Thursday, August 14, 2008

Doing Some Training

This Florida summer heat is tough to train in. Being a lazy runner by nature, it's not helping matters much. Luckily my good friend Ed is a running maniac and he lights the fire beneath my Asics. He likes to run at 6:30 am. I like to lay in bed at 6:30 am. Sometimes it's more fun to dream about running anyway. I'm wicked fast in my dreams. Pun intended.

Ed, Bob and I ran on Wednesday morning. I ran 3.5 miles and the guys went on to finish 4 miles. It was the first run I've had in 3 weeks where I could actually breathe. Feels good to breathe when you run , ya know?

This morning Ed came and picked me up for my very first speed workout at the track. I knew he was coming at 6:30 but I still stayed in bed until 6:10. Nice. My husband tried to wake me at 5:30 when he was leaving but I'd changed my mind about getting up by then. I contemplated calling Ed and being a slacker but I figured in the time it would take to find my phone and make the call, I'd be awake anyway. Up I got. Good thing too because Bob W. was supposed to come with us but he overslept! Ha!! He must have needed the rest.

The down side of getting up 20 minutes before a run is....I didn't eat. So I didn't have the energy for the workout Ed planned. I did half of his workout and spent the other half walking around the track while he ran. I need a good nutritional plan. I've never been good about eating. I need to change that. Starting T-O-D-A-Y. Please pass the chips. To me. And I'll take a Bud Light with those thankyaverramuchhhhh.

Saturday is the 4th annual Hurricane Run. As I'm sure you all know, Florida got hit with Hurricane Charlie 5 years ago. It was pretty bad. In fact, we have families still recovering from it. Very sad.

The team will be meeting at this race Sat morning. Jim and Bethany will be away for the weekend. That means I have to pay attention this time and get a good race report out to them. Usually I just do whatever they say..."ride their coattails" you may call it. That's what I call it anyway. I'm a coach for this project, but I tend to be the more emotionally and verbally encouraging coach vs the training, physical and teaching coach...(Jim and Bethany's job)...I like the "hearts and flowers" part of coaching I guess. I like the "hearts and flowers" part of everything, as a matter-of-fact. The team already knows what they need to do before, during and after the race. I guess they'd notice if I tried to slip a little tea party in there somewhere. Or tried to get them all to sing "Mama Mia" by Abba. I might try that one anyway. Like a motivational anthem, if you will. Hey...maybe I can talk them into doing "The Hustle" as a warm up/stretch! I think that would work nicely. Don't you???



Sunday, August 10, 2008

NP Endurance Project...

I'm going to start this post with Jim's weekly update. It's a little long, figured I'd give my blogger friends the option of skipping it in favor of my more humorous update to be posted soon after this one....LOL

A Word From Coach Jim

Hello Team!

First of all GREAT weekend for all of us that went to the race at Punta Gorda, some of the highlights: Sherry set a tremendous personal record and Jacki also. Great improvements. Bethany was the overall female winner, Josephine the grandmaster winner, and medals for Tess, Kim, Cindy, Frank, Ed and Jim.

Some points about our Big Run... The Saturday, October 11th FCA Half Marathon in Sarasota/Lakewood Ranch. (http://www.runfca.com/)Each of us should register on our own via Active.com. Active.com will want you to register with a username and password. We will be providing the race organizers with our list of YMCA North Port Endurance Project team members so that we’ll all be entitled to any team discount. We should register as soon as possible to avoid any potential increase in the $45. listed fee. So please plan on registering asap for the FCA run.

Keep the following information in mind… On Friday, Oct 10th, our Endurance Team will be having a pasta dinner party at Kim's house in North Port. This gives all of us a chance to go over race strategies, questions or concerns. This will be a great opportunity to calm any jitters and have a relaxing evening before the BIG DAY! Time TBA (Does anyone have a "cutoff time" for eating the night before a long run. Let us know...) Kim will make the pasta, sauce and a punch bowl. (non-alcholic). We can decide who can bring what when we get a little closer to the date. (bread, desserts, salad etc) We are working on having one person (Kim) pick up all the race packets at once. We can give them out at the pasta party. For those who cannot make the party, let one of us know and we'll be sure to get you your packet before the race.

For those who have not yet had their race day shirts embroidered, you can drop one off at the desk at the YMCA anytime. Please put your name in the bag so we can get your shirt back to you.

Our week ahead training mirrors this past week. We want to hold onto the progress we’ve made thus far and protect ourselves from injury. Allow time to rest and eat some good vegetables. Strength training target the core muscles, safely exercise your abs, obliques, lower back and glutes. Have two good days of cardio training equaling 30 min. one day and 45 min. the next. Plan on a weekend run of approx six to seven miles.

Some of you may be running the “Hurricane Run 5k” on Sat. Aug. 16. Bethany and Jim, and Josephine and Frank will be out of town for this. The plan for the following Saturday (Aug. 23) is for a group run on the beautiful trails of Oscar Scherer State Park. Our goal is an hour to an hour and a half run on Sat. Aug. 23. This is our own event-- and Ed and Joan Morgan will be providing the optional post run breakfast at their RV. (They‘ll be camping overnight and ready for our training run Sat. morning.) We will start that run as early as we can so that we can enjoy the run, the breakfast, nature and still have ourselves back to North Port by mid morning. We’ll figure out who’ll drive, etc. sometime the week of Aug. 18...

Please register at Active.com for the Oct. 11 FCA marathon asap.

Endurance Team Coaches

NP Endurance Project Week 5

Week 5 already! Wow!! The whole team is just coming along phenomenally well. Everyone showed their dedication, training and team spirit at yesterdy's Run 4 Reason 5K. Five team members were away for the weekend on various adventures (or had to work) so we had 10 of us there.

We basically met in registration before the warm up mile. While I was standing there talking (of course) in walks SHERRY !!!!! I knew her as soon as I saw her. Cute as a button with those dimples and full of energy. It felt like we'd known each other for years. Her husband Scott is also a sweetie, what a beautiful couple. Sherry rocked the 5k with her 26:23, taking 1st place in her age group. YAY Sherry!!! Meeting Sherry was the highlight of the day for me. We could have visited for hours!!! (Hugs Sherry) =)



The team ran a warm up mile and came back for stretching. It was a very hot, very humid morning. We all felt it. I hadn't run for 2 weeks, I had the flu, so I didn't expect to run too well. And I didn't...LOL (thoughts are THINGS) BLAHHH.....anyway, we lined up and took off. We cheered each other on as we passed each other. I had trouble breathing and had to stop 3 times. I was surprisingly ok with this since I expected to have some trouble.



I ran with Kim, another JUST Kim, not Kimberly!! Pretty fun! Found a new friend and she lives near me. We'll be running together, I'm sure. I saw many, many friends. Yuli, Bill, Carol, Bob, Jack, I can't even name them all. I love that part of being a runner. I look forward to seeing everyone just as much as running the race. The running community is friendly and FUN!

Bethany took Overall First Place female, Josephine took Grand Master female. Nice job ladies!! Jim, Ed, Tess, Frank, Cindy and yours truly (ME) all placed in our respective age groups and went home with medals. Pretty nice looking medals too. I pulled a Nitmos and wore mine all day. The people at Publix were all pretty impressed...I even let them touch it. I know, I know....I'm good like that. I'm thinking of having a "Come See Kim's Medals" party. You're all invited. Should be fun. And quick since I only have about 6....teehee

Before the results were announced, Jim gathered us for the cool down mile. I calmly told him I was skipping that. He just as calmly told me I was NOT skipping it. Then I reminded him that I am my own captain. He can't really tell me what to do. He said ok. After winning that one, I decided I WANTED to run the cool down. So I did. Kinda. I walked a lot of it just cuz I could. You know, being the captain and all. I would have stopped a little earlier but Tess has an issue with running an odd distance. She made us keep going for the full mile. I like Tess, so I did it. I guess you could say I did it for you, Tess!!

The good thing about having the flu is, I'll be healthy for the rest of the season. I hope.