Nolhtaud

Sunday morning I felt much better and was able to do a "longish" run. I settled for 6 miles in order to give myself enough time to rest a few minutes before Barbell class. I was out later than normal Saturday night so I didn't get up super early. 8 a.m. runs still let me sleep in! Since it was a shorter run, I just pushed myself harder and ran faster. I didn't make up my route beforehand which was very freeing. Since I wanted to make sure I got a spot in the Barbell I went to the gym first, set up my spot, then went for a run by the gym. It was a nice change in scenery. I just turned whichever way I felt like. And shockingly I did NOT get lost!

Monday Marc and I had planned to do a 25-30 mile bike ride, but plans changed (out of our control) so we ended up riding to our friend Ben's house, picking him up and then rode to the park. Landen-Deerfield park is right down the road and has some really good mountain bike trails, so the boys hit the trails while I did my Nolhtaud - backwards duathlon! Maybe inside out is a better way to describe it - bike, run, bike.

It was about 2:30 or 3 in the afternoon, over 90 degrees with a heat index of 100. I kept my distances short, and drank tons of water. To make it easier, I rode my hybrid so I didn't have to change shoes. It felt very strange riding my hybrid now that I am so used to my road bike. I do love my hybrid though, it's an awesome bike.

I'm pretty sure those are my footprints  (via modulardatacenter.net)

Tonight I ran with Ben after work - another 90+ degree day (I think 96ish) so we decided to run the lake and in a neighborhood since our normal routes around work offer very little shade. We kept it under 4 miles (Smart Coach said 3, but that seemed lame to me, not that 3.6 is much different). I actually felt really good considering the heat. My face is still as red as a tomato though and I finished running 2.5 hours ago.

Sarah had invited Sid and I over so the dogs could play in Floyd's new baby pool, so we headed over there and Sid splashed around and almost jumped their fence trying to get a bird. Never a dull moment!

Track Work Out Thursday

I am really attempting to train correctly for whatever fall marathon I decide to grace with my presence, so that means speed work once a week!

Thursday night I was heading to the track - it was clear and gorgeous even though the fine weathermen had forecasted a good chance of storms all afternoon. I was at an intersection where I could turn right for the track or left for the gym and I saw it - lightening!

I was so mad, but then realized I had forgotten my Garmin anyway. It's slightly difficult to do mile repeats at a certain pace without a watch, so off to the gym I went.

I despise the treadmill. I don't think it really likes me either. But we attempted to make up, and I went for it.

My workout:

1 mile warm up

3 x 1600 (mile) at 8:03 pace with 800 (half mile) recovery in between

1 mile cool down

I did my warm up at 9:00 pace then my first mile repeat at 8:00. This is when I realized I just did a 5k at a 7:30 pace, so what kind of speed work out is this? I tried to stick to the plan.

But I got bored.

I ended up doing the second mile repeat around 7:50 and the third just under 7:30. The cool down was super boring for me so I finished the last half mile at a 6:30 pace. It wasn't much of a cool down, but at least I finished sooner than I would have if I had followed the plan.  It wasn't an easy work out, but not really the type of work out I had hoped for it to be either. But at least I did it!

 

Sorry for the horribly blurry pic, that is what happens when I take a picture with my phone after being on a treadmill. And I still feel like I am on the treadmill. I was happy with completing 6 miles, although despite this photographic evidence, it took me longer than 35 seconds. I think it was around 51 minutes in reality.

This morning I woke up extremely dizzy so I decided to do my run tomorrow morning instead. I did make it to barbell class this morning. Six. Minutes. Lunges. My lower half might fall off at some point during the day today!

Enjoy your long Memorial Day weekend!

Decisons, Decisions, Decisions

My running buddy Ben is back - and we were finally able to coordinate our schedules for a run today. It was about 60 degrees warmer today than the last time we ran together and we dodged geese with babies instead of dodging ice patches and snow covered sidewalks.

I created a training plan with Smart Coach from Runner's World and am trying my best to follow it. Although sometimes I declare myself smarter than Smart Coach and I do want I want! :)  For instance today was an easy run day and it told me my pace should be 10:06 for 4 miles. That is entirely too slow for me for that distance. So I opted for 8:50ish pace. Sometimes we were closer to 8:10 and once or twice we hit 9:00. We ran a route from work that I haven't done in a while and we ended up missing our turn and creating a new route. It was a nice route and I wouldn't mind doing it again - if we can remember how we got there in the first place!

The other problem with this plan is I am not exactly sure what I am training for yet. Hopefully a fall marathon will be nailed down in the next few weeks. I'm still taking suggestions...

I was going to do a duathlon this weekend, but we are celebrating my friend's birthday the night before and I'm not sure I want to commit to a 5:00 a.m. morning the day after a birthday celebration. Maybe I'll create my own. I'm thinking the next tri will be in July, but maybe a little sooner. Too many decisions to make!

Weekend Recap

We have finally had several days in a row of gorgeous weather and I'm getting in as much Vitamin D as possible - with proper sunscreen of course!

Employee Health and Fitness week was this week at work. All week there were activities such as lawn bowling, kickball, volleyball, putt putt, a team triathlon and more! The week concludes with the Eye Run - the annual 5K that benefits my company's foundation OneSight - and a party on the piazza (not a pizza party as many people misunderstood!)

It was mid 70's, sunny and blue sky on Friday - perfect day for a run and party. I really dislike 5Ks while I am running them and I always feel a lot of pressure with this one as both my running and work worlds collide. There were also some awkward emails floating around the department too that made me feel a lot more pressure this year as well. 

Thankfully I had a pretty decent race and ended up 2nd woman, 1st in age group and 11th overall. 

Friday night concluded with a Mexican dinner outside and after the [insert your own adjective here] week I had a margarita was in order! I love being able to dine al fresco!

Saturday morning I went for a short 6 mile run nice and early so I would have time to get all gussied up for my friend Mandy's bridal shower later that morning. The shower was at her friend's lake house and it was beautiful. The weather could not have been more perfect.

Marc and I just got back home from what he deemed "the best bike ride ever". I would like to think it was because of his awesome company, but we heard at least a half dozen Tom Turkeys gobbling up a storm (literally since they were gobbling at the the thunder of the storm that chased us back home). It was pretty neat except for him slamming on his brakes right in front of me almost causing me to wreck. We only saw one turkey, but we heard at least 6 along a half mile stretch. We only did 20 miles...hard to believe in less than 3 months we'll be doing (almost) 4 times that distance two days in a row!

Come Visit Me...

I'm over here today with my first guest post ever! Take a look and hang out for a while with Sarah (Floyd's mom). She has an amazing blog with great crafts, recipes and much more!

Fun With Numbers

Ames, this one is for you!

My gym offers a Fit Point test free as often as you want to take it. I like free things - so I made an appointment for this evening and went for it!

First I sat down with the trainer and talked about my goals - mainly qualifying for Boston and improving my triathlon times and distance.

Then I took a series of tests - cardiovascular (VO2 max), strength, flexibility and body composition.

They give you a graphical print out that shows where you rank. I'm taking a deeeeeeep breath then posting my numbers in hopes it will help hold me accountable to improving them. However, I am skipping over weight as I don't think that is really one of the important numbers here.

Max VO2 = 35.1 (moderate) Ideally I want to get to Very good which is 43-46

Bicep Strength = 39 (average) Ideally I want to get to Excellent which is above 73

Sit and Reach = 8.9 (Poor) Embarrassing, but not surprising. My goal is to hit average

Body Composition = 22.9 Ideally I want to get to 19

Overall Fitness = 64 (Good) My goal is to hit Excellent which is 81-100

I like that this is personal to my goals. If I just wanted to be an average healthy, fit person, my goals and ideal numbers would be different. 

My favorite part of the test results, most likely due to my obsession love of the Biggest Loser is that it tells you your Body Age. Mine is 30. That made me laugh. It also gives you your Obtainable Age which is 21 for me.  Hopefully in a few months time I'll be 21 again!

Double Digits

Today was my first long run since the marathon. With the possibility of a sooner than later marathon it was necessary to get a longish run in. So, 10 miles it was - in the middle of a rainy Saturday afternoon. I typically don't like running in the afternoon, but it felt amazing today. And I managed to barely get rained on. That's quite a feat these days in the Midwest.

I realized this week I add "ish" to quite a few words. I think this makes me right 100% of the time. I like that.

On my run I realized it was the first run I had really pushed myself on in quite some time. It was the first time I felt like I was running "fast" - with the exception of the run part of the tri, but honestly I couldn't feel my legs for half of that to really know if it felt fast or not. I was reminded why I like running by myself sometimes. Although I do love my running buddies too. There must be a balance somewhere...

I ran from my place, to the lake, around the lake twice, a short circle through my friend's neighborhood, then back home and around my complex twice to hit 10 miles. The humidity is not as high as it was earlier this week, and thankfully the temp is not almost 90 either, but it was pretty warm and I would not be surprised if my face is still red 2 hours from now.

Tomorrow I have a group fitness class marathon planned. Then a nap.

Happy Heart

This brings me great happiness...

and sadness that the GOTR spring 2011 season is over.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Well, I was hoping to do a duathlon (no tri since I do not yet have a wet suit) at Caesar's Creek this weekend...but apparently that will not be happening. Due to the record amounts of rain we have received this spring, it was cancelled. The lake is unsafe and 19 feet above normal and the transition area is currently under water as well as all the boat docks that are needed for the rescue kayaks/boats that are out there for the swimmers. Bummer.


Truthfully, I was waiting to see what the weather said this weekend anyway. I can run, bike, run in the rain on my own without paying $50+. So maybe I'll still do that!

And...in tru Bethany fashion, I stepped on one of Sid's bones Sunday night and cut the bottom of my foot. I'm hoping I can put normal pressure on it by tomorrow.

Time Flies

I can't believe it's been over a week since the Derby Festival Marathon...

This week my tri kit came in! My friend Kelly was kind of enough to pick it up for me. Here it is!

Front

Back

I can't  promise any pictures of me actually wearing this will ever be posted on the internet...but I have it. It makes me feel official. 

Hopefully it makes me faster too.

I also got a cycling jersey. Since I am new to cycling I didn't have any so I figured why not?

Kelly put a nice little surprise in my bag with my kit too, isn't she sweet?

This week was more relaxing than most. I felt like running on Monday, but decided to rest a little more. My focus now is going to be on getting faster. I'm hoping to get back to the track next week. Track work outs are

hard to make myself do, but I really do love how they make me feel.

Surprise present from Kelly!

  Saturday was the Girls on the Run 5K. This is one of my most favorite events in the world. The girls I coach did absolutely amazing.

I was able to be a running buddy for one of them and it was so fun to run with her, encourage her and learn even more about her. She had an amazing attitude the whole time. The energy of 900+ 8-12 year old girls is definitely contagious!

I also finally got to go to one of the Barbell classes at my gym. I used to take this type of class all the time - years ago. It felt good...but I'm sure it won't feel so good tomorrow. I counted and we did a bazillion squats. I'm looking forward to making this a regular part of my work out routine!

Race Recap Part 2

I probably should have written this blog right after the race so it would be fresh in my mind, but driving home took a little longer than anticipated (an extra 2 hours!!!)...and dinner seemed WAY more important once I finally did get home. Sorry!

The race started at 7:30 a.m. and as we walked to the starting line we saw about a dozen hot air balloons floating over the city as the sun was rising. What a gorgeous and peaceful start to the day!

Around mile 5 Jen and I started to panic that there was not going to be any Gatorade on the course...

The marathon and half marathon (or mini marathon as the Kentuckians call it) stay together for the first 8-9 miles. One of the highlights of the course is running through Churchill Downs. We stopped for a few pictures and were lucky enough to see horses running on the track too!

Finally at mile 9 there was blue Powerade. I've never been happier to see a sports drink of any kind.


We entered Iroquois Park around mile 11. This is similar to the Eden Park climb in the Flying Pig marathon. The road through the park was curvy,  hilly, and shaded. It was a nice change of pace from the flat mostly residential areas we had been running in. I believe we came out of the park around mile 16. 

Goodbye shade.

There were only small sections of shade for the remaining 10 miles. It was very sunny and warmer than ideal for marathon running. A nice wind did cool us off after we hit 20 miles, however it was a headwind. There was also Mt. Everest at mile 23.  We powered up and over the hill and into the homestretch.

It was great running together the whole time. Chatting, being quiet, encouraging each other and other runners, laughing. It amazed me how much we sill have in common all these years later! Who else could I have discussed Lauren Tanner with at mile 10?


Congrats to Jen on marathon #16 and state #13!


Stay tuned, my #7 may be sooner than later!

Race Recap Part 1

Yesterday morning was the Big Day!  But of course it all started on Friday...

We arrived in Louisville just after 3 and checked in at the hotel before walking across the street to the expo.

View of Fourth Street Live from our hotel room

Directions at the convention center

I think the race directors either forgot to pick up some signs or didn't think runners needed to know where to go once inside the convention center. The expo was much smaller than we anticipated, so after we picked up our packets and I bought a visor since I forgot a hat, we decided to do a little minor sight-seeing.

We wandered over to the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum. We arrived 5 minutes before the gift shop closed. We snooped around and took a few photos.We decided it was easiest to do the race sponsored pasta party, so we headed back over to the convention center for some pasta, salad and derby pie.

Then it was time to rest our legs and feet for the big day.

It was so much fun getting to spend time with Jen. This was only the second time we have seen each other in about 9 or so years, but it definitely didn't feel like it had been that long. We had a great time and  plan on doing at least a few more marathons together!

And apparently we both like bananas too!

I'll tell you about the race tomorrow.
 
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