TnT - Training and Tailgating

After Hurricane Irene reared her ugly head and we lost power for 3 days - it was time to get back in gear. I had a conference for work in Charlottesville last week through Wednesday night. If you don't know Charlottesville, it's a beautiful place but full of hill when compared to Richmond. Ergo, running was not nearly as much fun. However, I did get a great 3 mile hike in with a great friend and his dog while I was in town on Tuesday. 

Wednesday, I ran 4 miles - no stopping and came up with a new route outside of the neighborhood to keep it interesting. The run went really well! I ran later than expected because of some work items that needed to get taken care of and my Garmin GPS watch needed a little juice (Let's be clear, I cannot run without my Garmin). This reminded me that I really need to pick up a reflective vest or something since I'm running on main road in the dark...

It also reminded me that if you take your run and break it up in to small chucks, it's not nearly has intimidating AND that it's high time I bought a water bottle for my long runs. Because all of this is so new to me (remember, that I never managed to train for my 10ks in the past...why bother?!), every thing is a learning experience. So when I know that I need to go for (what I think is) a long run, I get really nervous and immediately think that I'll never make it. This week when I started my 3-4-3 schedule during the week, I would break up the run in to half mile sections in my head. I know that I can run a half mile so every time that I hit a mileage goal, I would tell myself that I can easily run another half mile and I was 5/12ths of the way through as an example. Once I hit the half way mark, I find that I get another burst of energy because I'm so thrilled it's half over. And once you've run half - you have to run the second half because you're nearly home.

Thursday was back to a 3 mile run. I'm definitely finding the the 2nd and 3rd days are a lot tougher. I'm just not used to running back to back. But I made it through.

Matt and I are building a house that we're scheduled to move in to at the end of September. So Friday night after work we took the opportunity to get some much need house shopping checked off our list - we bought our appliances, went by the house to measure of window treatments and started talking paint colors. While we were out, we decided to stop by Dick's Sporting Goods to stock up on all the running things that had recently made my "need" list.

Hand held water bottle

This was one of the purchases that I was most excited about for some reason. I had debated between this an the water belts but (and don't here) decided that my hips were already wide enough without adding more junk to my trunk. And Viola! 

I also bought....Body Glide. If I haven't told you the story about running with Kendayl while at the beach, here's the short party - I wore my skirt, and a seem managed to rip the skin off of my body. I'm still recovering - it's awful.

Saturday mornings have gotten easier to get up at 5:30 for the training run. This week was 6 miles - I've only ever run 6 miles during a race with lots of screaming fans cheering me on so my stomach was in nots. So I broke out the power outfit and wore my running SKIRT! 

So I showed up with bells on, looking fantastic and I ran. I ran until my feet fell asleep. Seriously?! Has this ever happened to you? It was wickedly humid on Saturday an all of a sudden my right foot fell asleep. I kept running hoping it would fix itself but then my calf cramped because I'm sure that I run favoring my right foot somehow. So I stopped and stretched and this awesome HMTT training stopped and told me loosen my shoes - I already had I told her. NO - from the TOES! Not from the top. Genius. No sooner had my right foot regained feeling - my left foot then fell asleep. I'm a disaster.

All in all I ran my 6 miles in 70 minutes which is the slowest that I'd ran 6 miles in years. But I finished and I learned some valuable lessons about running in different weather and listening to my body. I also learned that I HATED running with the water bottle. My right arm was killing me within a mile of starting my run.

So I'm going back to the store and adding more junk to my trunk with a water belt.

After 6 miles my reward was in site....HOME OPENER UVa GAME!!! GO HOOS!!!

Sorry - this was taken on my cell phone and evidently of poor quality. You get the idea. Sear sucker - obnoxious hats....oh so perfect!