I'm going to need to run 10 miles a day to offset all the holiday baked goods.....

Seriously. Baked goods are attacking me at every turn.

Healthy eating is hard enough, but trying to do so over the holiday season is next to impossible. During my blogging hiatus I also decided to participate in a "Biggest Loser Challenge" with some friends. $$$$$ is on the line and I am determined to win. Only problem is that the contest runs through December 31st. WHAAAATTT?!! At the time it sounded like a good idea... but now baked goods and Christmas candies are screaming at me- BEGGING me to eat them.

I successfully survived Thanksgiving, mostly because we have a teething 1 year old who was screaming (literally) for attention while we were eating Thanksgiving dinner...meaning I piled my turkey, corn, potatoes, and gravy into one heaping pile and ate it as fast as I could. No time for seconds or large portions when baby girl is tantruming at you.

I'm not really wanting to use "crabby child" as my food avoidance tool for the next month, so I will just have to exhibit ridiculous self-control. If you know me, self-control is not a strength I possess....

Luckily, I have decided to make weekly mileage goals for myself, just to give me something to work towards as I am not training for a specific race right now. Last week I set a goal of 10 miles for the week, and I am happy to say that I made my goal... only because of a tiny window of time in which I felt some motivation on Saturday night to squeeze in the last 4 miles. It was a good run- and my first run over 3.1 miles since mid-September!

This week's goal is 11 miles. I'm following the "10%" rule and not increasing my mileage each week by more than 10%. My goal for the next couple of months is to increase my base mileage slowly and hopefully improve my speed a bit as well.

So, that's the plan for the moment. I may not win the battle of baked goods, but hopefully some more consistent running this month will help my quest to win my Biggest Loser Contest :)

Till next time...

Pre-Thanksgiving binge run

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Tonight I took in the BEAUTIFUL 40-something degree end of November weather for a quick 2 mile around the neighborhood. My leg felt great and in between the thoughts of "oof, running outside is way harder than the treadmill running I've been doing lately," I was thinking about how much I have to be grateful for. Last year at this time, I was just 2 weeks post c-section and had not yet begun this crazy running addiction of mine. In fact, there was no way I would have dreamed that I could run ONE mile, much less a half marathon. Crazy!!

Here is a list of some of the things I am thankful for this year:
1. My wonderful, patient, hilarious husband
2. my sometimes troublemaking, always beautiful children. Aka the "dynamic duo"
3. the best friends in the world
4. A job I absolutely love
5. my health
6. the ability to run :)
7. coffee :)
8. etc etc etc (this list could go on forever and ever. I love my life!!)

My running goal for the week was 10 miles. I've logged 4 thus far. Likely 0 tomorrow, so hopefully I can do 3 on Friday and another 3 on Saturday :)



Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Let's play catch up, mmmmkay?

Hello.

You TOTALLY thought I quit the blog, didn't you?  You're just not that lucky though... I've just been lazy.  I know, it's really hard to sit at a computer and type words, right?  I've been busy occupying wall street my recliner, so it doesn't require a whole lot of blogging.  It would go a little something like this:  "So...yeah...I'm sitting.  And watching T.V.  Expect the same blog entry tomorrow!"

Okay, I'm exaggerating.  I've not been a total bum since my last blog post on Oct 5th, but I've not been piling on the miles either.

I'm in that weird "not really training for anything specific and still taking it a little easy on my leg that is still intermittently giving me trouble" place.  Since the last blog post, I've been running anywhere between 0-3 times per week (see?  not great).  Most of my runs have been 2-3 miles, but I've at least tried to make the most of those shorter runs and amp up my speed a little bit.  Since I've not been really consistent, it's not made a huge impact yet.

When I last wrote, I was all sad panda that I couldn't run the 1/2 marathon, or even the 10k.  BUT, I have run several really fun 5k's since then.  Super quick race recaps:

Filthy 5k- 10/15/11
So, this was my first "fun" 5k, and my first "muddy" 5k, and my very first trail run EVER.

Hey, guess what?  Trail running is WAAAAYYY different from treadmill running and road running.  Um, yeah, between the intentional mud and the random twigs and tree roots, and my still feeling like crap leg injury, this 5k was MUCH more difficult than I anticipated.  Serves me right for saying to my friend Nicole:  "psshh, we'll be FINE at the 5k!  We can run a 5k in our sleep!!"  It was surprisingly tough.  The trail had a lot of switchbacks and loops, so it was hard to gauge where we were- it kind of felt like we were running in circles... which, I guess at times we kind of were.

Anyway, the point of the run was to have fun.  I didn't get super muddy, but I did enjoy the atmosphere.  The free t-shirt is one of my favorite race shirts in my ever growing collection.

Approximate finish time (waaay approximate- the clock at the end said 47:something, but I am not super sure about that.  The race wasn't chip timed).  If 47 min is true, then I ran it at a 15:10 pace (3.96 mph).  This was just my second 5k ever, and my first was a walk/jog situation several years ago, so I suppose this was "technically" a PR.  LOL.

Gray Ghost Run 10/29/11
Another "fun" 5k (aka, NOT chip timed).  This was a Halloween 5k that I ran in my hometown of Anoka, MN (In case you didn't know, Anoka is the "Halloween Capital of the World").  Gray Ghost Run is what kicks off the big Halloween Parade, and LOTS of people show up to run it...in costume.

I'm NOT a big costume wearer, so I really phoned in the costume.  Basically my costume was black running clothes and some pink butterfly wings that I bought at Target.

Did the run with my girlfriends Rachel and Amy.  It was so great to see them and enjoy the beautiful weather with them!

Knowing that the run wasn't chip timed, I tried to be proactive and use the Runkeeper app on my phone, so I would have the specific data on the race.  Unfortunately, since the start of the race was so crowded and we had to do a lot of weaving and winding through the crowd for the first quarter mile or so, it really screwed up the data.

The clock said 37:20 at the finish.  Again, we started rather far back in the crowd, so I can't say whether this time is 100% accurate.  If 37:20 is true, then I did this run at a 12:03 pace (4.98 mph).  Another PR! :)

Full Moon 5k 11/8/11
Did this run with my husband and some friends.  This race was a nighttime 5k and had a kind of "spooky" theme.  Random Goblins and Clowns out on the course to scare us.  Wish it would have scared a little more speed into my pace... my leg started being all wonky again in the middle of the run.  I think we ran the first mile or so at a way faster pace than I usually run, and I think it was hard on my leg.  Another problem that I noticed in all of the 5k's I've been running lately is that it takes me about 2.5 miles before I get in a good rhythm, so most of the run actually kind of sucks until my body warms up.

My leg just didn't allow me to keep up with my friends' pace that night.  I ran probably the second half of it solo, and didn't have my iPod with me.  By the end of the race, I was kind of cranky and frustrated that I wasn't able to keep up.  I ended up finishing last of all of my friends, which was embarrassing to me...

BUT, even though I still felt slow, my time for this race was 36:49, which is a 11:53 pace (5.03 mph). PR.


This blog post is longer than I intended it to be.  Guess I had more to say than I thought?

Next blog entry:  GOALS GOALS GOALS!!  (hopefully to be written before December) :)