TR 5K

Yesterday was the most windy day ever! Ever!! I can see out the window from my second floor cubicle at work, so I can see the very tops of the trees outside. They were thrashing back and forth all day. The sun was hidden behind dark gray clouds. In just a few hours, my two co-workers and I had to go out there and run a 5K. I was excited to run, but not excited about the weather.

The three of us changed into our shorts in a second floor bathroom. We walked as fast as we could out to the start line because you stick out like a sore thumb dressed in running clothes at work. When we got outside, we were blasted by the wind. My hat almost flew off. We had goosebumps instantly. Specks of dirt hit us in the legs. One of us decided to wear a fancy running skirt and she was starting to regret it. These were not exactly ideal running conditions.



N, L and myself

 The run started and it was fun. The sun came out, too! L ran fast and beat N and I by a few minutes. We were jealous of her, but N and I were content to run our pace at the same time. We discussed work, our weekends, our running routines and I snapped a few pictures of the path all while dodging the fuzzy caterpillars all over the running path. To finish the 5K, we had to do three loops of one path and one loop of a smaller path that falls inside that bigger loop. Don't worry... we didn't get dizzy. Half of each loop was against the wind and the other half was with it (obviously). You can guess which half of the loop we liked better.

On our third lap around the big loop, N and I walked for a minute or two to just allow ourselves to catch our breathe. Part of me wanted to just quit all together. My legs felt heavy, my lungs burned, my eyes were watering from the wind. N was a great encourager though. This run really made me feel like a loser, but N kept us going. I hate having great runs like I had with my husband a few days ago, which was 4 miles and faster, and then having a run like this 3 miler that went so horribly bad. I guess you have your good days and bad days. And after all, this run was for a good cause (all the money donated by the runners/walkers was given to a charity). I'm glad I decided to finish because when N and I got to the finish line, L was there cheering us on and took a photo of us crossing the line. We gave her two big thumbs up and she kindly posted it to Facebook immediately.

The 10K is tomorrow and I'm still very much looking forward to it. It just better not be windy!

Week of the Races

The 10K is now just days away. I'm really, really looking forward to it. The weather is supposed to be gorgeous. Fall in Minnesota is just perfect. My husband disagrees with me, but we will just move on from this (fall = waterskiing season draws to a close).

Not only am I really looking forward to the race on Saturday, but last minute, two co-workers and I signed up for a 5K that our employer is putting on tomorrow! Our company is set out on a huge area of land and we have our own walking/running paths around the entire campus. I utilized these paths when I was pregnant and overdue hoping the walks would put me into labor (did not work). The 5K will take place on those paths, so it should be a lot of fun. The three of us turned in our registration paper yesterday. And then the lady told us they'd be videotaping the run. Videotaping. I think it is only fair to tell us this up front and not after I have signed my name on the paper. I will be wearing a hat (as always) to disguise myself.

My husband and I took our boy out for a run after work yesterday. My goal was 4 miles. The boys did all 4 miles with me despite our boy's begging to turn back and look at the bullsosers. He just never gets enough of them apparently.

The run was fantastic, but it started out a little rough. The air was unusually heavy for this time of year from the rain we had in the morning. It wasn't crisp like fall is supposed to be. It wasn't hot, but it wasn't cold, and it was a little bit foggy, but sunny at the same time. The first 1.5 miles my legs felt like heavy weights. They just didn't want to move. The large hill we ran up probably didn't help things, but I tried to remind myself that running those hills helps in the long run.

There were a few times I wanted to stop and I told my husband that it was really hard to keep up with his pace. We ran his pace - fast - the entire 4 miles. As much as I hated running that pace, I loved it. We turned onto the final stretch, which was about half a mile. He said to me, "I want you to stay with me the rest of the way." I had been lagging behind him a bit. Inside I was so mad at him for pushing me when he knew I was already spent at keeping his pace, but on the other hand, I was really glad he was along. I probably would have started walking had I been alone.

I kept up with his pace for about a minute and he complimented me. Then, out of nowhere, he said, "I want you to stay ahead of me until we get back... just a few minutes... stay ahead of me." I was over being mad at him for pushing me since I was clearly doing okay keeping his pace. Now I was just in it to prove to him and myself that I can kill the rest of this run. I sped up and ran in front of him and the jogging stroller. He was speeding up behind me. I sped up to stay ahead. We passed a few of our neighbors out for a leisurely jog and I could barely get a "hello" out as they passed by. My shirt was drenched. I ran the last few steps even faster so I could for sure beat my husband onto our street from the sidewalk. I'm pretty sure I said, "YES! I win!" as if I had just won a race. I'm not sure either of us knew until that moment it was a race :)

I feel great today! My hips and legs feel as though I pushed it a bit harder last night. I feel proud that I kept up with my husband's speed the entire time and even passed him up at the end. I'm happy to have him challenging me to push it once in a while. It's hard to do that on my own. I feel ready for tomorrow's 5K and the 10K on Saturday. It's going to be a great rest of the week!

Five

I meant to get out over the weekend for a long run, but a few too many fun things got in the way. That makes me sound like I have zero dedication to my running, but I made sure to get out on Monday evening. I was planning a 5 mile run after work. Not knowing this, my husband asked early in the day if I wanted to go on a family run after work. I told him I'd be running 5 and he and our little guy could join me if they so desired. He said that he'd do 3 with me, which is fine because 6'5" guys aren't your typical long distance runners. Is 5 miles even considered long distance? If you want to know my opinion, the answer is yes.

Summer already seems long gone and fall has definitely made an entrance. It's been cool and a bit rainy, but yesterday afternoon was just beautiful. I had to take the opportunity to run outdoors while I can (I do not run in the cold if I can help it). My boy was excited to go running as usual. As soon as we set out on a course near our house that I had mapped on MapMyRun.com, he knew we'd pass by the bulldozers working on building the next step up neighborhood. He was beside himself with excitement. I love that my boy is filled with so much joy. You can see it in every ounce of his body and being.

Mile 1: Great start. My husband and I are talking. We get to the bulldozers and our boy is in awe. The bulldozers are still out working and making all sorts of noises that two year olds adore. We slowed down a bit so that our boy could take it all in, but continued on our route.

Mile 2: Our boy is begging to go back and see the bulldozers. An almost two year old begging? Seems weird, right? Mmm hmmm. No. Not weird. He continues to beg the entire second mile. We ran up a giant hill and a semi truck and UPS truck passed us, which helped distract him for a while. At the top of the hill, I wanted so desperately bad to stop and catch my breath, but my husband told me to keep going. I did. It was really, really hard.

Mile 3: We were on a straight road. No elevation change. No curves. It was a long road. It never seemed to end. My husband and son started on their way back on a different path. And yes, this path would take them back to the bulldozers (where they happened to stay and watch them work for a good 15 minutes). Our boy's lucky day!

Mile 4: I was on my own. I stopped to walk for a minute and put my ear buds in. Pandora played some great Mumford & Sons-like music. I looped through a neighborhood near our house. A whole bunch of people were out walking their dogs and I nodded and smiled as I ran by them. One guy was out walking a Westie and I could've sworn it was Anthony Bourdain. Tall, slender, grayish hair, black jacket. Looked a bit like he might have an attitude. I passed him a second time and wondered if his camera crew was out hiding somewhere and I was going to be on his show! But then I remembered I was running and really didn't want to appear on TV in this sweaty state. My mind wanders as I run and sometimes this works in my favor. Unfortunately, after I realized I wasn't being taped for No Reservations, I noticed that I had a horrible side cramp. I walked for about 5 minutes to help it go away, which made me feel a little lazy, but it felt like a good decision at the time.

Taking a breather around mile 4.5

Mile 5: The majority of mile 5 was a series of little rolling hills. Up and down. Up and down. I ran this entire last mile and I think I ran it with a bit more pep in my stride than the fourth. I could sense that the end was near. I just had to get to the stop light up ahead and be done with it.

Annnnd, done. Whew. I walked about a quarter of a mile home. I caught my breath and enjoyed a few minutes of alone time. When I turned onto our street and walked up our driveway, my son, who was playing outside with my husband, shouted, "Bullsosers!!! I saw bullsosers, mommy!"  Joy.

A Date with My Boy

Over the weekend, I took my baby boy (who really isn't much of a baby anymore) out for a morning run. My husband was out of town and it was just mommy and son. My baby gets excited for runs. He likes to say, "Go running! Go running!" He loves to go fast, look at dogs, and is always on the look out for bullsosers... bulldozers. So, that morning I asked him if he wanted to go running with mommy. I knew he'd say yes.

We set out on a trail that runs along the Mississippi River in St. Paul. It was beautiful. The sun was warm, but the air was cool. Perfect. I like running with my boy because he loves to be outside and I just like being with him. But it is really, really difficult. He's not light, the jogging stroller is big and the path was slanting towards the river just enough that I had to force the stroller to keep in line. All in all, I had to expend more energy than I really wanted to (if I'm being honest...) for a leisurely morning run. After a few minutes, I felt okay and had gotten into a rhythm. We got to a turnaround point and headed back. My boy really wanted to see a boat on the river and I could hear voices coming from the water. We came to a clearing up on the bluff overlooking the river and there were a few crew boats going by. Man, I have great timing! My boy got to see the boats, but I told him we had to keep going. I shouldn't have stopped. He wanted to stay looking at the water and boats. I snapped a quick photo with my phone because it was too beautiful not to capture it. The leaves are just starting to turn orange. In a few weeks, this whole bluff will be orange, yellow and red.

And then he started whining again, so we made a mad dash for the car and I told him we'd go get a treat. We had run about 1.5 miles, which I was okay with, and then drove up to Starbucks. I bought him strawberry mango fruit snacks and I enjoyed a grande Pikes Roast coffee with a vanilla shot (and maybe a drop or five of half-n-half). We sat across from each other at a little table by the window in the coffee shop and talked... as much as you can have a conversation with a toddler. He had no idea where he was, but he couldn't wipe the grin off his face. It was a good date.

I'm meeting a long-time friend for a run tonight. I'm looking forward to having a girl talk. Later this weekend, my goal is to run 5 miles. It's nearly two weeks til race day. I'm excited!

Whew... that was fun!

I set out on my run the other night just as I had planned. It was a gorgeous Minnesota fall evening. The sun was warm, but the air was getting cooler as the day went on. Perfect. I drove to a lake just a few miles from my house, parked where I could find a spot and hopped on the trail along with all the other runners, walkers and bikers out that afternoon. The loop is about 2.6 miles, and I had planned to do two loops.

The run started out great, which is partly due to the Mumford & Sons music coming into my ears. Now that I think about it, that's not really workout type of music, but it worked for me that night. I set out with a decent pace. My goal was to run slowly in order to do two loops, but sometimes you get in a groove and you just go with it. I finished loop one and felt like I had done a good job. I looked over at my parked car and really wanted to get in and go home. The other part of me knew I should run more. The sun was setting more and I really hate being alone in the dark despite the high traffic path I was running on. There was time for a little more, so I went on.

I decided turn around once I got to a certain point. The certain point was a big curve in the path that overlooks the lake. There's a little bench for people to sit on and relax. The certain point is also at the top of a little hill. Seemed like a natural place to turn. When I got to that little bench on top of the hill, I turned right around and headed back for the car. My body felt great. This was a fun run because while I didn't do 2 laps, I pushed myself more than I thought I would.

Right before I got to the car, I looked out over the lake and had to stop to take a picture with my phone.

These 4.6 miles, in this beautiful weather, in this gorgeous area of the world, completely brought my sanity back.

Family Fun!

Maybe this time the snow has melted for good. I hope so. My husband is very concerned the lake won't warm up very much this summer at the cabin. That won't stop him from waterskiing far too many times in one day though. If I waterskiied as much and cut as hard as he does in one day, I wouldn't be able to move any of my limbs due to soreness.

On Saturday, it was a beautiful sunny day. We put our little guy in the jogging stroller and headed out for a run around the neighborhood. We jogged through the "next step up" development and noted how close together the houses are being built. Maybe we don't want to live here. We kept going and went through the 5,000 square foot homes neighborhood. We each picked out our favorite house. He picked the one I didn't like and same for me.

It was a pleasant run. Good speed. Warm sun. Just enough hills to make me work harder than the usual treadmill routine. Our son was getting antsy, so we had to speed up. My husband's stride is so long and he will always be in better shape than me. He wasn't even breathing hard while running fast and pushing the jogging stroller with a 33 pound weight wiggling around in the seat (that weight was was also whining for more crackers the entire second half of the run). My husband kept saying, "You got it! You can make it home. Let's pick it up more! You can do it."

Sure enough. I did it. I kept up with him. My heart was pounding and my legs felt like noodles. I like family runs. My husband is a great encourager. He got me over the 4 mile hurdle last year and I may need him to help me again this spring because...

I have a race in my future. A big one.

Holy Hills

Spring!!!! Today I ran to breathe and experience the fresh outside spring air! I love it!! Was this the loooongest winter on record? I think it might have been... according to me at least. The sunshine was drawing me outside, so as soon as my son went down for a nap, I headed to the great outdoors hoping to accomplish a good run. And, I think I did.

My husband, son and I moved into this neighborhood about 7 months ago and I didn't run outside very much before the first snowfall last year. I wasn't quite sure where to run today and where I needed to go to get a few miles in. Some of you are thinking "map it out ahead of time." Ha. Okay. Right. Actually, that is what I should do. We only moved roughly 7 miles from where we used to live (city to suburb), so I plan to go back to those running routes hopefully once a week this summer. Those were my half marathon training routes. Loved them. Huge, mature trees, old mansions, the river, the Minneapolis skyline only a few miles off in the distance. It was the best.

Today's run was suburban residential. I passed about 100 mailboxes, mini-vans plastered with the area's school decals whizzed by me and a friendly neighbor was walking his dog. It was different, but good. I ran through a new development behind our neighborhood. The houses are what we like to call "the next step up" and maybe someday we can buy one of them. Maybe. I turned a corner and exited the new development. The next neighborhood was about 20 steps up from "the next step up." Wow. I will never have the need for a 5,000 square foot home and I would never want to be responsible for maintaining the cleanliness of a home that big. But they're fun to look at. And imagine the Christmas parties you could host!

I left that neighborhood as a sparkling BMW entered the street. And then... there it was. A huge hill.

I was glad, but annoyed at the same time. Glad because I knew I needed to push my running self as this was my first outdoor run in MONTHS and we all know I always leave the incline on the treadmill at a nice round zero. I was annoyed because I knew it was be painful. I huffed and puffed up the hill. I got to the top. Woohoo. When I got up there, the hill went way back down to the end of the street. My plan was to run all the way down and then loop back on the same path all the way back home. Okay, back up the hill. I can do it. And enter a horrible, horrible wind. Cold, cold wind. I hate running in cold weather, so when earlier the wind was to my back and the sun was shining down on my very pale skin, it felt like a warm May or June day outside. And then I turned into the wind. Bleh. I quickly put myself in the mindset that the more hills I run up and the stronger the wind is in my face, the easier the hills will feel on the next run and the wind won't seem as strong.

I did it. I ran my cold legs back up that hill and all the way home. If I had to guess, I'd say it was about 2.5 miles. I may get around to checking it out online, but I think this run was more about putting my outdoor legs back on and getting up those hills. Good day in the neighborhood.