I'm Running My Life…

Alright, alright, alright (in my best Kevin Hart voice)…this week was GREAT and will be one to remember.  I really really feel like I’m back on my A-game!!! #winning.

Monday was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and most folks had the day off from work.  Our group leader put a filler out on the page to see if any one would be interested in starting at a later time versus starting at 5:00 am.  The ladies all responded with an overwhelming 7:00 am.  Whoo hoo…I could sleep in.  Now after all this time (last three weeks trying to get back on schedule) here I am excited to sleep in SMH.  But as you know things never go as planned…

If you remember my post from last week, I mentioned that I was back on schedule as far as getting up. So now my body is used to getting up….so there I was up at 4 am Monday morning and the run didn’t start for another three hours…story of my running life (but I love what I do!!!).  I knew I wanted to get in a 10k that morning, in remembrance of my grandfather passing on that day last year and also for all the other GREATS who left their mark and are still being remembered. I’m not going to lie… that day was really hard.  I tried my best to keep myself busy but every now and again I would find myself sitting still… I miss him so much.  He was ALWAYS GREAT to me.

Later in the day I met up with Team RWB for a group picture in front of the State House. It was a nice turnout. My goal for the next meetup is to walk away knowing something about two Eagles.

On Tuesday, I woke up with a killer headache (but still got up at 0dark30…ha ha!!).  I nursed my headache by eating some fruit and hit the pavement a couple of hours later before heading to work.

It’s just easier for me to run in the morning versus after work (unless I’m meeting someone). Man, those repeats almost beat me up (again) at the end…so much so that I forgot I was doing a repeat and started running at my CP, LMAO.  So I walked back to the start of that repeat and repeated it 😉 .  Not bad for a late start to my Tuesday morning.

Wednesday, I beat the alarm (for some reason ring the alarm just popped in my head…did it yours?). Jumped up, got dressed and headed over to Sandhills. I’m sitting in the car gearing up and noticed a red pickup truck creeping around the parking lot.

Now, this could have been very innocent but I was by myself and didn’t want to take a chance finding out. So I waited to see what he was up to. I mean in essence here I was doing the same thing… sitting in a parking lot… he didn’t know if I crept in or nahh (that tickles me every time I get to say or nahh ( yeah my son tells me I’m too old for all that 🙂 ). OK he didn’t budge, so I proceeded to do a drive by and passed him on the way back through the lot.  He was ducked down in the front seat (now mind you, he could have been looking for a nice quiet place to sleep, I didn’t know and I didn’t ask) so I left and went back home. Once again I figured I could just run after work. Well, needless to say I didn’t run after work (I’m sure you knew that was coming 🙂 )…but I did get on the bike (which was part of my training plan).

I was supposed to ride the bike on Friday but I figured (yeah I know, I’m figuring again) I could just switch it out with Wednesday’s run and still be on track for the week #stillwinning. Training plan called for me to ride the bike for five minutes at 60 rmp followed by twenty minutes at 90 rmp both at a 50% resistance, ending with five minutes at 60 rmp.  All I can say is OUCH. I did manage to get through the workout with a 12 mile bike ride in 30 minutes but man that was a workout.

On Thursday, I met up with my sole sistahs for an unofficial run at the Summit. Six of us showed up to pound the pavement at 5 am. Even ‘the G’ graced us with her presence that morning. She has really been on her workout game all week, showing up for runs!!! Go Kareen!!!

This was an easy run at my CP.  I did four miles with the group and planned (yeah nothing ever goes as planned) on doing the last 3 later that evening.

Life really did get in the way on Thursday.  My man child had surgery (read about it below) in Augusta, GA so I had to drive to and fro Augusta and I think I was just tired.  And plus he was being ‘extra difficult’ so I had to be around to perform my motherly duties.

Since I was off work on Friday, I decided to run later in the day.  Of course it was raining, so I decided to do my 1200 meter repeats on the treadmill.  What the hello was I thinking.  Kudos to anyone that can run more than 2-3 miles on the treadmill at a speed faster than 7.5 mph. And yeah I had a treadmill and used to run on it on days that I didn’t run outside but now I know I was going at a much slower pace.  Using the treadmill pace converter (found here), I realized back then I was running at a 9’52 pace (SMH there I was thinking I was doing something back then LMAO).

So running more than two miles at a faster pace on the treadmill that day, just wasn’t working for me.  Sheat, I just couldn’t do it.  I used the treadmill pace comparison and set the treadmill to 6.8 mph and a 1% incline to start out my warm-up.  Ok, that wasn’t too bad (boring but not bad).  Then I had to do my 1200 meters (3/4 mile) repeats at my 5K pace (7’45) so that means I’m trying to run on this treadmill at 7.7 mph.  WHOA…now that was work!!! I couldn’t do it…so I stopped after the first 1200 meters and figured (yeah I know) I would just run later in the day…rain or shine (well I didn’t).  My life sometimes really just gets in the way.  Oh well…I will get it done on the pavement next week.

Saturday, I didn’t get my long run in but I did complete it on Sunday.  But man I had a very interesting day on Saturday (read about it below in non running news).

Sunday, I got up and hit the pavement around 8:30 am.  I planned on going out earlier but my man child was having an episode (I really thought he was going to die the way he was acting)…he took his medicine without having any food on his stomach.

So after I made sure he was okay I hit the pavement for 8 miles.  One mile warm-up, followed by 6 miles at my half marathon pace (HMP).  I’m still not sure what that pace is but I was able to keep it at 8’15 today.  You know I struggled with that about a few weeks ago and was only able to run them at 8’30.  So, looks like I’m making some improvements in that area.  I hope to be able to get to an 7’45-8’00 HMP (fingers crossed).  I followed up those 6 miles with a one mile cool down at my CP but looking at the numbers below, I guess I was still pumped from running my 8’15 and finished my cool down at 8’20.  Not bad still.

Again, this was really a great week for running and playing.  Still looking forward to training and actually PR’ing at my next half marathon.

How is your training going?  Do you switch your training runs around based on what you have going on in life or do you just get it done by all means necessary?

In other running news:  I worked with my friend, Eboni, to get a team together for the Palmetto 200 Relay.  We are Team We Run SC.  Twelve of us will be hitting the pavement in March, running from Columbia to Charleston, SC.  I’m really excited about doing another relay race, especially having done the Ragnar (you can read about it here) last year.

Non running news:  Okay, so my man child, Diallo, had a Gingivectomy on Thursday in Augusta, GA.  I think I was a little on edge about this surgery all week because I heard it was very painful.  On the way up to Augusta, Diallo had to take some medicine that would make him sleepy.  OMG, I have never experienced any thing like it before.  He was feeling really good.  So good in fact, I wanted some of what he had.  Diallo really put on a show for us.  He definetly wasn’t in his right mind.  He kept fading in and out of sleep and when he woke up, man was he funny.  Every thing he did was in slow motion.  His song came on the radio and he went to turn it up…by the time he reached the knob the song was over….I’m still LOL at his trip.  I even had to carry his heavy butt into the doctor’s office and he wasn’t even trying to help (really he was out of it, so he couldn’t help).  He didn’t want to go through with the surgery and that was even harder on me because he needed it.  I gave my baby kisses and waited until the surgery was over.

The surgery lasted about two and a half hours and the nurse said he did really well (no screaming).  He didn’t remember a thing.  I was able to videotape our drive to Augusta, so he had a pretty good laugh a couple of days later.  His recovery overall was GREAT….he had some pain, but the pain medication knocked that right out.  The only issue we had was when he took his medicine without food (OMG drama KING).

Team RWB Photo Scavenger Hunt

On Saturday, we had our very first Columbia RWB Photo Scavenger hunt.  About 35-40 members met at Mellow Mushroom and were divided up into teams of four.  We were then given a list of 30 photo task and a map of downtown Columbia.  We had two and a half hours to complete as many task that we could before meeting back at Mellow Mushroom for fellowship and drinks.  OMG this was so much fun.  Remember above when I told you my goal for the next RWB meetup was to meet at least two new members and learn something about them.  Well I met four and a half new members.  I was teamed up with three and a half of them; Dan, Jamie, Ryan and their son Everette.

I also chatted it up with Elizabeth (she was on the winning team: Team Lucky Charms) before the hunt began.

We were all over downtown Columbia.  Hugging a police officer, shaking paws with a dog and getting kissed by pretty girls…these were just a few of the task that we had to complete.

I also lost my wallet on this scavenger hunt…at the State House actually (our very first stop) and I didn’t notice until an hour later SMDH.  But a cleaning lady was out smoking and saw my wallet and handed it to Officer Perry.  He was able to track me down by my address (and just to think, I just got my SC license that day…I was very lucky).  Guess I was just so caught up in the game (secretly I love a good competition) that I wasn’t thinking about any thing else.  Oh well, even though we didn’t win, I still had a GREAT time.

Good Eats & Meets

Well, my Saturday was pretty busy…I even doubled booked.  I joined the meet-up group, Good Eats & Meets – Columbia, a few months ago and decided to give it a go and actually meetup with them. The meetup was held at the Columbia Marriott Downtown, Midland’s Food Arts, where about thirty members showed up to partake in good eats and conversation.  The restaurant featured southern cuisine delivered in high style but in a casual atmosphere.  The customer service here was on point.  As people kept showing up for the meetup, the staff accomodated accordingly with briging out more table and chairs.  I would definitely recommend this place for big groups but I would stay away from the fried catfish (no flavor).  As I was looking around at other people’s dishes, I knew right off I had made the wrong decision.  Their plates looked very delicious and smelled awesome.  If I make it to MFA again, I will try their award winning chicken and waffles.   All in all this was a GREAT meetup and I’m looking forward to the next one in February.

Can you believe I was out until 1000 pm.  WHOA!!!