I finished the week with a 50 mile bike ride and 4 mile run on Saturday and then Sunday, 10 miles at steady state.

Saturday:

I rode 50 miles with Jake– someone I’d never really met in person, except one time when we ran by each other. We are twitter friends and Glenn is coaching him for Muncie 70.3. I mean I felt like I knew him, but I didn’t in real life. He wanted to meet way early- so we met at 6:15am on the monon and took off. I have to say, although I’m the one who reached out and asked to ride together, I had a little anxiety riding with someone who I hadn’t really met. I even had a weird anxiety dream. 50 miles took us 3 hours an 20 minutes. That’s a long time to hang out with someone you don’t know.

We talked to entire time. (Glenn probably thinks that means we weren’t working hard enough, but I don’t care. We kept 15 mph and that is fine with me. I was working that’s for sure) You learn a lot about someone when you ride your bike for 3.5 hours together. He almost had me in tears when he told me about his proposal to his fiance, Meghan. (also a twitter friend)

When I ride with Glenn, he has the GPS and I have no problem pestering him about where we are on miles, but I didn’t want to go overboard asking Jake too much. He kept me informed though and I pedaled on. At mile 16, we stopped for a minute to take some gel and I felt really defeated when he told me we were at 16 miles. Dude. That’s not very far when you’re riding 50 and I felt like we should have been at 22 or something.

We rode up the monon (duh) for the beginning of the ride an ended back down toward our hood riding around Butler’s campus and Crown Hill Cemetery at the end. As soon as I got home, I took a gel, changed shoes and headed out for my four miles. I felt like I’d crawl them, but ended up running around 7:20 pace. My last mile was 7:08 and I worked for it. It was freaking hot and I was done working out. DONE.

Sunday:

Glenn, Marshall and I ran 10 miles. We got up early and were on the monon by 7:00am. The workout was “10 miles steady state”. Steady state pace being between 7:00-7:30. My legs were tired for this run and I ran half of it with the stroller. Glenn and I took turns. I like running with the stroller though. I feel like I can “hide” behind it sometimes. I’m not sure if that’s necessarily a good thing, but it’s what I do.

I started with the stroller and we switched off every two miles until the last two miles. Then I did one and Glenn did the other, so that it would be even and we both did 5 stroller miles. He offered to take my last mile for me, but I wanted it. We had just done two miles at 7:00 pace and honestly I wanted to slow down a bit and pushing the stroller would be my excuse to do so. We slowed the mile down to 7:19. For the last mile, I would have been content running anything sub 7:30, but I wanted to be stronger than that, so when I felt myself slowing down, I would grind it out a little harder. We finished it out with a 6:55 mile. I was happy with it and again, ready to be done working out.

The miles looked like this:

Mile 1- 7:46 – stroller 
Mile 2- 7:25 – stroller 
Mile 3- 7:22 
Mile 4- 7:23 
Mile 5- 7:22 – stroller 
Mile 6- 7:18 – stroller 
Mile 7- 7:00 
Mile 8- 7:00 
Mile 9- 7:19 – stroller 
Mile 10- 6:55

I was pleased, but the legs were shot for sure. 

After the run, I had a flag football game. I know it’s a stupid intramural game, but man my body was tired and I was kind of sluggish on the field. I’m not exactly an important member of the team, other than the fact that you have to have three girls on the field. It was hot and I didn’t really want to chase the other girls around the field, but my entire team was really hungover though, at least I felt better than them.

I came home and was determined to take a good picture of Marshman for his first birthday invitations. They are going out like two weeks late, (because I was going to try to make them for a hot second to save money. (whomp whomp) but that’s par for the course on how I operate. I can’t help but share some of the pictures. These two aren’t any that I used but they are really cute. I think.

My blue eyed boy.

This standing by himself is newish. If he tries to walk (he’s at 3-4 steps on his own) – his arms are in the air. Celebrating before he even takes the step. Can we all live like that?

Turns out I had quite the little Sunday planned, later on, five of my friends came over to see Marshall (one lives in CA and one in MI, and were in town for a wedding so this isn’t a super regular group to get together).

Beautiful, fun, awesome friends.

We headed to Flatwater to have dinner and drinks on the patio. LOVE. Sunday Funday lasted until 10pm when we landed at Monkey’s Tail to karaoke & by the time it was about to start, we all decided we were tired and wanted to go home. And also reminded ourselves that is was Sunday.

Glenn & Marshall took us to the bar. Yes this included people sitting on laps and piling into the hatch part of our trailblazer.

College kind of fun with a baby though… 29 not 19.

After flat water we went to Chumley’s and the gentleman below started making fun of us for having fancy bags or something. So, I called him out and told him if he wanted to make fun, then at least give us a real roast. I practically begged him to roast me but he wouldn’t. He was insanely intoxicated and somehow we ended up dragging him with us to Monkey’s Tail where he bought “dollar shots” for the group. I declined, but really am pretty sure the shots consisted of pink lemonade and that’s about it.

This guy. Hey guy, don’t make fun of me OK?

Emily’s husband Andy took us all home, but not without a stop at McDonalds for ice cream. I can’t end a day/night out without a chocolate dipped cone or McFlurry.

I was a tired mama who wanted a lot of water this morning. But is was worth it and I had a very beautiful rest day today. 

I had 10 on the schedule today. All of my runs this week are 10 except for the hellacious 20 on Saturday, and I’ll probably do some non-scheduled easy miles on my off days. I really wanted to run outside because of the weather. Hello 50 in February, and I was itching for a stroller run anyway, so when Marshall wouldn’t nap,we were off.

Ready for nap time in the stroller. He loves it.

This week is all about hard working, mostly faster miles. I’ll probably slow it down a bit tomorrow so I have a good amount of juice to work my butt off for Wednesdays tempo. Today, I wanted to be sure I didn’t creep over 8 minute miles even with the stroller. We started off with a pretty quick first mile, and progressively sped up, until mile 8, when we progressively slowed down.

I headed north on the monon for five and as I ran north, I had a good feeling the run back south would be much harder due to the wind. It was. Thankfully the 86th-75th st. stretch is blocked pretty well by lot’s of trees, so the wind didn’t get too crazy until we had 3 miles to go. Which is when we started slowing down.

The most ridiculous stretch wind-wise always heading south between 54th-52nd st. No wind barrier at all. I was using both hands (which I never do… I usually keep my left hand on the stroller) and forcefully pushing the stroller against the wind. There was a guy standing outside the Developer Town Building who probably thought I was crazy, because I was just smiling and almost laughing at what was going on. I didn’t know how else to take in the craziness of the wind I was experiencing. I could have slowed down or even walked it in at that point with a half a mile to go, but I was determined to keep my pace decent for that last bit. It was hilariously hard.

My Splits:

Mile 1– 7:41 
Mile 2– 7:13 
Mile 3– 7:15 
Mile 4– 7:06 
Mile 5– 7:00 
Mile 6 – 6:51 
Mile 7– 6:50 
Mile 8– 7:17 
Mile 9– 7:25 
Mile 10– 7:35

Average Pace: 7:14

That felt good.

Something about creeping under that 7 minute mile mark with the stroller feels kind of… awesome.

With Buddy after our 10. It was pretty warm, but he was bundled in his standard go to fleece.

Reasons I Love the Stroller Run:

• It makes me feel powerful & happy

• I look forward to it more than the standard 10 on the treadmill

• Fresh Air

• There is a pressure that is taken off when it’s you and the stroller. Meaning… it’s OK if I need to slow down a bit, after all I’m pushing a stroller. 

• Along with the above reason… also comes the desire to run fast with the stroller at times. It’s an added incentive to work hard. You feel extra accomplished if you get a nice paced run in with the stroller. 

• Although I can’t do the creepy stare anymore, I like that Marshall is with me. I know that he enjoys it. I think he finds it soothing and comfortable. The kid has been hearing my noisy feet smack the ground for a long time now, he’s used to it.

Happy Running everyone- hope you were able to get the week started off in a good place. 

Tried out the Vega Protein Powder today- loved it! Also, you’ll notice the baby formula back there… if you are into buying organic formula, Kroger brand has hella cheap organic!

The fog was thick and kind of cold. The roads were pretty busy, but thankfully in Carmel- there are sidewalks and paths everywhere, so we didn’t have to run on the road much. I understand the advantage of running on the marathon course but I don’t think I’ll do it again more than once or twice. It was inconvenient to drive up and added time to the whole process, which is already long. These days I’m in the game of making the most of my time more than ever and this process won’t cut it.
  
Glenn had a bad run, I had a whatever run. We both needed a bathroom break 1.5 miles in and creeped around in an elementary school that was having a little kids basketball tournament to find one. I guess we didn’t look too shady in our running gear and sweat. For some reason I thought the parents would be more cautious about randos walking into the school, but they welcomed these runners with open arms.

We ended up averaging 7:45 pace, (splits here on daily mile) running pretty consistently the whole time. By mile 11, we were both over it though and  looking at our watches every 2 minutes. We were both thankful to be done. My legs started feeling tired around mile 8… which is kind of discouraging. It always freaks me out when I feel tired early on in a long run at a pace much slower than my projected race pace. I know we aren’t tapered and there will be days like this, it is what it is.

Post 16

About running in Carmel- drivers weren’t very nice about sharing the road… maybe the just didn’t see us?.  lot’s of round-a-bouts, I still hate round-a-bouts, lot’s of nice parks and pathways, lot’s of active people out and about (although I think that was mostly the weather), and lot’s of fancy SUV’s.

Regardless of how much I want to or how much I don’t want to do my Saturday long run when I wake up- it’s a guarantee that the rest of the day/weekend will feel more productive and in general BETTER once it’s done.

The rest of the day was filled with babysitting our niece Giovanna, watching Hoosier basketball with my dad, a walk on the monon, drinks on the patio at Mo & Johnny’s, (in January, 50 degrees… what?!) some reading, a couple of gossip girl episodes and a little Miss America before bed. (well Miss America for me, Football for Glenn)

Heading to the monon

First ride in the new wagon. She loved it.

Cadence being a good girl on the patio.

Don’t be fooled, entertaining himself didn’t last long…

Marshall’s first time in the big boy bath. Probably could have done this sooner.  This video is even cuter than the picture.

Here is why and how I find myself making excuses….Monday, Wednesday, Friday the alarm goes off at 4:45am and we get to practice at 5:30.  Even though the runs are 1-4 miles, it’s still 6:45 by the time I get home and I’ve lost motivation to run or workout before work, and then I tell myself… at least I did something. And don’t even try to get this girl to do her own runs on Thursdays.  On Thursdays I get to Legacy practice with the kids at 3:00pm and am there until 6:00…. on my feet for over two hours, running/walking/yelling at kids the get their butts moving. Since most kids do a run/walk, 9 miles takes every bit of 2 hours and once you calculate stretching, announcements and the whole deal… you are quickly at three hours.

So now we’ve also decided to do a weekly “office” run.  Beth wants to train for the half marathon some of our Back on My Feet team members will do in June. I’m going to do her long runs with her, which I am really excited about!  I love being with people when they cross off an accomplishment in their running journey.  Last Friday, we set out to do 6 miles, which was her farthest distance to date. I decided to just wing the route and base it on time and how many blocks we ran.  Of course I wanted to make sure we overshot the distance instead of going under, so we ended up doing 6.8 miles, which felt awesome… and next week we’ll run 8.  Yay!  She’s addicted already.

So between all of this awesomeness I’ve gotten myself involved in- I just need to figure out how to make time for some “me” runs. I LOVE sharing the experience with other people, so if someone I know wants to run with me…YES – when and where… I’m there. 

I think I need to make myself a promise and commit to saving three times a week for me… a long run, a speed workout and a strength training day. I can balance it all, I just have to commit.

Regardless of when and how I get my runs in, one thing holds true whether I am running alone or with other people I am building relationships with…. I am doing what I was meant to be doing. I am so fortunate to be given the opportunity to share my love and passion with so many wonderful people.