CrawllyFlower's Garden of Thoughts: Week Four (9/23

Sunday = Rest

This day was so jam-packed that I totally forgot about checking my weight or getting my weekly progress photo. Still with family in Michigan, we started the day off at Rockpointe, the church Tom and I were a part of when we lived there. Shortly after, we hit up Olive Garden, one of my bodybuilding sister's cheat choices for the weekend, for some never-ending pasta, breadsticks and pumpkin cheesecake!

Afterwards, we spent some time at Grandma's house. :) It sure was neat watching Jackson play along the sidewalks I grew up on. I can't seem to upload a video, but here's a link: Jackson in Warren

Tom used Sunday as his cross-train day and took a long walk through downtown Orlando. Shortly after moving here, he discovered a favorite family film, Ernest Saves Christmas, was filmed here in town. Since this discovery, he's been able to pinpoint many exact filming locations, several on today's walk:

Orlando Train Station

Ernest's House, 115 N. Hyer Drive

Farmer's Market, every Sunday at Lake Eola, Downtown Orlando.

Monday- 3 Miles *Favorite Run of the Week*

After a fantastic time with the family at Erwin Orchards, we all headed 5 minutes across the highway to Kensington Metropark. Heather and Tim (brother) decided they'd run with me. There was a nice playground nearby, so I left Jack with his grandma and Aunt Kaylee. Off we went! We stayed close to the lake on a paved bike trail for the most part, 1.5 miles out and back. This run went by so quickly. It was a cool, gorgeous day and it was so great to run with these guys! Once again, my pace had picked up and we finished faster than my goal race pace (10 min/mi.).

Before :-o

Tim, Finishing Up Strong!

Glad I could get these two 'gym rats' outside for some fresh air! Hehe..


..and After!

Tuesday- 6 Mile Pace Run

Heather was SO pumped by Monday's 3 mile run, with her best pace yet, that she decided to join me at Stony Creek Metropark for another loop around the lake. We ran the first mile together, and after that she decided to run a mile, walk a mile. In the end, I only finished my run with Jackson 6 or 7 minutes faster than her run-walk-run. Great job, Heather! Brr.. this was a chilly morning! So cold (and sorry, Tom, I did forget to check the exact temp number) that Jackson wasn't really interested in walking around much afterwards..

My little guy, pre-run, looking very long!

My favorite part of this loop is the last mile- there are two lonng down hills!!

Geese! I hate geese, but they stayed away from me.

My pathetic attempt to capture myself running. :-o

This is the same day we hopped on a plane and flew back to Orlando, so it was nice to finish up early so we could all spend time together when we reunited with Daddy. :) Tom did his run at Lake Baldwin Park right before picking us up at the airport. His run was a lot hotter and muggier than ours in Michigan.

Wednesday - 3 Miles

Nothing too fancy about this run. We just headed straight out our front door and did a neighborhood run in the evening.

Also of note- Jumped back on my vegan diet today.

Thursday - Rest

After a stressful day spent figuring out issues with my iPhone, I was able to take some time to relax on my own. Daddy and Jackson spent the evening catching up after being apart for a week, and Mommy took the Mac and headed to Panera Bread for some coffee and blogging.

Friday - Long Run, 11 miles

Oh gosh, do I even have to think about this. :( Yes, I do. Needless to say, this was a difficult run. Since Jackson didn't handle our last long run (9 miles) too well, we decided to have Tom run ahead at his own pace so that he and Jack would finish up sooner. We took the Seminole Wekiva Trail and planned to do 5.5 mi out and back. After just a few miles, I was already starting to struggle, instead of just starting to get comfortable like I usually do at that point.

Beautiful Rainbow Before Starting Our Run

I did my 5.5, turned around and was relieved to see Tom coming around another corner several yards ahead of me. I yelled out to him twice, but he was just out of earshot! Thankfully, there was a family of cyclists in between us and asked him, "Are you 'Tom?' Cause there's a woman back there calling you." So he turned around and I promptly drank our supply of water. I should have taken some with me; it was way too hot and muggy to be running with no hydration. We ran some together, but then I just couldn't. I needed to walk, and the 5 miles back was mostly walking. I felt so defeated, discouraged and generally bummed that I had slowed Tom down, too. Plus, the sun had set and we still had a few miles before getting back to the car. At least Jackson was sound asleep, and thank God it wasn't raining.


Somebody did a lovely makeup job on Jeff Dowdy. This should have been my first sign.

Tom was a constant encouragement, telling me how it was ok to walk and it was just a bad day. Doesn't mean that I can't run a half marathon or that I won't be ready to do a marathon in January. I still don't know what happened. I think it was a mixture of hydration, running by myself, and maybe my body was fighting a cold or something. Without realizing it, or even trying too hard, I actually ran the first few miles at a 9:30/ mile pace...faster than my goal race pace! So that definitely played a part in me hitting the wall.

You can't tell from this shot, but this lake must have had millions of birds around it.

The trail goes through a tunnel under the road.

Something about me is that when I start walking, it's REALLY difficult for me to start running again. I may need to start rethinking the way I run. What I mean is, if I have another run like this, then I'm going to start planning walk breaks throughout the run and not just when my body FORCES me to.

Saturday - Cross Train

As usual, we chose a long walk to be our cross-training for the week. This time it was a little different though, because we split it up. We walked a little over a mile and a half to the Bahia Shrine for their Octoberfest celebration, and then back home. It was an unusual and quirky event, but worth checking out. We agreed that it would have been more enjoyable if we had had friends or family with us.