Summer running.

I love summer.  Have I mentioned that before?  It's kind of funny, because when I was younger, I did not fare well in the heat - at all.  I hated sweating, I always got lots of headaches in the summer time, and inevitably I spent most of my summer vacations with a searing sunburn.  But now that I've lived in southeastern Idaho for the past 8 years, summer has become my favorite time of year.  I especially love it now that I train for marathons.  I love not having to worry too much about what I wear when I go out for a run early in the morning - the less, the better! I love feeling the warmth of the sun and the way the sunlight always cheers me up.  I love the way the air smells, and I love to sweat!!  I guess the amazing summers we have here are the reward we get for having to endure the especially long, cold, windy winters.  I am so grateful I have running to motivate me to get out and enjoy the weather.
Today I did a 12.5 mile run, as per my schedule.  It wasn't an especially fast run.  In fact, it was actually quite slow.  The route was hilly and going up and down the hills was not easy on my (still) sore quads.  The first few times I glanced down at my Garmin and saw such a sad average pace (around 11:30 min. miles), I felt kind of discouraged.  But then I reminded myself that the long runs are supposed to be much slower and easier, at least pace-wise.  The purpose of long runs is to build endurance and give you time on your feet.  Speed work is for improving pace.  So once I talked myself into this logic, I just relaxed and enjoyed my summer run! :)

Fridays.

I was so looking forward to today, thinking that I was going to get to sleep in a bit.  Alas, my kids had other plans - waffles for breakfast.  After fixing their waffles and cleaning up the kitchen, I had just enough time to do about 25 minutes of Pilates before getting ready to go to cub scouts.  Today we were practicing for the July 4th parade!

After scouts, I came home and fixed lunch for the kids, changed my clothes and headed into town.  Since I had a few errands to run, I decided to hit a spin class while I was close to the gym.  After spinning, I finished my errands then came home and jumped on the treadmill for a mile.  There are only 5 days left in the RW Summer Running Streak Challenge, but I'm contemplating seeing how long I can keep it up...

I love moments of spontaneity!

As I promised in my post yesterday, my husband and I were at the gym first thing this morning for a 6am spinning class.  After class, I got on a treadmill to get in a quick mile run before Chris and I spent about 45 minutes doing weights.  Today's strength training focus was shoulders and traps.  I really think that taking (trainer) Misty's advice to isolate contrasting muscle groups and focus each of the four weekly weight training days on a specific group has been beneficial.  I haven't been this sore from any of my previous strength training, so I must be doing something right/different.

Once we finished with weights, we headed in to take another spin class.  I was surprised to find that I actually felt better during the second hour of spinning than I did during the first.  Maybe it just took that long for my muscles to warm up, I don't know.  My quads and the connecting muscles around both of my knees are the last areas that have residual soreness from Monday's leg work.  It's still painful to walk down the stairs, for crying out loud!  It's a good thing I don't have to do leg work again until Monday, but I'm still anxious to see how my long run goes on Saturday morning.

After we finished at the gym, we decided, on a whim, to pack up the kids and a few things and drive an hour and a half to one of the gems of Idaho - Bear Lake.  Due to suspended limestone deposits in the water, this large freshwater lake has an amazing blue-turquoise color.  It is so beautiful and it even has nice, sandy beaches.  We've camped near Bear Lake a couple of times in the past, and we're hoping to again later this summer, but we've never just made a day trip there.  I don't know why, this place is so fun and pretty and the kids LOVE it!  It was really windy today though, which made the picnicking part of our outing a little unpleasant  - think "sand"wiches - but because of it the water was pretty choppy and the kids had a blast riding the waves and floating around in the shallow, warm water.

Another double-day.

So here I am before my morning speed-work session, Coke Zero in one hand, foam roller in the other!  I have to admit, I was a little slow to get started with this workout because my legs, particularly my quads, are still tied in knots.   One of the things that kept me from skipping today's run was a quote I read on Facebook this morning from Jerry West, posted by Adam Goucher on Run the Edge:  "You can't get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good!"

I attempted to work out some of the kinks with the foam roller, but it was still a painful run.  I did 4.5 miles on the treadmill, alternating 1/2 mile hard with 1/2 mile easy.  After my run, I did a few more minutes with the foam roller.  While I was doing this workout, my husband was out on a 10 miler.  When he came home, he was still feeling so spunky that he asked if I'd be up for an afternoon spin session at the gym.  Since today is another strength training day for me, I agreed to go to spin so I could also get in about 20-30 minutes of upper arm work.  So here I am, showered and re-dressed after workout #1, ready to hit the gym for workout #2:

After an hour and a half at the gym, we were both pretty well spent.  We should sleep well tonight...which is good, because we are going to be back at the gym bright and early (6am) for more spinning and weights.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm training for something more than a marathon, and just when I'm really starting to question my sanity, I read other mother-runners' blogs and realize that I am not alone in my commitment to and love of all things physical fitness.  The only difference is that most of the other women who spend this much time working out also get paid for it, i.e. teaching classes, being personal trainers, professional athletes, etc.  Well, okay, maybe I can't really lump myself in there with professional athletes, but it's fun to dream... :)

Who needs legs?

Apparently I did my leg work correctly yesterday because today I am having a bit o' trouble walking...and sitting...and climbing stairs.  Well, the good news is I didn't let that stop me from getting in a great workout this morning.  I went to the gym and started out with a quick mile on a treadmill.  Then for today's strength training: chest and biceps, which meant no legs or core, thank goodness!  After doing about 35 minutes of weights, I moved on to a spin class, where I got (what was left of) my gluteus maximus handed to me by the instructor's tough class.

This afternoon I dropped my husband off at the gym so he could get his workout in for the day, while I went grocery shopping.  It was funny because he called me several times to remind me to get certain things, and when I would tell him where I was at with the shopping, he would say, "It's fine honey, take your time.  I'll just keep finding things to do until you come back to get me."  But what I knew he was thinking was, "What's taking you so long!!"  Haha!  My legs, my legs - they're rebelling, I can't help it if I'm walking a little slowly today. :)

Tomorrow on the schedule is speed work.  Hmmm...this should be interesting.

This is how a mother-runner does it...

I was inspired by this post from one of my blogging friends, Jan at Running on Fumes.  I have to say that I have become more and more guilty of using the treadmill as a crutch, excusing myself from more challenging outside runs.  When it's way too cold, way too windy, way too warm, the kids are way too needy, da ta da ta da...

Today I started my new schedule: Monday is an "easy" run day of 4-5 miles and also a day for strength training focusing on legs and core.  Following trainer Misty's advice to do weights first, cardio second,  I did a 50 minute weight session at home before going out on a run.  I had to get a little more creative to do my strength training at home vs. the gym.  I strapped on my 5 pound ankle weights and grabbed my 5 pound hand weights.  At the gym I have been working with 15 and 20 pound dumbbells, but 5's are all I have at home.  I figure it will be enough for when I'm doing leg and core work.  I included weighted lunges, squats, calf-raises on a step stool, side-lying leg lifts, back-lying leg lifts, crunches on the stability ball and sit-ups and just did all of these in reps of 10-15 for as many sets as I could fit into 50 minutes.  By the time I was done, not only was I sweating pretty good, but my legs were definitely feeling it!  Now it was going on 9am and about 80 degrees outside.  I considered just hopping on the treadmill for my "easy" 4 miler, but thanks to motivation from the above referenced blog post, I gathered up a couple of kids and headed for the park.

In the future I may have to alter my schedule slightly, despite what Misty said about doing weights first and cardio after, because it felt like I was running on legs made of soft rubber.  Oh, and also - it was SO HOT!  I had sweat just dripping all over me.  I guess in a sense it's actually a good training run for the marathon, considering that the last 6-8 miles of that run I will be running on Jell-O legs in the heat and sun, most likely.

At any rate, my run was definitely slow: I did just over 4 miles with an average pace of 13 minute miles.  Although, that includes that about half-way into my run I saw a friend who was walking at the park, so I slowed to a walk with her for about a mile, then picked it back up and finished the last mile running.

I had my daughter take this picture of me while I was running.  I like it because I have lift - both feet are off the ground!! :)

Weekend update.

Sunday, a day of rest...sort of.  Ever since starting the summer running streak, I've been "unable" to completely rest from exercise on Sundays.  So today, I did a few minutes of Yoga this morning right after breakfast, then hopped on the treadmill for about 40 minutes before getting ready for church.

Yesterday was also a busy workout day.  I started in the morning with a 9 mile run.  For some reason I felt really tired afterwards, even though I started early in the morning and was out and back before 7:30am, before I had major heat to contend with.  The rest of the afternoon I spent weeding in the garden, doing laundry and making fruit/veggie juice.  After my husband came home from work, we did an evening session at the gym.  I spent my time doing weights for 1 hour.  I'm going to take Misty's (trainer/spin instructor) advice and start doing 4 days of strength training, and I'm working on devising my training schedule right now - as in, simultaneously as I type this post!  I'm going to combine the marathon training schedule from Kara Goucher's book with this weight training schedule.  It's going to be a busy summer, but I hope I can really whip myself into shape for the Pocatello Marathon - 10 weeks away, baby!!

Oh, spinning...how I've missed thee.

Well, I'm finally getting around to updating my blog after spending most of the week in Grand Teton National Park.  We had a great time camping and seeing all kinds of wildlife.  The weather was cool - lows in the 30's and highs in the 60's.

I am happy to report that I am still going strong with my running streak!  On Tuesday, our first full day of camping, I did just a mile and half run around the campground.  I was still nursing my legs after my 20 miler on Monday.  We spent the rest of the day driving around Grand Teton and Yellowstone parks, stopping every once in a while to get out of the car and move around a bit.  In the evening while we were enjoying our campfire, I did some stretching and Yoga poses to help alleviate some of the tension in my legs and back.  On Wednesday my 12 year old son joined me for a morning run, again around the campground.  This time we did about 2.5 miles.  I was still feeling pretty tired, after late nights and early mornings.  Yesterday (Thursday) I didn't have time to fit in my mile in the morning, since we were cleaning up camp and packing the car and trailer.  Then we spent the majority of the afternoon driving home.  When we got home I had to get to work on putting things away and starting the loads and loads of laundry, then after we all had showered and cleaned up, my husband said he wanted to take me to dinner - just the two of us, which was so nice after being in close quarters with 4 rowdy kids for 4 days!  After we came home from dinner, I put on some shorts and a tank top and jumped on the treadmill and did a little over a mile.  I normally don't like to run right before bed, but it actually felt pretty good.

This morning I was back to my routine.  I went to the gym where I ran for 15 minutes on the treadmill (1.50 miles) to get the heart pumping, then I did 40 minutes of upper body strength training.  Finally, I did an hour spinning class.  Afterward I had the chance to talk with the instructor for a few minutes in the locker room.  She's a gorgeous girl, a 30-something mother of 3 kids with an amazing work ethic.  She competes in weightlifting competitions as a fitness model (I think) and she is also a certified trainer with a master's degree in sports/fitness/nutrition/physiology - something along those lines.  Anyway...she definitely has the experience and credentials to give advice on how to get your body into the shape that you desire.  I asked her a few questions about how to become more lean and less "soft".  It's been about 4 months now since I added weight training to my workouts, at least consistently.  Before that, I did a lot of Pilates and Yoga and things like that, but I've been trying to tone up my arms and core and gain some strength in my legs to help with my running.  I haven't really notice that much of a difference.  I still feel jiggly, despite a gazillion hours a week doing my various cardio activities and a couple days a week of weights.  One of the main tips she had for me was to start doing weights FOUR days a week.  She was pretty adamant that if I would consistently lift four days, in alternating sets by muscle group, before doing my cardio that I would start to see more changes.  She also suggested a certain kind of protein powder supplement to take after my workouts.  I have been using protein powder in my daily smoothies for a long time, but I had been using a soy-based powder.  I recently read an article about the benefits of using a whey-based powder (which is also what Kara Goucher suggests in her book), so I think I'll give that a try.  There are additional things in the powder that help with fat burning and building lean muscle tissue.  Anyway, I came away from our conversation with some ideas for changes in my workout routine.  I figure if I'm going to devote this much time and effort to my training, I might as well train as smart as I can.  After all, in the scheme of things, I'm still a novice.  All of you long time readers of my blog know I've only been running for about 2 1/2 years and just 6 short years ago I weighed almost 70 pounds more than I do today!

HOT 20 miler!!

Water break at mile 13.

This morning I headed out bright and early - 5:25am - hoping to beat the heat of the day and still get in a good 20 miler.  I felt pretty good for the first 15 miles or so, but those last 5 miles my legs and head were aching and I felt like I was cooking!  I just pushed through, finishing 20.01 miles with an average pace of 11:39 min/mile.  As soon as I got home, I fixed myself a protein shake and filled the tub with ice cold water to soak my legs.

This afternoon we're leaving to go camping in Grand Teton National Park until Thursday.  I'm going to try to get in at least a mile everyday, even if it means doing loops around our campground.  It is bear country up there, so I won't be going too far.  That's why I wanted to get my weekly long run in today!

A warm, sunny Sunday ~ Father's Day!

After making an early breakfast of pancakes and sausage for my husband and then sending him off to work for the day, I did some Pilates to try and stretch out my hamstrings.  Most Sundays are reserved as "rest days" for me.  It's our day for church, family time and relaxing at home.  But as I try to keep on track with the summer running streak, I still feel like I need to at least walk a mile on this day to be able to say I've kept with it.  Last Sunday I wasn't able to get in an official, deliberate mile due to being out of town and traveling home, though I probably got in a mile of walking just through the course of our day's activities.  Anyway, this morning after doing about 45 minutes of Pilates, I got on the treadmill to do a relaxing walk.  Once I was on there, I felt like picking up the pace.  For some reason, I just couldn't help myself.  I ended up doing about 2.5 miles of a run/walk before getting ready for church.

So, since I've been reading Kara Goucher's book, I've been (even more) obsessed with following her runs lately.  Did anyone else see that she was the female winner of the U.S. Half Marathon Championship in her hometown of Duluth, MN earlier this weekend with a course record of 1:09:46?  That's an average pace of 5:20 per mile - Amazing!!  I can't wait to see how she does on the marathon at the London Olympics this summer.  I can't even fathom being that fast of a runner, especially as a distance runner.  I guess there needs be some of us "slower-paced" runners to make her and the other elites seem that much more awesome! :)

Saturday double-header!

Saturdays are usually great for getting in a long run.  Today, however, I decided to give my legs a "rest" from that much running since they are still a little sore from Wednesday's 12 miler.  Instead, I went to the gym and got a double dose of spin class.  I wore my heart rate monitor today to gauge my average heart rate during my time at the gym so I could more accurately see how many calories I burned.  After the 2 hours of spinning, followed with a mile run on the treadmill and 30 minutes of upper body strength training, my average heart rate was 150 which = a 1500 calorie burn for me.  Not quite what I would have burned during a 2 1/2 hour run, but not too bad, either.  Spinning is so much easier on the joints, but still definitely a good cardiovascular workout.

And other than one Sunday (last week), I have been able to keep up with the Runner's World Summer Running Streak Challenge and as of today have completed 20 days in a row of running at least 1 mile.  I've actually logged over 84 miles in that 20 days, but who's counting? ;)  How's everyone else doing with their summertime fitness goals?

2.4 miles of speedwork.

Here's my daughter Sophia and I before we left for our run...

She was so excited to get to ride out on the road with me, instead of having to do circles on the path at the park!  I had initially intended to just do an out and back 2-3 mile run, since that's all I have time for this morning.  But once we were out there, we were having a hard time keeping pace with each other.  She was having trouble going up the hills and was walking her bike, but I was wanting to power up the hills.  Then she would fly down the hills, and while I was going at a pretty good clip, obviously I couldn't keep up with her on  a bike.  So...I decided to make some fun speedwork out of it.  When she wanted to walk her bike, I would sprint ahead to the next street sign or crossroad, then sprint back, then walk with her for a few feet and then do it again.  My average pace for the 2.4 miles (that I tracked with my Garmin) was 8:54.  We actually went about 3 miles total, but I turned off the gps when we were doing our warm-up and cool-down walking portion.

After our run...

My stupid hamstrings are still bugging me.  They are as tight as ever and no amount of stretching or self-massaging seems to be helping all that much.  Anyone else have problems with their hamstrings?

Gym time.

I began my morning workout at the gym at 7:30am.  I started by running 1.15 miles on the treadmill, then I got started on my upper body strength training.  As I was running, my hamstrings were feelings super tight, but by the time I had finished a mile, they were a little better.  My tight/sore hamstrings seem like a problem that will never go away.  Once I had finished with weights, it was time for spin class.  I have yet to find/buy any head-sweat band type things, but I REALLY need to!  My eyes are permanently red from the sweat that drips and stings them.

After my time at the gym, I made a quick stop at the store for a few Father's Day items, then this is what I worked on today:

12+ miles, alone-together.

This morning my husband and I ran our favorite 12.4 mile loop.  We got a bit of a late start - 8am.  It was already pretty warm out there.  We both brought enough water with our hydration belts, but the sweat was dripping.  We started the run doing a 4 minute to 1 minute run/walk ratio, which worked well.  The first half, we both felt fine, though my husband complained of not being "on his game."  Around mile 7, we both were feeling the heat.  My legs were cramping, but we kept with our run/walk consistently.  At mile 10, our average pace was 10:57 min/mile, but the last couple of miles went a little slower.  My husband skipped one of our walk breaks, while I stuck with it.  He got a little ahead of me, but around mile 11.5 I had caught up with him again and we just ran at an easy pace together for the last mile.  By the time we got back home, our average pace for the whole run was 11:20, which isn't too bad for a long training run, but my legs have been sore all day.  I guess it's good to get in some training during the heat, right?

On another note, my friend brought us by a couple of t-shirts supporting the Tenley Foundation (www.idahofighters.blogspot.com).  These shirts are available for purchase - $15 with proceeds going to help the families of local children fighting cancer.

Super Tuesday.

This morning I left the house at about 6:30 so I would have time to get the grocery shopping done before going to the gym.  I made it to the gym in time to do a little over a mile on the treadmill, which got my heart rate up and, then 20 minutes of weights before going to a spin class.  After spinning, I did another 20 minutes of weights to finish some of the reps I didn't have time for before class.

I have been reading a lot from the book "Running for Women" by Kara Goucher the past few days.  I'm really finding this book to be quite helpful.  I would recommend it to any female, runner or non-runner, who is interested in fitness and health.  It's easy to read and it feels like I'm getting tips and advice from a friend.  It has turned out to be just the inspiration and fresh approach to running that I've needed since the marathon 3 weeks ago.

Weekend report.

Well, after a long, eventful weekend, I'm back to my (somewhat) normal routine.  Thursday morning Chris and I went to the gym before we had to come home and pack up the car for our camping trip with the youth from our church.  First thing I did was get on a treadmill and crank out a little over a mile, then I did about 40 minutes of weights and finally I joined Chris for a spinning class.

The rest of Thursday was spent hiking in to our camping area, packing lots of things on our backs.  Then, once we were organized into our "families" for the weekend, we set up our tents and did the camp-thing.

On Friday, we started out early doing a day-long hike of about 8 miles.  We went up and down rocky hills, through knee-high grass, across a creek and high up into the mountains, while pushing a hand cart.

Saturday morning we packed up camp, then Chris, Noah (our oldest son) and I went home, showered, and got ready for the 4-5 hour drive to pick up our other three kids who were staying at my in-laws.  Before we left the house, I did manage to get in my "daily mile": while my husband was in the shower, I jumped on the treadmill and did 1.15 miles in about 11 minutes, keeping the running streak alive!

On Sunday we spent the day driving home.  Normally the drive would have taken us the 4-5 hours again, but we made a last minute decision to alter our route to try and see a friend on his quest to run across the state of Idaho.  I've written about Mike Evans on my blog before.  You can read about him and his run to raise money for our local cancer kids at: www.mikesextramile.blogspot.com and also at www.idahofighters.blogspot.com, where you can also make donations that will go directly to help the children and their families!  He was scheduled to be on the mountain highway running between Lowman and Stanley, Idaho.  Taking this route more or less doubled our time on the road yesterday, but it was worth it to get to enjoy the beautiful day, driving through the mountains and giving some support and encouragement to Mike.  When we caught up with him, he was just coming up to the summit between the two towns, which put him about 30 miles into his daily goal of 50 miles.  He was able to take a break for a few minutes and chat with us. 

 Here is Mike with his dad, who was his driving support with his RV for the 9 days he will be running.

Once we were finally back home, I was wiped out.  I had intended to get that one mile in last night on the treadmill, but by the time we unpacked the car and I got the kids settled and ready for bed, I had no energy left to do it.  I'm a little bummed I "broke" my streak, but this morning I was right back at it.  Despite the fact that I woke up still feeling exhausted and a little stiff-legged, I did 40 minutes of Pilates, then spent 60 minutes on the treadmill doing a bit of running, a bit of jogging and a bit more walking, for a total of 4 miles.  I hope I feel recovered by tomorrow, because I'll be hitting the gym bright and early regardless!

National Running Day ~ celebrated!

Last night when Chris and I went to bed, we talked about our plans to run a 12 miler in the morning and set the alarm for 5am.  When the alarm went off, we both rolled over and said we had headaches and didn't feel like running.  Seriously, both of us had pounding headaches.  It was kind of weird, actually.  I'm attributing it to the fact that it had been raining all night and a lot of humidity in the air always tends to give me a headache, plus we're both a little stressed and anxious about our weekend.  We've had to do a lot of planning and packing for this youth conference and we've also never been apart from our kids for more than 1 night, and that was only once.

Anyway, I slept in until 6:30, at which point I finally decided I needed to get up and do something.  After getting a glass of Coke Zero, I sat down at the computer and got on Facebook.  There, staring me in the face - hey, it's National Running Day, who knew?  Well that was it.  I had to go run.  I geared up and headed out, not sure where or how long I would go.  For the first mile, my head was still pounding, but it was a little chilly and the fresh air really seemed to be helping.  At some point I made the decision to do a 10 miler, 5 miles out and back on a country road.  As I started to get into my groove, I remembered something I read last night right before going to bed.  You see, I got my new book yesterday, "Running for Women" by Kara Goucher.  I have a feeling this is going to become my new go-to book, but I'll save that for another post.  She writes, "Land gently, leave quickly.  Visualize yourself being light on your feet (hot coals, ouch!) and lifting each foot quickly after each step.  After a while, you won't need to think about it.  Too much time on the ground with each foot will slow you down and make you a sluggish runner."

Something about these words of advice struck a chord with me.  When I run, I've always felt heavy on my feet and somewhat sluggish.  I decided today that I was going to focus hard during my run and heed her words.  I was increasing the speed of my turnover without having to expend too much more energy.  I was actually saying in my mind: hot, hot, hot! as I took each step.  It helped me remember to keep my feet going at a livelier pace.

So here are the crazy results of this experiment:  I ran 10.1 miles in an hour and 41 minutes, which is an average pace of 10:05 min./mile - and that was WITH walking breaks at 5 minute intervals!  I'm pretty sure that's the fastest I've ever run 10 miles, even without the walk breaks.  Yep, I do believe I'll be following more of Kara's advice in the future!

I was so happy when I got home, my headache was gone and I was definitely feeling on a runner's high.  By that point, my husband was up and at 'em and despite feeling a little tired, he was ready to do some kind of workout.  Our kids were on their way with Grandma to spend the weekend with her and Grandpa 4 hours away, so Chris wanted to go to the gym.  I decided to throw caution to the wind and go with him so I could catch a 12pm spinning class.  Then we both went in to the pool and I swam a little over 1/4 mile.  So a 10 mile run, 1 hour spinning and 1/4 mile swim - not bad for a day's work.  Happy National Running Day!

Gym time. :)

Another early morning at the gym.  I started my workout with a quick 1.25 mile run on a treadmill in just under 12 minutes, keeping the streak alive!  Then I moved on to weights where I spent about 35 minutes doing upper body and core strengthening.  Finally, I went down to a spin class for a little over an hour.  The rest of my day (so far) has involved more packing, planning and laundry.

Double workout Monday.

Yesterday I got a call from my friend Holly asking me to run with her today.  She planned to do about 20 miles because she is gearing up to run with another friend, Mike Evans, next week during a portion of his run across Idaho.  Click (here) to learn more about Mike and his efforts to raise money and awareness for a great cause while he runs 50+ miles a day for 8-9 days!

Anyway, I wasn't up to running all 20 with her today, since I just ran 9 on Saturday, but I thought I could help her break it up a bit.  She came by my house at 6:30 this morning and we ran a 5.15 mile loop, then as we passed by my house, I dipped out while she ran another loop.  My hip was bothering me a bit, so I did 40 minutes of Pilates while I waited for her to get back around to my house again.  After she had finished the loop a second time, I jumped back in with her and did (a slightly modified version of) the loop again, this time 4.45 miles.  Then she took off and finished up her 20 miles on her own.  So, in the end I did 9.6 miles and we averaged a pace of about 10:18 min./mile for the whole run.  We've decided to make an effort to try and run together at least once a week, if we can make it work.  The benefit for me from running with Holly is that she pushes me to run faster than I do on my own.  She says she doesn't mind going a bit slower than her typical pace for one run a week if it means we get to spend time together and catch up on things.  She's a great friend.  As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm not extremely concerned with being a super-speedy runner, but I would like to improve my times and get stronger.  I really think this could help.

Then I spent a busy afternoon with the kids, doing laundry, picking up the house and planning/packing for a three day tent camping trip we have coming up starting on Thursday (it's actually a youth activity for our church which involves a trek pulling handcarts, such as the pioneers used coming across the plains, but more on that later). When Chris got home from work, we went into town and grabbed a quick bite at Subway before heading to the gym to catch an evening spin class.  The spin class was a good one, no surprise there.  Buckets of sweat - oh, so worth it.  After that we went to Wal-Mart to shop for a few more supplies for the weekend.  By the time we finished with all of that, we were both starving again so we made one last stop at Buffalo Wild Wings for some chicken wings and ice cold Coke Zero.  It's a good thing I burned almost 2000 calories today, because I'm sure I ate almost all of them back!

In the morning, I'll do another spin class and at least a mile of running.  So far we're 8 days into the 38 day RW Summer Running Streak Challenge - we'll see how things go this weekend when we go on the trek.  I know I'll be getting in lots of walking/hiking, but I'm not sure about the running.  Well, at least Friday might be the toughest day, but that's the day we'll be doing the most walking.  Thursday I will probably have time to get a quick run in before we leave, and then I may have to do a little catch-up Saturday evening.  It's all good, though.  Keeps me motivated to just keep moving!

Weekend warriors.

This morning my husband and I did a 9 mile run together.  The past few days I have been having an annoying pain in my knee, but not enough to slow me down...much.  Today during our run, the pain extended up into my hip, but I pushed through, because, well, I had to try and keep up with my husband!  Now I'm (kind of) regretting that decision, as I've spent the rest of the day trying not to put too much weight on that leg because when I do, my hip makes a little, painful popping sound.  Good thing tomorrow is a rest day, although I will probably try to do a 1 mile walk with my family after church or something, just so I can keep on track with the RW Summer Running Streak Challenge.

After our run, we showered, had a protein smoothie, then packed the kids up in the car and drove to the location of the mile 32 aid station of the Pocatello 50 Mile Trail Run that was going on today.  It was super hot for us, just standing in the sun, cheering a few of the runners on as they passed through the aid station and on to the last 20 mile leg of their race.  I can't imagine how tough the heat was for the runners!  It's inspiring to see great people doing such amazing things.

Making the most of my time.

This morning I got up at the crack of 5 with my husband, as he got up and ready for work.  After I made waffles for breakfast, I changed into my running clothes and headed out for a quick run.  I did just over 4 miles in about 41 minutes, then I showered and got ready to go to cub scout meetings.

At scouts today, the 9 year old boys were their usual "spirited" selves, but a couple of them were really in prime form.  Apparently, the answer to every question is either "poop" or "butt", and sitting still and listening actually means jump up and down and bang your hands on the metal picnic tables while screaming "I want candy!"  Who are these little people?  Hahaha!  After an hour with them, I was ready to stick a fork in my eye.

I came home and fixed lunch for my kids, then realizing I still had time to make it to the gym for a noon spinning class, I decided to go for it.  Maybe the endorphin release would help me regain my sanity.  And yes, it worked. :)  I even felt so much better that I came home and mowed the lawn to surprise my husband.