That's What Jenni Said

I just ran 1.64 miles in 21 minutes without a stop, averaging 4.7 miles per hour. Not only did I finally make the goal, but I did it without a rest day (I ran yesterday). I DID IT. Took me 6 tries, or two week, but I DID IT. my running stats for the session: Garmin Stats Now onto week 7!

Today I made it 16 minutes and 1.33 miles in my first run interval. I just did the one today; in retrospect it might have been useful to do a 2 or 3 minute walk interval and then do 4 more minutes of running for a total of 20 but I was pretty excited about adding 3 more minutes and 0.33 miles onto my run that I just lost the focus to do anything more. I know I could have done 1 more minute but it would have been at the expense of total muscle fatigue and I felt i didn’t need to prove anything to anyone so I let myself stop before the point of exhaustion. I enjoyed my run emotionally today which is good too. I’m still running at a pace of 4.7mph pretty steadily and I’d like to improve that but I suppose i should focus on one thing at a time.  I just know that when I am finally able to run a 5k I don’t want to be in the bottom percentile. Today I looked at the results of more than thirty 5k runs across the country and in every one, running at my pace (about 12:50) would mark me slo...

As the days count down toward our trip to Sydney on Sept 1st, I am getting more and more excited. What a great way for Jon and I to celebrate 18 years together [since our first date]. We are crossing our fingers that Delta is oversold in coach giving us a chance at upgrade as Diamonds (well I am a Diamond; Jon is a platinum).

Jonathan and I have been to the Outer Banks of North Carolina twice previously and in May we took a third go of it, this time with my in-laws. In 2005 we drove to Corolla, NC with my good friend Tara, who was visiting us from Colorado. (Tara and I were childhood friends living across the street from each other.) Mapquest advised that it was a simple 5 hour drive to this northern section of the Outer Banks so we left on a Saturday morning at eight a.m. Our ignorance of mid-atlantic traffic was revealed with an arrival into Corolla after 5pm. Crazy! We had driven all that way and only had about an hour or two to enjoy the sand and sun before it was time to head back for VA. Despite the traffic and the disaster of locking our keys in the car (with USAA having to come out and rescue us), the beach was so beautiful that I knew I wanted to go back for a longer stay. And go back I did. There was no way I could afford to rent a fabulous beach house in Corolla on my own (at $2k minimum a week...

In late February, five members of NoVA Travelers (including myself) dashed off to Napa Valley for dinner at T he French Laundry .  At the helm as owner and head chef is the famed Thomas Keller. Our travel group has previously dined at Per Se (another Keller restaurant in NYC) and we had been trying to get a reservation in Napa for months without success. Because of its reputation, reservations are terribly difficult to come by: The French Laundry was named best restaurant in the Americas in 2009; Best Restaurant in the World in 2003 and 2004 and has been awarded 3 Michelin stars. Compounding the reservation difficulties, the restaurant only opens reservations two months in advance, has just one seating an evening, and a very limited number of tables. Coordinating several member’s schedules, airfare sales and the limited reservation opportunities led me to weaken my hope in ever obtaining a table in the next few years. However, we got a lucky break – The French Laundry is closed...

When I started c25k I could not run more than three 60 second intervals. Today I ran over a mile without a stop. For the first time in my life. Ever. Ever! My speed during the run segments was 4.7mph-4.9mph. Not at all close to the 5.5mph I could manage when limiting myself to just 8 minute runs, but a step up from the 4.5mph run I did just on Friday during a similar time-length interval. With hard work and perseverance each future run can build on this one, increasing my run interval time slowly up to 20 minutes. I will get there! There’s a million little criticisms I could pour over myself – my cadence has slipped back down to 80 (85-90 is optimal target for max efficiency), my total run time went down 2 minutes (because I put so much of myself into the first interval to make the mile), etc. But I’m not going to do that. I’m going to celebrate my victory. I ran a mile.  I ran a mile. I ran a mile! I am running away from heart disease and diabetes and an early death. I...

I’m going to stop writing w5d3 repeat (fail) as my subject line for these 20 minute run attempts because it’s too discouraging otherwise. Instead I’ll just increment the try count- today was my 3rd try toward a 20 minute run. On this day, my first run was just a shy of 13 minutes. Then I eased into a 4 minute walk followed by a 4 minute run. Objectively I am making progress on several fronts, even though I’m nowhere near making the goal of of 20 minutes yet.  I progressed in both my run length (up to 12:50 from 11 last attempt) and my recovery requirement between run intervals (only a 4 minute walk instead of 5 minute walk). I also made progress in my total run time – up from 16 minutes in w5d2 to 16.60 minutes today. Finally, I am gaining in my average speed over the entire session (incl walk and run segments) when I view the trends over the past few weeks (excluding the treadmill sessions I’ve done b/c as expected you can run faster on a treadmill and excluding the few sessio...