In Summary

It's been a rough couple of weeks, as far as running goes. Last week Dad was here, and my mileage was just awful. I ended up doing 3 on the treadmill, 2.5 outside and four on the elliptical and that's it. I can't remember the last time I only went three times during the week! And then this week happened! I was in Yellowstone most of the week. However, I will be absolutely forgiving myself for not running, since we hiked like a million damn miles, climbed hundreds of stairs and went horseback riding (which I am totally counting as exercise, there is no way that something that made me that sore could NOT be exercise). I did run yesterday, 2.5 miles, but did not time it since my Garmin was dead from sitting in the cabin at Yellowstone but not being used (I optimistically brought all my running gear). Honestly though, it was a really, really active vacation. There was not one day that we had when I felt like I had any spare energy for running. We were worn out at the end of every single day we were there. I actually lost a pound despite eating copious amounts of ice cream (which, incidentally, was the only good food we managed to find at Yellowstone..... a gourmet area, it is not).

So, then today I had this Women for Women 5K. I did it. It was not the best 5K I have ever run, but I suppose it wasn't the worst. It was at this really nice park and had really nice people and was not too crowded, so overall it was a good run. My time was 38:44, 12:24/mile. It was really hot and the race started too late in my opinion, but otherwise all was well.

I have decided that there is a definite problem with my neighborhood runs and the down-hills. I have had this theory since the Denver half, that doing so much running downhill, even if I do an equal amount of running uphill, skews my time to be faster than I can actually go for many miles on a level surface. I am just convinced of it. So, I think I need to make some field trips to some of the city parks for my long runs, since I think that will be better training for me and will give me a more accurate picture of what I will be able to do if I do another half.

I was thinking about doing a 10K on August 21st, but now I don't think I can be ready in time. I'll have to look for some other ones, I guess. Oh well, at least I didn't register for it.