Good week

Can I just say how awesome it would be if Justin never had to work?

This week I ran outside 4 times!

It was so nice just being able to take off and run whenever I felt like it, and I didn't have to go through the 2 hour ordeal of taking three kids to the gym. 

It also helped that we had record highs in Salt Lake this week.

Yesterday hit 57 degrees!

I was running in capris and a light running jacket, how lucky is that in December?!

So here's how my week looked:

Monday: 3 miler outside 27:47 (9:16 pace)

Tuesday: 5k on treadmill 25:17 (7:54 pace- I push myself to near death on a treadmill) :)

Wednesday: 3 miler outside 24:04 (8:02 pace... much better for an outdoor run)

Thursday: STRIKE class (kind of like kickboxing)

Friday: 5 miles outside 42:26 (8:29 pace)

Saturday: 5 miles outside 46:31 (9:19 pace)

Had to take it easy today since my shins are starting to bother me and there's no way I'm going into marathon training injured.

It has been a great week, though, I hope I can stay this committed when Justin goes back to work next week!

All Kinds of Updates

Update #1:

Last week while running at the gym, I started thinking that I can run pretty fast for how big I am. I realized that I've never noticed any girls as big as me run as fast as me at the gym.

Which got me thinking about the Halloween Half.

At the time of the race, I was about 148 pounds. Yup- there it is- out there. I'm 5'7", but that's still definitely on the heavy side for a runner.  

At 150+ lbs., you can register for the Athena division.

So I decided to check the Athena division results. Turns out I would have gotten 3rd place (out of 123) in that division if I had weighed just a couple of pounds more. And the second place girl only beat me by 6 seconds, and was only 20 years old! The third place girl came in almost a minute after me. So anyway... not that I'm happy that I weigh so much, but it felt pretty good to know that I really do push hard, especially considering I'm a bit of a fatty right now. :)

Update #2:

 Christmas morning meant a HUGE surprise for me from Justin. We are not the world's biggest gift givers, so I was totally shocked and thrilled when Justin surprised me with a shiny new GARMIN! Woo hoo!!

I was obsessed with the thought of taking it out for a run, but unfortunately it was Sunday, and being the good little Mormon girl that I am, I waited until this morning to hit the road. It came with a heart-rate monitor so I strapped it on and ran out the door.

Um, not exactly the glorious run I had envisioned. 

I barely made it to the end of the street before my hands were ACHING and my lungs were BURNING. Oh my word, it was C-O-L-D! I never do this, but I ran back to the house because I needed some more clothes. I grabbed Makenzie's little cotton gloves and threw on Justin's fleece pullover. I asked Justin to check the weather and it was 19 degrees outside. Sheesh.

I ran back out and felt much warmer, but I felt heavy with all those clothes on.

Not my best run ever.

It wasn't just the clothes holding me back- for some reason I felt like I couldn't breathe. I don't know if it was the cold or what, but I haven't felt that way since I first ran in Utah and wasn't used to the elevation. It was strange and not so pleasant.

I ended up with these results:

Time:	27:47
Moving Time:	27:27
Elapsed Time:	34:25

Avg Pace:	9:16 min/mi
Avg Moving Pace:	9:09 min/mi
Best Pace:	7:09 min/mi

Not very impressive... 

But I still had fun analyzing my run on GarminConnect.

Here's hoping I set the bar very, very low. :)

Update #3:

I'm in the mood for a race. 

I miss long runs.

I did run seven on Saturday, but it's just more fun when I'm training.

I'm looking at the Utah Valley Half Marathon on June 9th, but the crazy in me is contemplating the full. I don't know. I need to mull over it some more, but I'm really, really thinking about it.

Alright, that's what's on my running mind lately!