Holy Hanna it was cold this morning. And while the wind was not blowing at our house it was blowing in Orem. The Hale Center Theater is just down the street from a serious canyon (Provo Canyon) and it was getting some fierce wind action this morning. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

First race together.

I was totally nervous last night as I was getting ready for bed and laying all of my gear out. I didn’t know what jacket I should wear or if I should wear the compression socks {is it only my ankles that protest running in those things?} or if I should wear my hat or ear warmers. etc, etc…. I slept well until my littlest, Bea, woke up around 2 am. Mark took care of her this time, thankfully. But she deiced to wake up for good at 5:30 this morning. Come on, seriously? Didn’t she know I was racing? So, I shoed her back to bed 7 or 8 times until 6:45, when I got up for good.

We went downstairs to enjoy breakfast, Bea and the Boss {who heard there would be cereal and woke up to participate} had lovely bowls of coco-crispies, a Saturday favorite. I ate a toasted hamburger bun {because we only had ultra healthy wheat bread and I wanted something easy to digest} one side with peanut butter and the other with honey, and a glass of water. Then I foam rolled my legs for a bit, cleaned up after the girls and started getting ready. I wore my winter tights with a pair of capris over them, a long sleeve base layer with a short sleeve tee over and a jacket. I also brought my lovely old sweat pants to wear once we got to the race and my winter coat. Mark picked up the babysitter at 8:30 and we kissed the girls goodbye and were gone.

Waiting in the warm car

Ready for his first race.

We made it to packet pick up with no problems, got our bibs, race shirts, and goodie bags and went back to the car to stay warm. We were there early enough for me to use the bathroom twice before the start. I finally left the warmth of the car and made our way over to the “pre-race meeting” and then followed everyone over to the start line, jumping and bouncing trying to stay warm. We lined up toward the back and the going was a little slow in the first few minutes of the race as everyone got moving. Our first mile was awesome and right on target pace wise. Mile 2 had a serious and steep down hill section that flattened out for a bit and then we had to climb back up all that elevation that we had just lost. The route was a rectangle and we started running south and then turned west and then back north. All these directions the wind didn’t seem to be affecting us too much. But once we turned back east the bitter cold wind was in our face and stealing any chance I had at breathing. That coupled with the up hill was too much to keep the pace. I had to take 3 short walk breaks and by the 3rd one I waved Mark on and told him to finish strong without me.

After the finish - happy with my PR.

This wasn’t the sub 30 minute race I had hoped for but it also wasn’t a “perfect racing day.” In all I am happy with my performance today. It was cold and tough.

I’m not sure what my official time was but when I crossed the finish the clock said:      32:08 - an almost 3 minute PR. I’m pretty happy about that.

My average pace was 10:39 minutes/mile. This race, while not my A Goal, may me think that I can definitely reach my A Goal with a little more work.

The upset of the day was Mark. He was worried that he would be hurting towards the end. In reality the opposite was true. He was my rabbit through the whole race keeping my moving and then at the end finished strong ahead of me. He said that he had fun and I am definitely going to try to talk him into another race!

Looking like a "real" runner.

And in celebration {and because this was a date} we went out for breakfast at a favorite spot, One Man Band. I refueled with eggs for protein and a scone for carbs. Fried bread dough has to be the best form of carbs. And slather that in honey butter – made in heaven.

My favorite form of carbs - fried

You know you’re excited apprehensive obsessing about something coming up when you dream about it. Last night I dreamed about my BIG PR {hopefully} Race tomorrow. I dreamed that I decided to go to the gym first thing in the morning to get some sweat on and then went to a huge sporting goods store to look around and ended up being late to the race. I didn’t actually race in my dream so I don’t know how the sweating and browsing affected my racing. It was, however, a frustrating dream. To say that I am obsessing about this race would be correct.

So, yes, THE 5k is tomorrow. The Hale Freezes Over 10k and 5k.

The race benefits the Hale Center Theater in Orem, Utah. We love this theater they do great work and it is always fun for a night out. As part of your swag you receive a ticket to one of their productions – score, date night!

Mmm-K. Here are my A and B goals for tomorrow.

• A Goal – Run under 30 minutes. This is what I have trained for!
• B Goal – PR. This shouldn’t be too hard. My last 5K time {August 2011} was a blistering 35:03.3. I should be able to at least make my B Goal.
• Most importantly I really want to enjoy myself tomorrow. This is hubby’s first race and I think that we will have a great time. I want him enjoy the race and want to do it again sometime.

Well I finally had an opportunity to run “Running Loving Living’s” Virtual Run today.

I was trying to find a time when I could have a “good” run. I should have known better than to hold out for a perfect time for a good run, my life doesn’t work that way. Anyway, I had planned on today because yesterday was long run day and pouring down rain anyway. Today they said it was supposed to be relatively warm in the early parts of the morning and turn snowy in the late morning and afternoon. I woke up with the intention to run early before it got any colder. I got out the door around 8 am (hey, that’s early for a Sunday) and the first step on my driveway almost made me fall flat on my butt. My entire driveway was an ice rink.

Our house faces north and honesty my driveway is icy the entire winter normally, so I was hoping that at least part of the road had sun on it and no ice. I found a mostly ice free route but there were still a couple of perilous spots and it was so so cold.

• Total run: 3.78 frosty miles
• Total time: 43:00 perilous minutes
• Average pace: 11:48 min/mile

I am getting closer to the 5K race I am hoping to run sub 30 minutes! I’m getting excited and nervous at the same time. But, I know I have to trust in my training and remember all the speed work I have done to smash my goal.

On the training plan for this week, Janurary 8-14, 2012

• Sunday: - Training plan (TP) said – Rest. I actually went for a run this morning. When I built my plan Our church time was 9:00 am and getting myself and 4 girls ready for church and there on time made it imposible to run before. But now that church has moved to 1:00 pm I have time to run in the morning and I am loving it! It is so quite on a Sunday morning, it is a peaceful way to start my Sunday. Actual – Easy; 3.35 miles in 40:15 min
• Monday – TP - 4 x 1000m Race Pace + 400 m Recovery Pace. Actual -  4 x 1000m Race Pace + 400 m Recovery Pace, total 4.32 miles in 52:14 min. And Yoga Class at night.
• Tuesday – TP – 2-4 miles Easy. Actual  – 3.39 miles in 38:24 min Easy. Ran with my new garmin outside – loved it. The garmin and the run.
• Wednesday – TP – Rest. Actual - Worked Downtown so I walked about 1 mile. Yoga class at night.
• Thursday – TP – 4 miles Easy. Actual  – 3.26 miles in 41:33 min Easy.
• Friday – TP – Cross Train. Actual  – Weights with Tim (triceps, chest & shoulders) and elliptical 20 min.
• Saturday – TP – Long Run 6 miles. Actual – Long Run 6.73 miles in 1:20:17. Outside in the sunshine!

I ran a new route and saw little ponies for sale. My girls would love me forever if I came home with one of these babies!

I finally got one! A Garmin!

My fabulous parents always give the gift of cold hard cash for Christmas, because they know what my brother, sister and I like best! So this is their gift to me even though when I sent the picture to my Mom to thank her for the gift she didn’t even know what it was!

Sure it’s an older model 305 and I bought it off eBay {I love eBay, don’t you?} but I am so excited to get out and use it. My dear sweet hubby agreed to come home early from work today so I could go outside and soak up some vitamin D while playing with my new toy! I am entirely confident that this little guy will make me a super speedy runner. Entirely. Confident.

Also, I just signed up to run in the Running Loving Living, 34th Birthday/1st Blogiversary 3.5 Mile Virtual Run. You can too! {I love virtual runs, they are so economical!}

Last week was an other awesome weather week! I love that it feels like September most days instead of January!

• Sunday: Resolution Run Virtual Race, awesome run and a huge confidence builder! Total miles, 4.21 in 33:02 min.
• Monday: Beautiful day + hubby was home = outside run in the sunshine! I tried a new route by home and got lost! Not too bad, but it was kinda fun to be lost in an area that I have lived in for 11 years! 5.8 miles in 1:11:47  - Yoga class at night 60 minutes
• Tuesday: Rest day – I had ran too many days in a row and my body was begging for a day off.
• Wednesday: Also a “Rest day” – I had to go into work so I walked about 1 mile in downtown Salt Lake.
• Thursday: Everyone is back to school and work so it’s off the the gym at 6:00 am so I can be back to get the 2 older girls off to school. Warmed up on the Elliptical: 1.25 miles in 19 minutes then Ran 3.25 miles in 40 minutes on the treadmill.
• Friday: Strength with the devil himself. Seriously, I think my trainer is trying to kill me on the sly. Worked legs and I can still feel them today. 30 minutes of torture. Ran 2.79 miles in 38:01 minutes.
• Saturday: Seriously can legs hurt this bad? had to ditch the long run, (it was only a 5 miler) today. But I’m not going to count it as a rest day because I spent the most of the morning early afternoon  at the mall with my oldest daughter exchanging her Christmas clothes that didn’t fit.So I’ll call this a Cross Training day.

• Total Weeks Miles = 16.05
• Elliptical Miles = 1.25

Well, I have finally picked out the 5k that I will hit a sub 30 minute PR! I was looking at a race in Feburary but my husband want to run with me (yay!) and he is out of town that weekend. So I looked around and found a perfect race January 28th the Hale Freezes Over 5K! The training is right on track and I am getting really excited to test my self. This will be the first race I have “raced” with a time goal.

I signed up to participate in Run To The Finish’s Resolution {Virtual} Run. The rules were simple:

Run at least 1 mile sometime on January 1
Then leave a comment about your run… yup it is just that easy.

I have been training to run a faster 5k {or 3.1 miles}. I am half way through my training plan and I wanted to see were I was. I have been feeling discouraged because treadmill workouts have been so difficult as of late. {I’ve been on the mill because it’s so dang cold here in Utah, no snow but super cold. I also don’t like to run in the dark because I’m a afraidy cat. And the lovely inversion does a number on my lungs.} Anyway the treadmill and I are not really friends. Every run is a challenge to finish on the beast. So, I wanted to see if I sucked as much as I feared.

So my GOAL for a 5K PR {personal record} at the end of January is

*to run a 5k in under 30 minutes.*

My Goal for today’s run was to try for a 10:00 min/mile pace which would put me around 31 minutes for the 5K.

For reference, I ran two 5Ks last year:

• Lehi Round Up – June 25, 2011 – 37:34.8
• Highland Fling – August 6,2011 – 35:03.3

Resolution Race Recap

• Today is a beautiful day, cool, crisp, and super sunny. 32 degrees.
• I started out with a 1 mile warm up. I feel great. My legs feel light and I am starting to think that I will be able to get close to my goal.
• After 1 mile I stop Runkeeper, take off my jacket, take a quick drink, and get ready to run.
  

  Pre-PR picture. I'm apprehensive and excited at the same time.

• I start up a new activity in Runkeeper and take off. I started off too slow, no I’m going too fast, I don’t know I still haven’t figured out how to pace myself. Runkeeper is set to give me an update every 2 minutes. 2 minutes roll around and dang the gps picked me up at the bottom of the gully instead of at the top where I really was. Argh, my distance and average pace are already messed up but it doesn’t seem to be by a whole lot. I am going much faster that I think. It said my current pace was around 9:30 m/m. I better slow down or I won’t be able to finish strong.
• Mile 1 feels great. I tried to run by feel, trying to run at the same effort the whole time.
• Mile 2 feeling pretty good at the start starting to feel the pace at the end of the mile.
• Mile 3 I decide that if I am going to pass out I should aim for the strip of grass next to the road. I’m feeling the effort is getting harder but I know I can finish out the mile strong.
• .1 – I’m not sure how far I have to go to make it to a full 5K because I’m not sure how far off my start was, so I try and make it a strong finish and push a little harder to the end.
• Of course when I get home I immediately jump on Runkeeper to see how wonky my run was. It turns out it wasn’t too bad. I smoothed out the beginning of my run, the gps had me running up and down the side of the gully {which I didn’t do}. So I smoothed the path out and……..

distance = 3.17 miles
time = 30:50! Hello virtual PR!
average pace = 9:43!
Woot! I am so close to my goal. I know I can nail it by the end of January. Take that stupid treadmill!

What an awesome way to start out 2012! I am on a serious runner high right now. Thanks Run to the Finish for hosting this virtual run. I had a great time.

I forgot to print out and wear my race bib. Opps. Here’s what my resolution is:

Finally a Tempo Run success! Why is it so hard for me to run at a decent pace on the treadmill? Does anyone know why it is easier to run faster outside that it is to run the same pace on the treadmill? I was even battling a head wind that was pretty intense and I still managed to knock out an awesome tempo run! I’m feeling pretty good about my self right now. Bring on the speed.

On the Schedule – 2 mile Tempo run {My goal was 2 miles at a 10:00 m/m pace}

• Warm up: 10 minutes
• 1st tempo mile: 10:08 m/m
• 2nd tempo mile: 9:48 m/m
• total distance: 3 miles
• total time: 32 min 17 sec
• average pace: 10:39 m/m
• Temps: Mostly cloudy, 50 degrees, 7 mile/hour winds

Lesson learned today – I can be awesome, stop beating yourself up because you will be able to run a sub 30 minute 5K by the end of January! Keep up the training plan and have faith sister!

I just joined the Food Journal: 30 Day Challenge over at Run to the Finish.

This is one huge area that I need to work on. I can make myself get out of bed at 5:20 in the morning to go to the gym but I can’t say no to anything with sugar in it. I plan on kicking this challenges butt this month and feeling better than I ever have.

Join me? Come on, I know you want to.

Last week was week #6 in the “Get Faster” Training Plan. Here’s how it went…

• Monday: 3.76 easy miles @ a 13:08 m/m pace in the morning; & 60 minutes of the best yoga class ever (Okay, I’ve only been to 2 classes including this one) @ night. I sleep great after a yoga class!
• Tuesday: So very tired after yoga last night I skipped out on this mornings workout. We will call this a “Rest” day.
• Wednesday: 4.28 easy miles @ a 12:56 m/m pace.
• Thursday: 3.68 miles @ a 12:15 m/m pace. Tempo run. 2 miles tempo with a warm up and cool down. Killer, is the only word I can find that adequately describes tempo workouts. I get that they are supposed to be hard but seriously?
• Friday: Weight training w/ Tim - triceps, shoulders, and chest plus 2.75 miles on the Elliptical @ a 11:38 m/m pace.
• Saturday: Virtual Home for the Holidays 10K! 6.33 miles, 1 Hr: 18 min: 52 sec. a 12:28 m/m pace.

Virtual Home for the Holiday’s Race Recap…

I had 6 miles on the ol’ training plan for Saturday so I signed up for this awesome virtual 10K. I still don’t have any warm running clothing so I did the whole thing on the treadmill. There was an optional costume contest but unless you count my red face as a festive costume accessory, I didn’t dress the part. I guess I worried about what my gym cohorts would think of me sweating it out on the mill in a Christmas tree costume. Loaded onto the ipad for my viewing pleasure – I finished watching The Green Hornet {terrible movie, don’t recomend to anyone} and started Paul Blart Mall Cop.

I didn’t really push the pace because I really wanted to run the whole 6.2 miles but something about every one being sick (Bea has pneumonia and the Boss has a sinus and ear infection) wiped me out and I couldn’t go the entire distance. I only walked once and not for very long. All in all I feel pretty good about my effort. The race was a fun distraction from my normal. I enjoyed it so much I signed up for another virtual race on New Years Day! Our church block moved to 1 pm so I can now run in the morning before church! What a great way to start out the new year!