Thank-you for everyone for the shoe recommendations! It really helped me out on what I am “supposed” to be doing. I am going to pay attention to how my body feels and if I experience any abnormal pain. I will definitely go in. There is a specialist around these parts that most of my running friends have gone to and they love. I think I am going to make an appointment to see her.

To the recap.

Monday: It was memorial weekend. And I wanted to enjoy the weekend with my family which I did. I did not but pressure on myself. So I decided to take it as a rest day.

Tuesday: I was back at it. I took it out for a three mile run. I had an average pace of 9:56.

Wednesday: I went to BodyPump. Good workout. The instructor came up with her own workout thingy. I think she wanted to cause us pain. ;] I was sore until Friday.

Thursday: I had some extra time during the day. So I thought I would take it for four miles. I felt really good during this one. I did 4 miles in 41 minutes with an average pace of 10.07. I must say I am a firm believer that I have the best runs when I only run three days a week.

Friday and Saturday: I took rest days. My sister was up. So I wanted to spend time with her. We went to Jamie Grace concert on Friday after I was done with work. The on Saturday we went shopping with all the working we did that is a workout it itself. We also had our first Trader Joe’s experience. It was a pretty nifty store.

Sunday: 10.5 miles was on tap. But I had to run before church. So I only got 10 in.  My last long run was on Mothers Day. It was rough too. So going in I had some major self doubt as to how it would go.

I hit up the treadmill. I knew I needed something motivating to watch. So I decided to watch the “Spirit of the Marathon.” Absolutely love that movie! I was on the verge of tears quite often during the run. That is going to be me. I am going to be a marathoner! I still cant comprehend that.

The run itself was great. I felt like I could go a lot longer. Although, around mile 7 my left foot started to hurt. But I just kept working through it. I just felt so good ticking of the miles. I believe the movie pushed me to a runners high.  

My splits: 

Hopefully you can read that!

All in all it was a pretty good week. I did not workout as much as I normally do but I am okay with that. Somethings it is good just to enjoy life :]

Yesterday, we got back camping with my family. Can I just say camping wore me out. I was so tired yesterday! We got there on Saturday morning. Just as the we finished setting up camp it started raining. It rained all day and night Saturday. :[ We tried to make the best of it. Eventually we decided to go to town. We saw a movie and went to Pizza Hut. It seemed a better idea than struggling in the rain. 

When we woke up on Sunday the rain had stopped. Thank Goodness! We went for a nice bike ride and did some hiking. It was very warm so we also spent some time at the beach.

I wanted to run also this weekend. But it just did not happen. I was really enjoying being with my family. Who I do not get to spend much time with. I do not feel bad about missing my run. I think it is what my body needed. Last week I was experiencing some muscle soreness in my calf and right now it is gone. So hopefully it will stay that way.

Time to get back on the bandwagon. I am really looking forward to it. With all the camp food my body has consuming I have sorta felt blah.  It will be good to get everything back to normal!

As I mentioned in my last post. I was going to run the Autism 5k. I was really looking forward to the race. The race started at 9am. The race was about 50 minutes away from my house. I figured if I left at 7am that would give me more than enough time to get there, get registered and what not. I left the house feeling good. 

I was driving along and heard on the radio that there was construction this weekend on 94 the interstate that I needed. But I was not too worried I felt like I had enough time and I had my trusty Garmin to help a girl out. Well, my “trusty” Garmin instead of finding a new route for me just kept on trying to route me back to 94 even though it was closed. Ugh. I was not happy. Before I knew it I had been driving around the city for over ab hour. It was so frustrating because I knew I was less than 10 minutes from Lake Calhoun I could almost smell it :]

Around 8:50 I knew I was not going to make it to the race. So I found the nearest McDonald’s got some wireless. Looked it up on my iPad and it showed me exactly how to get there in less than 15 minutes. Why oh why was this so hard.

I wanted to just turn around and forget. I wanted to give up on the run and run on Sunday instead. But I did not I finally got there at 9:20am.

I may not have raced but I ran. By the time I started running it was hot. It was 80 degrees. I was feeling good and I started running way to fast. I am not used to the heat and I did not have hydration during the run. 

My splits were 9:20, 9:40 and 10:37 with an average of 9:56.  Not a PR but I am really just proud of myself that I did not give up on myself. I will do better next time. This almost racing stuff makes me really want to go race. :]

A quick shout out to Courtenay @ www.autopilotlegs.com. She rocked her first Half Marathon yesterday! 

I have decided to run a 5k in the morning. The Autism 5k. I am looking forward to the run. It is at Lake Calhoun one of my favorite places to run. It is supposed to be 72 degrees at the start. I am not looking forward to that but I really cannot complain. I have a couple of friends that are running Half Marathons in this heat.

Side note, I am not looking forward to training for a marathon in the dead of summer, I digress.

I have run this race before. It was two years ago now. I believe it was my third 5k. A boy actually ran with me the whole time that had autism. It was really powerful to be out there with the families that deal with Autism on a daily basis. Working in a daycare for so many years put a special spot in my heart for the children and families that do this. So I happy to help them out the little bit that I am in running this race. 

I am going into this not really having a goal or anything. I just want to go out there and enjoy the run and the beautiful weather. The first time I did this race I ran it in 40:27. I must say if I do not beat that I will not be happy with myself but I do not foresee that happening. I am kinda of hoping to better that time by 10 minutes but if it does not happen I completely alright with that as well.

I have a pretty successful week of training not exactly what I was hoping for. But I made it work :] Lets get into it!

Monday: I went back to BodyPump. It was the first time I had back in over a month. It was nice to the the ol’ pumpers :] Sadly, our instructor never should up. Luckily for us there was a lady who teaches the class on a different night working out on the machines in the gym. We pulled her off and talked her into teaching the class. The class ended up starting late. We could not complete the whole class within the hour. So were supposed to stretch alone after class which I never did. Bad idea!

Tuesday: I was scheduled to run but I was extremely sore from BodyPump the day before. So I opted for some Yoga and moved the run to Wednesday.

Wednesday: My body was still sore but I did not want to miss my run. So I went out there and took it nice and slow. I actually do not remember this run at all. Strange! Anyway according to Daily Mile I did it and I kept a pace an average pace of 10.10 for 3 miles

Thursday: It was beautiful so I took the run outside. It was a great run on the trails. I did the three miles with a pace of 9:56. This run reminded me why I love running outside.

Friday: Rest Day

Saturday: I went to BodyFlow. It was the first time I had been to this class in over a month. I really loved it. I really wish my gym offered this class more!

Sunday: Long Run Day. I set out for nine miles. I went early morning before church. It was a beautiful run around Shell Lake. But It was hard. I think it was a combination of things. I did not fuel properly before the run. I did not have time to eat my “normal breakfast” and I am not used to running in warm weather. I do not like it either. But I supposed since I live in the Midwest I will have to get used to it ;] Anyway, I finished it and kept an average pace of 10.46. I am kind of disappointed in my pace but not all runs can be perfect.

On a side note, after yesterdays run. I have horrible runger today. It just seems like I cannot eat enough. Oh, the rough life of a runner ;]