Long, slow distance day - hooray! Like I said in last week's posting, this is my favorite day in the training schedule because I get my ME time. Today, on the training schedule, we are suppose to be doing 10 miles. We decided to meet at the Windsor Town Green and head out Star Rd. I love this run - it's peaceful and has plenty of rolling hills. We ended up doing a total of two hours which gave us 10.2 miles at an average pace of 11:44 - which was just a tad slower than the target pace the training schedule suggested, but it felt good and my average heart rate was at the lower end of the range I needed to stay in.
After our run, two ladies in our group had to take off for their busy day, but Cathy and I sat and enjoyed coffee, a snack and good conversation for about an hour. It's always so great when we get to do this! Just sitting, relaxing and enjoying good conversation. I was hoping this would lead to a relaxing afternoon at home but no such luck. After breakfast with James & the kids and a shower, I was getting ready to curl up on the couch with a book while James took the kids to run some errands when I got a text message that ruined my afternoon. It was about a mom in my afternoon carpool wanting to change how we had it set up, for the third week in a row, just because she (and I do quote) "just don't want to do it." SERIOUSLY??!!! So I spent the afternoon trying to make other, new, permanent arrangements for my daughter's pickup on Mondays so that I would know that she was being taken care of.
Monday 9/26/11
Today is a rest day to recover from the longer run. After driving the morning carpool to school, I camped out at a Starbucks to get a bunch of computer work done and I also got to visit with a friend. We chatted about our kids, the problems she was experiencing with her son who's having a hard time adjusting to Kindergarten, and about a slew of other "mom" topics. It made a super productive morning, which was great, because whenever I can get all my work and errands done while the kids are at school, it means more time for me to focus on them when they are home from school and I get home from work.
My afternoon at work was pretty good. Lots of new clients in the program who are fairly eager to add fitness back into their lives. Once again though, carpool drama took place, which got me thinking about it all over again...
Tuesday 9/27/11
So today was suppose to a be a slow recovery run, but the previous afternoon's phone call/conversation about carpool again had me all fired up. So as Cathy and I were suppose to be running nice and slow, I started venting to her about my carpool drama. This is what we do when we run.... we help each other through the problems that have come up in our day to day schedules. So Cathy listened and bounced ideas around with me, but since I was emotionally heated, we ran way too fast! This is a theory that we have come up with and proven to ourselves over and over again during our three plus years of running together - when we're talking about something that gets us emotionally charged, we unintentionally run faster. I apologized to Cathy and took full responsibility for the derailment from our training plans for the day! We got our mileage in (four miles) but our pace was 9:51 when it should have been 11:23. Oopsy! But I felt better!
Wednesday 9/28/11
All of the runs this week are suppose to be slow runs, since we built up for two weeks. I have had to think about it as a "recovery week". Today's runs was suppose to be five miles at an 11:23 pace. I ran an errand after driving the morning carpool, and then started on my run around 9:30am. It was already hot and muggy, which I have to say, I am completely over running in! I am so ready for more fall time weather. My run went really well today. I did my five miles at an average pace of 11:19. My average heart rate was just a tad high (two beats per minute) but running in muggy heat does that to me. I drank my entire 24 oz bottle of water in the hour I was running.
Had another good afternoon at work, but am now having a but of drama with my Wednesday childcare. Hoping to work this out in the next couple days so things can be less stressful.
Thursday 9/29/11
Today on the schedule is another low-key run. I met up with Cathy at her house and we were both kind of stressed out. I'm was still ruminating over carpool and childcare issues while she was dealing with computer/internet/virus issues. We both seriously needed to run. As we started to head out, her two dogs started having a mini-fit because they wanted to go out too. So we adjusted our plan to include them. Cathy ran with Teddy (who accompanies us on runs a lot)
and I got the honor of running with Trixie - the Chihuahua.
It has now been decided that Trixie - the Chihuahua is a sprinter, not an endurance athlete! She sprinted the whole 0.75 miles to the turn around spot and promptly decided that, that was as far as she was going to go. We even tried just walking a little bit, but not even than would keep Trixie moving. Our solution.... I picked her up and jogged back a good half mile carrying her! Oh my gosh - Cathy and I were in stitches we were laughing so hard! And let me tell you, carrying a 7 lbs Chihuahua in your arms while trying to run is comical and a good biceps workout. When we got back to the corner of Cathy's street, I put Trixie down and Cathy said "Shall we run home and get a cookie?" By golly, Trixie took off sprinting again.... all the way home! It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. It was also a great way to break both Cathy and I of our stressful moods.
After getting the dogs settled in the house with their cookies, Cathy and I headed out for the rest of our run. By the time we were done, we had 5.55 miles at an average pace of 10:28 (this included our run with the dogs!). Definitely a little too fast when compared to the training schedule, but it was just what we both needed.
I had three kids to pick up from school today. Jazper's friend, JP, was coming over for a playdate. I had a giant fort in the living room, then a giant train track in the living room. They had a blast and ate a ton of food! I also had a message from the class parent for Sevannah's 2nd grade class. She was calling to recruit me to be the Class Parent Team Purchaser. Basically, when the teacher needs some supplies for the classroom, the Purchaser goes out and gets what is needed and then submits the receipts to the office to get reimbursed. Apparently the parent who had originally signed on to do this decided it wasn't the job for her when it required driving out of Sebastopol. So I of course said yes, because helping out with things that are needed for my kids and their school is a priority for me; and being a working parent, I cannot always be in the classroom so I like to help out whenever I can.
Friday 9/30/11
Cross-training day = Carido Kick Boxing today! It's a bittersweet day because my friend who teaches the class has decided to turn her focus to other things, so today is our last class. I'm happy for her, because it's time for a change and it's going to be good for her and her family, but I will miss the class. It was a great class and I was dripping sweat by the time we were done. I had my son, Jazper with me, because he had woken up with a funny cough. He stayed curled up in the back of the room with his pillow and his duck, Duckie,
and rested until it was time for stretching. Then he came over and stretched with us.
Saturday 10/1/11
Once again, I woke up being really sore across my shoulders and upper back from kickboxing yesterday. Got the kids and myself ready to go for my Outdoor Family Fitness class. We held class at a different location today because the Gran Fondo was taking place at Finley Park where we usually have class. Today was Double Strength Day, which is a hard class! Everyone did really well. After class we went to coffee and chatted until everyone had to get going on their errands. Had an extra child today, one of my best friends' daughters because my friend had a funeral to go to. I had to run some errands for my new position as Purchaser for 2nd grade. The classroom was missing some painting rags so I needed to find similar fabric, wash & dry it, and cut it down to the appropriate sizes. I got it purchased, washed and dried today. I'll cut it to size tomorrow.
At home after errands, the three kids played and had lunch while I did chores. After my friend picked up her daughter and the kids were in bed I prepped my things for tomorrow morning. We're running the Harvest Fair 10K for time. Here's hoping for some great times... maybe even some PRs (personal records)!
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