Just Keep Swimming!

I've been trying to be positive about swimming but to tell you the truth it's been a long tedious journey. It comes so easy to so many of my friends but I make such little progress, even when I am consistent, in the pool. I've taken 2 semi private lessons with KE and I'm feeling more confident already. Still struggled today when Jilly and I did our Faux open water swim in the shallow end, across the short direction at One Mile Sycamore pool though.

I did the 24 day challenge from Advicare and I can't believe how good I feel just changing my eating habits... Well I should say routine, not a habit since it still doesn't feel second nature to me to eat 5-6 meals a day. Even today I only had a tall green tea lime refresher from Starbucks and it was WAY TOO SWEET! The only dessert I've had besides fresh fruit was a small root beer float that I didn't even finish. It's amazing how REAL food tastes so much better when your body isn't polluted by all those refined, chemical, over processed crap.

Last night I cooked chicken breast lightly seasoned and pan fried, no oil until a little brown on both sides. I added 1cup of water, lid on and let it cook on medium for 25 minutes. Chicken was perfect! I put the cut up chix in some romain leaves and added some home made mango peach salsa. Next time I'll definitely add some black beans. I felt like it was missing something. What a perfect meal by the pool though!

Morning routine

My friend Shelly asked if I'd like to run 30 minutes on MWF mornings 5:15am with her. I made to 2/3 this week. Not too bad! It feels good to get back into a routine. We tell the runners in our programs that consistency is the key to a healthy running lifestyle. I'm attempting to set a good example.
Of course the dog was another story. She was terrible on and off the leash today. I guess I had better get her fat tooshy back on a running schedule too!

Back in the game

I ran my first race with some of my No Boundaries 5k group today. The Downtown Mile was a 1mile foot race through downtown Chico between the Bike stage race criterium. I am SO PROUD of my coaches, mentors and team. Many of them got a taste if racing before their graduation 5K event in a few weeks. My time 7:58. Not too shabby for not participating in speed work in nearly a year and hardly and running in the last few months.

Star struck

While we were headed home from a whirlwind vacation to celebrate my birthday, and my little sisters too, I made an effort to see my BadAss Mother Runner Mentor and Friend Sarah Bowen Shea read from her (and Dimity's McDowell's) new book Train Like a Mother.

She is so down to Earth honest, witty and sincere about herself, her relationships with her BRB (best running buddies), her kids, her husband, her co-author and dear friend and her "tribe" of mother runners. She even (almost) convinced my husband to train for a marathon.

I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to spend the evening listening to her speak.

Safety #1 Running buddies

 

These girls are my rock... love running with them!

I did my first presentation for our Fleet Feet 10K training program this morning on runner safety. Its been a long time since I've presented material in front of people (other than the workout that Ed let me lead last Wednesday which went really well other than the group cussing me out in their heads being so excited over making them do one mile repeats). Due some extenuating circumstances in our area it was just a good time to remind everyone of some safety issues anyhow. Here's a little run down of how I keep safe on runs. Today I'm going to talk about running buddies.

I schedule a run with friends, especially in a new area to me. Running with my friends is one of my favorite ways to connect and socialize with my besties. I found this amazing group of friends through running and we keep that going by exercising together... and of course they are kind of a captive audience once we're out on the trail a few miles... I do love to sing and tell jokes 10 miles into a 20 mile run... I'm sure they love that!



crazy things you do when with your running buddies



Run with new people. The best way to make new friends is to go for a hot sweaty feet pounding run with them. Every ones guard is down and the honesty seems to shine through. I can attest to the fact that I've sometimes over-shared with new running buddies but I've also listened to many stories that we wouldn't normally share in any other circumstances from child birth to bathroom habits, while out on the trail. I build emotional walls, that's just how I deal with life... but they crumble easily on the trail or road. That seems to be when I'm to the most ME.



out on a run with my best running buddy



I run with my dog. She loves to run with me. She deters strangers and other dogs from approaching me and its just great to spend time with her. I rescued her from the pound and she is just so happy to be out and about with me that I can't help but love that time. I also hope that keeps other big scary animals away while on trail runs. My dog even has a best friend...Laila that she loves to run with. That is how amazing running is. :)



me and Koz on our 50K relay

Running buddies stop you from running into the street when you shouldn't. They remind you of which side of the road to run on (facing traffic), have extra eyes and ears to watch out for dangerous situations, keep you from getting lost alone, pull you through a hard run, carry extra GU or chomps in case you run out, deter strangers (or big animals) from approaching. They are your sounding board, youre theirs. Running may be cheaper than therapy, but its also a lot more fun. I do love my running buddies!.





Do you have a running buddy... or two or three or more? Do you run with your dog?









Heights, Water and Catwalks, Oh My

Lots of fun stuff going on here! Coaching is going well. I'm not getting as many miles in as I would like and my hip was a lot more tender after hill repeats with the 10k group Wednesday night than I would have liked. I did a couple short runs this week but other than that I've been off the wagon. My brain AND my body needed the long run release. When Linda in Paradise offered up a chance to run the flumes above DeSabla reservoir this morning I jumped at the chance.

My grandparents, aunt and cousin lived just down the fire road from the PG&E lake when I was little. We spent countless hours walking along the trails, riding sleds down the embankment in the snow by the lake and riding my cousins horses along the paths. Although it has been many years since I've spent time up there in ways it will always be a part of me and some of my best memories.

I met Linda at 6:30 in order to get 10 miles in. She ran this same trail for 10 miles yesterday with a bunch of people from Paradise that make the track down the hill in the Spring and Fall for the marathon programs. They all took the Summer off and taking to the trails up in the foothills. Today we headed off along the trail and chatted about lots of fun stuff. We run along the flume with the water running the opposite direction. There are several places where you have to walk along "cat walks" sometimes just two boards side by side and sometimes grates with a hand rail... sometimes without a hand rail...

If you know me in real life you know I'm a chicken sh*t. I don't like water... I don't like heights and I'm not particularly fond of bridges. OK I LIKE bridges a lot but I do NOT like to walk across them. Heights+water= no thank you. I just sucked it up and walked. The views were probably amazing but I wasn't going to look around and see. It was just one foot in front of the other. I'm sure that Linda was annoyed but she didn't show it. We got to one point where the catwalk didn't have a handrail. It was half of a metal tube cut in half and help up next to the cliff side of a mountain with water GUSHING flowing against the direction we were running. it was hard to keep moving forward without feeling dizzy so i took my time.

We turned around and headed back and crossed back across the same catwalks. It was a lot easier to get across then. Water flowing the same direction and better to focus on getting home that way! Linda even offered to take a picture on the long catwalk to prove i got across all by myself! The run was beautiful and I forgot that I love the sound of the water moving. There were still a lot of wild flowers in bloom and the temperatures were in the high 60's the entire time. I am definitely putting this run on my list.