Retro Run 5k

Another 5k done!  My finish time was 33:37 - officially my new PR!  It was a difficult course with a lot of hills.  I actually walked quite a bit too.  My first mile I went out too fast - 9:54.  The same thing I did in the last race only a little faster this time.  I walked up at least two hills and took a few 15 second walk breaks to catch my breath.  It's funny because I am able to run three miles without stopping to walk during my group runs, but I think this course was just tough, plus I was going faster.

My husband and two girls from my running group also ran in the race.  Everybody did great!  It was an evening race with free beer at the end which was extra nice! Here I am finishing the race. 

Here is me and Kathy enjoying our post race beer!  And me and that lovely orange retro run t-shirt. :)

Zumba?

Last week at the running school we had a warm up session of Zumba.  I have only been exposed to one class of Zumba at the Y and it was okay.  I didn't really know the moves and struggled to keep up.  I've never been much into dancing...unless I've had a few drinks!  But everybody has been on this Zumba craze; talking about how much fun it is and it's such a great workout.  I've heard you'll be sweating buckets! 

Okay well I guess I'm not doing this Zumba thing right.  After our 20 minute warm up session, I wasn't sweating at all!  And we were outside - probably about 85 degrees.  I was able to keep up better with this instructor, but it just didn't feel like a great workout.  Nothing like running!  I really wanted to like Zumba. I still have a 20 class pass I bought a few months ago and haven't used yet.  Good thing it was only 20 bucks! 

I guess it's okay to not like something even if everybody else does.  I think I will just stick to running. :)

Update on the new running buddy

Okay without doing any research online about running with dogs, I thought I would give it a try last night.  I mean how hard could it be?  Result = epic fail!  Okay, maybe not that bad but it was a struggle.  In fact after just a few minutes, I gave the lease to my husband who decided to go with me.  Bessie is strong!  And she wanted to stop and sniff everything.  I couldn't keep her to stay on one side as I was running.  This is going to be more of a challenage than I thought.  I went ahead and finished my run which was nice short 2 mile run.

But I'm not giving up just yet.  My husband was able to jog with her for a little while so there is hope I will be able to make it work for me!

My new running buddy

It's been busy these last two weeks and I can't believe the summer is over!  My son started back to school (his first year of middle school!) and his Saturday football games also started.  In addition to the normal work day, laundry, housework, grocery store...now we have homework and trying to get back into a routine.  But it will all work out!

The running school is going great.  I have been meeting my group twice a week for runs, but still struggling to get the third run in own my own (refer to the above paragraph).  Most runs have been around 3 miles and my pace is about 10:30 to 11:30 minutes.  Of course, this still includes a few minutes of walking.  Although the walking is getting much shorter. I've been very pleased with my progress and meeting new running buddies!  I hope we can continue to meet for runs after the school is over. Speaking of new running buddies...

We are now the proud owners of a doggie!  Our first dog!  Her name is Bess (we call her Bessie) and she's a lab mix.  We adopted her from the local shelter.  She loves to run in the backyard and go on walks.  I'm hoping she will be my new running buddy for my solo neighborhood runs.  Maybe she will give my the motivation I need to get that third run in each week!  I haven't officially tried this yet, we just got her this past weekend.  Tuesday it poured down rain.  Which also meant I missed my normal group run.  I had planned to go to the YMCA and do some interval training on the treadmill.  But it was just one of those dreary days that I just wanted to go home and not go back out. 

I'm sure I need to do some research online about running with dogs.  I've actually been doing a lot of research about dogs since I know nothing!  Did I mention we also have 2 cats?  This has been a challenge and will continue to be...but hopefully not for too long.  Here is a our newest member of the family.