To make me smile ...

on this really crappy day, I bought myself a present. It is on sale through today only, so you should buy one for yourself too.

From Inspired Endurance, it's on sale for $25. I hemmed and hawed yesterday when the sale email hit my inbox. But I needed a cheer me up after an abysmal day at work. I am so looking forward to the Shamrock Half, and this will look great on my bracelet that hubby and little dude gave me for Christmas.

And because of work, I missed my run today. Gotta get it done tomorrow.

Disclaimer: I was not in any way compensated for this post. This bead just made me happy, and I wanted to share.

 

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Darn you little pieces of chocolate goodness

Dark Chocolate Pomegranate

These little nuggets of goodness are my complete weakness right now. I even try to measure out a serving size, but it just doesn't work. I love my hubbie, but I hope he doesn't bring me another BJ's size of these beauties anytime soon.

I think all 6 miles on tomorrow's schedule may just be to run these things off. Wish me willpower luck tomorrow.

 

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If you do what you are supposed to do ...

then you are able to run without knee pain. The plan called for 10 miles on Saturday, which I gladly deferred until today.

All the way around, a better run today than last week. I used the handy dandy cadence alarm on my way too complicated Garmin 610. If you need a watch with more bells and whistles than this watch, make sure you have your PhD first. But this watch keeps me on track. If I get sloppy with not enough steps per minute, then buzz ... signal to pick those feet up. Average cadence = 87 or 174 steps per minute.

The route was tricky with several turns downtown (one wrong turn), and a little tiring with all the waiting at stoplights. By the time we got to mile 8, L and I were both quiet and wanting to get this done. Speeding up for the last little bit helped ... and I felt good the rest of the day. Long run accomplished. And the new Brooks felt great.

And hopefully, this is what I'll be doing this time next year.

Courtesy of Run Disney.

Jill

 

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Got to keep on moving

I am so close to my first half, knee don't fail me now. After last week's cut short long run, I was happy for a fall back week. I skipped the recovery run to rest, ice, stretch, you know the drill. On Monday, I did all the exercises my strength coach gave me that I never did before. Shh, don't tell her. Lots of core work to keep my gluts engaged and not sloppy as the miles increase.

I did hit the treadmill for 3 miles on Tuesday, and all felt well (knocking on my wooden head). Aren't you jealous of this amazing fashion assemble I put together below. I sent my BRF a picture to make her jealous or happy she wasn't there to be embarrassed.

I finally got a happy phone call on Tuesday too to let me know my shoes I ordered 3 weeks ago were in. I hate wearing a size 12 because everything has to be ordered, and there was some mixup with my order and it didn't go through the first time. Good thing I am a shoe stalker for my local running store and kept calling to see where these babies were. I cannot believe I ordered Diva Pink, but considering the other options were awful looking, pink it is.

I have worn them for two 3 mile runs so far, and I love the Brooks PureFlow 2. I might even love them more than my PureConnects but since I haven't tried the second version of that shoe (I would love to try them if someone would send me a pair. Hint, hint), I will hold my opinion until I have some more miles on them.

Since my two running buds have conflicts with the long run on Saturday, we decided earlier in the week to wait until Sunday. Boy, I am glad for that call.

This was the radar for this morning. So I knocked out my recovery run a day early ... on the treadmill because I didn't want to go swimming. Actually, it wasn't that bad outside, I just wasn't in the mood to get wet after last week's snowy run. The win for the week was an average steps per minute of 178 for all three runs and this = no knee pain. Woot, woot!

I really should be sleeping because I have 10 on the schedule for tomorrow this morning. Fingers crossed my gluts stay strong. Nighty, nite.

Jill

 

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It was a cold and snowy day

And I was slated to run 13 miles ... but the recovery run on Sunday didn't go well. How do you screw up a recovery run? You run 4 miles on a hilly, trail on tired legs which makes your ITB hurt AGAIN! Ughh!

I ran 6 miles on the treadmill on Tuesday with my ITB strap, and everything felt okay.

I took Valentine's Day off because I had a late work meeting, my knee was ehhh, and I wanted to spend time with my best guys.

I foam rolled, stretched, iced, but still didn't think 13 miles was the best idea today. The other group was doing 10, and both groups were doing loops so I had lots of options. My BRF is a fair-weather runner, so the forecast of rain and snow wasn't going to work for her. My new RF, L, also had a tough week & wasn't ready for 13 either.

It hadn't started snowing yet, but by the time we started it was 37 and snowy big, fat flakes. It was going okay, until about mile 8 when the knee started barking. And L was having issues as well. We cut the 10 mile run short to 9.3 miles because we had to get back to our cars.

So more foam rolling, stretching, icing, and careful analysis of my cadence count. Which stunk. I've gotten sloppy or lazy or something, and it has to stop. Here's to a cadence that comes back into line. Quickly!

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Long run done ... 12 miles

Even with a stressful week at work, I had a fairly good run week.

A 6 mile progressive run on the treadmill for Tuesday and a 5 mile treadmill run on Wednesday were on the schedule. About half way through the 6 mile run, I realized I have been loafing on my paces during the week. Most of my long runs have been faster than the during the week runs. Time to pick up the pace. Well, that's what McMillian tells me.

So I picked it up for an average pace of 9:39 for Tuesday by bumping up the speed each mile. I have to say the faster I went, the better and easier it felt. On Wednesday I decided to start out faster and it was pretty much 5 miles of a sucky run, but I averaged 9:27.

I was trying not to be head case, but 12 miles had me worried. Eleven was tough. So instead of staying home and resting up, I had a late dinner date with my bestie and the girls to celebrate two birthdays. I behaved with one glass of wine and a fairly well-balanced dinner. No greasy food, and only one small piece of dark chocolate infused with chili for dessert. Unfortunately, I didn't head to bed until midnight with an alarm set for 6:30. Ughh!

Most of my buds were dropping back to the 9 mile group this week ... and I forgot my music. Luckily, my normal partner was able to do the full 12 with me. She had a tough week & didn't hit her weekly runs. All went well until about 11 when I felt the crazy ITB "awareness." I realized I was getting lazy with my form and cadence, so I paid more attention to finish it off. I will say that I knew we would hit 12 miles before the parking lot. I told L that when the watch hit 12, I was done. No room for over-achievement today.

I felt strong after the run ... much better than after 11. Here's the only photo of the day, another L & I from a local mom's group. She is going to do awesome in her half next week.

I did need an almost 2 hour nap to recover after watching my Tar Heels get obilerated by the Hurricanes.

Do you use McMillian or other pace calculator?

If you do, how often are you successful in hitting all your goal paces?

I need to work on this more consistently.

Does anyone else's Garmin have crazy estimates for your calorie burn?

I do wear my HRM, and it reported I burned 13 calories for each of the first 2 miles. Are you kidding me?

 

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