7

As in miles.

I'd never run seven miles before in my life!

And, since picking up running again right after Christmas, I've mostly done three and four mile runs several days per week at an average pace of 8:06-8:15 per mile. But my brother-in-law Wes and I got out for a great run at Pearson Park on Sunday afternoon and he pushed me to keep going! Wes has been running far more consistently than me for the past year or so and his endurance and speed have increased tremendously. He frequently does long runs over 10 miles on Sundays and is currently following a 1/2 marathon training plan. He's seeing a lot of improvements in his times since incorporating a speed work day into his weekly routine so that's an element I've tried to add to my training as well.

I've recalibrated my Nike+ chip but I still think it's off a little bit. Wes has been using a Garmin Forerunner (GPS watch with a band to wear around the chest for heart rate measurement) since Christmas and he loves that. So my times/distances are slightly questionable unless I'm running on the high school track... which is a new thing I've enjoyed this past month. (It's open for us to use and we find that helpful for runs after dark.) On Sunday at the park, I ran seven miles per Wes's Garmin (7.22 per my Nike+ chip) in 1 hour and just a few seconds. It was snowing very lightly and it felt so nice to be out on a trail in the middle of winter! The wind was kind of hard on one part of the loop, but very comfortable for most of it.

Just last week, I signed up with my friend Nichole to participate in a relay team for the Glass City Marathon in April. There are five runners on our team and I will be the fourth of five on race day. My leg of the race will be 5.7 miles. So I'm just hoping to get to the point of consistently running six or seven miles on weekends and three to five on weekdays with a speed work day maybe on Tuesdays leading up to the race. And I'm good with taking two to three days off per week. Or even every other day if life gets hectic.

So that's my run update!

The kids are really taking notice of my running and I love planting that seed. Sophie always gets a big smile on her face when she sees me in running clothes and an iPod band on my arm. She says to me "Do you have your running?"... like it's just one collective thing that I'm holding or something. ;-) Or she'll ask me if I'm going running in the basement or outside. And, if she's awake, she'll always greet me excitedly upon my return. So that's what these goofy pictures are all about. They're terribly hideous of me... but still a moment that I enjoy looking at.

We're having another freakishly warm week with temps in the 40's (and even 50's yesterday) and that makes for some nice outdoor running conditions. So, while I miss the usual winter, I'm appreciating the chance to get outside and get my run on.

We're also signing both kids up for the Dart Frog Dash this year (in May) and I can't wait to see how Sophie likes it and how Will has improved!!