I believe on my last post I complained of ankle pain. On this post I will complain about foot pain (only for about 2 sentences, I promise) To fix my ankle issue, I bought an ankle brace, wore it too tightly, and now I have a case of the...well...I' don't think there's a name for it, but I'll call it sore foot. I have been sidelined since Sunday and since then I have come down with a case of restless leg syndrome. I'm itching to get out there.

I'm ready to go in, coach, just give me a chance.

However, I am also trying to be smart. My foot was feeling pretty good today, but I wanted to wait one day after it felt better again to run.

While I've been sitting around on my butt all week, I decided to make a new playlist. I stopped running with music a couple of months ago because I found myself not paying attention to the music anyway. I would just get lost in my own thoughts. But, it occurred to me that I just think I was bored with the music. I had the same playlist for 3 years. So, following the "5 key Ingredients to the Perfect Playlist" I created a new playlist. Incase you don't want to click the link and find out wat the ingredients are, I will state them for you.

1. “Hanging By A Moment” by Lifehouse. Lauren swears by this song. This song has been on every running playlist she has made. Since I'm following her rules, I added it to mine.
2. A mixture of songs.  This is self explanatory. Don't have a list full of only hip-hop, or techno, etc. Explore your musical tastes eclectify (yes, I do make up my one words) your playlist.
3. Separate out each “type” of song and artist throughout the list. I should have a problem with this because I use an iPod shuffle...so it shuffles for me :)
4. Make the playlist longer than what you think you’ll need.  She says to do this for two reasons: a.) in case you end up hating certain songs while I’m running and want to skip them, and b.) in case something goes wrong during the race and you end up running longer than expected.
5. Do not underestimate the power of boy bands.  I think this is probably the best advice. I looooooooooooooooooove music, and I looooooooooooooooooove to sing outloud to music, because it makes me happy. Boybands make me happy!

So...drumroll please...

Total songs: 39    Total time: 2.4 hours

I have included some power songs (Remember the Name, Just a Girl), some fun songs I just live to sing and jump around like a buffoon when I hear them (Gangham Style, Footloose, Love Shack, Pretty Fly for a White Guy), some of my playlist staples (Bad Moon Rising, Inner Smile, Dashboard), and a little of everything else in between.  I am excited to try the new playlist out and see if it helps me move a little faster. Let me know what you guys think.

Do you run/workout with music?

What songs are on your playlist?

So, I have been using my borrowed Garmin all around town. I keep trying to find extra excuses to run, just so I can use it again. It is soooooooooooo much easier than carrying my phone with me. I just discovered it even has a map on it (which is great for me because I have the absolute worst sense of direction. I have never ran a new route and not gotten lost...sad, I know)! I just learned how to upload all of my workouts, and I swear I probably feel how Benjamin Franklin felt when he discovered electricity! Ok, probably not, because I have no clue how he felt, I'm going to guess a lot of pain. Anyway, I have been uploading all of my data on a plethora of websites. Strava, Dailymile, Garmin Connect, Map My Run, just to name a few. I know, I know, I've gone obsessively a tad overboard, but I can't help it I'm so excited i dont even want to use capitalization or punctuation in this sentence anymore! My favorite site in particular is Strava. Did you know that you can race other people when there not even there? Well, you can. I am trying to set a course record for the Sparks Marina. I currently hold the second fastest time for a female, but that #1 spot is in my grasp!

Besides the excitement of the Garmin, I have recently convinced my sister-in-law, Stephanie, to start running. She has been doing so great, running 4x per week! She is even buying new running shoes! She is a lot more committed than I would have been starting off. She runs with her stroller, which is insane and intense. I really hope when I have children I will be able to do that. Right now I struggle just trying to lug my own body weight around. She lives in Puyallup, WA, but she is coming down for a visit in August. She is going to be running the Liquid Gold 5k with me when she comes. I'm super excited that I will have someone to run with. This will be her very first race!

Switching the topic yet again. On Saturday, I did a pretty tough speed workout with the running group. 5x 1000k. We ran the first 2 intervals on grass and the final 3 on the track. I think the grass running really messed me up. The next day I woke up sore beyond belief. My ankle and the muscles surrounding it were super stiff and sore. Unfortunately for me, that day was my long run. I was scheduled to run 11mi which would have been a distance PR for me, but I was only able to bust out 7. My ankle was just too stiff and I didn't want to risk injuring it. I went for a tempo run yesterday, and it was still stiff. I'm not sure what's going on, but I am praying it goes back to normal soon.


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Last week was a very interesting week! I think I have been signing up for too many races lately and they are cutting into my training time as most races are on Sundays, and that is my current long run day. My schedule for this week was supposed to be

Day of Week	Scheduled	Actual
Sunday	9mi LR	7.79mi
Monday	Rest	Rest
Tuesday	5mi EZ	Absolutely nothing
Wednesday	Yoga	Nothing again!
Thursday	3x1mi repeats	5k race
Friday	Rest	Rest
Saturday	5mi EZ	3x1mi repeat
Mileage total	24	16.89

So, not very good at keeping with the schedule. Last training schedule I was so good at sticking to. I followed that plan to the tee. This week is already a little bit off. I am on, mileage wise, but pace wise is all over the place. I think I mentioned I found a running group to join, well on last Saturday I met up with them for 1 mile repeats at Virginia Lake.  Those people are crazy! They are all sub 3 hour marathoners! One of them was attempting to set the CR for Virginia Lake on Strava, which he killed by over 30 sec. The “coach” of the group was super nice and is letting me take his Garmin for a 2 week test drive. I wore it on Sunday for my ling run, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. It’s a lot easier than carrying my phone around, but it is really big and bulky. It does make me feel like more of a runner though.  For my long run on Sunday, I met up with Reno Running Co for their weekly Sunday Store Runs. I ran with them last week as well, but that was a disaster. As you can see from the above table I was supposed to run 9 miles, but I quit right before 8 miles. I didn’t have the energy, I got lost twice, I ran out of water, and I was just hot. I called my husband to come pick me up. This week, however, was better. I ran the first 7 miles solo, and then met up with the group to run the final 3. I finished with an average pace of 10:37/mi (thanks to the final 3 I did with the group. I can’t help it, when everyone else is running fast, I don’t want to get left behind) which is crazy because before I started with the group, my 7 mile average pace was 11:20/mi.

I am meeting up with another group, NSET, today for a 5 mile run. I met 2 of the NSET runners on Sunday and they convinced me to stop by and run with them. If I keep up with all of these group runs, I will only have to run one day solo, which would be incredible. I would much rather run with others.

In other news, I ran the Tahoe Firecrakcer Trail Trek on the 4^th. I was really excited about this race for some reason. I had this great idea in my mind that I was going to kill it. I would finally get one of those age group medals (judging by previous year’s results). Not so. This was the absolute toughest race I have ever done (even though I haven’t done that many). I know the title of the race includes the word “trail” but don’t ask me why, I had convinced myself, that it was mostly a road race. Wrong again! ¾ of the run was on trails…the soft (like running on sand), extremely narrow (two people aren’t gonna fit on here at the same time), and hilly. It was also the longest 5k of my life. I felt like I was running for hours. I looked down at my phone at one point and I was already at 26 mins (so much for a PR or an age group placement) and I still had half a mile to go! I really wanted to just give up! I had already stopped and walked during parts of the race (with my head hanging low), but instead I thought I would just enjoy the scenery and not try and push my already slow steady pace. I finished in 30:11. This was a short course according to my GPS of 3.02mi, so that puts me at exactly a 10:00/mi pace. I have to say I was a little surprised, seeing as I had walked at three different times, that this wasn’t my worst 5k…just my second worst. All in all, though, I had a good time. I loved the foresty trail we got to run on and just like the last race, I learn a lot from (what I consider at least) my failures. It’s only going to make me a better, stronger runner!