A Little Bit of Everything

First, my training recap for last week:

• Monday, Oct. 27th: 3 miles (a.m.), 3.6 miles - hill (p.m.)
• Tuesday, Oct. 28th: 3 miles (a.m.), 5.1 miles - track (p.m.)
• Thursday, Oct. 30th: 3 miles
• Friday, Oct. 31st: 3 miles
• Saturday: Nov. 1st: 6 miles

Total weekly miles: 26.7. Total miles for the month of October: 116.6. Happy to be over 100 again this month. Woefully missing from the month of October? Long runs. I ran one 11 miler early in the month, and haven't seen anything over six miles since then. I really need to get my act together. I'd like to have a good base of semi-long runs (8-10 milers) before I start marathon training at the end of January. Of course, now with hunting season starting this weekend, I will be single parent for a while, so that will make things difficult.

This morning's three miler was the first in several weeks that did not require a headlight! It was nice to run in the sunlight, and we are having some unseasonably warm weather here that I am loving. Might have to sneak out of work a little early tonight and get another run in with Sophie.

I'm thinking about rescheduling my hair appointment (set for tomorrow evening) so I can run at the track. My hair looks like crap, but I really want to get my Tuesday speed work in while the weather holds out. I can handle the dark roots and the snaggly, ratty ends for a few more weeks.

Must be Friday

Court this morning was so slow, I could actually hear the wheels of justice grinding to a halt. At one point (after my caffeine withdrawal had become so intense that I was starting to hallucinate), I had to physically restrain myself from standing up and disrupting court. I don't know why it would be so inappropriate to just say, "Look your Honor, I know we're busy bringing justice to the people and whatnot, but I have a giant chocolate cupcake with orange frosting and little black bat sprinkles on it that I need to eat right now. And if I don't get my Diet Dew soon, people could get hurt."

I have to go finish licking orange frosting off my fingers. Happy Halloween!

Getting faster . . .

I was a little nervous about my track workout Tuesday night, but it was great. I usually run at the track with my super speedy friend Cheryl, so I was wondering whether I would have enough motivation to push myself as hard when I was running alone. I ended up doing the 1.3 mile warmup (from the office to the track), then did 5x800 (3:46, 3:46, 3:44, 3:45, 3:46), and then ran a hard 1.3 miles back to the office. Gotta love the feeling of accomplishment after finishing a good run!

Yesterday ended up being a rest day. Sophie came down with some sort of virus and has had a super high fever. She's home with Dad today. Hopefully I will still get a chance to get out and run this evening. It is warm, sunny and beautiful here today. I know these days are numbered, so I have to get out and take advantage of the good weather while it lasts.

What Speed Work?

With races the last two weekends, it has been a couple of weeks since I hit the track. But after Saturday's 25:18 5K, it seems like it wouldn't be completely out of the reach to break 25:00 at the Turkey Run 5K in November. And I think a little bit of speed work might be in order.

So tonight, it's back to the track. I'm going to leave work a little early (let's be honest, I haven't really been working that hard today anyway) and get some 800's in. For most of August and September, I was doing a really simple workout - run 1.3 miles from the office to the track, do 4x800 (with 400 rest intervals), and then run back to the office. I walked my rest intervals. I'm thinking maybe I should step it up a little. So I might add another 800, and try to jog instead of walk for my rest intervals. I'm worried about my workout taking too long, so I thought about driving to the track and doing a warm up there, but I really love my runs down the Main Street of our little metropolis here. All my friends honk at me as they're leaving work, which is like having built-in cheerleaders!

Also, figured I should get around to posting last week's training recap before I get too far behind:

• Sunday, Oct. 19th- 4.5 miles
• Monday, Oct. 20th - 3 miles (a.m.), 3 miles (p.m.)
• Tuesday, Oct. 21st - 5 miles
• Wednesday, Oct. 22nd - 2 miles
• Thursday, Oct. 23rd - 3 miles
• Friday, Oct. 24th - 3 miles
• Saturday, Oct. 25th - 5K race

Total weekly miles: 26.6

Dear Santa

I know it's early, but I've seen your stuff out at Target and I hear you're coming to the mall soon. So I thought I should get my list to you now, before you get bogged down by all those snot-nosed little kids and their wishes for ponies and whatnot. It's really small, and I've been a very good girl this year. So please, pretty please, just bring me a Garmin already. I can't take this inconsistent pacing, complicated math while running on the brink of dehydration anymore.

Love, Heather

Race Report - Anoka Gray Ghost 5K

At about 10:30 yesterday morning, Sophie and I headed out -- we picked up Erin and Jim in Pine City, then stopped in North Branch to pick up Mac and we were on our way to Anoka for the Halloween festivities. My sister, nice girl that she is, recently bought a house about 6 blocks from the start line, so we were headed there. Race photographer/babysitter extraordinare (aka Mom) was meeting us there to take over Sophie duties.

I don't know what it is about this race, but we are ALWAYS running late and racing to get there on time. Two years ago, my mom actually dropped Jim and I off, we ran three blocks to the start and jumped a barricade as the race was starting. Nothing like a little pre-race warm up . . .

So even though I thought we had plenty of time, I still felt really rushed once we got to my sister's. We had to get into our costumes, and Mac's 70's porn star getup took forever! He's lucky he had me there to help with the porno-stache.

Eventually we were all ready and we took off for the start. We had to rush to make it before registration closed, but once we were all registered and had our bibs pinned up, we had some time to hang around and take pictures before the start.

Once the race started, we were off down Main Street along the parade route. Anoka is know as the Halloween Capital, and people come out in droves for the Grand Day Parade. The first 1+ of the race run along the parade route, and both sides of the road are completely lined with people. Combine this with the large number of people who walk, push strollers, and bring their dogs in this race, and you have a lot of dodging and weaving. The first mile felt really slow (and of course I had forgotten my watch), so I thought it would be a pretty slow race.

Once we got off the parade route, things spread out a little more, and I was able to settle into what felt like a good pace. The sun was out and it was hot during that 2nd mile -- I was glad I decided to wear shorts instead of tights under my Little Red Riding Hood skirt (and I was about ready to rip my hot, heavy cape right off!).

There was a guy calling splits at the 2nd mile marker and I was right at 16:05 - just over an 8:00 pace! I was super excited and tried to convince myself to just keep pushing. I slowed down a little the last 1.1 miles, but finished in 25:18 -- a new PR! Someone must be putting crack in my Wheaties, because this is my second PR in a week. I really am not sure how this is happening . . . I don't feel like I have been training that hard, and certainly did not expect to PR at this race (wearing a costume and all). But I'll take it. I had sort of convinced myself that I probably would never be able to beat my pre-pregnancy race times. I have now convinced myself that post-pregnancy me is a total rockstar. Lovin it!

An Anniversary

Tomorrow's Halloween Race will be an anniversary for me -- one year since I returned to running after having Sophie. Last year when I ran this race, I was three weeks post-partum. Jim registered for me so I could nurse Sophie right before the start of the race. As soon as we finished, I rushed to find my mom and Sophie so I could nurse her again. Last year, it took me more than 30 minutes to run this race. I had run twice the week before, but otherwise hadn't run since my 5th month of pregnancy. While running the race, I felt like I was having an episiotomy performed on my still-sore girl parts all over again.

A lot has happened in the past year: I've lost all the baby weight (putting me at a nice 35 pounds lighter than I was at this race last year!), ran a marathon, two half-marathons, and a good fistful of shorter races, and finished breastfeeding and completely healed the girl parts.

This year's Heather (or should I say, Little Red Riding Hood -- it is a costume race, after all), is going to kick last year's Heather's ass. I don't really set any time goals for this race because it is more about having fun running along the parade route (the kids love the Little Red Riding Hood/Big Bad Wolf deal), I know I will beat last year's time. And, coming off last week's PR, I'm thinking I can hit a post-pregnancy PR for a 5K at least. Which, considering everything that's happened in the last year, is good enough for me!

Happy Friday!