Eating Crap + 90* heat = not fun runs!

Like I said the other day, we went to my in-law's house in Springfield this weekend.  We are home now, and while I am very happy that Maggie got to see her grandparents, and we got to see a few friends that we haven't seen in awhile, I am happy to be home.

I didn't have the best week as far as my eating goes.  I think I ate hot dogs at at least 5 meals this week.  Most of them with chips or french fries.  We ate out at a Mexican restaurant and then got frozen custard on the way home, we had subs with about a gallon of mayo from a super yummy sub shop in Springfield yesterday, I had a horseshoe.  This is a Springfield specialty and is pictured below.  I had a buffalo chicken horseshoe which is a buffalo chicken breast on texas toast, topped with french fries and white cheese sauce.  Seriously, this is probably the worst thing on the planet for you to eat, but it is GOOD!  Good thing we only make it to Springfield a few times a year!  My mother-in-law also made cinnamon rolls, and dessert, and I drank more beer than usual.  All of this led to feeling like crap, self-esteem wise and running wise.  Yuck!  Just reading that list makes me cringe.

I did run 12.5 miles this week so I guess that's good.  On Saturday I ran in Springfield and it was HOT!  I felt like crap the entire time.  I think the only thing that saved me was that I was running in an unfamiliar place so it was a little more interesting.  I hope I felt like crap because of my bad eating and I can get it back on track next week.  I also hope that the August like heat and humidity chill out a little bit.  I don't like running in the heat.  My husband says he likes it and feels like if he is drenched in sweat when he gets home that he worked really hard.  I don't mind sweating, but I don't NEED it to feel like I worked hard.  I much prefer winter running!

I plan on getting back on track tomorrow.  I am afraid to step on the scale in the morning!!! 

Memorial Day Weekend

What are you doing this weekend?  We are headed south.  3 hours to my in-laws house in Springfield.  The rest of my family is heading 3 hours north to the lake.

Dave is golfing in a charity golf outing for Lincoln Land Downs Syndrome Society.  I'm sure that will be fun for him.  I hope that I will be able to run in Springfield...maybe Saturday.  Who knows it's usually about 100 degrees there. 

Tonight I am going to run out to the park to watch Dave's softball game.  It's only 2.5 miles so I'll have to add a little somewhere.  It's beautiful outside right now so hopefully that will last until tonight.  I love softball game night.  I played for a long time and I just love being out there.  Tonight they are actually playing on the fields that I played on in high school.  I might bring my glove and play a little catch before or after the game.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and don't forget why we have the day off in the first place!  Thank you to all the soldiers and their families out there!!!

Versatile Blogger

Erica at I Run Because....I Can nominated me for this award.  I am supposed to write 7 things about myself and then nominate 15 people.  A lot of the bloggers that I keep up with have already done this so if you haven't consider yourself nominated and I can't wait to read everyone else's 7 things!

1. I just started running in September with the Couch to 5K program.  I was never a runner before and now love it!  I recommend the program to everyone who mentions wanting to run.  They should probably pay me!

2. I have 2 younger brothers and a twin sister who passed away when we were 3.5 years old

3. I absolutely love chocolate and peanut butter.  Separately and together.  If it came out that peanut butter and/or chocolate was the worst food on the planet and would make me never able to lose weight I would be fat and happy!

4. I have been with my husband for almost 9 years (we've been married for almost 4) He was a cook at the restaurant that I worked in in college.  We worked together for 6 months before our first date.  When we started dating I had just become a manager at that restaurant.  My favorite shifts were when we were closing together ;)

5. I love Beverly Hills 90210 (the original) I have watched the entire 10 years of the show over and over again on the Soap Network.  I would love to own the DVDs of the show.  Dylan was soooooo hot!!!

6. I was a dancer (ballet and jazz) for many years and I played softball from kindergarten through high school.  I was on the sophomore team as a freshman and played varsity the next 3 years.  I was a pitcher.  My dad was my coach growing up and in the summers and volunteered as one of my high school coaches.  As much as he was a pain in my butt,  he was the best coach ever.  One of the few times I have ever seen him cry was at our last game as seniors.  He had coached me and 7 or 8 other girls since we were teeny tots. 

7.  I nursed Maggie for 16.5 months (just stopped last week) and I am very proud of that.  I never thought I would go beyond a year. 

This was fun.  I hope you learned a little about me and I can't wait to learn a little about you!

H.O.T. Hot!

Gotta love the midwest!  It went from 50 last week to 90* and 98% humidity this week.  Geez leweez!

Yesterday was my first really hot run.  I only started running last September and did the first month or so on the treadmill.  I HATE the heat.  I would prefer 30* to 90* any day of the week!  I don't want to get up at 5am either.  My husband gets up with Maggie most weekends and so I get to sleep in.  Since I am not a morning person at all I look forward to these days all week. 

I decided to get up at 9 and go running then.  I looked at my iPod touch weather app and it was already 75* yuck!  I decided to drive into town so I could run where there was more shade.  I usually run in a newer subdivision so there are no big trees.  I brought my Nathan handheld water bottle for the first time as well.  Dave ran with it on Saturday and said that it wasn't too bad to carry. 

I wanted to run 5 miles with my consolation prize being 4 miles.  I ran 4 miles on Thursday, but I hadn't run more than 4 in a few weeks.  I set my Nike + to 45 min and took off.  It was HOT immediately but I was ok.  I decided to just go slow and not push myself too hard if I started getting over heated.  I used to play softball and in the summer I would pitch 3-4 games in one day when it was 90* out, but it had been a LLLOOONNNGGG time since then, but I thought I would be able to tell when I was just uncomfortable and when I needed to stop.

The water was definitely needed, and I poured some on my head a time or two which helped.  My route was not as shady as I thought it would be and there were more hills than I was used to running on.  I did get to run down the street that I grew up and see my old house.  I love that house and would love to buy it someday.  I got back into downtown and was only at 3.41 miles, but it was really really hot by then.  I started to feel queasy and I decided that when I got to the end of the block I would walk for a block.  By the next block I felt worse and the car was only another block away so I decided to be done.  I got back in the car and was soaked with sweat. 

When I got home we hadn't turned the air on yet and I thought I might die!  I stretched and drank 2 more bottles of cold water and started to feel better.  I took a cool shower and felt 100%.  Then I started to feel guilty about stopping and not finishing the 4 miles.  I could've gone another 3/4 of a mile and been fine.  Oh well I guess. 

I might go to the Y to run on the dreadmill today though.  I definitely want to run today, but it's already late and the temp is almost 90* already.  Dave is out running now and has taken the day off of work so I can go to the Y without Maggie.  I hate that darn treadmill though, so we'll see. 

Running in the Rain

Tonight I ran in the rain and it was nice.  I enjoy running in the rain although I haven't been able to do it much lately.  I think the last time it was cold because I was able to wear my jacket so that my iPod was inside the pocket.  I have a armband that I don't use much but it has a full plastic cover and said "sweat resistant" on the box.  I bought it to wear when it rained, but I was worried about it tonight.  I ended up putting on a long sleeved shirt over  it and it was ok.

It wasn't raining too hard and my ponytail was only damp.  It had stopped by the time I was done.  I had planned on running out to the park for Dave's softball game.  I decided at the last second to just run around my neighborhood so that if the weather got worse I could just go home instead of being stuck somewhere between my house and the park.  The weather ended up not being bad at all though and I definitely could've gone to the park instead.  Oh well, better safe than sorry.

My hamstrings have been really tight lately.  I think it is from a combination of not stretching well enough when I'm done running and from trying to "sprint" the end of my runs or kicking it up a notch here and there.  That is something that I haven't been doing until recently.  My last 2 runs I've spent a lot of time stretching after and I'm going to start doing yoga so hopefully that will help.

Water, Water, Water

I don't drink enough water.  On days that I don't run I drink maybe a bottle of water with my dinner and that's about it. On days that I do run I drink a bottle before I leave and a bottle when I get back.  I know that I need to drink more. 

Today I decided to set the timer on my watch to go off every 2 hours to remind me to drink.  So far I have drank 4 bottles of water today and I have peed about 146753 times.  I'm going to try to do this for the rest of the week and see how I feel. 

I was much better about drinking water when I was pregnant and when I was working, but now that I'm home I just don't think about it.  So how do you remember your water?

Lifetime Fitness Run Wild 5k Race Recap

We ran the Lifetime Fitness Run Wild 5k on Saturday at the Brookfield Zoo.  This was my second ever race and Dave's first (he ran one in high school with his dad, but it's been 12 or 13 years so we're this his first) Maggie spent the night at my parent's house so that we wouldn't have to wake her up early.  They brought her to the zoo and got there to see us finish.  We got up early at like 5:30 and got ready and were out the door by 6:10.  There was no traffic until we were close to the zoo so that was good.  We got there and I brought my bag in thinking there might be a gear check place like there was in Chicago.  We picked up our packet and our shirts (not technical shirts, cotton and bright yellow) and then headed back up to the car to put our stuff down.  I called my parents and they were not going to make it by the start of the race so I told them what color shirts we were wearing and we made a plan of where to meet afterward if they didn't see us.

We had looked at a map of the run before we got there, but the starting line wasn't clearly marked so Dave asked a Lifetime volunteer and she pointed us in the right direction.  We went to where people were lining up but we couldn't see the actual start so I wasn't sure where we were pace wise.  The pathways are narrow so they were encouraging people line up according to speed but we couldn't tell where we were.  I thought we were in the front of the middle of the pack and figured that would be too fast for me but we stayed where we were.

I was a little nervous because I was really hungry.  I usually run in the afternoon/evening so I haven't figured out my early morning eating routine yet.  I only had peanut butter on toast and meant to eat a banana on the way, but forgot until we got there.  My stomach was growling before we started.

We didn't hear a gun or an announcement that we were starting, but all of a sudden we started moving.  I realized quickly that we were much closer to the start than I thought, oops.  I started my nike+ right when I stepped on the mat.  About 2 minutes in I knew I was running faster than I should be, Dave was already gone, I told him not to wait for me, but reminded him to not start out too fast.  I pushed the button on my iPod and the lady told me my pace was 9:55.  Yikes!  10:45 min/mile is really good for me so I knew I had to slow down or I was never going to make it.  People were passing me like crazy and I tried to move over to the side as much as I could.  I was still going too fast I knew because I was tired before my first song was over.  I tried to slow down a little more and then I felt better.

I was surprised by the 1 mile marker and I pressed my iPod button again.  It said ".88 miles completed".  Hmmm, the course was not certified, but I was surprised that it was that off.  I was running at about a 10:25 min/mile pace.  That was still faster than I normally run, but I felt good so I decided not to worry about it.

At mile marker 2 my iPod said somewhere around 1.8 miles.  I started to wonder if the whole course would be short or if the last mile would be really long.   I started to get tired and was back up near 11 min/mile pace.  I knew there wasn't much left in my tank, but I was not giving up.  I told myself that when the iPod lady told me that there was 5 minutes left I would pick it up.  She said 5 min and I tried to go a little faster.  It was tough though.  When I knew I was close to the finish I ran as fast I could.  I finished in 32:06.  This was a full 2 minutes fast than at Wrigley 3 weeks ago.  My iPod said it was only 3.07 miles though, I don't care, I still count it as a PR! I was happy.

I saw Dave and my parents right away, but I couldn't talk to them. I had to walk a litttle.  I noticed in Chicago too, people just stop the second they hit the finish line.  I think I might die if I just stopped, especially after I sprinted the finish (sprinted being a relative term) I walked around a little bit, and over to the food and water area.  I was starving!!!! I ate an orange slice and half a banana and felt better.  I didn't stretch afterward either like a usually do so my legs were definitely not very happy with me.

Dave finished in 29:30 so under 30 minutes!  I am very proud of him!  We went to walk around the zoo but it was around 9 and the zoo doesn't officially open until 10 so there was not much to see.  You'd think that if they were going to have 2000 people in the zoo early they would want to have their vendors open and the gift shops open and the animals available so that people would want to come back some day.  The entry to the zoo was free to runners and spectators so you'd think that they would really want to have stuff open for people to spend money.  That was disappointing but we walked around enough that the giraffes were out by the time we walked around the whole place.  The giraffes are Maggie's favorites!  It was starting to get busy by the time we were done and we were all hungry so my parents took off and we ate lunch by the car and the went home.

It was a good fun run, but if we do it again next year I don't know that we will bring Maggie since there was such a gap between the run being over and the zoo stuff open.  I was sore though and I wish I could have cooled down a little bit more.  Guess that's what I learned for next time.  No matter what walk for a few minutes and find a way to stretch even if my butt will be in the air for all to see! :)

Quick Question:  My Nike+ said my time was 33 something, but my chip time was 32:06???? I know I didn't start or end it a minute early/late.  I would assume that the chip time is the most accurate right? What do you think?