hell repeats

Oops, I mean hill repeats. Same thing. Tonight's group run was from the Spot and we went to the Rookwood mansion area to do some hill repeats. For those of you that don't know, that means we run up and down the same hill over and over again. In my case 3 times. With the warm up and cool down (which were just as hilly I might add...) it ended up being about 4.5 miles but a 4.5 that was tough on my butt! I will be feeling it tomorrow!

I forgot to mention my next running wish list item. I would like to get a running skirt. I had a small problem with chafing on Saturday (anyone who has seen this will argue that it is no small problem) that I would like to avoid this Saturday. It is on my inner thigh and I could feel it happening but there was nothing I could do and now it's a bunch of scabs that looks like no other chafing I have experienced. Lovely, I know but this is my marathon journey after all...

On a pooch note, Madison and Marley are now the best of friends, sharing/stealing rawhide and running around together all day long. I also got about 30 pics of Madison developed tonight so I can make a little scrapbook to bring home to show my family when I go home in August. I am looking forward to some relaxing at the beach, nighttime campfire sits, and nice scenic runs (hopefully some with my dad and/or sister). Of course I will miss my pooches (and Ryan)!

long run+gorgeous weather=best feeling

So I didn't quite make it to yoga on Friday--it was my first night alone with the puppy and I did not sleep much at all. I will plan to go next week though.

Yesterday was our long run down at the New Balance Glendale store. It was at a new time of 7:30 which, due to the little pooch, I was awake at anyways. It was a beautiful day--dry and cool. We did a 6.6 mile loop with water at about 3 miles. I also ate my Clif Shot then which was very warm and gooey. I was way towards the back of the pack but with a group of about 5-6 girls. Then we were back at the store for water and did another 2.4 mile loop to total 9 miles. I missed Karrie who slept in accidentally, but luckily I had my ipod to keep me company! I felt really good afterwards and happy that I completed all 9 miles without a problem. Last night I was sore, mostly my knee, randomly. I am taking today off although we did do a lap around the block with both pooches early this morning.

I found my ipod!

Here's another one of Madison and I found my ipod! It was in Ryan's office--go figure! Now, if only the weather would cooperate--it's been thunderstorming all day! Tomorrow morning I head to Mason to do yoga with Karrie which is one of the things I told myself I would do differently this marathon...stretch!

I took Tuesday off to spend with Ryan's parents and then ran another 3 yesterday but didn't get out at all today. I think we were spoiled having Ryan's parents here to watch the pooch and today I just couldn't find time between the storms and watching Madison. I'm worried about Saturday's long run!

short and sweet

After a night of getting up at 1am and 4am for an hour each time to bring Madison out and then play with her until she was tired enough to fall back to sleep without crying, I got up at 8:30 for my morning run. The weather was great but it was getting warm...I only did 2.8 miles (cut it short due to a fence crew which I had already run past 2 times and didn't feel like doing a 3rd) but it felt good. My blister is taken care of but my toenail is still really bothering me. Also I couldn't find my ipod (still can't, which drives me crazy!) so the run was a little boring. But I took along a water bottle and sipped every 1/2 mile which seemed to keep me hydrated.

Instead of coffee this morning I tried the new smoothie from Caribou Coffee which supposedly has electrolytes as well as caffeine. I'm not really feeling the effects quite yet but we'll see...

see my pooches!

You can now visit Madison's dogster page and Marley's dogster page!

saturday's long run and Madison

Well, Madison is here! She's been a lot of fun so far and Marley has even started warming up to her.

Saturday's long run was from the Spot at O'Bryonville and there were 5 choices for routes. Karrie and I chose the 7.4 mile route and I did pretty well. I went SLOWLY because I knew I had to in order to make it that far (which is not that far really...but now it seems it) and walked up hills about 4 times but other than that kept it going the whole time. The weather was great--it was probably about 60 degrees and sunny which was excellent. Greg was there at our Gatorade stop at about mile 3.5 and I carried a water bottle with me until then, sipping about every 1/2 mile or so. After that no water till the Spot though so I was kind of thirsty--and HUNGRY! I had my standard Panera cinnamon crunch bagel afterward as usual.

I am taking today off and possibly Monday too...I'll have to see how I feel. I have a huge blister on my right foot on the side kind of near the ball of my foot. Also my problem toenail is seeming to be problematic again!

Here's a picture of Madison--many more to come! Also you can visit her webpage at dogster.com as soon as I have it set up! I will put a link here then. And, I have a new computer--a laptop! I love it! My computer crashed on Friday the 13th and there was no recovery. I wasn't planning on buying a new computer but I was going crazy not being able to check email and blogs so...

morning runs

Despite the fact that I would have rather stayed in bed this morning, it was only about 60 degrees for my run and there was even a little breeze. I did 3 miles total, walking for 1/10 of a mile every mile while I drank water (as though I was hitting water stops in a race) and ran at "marathon pace" which I equate with slow (5.5 mph or so) or about 11 minute miles. I did a 1/2 mile cool down walk and polished off my water at the end. My route was up through the "old" neighborhood and I did 3 loops up there before coming back down to my neighborhood. I reasoned that it was flatter and if I wasn't running past my house there would be no temptation to walk.

I will take tomorrow off (says so on the schedule) to be with the puppy and in preparation for Saturday's long run. We are picking up Madison at 10am tomorrow and Ryan's parents are coming into town on Saturday.

Here's a little dog humor for you!