Record Breaking Week

Monday, June 10:
I had plugged in my Garmin watch to upload my recent activities which I always enjoy looking at. Partly because I get to see my routes around Wimbledon, my stats like splits, elevation, heart rate, etc. I also get to see Luke's activities because he wears my watch while he jogs also. My pink watch. Luke wears my pink watch while he jogs. So pretty. Anyway, the Garmin Connect website keeps track of records for 5K, 10K, Half Marathon and Marathon. I have only completed a 5K and 10K as I usually only jog around 3-5 miles on my routes. The standing record for my 5K was something like 26:34 or something. When I saw that, I thought, I can do way better than that! I have done 25:30 on a treadmill before. So I decided that my jog for the day would be to beat that slow record that Garmin is displaying and pretty much just go as fast as I can... not easy to do when 1.) you are jogging by yourself, 2.) you have hills to climb, 3.) there are people all over the pavement (British term for sidewalk), and 4.) there are cars that believe they have the right of way.

Not only did I beat my record by 2 minutes and beat my treadmill record by about a minute, but I also had an average min per mile of less than 8 minutes (bottom number). Pretty darn impressed with myself! I find it strange though that my heart rate was only 168 because I was huffin' and puuffin' (I think it got up to 185 toward the end). Would I say all of that hard work was worth the 290 calories that I burned? Um no.

Thursday, June 13:
I really didn't plan this one. When I went for my jog yesterday morning, I had the intentions of jogging around Wimbledon common on trails that I had never been on. When I walked outside with my iPhone strapped to arm as my safety net if I got lost in the woods, those plans quickly changed because it was sprinkling. I was not going to take the risk of my phone getting wet. I turned around, went back inside for my nano, and headed on a normal route. As I was jogging, I was thinking, I really should do a longer jog today because I won't be able to jog again until Monday. So when I got to a spot where I should have turned to go back home, I rerouted to add an extra mile. When it came time to make a small loop around a shopping center, I rerouted again to add another half mile or so. When it came time to turn back home, I thought to myself, I must beat my current distance record of 8 miles, so I continued going straight to add an extra 2.5 miles to my route... pretty risky to go farther from home than to stay near it.

Nothing was stopping me during this jog. I shoulder checked a few people, but only because they seriously take up the whole pavement. If it's to the point where they force me into the road, they get shoulder checked. One person even said something to me when I ran into them... I didn't turn back to look, I was in the groove. I also stepped on the back of someone's shoe because they dodged in front of me. I didn't turn back to look, I was in the groove. And, Luke, don't worry. I didn't stop one time so it counted (according to him, the run doesn't count if you stop). They say that if you can run 8 miles, you can do a half marathon. I am not quite sure I believe that. I don't know if I could have gone another 4.6 miles.

Volleyball Update:
Wednesday night I played volleyball again. My hitting was MUCH better than the Wednesday before. I didn't swing and miss again (although I did see another girl do it, hehehe). Thank God I didn't - so embarrassing! I got elbowed in the trap muscle (the one between your neck and shoulder) during a block which hurt like *%#!$. And I got hit in the face by the ball because... well, it doesn't matter why. I am really enjoying playing again!

Have a great weekend!