find each others light

Time: 40:08 Avg 10:02

Wow! A whole new month! Time's going fast. Good run this morning. Good to have Lysa back, although I almost left without her cause she slept in:) It was a good run.

 Did Jackie Warner upper body and abs. I should do planks. We'll see.

Time: 1:21:45 Avg 10:13 Last mile:8:39

6am Hot and windy. The sunrise was beautiful behind the mountains. Good run. Gotta shower and go to swimming.

Time: 47:59 Avg: 9:36 Good run. Windy. There was a girl in pink running ahead of us and after talking to Lysa for a while I decided to speed up. I wanted to get my heart rate up and push  myself up the hill. When I started gaining on her I decided to see if I could pass her before I had to turn around and go back toward home. I passed her and then turned around and ran right back home and it ended up being exactly 5 miles from where I decided to turn around. Good guess. I felt good on this run.

I'm so grateful to be able to run. I met a woman last night who has brain cancer. She has no hair and she's super skinny and fragile. She's about 12 years younger than me. She can barely get through her days. It makes me so grateful for my health. Grateful for a strong body right now in my life. Who knows what my future holds, so I want to take advantage of this time I have to exercise daily, eat right and take care of this body that is a miracle to me.

Stace can run! So she does!

Power Yoga- 52 min

Time: 2:01:45 Avg 10:08 Best mile 9:08

Good run with Lysa. Loved the rain that lasted about 30 seconds. Grateful for the cool weather. Went on the usual except we went down Sego Lily past the library and up the Petunia. Won't go that again. Too hilly and it was hot in the sun. Needed my sunglasses this morning. Finished at Falcon and walked home. I didn't want to be walking, my legs were hurting. I'm ready for a nap right now. 

Yay for swimming! 45 minutes. Great cross training. Lysa came with me this morning. It was fun!

Time 39:05 Avg 9:46

It was nice and cool this morning. I wanted to go back to Flat Iron Park since they finished the new path. I did a mile or so up here and then went down newcastle to flat iron. Went around twice so up two steep hills. Saw Ashley's neighbor who said I looked great (she saw me walking throughout my pregnancy). I also saw some other girls that I always see there. It was good to be back. I like the challenge of the hills and the change of pace, gets my heart rate up. Ran home after going around twice. Have to go up a hill to get home so another challenge. Turned out to be right on, 4 miles. 

 Did Jillian Michaels Yoga Meltdown when I got home. 37 minutes.

Time 1:30:55 Avg 10:06 I'm a little annoyed with anything over 10 at this point. I was a little sore today from doing Yoga Meltdown yesterday so I guess I need to do that more often.

It was surprisingly cool outside this morning. Lysa started talking about how cold it is at the top before Hobble Creek half and I keep forgetting we're running that. I can't think past our 18 mile run that's coming up for some reason. I'm excited to run it but I sure hope they don't start really late like I've heard they do. I would like to run this half faster than my last night but I don't know what my goal should be. My one and only half was 2:07:46 so I would hope to finish this in less than 2 hours. We'll see. But first things first...YAY for 19 miler on Friday (or maybe Sat)! Thinking positive and will enjoy the rest day Thurs in prep for that long run. 

Time 50:48 Avg 10:10 Pretty good for trying to take it easy. My left foot was a little sore when I started out but it got better as I ran. We ran up past the buffalo today. Love that snow covered (?) buffalo:) After I ran up highland I ran into Deb Carter and ran her home. She told me Hobble Creek Half is beautiful and so is TOU. She told me about her experience running in the St. George marathon two years ago when it rained the whole time. It was fun to run and talk with her for a minute.

Did Jackie Warner upper body weights and abs. 30minutes.

Time 3:11:00 Avg 10:37 Calories 2096 Fastest mile was 18 at a 9:54

I can't believe I just typed in 18!!!!! Farthest I've ever run!!!! 18 freak'in miles!!!!!!!!!

K. So we left at 5:30 am. I was worried about Lysa because of her cold. She was out there and ready, waiting for me in the cold and dark. Sorry Lys. It was quite chilly this morning but that's okay. It was actually nice and cool for the entire run. What a blessing!

I love our running route! One of my favorite things about leaving this early is watching the sunrise as we run toward the  mountain. Another fav  is when we get to the top of 100 S and I hear the rooster crowing. I love going down dimple dell road and seeing the horses, ponies and donkey. Love the donkey:)

Lysa and I had a great time talking and she was doing amazingly well for being sick. I was seriously so impressed! Great job Lys!

Her Mom met us around 13 miles down by the trail head in Draper. Thanks so much Jill! We refilled. I filled my bottle with orange Gatorade mixed with some water. We ran down that road, the main Draper road, don't know the name. All the way to the tunnel thing and then turned right and ran over to Fort. I started to speed up at that point.

The last 3 miles were hard. We were in the sun, but it wasn't too hot. I took 4 ibuprofen (800 mgs) before the run. I felt like I needed more at this point. I don't know if I should take 2 before I run and then 2 halfway through. I need to find out. My legs were getting really sore at this point but I ran as fast as I could. Ran all the way up Fort to Pioneer and ran down there till I hit 18.

I still can't believe I ran that far! Crazy! Thanks Lysa for running with me! Thanks Jill for picking us up! You're awesome! We can do this Lys. We will do it!!!!:)))) We can run a marathon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a hard time walking down the stairs this morning because my left achilles was really sore. I did Bryan Kest Power Yoga 1 and it feels fine now. Guess it just needed to be stretched.

Time: 46:22 Avg 9:16 Best mile: 8:41

I don't know if I mentioned on Friday that my left big toe was feeling bruised under the nail after the 18 miler.  It wasn't hurting too bad this weekend or during my run this morning but it hurts now. I'm nervous about this. I've heard of people losing toenails but not on the big toe. I hope it gets better and not worse. I'm wondering if there's anything I can do about it. Anyone know?

I did Yoga Meltdown (killer chaturanga push ups, etc) after my run this morning on-demand. That's when I started feeling my toe, going into down dog every time. Maybe that's what made it worse. I guess I'm just wondering, can a bruised toe heal, or does the toenail always end up dying and falling off? Maybe I'll google it. Pretty sure running would be quite difficult without my big toenail:(

Time: 1:26:54 Avg: 9:39

I went out at 6:30 this morning and Lysa wasn't there. I was about to walk towards her house but decided to go back inside and check my phone. There were 4 missed texts. 2 last night and 2 this morning. I was sad when I realized she had left at 6am and I'd be running this 9 miles alone :(    I was so tired last night and wasn't thinking straight.  I guess I forgot that 9 miles is a long run and that we usually go at 6am for those. 

 I started on our usual long route but after coming down past the water tank I turned right and went back past Albion and over to the buffalo house and down...whatever that street is. Down to highland and up the hill and back home. I had about 1.75 miles to finish around home.

 Good run. Just lonely.

Time: 55:58 Avg. 10:17

It was hot and windy. We went a different route that ended up being more than 5 miles. I really needed my water. I felt slow and sluggish. Tired after my 9 yesterday. It was a hilly run headed home. More of a challenge. 

 I was going to do upper body weights and abs but I'm so tired I just want to take a nap right now. I'll do it sometime today.

52 minutes Bryan Kest Power Yoga. Nice. Hobble Creek Half on Saturday. Hopefully can finish in 2 hrs or less. 

9:02/M

Yay! A PR! I wanted to beat my only other half marathon time from 2008 and I did that. It's good to be back! I'm so excited to be under 2 hours. I was hoping for that.  I was worried about pushing myself because I'm training for the TOU Marathon but I decided to go for it  and see what I could do. My quads are sore today and I can't do stairs very well (which is from the downhill, not the speed right?) I may write more tomorrow but I have to go to bed so I can get up early and keep training. Hopefully I can still run tomorrow :)

So, Lysa and I slept at my Mom's in Provo and got up at 4am. I ate toast with peanut butter and took a banana with me. Drove to Mapleton and got on the second bus I believe. This was my first time doing Hobble Creek and I didn't realize that at the top we were supposed to walk up the hill to the start line. Anyway, we used the potty a few times since we had plenty of time before the race started. It was supposed to start at 7:15 and I think we started around 8am. The only other half I've done is Provo River and they started on time.  I won't be doing this race again for that reason. The sun was already high and almost to us when we started.

 I stayed with Lysa for the first few miles and talked. We were doing 9:25, 9:09, 9:03, 9:09. I was so cold after standing up there and waiting so long. I see now why people warm up with a jog to begin a race. It took a while for me to get warm. There was an annoying lady talking in front of us and then behind us after the first water break. She was talking way too loud and she was prancing like a gazelle ( I don't know why that was annoying me but it was). I was finally feeling warm and I decided I needed to blow outta there and start racing. I took off around mile 4.

Somewhere around this point I saw some cows coming toward the road. 2 cows and 2 calves. Didn't expect to see that. Anyway, next few miles I listened to music and got in zone. It was so hot and I was thinking, the faster I run, the sooner I'll  get to the finish and be out of the sun. Mile 5-9:09 Mile 6-8:52, 7-9:01,8-8:57, 9-8:53. At mile 10 I decided I would stop and drink (I had my water belt and hadn't really been stopping to drink much). I was going to put on some chap stick cause my lips were so dry. For some reason I stopped my garmin and that was stupid. In a split second I changed my mind about stopping cause I'm racing for heaven's sake and I really wanted to get in under 2 hours. I  just walked and drank and then took off without starting my garmin.

I realized a half mile later that I hadn't started it. Dang! I hadn't really been looking at my time cause I was just concentrating on running. I just tried to stay under 10 after that and hoped I was still under 2 hours. After that last up hill it was flat and through the neighborhood and to main street to the finish. It was so hot and I was so tired but I just pushed myself. I kept thinking "just pass that girl" and then I would pass her and think "just pass that guy" etc. took it one person at a time.

When we turned onto main street and I could see the crowd at the end I tried to run as fast as I could.  I got goose bumps the closer I got to the crowd. Excitement, adrenalin, I wanted to get to the finish line and see my family. I saw Scott and Oliver (my friend's family)  first and then I saw my husband and one of our girls. So happy to see them. My husband told me later that he was surprised to see me so soon. That made me feel good. As I ran around the little building that takes you onto the grass and to the finish, some guy had collapsed and a girl (runner) was helping him up. I don't know if he tripped on the curb but he couldn't get up, his legs were all wobbly as he tried to stand. I think he had collapsed cause she was telling him to breath and she would get him a drink. I felt bad but I kept running and tried to race to the finish. I passed a guy in a red shirt right at the end. :)

So happy with my time and so grateful for my family who came to support me. I was so glad my parents came. They were in England for my first half and I'm glad they came to support me at this one.  My sister asked me later that day if I thought I could turn around and run another half marathon after this race. I said no. That day will be different. I won't be racing the first half, I will take it easy. I will finish the marathon (TOU) when it comes and I'll finish it as strong as I can!

Time: 51:46 Avg:10:21 Started running at 6am cause today was the first day of school. It was cold out and I wore long sleeves. I'm excited to run in cooler weather. Took it easy with Lysa. Starting out my quads we're burning but then it got better. When we got to the top and turned around to come down the hill I felt it in the quads again. Then when I stopped running and started walking the little bit home, they were very sore. Hopefully I'll be a little less sore for our 10 tomorrow. I told Lysa we're awesome cause who runs a half and then runs a 40 mile week after that? 

15 minutes upper body weights and 15 min ab workout. Jackie Warner

1:44:39 Avg: 10:28 Still taking it easy. Quads are still hurting today. Feels good to have 10 miles done and all before the sun was out from behind the mountains:) It was very cool this morning. I wore capris and long sleeves. We left at 5:30 and could see a little light coming up behind the mountains. The stars were still bright and the moon was so beautiful out west/southish. We started our usual long run but after going up to the water tank we turned right and came back the way we went up. We didn't feel like doing any extra hills. Glad for 5 tomorrow and a rest before the 20. I was thinking we should run down Millcreek canyon to prepare us for the marathon and because that would just be fun to do something different for a change. We'll see. 

Time: 49:00 Avg: 9:47 Nice moon, nice run. Have a nice day:)

Upper Body Workout by Mandi Reading and I think I'm already sore.

I just realized my shoes have 456.11 miles on them. They had 80 miles before I joined this blog. Should I run TOU in these shoes?

Jillian Michaels Yoga Meltdown. 

 Time: 3:27:12 Avg: 10:22 appr. calories burned=2337

First 20 miles run ever!!!!!!!Woke up at 5am. Ate a banana and took 2 ibuprofen. Scott and Lysa picked me up around 5:25 and we drove to the top of Millcreek. It was dark and cold. I was nervous when we first started running because I thought I might trip or step in a hole or something. I was a little hesitant. I could have sworn I saw something moving up ahead at one point early on and Lysa and I grabbed each other in fright because I thought it was a person coming towards us. It was just a stupid street sign. As it got lighter I could see the beauty around me much better. The little creek rushing next to us, the moon shining bright and lighting our way and the light from the sun was coming up behind us. The trees were so tall and beautiful. I love how narrow the canyon is at the very top. The road was moist from the rainfall. As it got lighter, I wanted this canyon run to last forever. Well, at least longer than 9.4 miles. That was my favorite part for sure. That beautiful canyon. Lysa and I talked the whole way down the canyon.  I'm going to post splits since this was a very momentous run. When we got toward the bottom of the canyon the wind really started picking up.

Canyon run splits: 9:39, 9:01, 8:53, 9:30, 9:29, 9:52, 10, 10:14,10:26

We turned onto Wasatch for the next 5 miles headed toward the 7-11 at the bottom of Big Cottonwood Canyon. We decided to use our music for this part. It was very windy this whole portion of the run. We had a beautiful view of the valley in the beginning but then there was just a wall. It rained for a minute when we were coming to the gravel pit. I got to the 7-11 and bought a Gatorade and called my family to say "hi."

Splits for Wasatch: Miles 10-15: 10:44,10:13, 10:44, 11:12, 10:11, 11:05

Next we went down toward the Old Mill and took a trail under 215 and went to Holladay. We ran on the blvd (I think, this is Lysa's territory) for a while and then down some really pretty streets with trees and gorgeous houses. On the blvd we saw a landscape waterfall thing and got our heads wet. That felt really good cause we were now running in the sun. We ended by Lysa's sisters house and she drove us home. So nice of her. She brought us ice water and fresh made fruit and veggie juice. Then took us to 7-11 and I got a BANANA/ROOTBEER SLURPEE! So good!

Miles 16-20 were hard: 10:31, 11:44, 11:08, 11:35, 11:04. Pretty slow, but I didn't want to push it. Saving it for the big day. Can't believe we ran 20 miles. Wahoo!!! TOU here we come!

Thanks for the entertaining stories Lys! Ended the day with a super yummy SMASHBURGER! I'll be good again now till after the marathon:) My legs are tired and I'm tired. So excited to sleep in and rest tomorrow.

5 mile TM run because there was lightning at 6:30am. Ran it in a little under 50 minutes with some HIIT.

Bryan Kest Power Yoga-52 minutes. Still sore from the 20 miler.

5 year old is starting kindergarten today. Taking her now. Yay!

Time: 1:18:56 Avg: 9:52 Fastest mile was my last at 9:13.

Left at 6:00 and wore long sleeves, tights and shorts this morning it was so chilly. Went around here for 2 miles. Up Newcastle and down past water tower. Past Albion and buffalo house and down. Newcastle is a hill and then a small, steep hill on Alta Canyon (?) and then big hill on Highland. Pretty good average for a hilly run I think. Love the cool weather. Good run.