St. Andrew's Sprint Tri.....

On Sunday one of my running bestie competed in the St. Andrew's Sprint Triathlon!  I have never been to one of these events but a lot of my friends have been telling me for a while that I would love a triathlon.  They were right this was so inspiring to watch and I think I may have to think about this for the future!  Dawn did amazing...She finished in 1:24 and got 1st in her age group!!!



Dawn is my tri idol!  She totally rock this race and finished so strong!  Dawn has come so far over the past few years and has overcome injuries and is killing all the races she does.  She is such a strong swimmer/cyclist/runner and I definitely know she has way more in the tank to give!   One of the million things I love about Dawn is that she is always the voice of reason.  She firmly believes in the importance of recovery, rest and cross training.  And I have to say she is definitely on to something and seeing how much she has accomplished I am following in her footsteps!

When I am not in a training cycle I tend to go a little crazy and just want to over do my workouts.  I am realizing this recovery time is meant for my body to heal and regroup so that I can come back a lot stronger.  It has taken me quite some time and now this past injury to realize this but it has finally click in my brain!   Quick learner I am...NOT!

My favorite part of the tri was watching the cyclist and all the different techniques to their ride.  And there were some cool helmets!!  So I think maybe I will be drinking the kool-aid and adding a tri to my schedule for next year.  We shall see...



Anyone else considering a tri?

Happy Running!

 

Trail Running

My runner girls and I decided to hit the trails this morning and it was amazing!!  This run was exactly what I needed especially after the past few weeks I have had.  We did a total of 9 miles and never looked at our paces.  We walked when we needed to and just chatted the whole time.  These are the type of runs that make me so grateful for my runner girlfriends!!  Thanks for sharing my "birthday run" with me Dawn and Angel!

Happy Running!

Surprise in the Mail

This came in the mail this weekend!  This totally made my day when I opened it.  Last year I mentally psyched myself out for the marathon.  I felt like I was surrounded by "serious runners" and I run because I LOVE to run.  I have never been one to focus on my pace or mile splits.  I prefer to go out and run 18-20 miles verses run for time!  But just recently I starting focusing on my pace and doing speed work.  I feel I have become a stronger runner and my times have improved during my runs.  I am really pumped up to go to Boston this year and race this marathon.  I am going up with my AMAZING cheer squad and we are going to have a blast for sure!  My best buddy's made t-shirts for all of us to wear and they ROCK!  We are staying at a fabulous hotel right at the finish line and have a ton of fun things planned including Samuel Adams Brewery, Boston Red Socks game and lots of yummy meals!  Even if I don't reach my goal time I am going to have a once in a lifetime experience with amazing people I love!

Today's workout was a fairly easy 8 miles @ a 7:37 pace and felt pretty good.  I am a little sore from TRX Tuesday especially my hamstrings so I didn't push the pace too much today.  I also squeezed in a quick 4 mile shakeout run prior to TRX class.  Now I am off to lacrosse practice!

Anyone else heading to Boston?

How do you mentally get through a tough race?

Happy Running!

Running and running and running.....

I normally do my LSD runs on the weekend but since I worked every day this past weekend and I am working this coming weekend also I had to fit in my 20 miles today!  So here is what my day looked like... Wake up at 6:30 a.m. and my wonderful hubby says go back to bed until 7:45 because he was taking my oldest son to school for me!  I wake up at 7:45 than drink 2 cups of coffee and grab a bite to eat for me and my little guy...I take my little one to school then start my 20 miles.  It is another beautiful 70* here today and I was able to fit in 16 miles before I had to pick up little man from school.  Oh, I almost forget to tell you....I found a pair of car keys on my run today!!!  Last long run I found $$ and now today I find a car!  I am LOVING my long runs lately. 

 I was able to run home grab a shower ( really for what reason? ) then head out to lacrosse practice.  Today I made the girls run a TIMED mile!  For some reason they all panic when I actually time them.  I did run with them to get in another 1.5 miles...I lapped a few of them which made them push harder.  So at this point my mile total is 17.5 in 2 hours 10 minutes!

We had a great practice and went over a lot of field work and transition passes ( we stink at this currently).

So now it is 5:30 p.m. and I head home to grab my boys and head to swim lessons. I was able to squeeze in 3.10 miles in 22:03 for a grand total of 20.6 miles today!



This is how I refueled after my 3rd run of the day!  Red Robin....I left out the massive basket of bottomless fries!!

How do you refuel?

I did have my beloved chocolate milk and also pb and a banana!

Happy Running!

 

Hill Pyramid

Today's run...8.15 mile hill pyramid : 1 hr 02 mins

So my run today looked like this:



 

I started off with a warm up mile @ 8:12 pace then increase my speed to 8:06 pace and set my incline to 1%.  Every 2 minutes I increased my incline by .5% until I reached a max of 4.5% incline then I decrease the incline by .5% every 2-4 minutes until I reached a flat and cranked up the speed.  I finished with a 6:48 mile then cooled down, stretched, and foam rolled.  I was on an incline for most of the run and my quads and hamstrings were definitely feeling it from TRX last night.  One thing I have noticed is that my SI joint really does not like steady hill climbs and I have to really protect my joint and foam roll it out after I do hill runs.  Thank goodness my husband has been great and can adjust my SI joint for me! 

So now I am off to lacrosse practice and it is 60* here in Delaware today.  We have our first scrimmage tomorrow and I cannot wait to see how we look out there.  I am so proud of my girls already and I can see the progress coming along!  I am very lucky we have some extremely speedy girls and they NEVER complain about running!

Do you run hills?  What is your favorite hill workout to do?

Happy Running!

Rest Day Not So Much...

So today was my rest day since I worked last night and have to coach this afternoon...but when I got to practice the girls special requested a specific route to run which takes them off the lacrosse fields and off school property.  So needless to say I joined in the run.  Today's run for them was a LSD run which consisted of 3.75 miles in 30:40.  Not awful but definitely could use some improvement.  We worked a lot on skills and fundamentals and actually broke the team up into varsity and j.v.

Following practice I met up with my hubby, boys and my mom for a bite to eat.

.

This was truly delicious!! 

Hope everyone has a fantastic friday night.

Happy Running!