Cheris

I was so glad the rain stopped--at least to let us run for a little while! Met Cheryl, Jody, Julie, Eric, Aaron, and his sister-in-law, and we started at my house and ran the Riverton 10K route, plus a little extra. It was perfect weather, although my hands are still a little cold, and not quite working right to be typing!

My calves are feeling better, all the icing and massage must be doing something!

Met the running grou--all 18 of them today!--at Parkway Palisades for some FUN hills. My calves are still bugging me, and I could totally feel the muscles move around in unnatural ways on the mother of all hills, but on the less steep hills there was no problem. I am going to call Dr. Toronto today, just to make sure this doesn't turn into something chronic.

8 easy, 9-minute-something miles, heartrate around 130 the entire time.

Saw Lisa on her bike, I hope she can come back soon!

We did our three 5Ks this morning. Peggy, Michelle, Julie and Angela and I met at 5:00 a.m. to get a few extra miles in, then we met everyone at 5:30 and did a warm-up 5K. Michelle and I had planned to run the next one at 8.5 minute pace, then the last one at 8 minute pace. HOWEVER, we ran the third one in 22:15. SO, we figured we would do our last one at marathon pace (8 minute miles), since we would be tired and it would be more of a marathon simulation. So we did start out slow--8:23 for the first mile, then we started to feel warmed up again and did the next one in 7:15, then the last mile at 6:54. Woo hoo! I love to see the number 6 on my watch! As a minute number!

It is is just awesome to feel good, and have energy for the last mile of a 12-mile day. I definitely think putting in more miles, like Steve recommended, is the answer.

10 minute average, very nice and easy! I have to rest up for the running group's half marathon tomorrow!

Awesome day! We had mentioned doing a half-marathon, and Cheryl totally came up with a route that was awesome! Also, Jared Nelson (Michelle's husband), was an awesome water break organizer. That made the race so fun and like an official race--with a table complete with cups of water and everything! There were 18 of us that ran it!

I tried to do it as a progressive tempo, and started out a little slower (and it was uphill anyway)! It was fun to run with Eric, Cheryl and Jody. We started out about 8:50ish, then about 8 minute miles, which was totally what I had planned on. At about mile 9 I decided to pick it up a little, and averaged around 7:40 for the last four miles.

Also, everyone who reads this should totally check out Michelle Margett's blog. It is called Razmataz (maybe 2 ZZ's?). And totally give her a hard time for her in-depth coverage of all her runs. She is doing a 5K today, competing with her son. It will be interesting to see who wins--he is way fast! It will be close!

Update: Josh won the 5K!!!! Michelle was a close second, coming in at 20:50!!!!!! Woo hooo!!!! What a total, awesome PR! Is there a little competition in this family, or what?