Training weeks 3 and 4 (part 2)

Still have power, for now. That means I was able to get showered and dry my hair... which was totally necessary given that I'm sure I'll be back out in the rain soon trying to get Titus to go potty! In case you were wondering, the big baby that won't go potty in the rain looks like this:

He is the 120 American Bull Dog! AKA Giant baby! 

Frankie, the golden, loves the rain and would stay out there all day.

They are both VERY good at the pathetic look!!!

In case anyone was wondering, if you ask them, Mike and I are to blame for Sandy.

Ok, back to training updates:

Week 4:

Monday 10/22: Supposed to be strength and stretch... no surprise, that didn't happen. Getting home from work at 8:30PM is lame/I suck at doing strength.

Tuesday 10/23: 3.5 miles at 43:47, 12'29"/mile average, fastest mile (3rd mile) 11'. For this I took Sara's  advice and reversed my route, putting the uphills near the beginning/middle of the run instead of the end. I had quite a bit of calf pain and had to stop twice to stretch and I pretty much hated the whole thing. Random man walking on the other side of the road who tried to get my attention while I was stretching did not make me any happier. I had to take my ear buds out to hear him ask me, "do you run every day?" Dear creeper, I am not in the mood, please move on before I snap. Thanks! However, shortly after that, "Baby Got Back" came on Pandora so life got better/that's when I sped up! :) I also took Sara's no walking advice... we will see how long this lasts!

Wednesday 10/24: 3.2 miles at 41:57, 13'54"/mile average, fastest mile (mile 1) 13'24". Ran this with Katie! We did lots of walking/running intervals. Running in Columbia is nice! I wish I didn't view it as so far away to do every time I run. Running with friends is fun as well! Katie is hard core and did strength afterwards. She motivated me to do it too. Except then I went grocery shopping, did dishes, and then planted my butt on the couch. Womp womp... maybe next time. Lesson- Katie rocks, I do not! This is not a new lesson, but one worth putting in writing.

Thursday 10/25: Big day! 5 miles, 1:02:54, 12'34"/mile average, fastest mile (mile 5) 11'25" (closely followed by mile 3- 11'40"). Three big points of this run: 1. I actually woke up and did it before work. Granted, I didn't have to leave until 10:20 that day, but still a win. 2. I ran the whole thing! and 3. I didn't hate life the whole time! Woo!

Another great thing about this run, is it means I am half way to my brightly colored new shoes! I promised myself bright colored running shoes once I can run 10 miles... half way there baby. Bad thing about this run? I didn't plan out a 5 miles run, oops. My last minute plan was use my 3.5 mile route and add two mile loops of the park I pass. Construction though did not allow that to happen, so the run involved 4 loops of the park which was less than ideal. Despite that, once I hit the 3rd mile I actually started feeling pretty good. I didn't feel like death anymore and was able to finish pretty strong. I'm happy with the results. Mike also ran with (read: way ahead of) me, which was nice. He looked at me like I had ten heads when I asked him to come with me, but oh PS I'm running 5 miles. But he came, because he is awesome!

A little HIMYM obsessed... it's ok.

Friday 10/26: Was going to do strength, but I didn't. Are we sensing a pattern here?

Saturday 10/27: GLOOOOOO RUN! Fun run 5K after dark at the National Harbor. Did this with some fun people. See said fun people below:

Fun people before Glo Run

As I said, this was a fun run, but I couldn't help but track it/add it to my app. 3.29 miles in 46:03, 13'59"/mile average, fastest mile (mile 1) 13'44". This run was fun, but I would probably not do it again. There was a dance party thingy before, which was fun, but the run itself was quite dark most of the time. Before you say, "duuuuuh, it's a glo run, it's supposed to be dark," the problem with it was that a good portion of the run was on gravel/dirt and this was not the safest/easiest to run with no light. They had three tents and you went through each twice (the route was an out and back). The black light and disco light tents were fun. The strobe light tent was not. Karilee and Monica chose to run around it on the way back. They were smart. Katie and I were not as smart, so we sprinted through it instead. Elana and Jeremy went before us with the sprinters, so I was happy to catch Elana on her way back and scream her name!! Overall, fun experience. Crab and shrimp pizza and Sam's Octoberfest at Cadillac Ranch after was great as well. 

Sunday 10/28: Rest day. Katie and I volunteered with a great non profit, Monkee See Monkee Do, at a local school for kids with special needs. This was a great experience that I may write a whole post about later! In case I don't I do want to say, you should check out the blog the whole organization got started from. Glennon and her monkees are great!

I am aware that I sound like a broken record, "I promise myself I'll do strength this week"...blah blah lies. Well thanks to Katie, now I really will. We are beginning another workout bet, which she kick butt at last time while I watched from the IR list. Anyway, it involves paying money if we don't work out. While I would give that girl every penny to my name if she needed it, losing money to her in a bet is not gonna happen. No way Jose! Thank you Katie for figuring out how to get my butt in gear! (PS- totally already did strength today!)

Shoes and money are currently motivating my training schedule (I promise I'm not that shallow)... What motivates you to keep it up? Also, what fun runs have you done that you would recommend?

Updated: Any one have any Sandy approved cardio suggestions if I have no power tomorrow?