beach run, bare feet and blisters

Thursday's run may go down in history as the greatest run ever. 

Or it will at least make it into the (imaginary) book of Sharon's Greatest Running Moments. ;)

I think it has something to do with THIS...

Leaving the land of humidity, rain and cloudiness and getting to enjoy this?  Oh yeah!!  Yep, I'm that girl who could live on the beach for the rest of forever.  The beach is pretty much my ultimate favorite.  And really, running in my favorite spot ever + breaking a record = one ridiculously happy girl. 

 After 2 unplanned days of rest, we were pretty much full of boundless energy.  Ok that is a slight exaggeration, but we WERE ready for a hard, fast run!  As you may have noticed in the latest poll around here, I've looked into minimalist/barefoot running, because I do feel quite a bit faster and lighter without shoes and my stride feels much more natural.  I love being barefoot anyway and it's basically impossible for me to wear shoes on the beach when I can be feeling the sand and the water, so it was a natural decision for me to do the four miles sans running shoes.

I knew right away that it was going to be a good run.  We were keeping up a pretty fast pace and I was feeling amazing.  I ran right along the water and loved being able to feel the sand and surf under my feet, but around mile one I was starting to feel some serious calf burn.  Then I remembered what I had read about running shoe-free...something about your muscles not being used to having to adjust to the new (shorter, faster) stride plus having to do all the work of the stability and everything all by themselves!  Needless to say, I was probably doing too much too soon, but I was enjoying every minute of it.
 

At mile 1.5 neither of us wanted to turn around (though by then every step was hurting me pretty bad!) so  we decided to go for 4 miles.  

Mile 3 clocked in at...

32:23.  With 4 minutes of walking (30 sec. every 0.3 miles), as always.  That's a whopping 1:33 faster than my PR as of last post.  My time was 36:01 about 4 weeks ago!!! 

I was feeling pretty tired there at the end of the 3 miles, but as soon as I started walking I recovered pretty fast.  That's when I realized that walking was an agony.  I had gotten used to feeling the soreness in my calves while I ran, but walking made it hurt WAY more.  And I'm pretty used to sore muscles.  But this was crazy!

Still, believe it or not, running was easier than walking.  After an easy mile to end up at 4...(two months ago there was no such thing as an easy mile, believe it or not)...I was feeling pretty incredible.  

I ended up with a blood blister to show off from my barefoot run, and I've been walking something like this for the past two days, but I do not regret it ONE BIT!  It was incredible run and I'm crazy shocked that I've shaved 3 and a half minutes off my 3 mile time in less than a month!!  Woohooo!!!

Of course, it helps when you have some yummy post-run fuel, too...   Though I am really looking forward to seeing how our running improves when we start eating clean after the holidays have officially blown over!

I hope to be able to get in a few more wonderful beach runs in the next few days!  Prepare to hear about more records being broken!

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Have you ever gone for a run on the beach?!! :D 

 What is your opinion of barefoot/minimalist-shoe running?  Who else has tried it?

And for fellow runners -do you have any tips on trying to function and maybe go for a run when your calves are so stiff you can hardly walk??  
-- I've been stretching more than usual, and trying to walk a good bit even though it kills me.  Any other ideas?
 

Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!!!

and I thought last time was fast...

I am absolutely LOVING this, y'all.  Two and a half weeks ago my 3 mile PR was 34:56...

Today?  

33:56.

Yeah, that's a full minute faster!  There were about 5 minutes of walk breaks in there, but I am SO thrilled to be keeping a good 9:30-10:30 minute-mile running pace! 

Different course than last time, with a couple killer hills which was tough, but it made it fun to race down the other side at a 6:00-7:00 and below pace!  The faster I am running the more awesome I love it!!!! :)  I think I'm getting hooked...

I hope you guys have a beautiful Merry Christmas!!! :)

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How has your running been?   
Who else has gotten a PR lately??? :)

Run With Your Heart ♥

 (download full-size?)

This helped me get through a really, really tough "I'm-dying" run.  I love it. ♥

 

smashing my 3 mile PR!

I have this huge smile on my face today.

Just when I thought this week's runs couldn't possibly beat last week...

...I shaved 1:38 off last week's 3 mile time for a new personal record!!!  

To say that I am SUPER excited is an understatement.  3 miles in 34:55!!!  That's including almost 5 minutes of walking -- a 30 sec walk break every 0.3 miles!  I aomost can't believe it... I mean, I'm the girl who's supposed to be fat and lazy and unathletic.  I'm supposed to be doing like a 13 minute mile or something......right?

But here I am with my running pace usually around 10:30!!  HUGE improvement from 6 months ago when I couldn't even go like 10 minutes with a treadmill on speed five.  WOW.  I am so soooo thankful!!! 

Getting the Garmin last week was a TOTAL gamechanger.  Maybe I'll get into that more later.  But knowing exactly HOW fast, and HOW far, makes more of a difference than I would have ever dreamed.  It's HUGE.  Guys, you will all thank me if you run out and get a GPS running watch ASAP. ;)  (You can try a  smartphone app though too- they have some super ones for this if you don't mind carrying your phone!)

As you can see, the 18-minute-mile walk breaks messed up my average pace on the Garmin pretty well.  :p  But I am pretttttty sure I would have been about crawling without them. :)

The first mile I felt like I could run easily, almost effortlessly!  (I think the weekend's rest days really helped!)  The last mile??  ...not so much.  :)  But when I pushed it out those last few minutes and stopped my watch to see 34 on the screen?!  SO WORTH IT!!!

 So YEAH.  I'm pretty stoked!!  I can't believe I'm doing this!!!  Could I possibly be on my way to becoming a runner???!!!

how it all starts... {quote}

 

 

P.S. ---

-- love getting inspired?  visit my growing quotes collection here!

the 5 mile run and Forerunner 610!!!!

I am so beyond excited to be sharing this with you all, I am just about the happiest girl alive right now!!

But first, I have got to say - you guys are the best!!  Thank-you so so much for all of the sweet birthday wishes yesterday!  I had an AMAZING day!!! birthdays get better and better every single year!

....and a big part of what made the day incredible was...accomplishing my goal!!!!!  YES...I did it - the 5 mile birthday run!!! 

y'all know me enough by now to know I look like a freak when I run, right? ;)

{WITH...(did you catch it?) - the amaaazing Garmin Forerunner 610 GPS watch!!!  more on that in a minute}

It went really well, actually!!  It wasn't really all that difficult, which is amazing.  Even though it didn't turn out exactly the way I originally envisioned it.  Because when I set the goal, I had every intention of just adding on a few minutes every week and running it straight.  But...that didn't happen.

Instead, I got quite sick in August/September and didn't run for something like a month.  When I got back into it, I was slow, and sometimes only ran once or twice a week instead of 4 or 5.  The bottom line was that it was early fall and I wasn't nearly as strong as I was at the finish of the Couch25k.

So yes, I lost a lot of endurance.  But NO, I did not lose heart.  I am not a quitter and now was not the time to earn the title!  I started ramping up my training schedule the past month or so, until last week my longer runs were nearly 6 miles.  So I knew I could do it, with the interval walk breaks we were doing, but I knew it would be slow and I kind of wondered if it would count.



What happened, though, is that the walk breaks yesterday let me go faster during the running portions.  Usually in the 11:00 mile segment, sometimes in the 10 - our fastest was about 8:46.  So including a zillion walk breaks, we got it in a little over an hour.

Slow for most people?  Yes.  Progress for me?  Yes!!!

 The GREAT thing about accomplishing a goal, no matter how small it may be to other people, is that you know you have proven to yourself that you can do it.  And conquering yourself is I think the biggest part of running, because our bodies can usually do far more than our minds think we can.

I would not have been able to do it quite like that, though, if it wasn't for my beautiful Garmin!!  talk about an AMAZING birthday present!!!!!!!

She (he?) retails for nearly $400.  Waaaay out of my league.  I wasn't even considering the 610 as a possibility when I decided I was in the market for a GPS watch - it's the high-end running watch (touchscreen, anyone?!!!) out there right now and pretty much only the serious runners and athletes wear it because of how much of an investment it takes.  So I thought I was going to have to settle for something a lot simpler, but there were specific features I was looking for that some of the other watches just didn't have.

That's where God comes in.  Okay, He is in the picture the whole time.  But I know it was Him that specifically orchestrated this, because what's the chances of finding an amazingly incredible deal (basically a steal, y'all. yeah it's amazing.)  on a practically new-in-box 610 in another state and the guy agrees to mail it to you?!!!

I am so excited about this, because I love being able to know exactly how far I am going and my pace per mile, and "crunching my numbers" after my run so that I can train harder and faster.  Right now my thought is this - I'm 18, healthy as a horse, and basically in the prime of my life.  Why shouldn't I be able to do a 7:00 or 8:00 mile?

So LW I'm going to be training.  Hard.  I want to get faster, leaner, stronger, and I'm going to be sharing details with you along the way.  It's been an amazing journey so far and it's only getting better by the day. ♥

 
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Oh one more thing.  You know those videos when you look at yourself and realize everything looks perfect?

Yeah neither do I.

I definitely groaned over this one.  Either the video quality makes us out to be weirdos or we really ARE - you pick.  I know that I'm definitely not used to actually seeing myself as I talk (oh and my eyes were driving me crazy due to allergies!! - that's why I'm rubbing them....ugh). 

...but anyways, I promised a vlog!!  So without further ado, if you have 6:15 to spare, here we are!! :)  Basically the same things I'm talking about in the post, with more detail and a little bit of our family craziness!! ;)

Ha! :)

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So how have your runs been???

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Y'all are amazing!!  Have a beautiful day, give someone a really big smile, and don't forget to get out there and get some miles behind you this week! :)

Cheers!!! :)

quick video: in the car with siblings!

So this is NOT the official vlog, but today has been a little crazy (and WONDERFUL!!!!) and I haven't gotten to do the full video yet!!  So I thought I'd just share this crazy little video from in the car today!! :)  You may not be able to hear much of anything but it's just random stuff pretty much! Haha :)  I didn't think I would post it (we didn't even sign off! lol) but I thought I owed you SOMETHING! :)

Hopefully will get a real video and post-run update for you tomorrow!!!! :)  You guys are the best!!