My kids have basketball camp this week (just a couple of hours each day). Yesterday, I dressed in my running clothes before we left, and decided to just run my four miles from the school where their camp was being held. The camp started at 10:00, and it was already 75 degrees (and very humid!) at that time.
I also decided to run the way I was pacing myself before my RRCA class, when I was training for my sub-2:00 half-marathon. Then, I was pushing myself on each run--not to the point that I felt awful, but a little faster than was comfortable. Lately, my pace has been slowing so much, that I just wanted a confidence booster, so I decided to see if I could still manage a sub-9:00 pace in the heat.
There wasn't a single cloud in the sky, and the sun was beating down. I swear it felt 100 degrees, and not just 75 ;) But I was really happy with my pace, because I managed four sub-9:00 miles.
I think I paid the price for that today, though. My legs were tired, and I had intervals on the schedule. I did the intervals on the treadmill before taking the kids to camp. I had 8 x 400's to do, which are done at a 6:58/mi pace. I honestly felt like I was going to puke. They felt SO HARD!
After I dropped the boys off at basketball camp, I headed to my mom's house to pick up my older brother, Brian. He flew from Minnesota to Detroit only to get his car from the airport to my parents' house, where my dad could fix a problem with it. He pulled his car into the driveway, then hopped in my car so I could take him back to the airport to fly right back to Minnesota. Crazy, right?! I guess when you're a pilot, it doesn't seem so weird.
Brian just ran the Ragnar Relay in Niagara Falls, and it was awesome to hear about it. His team had a really cool idea for choosing their legs for the race. Usually, teams assign their runners long before race day, and they know exactly what order they'll be running. Well, BioFuel (my brother's team), all threw their names in a bag (along with two "wild" cards). At the starting line, they still didn't know who was going to run first.
They handed the bag of names to the announcer, who waited until 10 seconds before the race started to pull out a name for them. When the girl's name was called, she quickly pulled out another name, who would be runner #2, and then she ran across the starting line and was off for the first leg.
At each major exchange, the team drew their leg assignments again, which meant they were also swapping van assignments around. I thought this was awesome! That way, you would get to see everyone from your team, rather than just the people assigned to your van.
The whole thing is SO hard to explain, but after hearing about it, I decided I'm going to put together a team for next year. It may end up being a From Fat to Finish Line team reunion, if everyone is interested. I just love the idea of the random leg assignments. It would be so exciting not knowing when you're going to be running next!
I just got a list of questions from someone via e-mail about Ragnar and how certain parts of it work. I'm going to post those this week, to hopefully clear it up a little.
The boys had a baseball game tonight. I really love watching their games! They're at the age now where it's actually kind of exciting to watch. Noah and Eli are both pretty good, and they work really well together. Eli usually plays third base (he has a good arm) and Noah usually plays first (he catches everything). Jeanie was actually able to go to their game today, too--this was the first time she's been in town for one of their games.
My friend Sarah also came with me, because tonight was the only time that worked for both of us to get together. She stopped by my house first with her 10-month old boy, Alex. I miss my boys being that age! He was walking all over, following my cats around. I showed him the feather toy that my cats love, and he was swinging it around while chasing the cats.
Oh, speaking of the cats... I've been meaning to give an update on Chandler's weight loss. He weighs 21 pounds, down from 25, so he's lost 4 pounds! I'm really excited about that. I can see a difference in his body, too. He doesn't feel like he's ready to bust open at the gut anymore, and his skin feels like there's some slack to it. He still can't reach his whole body to groom himself, but he's getting better at it. When he reaches 5 pounds lost, maybe I'll post comparison photos ;)
I also decided to run the way I was pacing myself before my RRCA class, when I was training for my sub-2:00 half-marathon. Then, I was pushing myself on each run--not to the point that I felt awful, but a little faster than was comfortable. Lately, my pace has been slowing so much, that I just wanted a confidence booster, so I decided to see if I could still manage a sub-9:00 pace in the heat.
There wasn't a single cloud in the sky, and the sun was beating down. I swear it felt 100 degrees, and not just 75 ;) But I was really happy with my pace, because I managed four sub-9:00 miles.
I think I paid the price for that today, though. My legs were tired, and I had intervals on the schedule. I did the intervals on the treadmill before taking the kids to camp. I had 8 x 400's to do, which are done at a 6:58/mi pace. I honestly felt like I was going to puke. They felt SO HARD!
After I dropped the boys off at basketball camp, I headed to my mom's house to pick up my older brother, Brian. He flew from Minnesota to Detroit only to get his car from the airport to my parents' house, where my dad could fix a problem with it. He pulled his car into the driveway, then hopped in my car so I could take him back to the airport to fly right back to Minnesota. Crazy, right?! I guess when you're a pilot, it doesn't seem so weird.
Brian just ran the Ragnar Relay in Niagara Falls, and it was awesome to hear about it. His team had a really cool idea for choosing their legs for the race. Usually, teams assign their runners long before race day, and they know exactly what order they'll be running. Well, BioFuel (my brother's team), all threw their names in a bag (along with two "wild" cards). At the starting line, they still didn't know who was going to run first.
 |
| Brian's team (he's on the top right). I love the barrel costumes! Very appropriate for a Niagara Falls finish line ;) |
They handed the bag of names to the announcer, who waited until 10 seconds before the race started to pull out a name for them. When the girl's name was called, she quickly pulled out another name, who would be runner #2, and then she ran across the starting line and was off for the first leg.
At each major exchange, the team drew their leg assignments again, which meant they were also swapping van assignments around. I thought this was awesome! That way, you would get to see everyone from your team, rather than just the people assigned to your van.
The whole thing is SO hard to explain, but after hearing about it, I decided I'm going to put together a team for next year. It may end up being a From Fat to Finish Line team reunion, if everyone is interested. I just love the idea of the random leg assignments. It would be so exciting not knowing when you're going to be running next!
I just got a list of questions from someone via e-mail about Ragnar and how certain parts of it work. I'm going to post those this week, to hopefully clear it up a little.
The boys had a baseball game tonight. I really love watching their games! They're at the age now where it's actually kind of exciting to watch. Noah and Eli are both pretty good, and they work really well together. Eli usually plays third base (he has a good arm) and Noah usually plays first (he catches everything). Jeanie was actually able to go to their game today, too--this was the first time she's been in town for one of their games.
My friend Sarah also came with me, because tonight was the only time that worked for both of us to get together. She stopped by my house first with her 10-month old boy, Alex. I miss my boys being that age! He was walking all over, following my cats around. I showed him the feather toy that my cats love, and he was swinging it around while chasing the cats.
Oh, speaking of the cats... I've been meaning to give an update on Chandler's weight loss. He weighs 21 pounds, down from 25, so he's lost 4 pounds! I'm really excited about that. I can see a difference in his body, too. He doesn't feel like he's ready to bust open at the gut anymore, and his skin feels like there's some slack to it. He still can't reach his whole body to groom himself, but he's getting better at it. When he reaches 5 pounds lost, maybe I'll post comparison photos ;)
