Runner's Rambles: Vacation Running and National Running Day

Happy National Running Day!! It's one of the best holidays of the year! I celebrated with a short night run

after work. I absolutely love running at night during the summer. I'm not really sure why because it is usually still pretty hot at night because the heat radiates up from the pavement, but I guess I just like that I feel less exposed when it's dark. Believe me, I wear plenty of reflective gear to try my best to be seen by cars, but I just feel more like I'm flying than running at night even though I am not fast enough to consider what I do flying.

I am happy to say that my Summer Streak is firmly intact after going on a trip to Colorado to see two of my good friends get married! I got altitude sickness after their mountain top wedding, but even though they were probably the slowest miles of my life, I still ran at least one mile every day! Running can be difficult on vacation to say the least, but if you don't have to do super long runs, and your spouse or family doesn't mind you logging a few miles, then it is definitely doable! I just hopped on the hotel's "dreadmill" most days, but I did log some miles on a nearby trail!

At Garden of the Gods with my handsome husband, Matthew!

Garden of the Gods

Mountain View during my last run in Colorado

We got to go to the Olympic Training Center.

As another gift to me for NRD, when I went to my chiropractor this morning, he said that I am ready for PT, and I can start slowly increasing my daily mileage! So I upped my mileage a bit tonight as well! I am a bit bummed that my running in my current neighborhood is coming to an end this week as I officially move out to the 'burbs, but I am mainly bummed that I never figured out where the house is that JLaw "lived in" in Silver Linings Playbook. I will not at all miss the ridiculous traffic and getting honked at every day even though I am on the sidewalk out of the way. On one hand, I am pretty excited to find new routes after I move. On the other hand, I am not stoked that I have to go through runs in an unfamiliar place, so I will likely have some good stories about getting lost!

National Running Day 2013

I was so pumped at the beginning of this week. It was supposed to be my first week of my break, and I was so excited to get in some quality beast-mode time. On Monday morning, I pulled my hip flexor a little. I tried to rest up and do some yoga on Tuesday. There was a little bit of soreness still this morning, but I wanted to run so badly after taking yesterday to rest up. I started off with a little bit of stretching and walking and more stretching. It is a beautiful day here in PA, and I was ready to soak it all in on a short run.

I have two different 5k routes that start/end at my house, so I decided to run the route that I haven't really been running lately to shake it up. I also set out with my old school Timex sport watch since I already knew the distance, and I just wanted to run without constantly checking my pace on my Garmin. Sometimes it's nice to just run without a specific goal in mind.

I had a few hiccups along the way today. I had to deal with crews working on power lines and road resurfacing. And then there were the more startling encounters. I saw a little bunny as I was running, and when it finally saw me, it quickly darted back out into the road, but there was a truck right there, and I may have shrieked, "NO!" as they narrowly missed the little guy. I was so scared that the bunny was going to die, and I think the driver in the truck thought I was going to die based on my reaction, but we were both fine, and I pressed on. About half a mile later, I saw a street sweeper going down a cross street, so I slowed some, and then the driver waved me on. When I was in the middle of the street directly in front of the sweeper, it suddenly lunged forward scaring the bajeezus out of me, and I sprinted faster than I have in quite awhile. (Probably not since I got chased by a schizophrenic woman.)

All in all, I guess I owe a thank you to the bunny and the street sweeper for getting my heart rate up and my feet moving because I ran my first sub 30 minute 5k today despite the soreness in my hip flexor. I am just wishing I could run that in a race. I have never been fast, and I still don't claim to be, but it was nice to run sub 30 when I really wasn't even aiming for anything other than a nice run on a beautiful day. Happy running to everyone on this National Running Day and every day after that.

Runner's Rambles: Two weeks down!

It may seems as if I've been MIA lately, but spring is a busy time for people in the education field. Now that my program has wrapped up for the year, I am ready for a one month break from work! This means that I will have lots of time to really get in some quality training and blogging! I will even be doing some of my first running while traveling, which I am sure I will have some wonderful stories from. So how have the first two weeks of marathon training been going? Of course I will tell you!

Week one was easy-peasy. I had three short runs for the week, and I managed to fit all of them in. It was only 3 miles a day, but I didn't skip any just because they were short, which I sometimes talk myself out of a run when I'm being lazy. I did have to run one of those runs in the evening after I ate dinner, but I still made it out for the day. My long run during week one was only 6 miles, and it was the cushiest 6 miles of my life. I have the best fiance in the whole world. He has agreed to help me with my marathon training by riding his bike along with me for long runs when I just don't feel like doing it, or to help out with hydration and motivation along the way. I didn't really need him to help me for 6 miles, but he volunteered to come along anyway, and I am glad that I got such a nice start to my training.

Week two was a different story. The runs were still low miles, which in theory is easy, but it is apparently summer now. I have to face the facts after this week; it is just too hot to run after early morning. I will have to really get a schedule going to get some early runs in because it is just too hot. I waited till 8 or later to run my three short runs this week, and I regretted it every time I stepped out the door. I even waited till 8 to leave for my 7 mile long run this week. I slowly plodded out 3 miles and stopped. I decided I would head out for 4 more miles in the evening when the sun wasn't beating down on my back.

There were some good parts to my week two runs though. I left inspirational messages with sidewalk chalk because last week I saw a rude message about someone written on the ground near a school. I rubbed it out with my shoe, and I knew when I saw it that part of my "year of thanksgiving" would be using my attitude of gratitude to hopefully spread some cheer to strangers, I carried the chalk in a plastic baggie that I tucked into my SPI belt. I am hoping to leave messages every once in awhile when I run now. I feel like you never know when you might brighten someone's day. And with that, I say, "bring on week three!"

National Running Day is June 5th! I will be running! Will you?