Crank up the mileage

Last week, we were all prepared for a long 20 miler and then old man winter had his way and most of us did 5-10 miles in wind and snow, kind of like a mail carrier, such dedication. We did get together again on Sunday, the weather was kind and most of us did 15 - 20 miles. Today was a drop back day and I did 11 miles. I felt really sluggish, I haven't had much sleep this week and was up past 1:00 last night so I think that has something to do with it. Thanks Janet for all your encouragement, I really didn't feel perky at all.

It was a hard route, lots of hills, but I know it was good for us. A big thanks to Larry for planning the route. The route took us through beautiful Maple Ridge neighborhoods and it was fun saying hello to people sitting on their porch enjoying their coffee, as I am sipping mine now. We also went through dt Tulsa past some clubs and bars that were quiet early in the a.m. but will be hopping tonight. My daughter is going to one of the places tonight, not a bar, so i was glad to see where she would be since I had never heard of the place. It was so funny, as we ran past these places, we didn't know anything about them, just shows what stage of life we are in...middle age homebodies.

Patty, Janet and Becky were going back out for another 11 and I said a prayer for them, since the wind really picked up after 9:00.

Next week it is the big 22 miler, OKC is 4/26, I'm already getting pre-race tension, i really want to break 5 hours! I think I'm going to try some new GU-Roctane Ultra Endurance.

A shout out to Candice-congrats on a safe delivery and Nate is a beautiful baby boy!

A Week of Good Runs

After missing a lot of my runs the week of 2/9, I was determined to have a better week this week and I succeeded. Sunday I had a great run around LaFortune Park, nice and easy. Tuesday, I ran by myself in the early a.m. and was totally spooked by a dog in my neighborhood, other than that, it was a very good run. Thursday morning, i ran with my usual running buddies and managed a sub 9 mile split. My next goal on these tempo runs is 2 sub 9 mile splits. This morning, I had a fantastic run in OKC at Lake Hefner with the Fleet Feet group from Edmond. It was great to go around Lake Hefner since I've done only the 1/2 at OKC Memorial marathon and doing this run this a.m. gives me confidence for the marathon in april. After my awful battle with the wind at the Dallas White Rock Marathon, I was worried about any future windy engagements. Well, today I had a chance to see how i would respond to another windy run around a lake and i was undaunted, so i feel much better about the OKC marathon now. I posted my stats on the previous update. I was very satisfied with my overall average of 10:04 and wasn't overly tired. The last mile, I was running into a strong wind and had a 12:22, I could hardly move and ended up walking because I thought i was creating too much resistance by running. I enjoyed getting to know some of the people from the Edmond group and I truly appreciate them taking me in. I was in OKC for my daughter's state swimming championships and was relieved that I could get a long run in and not miss any of her meet.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1205 ft Location: Bethany, OK Elev. Gain: -3 ft Date: 02/21/09 Up/Downhill: [+213/-216] Time: 06:09 AM Difficulty: 4.1 / 5.0   Weather: Fair and Breezy   29 F temp; 48% humidity   29 F heat index; winds N 22 G 31 Performance Distance: 13.17 miles Time: 2:12:33 Speed: 6.0 mph Pace: 10' 04 /mi Calories: 1185 Map   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 10' 22 +0' 18 5.8 -0.2 -6 ft 2 10' 29 +0' 25 5.7 -0.2 +4 ft 3 10' 45 +0' 41 5.6 -0.4 -10 ft 4 10' 48 +0' 44 5.5 -0.4 +3 ft 5 10' 56 +0' 52 5.5 -0.5 -6 ft 6 12' 07 +2' 03 5.0 -1.0 +3 ft 7 10' 09 +0' 05 5.9 -0.1 0 ft 8 9' 34 -0' 30 6.3 +0.3 0 ft 9 9' 54 -0' 10 6.1 +0.1 0 ft 10 9' 44 -0' 20 6.2 +0.2 0 ft 11 10' 02 -0' 02 6.0 +0.0 +7 ft 12 12' 22 +2' 18 4.8 -1.1 +6 ft 13 6' 18 -3' 46 9.5 +3.5 -4 ft end 0' 56 -9' 08 64.0 +58.0 0 ft Versus average of 10' 04 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

New Workout Log

I discovered this yesterday on the "Qualifying for the Boston Marathon" blog that I follow. It's by Bones In Motion www.bimactive.com. It has great visuals and stats and links to many phones, but not mine. It's free. It has an interface with the Garmin so to get this below to display I imported my Garmin workout to bim then exported the bim to Blogger, took just a couple of minutes. I really like the weather stats, start and stop visuals on the pace/mile and how bim creates the visuals immediately. You can customize how much you want to display on your blog, I posted everything this time but will most likely slim it down in the future. Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 717 ft Location: Tulsa, OK Elev. Gain: -6 ft Date: 02/08/09 Up/Downhill: [+269/-275] Time: 07:21 AM Difficulty: 2.5 / 5.0 Weather: Overcast 58 F temp; 77% humidity 58 F heat index; winds S 5 Performance Distance: 4.70 miles Time: 0:44:00 Speed: 6.4 mph Pace: 9' 22 /mi Calories: 442 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 32 +0' 10 6.3 -0.1 +20 ft 2 9' 31 +0' 09 6.3 -0.1 +43 ft 3 9' 27 +0' 05 6.3 -0.1 +7 ft 4 9' 17 -0' 05 6.5 +0.1 -73 ft end 10' 12 +0' 50 5.9 -0.5 -26 ft Versus average of 9' 22 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Sista Left Behind!

A welcome relief with warmer weather today and we loved wearing lighter gear. We ran all through downtown in a loop of 7-8 miles depending on whether you turned your Garmin off during walk breaks. We went all the way over to Owen Park and ran by Tulsa's Oldest House. If you want to read more about the house go to: http://tulsaarchitecture.blogspot.com/2008/12/tulsaa-oldest-house.html

We also went by the BOK Center and talked about the concerts we had seen-Eagles and Celine and ones we were planning to see-Bruce Springsteen and Elton John, hmmm, hope Bruce slides better than he did at the SuperBowl.

We made a stop at the Crowne Plaza and were reminded of an important lesson. After we left, we were busy talking, running, taking in the sights and we realized that someone was missing. We just looked at each other and said where's _______? We all drew a blank and were very concerned as we headed back a few miles to where we started at Veteren's Park. When the missing person's car was still in the parking lot our hearts sunk and we discussed our options. A couple of us stayed at the parking lot and a few others headed back out for a few miles hopefully to find our missing person. After about 10-15 minutes, I can't tell you how relieved we were to see our person at 21st and Boulder. Lessons learned:

1. Do a head count and make sure the group is intact
2. Carry your cell phone with you if possible
3. Exchange cell phone numbers with a few people in your group

Our mystery missing person was most forgiving and did all the right things:

1. Left a note on the windshield to let us know she was ok (but we didn't see it!) and was still running
2. Waited for us at a couple of stops

Needless to say, I am so sorry and so thankful she is ok and grateful for her sweet attitude!

Other than that we had an enjoyable run, I didn't feel like I was working hard at all, yet my slowest mile was 10:01 and even had one at 9:45.

Is It Spring Yet?

I am so looking forward to running in the warmer weather, I'm getting so tired of the long running pants. Will most likely need sunglasses tomorrow for more than the sun, looking at all those white chicken legs, mine included. My short runs this week have been fantastic, I think taking it easy on the long runs is paying off on the short runs, giving me more energy. I'm looking forward to racing a 5K and seeing if there is any improvement on my time.

For a hilarious post go to http://trailzombie.blogspot.com/2009/02/t-m-i.html#links

Slippery When Wet

We had an icy blast hit us Monday afternoon and we didn't completely thaw until Saturday afternoon. After my Sunday run, I didn't run again until Thursday night. That run was really a joke, very foolish thing to do, the street had started to freeze over and I ended up walking most of the 3 miles and then I was "escorted" by Dave Sargent since he had mercy on my foolishness. Well, I learned a good lesson I hope, sometimes you have to use the indoor equipment. Saturday, we were on the south end of Riverside, started at 96th and Riverside, went into Jenks, back to 96th, the north to 69th. Most of the group continued south since they were doing eighteen, but I headed back with Dana since I wanted to do only 12. It was slick in many spots during the first half but I was still able to average 10:36/mile.

Sunday morning I ran solo and since the roads were much drier, I thought I'd try to go hard and see what was in me. I did my hilly route that we do on Tuesdays and averaged 9:10/mile. What I was really happy about was my last 2 miles were 8:56 pace.

Icy weather aside, it's been an incredible week at work. We have a new president at ORU, Dr. Mark Rutland and the Green family (bless them!) gave us another 10 million for summer renovations, which gives us much to celebrate.

I'm estatic that the Steelers have now won for the 6th time, it's one of the few times I miss my home state of PA.

Tomorrow, hubby and I go to the Celine Dione concert, whopee!!