Tough as Nails*

*Not me, the run.  Uff.

Tuesday night (speed work night) had me doing 9 miles, with 7 at a tempo pace of 8:44.  Nine miles and speed work should never be allowed into the same sentence, just sayin'.....  I contemplated running outside vs. hitting the gym.  Because of the flooding and some trail maintenance, the bike trails are closed near me.  Also, I live in a bit of a valley, so no matter which direction I run, I end up having to run some pretty decent rolling hills.  7 tempo miles + wind + hills = ahhhh hell no!  Gym it is.  Unfortunately, I don't know if this was a better choice or not.  The gym was so hot and humid.  So many sweaty bodies (mine included) made for not so awesome conditions.

I'm going to be honest, this run was tough.  One of the toughest I've done in a long time.  I even tried to work the magic with my brain where I tell myself that I ran a full 13.1 miles at a 8:34 pace...but ya, the brain just didn't want to hear it.  I think I was probably dehydrated and fairly underfueled, which didn't help the situation at all.  Also, my legs were tight.  Holy cow.  Not sure if the 20 miler is still in them or what, but they sure didn't feel as fresh as they normally do for speed workouts.  I ended up bargaining with myself that if I could stick out the 7th tempo mile, I could forgo the cooldown mile, and opt for a cool down walk until my heart rate returned from skyhigh to normal.  I'm really good at making deals with myself.

I ended up doing 8 miles in 1:10:44 for a pace of 8:51 (tempo pace:  8:43).

1. 9:38

2. 8:37
3. 8:47
4. 8:49
5. 8:42
6. 8:50
7. 8:43
8. 8:35

While we were out on St. Patty's Day my old roomie mentioned that she was thinking of doing a HM in Vegas this year.  Of course I freaked out.
Jeri:  OMG!!!  THE VEGAS RNR?!?!?  I'm totally doing that!  You should do it! You should do it! You should do it!

Um ya.  I was slightly excited.  She's not a runner, but wants to get into shape, and I totally think she can do it.  We're going to have a powwow soon to sit down and talk about what she wants to get out of training, what she wants to put forward during training, etc. so I can mold a beginner program for her, as well as give her a rough guideline to follow for base building.  Is there a market for running coaches for newbie runners? Because I think that would totally be my niche.  Oh wait, I'd have to actually be a certified coach?  Um..ok.  But I love getting other people inspired to do something they're totally terrified of doing.  Very fun.

In other exciting news, while doing some race searching in my area (btw, seriously my faaaavorite thing in the world to do, other than cuddle HA!, is to plan out my racing schedule), I stumbled upon something exciting.  My schedule from May's marathon to September's HM is pretty wide open, and I had plans to run as many 5ks as humanly possible, along with another HM if it worked into my plan.  Well I found out that the group that put on the 5k that I won last year (whoot whoot!) is expanding their race day to include a 10k and a HM.  Given the small field from last year, I'm guessing they'd have a similar turn out, and is plenty of time after the marathon to give it a go.  If I could place in my AG for a HM, I could probably retire as a runner (jk...kinda...ha).

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