Today started the final week for training for this weekend's 5k. I didn't start yesterday like I intended to because I had my granddaughter. Unfortunately, our van is broken down and with my husband having the other car for work I'm kind of stranded until we can buy a new vehicle. Unfortunately, we can't do that until after closing on the new house in a couple of weeks. So, being without a vehicle prevented me from taking my precious baby home and I had to rely on her father to come get her. He came around 1:00 in the afternoon and while I was grateful for the extra time with her (I'm not going to be able to see her as much since we're moving almost four hours away, uber sadness) it didn't leave a lot of time for a run. Especially when I had many other things to accomplish in the day...none of which got accomplished since I took a nap when she left and ended up sleeping WAY too long. So here we are, cutting it close again with training. That stinks. I had really intended to be in better shape by the time this 5k came around but it is what it is and I'll get through it one way or another.
Really considered running outside today but since I've not run a full 5k distance I wanted to do that and I knew if I ran outside I wouldn't get that accomplished. Outside has hills....treadmill doesn't. So The Mill won out today. On the up side, I got a new pair of shoes. This 5k on Saturday is a Color Blaze and they recommended that you wear as much white as possible. I don't have any white shoes and quite frankly this looked like a good opportunity to buy a new pair of shoes. I am, after a woman, and any excuse to buy a pair of shoes is a good excuse, yeah? Yeah. So I searched for a pair of white running shoes. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a pair of completely white shoes so I had to settle for as close as I could come. My new shoes are Addidas Marathon 10W's. YAY!!!! LOVE that style!!! They are a kind of grey with black stripes on the side. They've got a cool animal type print on the bottom and the laces are turquoise.
NEW SHOES!!!!
Even though these aren't shoes for The Mill I wore them today anyway. I wanted to see how they fit to see if I was satisfied with them. Am I satisfied? Oh, yes, I am. LOVE me some Addidas; LOVE me some Marathon 10W's! I am partial to my pink and black shoes but these will be good as a back up street pair. Guess I need to invest in a pair of back up Mill pair. A girl can NEVER have too many pairs of shoes!
So.....now that we've discussed fashion footwear for running, let's discuss running! Today's run wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was tired when I finished but at least I accomplished my goal. Today my goal was to run a full 5k distance. Up until today I haven't done that since I ran my last 5k in October I think it was. I can tell you that I do believe this 5k is going to be hard. I call it a 5k because it is a Color Blaze and it's not about racing or time or being fast; it's about having a butt load of fun and that's what I intend to do. But, I do want to be able to run the full distance and not have to walk. I'm not sure that's going to happen but there's still the rest of this week to train so we shall see what happens.
Okay, so I got on The Mill and the first thing that happens is my son decides that he wants to go outside and play in the hose with his sister and her friend. I know I bought him some new swimming trunks but in the process of cleaning up the house we put them somewhere and I couldn't remember where. So I had to stop my run and go on the hunt. I didn't find them. (Incidentally, they were in his drawer where I'd told him to put them when we were cleaning up. Go figure!) I gave him a pair of my running shorts and told him to wear unders underneath them and have fun. He might just be mortified if he finds out I posted this on the web so let's just keep that between us runners, shall we? No harm done....besides, the running shorts I gave him weren't girly; they didn't have any pink on them anywhere! So there! Got back on The Mill. Started up again. Next thing that happens is Micah, the curious kitty, starts eyeing The Mill and my busy feet. Two weeks ago, Micah had a visit to the vet and got spayed. She's been quite docile and less feisty, bitey since she's been back but she is still a kitten and she still likes to play. Her eyeing The Mill made me very uncomfortable and since we've lost one cat recently (RIP, Nibbles, we love you!) I'm not ready to lose another anytime soon. So I reluctantly but with good cause got off The Mill and carried Micah to the bedroom, giving her lots of kitty love in the form and pets on the head and of course kitty baby talk and shut her in my room for the duration of my run.
While reviewing the course of the 5k I noticed that I only saw one water station on the course of the map for Saturday's 5k. Insert digression here: I think that's just crazy. The run is scheduled to start at 11:00. Now I haven't checked the weather or anything but isn't that supposed to be the time of day when the weather tends to heat up? Having only one water station seems a bit not terribly smart to me. Just sayin'. Back on topic now: However, having noticed that there is only one water station on the run course I decided to start training myself to be prepared for that. To begin to prepare for this situation I only stopped to take a drink at 1.5 miles today. This made me a very unhappy camper. I prefer to be better hydrated. I think I will get one of those hand held water bottles. The kind with the band that goes over your hand so you can grip it. I think that will help me keep up my pace although I'm not completely hopeful. It depends on whether there are any hills on the course. Please no hills, thank you very much! I will check out the course Friday, maybe even run it Friday evening. We'll see. So, as I was saying, I tried to start training myself to only have one water break in my running. I didn't much like it.
Today I used the half mile mind trick. I started out with my run and I know it takes me six minutes to run half a mile. So, I did a six minute countdown to keep myself going. Six minutes......five minutes.....four minutes......three minutes.......two minutes.....one minute.......then start over again. It may not seem like it but it really works. It's like housework. If you break your chores down into manageable pieces you are more apt to get it finished. If you try to tackle it in one fell swoop, you become overwhelmed and just give up. At least I do. I have to break things down, especially when I'm on The Mill. I don't seem to have to do that on the street. I think it's because I am moving, going toward a goal. It's like you can see the progress as you are moving. On The Mill I'm just running in place, looking at the sconces on the wall and while my sconces are lovely it is boring to look at them for 37+ minutes, feeling the pain and boredom of being cooped up in the corner of the living....which reminds me, where the devil am I going to put The Mill in my new house? Holy cow! There's no room for it! It's going to have to go in the garage! That's going to be hot in the summer! Oh, I digressed....back to today's run. The six minute mind trick worked really well today. I was able to complete my run and actually felt pretty good. On my running website I only gave my run a straight face instead of a full smiley though because I was tired when I was done. I was also dripping with sweat, but then, that's how I like it. It makes me feel like I've worked hard. I must have because The Mill says I burned 502 calories. GO ME!
Here's the details: I ran 3.12 miles @ 5.0 MPH. That's a pace of 12:00 although my running website says it's 12:10. I'm going with The Mill, the website wasn't there; The Mill was, LOL! It took 38 minutes to finish.
I'm quite content with today's run. I know I can run a 5k distance and that was the goal for today. It's always nice to accomplish one's goals. Now that we've marked "Get a Run In" off our list of things to do today, let's move on to the next item on our list.....clean cat litter boxes. GROSS! Maybe we'll put that off until tomorrow. It's getting late and I'm pretty hungry. I've only had a handful of dark chocolate almonds today and those are NOT my favorite snack! Who's for walking to the Chinese restaurant and having some honey chicken?
Remember there is still time to donate/sponsor me in the Susan G. Komen 5k Race for the Cure! That run is scheduled for June 15th and you can donate up to the day before the race. Please, help women who can't afford health care and donate to this worthy cause. Here's the link, just copy and paste it into your browser: http://www.komenstlouis.org/site/TR/Race/General?px=1542226&pg=personal&fr_id=1150
Happy Running!
KEA
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