Thursday, May 6, 2010

Ice Cream Taper? No way!


While my legs may be enjoying a taper from running, I'm definitely not tapering from ice cream consumption.  Does anyone else think I need to change my blog to Ice Cream Runner?  Geez...this is getting out of hand (and into my tummy...muhahahah.)  Of these 4 cartons (purchased on Sunday) I am 2/3 (at least) done with the strawberry cheesecake and the snickers.  Doing work, kids!

This morning I woke up early to head out for my tempo run that had been swapped from Tuesday.  I checked the weather per usual, and realized I needed to bundle up!  38 degrees, that's COLD.  I dug through some running clothes and found my light running jacket and gloves and was out the door.

I had 7 miles with 5 @ a tempo pace of 8:25.  Since it was cloudy/gloomy out, I didn't know how the garmin would fair (he tends to FREAK and tell me I'm running 11-12 mm when the clouds are out).  A half mile in to the warm up, I knew I had made the right decision with swapping out my runs, mid-run.  Especially during taper time, there's no sense pushing too much.  My legs felt great!

First two tempo miles were kind of all over the place as my body was searching to find that "groove."  Dare I say it, but shorter tempo runs are *hard*.  You have much less time to hit/find that magical pace.  At the turn around (3.5 miles) I decided to set my virtual partner on my garmin to 8:24 (apparently I've had BQ pace on my mind, and was oblivious to the 8:25 my training called for....silly brain :p).  This helped dramatically!  I was worried that the VP would be effected in the same way that my average pace display is when cloudy, but it was spot on.  Hence why my splits were a lot more consistent the second half.

I ended up with 7 miles in 1:00:21 for a pace of 8:38.  My tempo pace was 8:20.  Heck yes!  (P.S.  I can't WAIT to run a HM post-marathon to see if my legs have any legit speed left in them!!)
1. 9:30
2. 8:29
3. 8:15
4. 8:19
5. 8:23
6. 8:16
7. 9:06

Don't you just love how the cool down mile always feels sooooooo slooooooooow and ends up being at a pretty decent clip?  I sure do. :)

Now if you'll excuse me, there's a carton of ice cream yelling out my name.
Amanda at Run To The Finish is doing an awesome {shweaty, just my style!}giveaway.  Check it out!

13 comments:

Heather said...

All that ice cream looks so delicious, I need some!

Anonymous said...

I LOVE ice cream and you know this!! It is not nice for you to tease me and put ice cream up here when you should know I don't have a freezer that freezes ice cream in my dorm :(

I literally want to buy a freezer for next year just so I can have ice cream and frozen fruit. We should start a collection so I can get one hah. Because I am Ice cream DEPRIVED!

Anonymous said...

I LOVE ICE CREAM.

I wanted to leave my comment at just that…but, well, I also wanted to say awesome tempo! woowoo. I, too, get excited for 'shorter' runs when training for the longer races to see any improvement with those.

Jamie said...

I have been craving ice cream but haven't managed to get myself to the store to buy some more. Nice job on the tempo run!

J said...

Ice cream? Your body is just craving calcium, huh? ;)

Anonymous said...

If you're the ice-cream runner, I'll def change my title to "Froyo Runner" - and we can bond about our addictions. ;)

nice tempo run! careful with the post-marathon ambition though - be nice to the legs!

J said...

It was 40 degrees here this morning! I am not used to having to put on all my layers! Great job on the run! I am addicted to ice cream too! But i really cant have it at night when I plan to run the next morning - its just not a good combo!

Anonymous said...

Nice tempo girly! I've been thinking about using the Virtual partner but I'm still confused by it. I tried it once and just got annoyed.

You deserve every single spoonful of that ice cream! Enjoy it! :) You better double stock up for your week after the marathon! The only thing I ate for 3 days was 7 layer bars, I couldn't eat normal food for some odd reason. ha.

Cannnnnot wait for your race!!

X-Country2 said...

I'd have that Oreo one gone in a heartbeat!

Anonymous said...

damn those ice cfream cartons look FABULOUS!!!!

Mica said...

Ha, why would anyone ever taper from ice cream? That would just be silly, painful, and unnecessary!

Short tapers--I love that they're over quickly but hate myself while doing them...

Anonymous said...

I LOVE ice cream!!!!!!!

Susan said...

Ummm, I definitely don't participate in an ice cream taper...ever.