I Probably Should Make My Blog Public again

I danced like a mad woman on Saturday and took Sunday off for traveling and general weariness.  Now I can rest, at least till XC starts next week...Then it's off to school.  This summer went by too fast.

I just ran an extremely easy 5.5 miles in the p.m.  It was cooling off and a bit windy.

Hoping to get in more of a run later today when hubby gets home.  I had XC this morning and I felt the need to call it off at the beginning of our run when it started to get dark--I knew storms were coming, but we probably could have finished at least 5 miles before it the storms really came.  Oh well.  Better safe than sorry. 

Added 5 miles in the p.m.  I felt much more lively than I've felt in about 3 weeks.  Maybe it was the 2 hour nap that I took in the afternoon...

An easy 5 at dusk.  

I ran/walked with the kids this morning.  I may get out and run later, but it depends on what time hubby comes back.

A flat (well, shredded, really) tire took up a lot of this evening.  I'm just finished with dinner and it's already dark...so no more running, but I'm not really all that sad.

I've never changed our new van tire before.  I'm glad I was able to get hold of my husband and his bros, because it took all 4 of us to put on the spare.  And that was after the car fell off and bent the jack.  Also, who knew the spare was in the front of the van?  I hope I never have to change it myself.  I honestly don't think I can do it.

Lately I've been pretty indifferent to running, but I'm hoping that my motivation is coming back.  This run today actually felt pretty great.  I had limited time to run, so I decided to pick up the pace a little bit.  My first 2 miles were avg. 8:30 pace, then I ran one at a bit over 8, one at about 9, and another at 8.  I tried to relax a little bit on the 4th mile, but in relaxing, I slowed a bit too much.  The other thing I tried to work on was using my abs a bit more instead of letting it all hang out :)

Then it was off to the IL Shakespeare Festival.  My hubby and I saw Richard III.  It was quite good and at a pretty cool venue.  I've always known about the fest, but have never made my way over there, but this year they actually radio advertised and I was able to get a 2 for the price of 1 deal.  We've decided that we'll have to make this an annual thing. 

Roughly 4 miles.  It's hot today.  

I originally planned on running longer today, but I have a little more time tomorrow, so I'll try to run longer tomorrow.

I think I'm just going to abandon posting fast miles.  

 I had a pretty good workout, probably the best that I've had in about a month.  I've been trying to get pregnant, but we will not be trying this month because having a baby in May doesn't work really well for me since I teach seniors.  I don't know if that's a stupid reason or not, but oh well.

So anyway, after thinking up until I got my period the last two months that I was pregnant, I was being cautious.  This month I won't be as much.

So I warmed up for 20 minutes, then did 6 x 2 min fast with the same in recovery.  It was late when I started, so it was starting to get dark and it was much cooler than it had been during the day (the first couple 90+ days we've had in about 6 weeks).  The fast portions felt good.  

Then I stopped to talk to a cousin who was walking by my ex-SIL's house, which is where the kids were.  Her son is getting close to finishing his last chemo treatment for leukemia, is getting ready to start 5th grade and might actually get to go school most of the time (last year his attendance was understandably spotty because of all his treatments).  Their family has been through so much, but now things are going well!

Then I drank some water and convinced my cranky 4 year old to let me run 1 more mile.   But I did 2 instead.  Am I horrible or what?

I dropped off my kids at my SIL's house.  She has been working 12 hour days for quite a while, so I felt bad (especially since I had asked my BIL if he would be there, and he wasn't there when I dropped them off, although he was when I got back).  So I told her 40 minutes.

I ran my usual route, except the mile markers were off by about a 1/2 mile.  So I stopped paying attention to speed and just ran.  While running, I was all paranoid, since I have been reading about serial killers for the past two days.  So everyone I passed on the street was a potential monster.  I started projecting my "don't mess with me" by bellowing hello to everyone so they could see I wasn't winded.  I know I frightened people with my massive guns.

And then when I ran past my house I realized I had left my garage door open in my haste to get to the preschool meeting for Caleb, which actually turned out to be an open house, so my hurry was needless.  So again I was paranoid and walked in the house and shouted really loud to make sure no one was there.  My husband has been out of town at a conference for a few days, so I made sure to check the house well when I came home with the kids.

Then I continued on.  I pushed the pace for the last 10 minutes because I wanted to make sure that I ran as much as I could in the 40 minutes that I allotted myself.  At 4 miles I was at just under 9 min pace, so I pushed my hardest for another 4 minutes.  So of course I am estimating the 1/2 mile, since I still don't have a garmin, and I don't plan on gettting one right now, given the circumstances of my life (even though I drool over ads and amazon).

It was a good run.

I need to check what I ran.  I know we were out for close to an hour, so it may have been longer than what I'm reporting.

 First day of practice.  Hooray.  I ran with on of the groups, but ended up hanging back with one of the asthmatic varsity runners who didn't bring her inhaler.  Grrr.  We weren't going too slow, but we were not going that fast either.

I'm probably going to be inexact on my mileage from here on out...

Ran another 3 min fast/3 min rec run.  Did 6 reps.  Two of my varsity girls kicked my butt.  The other 2 (I have currently 13 girls on the team, but the other 3 varsity spots are up for grabs at this point) were behind me, including my asthmatic.  Her problem?  Our school is surrounded by corn fields and she is allergic to pollen.  She usually has trouble this time of the year and then once the fields start coming down, she can breathe again.

Girls' team is looking pretty good.  I lost my fastest girl from last year, but I have 2 new ones (a senior and a freshman) who will fill her void and a returning sophomore and senior who both trained hard and smart all summer.  All four have the potential of going sub-20 (probably not sub-19, though), which will be a first for our team.  Usually I have one or two superstars and then everyone else is a good distance behind.

Boys' team is currently rebuilding.  I have one boy who's going to be someone to watch.  He's a freshman and he reminds me of an all-state runner I had who graduated several years ago.  One of the good things about my assistant is that he is pretty fast so it looks like he'll train with this kid. 

I'm hoping that the boys can make it out of regionals again this year, and I think they should be able to with what we have this year.  The good thing is that some of the boys have decided to be more serious about summer training, so I'm expecting good things.

Ran with the XC kids today.  We did an easy 40 minutes with 10 fast minutes at the end.  Guessing on the mileage.

Ran at Lake of the Woods with my friend Colleen.  We ran with some kids too for the first 3.5 miles.  It was really slow because one of the girls there was really slow...

Then Colleen and I ran just ourselves.  We were going pretty fast for these 4 miles...it was awesome, but we didn't get to talk that much because we were going too fast for conversation.  It was nice to run with her.

Now I'm going to help her set up her own blog.  Maybe.

Started out as a tempo run, but stayed back with the new girl who fell behind.  She just doesn't have the mileage that the other girls have right now.  My legs felt heavy during the first 20 minutes or so.

Did some abs.

Roughly 5 miles.  Did an interrupted run (after a warm-up) with the kids (6-6-5-5-4-4-3-3-1-1) with 2 sets of sit-ups and push-ups in between.  On harder runs I can't always do the full workout with one particular group, so I ended up doing 6-6-5 with my varsity girls and then splitting time with the rest of the groups (who were all at different places).  I ended the last two 1-1 with the varsity girls, though.

So lots of ab work today.

Team meeting today and kids ran later on their own.  I didn't get in a run because by the time I got home and ready to do one, it was storming.  And then my hubby left and of course it cleared up a little.

Instead I did about 40 minutes of yoga.  The first 30 or so was before putting my almost 5 year old to bed and then I tried to get back into it after I put him to bed, but I couldn't.  So I lifted instead.

My kid tried to follow along with the yoga, and he actually did a pretty good job of it.  He was solid for at least 15 minutes and then the moves got too hard for him when we got to the triangle pose.  I was pretty impressed with his ability to follow the directions.

The craziness of school and XC begins...

My running was segmented today and I'm guessing my mileage was slightly more, but who cares.

I ran a warmup with the runners (about 1.2 miles) and then timed them doing their prerace workout (we have a time trial Friday).  They did 6 200s.  Then, after sending them off to their cool down, I ran 2 fastish 200s with my diabetic, who missed a few while she was controlling her levels (for a total of 1/2 mile).  Then I found some of the other groups and finished their cool down with them (for about 1 mile).

 Then I came home and was dissatisfied, so I ran out to the farm.  I ran almost 3 but I don't know exactly.  I ran past the farm and up to where the road goes over the interstate.  At the end I'm glad I didn't go up and over the interstate because I almost got hit by a guy who was FLYING down the road hauling a tractor.  I don't think he saw me until the last second because he was driving in the middle of the road.

I hate running on country roads.  I try to avoid it whenever possible.

My running last week was pitiful.  On Friday I ran an unbloggable 1/2 mile, but at a 2 year old's pace.  I picked up my kids before practice, so I couldn't run much as my runners did their time trial.  

Then Saturday I had a.m. class, then drove to Chicago and by the time I had time to run, I felt like poop.  Stupid summer colds.  I took Sunday off in hopes that I would feel better faster.  I did feel a little better today, but not 100%.  Stuffy head, runny nose, sore throat.  All that crap.

So my run was an easy 40 minutes and a tempo 15 minutes.  The easy didn't feel so easy, but the tempo felt pretty good, other than some breathing issues.

I get very stressed out during XC season and now I have to drop off and pick up my kids at two different places and I haven't quite figured out what time to leave so I can get to school when I need to.  And one of the deans at my husband's school just moved to be a principal at one of the other district schools, so until they find a replacement, my husband will be leaving early and coming home late.  So I'm resigning at the end of this season.  I feel as if the rest of my life is pulling me in different directions and I can't be an excellent coach.  It makes me sad, but I believe I have to do it.

Oh, and I'm going to try to catch up with everyone's blogs later in the week.  I'm out of the loop with the start of school but eventually things will become routine.

Ladder intervals with the girls.  Stayed behind in the last two fast segments with the freshman who has lately proven she can run with the girls varsity team.  She talks herself out of going fast, so I had to push her individually.

Might have been a little less than 6--the last 7-8 minutes we ran through the first floor of the school because other groups were finishing and I was multi-tasking.

A nice and easy run with a couple of varsity girls.  

I'm mostly over my cold, but my shoulders have been really sore the past few days.  I thought it was because of my cold, but I think I've figured out that it's all the bags I carry to and from school.  I can't decide if I'm going to lift tonight or not.  I'm thinking not :)

My running seems to always derail on Thursdays...

Ran the warm up with the kids, sans sports bra.  Forgot one.  They were doing pace work on the track (1000s) and I timed instead of jiggling my way through them.  I did some running around the football field to get to the finish line.  Would've been easier to cut through, but the football team was running plays for tomorrow's opening game.

Intended to do yoga since I wasn't satisfied with my workout, but never got to it.  Family came over, which was slightly annoying.

4 easy miles with the whole girls team.  A couple of girls dropped back about halfway through, but I stayed with the front pack since we weren't going long and we didn't go that far from school.

Another easy run.  I procrastinated for a while today because it's my last free Saturday for a while.  Now I'm trying to decide which day to take off next week.  Do I take off Tuesday since the kids are racing, Wednesday because I could do homework while they're going long, or Thursday while they do pacing or repetitions?  Decisions, decisions...

Ran with the girls' team in a easy run with a little tempo running at the end.  A couple of the girls fell behind by about 5 minutes, so I ran out to meet them to get a little more mileage in.

My shoulder is really bothering me.  I must have strained it picking up Eli one day.  I am trying to refrain from picking him up for a couple days until it's starting to feel better.  It seems like everything exacerbates the pain of it.  Yesterday it was pretty bad, today less so, but still uncomfortable.