Run App Fail

Good Morning Peeps!

I took yesterday off from blogging to attend/host a morning coffee at my youngest kiddo, Meredith’s, school.  I signed up to be Mer’s room mom this year, which unbeknownst to me, is quite the task.  Aside from hosting a coffee to draw in volunteers and collect classroom dues, I will be in charge of consistent emailing throughout the year between myself, the teacher, and the class parents.  I also have to put together gifts for the teacher and coordinate parties.  Luckily, I have a partner in crime to share the responsibilities- thanks Wendy!  

Phew, it’s going to be a busy year!

Moving onto this morning’s run- let’s talk about day 2 of Week 7…

Workout:  This morning was supposed to be a repeat of day 1/week 7k- warm up walk for 5 minutes, then run your tail off for 25 minutes.  Well, it’s no secret that I’m not at the 25 minutes-straight-run yet.  But, after such a successfully timed run on Tuesday, and a wonderful nights’ sleep, I figured today would be a piece of cake.  

Sooo, I paced myself pretty well in the beginning, running for the first 12 minutes without stopping, and then taking a brief walk break, and picking it back up again.  I took one more short walk break before heading up the hill and sprinting back to my house.  I felt pretty good- tired, but good.  I hit the stop button on my Runkeeper app and nearly fell over.  It claimed I only ran 1.76 miles for 22.32 minutes…. say what?!    Yesterday, I ran the exact same route, but the app claimed I ran 2.44 miles in 20.23 minutes.  I was baffled.  Talk about a major slap in the face.  Check it out:

 

After examining the lines on both routes, I noticed Tuesday’s route was very jagged and strange looking.  I can only assume it was some malfunction with the connection that caused it to record the run so wonky.  Jeez, thanks Runkeeper.  Way to hit somebody’s ego- haha.  Alright, guess I just need to work a little a lot harder to improve those times.  I don’t think 2 miles in 20 minutes should be a problem- Just gotta kick it into gear!    

Breakfast:  When I got back in from my run, Dennis was already heading out for work.  I was excited to see the dish of scrambled eggs and bacon waiting for me under a plate- still warm.  🙂  Thanks dah-ling.  I also had a fresh cup of coffee and immediately dug into a ripe banana.  Want to hear something gross?  I was so hungry I bit into the banana, and before I could swallow the bite, I dug into the eggs…  Eggs + bananas= disgusting.  Don’t try it.  I still can’t believe I did that- ew.  

After such a busy day yesterday:  with the morning coffee, lunch with Dennis(we had an early lunch at 59 Diner), picking Colette’s contacts up at JCPenney Optical, and taking the girls to rhythmic gymnastics in the evening; it’s going to be a nice and easy day today.  I have some library books due, that need to be returned, and some laundry to finish… that’s it.  Ahhh.  And best of all, tomorrow is Friday!  Yay!  

Questions:

• Ever have a tech fail while running?  One that made you think you did better than you actually did?(Grrrr)
• Banana Eggs, are you a fan?- haha!

Have a fan-flippin-tastic Thursday!

Amy

 

 

Running Free

Good mornin’ ya’ll!

I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday weekend!  I spent mine with family- swimming, playing laser tag(again), and eating lots of yummy food.  I didn’t really snap any photos, I just relaxed, kicked back, and enjoyed the moment.

I did, however, spend Sunday morning running.  It was day three of week 6 of the c25k running program.  I was supposed to do a 5 minute warm-up walk and then jog for 22 minutes without walking.  I hit 16 minutes, and stopped to wait on a car before crossing the main street in my neighborhood.  While stopped, I decided a quick reach down to my toes for a stretch was a good idea, but when I did, I instantly got dizzy and completely nauseous.  I hadn’t eaten anything that morning, so I thought for sure I would be dry-heaving and miserable.  Luckily, I got my tummy under control, but I couldn’t finish running after that.  I just felt sick.  What’s up with that?  Did I throw my blood pressure out of wack?  Dennis suggested it was probably like when you stand up too suddenly and get a head rush…  he could be right.  I had a headache after that, and it took a good 5-10 minutes to feel ‘normal’ again.  It sucked.  My run was ruined, blah.

Let’s talk about something a little more uplifting, shall we?  Breakfast.

Mmm, tastes like fall in a mug!

Breakfast:  ALL of my bowls were dirty this morning, so I ended up eating breakfast out of a mug- ’cause I’m lazy like that.  I bought a can of mashed pumpkin last week on a whim (I guess I have autumn on the brain), so I whipped up a quick bowl of pumpkin spice oatmeal and devoured it in a .25 seconds.  I was starving!

Autumn Pumpkin Oats

• 1/2 c quick oats
• 1.5 tsp brown sugar
• 1/4 c canned pumpkin
• light sprinkle of salt
• 2 shakes of pumpkin spice
• enough water to cover the oats

Toss all of the ingredients in a microwavable bowl, microwave for 1 minute or until most of the water is absorbed and the oats are puffed.  Enjoy!

Workout:  This morning’s workout was the start of Week 7 on the c25k program.  Basically from here on out, it’s just running for as long as I can(this week I’m supposed to be up to 25 minutes).  Haha, C25K, very funny.  I’ve found that 16 minutes seems to be my magic number(for now), before I have to walk, and then pick back up again.  Twenty-five minutes is kind of a cruel joke.  So, this morning I decided to try something different.  I simultaneously set my c25k app, my runkeeper app, and played my music in the background.  I want to start focusing on my actual distance, as well as my minutes per mile average.  I kept seeing people write their split times on various blogs and was a little foggy on what all of that meant.  Well, now I know.  Your split times are your minutes per mile, shown in a list, with the miles split up, so that you can see how many minutes it took you to complete each mile.  It would look something like this:

• Mile 1:  7:30 mins
• Mile 2:  8:12 mins
• Mile 3:  9:00 mins

You get the idea.  Runkeeper is a great free android app that allows you to record all kinds of info like this.  It can track your routes, keep pace of min/mile averages, and overall time, all while allowing music to play in the background.  It’s also nice because it announces your time and min/mile average every 5 minutes, which saves me from having to check my phone all of the time.  I used it last year on my first attempt at c25k, and it saved all of my previous times and distances.  I set a new PR(personal record) this morning! 2.44 miles, 20:23 minutes, min/mile avg 8.21.  My first mile was 7.30, but it steadily increased with the last two miles, as I incorporated walk breaks in those.  I didn’t want to walk, but I was seriously winded and tired.  I’m just not at the ‘running for 25 minutes straight’ mark yet.   I’m getting so close though, I can feel it!

Bright new shoes helped keep me going this morning:)

On a totally unrelated note, I finished a fantastic book over the weekend, so I’ll try to get a review for you guys soon!  –I’ll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan.

Questions:

• Break any personal records lately?  
• Read anything fabulous recently?

Hope you all have a fantastic Tuesday!  Here’s to a short week!!

Amy