Long Run Fail + T Swift Makes me Swift

Saturday morning I had my first 20 mile long run on the schedule.  I procrastinated as long as humanly possible (which was fine because I was content to wait for it to "warm up" outside) and finally set out.  I was going to do a ~4ish mile route on some hills before hitting the bike trail for an out and back 8.  I started running and immediately my stomach was mad.  My stomach is almost always mad, so I didn't think much of it.  I assumed that it would chill out within a mile or so.  Nope.  Two miles in and I was trying to focus on my breathing to keep from accidentally puking on the side of the road.  Well this is neat.  I was looking at my garmin approximately every .25 miles and thinking that at least 5 miles should've passed in that time. My pace was slow but felt like I was working my butt off.  Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Run.  Just call me Alexander.  ;)  By the time I got back to my place at 4.15 miles I called in quits.  I decided that I'd rather do a hungover run after Halloween than deal with the "I'm on the verge of puking train" for another 16 miles.

Now looking back this was a seriously delusional idea.  I rarely go out anymore, so my poor body cannot handle crazy nights out on the town, thus causing my body to take ions to recover.  The bar we ended up at on Saturday was extra smokey, and I think that caused my body to revolt.  I was seriously soooooo sick on Sunday.  I had to nap during halftime of the Packers game, and spent a majority of the day in the horizontal position.  Needless to say that 20 miles was not happening.

But the good news is that Halloween was super duper fun.  I exclaimed, "oh my god!  I looooooove HALLOWEEN!!!!!!" no less than 72 times on Saturday.  Seriously what a great holiday.  I love people watching and checking out some seriously clever costumes.  The best pick up line of the night (if I was keeping track, which I guess I was apparently):  Now I know why Amelia Earhart crashed her plane...... I think it was those booty shorts.  I almost died laughing.  Well played sir....well played.  And while no one gets to see a Jerbear booty this year,a tame version is just as well.  And yes I had to cut my friends out of this photo because there costumes were slightly on the offensive side.  :/

Monday after having two days off from running I was itching to get in a run.  This week is supposed to be my cut back week, but I decided that last week would be since my week ended up a solid 16 miles short.  (BTW, my mileage for last week was 26.2 miles in 4:00:24.... so random, and if I'm that close to breaking 4 hours in Vegas and don't, I'm going to quit running and become a showgirl.... you heard it here).

So this week I have only easy paced runs with a 20 miler thrown in on Saturday.  I love when your legs are super refreshed and the easy pace is much quicker than normal.  It was the most beautiful day for a run.  It was in the mid 50s (perfect shorts and long sleeves weather Aron!).  My legs felt super springy and everyone out on the trails was in the happiest mood.  Everyone was smiling and waving.  I was grinning like a baffoon and dealing out smiles and waves all over the place.

I spent the first 2.5 miles of the run listening to Taylor Swift's Haunted on repeat.  It was getting a little ridiculous.  I tend to have major obsessive tendencies when it comes to songs.  The last couple of weeks whenever Foo Fighter's Everlong came on I would listen to it at least 3-4 times in a row before I'd move on to something new.  Anyway, T Swift was putting me in the mood and keeping my legs quick, so I went with it.  When I got to the 5.5 mile mark, I decided to put it back on the song, to end with 5/8 miles jammin' out to her.  No more than one time through the song my iPod just shorted out.  I had to start laughing.  Apparently it's had enough.  Noted.  :)

I ended up with 8 miles in 1:13:22 for a pace of 9:11.

Editted to add:  I plugged my iPod in Tuesday morning to give it a quick charge to hold me over for my morning run.  And nada.  No lighting up.  No syncing to my Mac.  Taylor Swift killed my iPod.  Rest in Peace little green. :'(