Tuesday 7/15

Goal: 3 miles

Ran: 3 miles (with the single jogger)

Where: reservoir upper track

Time: 32:37 minutes

None too shabby for running with the single jogger. Oh how I loathe that single jogger. It pulls so badly to the right, I feel like my arms are getting more of a workout than my legs. It just kills me because it's so lightweight compared to the double, I could be just pushing it along if the stupid thing would just go in a straight line.

Saturday 7/12

Goal: 5-6 miles

Ran: 4.5 miles

Where: upper reservoir track

Time: 50 minutes (11 minute mile-ish)

Sunday 7/13

Goal: 2 miles

Ran: 2.25 miles

Where: upper reservoir track
Time: 22 minutes

That long run on Saturday just about killed me. In retrospect I think I made a few fatal errors. First of all, I waited too long to go. I wanted to go at like 6am and just get it over with, but Haakan slept in, then he wanted to come, too, and when all was said and done we weren't out the door until like 10:30. I just got too hot and tired by the end. Plus, the bikram yoga class I went to with Jessica left me sorer than sore, which definitely didn't do me any favors. I'm going to have to rethink having my long run the day after that yoga class. But at least Haakan was able to carry my water for me, which is always nice. But when he left after the kids got restless, I had to carry my own water bottle, which just annoyed the hell out of me and didn't help my mental state any. So I felt like a big loser for not doing the whole 5 miles, but hey, live and learn, right?

Sunday was a bit better. Still sore as hell, but at least it was only 2 miles that I had to do, and since mile 2 comes up before the end of the lap, it's easier to just do the extra quarter mile so that I don't have to walk in the sun any more than necessary. I do need to get myself a couple of new sports bras, though. Oliver seems to actually be afraid of my black one. When I came into his room wearing it to get him dressed, he backed away from me saying "I don't like those" and pointing at my chest. he kept eyeing me distrustfully even after I'd put my shirt on. No idea what that's all about, but I guess the lack of support in the stupid thing IS a little scary. I could spend a fortune on running clothes, and I probably should invest in at least a couple of bras and a few more pairs of shorts, but I think it'll have to wait a couple of weeks at least. Let's see if I can keep things up before I plow a ton of money into snazzy running clothes.

I conquer the double jogger

Wednesday 7/9

Goal: 3 miles

Ran: 3 miles

Where: upper reservoir track

Time: 29:00 (9:45 minute mile-ish?)

Thursday 7/10

Goal: 2 miles

Ran: 2.25 miles (WITH the jogging stroller. Whoot!)

Where: upper reservoir track

Time: 24:something (left the ipod downstairs)

Since Haakan had bowling tonight, I decided to take the kids running with me, rather than try to fit it in after he got home. My first mistake was not getting up early and just doing it at like 6am when Oliver informed us that it was time to get up and eat pancakes. Mistake number 2 was probably running without putting on sunblock, since I'm sporting some nice sunburn from my run on Wednesday, during with I also got rain poured down on me during a torrential thunderstorm. Kind of unfair to have gotten sunburned AND soaked. But I digress. Since today was only a 2 mile run, I decided I could definitely do that with the kids in the double jogger, and I set off around the upper track at the reservoir. And the kids were great, a total dream. Oliver was sweet, Elliot was happy, and for a good 5 minutes, they were laughing together as Elliot kept putting his leg over onto Oliver's side and Oliver would grab it and tickle it. Truly warmed my heart, made me feel like this was why I had two kids, so that they could have the opportunity to play together and laugh with one another. There were a whole bunch of baby ducks up there, so after the run everyone got out to look at them. Oliver was counting them, asking me which one was the mommy duck, which ones were the babies ("the little ones or the big ones, mommy?"), and Elliot just pointed and yelled "BAA!" at them, and then tried to vault himself out of my arms and over the railing. If it wasn't for the fact that I'm pushing over 80lbs with the weight of the kids and the stroller, and the fact that they are, unfortunately, rarely this well behaved in the stroller together, I would take them jogging with me much more often.

Starting a program

Goal: 3 miles

Ran: 3 miles

Where: upper reservoir track

Time: 29:58 (basically, a 10 minute mile)

I talked to Haakan about it, being that he is my running guru (though I really don't want to tell him that, he doesn't need the ego inflated), and he told me to just pick a 10K training schedule and then see how I feel once we get closer to the half-marathon. I have exactly 12 weeks until the Great Race, and I do fully intend to run that, and I think the half-marathon is like the weekend or two before that, so I guess we'll just have to see. So I picked the program in the Competitive Runner's Handbook that Haakan picked up a while back, and since the 10K and half-marathon training is basically the same for the first few weeks, I'll just see how it goes. It's kind of nice to see training with achievable goals, makes me feel like I'm in better shape than I probably am.

So I did my run around the upper track at the reservoir today, mostly because it's flat and I did miserably last time I tried to run up and down the hills on the lower track. Didn't help that someone's chihuahua chased me past a barbeque and I kept having to dodge car doors and misbehaving children. And I still haven't figured out if I prefer to run it clockwise or counter-clockwise. Downhill-big uphill-downhill vs uphill-big downhill-uphill. Probably six to one, half dozen the other, but I think that one is mentally easier than the other. Or maybe I'm just kind of pathetic that way, who knows.

But the run today wasn't bad at all. Weather was nice, not too humid or anything. There were teeny tiny baby ducks (and no dead ones this time, which is always nice, since then I can try to forget that I saw the dead ones last time) and not too many walkers or runners, so I didn't have to dodge around people too much. The fountain was inexplicably not working properly on my last lap, but it was still a pretty good run. I could have eeked out another lap if I really had to.

Here's my OT question of the day: when you see big hunks of acrylic hair lying on the ground, where on earth does it come from? I fully expected to see a bald woman when I got to the park because it seemed like every few feet there was like a handful of red curly hair. I find hair on my street all the time, and it just puzzles the hell out of me: who loses big wads of hair while walking down the street? Or is there a lot of hairpulling going on that I just don't know about? Or do those chunks of weave just kind of randomly come loose? maybe the glue melts in the sun if they're not sewn in right. There was no bald woman at the top of the hill for me to ask, so I guess I may never know...

bad long run

That about sums it all up. Bad long run today. Not even a long run. I tried to do 6 miles around the lower track at the reservoir, and instead only made it 3. I should know better than to try to do a long run on the hilly course like that. Doh! Got a nice blister on the side of my foot, too, which I'm sure isn't helped by the fact that my shoes are like a year old (not that they got much use in the past year).

I've been looking into doing the Ikea half marathon in September. Is it bad that I just don't want to commit to it yet? I think I'm just going to do the 10k training and see how I feel after a couple more weeks. I need to find the time to actually go and run regularly, preferably without the kids in the jogger, since that seriously handicaps me. And usually puts me into a bad mood because one or both of them usually ends up yelling to get out and go to the playground before I'm done.

So for this week, I ran 2 miles with Elliot, 3 miles yesterday, and 3 miles today. I really ought to be keeping better track so that I know what my base milage is. I think I'm supposed to be starting at like 15-20miles a week as a base for the half marathon training, and I'm pretty sure I'm not doing that, but give me another couple of weeks to get back into the swing of things.