Sunday morning runs

Have I mentioned yet that I am training for Ragnar?  The Great River Ragnar is 8 weeks from yesterday and I am co-captain of the Pavement Pirates, a team of 11 Ragnar Rookies and one novice.  We've got a nice spectrum of runners, and I am admittedly in the bottom fourth of experience.  But I am super stoked about the challenge and have taken my training pretty seriously.  To get ready for this I have altered a Higdon marathon plan with the Ragnar training plan available on their website.  I'm pretty impressed with my training schedule-it's ambitious, especially for me, and includes endurance and strength work along with some cross training and the ever important rest days.

This week's training schedule looks like this:

Sunday: 60 minutes (ran 6.34 miles in 1:00:42.  Go me!)
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Short-3 miles
Wednesday: Fartleks-30 minutes (ugh)
Thursday-Short, 3 miles
Friday-Rest (travel day for the holiday weekend)
Saturday-4-5 miles on gravel roads.  Welcome to South Dakota!
Sunday-80 minutes
Monday-4 miles-then in the car to head home.

So pretty ambitious for a girl running not quite a year.  But the pace is good for me and reminds me of why I am doing this.  I have 11 other people depending on me to get this event put together and be a good time.  I certainly don't want to be the one to bring the team down b/c I couldn't do my mileage.  But I also realize that rest and recovery is important.  So I'm doing a good, conscious job at listening to my body and resting when it says we need to, or altering my pace as needed.

Today I woke up at 5:45 and lay in bed for 45 minutes before swinging my legs out to get dressed and head outside.  It was a glorious day in Minnesota this morning-sun was up, partly cloudy, a cool 62 degrees with a slight breeze.  Knowing I was going to put in some longer miles, I left the dog at home to his dismay.  He gets a little naughty after 3 miles and is ready to head home.  Put in the iPod, set the Garmin and I was off.

I've switched up my route a little which is admittedly out of my comfort zone.  I headed out on a country road that I usually bike on, heading east.  No traffic today, just a few walkers out and a LOT of baby bunnies.  The first mile was rough, as it always is for me, but then I found my pace and settled into my stride.  The humidity was hiding in the cooler air but still the run was pretty fabulous.  I"ve been floating along all morning since then, just happy with how my day started.

Some problem areas: how do you handle these?

1.  My sunglasses fogged up and finally I just took them off and carried them.  I need to invest in something else.  Should I spend the $$ on new glasses for running/biking, or a wicking visor?  What do you prefer?

2.  Water.  Now that I am heading out of town on runs and doing more than 4 miles, I need to take water with me.  I am too lazy to drive my course and leave out bottles, so I need to carry it with me.  Today I just carried a 12 ounce bottle of water.  Do you prefer a fuel belt or a hand held bottle?  Why?  Any other tips?  A camelback just seems like it would be too hot, but I like the thought of sipping the water as needed, as I tend to throw up once I have water sloshing in my stomach.  Maybe I should look into one of those beer helmuts instead....would settle the question of the visor issue as well. 

What are your favorite go-to items on your runs?

Fartleks

Last night I did my first Fartlek workout.  I was trying to squeeze my workout in between the workday and evening meetings, knowing fully well that I would show up to said evening meeting slightly stinky.  Eh, okay.  But this was my first Fartlek ever, plus I was running in a different town, different route.

Needless to say, it didn't go well.

I am such a creature of habit!  I lose my comfort level when I switch things up.  Which is fine, it's good for me and my training.  I think, however, I would have been better to leave my Fartlek for today and just do a regular run last night, since I was on a new route.  I can't believe how much my mental game was out of whack and totally bummed out my run.  But at least I DID get enough of a workout in to get nice and sweaty and stinky.  No one sat next to me at my meeting.

So now I am determined to fix this for next week's Fartlek, which will be back home.  Should I run a regular route? 

Do it at the track?

What are your tricks for a successful Fartlek?

Til next time,
Mitch

Going viral?

Well, now that I have been linked to by Beth over at http://www.shutupandrun.net/, I am terrified that someone will click on the link and come here and see a very pathetic blog.


Which it is.


But will improve!  Musings of a Mom started as a place to update our friends and family on my daughter Grace, who has special needs, and maybe connect with other families facing some similar issues.  But i found myself continually at a loss of what to write....the blog didn't "feel"  right.


So, after much consideration, this blog will change to Running in Heels.  I am a new runner-only 10 months in-and am determined to run my first marathon in October 2012 at the Twin Cities Medtronic Marathon.  I've got a few 5K and 10K's under my belt, and am currently training for the Great River RAGNAR this year.  But I come from a place where I LOVE LOVE LOVE stilleto heels, and I hate to sweat....and am not the most coordinated of gals.  So this journey will be interesting to say the least.


So please, if you have come here from Beth's blog, please bookmark me and come back again in a week or so, see if there is something here that makes you laugh (at my expense, I am sure).  Leave me a note telling me to get my ass in gear.  The point of this blog is to show that if you put your mind to it, ANYONE can be a runner.  Even me. 


Til next time,
Mitch
(yes, that is me.  Michele is just so....girly)