June 14, 2014

A walk with the kids

I slept SO deeply last night. I haven't slept that well in longer than I can remember! This morning, I woke up from a very vivid dream, and was kind of confused for a minute, and then before falling back asleep, I glanced at the clock. 8:30. What the heck?! I am usually thrilled when I can sleep until 7:00, so I was shocked to see that I slept that late.

It felt so good to sleep in, but I flew out of bed to check on the kids. They had woken up at their usual 6:30, and played their iPods. I felt bad that they were awake for so long while I slept, but I really needed to catch up on my sleep, and they didn't seem to mind.

Because the fish flies are so bad near my house, I decided to take the kids to the Metropark this morning for a walk on the trails, because there aren't any fish flies there. The kids groaned about going, but it was gorgeous outside today (practically no humidity at all), so I wanted to get in some activity.

We went to the park and I decided on a lollipop route that goes on gravel/dirt trails. I never run that area, but it's nice to walk. I spent probably 10 minutes explaining to the kids what a lollipop route is. I even drew it the air, to help explain, but Eli misunderstood, thinking that WE would be going up in the air, "like in a helicopter" and flying in a circle.

Once we turned onto the dirt part of the path, the kids were both really happy to be out there. Noah even said that this was way better than playing his iPod.


We called my dad, who was working at the park, and told him to meet us at the boat launch. We stopped to talk to him for a few minutes, and then continued on the trail.


It felt like we were walking forever, but it actually wasn't even two miles. We stopped several times to look at stuff, so it took us well over an hour. It was a nice morning with the boys! I think we'll do it again after one of their half-days of school this coming week.

In the afternoon, I let them talk me into taking them out for an ice cream. While we were waiting in line, I heard a dog bark, and when I looked around, I noticed it across the street. We were on a pretty busy road, but there was a pit bull tied to a fence in a parking lot across the street from where we were standing.

There weren't any cars or people around the dog, so I was curious as to what it was doing there. I kept watching to see if anyone went over there, and after about 10 minutes, I figured I should probably call animal control. It appeared as if someone had just abandoned the dog there. So I called animal control to let them know, and they said they were going to send someone out.

About five minutes later, as we were getting ready to leave, I was going to ask for a cup of water to bring to the dog. Right as I stood up, I saw a man and a little girl come out of the store, and walk over to the dog. The man took the leash from the fence, and they walked away, bringing the dog with them. So I'm assuming he was the owner, and just tied his dog up outside the store while he shopped. Normally, I don't jump the gun on that kind of stuff, but I felt bad for the dog just standing there in the sun, and it really did appear abandoned. So I just called animal control back to let them know.

My brother, Nathan, ran his first 10K race this morning. I got a text from him with his finishing stats, and he finished in 49:36! That's an awesome 10K time, especially for his first. He had been hoping for sub-50, so he definitely hit his goal. I told him that he missed my PR by 13 seconds, so next time he should aim to beat his sister ;)


So speaking of running, I'm only taking one more day off, and then I am going to start with a much-lower-mileage running schedule. I'm keeping it super basic and open to running however I feel that day (if I want to run slow, I'll run slow, and if I want to speed it up, I will). But it will pretty much look like this:

Monday- speed work (intervals, hills, tempo, fartlek, whatever I feel like doing)
Tuesday- 3 miles
Wednesday- rest
Thursday- 4 miles
Friday- 8-12 miles (9:1 run/walk, if I want)
Saturday- rest
Sunday- 4 miles

That's about 25-30 miles per week, so it's enough that I feel like I'm maintaining fitness, but not so much to make me get burnt out. I'm really looking forward to running just to run, and not really "train" for anything! I'm going to be doing a couple of half marathons this fall, but I don't think I'll start training to PR until early next year.

6 comments:

  1. Just curious - what made you pick 12 miles for your weekly long run?

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    Replies
    1. I chose 12 because then I will be in the shape to run a half-marathon on a whim, if I should choose to. But I think I may modify that to be 8-12. Sometimes, I really just don't feel like running that far! ;)

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  2. Can't believe how much the boys have grown this year ... WOW! Great job Nathan ... super time : )

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    Replies
    1. I know, they are getting to be SO big!

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  3. Hi Katie,
    I just started reading your blog and you are such an inspiration. I am training for my second half marathon (my first was a horrible failure) and I was wondering how long did it take you to be able to run 3 miles straight ? I have been training for about three weeks now and I can't seem to get to 3 k straight and I am getting very discourage. I run 5 times a week low miles during the week and one long run on the weekend.

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    Replies
    1. If you click on the "Running" tab at the top of my blog, it explains the basic timeline from when I first started running. A lot of it depends on what kind of shape you're in to start with, though. Just don't give up--you'll get there!

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