Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Nice to get back into the swing of things...

Distance: 4.67 miles
Duration: 52:17
Avg Pace: 11:10 min/mile
Route: MapMyRun

Well, for not having run for almost a week, I'd say that's pretty good. It felt good running today - I just don't know how I'm going to make it to a full 7.49 miles on Sunday in San Francisco (for Bay to Breakers). I am hoping adrenaline and Neil/Joey will carry me!!

Today's weather was perfect, too. Not too hot, not too cold, not too muggy, just enough sun. Midway through my run, I was certain I was going SO SLOW. Turns out, I wasn't going that slow! There are a couple of tough little hills and I struggled up them, but tried my best to keep up a pace.

During my run, I thought about how I'd love to hear about everyone else's favorite places to run - races to run - friends to run with. I'd like to have some guest bloggers! Tell me your story! Email me: erraticdawn (at) gmail (dot) com.

Monday, April 25, 2011

A Super Muggy Sweaty Run...

Distance: 4.25 miles
Duration: 48:06
Avg Pace: 11:19 min/mile
Route: MapMyRun

Well, I was aiming for 5 miles, but the humidity got the best of me. I couldn't keep my heart rate down at the end there, so I thought going the last 3/4 mile was going to be a bad idea. See, I'm going on a vacation at the end of this week and I do not want to kill myself before travelling! So I basically threw in the towel at 4.25 miles and walked a cool down home

But hey, that pace is pretty decent for a 4 mile run!

I feel pretty good now -- but dang, at the end there, I felt pretty awful.

I might not get to run again this week until I'm on vacation. But hey, Joey will be there, as will my pals, Neil and Rob. All of us are running Bay to Breakers, so maybe I can convince them to do a nice 5 or 6 miler in the heat and humidity that we're travelling to...

One of these days I've got to take my camera out and just go take pictures of the pretty part of my run. One of these days...

A Muggy Day...

Date of run: 04.23.2011
Distance: 5.83 miles
Duration: 01:08:56
Avg Pace: 11:49 min/mile
Route: MapMyRun

Saturday's run was hot and sticky. It was definitely muggy out and I wish I had hydrated better before my run, but I took the time when I could. I was aiming to complete 6 miles, but I guess I didn't run quite far enough away from home.

Instead of running the pretty parts in the beginning, I ran the boring parts. It made the final few miles a lot more interesting.

I hope that running 5.83 miles will make 5 miles now my easy run -- and that 6 miles is attainable some time this week. The hard part is that I'm going to be travelling, so fitting in runs may be difficult.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Foul mood is foul today.

Distance: 3.23 miles
Duration: 35:07
Avg Pace: 10:57 min/mile (wow, under 11 min/mile!)
Route: MapMyRun

A short run. I really struggled with this one. I didn't feel great when I woke up this morning. I still don't feel great.

Have I mentioned before that I have a 10 month old baby? She sleeps great most of the time, but the past couple of nights, she's woken up 3:30, 4, 4:30 am and been just ready to play. I am a pretty evil subhuman version of myself at those hours. I'm fortunate enough that my husband is around to help out and go sit with her some of the bad mornings, but I still wake up when she cries. I don't function well with super broken up sleep. Momma needs her beauty sleep!

So I didn't get great sleep last night. I woke up in a foul mood. There's a lot of other personal stuff going on with my siblings, which I won't get into, but needless to say, there's a LOT on my mind.

So usually I run to clear my mind. To de-stress. To calm my nerves and relax.

All I could think about during today's run was how quickly I could get home. And how my pants fit funny and my belly was squishy. and how much stuff I need to do before I go on vacation. And all the sibling stuff. and and and...

There's so much going on -- even a run in gorgeous sunny weather couldn't clear my head today.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Thursday's Run - Brought to you by beauty.

Distance: 5.26 miles!
Duration: 01:01:09 (yup, just over an hour!)
Avg Pace: 11:37 min/mile (slower than my easy run, but still acceptable by all means!)
Route: MapMyRun

I didn't get a chance to update on Thursday but I'm so proud of this run! Over 5 miles is a HUGE deal. HUGE!

It was a really pretty run, too. I saw DUCKS. actual DUCKS. and a bright green fly that followed me for a mile. Some squirrels. A dead deer (ew!). And the most beautiful flowers throughout the trees. It was sunny. The weather was great.

I ran farther than I've run in a very long time. I'm very very proud of myself.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy.

Distance: 4.12miles! (this is my new "easy run"!)
Duration: 46:38
Avg Pace: 11:19 min/mile (faster than last week's long run!)
Route: MapMyRun

Today's run was out in the beautiful weather. It was sunny and warm. I may have been overdressed (a tank top would have been more than enough!) but I still loved it. I really like my new route. I'm sure I'll be bored of it by next week...

I think what I'm most excited about today is that today is supposed to be an easy run. and I did 4 miles, easy. In February 2.5 miles was an easy run (but was still hard). That was only 2 months ago. I think it's really cool that I have increased my mileage, but I'm worried about Bay to Breakers. It's only 35 days away. That's 4 weeks! I can't take another 2 months to get up to a 12K. I only have 1 month to increase to 7.5 miles!

But if I keep increasing mileage - and try for another mile on my long runs each week, I'll be fine. Even if I can "only" run 6 miles - adrenaline and my friends will carry me over the last mile and half, right?

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Up Your Miles!

Distance: 4.08 miles! (that's almost a mile increase from Monday!)
Duration: 48:08
Avg Pace: 11:48 min/mile (slower pace than Monday, but to be expected)
Route: MapMyRun

The other day, my pal Joey IM'ed me with "Up your miles!" At the moment I read that, I had no idea what he was talking about, so I replied "Up yours!" Then laughed to myself.

Took me a few minutes to realize he meant for running.

Joey is the only close friend I have (that I know about) who has run a marathon. And not just one marathon, he's done several. Until I started running (November 2008), I had no idea how much of an accomplishment that it was. It never occurred to me that Joey was running 26.2 miles -- which meant running for more than 4 hours (for me, it'd be like 6+ hours). I am completely impressed that he has done this several times. And while I have absolutely no desire to ever run that far or that long, I still consider Joey one of my inspirations to keep running.

Part of the reason I've been so hard pressed to run (besides the stress relieving aspect), is because in May, I'm flying out to San Francisco to run Bay to Breakers with some friends: Joey, Rob, and Neil. It's a 12K. It will be the farthest I've run a race before. And I'm running with all guys who find my current 11-12 min/mil pace pretty pathetic. I am hoping to get them all drunk and outrun them as they stumble all over each other.

I'm actually just trying to get myself up to be able to run all 7.42 without stopping...

Today's run? Excellent. I had planned out a 4.5 mile route, but was thwarted by construction and some odd urge to run across a major road rather than go the more interesting and slightly longer route. The last mile was less difficult than I thought it was going to be. The weather was perfect - sunny, cool, but not cold. I'm pleased. It's the farthest I've run since I started up again and it wasn't too hard!

Tomorrow, if I get a chance, I'll have to talk about my favorite run ever. Incidentally, it was in San Francisco. With Joey.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Today's Run - I'm grinning like a fool.

Distance: 3.12 miles
Duration: 35:16
Avg Pace: 11:18 min/mile
Route: MapMyRun

I am on such a high from today's run, I don't even know what to write about. The weather. Oh the weather! It is sunny, mid 70's, slight warm breeze. It's days like this where I wish I could take more than an hour for lunch break and run forever.

I had planned to take the same route as I did last week, but about 2 minutes in, I made a break for the woods. See, there's these great trails that go between my neighborhood and a few others around here. In the woods, by a creek, up a hill... it's pretty, it's quiet and I love to run it. They are doing some construction back there, so the normal way I go isn't available. So I took a new route and I'm really pleased I did. Made today's 3 miles way more interesting.

My pace was better, my mind was clearer, my route more interesting, and my heart rate stayed in check except for the last 2 minutes (it always goes up a little in the same physical location, no matter what I do - I guess there's a small climb there?). I don't know what else to say about today's run -- I'm grinning ear to ear.

I can say, I have no idea what I even thought about during today's run. That's how calming it was for me.

I wish spring was here to stay.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Here comes the rain again....

I really want to run Monday, Wednesday, Friday/weekend. With my Monday and Wednesday being my shorter runs. Life and Nature hasn't allowed that really since I started running again. Something always comes up. I get sick, I hurt my back, there's no time, or the weather.

Today's delay is brought to you by the crappy weather.

It's supposed to be cold and rainy starting late morning until tomorrow morning. I don't mind running in cold weather (28 is about my lower limit), and I don't mind running on cloudy days. I don't even mind running races when it's drizzly (I did an 8K in November 2009 in Richmond and it was drizzly).

But I draw the line at a possible wintry mix.

So once again, my plan is derailed. I don't have enough time during my lunchbreak to get dressed, hit the gym, run 3-4 miles, then come home. So I will adjust the plan.

I'll run tomorrow. and then try to fit a run in on the weekend (which never works out - weekend is family time).

I actually get sad when I realize I'm not going to get to run. So today I'm a little sad. Tomorrow will be a better day, right? Cuz I will get to run. And running is my meditation.