11.18.09 bike

20 mile ride on the beautiful Suncoast/Starkey trail. Longest ride thus far on my little bike. It couldn't have come at a better time. With Wednesday being the middle of the week and having the remnants of the Mon & Tues work garbage and the anticipation of the weekend upon me. I left my cases that I have to finish reviewing by tomorrow & drove to the trail for some much needed decompression. My goal was to finish 20 miles & keep it under a 17 mph pace. Average pace ended up being 17.4, max pace 20.5, 826 calories burned, total time 1:09:19. I stayed in my aero bars the whole ride & wondered if I would feel the effects of this in a couple days.

During my ride I saw 4 turtles, 1 black snake with a white stripe down his back crossing the trail and lots of birds. Once I reached the Suncoast I caught a glance of Mr. Alligator sunning himself in a nearby ditch. What a glorious ride that could only be better with company.

Tip of the day: Do not get out of the saddle to climb after putting in long miles, it only calls attention to your hurting parts that you have to sit back into.

Wild life: 4 turtles, 1 snake, lots of birds & an alligator.

11.17.09 5K

5K...time 26:00. After getting the girls off to school I decided on a road run instead of the treadmill. It was 65 degrees and very comfortable. After running 12 miles on Sunday I would have thought that a short run today would seem alot easier, not so. It felt hard. My breathing and feet felt heavier. I'm pretty sure I know the culprit, my diet. Yesterday started out well but did not end well as far as nutrition. I ate a whole grain bagel w/ peanut butter & apple. For lunch I ate a whole wheat flat bread sandwich with turkey and low fat provolone, one serving of peanuts, (and here is where it goes down hill) and a hand full of sun chips. 2 hours later when the girls came home from school I had a hand full of regular potatoe chips and 5 twizzlers. For dinner I ate a piece of skinless chicken seasoned w/ Lowrey's salt & squash w/ salt. See a theme here?.....SALT. Thank goodness I gave up soft drinks a long time ago or it would only added to my sodium binge. Today I'm planning to do better, however we have small group tonight w/ lots of "fat-girl dips" & deserts. 5 more days until the Women's Half Marathon! LORD give me strength.

11.14.09 Long run

What a great morning to run. The weather was awesome, a little cool to start and perfect for the finish. Dana, Tand I hit the trail early with a 12 mile goal to run with the Striders. It was dark when we started but it soon became light for the rest of the run. We ran out 5 miles, back 5 miles plus 2 miles off the trail past a few of the pavilions. The pace was faster than last weekend and there were NO walking stops. The last mile we met up with Andrew and he ran with us to keep us company. Here are the recorded laps:

Mile 1: Ave pace 10:41
Mile 2: 10:29
Mile 3: 10:22
Mile 4: 12:57 (forgot to stop watch at water stop)
Mile 5: 10:15
Mile 6: 10:21
Mile 7: 10:03
Mile 8: 10:10
Mile 9: 10:02
Mile 10: 10:18
Mile 11: 10:25
Mile 12: 10:27

11.13.09 bike ride

Friday the 13th and nothing unlucky about it. I got to head to the trail with my bestest friend Teresa. She played hookie from work and I was there to support her. Around 10am we both had our kids dropped off at school and our bikes loaded. The weather was beautiful, warm sun/cool wind. A little more wind than I hoped for but I will take it.

As we headed out on our bikes I took the lead into the wind. We rode out 8 miles and took a drink break. We discussed alot of great ideas like promoting Team Tri-a-licious for next tri season and deciding who we would want as teammates. After a much productive "board meeting" we were on our bikes for our beautiful 8 mile ride back. T took the lead which added speed. We made one more stop to see Mr. Alligator in the pond and finished our ride with smiles on both of our faces. It's not very often that 2 close friends like me & T get to play hookie on the same day.

Total distance 16 miles.....average pace 17.1, max 21.7. Going out we stayed around 17 into the wind and coming back around 19. Due to the fact that I didn't restart my watch right away after our turn around our ave pace I recorded coming back is lower than actual pace.

11.11.09 spin

With the weather being wet I went to Cherise's 45 min spin class. My quads were feeling it.

11.10.09 tempo run

I deviated from my "Run Less, Run Faster" program and ran what I felt like running on the treadmill.

Mile 1 9:00 pace
Mile 2 8:05 pace
Mile 3 7:35 pace
Mile 4 8:05 pace
Mile 5 9:00 pace

It felt good to push myself.

11.07.09 long run

Long run with the Striders and T. Our plan was to do 12 miles and we did them. The last 2 were not pretty. Great pace on the rest.

Mile 1: 10:21 ave pace
Mile 2: 10:25
Mile 3: 10:25
Mile 4: 10:31
Mile 5: 10:19
Mile 6: 10:36
Mile 7: 10:33
Mile 8: 10:31
Mile 9: 11:14
Mile 10: 10:38
Mile 11: 11:57
Mile 12: 11:52

12 mile attempt next weekend as well with Dana included. She was at a conference this weekend.

11.05.09 track run

Deviated from "Run Less, Run Faster" to get an outside run in after eatting all the fried food when my parents were in town. At 7pm when it was somewhat cooler I hit the road.

mile 1: ave pace 9:05
mile 2: 8:48
mile 3: 8:40
mile 4: 8:39

4 mile run...Total time 35:15

mom & dad in town 10/31-11/04 no training