Easy Saturday Morning Run + Calisthenics + Hooray Spring Results

This morning I wasn't too ready to hop out the door and run. We had another couple over last night to watch the Heels game (wooo hoo Elite 8!) and I didn't eat as healthy as I had hoped. So I got up and drank some coffee and watched some Real Housewives of NY and blogged. Then I headed out the door for a quick 4 mile run since I missed my track workout yesterday.

The four miles were kind of hard, I could tell I didn't have the proper fuel in my system and that I was dehydrated. But I made the most of it and just took it easy. I knew it was important to get some mileage in today even if it was only 4.3. Around mile 4 I decided to do some sprints until I got to my building, so I did 4 x 100m (approximately) sprints jogging in between. After the 4th I walked the probably 1/6 mile home to cool down.

Once I got to my building I stretched and decided to do some calisthenics. I never do anything more than crunches, so it is high time my friends! (I know, I know. I am bad. I don't have a gym membership and I don't strength train...I'm working up to it, okay?) I did 2 reps of 20 lunges and squats with stretching in between. Then I did 20 wall push-ups (I'm trying to ease my arms into doing the real thing) and 20 jumping jacks.

Just that small amount of something extra felt really good! I would definitely like to add this to my routine on a normal basis, and of course do more reps of each.

Here are my totals and split times:

Time:	00:43:16
Distance:	4.30 mi
Elevation Gain:	631 ft
Total Calories:	480 C

Avg Pace: 10:04 min/mi

Best Pace: 05:34 min/mi

Split	secondsTotal Time	milesTotal Distance	feetElevation Gain	feetElevation Loss	minutes per mileAverage Speed	minutes per mileMax Speed
Summary	00:43:16	4.30	631	631	10:04	05:34
1	00:09:55	1.00	207	203	09:55	08:50
2	00:09:58	1.00	186	188	09:58	08:48
3	00:11:21	1.00	121	142	11:21	08:53
4	00:09:33	1.00	90	79	09:33	05:34
5	00:02:28	0.30	27	19	08:17	06:07

**Notice the slow mile 3? Yeah I stopped to pet the horses at Hampton Park, but the signs on the fence that said "horses may bite" and "caution electric" made me think better of it. The horses were sad though, they came towards me ready for some petting!

Hooray for Spring 6 Miler Results & "Free Virtual Swag":
RunningLaur posted the results to her virtual 6 miler, and I came in 6th place with a time of 54:45. She even made us some sweet medals, which she said we could choose which one we wanted. I couldn't decide whether I was speedy enough for this one, but I really pushed that run and it was a PR for me so I am going to go with it.

But I also like this one, so I am taking two :)


Thanks RunningLaur for the great swag and virtual race!

Hooray for Spring 6 Miler!

Okay, okay. I know I said I was going to do this on Thursday. But once I got running last night, I decided that my time would be good enough to enter for this virtual "race."


I started off my run after work, and was going to do a 3 mile out and back over the Ravenel Bridge. For the first 3 miles the wind was definitely on my side and I was blazing it! Then when I turned around and the wind was pushing against me, I started to really, REALLY struggle. But once I got up and over the hill and started to descend, it got a little bit easier. I guess I managed to keep a good pace based on these split times:

Split	Total Time	Total Distance	Elevation Gain	Elevation Loss	Average Speed	Max Speed
1	0:09:53	1	337	87	9:53	8:41
2	0:09:13	1	66	134	9:13	8:13
3	0:08:36	1	58	164	8:36	7:55
4	0:09:34	1	132	30	9:34	8:26
5	0:09:25	1	114	140	9:25	7:46
6	0:08:03	1	11	137	8:03	6:54
Summary	0:54:45	6	719	692	9:07	6:54

So my total time was 54:45 with a 9:07 average pace. Not too shabby for lil ole me!

The Course:
(I started & finished about 1/2 mile inland on the right side of this picture)

This is the runners path on the bridge:

This is what the bridge will look like next weekend:

Yep, it's finally here! The 2009 Cooper River Bridge Run will be held next Saturday, April 4th. This event is one of the largest 10k races in the nation with 40,000 runners and over 20,000 spectators. The Holy City is packed to the gills each year during the April race weekend with runners (elite and amateur), tourists, spectators and a general feeling of contagious energy.

This will be my first year living here and also running the race. I have run the past two years but traveled from North Carolina with a group of friends. Those friends are sadly not making it down this year, but my mom and younger brother will be in town and will be cheering Matt and I on!

Yep, even Matt is running! We ran together last year and finished at a respectable time of 1:16:40. I think Matt had trained maybe one day before running it, so I was pretty proud of him! In 2007 I ran my first 10k (and longest distance to that point) in 1:06:14. This year, I am shooting for a sub-9 minute mile pace, putting me in under 56 minutes.

Tonight I am doing an easy 8 miler, so I will update you later on as to how that goes! Have a fantastic Wednesday and a big THANK YOU to RunningLaur for organizing the Hooray for Spring Race!!

:)