Jack & Jill

I wasn't feeling well this morning so decided to wait to see how I felt at lunch. Although I felt much better, it was warmer than I would have liked it to be for a run. And people must think I'm a horrible dog owner for making her dog run 3 miles at high noon.

But there were more people out running at noon today than there were out Tuesday morning, which made it more fun for me and my competitive spirit.

Another beautiful day to be down by the river! Looping around and cutting back up hill from the river was also a good challenge. And hey, I remembered my landmark this time!

So, I have another 3 miles under my belt. And my average mile pace today was 9:05; faster than earlier this week, which I expected, since this was a shorter run. Baxter had a hard time keeping up near the end of the run due to the faster pace.

At right are pictures of me and Baxter after the run today... Baxter looks a little more tired than I do!

Pain Tracker:

• Right heel felt bruised during/after hill

Dumbbells, Curls, and Squats - Oh my!

Strength training today!

This is what I did. All are 15 reps and 2 sets unless otherwise noted.

• Dumbbell Sumo Squat; 30 lbs
• Straight Arm LAT Pulldown; 20 lbs
• Regular Push Ups
• Luke watched me do these. I don't think he believed I could!
• Dumbbell Walking Lunge, Single Leg Balance, Dumbbell Lateral Raise; 5 lbs, 20 reps
• Dumbbell Tricep Extension, Dead Bug Position; 5 lbs
• Prone Ball Leg Curl
• I think I did these wrong...and it didn't help that Baxter kept sniffing my arm pits.
• Dumbbell Bicep Curl, Wall Sit; 5 lbs
• Side Lying Crunch on Ball
• Instead of my lower leg being in front, I had it in back for the first set. Did not feel right!

Sweating hard and feeling good!

Going the Distance

Wow. So, during my run this morning, I missed (or rather forgot) my landmark for turning back. I was mapping out so many different options this morning on Google maps that I just could not figure out where it was that I had planned to make the half-way point.

So, long story short, I ran almost twice as far as I was planning. 3 miles turned into 5.5 miles. It was a gorgeous morning for it though, despite the fact that my running partner, Baxter, had to stop on three different occasions to do his business. And a bug also flew into my eye.

Baxter in his run-with-Rachel backpack.

I was quite impressed that Baxter didn't slow me down as much as he usually does. But perhaps that's because I was slowing down too, the more I realized and became daunted by the fact that I had long missed my landmark.

I even forgot to stop my chronograph when I finally got back, but it took me about 55 to 60 minutes to run the 5.5 miles. Which means my mile average is somewhere between 10 and 10:54 minutes. Not too shabby for my first run in almost 3 weeks.

Pain Tracker:

• left hip joint was pinching at beginning of run
• right knee/thigh was tight mid run
• right heel felt bruised near end of run