Also our weather has just been attrocious. Wind wind wind. When I was younger (and very tiny) my dad used to tell me to put rocks in my pockets to keep from blowing away on the way to school, at track meets, going outside to play. Well this week I'm half tempted to take his advice, geez Louise!
Monday I had an easy 10 mile on the schedule, and really, I just had to laugh. Since when is a double digit run an easy run? This should get to count on my long run section of my spiffy graph I like to create, right? (Sidenote: I just spelled graph "graf", my bwain is bwoken.) Office hubby and I were a-bitchin' about the wind before leaving work, as he was getting ready to do a 7 miler. We said our goodbyes and hoped to not blow away.
I started the run into the wind, per brilliant Glenn's suggestion (ok to be honest, this was merely coincidental that I ran into the wind to start, b/c running from any other direction from my apartment is MAJOR hills, which is a no go for Jerbear). I swear to god there were moments that I was running at a standstill. The American flags along the route looked like they were going to whip right off the flag poles. Luckily, I really wanted to keep this run in the easy peasy pace category, because my legs were still tight from Saturday's 18 miler.
I was beyond excited to hit my halfway mark, because it meant that I would get to enjoy the wind. Wheeeeee. I jumped HIGH into the air, and was carried quickly and effortlessly back to my apartment by the wind. No rocks here! When I checked the weather report when I got home the winds were in the mid-20s with gusts up to 45. NBD.
I did 10 miles in 1:36:08 for a pace of 9:37.
1. 9:34
2. 9:51
3. 9:43
4. 9:45
5. 9:42
6. 9:34
7. 9:32
8. 9:28
9. 9:27
10. 9:28
On the drive home from work on Tuesday I was smacked in the face with the worst headache ever. Apparently all this wind is stirring up the pollen and depositing it in my nasal cavities. Thanks! I closed my eyes because my brain was throbbing, and before I knew it 2 hours had passed. I popped some Ibuprofen and headed to the gym for my speed session. Somehow the winds were even worse on Tuesday (gusts of 50-60 mph, you've gotta be joking me, right?)
I hit the treadmill to do my speed workout of 4 x 1600 m. @ 7:52 pace with 800 meter jogs in between. I was also supposed to do a warm up and cool down mile with an additional 800 meter jog to total 9 miles, but with my brain swollen to the size of Mt. Rushmore (or so it felt) I said naaaaaaw.
This workout made me want to race in a bad bad way. Screw this MARATHON TRAINING I want to go FAST! My legs were definitely burning the last quarter of each mile, but it felt good to work up a hard sweat. (It goes without saying that I sweated out an Olympic sized pool, no?) Also, for the 1/2 mile jog, I walked for .05 then jogged at 10:00 pace for the .45.
I did 7 miles in 1:03:07, but more importantly, held an avg. pace of 7:44 for my 4 mile times.
| Warm Up | 1 Mi | 9:40 | 9:40 | 9:40 | |||
| Interval | 1 Mi | 7:38 | 17:18 | 7:38 | |||
| Recovery | 0.5 Mi | 5:36 | 22:54 | 11:12 | |||
| Interval | 1 Mi | 7:44 | 30:38 | 7:44 | |||
| Recovery | 0.5 Mi | 5:34 | 36:12 | 11:08 | |||
| Interval | 1 Mi | 7:48 | 44:00 | 7:48 | |||
| Recovery | 0.5 Mi | 5:50 | 49:50 | 11:40 | |||
| Interval | 1 Mi | 7:48 | 57:38 | 7:48 | |||
| Recovery | 0.5 Mi | 5:25 | 1:03:03 | 10:50 |
I got to spend Wednesday night with N, and apparently it's been awhile since I've been to Minnesnowta. Dude, there's no more snow! When did that happen!?!?!? There's weird green stuff on the ground. Totally through me for a loop. Also, I've never done the drive to his place during daylight, it usually is dark as I was leaving work. It's a pretty entertaining drive. I saw a miniature pony farm, what appeared to be a collection of windmills (ha! go figure, theme of the week=wind!) and many many windtowers. Windtowers are kind of HUGE, how did I not see these before??
I also watched my first episode of American Idol and only wanted to slit my wrists 2 1/2 times. Luckily N kept me entertained (and back from the ledge of jumping) with sweet Michael Jackson dance moves during commercials (the kid cracks me up...seriously...).
As I tweeted about earlier, I'm looking for suggestions on how to get him to attend my marathon. I've brought it up a few times (probably 1,000) but have yet to push him for an answer (because the guy can't decide ANYTHING in advance, yes it's highly annoying as I plan everything to a T. You've seen the spreadsheets!). If you have any advice, or suggestions, I am all ears. As of right now, I have a "sales pitch" of sorts that I'm working on. He's out of town enjoying some Twins baseball games so I'm tempted to pitch it to him while he's happily drunk. Jk. Kind of.
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