I love Lysol!!

Apparently spraying the house down with lysol really helped!! Now if I could just get my Dad to cover his mouth when he coughs... I have an overwhelming desire to run after him with the can of Lysol and spray after every cough. That's probably not a good thing to do right?

Between the Lysol, vitamins, and wheat grass (I ordered a whole container from Amazing Grass. I can't wait until it gets here!!) I feel pretty darn amazing this morning, so I went for a run in 33 degrees this morning. Brr! It was a little hard to get out of bed, but it felt amazing while I was running. As usual after recovering from germs I wasn't trying to do a tempo run. I just wanted to go on a nice comfortably paced run. HA!!! You would think I would have learned my lesson by now. So, here's tempo Tuesday:

Total Distance: 4.08 miles
Total Time: 36:34
Average Pace: 8:57
Mile 1: 8:13
Mile 2: 8:13
Mile 3: 8:13
Mile 4: 7:03 (got to love downhills!)

I saw on Twitter this morning that Bobby Bowden is suppose to announce his retirement today (I'm an FSU alum). I remember watching them win our last national championship while I was there. Is this a good thing? Fingers crossed!

Time for some yoga for runners!

Amazing Notes and Tempo Tuesday

Several of my violin students played on a recital Sunday, and they all did really well! They didn't all feel that way. I've noticed a trend with several of my students. They tend to dwell on what's wrong rather than what they did really well. I thought one of them was going to break out in tears after she played Sunday. She didn't think about the wonderful sound coming out of her violin, or the fact that she got up in front of people to play, or that she completed the whole song from memory. She didn't see how proud everyone was. All she remembered were the mistakes. I have another student who gets upset when things aren't perfect, which actually reminds me of myself when I was her age. So, I decided that they need a little reminder that they are very good little violinist, so I got out some paper and markers and started working on a little something for their violin case. (I have a few more to make today)

I have something similar in my violin case, but I didn't move it over to the violin I'm borrowing from my teacher. I think part of it was because I wasn't sure I liked the violin at first, and thought about giving it back after my auditions. Well, that's not happening :). So today I'm moving my wonderful notes over to the borrowed violin. We all need a little reminder sometimes!

Tempo Tuesday is back on Tuesday! Honestly I hadn't really planned on doing a tempo run this morning since my hip and knee have been a little sore. So, I started out with the idea that I was just going to run at whatever pace my body wanted to go. It would just be a fun run. Of course I stepped outside to sprinkles. What is going on with all of the rain on Tuesdays? Of course now that I'm done running it is no longer sprinkling. Go figure. Turns out I had another awesome run!

Total distance: 4.04 miles
Total Time: 35:32
Average Pace: 8:47 per mile
Mile 1: 8:13
Mile 2: 8:13
Mile 3: 8:13
Mile 4: 7:04

I'm taking a little break from whittle my middle. I think it's part of the reason my hip and lower back are bothering me. So, it's back to 3 days a week of abs instead of 5 days.

Tempo Tuesday on a Monday?

It's back!! I'm so happy that I can run again!! And to celebrate and start getting ready for my next race in 2 1/2 weeks I thought I would try a tempo run and just see how things went, no expectations. Weather.com has a 100% of rain for Atlanta tomorrow, and seeing as I'm just finally getting over a 2 week cold I thought it would be better to run today and take tomorrow off. I would have been happy with 10:00 or 9:30 a mile. I was most pleasantly surprised to discover that my average pace was 8:54! Now that doesn't include a couple of breaks I had to take after some of the hills on my route, so it probably comes out to be 9:00 a mile, which is right where I was before the marathon!! It felt sooooo good despite being a little sore from yoga yesterday (it's so nice to be sore again!! ;) ). And since the weather was that weird 50 degree in between temperature I tired out my new Nike arm warmers. They rock!! I picked up a pair at the Big Peach (I love the Big Peach) since they are sold out on the Nike website. They were a little tricky to get off since I had my iphone strapped on over them, but they worked so well. I can't wait to use them again!

Total Mileage: 4.00 miles

Total Time: 35:39

Average Pace: 8:54 per mile

Mile 1: 8:13

Mile 2: 8:13

Mile 3: 8:13

Mile 4: 7:03 (downhills are awesome!)

Now it's time to get practicing and enjoy more chocolate amazing grass superfood! (I just opened a new container yesterday and I felt so good afterwards, which made me put this container straight into the fridge this time!).

The final tempo run

I can't believe that this morning was my final tempo run before the race next week. What?!!! Next week?!!!! I cannot believe that I am finally getting to run a race that I've been waiting to do for 2 years! I'm going to the Team in Training offices on my way to work to pick up my race day apparel and travel information. Someone seriously needs to pinch me!

This morning's run went much better than expected, and to be honest I wasn't expecting much. I was pretty sick over the weekend and I don't think I've quite kicked all of the germs out of my system. So, I just let my body do whatever it could handle. I was pretty impressed. I did have to take a short walk break after the second hill, but overall I'm pretty pleased. I don't know that I'm going to be able to hold this pace for the race. I'm going to think positive. As someone said on Saturday, it is what it is. The good news is that my right knee doesn't seem to be bothering me any more. It apparently was a combination of tight muscles and changing my stride when I run slower on Saturdays. It hasn't been a lot of fun, especially since it was really bothering me this past Saturday, but it's really happy during the week when I using my normal stride. Form is important people!!

Total Distance: 4.13 miles

Total Time: 36:22

Average Pace: 8:48 per mile

Mile 1: 8:13

Mile 2: 8:13

Mile 3: 8:13

Mile 4: 7:03 (got to love a downhill finish =) )

I'm really excited today because my studio's website officially has it's own domain!! And it's uploaded and published already!! You can check it out at: http://www.gartleyviolinstudio.com

Autumn is here!

Yippee for some wonderful fall weather!! It's so nice to have a break from rain and humidity here in Atlanta. We've definitely earned some nice weather. When I left for my run this morning it was 53 degrees! I love running in fall. Sometimes it's a little tricky figuring out the right running gear to wear, but it feels so good! It made for some good running on my tempo run once I got going.

Total distance: 4.05 miles

Time: 37:08

Average Pace: 9:10

mile 1: 8:13

mile 2: 8:13

mile 3: 8:13

mile 4: 7:03 =)

The last mile felt pretty awesome, and it's so nice to get back home and not be a sweaty mess. I guess I should mention that Nike+ only marks the speed at mile markers and doesn't average the pace for the mile. So, that's why the pace at for the splits and the overall average speed don't match up. Just one more tempo run before the race. It's taper time!

Flooding down in Georgia

Well, I'm happy to say after 18 hours with no power things are starting to look up. You might have heard that it's a little soggy here in Atlanta. Okay, it's flooding. Big time! The golf course behind our house was completely flooded! My Dad said he's never seen anything like it in the 30 years they've lived in the house. Most people were not so happy about it, but the Canadian geese loved it!! I wish I had gotten a picture. It was great, and made me laugh, which I didn't do much of yesterday. Here are a few pictures from the local paper:

http://projects.ajc.com.coxnewsweb.com/gallery/view/metro/atlanta/atlanta-flood-aerial09/

Just to get an idea of what it was like in my area the pictures of Westminster is where I work (we rent space from the school on top of a nice big hill!!) and I live 4 blocks up from the picture of Peachtree Creek and Woodward (also up a nice big hill!!). I really like hills right now!!!

I was able to get my tempo run in this morning despite the fact that my usually route was partially under water (part of it is by Peachtree Creek). So, I had to make up a route as I went, and had to deal with my Nike+ sportsband's issues as well. Needless to say I was shocked when I saw the results. I knew I was going at a good clip, but I was expecting this. My hamstrings are still a little sore from squats and an attempt at power yoga Sunday. Here's the lowdown:

Distance: 3.87 miles

Total Time: 33:01

Average Pace: 8:31 per mile (what the heck!!!)

mile 1: 8:13

mile 2: 8:13

mile 3: 8:13

mile 3.87: 8:13

In case you're wondering how splits of 8:13 equal an average pace of 8:31 there were a few speed changes in between some of the splits (otherwise known as hills). Part of me is wondering if my Nike+ sensor is lying to me, but I don't have any other way of judging what I did.

Anyway, I had a light breakfast since the power was out, so I'm off to raid the kitchen! And then probably practice because I can't work =( which stinks. Oh, and probably read a good book!

Nutella & Tempo Run

Oh, Nutella how I love you!!!! I rediscovered Nutella back in June on a family vacation to Italy. There is nothing like starting your day with a little Nutella =). I had some for dessert Friday night before my awesome 18 mile run, so I decided at the grocery store on Sunday to splurge on a jar. That beautiful jar cost almost $10. So, it is hidden away from the rest of the family because I'm scared it could be gone in a week if others are allowed to enjoy it as well. So far I've discovered it's great on pretzels and toast!

It's tempo run Tuesday. The first half of my run was great!! Unfortunately my right calf cramped up on me half way through mile 3. So, I stopped and walked for a little bit, and iced it when I got home. Around lunch time yesterday I realized that I had done a very poor job of stretching since Saturday's run, but I still didn't do anything about it. Lesson learned!! Stretching has made such a difference in my training this time around! I've really started getting into yoga, and have made strength training a big priority. I'm tired of getting hurt, and I'm ready to start working on speeding up. I did decide to skip lunges and squats today and just do some core and arm strengthening. No since in pushing my calf. We'll see how it does today and then make a decision about tomorrow's run. I'm sure being on my feet for so long yesterday didn't help anything either. So here's the low down:

distance: 4 miles

total time: 36:47

average pace: 9:11

mile 1: 8:13

mile 2: 8:13

mile 3: 8:13

mile 4: 9:52

Also here's a link to one of my favorite core workouts from one of my favorite blogs:

http://eatliverun.com/breakfast-recipes/jennas-8-minute-abs/

And my favorite post run 15 yoga flexibility stretches are available on iTunes:

Yoga for Runners: Express Flexibility Workout with Kimberly Fowler

Birthday & Tempo Run

Ah, I think my weekly tempo run at my goal race pace is quickly becoming my favorite run of the week! This morning's was more challenging than last week's, but after uploading the run I discovered why. It was a bit faster than the 9:00 minute per mile pace I was after =). So, here it is:

4.12 miles

36:19 total time

8:48 average pace per mile

1st mile 8:13

2nd mile 8:13

3rd mile 8:13

4th mile 7:02

Like I said, it was a bit faster than I was expecting to go, especially with the fall allergy season starting up (maybe it's pent up energy since my last run was Friday, or maybe it's because today is my birthday). I also got to run with my super awesome new Nike+ sportsband (thanks Mom!!!).

I honestly did not expect to go that fast. It was a good challenge though. Maybe it's all of the yummy food I've been eating celebrating my birthday (Seasons 52 and Flip Burger Boutique. Such a happy tummy). Or maybe it's some of the new strength training I've been trying. Who knows. I do feel really good heading into our 18 mile run this Saturday. Now I just need to figure out a route for tomorrow's 10 mile run...

Tempo Run

This morning I did my very first tempo run at my goal marathon pace. It was awesome!!!! I wasn't sure I was going to end up doing a tempo run because it was so humid this morning, but i just went with the flow this morning. I'm still a little tight and sore after Saturday's 16 mile run, but it felt great to stretch my legs and just let go this morning. How good was it? Here it is:

4.16 miles

37:52

average pace 9:06 per mile

mile 1 8:41

mile 2 9:08

mile 3 8:33

mile 4 8:33

That's it for this morning. Time to practice for last time before my audition tomorrow (have I mentioned I'm in total freak out mode??). Oh, and I finally got my fundraising video uploaded to YouTube!! You can check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu50uh-1RpE