Week Five (9/30 - 10/6)

Sunday - Rest

Weigh In - Same as Start of Training.

This Sunday we enjoyed our day off by going to church, grabbing some sandwiches at the new Wawa nearby, and finishing up The Lorax movie (which we loved!!) while Jackson took his nap.  Sunday afternoon we were surprised to find out that Tom's brothers were headed to town on business.  After dinner we rushed off to Downtown Disney to see them for a few minutes and to explore one of our favorite hangouts.  Even though we've been here many times already, we always make new discoveries, like Babycakes NYC, a cute little vegan bakery!  I grabbed a doughnut and a couple pre-packaged chocolate chip cookies to go.  They were fantastic!

We were also delighted to see one of the regular musical performers at DTD, Dominic Gaudious.  Other times we've seen him there have always been a group of young children dancing to his lively music. This time, there was a very obscure man, "The Dancing Machine," stealing the show.

At one point "The Dancing Machine" came over to give Jackson a high-five.  We were secretly relieved to watch Jackson turn and walk away, shaking his head 'no.'

Monday - Happy Birthday to my army sister on post in South Korea!

We took our easy 3 mile run to Crane's Roost Park in Uptown Altamonte, and then headed over to U-Swirl, our favorite frozen yogurt bar, for dessert.  With this new vegan diet, it's still easy to make a delicious sorbet concoction with their almost limitless toppings. :-)

Tuesday - 6 Miles

With storms looming and limited time, since I had evening plans to meet at Infusion Tea with the local ICAN (International Caesarean Awareness Network) group, I basically had no choice to hit the treadmill in our apartment's gym.  I wasn't actually dreading too much. Maybe it would be a nice change. Heck, it's air conditioned in there, and there's a TV, which I haven't seen the likes of in months! So I grabbed my bottle of half/ half water-Gatorade and set out.  I turned the channel to Spongebob and started up the treadmill. I had my iPhone there if I wanted to switch to music or podcasts.  With the hum of the treadmill I realized I hadn't turned the volume up nearly loud enough, and I resorted to reading cartoon lips till I noticed my wonderful husband and son looking in the gym window- what fortune!  And so nice to have visitors. :-)

The run was surprisingly very pleasant.  Another lady actually joined at the treadmill next to me, and it was nice to hear the footsteps of someone else.  The only problem was keeping track of distance.  I couldn't figure out if it was measuring in kilometers or miles. The flashing lights would let me know the km distance. The speed chart said 'per mile,' and yet another tracker had no specific unit of measurement.  So I was left to estimate, and just ran for an hour.  That should be about right, and the gym was closing at that time anyway.  All in all- that wasn't bad, and I'd do it again.  Maybe I'll try the other treadmill next time.

Tom, what were you doing?? Haha..

It rained the entire time I ran indoors.  Then it stopped just in time for me to head out and for Tom and Jack to get their 6 miles in.  Needless to say, they did NOT run on the treadmill, though part of me would like to see them try. ;-)

Wednesday - 3 Miles

This evening we headed to the San Sebastian Trailhead of the Seminole Wekiva Trail.  I realize each week we have repeats of the same places.  It's true.  Now that we have a baby, it's just not fair to drive long distance just to put him in another 'chair' for a run.  So we keep it close to home.  Just because we run in a lot of the same places over and over, does not mean that each run is a carbon copy of the other.

Take for example this run- it was a rainy day.  Not stormy, but rainy.

Sound asleep in there.

Thursday - Rest!

Friday - Long Run (12 miles)

**This week's favorite!!**

After last week's 11 mile catastrophe, I put a lot of thought into this one and did a few things different:
1) Broke out the hydration belt.  Tom got this as a gift for me years ago, and I just haven't had a real need to use it till now.  To be honest, and I never told this to him, but periwinkle is one of my least favorite colors, so I was always a little turned off by it (seems so silly..). To my delight, the thing fit like a charm and was SO comfortable!  It came with a water bottle, which I filled with half Gatorade and half water. It also made a great place to hang my bandana (which I use to dry my face as I run).
  The belt really was a life saver.  As the run started off, I decided to take a big drink at the completion of each mile.  This served as a great motivator, and also helped to ration out my hydration.  I only had a few drops left at mile 11, but at that point it didn't even matter.

You can't really see it, but there's my 'fanny pack,' aka hydration belt.

 2) We chose a different location.  Last week we took a secluded trail and attempted 5.5 miles out and then back.  Mentally, I think this made the run seem so much longer.  This time, we headed to one of our favorites- Crane's Roost, which has a mile loop around a lake.  The idea was to run as many loops as we felt like, but also feel free to branch off onto the roads.  Even though Tom and I ran this one at our own paces (so Jack wouldn't have to sit quite as long), I wasn't alone.  There are people everywhere at this park.

Off we went!  I set my iPhone to Andy Mineo radio on Pandora, since I found it to be a strong motivator on another recent long run.  I also came prepared with several chapters of Pride and Prejudice on my iPod, which I zipped into a pouch on my belt.  I kept my favorite podcast in mind as well, The Extra Mile, if I needed to change things up a bit.  Turns out the Andy Mineo station was sufficient for the entire run. It never got boring, and it pushed me along.  If it's not broke, don't fix it.  If I'm doing fine mentally, it's not worth the spent energy and frustration of messing around with tech stuff while running.

A few miles in, I got a good sense and plan of how I wanted this run to go.  I decided to do about 6 loops around, then branch out onto the road, 3 miles out and complete with 3 miles back to the park, catching up with my loves and hearing how their run went.  That's basically what I did, except for as I was finishing up the 3 miles out, I realized if I turned left I could just complete the block and catch up to the park again from the other side.  By the time I looped around, I still had 2 more loops around the lake, which was fine.  I actually got to see Tom and Jack just before mile 10.  They finished about 2 miles ahead of me!  It was encouraging to see them and hear that Jackson did fine for the entire run!  The longer I ran, the more I wondered if he was hanging in there, and tried not to stress about it, wondering if he was frantic or extremely bored.  He benefits from these runs in populated parks as well, often shouting out to the people ahead, like "Make way! We're coming!"

It's funny how it looks like I spent most of the run away from the lake, 

but really that big square is only

 1/3 of the run.

 

 

 I passed Tom and Jackson less than a minute before hitting the 12 mile mark, and that gave me the extra motivation to sprint to the finish!  I cannot even put into words how amazing I felt.  I felt like a champion.  You could've told me I was an Olympian and I'd probably say, "Yeah.." as I collapsed and blissfully laid in the wet grass, breathing deeply with a huge smile on my face. I DID IT!! 12 MILES!! Never even felt like I needed a walk break!  This run was never a struggle- I felt so strong, and happy.  It was incredible, and I can't wait to feel that again. 

At some point I needed to pull myself up and catch up with my family.  That's when I realized how drenched I really was!  As if I walked out of a pool, my shoes were squishing as I walked along, and I had to literally wring out my bandana.  It made me wonder if, as these runs get longer, will I need to change my shoes or clothes along the way? Hmm.. 

Mom and Jackson are trying to hide the fact that they're eating while this picture is being taken. Fresh fruit makes a great post-run snack!

Some vendors were nearby for a special event, and Jack suckered a balloon out of them. :D

We grabbed a pizza on our way home, but by the time we got home all I wanted was a hot shower.  Wow- that felt almost as amazing as finishing that run. I could have stood there all night!  Afterwards, I learned something else about myself, or at least I chose to accept it.  Even though I burn like a million calories on these long runs, I typically do NOT have an appetite afterwards. I just want to crash and sleep.  This time I fought the urge to sleep (hey, it's Friday night!) and had some pizza.  I didn't enjoy it at all- I felt nauseous. Next time I will just sleep like I usually do, and just have a big Saturday morning breakfast.

Saturday - Cross Train

We kept our walk simple and stayed in our neighborhood, enjoying the sunset together.

On our way back, we grabbed some snacks at the gas station across the street from our apartment complex.

Now where does this guy find the time to produce potato chips??