School and Tempo, plus GIVEAWAY hints =)

How cute is my little guy. He started all day Kindergarten today. I am not sure what I am gonna do with myself but I will take these first few days to make sure my house is ultra de-cluttered and then probably find some kind of work.....I can tell already I am going to want something more to do. Taking care of Peter has been a blessing and a challenge for me and although I will still be taking care of him, I now have 6.5 hours where he is going to be preoccupied.

Next, I'll tell you how this workout week is going so far. GOOD! Monday I ended up going to Total Conditioning instead of a bike ride, (slept in) and Tuesday I went and battled myself on the track for my 3x1600m (1 mile) repeats.  

Splits: 6:52, 6:56, 6:59

The last repeat was ultra hard for me. I had no brain power left to convince myself to keep going but then during the last 400 I decided to just run as fast as I could and gladly came in just under 7. I had a 400m walk/jog recovery. I walked a little and then started a slow jog for the rest of my 400. Luckily I had my running Guru there during the last mile reminding me that I could do it.  If I was on my own I am almost sure I'd have thrown that last mile in the bag. Oh well, I did it and now I know I can. Once again I owe a big thanks to my running club.

Following that workout I ended up going to a barbell class. I loaded easy and focused on form.

Wednesday I headed out for a bike ride with a friend. It was awesome. Check out this hill we climbed. There apparently is a road race just because of that hill and when the time came to make changes to the road they made sure not to change that incline.  It was crazy! 

Anywhoo, today I woke up early and met up with my friends to run a 6 mile run with 2 miles @ 7:32 pace. We came in at 7:29 and felt great. I am SO glad I have running friends.

Below left to right is Tara, Allison and Amber. We are all running the California International Marathon together. Tara and I are shooting for 3:40 and Allison and Amber a 3:35. I am really looking forward to having friends keep me movin'. I also promised them I wouldn't put there pictures on the blog if they didn't look good. But how could they not! They are all smokin'. There husbands are lucky.

Here we are after our 1st successful tempo of the training plan. We are 2 workouts into this 16 week FIRST training plan.  Sometimes I get so excited about it I can't stop smiling...sometimes I wonder if I love running just way to much. 

Onto the GIVEAWAY. I hope you are all followers and check back often because this giveaway is gonna be great. It is going to be a giveaway "basket". So go ahead and try to see if you can figure out what kinds of things we'd put in a basket to send your way. Here is another clue, I live in Colorado, Heather in Minnesota and Sarah, Brooklyn.  Any guesses?

Who likes training with people?

ME. I would not push myself nearly as hard if I was on my own. I just love the energy coming from people who push themselves beyond what they are comfortable with. I find it very inspiring.

Did anyone have kiddos go back to school this week?

I still can't believe that my only child is now in school all day......I just can't believe it. I am so excited for him. He came over after he found his spot, hugged me, kissed me, and goes "Mom, I'll be great and I'll see you at 3" He has been so independent since he was 1 day old. 

Also, what are you guys cooking for dinner?

a friend of mine and I got together a few days ago and planned all our meals through september. Only problem is they don't start until next week.... so what should I cook tonight?

Happy Running -Jen

Get ready for a GIVEAWAY =)

Yep, stay tuned, we have a giveaway coming soon.  I'll give you a hint, you will be able to enjoy it using more then one of your 5 senses.....AND there will be more then 1 item.

To start, I'll say my 5k time trial went well. We do this same airport loop every so often to see how how we are doing and I beat my time by almost a minute. So that is good! Also, this loop is tough, you do get to fly downhill for the first 1.5 miles but then for the rest of it you first climb a steep uphill followed by a gradual uphill back to the finish.  It is tricky but doable.  I am just surprised I didn't stop because the thought did enter my mind about 20 times..... so that is like once almost every minute. lovely.

Onto this week,

Monday: Bike 20 miles
Tuesday: 3x1600m Repeats with 1 MINUTE RECOVERY..... who does a VO2 max session and only get 1 minute recovery???  Especially on a 1 mile repeat.  I am hoping to hit this 1 mile repeat around 6:56 or so.  who knows.. i'll let you know. I also need to do a strength training session this day.

Wednesday: Swim and or Bike ride. haven't decided yet.
Thursday: 13 miles @ 8:45 pace plus Strength of some sort.
Friday: Total Conditioning

I am having issues fitting in strength. Why does it seem so annoying to lift weights.  It seems so time consuming and soooo boring.   But, I realize it needs to be done. This week I will lift at least 3 times!  It doesn't need to be intense, but it does need to happen.

On another subject, I clean out my closet each fall and spring.  Clutter drives me crazy and for some reason a good cleaning out each 6 months or so seems to lift my moral a ton.  When going through my clothes this time I realized my regular clothing wardrobe is totally slacking and my workout wardrobe is becoming ginormous and out of control.

This pile of the "junk" workout clothing was all crammed into 1 drawer.... lovely.

Plus, does anyone else find it odd that I am more worried about my "good" workout clothes being kept hung up and not getting wrinkly then my other clothes.  

So I refolded all my crappy workout clothes (the ones in the pile) and decided to make a conscious effort to try and make do with what I have got and focus on my normal clothes for a bit....we'll see how that goes.

This picture below is just a random pic I took of my son Peter going out and chasing a cow during the rodeo we went to. I dunno why but it made me thing of the part in the book "Born to Run" where the kids learn to run by playing games.... do we Americans teach our children to run in cow manure during fun events like Rodeos...I dunno, the thought just came to me.

Does anyone else clean out there closet?
-I love cleaning mine out. A good friend of mine once taught me that if you haven't worn it in 1 year, get rid of it. I agree.  

Has anyone else chased a cow at a rodeo?
I have, I participated in this same event that Peter did when I was younger. Crazy how some things just don't change.

Who else has a hard time with Strength Training?
I know some of you do, I have read about it on your blogs. Anyone come up with a good solutions??

Happy Running! -Jen