A tale of the tootsies

It appears that the general concensus after yesterday's post is to MOVE.  Dually noted brilliant friends.  I've always wanted to move to Portland...........

Anywhosits....

No this post is not about me and my glitter farts....  I know I talk a lot about my toes.  I'm really surprised there aren't more foot fetish-ists out there following me around.  After the Fargo Marathon, I had the most excruciating pain under my big toenails.  I could actually feel my heart beating underneath them.  Prior to the race, I knew that they were each 1/2 turning purply/black, so I figured there wasn't much I could do about it.  But the pain I was in was excruciating.  I couldn't wear anything other than flip flops for a few days after the race, because the nail had come up off the nail bed, and any pressure on it hurt soooooooooo bad.

Last week, I finally took off my highlighter pink nail polish to see the damage.  ::shudders::

KK is so grossed out by them, that he has to cover them with a blanket whenever he's in close proximity to them.  I tried to turn them in to art to help:  Look Kyle.... they almost look like a sky as a terrible storm is rolling in.  Kind of pretty, right?!?!

No dice.

I need to get my pedicures in now while I still have my nails.  Anyone know if I could get a 20% discount if I'm missing 20% of my toenails??  Fingers crossed they hold on through sandal season!
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Last night I took off to do my first tempo run since early May.  You know..... back when I finally decided that tempo runs AREN'T the worst workout in the world..... well.  uff.  They're still tough.  I did 6 miles with 4 at tempo pace of 8:10.  Usually I give myself a +/- 5 seconds on the goal pace.

It was roughly the most beautiful night for a run (aptly placed after me bitching about the weather... nice, eh?).  After the warm up mile was done, it was on.  My legs refused to slow down.  My thoughts toggled between "meh.... maybe I'm faster than I think I am!" to "Sweet baby Jesus I'm going to crash and burn!" 

The results erred on the sweet baby Jesus side, but not too bad.  The speed was definitely there, where as my endurance was lacking a bit.  The last mile and a half were tough!  Also, when I wore my garmin during the night of extreme heat, it ended up getting some moisture inside, so my "lap pace" isn't spitting out the correct time.  There were times I was running WAAAAAAAAY harder (see 4th mile of tempo) than I needed to be because I thought I was running much slower.

Tempo miles:  7:58, 8:11, 8:16 (with a turn around, aka I don't quite believe this split), 8:00.
Average tempo pace:  8:07.  Win.

It was really cool to look up some heart rate info after the run to see where it *should* be for these runs and where it *actually* was.  Pretty spot on!  Except for the first two minutes of my warm up......

Attention heart rate monitor:  I do not believe that my heart rate was 238 after running for 120 seconds at a 10 minute pace.  Please check yoself!  (After adjusting where it was at on my chest, it was fine, but I had to laugh when I looked down and saw that... uh... shouldn't I be dead?!?!?)

First Post-Marathon Run + Half Marathon Photos From Deep in the Archives

Thursday night I set out for my first run post-marathon.  I'd like to say I was cautiously optimistic, but really I was just cautious.  I was extremely excited to try out my new heart rate monitor (Thanks TARA!) that came in the mail.  If anyone has any good reads on heart rate monitor training, please send them my way!  I had originally extended a cordial invitation to Kyle to join on the run, thinking that non-distance runner Kyle pace and Jeri's post-marathon pace would probably be somewhat similar.  Instead he wussed out.  (jk lol if you're reading this KK, although I'm sure you're not). 

I dashed out the door for a nano second forgetting that I was 4 days out from the 'thon and then was VERY QUICKLY reminded of this information.  Uff.  Sore.  Tight.  I slowed way down and was just tuned in to how things felt.  After the first 1/2 mile I seemed to warm up a bit, then the last 1/2 mile my IT bands got extremely tight, lending to some sore hips.  I had my screen of my Garmin set to HR, so I didn't know my pace, which was probably good.  I was extremely happy that I didn't have any shooting pain in my knee.... that's been my main concern given it's issues post-race.

I did 2 miles in 19:50.

I was cleaning off a folder on my work computer and stumbled across some old half marathon photos.  These photos were taken at the Sioux Falls Half Marathon in 2008.  This was my slowest half marathon to date (2:19:57), and I think I completed approximately 12 training runs total in the 12 weeks leading up to the race.  I was also a little bit hefty.  But hey, at least I'm still rockin' the GREEN!  Enjoy.

At the start.  Lap around the track.

Through Falls Park.

Evil look.... 2 inch stride.  YAYZIES!

I think I have 5 photos of me in this exact spot from the 5 of 6 years my parents have spectated this race.  That's kind of cool. OMG a through the years flip book is TOTALLY happening.

This photo accurately portrays how I felt during this race (around mile 9).

My best side. Haha. Man I loved those shoes.

Finishing sprint.

Slightly glad you can't see the finish time.  jk.

My roomies sporting the green. TEAM GREEN! :)

Notice the fam wouldn't touch my sweaty mess of a self.