9:40 mile!

Confession: I didn't run yesterday.  I was tired in the morning (what's new?)  I was kind of cranky.  And when I got home from work I drank 2 16 oz Bud Lights. I also ate a crap load of candy at work and after dinner I made cookies.  Wha?!  Ugh. Then, the power went out last night.  Not that that had anything to do with me not running, but it added to the hectic and disgusting food day I had. 

That being said, I was equally as tired this morning. I hit snooze on my alarm a few times.  When I got up I contemplated not running again and just taking my running clothes to work.  I knew if I did that I wouldn't run at all and then I'd feel even more lazy.  I got out the door at 6:30, which was actually the time I wanted to get HOME from my run and decided 4 miles was not going to happen and that I should be happy with 2.  And then I realized I didn't have anything pressing going on at work and I needed to just run to run.  And that's exactly what I did.  Seymour and I ran 3 miles this morning.  I was inconsistent and I didn't really care a whole lot.  I checked my pace but I didn't try to stay at any particular pace...until I was running my 3rd mile, that is.  I glanced at my Garmin around 2.25 and realized I was running at about 9:45 and I felt pretty good.  I glanced again later and I was at 9:30.  2.75 miles down and I was back to my neighborhood and running at 9:20.  Determined to continue at an above average pace, I pushed my last 1/4 mile and finished my 3rd mile in 9:40.  I think that might a record. 

For a girl who didn't want to get up to run this morning, it was a pretty good one. 

Rafting, running, and more rafting

I was able to convince to raft the South Fork of the Boise River on Saturday, which is a pretty low-key stretch of whitewater known more for fishing than boating.  It has a few class III rapids but what I like most about it is that it takes a little longer than a typical day run so by the end of the day I'm tired and feel like I'm justified in taking the rest of the day off from physical activity.  Seymour is getting less and less comfortable on the water which is really, really frustrating.  I want so badly for the dog to love rafting as much as we do and I'm afraid that's just not going to happen.  Sigh.

When I posted on Saturday night I was uncertain if I would be able to get up for my five mile run in the morning.  I'm happy to report that I did!  I was out the door before 6:30 and managed just over five for the morning and got back just in time to make a cup of coffee, shower, and take Seymour to Escape the Crate before heading out to meet up with the crew running the Canyon stretch of the South Fork of the Payette.  Sunday was my first official long run for my training which meant I didn't have to keep any particular pace.  I decided to try to keep myself under 11:00/mile which I did until my fifth mile.  I love my Garmin because it keeps me at such a steady pace.  I ran miles 1-4 at a 10:51 pace/mile and my fifth at 11:04.  I'll take it.  Final stats for the morning:

5.13 miles in 55:47
10:53 average pace

It was a spectacular day on the SF Payette after the run!  I'm used to running my own cataraft on the river and rarely sit in a paddle boat for river trips, but this stretch has a mandatory portage and the less boats the better as far as I'm concerned, so I paddled my heart out for the day.  Paddle boating works out such different muscles than I'm used to on my cat and I am SORE today through my neck and shoulders.  I decided to take a rest day today, since I had one scheduled for Sunday but rafted, ran, and rafted some more throughout the weekend.   Tomorrow: 4 miles.

I bought a Garmin!

I may or may not have gone on a shopping binge last weekend.  Oops.  Josh was out of town and Steep and Cheap, craigslist, and Sierra Trading Post were calling my name out loud and clear.  After my destination run last Sunday I did a quick search on craigslist for Garmin Forerunner and found one that hadn't been sold immediately as is typical.  I e-mailed and made a phone call, and before I knew it I had purchased a used Garmin Forerunner 305 for a whopping $75.  I was stoked.  Not so much that I went out and ran right away (it was hot and I had a few beers while pruning the ridiculous tree in the backyard), but enough that I went out bright and early on Tuesday (no, not Monday) morning to test it out.  It's amazing.  I am so in love! I'll detail my three runs this week after I explain the madness known as my training plan.

I spent Monday night binge eating figuring out my training plan for the next few months.  I plan to run the Pocatello 1/2 marathon on 9/3/11 and decided I want to work to have it be my best half yet.  Instead of working solely on mileage, I took a few training plans and implemented some repeats, hills, and goal race pace runs into the mix.  I've got a detailed plan of every run I need to do between now and 9/2/11 and am hopeful I'll get it all accomplished. 


Now for my progress this week:

Tuesday - 5:45 am
3.32 miles in 35:59 - avg pace 10:49/mile
I was still getting used to the Garmin deal, so when the dog stopped and my flashlight fell from my arm, I stopped but I didn't stop the timer.

Thursday - 6:52 am
1 mile repeats x2 - 15 min. warm up/15 min cool down, 2x 1 mile repeats pushing it
4.58 miles in 49:49 - avg pace 10:50/mile

Friday - 6:38 am
2 miles at goal race pace
2 miles in 21:17 - 10:36/mile
While I would REALLY like to run the 1/2 at a 10:45 average pace, I'm not sure it's possible.  I'm going to keep trying.  It's a lot easier keeping a steady pace with the Garmin right there, but it's also not fool proof. 

I was supposed to run 5 miles today, but we went rafting, so I'm counting it as an easy cross-training day.  We're rafting again tomorrow and leaving fairly early, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to get up early enough to run for an hour but it would be nice to get it out of the way.  The weather has been fairly warm here but thankfully we don't have the humidity like folks out in the midwest.  I can't imaging running in that crap right now!  Now, if I can just get myself out of bed early enough in the mornings to make sure I get all of the running in, that would be great...

Destination Run: Puppy!

I haven't been running since last Thursday, 7/7/11.  Prior to that, I hadn't run for a week.  Without a specific run to train for and with the increasing temperature, it's been difficult to find a reason to get out there other than my mental health.  I had last Thursday off from work and decided I needed to go out for a few miles.  I planned on 4 miles and did just that.  I was using the Cyclometer app on my iPhone and felt like the mileage was off more often than not, so I decided to use the RunKeeper app that I got for free back when they had a special going on (I think it's usually $10 or something ridiculous like that).  RunKeeper was fine, except that I can't use my iPhone headphones to cue my distance and pace.  I did have it cued to tell me some stats every 5 minutes but it didn't, so that was frustrating.  Overall, my 4 mile run went well.  I finished 4.05 miles in 42:32 which put me at an average pace of 10:30/mile. 

Over the past week I've decided on a few more organized races (though I don't actually race against anyone but myself) to keep me in line with regular running.  I've committed to The Dirty Dash in August with my Sawtooth Relay crew (and possibly others) and although I haven't paid to enter yet, I plan to run the Pocatello 1/2 Marathon on September 3rd.  Pocatello is where I graduated from college and incidentally the place I became even more obese than I had previously been.  I figure there's no better place to run a 1/2 marathon than the place that me fat! 

With those thoughts in mind, I knew I needed to get my butt in gear and get moving this past week.  I didn't.  I slept in and had obligations with family every night which resulted in lots of wine and not running after the family events ended.  I planned on running today anyway, but when my friends, Nancy and Kate, informed me they got a new lab puppy last night, I knew I needed to have a destination run to their house.  And I did just that. 

It was 4 miles to their house today and I was a sweaty mess when I arrived, as it was pretty warm outside.  I ran the 4 miles today in 45:22 - 11:21 avg pace.  I walked a few times along the way to drink water and cool myself down with the ice water from my hydration pack, so I think my actual running pace was closer to 11:00 min/mile.  I'll get back in the groove soon.  Also, today I used the Nike+ GPS app that was recommended by a friend.  I still can't pause my music to get my stats, but it did tell me my stats every mile, which was nice.  The thing I don't like is that I can't look up the splits for each mile when I've finished my run.  Maybe the Cyclometer app is the best one after all....

I have a few thoughts in my head about what October and November will look like for races, but I'm hesitant to put them in writing right now.  Time will tell...

Now, for the photo of today's destination run - Pinot Noir!

It seems like life somewhat slowed down this week...finally.  Work is still crazy, but it seems like we didn't have a million things going on all week that kept us out of the house...or did we?  I can't remember really, probably because I had almost all day off from work yesterday!  More about that later. 

My weight has been hovering around 3-4 pounds higher than my goal weight and I felt chubby and cranky from not working out very consistently over the past few weeks.  Plus, there are A LOT of changes going on at work right now and people are going crazy with anticipation about what's going to happen next which makes everything seem heightened and intense.  I decided I needed to kick it into gear again, so I made plans to take lunches to work and to try to work out as much as I could.  Josh was out with his boyfriends on Saturday night and Sunday, so I went rafting with some friends on Sunday which was much needed.  I made Josh go grocery shopping with me on Monday night so I could have some food to make breakfast and lunches.  I went for a 2 mile run with Seymour on Tuesday morning (10:17 avg pace) and I started feeling better about myself...and it was only Tuesday! 

I got a lot accomplished in the office on Wednesday and was feeling great...until I got home.  It was then that I discovered Seymour had chewed his way out of his crate in the living room and escaped the kennel and fence in the backyard.  He was picked up by Animal Control and taken to the shelter.  By the time I found out where he was (the Animal Control lady called me but didn't leave a message earlier in the afternoon), it was too late to go pick him up.  He had to stay the night in the shelter and I had to bail him out on Thursday morning.  Wednesday went from being a pretty good day to being pretty crappy.  I love that damn dog so much and his separation anxiety is getting to be a bit much.  I went for a 4 mile run that night (well, 4.19 miles) at a 10:31 pace and thought about how in the world we are going to make this dog figure out that we really are going to come home again anytime we leave.  I decided that after picking him up from the shelter in the morning I would take him to doggie daycare at Escape the Crate for the day and that I'd schedule a vet appointment for Friday to address the possibility of putting the dog on medication.

Part of that plan worked.  Our vet didn't have anything open for Friday, so Seymour went to daycare for about 4 hours before heading to the vet on Thursday afternoon.  I spent $50 on a vet exam only to have him tell me he doesn't know much about behavior issues and referred me to another vet.  Really?  They couldn't have told me when I scheduled the appointment (I was pretty detailed about the problem at hand) that the vet doesn't know much about behavior issues?!  Gah!  I was SO frustrated leaving the office...I guess I still am.  So we don't have a solution yet.  I'm hopeful we can get a new crate with better reinforcement that he won't chew through, but we'll see.

Now, about Friday!  I worked fairly hard at work to establish a collaboration with a local police department to go out on bike patrol and Friday night was my first night out on the town, so I was off during the day on Friday and went out on my bicycle with patrol that night.  I spent about 5 hours on and off my bike last night helping with crowd control at a local event, riding around making sure nothing terrible was going on, and helping officers by looking up to see if kids were on probation.  It was a pretty good night establishing myself in the crowd.  I need to brush up on my police lingo though so when they ask if a kid is 10-99 I can actually respond instead of giving a blank stare!

Today, I've got plans to do some are going to do some housework and maybe some yard work and possibly head over to cousin Cathy's for some swimming!  We have an old friend in town with his wife and dogs so I'm hoping to get Seymour over to play with them at some point in time too!  Josh is out of town, of course, so Seymour and I are home alone (by choice).  I am hopeful for a productive weekend!

Oh, and about the weight-hovering issue: I weighed in yesterday and was right at goal weight.  I took a few minutes to go to my doctor and weigh in for the 10% deal so I can get my $100!  I weighed in at 11% weight loss!