We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Back to normal:
I have had a weird couple of days. No I am not about to whine about my husband being away on his fishing trip. He's back and life is back to normal. You now get to resume the regularly scheduled programming of eating, running and everything in between.
Running Recap
Saturday: I had a nice little 3 mile run. Pushing the kids in the double jogger was tough since they were a little antsy, so we stopped at the University Soccer field so they could run around. While they ran in 6 inches of wet grass, I made sure to get in about a half mile worth of butt kickers, high knees, zig-zags and sprints. I am tyring to be a bit more dynamic with my running so that I am using my muscles in a more balanced way.
Sunday: While hanging out at my parents thinking my chance at a run was gone, my 19 yr old niece got home early from her CPR class. She had just eaten McDonald's and I knew my chances she'd run with me were low, which is exactly why I asked. I was still feeling sick and really didn't want to run, but to my surprise she said yes. She was particularly excited that we were going to map her usual run using my fancy new Garmin. Because she was full, she warned me she was going to be extra SLOW. I asked her how fast she runs, and she responded with, "Uh, I don't know, SLOW, like 10 minutes a mile?" I told her that 10 minutes was fast for me so we should be fine if she wasn't up to running fast. I was deceived. SHE LIED, ok well she was lying to herself not me. I should've known better, my niece has no concept of running time. In the first quarter mile we were moving at a 7:15 pace, thankfully I got her to slow down a little, yep a whopping minute 6 seconds slower. Our first mile was at an 8:21 pace, in case you were wondering, this is my fastest mile time in 12 years! We rounded out her 2.27 mile loop in 20 minutes 26 seconds...a 9 minute mile pace. I wanted to round this up to 3 miles, so I had her do a cool down with me at an 11 minute mile pace for .77 miles(yes I know this adds up to 3.04 miles). She was shocked at how SLOW the cool down felt. I told her fast people train slow on their long runs. We talked about a friend of hers who is running a half marathon in March and how my niece wanted to sign up too.
Not the most flattering picture, but a great shirt.
My niece was so motivated by our run she asked to stay over and do one of my usual routes Monday morning. We stayed up for an hour or so Sunday night playing with the Runner's World tools predicting her finish time, creating a training plan with Smartcoach and fiddling with the route program in the training log application. It was so much fun.
Monday: Today we woke up and headed to my favorite 4 mile loop. I told her I was going to teach her to run slow. Yeah, slow was not exactly in the cards either. The Garmin website is down today so I can't give you splits, but we did our 4 miles in 40:46 (10:11ish pace). This is still really fast for me. Slower for her, but still not slow enough. I think her target using Smartcoach for easy runs is supposed to be about 11:30 and today was more like a Tempo run. I loved having a partner today and one that pushed me. I think we are going to try and get together for a run 1x per week. Here are some fun pics from today.
Hate when the glasses fog up.
I love this one, my husband is great at catching sweet moments.
My niece is genuinely a happy person all the time.
New Goal: Instead of breaking 8 minute miles by the end of 2011,
I am shooting for my birthday-June of this year....
I am also feeling pretty certain that this goal will change again,
but I don't want to get too ahead of myself.
Why I Kick A$$: Because even when I am sick I run my fastest mile
Thankful Three:
- For Hostess Donettes. I kinda like the fake feeling of the chocolate coating
- For nieces who think running is so fun they might tryout for the Junior College cross country team next year
- For sunflower seed honey bread, delicious!
5 comments:
That is very cool that you could run with your niece!
I love those Hostess donettes too!
Very cool that you inspired you niece so much!
Great to have a running partner, but don't let her run too slow! Her easy pace should only be about a minute slower than her marathon pace according to the McMillian calculator.
You just need to run your tempo runs with her when she does her easy runs.
Sounds like having her as a running partner will push you to be a better runner. Keep it up.
I am definitely going to use my nieces speed to my advantage, this year is my year for speed.
@Brian-thanks for the reminder, I forget about McMillian's calculator. I need to take my niece to a track for a true test of her ability so she can make the most of her training.
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