tonight so that tomorrow morning is smooth sailing.   With three boys something stupid is bound to come up tomorrow that will put me in a state of panic... but right now I am feeling confident despite the pre race jitters I have.  I can not wait to give you a full race report tomorrow!  Wish me luck!

got gas?

Sitting approximately 12.5 miles away from my house is my local YMCA.   I drive to this Y 5 days a week.   Now I do know that there are several gyms within a 5 mile radius of my house that I could have joined but none had the vast amenities of the Y.  Most importantly the child watch and pool.  There is one place with the fancy pool and childcare slightly closer but it was 30 bucks a month more and well I was not willing to dig any deeper into my pockets.   The drive has never kept me away from the gym though, in fact I like the 20 min. of wake up time the drive provides me in the early morning.   I started hitting the Y routinely after my treadmill died a few months back.  Sure sure there were days that I could not go to the Y due to a typical MI winter but for the most part once that treadmill died I was there religiously.   That is until now... Today I did not hit that local gym, sadly I did not get to hear all the "good mornings" or see all the smiling faces that I have grown so used to seeing early in the morning, I did not drive in the rain to get my workout on.  Instead I set out this morning in the cold and rain to run outside.  Sadly I was about 5 steps into my run when a huge gust of cold wind hit me and I was second guessing my decision to not drive to the gym.   Why when someone who does not mind the drive, enjoys the people, has the time, etc would they choose to run in the cold, rainy weather?  Sticker shock people!  I would rather run in the cold rainy weather then to pass out from the sticker shock I would get at the pump.  What the hell is going on with these gas prices?  My word this price hike is outrageous!  The 25 mile round trip visit to my local Y each morning could potentially dry out this stay at home moms pocket book.  As a SHAM I already feel bad spending 80 bucks a month on a gym membership let alone spending over 200 a month to get there.  I figure if I can cut back on the gym 2 or three days a week (running days) then I should be able to save at least $100.00per month.  I know every mom needs to do a little something for herself but I also know that every mom wants nothing more then to be able to give back to her family and that's what I am going to do.  There is a disclaimer in this statement though... if by chance it snows again (don't hhhmmph me this is MI people stranger things have happened) or if the temp goes below 50* or of course if it is pouring.  Light rain is as far as I go.   Other then that I am running outside!

When the legs feel like brick

Ok so I know my posts have been few and far between lately but that's just because nothing exciting has been going on.  Plagued by a shoulder injury, the last few weeks have just kinda been blah.   I have been keeping up with all my workouts but to be honest my runs although not bad, have not been great either.  I think that every runner has those days when they get up all pumped up to run only to find out that their legs just were not as pumped as their mind was.  I had a day like that on Tuesday, before I even had one lap around the track in I was thinking what the hell is wrong with the legs today?   I feel like I am running in wet cement.  For the next two miles nothing changed and the same frustrating thoughts were going through my head.  I was happy as hell when I finally gave myself permission to stop running.  For a runner days like these are frustrating as hell and you just pray that they never happen on a race day.

I have my first 5k of the season next Saturday and Tuesdays run had left a bad taste in my mouth.  So today when I set out to the gym I had Tuesdays run on my mind and I knew I had to do better then that.   I got there and walked a quarter mile to warm up.  I was feeling great until... I started running!   Legs felt like bricks again!  Frustration mixed with a bit of nervousness started to set in as several times I thought my legs were going to give out.   I pressed on and finally I had a half mile in.  Over the winter I started following the Geff Galloway's run/walk method of running.  So typically I would have run another lap or two and then walked a lap but today, since I was having so much trouble, I decided to walk every half mile.   Once the walk lap was over I set out to just finish a mile.   The second half went NO better then the first and the whole time I was running all I could think about was only 5, 4, 3, 2, and then 1 more lap until I can walk again.   At 1 mile I thought oh man this is ridiculous.  I have been running for almost a yr now there is no way in hell I will settle for two runs in a row being crap.  Determined to do better I pressed on.  After my walk break at 1.5 my legs started to feel a little lighter like someone had taken weights off my ankles.  The fear that my legs were going to just give out was now gone allowing me a little freedom from all the thinking and negativity going on in my mind.  I stopped thinking about running and just started listening to my music.  That is until I was one lap from the 2 mile mark when I looked at the time and thought OMG what the hell?!?  I have been running for 30 min and I have not quite made 2 miles yet.   My mind was like a whirl wind of thoughts again,  30 min that can not be right, uggg I need to run faster, the walkers at the race on Sat are going to beat me, I can not come in last at this race, I am slower then a turtle I am a fricken sloth, I have to step this up, 30 min... seriously that can not be right it just can not be right... is that right?!  All these thoughts and a million more took over my mind for the next mile.  By the time mile 3 hit I had realized two things.  1.  My legs were feeling good now   2. I need to go back to 3rd grade because I can not tell time.  LOL  what I thought was 30 min was actually only 25 min.  I did not stop running when I hit mile 3, I figured I would just continue on until I got in a full 5k.  The only thing is my legs were now feeling good I mean real good  I hit the 5k point and felt no need to stop so I told myself just make it an even 3 and a quarter.  Only once I hit that I still felt good.  Ok 3.5 I told myself.   I got there no problem.  Ok 3.75 then!   once I got to 3.75   are you kidding me only 4 more laps until I get in 4 miles.  I got this easy!   One lap before 4 miles I glance at the clock again.  (this time reading it correctly)  and realized ok wether or not I can go any farther I have to stop and get home so Ryan can get to work.  So I sprinted the last lap.   Finishing my last mile and a half with no walk breaks, and the full 4 miles in just 45 min.   Which happens to be an amazing pace for me. 

I am not sure how a run with such an awful negative start ended up being one of my best runs I have ever had but I am very happy about it.  Infact I think that last mile I ran gave me what is known as a runners high. Could it be?!?!   What I do know is I feel a whole lot more confident going into next weeks 5k knowing that there is a possibility that I could potentially pull of a pace under a 12 min. mile.   ~It still shocks me that less then a yr ago I could not run around the block and now... WOW!

I am so happy to say... I have missed you!

When I first started running I hated to run outside.   The reason I had for hating running outside is actually quite sad.  I was so self conscious about how heavy I was that it was keeping me from what I needed to do,  lose weight.  Every time I ran out of steam and would have to walk the thought of  omg if anyone sees me walking right now they are going to think that I am to fat to run.  Anytime I saw someone looking at me I would think I bet they are thinking that girl NEEDS to walk.  I would run in the neighborhood at night so that way when people looked out their windows they would not know it was me out there trying to get into shape.  Plain and simple I was embarrassed of myself.   I now see that these fears I had were irrational.  That's not to say that I don't still get those thoughts here and there but I now know to not listen to them.   In fact what I have learned is that a good majority of people I talk to are impressed with what I can do they say things to me like I am not sure if I could run around the block let alone a 5k ~good job!   The running community has helped me out tremendously as well.  The support that runners give each other is amazing!  My friends in my FB running moms group, CM running group and dailymile are some of the most amazing people I have never met.   ahahahhah  I know my husband thinks I am crazy for having so many friends that I do not actually know, but without them... I would probably still be running in the dark!   I now know that when I am out running most people who drive past me are A. not paying attention and don't even notice me or B. think damn I wish I were out running right now.

Living in MI we have nasty winters and one thing that I can say is although I am no longer embarrassed to run outside I am to chicken shit to run outside when it is cold.   I learned this last Nov. when I ran my second ever 5k and it was cold, very cold.  I ran my 5k with a time over 42 min. (it took me less time to run 3.5 today)  I coughed for hours after the race and I felt like I had just chain smoked a pack of cigs.   It was not fun and I did not like the way I felt after so that day said no more outdoor running when it is cold.   After 6 months of running inside on the treadmill or the YMCA track (except of course my 5k on New Years Day) I was ready to get my butt outside.  Sunday was that day!  It was warm in the 70's!  I brought my 8 yr old son Cooper with me, he rode his bike.  I found myself almost a little sad that I wasted so much time on being embarrassed and self conscious while outdoors.   My run was great and not because I had a good pace going in fact quite the opposite.  After running on a flat track all the little hills I came across seemed like mountains and I did have to walk a lot more then normal.  But feeling the wind on my face, smelling the fresh air, saying hi to all the other people that were out enjoying the finally nice weather... I felt alive, not embarrassed!  I just enjoyed myself and being with my son.   Apparently I missed running outside, which is a very good thing!