REALwomenmove

Skirt Sports is having a #REALwomenmove campaign.  I have the incredible privilege of being an ambassador for Skirt Sports.  It is an great company dedicated to helping women move and feel pretty in some awesome workout wear.

Real women. Real bodies. Real Inspiration. That is what it's all about. Thirty years ago after a cesarean delivery, the nurse told me I had to get up and move.  No way. I can't. It hurts.  But I trusted her experience and knowledge and did as told.  I could not believe how good I felt afterwards.  It was a lesson for me.  Our bodies were made to move.  If we don't move, we degrade, we atrophy.

I was an avid walker for years, but I lost my walking buddy.  I hated walking by myself.  Too slow and boring. So I did the couch the 5k method to learn to run, at age 54. Loved it from my first six minute slow jog. A year later, I learned to paddle board. So. Much. Fun.

Healthy moves. No matter your age. No matter your size. No matter the pace. Be amazed at your body. Forget the Hollywood images of athletes.  Sign up for a race, a big one, and look around.  Athletes are all sizes and ages.  Read all the inspirational stores of REAL women moving and then write your own story.

Dedicated to my friends who move and are real women with real bodies, and are a real inspiration.

Skirt Sport Love

Received my Skirt Sport order today. Yippee! I already believe I will run faster in these cute skirts! I grabbed them when they were greatly reduced last week. The grey one below is the Heartbreaker skirt.

This one is the 261 Courage Capri skirt.

And this one.... I wasn't sure I'd like it, but I do!! It is the Boulder skirt.

Also I had a good running experience today. I've been trying to follow Jeff Galloway's run/walk/run method for at least a year now. I know we shouldn't compare ourselves to others, but....I'm slow. I mean, I know "my race, my pace," and all that, and I'm old (56yo) compared to most of the other runners I know. But still, I feel so slow. I love to run, no matter how slow, but I would so like to be a bit faster.

Today I tried to do a couple of 800 meter runs just to see how fast I could do them. According to Galloway, in order to run a 2:20 half marathon at the end of his training period, I should be running the 800 meters in 5:10. I had no hopes of being able to do a half in 2:20 but thought maybe I could do one in 2:30 (The two I've done were 2:43, 2:45) , so I estimated my 800m runs at a goal of 5:25. I did two of them in 4:58! So maybe, just maybe, I can get faster.

Maybe all that did for me was give me some confidence. The fastest I've ever done a 5k is 32:33 and that was over a year ago. For the 800 meters I ran fast, for me that is, even though I couldn't sustain it for long, then I'd take a short walk break, and repeat it multiple times.

Maybe, just maybe, one day I'll be able to do a sub 30 minute 5k.....I can dream can't I?

 

Monday Run

Doing a bit more reading abut Jeff Galloway's running method. Today I did five slow miles at 3/1 run/walk intervals. I am going to try to follow his recommendations for a while. I do think I'll be faster with a more frequent walk break. It was a beautiful day for a run. Sixty degrees, sunny skies.

I've been a fan of protein smoothies for a while now. Today I added some spinach to my regular frozen banana, strawberries, almond milk, and protein powder.

It looked pretty gross, but tasted awesome. I couldn't taste the spinach at all. I'd like to try it with kale too.

 

 

Long run

Well, it was intended to be a longer run. I was really sick yesterday with, I guess, some kind of virus that made me extremely dizzy and nauseous. Today I felt perfectly normal. So while I was in Oak Ridge for an appointment I thought I'd run at my favorite place.

Isn't it beautiful? I also wanted to try out Jeff Galloways 3/1 run/walk intervals. I had been reading up on them and that (or 2/1) is what I should be doing according to my Magic Mile pace. So off I go.....the first mile was a warm up, mile two and three felt great and seemed to go a little faster than normal. Until I started having stomach distress. I made a mistake and ate a protein bar before I ran. I was doing a three mile out and back, so I'd get six miles in. I was at the farthest point from my car. I ended up walking the last 2.5 miles. So my longer run really wasn't.

Funny, a walk on a beautiful day seemed like a disappointment. I should be happy I was able to walk. .....but the runners out there will understand.....a sunny, breezy, 60ish temp, is perfect for a run. I felt like I wasted a great running day.

 

Run/walk method

I've been doing to run/walk method of running, following loosely Jeff Galloway's plan for about a year and a half. I think it keeps me from getting injured. Today I decided to change it from 5/1 to 4/1. According to his plan of calculating your ratio from your fastest mile, I probably should only be doing about 3/1.

I read some time back that short, low to the ground strides help keep injuries at bay. I think maybe I am ready to try to lengthen my stride a bit. I tried it last year but it resulted in a hip overuse injury, but I wasn't doing any foam rolling then either.

I warmed up really slow in my first mile today but I had some good negative splits by the end.

Split Time Distance Avg Pace Summary 1:01:40.2 5.00 12:20 1 13:29.2 1.00 13:29 2 12:36.5 1.00 12:37 3 12:08.6 1.00 12:09 4 12:02.9 1.00 12:03 5 11:20.9 1.00 11:21 6 :02.0 0.00

By all running standards, still very slow, but for my age, I'm ok with it. Also, I really try to go slow for all my training runs. I usually can go a bit faster in a race. I don't think a ten minute mile pace is in my future, but maybe an 11 minute mile pace...

 

261 Fearless and fishing

Skirt Sports is having a 261 Fearless campaign today in honor of Katherine Switzer who was the first woman to compete in the Boston Marathon in 1967. It's a great story. The officials tried to pull her off the course, but she prevailed and finished. In her honor, many of us did a virtual race today with number 261 bibs (that was her number in the 1967 race).

This afternoon I did my virtual race.

In other sports, we had our annual husband and wife fishing tournament today. It was fun.

On the lake by 7 in the fog..

Jim caught a buzzard! Really. There were about 15 on a dock and he cast towards them to try to scare them away. The hook got caught around one's leg, and went in. We got the hook out and he went on his way, but we videoed it. They decided it would qualify for the biggest "trash fish." Hence, the award below.

We only had one big enough to count. Below our little friend is putting it back in the lake after the weigh in.

I did catch one, but it was too small to keep.

 

Compression Sleeves for Recovery

I had to pull out the compression leg sleeves last night in order to go to sleep. My legs were not happy with the eight mile run.

 

Long run day

Still toying with the idea of a half marathon. I won't be able to do the one may 17th, but there is a Skirt Sports virtual 13er in June. As an ambassador I am registered and will do some kind of virtual run that day. Maybe 13.1???

Nice long run in the rain. I ran 8 miles and my garmin time average close to 13:00 miles. Slow, but steady. Knee bothered me a little but not bad enough to stop. Mixed it up with the trail, with hills, and the track.

 

Temperature does matter

A world of difference in this evening's run and Sunday's run. Both days the temp was a feels like of about 80 but today there were clouds and a breeze.

I really love this skirt....and it was on sale! You can get one too and be sure to use my discount at Skirt Sports. The code is SSAMB20SE for 20% off.

Having short hair is great for running. I know there are very few women my age who don't color their hair, but I have so much gray I decided years ago to embrace it.

I keep it very short because it is extremely curly and if I let it grow it looks like a little old lady with a curly perm.....ha....I am getting at that age! This picture was after I ran a towel through it. So short and gray works for me. I just want to be the best 56 year old I can be.

View Splits

Split Time Distance Avg Pace Summary 35:02.9 3.00 11:41 1 12:24.4 1.00 12:24 2 12:08.4 1.00 12:09 3 10:30.1 1.00 10:31

Running clothes

I love new running clothes. I snagged a couple of sale items from Skirt Sports recently and wore them today. Love this skirt. It is a bit thinner than my others and has a slight tie dye look. The tank also has RUN on the side.

Only did five miles and it was very tough. I guess because it was about 80 degrees. My 5/1 run walk intervals turned to 1/1 run walk intervals by the last mile and a half.

I've been using the free Nike app to get the cool map on my pictures. I only ran five, but I run the app through my warm up and cool down.

 

Saturday

Such a beautiful day. I went on our first hike with some great gals from our church.

It had some really muddy places and a few little creeks to cross. Lots of fun and very easy 4.3 miles.

We were in the Big South Fork park and hiked to angel falls.

And when I got back, this is what came in the mail!

 

 

Penguin pace

Four miles, slow as Christmas (13-13:30 mile pace) but it didn't aggravate my knee too much. Yay! I ran this morning....another morning run. I do like them even though I am not a morning person,

....in my favorite Skirt Sports skirt.

 

 

What I wore Wednesday

When I retired I thought I had plenty of clothes. I did have plenty of work clothes and plenty of running clothes. Not too much casual day in/day out at home clothes. I recently purchased two pair of jeans from The Loft. Love these jeans. They are pretty pricey but I found mine at the outlet store in Pigeon Forge for about half price. Best jeans ever. The pair I am wearing today is a distressed boyfriend style.

Very casual but comfy and stylish. Great with my converse. The shirt is one I picked up at Target on a sale rack. It has a high low hem. Funny thing though, when I look in the back for the label, it says "sleepwear," haha....I don't care. I am wearing it for a regular casual shirt. So, obviously the look is very casual today.

 

100% humidity

I am not a morning person, so it is rare I run in the mornings. Today, however, had so much crammed in, I decided to do my run first. It was not really early, by no means, but 8 am is early for me to run. Even though the humidity was 100% (temp was about 59 degrees) I really enjoyed it.

I was a little concerned about my knee but I took it slow and the knee did fine. I am still doing 5/1 intervals and probably will continue. That little walk break seems to help me not get injured.

Split Time Distance Avg Pace Summary 37:11.5 3.00 12:23 1 12:39.0 1.00 12:39 2 12:52.7 1.00 12:53 3 11:38.0 1.00 11:38 4 :01.7 0.00

Long run

Perfect weather for running. Low fifties and sunny. I'm still chasing that half marathon. Only six weeks left and I've got to get to ten miles. The right knee was a little sore after this long run. Icing it.

 

Rainy run

I didn't mind the rain. It was a very pleasant run.

I did seven miles three weeks ago and I needed to do eight if I am going to do the half in May. I ran out of time today, so I stopped. Thinking of trying to work in four tomorrow if possible, and hope that will count as my one long run. I just don't know if I'll be ready for the half. Sure would like to do it.