Happy Happy Joy Joy

Today I had a 7 miler planned and around mile 7 I said to myself:
 "you know I'm feeling okay I think I'll go to eight"
Then when I hit 8 miles I thought:
 "You know, I'm almost to 10 and I haven't been in double digits for a while I think I'll go to 10"
Around mile 9 I was thinking:
"Oohh, my legs are tired maybe I should have stopped when I had planned"
But then I remembered a little trick my friend Amber taught me.
 She told me once that:

 "If your feeling tired speed up for a few minutes then you can slow back down to your regular pace and it will feel slow"

So I followed her advice and sped up for a few minutes then back down again and badabing badaboom I just ran 10 Miles!!
 I was so excited and happy about it I jumped off the treadmill and went and did a running back handspring double back flip and landed in the splits!!  (okay maybe not)

This is what I looked like in my head!  (Real picture is Nastia Luikin-olympic gymnast)

The BEST part of the run is I HELD my 10:30 pace that was my goal!  I love runs like these!

"I am Adrienne!  I am strong!"

TGIF
Happy Running,
NRR

I'm throwing in the towel!

So this morning at the gym (yes I belong to a gym but haven't found a gym I love) I decided that I should become a 5K SPECIALIST!  Because MAYBE, just MAYBE if I run everyday for the next year than MAYBE I will be able to run a BLOODY 5K at the time I've been working on for the last month!!  Okay, so I'm not a patient person.

Here are the stats:

1 Mile warmup
1 mile at goal pace then started sucking wind
1 minute unplanned break
1 more mile at goal pace
1 minute unplanned break
 .75 miles at goal pace
1 minute unplanned break
finish to 3.1
1 mile cool down at slower pace
5 total miles
You would think with all the little breaks I was taking I was running hundreds of miles NOT 3.1!

I realize I haven't been pushing the speed drills much in the past but I really want to be able to do this RIGHT NOW!  Oh well, I'll keep plugging along.

So on to the towel throwing in part.  Actually it was a towel throwing out thing.

I was a little discouraged I'm not a superwoman and can't magically run the speed I would like to with little effort so in order to kick the "I'm just normal" blues I said to myself---the dishes can wait, and the  laundry, and the bathrooms and all that "I have to be responsible" stuff because I'm suppose to be the grown up and I got the littles and we "threw out the towels"! By the pool that is!

Reece even bellied up to the bar for some eats although Sadie preferred to have her belly right on top of the bar, we were having so much fun I wasn't even mad Sadie stole all my gushers.

So the moral of the story is if you feel like you've been given "lemons make lemonade" or in our case Gatorade which consequently we didn't make at all we just grabbed it right out of the fridge.

Even though the run wasn't all I would have liked it to be, it wasn't all horrible either and if I had to rate the day on a scale of 1-10 I would definitely give it a A+

(An A+?  but didn't she say....1-10? ???  I can hear what your thinking, try to keep up!)

Happy Running,
NRR

FOCUS, FOCUS, FOC...SQUIRREL!!!

This morning's run was intervals.  I attempted to complete 1/2 mile repeats at 1 mile pace 8 times.  What is this called?  8X400? 400X8? Is 400 a half mile?  I'm too lazy to google right now.  I'm still trying to figure out the run lingo.  Anyway, I was taking 1 minute breaks in between and suddenly I would be counting in my head 63, 64, 65 and it would dawn on me I was suppose to be running.  I seemed to be thinking about everything else that I needed to be doing instead of what I was actually doing.  I stumbled my way through but not very happy with my mental game.  Oh well, on to all that other crap I kept thinking about needed done.

Nobody's ever drown in sweat before....

but it wasn't from a lack of trying........

Today as I finished up my 7 miler one of my little's looked at me and asked

 "Do you sweat a lot when you run?"

I looked at him with all the love of a mother and said

"Pumpkin, Here's your sign"

Happy Weekend and Running,
NRR

Although I've never met the two.......

I'm guessing this is what it would look like if EMZ and Jamoosh went for a run together!

Solitary Confinement

Today I was SUPER DUPER excited because I was going to go try out the gym that a lot of my new friends here in AZ go to.  I dropped the Reecer off at preschool and Sadie and I headed over.  The parking lot was full--good sign.  I went in with my "5 day free trial" coupon.  Got Sadie situated in the kid care--thumbs up there.  I went and picked out a treadmill and started my warmup.  Okay, immediately I realized this was going to be a problem.  ALL of the equipment machines have individual TV's that are at eye level about a foot from your face.  I guess a lot of people would like this but it made me feel claustrophobic. I wanted to go to a gym to feel like part of a group, or be part of a group because so much of my training is all alone by myself, sniff sniff,  but with the TV positioned like this you can't see around it.  I ran two miles like this and then I was done.  It was too annoying.  I got off and decided I'll do weights but as I was doing this I looked up at all the peeps on all the treadmills, elliptical, bikes, etc. and they all looked like zombies.  Nothing worse than being in a room full of people and feeling all alone. Have you seen the movie Wall-E?  You know how all the people live in this big spaceship in space and go throughout their days completely sedentary and have robots do everything for them?  This is what the people at the gym looked like.  Nobody was really running that hard or cycling that hard or ellipticalling that hard they were all just staring at their individual TV's and going through the motions of "working out".

  Looking for Wall-E pictures I came across THIS post and I have to say I agree. (I like the Wall-E comparisons, the matrix quotes not so much).  Anyway, I decided this wasn't the place for me.  Fourth gym I've tried since moving to AZ and fourth gym I've hated since moving to AZ.

So I headed home deflated but still needing to run and I decided to stall some more check out some running blogs real quick before I jumped on my own treadmill minus blasted TV in my face and I saw Jamoosh's post about the  "Equalizer". So I began reading, reading reading..blah blah blah (I mean this in a nice way Jamoosh) and then there it was...THAT'S YOUR PROBLEM!  It couldn't have been more clear if he reached through his computer and slapped me in the face.  Jamoosh's post was about how he had just had some awesome runs and if others hadn't then it's basically our own fault.  He's right.

**It's my problem if I feel alone in a crowded room.  I can go talk to someone.
**It's my problem if I don't get my running done.  I have two feet just put one in front of the other, just cause I don't like the gym I can come up with plenty of other options.
**It's my problem if I don't "train hard" Just because everyone else is slow poking doing the zombie workout doesn't mean I have to.  If everyone else jumped off a cliff would you? Okay maybe.

Anyway, thanks for the heartless unsympathetic motivation Jamoosh.  I got on my treadmill and cranked out 6 Mean Deans, then did the Hard Core club workout and when I finished I felt strong and refreshed because I was physically drained and dripping with sweat.  Make sense? I love to run.


P.S.  Although I liked your post Jamoosh.  I'm going to correct you on one thing---90 years ago women didn't earn the right to vote we just finally gained the right to vote which we earned long before that.  But I know what you meant.

Girls rule!

Happy Running,
NRR

Core Club take 1

Today I did a non eventful 3 mile treadmill run then followed it up with the 1st day of the Core Club Workouts courtesy of Jamoosh over at the Last Mile Lounge.
 I have to admit I have been a total slacker at the core workouts ever since I moved to Arizona.  I use to be pretty decent when I lived in Colorado because I had a certain workout instructor--SCOTT--who would kick my butt every Monday and Friday and sometimes Saturday but alas those days are behind me.  I think all of the core workouts went pretty well except I did have to adjust on the Push Up ones...Why do I suck at push ups?  I've been doing them forever and yet I'm still such a wussy.

No I'm not posing!  Why do you ask?

The plank was going okay until the 2YO decided I needed to put in a little more effort.

Pictures courtesy of my 10YO who thinks his mom is a wuss.  Laugh now buddy!  Your day will come :)

Well since yesterday's post I'm probably now known as the poop girl so not to disappoint I thought I'd share the latest in poop news.  Apparently pooping runs in the family and today when the pictured 2YO was suppose to be napping she decided to remove not only her dress but her diaper full of you know what and it was all over!  So it's been somewhat of a crappy weekend.  Is it Monday yet?  Something for Adam over at The Boring Runner to look forward to as the time approaches for his own little pooper scooper to arrive.  Now you can see how I do the 2-3 or was it 4? loads of laundry everyday. Don't worry though Adam, the little stinkers are the best!  Can you argue with this cute little face?

Happy Running!
NRR

P.S.  Back to school tomorrow!!! Can I get a Woot Woot!