Ohio Runner

January: 27 miles (started running again mid January after having Charlie)
February: 85 miles
March: 116.03 miles
April: 120.79 miles

Total: 348.82 miles

Been training for a half marathon in June, I think that’s why I have been able to hit 100+ miles in a month lately.

I will write more but too tired and I have a baby who’s hungry. Seriously, will write more tomorrow!

Here in Northeast Ohio it feels like Summer. I heard that last year at this time it was 48 degrees… today it’s 81 degrees. Absolutely CRAZY. The daffodils are out and the flowering trees are blooming. I love it even though my allergies are acting up, that’s what claritin is for right? I don’t care and have been outside and have had the windows open for probably a week now. Right now that cats, Charlie and I are outside on the screened in porch. Thor is ready to pounce on a bird through the screen…haha! Charlie is snoozing in his bouncy chair and I am just enjoying the weather. And I think Ella is napping her in room as well All week we have been enjoying the weather. We have been enjoying sitting under our pergola eating meals and watching Ella play on her swingset. Going for walks and running outside. We even went to Target and got Ella some playground balls, chalk and bubbles which she has enjoyed so much. Hopefully getting outside more will help Ella take naps again

Running wise I am running about 25 miles a week just getting a good base for half marathon training. I had signed up to run the Akron half marathon (in September) but I think I have been talked into running the Canton half (in June) as well in honor of my friend Allie who has been recently diagnosed with Leukemia. She had signed up to run and now she can’t run so I and a few other people are going to run in her place. We’ve been meeting up on Saturdays to do long runs together. It’s been fun so far.

I hate when I get the hiccups, after awhile it makes my whole chest hurt. I need to stop thinking about them and I know they will go away.

Moving on…

I did zumba for 2 hours last night. It was a lot of fun and I was surprised how sore I got. Which made 6 miles seem crazy to me last night. There was a joke between friends about running 6 miles in the morning about every 5 minutes. I woke up this morning tired and I was unsure how 6 miles was going to happen. It was windy and cold (what happened to the 60 degrees yesterday) but I got up and ready to meet my friends. We started off at a slow pace and after a mile things started to loosen up for me and I started getting in my groove. More negative splits today…

Mile 1 – 11:33
Mile 2 – 10:47
Mile 3- 11:05
Mile 4 – 10:19
Mile 5 – 9:55
Mile 6  - 9:22

I finished and ran back to get my friends, another .52 miles (5:34). The last 3 miles were under 30 minutes! My average pace was 10:31 which is an improvement from last weeks long run. I know I can run faster, but I don’t really count the treadmill work as I am usually just going for speed and end up stopping every .5 mile or so to get water and catch my breathe.

I ran almost 30 miles this week, that’s a lot when I really am not in training mode. But I sure love getting out there on Saturday mornings with my buddies, they push me a lot!

I would have loved to run outside today but things just didn’t work out, so I took the kids to the ymca so I could get in 4 miles. I lifted a little and then came back home. I played with Ella outside for an hour with the neighbor boys and then have had some quiet time which was nice. I was looking at this weeks weather is really it’s a roller coaster of temps. Today is will be 60, but we are supposed to get some strong storms today/tonight and then be in the 40s tomorrow and snow showers on Sunday and Monday (I think a high of 28 one of the days) and then back to the 60s by Wednesday. No wonder that there is so much sickness going around.

I am excited to go to Zumba this evening with some friends for 2 hours and then tomorrow (weather permitting…we have a high wind warning going on..) run 6 miles with some friends over at a hilly location.

January: 27 miles (started running again mid January after having Charlie)
February: 85 miles

Wow, already have 112 miles for the year. I hope that I am able to run 100+ miles every month so I can run 1000+ again this year. Shouldn’t be too hard as I won’t be pregnant this year…

I decided to run the Akron half marathon this year as my half marathon. I’m stinkin’ excited. Training doesn’t officially start until May/June but would like to continue running as much as I can now to have a base. And I have some friends running a half in May and will continue to run long runs with them.

I was able to make it to the gym this morning and got a 6.75 mile run in on the treadmill. Like last week I played with the incline and averaged a 3% incline. It felt better than last week, legs aren’t as sore but I know that I am working different muscles while running on an incline. I did some more weights today, just arms and did the ab machine. I know that I need to do leg things but I feel like running on an incline was more than enough for the day. I need to make a routine for my weights. I am too poor to have a trainer so I need to look up some routines on the Internet. Maybe I will try to do that tomorrow while Ella “naps”.

I also ventured to the grocery store this afternoon with both kids. First stop was Aldis were Charlie cried through most of the store and were I forgot one thing (I didn’t realize this until we were home and I wasn’t going to go back for it, Ella will live without her cereal bars). Since I didn’t need too many things at Giant Eagle I decided I rather get it over with than have to go back out. Charlie did much better, in fact he slept through the store in the front pack. It was such a beautiful day out that we played outside for some time and Charlie again was in front pack, I think I spoiled him today as he wanted to be held all evening.

On Friday a group of my friends, thanks to my brother-in-laws girlfriend for telling me about it, are going to a zumba dance thing for 2 hours. I can’t wait!

I have NO self control. I’ve been doing good most of the week food wise and have done really good with my running. And then today hits, we were in Ashland celebrating birthdays with my father-in-law and brother-in-law’s girlfriend. We had a great lunch: steak (probably should have only eaten half of it), potato casserole and grilled squash and zucchini.  Then came a big piece of diary queen ice cream cake…and the buckeye pie at dinner…I’m so annoyed that I can’t say no…or ask for a small piece and be satisfiated. I actually did get a small piece of ice cream cake at first and then took another small piece which equal a rather big piece of cake.  And really I didn’t need the pie. Oh well, tomorrow is Monday and I will try again…

BABY!!

11:31
10:55
10:44
10:21
9:42
3:15 for the last .31

I ran with my buddies on our regular path by my house. I love it on the towpath and am ready for all the others trailheads to run but right now it’s so easy just to go the closest to the house. It was coooold this morning and very windy.  Running south of the path wasn’t much fun, the wind made it feel like it was pushing you backward two steps for every one step I took.  But at the turnaround the wind was at my back and made it so much easier to run. My buddies were having an off day, and they told me to go on (hence the first mile being a little slower). I was super proud of them for getting out there and doing 5 miles, I’m more of a seasoned runner and if I wasn’t going to be running with them I would have just ran inside on a treadmill.

Last night the hubby and I watched 50/50, I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it. It was the first movie I have seen in several months

Tonight we made stuffed peppers out of the new Paleo cookbook and they were pretty good. Our 7th recipe we have tried this month out of the cookbook, plus 3 or 4 more that I found on the Internet. It’s been a good cooking month for us, hope that continues.

I ran again this morning. I was only really going to run for 35 minutes, mostly because I wanted to try to get a little bit of weight lifting. But I got to the gym earlier than planned, thanks Ella and Charlie, and was able to run 5.5 miles. I played with the incline today ranging from 2-7% (the 7% only lasted 2 minutes) for the first 4 miles and then ran the last mile flat. It felt good to do something different (generally I play with the speed) and I am getting ready to run my first race since Charlie was born on March 11 and it’s a challenging 5K (especially if you aren’t expecting the hills). Then I did some weight lifting, just arms today as my legs were trashed by the end of the run. As I was lifting I decided that I am going to try to do some lifting at least twice a week, maybe more. I also want to try Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred again, I only made it to day 8 last time before I quit. Tomorrow I am running, not sure how far but I know I will get my 25+ miles in for the week, unless something goes terribly wrong.