I went over 900 miles for 2009.

Friday.  Was.  Awesome.  I think all Fridays should be half days with the afternoon spent at the theater watching a highly anticipated movie.  :)  Really makes for a great day.  I loved the movie (as was to be expected, because I really enjoyed the books), and turns out I'm Team Jacob.  Who knew?  I feel wrong for saying this because, he's only 17, but my GOD that boy is Hottie McHotHot.  Easily the sexiest Taylor I know.  Ow ow!  Haha.  Ok, I'm done being a hormonal teen now, as I am no longer a hormonal teen, and that's just not as cool as a 25 year old lady.

I was sitting by my manager during the movie, and during the previews, she was concerned, "I feel like I'm going to have a huge outburst when the movie starts going!"  To which I replied, "Guaranteed my outburst comes with Jacob's first shirtless scene!"  Well wouldn't you know, that came true.  Hah.

Ok, focus Jeri.  This is a running blog.  :)  So the other part about Friday being so great, is that I got done with the movie at about 4:30pm and it was time to go run....while the sun was still out!  It was awesome.  I had an easy 5 miles on the scheduled, but since I was a bit lazy on Thursday, I did 6 miles instead.  I mapped out a route near my old apartment and set off in a light jacket and capris.  EXPOSED FLESH!  Hurrah.  I had to run quite a ways to the west to get to my old stomping grounds, so I was literally running off into the sunset.  The sun was HUGE and gorgeous, so you gotta love that, right?

I don't know what my deal was, but even on the crazy hills for the first 2 and last 2 miles, my legs were just flying.  If I had to guess, I would say I was running 9:30-9:45 pace.  Boy was I wrong.

I did my 6 miles in 55:05 for a pace of 9:11.

1. 9:12
2. 9:16
3. 9:16
4. 9:17
5. 9:16
6. 8:46 

Uh ya...that last mile?  WTF?  I was hoping that the speedier than intended hilly/easy run wouldn't spell disaster for my 12 mile long run on Saturday.

I was the biggest loser ever Friday night, and passed out on my couch at 8pm....then quickly moved to my bed for a glorious 12 hours of slumber.  Apparently my body forgot how tired it got from running.  Also, it's probably making up for almost 2 weeks of no sleep.  Damn you insomnia!!

Ahem.  I woke up at 7:15am on Saturday morning (and yes, that was after making myself go back to sleep).  I was actually wide awake at 5am!  I had planned on taking advantage of the mid-50 temps around noon to do my long run, but then there was some schedule rearranging where I thought I was going to have to leave town around lunch, so why not start the run at 8:30am?  Suuuuuure why not?  Wind chill of 27?  No prob.

I actually ate before this long run (+2 points for me!) and got bundled up for my run.  I also had to figure out how to rig up my normal iPod as my shuffle is dead and doesn't have a charger since I stepped on, and broke the one for it.  (-2 points for me).  I know you're not supposed to run with those since they have movable hard drives, but I couldn't imagine going 12 miles without tunes.

I started off the run, and the miles were flying by with no effort from me.  And I started to get freaked.  These are the paces I usually rock the last part of my long runs.
1. 9:01
2. 9:01
3. 9:11
4. 9:04 

What are the odds that I'll be able to maintain this pace for 12 miles?  The answer to this:  not likely.  Extra credit answer:  You will probably die a slow and painful death via long run.
5. 9:11
6. 9:13
7. 9:08
8. 9:19 


I was just not into this run mentally.  The biggest thing I've noticed from my time off for my injury is that I'm not in tune to my pace anymore.  I used to be able to run within about 5-10 seconds of a pace without fail, and now my pacing is all over the pace.  I'm not too concerned, because I know that will come back, but I didn't realize how great it was to have that ability until it was gone.

The last part of the run was truly brutal.  It seemed like every mile just kept getting slower and brutally more painful.
9. 9:18
10: 9:29
11. 9:18
12. 8:55

I finished the 12 miles in 1:50:13 for a pace of 9:12.  Not a bad pace at all, don't get me wrong, because this was easily the worst long run I've had for as long as I can remember.  I just never felt "into it" like I usually am, I never reached the zone, and I just hurt for 90% of it.

When I got home, I checked the temp/weather/etc. and saw that the wind gusts were 25+ mph, so that was definitely some of the crap factor for the run, but I saw something else interesting.  When I got home, the winds were out of the SSW, but when I started the run, they were out of the SSE.  Well when I run, I run first to the east for 6 miles, than back home to the west for 6 miles.  I literally ran almost the entire 12 miles against the wind.  NO WONDER IT WAS SO BRUTAL.  Eff.

Oh well, I survived and lived to tell about it.  When I got home I filled up the bath, and had the most amazing ice bath ever.  It felt sooooooooooo good.  My legs are still really tight and sore today, so I can't imagine how bad they would've been without.  The other thing that sucks, is that my digestive system was just tore up big time during the run, immediately after the run, and for most of Saturday day and night.  I'm sure it was just that I haven't done a long run for 3 weeks, and my body was pissssssed at me, but wow, that's never a good feeling.

The one gleaming highlight of my poopy long run, was that I went over 900 miles for the year during the middle of it.  I totally forgot until I was about 5 miles in (I hit 900 at 4.4) so I did a little booty shake on the trail while running, because...well...why not?  :)