Saturday, June 29, 2013

Firecracker 5K

The weather was great this morning! Me... not so much. My legs have been killing me all week and I just feel exhausted. I was just not very engaged with the race at all this morning. It's like my body showed up but my brain did not. All I know is that I just wanted the race to be over the minute I started running.

First off, my watch "malfunctioned" again. I was positive it was locked on to a satellite and I hit "start" when the gun went off but about half a mile into the run I noticed it was not timing my run. ARGHH... I had no idea how fast I was going.

I've been running races that are part of the Crossroads of Indiana Racing Series. You get points for placing in their races and, at the end of the year, they give awards to the point leaders. The two fastest women in my age group showed up today. From past races, I knew that one of them ran around 7 minute pace and the other ran about 7:30 pace so I let them go and kept runner #2 in sight. When I got to the mile mark, I restarted my watch but I was dying by then. I got passed by a million people and just didn't care. I ended up fourth in my age group. I missed third by less than 2 seconds.

Official time - 25:26.5
Average pace - 8:11

I did some backwards math and figured out my splits. They were all over the place!
Mile 1 - 7:39
Mile 2 - 8:41
Mile 3 - 8:13
Last 0.1 - 0:53.5

I guess I need to start wearing my watch more to do some pace work. Today I didn't look at my watch once I restarted it because I just didn't care anymore and just wanted the race to be over. I felt like I was running 10 minute miles and had no idea I actually ran an OK time until I crossed the finish line and saw that the first two numbers were "25."

I get to start a new week tomorrow with a "rest" day. Work but no running.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Week 2 - Racing the Sun

Is it hot enough for you? I'm melting...

The weather forecast for my 5K tomorrow morning at 8 am is "few showers" and 65 degrees. I will be ecstatic if that's true!

Here is how my running week has gone so far...

Sunday - 3 miles. Outdoors at 9:30 am. It was hot but not as bad as the previous day
Monday - 5 miles. Indoors. It was a paced run, 9 minute pace. I missed my window to run in
                               the morning so I went to the fitness center in the evening. Big digital clock
                               on the wall said 6:55 when I started and 7:40 when I finished so good enough
                               for me.
Tuesday - 11 miles. Got up at the crack of dawn to do this. I actually considered going back to
                                 bed but didn't think I could take doing 77 laps indoors later in the day so I
                                 sucked it up and went out the door. I got 7 miles done before the sun really
                                 hit full force.
Wednesday - Rest. Suppose to cross train but I was too tired after getting in 2 hard runs 12 hours
                                apart. I figured going to work was enough cross-training for the day!
Thursday - 5 miles. Indoors. Again, missed my window in the morning so I ran at the fitness
                                center in the evening.
Friday - Rest. Went to work then went to Columbus to pick up my kids and drive the 5K course.
                        Not too hilly but there are 2 areas with gradual up slopes in the second half of the
                        race. Each is about 400 meters so hopefully I won't be too tired by then.

After tomorrow's 5K, I'll have 27 miles in for the week.

I have resigned myself to the fact that I'm going to have a lot of early morning runs this summer, literally racing the sun, to get them done while it's relatively "comfortable" outside. This new training program always has a hard paced run the day before the long run. The purpose is to make you tired and then have you do the long run at an easy (slow) pace. My 11 miler took me almost 2 hours. I am going to have to hit the road waaaay early because the long runs just get longer from here. In the past, it's taken me 4 hours to get my 20 milers in so we're talking getting up at 4:30 - 5 am to go running!

OK, going to bed now and dreaming about cool weather in the morning!

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Meet Stella Luna


So this is what happens when your daughter gets bored and cruises www.petfinder.com too long. We adopted our dog Belle from the Marion County pound about a year ago. Belle bonded to our older daughter immediately... which made my younger daughter sad. She wanted a pet to call her own. My husband told her yesterday that she could get one and she wasted no time at all. It came down to this little kitten or a donkey named Biscuit (who knew you could find donkeys on Petfinder!) Needless to say, I decided the kitten was the pick. Her foster care name was Demeter but my daughter has decided to call her Stella Luna. She came from a foster family through the Morgan County Humane Society. She is 12 weeks old. She has two sisters named Athena and Aphrodite but we couldn't take them all.

Belle wants to eat Stella Luna. So now I have ANOTHER summer project. Belle will need some obedience classes and we have to keep the pets separated until they get along (according to my vast internet research of an hour last night).

Any ideas on how to keep your dog from eating your kitten?

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Abby Brinkman/Girls on the Run 5K

So today was not a PR kinda day... for anyone. The temperature was 74 degrees when I left the house at 6 am. It just got hotter and muggier. I'm sure it was over 80 by the time the race started at 8 am. I think I'd rather have run in the rain. Although, go figure, I think it's going to start to rain now!

I drove an hour down to Columbus after having my pre-race coffee and peanut butter sandwich at home. So the first thing I always do after picking up my race packet at a race is go check out the bathrooms. I usually need to go visit them at least 3 times before the race starts. The bathrooms here were the permanent ones in the park we were running in, and about a quarter mile away from the start. I promptly jogged over there and found that they were locked. ARGHHHH!!! Are you effin' kidding me? Who organizes a race with no bathrooms! Well, I spent the next 40 minutes fixated on what I was going to do. I even considered trying to crawl under the metal wall into the bathroom (I am NOT a germophobe) but there was only about a foot of clearance between the wall and the concrete floor and I was afraid I would get stuck. FINALLY, about 15 minutes before the race started, someone from the park showed up and unlocked the bathrooms.

Next problem I had was that my Garmin wouldn't pick up a satellite. We're getting final race instructions and my watch is still saying "locating satellites." I looked around. There weren't too many people here. I almost yelled out, "Hey, can we wait a minute until my watch picks up a satellite?" but I didn't have the nerve to do it. I ended up just using my watch as a timer.

So these are my splits based on the course markers and my memory:
Mile 1 - 8:15
Mile 2 - 8:18
Mile 3 - 9:25.8
5K official time - 25:58.8
average mile pace - 8:21

I was dying that last mile and I'm sure I sounded like a freight train. I knew from mile one that I wasn't going to PR so I was just running for placing. I thought there were 5-6 women in front of me and I was pretty sure they were all much younger than me. Then, right after the 2 mile mark, I got passed by another woman that I thought was in my age group. I caught back up with her right before the 3 mile mark. I thought for a moment she was going to pick it up and try to run with me so I just kicked as hard as I could. I ended up beating her by 10 seconds. She was 40 years old.


So, no PR and a crappy last mile but I won my age group and got another $10 gift card to Blue Mile. I ended up being the 6th woman overall out of 70 and 25th in the race out of 118. The race was a benefit for Girls On the Run  - an organization that teaches girls confidence and life skills through running - so there were 21 girls under the age of 19 in the race and so it was skewed towards female entrants. I don't think anyone ran a fast time today on account of the weather.

I think I'm going to try and run outside more this coming week. The race director today made a comment about next weekend's race, the one I'm running in, and said the course wouldn't be as flat as today's course. I might try to check the course out this week if I have time to get down to Columbus again.

Have a great weekend! I'm off to eat some ice cream now.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Week 1

Week 1 of my new training cycle is almost done. I did my 10 miler this morning. I got up at  6 am to try to be one of those people - the early morning go-getters. It was painful but I'd have to say early morning runs are very pleasant and you do have a nice feeling of accomplishment for the rest of the day rather than the feeling of "I have to get this run in before the day is over" hanging over your head. I got my run in early because I have to go to work later today.

This is what my husband left for me when I got back...


That and a fresh pot of coffee.

It's 10 am now and the house is still silent. My older daughter had 3 friends spend the night. My younger daughter had a friend spend the night. All 6 kids are still crashed out sleeping. Oh to be on summer vacation!

I got the kids all kinds of snacks for the sleep over, including 2 half-gallon containers of ice cream. When I got back from running, I was very tempted to have pistachio almond ice cream for breakfast. It's got protein (dairy) and carbs (sugar) right? I restrained myself lest the kids find me with a big bowl of ice cream at 9 am and had a 2 egg omelet, milk, and coffee instead.

Here was my running week in review:
Sunday - 3 miles
Monday - 30 minutes bike and weights (I'm still sore from that)
Tuesday - 5 miles
Wednesday - 5 miles, plus saw the chiropractor who did some more myofascial release on my left
                      hamstring (it's purple today)
Thursday (today) - 10 miles
Friday - rest
Saturday - planning to do that 5K that was suppose to happen on 6/1

After Saturday, total mileage will be 26.

Well, I hear signs of life downstairs... have a great day!

Sunday, June 16, 2013

UFOs

Do you have any UFOs at your house? UFOs, as in Unfinished Objects. Here are some of mine...


My raised garden project. It's been dug up a bazillion times now by Belle. She thinks it's her own personal sandbox :( I bought fencing supplies but haven't successfully put it together yet. I've made a couple tries but I can't find anything that will work. Now it's way to late to put in tomatoes so I'm getting discouraged but I'm determined to get something together, at least to prep for next year because it's a matter of principle now.


Here's the cute little dress that's suppose to go with the hat I made HERE. I got it about half done in 3 days and then put it down for a couple weeks. It's a fair project so I need to get motivated to finish it soon!

I'm sure I have a whole roomful of similar unfinished objects... craft projects I've started but just haven't finished. I either need to finish them or pitch them before starting something new but I have a touch (OK, maybe more than just a touch) of ADHD when it comes to projects (if you haven't figured that out already!)

Do you have Unfinished Objects? Can you throw them out?

On the running front, today was Day 1 of my new training program. I got up at 4:30 am to go to work. After work, there was a Father's Day gathering at my in-laws. I got home at 8 pm. Luckily, the plan just called for an easy 3 mile run so I got that in. I also talked a friend of mine at work into running the marathon with me! Actually talked her into being my pacer. She's a much faster runner than me and agreed to try and pace me to a 3:55 finish so I guess I'm committed now!

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Training Plans

I have a plan!!

I'm caught up on sleep. My head is clear. I've read my new issue of Runner's World and I have a plan. I decided to run the Monumental Marathon in Indianapolis on November 2nd. I researched plans...


and settled on Hal Higdon's Intermediate 2 training program. It's an 18 week plan. That gives me 2 weeks of wiggle room. I went ahead and actually planned out my runs through July. I used one of the "wiggle weeks" the week before the Johnson County Fair since I'm working Monday - Wednesday, then it will be 48+ hours of madness baking everything for the Fair. Plus, this year, my younger daughter is attending a dance intensive all week in Carmel so I will be driving her back and forth during the madness.

Here's where I'm going to get all crazy. I'm shooting for 3:55. That's 8:58 pace for 26.2 miles. I ran 8:50 pace for 13.1 miles in May. 3:55 is the Boston qualifying time for females 45-49. I have no intention of trying to run Boston in 2014. Rumor is, there will be over 250,000 people trying to
get in to a race that had 27,000 spots this year. Boston registration typically opens in October so the field will be full anyway. If I run a qualifying time in November though, it will be good for the 2015 race. It's a way crazy goal but I think it will keep me more motivated.

Coming back down to earth... I backed out on the TV spot on Indy Style on June 24th. I got a follow up e-mail asking me to do a Spam cooking demo. I was OK with talking but doing a cooking demo was just too much - plus - I don't want to demo Spam again. Once was fun. Twice was OK. I don't want to do it a third time.

Anybody else have fall marathon plans?

Monday, June 10, 2013

Somebody Throw Me Some Brakes!

I feel like my life is just running away right now. It could be that I've worked 44 hours in the last 4 days and I have one more 12 hour shift tomorrow before I have a day off. All I've done the last 4 days is go to work, come home, scrounge for some food, sleep, then go to work again. It doesn't help that I have to get up at either 4:30 am or 5:30 am every day. Since you all know by now that I don't do mornings, my body is just revolting and I'm totally trashed by the time I get home. Needless to say, I haven't been running either.

My body's not been running but my mind keeps going a mile a minute. I've got running schedules bouncing around my brain. I didn't get drawn for the NYC Marathon but I'm still thinking about doing another marathon that weekend - maybe the Monumental Marathon here in Indy. If I want to do that, all the 20 week training programs start next week.

State Fair entries are due June 30th. I'm still trying to finalize my plans. Then, I got an e-mail today asking if I would do a TV interview on Indy Style on June 24th to promote the State Fair. Since I'm already online, I check my work schedule. I work the 23rd until midnight, off the 24th, then back to work the 25th so I flip back to my e-mail and reply "yes" before my brain really turns on and says, "what are you thinking!" Every time I do a TV spot, I just feel completely mortified afterwards like did I just make a total fool of myself? I swear I'm never doing this again! Then, I do it again. What is wrong with me?!

Somebody stop me from making any more commitments!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Are We All Getting Soft?

Do you ever feel like there is so much convienience in the world these days that everyone is getting soft?

Case in point. I am truly a fair weather runner. I ran through rain and snow and searing summer heat all through high school. I was TOUGH. Then, I graduated and no one MADE me do it anymore so I just ran on good days... not rainy days, or cold days, or days that were too hot and humid. Of course that made all my times suck but the running was more enjoyable.

Now that I want to be fast again, I tried running on a schedule. THAT was tough. Luckily, alot has changed in 25+ years and I can now run indoors at the fitness center on the "bad" days. I decided last week that I couldn't get up at the crack of dawn to run while it was still cool outside. It was 80+ degrees by the time I was awake and motivated enough to run. I tried running outside one day at 10 am when it was hot and humid and all I could do was run - forget about tempo! So then I decided to run indoors. It was air-conditioned, I could breathe and I was able to push myself and get a good workout in. So, I made a conscious decision that if the weather isn't ideal, I'm just going to run indoors. Am I getting soft?

Saturday was the Abby Brinkman 5K in Columbus, IN. The weather report predicted rain. For some strange reason I don't mind racing in the rain in the summer time. I worked Friday night until midnight. It was after 1 am by the time I got to my in-laws' house in Columbus. I got up at 6 am so I could eat and get my body woken up before showing up to the race location at 7 am. I was prepared. I had towels and a full change of clothing with me for after the race. It was pouring down rain as predicted. No lightening. No wind. Just a steady rain.

I get to the race location and I don't see anyone else. I drove part of the course and I don't see markers or anything indicating there will be a race. I finally drove back to the parking lot where the race was suppose to start and found a woman who was telling people that the race was called off - on account of the rain. Part of the course goes off road around a field and it was "flooded with water." Seriously? Are we ALL getting soft?

I had my 13 year old daughter with me. She was ecstatic. She had said she wanted to run the race but I had asked her three times if she REALLY wanted to run the race before I paid to pre-registered her, t-shirt and all. Then, the night before, she had second thoughts. On race morning, she REALLY didn't want to go. I made her get up and go. I told her she was committed. I was really annoyed when the woman told me the race was called off. I looked over at my daughter and she was beaming ear to ear. Ugh!

The race has been rescheduled for June 22nd.

So are we all getting soft?