Hey Ladies...

Get Funky!!!

If you are one of the gentlemen who read my blog, stop reading here and watch the video. You'll like it. The ladies will like it too, but the ladies have more important issues to attend to.




So ladies, now the gentlemen are occupied watching The Beastie Boys, I would like to invite you to join the Bad Girls of Running vs. Bad Boys of Running Challenge on Runner+ .

If you are not familiar with Runner+, it is a fun site to track your runs, meet other runners, set up and participate in challenges. And the great thing about it is, you don't need to have a Nike+ system to track your mileage.

As of right now, the Bad Girls team is smaller than the Bad Boys team and we really need to show these guys who's the baddest (and when I say bad, I mean the best) of them all!

Getting it Done

Things have been going okay. I have not gotten as many of my shorter weekday runs as I would like. It's just been some crazy times. That being said, I still feel like I'm on track.

Saturday, I met up with my friend Cheryl and a few people she knew. I had nine miles scheduled and Cheryl (training for San Antonio) had seven miles scheduled. We decided to meet in the middle and run eight miles.

We ran a new route that was pretty hilly and it was pretty hot. Even starting at 6:00 AM. I'm looking forward to the cooler temps, if they ever get here.

Sunday I was supposed to meet Cheryl again. We were going to run 14 miles along Lakeshore Drive into Mt. Dora. We agreed to meet at 5:30 AM.

Saturday evening Cheryl called me and said that she wouldn't be able to meet me until 7:00 AM. I was fine with that, despite knowing it was going to be HOT.

Saturday night I changed the time on the alarm on my BlackBerry, which I always use for my alarm clock. The only problem was, I didn't turn it on.

At 7:10 the phone rang. It woke me up and before I even opened my eyes I knew it was too light and I had overslept.

Cheryl had planned on running and then going to church so she was on a pretty tight schedule. I told her I would never make it on time.

I went back to sleep.

The decision was made for me. The run would get done and it would get done on the treadmill.

I got up and drank some coffee ate a bagel. I decided to take the morning slow. I got dressed, grabbed the cooler and headed up to the Kangaroo for some G2 and 20 lbs of ice.

I got started and took it a little slower than normal. The idea was to get it done. I put on my shoes with less than 30 miles on them, hoping that the newer shoes would help keep any potential hip pain at bay.

I worked through the miles one by one. After seven miles I filled up my water bottle. Again after the next six and then there were only six miles to go. Six miles is a piece of cake.

When I had completed my run (3:02:30) I made some hot tea, grabbed a magazine and got in the tub. As the tub filled with cool water, I opened the bags of ice. The tea was a big help, I could have and maybe should have stayed in the ice longer. I stayed until my daughter's begging for me to get in the pool won out.

As I got into the pool, my husband said, the water feels good, but it's a little cold. My legs were so cold, I actually thought it felt warm.

I was supposed to head to San Diego tomorrow, but because of the Tropical Storm / potential Hurricane headed straight for us, I have cancelled the trip. I was looking forward to running my familiar humidity-free routes. Soon enough, I'll be there again.

A Chance To Win

The British Bulldog is having a contest on his blog. He is giving away 5 copies of the Dean Karnazes book 50/50: Secrets I Learned Running 50 Marathons in 50 Days.

Check out this link to his blog to read the rules.

And really, who doesn't like to win stuff?

A Hip Update And Weekend Runs

On Friday Shirley and I exchanged a few emails regarding my hip pain. Over the course of the morning we developed a pretty good action plan:

Start rotating shoes

Run outside when possible

Do some core work

So Saturday morning,with brand new shoes, I headed to downtown Tavares for eight miles on the Tavares Trail. I felt like I was going slow as the day quickly heated up. I ended up running at a 10:11 average pace. Slower than I wanted to be, but I was still happy with the run.

And when I was done, there was no hip pain. None.

The plan was to run a little further twice on Sunday. But after going to New Port Richey on Saturday afternoon, I was pretty tired. Sunday morning when the alarm went off at 5:30 AM, I just couldn't do it. I slept for another few hours. That meant running outside was out of the question. It is just so hot.

I ran my scheduled 17 miles on the treadmill, again in my new shoes.



After my run still no hip pain.

After the previous weekend and the soreness I felt, and another suggestion from Shirley, I took my first ever ice bath.


Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

And you know, I think it made a huge difference. I lasted six minutes. I was shooting for ten, but my feet were so cold, I held out as long as I could, but six minutes is better than nothing.

Today, I ran my scheduled three miles, yes, on the treadmill, but I swapped out my shoes for the Nike Triax 11's that have about 240 miles on them.

I would like to get outside tomorrow for my run, which means it will be an early start.

With the hip pain gone, I'm feeling really good and strong.

Now to get going with some core work. It's going to happen this week!