Confessions of a Runner

I have a confession that some of you may not know.  And it's a bit of a dirty one.  Ok.... here it is:

I hate to shower.

Gahhhhhhhh, I know.  I'm a runner, what's wrong with me?!?!?  Now before you go labeling me the "smelly kid in class," rest assured that while I hate showering, it doesn't mean that I don't shower.  For me, it really boils down to the fact that I hate spending time getting ready.  I can shower at night and my hair will still be wet in the morning, hence why I don a braid to work 5/5 days per week.

And really.... I don't mind being dirty/sweaty/somewhat smelly as long as there's no one around to witness it.  Kind of the "if a tree falls in the woods and no one's around, does it make a sound?" effect.  In my opinion, obviously....nope!  Heaven help me if I should ever become a recluse ala J.D. Salinger.... :/

My showering schedule revolves around two things:  my running and being around the public.  But because of my hatred for showering, I will do my damndest to not shower twice in a day.  Seriously.  I consider it a personal failure.  Poor planning.  Waste of my time.  And most of the time I do pretty good with my no two-a-day shower plan.

Well this summer I've been failing miserably.  See.... I've been running on the weekends, obviously, and then heading out to the waterpark in the afternoon to drink back my long run calories.  Naturally being all sweaty for the second time that day requires a second shower.  But in these instances, the good far outweighs the bad.  So I deal.

Today was no different.  After being holed up with the flu the past 2 1/2 days, I was itching for a run before work.  I went out on an easy 4 mile run.  Not altogether shocked that my legs felt like crap and I felt like I was breathing through a straw thanks to the 98% humidity.  Yes, 98% humidity.  Kill me now.

I did 4 miles in 39:22 for a pace of 9:51.

I showered up and went off to work.  While sitting at my desk counting down until I was done working, I realized, "Crap! I'm going to have to shower AGAIN tonight!"  There's no way I'm waking up early for work, so clearly a nighttime shower was in order.  Had to pacify reason #2 for showering:  the public.  Can't be the smelly kid at work.

But then I thought to myself.... well.... since you have to shower anyways..... why not head out for run #2 too?

Well...

That's a delightful idea.

Yeah, I wanted to get in some of the mileage I missed when I was on my deathbed, but really, I wanted to justify my second shower of the day.  And I did.

3 miles 27:17 for a pace of 9:05.  4x100m strides (6:37, 6:14, not sure, garmin messed up and says :37.... I doubt it....hah..., 5:41)

Thank God the  humidity was out in full force to really make that second shower worthwhile.

Now someone please tell me a secret equal to or more gross than mine. :)

First Double Day + Long Run Report

Busy weekend = no blogger/running update. It also means that I haven't had a chance to upload any data from G-man to my computer, so any times are from memory.

Thursday night was my first official double run. Thursday morning I did a kick ass tempo run, and had planned to do an easy 4 miler after work Thursday night. After battling a horrendous headache all day at work, my ibuprofen finally kicked in and I had a super fun run. There is an "outdoor campus" pretty close to my place, and I see people running on the trails there when I start out on the bike trails, and decided to check it out. I figured running on dirt would be just what the legs needed/wanted for run #2 of the day. I was right, it was awesome. I felt like a little kid running through the dirt trail deciding at the fork in the trail whether to take a left or a right, laughing to myself when I'd come full circle without realizing it. I could've ran on the trails forever. Except that it was getting dark out, and I'm slightly directionally challenged without the sun to guide me, so I high tailed it out of there once the sun was no longer visible through the trees. I did have a chance encounter with a raccoon that almost scared the pants off of me. After 2.25 miles there, I decided to run a short route around my apartment area to make it an even 4. Let me tell you, running on dirt really slows you down. My pace for the first 2 miles and change were around 10:15-10:30. The last part was closer to 9-9:30. SUPER fun though, and will definitely be back for another easy run. I think the legs will thank me.

Friday was Taylor's brother's rehearsal dinner. Food was good. 1 glass of wine + 1 short glass of beer over a 5 hour span (much better than the drinking fest that was the last two weekends) was good. Company was good (two of Taylor's HS friends were back in town, and they're two of my favorite friends of his). I somehow convinced Tay that 1am was a good bedtime, and I didn't have to go to the final bar of the night. Unluckily for me, Taylor had been drinking since 10am when the groomsmen went golfing, so he was a snoring machine. I promptly kicked him out of bed, and was bright eyed and bushy tailed for my 7am long run wake up call.

I snagged a banana to eat on the way back to town and had decided to start my run at a different spot on the trail since I had to drive back to town anyway. It was super fun to switch things up, even though about 3 miles of the 10 mile run were on the same part of the trail that I run all the time. I decided to take this 10 miler easier than last week's. Most of my splits for the first 5 miles were right around 9:10. The next 2 I aimed for 9:00 and the last 3 I ran as hard as my legs wanted to. Which ended up being around 8:45-8:50. My overall time averaged out to a 9:00 mm pace. I had a blueberry pomegranate GU Roctane around mile 3.5 and I think that's the best flavor I've had yet. It was pretty tasty. :) I'm trying to think of any weird sightings that I had throughout the run, but I must've been zoning because I can't think of any.

Edited to add splits from the G-man:

1. 9:29 2. 9:06 3. 9:10 4. 9:07 5. 9:12 6. 9:02 7. 9:00 8. 8:58 9. 8:44 10. 8:16

Saturday was the wedding and reception. It was a blast. Somehow I only managed to take one photo. Perhaps Foto Friday it will make an appearance. :) I am still in recovery mode today from the festivities, so lucky for me I have a rest day today. Yay for shuffling the schedule last week!

OH! I also hit 100 miles for the month during my long run. I totally forgot about it until I was entering it into my running blog. I feel like I should've done a celebratory run/dance/shuffle at .4 of the long run, but alas. Maybe next month. :)