Friday, February 15, 2013

Sun + Beach + Run = Awesomesauce

Finally! A sunshiney day on the coast
The weather has been downright nasty lately! It has been a while since we have seen the sun. So this morning was so refreshing! I couldn't wait to get out and run. So after sending the kids off to school and cleaning up the kitchen a bit, I headed out. Today I got to wear a new Nike sports bra and Oregon Ducks pair of running shorts I snagged at the Nike Outlet here in Seaside. The bra is fine (I'm not picky because I'm flat as a board) and the shorts rode up. Oh well! I layered them over some tight capris so I didn't really notice the riding up.
New Shorts! What is funny is that I pinned these on Pinterest months ago. It was cool to find them...and on clearance!

Sunshine. Sunshine is awesome. I have never heard someone say, "Man, it's so sunny, I hate it!" You especially will never hear me say those words. I am a huge product of the weather and when it is sunny it puts a little spring in my step. There were countless status updates on Facebook this morning about how everybody's itching for spring. I am too, but I have super low expectations regarding spring around here. It won't be warm for a few months still and I highly doubt this sort of sunshine will be a regular occurrence. So I will simply enjoy it while it lasts and be thankful.

One thing I smiled about today was a familiar smell I ran across. I wore my Nike running hat had an slathered on sunscreen before going out. Immediately I was whisked back to Mobile, AL when I first started my love affair with running. Every day was sunny and hot so I wore my hat and sunscreen every day. I would sweat my pants off, come home and rehydrate, put my babies down for their morning naps then change into a bikini, spray on some sunscreen and lay out in the backyard with a magazine soaking up the sunshine for an hour or so. No, it's not good for you, but yes, it feels so great!! All in all, I have some fond, relaxing memories of doing that while my babies were little.

But back to present-day...:

Style/Workout: Sunshiney Six-Miler
Setting/Route: Prom and Beach
Mileage: 6.05 miles
Progress: (running mileage): 6.05 today/31.4 this month/ 94.33 year-to-date (Goal-65 miles this month)

Today's run was great!! Like I said I wore capris with shorts on top, a t-shirt and ballcap and my older shoes(because I knew I would be running on the beach some). My first mile felt effortless and while I was telling myself to take it easy, I stayed steady and the refreshing thing was that I stayed mostly steady for the entire run! This run was supposed to be a tempo run, but I didn't want it to be fussy, I just wanted to enjoy it. It has a big hill so that counts for a little extra, right? Speaking of said hill, I kept my pace up all the way to the top of the hill and it felt great. Today I didn't take a break at the top either, I just did a large U-turn and then kept jogging. If you do this it helps to work the lactic acid out of your muscles faster. Sure, it's tough and you have to really make yourself do it, but I noticed that my recovery was a lot quicker.

I spent the last 3 miles on the beach in the sunshine. It felt great. The sand is nice and packed by the shore so it wasn't a big deal until the very end where I had to trudge through the thicker, uneven surface to get back to the Prom. I was happy with my time: 6 miles in 55 minutes, average of 9:10 per mile. I think back to when I first started running this particular route and I was excited when I could make it in 1 hour. It's cool to see this progress over the years.

Once I got home, I grabbed a jacket and my husband and I went on a 2-mile walk and grabbed lunch before heading back. I have massive amounts of schoolwork and studying to do so that is all that I have been doing since!

*Note...so another "my-app-sucks" moment...I realized that this app resets it's timing every time you complete-or don't complete- a workout...something that was not in the app profile instructions. So while I was thinking how impressed I was with myself that I was sticking to the schedule with little effort, I am actually behind and the dumb thing just keeps telling me I am on schedule. So now I am kind of chasing my tail to work in an extra workout here and there to catch up so I can properly taper at the end. I'm not using this app next time. For now I am going to continue on since it is all mapped out. But I will be rating it in iTunes with low scores!

*Note...I have added push-ups, ab-work and a few other strength training moves to my routine. A weird thing happened when I lost that weight so quickly...I noticed my abs were looking kind of flabby (like post-pregnancy skin flab). It is kind of subtle, but I noticed for sure. So if I don't want that "extra-skin" look on my middle, I'm going to have to purposely rebuild some of my abs that I have lost in the last 6 months. 

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