Be Stronger Not Faster

There has been a shift in my thinking when it comes to my workouts.  It started a few months ago.

I was doing a swim workout and Bri and been talking to me about doing better with my pull.  Basically when my hand goes in the water I need to do a better job of using my hand like a paddle so I propel myself through the water better.  I wasn't surprised that she mentioned this because Jon had also mentioned it before a time or two.

I am swimming and working on getting my hand to be placed right and really feeling it pull.  With me and swimming I often find that when I focus on something I forget to do other things.  This means things can fall apart.  A lot of times when I'm learning a new thing in the pool my swim times go down for awhile.  Once I get the new thing dialed in better my times get faster again as I am able to do all parts and pieces together better.

Not long after this I had a day where I was really tired.  More tired than usual which is always a bit daunting since I'm pretty tired most of the time.

I was supposed to do eight 100's at my best pace.  There wasn't an expectation of a particular time, just that I would give it my all for each 100.  Usually my best effort on the first one is faster than my best effort on the last one.

Not always fun to have a series of intervals that are supposed to be your best effort when you are tired and don't even want to do the workout at all.

I decided to not focus on being fast.

I was going to focus on being strong.

I was going to work on reaching really well and pulling hard and keeping my body lined up and keeping my kicking strong.

Did my warm up.  Did my drills.  Did my builds.

Now it was time for the first 100.

Strong not fast.

I felt good.  I felt streamlined.  I was working hard.  I was working at staying relaxed and breathing well.  Bri always tells me to absolutely give the last 25 yards my all, I can breathe when I'm done.  lol

I got done and looked at my watch.

I had done a 100 in 1:52!!

I have been trying to do a 100 in less than two minutes since last summer.

I stood up, threw my hands up in the air and gave a big WOO HOO!  I'm pretty sure that I freaked out some of the 5:00 a.m. swimmers.  lol  I looked at Bri who was the lifeguard that morning and she had a big smile on her face.

If it worked to swim strong not fast once and get that result, maybe I should keep doing it and see what happens.

Every single 100 was under two minutes.

What the heck?

Bri told me when I was done that the other lifeguard had commented that I was looking really good during my builds.  Bri agreed and was pretty sure I would do a 100 under two minutes.  She loved that I did ALL the 100's under two minutes.  😊  I have to say, it is a seriously cool feeling to have your kiddo be proud of you.  Love my girl.

Coach asked me later what was different.

At first I wasn't sure.  I thought maybe that my form was more dialed in, or my pull was finally getting better.

But some other things have happened in other areas of my workouts that made me rethink that.

Coach has also been working on my bike skills.

Not too long ago I had to do hill repeats.  I rode out to a road that has several hills and picked the one that was long enough for me to be going up for the time that Coach wanted.  I would turn around, zip down the hill, turn around again and go up again.

I found myself working on the uphill part and thinking about just going up the hill strong.  I'm not going to go flying up a hill.  Even fast riders go slower uphill than they do downhill.  I decided that if I wasn't going to go fast up the hill I would do it like my swim and just work at going up the hill strong.  I had pretty solid results on that ride.

I don't think it was a big aha moment.  Just a general awareness that has been growing over the last few months.  A big change in my own mind set.

My focus has slowly been changing from wanting to be faster to wanting to be stronger.

When I reflect on my Oregon Dunes Triathlon I realize that I had been thinking that way during that race.  I wanted to have a strong race.  Boy did I!!  It's been almost two months since that race and I'm still smiling.  😁

I have spent a lot of time being very bothered by being slow.  I want to be as fast as all my teammates.  I want to keep up.  I hate being slow.

I still want those things but I am realizing that I will be much more successful in the long run if I stay focused on getting stronger.

In my head I've had it backwards.  I wanted to get faster and that would make me stronger.  Now I know it is really the other way around.

Being stronger will eventually help me get faster.

Maybe this is something that is really obvious to others.  You might be reading this and thinking Duh!  lol  I know that my husband and my coach have both talked about this in many different ways.  Evidently I didn't realize that my thinking was backwards and what they were saying didn't really compute.  I was getting in my own way.

Seems like a small thing.  I'm not really changing my workouts.  I've always worked hard and tried to do all the parts and pieces the way Coach asks me to.

But I know as a teacher that sometimes the way a student approaches a hard task can make a difference on how the task comes out.  Perfectly capable and very smart students can struggle with something because they are so busy thinking about it one way they don't hear me explaining what they need to do in order to be successful.  When they finally are ready to really hear me and have that aha moment things get easier quickly.  They are so excited that it all makes sense and love being able to say, "I get it now!"  Best part of being a teacher!

From now on I'm working on focusing on being stronger.  Maybe the improvements that I have made the last few months are just because that is the normal course of where my training was going to bring me.  But I'm convinced the change in my focus is a big part of why I am seeing a sudden upswing on my improvements.  I have improved steadily since I started this journey but recently it has seemed more dramatic.

So now I have a new motto to add to the list of things I repeat to myself often as I'm working out.

Breathe, smile, have fun, repeat.

And now:

Be stronger not faster.

Two Weeks-Lots of Ups, a Few Downs

It's been two weeks since my last post and I know my four followers are probably worried about me.  It has been a busy couple of weeks.  I am working hard at work and school.  Oh ya, and running.  :-)  There is a big difference in the amount of running I have done this September compared to last September.

I tried out my new trail shoes and they were great.  I loved the bigger size and didn't feel like my toes were pressing against the end of my shoes when I was going down hill.  I also felt better in general and even ran some parts of the trail.  It felt so much better than any of my runs the week before so my husband was right.  I needed to take a break.  Glad I did because the last two weeks have been much better.  We tried out a new trail that started out on Highway 99 by the Adair gate and met up with the Nettleton loop we have done before.  We passed part of the Peavy Arboretum and the whole trail was really beautiful.

Me at Peavy Arboretum 

It was a little rainy when we went on the hike but the leaves haven't gotten serious about falling yet so we didn't get wet with all the tree cover.

Self image is such a funny thing.  I know that I'm looking better and getting healthier every day.  I'm trying to be more willing to have my picture taken because I don't want to be the person who never does because of how I look.  But I will be honest.  It is hard for me to look at pictures of myself.  I see chubby legs, flabby arms and a poochy stomach.  This makes my husband so frustrated with me.  He hates it when I pick at my looks.  I know that's not what other people see.  It's an area that I'm really working on now.  I see the positive in everyone else, I need to be more willing to see the positive in myself.

My next three runs were just three mile runs.  This was what my training plan calls a recovery week.  All three runs went very well.  The first had an average pace of 11'47, the second was 12'09 and the third was 11'46!  Wow!  All the defeat and frustrations that I felt the week before were annihilated!  This is a serious improvement in my speed and I was very stoked.  Saturday I had to do a 7.5 mile run and I was a bit nervous about how it would go, especially since I hadn't run my long run the week before.

That run was excellent.  I had a consistent pace and felt really good the whole time.  My average pace was 12'18!  I have never done a run that far with a pace that low.  I have to say I did a little happy dance when I got home.

This past week was a little rougher.  My Monday run was a four mile run and I had an average pace of 11'49" which I think is the fastest I have ever done for that distance.  That felt pretty good.  I also liked that I had a really steady pace.  I wasn't slowing down and then speeding up to try and make up for it.  I just trucked along.

Nice steady pace with a little spurt at the end to finish fast.  :-)

Tuesday was a long day at work and I was really tired when I got home.  I was supposed to do five miles with a 1-2% incline.  It was pouring down rain and I didn't want to run in it and I just couldn't bring myself to run on the dreadmill so I didn't do my run.

Wednesday I got up early and did my swim.  It felt pretty good.  I did 750 yards in 25 minutes.  The first 500 felt good, the last 250 was a struggle but I really want to work and doing that distance without a kickboard or fins since that is the distance in the triathlon I'm doing.  Two weeks until the triathlon and I'm starting to get nervous about it.  I just don't want to embarrass myself.  :-)  I got to school at 7:30 a.m. for a meeting.  Wednesday was an Early Release day for the students so they left at 1:30 and then we had meetings for the afternoon.  That was followed up by Open House which lasted until 7:30 pm.  That was a very long day!

Thursday I woke up with a headache.  It was a pretty bad one so I took some medicine and took things kind of slow getting ready for work.  I headed to work but on the drive in the headache got worse and by the time I got to the school I had a full blown migraine on my hands.  I haven't had one that bad for over two years.  It was so painful I knew that I could not work.  So I put in for a sick day, made sub plans and headed back home.  I got in the house, took more medicine,  crawled under a blanket on the couch and slept from 9:00 a.m until 1:00 p.m.  I woke up, ate something and then fell asleep again.  I woke up around 3:30 to the sound of a parent, sitting in their car outside of my house waiting to pick up their child from the elementary school around the corner that had his stereo blasting.  I could hear it very clearly in my house, with no windows or doors open.  The bass made a nice rhythm with the banging in my head.  I walked outside and asked him to please turn it down.  He seemed surprised that I could hear it in the house.  But he did turn it down.  Sometimes I am amazed at how unaware people are of their surroundings and how things they do affect others.

I'm really glad that Thursday was a rest day because I wouldn't have been working out even if I was supposed to.  I did manage to get my homework done for my class and that took quite a bit of concentration that evening.  I went to bed early and slept like a rock.  Friday I woke up and felt so much better.  I am pretty sure that the migraine was because I was over-tired and a bit stressed with some added things at work, grad school and trying to balance family, work, school and running.  On the plus side, the students really missed me and did surprisingly well for the sub which isn't always the case, especially this soon in the school year.

Friday I ran three miles.  This time I ran from the house and then had my route end at the pool so I could do a swim workout with my friend Betsy.  I had another good run with a pace of 11'49".  Then we swam, sort of.  It was more like we swam a lap and then talked, swam another lap and talked some more.  Repeat.  Then we went and sat in the hot tub with Joe and Meighan.

Today I had to do an 11 mile run.  I really didn't want to do it.  It is so far and takes so much time.  And I haven't run that far in months so I was pretty sure that when it was over I was going to be feeling it. Also, the weather was not good.  A big storm was arriving in the Pacific Northwest and things were just getting started.  But I knew that I couldn't put it off until Sunday because the weather was supposed to be downright nasty by Saturday night and only going to get worse on Sunday.  So off I went.  The wind was awful!  I ran straight into the wind from about mile 1.5 to 3.  I felt like I was slogging along.  It was a little better when I turned but then the wind made me feel like I was getting pushed sideways into the ditch so I had to work to run in a straight line.  When I finally got onto Three Lakes Road, mile 6, I had the wind at my back and that was so much better.  I felt really good until mile 9.  Then I hit the wall.....hard!  The last two miles were a struggle.  They were a struggle to run, they were a struggle not to quit and walk and they were a struggle not to shortcut the run and go straight home.  I had to really do battle with both mind and body.  My body hurt and it was hard to to keep going.  Everything seemed to start hurting or getting tight at the same time.  Then my mind started up.  I had done 9 miles and that was really good.  Nobody would know/care if I didn't do the whole 11 miles.  It wouldn't hurt to go home, after all the weather is crappy, nobody would blame me if I didn't finish because of the weather.

Long Run!

I would know.  I would be mad at myself for not doing what I was supposed to do.  I knew my friend Betsy was doing 12 miles this morning and I had told her I was doing 11.  By golly I was going to do the whole 11.  I was NOT going to tell her that I quit early or walked.

I was supposed to run an easy 11 miles which means that I am not supposed to push it to try and be fast.  I'm not supposed to run at race pace.  But I kept it at a 12'55" average pace for the first 9 miles.  The last two miles blew that pace.  I ended with an average pace of 13'10".  I've had worse and actually this is a really good pace for me at this distance.  I'm hoping that if I can do this well (mostly) for a training run then I will be able to do even better for the Runaway Pumpkin Half next month.  We shall see.  I keep telling myself I have to trust in the training.

My first month of work, school, running and family is just about done.  Some things have gone well.  Some things I will need to work at.  Feeling a bit behind at work.  Can't seem to find my rhythm this year with all the extra meetings.  I'll get there eventually.  School is going well and I turn in my last assignment tomorrow to finish up my first course.  Didn't miss any assignments and so far am getting a good grade so that's a good feeling.  My family doesn't appear to be too upset with me or how things are going.  I don't think I have become the crazed woman that sometimes appears when I am completely overwhelmed.  I only missed to workouts in my training plan for the month of September and that is really amazing.

Slight difference in my commitment to working out between last year and this year in September!

I am going to have to work on doing a little better with the housework.  The family has stepped up but no one seems to want to step up and tackle the bathrooms.  I'm going to try and get to those tomorrow before something grabs my leg the next time I'm in the shower.  It's almost to the gross stage which is not good!  

Looking forward to October getting here and getting my next to races in the books. 

Whether you are a slow runner or a fast runner, you are on your first run or a seasoned veteran of the roads, way to go!  Keep at it!  Good for you!  :-)  From this slow runner who is getting faster, it's worth the effort!

Busy & Crazy Week!

The first week of school is done and it was a doozy of a start to the school year.  :-)

Tuesday was the first day for 6th graders.  All hands on deck to make sure they had a good day and felt at least a little more comfortable about starting middle school.  I think the parents that came to drop them off were more terrified than the kids.  Having a child go to middle school is a big change for the parents too.  We handed out schedules, we had an assembly, we did tours of the building and grounds, we had lunch with the kids and then the rest of the afternoon they were with their homeroom teacher and we could finish up getting ready for the 7th and 8th graders the next day.

I got my room finished up, made some copies and then changed my clothes.  I needed to do intervals and I had decided to use the track behind the school.  I figured there wouldn't be anyone around and I didn't want to run on the high school tracks because I was pretty sure there would be football practice.  I didn't think about Pop Warner football practice.  I was about half way through my intervals when all these boys start showing up, and parents with lawn chairs.  There were little boys (1st graders maybe) all the way up to 8th graders.  Lucky me, it was the 7th & 8th grade boys who were practicing on the field inside of the track.  There were about five of them that saw me and said "Hi, Mrs. V."  Great.  I'm out here dying in the heat and trying to sprint for two minutes at a time with my students, former and soon to be new watching me.  It was really tempting to quit and call it good.  But I'm trying not to do that anymore so I kept at it.  My training called for 8x2 (eight times sprinting for two minutes) with five minute slow jog in between.  Half mile slow run to warm up and a 1/2 mile slow run to cool down at the end.  I had a really hard time breathing after the first two sets so I was walking the five minutes instead of jogging but I did manage to walk at a brisk pace.  At one point, when I was finishing up my 1/2 mile cool down I heard the coach yelling at the boys.  He said, "You guys aren't even trying hard!  Your teacher is out here working hard, sweating and getting it done!"  I had to laugh.  Overweight, old lady and their teacher besides and the coach is using me to shame his players because they aren't putting in the effort.  I took that as a compliment.  :)

Track work looks funny on the map.

I am pleased with my average pace since I did so much walking.  The sprints were fast!  :-)

Wednesday was the first day with all my regular classes.  I got up early and did my swim.  I was absolutely sure that I wasn't going to feel like it after work.  I swam for 30 minutes and got my 750 yards.  Used the kickboard and fins for the last 15 minutes and worked on my kicking and getting my breathing better.

First day with the kids started out a bit rough because I had emailed some things from my home computer thinking I would print them when I got to school.  That usually works just fine.  But this day the internet was down, which meant no email which meant that I couldn't make the copies I needed.  I had to make some changes to my plans for the day but it was all good.  Just threw me off my groove for a bit.  Loved meeting all my students and starting to put faces with names and all in all it was a good day.  I was very glad that I had done my swim in the morning.  I was tuckered out when I got home.  My legs ached from standing all day and my throat hurt from talking all day.  It might take a bit to get back into my teacher groove.  I did, however, come home and go grocery shopping at Costco with my husband.  Then I crashed.  :-)

Thursday started out better.  I had made sure to do the copies I needed after work on Wednesday (when the internet had finally come back on) because I was taking no chances.  That was a good call because about 3rd period we had no internet again.  lol  Wednesday had been something with our system.  This time Comcast had accidentally cut a line.  Sigh.  Then to add to the excitement we had a tremendous thunder and lightning storm start right at the beginning of 6th period (the last class of the day.)  I know that storms like this are really common in many areas of the United States, even other parts of Oregon.  But they are not common in the Willamette Valley and they usually are not this intense when we get them.  Needless to say my students were either really excited or slightly terrified.  Then, because the internet was down and the office couldn't check schedules to call for students, they had to keep calling student's names over the intercom to come down to the office.  Lots of parents had come to pick up their kids because of the storm, they didn't want the kids to be walking/biking/skateboarding home.  It made for a very interesting end of the day.  I gave up on getting anything accomplished that was productive.  :-)  I was VERY glad that Thursday was a rest day so all I had to do when I got home was post my own homework quickly in case the power went out and then do nothing for the rest of the evening.

Summer Storms.  Photo courtesy Baily Gardner, @ Bayhay32 on Twitter via KVAL News. 

Friday was a good day.  I'm getting to know my students and they are getting to know me.  We had some fun activities to build class unity and help us get to know each other which caused much laughter and fun.  Next week we start really getting into the regular routine.  ;)  I just had to run three miles and although it was hot I really wanted to see if I could do it with an average pace of under 12 min. miles.  It was hard work, breathing was difficult but I did it.  What a good feeling.  I was tired but in the good way that comes after pushing your body hard.

Pretty happy about the negative splits on this one!  :-)

Today was my long run.  I am trying to follow the training plan.  It has me pushing myself during the week.  Hill runs, intervals, tempo runs are all designed to help me increase my speed and stamina.  My long runs are for building up my distance and I am supposed to do them slower than my anticipated race pace.  Sometimes this is really hard because I want to keep trying to improve every time I run.  Today I worked really hard at just keeping a nice steady pace and not killing myself.  I went eight miles and kept a pretty consistent pace.  My average pace was 13'13" which last winter I would have been thrilled to have for a three mile run let alone an eight mile run!  Sometimes it's hard to keep things in perspective but it's good to look back and see how far I have come since last winter.

Really consistent pace!  The slow downs were either cars that I had to step off the road for because they wouldn't go around me or crosswalks.  :-)  Safety first!  I always love it when my last mile is my fastest, especially on my long runs!!

So I made it through my first week of school, I made it through my second week of my own online class AND I did all of my workouts.  Yay me!  I'm pooped!  Hopefully I can keep this up and not drive my family crazy in the meantime.

And speaking of my family.  When I got home on Friday and was going to quickly change my clothes so I could run I got the best surprise!  My husband had done ALL of the laundry, put away all the Costco groceries and cleaned the kitchen.  My man rocks!  Just say'n.  :-)

Tomorrow is a rest day and I think I'm going to rest.  :-)  Gotta gear up for another fun filled week.  Hope you are out doing your thing this next week too.  :-)

Frustrations and Victories, all in the same week!! :-)

I'm starting to get nervous about my two half marathons this month.  The Corvallis Half is only a week away.  The Eugene Half is only three weeks away.  Yikes.  My stomach does flip flops every time I think about it.  Not because I am worried about whether I can do it or not.  I know I can run 13 miles, I've done it before.  I'm worried that I will not meet my goals for improvement and that I will be disappointed.  I'm very competitive with myself.  Funny, I think everyone else is awesome just for doing the race but for myself I get bummed if I don't accomplish what I want.

Here are my goals:

Corvallis Half:  To run the whole thing and have a better time then last year.  Last year my time was 3:07:40.  Which was pretty good considering that I walked at least 3 miles of the race.  My pace was 14'20".  Definitely hoping for a better pace then that.

Eugene Half:  To run the whole thing and have a Personal Record for a half marathon under three hours.  Last year I finished in 3:10:23 with an average pace of 14'31" per mile.  I had to walk a lot of the race and I just felt yucky the entire time.  My stomach was upset and I had no energy.  This was when the tired factor was really bad so I'm sure that was a factor.  The first year I did this race was in 2011 and it was my first Half Marathon.  I finished in 3:03:48 with a pace of 14'02".  I have not been able to beat that time yet.

In order for me to get a finish under 3 hours I have to have an average pace per mile of 13'44".  I know I can do that over shorter runs but I'm really worried about what will happen over the longer distances.  I have had problems with running out of steam after about mile 7.  It would really be the pits if I was rocking my pace for most of the run and blow it for the last three miles because I run out of steam.  I will be using my 11 mile run this week and the Corvallis Half the next week to try different things (Shot Bloks, etc.) to figure out a plan before the Eugene Half.  The Eugene Half is the one that I want to kick butt on since it was my very first Half and it is where I did my best time ever.

What will happen if I don't make my goals.  Nothing really.  They are just for me.  The world will not stop.  Nobody at the race will care about the heavy lady who finished 9,000th.  But for me it will be a big bummer.  And to be perfectly honest I will cry about it and probably mope around for a few days because I'm disappointed with myself.  Then my hubby will tell me to get over it and I will move on to the next race and the next goal.  It will probably motivate me to work even harder for the next one.  My pace at the Shamrock Run according to my Nike+ app was 13'24" but official race time was 14'04".  If the official race pace is 14'04" in Eugene then I won't make my goal.  Ok, enough of that.  I'm psyching myself out already.

There are days where I think I have totally got this and days where I think that I'm just going to keep being the fat girl huffing and puffing around the track.

Frustrations:

I went to the Endocrinologist Thursday.  My doctor sent me to the specialist with the thought that the specialist would dig deeper to try and figure out the tired/slow weight loss issues I'm having.  Sigh.  It was not a productive visit.  Again, I'm over 40 and it gets harder to to lose weight for women in their 40's.  Evidently the stress I went through 12 years ago with the farm is why I gained weight and now can't lose it.  Did you know that I would be less tired if I lost weight?  Why, thank you, I never thought heard that.  Why didn't I try that?  Oh wait, I have been trying!  More blood tests.  Not because she thought anything was wrong but because she figured we can rule out the obvious stuff.  As far as she can tell from her examination I am perfectly healthy in every way except that I'm overweight.  Her suggestion was that I eat fewer calories and join Weight Watchers.  And maybe I should do more cross training and build more muscle.

I'm trying so hard to keep a good attitude and be positive about the changes I am making.  Days like this make it really hard.  I don't think this was the digging deeper for answers my regular doctor was hoping for when he sent me to the specialist.  I have lost 15 pounds sine December 26th.  This averages out to about 1 pound per week.  However,  I lost 9 the first week and I think that was just holiday bloat.  So that means I have lost an additional 6 pounds in the 14 weeks since which works out to be less than half a pound a week.  A half a pound a week is progress, I will acknowledge that.  However, with the healthy choices I am making with my eating, the reduced calories I am eating AND the fact that I am running 20+ miles a week AND swimming and doing weights at least once a week I should be losing more.  I'm trying to do this the healthy way that will be lasting.  Not the fad diet, shakes or bars.  I want to develop good habits that help me become a healthy person, lose weight and keep it off.  If I'm doing everything right why is that not happening?  I didn't enjoy going to the doctor and basically get patted on the head and told to do more.

It makes me want to go eat a lot of ice cream, pizza, and all kinds of other really yummy things.  lol  But I know that won't help me be successful and will only make me backtrack and I like being able to say that I am doing everything I'm supposed to.  So I'm going to keep doing what I'm supposed to.  :-)

I will go back to my regular doctor one more time and talk with him about it.  After that I think I will just keep doing what I'm doing and resign myself to the fact that losing weight will be a slow process and being tired all the time is my reality.  Not much I can do about it so I am going to keep working on what I can control and give the rest to God.

On the other side, I have had an amazing week of running.  Go figure.

Victories:

Monday: I had a nice four mile run in beautiful weather that I had an average pace of 12'57".  This made me happy. I get pretty happy about anything under 13 minutes and to average less than over four miles is awesome.

Tuesday:  I was supposed to run hills so I went over to North Albany.  Got a late start but we were still having some of the nice weather that I brought home with me from Palm Desert so it was almost 70 degrees.  Hills and heat are usually not a good combo for me but I felt pretty good.  I was a little worried about how I would do because I forgot my inhaler.  I did have to concentrate on my breathing and I did have to pause my Nike+ at the top of the hill and get my breath back.  On my way back I could tell that I was getting the average down so my last mile I turned up the speed and was shooting for an 11 minute anything mile at the end.  I ended with a 12'12" mile at the end of a 5 mile run with hills.  Still really great for me so I was happy and my average pace was 12'52" which was just a smidge faster than Monday's run.  Not too shabby considering it was a mile longer and had hills.

Wednesday:  Had my 30 minute swim and then did some weights at home.  The swim felt good and I think I'm getting stronger in the water every week.  At least I'm not snorting as much water up my nose.  I hate that!

Thursday:  Rest day and doctor visit.  Talk about sucking the wind out of my sails.  I was a weepy walrus on Thursday!  Only let myself mope about it for the evening.

Friday:  I was SO tired when I got home.  It was raining.  I really didn't feel like running AT ALL!!  But I went.  And it was good.  Actually it was pretty awesome!!  So glad I went.  I ran 4 miles, just a loop down the main road by my house.  I thought I was starting out slow but the first 1/2 mile report was that I was running a low 12 minute mile.  So I slowed it down and at a mile I was still at an under 13 minute pace.  Well, I felt good and it wasn't a super long run so I decided to see if I could get negative splits for every mile AND get the last mile to be 11 minutes, any seconds.  If at some point I had to stop or slow down, oh well.  I walked at crosswalks just to get a little breath back but ran the whole thing.  I'm a happy runner!  It was a great run!

I got an 11 minute mile!!!!!  Woot Woot!!

Check out my pace right at the very end of the run!  SWEET!

I ran this one with an average pace of 12'16" and the last mile was 11'26".  I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was when I got done.  I was tired and I could tell I had worked hard to get it done.  However, I did not feel like death was imminent or like I was going keel over from lack of oxygen.  That in itself was a huge accomplishment for me.

I went from feeling like nothing was working and doctors were stupid on Thursday to feeling like a rock star on Friday.

I'm going to stick with the rock star feeling.  It is WAY more fun!

Saturday: Today's run was supposed to be 11 miles.   I started out really slow (for real) and just work at picking up the pace a teeny bit as I go.  I have pushed it all week so I figured I would get the miles in and just try and enjoy the run.  Especially since I will be at it for awhile.  lol  The first seven miles went pretty good and I was getting negative splits.  But about mile four it started to rain.  Not just sprinkles or a light drizzle but a full on downpour and it kept pouring for almost an hour. My the time I got done with mile 7 I was completely soaked to the skin and my socks were sliding around.  I was worried about getting blisters so I decided to walk for a bit.  I was already shivering because I was so cold but I really wanted my 11 miles.  I ended up doing 9 miles.  I just couldn't stop shivering and I didn't want blisters the week before the Corvallis Half.  I decided that I had pushed hard all week and it wouldn't be the end of the world if I cut this one short.  I hope that doesn't bite me in the but later.  I got up early so I could get the run done and then go watch Joe do the Beaver Freezer Triathlon.  He wants me to video his transitions so he can see what he does and maybe make some changes before the Ironman in June.  Normally not getting my full miles in would make me very frustrated but for some reason I'm totally okay with it today.  Maybe because I know I have been rocking the runs all week it isn't the end of the world if I don't rock every run.  I certainly don't want to get an injury at this point because I didn't give myself a break.

Another fun thing that happened on Wednesday that helps balance out the crappy doctor visit on Thursday was a visit to my old school.  I had to stop by to pick up my friend because she didn't have her car and needed a ride home.  Which I totally love to do because we get talk time on the way home.  Of course I had to pop in and say hi to everyone.  I really love where I'm working now but I really miss my Pioneer Peeps!  I had several people say that I was looking really good and they could see changes.  So weight isn't coming off so much but changes are happening.  My poor husband was all disgusted because he has been telling me that for weeks but I didn't believe him.  But I will believe my friends. lol  Well, they haven't seen me for a few months so they would see the difference better.  He sees me every day and is I think he is just trying to be supportive.  Which he totally he is!  Love my guy!

Goober #3 took this picture of me after I got done with my run on Friday.  I think the smile says it all!

I may be Running in Place and getting nowhere fast but I'm beginning to enjoy the journey more!  Happy Running!  

Lisa