I Tri and Craft

thoughts from a mother of boys, a marathoner, a triathlete, a crafter, a wife, and a scientist

Tag Archives: Let’s Run


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Running Log ~ Aug 12th

Sorry, another running post, when I know you were looking for something crafty.

I haven’t had time for new crafts, but I keep trying to run.  Because you can all see the countdown on the side bar.  My big race is coming soon!

My cousin and I made a big leap on Saturday morning.  We ran 10 miles.

Yep I said.  10 miles.

OK.  I didn’t really run all ten miles, but I completed 10 miles. And that’s just as good.

Here’s how it went:

D wanted to run on Sat morning with another of her running friends A (who brought H with her).  D wanted to meet at 6, that’s six in the morning.  I got it all worked out for who had kid duty so I could make the run.  Then she says let’s meet at 5:30 so she could go to dragon boat practice downtown at 9 a.m.  I know, she’s crazy!

But I agreed to meet at 5:30.  Who’s crazy now?

get up lady!

We all met and started our run.  Since I don’t have Sid and his stroller with me I had to put my water and snack in a little back pack (not the best idea).  There was no way I could do 9-10 miles on 16 ounces of water.  I was happy I had all the water, but later in the day my back hurt.

At first I’m running along at pace with them when I realize I am running too fast.  And by too fast, I do mean too fast for me.  Since my lung sickness I can’t run faster than a 12 min/mile or my lungs will explode.

These ladies were running slow for us, but they were probably about a 10 min/mile (or so, I’m just guessing).  The first time I had to slow down and walk to take a drink they politely stopped and waited for me.  I told them, don’t worry I’ll catch up.

run

At about 4.5 miles we all stopped for a break, because that’s where the rest room was.  After mile 5 I had to stop and clip a toenail because it had cut into the toe next to it and was starting to hurt.

I ended up walking about half of mile six.  I had decided I needed the break and I told myself at mile 7 I would run the remaining three miles.  Because three miles is easy.

The other three ladies stopped at mile 7 for a break and for me to catch up.  At which point D and I told A & H to go on ahead and we would see them back at the cars.

That was the longest three miles of my life.  After about a mile I look up and see the bridge that, not only do we have to get to, but we have to pass.

OH MY GOD! I’M NEVER GONNA MAKE IT!

But I have to make it, because, well that’s where my car is.  So we walked and we ran and we walked and we ran.  We kept putting one foot in front of the other and continued with our forward motion.  And we made it back to our cars.  After we completed the 10 mile distance.  To find A & H waiting for us with coffee.

Yep.  My very first double-digit.

Run

I had thought adding one more mile shouldn’t have been that hard, but it was actually two more miles.  Because last week was only eight miles.  I also realized that I had not run at all from Sunday to Saturday.  That was a huge mistake.  I need to run at least two shorter runs in between these long runs.  My body just isn’t conditioned to wait that long.

We are going to try to do another 10 miler this weekend, then 9 the weekend before the big race.

 

 

 

Just. Keep. Running.

C25K interval information can be found here

Dawn Marie

 

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For motivation image sources, just click on the pictures.


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Running Log ~ Aug 7th

24 days

I have just 24 days until my very first half marathon.

Holy crap! TWENTY-FOUR-DAYS!

yep, that’s me shouting and kinda freaking out.

I go back and forth on my confidence in my ability to complete this task.  Why you ask?

Honestly? I have no idea.

I have read articles written by people who are more out of shape & have less running experience than me, who have completed this task.  I tell myself, “why you so afraid? if they can you can!”  But every time I get ready for a long run, I get butterflies in my tummy.  Nerves. I am getting nervous on a run? which isn’t even a race? Why? The only person I’ll be letting down is myself.  The only person I have anything to prove to, is myself.  I am only competing against myself.

But you know what?  I still go on that run and I finish it. Every time.

 

The Workout Motivator

 

My lungs burn my feet swell.  When we first took off on Sunday my ankle hurt.  I was so mad about that.  I had gotten over my shin-splints bought new shoes and now my ankle hurts!  So I kept running, and eventually the pain went away.  I don’t mean I just ignored it, I mean it didn’t hurt.  I don’t know when it happened, but about half way through I realized my ankle didn’t hurt.  Simply because now my body was warmed up and blood was flowing.  The pain wasn’t an injury, but just a little protest from a joint that hadn’t really woken up yet.

 

 

I pant and I sweat.  I curse and I laugh.  And I walk to rehydrate.

Half my brain says “I can’t do this” and the other half shouts “SHUT UP! YES YOU CAN!” And so I keep running.  OK, sometimes I walk, but I’m fine with that.  If it will take walking intervals for me to complete my distance, who cares?

I go the distance.

 

This past Sunday we clocked 8 miles in.  And the pace was a minute faster than the week before.  Even pushing that stroller with Sid in it.

 

running quote, running motivation, run inspiration, 13.1 running rockstar half-marathon by oursoleintent, $15.00 #oursoleintent #livelovemove

This will be my motto for the race.  I just have to keep it in mind.

 

Just. Keep. Running.

C25K interval information can be found here

Dawn Marie

 

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Running Log ~ July 29th

I have been looking for a used inexpensive jogging stroller for a while now.  I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on it as I don’t know how long I would really use it.  The boys are older and they won’t be a stroller forever.  I understand that there are wonderful strollers out there that are worth the hundreds of dollars spent on them.  But I am cheap, and just didn’t want to spend $100+ on a used stroller.  Hell, I didn’t want to spend more than fifty bucks.

And when I say I was looking, I mean I was waiting for a cheap stroller to find me.

It finally did.

I was driving home from work one day and I saw it on the sidewalk with a for sale sign.  I called and talked the guy down in price.

Friday night Ian spent the night at my mom’s so Saturday morning I thought was the perfect time to break the stroller in.

my 'new' stroller

 

I got some snacks for Sid, his blanket, his toy and water for me and we hit the road.

Sid's 'new' ride

It was my slowest pace since I started running again.

I didn’t think there would be a difference in running and running while pushing a stroller.  But there is.  It is harder.

One thing that helps with your pace is the movement of your arms.  When you push a stroller you either don’t move your arms or you only move one arm.  Plus it’s heavy and Sid is no light weight, so I have that extra weight.

But we made it, we did four miles that morning.  Plus I had a place for all my water.  I drink a lot of water while running and while I have a hand bottle, it isn’t enough.

The next morning I had a running date with my cousin.  She and I have not done any long runs in well over a month and we have a half marathon coming up.  Every week from now until then we will be doing at least one long run, and Sunday we started with 7 miles.

I hadn’t planned on bringing Sid, but he woke up just as I was getting ready to leave.  Not to worry, I can just bring him.

Which in all honesty, I was happy about, because I was concerned about my water intake on a 7 mile run.  I had finished about 40 ounces the day before on a 4 mile run, so how would I make it through 7 with only 16….But since I had my stroller it wasn’t an issue.  Plus we could bring our snacks and my cousin didn’t need to wear her running belt.

Again it was hard, but we did it.  We were slower than snails in peanut butter, but we did all 7 miles.  After, we were all “I could have done another mile or two.”

And that slow pace allowed us to talk.  Because for long distances you should run at a pace where you can maintain a conversation.  Right?  So it was good for us.

 

 

I don’t plan on taking a kid with me on all my runs, but having a jogging stroller gives me a little more flexibility.  It will allow me to go running during the times that I have only one kid, instead of always having to wait till they go to bed.  Plus the more I train with a stroller, the easier it will be when I don’t have one.

 

 

Sid didn't couldn't hang for 7mi

Sid doesn’t seem to mind riding in the stroller, even if it did put him to sleep.

 

Just. Keep. Running.

C25K interval information can be found here

Dawn Marie

 

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Running Log ~ April 10th

My first running log of April.

I completely forgot to write about my run last Sunday.  I also had internet issues, but we won’t get into that.

Last Sunday I ran the Bridge to Brews 8k.  I wanted to run the 10K, but then decided to just do an 8k again and try to beat my time.

My cousin and I before the race

My cousin (the tall one) and me (the short one) before the race

Here is the map of the run

Bridge to Brews course map

But you know what it doesn’t show?  The bitch of a hill at the VERY END of the race.  For the last mile we go from an elevation of 26 feet to 135 feet!  With the last 1/4 of a mile raising something like 80 feet!

I wanted to run the whole five miles with out walking, which would give me a better time.  Which was the result I was looking for in this race.

I ran with my cousin and we are about level with our pacing, so all we had to do was keep together.

When we got to the Broadway bridge, the second bridge, the on ramp was an incline, and I decided I just wasn’t going to run it.  So I walked up the ramp and caught back up with my cousin on the other side of the bridge.

When we got off the bridge is when the hill started and I made it part way before I decided I just couldn’t run up it.  It was just too steep and I was just too tired.  Maybe I could have done it, but at that point I was pleased with my results and I felt it was just fine that I walk a little.

I did start running again towards the finish line, I wanted to make sure I was running when I crossed!

20140410-132638.jpg

During the race I had the Map My Run app going so that I would know my pace.  The difficult thing with this is that you have to start and stop it.  I started as we crossed the start line, but I forgot to stop it, so that added a couple of minutes to my total time and thus my average pace.

However, the app breaks down my pace for each mile.

Mile Pace (min/mi)
1 11:28
2 11:13
3 10:38
4 11:51

Can you see that?

Our third mile we were rocking under an 11 min/mi pace!

I finished just under an hour at 59:13 min and since my cousin didn’t walk when I did at the very end she finished about a minute and a half ahead of me.  Which is awesome because she hadn’t done a 8k until this run!

20140410-132409.jpg

the ‘sweaty selfie’

I am pleased with our progress and of course because we are crazy, we are going to run a half-marathon at the end of August.

What?  Did I just say that?

A half-marathon is 13.1 miles.  So that is just like running two 8k races, and I can do an 8k, so it will be easy-peasy.

 

Just. Keep. Running.

C25K interval information can be found here

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