flashback, 7 miles, and Tri

Flashback 

I wrote about motivation the other day.  Shortly after I wrote that post, I came across this picture of Candace and I running in our first 5K together.  This was right at a year ago, in August 2011.  We had just started working out & running together.  It was around this time that I was getting serious about my running.  I had been running on and off for a year or so but I was mentally making the switch from it being just cardio to wanting to seriously train, race, improve times etc...  I wanted to get better, faster, stronger -

 

I remember us discussing the race beforehand and our single goal for the race was to finish without stopping to walk.   Like I said, we were newbies. We had been training with the Women's walk/run group for a little over a month at this point.  Our graduation 5k was just a few weeks away and we wanted to get some race experience under our belts first.  I had run a few 5Ks growing up but none that I took seriously. So, when she asked if I wanted to get my feet wet with this race, I happily agreed!

 

We were about to cross the finish line when this picture was taken.  Yes, we look rough, our time was terrible, & we were dead tired but, we accomplished our goal! We ran the entire race without walking!!! I was beyond thrilled! 

 

Unfortunately, about 2 weeks later, I was injured with a femoral neck stress fracture and sidelined for 3 months!!!

 

I was able to begin training again in January 2012 and have been working hard ever since.  So, even though our time was slow, I will never forget this race.  It's so cool to look back and see how far we have come in a short year!!!

 

BTW, please ignore the fact that the much older lady beat us!!! LOL

 

 

 

 

I have 2 runs to update you on. 

 

Thursday, Aug 23, 2012

 

Today's run was really good overall.  We were spooked 2 separate times by barking dogs that we were convinced were out to attack us!!! It was quite hilarious when we realized they didn't want to eat us but in the moment, it was quite scary!  The first dog encounter was me spotting 2 dogs chasing each other a few houses away. I wanted her to be aware of the possible danger as well so I said - hey, there are 2 dogs running up there.  She misunderstood me and thought I said 2 dogs were running for us. She screams and in turn I start screaming.  We quickly realize the misunderstanding and die laughing.  Not 5 minutes later a dog that must have been sleeping on the porch starts barking and scares the mess out of us! We both scream and do the scared dance! Oh goodness, we are crazy.  Its a good thing in our flailing around we didn't spray each other with pepper spray! We were quite the site! Needless to say all the excitement slowed down our first mile significantly.  The following 2 miles, however, were much faster.  Maybe subconsciously we thought if we ran faster, the dogs couldn't catch us. LOL.

 

Mile 1 - 10:43

Mile 2 - 8:47

Mile 3 - 8:53

 

Total distance 3.15

Time 29:39

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, Aug 25, 2012

 

Today, we ran in the rain.  We met earlier than normal for a Saturday because we both had places to be that morning.  We had a really good run but it took us both several miles to get into the groove. 

 

We decided to run 7 miles.  Last Saturday, our long run day,  we ran 6. The training schedule only called for 5 this week.  We determined that we would go ahead and add a mile instead of taking one away.  I'm really glad we went for it!  After all, 7 miles is slightly over half the distance of the half marathon coming up in just 96 days! 

 

We counted 18 deer on our run! It was awesome to see them grazing around in the early hours of the day. 

 

Here are our mile split times...

 

Mile 1 - 9:46

Mile 2 - 9:46

Mile 3 - 9:42

Mile 4 - 10:12

Mile 5 - 10:11

Mile 6 - 9:47

Mile 7 - 9:43

 

Total distance - 7.01

Time - 1:09:12

 

 

7 Miles - done!

Candace (left) and I soaking wet but still smiling!!!

 

 

 

I had to hurry home to get ready for my little man's first triathlon!!!

He did so awesome!!!

 

 

Hope you have had a blessed weekend!

Shalom, Allie