Planning for the Future

Last night, I did 2.89 miles with Amy around Gray's Lake. We met up after work, ran, chatted and then dashed home to our families. It was beautiful, great company and just what I needed to get the legs moving after Sunday. I am not very good at running and talking yet. Thankfully Amy had more breath than me!

1 - 11:02

2 - 11:31

.89 - 11:43 pace

33 minutes ~ 11:24

My hip started talking to me during cool down and after I drove home. I'll be glad to start working on some solutions. I am seeing PT guy today to map out some long term plans.

I've also been thinking about goals and noticed many of you have been mapping them out as well. I am hesitant to go overboard until I talk to PT guy and decide the focus for the next few weeks/months, but I also know that I do have some goals floating around in my head. The main one is to protect the gains I have made. (this was my husband's term, which I have adopted because it makes a lot of sense to me.) Also known as: don't slack off, stop running, and go backwards in your training. That should be a given, but has been a problem for me for the last 4 years and was the main reason I embarked on this journey in late May. I have come way further than ever before and intend to protect those gains.

Other goals include possibly a warm weather winter race and for sure Dam to Dam in the Spring. Now that the race is over, I think I need to make the diet a bigger priority and want to lose 10 lbs. I would also like to pick up some speed and want to incorporate speedwork as long as PT guy permits.

This leads me to blogging friend Rob over at Run to Lose. He has embarked on a journey to become a runner also. Only HE has made amazing gains on his pace, I have made SOME improvement..... He posted some new goals and I think we are really similar right now, so similar that I bookmarked his goals and was trying to decide if I ought to just adopt them as my own. Anyway, what I decided was to take his first and offer a wager. This is probably not that smart of me as he is probably slightly faster than me in reality and is improving at a faster rate, but why not make it fun?

First one to 3 miles with EACH mile being under 11:00 wins 5 bucks. Good luck, Rob!

PS Many of you asked my secret to looking so fresh and happy in my race pictures. Well, I'm not sure I completely agree, but, there may be a few things contributing:

1. I don't run very fast so I probably didn't look that spent!!
2. They said to smile for the camera so I did if I knew they were there
3. I have horrible posture so I was physically working at chest out, shoulders back, gut in.... you know what I mean. There just isn't anything like that for your thighs, though. ;^)
4. I WAS really happy and enjoying myself.