Fuel SMART,Train HARD, Run FAST.

6:00 am: 8.5 down the blvd. Tried to focus on form, still feel like I don't know how to run. I need to start taking notes to take to my next appointment for my running form lady....

***Real quick! I am planning on going to watch TOU next weekend, if anyone wants a ride up that morning, let me know. I'm in Bountiful and can meet up with anyone on the way. I'd love the company.  I can take up to 6 others. I think it would be fun to bring our bikes and ride up part of the course so we can see more of the race. I'd be open to running instead too. There are so many people running, I want to cheer them all on! 

 6:30AM: 6 miles down Main. It felt good to get out. Chased the garbage trucks and breathed in junk the entire time. Then came home and smelled my dirty dishes. Felt right at home. Working 6 days in a row always throws off my home routine! Glad to have 8 off now and can focus on my kids, house, and running.

PM: 8:00PM : Two hours of a full workout. Playing tennis was secondary. I got talked into joining a women's Tennis league this fall and I AM TERRIBLE! I laughed so hard the entire time. I'm sure the others wish I would have taken it seriously. It was that kind laugh that you can't stop. I laughed when I hit the ball out of the park, when others missed the ball, then I laughed at the ones taking it so serious. No one was safe, I laughed at everyone and felt like a 3rd grader. By the end everyone seemed to be laughing too. We played doubles playing 3 sets each, 15 games total. I think we won maybe 4 games as a fluke. My partner was very patient and kept telling me "Nice try." That made me laugh too. I think I need private lessons if they are going to allow me to continue. My right arm is pretty sore and somehow I bothered my little injury in my glut/hamstring. I need to decide if this is something worth it. I would hate to get injured over tennis! But overall so much fun. I guess If  I end up dropping out, I will go anyway and be the ball girl. I've always secretly envied that role. I could even use it as sprint workouts:) I need a tennis skirt!!!! 

***Real quick! I am planning on going to watch TOU next weekend, if anyone wants a ride up that morning, let me know. I'm in Bountiful and can meet up with anyone on the way. I'd love the company.  I can take up to 6 others. I think it would be fun to bring our bikes and ride up part of the course so we can see more of the race. I'd be open to running instead too. There are so many people running, I want to cheer them all on!

AM: I wanted to come out and support the Classic 5k for heart health. This is really great race for the value. You definitely get more than you pay for, thanks to all of the volunteers. I paied $15 for an early entry (plus a discount from my work). You get a goody bag with a great long sleeve tech shirt, certificates to vendors, sunscrean, a small first aid kit, pen and a few other odds and ends my kids liked. The kids K was also a great value. For $2.50 (discount through work again, $5 origainally) my son recieved a goody bag filled with toys and a cool red shirt. They had mascots, a helicopter, Miss Utah, balloon animals, vendors with free samples and plenty of Great Harvest bread and fruit at the finish. The best part of it all was awards were picked up on your own. After you look up your time, you report your finsihed and gather your reward. None of this waiting around stuff. Plus the drawings were similar. They pulled out all of the numbers that won, posted them and if you see your number, you grab a prize out of the desiganted area. My daughter won a nice hat from Striders I plan to steal. Overall great race.

We lined up to the start. I had all my kids with me. Jocelyn and I signed up for the 5k together (she is known as Joss on the blog, go say hi). This was her second or third time running this distance. I had my two younger boys sitting in a single running stroller. My 2 year old sat on my 6 year old's lap with his arms wrapped tightly around my toddler. Great restraints:) We got a few worried looks but hey, we're just keeping it classy folks, classy for the Classic 5k.

 The gun went off and Jocelyn went off in a sprint. Uh oh! I weaved like a mad women to catch up with the stroller. My two boys just laughed and cheered me on as I pushed. Jocelyn held on tight and never walked. I was quite impressed. We saw a girl ahead about her age, I took a mental note to keep her in my sight. I knew if I told Jocelyn to watch for her, she would have sprinted past, then died. Slowly we worked our way past her in the last 3/4 mile. At that time we thought she was in first, but alas the results showed her in second (28:44) by 2 seconds. She got a award that she plans to wear all day. We stayed after for the kids K. My 6 year old ran it with a smile the entire way. He looked way cool doing it!:)

Jocelyn and I got massages afterwards while I visited with Angie B and Jassmine Sessions. We plan to run together soon. So glad to have met Jassmine in person, we live close enough to run together. Hopefully our schedules will work out. I believe they ran the 10k and finished 1 and 2. Nice work ladies!

 I love the power of mantras. I used my first manta in High School while training for State my Senior Year. It was "Just do it!" I know, very original. However, it has changed over the years as it the old ones have turned stale. I practice them during training and attach a meaning with them to make it count. I think that is a great mental trick for runners. I asked my daughter what she was thinking in the last mile when she was really tired. I asked, "Were you thinking of walking?  That this was too hard?" She replied, "No mom, I just kept thinking about the 'Olympics' and thought about all of those fast runners. It made me hold on when it was really hard." I LOVE that. Go Jocelyn!

Today, run for those who can't. Work that heart! Happy running. 

PM: 10k at 7:30 AP. Took it easy until the last 1.25 miles, picked up to 6:40 pace, no issues:)

AM:  Easy run on TM with goal MP for the last two miles. 10k (47:10) AP at 7:27 total. Easy 4 miles then last two miles at 6:55 and 6:40. I Felt fine today. I need to start really building up my mileage. Races are the best way to motivate, otherwise I feel like I am running blindly without a purpose each day. Huh, what to do next.

PM: 2 mile hike with kids then 1+ hour of tennis in the evening with kids and several single games with Steve. He's never played and beat me for 60% of the games. Geeze, my skills need help!! I still feel like it's all in the skirt. I need one by my next match on Thursday.

AM: 8 easy miles on Davis. I set my alarm to wake up at 5:20 this morning for a run at 5:45 with a friend. I woke up at 5:53, it never went off. UGH! I literally left a trail of clothes on my way out as I undressed and dressed all the way up the stairs and out the door with my shoes in hand. Apparently I found time to turn on nearly every light- waking everyone in the house. It was an emergency!:) I left the house less than 2 mins from when I woke up. I drove up to our meeting spot and she was gone, but found her later down the route. I felt like I was dreaming the entire run. Maybe I had an eye closed, I hope so. Ever since Allie's post about running with an eye closed I have wanted that experience for myself! 

5 easy down Main. I felt like I was wearing a prosthesis. My right leg kept dragging behind and has been sore all day. No tennis tonight. What?

I went up this morning to watch and support all of the TOU runners. The tail wind seemed great coming out of the canyon. The FRB members were doing great. I was able run run a little with Allie, Janae R.and Stefenie T. for a couple minutes around mile 14. They were sticking nicely together around a 6:2x pace. Cynthia F. was ahead in first by 2-3 minutes. By mile 16, the three girls separated by about a minute each with Cynthia leading with a 3:30-4 min gap in front of Janae R. looking strong in second, Allie determined in third (45 sec back), and Stefenie a minute later in 4th. Then low and behold our own Rachelle Wardle! in fifth a couple mins later, looking great!! cheered on till mile 21 then turned around the cheer on another friend on an hour so back. Not quite sure about the results overall yet, but everyone looked to be strong. Great raceing today! Did I forget to mention Jake was looking strong around mile 14 running with some other guy?! excited to see the results! 5 miles total of running and cheering:)

3 Mile jaunt with my sister in Springville. Beautiful night!

6:30AM- as much as I wanted to go for a run this morning, I could not turn down a 3 mile walk with my good friend from out of town. Slow and steady.

7 miles down Main. I smelled fresh donuts for most of the run, a good change compared to garbage days. Felt energized and kept a good pace.

6am- Davis Boulevard with a girl I didn't know. Turns out her group never showed up and neither did mine so we ran together, it was interesting. She turned around after 2 miles and I went a little longer for 7 total.

pm- 2.5 hours of raw tennis. I need to stop playing around with the racket so much. My legs are bruised to death from nicking myself. I also spent a large amount of time watching a cat run around the court instead of the ball. I think I was the only one that found that entertaining. On another note, I actually won a few games! I'm getting better, but a very long way to go. Fun tournament! still searching for tennis skirt.

7 hours of cutting, boiling, straining, processing, and canning applesauce. It was certainly a grueling process. I'll never do it again. It tastes just like the stores sauce that's selling for 69 cents a can right now. Huh.

6:30AM- I walked out my door and smelled a horrid stench, mimicking a skunk. I'm pretty sure one peed on my doormat. My house must be the happening place, because the the other day when I went out for an early run, a deer ran right past me as I walked out the door. I'm expecting, of course, a cougar next.

10.5 miles on Main Street this morning. The temperature was great but, the air quality looked and smelled borderline toxic. I felt good this morning. At half point, I turned around and did 3 minutes on/ 3 minutes off totaling aprox. 5x800 meters at 6:30, 6:17, 6:26, 6:12, 6:30. The first 2 were uphill with the rest rolling. It's been a while since I put some speed into my legs but it felt good although my lungs started to feel it on the last hill.

I have to clean out my garage today which should be a 2 day project. AM cross training I'm not looking for to:)

7:00 PM- 60+ mins of tennis. Somehow I'm getting worse, but my attire is improving. Tonight we agreed I looked like something out of a DI catalog.

8 miles on the Blvd. Nice and cool morning. Picked up the last 4 slightly to 7:15 AP. Felt fine. I need to pick up my other runs. This pace felt better than my usual lope.

Time to focus training a bit. I signed up to be the 1:30 pacer for the Haunted Half on October 20th. I have never officially paced a race, and I'll be alone. I probably should have picked a slower time to be safe. Oh well. Anyone want to come and run with me? Lately all my miles have been base miles without any speed or tempo. Time to pick up up again. In November I'm running the "Just Cuz Half" in Pocatello on the 3rd. I have several family members who are also running it. Then a 10k on Thanksgiving morning.

Today I slept in to get at least 8 hours for a change. Decided to run a tempo on the TM. I was so nervous to run faster today. I originally planned to do 4 miles at 6:30 pace which seemed decent, but I thought it would be harder than usual since I haven't ran in the 6's for awhile. 1 mile WU with stretching then on to the tempo. I had to pause for 3 minutes after a mile to KT my left knee that was bothering me a little. Jumped back on pace and before I knew it, I was at 4 miles with no problem. I decided to make it a 10k and pushed to speed up a little. Finished the last 800 meters in 2:50 and felt great! 6.2 miles in 40:00, 6:25 AP. I finished feeling like I might have been able to go 2 more miles, but it would have been a struggle. That was a confidence boost.  I feel good about this one today, because I've felt so slow lately. Maybe I'll push the tempo a little more next week.

*Wednesday morning, Mueller park trailhead in Bountiful at 6:00am. Everyone welcome. Bring a headlamp. Planning to be done by 7:30ish so however far that gets me. The theme is "Clash like a DI runway model." 

**On Saturday I'm heading up to the Huntsville Marathon. Anyone is welcome to catch a ride with me. I'm pacing the last 10k for Kam and heading home right after. Planning to leave around 10:30. Come support all of the FRB runners by helping pace or spectate! Race starts at 10:00am. 

Great run up Mueller Park this morning with fun and talented company. Allie and Cynthia Fowler joined for an early morning run. Today's dress theme was "Clash like a DI runway model." I certainly took it further than the others but they tried;) It was a good thing that Allie took a bath full of glo sticks last night because it was dark! The headlamps saved us from several near cliff jumps. I alone accumulated 74 pseudo falls. The leaves were pretty for the last 5-10 minutes of the run, but it didn't matter because we entertained ourselves. Allie told us about the time she tripped over a raccoon, her early morning bread making days, and how she met James. Cynthia talked about dog bites, witnessing a finger come back to life, and someone who had diarrhea:), I filled in the spaces with urology matters, Fabio, and the FRB!. Great run!

Great day today! I went up to watch the Huntsville half marathon. I met up with Kam and Angie at mile 21. They were looking good and holding on strong. Angie was leading the women's and Kam was in third place at that time. Helped pace for the last 5 miles. Kam ended up finishing in second overall in I believe just under 3 hours. Angie took the women's title in around 3:02 (unofficial). It was great weather today and fun to see everybody out. 9 Miles total today with an AP of 7:30.