Sunday, February 19, 2012

Run, run, WORKING Mum! (Last two run recap)

Well, as I said on Facebook the other day, this mum is heading back to work on February 27th! I'm taking over a maternity leave position in a 4th grade dual language classroom in the area, until the end of the school year. It'll be a great experience, as two classes will come to me throughout the day, and I'll give instruction in English, and my partner teacher (across the hall) in Spanish. At least a quarter of the kids are ESL, and they're all super sweet. Oliver will be at day care with a friend of his from Stroller Strides, and I'm really happy with the center (as opposed to the first place I visited - YIKES!)

Last Sunday, I was supposed to do 5 miles. After I put O down for a nap, I headed out from the house (it was freeeeezing) and it unfortunately took 3.9 miles for my GPS watch to find a signal. Note to self: turn it on before I go feed him so it has time to locate the satellites.  I did a loop that's pretty familiar, and has sidewalks for 90% of the way. I estimated it would be about 5 miles, seeing as my Garmin wasn't functioning, and when I put it into Mapmyrun it came up as 4.8. It took me 41:12 (my watch still kept track of time while it was looking for the signal...), so that boils down to 8:35/mile. Not bad for about 20 degrees and 20 mph winds! (I did wear the rob-a-bank head/face thingy, people were definitely looking at me strangely...)

This morning, Oliver and I set off to SUNY Purchase to do the 3.1 mile loop up there (plus a little extra) to make it an even 7 miles. If anyone is familiar with the campus, and the loop around, you know that there is a difficult hill (it is 0.21 miles long, eeks!) that I hit between 2-3 and 5-6. Plus, on one half of the loop there I had some major headwinds (miles 2 and 5).  As you can see by the breakdown, my times were all over the place!

Mile 1 - 8:02
Mile 2 - 9:10
Mile 3 -9:19

Mile 4 - 8:29
Mile 5 - 8:44
Mile 6 - 9:07

Mile 7 -9:11

TOTAL:  1:02:02

Average: 8:51/mile

Although the last time I ran 7 miles I did it in just over two minutes faster, half of those miles were without the stroller, and it was a LOT flatter of a course. Just like I almost always say, "I'll take it!"

Next Sunday, I'm supposed to do 9 miles.... which will be interesting.... not only because I haven't run that far in a LOOOOONG time, but because it's going to be the day after Oliver's birthday party, and we will have my in-laws and my dad/step-mom in town. At least that probably means I can run sans stroller? We'll see!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Super Bowl Sunday Seven miler

This morning we headed out to do a nice seven miler. Let me begin by saying that I have not run this far since before I knew I was pregnant. That was a loooooooong time ago. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous! Ben and Stella were going to meet my mom for a walk around Tod's Point, and I had him drop us off at Binney Park.  Binney Park is a great and beautiful park in Old Greenwich, where we used to watch fireworks. On a nice spring or summer day, you can pretty much always see people taking their wedding photos here - or of course prom in early June! 
Pretty, isn't it? (Needless to say, this was not taken today!)
Here's the breakdown of the mileage/times from this morning:

Mile 1 - 8:46
Oliver fell asleep after about 3/4 mile!
Mile 2 - 8:27
Mile 3 - 8:34

At about 3.5 miles into the run, I passed my mom, Ben and Stella. Oliver was sleeping, so I dropped the stroller off with them, and set off without it! It made a little bit of a difference, but not too much in terms of time.  I ran by the same groups of people twice (I did the beach loop 2x), and they must have been wondering where I stashed the child/stroller after loop #1! Glad no one called the cops on me :)

Mile 4 - 8:29
Mile 5 - 8:36
Mile 6 - 8:39

After the sixth mile, I was trying to do all of the number-crunching in my head to figure out if I could break an hour. I really pushed the last half mile, and made it perfectly. The people sitting by the concession stand, and playing with the dogs on the beach must have looked at me like I was crazy.

Mile 7 - 8:29

Total - 1:00:00! 

What a nice, round number!  Now I can feel guilt-free about eating some mozzarella sticks, macaroni and cheese pockets, and chips/salsa during the game tonight!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Catching Up

I've been horrible at blogging the last few weeks, we've got a lot going on around here (namely planning for O's first birthday party, insert sobbing). 

Anyway, here's a recap of my last long runs.
Sunday, 1/22 - 0. 
It was the day after Ben's birthday, 5" of snow on the ground....and I just couldn't muster up the energy to run. Nor do I have those awesome grippers to put on your shoes to make running in the snow/ice easy. Knowing my coordination, I'd fall flat on my face. 

Sunday, 1/29 - 6 miles in 51:30, 8:35/mile average.
(Without the stroller, thanks to a napping child and awesome husband.)
Point #1 from this run - Have you ever run a very familiar road and realized that you thought it was a LOT longer/farther than it really is? I ran into Harrison/Mamaroneck and back... a road that we regularly drive - to the grocery store, out to dinner, and to do other errands. It seems like a LOT farther than 6 miles when I drive it. Traffic lights? School buses? Child wanting snack in the back seat? Could be. Oh well!
Point #2 - What time of day do you usually run? I have been a morning runner/exerciser for the past seven years, and I thought I was going to hate running at 3:30 pm.  It wasn't all that bad once I got out there. I was drafting, in my head, a post about how awful it was going to be, until I realized that it wasn't. Sometimes (like Sunday), you have to take the time you're given and work with it. 
Here's the map and elevation/pace chart:
Next up: 7 miles on Sunday. This will be the longest I've run in...wait for it....a YEAR. ::gasp::