#runmem

Happy birthday Breakaway and happy almost Halloween!

It’s hard to tell here, but my costume was “running for president”.  I had a blazer + campaign button + a race bib that reads “2016 Presidential Race”.  I think it was a success.  :)

So I’ve been a pretty delinquent blogger and I apologize for that.  The last two weeks have been a bit of a roller coaster.  

Two weeks ago I had a great long run with Liz and then drove up to Arkansas to celebrate Tilly’s bachelorette party.  We had perfect lake weather.  I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before or not, but Tilly and I met through Salty Dogs and now I’m her bridesmaid!  Running buddies for lyfe.  :)

Last Saturday I had the worst long run.  Just miserable.  Humid, boring, terrible stomach problems and to top it all off, my Garmin broke.  Fortunately, Darce (one of my bridesmaids) was in town from Nashville to drink a bottle of wine with me and console me.  

These two trouble makers make my heart happy.

All of these was tempered by the fact that one of my coworkers passed away very unexpectedly.  We have a fairly small office and I think it will be awhile before things start to feel normal again...

My favorite 5K of the year, the Bardog 5K was today.  After a miserable long run last weekend and skipping some training runs, I knew I couldn’t afford to skip out on my long run on Saturday though.  I’m not in shape to PR a 5K, so it didn’t make sense to sacrifice my long run for the sake of a 5K.  So yesterday morning I woke up at 5am to meet Liz and the Breakaway group in Germantown.  The first 10 miles of our run were hilly and humid- not at all like the early fall weather (temps in the 60′s) we had earlier this week.  Once we hit the Green Way though, I perked up and zoomed zoomed through the rest of my run.

Splits: 9:32/9:02/9:22/9:32/9:23/9:30/9:18/9:18/9:23/9:13/9:48/8:49/8:15/8:41 

I rewarded myself with a sausage biscuit and chocolate milk in hopes a little extra protein might help with recovery for the 5K the next day.

This morning I arrived downtown for the 5K.  This is my FIFTH year running this race and I love it.  I didn’t really have a game plan, especially after my long run the day before, but I figured I would be happy if I came in under 24 minutes.  

It was humid out and I was already soaked by the time I finished my warm up mile.  Great.  I lined up with Verity and Erica at the start and we took off.

Splits:  7:15/7:26/8:03

Official time:  23:29 (2nd place AG!)

Okay, so I lost a lot of steam after the second mile (although there is a very steep hill in the last mile), but this was a pleasant surprise after a hard run the day before.  Placing in my age group was icing on the cake since the last two years I haven’t placed even though my times were pretty good.  Celebrated with two beers for breakfast and a nap - the Bardog way.  :)

Back in November I drug myself downtown on a rainy November Sunday to run our local Broadway theater's race, the Orpheum 5K.  Staying home in my warm PJs was pretty tempting, but I had already committed to running so off to the races we went.

Well, I ended up taking first overall female, which was pretty fun, but I also got an awesome prize- a pair of box tickets to three Orpheum shows + a pair of tickets to the summer movie series.  

For the first show, Ruchee and I went to go see Kinky Boots.

Next, my friend Amy and I went to see Mamma Mia.  Last week we went to Wizard of Oz sing-a-long, and last night Eric and I finished the package out with Motown.

Motown-ing

All of the shows were great and a good reminder of how much fun live theater can be.  It was definitely worth that soggy run back in November! 

In other news, we didn’t get back from the show until pretty late last night.  In order to get my run in this morning, I wouldn’t have gotten nearly enough sleep, so my training schedule just got more interesting.  I’m thinking I will do 7 this evening (5 tempo, 2 easy) and call it a day.  Something I’ve learned about marathon training is that short changing yourself on sleep in order to fit in the perfect workout rarely pays off.  A happy runner is one that gets enough sleep, calories, and hydration to fuel their training.

This is my first week of bigger mileage and harder effort and as luck would have it, I’m going to the beach this weekend, so things are getting moved around in order to accommodate mileage and vacation.  

I also screwed up majorly.  I forgot my Monday rest days were going away...oops.  I was looking forward to doing some laundry and grocery shopping tonight...looks like I’ll be a the Y instead.

Monday:  4 miles + spin class

Tuesday:  12x400 (1:43/lap) with 400 recovery + 1 mile warm up and cool down

Wednesday: Rest day

Thursday:  

Morning:  Tempo run (5 miles with a target pace of 8:00, which will likely be revised due to the heat.  The high will be over 100 all week.  Our electricity went out today and I have a feeling it’s because everyone’s A/C’s have been running like crazy.)

Evening:  4 miles easy (normally would be Friday, but we are leaving for the beach at 6am - no time for running!)

Friday:  BEACH!

Saturday:  8 miles easy on the treadmill at the resort (Yup, I already investigated this.  No way am I running 8 miles in the Florida humidity and glaring sun.)

I love shopping at our local Lululemon because since opening in 2012 they have really made an effort to be involved in our community.  From hosting yoga classes in store, to partnering with studios around town, our store has created lots of opportunities to try new yoga classes and other workouts and they have been especially supportive of runners doing St. Jude.

Someone asked me the other day, “Wait, Lululemon has running-specific clothes?”  Um, yes, yes they do.  In addition to a ridiculous variety of yoga pants, Lulu carries a full line of thoughtfully designed running gear for both men and women.

So I was really excited when they invited some of the St. Jude runners to try out their new winter gear in preparation for race day.

I loved the quilted items they had in store (the Hot Cheeks Shorts and the Fluffed Up Pullover).  We’ve already had some pretty chilly weather and I expect that will be the norm for this winter.  

Ultimately, I was most excited about the new reflective items though.  With the days being so short, both my morning and evening runs are in the dark.  Even if I decide to go to the gym and run on the treadmill or go to spin, I still have to trek across a fairly busy street in the dark.  Not getting hit by cars = awesome

I opted to try the Bright Bomber Jacket .  I’ll be honest, it is not quite as cute as some of the other jackets in the store, but it’s super functional. Here’s what I loved about it:

> Ridiculously reflective - this baby lights up like a Christmas tree guaranteeing that you will be seen by drivers

> Secret pocket - there is a secret pocket near the chest that provides extra storage for Gu, keys, or gloves

> Versatility - the sleeves have thumb holes if you want to cover your hands.  If you get too toasty, the jacket has side vents that unzip to help you from getting too warm. 

> Design - the fit and cut of this jacket make it attractive enough that I wouldn’t hesitate to throw it on to go run errands or en route to yoga class.

I think I will get a lot of wear out of this jacket this winter and am looking forward to using it for cold morning runs.

So tonight I did something I have never done before…I went to Zumba.  In addition to group runs, training programs, and clinics, our local running store has started hosting a weekly Zumba class as a fun cross-training activity.

Love this article!  Should you ever be so lucky as to be in Memphis, there are plenty of great places to run and explore here.

Not mentioned in the article are the group runs available any night of the week and the overwhelming number of yoga studios here.