catherine's running efforts

Down the street right before going to bed just so I didn't have to have 0 for the day. 

I picked Eric up at school so that he could watch Elliott while I ran on the treadmill at the gym. It was nice to get a run in when I wasn't too tired. 

I tried .1 mile at a faster pace and it kicked my trash. I can't believe I used to run a bunch of miles at that pace. But my body is still getting used to running again, so probably it'll be easier later. 

So...I'm afraid of the dark. I never run outside at night when it's dark unless I'm with someone else. Eric got the book Free Range Kids for us to read, and from that book I know that something bad happening to someone doesn't mean that there's an equal risk of something bad happening to me, but when I run outside in the dark alone I feel like there are killers and attackers lurking in every dark shadow.

Anyway, I had to watch presentations for the online class I teach tonight, so I missed the window during which I felt like going to the gym. So I headed outside just before bed for a quick "run" (another one like Monday's, but hopefully a little longer). A couple of blocks away I heard a guy on a phone walking toward me on a perpendicular street. He said, "Hey, what up, dude? No, this is Biscuit, man!" I assumed he was a drug-dealing attacker and that Biscuit was his secret gang name, so I casually turned around and ran back home.

Here's a picture of Baby. She smiles now. 

A mile and a half at the gym before I had to watch presentations for the online class.

After the presentations (but before it was dark) I went out for a loop (3.5) around the Mt Timpanogos temple that I've been wanting to do since we moved here. It was a little rough. On the way up I was thinking that I didn't want to wuss out on the hill, and then the thought of the jelly bellies and two servings of ice cream I had had earlier kept me going. By the time I was a little over half done I wanted to call Eric to come get me. But I kept going, and even though I was super slow I'm glad I finished.

I signed up for the Tour de Donut on Saturday. Mostly because I want the excuse to eat as many donuts as I can. Partly because it raises money for the Huntsman Cancer Institute. I haven't ridden a bike since last fall-ish, but hey...the donuts...

Here's a picture of Baby.

I ran part of the walk with Eric and Elliott. Let's call it a taper.

I also practiced on the bike for tomorrow. I felt like a little kid learning to ride.  

Last Sunday I found out that a few of the women in my ward were planning on running in a 5K this Saturday. Eric tells me that several of them run in the early mornings, and I've been curious about whether or not they're fast. So I signed up for the 5K to see. 

It was kind of a hard course - hilly, and steeper than rolling. I was a little worried as we drove to the start, but it ended up going okay. The race wasn't competitive at all (the winner was an 11-year-old in 21:50), so I didn't feel too frustrated about being out of shape. I was annoyed that they started almost 10 minutes late, because the Tour de Donut was an hour after the 5K start and was 20 minutes away, but it worked out. I ran close to the same time that I ran an almost completely downhill 5K two weeks ago, so I feel like I'm making progress.  

I was a few minutes late starting the Tour de Donut, but it was okay because it was chip timed and I wasn't going to win anyway and I was kind of nervous about starting with 600 other cyclists since I don't have a ton of experience on the bike. Plus it was fun passing the people at the back (except for the weaving kids who made me super nervous).

The race is three 7-mile laps with a donut break between each. There's a 3-minute time deduction for each donut consumed. The donuts are really why I registered for the race; I thought it sounded fun when I heard about it a year or so ago, but when I was reading Fat Cyclist's blog earlier this week I was super hungry and I wanted the excuse to eat junk. I was able to eat 4 donuts after the first lap, but during the second they didn't feel great in my stomach. Also, I figured that since I was going to be slower than most people regardless, eating more donuts wasn't really going to help anything. So I skipped them after the second lap.

It was a super fun day. Eric was very sweet to wait until later for his run so that I could do my thing, and he was very supportive and encouraging. My mom watched Elliott for us, so Eric rode the last two donut laps with me. It was nice to have the "alone" time.

Elliott had a good day, too - until the ride home when she woke up and was hungry.