Thursday's Tempo Run

Thursday was a good day overall. Wednesday evening I ate very poorly for dinner because I was helping with the pharmacy move, but Thursday I got right back on track. I even had a Frosty-cino from Wendy's and still managed to stay under 1800 calories for the day. The Frosty-cino was sooo yummy! But, me being somewhat lactose intolerant, I should've known better. Basically dairy gives me horrible gas and bloating. Add a run to the mix and I get cramps and frequent trips to the bathroom. I know, I should've known, but I had been avoiding dairy for a long time and thought I'd give it a try.

I went home after work and grabbed a ham sandwich, waited around for an hour, then went to the gym at 8 PM for my run. I can't wait till my Garmin gets here so I don't have to train on the treadmill on beautiful days. Word to the wise - don't select the free Super Saver Shipping on Amazon. It literally takes forever. Just suck it up and pay the shipping. Anyways, I did a mile warmup at an 11 min pace, then 3 miles at a 9:45 pace, then a mile cooldown at an 11:20 pace. I felt good through the run, but was exhausted by the end of mile 4. Not to mention, I started getting random cramps halfway through from the Frosty I had eaten after lunch. Not doing that again! Overall, it was a great run. Now, I get 2 days off! I will probably go to the gym Saturday and get some strength training in. Sunday is another 6-mile run. Here's the problem with Sunday - family reunion with tons of yummy food. The goal is to get up and run before the family reunion....but I may end up pushing the long run back to Monday! Another goal for Sunday is to not eat so much that I am miserable and have to go home and sleep it off! Wish me luck!

Next run: Sunday (or Monday): Long run 6 miles

Total mileage for the week: 13! woohoo!

Long day, bad eating!

So I worked 15 hours today. I finally made it home at 12:30 AM and will be back at work at 9:00 AM. I normally don't do this, but the pharmacy I sometimes work is remodeling, so we had to move everything out of the pharmacy into a temporary pharmacy shack. This was a nightmare, and we had Taco Bell. I ate so well all day long, and have been for a couple of weeks now. I even had a bag of chocolate candy at work earlier today and only ate 1 piece! Well dinner was a disaster....I ate a bean burrito (fresco style), 2 tacos, and cinnamon twists. Then I ate a donut!! Ouch. Oh well. I hope one day I will learn not to be so weak during stressful situations. I will be back on the good diet in the morning. I don't feel too horrible because I have a nice tempo run to do after work. Hopefully I didn't ruin my weight loss effort for this week.

Easy 2-miler

I ran my 2-miler this evening after work around 8:00PM. It was so nice outside....a little on the cool side. I ran on the Kanawha Terrace in St. Albans. I enjoy running the Terrace because I can run right out my front door and end up on my route in less than 2 minutes. No driving anywhere to run. From my house to the high school is a little over a mile, so I ran to the high school and back.

Today I realized how much I enjoy running. When you're actually in shape, these runs are very pleasant. I used to blow these small runs off, but I know how important they are for building my mileage and clearing my head. These are the runs that take very little effort, and give you a chance to focus on just being outside enjoying your surroundings. A nice change from crawling to my car after my 6 miler on Sunday.

Next run: Thursday - Tempo Run
Dist: 5 mi - 1 mi warm-up; 3 mi @ 9:45; 1 mi cool-down

Total miles so far this week: 8

Long Run #1 - 6 miles

I went on my first long run of my training plan on Sunday. It was 6 miles. First, I did a walk at the State Capitol for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. They raised over $120,000! It was a lap around the Capitol complex, which is actually pretty long. Anyways, I walked to the Kanawha Boulevard from the Capitol to do my run. Running on the Blvd is so amazing and beautiful. The Blvd is a stretch that runs from the eastern end of Charleston (past where the Capitol is) to the west end of Charleston at Patrick Street. A running marker to start at is the 35th Street Bridge. Once you reach the west end, you go over a bridge to the other side of the river into South Charleston and end up on MacCorkle Ave. This ends up being a 4 mile run from point to point. From there you can either run the other side of river back to Kanawha City, or you can continue into South Charleston.

Anyways, the river route is amzing. Here's a picture of part of the run:

photo courtesy of http://family-images.com/wv/index1.htm

The State Capitol is that little blob in the upper right on the left side of the river right above all those trees. This view shows about 2 miles of the Blvd. I think this is a fairly old picture, as things on the right of the river don't look nearly as developed as they are now. I will have to find a newer picture for you guys. But, anyways you get the idea of how pretty this run can be!

So, I felt good most of the run, till about mile 5, then I was struggling with it. I stopped at a couple water fountains for a few seconds to refill my little water bottle. I was going to make it! I started looking for the big green Greenbrier Street interstate sign. Greenbrier street was my final destination. About 1/2 mile out I could see the sign. A sigh of relief!! But this last 1/2 mile was really testing me. I passed someone I knew walking her dog and shouted "hi" at her. Almost there....1/4 mile left. I'm thinking, "come on, Tammy, you can do it". Elizabeth street. Just one block away! When I finished my lungs felt like they were going to explode. I was panting. So much for an easy run. I have no idea what pace I was going at the end....I started off at a very comfortable pace...probably around an 11 minute per mile pace. I'm not sure if I sped up or was just not in shape enough for that long of a run. I am waiting for my Garmin Forerunner 405 watch to come in, then pace won't be a question. I staggered back to the Capitol, collapsed under a tree and stretched for a few minutes. Then I staggered to my car, stopped at 7-11 and got a G2, and went home to rest.

Next run: Tuesday - Easy run, 2 miles