So yes, I may have one of the smallest wrists in the world, but check out what I got at the LLS office tonight!
OK. Let me start by saying I did NOT want to run today, at all. I woke up in a bad mood, my throat is a little sore, and I'm just tired. I wanted to spend all day in bed. But my husband needed to get out to test the bike he might be buying from a co-worker, and I knew that I didn't have a single good excuse, so out I went.
My goal over the past couple of weeks has been to get strong enough to run a solid 3 miles outside, with hills and such, without needing a walking break. Today, I managed to pull that off.
My pacing was pretty good, too. There were a couple of rough hills along the way and my heart rate got a little higher than I'd like it to be, but I recovered just fine. My 5k time was 32:51, right around a 10:30 pace. I'm very happy with 10:30.
I also played around with my stride. I had a mini-coaching session with my personal trainer on Thursday, thanks to my team training members calling out, and he introduced me to the concept of pose running. Pose running is essentially running on the balls of the feet (plus a lot more than that, but that's the most simple definition!). It was obviously a very brief introduction, and I quickly realized that it was not something I could personally maintain for more than short distances without a lot more training, but for whatever reason, it seemed to make hills a lot easier to climb. So I started changing up my stride when I was climbing, and it worked! It's probably not the "right" thing to do but so long as I'm not injuring myself and I'm still moving, that's all I really care about.
This coming week is going to be tough to fit my runs in, thanks to several Team In Training meetings and webinars, but I feel better knowing I've already met my preliminary pre-training goal. The Race for the Cure is just under 2 weeks away, so now I just need to keep reinforcing that distance so it's even easier.
What a busy few days it has been!
Last week, I ran for 3 miles straight on the treadmill and could have kept going. It was just a matter of slowing my pace by 30 seconds a mile! It definitely made me feel better after last Sunday's painful run at the reservoir.
Saturday was the Spring Stroll, which went well considering the town of West Hartford was practically empty! I guess everyone thought the weather was going to be bad, even though it was pretty nice for most of the day. There were a bunch of great charities sitting around with nobody to learn about them! It definitely didn't feel like a typical Saturday in the center. Regardless, we still raised over $77 on Saturday, and an additional $14 on Sunday/Monday because the Green Teahouse continued to sell my matcha cookies. There may be more cookie-baking in my future!
I've made Sundays my no-excuses, run outside days, and this past Sunday was no exception, despite the rain! To be honest, the rain was actually somewhat nice -- I kept cool and nobody was on the trail other than a couple families of geese! My pacing is definitely getting better. I had to take a couple of walking breaks, but I felt a lot more comfortable when running and managed to slow myself down a bit. Including the walking breaks, my average pace was 11:33.
Only one problem; rain and glasses don't mix!
I'm teaming up with The Green Teahouse in West Hartford for the first annual Spring Stroll in West Hartford Center and Blue Back Square!
If you're in the area, please stop by on Saturday between 11 AM and 4 PM to say hello, learn more about Team In Training or the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and make a donation to a great cause!
The Green Teahouse will be donating a portion of their profits for the afternoon to LLS. You can also try some great tea samples or enter a raffle for goodies!
More info on the Spring Stroll, courtesy of West Hartford:
Shop, Dine, Stroll, Care! West Hartford Center and Blue Back Square will host the First Annual Spring Stroll on Saturday, May 14, 11:00 AM-4:00 PM. Local charities will be participating in the Spring Stroll to help raise awareness of their needs in addition some businesses will be donating a portion of their sales that day to the charity of their choice. There will be fun events for parents and kids alike with discounts at your favorite locally owned and operated downtown businesses. Kids events will include face painting by Fantastic Faces, painting the sidewalks, and balloon making, to name a few. Visit the PATCH booths which will be on the corner of Farmington Avenue and LaSalle Road and in the Square at Blue Back Square where you will pick up your list of participating businesses and a butterfly that will get you the great discounts that day. Each business that is participating will have a butterfly in their window so you can identify them. Please help make this a great event and support your community and some of the local charities.
I had a rough day today. Of course, just as I started to feel down, the sun went away and the sky got all gloomy, too.
First, some good news -- I will be teaming up with the Green Teahouse for the Spring Stroll in West Hartford Center next Saturday. The event goes from 11-4, but I probably won't be there right away due to the Team In Training kick-off meeting. The Green Teahouse will be donating 2.5% of their proceeds for the day to LLS, and I'm going to have at least part of a table for... something! I'm still working out the final details.
So this afternoon, I tried running around the block with my dog, Bella. She gave me a whimpering guilt trip as I was getting ready to head out, so I figured I'd try taking her along for a test run. She couldn't quite get the hang of the running thing, and then she tried to attack my neighbor's unleashed dog. I had to drag her in the house.
After dealing with that situation, I decided to drive over to the West Hartford Reservoir on my own for a peaceful run on nature trails, to make up for the chaotic short run with Bella. I quickly realized that I have one running pace, and it's too fast for tackling hills, so I had to take several walking breaks. My overall time wasn't terrible -- about 11 minutes a mile, including my warmup -- but it didn't feel good. The only thing that cheered me up was the random bagpiper in the woods.
So it's 6 PM on Sunday, I'm already in my pajamas, and I'm pretty much ready for today to be over. I'm trying not to be too hard on myself, because not every day is going to feel great. I think I'll do better once I have my coaches to encourage and help me. In the meantime, I just have to keep at it!
I ran 2.5 miles today, which is 0.6 miles away from a 5k! The Race for the Cure is about a month away. I'm totally going to be ready!
Tonight's run was definitely better than when I did 2 miles. I didn't have any shoulder pain to contend with, thanks to my friend Amity's reminder about running like you're holding two ice cream cones. Apparently I was just twisting my body too much! I still do some twisting out of habit, but it's much more controlled.
My heart rate was better this time as well. I still have some work to do to bring it down a little more, but I know it will get there in time. I've been trying to keep to a 10-minute mile, but I expect to slow that pace down once I get to longer distances so that I'm not burning myself out.
I really didn't start to feel exhausted until the last couple of minutes, which seemed to stretch on forever. Maybe it's because I caught the time when I was about 18 minutes in, or maybe I was just bored! There are no more intervals for the rest of the Couch to 5k series -- just gradually increasing running times -- so I think I'm going to start venturing outdoors a little bit more. I just need to pick out some interesting routes.
Fundraising is off to a great start -- I'm now up to an unofficial $400, and my first community event is tentatively going to be next Saturday. I should be working out the details this weekend, so more on that soon!
I'm excited to announce that my first fundraiser went great!
My husband Blaine and I had a grilling/wine/cheese/game night with friends. I was planning on having the game night before I even signed up for Team In Training, but decided to offer bottles of Blaine's dad's homemade wine for anyone who donated $15 or more. We raised $130 in one night of fun! (It might take a couple of weeks for processing, but it will be showing up in my fundraising tally soon!)
Everyone seemed to have a great time. I'm so thankful to have met such amazing people in Connecticut over the past year and can't wait to do it again!
I definitely learned a few lessons though, the most important of which being that if you ask for food, my friends will bring a lot of it! Thankfully most people brought their leftovers back home with them, but there were still enough here to completely fill our fridge. We also bought too much extra food ourselves -- most of our awesome cheese didn't even make it onto the table!
On the plus side, nobody went hungry!
I'm definitely hoping to get a run in tomorrow. I'd like to try out my new Armpocket, which just arrived in the mail today. It's purple -- for Team In Training -- and fits my arm and my phone perfectly! I also need to run off some of these calories...
9:34 PM
