Runner's Christmas + Random Musings

When I came home from work on Monday, I opened my mailbox to runner's delights spilling out!!!  A pair of compression socks from Oxysox (review to come later) and a pair of Yurbuds that I won from Jill.

Yes, it does appear that one leg is longer than the other, no wonder I have so many random aches/pains.

Wednesday I could not bring myself to run my tempo run or my mile repeats, however, a bike ride sounded like the bee's knees.  I had planned to do an out and back on a portion of the bike trail for ~14 miles.  When I had 13 miles down, I decided I wanted to keep going to hit 25 miles.  Of course I made this decision while the wind was at my back, so I was hating life the last remaining 6 miles.  Sick.
Random musings from the ride:

• When I don't have my iPod I have the same song on repeat in my head. For this ride it was Katy Perry's Teenage Dream over...and over.... and over.... And the worst part is that I don't know the words/lyrics to the song.  This excerpt was this one on repeat:
• I might get your heart racing
  In my skin-tight jeans
  Be your teenage dream tonight
  Let you put your hands on me
  In my skin-tight jeans
  Be your teenage dream tonight
• Except this is what was actually playing in my head:
• Hmmm hmm hmm
  in my skin tight jeans
  hmm hmm hmm teenage dreams tonight
• Hmmm hmm hmm
  in my skin tight jeans
  hmm hmm hmm teenage dreams tonight

• I saw a guy biking with a bike helmet on (good) but with the chin strap unhooked (not good).  I wish I knew what his reasoning behind this was.... "Hmmm if I fall, the odds of me falling at x angle should give me 98% protection against the blow of the concrete to my cranium."  Perhaps he had this train of thought after a previous fall sans helmet chin strap.
• More cleavage on the bike path.  Apparently I need to get the ladies OUT....more aerodynamic er something.
• I suck at doing math while working out (not brand new information, mind you).  I ended up doing 24.5 miles.  I suck.

I did 24.5 miles in 1:39:54 (14.7 mph).

Thursday I finally sucked it up and decided to do my mile repeats.  Although I did take it down from 5 to 3, because really, who needs 5 mile repeats??  [shudders]  Four last week literally almost killed me.  I  had to hit up the treadmill at the gym, because -news flash- the sun sets ridiculously early now, and Aaron has yelled at me far too much about running by myself at dark.

The repeats were tough but not terrible, and I honestly could've squeaked out another, but was very hungry.  Mental note:  You sweat a lot at the gym.  Please keep this in mind when selecting shorts to wear.  Please stick to navys and blacks to avoid broadcasting your severe swass to the entire gym population.

I rocked my repeats in 7:23, 7:25, 7:25.

Check out Miss Zoe's giveaway!!

August in Review

Total Miles: 115.9  up from 102.3 last month. (Last August 136.6)

Total Time:  18:22:53 up from 15:55:59.  (21:09:52 last August).
Total Runs: 15 for an average of 7.73/run (slacker!)

Highest weekly mileage: 8/23--8/30:  35 miles
Favorite run: The day that running cured my crabbiness.

Most hardcore run: 4x1600 m. repeats.  Uff.

Favorite Race:  Urban Wildland Half Marathon.  Super fun course and new (by the skin of my teeth) PR.
Bike Miles:  72.6. The trails being flooded for 2/3 of the month didn't really help this number.

Favorite Jams:  La Roux--Bulletproof (obsessed), OAR--Shattered

Tuesday morning I set out to do an 8 mile tempo run with 6 miles at 8:01 pace.  As soon as I started my hips were pissssssssed.  They were still quite angry from the long run (yes! I should've iced bathed, I get it).  Once I hit the one mile marker indicating the end of my warm up and the start of the tempo run, I picked up the pace, and decided to tail some fast looking chica.  I was aghast when my first mile wasn't under 8 minutes because it..uh.. hurt.  It was around this time that fast chica must've started her speedwork and left me in ze dust.  And then we both got stuck because of flooded trails.  Signs from the heavens indicate that today is not the day for a tempo run.....excellent.  So I turned around, slowed way down and put in my easy 5 miler that's on the schedule for later this week.  Who says I'm a control freak and can't adapt to change?  Oh... I say that?  Very well then.....

I did 5 miles in 47:31 for a pace of 9:31.

Long Run + Frank the Tank

Because of the wedding on Friday night, there was no way I was crawling out of bed Saturday morning for a long run.  Although the temp at 6:30am was cold (=heaven) so I really wish I would've.  Saturday night I headed to a buddy's who was throwing a keg party (because we're 21 again apparently....jk love you!).  I decided to hang out for awhile whilst hydrating for my long run.  At one point the host complimented me on "really getting after it!" because I was chugging my drink.  And then minutes later, "waaaaait a second. Is that water!?!?"  Had you fooled fool. :)

Why yes, I did show up to the party in a Green Bay Packers shirt to watch the Vikings game.  And yes the host is a *huge* Vikes fan.  Heh heh.  That's how I roll.

Miss Amanda and I trying to not get carried away by bugs.

We totally could've been on Tool Time.

Melenade and I.

Sunday I was up insanely early.  I got out the door by 7am while it was still fairly cool out.  I'm always so pleasantly shocked when the bike trails are full of other happy runners and bikers on the weekends.  Makes the long run flyyyyy by.  I had wanted to do the 14 miles around 9:25-9:35 pace.

1. 9:37
2. 9:14
3. 9:34
4. 9:34
5. 9:44
6. 9:43
7. 9:35
8. 9:35
9. 9:43
10. 9:43
11. 9:41
12. 9:34
13. 9:25
14. 9:01

I took GUs at 3.5, 7, and 10 which seemed to work out perfectly.  Plus I didn't have to take my first drink of water until 2.5-3 miles in because it wasn't scorching out.  

I did the 14 in 2:13:50 for a pace of 9:34.

Mean:  9:34

Mode:  9:34

Median:  9:35

Jeri:  Giant Nerd.

I'd say it was a pretty consistent run overall, wouldn't you agree?  ;)  My only concern is that last year I pushed myself quite a bit harder on my log runs.  I tried to average 9-9:10 pace on all of them to be sure I would break 2 hours for the half marathon.  I was also running them as progression runs where I'd be running all out the final 2-3 miles.  This year I've been running them a lot more conservatively, but I'm concerned that I might be missing that mental edge of knowing that I can go bttw after running 10-11 miles.  We shall see I guess. :)

Monday I spent some time finalizing my marathon training program and posed some questions to my experienced twitter friends such as:

• Which is the best speed work session to do for marathon training?  Tempo runs, 1600 m. repeats or 800 m. repeats?
• Is it worth it to do a 22 mile long run?
• Am I crazy to do another marathon?

Ok just kidding about the last one.  we already know I am loco.  But what are your thoughts?  I know you're all much wiser than I when it comes to MARATHON TRAINING so please weigh in.

Tempo Run with an Empty Tank

Coming off my Sicky McSickerness I decided to do my 8 mile tempo run with 6 miles at 8:05-8:15 pace.  My stomach was no longer a jumbled mess, but my throat was still screaming.  I figured it was going to scream whether I was on the couch watching tv or out running, so I chose to head out the door to save my sanity.  I was actually pleasantly surprised at how good I felt considering I had barely eaten (and kept down) any solid food for two days, but the cooler temps helped big time.  I put in my warm up mile, and while doing so, some dude screamed out, "on your left!" as he was passing me on foot.  Oh no he di-n't.  As soon as my warm up mile was done, it was go time.  Operation:  pass smug runner dude.  And success.

1.  7:48 (oops catch + pass smug dude = too fast)
2.  8:05  perfect-o.  I could run this pace forever.  (did I really just think that?!?!)
3.  8:16
4.  8:27  death.  slowly setting in.
5.  8:31  hold me.

During the 4th or 5th tempo mile I got to calculating my daily calories.... somewhere in the neighborhood of 400-500 (since I hadn't been able to keep anything down until late afternoon).  Uh... no wonder you're on E (not the party/rave/glowstick E, or the trashy celeb gossip channel E! but out of gas E).  I decided to just slog through a slow 2 mile cool down instead of attempting another poopy doopy tempo mile.

I did 8 miles in 1:11:57 for a pace of 8:57.  Avg. tempo pace = 8:13.  What?!?!?!  So I apparently failed to do the math on that until now.  I guess I hit my goal pace then even with the sucktastic miles.  Thank you smug runner guy for being my rabbit.

Friday night one of my co-workers got married and I took no short of one million photos of one of my other co-worker's baby.  I also took a pic with my office (ex) hubby, for Lauren, but we both look like FREAKS so I will spare the world wide web of those.  :)

I Do + I Don't (Enjoy Mile Repeats)

Another reason I went home over the weekend (other than to have legions of shenanigans with my BFFF) was one of my favorite classmates was tying the knot on Saturday!  It was hot hot hot out out but a beautiful ceremony and reception and an awesome wedding dance.  My madre was my date and we had a blast.

Before we left the house I realized that I looked like I was going to prom.  Of course we then had to take a photo of me in front of the corn field next to the house.  Nothing says prom like crops.

Me and the BFFF before the dancing shoes came out.  Literally.  I wore gorgeous (insanely tall) yellow heels for the wedding and reception and rocked my black Nike flip flops for the dance.  Classy I am.

Mini photo shoot in the town bar that's technically in a basement.

Besties with the groom.  Love that guy.

Taking a break from the dancing.

We looked like twins with almost matching dresses.

1/4 of our graduating class. Yes you read that correctly.  I was in charge or rounding up the rest of the classmates after this photo was taken to get a pic but I forgot until noon on Sunday.  Ooooops.

Upon returning home, I realized I was missing one Garmin ANT stick.  At this time primary suspects include dog and/or cat.  It appears to be an inside job.  If you can provide any information as to the whereabouts of this missing item, please contact me.  Also, if anyone has an extra/old ANT stick they want to just give me, I'll totally pay for the shipping.  Grrrrrr.

Tuesday night I had the scariest workout on my entire half marathon training program.  4x1600 m. repeats at 7:28-7:45 pace with 800 m. jogs in between.  I tend to have a hate-hate relationship with mile repeats.  I hate doing them.  and I hate that I almost always end up sucking at them.  The weather was a cool mid-70s and I knew I didn't have any excuse for failure.  I ran a warm up mile and then got to work.

1.  7:26.  Wow that was hard. (twss)

2.  7:35.  Wow that was even harder.

3.  7:39.  I swear that was faster than the last.  Don't fail me now legs!

4.  7:48.  Ooops.  Legs = bricks.  

Average mile pace:  7:37.

When I got done with the run I was a little bummed with my paces, so I decided to check my running log to see the results of my last mile repeat session.  And that's when I realized that I've done exactly one successful mile repeat session in the last 9 months.  And my average pace for 3x1600 was 7:40.  Progress.  I had joked all day long that my workout was going to make me puke, and I was pretty close.  All night I was nauseous and not hungry at all.  This is pretty typical with really difficult workouts for me.  Imagine my surprise when I get to work and I feel ever more sick.  After consulting with a co-worker, I realized I probably have the flu, so I'm lucky I didn't spew all over the bike trail.  Now it's just me and Glee chilling on the couch while I'm on the mend.  Good thing today is a rest day.

Run? More like a wet t-shirt contest.

Friday I skidaddled down to River Boat Days (RBD10) to spend the night with Sheana (BFFF).  I got to town, we gussied ourselves up, and hit the town.  It is tradition to destroy eat many disgusting items of fair food between the two of us.  This year we were classier than previous years, taking down some cheese curds and a funnel cake.  Last year we devoured funnel cake, gyros, deep-fried Snickers (and I'm sure some others that I don't remember).  There was also a bout with food poisoning.  This year was much more successful only in the sense that I didn't almost die. :P  

We got our annual powdered sugar mustache photo.  And throughout the night thought it would be a great idea to take many cheesy senior picture inspired photos.  Enjoy.  :)

After shaking our tail feathers for a spell. :)

The fireworks show was a.ma.zing.  So good!  I have a soft spot for fireworks, but they were really impressive.

Tonight I had an easy 6 miler on the schedule.  It had looked like it was going to rain for most of the afternoon, so I knew I needed to hustle otherwise I was going to get caught up in it.  I changed and ran out the door.  From the time it took me to change out of my work clothes and in to my running clothes, the temp had dropped at least 15 degrees, and the humidity had lifted majorly.  Hey-o!  It started to sprinkle and I was a-ok with that.

The first 3 miles were pretty slow and easy going.  My iPod was dead, so I left it at home, and it was beautiful listening to the rain hitting the trees/leaves covering my head.  When I got to the turn around point, the skies opened up and dumped down on me.  Within a minute I was drenched, and for once it wasn't from my profuse sweating....score!  There was a full mile where I was running in to the rain and wind and it was blinding me.  As much as I love running in the rain, it was kind of a pain in the ass.  My shoes were drenched and were at least 20 pounds each.

I finished up the 6 miles in 59:46.  

Long Run Fail

Since I'm heading home this weekend for a wedding and other shenanigans that means long run shuffle-a-roo.  I had originally planned on running it this morning at 4:45am but then I realized that the sun doesn't show it's face until 6:30 and running on the trails for 9 miles in the dark is a bit frightening.  Then I decided I could just handle them after work.  No problem, right?  Tuesday night was beautiful, surely Thursday would be as well, right?  Wrong.

It was in the high 80's with high humidity, causing the heat index to be ~92.  Aaron agreed to run the first 3 with me and then be bike/pit crew for my last 10.  Yay for running buddies!  I slowed my pace down to accommodate for the heat, but didn't take any fluid until 4.5 miles in when I stopped to Gu and drink.  When I got going, I immediately felt light headed/pukey/ready to faint.  I decided just to walk the 1.5 miles home.  Long run fail.  :(

I ended up with 4.7 miles in 46:01.

I still have a 7 mile tempo run scheduled for Sunday night (hopefully post-hangover....yes it'll be one of *those* weekends.  Your good friends only get married once...hopefully.) and debated about doing the 13 instead of that.  I think at this point in my training, I'm confident in my endurance and would benefit more from the tempo work.  Plus I still have a 14 miler and 12 miler left before the Sioux Falls half.

Once we got back to the apartment, I wasn't ready to call it quits completely, so we grabbed Princess Leia and hit the trail for almost 14 miles.  I was out of g-a-s for the last 3-4 miles.  Holy cow.  But biking in the heat is not nearly as brutal as running in it is.  Ick.

And in other obsessive Dear-God-I-Love-my-car-news, I've been marking off "firsts" like most new mothers do with their newborns.  On Tuesday I had my "first" sweaty car ride after my speed work session at the track.  Incidentally, this was also the "first" time I sufficiently stunk up my car (won't be the last.... I'm a stinky/sweaty runner...).  Wednesday marked my "first" time getting and enjoying a starbucks.  This weekend will mark my "first" road trip in my baby.  If I purchase a baby book and try to convert it to a car book, someone please step in.......