Vacation

I haven't been on here in a really long time and I'm sorry about that! This whole last week I have been on vacation up at Lake Almanor and the week before that I was pretty busy so I just didn't have much time to sit down and write on here.  But I have been keeping up my daily runs and been slowly increasing my mileage.  This whole last week was a little hard on my legs because it was so hilly up by the lake where our cabin was.  I loved being able to run in a new location but after the first two days running up there my legs were getting pretty sore so I had to do one day of running in the water.  Throughout the week I ran 5 miles everyday and no matter where I ran there was some sort of hill whether it was rolling or just a gradually uphill slope.  Yesterday I did a 10 miler and ran from our cabin into the town of Chester. Starting out from our cabin I knew I would be doing a couple miles of hills since that is the route I had been doing throughout the week but I didn't think about the rest of it before getting to the big downhill part of the run so about the first 5 miles that I ran was going up hill, every now and then there was a little flat road or spurts of downhill in there but overall more uphill than anything else. But then after than it was relatively flat or gradual downhill the rest of the way making the 2nd half of the run a lot better than the first half.  I will be really happy to be back to flat roads this coming week and only doing a hill workout maybe once a week instead of every day! My mileage is starting to get up there and the last few weeks I have been averaging about 35 miles so I'm slowly getting back up to the good number of 50 per week :)

Tiffany

Long day

Saturday's are very long days for me.  This week I had to be at work by 5am and I like to do some form of exercise before I have to be at work because it makes the rest of the day a whole lot better.  So last night I set my alarm for 3:15 and I was planning on running when I got up in the morning.  But the run this morning did not end up happening (but insanity did) because I had the craziest dream last night and was a little freaked out to run outside.  And since some people are still out partying or doing whatever crazy things at 3 in the morning, I didn't really feel too comfortable going out by myself so I figured staying in and doing insanity was a much better idea! Then later when I got home from work I took my 2 and a half hour nap that has become part of my Saturday routine this summer.  I went running around 9 and surprisingly my legs were feeling pretty decent. I was planning on doing 6 but as I was running I figured I might as well run an hour and since I was so close to 8 miles at an hour, I decided to run 4 more minutes to get in the whole 8 miles.  The weather was finally decent to run in tonight too, there was a little breeze and instead of the temperature being in the 90s, I'm guessing it was in the low 80s or so maybe a little cooler.  And tonight I decided to take a risk and run out in the country while it was dark, not something I normally do since there isn't a whole lot of people to see if I were to get taken.  I've decided I'm not too much of a fan of it because even with my night vest on cars really don't pay much attention to you and its just a little bit dangerous so I'll probably sit to running throughout town when I go out in the dark from now on.  I hope everyone is having a great weekend and I'm heading to Santa Cruz for the day tomorrow.  Enjoy your Sunday!!

Tiffany

Water Running

Hey there,

So today after I got done with my hour or so at swim practice I decided that instead of doing most of my run on land today that I'd do my running in the pool.  My running coach made me do it when I was training for my marathon and my shins were getting really bad.  Its the best substitute for land running to get the same effect mentally and physically.  I started running in the shallow end with my feet hitting the bottom of the pool but that made my toes really sore after a little while and my calves were getting really tight so I switched back to the way I did it before and went and got a water belt to put on.  Then I did it in a little deeper water with my feet not hitting the bottom, felt a lot better.  Its amazing to think that moving your legs back and forth so fast in the running motion actually gives you a decently good workout because you go absolutely no where fast! You look and feel ridiculous especially when you're in a pool with a couple different swim practices going on.  But I got a total of around 40 mins in which is equivalent to about 5 miles since for me about 8 mins of pool running is equal to about a mile.  Then later when I went into the gym to go to the Spin class, I ran a mile on the treadmill before the spin class started so I got around 6 miles in today but it was easier on my legs since I did most of it in the water :)

Tiffany

Happy 4th

I hope everyone had a fantastic 4th of July!! I know I did in my extremely short trip down to San Diego. It has been a while since I have had the time to write on here but I have been keeping up with my daily runs and did around 25 last week for total mileage.  These last couple weekends have been full of spending a lot of time inside my car! Last weekend I drove up to Chico Thursday morning and had to drive back Friday night to work in Modesto Saturday then I had to go back up to Chico Sunday to work up in Chico Monday and had to come back Monday night to be back at work in Modesto Tuesday morning.  It was well worth the trips up to Chico tho! I was able to get a great 6 mile morning run in at Bidwell Park with my friend Jen and her doggy. The weather was perfect and it was great to be back in the park running again!
So this past weekend, I made a last minute decision to drive down to San Diego for the 4th.  I was at home on Saturday night baking some zucchini muffins and I was talking to one of my friends from down there and made the decision to get up the next morning and drive down there at 4 in the morning.  So I went out for my run that night, around 10, and while I was running made the official decision to make the trip down even though I had to be back home Monday night to go take the GRE this morning! So Sunday morning I woke up at 3:30 and was on the road by 4:15. I made it to Long Beach in 5 hrs and had to wait to eat lunch at my favorite restaurant of all time, La Creperie, so I took an hr long nap waiting until it was time for lunch.  That night I only went a mile because I was having a great time hanging out with my friends and really wasn't wanting to go out for that run at all..but I got it in!! Then yesterday morning I woke up around 8 and went outside and did a nice 4.5 mile run.  I started out on Mission Bay then as soon as I got to an area where I could cross over to run on the beach by the ocean I made the move and it was fantastic being back running along the beach on the sand.  I forget how beautiful and peaceful running along the ocean really can be.  Then I got to spend the rest of the day just hanging out with friends and friends of friends at a park BBQing and having a great time.  I am definitely glad I decided to make the short trip down, but I do wish it didn't have to end so quickly!

Tiffany