Finally A Good Run

Tracking:  Every bite
Points eaten:  24 / 21
Activity Points Earned:  6
Hunger level:  hungry late afternoon, small meal held me thru until after run
Morning Weigh-ins:  up 0.2

Finally had a good awesome run last night.

For the last couple of weeks I've really been struggling.  I'd run as hard as I could and my pace was still alot slower than my typical easy pace.  Every step was feeling like a chore.  But last night things seemed to click.  The plan was 2 miles starting out at warm-up pace and gradually increasing to tempo pace (about 8:15 for me).  About 1/2 a mile in I realized that while I had put on my fuel belt ... I had forgot my water.  Luckily my husband had just come home and he brought it to me.  When he got there I checked my pace and saw that my "warm-up" pace was about 8:50.  Running as hard as I can recently I've barely been able to hit that pace.  Another 1/2 mile later I was around 8:30 ... and it just kept getting better.

After the 2 miles it was time for hill repeats.  I chose a long 2 stage hill this week (it had a somewhat flat area in the middle, but was a good steepness).  On the plan was 5 hill repeats - they were each a 1/4 mile long.  I hit each of these uphills at a good pace and got up in about 2 min each.  At the top I'd stop, drink some water, eat 4 blackberries from the side of the road (love this time of year), then jog down.

My overall pace actually improved after doing the hill repeats, though it wasn't exactly accurate for an overall pace since I stopped at the top and bottom of the hill to recover between each one.

On the way home I didn't want to tackle the one more hill on the road, so decided to cut through our neighbors blueberry field and sneak in through our back field.  I had enough mileage and just wanted to get home.  Unfortunately, the weeds have taken over since I last went through there and I don't do well in long grass.  Some of it was over my head.  I tried to get through, but couldn't make myself and had to turn back to the road and jog the extra mile home. 

Overall I did 6.54 miles at an average 7:59 pace.  Again, not really an accurate pace because there was lots of stops, but I'm still very, very happy as I haven't been able to hit anywhere near that pace for a while now.

My plan is supposed to be another 5 miles tonight, but I'm thinking that 5 days/wk running is too hard on my body right now - especially with the type of running I'm doing these days.  Instead I'm going to drop one of the easy runs and do 4 days per week and up the mileage a teensy bit on each run.  This should allow for more recovery time.

My weight was up a teensy bit today, but I also didn't eat dinner until after my run, about 9:00 last night.  That's a late dinner, but just the way it worked out.

I have a few photos to upload from our recent trip, but it doesn't seem to be letting me.  I keep getting a failed message.  Hmmm, will have to try again later.

EDIT:  Oh ... seems to be working now.

There is this great wall up there that seems to be open for people to do graffiti on. It seems to change quite frequently as two weeks ago when we were there, the images were different.  The walls are SO thick with paint.

I love these photos of my daughter.  Hard to imagine that this is the same girl that would NOT allow her picture to be taken for almost 10 years.  She would cry, hit, spit, hide, do anything to avoid it - even school photos.  In the last couple years she's done a 100% turnaround.

And my son jumping for the basketball hoop.

None of me this time.  Always the photographer, rarely the photographed!  I didn't used to like my picture taken much as I'm not terribly photogenic.  I can tolerate it somewhat now, but I do have to remember to ask to have my picture taken.

Keep Active!

Heidi

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