Friday 9th, 2011 – 3.12 Mile Run

The continued prayer is, “Lord keep me focused. Keep my mind stayed on You. Help me to bring You praise. I know You believe in me. Please help me in my unbelief. Amen.”

This was an interesting run. I didn’t expect to enjoy it so much. I also didn’t expect to run 3 miles.

Because I was with the kids, I could only run in my neighborhood. This meant that I had to run laps… back and forth from cul-de-sac to cul-de-sac and yes, it’s typically as boring as it sounds.

But I had to get this run in. Not because I particularly wanted to but because in my last post, I got a reprimand from Coach Dion.

Don’t get me wrong, Coach Dion is super cool, but he keeps me grounded and he calls me on it when I’m settling for mediocrity.

In my last post, I mentioned that I hadn’t run in several days because it had been so cold. Coach, in his wonderfully diplomatic way, told me I needed to get myself some winter running gear, something I would be excited to wear so I would be motivated to get out in inclement weather to see how well it works.

Reading between the lines, what I read was: You’re in Southern California!!! Get off of your ass, Girl and get it MOVING!!!!

Well, he’s not just “Dion”, he’s COACH Dion! And when Coach tells me to get off my ass, I usually do. Even though he is literally half a world away, he still kinda scares me a little bit.

So I put a leash on the dog and decided to run some speed intervals. Because one thing I’ve learned after 2 years of running is that a boring route becomes an awesome route with two things: hills or speed intervals.

So I power-walked Sarah from my house at the tip of one cul-de-sac, all the way to the tip of the other cul-de-sac (approximately a .35 mile distance) and ran back home (same distance) at my 5k pace. Sarah’s pretty fast, so I was essentially racing her back home.

It was really awesome. I was only going to do one lap but it was such a great run, I did it four times. I pushed pretty hard and it felt good. Another reason why I always listen to Coach Dion, He’s always right.

When I got home Sarah was exhausted. Poor little lady. But she hung in there and I’m sure she’d be up for going again with very little persuasion.

I got out the door a little later than I’d like and when I run so close to bedtime, I usually have a hard time sleeping. I will frequently allow a late run on a Friday because I don’t usually have an early rise on Saturdays so a restless night is a far less serious thing.

Usually when I have a hard time sleeping, I just deal with it. I spend the entire night staring at the ceiling and trying to get as much rest as I can even if I don’t get much actual sleep.

On the rarest of occasions, I’ll have a tiny glass of sherry before I go to bed. Now, I’m not a drinker by any means so a tiny glass of sherry is enough to make me drowsy. And when I say, “tiny”, I mean TINY. I have it in a proper sherry glass, which is essentially a tiny wine glass that only holds 2oz of liquid. It’s cute, isn’t it?



I really enjoy a good California Cream Sherry. Mmmmm……
It’s smooth and nutty. Goes down very nicely. But it does make me thirsty hours later so I typically have restless sleep, even when I do have sherry.

A friend introduced me to Melatonin. It’s a hormone that your body produces naturally to induce sleep. Melatonin increases naturally when the sun goes down and teaches your body to feel sleepy when it’s dark and decreases when the sun rises so your body knows to be awake during the day.



This is an artificial hormone and it is used to treat insomnia. The blind are often prescribed Melatonin to train their bodies to recognize regular sleep cycles.

Melatonin can be had OTC and is safe to take over short periods, although I know people who take it everyday. It really helps bring on a good night’s sleep when I run too late and I wake up feeling refreshed.

After my run, I had some pasta for energy, 2 prunes for… you know, and Naked Juice brand Coconut water. Coconut water promotes rapid hydration and has high levels of potassium which guards against the cramps that I sometimes get in my feet after a run.



This one also contains Lychee juice. I have no idea what a Lychee is but I wanted to try it because the Naked Juice brand is considerably cheaper than the Zico brand. This one was fine but it wasn’t great. Largely because coconut water is kinda hard to take if you’re not ready for it. I drink it gladly and it keeps my cramps at bay.

I still have a mango-peach flavor to try, so I’ll do that one with my next run.

All in all, a good day and a GREAT run. Thanks again, Coach!!!