RACE REPORT DONE. 

Here are times. Will write RR later. It rocked!!! I actually did my first mile on the run in under 9 minutes...not bad for a 11 min mile runner! ..Didn't finish run as fast as I originally thought but it was better than its been.

My goal was less than 1:55, my time was 1:44:45!! I was happy :). Tired now. Nappy time.

On schedule: 20 minute easy run. Was going to swim a little bit just for technique but the thunder/lightening kicked that idea.

I ran around my condo 4 times or just 2 miles. It started to rain for the first lap and was pouring by the last lap so I didn't want to go far. The only bad part was the hill in my condo 4x but that was probably good for me.

• first 1/2 mile: 6 min (all I could think is wow people do this for a whole mile)
• 2nd 1/2 mile: 5 min 20 s
• 3rd 1/2 mile: 5 min 25 s
• 4th 1/2 mile: 5 min 15 s

what I realized is I really need to pump my arms and stretch my legs. What I think is running is that 12 min mile pace. It is easy and comfortable but it ain't getting me anywhere. I just really paid attention to my legs and realized what it feels like at a better clip..and I really need to pay attention to that more than my breathing for the race tomorrow since I don't wear a garmin and don't know my pace.

Update on Kylie: She is doing better with the sickness. The only time she is really sick is when they do the spinal taps the same day as chemo. She is very tired all the time. Doesn't even get on her email anymore so I am going back to sending snail mail. But she hasn't taken her ironman hat off and melissa said she is actually talking about getting a couple girlfriends together to do a charity 5K walk in the fall. She said: "well I am sure that is how Max started don't you think?"...how damn cute is she!

Update: OK, you are all asking good questions. I had a little brown rice and chkn for dinner last night but not a lot. Wasn't hungry. No breakfast before the run. No water now that I think about it. Normally eat something before but I was running late.  

This was supposed to be about 1 1/2 hr easy run. Felt great as I stretched. Had all my hot steamy dance songs on my new nano to listen to. First mile did 10 1/2 and felt good. 2nd mile was starting to go too hard and walked 2 minutes so 11 1/2 for that mile. By mile 3 I was sweating so badly it is pouring in my eyes and burning. I had chapstick above and that usually helps..why was I sweating so bad? walked alittle to bring HR down. 3rd mile 11 or so. Took a hammer gel. first time I used that brand. they gave free in goody bag so I thought I would try on a shorter easy run. Within minutes I thought I was going to puke. I still ran mile 4 in 10 1/2 but felt sick the whole way...then I noticed I was not sweating anymore, wanting to keep drinking but it was sitting in my belly and not going anyway. I was getting dizzy and had a headache. So I walked mile 5. I tried to run some of mile 6 but by then the dizziness would not leave and my head was pounding. So I just walked it in. I don't know what happened. It WAS hot but no newsflash these days. I don't know. I have a race in 2 days and figured it wasn't worth pushing. Thank goodness I have rest now before race.

I feel better now that I showered, had some breakfast and took some tylenol.

Getting my hair colored today thank goodness!

with weights and balance ball

Bike with LBS tonight too.  Bike was rough tonight. I think the long bike saturday, long run sunday and sprint work yesterday and strength training today caught up with me. My legs were sore. AND the bike group was a tough crowd tonight...and smoked tonight. I was left in the dust with one girl thank goodness . After a long while the smoking group came back for us and one guy let me draft a while. I felt like such a cheater doing that but I was beat.

wow I need my hair colored! the weeks just flew by! Yeah, got an appt for tomorrow! she had a cancellation..bye bye roots and grays!

oh and went with the weight change..showed back up on home scale and matched the Y scale.

Thanks for the inspires about my weight. I know it is not just about weight. The hard part IS the measuring tape. When all I was doing last year was running (and very slow at that, probably zone 1 or 2 all the time) my legs got soooo thin (well for my legs) and the hard part is that since adding the bike, my thigh width (combined) is about 1 inch bigger than a year ago. I KNOW I look tiny in most clothes...have good upper body and teeny waist. I am even ok with my J. Lo butt b/c at least it is tight and I never had a boyfriend complain about it :)...I just think the hardest thing to look at is my thighs. At 4 ft 11 in, even strong thighs look like little 'rocky' legs :) At least they dont jiggle right?

I am going with no change in weight. All week up until yesterday I was showing a 1 pound loss but got on scale and it was over 1 pound difference from yesterday. I will call it even with water issues and just wait until next week. Bummer...Update. Got on scale at the Y before swim (yes I am obssessed and it had me with a 2 pound weight loss..how nuts is that??? I am going to reweigh myself tomorrow at home and at work and see what I get.

Run:

• warm up 2 miles (rolling hills) 22 1/2 minutes. wow didn't realize I was going so slow even with the hills.
• next 2 miles, do at least 5 sprints for 20 seconds. I actually did 6 sprints for about 25 seconds. Completed these 2 miles in 18 minutes! wow!
• Calamity with contact lens. I forgot to put chapstick above eyes so dont know it if was sweat (I was soaking wet) or something got in. I was sidelined for a few minutes stumbling on the ground trying to get my gas perm lens out the pain was so bad (these lens not like soft..you need to flick the lid but I was so sweaty I couldn't do it). finally got it out, cleaned it and put it back in but I swear I scratched my eye a bit cuz it is still a little sore.
• Had to walk a couple minutes to get my bearings straight again as I ran the last 2 miles back (back to the rolling hills) This took about 24 minutes which included the 2+ min walk at the beginning.

Swim (had breakfast and lunch today)

• 300 warm up
• 200 kick
• 300 drill
• 8*25 on 35...came closer 4:47 instead of 4:40
• 1000 continuous and sprint the last 25 meters of every 100. I was average 32 s for the 25 meter sprints in the beginning and managed to get back down to 29-30 by the end.

I felt better than last practice but not as good as a week ago. definitely felt fatigue of all the workouts this weekend.

Left at 8 am and it was already blistering hot but I figured I need to get use to it for the 1/2 Mary in vriginia...rather be pleasantly surprised it is cooler than unprepared for the heat. OH and brought some worship music and a MP3 of a sermon so I could have a little church out there on the course.

It has been 3 weeks since I did a long run so I wanted to keep HR down, not stress the hip and get through it. I averaged about 11 min 20 sec pace for the first 7 miles but I did walk 1 minute after every mile to check HR, drink water and wipe the sweat from my face, so I was probably running about a 10:30 or 10:45 pace then adding the walk which is pretty good for me for a long distance. I completely walked mile 8 when i realized I was running out of water and my HR was getting to upper 160s. Ran the last mile at 11:30 pace cuz I was just tuckered out. Need to be more consistent with my running this month and next.  I have been slacking on longer distances and I felt it today.

I have to admit I need to get my love back for running. In this heat I just don't enjoy it at all. It was so much easier to bike yesterday in the heat :)

 Going to the pool for a couple hours.