Stinky Wednesday

It's hump day already! Time is flying this week because of the holiday tomorrow.

I ran 5.5 miles on Monday. Yesterday morning was very rainy, so I did a couple of miles on the treadmill and then swam last night.

Today I ran 5 miles in downtown Spartanburg. This beautiful clock tower and the flag looked picture perfect.

The last part of my run was on on the Hub City Rail Trail, a flat easy couple of miles.

Here are my splits from today's run:

L1 10:43

L2 9:06

L3 10:53

L4 9:48

L5 9:03

I love the feeling of walking back into the Y with sweat dripping all over me. I know I've accomplished my goal and started the day off right!

Sometimes after a long run I cheat on stretching, but I'm always less sore if i take the time to give my muscles some love.

My breakfast this morning was vanilla yogurt with Bob's Red Mill meusli, fresh stawberries and fresh blueberries. It looked very 4th of Julyish and yummy of course!

SO why is it a stinky Wednesday? It is trash collection day on every street I ran this morning. With the warmer weather, I smelled some nasty things for the entire run!  I even met the trash truck twice, which blended all of those not-so-lovely smells together. Gross!

How is your running going this week? Are you running in a 4th of July race tomorrow?

Hope you are grilling something delightful tomorrow! Stay safe.

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This Dog Can Run!

I have a new running buddy. I figured out that she lives a few houses down from us. She ran 3 miles with me Friday morning.

She enjoyed jumping in the mud puddles to cool off. I almost joined her.

She doesn't care for the last hill either!

We saw some blackberries on our driveway. Almost time to pick them. Yummy!

Yesterday my new friend was waiting on my porch to run again, but I had plans to run with my new human running buddies.

As I mentioned before, one of these girls was a high school classmate. The other is a co-worker of hers. They've both ran several marathons and countless half marathons. I was clearly out of my league! They started off so fast. I nearly chickened out right there, but I lived through ) very hilly miles! Came close to beating my 10k PR from the White Squirrel Festival at just over a 9 minute pace. Not fast, but I'm usually at a 10 minute pace. It seemed fast to me!!

We are going to try it again next Saturday...

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Sometimes Life Gets in the Way

I've made a discovery this week. Starting a new blog is much easier when you're on vacation than when you have a real life, a real job!

This week my commute has been a total of 16 hours driving in 4 days, plus lots of meetings and deadlines. Then I rush back to Vacation Bible School at our church. VBS has been so much fun and the kids are wonderful. I've not seen my house in the daylight all week though, and I'm getting very tired.

I have been able to run 12 miles so far this week. This morning I did 3 miles in a steady rainfall. Something about running in the rain makes me feel like a "real" runner. (Usually I feel like I'm just faking it!)

I'm planning to do 5 miles early tomorrow and then... I HAVE A NEW RUNNING BUDDY for the long weekend runs. An old high school friend has been running for years. She has run several halfs, at least one full marathon and countless other races. We're running for the first time together Saturday. We plan to meet at 8 AM and run for 6-7 miles. She says she hasn't been running so it will be a slow pace. I've googled some of her race times though, and I know that she's normally at a much faster pace than me.

I've been looking for a running buddy ever since I decided I want to run a half. So Friday night will feel a little bit like Christmas Eve. Don't misunderstand me. I normally prefer solo running, so I can go at my own pace and not have to talk. With long runs of 12 miles coming up in my training plan within 6 weeks though, I think I might need some distraction in order to meet my goal.

Do you like running solo or with a partner? What are your race goals for the summer?

Everyone else has been taking a picture like this lately, so I thought you might want to see my downward view :)




Remember to get your sweat on today!


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The Garmin Forerunner 110 Makes a Great Training Partner

I've been a hobby runner for about 6 years, and I finally ran my first 5k last year.

I got more committed earlier this year and decided to sign up for a 10k, which I ran in late May.

Up until I signed up for that race, I would usually just guess how many miles I put in each day. I would usually run about 2 miles and would be pleased if I made it to  3 miles.

The idea of running 6 miles sounded almost out of reach, and so I decided to buy a GPS watch to measure mileage.

In my career I am a financial planner and a nice way to describe me is thrifty (aka tight wad, cheap, you get the idea)! So to spend over $100 on myself besides clothes for work was a huge step.  Boy am I glad I did, though.

After spending hours reading reviews online, I decided to go with the Garmin Forerunner 110. I am a small-framed body and so it looked better on my little wrist.  I like the latest tech gadgets, but I liked the simplicity of this device. One button starts the GPS and another tells me distance, time and pace at a glance.  It does take the GPS a bit longer than I would like to find a satellite.  Besides that, I think the only thing missing that might have been nice would be a heart rate monitor, but at the price of just over $100 this is just about perfect.

I bought the 110 on May 6th, and I can tell from the reports it generates online that I have run over 110 miles. Now my average run is over 4 miles and my longest distance is just over 8 miles. I can track my pace when I need to do speed work and my elevation when I need to do hill training.  

If you are a beginning or hobby runner and want to shift your running into another level, I highly recommend buying this GPS watch!

I did some speed training this morning, 2 miles at just over an 8 minute pace. That's an improvement but I have to get faster to beat my 5k PR in late July.

Just Like Mom

I mentioned yesterday that we've been in WV for a wedding this weekend. I didn't bring my running shoes, because I thought we would be busy with family stuff the whole time.  After we got back from touring all of the historical sites, we still had an hour before starting to get ready for the wedding. I thought the kids might want to get in the pool, but the two teens wanted to veg out in front of the tv. Sydney, our soon-to-be 11 year old wanted to go to the gym. I put on my hiking shoes and we went down. We had the gym to ourselves. Sydney did 20 minutes on the treadmill and I did 20 minutes on the bike.

The wedding was beautiful and we all had a great time at the reception.

We woke up this morning to NO water in the hotel. We're on the way home now and everyone is a bit grouchy with no showers...

I'm ready to be home. Anxious to get back to healthier eating and my training plan. 

How is your weekend going? Have you been able to get a long run in for me??

A history lesson

We are in West Virginia for a wedding this weekend. We are spending the morning touring sites of the historic Hatfield McCoy feud.

I didn't bring my running shoes because I thought I wouldn't have time for a run. Of course I am regretting that like crazy! Beautiful trails around our hotel in Logan, WV.

Things look differently on foot

Our family is on the way to WV for a wedding as I am writing this. The DH is driving as I type on my phone.

We had a very busy morning. Even though we took the day off for this trip, we were out the door to the grocery store at 7 am. Then our youngest, Sydney, and I went to church to decorate the 5th grade classroom for VBS.

 

I didn't get to run till about Noon and its 80 degrees here. That's too hot for running!

I ran two miles at about a 10 minute pace  right near our house. It struck that when I'm running I notice the beauty and detail of things much more than when I'm driving a car!

Aren't we lucky as runners to experience and savor sights that most people take for granted! I ran more hills too. I swear, these hills are much steeper than they look in the pictures.

What beautiful things have you seen on your runs this week?

Follow my journey at www.Run2BeHappy.com.blogspot.com!!