Fundraising Update and Recommitment

I'm pleased to report that I've now received more than half my minimum fundraising balance in donations. As of today, I'm up to a total of $1656 donated, and I know I have at least one more donation that will be coming in next week.

I recommited to the program on Wednesday the 26th, which means that I have agreed to pay the balance that remains of my fundraising minimum if I haven't reached it by the deadline. It also means that I will be able to continue the second half of the training, and participate in the actual event.

To all my wonderful donors - THANK YOU!!!

And if you haven't had a chance to donate yet, there's still time. :)

Six miles at the Berkeley Marina

Today's mentor run was at the Berkeley Marina - the location of our very first coached run when I began this adventure at the end of May. I was a little nervous because my training schedule for the week had been less than stellar, and also because I knew there wouldn't be any water stops along the way. I wanted to be prepared and to do well.

I debated with myself about how to handle the water situation. I knew there was a water fountain at mile 1, but was also torn between carrying water and carrying Gatorade, since I have come to believe that Gatorade really does help me keep going in the longer runs. My eventual decision was to carry only Gatorade, and to drink water at the water fountain, since there wasn't going to be any supply of Gatorade along the way, while there were possibly going to be other water fountains I didn't know about.

It was another early morning - this one much more successful than the one on Thursday - I got up at about 5:45 and Dad & I planned to leave the house at 6:30 so we would have time to do a quick delivery for the shop on our way out to the marina, to meet up with the other runners and start running at 7:30. We were mostly on schedule - leaving at about 6:40, making the drop off, and landing at the marina at about 7:20. We each made a visit to the port-a-potties (I am *just* not a fan of those things, regardless of the necessity of them) then I met up with the group gathering while Dad read the paper for a bit.

Standing around in my shorts and tank top in the wind and cold at the marina, I was definitely in goosebump city. But once we started running, even just the warmup, I was really glad I had resisted the urge to wear a sweatshirt or sweat pants. Instead, I reveled at the cool breeze over me as I ran, thoroughly enjoying the balance of temperatures keeping me from getting too hot or too cold. Immediately, I fell into a comfortable and even pace, and before I knew it, I was at the first mile marker. I quickly drank my smaller bottle of Gatorade, then refilled it with water to carry with me as I continued on.

One of the nice things about not having water stops on a longer run is that I feel like I can get into a good pace and stay there, rather than having to drop out of it to stop at the water stop and then get back into it. So I was able to maintain a very easy and comfortable pace. Also, I noticed that my heart rate was consistently lower (at about 75% of my max most of the time, rather than at 80% or even up to 85%). I was very happy about that.

At the turnaround at the end of mile 3, Wendy, another friend of mine who's been struggling with shin splints and keeping her speed down, came and ran with me. At first I thought she would run with me for a little while and then take off, but we ended up running the entire way back together. We chatted about the Lake Chabot run, her trip to Florida, fundraising, and everything else under the sun.

We also shared our stories about what the first run at the marina had been like for each of us. It turns out we both started in a pretty similar place, with that 2 mile run absolutely kicking our butts. We were both amazed by how far we'd come in just 10 weeks of training - that those first 2 miles were pretty easy, actully, and now thinking 6 would be tough but doable.

As the finish line came into sight, I grinned at her and said, "Race you to the finish line!" and took off running at my fastest possible pace. My legs felt like absolute rubber, my breathing was hard, but I was doing it. She ended up beating me by a nose, but we were both serious winners regardless.

Track practice... or not...

The normal track practice sesssion I attend was cancelled this evening because of a TNT event that was happening in the city. So I thought that I would go to the track practice this morning at Clark Kerr High School in Berkeley.

Great idea. Not so great implementation.

The track practice at Clark Kerr starts at 5:50 AM. That's right, it STARTS before 6 am. In order to have any prayer of getting there on time, I would have had to get up at 4:50 am.

My alarm went off. I remember distinctly hearing it, and looking at the clock to confirm that it was actually the time I thought it was. Equally distinctly, I remember rolling over and swatting at the alarm enough to reset it to a more compassionate hour. That was the end of track practice for me.

Ommm.....

I was really glad to go to Yoga today. There were only three of us there - Laura (my teacher), myself, and another lady I didn't know. It was a challenging class, full of a good mixture of poses I was familiar with as well as poses that were new to me.

The best part about it was the sense of order it brought back into my week. I was really feeling out of whack since my whole training schedule (it seemed) had gotten thrown off by the heat wave, and this was the first real return to normal that I'd felt since Saturday. It also helped that the temperature had dropped significantly.

One random thing I noticed during our workout is that one of the chants Laura played on her iPod during our warmup was the same text as a chant I had read in a Robert A. Heinlein book in high school (I Will Fear No Evil, in case you're curious - hey, I said it was random!). I was surprised by the fact that I recognized, and then remembered it - and asked Laura after class what the chant meant. She didn't know, but promised she would find out and let me know next week.

I did a little bit of research with my friend Google, and found out that the chant "Om mani padme hum" means something like "Behold! The jewel in the lotus" and is supposed to be a chant for compassion. Now I'm going to have to go back and reread that Heinlein book to see if it adds any additional meaning to what was going on in the story at the time.

It's too... darn... hot!

The last couple of days have been absolutely miserable because of this heat. If you're in California, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Despite the best of intentions, I ended up spending all of Saturday, the majority of Sunday, and even most of Monday in places where all I had to do was basically sit around. Since my house isn't air conditioned, I ended up taking my dogs down to my office on Sunday to spend the day in the air conditioning there. Fortunately, my boss didn't mind!

Today was cooler than yesterday - in the sense that 105 degrees is cooler than 110 - and I had planned to do the Buddy Run that I have done the last 2 weeks over at Heather Farms. When it was still 100 degrees out at 6:00, I rethought that plan. "Maybe in another hour or two it'll be cooler," I thought, and two hours later, had the same conversation with myself. Now, of course, it's too late (and not safe) to go running, although at least the sun's down.

I'll get back on track tomorrow with Yoga. The cooling trend is supposed to start for real tomorrow, plus it's in an air conditioned building....

Lake Chabot, Hills and the Heat

Today's run was at Lake Chabot in El Cerrito, and there were two big differences from the coached runs we've had up until now and today's. The first was that we were doing hills instead of a relatively flat course, and the second was that we were beginning with staggered start times - the slowest full marathon runners starting at 7:15, the medium speed full marathon folks starting at 7:30, the fastest full marathoners starting at 7:45 and all the half marathoners starting at 8.

Normally, I would rejoice at having the latest start time because mornings aren't exactly my cup of tea. OK, who am I kidding??? If I could sleep till noon every day, I would do it in a heartbeat! Sometimes getting up at 8 AM is a struggle. But those of you who know me well already know that.

On Thursday, I started seeing the weather predictions for the weekend, and the dire warnings about how hot it was going to get. I pondered for a little while, and had a conversation with myself about whether or not I would be able to get up early on Saturday. Then I fired off an email to Monica, our team manager, and Mama Lisa to see if I could start with the first group of runners. Since I expected it to take me 2 hours to finish the run, I certainly didn't want to start any later than I had to.

So this morning came. I would say bright and early except there was no brightness because the SUN was still in bed!!! I set my alarm for 5 AM. Yeah, right. I got up closer to 5:30 (still miraculous in its own right) and wandered through my pre-run routine in the zombie-like haze that I've come to accept from myself that early in the morning.

I had planned to leave the house at 6:15, to get to the course by 6:45 and maybe even begin running at 7. But since I slept an extra half hour in the morning, I ended up leaving the house at 6:40 ish, and getting to the course at 7:10 (here's a staggering thought - it's just about the length of a marathon to go from my house to Lake Chabot.....)

I got there just in time to acquaint myself with the surroundings, and then the first group of runners went off to go stretch and run. Coach Al described the course to us - 2 miles out and back in one direction, then 1, 2 or 3 miles out and back in the other direction, depending on what our target distance was.

He also reminded us of the importance of drinking water, using his own dehydration illness from the previous day as an example of what not to do. He also reminded us to snack along the way and drink Gatorade at the water stops to keep our energy up. He sent us off with a final threat - drink at least 2 cups of water at each water stop or drop down for 10 pushups. Gee... tough choice....

The first thing I noticed about the course was that it was hilly. Not that I didn't know that intellectually before I started, but it's quite something else to be faced with the reality of the hills. By the time I reached the first water stop at 1 mile, I was ready for a break. I was already feeling hot and tired, and it wasn't even 8 am yet! I had my couple of cups of water and a couple of cups of Gatorade too, then started off again. By about a mile and a quarter, I was having some serious doubts about being able to finish my 6 mile target distance for the day. I also had to go to the bathroom.

Then I saw my escape route - a port-a-potty just by the 1.25 mile marker. At first I passed it by, figuring I would tough it out, but then I realized that just after the port-a-potty began another hill. Ugh. That was the LAST thing I wanted to do at that moment. So I circled around, and headed for the port-a-potty.

When I was done, I felt a little bit energized, and relieved (pun intended!) and started back to running again. Up that hill, down the other side, up the next, then down again, across the dam, then up, up, up.... the hill leading up to the 2-mile marker was a killer! Then turn around at the 2-mile mark and do the same thing in reverse. I ran the hills as much as I could, but didn't give myself any grief when it was time to drop "out of warp" (hehe) and into a walk.

The water stop at mile 1 was a welcome sight as I came down that hill. Michael, one of our honorees was there, as well as Carol, the gal in charge of our team's website. I chatted with them as I stopped for my couple of cups of water and Gatorade, and asked after Michael's friend Dennis, who is also one of our team's honorees. Michael told us Dennis was doing better, but still not out of the woods by a long shot. I told Michael that I was dedicating the next mile to Dennis, shared my wishes for his health to improve, and took off again.

I caught up with another one of my team mates, Misty, on the way out to the one mile turnaround on the other side of the course - or rather, she caught up with me. It turned out she was having some difficulties getting back into the mileage because she'd been out with an injury, and she was having some stomach problems on top of that. We chatted as we completed the last 2 miles of the run - about running, about our reasons for joining TNT, about what had been going on in our lives lately.

Then we got to talking about high school. I mentioned that I had gone to high school with one of the fellows who's a mentor for the team, and it turns out that Misty went to the same high school I did also! We compared notes abut who we knew in common (she being 2 years behind me), and I was reminded how many people I really didn't know in high school because I kept so close to the choir programs. It also struck me how two such different people could end up doing the same thing together 12 years later, and find common ground from which to build a friendship. It was very cool.

We made it back to the starting point - 6 miles done in 1:54, about 19 minutes per mile. Not surprising, considering the hills and heat and all. I was just glad I had achieved my distance goal, because that's really what I was concerned about. I chatted with Misty and some other folks I knew as we relaxed after the run and had some snacks. Laura, from my parents' church; Alicia, who's been a terrific friend since the first day of track practice together, and some other people whose faces I know but names I don't know yet.

Slowly but surely, the conversation broke up after a while, as people decided to head on their way to go back and face the day. I headed back to the car, already starting to feel sore and wishing I paid the park entrance fee and parked on the inside lot instead of parking out on the street and walking in. By the time I made it back to the car, the temperature had risen to about 90 degrees - at 10:00 in the morning, and I was once again very grateful that I had started earlier rather than later.

6 down, 7.1 to go!

Run-your-guts-out Track Practice

Today's track practice was different from any of the previous track practices we've done. The goal was simple: Run a mile as fast as you can, then cool off with two or four laps depending on your running level.

The first lap felt really good - I was running along, and it felt pretty darn fast to me. Maybe under a 15-minute mile pace, but it's hard to tell on that track because the laps aren't exactly an even increment of a mile. I finished the first lap in about 3 minutes. Then it started to get really hard. I slowed down some, trying to find a balance between my skyrocketing heart rate and breathing, and running fast enough to still give credence to the goal. That balance was tough to find. I never quite did get my breathing down where I wanted it, or my heart rate. I could feel my asthma creeping up on me even though I had used my inhaler before we started.

By the time I reached the end of the mile, I was SO ready to be done running. But my efforts paid off - my mile time was 15:40! Certainly the fastest mile I've done since beginning the training, and also my fastest mile since probably Elementary School.

I think we were supposed to jog the last 2 or 4 laps for cool-down, but I was whupped so I walked it instead. Coach Al gathered everyone up, and even made a point of waiting for me to finish my last lap before congratulating us on the day's practice and giving us a pep talk about Saturday's hill run at Lake Chabot.

Before I headed out, he gave me a hug and congratulated me again, which was really awesome. One of the things that's really kept me going throughout this whole training season has been the encouragement of my coaches and teammates, and I'm really proud of the group that I've become a part of.

Buddy Run and a stroll down memory lane

I went to the Buddy Run at Heather Farms again today. I was running late, so I missed the gathering up and pre-run chat session, as well as the first of the stretches. But, as I reminded myself walking up to the group, I was there and that was the important part.

Stepping into the circle of folks stretching, I waved to Carol, our team's webmistress, and said hi to a couple other folks I knew. While everyone else was chatting about the course for the run, I did a couple of quick stretches that I had missed at the beginning, and then we all headed out.

The day's schedule called for a maximum run of 60 minutes, so we decided to go 25-30 minutes out, and then back. I began running with Carol, whose pace is a little faster than mine, but it gave us a chance to chat and catch up on things which was fun. After a while, I had to stop and walk for a while (10 minutes of running at someone else's pace is tiring!) and she went on ahead.

It was interesting running the course this way - the last time I had done this side of the course, I had started it coming from the other direction so I had a sense of where I was going and what I was getting into.

The heat was bothering me, and the fact that I had run harder than I normally do at the beginning tired me out too. I ended up walking a lot more than I had hoped. I went out 25 minutes, then turned around and came back. I stopped at a nearby park for water and a potty break (I was really glad I knew where that was and the facilities it had!) then finished up the run.

It took me about 55 minutes to complete the whole route, with an average of 19:22 per mile. Carol was already back at the starting point, and she was chatting with Matt, one of the mentors. I joined in the conversation, waiting for other team members to come back and cheer them in. During the course of our chat, it turned out that Matt had gone to high school with me! I was flabbergasted, and somewhat embarrassed (because he's cute, of course, and I had just finished a 55 minute run and didn't exactly look or smell my best). The three of us continued chatting as we all headed back to our cars, and I made a joke about looking him up in the yearbook when I got home. He promptly provided me with his last name, and wished us all a good evening before heading off.

So, of course, when I got home, I had to pull my old high school yearbooks out and paw through them to find him and compare him then to what I know of him now. I ended up spending nearly an hour thumbing through the pages, and reading the notes people had written to me. All in all, it was a surprisingly pleasant evening. And yes, he was cute back then too.

Mondays....

I know this is an old saw, but I suck at Mondays. My schedule always seems to go wonky, and by the time I finally get myself disentangled enough to go do something at the gym, it's late, I'm tired and I just don't wanna!

So instead, I used my time tonight to write thank-you notes to my lovely donors. So far, I've raised $535, with at least another $200 on the way. Yaaay!!! Thank you, lovely donors. :D Please, keep 'em coming.

I've also added another honoree to my list: Mile 7 - Larry Thompson. Stay tuned for my official honoree list and bios.

It's a good thing...

... that Sundays are an optional rest day. I was pretty whupped yesterday after the run, and ended up sleeping a good bit extra yesterday, and again today. The soreness is fading, which is a happy thing, but I still feel a little bit like a granny who stubbornly refuses to use her walker. LOL!

5(+) miles on the mentor run

Today's run was a mentor run instead of a coached run. The most important difference between the two is that coached runs have water stations, and mentor runs don't.

I did some planning ahead so that I could minimize the discomfort of a lack of water stop. I figured out where there was a water fountain and bathrooms relatively close to the trail, and packed some good snacks and gatorade in a cooler that waited in the car for after the run.

Despite the planning ahead, today's run was really tough. I was able to run the first 2 1/2 miles pretty well - with my pace right at about 17:27 per mile (yes, that's faster than Thursday even... :D). I was being extremely cautious about how much I was drinking because I didn't want to run out of water too early.

I got to the halfway point and turned around, and realized once again the reason why I have a love-hate relationship with the Iron Horse trail. The way out is all downhill.... and the way back is all uphill. A slow, steady, relentless grade.

I started feeling the soreness in my legs and back almost immediately upon turning around, and my heart rate went through the roof despite the fact that I wasn't running any faster than I had been on the way out. My water was running low, and the heat was starting to get to me.

At the 3.5 mile mark, I took the detour I had pre-planned for a stop at the water fountain and bathroom. Well, it wasn't quite as close to the trail as I had thought. It ended up being probably an additional half mile to make the water trip. I felt a little more refreshed after going to the bathroom, dousing my face with water and refilling my water bottle, and began the slow trek back up the trail to the finish line.

It ended up taking me about 1:45 to finish the whole thing including the detour, which isn't too bad when you factor in the extra half mile for the water stop. But the second half was mentally and physically a little more challenging than I was quite prepared for this morning.

After I was done, I realized another important difference between last week and this morning: gatorade. I never put much stock in sports drinks, but I really believe that having gatorade during the run made a difference last week, giving me a little extra boost to keep going. I don't know that I'll ever replace my water bottle for a bottle full of gatorade, but I think it's time for me to begin to consider carrying gels - basically the same as gatorade but super-concentrated to make it more compact.

One nice bonus: our beginning/ending point for Iron Horse trail runs also happens to be the location of the Danville Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings. I was able to finish off my run with a nice fresh, juicy, perfectly ripe nectarine - my favorite!

Track and sprints again

Tonight's track practice was the same theme as last week, but longer. Beginners had to run 19 minutes then do 4 sprints, intermediates had to run 21 minutes and then do 6 sprints, and advanced runners had to run 23 minutes and do 6 sprints.

My mile time was better than average today, at 17:47 - the second fastest mile for me since beginning with TNT. That was really awesome. I was really feeling the heat, though, and towards the end of my 19 minute run I began to feel light headed so I ended up walking in between my sprints instead of jogging.

I'm happy I was able to successfully complete the whole workout. I wish I could have jogged in between the sprints instead of walking, but I have to remind myself that not every week is going to be a breakthrough week - and progress is often three steps forward and one step back.

The Wednesday Sundae

I got to yoga class a little earlier than usual today, and was able to chat a little while with my teacher Laura. I've been thinking about getting some yoga videos to do at home to supplement the work I'm doing in class. She made some great suggestions, and soon I'll be off to look them up on Amazon.com.

The class was challenging today - we started out with some very slow sun salutations and it really surprised me how different they felt from when they're done at a more moderate or faster pace. The transitions between poses are particularly difficult for me when done slowly. I really focused on breathing and being aware of my body position and movements. There were a couple of poses I couldn't do - the shoulder stand, for one - but that's OK because it gives me something to strive for.

Leaving class, I felt rejuvenated and energized as I headed off to Weight Watchers. I wasn't particularly looking forward to going to the meeting this week because I was convinced that I hadn't lost any weight. Despite my low expectations, the scales reported a loss of 1.2 pounds, for a total of 9 pounds down since I started WW back up again. That was a happy surprise.

The cherry on top of the sundae that has been today is I came home to a couple of donation checks in my mailbox. I'm now a few baby steps closer to my fundraising minimum and goal, which is a very positive feeling considering I got a late start on sending out my donation letters.

It's been a really nice day.

The Buddy Run experience

I went to my first official Buddy Run today. Usually on Tuesdays, I've been going to the gym and working on the treadmill for the allotted time, but this week I thought I would brave the world of the Buddy Run.

The first thing I noticed was there were far fewer people than I expected. Based on the comments from the other members of the group, there were far fewer people than normal. The second thing I noticed was I was the only not skinny person in the group. Sigh. I started to doubt myself and think about bailing off to the gym. Then a gal named Sam introduced herself to me and we started chatting a little bit. That helped.

We headed off on a brief warm-up run (by way of the bathroom for me), then went into our normal routine of stretching, shout-outs, a moment of silence, and then the team cheers (which I could probably do in my sleep, but for some reason can only remember half of them now). We decided on our route (east from Heather Farms Park along the canal trail), how long we would go (40 minutes, half out & half back), and started to run.

I pushed myself too hard on the warm-up run (the bathroom trip was somewhat responsible for that, but so was feeling inadequate among the other runners in the group), so my asthma was bothering me before I even started running. I had to take a couple of extra puffs on the inhaler. That didn't fix it entirely, but at least it was better.

I also pushed myself too hard at the beginning of the run. Even though I knew I had no hope of running anywhere near as fast as any of the other folks, I was trying to not be as slow as I usually am. That didn't work very well. For one thing, my heart rate was up higher than normal. For another thing, my breathing was NOT getting any better by pushing it. I slowed down, reminding myself that the important thing was that I was doing the run, not how fast I was doing it.

By about 15 minutes into the run, I had settled down a little bit, started to get my pace under control and breathing back to normal. My heart rate was still a little higher than I wanted it to be, but physically I was in an OK place. Mentally though, I was still ruminating on how slow I was compared to the other runners.

At that point, a lady ran past me (not a TNT person) and shouted out, "You're doing great - keep it up!" Before the whole TNT experience, that would probably have made me mad - who does she think she is, judging what I'm doing - completely disregarding the positive encouragement in her comment. Today, I shouted out, "Thanks!" And not only did I say it, I meant it. It's amazing how much a stranger's encouragement really lifted my spirits.

When I reached the 20 minute mark, I turned around and headed back. I focused on running at my pace, calm and slow breaths, and making sure my heart rate stayed in the range I wanted it to. I made it back to the starting point at about 40:30 (no idea how far I went, though it was probably about 2.5 miles). After finishing the run, I joined the other gals who had already finished, and felt a little more like part of the group than I had before we ran.

Make a record, break a record

Fresh from my triumph at track practice on Thursday, I was eager to get up this morning and see what I was going to be able to do at the coached run this morning. Despite that eagerness, I was a little slow getting out of bed, (not unusual for me by any stretch!) and so ended up arriving at the Alameda Ferry Terminal right at 8:00 instead of being 15 minutes early, like I normally am. And, of course, this was the ONE day that the person giving our pre-run clinic actually started on time, so I missed the first few minutes of her presentation on nutrition for an endurance athlete.

I shook off the frustration and tuned into the nutrition presentation as quickly as I could, and found that most of it was stuff I was already familiar with, from Weight Watchers and the work I had done with a nutritionist back when I was living in Dallas. The biggest difference to me was the percentages of carbs to protein.

As usual, we had announcements, warmups, stretching, and then it was off to run. I started out at a nice comfortable pace, and before I knew it I had run about 15 minutes straight! Coach Al rode up to me on his bike and checked in with me, congratulating me on Thursday's victory once again, and officially dubbing me with the nickname "21 minutes" for my running stretch Thursday night.

As he biked away, I shouted out "Do I get a new nickname if I go longer today?" to which he grinned and shouted back, "You bet!" I was still chuckling when I saw him turn around on his bike and head back towards me. "You know," he said, when he reached me again, "Pretty soon we're going to be calling you 'All The Way!'" We chatted a little bit more, and then he biked off again, to check on some other runners.

I kept running along, up to 20-something minutes, excited, and conscious of the fact that I was about to break my brand new record already. Mama Lisa then came up running beside me, and complimented me on the fact that I'd been able to run so long today. I told her briefly about track practice on Thursday, to which she exclaimed, "So YOU'RE who he was talking about!"

I nodded, blushing a little bit because although I was pleased to hear it, I had no idea that Coach Al had been talking about me to the other coaches. We continued running and chatting, off and on, past a group of folks doing water aerobics in a nearby pool (we cheered for them as we ran by), by several families taking their kids out for the afternoon, all the way up to the water stop which was just short of mile 2!!! I hadn't even seen the mile markers for 1 or 1.5....

I ran on ahead, while Mama Lisa was chatting with the folks running the water stop, going up over the bridge, then down under it on the other side to go to the path on the other edge of the water in that area (think of the overall trail as an upside down "J" or backwards "r"). I was even able to run up the incline of the bridge! At this point, I had reached over 45 minutes of running non-stop.

Mama Lisa caught up with me again after the bridge, and before I knew it, we were at the 2.5 mile marker, which was my turnaround point, having run the whole way out! Mama Lisa gave me a few last encouraging words as we came upon the mile marker, and then I turned around to head back while she continued on to check in with some other runners.

The bridge on the way back was harder than it was on the way out, but I ran it anyhow, keeping the principles of running hills in mind that Coach Al had talked about with us on Thursday night. Then it was back to the water stop (still running!), down along the path by the water aerobics folks (still running!) and into the home stretch.

After 75 minutes of running straight, I was having some serious achy muscles in my legs and back. After all, it was WAY longer than I had used any of those muscles in that set of motion before! I finally felt the need to drop into a walk, to stretch out a little bit to see if I could get my back particularly to loosen up. Once I was done with that, about 2-3 minutes, I began running again.

I had to stop and stretch again one more time before the end of the run, another 2-3 minutes, but the victory was clear - I had actually run the vast majority of my 5-mile training run!

On my way back in, Coach Al was at the finish line, positively beaming. He and Coach Gary both gave me high-fives on my way through the gate, and Coach said my new nickname was "91 minutes" - the time it took me to run today's 5 miles.

I've no doubt I'm going to be stiff and sore for the rest of the day today and probably tomorrow too - but my muscles will be the ONLY part of me complaining!

A milestone!!!!

When I first started pondering joining Team in Training, one of my main goals was to learn how to run a mile without stopping or dropping into a walk. My theory is: the best way to learn how to run a mile is to learn how to run 13!

Well, today I proved myself right. I ran my mile in 18:45. And of course, the best part was that I didn't feel like falling over dead or sick at the end of it.

Coach Al was very enthusiastically cheering me on each time I passed him on the track. I know he realized I'd reached an important point, although it wasn't until practice was over that I got a chance to tell him that it was the first mile I'd ever run start to finish, something I've never, ever been able to do before in my lifetime.

The goal for track practice tonight was to run for a certain period of time (17 minutes for the beginners, 19 for the intermediates, and 21 for the advanced runners), and at the end of that timed run go directly into 2 laps worth of sprints, where you sprint on the straight sides of the track and you jog through the curves to let yourself recover a bit.

Once I realized that I was going to make it to the one mile mark, I ignored the fact that the timed run was up for my group and just kept going. I wanted to finish the mile at my pace. I was even able to do 3 out of the 4 sprints without slowing down to a walk! I ended up running for a total of 23 minutes before my first walk break, and that happened right after the third sprint.

Today's victory lap was an especially sweet one!!!

Yoga or bust

Today's yoga class was a disappointment. Our regular teacher was off on vacation, and had arranged for a substitute teacher to come teach the class in her absence. But the sub never showed up.

After about 20 minutes of waiting, and stretching while we waited, pretty much the whole class gave up and headed out.

I used the extra time to go over to the sporting goods store and buy myself a yoga mat of my own, which I've been meaning to do for a while. Now all I have to do is remember where I buried the yoga videos, and I'll be good to go if a day like this comes up again.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to Laura being back next week.

Yes, I'm behind!!!

I've fallen behind in my blogging... but not in my training (thank goodness)!!!

Stay tuned... I'll be filling in previous dates as I get a chance. And hopefully, I won't get further behind!