Running in the Morning

This is a newfound love of mine. I love getting up before the Sun and finishing just as the city wakes up. In a place like Texas, getting up early is ALMOST required if you want to stick to a schedule. Today for instance,  it was 9:30 PM and still 98 degrees. Uh, that is not okay unless you are a 90s boyband. Anyway, the simple act of accomplishing something that early in the morning just plain makes me feel more awesome. 

This is taken of downtown after my last Wednesday Hill workout. Can you guess where I live? 

Marathon Training Week 5

Saturday June 22

This run was good. I had my stupid foot problem occur.

---> Aside: I guess I should introduce the reader to what I will continue to call "the stupid foot problem". Once I've run 3 or 4 miles (but after HR gets above 185) I loose circulation in my foot. I take of my shoe. I shake my foot until it feels normal. I put my shoe back on. Run another mile and repeat the process. This has been going on since 2009 when I was in the Air Force ROTC at school, and it happens in both feet with the right foot first 98% of the time. Half of the time the left foot never starts up. I've tried everything. Multiple pairs of "properly fitted" cushioned trainers, vibram five fingers, Luna's Sandals, racing flats, complete bare feet. The only thing that really works is just dealing with it like said above, and rotating through different shoes. However, that is not to say that shoes aren't completely the culprit. This problem occurs the LEAST with my combo of Brooks Pure Cadence version one sized up 1.5 sizes and Brooks green silence up 1 size. This thing doesn't hurt or stop me, it just annoys me so I don't call it an "injury". I've seen doctors, but they kinda blow me off. They did an ultrasound of my heart that showed it was healthier than normal so they really started dismissing my complaint. Ugh. THIS THINGS SUCKS!

<---Back to the run: It was good. Five miles turned into a six miler. Weather was good, I felt good and I'd say I ran pretty good. 6 Mile training run 1:04:02 including foot stops. Avg moving pace 10:17.

CROSS TRAINING: Coach likes us to cross train. He said if you're gonna work legs, do later in the day of a long run in order to sort of consolidate the recovery time. I did the 15 minute Nike Training Club Leg Sculptor workout before I jumped in the kiddie pool with my 5 year old niece. I totally used play time as an Ice bath, HA! This workout felt pretty easy, but believe me. The sore hit me for the rest of the week.

Sunday June 23, 2013 :) <3

No running. My amazing boyfriend and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary today! He got tickets to the ballet and then took us to private dance lessons before we went out to eat where we had our first official date. What a romantic :) I love my Christopher!

The Dance lessons made me feel the soreness in my legs!

Monday June 24

Speed Speed Speed. (Evening Hot Run)

So I did the speed workout on my own since I'm only signed up for one interval session a week (Speed or Hills). If you couldn't tell from last weeks summary, my city doesn't really have hills. You REALLY have to make an effort to do a hill workout, so I figure I'll do speed by myself. I very much loved my speed workout. I was comfortably running quarter miles (at the end of builds) at a 7:15 pace. I'm really excited that I might still be fast under all this lack of endurance. So now that I'm building up my endurance, maybe I can start adding speed to it too. We will see how I turn out down the line, but I won't get hung up on it. Its about the Journey! I loved today :)

Tuesday June 25

Pub run today. I run for shirts! This was nice and I had a tutoring gig right after so I was trying to hurry. I did 9:17 pace for 3 miles in 92 degrees F so that was cool. I'm liking this being faster than I was thing. I would like to be faster than this though. I'm wiling to work for that speed, but I'm trying to prioritize staying consistant and injury free. 

Wednesday June 26

Hills Hills Hills (Morning Awesomeness)

I love hills so much. Am I weird. Who cares, yes and I love it MWAHAHAHAHA. I think garmin is just giving me "net" elevation gain. I'm gonna have to figure this out for better stats. 

Friday June 28

I was supposed to do Thursday and take Friday off, but it was hot and when I checked the weather it said 96 at 7:30 pm. Nothankyou. So I ran friday Morning. This was seriously my worse run since I started training.  I literally stopped and stood there for a good 3 minutes after the third mile debating if I was going to keep going or not. It was 8 AM, but the heat index was 86. This summer stuff is seriously kicking my butt. I just keep telling myself, "Get some water, push through it, and I'll be awesome in the Fall". I finished. 3 Miles.

Week 5 Summary

20.6 Miles. Woot! 

I'm glad that I stuck to my FULL plan, even the optional day and now my weekly mileage was 20! It's about the Journey and this was a good week. 

Marathon Training Week 4

Saturday June 15
So our long run was at a different place. We ran through this ridiculous neighborhood. This place made me want to stay in school to get my PhD so I can make the mula to get there. I'm still debating if all that is necessary tho :p This was a good run 4.51

Monday June 17
I did my first speed workout on the track. Unfortunately this was in the evening. I now know that I really prefer mornings if I'm doing an effort run, but this went well overall. My "faster" pace was around 6:40. I could have easily run faster, but coach kept reminding me that we have a long training season and we can be fast in the fall when its not 90 degrees. I'm certain he's just making sure I don't burn out or get injured or both. 3.33 Miles

Tuesday June 18-Optional Day
I opted out. No this day!

Wednesday June 19
Just my average old 3 miles. 9 am, 82 degrees F already. Despite that, I did 9:30 miles at an easy effort. Cool beans, Its getting better (Man!) (Oasis reference). Back in January anything over 1.5 miles was done at 11 min pace.

Thursday June 20
This was an actual group run, my first "open run" with the group. I'm not sure how I feel about this run. The route was okay and the people were very nice and I had a conversation the whole time, but I seriously need to learn the routes before the run because I very much dislike "following" people. This works better on Saturdays because there are soooo many people and there are guaranteed to be a ton of people to trail at a distance for the entire run, plus they are guided by coaches who know the routes already and we have them emailed ahead of time. However, this day there was only four people going my route and they kinda got turned around and we ended up being short by a quarter mile. Also everyone likes to chime in what their watch says every mile or whatever and then give instructions to slow down. Idk, if it feels good it feels good.  Most times I wear my Garmin, I don't even look at it until afterwards. I use it more to measure progress not dictate my runs. To each his own though, maybe I just have control issues :p  3.66 Miles


Week 4 Summary
14.5 Miles. I completed all "scheduled" runs, and I learned some knew things. I will call this a successful week! I also think its hilarious that garmin says I have a 42 feet elevation gain over all 14.5 miles. That is funny. I live in such a flat place. Next week the Hills are coming!

Marathon Training Week 3

Saturday June 8

I got lost running in the city!!! My running group kinda started in a big mass, and different milage were supposed to take different turns.. I guess I missed my exit. This was supposed to be a 4 mile run, but it ended up being 6.4 miles. This was an AWESOME run! Really, its the farthest I've gone at once, but I literally felt AMAZING most of the run! Around mile 2, I was like, ugh, I have two more to go. But once I hit about 3.5 (I guess I finally had gotten warmed up) I felt like I was flying. We took a route that had nice views of downtown and through some ridiculous neighborhoods. I felt great and the weather was good. This equates to Super ZEN mode.

Non Run Note: I then had a graduation party later in the day. Me and 3 of my cousins graduate college this semester, another graduated high school, and the other graduated preschool. Win for my grandpa, all his granddaughters graduated at once! Yay us :)

Monday June 10
I went to the wrong place. I really need to pay closer attention to my email. I was supposed to do the group run on Wednesday, but for some reason I got it stuck in my head that Monday was my day. Monday is speed at the track and Wednesday is hills. I'm supposed to do the Hills workout for the first half of the season....so I went to the hills location on a Monday and I didn't figure that out until I got back home. Needless to say, my run had lots of walking in it...I call it "the search".

Decided not to do the optional Tuesday run. I should have done it. Oh well.

Wednesday June 12

Hills! So I showed up on the right day and this went really well. I did show up too late for the warm up, but since we were starting off slow I just jumped in anyway. The Hills around my city are sort of lame, but we improvise using "artificially" sloped roads and trails. This was a HOT interval type workout and I forgot my water. I really need to get on my A game. Not cool beans man, not cool beans at all.

Skipped Thursday Run: Doctors Appointments, Class, and hot weather are my excuses.
I need to not make excuses and just do it. However...my excuses are pretty bad anyway... I just wasn't feeling it this day. I hope I don't regret days like this closer to the race :/ Ideally I wont have days like this closer to the race at all.


Week 3 Summary: 12 Miles total

I don't know why this week was so weird. I'm just going to take it in stride. I'm scheduled to run 17 miles next week. My short term goal will be to actually stick to this for a week and see what happens. Since Tuesday is supposed to be an "optional run day", I think I'll pause and take some pictures to have on el bloggo. But maybe not ... We shall see! Until next time!

Happy Running :)

Marathon Training Weeks 1 & 2

Saturday May 25
First of all yes, my week starts on Saturday because that's when my coach supported long runs will be :p This run did NOT happen. This was supposed to be the first week in my marathon plan, but the boyfriend threw a hammer in my running plans in a really good way. Surprise trip to ATX! This was however a really fun little getaway. This week will be calm and the real training will start next week. This was bad planning on my part for not sharing my schedule with him in the first place. Oops!

Monday May 27
This run was hot and awful. Worst 4.24 miles of my life, but at least I got out there and put down 4.24!

Tuesday May 28
This run was fantastic! Oh, the difference a day can make. This is actually my new 5K personal best verified by Garmin. Since it was on a mile marked trail that I'm very familiar with, I can be confident in the results.

Friday May 31
No Running since I had some social Cycling to do. I did a 21 ish mile Critical Mass bike ride. This is a relaxed fun ride with about 1700 other people. We rode on downtown city roads, highway feeders, through neighborhoods, pretty much everywhere. If you've never riden a Critical Mass, I'd recommend that you find one in a city near you and hit the pavement. I didn't wear a helmet, but I know that was a mistake. I won't go on another CM without one. I saw a few nasty crashes, one in which the helmet was an absolute necessity if the rider wanted to live life the way he's used to. General bike safety goes a long way.

Summary Week 1: No schedule, about 11.5 miles




Saturday June 1
This long run was 4 easy miles @10:43 min/mile. My marathon is not until March 2014, so this is more of "base building" than "marathon training". I really don't care what its called as long as its mostly fun most of the time.
This was a pretty cool first run. I got to hang out with new people and also it was the first time I've enjoyed waking up at 5 AM to run despite getting two hours of sleep. This is not what I'd recommend and I know I need more sleep, but I'm trying to transition. As a recent college grad, I'm also trying to figure out how to get to bed  at a decent hour on Friday nights! I tried waking up for workouts during the semester I was in the Air Force ROTC at school. I really didn't like waking up to workout, listening to people yelled for whatever reason, and then going to class to try to figure out engineering. (Military life is obviously not for me).


Tuesday June 4
Run with my local Pub Running Club.
I don't know if all Pub Runs are like mine, but this is incentive based. The more you run, the more swag and local discounts you get and its free to join, you just show up. This is also awesome because I run that route anyway and the presence of all the people showing up for the free swag makes for a secure and friendly running environment.



Wednesday June 5
Run at the park by mi casa. I took my mom along and she sat around and made posters for my graduation party on Saturday.  This went okay I guess.


Friday June 7
Run at the park by my boyfriends casa. He's such a stud, but he doesn't like running. He walked the dog while I ran around like a madwoman. This is kinda fun, because he plays this game I'll call fetch and sprint with the dog. When she sees me, she wants to run with me so he has to try to distract her by throwing the frisbee the other way so he doesn't have to run too. He's a gym guy, but the dog loves to run like me ;)


Summary Week 2: 13 miles total.

This has been a nice easy start. The running so far is easy, but actually getting out there to go run and adjusting my life to accomodate running is a lot harder. Saturday mornings are easy so maybe I'll try to make more of my runs early. Also a lot of these runs are not terribly close to my house right now. These runs are where I'll spend most of my time in the Fall and I'll hopefully move around that area sometime soon-ish. For now I'm at my parents house and trying to get this city figured out again.

About Me

Hi,

I'm Cezey (Say-Zee) from Texas. I'm a twenty-something year old recent college graduate, who just signed up for more school. After training with my schools Triathlon club and competing in my first sprint Tri during my last year, I moved cities and joined a marathon training group. My goal with this blog is to document my marathon journey (even though my race isn't until 2014). I'm super excited to run my first marathon!!

I would like to say that "Natural Runner" does not in anyway imply that running came easy for me. To me this world represents my semi-recent foray (circa 2009) into all things "Natural". In 2010 I cut off all my hair and "went natural", I read Born to Run (like the rest of the planet) and got into "natural running" foot blankets, and I discovered and studied "natural diets" such as Raw Veganism and Paleo. Although I took interest in a lot of these "natural" topics, I eventually ended up picking at a lot of these things and doing what I feel works best for me in the present moment. Most importantly and the most "natural-esce" thing about this runner girl, is how much I FLIPPING LOVE NATURE. Seriously, I love trees, I love grass a lot, I love mountains and the ocean, I love lakes and the country, I love sunshine and I love rain. If I can't be outside, I'm probably unhappy that day.



Feel free to join me as I experience this new adventure! You can ask me whatever on here, I'll answer.

-Cezey :)