Swimming in Georgia

We went to Mom's in Georgia last weekend to spend some time with her away from our house and catch up on some maintenance things that need to be done. Saturday morning I headed outside to run the circle in her neighborhood. You may recall I did this at Christmas too, or attempted to I should say. While the road next to her house is pretty flat, when I get to the part that makes the big circle, there is a long downhill on one side and a short steep uphill on the other side. I didn't do much running on that road in December.
This time I went out and ran the first mile in about 11 minutes, What? How did I do that? The second mile was done in about 12 minutes. Still not believable. I was done with those two mile in about 24 minutes. I just looked at my watch as if it were crazy, and walked the last mile. Why did I walk? Because I had just gotten to the steep hill again and had hit my limit in that climate.
I think the reason I was running so well was that I was moving at a quicker pace than usual. Previously I had concentrated on just keeping myself moving, which usually meant about a 13 minute mile or so. Now I have been putting more effort into meeting a pace of between 11 and 12 minutes. That has improved my 5K time. The only problem is I want to do a 10K so I need to start adding miles on to that. Good news is the hayfields are getting cut so I will be able to run out there for a few weeks until it gets tall again. That is a really good work out so I can't wait to get started on it.
Now what about the title of this blog? Running in Georgia at 7:30 am is not like running in West Virginia at the same time. In WV you have to stay off the grass or you feet will be soaked. In Georgia the ground is dry, but the air is thick with humidity. When I got back to the house after that run I walked in and Mom asked me if I had run through a sprinker, my skin and hair were soaked. It took about 15 minutes for me to cool down enough to take a shower. I also proved the value of dry wicking clothing, my shirt didn't hardly show any moisture at all and my feet were dry. Doesn't mean I would have gone out to the store right then, but wasn't like cotton that is for sure. Well that was swimming in Georgia. Who needs a pool?

Roth 5K and Bluestone Run

I just realized I hadn't commented on the Roth 5k that I ran last Tuesday evening!
There were a LOT of people at that race. I finished 79th with all but one of the walkers behind me - but that guy isn't natural! So there must have been a good 125 people.
This was the first time I ran this course on a clock and my time of 37:46 was a few seconds faster than the other 5Ks I have finished. The more acccurate scale of how I am progressing is that in October I ran those same streets and it took me 42 minutes by my watch and I was in pretty worn out shape too. At that time I could barely consider running in public. I never figured I would use the main road to run into town. I spent most of my time in the hayfields.
Contrast that with my latest project.
I am working with some other people on a fund raising 5K at Bluestone SP that will run on 21 June. MP scouted out the route for us a few weeks ago, he and KT ran it last week and evaluated it at a 7 out of 10. I ran it after work today. There is a "speed bump" in the road and MP expects me to fuss at him about it, but you know what? It was great!! I managed to run the whole thing, very slowly on the long up hill, but I wasn't walking.
Kind of curious about how I had to walk some at the Roth and was able to just keep 'not walking' today all by myself out on the back roads of Bluestone. Maybe it is just easier to give in to the walk when other people do too. I don't know. I do know that it was very nice to finish that run today in a decent time. I hadn't seen the route before, but now that I have I know that we are going to have a great event in June. I also know that we need lots of signs!

Starting Over

I read a blog post by someone who said she was going to try and kick start a platue by starting over. I think I will give that approach a try too. I spent the winter stuck at 225 and now I have been at 218 for a couple weeks.
I know that the problem is my own, I eat more than I should and haven't been very consistant with my workouts - lots of excuses, but all my own doing. I am pretty happy with where I am now, shopping in the "normal" size versus the "plus" size department is great! Though I haven't really bought much because I am right onthe edge and want to get further from that border.
So the new plan. I started this whole thing last July by walking the stairs at the office, I can do that again. Every day I already bypass the elevator, but now I will target the 60 steps to the parking garage and back up at least once every hour. It only takes a couple of minutes and works my quads so I can balance out my legs.
I will run more consistantly. I have been disappointing myself because I don't run faster, which is silly. I can run one 12 minute mile, but any more than that and my average is more like 13 minutes. I think that I still need to lose 20 pounds before I can speed up much. I really don't want to damage anything.
I will continue step aerobics on Tuesday and Thursday. OOH! Except for this week, I have a 5k to run in Athens Tuesday night, the Roth Memorial. Other than that though... I have already changed my routine for those nights, now I do a nice low-range aerobic run/walk before step class and burn lots of calories!
And finally I will eat less for dinner. I am usually not hungry anyway, I just eat too much.
That is the plan - oh and by the way, if anyone is in Southern West Virginia on June 21st come out to Bluestone State Park before 9am and run our new 5k. It is a Relay for Life event. If you don't run I can put you to work monitoring a corner or something. It will be a great time! bluestoneriverwild5k.blogspot.com/