Fresh Shiny New Month!!

I really like the beginning of the month for running. It makes me feel like anything is possible. Sorry for the cliches. :) Last month, September, was my best month for running so far. I ran the most amount of miles in a month that I have EVER run ( almost 50!) and ran the longest race I have ever run( a 10 k, 6.2 miles, 2x the length what I raced in April and May!) and was pretty consistent in increasing my long runs and also having training runs in different lengths.
So, anyways, today we ran at Brushy Creek. It was a pretty good run. Because we are going to be running a 10 mile race at the end of the month, I am hoping to run a good amount of 5 mile runs as my in between runs to get an idea of how it would feel to run twice that amount. Also, today was the first day of my new running intervals. For this month, I am now going to be trying to do 2 min's walking and one minute and ten seconds of running. If I run over the one minute and 10 seconds, I count it as a credit that I can use to take a longer break later if need be. ( for example, instead of just running 1 minute, 10 seconds, I run 1 minute and 15 seconds, that is 5 extra seconds. So I was waiting in this run until I had 60 credit seconds so that I could take a 3 minute walking break instead of just a 2 minute walking one.)Im hoping that this slight increase will help improve my overall time and also help with my endurance as I try to increase my longer runs.


This is the race we are hoping to do at the end of the month, it is called the Run for the Water 10 mile race. As you know, the most I have run is 6.62 miles. So I'm really worried about my ability to do this, however, there are still about 3 and a half weeks. I doubt that I will have gotten my training up enough but hopefully then my mileage will have increased so that doing the actual race wont be such a stretch. At least it will make it that I dont have a goal time, just a goal: FINISH THE RACE!
http://gazellefoundation.com/runforthewater2010/

The little run that made 200 miles!

Who would have thought that 1.83 miles would make 200 miles?! Sound odd? Well, before today's run, I had exactly .5 miles to go to make 200 miles run since April 12th, 2010 when we first started running. And I wasn't to sure about today's run because it was before I had to go to work early in the morning and I've haven't run before work ( when I had to work in the morning specifically) in a while. But I was pleasantly surprised by the run. The weather felt great, it was about 75 degrees, which is the nice thing about running at 7.50 in the morning, the traffic wasn't too bad, although I did get stuck at a light for about a minute and thankfully, my ankle wasn't really hurting me. I felt kinda guilty about today's run to tell the truth because it was the first time I had run all week. And not running monday, tuesday and Wednesday is not like me. I strive to do at least 3 runs every week and that's hard to do when your first run of the week is on a Thursday. I know I will be running tomorrow morning (friday) and have a long run planned for Sunday. Still, Im a little disappointed in myself because I wanted to run 4 days this week like I did last week. I was able to get 13 miles last week, which is my general goal. I've only had that or around that distance like 2 or 3 times. Although Im not really a fan of running around our block, it is by far the most convenient. Without the drive, it makes starting early way easier.
Since Im not going to put a map up of where I ran because it's by where we live, I thought I would put a running memory pic up. The pic below is one of me and my husband right before our very first race ever!


So, I don't know how many of you are from and or live around Austin, but we've got a pretty cool sub place called Thunderclouds. The first time I went was in the one in Round Rock where we live. Then I use to go to the one by ACC campus when I was a student there a lot. More recently, I would frequent the one by airport when I use to work by there. At any rate, they are famous for having a race every thanksgiving. Im thinking about maybe doing it. Its a 5 mile race, which we have never run before and is ( according to their website) the LARGEST 5 mile race in texas:
www.thundercloud.com - look under Turkey Trot

The Rain and me go the distance

So... today I went the furthest I have ever gone!!!! :)
I was still slow!!!
But it was the furthest!!!
And not only that, it rained the WHOLE time I ran the 5.25 miles, except for maybe 5 minutes.
My pace was even slower then the race pace. Ugh, I don't know what it is up lately.
I have been so slow. The good news is that I was really proud of myself for running so far in the rain. I know that in the past I would have just given up.
I am really looking forward to the day when I can run the WHOLE way. But until then, I am working on my intervals. Specifically, I think for this month I will continue my intervals of walking 2 minutes, then running 1 minute, except when after 10 minutes, this month I will only give myself a 1 minute walking for every 10 minutes. So basically it will be like:
2 minutes walking, 1 minute running, 2 minutes walking, 1 minute walking, 2 minutes walking, 1 minute running, 1 MINUTE walking ( then repeat all over every 10 minutes for as long as I am running)
Today I ran 1/8 of a mile without stopping. Which I know a lot of you are like WOW, a whole 1/8th of a mile. MAN, STOP THE PRESSES. To which I say, were YOU OUT RUNNING IN THE RAIN FOR ALMOST AN HOUR AND A HALF?!
To which some of you might say, yes, I was actually. and I actually RAN the whole time.
But nobody likes a show-off. :)

Here's where I ran today:
(I will post the map later)


Also, I came across these statistics and this article while reading a blog on Runners World, it's pretty interesting:

http://www.runningusa.org/node/57770#58231