Home opener excitement....

Today is the Navy football home opener against VMI....and gymnastics class for the diva, and brunch with the parents of one of our midshipmen, so time was short when everyone got up and moving. That's why I had to be up and moving before everyone else.  And why not, it was a fantastic morning for a good run.

The rest is history.  It was a bit humid out...read super drippy sweaty by the time I was done...and the heat was just coming on.  The hamstring is holding up and everything else seems to work.  I wish there was something interesting to say about this run but, let's be honest, the route hasn't changed and the deer I see almost every time are pretty common place.  Really, how many times can you hear about the deer that pop out of the woods and attempt to run me down while I'm innocently pursuing physical fitness?

The diva enjoying the game with our buddy!

Regardless of the less than interesting, though quite pleasant, start to the day, a Saturday during football season is never boring.  And today was the diva's first big time football game, so all was pretty exciting.  It also doesn't hurt that Navy brought home the win.  All in all, one darn good Saturday.  Happy trails!!!

Stats -
Miles:  4.25
Time:   36:11 (average pace of 8:30 per mile)
Location:  Broadneck Peninsula, Bay Head Road, Log Inn Road
Feeling:  decent, I'm not going to complain

Hydration is important, duh....

Remember how yesterday I indicated that we were set to have a few hot and humid days this week?  Yeah, today would be one of them.  Has that ever stopped me from running outside when my heart is totally set on getting away from the treadmill?  Uh, no.

It was beautiful outside.  Absolutely blue and sunny.  How could I justify heading into the gym for today's run?  Well I couldn't, so I tied on the shoes, turned on the ipod and headed out the door for a late morning meditation session with the pavement.  Only one problem, I wasn't hydrated enough to take on the heat and humidity today.  Ooops. 

It didn't take too long for my body to let me know I screwed this one up.  By halfway through the run I could really feel the lack of fluids in my legs (or was that the fact that I was pushing out a pace too fast for my lack of hydration?).  All I know is that I was wilting...super fast.  I even took a short break in the middle of the run to try to stop my head from spinning, which sort of worked.

It's too bad I wasn't smarter.  Overall the run was good.  Aside from my hamstrings, the general weight of dehydration and the head spinning, my body felt okay and I was able to keep a decent pace up.  Had I prepared better for this run and taken in the right fluids in advance, I may have been able to hang in there for another five miles....however, I may have needed a second shirt because you could have totally wrung a ton of sweat out of the one I was wearing. 

Lesson learned?  We'll see.  Happy trails!!!

Stats -
Miles:  5.21
Time:   43:39 (average pace of 8:22 per mile)
Location:  Bay Head to Log Inn
Feeling:  clearly not spectacular, but the pace was strong

Eating and running...

Blah.  Those two things don't mix.  Does that stop me from doing it however?  That would be a big fat no.  Of course not.  I rarely learn from past mistakes.  In this case, though, I was semi-limited in my choices.  Oh yeah, I still had choices, but I chose the one that appealed more to my brain than my physical being.  Yep, I scarfed down my dinner and immediately ran out the door to pound the pavement rather than waiting a little while, missing the sun and hitting the treadmill.  I just couldn't help myself.

Here's what happened.  I really wanted to be outside for today's run - no, needed to be outside to feel the fresh air in my lungs, smell the slightly salty air running along the shore of the Chesapeake and not be confined by four walls.  Today I spent the day working (the kind that pays the bills) while running after a toddler, cleaning up after dog spills and a chocolate milk spill all over the dining room table and dining room...and then some.  It was a stressful day and running relieves my stress, so I didn't listen to my body when it reminded me I can't run immediately after eating.

Even though my stomach was less than happy with me, my legs were ecstatic.  I ran and stretched with glee along the roads of the Broadneck Peninsula and revelled in the late afternoon view of the haze building over the bay while clearing my mind and my muscles of more than a day of build up.  It was fantastic, if not horribly fast.  The roads were quiet, few sounds but the birds overhead and the thunder rolling across the bay as a storm dumped rain on the eastern shore.  It was my time.  Well, mine and the three deer that nearly scared me to death (or did I nearly scare them to death?) as they crunched through the woods. 

Tomorrow I must hit the trail with the little diva and the jogging stroller to add more road miles.  Today was really much better than last week's treadmill workouts.  I can suffer one more run with the bad jogging stroller before the new one comes in, can't I?  Happy trails!!!

Stats -
Miles:  6.26
Time:   54:23 (average pace of 8:41 per mile)
Location:  Broadneck Peninsula - Bay Head to Log Inn
Feeling:  My legs were singing with joy

Building a routine...

The last couple weeks has been anything but usual for me.  I'm spending a lot of time playing with my new daughter and less time resting...that makes for one tired mama.  (To all my mom friends out there, I'm sorry if I ever had complained about you being tired.)  So what does all this mean for running?  It means I have to find a new groove, a new routine, that works for me, work, and more importantly my daughter.  In no way does this change my running goals.  They are very important to me and my physical and emotional health.  So 1000 miles...I'm still staring you down and on target to hit the mark a whole month early. 


Today I logged another nap time run.  Almost as soon as my little girl was sound asleep I tied on those running shoes and hit the pavement.  It was a tough one.  I've not done a lot of outdoors running this month (again, the dreadmill was the machine of choice in China) so I've got to get my lungs used to running in the humidity and pollen again.  To that end, I probably went out to hard and fast today for what I had hoped would be a six mile run, but ended up as a five and a half miler.  Oh well, close enough.

I took off in the usual "at home" direction.  I don't normally run at home in the middle of the day, so how was I to know my route is nothing but blazing sun at noon?  It's shady all other times.  Also, the smell of that dead deer from June is back.  Ewwww.  But hopefully this is the start of getting everything back in working order for the road.  August and September are busy racing months for me...October and November also for that matter...so just a couple weeks left to make sure I'm still in fine racing shape.

On another matter, the nap time run will only work as long as I've got Jay home to monitor the house.  That ends Monday.  So, we're going to have to get that jogging stroller in good working order by next week.  Happy trails!!!

Stats:
Miles:  5.4
Time:   47:24 (average pace of 8:46 per mile...slow)
Location:  Bay Head, Log Inn
Feeling:  sluggish and hot

Mom on the run...

Yuexiu Park with the latest family addition.  It was one of
the greatest moments of my life to bring her into the
family.  Perhaps someday she'll be a runner too.

It's been two weeks since my last post, but that does not mean that I've been resting.  No siree.  This has been one super active woman, and though today was the first time since leaving for China that I put hard pavement under my running shoes, I did manage to log more than 35 miles while I was overseas (which is impressive - if I may say so - because I hate jogging on the dreadmill for any length of time).  I'm just now blogging, however, because I did not take a laptop with me and it cost almost $10 to use the hotel computers for twenty minutes.  I quickly decided I would lump all the workouts together once I got home.  So here's a short recap of how things went and I'll finish up with today's run.

Proof that those were treadmill miles.

Two extremely short weeks ago my husband and I boarded a plane to China to adopt our daughter.  We spent the whole two weeks in the city of Guangzhou in Guangdong province, which is very near Hong Kong.  That means tropical, which means SUPER steamy.  In fact, most days we were there the "feels like" temperature exceeded 100.  That is not conducive to running and surviving (though I did see many Chinese who seemed to survive running in it..more power to them) so I relegated myself to the China Hotel fitness center for my two weeks of running.  At least those are the only miles I counted.  We actually walked all over the city and so I probably logged several more actual miles in the blistering heat...but oh well.  I can hardly complain because it was one of the most special times of my life, and, oh yeah I crossed another milestone - 60% of my goal in the books! :)

China Hotel pool

Guangzhou Zoo

So along with logging the treadmill miles (done mostly during nap time or before my husband and daughter were awake), we spent a lot of time at the pool (my daughter loves the pool), walking through Yuexiu and Liuhua Lake Parks, through the zoo and around random neighborhoods.  We exercised ourselves and got to know each other as a family.


Fast forward after two days of rest between the trip and my next run and we come to today.  I wasn't looking to break any land speed records or log a gazillion miles.  I just wanted to feel the pavement, get out of my head and relax for a few minutes during nap time (both my daughter and my husband).  So I tied up my shoes and just headed out to stretch my legs and enjoy.  It felt good and I'm looking forward to my next run...hopefully with the jogging stroller once we get the tires pumped up and ready to go.  Happy trails!!!

Stats (only today's are below...while in China I logged 35.55 miles)
Miles:  4.05
Time:   35:00 (average pace of 8:38 per mile)
Location:  Bay Head to Log Inn
Feeling:  Nice and smooth, a little tight in the knees but that's par for the course after long flights