New shoes...new shoes.... Jerbear's got some new shoes...

Did you guys ever sing the new shoes song in grade school?  Apparently my classmates did in kindergarten (I didn't move to the town I graduated from until 4th grade) but we still would jokingly sing the song every.single.time someone was sporting some new kicks to school/gym/games/etc.

While I was out sick with the ninja death star flu, I had a package delivered to work.  Because I live in an apartment, I tend to have everything shipped there.  The receptionist who received the package is from a different part of my agency, so I don't work very close with her so she doesn't know me very well, yet when I walked in the office after being sick, she handed me the package and said, "I didn't bother calling you because I figured it was just more running shoes."  Hahah.  Awesome.  And she was right.

Not only that but they are the exact same running shoes I'm currently sporting.  After Vegas, I had a minor running shoe snafu.  I had a pair of Mizuno Wave Rider 14s (I'm currently wearing the 13s) sent to me with a pretty swell discount (Thanks LC!) except that the shoes felt like bricks on my feet and were huge!  Of course we didn't have the shoes yet in our town, so I couldn't try another pair on to see if I just had a wonky pair or what.  Finally weeks later we got the shoes in and I realized that the shoe I had was normal and it just ran big.  And the next half size down was too small.  And both shoes felt like bricks.

No biggie, thinks my brain, I'll just find some of the 13s to tide me over.  Except..... THERE WEREN'T ANY!!!!  SWEET MOTHER OF JESUS!!!!!!!  Panic attack grand freak out would be an understatement.  First I was being picky about the color selection.  Purple and gold?  Eew.  I'd rather run on glass shards barefoot (sorry Vikings fans.... wait.... no I'm not! :p)  Blue?  Already had those.  Red... meh.  But then I quickly realized that there were zero size 8s left on the entire planet.

Luckily since I'm a super internet sleuth, I did manage to track some down from a company I had never heard of.  They were super cheap, and I got free shipping on them.  Score!  They still feel a bit rock like compared to my nice broken in pair, but they'll get the (long run) job done.  I feel a little sad retiring the blood soaked pair because they make me feel like a super b.a. so I'm still wearing them for muddy runs. :)

I was really trying to show off how much of the tread I had worn down over the last 400+ miles, but my photography skills leave something to be desired.  Ho hum.

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Saturday I had a 16 mile LR on deck for training for Fargooooooooo.  Based on the current weather 1 degree, wind chill 10-15 below, I opted for the treadmill.  Not to mention that our city has been a solid sheet of ice all week long and it's snowed Friday and Saturday to hide the slippery ice.  Sooooo not cool, weather.  ::shaking my fist in disgust and outrage::

Let's just say I had zero motivation to head out for my long run.  Someone woke me up by tearing my sleepmask off my face (someone else = Jerbear was furious about this FYI).  Then someone was kicked out and told to come back after I had garnered the rest of my beauty sleep.  So procrastination #1 of the day:  naptime immediately following wake up time.  From there I ate 1/3 of a bag of soft batch cookies, watched Real Housewives of Miami, Top Chef, gave myself a manicure, and created a new long run playlist.  Finally I had nothing left to procrastinate with other than cleaning (and you know that isn't happening) so I got crack-a-lackin' for my run.  "Oooh!  I want to measure how long my hair is!!"  Guess I wasn't out of things to procrastinate with.... (16 inches in case you were curious.)

Don't act like you're not impressed.  That's WITH my haircut from last week.  P.S.  Check out my manicure.  :)

Upon arriving to the gym, I was stoked to see that Tom was knocking down some mileage on the treadmill.  Yayzies!  Tom is one of my running buddies (we've only really ran together once on accident, but he runs, and he's my buddy soooooo running buddy... yup).  I plopped down on the treadmill with him and chatted away 3 miles.  As soon as he was done (after knocking out a monster 14 miles on the treadmill, heck ya!) I realized my stomach was feeling.... wonky.  I preceded to stop the run about every mile from there.  I drank some water, thinking that might help (I was sweating buckets).  I ate some sharkies thinking that might help.  I decreased the incline on the treadmill.  Finally after 6 miles I called it good.

I got in my car and I was pretty defeated.  There's a sense of pride in finishing a super long long run, and I was bummed that I had given up on it (although not without multiple attempts).  When I glanced down at my dashboard at a stop sign I perked up a bit.  This is super cheesy, but it reminded me that a botched long run is not the end of the world and to focus on the big picture:  26.2.  [cue cheesy inspirational music a la Full House]

Check out the Studly Runner Marcia's Zensah bra giveaway here!

I'm all googly-eyed for running lately.

Friday at work, I couldn't wait for the clock to hit 5 so I could skidaddle out of there and go for a run.  That's been my attitude lately:  when's work going to be over, I wanna run!  It's insane and I'm loving it.  On my rest days, I'm itching for a run.  Usually after a run, I'm itching for another run.  I have a fevah!  And the other prescription is more running!  Luckily for my body, I don't actually listen to my brain, but I think the new training program I semi-concocted is really helping to shake things up and get me excited about my training.

Anywho, Friday I had a 5 mile pace run to do.  I thought this would be my redemption run from my similar run from Wednesday.  After consulting my training program, I realized I actually did do Wednesday's run correctly, as it was supposed to be a tempo paced run (7:54-8:15) vs. a straight 8:15 pace like I had thought.  This run was an 8:15 paced run.  It was hot.  And humid.  And I don't usually hack hot.  Or humid.  But I'm on this crazy runner high insanity so I trotted out the door grinning regardless.

After my initial warm up mile, I kicked up the pace a bit and tried to settle in to the magical goal pace.  My Garmin was no help as it was showing 12:00 minute miles.  Thanks G!  Despite the heat, this run felt 1000x easier than Wednesday's.  And my splits were so much more consistent.  And surprisingly, my average pace was lower as well.  Figure that one out, won't you?

I did 5 miles in 41:51 for a pace of 8:23.  Race pace miles avg. = 8:02.
1. 9:37
2. 8:09
3. 7:58
4. 8:08
5. 7:56

Saturday morning I had a 12 mile long run planned.  The forecast showed thunderstorms for the morning, so I slept in.  And it was good.  Of course when I finally rolled out of bed, I realized it hadn't been storming, and that I probably should've been done with my run, because it looked like it was going to storm any minute. Oopsies!

After reading some SoDak peeps' daily mile entries from their AM runs, I gathered that it was swimming weather outside (aka 90+% humidity), so I dug out the handheld water bottle.  Waaaah.  I hate running with that stupid thing.  My arms get so tired.  (Please don't mention that running with a 12oz. water bottle shouldn't make my arms tired, and that I should implement weight training, because lifting is lame. :p)  It really didn't take much convincing since I could recall last weekend's horrific 10 mile where I thought I was going to die I was so thirsty.

I was smart, and only filled up the water bottle half way, since I knew there were water fountains every 2 - 3 1/2 miles on the trail, and I could easily refill when necessary.  Less ounces = less tired arms = happy Jeri. :)  It was definitely muggy out.  I started off the run at what felt like an easy pace.  I assumed that my legs would be tired from Friday's speed workout, and would chill because of it.  Yeah, I guess not.

I was totally doing that goofy runner grin on my run, because I forgot how much I love just running.  Yes, I adore speedwork, because I love to run fast and push myself, but there's something to be said for a long run where you can just zone out and let your legs do the work, and you don't have to focus on your pace (also you don't have to go back and edit your extreme run on sentences, because this is long run la-la land, ya know?).

There was some walk going on so the trails were packed, and it was so great to see so many families out walking together.  A couple of the middle miles were a little windy and my pace slowed down a little bit, but other than that, my pace was very consistent throughout.  The last 4 miles, the rain started to come down.  Which was awesome.  No more mugginess.  Have I ever mentioned how much I love running in the rain?  Because I do.  :)  Especially when I'm already completely soaked from sweat.  I stopped twice to refill my handheld and to take some GUs, but otherwise just trucked along loving life.  The final mile I realized I had a lot in the tank, and just decided to run hard.

I did 12 miles in 1:50:50 for a pace of 9:15.

1. 9:09
2. 9:18
3. 9:17
4. 9:18
5. 9:18
6. 9:33
7. 9:28
8. 9:14
9. 9:16
10. 9:15
11. 9:07
12. 8:37

I know this post is already monstrously long, so here are some pictures with very few words from our local celebration:  RibFest.

RibFest 2010:  Too much meat.

Love this shot of ze boys.