This week in running: week 1

I love the title of this because it reminds of “This Week in Baseball.” I have fond memories of watching that before every baseball game I attended growing up. I guess they used it as entertainment for the fools who got to the stadium two hours before the game started.
 

What up, fools?

But, I digress.

My half marathon training group started this week. We run together on Tuesday and Thursday evenings (6:30 p.m.) and on Sunday morning (7:30 a.m.) for our long run.

Tuesday

We met the coaches and each other did a short run to acquaint ourselves with the area.

It brought back bad memories from last year’s Women’s Half Marathon. This stupid pier was the least favorite part of the race: long, hot, no shade at mile 9. Yuck!
 

Pesky Pier

But, I conquered that thing (it was still hot with no shade). It could have helped that it was only a 2-mile run, not part of a 13.1-mile race. Watch out, Pier! I’m coming for you in a race!

Distance: 2 miles

Thursday

Our mission: run 22 minutes out and 22 minutes back. Our group stopped for water along the way because it was freaking hot. I think that is the hardest thing to get used to: the heat at 6:30 p.m.

I’ve run at night or on a treadmill the entire summer. There is a reason I do that: to avoid the big, scary ball of fire in the sky.

Distance: 3.5 miles

Sunday

I’m not a morning person … at all. Especially on the weekend. So, I was thrilled to meet the group for a 7:30 a.m. run.

But, it was SO much better than running in the evening. Not that it was cool by any means, but the sun was not as strong. And, I rocked out the run and had the whole day for fun stuff like Costco and car rides and walks with my dog.
 

Chloe's favorite weekend activity

The group of three I was running with made three water stops in our 50-minute run, walking up to them and walking just a bit after to make sure we swallowed our water before starting again. It wasn’t speedy by any means, but I’m happy with the results.

Distance: 4 miles

No morning runs for me ... for awhile

I went to a Cinco de Mayo/Kentucky Derby/graduation party on Saturday. Considering I didn’t drink tequila or Corona, I didn’t have one bite of Mexican food, we didn’t watch the Kentucky Derby or wear fun hats, I guess it really was just a graduation party. But, it was awesome. 

These peeps had the coolest yard ever complete with a pool, aviary and rooftop deck.

I am sporting some pretty awesome windblown bangs on the rooftop deck.

Being the awesome blogger that I am, I got so wrapped up in competitive games of ladder ball that I forgot to take one photo after the rooftop deck photo. Perhaps the black raspberry vodka had something to do with it, too. Ahem.

But, the important thing is: I dominated at ladder ball. I'm just a wee bit competitive.  

Source

Normally, I'd be worrying about what time we were leaving the party and when I needed to start chugging water since Sundays are long run days. But, since I ditched the running group for a few months, I didn't have to worry about those things. I just had to worry about winning ladder ball.

I'm not a morning person (at all), so without the group peer pressure, I'm not waking up early to run. Running at night is more my thing.

Welcome, my new long run night: Monday. Yes, Monday. I'm keeping my "long" runs between 5 and 8 miles now, so even for a turtle like me, that's an hour and a half at the most. Totally doable on a Monday night. 

A Bieber birthday and a run

J4CU8RZAF6YZ

Happy birthday, Biebs! Yes, I am a 30-something woman that likes Justin Bieber. I’ve got issues. This may not be the biggest of my issues, sadly.

Oops. This already happened.

Aside from a Bieber birthday party (I kid, I kid), I had my last training group run before my half marathon on Sunday. It was 40 minutes of pure sweat. It was hot and humid and disgusting. Aside from that, the run was fabulous.

I really don’t have a particular time goal for this race. Well, I kind of do. I’d love to get the same time as my half marathon three weeks ago. So, a 2:33 finish is fine by me.

Looking like a complete tool, but I was happy with my time.

The forecast concerns me a bit. I’m trying not to worry about it, but a 40% chance of rain and windy conditions are worrisome. Also worrisome is this race’s start time: 6 a.m. I’m not a morning person. I can handle waking up by 6 a.m., but being somewhere and being functional by 6 a.m. is another story. I apologize in advance to anyone I run into there. I will most likely be out of it and perhaps grumpy. Sorry.

I will recover when I get this sweet piece of metal in my hand.

That, friends, is why I chose to do this race. Believe me; it wasn’t that pesky 6 a.m. start time.