The first mile

Today was one of those days that i didn't really want to go running. I was laying on the couch munching on some sprees (that i stole out of my kids b-day candy)since i had already determined earlier in the day that i wasn't going to have time to run before work this evening. The phone rang and my hubby said "did you get my text/ get your running clothes on, i'm getting off a little early!"

Normally i would be all excited but today my thought was "oh crap, i'm eating candy and i'm not in the frame of mind to run" but i jumped up and snarfed down a peanut butter sandwich real quick to hopefully offset the sugar i had just eaten and got my running clothes on.

Earlier in the day the weather was perfect for running but by 2 pm when i was heading out the winds were at 23-26 mph...great if your running with the wind but totally sucks running against it!

For the first mile i was just feeling like a load of bricks trying to run. It might have been somewhat because of the speed work i did at the track yesterday that my body didn't like so much but while i was running i was thinking about all of my runs...the first mile is never great. I need the first mile to just warm up. Sometimes in the first mile i just feel like turning around and going home ( the thought crossed my mind today) .

Thank goodness the first mile doesn't last forever and by miles two and three i start getting in the groove. Of course today i turned and started running against the wind in miles two and three so getting in the groove was a little tougher today.

I then also got chased by two little dogs that acted like they wanted to eat me. I once again humiliated myself by dancing around kicking at them and screaming on the sidewalk of a semi busy street. This is twice in the last couple of months and i have had my fill of little pooches chasing me down!

I am at 24 miles for this week and tomorrow i am OFF. My body is tired, it needs it and then plan to finish off the week on Saturday with a long run.

Hope your having a great week! Hope you get past that tough first mile!

Love2Run 4 mile

Sunday morning i ran the Love2Run 4 mile run in KC at the downtown airport. There is a road that goes around the entire airport and that was the course.

Of course it had to be extremely cold this past weekend so that i could be 2 for 2 in picking very cold days to race! It was 8 degrees when i woke up but got up to around 15 degrees by 9 am when the race started. There was not hardly any wind so that was a plus! There were around 650 runners out running in the cold.

I had hand warmers stuck in my gloves but my fingers went numb...finally around 2 miles in i could feel my fingers again and my toes finally thawed out too (they weren't too bad but a little numb for awhile in spite of wearing two pairs of socks!)

I really like this course. They called it "flat and fast" but there were two little hills at around 3 miles...not bad ones just enough to think"hey now that's not flat" :)

John took a picture of the finish line before anyone started coming across it...

This was in the last mile of the race...the city view above is what you could see the entire last mile so i enjoyed the view

I have not run a 4 mile race in quite a long while so i was a little unsure how to pace myself and whether or not i should go at my 5k race pace. I went in with the goal of finishing before 33 minutes. My finishing time was 30:15 so then i was a little irritated with myself that i hadn't pushed a little harder to get under the 30 minute time. It's ok though because there is next month...going to be running another 4 mile race in March so now i have a second shot at it :)

Got a medal for placing 3rd in my age division and then enjoyed some yummy hot chocolate!

So, February's race is complete and two of the hardest months to race in are down...10 more to go! Next month it had better not be 8 degrees when i wake up on race morning!!

Warm winter

We are having an unusually warm winter here in the midwest! Going running on Feb. 1 in 60 degree weather, wearing just a t-shirt and running skirt-love it!!

I was down and out with the flu for the past week but finally got back to it yesterday. The first run back was a little rough and i felt like it had been longer than a week since my last run.

I don't have much to chose from in the race dept. for February so it looks like i will be signing up for a 4 mile race on the 12th. I was hoping to find something more towards the end of the month but i better take what i can get! Gotta get my race for the month in after all! :)

Finished out January in my goal of 1,000 miles in 2012 with 67.8 miles. Behind where i should be so i need to make up some extra miles in February!

Will soon be starting a training program for the half marathon i plan to run in April. I really want a pr in that one so i plan to train pretty hard. Hopefully i can stay well. it seems like this winter i have been fighting sickness more than i have other winters and it has been a much milder winter...doesn't make sense to me!

Hope you are having a great week!