Wife.Mother.Runner: repeating 800's and cali-life

this week marks my 3rd week of doing 10x800 repeats (running translation: TEN 0.5 mile repeats with 1 min rest in between) --- this could only mean that The Boston Marathon is less than 50 days away!! yikes! as i closed out my training week last week, i thought for sure i would have some hill repeats to do this week, NOPE- i have another set of 10x800 repeats on thursday! i seriously have a love/hate relationship with these ---- i feel like i could run for miles and miles and miles ..... like Forrest Gump, but ask me to run a short distance FAST - and I'm miserable, miserably good though. i know they take me out of my comfort zone and i know they make me faster.

2 weeks ago, i headed to the track mid-morning only to be stopped by a lady in a golf cart (Ross said never to trust a lady in a golf cart- haha!) who told me that i could not run on the track during the day. now the mom of 4 in me totally understands this security procedure on the school grounds, but the oh-so-in-my-comfort-zone-happy-place-on-the-track-runner was NOT happy. i really love the track, usually it's just me on the track... i can set my water bottle down and get a drink every mile or so --- the views here from the track here are amazing too!!! and i don't have to worry about traffic, i can play my music loud and let my mind wander and there are no HILLS :)

so last week, i was forced to find another place to do my oh-so-lovely 10x800 repeats. our town is NOT flat (this is not good when you actually want to run FAST), so finding a nice little flat place to do these repeats wasn't easy --- but i thought the state park would be a good place to try. it "looks" and "feels" mostly flat the few times i've ventured into the park. so, i marked out 0.5 miles...... right next to a pile of dog poop and on the other end by a tree branch hanging down on the path and started my 800 repeats --- ran the first one in 3:01 - whoohoo!, took my 60 second jog break, and took off for the second 800 ---- and what did i find next? another pile of dog poop? haha! NOPE..... my route was NOT flat ---- so I ran mostly uphill for the next 800 meters (it was a slight uphill, but uphill nonetheless) ---- UGH!!! and i immediately thought to myself "i have 8 more of these?!?!?!" during 7th or 8th repeat, i looked down at my watch and noticed i was running at about a 6:45 pace --- and i thought to myself, this is close to your marathon pace - ugh! - and these 800 were supposed to be FAST! i started to get really discouraged and mentally i could tell i was starting to give up. telling myself that it was ok to run slow and that i was going uphill and that i was tired from the last 7 repeats. i was feeling so defeated, my quads burned, i was frustrated, i was tired, i was feeling like that pile of dog poop that was my marker on the other end. but i kept going with one foot in front of the other until the 10th 800 was complete. i tried to move my arms more and not think about how tired my legs were feeling. there were a few times in between sets that i bent over and grabbed my knees as if i was about to collapse, but then i remembered an article i read recently that said you will improve your fitness if you jog between sprint sets rather than walking or standing still.... so when i really wanted to collapse, i kept shuffling.... because i WANT to get better :) i jogged the rest of the way home and jumped in the car to get jilly from school (cool down, who does that?) .... later that afternoon, feeling bummed about my lack of speed and my mental struggles during my repeats, i downloaded my data and was surprised to find that some of my splits were better than last week! AND last week, i went way out of my comfort zone off the track!

and here's what we've been up to over the last couple weeks - livin' the cali-life and lovin' it!

Exploring University of California - Berkeley

Graham wanted to climb on the ball and have his picture taken --- of course Jilly wanted to do the same.....

.... but she was a little scared :)

dinner @ a restaurant along the coast in Berkeley looking towards San Francisco

not a good picture of jillian but a cute one of helen

my buddy

watching the sun set.....

lights of San Francisco

the 10x800's take 2 :) --- and to think in high school, i used to be able to run an 800 in about 2:20. ugh! getting old and slow!

graham resting after finishing his homework at the park one afternoon last week.

1st set of 800's 2 weeks ago....

motivational quote i found in instagram

another beautiful sunset @ the pool and a car-full of swim gear, band instruments, and dinner

jillian spent the last of her birthday money on some candy (not my choice) but she was very excited that the store was running a special - buy one, get one free! Rainbow Dash is a purse that has a little coin pocket inside.

another good quote

my homemade granola - yum!!!

my girl reading a book at the library a few weeks ago

i love this quote!

17 mile run ---- 7:20 pace - yes!!

this hill is by jilly's school and she thought i should run this hill while she was in school - i love her! :)

jayden competed in the school spelling bee -- missed the word "nitpick" --- he spelled it "knitpick" --- ironically he does a lot of nitpicking on his siblings :)

my sweet girl ready for her next book club meeting :)

i WILL think of this quote during my 10x800's tomorrow!!!

kid's swim team was featured on fitterandfasterswimtour on instagram for their meet in February

and this boy was selected as swimmer of the month for March!!! congrats, Jayden!!! he's off to the Junior Olympics competition at the end of March too --- 5 events so far. We'll see if he can qualify in a couple more events this weekend at the meet in Napa.

a tough 2.5 hour bike ride on Monday this week followed by a 50 minute zone 2-3 run. i was planning to make it a progression run starting out @ 7:30 for 20min, 7:15 for 20min, and 7:05 for the last 10 min.... but i was feeling good so i committed to the faster pace for the entire run! what was i thinking?!?! came across my mind a few times during the run - it was tough, but i did it! Boston Marathon, what? it's Tri-season, baby! :)

more pics from the spelling bee - Jayden made it to the 9th round.

i was so nervous each time he went up there --- he's such a perfectionist. He asked for the word in a sentence and a definition, etc. every time he got a new word.

my Razorback heart is bleeding --- Graham's class sang the LSU fight song at an assembly last week. The school promotes a college bound philosophy and each 5th grade teacher taught the kids their fight song from their college. The kids also sang a cute 50 states song naming the all the capitols.