Let's do this!

Weights, elliptical hell for 58 min, then 4.75 running outside. 

I'm not done for the day. Tempo run tonight on the JRP. 

4.5 on the JRP in the pm -tempo run with Walter. Pukealicious

Elliptical hell for 59 minutes....I couldn't handle one more minute on that thing.

Ran 4.25

Long run tomorrow.

Long run alone today. I wasn't sure how far I was going to go. The first 3 miles it was dark so I wore my headlamp. I dropped the lamp on my lawn after the first loop. 2nd loop I picked up the speed a little more. After the 2nd loop I was 7.2 miles in. I stopped at my house for 2 minutes. Needed a drink, a gel chew with caffeine, and 1 little powerbar cookie chew. Off again for 3 more loops of 3.5 miles each. I saw Merri and Susan at 8.40, then at 10.5 I saw McKenzie and Aubrey. Fun.

around miles 9-18 I really picked up the pace. I'll post splits. The avg pace for all 17.75 was a 7:35. Not lightening fast but pretty good for a long training run.

Splits: 8:21,7:49,7:37,7:49,7:53,7:32,7:28, 7:43,7:26,7:13,7:15,7:31,7:32,7:32,7:31,7:29,7:35,5:42

gym at 5:45 so I could stand around and talk whilst pretending to lift weights. I feel like a failure.

Came home and ran 8 miles. Pretty outside today. 7:35 avg pace.

3 miles, and 48 min elliptical. Weights.

8th female, 4th in age group 30-34, 37th overall of male & female.

My body must love a 20 minute 5k time. :)  I forgot how hard this course it. I also forgot how many elite's show up for this. 

Not much to talk about except that I was able to meet Andrea at the start. She's a cute gal. The cannon shot is the worst. It is SO loud! Heart thumping, my goodness.

I know my fitness is there, I was not winded. I know my body does not like to run up steep hills, something I've known for a long long time I need to work on it. But considering how hard this 5k course is, I cannot whine about the time I did. I ran it to help gain some speed before SGM. I need to find a few others as well to run.

Splits: 6:07, 6:17, 6:47 -the hill in the last mile is long and it killed me. But I held my 8th position all through it so I'm okay with it. I missed Allie and fiddy today though :(  Oh - also, my Garmin showed the race distance was a little over.

3.1  cool down run

55 min elliptical,worked core, weights, 9 miles outside running.

Splits: 7:51 7:41 7:13 6:58 7:11 7:03 7:24 7:20 7:26

10.25 miles, 3.5 of sprint intervals. 

Elliptical hell for about 30 minutes. 

Woke up late. Grrr

Weights, 22 min elliptical hell.

River trail loop twice. 7 miles. Hosed by the sprinklers in the face. I saw Mr. Ax murderer on the trail again today. He was talking to two older men, he had a smile on his face. Maybe he's not so much a murderer at all?!  :)

Last mile TylerS passed by me in his truck. He slowed and rolled  down his window and we exchanged a hi-ya  :)

Noted the last few weeks: I don't cup my hands the way I used to for years anymore while running. What in the world? Everything has changed about my running.

Elliptical hell for 17 minutes. I lifted some weights on my hammies, bad idea.

 Left home and ran 15 miles on the trail and up canyon road in the wind, turned around and came back down. Long morning. Glad it's over. My right quad is kind of buggin'. Currently icing. 

Off to Capital reef National Park till tomorrow. Then Salem days 5k Saturday. Hopefully my quad feels better by Saturday.

5.3 miles. 3.5 in my quad starting hurting again. Oh no! not again! - was all I could think.

Looks like I'll be banished to the elliptical for a bit to see if this problem can heal up. 2011 isn't my year for feeling good running.  

I was supposed to run the Salem days 5k today. But I listened to the inner voice screaming inside my heart not to race today. So glad I didn't.

7 miles walk/jog on the river trail while talking to Julie bout life. Taking it easy on the quad.

75 minutes Elliptical. Weights.

5.4 running on the river trail. avg pace 7:47 Everything feels okay today in the quad. Just a touch sore. Hopefully it continues to improve and get better. I've been using and electrical current machine on it for 3 nights now. I think it's helping speed healing. 

60 min elliptical and I talk to much at the gym haha!

8 miles outside in under an hour.Let's see how do I describe today.....

No pain in my quad! I feel so good! My fitness is improving each week. I can tell. My first mile is usually always my slowest, wake-up mile. Then after that, my body just did what it knows best, running smooth and quick. I glanced at my watch at the 2 mile mark and saw split was: 7:16. I was shocked because it felt like I wasn't working very hard. Then mile 3 split: 6:59 -still felt very easy. Mile 4: 7:06. Mile 5: 7:11. And so on until the end of my run. I never below the 7:11 pace. I got emotional around mile 4 because I remembered hitting this point last year in my training, where I started hitting 7 minutes for my average everyday (non speedwork) runs. I feel like I am a little jaded after my injury this winter, and all the pain in and out's I've been through since the spring. Hurting somewhere off and on. Fighting the voices of doubt. But the last few weeks, minus the quad strain from last week, I feel something clicking inside me both physically and mentally and I am within grasp of the 3 hr marathon. If I can keep healthy, and training in this way, I know it is attainable. 

I don't run to compete with anybody. Never have. Not my style. I run for the self improvement. The joy. The self mastery. And that's the way I'd like to keep it. Bring on Hobble Creek! I'm ready.

Splits: 7:40, 7:16, 5:59, 7:06, 7:11, 7:06, 7:10, 7:11.

Weights. 55 min elliptical and 4.57 running outside. I feel kind of sore and lacking umph. I think I need to taper down.

I was feeling a little sore and heavy legged yesterday after my workout. So I rolled good last night and this morning I decided to take it a little easier and no impact. 1 hr 26 min elliptical hell. :) Tomorrow I will rest.

Random: I still would rather run TOU. Am I crazy? If I knew I'd have a place to sleep, I'd soooooo register right now for it. I feel nostalgic about that place now  :)

Hobble Creek half: 6th overall female, 38th of male and female, 2nd plc age division.

I love the hobble course! It really is a gentle rolling downhill. Woke up at 4:30 and met my friend Monica at the bus loading in Mapleton. We met up with Julie, her hubby Adam and Scott Wesemann. The bus ride up seemed so long. I had been worried this week about running this because of the quad strain I had nine days ago. I have felt it a bit off and on. So a few days ago I said a prayer that it would resolve itself, and it has.

We were the first bus up there and he dropped us right at the starting lines. We got clean POP's. :)  The race didn't start to to late. 7:39 the gun fired. I started out with Jen Hughes, who went on to win Hobble Creek for the females. And this part I want to be the focus of my race report. I ran with her for the first 7 miles. We paced each other. I always feel good with another person nearby. Both of us working together was awesome. Around mile 7 I looked up ahead at the pack of 4 Women who were in the lead. I know that Jen Hughes has been running her very best this year and she has the drive to do amazing things. So, I looked over at her and said: Jen you can reign those women in and win this. I know you can. She looked at me and said: but I don't know Lily!  I looked back at her and said I KNOW YOU CAN. GO for it! And guess what? SHE DID! She bolted from me at that very moment. And for the next 4 miles I watched Jen pick off those women one by one. I know I am one of those emotional chics about running, and today was no exception. I teared up several times watching Jen full on sprint into the lead and fight to the finish against Julie Thomas. And YES, she won!

I lost sight of them the last 1.5 miles. So during my own race running, I held a 6:30 avg during all 13.1 miles. This was a total breakthrough for me in a 1/2 marathon distance.In the past, I think in the last couple miles I would start hitting low 7's. So today felt great.  During miles 9-10, I was able to pick off 5 men one by one. I leaned into my run and felt things getting easier and easier. Mile 12, TylerS and Travis (local SF runners, Very talented) they passed by me and gave me words of encouragement. This helped me so much to keep my drive going. During the last mile I felt bouyed up by the words and cheers of the spectators. It felt really good. A sojourner volunteer riding a bike up the course passed by and said keep it up, you are 6th female, there is a women about 20 seconds behind you. That was all I needed to hear! My last mile I dug deep and found a 6:13 split. Usually I'm toast in the very last mile! I felt so good finishing and seeing my kids as usual and hearing people call my name. Nice! After wards I wandered back up the course and found Julie, and ran in with her. She did GREAT!

Jen Hughes found me after the race, and we hugged and shed a few tears. She thanked me for giving her the words of encouragement that she knew she needed to not only catch up, but win the half. She said every time she felt like she had nothing left, she would hear my voice saying: I know you can do this. And she did! She ROCKED IT!

I liked this course. I'll be back next year. And congrats to everyone else that finished it today! 

Splits:6:13, 6:24, 6:23, 6:25, 6:23, 6:20, 6:38, 6:37, 6:40, 6:50, 6:49, 6:51, 6:13

I'm pretty sore from Saturday. So no running. But I did manage 1 hr and 40 minutes of elliptical hell. Don't ask me how I mentally pulled that off. I don't remember much, I talked to Julie for a lot of it. So it took my mind off it. 

Weights. I gotta start eating more clean again. I haven't been eating good for about 12 days and I can tell. I feel soft and a little pudgy. That sucks!

The McMillian calculator, which actually accurately predicted my marathon time for last year, predicted a 2:59 marathon for me this year. Oh I hope! St Geezy and me=sub 3. I'll try my best!

quads are toast. 60 min elliptical hell in the afternoon. Slept through my alarm.

Quads are still toast. I feel better, but they are still fatigued. 55 min elliptical. 3 miles running, that's all I could muster out today. Time to hit some BCCA supplement. 

55 min ellitpical and 7 miles running on the river trail. My legs still have some fatigue in them. Hopefully I'm all good by Saturday.

Weights and chatting with Julie (good times!).

10 miles running around the trail and various. 

I think I am going to race TOU and either skip SGM or run it slower.

I haven't been a good blog commenter for awhile. I feel bad, it's just that I've been so busy this summer. I'm trying though.

Weights, full body. Elliptical hell for 45 minutes. Ran 4.5 

weights for 20 minutes. 

Ran 10 miles with Merri and Sue. Loved it.

 We had a creepy experience near the river bottoms. We came upon some loud noises and big movements off the side of the road in talls weeds and trees. The road was pitch black. We stopped and Sue grabbed rocks ( I had pepper spray as well as Merri). The noises and movement continued and we turned around and bolted outa there. We really picked up speed just getting away. So creepy!