Two-A-Day Runs

Thursday

The Ragnar Relay Race is just over a month away and I'm feeling the self-imposed pressure to get faster and to run more.  I've run 7-8 miles a few times now but I'm not getting faster.  At one point I was telling my running team my whole weight loss/running story and I said that I used to not want to even walk one mile because the weather was too ho-o-o-o-o-t.  Then I started walking and running and now I eat 5Ks (3.1 miles) for breakfast!  Well now I'm starting to eat 10Ks for breakfast! 

According to the suggested training schedule Ragnar puts out, I should've started doing two-a-day runs in November to get used to running on tired legs.  I did walk in the evening about one mile after I had run in the morning but only once or twice.  This morning I ran 7.8 miles and my goal was to walk four miles this evening.  I forgot to start my timer when I started walking so I don't know how fast I did the first mile.  I started the timer at the 1-mile mark and was going to see how fast I could do the second mile and then see if I could beat that time on the third and fourth miles.  However, before I'd reached 1-1/2 miles it started to rain.  I love running or walking in the rain but I had to put my phone in my pocket so it wouldn't get wet and that caused the timer to stop.  It kept raining harder, which I loved, but I didn't want to ruin my phone so I cut it short and walked just over two miles.  Sigh.   

I'm going to run in the morning but only 4 miles.  I don't want to overdo it by trying to run another 7 or 8.  My Ragnar legs are 7-1/2 miles, 4 miles, and 2 miles.  I just want my body to be used to running on tired legs. 

Sunday

I didn't run on Friday like I said I was going to.  Ugh!  Sometimes it's just hard to make myself get out there and do it.  I ran with a friend this morning for 40 minutes, about 3 miles.  I've tried to do two-a-day runs for more than a month but all I can manage the second time out is to walk.  Better than nothing but…disappointing.  Maybe it was hard because the days I'd tried to run a second time I had run 8 miles the first time!  Since I did only 3 this morning I figured it was realistic to do a few more this evening.  I'm getting bored with my usual routes, though, and wanted something different so I went to the beach.  I love that I live in a place where I can go to the beach in January and run!  I determined to do 50 minutes, which would be about 4 miles.  I actually did 4-1/2 miles at a pace of 11:06!  I don't know how I got that pace since lately I've been running between 13 and 14 minutes per mile, but I'll take it!  I'm running again in the morning (in 9 hours) with a friend but I don't know how far.  We'll see what this body can handle after running twice today.  It's tired. 

 

Cereal and Tomatoes

A couple weeks ago I did my usual Monday night fitness class then ran on the beach the next morning with a lady from class.  I wanted to try running in the sand with no shoes on for a short distance, but I underestimated how close we were to the end.  I ended up running at least half a mile barefoot carrying my shoes.  Not fun.  I won’t be doing that again and I definitely won’t be getting any of those minimalist shoes!   

At the end of the run I was HUNGRY!  I was determined to not get McDonald’s or any other fast food, so I was trying to think of what was available on my way home.  Ah, a grocery store!  I didn’t expect there to be too many cars in the parking lot at 7:00 a.m., but the reason there were hardly any is because they don’t open until 7:30.  :-(  

The only other place on the way home was Walmart.  The one I pass is not a Supercenter so the selection of groceries was limited.  I walked down a couple aisles not knowing what I wanted but quickly ruled out crackers, granola candy bars, and stuff like that.  There was no fresh food.  On the cereal aisle I saw

Chocolate strawberry cereal?!?!?!?!  Oh yeah!  And it’s Special K?  That’s better than Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs!  Moderation, of course.  I didn’t plan to nor did I eat the whole box.  I saw it as God having something special just for me because I honored Him by not putting junk in my body.  I ate some straight out of the box on the way home but didn’t pig out.  

 

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Yesterday I went tomato picking. 

 

Some of the tomatoes were riper than others and some looked good until I turned them over and saw a rotten spot on the bottom or back.  What was interesting is that even if the tomato was on the ground,

which would seem like a not-very-ideal spot for it to grow resting on the plastic (fake) tarp and surrounded by weeds, if it was still attached to the vine it was usually good with no bad spots.  The bad tomatoes I left on the ground or even smooshed with my foot.  I threw one at my daughter after she threw one at me!  (just at each other’s feet)  They were useless for me to put in my bag, pay for, and bring home to use for their intended purpose. 

John 15:4-8  ⁴Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

⁵ “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches.  Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit.  For apart from me you can do nothing.  ⁶ Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers.  Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.  ⁷ But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!  ⁸ When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples.  This brings great glory to my Father.

Even in undesirable circumstances, if we stay connected to the Vine we can be fruitful.  :-)

My First Trail Run!

I did my first trail run on January 13!  It was the Kiwanis Honeymoon Island Adventure Run.  They had a 5K and a 5-mile run with a combined start.  Everyone ran the 5K and then those who had registered for the 5-mile continued on to the beach and back for a total of 5 miles. 

It was a beautiful but unseasonably warm morning (mid to upper 60s). 

I had run only 3.1 miles with my running partner Melisa three times in the last couple weeks so I wondered if I had the stamina to do a longer run.  I did.  J  My daughter and I drove to the park a week or so before the race to get an idea of the course but it wasn’t well marked on the map and we ran only about 4 minutes.  Unfamiliar territory is unfamiliar territory for me!  I like to know what to expect and I didn’t know what to expect going into this run except that it would be on trails.  I love woods and I’ve walked plenty of trails, but I didn’t know THIS trail.  Now I really wish I had been able to run it because I didn’t expect there to be loose sand on a portion of it. 

By a portion I mean about 1-1/4 miles.  :-O  And not on the beach, either!  The first mile was Florida soil (sand) with a covering of pine needles.  Nice. 

Except for the occasional pile of pine needles that could be slippery. 

Not bad though.  Gotta watch out for exposed roots.

I was at 11:something at the 1-mile marker.  11:something?!  I’m ahead of schedule!  I usually do a 13:something mile!  Mile 2 and a good portion of mile 3 were loose sand.  Ugh.  I ran on the edge as much as I could where there was vegetation and that helped some but not a lot.  I was tempted to walk but I didn’t! 

Some spots had nice green grass to run on.  Ahhhh! 

I got through that and the trail turned to muck and deep ruts.  This isn't a picture of the worst of the ruts.  That was on a part of the course I didn't take the time to get to afterward.  They were much worse than this, covered the entire road, and were very slippery.

It wasn’t really mud because we haven’t had rain in a while, but the ruts in the road still had enough moisture that there was slippery muck.  I ran on the edge there as much as possible too but sometimes had to run right through it.  

Mmmmmmmm…natural Florida!

 

As I was approaching the staging area

and the end of the 5K, I thought, “Okay, Michele, you can stop here if you want to.”  It wasn’t so much a temptation to stop as it was just a thought.  My response was, “Why would I stop now?”  The only part left was the beach portion.  I really enjoy running on the beach and haven’t done it in quite a while so I was looking forward to it.  Oh, somewhere in the first mile a lot of people started passing me.  I’m used to it and it doesn’t bother me.  Farther along, though, I couldn’t hear anyone behind me and I kept thinking I was the very last person.  I wasn’t happy about that, but someone has to be last and at least I was still running. 

I continued on to the beach with almost 2 miles left to go and lots of people were coming BACK from the beach.  Sigh.  Again, I’m not trying to win any of these races and I know lots of people are younger, faster, and fitter than I am.  I’m not competing against them but there’s still a tiny bit of a letdown when I actually SEE them being younger, faster, and fitter than I am.  Oh well.  Keep running.  I expected to have to run through loose sand to get to the packed sand at the beach.  I didn’t expect to have to run through rocks. 

Yes, rocks.  I also didn’t expect to have to run on such a slant. 

It was much more of a slant than I’ve run on at beaches before.  Oh well.  Keep running.  I was sure I was the last one now.  As I FINALLY approached the turn-around point I said to the volunteer, “I may be last, but at least I’m still running.”  She said, “You’re not last.”  After I turned I saw someone behind me.  Then another.  Then two more.  I counted 12 people on the last portion of the run who were behind me.  I wasn’t last!  I made it through all those rocks and gave the other side of my body a workout on the slant.  Almost to the finish line! 

I ran past the clock at 1:08:59,

which gave me a pace of 13:48 per mile.  That’s 30-45 seconds slower than I usually run, but I usually run on familiar flat roads, not unpredictable natural surfaces on an unfamiliar course.  I’m not disappointed at all.  I’m sore, but I’m not disappointed! 

Throwing Food Away

Sometimes after we leave the beach my daughter and I go to Candy Kitchen on Madeira Beach.  They have the best birthday cake ice cream!  They make their own ice cream and for this one they make the cake, frost it, and decorate it, then mix it into the ice cream.  Oh yeah! 

I got some last night, but only one scoop.  I was enjoying the ice cream without one bit of guilt on my way home and had one bite left in the cup and one on the spoon when I passed this sign:

 

I thought, “You do satisfy, Jesus.  And so does this ice cream.  Of course, You satisfy me more.”  He said, “Do I satisfy you enough for you to give up the last bite of it?”  Of course He does!  So I did, and I did it gladly!

For lunch yesterday we went to Cracker Barrel and I got brown rice with mushrooms as one of my sides.  I brought it and some of my other food home and was eating it for a late supper last night.  Something happened as it sat in the fridge because it was very salty - too salty for me to eat.  In fact, that was my thought as I took a couple bites.  God said, "So why are you still eating it?"  I immediately got up and threw it away. 

There's freedom in being able to throw away food that doesn't benefit me.  Of course I'm not wasteful, but it's okay to occasionally throw something away, especially if God prompts me too!

Thoughts After My First Midnight Run

It’s my normal pattern to run early in the morning as soon as it gets light, about 6:00.  My first official race was at 7:00 a.m., my second race was in the evening after dark, my next two races were on the beach at sunset, and now I can say I’ve run at midnight!  I ran under a full moon last night from 11:25 p.m.-12:08 a.m. 

This was a growing race and not just because they had a record number of people register.  It was a growing and stretching race for me.  With my first race I wanted to know the course well in advance so I could run it and be very familiar with it.  I don’t like surprises.  With my second race, some of the course was the same as my first one, but I still had to find out the exact start, route, turnaround, and finish.  My beach races were in straight line, but I still observed one last year without running it and didn’t run until this year.  With this midnight run I saw where the course started and finished and that was all.  Really, it’s not like I’m going to be leading the pack and need to know for that reason!  So for me to not bother trying to learn ahead of time the exact route was a step up from having to know everything possible about a situation.  It was…faith?  It was going with the flow, which can be a problem for me.   

We started off and had a very slight incline over some water after, I’m guessing, 2/10 of a mile.  Hardly noticeable.  We ran some more and as I looked ahead I could see the crowd like they were higher than I was.  Were they on a bridge or a hill?  We’re in Florida and on the coast so hills are an extremely slim possibility.   It was a bridge, the Dunedin Causeway. 

About a mile into the run was the beginning of the bridge.  I’d never run a bridge before, but I have now!  It really wasn’t very hard, but then it wasn’t a very steep bridge.  I liked running over the metal grate at the top and seeing the water below.  It was such a gradual decline that I hardly noticed it on the way down.  Oh, I just remembered that I’ve run the incline on part of the Pinellas Trail to an overpass.  I forgot about that. 

Anyway, the run continued toward Honeymoon Island.  I worshipped as I looked at God’s creation under a full moon with a minimum of human influence (lights).  It was almost the way He intended it to be.  The only sounds were feet pounding the pavement, lungs breathing heavily, and the occasional very breathy word or two.  After reaching the turn-around point at 20 minutes (good time), I saw the bridge again.  I wanted to run it up and down both ways, so if I was going to walk at all, the time to do it was before I got to it.  I walked for two minutes then began running again.  I easily climbed the bridge running, ran over the metal grate again, and then ran down the other side.  One bridge up and down up and down conquered!  Bring on another! 

I had passed up the first water station, which was ridiculously close to the start line in my opinion, because drinking water while I run upsets my stomach and I don’t need to for just a 5K.  On the way back, though, I decided to get water and pour it on my face.  Why had I never thought of that before?  Oh well, live and learn and improve.  I got a cup, poured it on my face, and man did that feel good!  (Why did I not take up swimming instead of running?)  The end was in sight after that, and I kept running. 

This had been my most spiritual official run in that I had been praying frequently thanking God for giving me the ability to run at all, protecting my knee that had been giving me very brief twinges of pain earlier in the evening, giving me this beautiful creation to enjoy, good-functioning lungs, a full moon, water, breeze,...  I had to sing my “Keep Running” song only a handful of times. 

As I turned from the road into the parking lot where the finish line was I started to pick up speed.  I always do that in official runs but struggle to do it in practice.  I crossed the finish line after 43 minutes and 11 seconds,

a little slower than I had run the last few times in practice but this run included a bridge both ways so I wasn’t too disappointed.  I’m happy and look forward to shaving more minutes off my time and running more bridges!

I came in 81st out of 99 in my age group.  I'm moving up!  I had a per-mile pace of 13:54.  These numbers are a little different from what I reported on Facebook, but I got them from the official results.  The FB numbers were just what I saw last night immediately after the race. 

My Second Race on the Beach

Today’s post is colorful.  Red words are my negative thoughts and green ones are my positive thoughts.

I ran the 5K on the beach last night, but I didn’t want to.  Yes, I did.  No, I would’ve been fine if they had canceled it because of the weather.  I’m glad I ran it.  I had a stinky attitude just before.  Let me start at the beginning. 

I don’t know if it’s because these races are in the evening after I’ve had a full day (even if that full day included a nap) or what, but I really was not feeling racy (ha!) as we headed up there.  I love to run in the rain and it was sprinkling as we drove to the beach.  I hoped it would start raining harder because it’s hard rain I like to run in.  For some reason I took the route that had us on Gulf Blvd., not the fastest way to get to Clearwater Beach.  I was just driving, not thinking.  The closer we got the more my feelings bounced back and forth between positive and negative. 

I felt sluggish and fat but happy to be running again but I hoped they would cancel it but I was happy that there was a good chance I could run in rain but there was also a strong wind coming off the water so it would be blowing into me sideways as I ran out and back, not against me one direction and with me the other, but I was just glad to be running, period, and should quit complaining. 

We got there and the race was still scheduled to start.  The mist (not even sprinkle) had stopped and the wind was up.  I didn’t want to waste the trip, so I paid $10 (didn’t get a shirt this time because it’s the same one for the whole series), and proceeded to warm up.  I saw no one I knew who was running, but it was okay.  Only my mom went with me and I didn’t even see any spectators I knew, but it was okay this time for some reason. 

A few weeks ago at this race, I pushed myself by running 7 minutes and walking 2 for a final time of 44:52.  Since then I’ve been adding 1 minute per week.  When I ran on Tuesday I ran 10 minutes and walked 2, so last night I challenged myself to run 11 and walk 2.  I did it!  My final time was 43:50, 1 minute and 2 seconds faster than previous!    

My negative thoughts were mostly before the start of this race, not while I was racing like they were last time.  I sang my “Keep Running” song MANY times, like I always do.  I’ve decided that the water station at the halfway/turnaround point doesn’t benefit me.  For a 5K, I don’t need to hydrate during the race and it upsets my stomach.  So no more getting water there.  I don’t drink during runs at home and I don’t need to during official races. 

After I turned around at the halfway point I noticed that the wind had shifted and instead of coming at me from the side, it was now coming at me straight on.  Great.  Not only was I running in sand, which absorbed my impacts and didn’t bounce me back so consequently made me run slower, now I was running into the wind so was slowed down even more.  Really, Michele?  You’re complaining about running on a God-made surface that is better for your knee, the knee that forced you to stop running for MONTHS this past winter and spring???  You’re complaining about a God-sent breeze to cool you off during this race?  You’re complaining, period?  Philippians 2:14 says to do everything without complaining.  Plain and simple. 

The running pants I wore last night will be downgraded to sleeping pants.  So will the T-shirt.  Comfortably loose is one thing; sloppily big is quite another. 

At one point near the end I saw a woman who was rounder than I am and she was walking with a man.  They were having a good time just being with each other and picking up and looking at shells.  I said, “Really, God?  Look how fat she is and her husband or boyfriend isn’t hideous.  How come she gets to have one and I don’t?”  Siiiiiiigh.  Here we go again.  I’ve asked that question countless times for YEARS and gotten no answer.  These song lyrics from Building 429 came to mind then: 

I won’t keep searching for answers that aren’t here to find

All I know is I’m not home yet

This is not where I belong

Take this world and give me Jesus

This is not where I belong. 

Apparently that question of mine doesn’t have an answer to find, at least not now, and I need to stop searching for it.  I need to focus on where I DO belong, which is Heaven, and on what I DO have, a desire and the ability to honor God with my food and activity choices.