Erasing the Lie, part 2

My FAKE fastest mile: 7:58
My REAL fastest mile: 7:53

Uh-huh. : )

Only two miles in endurance, but both of those in 16:14.

The only lie left to erase - fastest 10k - 52:04

That one'll take a while...

Erasing the Lie.

My nike thing keeps track of my fastest, longest, and farthest runs. For the last three weeks or so I've been annoyed at my farthest(furthest?...) distance so far - 7.14 miles because that's from the Human Race which was, obviously, only 6.2 miles.

The only way to erase it - delete the run altogether which would be sad, or beat it.

So, yesterday I beat it. I ran 7.15 miles in 1:05:05. I nearly died.
Now, .16 of that was my walking warmup, so technically I ran, what? 6.99. Oh, geez. I just realized that. That's annoying. Crud.

Whatever. The point is when I look at my trophies I can look at 7.15 and know it's the truth. I actually ran 7 miles.
The first three or so felt pretty hard, 4 and 5 were a little easier, then 6 was like toying with possible death, and then after 6.2 it was like, "I'm going to beat that stupid 7.14 like it's nothin'!"
At 7.15 I pressed my "end workout" button and all but collapsed in a stranger's yard.

But I did it. I ran 7, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 MILES! I wonder if I could do 8...

Needless to say - no run today. : )

haphazard.

that word would sum up my runs here lately.

I run with no goal in mind. I sprint. I jog. I run. half the time i don't even know where i'm going to go.

I skip one day, then two...

I have no program.

I've run three times since my last post - a total of 10 miles. I haven't run a 10k since the 11th. I'll be doing that again on...?

But i'm not going to let the haphazardness get to me. When my husband works hours that change at a moment's notice...when I have a "job" that often requires me to be out at my normal running time....when 6am is pitch black...haphazard is as good as it's gonna get.

Today i did 3.8 miles in 30 minutes. I walked after i reached a 5k.
My lofty goal of a 24 minute 5k is way too lofty. Let's make that 26 minutes.
I'm going to start doing some form of at home strength training on the days i can't run.

going the distance

I have, according to nike, run over 100 miles since august 1st. Wow!

Last night I ran 6.2 miles and it literally felt like i had run 400 miles by the time i got back. Gaw, i hurt. My stomach hurt. Like queasy hurt. I think my big lunch at chili's was not happy about the running.

But i ran. I didn't walk any of the 6.2miles and I did it in under an hour. So success.

I know at some point i need to run farther than 6.2 miles to really increase my endurance, but geez. 6 miles is impossible. a step more than that and I might die.

I have a new goal i'm aiming for. It's pretty lofty. A marathon. NOT. um, the real new goal is to run the shannon 5k in 24 minutes. That's no more than 8 minutes a mile. I have three weeks to shave off 2 minutes from my best ever time. yikes. two minutes is a pretty decent chunk of time....

let the speed training begin!

rainy run

Troy didn't get off until 8:05 and with the cloudy rainy sky and all, it was pretty dark by then. But i didn't use that as an excuse not to run.
Today I needed to run.
The house seemed a little claustrophobic...grant was...fussy. To put it mildly. A little time away with my thoughts, even spent running in the rain, was much needed.

Due to the impending darkness, I attempted speedy. I ran a mile in 8:04! Two in 16:24. I felt pretty great the whole time. Running in sprinkling rain is kind of refreshing, and as stupid as this may sound, it makes me feel "hard core." Like i'm a runner no matter what. And when I think that while running, i run faster. Hey, whatever works.

I just didn't have it in me today.

I was going to run this morning before church. Totally didn't happen. I felt almost drugged I was so sleepy this morning.

So I ran tonight. I decided to run by the river again because it's just so nice. And I wanted to get away for a bit. I was feeling pretty good and was all set to run a 10k at least.

I made it to 5 and stopped and felt as though I were two strides from death. So I stopped my nike plus workout and then walked for one song. Then I RAN one more mile. For a good piece, or about 200 meters, my pace was a 7 min mile. But over all, I ran the mile in 8:40.

I really wanted that 10k today. But I just didn't have it in me.

My knees have been hurting when I'm done running...I need to remedy that...

One really cool thing - I am almost to my 100 mile mark. Since August 1st. Of course, some of those miles were lies, but that's a heck of a lot of miles in a little over a month.

6.2 miles. For Real.

I calibrated my nike thing yesterday on the asu track. Then I ran a couple distances to make sure it was accurate. It was.

So today I ran 6.2 miles. My time: just under 55 minutes. And I was hustlin'.
My average pace was 8:48/mile.

So, that's the truth after a month of lies from nike. It's not terrible. But kind of a let down from what I thought I was doing. But it's my fault for not calibrating it.

Hills are going to be my biggest challenge. I think I'll be running in the bluffs some.
And I need to do some speed training. And i should probably figure out if I have good form when I run...

But it was a good run today. If austin was suddenly flattened out, I could beat my dad's time today. But, uh, yeah, the hills will defiinitely be there on March 29th...

Bluffs. Here I come.

Where I rank with the world.

I ran by the river today. Man, it's beautiful there. And a nice cool breeze. I ran back and forth until my still-not-calibrated nike thing told me that I had gone 4 miles. So I probably did like 3.25. Tomorrow I'll calibrate it. I must. The lies it has been telling me for a month were giving me false motivation. I need to know the real deal!

On a side note I checked today and my official rank in the Human Race:
Overall (out of like 700,000 runners worldwide): 117, 296
In Austin alone: 3,540th
Austin Females: 1,126th.

Not bad right?
Not as great as I thought i'd do, and I can do better. This race was just to see what it's like. To have the experience. Now, now, i start training. For real.

6 months. Oooh, I am going to be one lean mean running machine!