The Heat is On!

Yep, the heat has been turned on this week. It was 82 out at 5:30 as I was driving home to get ready for tonight's run. I missed and really hope we didn't skip the 60 degree spring weather! The run went okay and I was able to get about 6 miles in. The bugs and gnats are out in full force along some areas of the trail. Finishing the run with bugs stuck to my face is not my idea of fun. The heat wasn't too bad since there was a strong wind at times.

Yesterday, the wind was just as strong and Kyla, Britt, and I went out for a bike ride. I learned that crossing a freeway overpass with a crosswind is not exactly fun to do on a bike. Riding into the wind was almost as hard as riding up a hill. As Kyla said before hand, if we don't ride then we are sure to regret it so we might as well ride! All in all, two successful workout days and tomorrow is Thursday which means one day closer to the end of the workweek (Yeah!) and one day closer to hill repeats (Boo!) I'm hoping to get in a swim workout and maybe even a bike or run too. I hope you enjoy your Thursday!

Monday Brain Exchange

What/Who influenced you to start a blog? Where did you get your blog title? How long have you been blogging? from OneLittleJill at http://onelittletrigirl.wordpress.com/

I just started my blog two weeks ago...I am a total newbie! I had been reading blogs for the past few months and enjoyed hearing everyone's stories. My blog title is just a play on my name that originated when I was setting up my Twitter account. I started Twitter because my running club uses Twitter to post info on our weekly roaming hill workout. I was unsure what name to use and my friend suggested simply RunningWhit. For the blog title, I expanded it to Running With Whit even though I hope to also cover biking and swimming since I've gotten into triathlons. I want to thank my friend Lyndi at www.nwafoodie.blogspot.com for helping me get started with my blog. Thanks for the fun question OneLittleJill!

Weekend Update

Well, the weekend kicked off with Hill Repeats with the Rush Running gang. I was greatly surprised to learn that instead of running repeats up NW A Street we were going to do repeats on Tiger. Tiger is a long hill but has less steep inclines compared to NW A Street. The bad news was it was a 2 1/4 mile warmup to the hill then the repeat was 1/2 mile long. I shortened the hill slightly and did .3 mile distance each way. I did 4 repeats which is a good start for the season. My total mileage ended up being just over 7 miles for the night. The thing I love about hill repeats is that no matter your pace, the group is there together sharing in the fun! I have to admit that Green Day and the encouragement of the team definitely helped me through the workout.

Saturday I woke up with a little twinge in my foot. I first experienced this twinge a few weeks ago after the Bentonville half marathon. I decided to rest and not risk this developing into something worse. I was only planning a 7-8 mile run so I considered the longer run Friday night as covering my distance needs for the week.

Sunday I joined my friend Kyla for a swim workout. Lucky for me it was Friends and Family free days at the Fitness Center so I saved $8! The Fitness Center has one of the nicest pools in the area. Our workout totaled 2750 m except I ducked out of 150 over the course of the workout so I ended up around 2600. I am slowly relearning to do all of the swim strokes and at times it isn't pretty. I did more backstroke and fly than I have ever before! I normally only swim about 1000 - 1400 m at a time so this was quite a bit more for me. The funny thing about the workout was that I thought it was over several times and the group was actually just resting while thinking of the next set. Our workout as I sort of remember it was 400 warmup, 300 drills, 500 ladder, 700 of 50's, 300 of 75's, 300 of 50's., and some easy cool down for the remainder. I've given myself a month to be flip-turning...I don't know why I'm so hesitant to do them. Alright, hope you had a good weekend. I'm going to hit the foam roller for a bit and get ready for next week.

Spring Rain

It looks like the spring rain is going to dry up for Friday's return to hill repeats. I stopped by Rush Running today to pick up a Headsweats hat for my sister. While at the store, I checked on the location for our return to hill repeat workouts. We tend to take off doing set repeats during winter due to the lack of safe hill locations in the dark. Needless to say...Mike Rush and I have very different definitions of what an easy return to hills looks like. The hill options that Mike gave were all quite daunting. Below is a sneak peak at what tomorrow is most likely going to be! Yikes, I'll have to keep telling myself that hills make me stronger! I'll let you know how it goes.

Fun Giveaway!

Visit Running Diva Mom for a really cool giveaway! If you win, you have to promise to share the Recovery Socks with me. I have been thinking about getting these for awhile.

http://runningdivamom.blogspot.com/2010/03/huge-running-diva-mom-giveaway-benefits.html

Rush Hour Monday 3-22-10

Today's Rush Hour* training group was smaller than normal due to the Spring Break Holiday. The weather was perfect, mid-50's with sunshine. Yesterday's snow had almost all melted and the track was clear. The assigned workout for today was 1200 repeats broken down with the first and last 400 at 10K pace and the middle at 5K pace. With an upset stomach, I didn't actually worry about hitting paces and instead focused on just picking up to a faster pace during the middle 400. The goal was to do 3-4 repeats. I think I would have liked this workout a lot better had I been feeling better. Oh well, at least I got some miles in even if they weren't my best. I ran with Lori for my cooldown and made plans with the girls for a bike ride tomorrow. Now time for dinner!

*Rush Hour is the Monday speed workout put on by Mike Rush of Rush Running in Bentonville. We meet at the Old Tiger Track in Bentonville and Mike gives out a different workout each week. It is one of my favorite of our group workouts because the group is very supportive of each other whether you are the fastest or slowest runner on the track.

Hershey got a haircut!

Hershey went in for her yearly spring haircut. She is a flat coated retriever and she just loves getting all the long hair shaved off before the weather gets too warm. I love it because it reduces all the shedding that goes on!

Race Recap - Bentonville Half Marathon

This past Saturday I took part in the inaugural Bentonville Half Marathon put on by Reinke Sports. It was an overcast and cold morning with temps in the high 30's and a slight spitty rain. My sister Lindsey and brother-in-law Tim came to visit and run the race with me. Over 1400 people were signed up for the half marathon and 5K event. We owe many thanks to Harps for not commenting on all the runners heading inside the grocery store for last minute potty stops. Of course, with 5 minutes to go before race start I was making a mad dash for the porta pottys!

The race start was so much fun with a downhill start that was a sea of people. It was so exciting to see this many people participating in a race in Bentonville!

Near Memorial Park we saw the Mulkey family cheering!


The race had lots of great volunteer support including a fun water/gel stop sponsored by PowerBar at mile 8. I got lucky and saw my friend Kyla here since this stop was just a few steps from her house!

My favorite part of the race was probably these middle miles from 6-9 miles! After that it was onto the city trail for the final 4 miles to the finish and I knew I would have to face the Crystal Bridges hill. I was excited at mile 12 to see my friends Lori and Amy at the start of the hill, I just wished there had been a water stop there. Next up at the top of the hill was Jon, Nikki, and Desiree with the encouragement to go the last .75 to the finish. Overall, it was a good race but that hill was just brutal. I was glad to finish and have a decent time for having missed several key long runs due to snowy weather. My official time was 2:26:06 but since I was using this as a training run, I could also go with my Garmin time of 2:23:20 which omits my stopped time while waiting for a bathroom at mile 9.5!

Just Getting Started

Well, I'm officially joining the blogging ranks. I'll probably be spending the next few days exploring and learning how to set up my layout and manage my blog. Please bear with me as I figure this out. Thanks!