Marathon Training Begins

Week one of marathon training is done. check! I was talking to my running friend, Kristin, and she was asking if marathon training had started already. And I told her yes and that I was so excited about it. It quickly dawned on me that I wanted to start training for a marathon approximately 4 hours after Twin Cities was complete last fall. And then my body wasn't having it.

I am beyond excited to put in some hard work and see where my fitness can be in the next 4 months.

One of the runs that I look forward to the least was on the schedule on week one (I should fire my coach! jk, I am my own coach). I had 8 miles with 4 at tempo. Not only do I hate tempo runs, but they are so much harder in the summer heat and humidity. I adjusted my tempo pace slightly to accommodate for the heat, and set out thinking if absolutely necessary I could do a few minute recovery in between the first 2 and second 2 miles.

As I was running I realized that I often give myself an out on these kinds of runs--stretching at the turn around, recovery jog, retying a shoe, stopping for water, etc. The point of these runs is the continuous harder effort to allow the body to learn how to push out the heaviness that accumulates in the legs during these faster paces. I typically sell myself short when I give myself an easy way out. So I put my head down, and worked. And I survived, and felt like a bad ass for it.

Sioux Falls Half Marathon Training Week 5

Tuesday morning I ran to the yoga studio for run club and got my middle tempo miles in with the group before running home.

And after work I got to enjoy some rooftop yoga downtown. Yoga studio mirror <<<outdoor view.

Wednesday night I did an easy shake out run at run club before yoga. 

And then we did a fun flow outside in the SUN! 

Thursday I took a read day, and Friday I was up super early to run long. I had a great run, especially for not having run long for... Probably six weeks?? 

Saturday Kyle and I joined a group that were riding the new Sioux Falls race route. Kyle agreed to ride the half route, so we peeled off the group around mile seven. They gave us doughnuts pre rice. Excellent fuel.

Sunday I debated and debated about going to barre, but eventually opted to go. And it was awesome as always. 

Sioux Falls Half Marathon Training Week 2

Tuesday I woke up early to join the running club at the yoga studio for some early morning miles. I ran there, did a 5k tempo run and then jogged home. It was a thick humid run.



Thursday morning I was up early for power vinyasa yoga. Somehow it was my first yoga class in 2 weeks; no wonder it felt so hard!

Thursday night I was back at the studio for a barre class. Whoop.

And some more barre Sunday morning. I'm a bit obsessed.

And because I'm actually insane, I ran to and from barre. I love that my run home, recovery pace was faster than my run there because my glutes were awake and alive after class.

And Sunday night I went to a magical unicorn restorative class. I stopped going to Sunday night restorative during football season because class kept conflicting with the packers games. Needless to say, I'm back. Heaven. 

Weekly Training Recap

I promised myself I would get out of bed for the last week of ashtanga yoga. So 4:45am I was up and at em for class. It was so cold out that by the time I got back after class, I snuggled up with Kyle and Ollie in the covers and fell back asleep until 9am. Can every day be like this?

Wednesday I woke up early for class again and I already miss my early morning ashtanga crew!

After work on Wednesday I hit the running group for a tempo run. I almost went sub 9 for a 5k. Whoop.

Friday I had the day off so I attended ALLOFTHECLASSES. Starting with a shake and flow class at noon.

And then I was back to the studio a few short hours later for an awesome power vinyasa class.

Saturday I considered running after work until Ollie made it very clear that she wanted to snuggle with her mama. I listened.

Sunday I woke up early for a super stellar power vinyasa yoga class.

 I had every intention of running right after, but somehow that ended up being 6 hours later. Oops. I did manage to run my longest run since the marathon in Bemidji (what?!?!) and at a great pace for me.

Weekly Training Recap

On Tuesday I did a quick tempo run to and from barreamped.

Tuesday's barre class was small and was tough as usual. I have no clue how I ran faster on the way home than on the way to the studio. Must've been that power I gained from the booty work.

Wednesday I managed to get out of bed for 5:30am Ashtanga yoga. I'm going to miss working on the primary series when this session is over!

Wednesday night I was messing around and showing Kyle a flow series, and ended up pulling a rib out of place. I did this at the beginning of yoga teacher training, and it had FINALLY healed, but one chaturanga later, I was back to where I started. I had to take Thursday, Friday and Saturday off to rest it.

Sunday morning I went to an awesome power vinyasa class. There were some uncomfortable moments in class, and I skipped chaturangas, but overall it felt great to be back on the mat.

Bemidji Blue Ox Marathon Training Recap Week 6

I took a rest day Tuesday and started off my runs on Wednesday with a bang. I drove to the bike trail to run my tempo run and was all excited to snap a gorgeous picture of the moon as the sun was starting to rise. But as I got out of my car, there was a girl sleeping in the car next to me, and I was afraid she'd think i was snapping a pic of her. So here's my face instead, again.

I had seven miles on the schedule with five at tempo pace of 8:48. I didn't eat breakfast before this run and didn't bring any fuel along with me, and I really started to feel it the last two tempo miles. I was totally pooped. Hard early morning workouts require snacks, memo received. I still squeaked out an average tempo pace of 8:49.

Thursday was a rest day and Friday was supposed to be my 20 miler, but in looking at the weather for Friday vs. Sunday, it was a no-brainer to move my long run to Sunday. So I headed out for a hilly 8 miles Friday late morning to get in some heat and humidity acclimation with my hilly run.

Saturday was supposed to be an easy 5 mile recovery run to get me to 40 miles, but my knee was feeling slightly wonky after the hills on Saturday, so I opted to rest it up for Sunday's long run. Thankfully all was well for almost 3.5 hours of running on Sunday. Phew. Still wish I would've snagged a 40 mile week though!

I babbled all about Sunday's long run here, so I won't bore you again.

Speedy Two a Day + Weekly Wishlist

This week has been a struggle for me.  I just staretd my taper, but my mileage isn't really cut all that much, which I'm ok with since training has lasted approximately 6 seconds.  Unfortunately, almost all of my miles come this weekend, so I FEEL like I'm tapering like crazy.  Three miles on Monday, tempo run turned 4 mile pause to dry heave on the side of the bike trail.  And when I don't run I don't sleep.  GAH.

Finally Thursday night I set out to make up some of my missed miles from being sicky.  Since 6 of the missed miles were supposed to be at tempo, I decided to do a fast 3 for run #1.  Ok, technically I was going to do a one mile warm up and then 2 miles fast.  But I failed at a warm up mile.
8:19
7:41
7:43

Someone remind me of this workout when I'm whining about mile repeats at a slighter faster speed but with JOG BREAKS IN BETWEEN THEM.  Geez Louise, I'm a wussy sometimes.

I sat through class, letting my muscles get all sorts of cold and tight, and then when we were dismissed I hit the streets for another 3 miles.  It got me thinking.  What if you could go run every time you had a few minutes to spare.  How many miles could you get in during the day?  (assuming you could sit in your own sweat/stench throughout the day, obvs.)  I bet a lot.  I'm not going to try, that's for sure.

I did another 3 miles in 27:39 for a pace of 9:12.  A bit faster than my normal easy pace, but my legs were lovin' it.

This weekend I have a poop ton of miles to run, and then the taper really gets going next week.  Rumor has it, Jenn, Megan, and my Philly marathon race day shirts are in, and spoiler alert:  you won't be able to miss us on the course.  YAYZIES!

Buy it here.
I think beanies are just a little bit useless around these parts.  I mean, if I'm wearing something on my head, it will be covering my ears, my ginormo forehead, and 3/4 of my face, because sweet Jesus it's cold.  But if I lived somewhere it was "pretend" cold, I'd totally rock this.

Buy it here.
I sure hope someone was able to take advantage of the Kate Spade sale yesterday.  Because I sure didn't.  Love this yellow bag.  Pretty safe to assume that if I can stash away enough $$$ that a yellow Kate handbag will be mine this spring.

Buy it here.

If this delightly little 'arry Pottah mug showed up in my Christmas stocking (yes I have a Christmas stocking, quit judging my Holiday CHEER AND WONDERMENT!) I wouldn't be upset.

1000 miles + Twin Cities Marathon Expo

My ideal start to a weekend is a Friday off, and cool morning temps for a tempo run.  Ok, just kidding, I will probably dread tempo runs until the day I die, but the cool temps make it not quite so terrible.  Plus, I knew as soon as I was done, it was off to see SUSAN in the Cities!  Yippee!!


I had 7 miles with 5 at goal tempo pace of 8:15.
1. 9:39
2. 8:15
3. 8:11
4. 8:13
5. 8:15
6. 8:04
7. 9:15


7 miles in 59:54 for an average pace of 8:34.  Average tempo pace was 8:11!


Yes, I do think that would be the definition of "killed it."  :)  Usually I lose my mind on tempo runs, so I gave myself a free pass to "pat myself on the back."  According to DailyMile, apparently I had side stitches during miles 2 and 4 but I've already long since forgotten about that, I guess.  Hmm....

When I got home and was logging my run I realized that I had hit 1000 miles for the year.  That’s like icing on top of an already delicious and decadent cake (ie:  right up my alley…..mmm).  Of course I had to google stalk myself to see when I hit it last year….. 8 days sooner.  S.O.B……

After I was showered up and packed it was off to the Cities.  I’m known for getting lost while traveling, and assumed this adventure would be no different.  Imagine my surprise when I arrived at Erika’s doorstep without having to use a single minute of my “30 minute I’m bound to get lost” cushion! 

I finally got to meet Susan, and she’s just as nice/fun/goofy as she seems on her blog, aka she’s a big fun dork like me!  (I mean that as the highest level of complement, Susan, promise!)  We went to find some foooooooooooood and then hit up the Twin Cities Marathon Expo.

When we got to the expo, Susan had wrangled us some VIP passes for the weekend along with invitations to the reception on Friday night.  Race/run with Susan and you become a big deal, good to know!  We grabbed Susan’s bib and were immediately reminded of her running blogger celebrity status when the volunteer asked her if she was Nurse on the Run.  Seriously… it was too awesome.  Not to be outdone, 2 or 3 other readers came up to her while we were at the expo to introduce themselves.  It was seriously so cool.

photo borrowed from Susan, taken by me, so I figure it evens out. :)

After not depleting my bank account (I have no idea who I was this weekend, I didn’t spend $$$$$$$$ it was crazy), we hit up the reception and realized that it was primarily for vendors partnered with the marathon events and elite runners.  I’m willing to bet I have the slowest marathon time of the group…. FYI.  While there we ran in to Hannah who handles the social media for Twin Cities in Motion and asked to take a pic with us “big time running bloggers.”  Thanks for the ego stroke Hannah!  Also, thanks for the new blog to add to my reader!

quick! who has longer hippie hair?  me or susan?!? :)

Saturday we had planned to lounge around to rest up for the big event, so the only thing on our agenda was Susan’s shake out run.  Yikes.  Susan’s “easy” run  = my 5k race pace.  Should be interesting….. :/  She hooked me up with this sweet I <3 Sweat shirt, but secretly I think mine should say I = sweat, so naturally we had to match during our run.

We started off the run and I realized she wasn’t going to kill me, thankfully, and we chatted away.  Until I hit a speed bump.  Literally.  No denying that I’m a klutz.  FYI this is why I’ll never be a trail runner.  I wish I would’ve had the fall on video because I’m guessing it was INTENSE (=hilarious).  We continued on, but I think Susan was afraid I was trying to kill myself to get out of running with her, because our pace slowed a bit.  Ha.

uh...oops.  ouch.

We did 3.06 miles in 27:54 for a pace of 9:08.  Thanks for hanging with me!

Uff + August in Review

This morning I rolled out of bed ready to take on my last "tough" training run before the half.  I had a tempo run on deck, and if my memory serves me correctly, the last one sucked.  I checked the weather and was pleased with the mid-70s and glossed over the fact that the humidity was 100%.  My eyes must've been tired because ZOMG 100% HUMIDITY, IMMA GONNA DIE.  RIP JERBEAR.

It was kind of cool running through the dense fog in the fact that you felt like you were the only person on the planet.  It was not cool in that it.... was.... not cool.  Icky.  The air was thick.  I've learned to start my tempo runs on the slower side so my heart rate doesn't shoot through the roof, and attempted to do the same today after my warm up mile. 

I'm not sure if it was the fog or what, but my garmin was all over the place with my pace.  Not so much the first mile, but definitely in the second mile.  Granted my pace is not spot on, but I toggled between 7:47 to 8:30.  I really couldn't find a "groove."  I was ready to throw in the towel on mile 4, hense my crappy split, and then tried to push it the final mile, but really that kind of sucked too.

I did 7 miles in 1:01:15 for a pace of 8:45.  My tempo miles were, 8:16, 8:27, 8:28, 8:37, 8:21.

I'm a bit concerned because this pace is closer to the pace I planned to run for the half, but I had hoped to run it without feeling like my heart is going to explode.  :/  It's been a while since I've done a speed workout in THAT intense of humidity, so I forget (or perhaps blacked it out of my mind) if the humidity really affects the heart rate that much, or if I just suck and should stop running for.ev.er.... :P  Naturally, instead of giving me any semblance of confidence, I'm now 1000% freaked about the race and my goal time. 

BRB in the midst of a runner's panic attack!
_____________________

August In Review

Total Miles: 114.5 down from 131.1  last month. (115.9 miles from August 2010.)  Somewhat annoyed with myself for skipping so many runs when I was in Alabama, especially since my back was all out of whack the next week.  Oh well that's life. :)

Total Time: 18:04:30 down from 20:54:08 last month. (18:22:53 last August.)

Total Runs: 19 for an average of 6.02/run.

Highest weekly mileage:

8/1/2011 — 8/7/2011:

39.0 Mi

6:12:38

Favorite run: The hilly run where I ran to Kyle's softball game.  It was nice and cool and felt fabulous out, and I wasn't a sweaty mess when I arrived at the game.
Most hardcore run:  Meh, this morning's *should've* been hardcore.

Favorite race: The CMN State-A-Thon 5k.  PR PARTY/SMART RACE/WHOOT!
Bike Miles: Another goose egg.
Favorite Jams: I downloaded 3 new songs to listen to on my tempo run this morning, and my stupid iPod claimed they were loaded but it lied.  Maybe THAT'S why the run was so poor.  ;)  One was Nicki Minaj's Super Bass, I can't remember the other two.

Search Terms have Gotten a Little Risque....

It's that time again, time to reveal some of the prime apples for how you fine folks make your way to my blog.  Without even trying, I seem to sense a general "theme."  Please let me know if you see it too.

• foot fetish portland
• rain boots for sex
• male nipple stretching

Hint:  Bowchickabowwow.

When I was getting ready for my tempo run on Thursday, I realized I looked like workout Barbie.  Or whatever her dark-haired friend equivalent was.  My hair was super curly for work, so when I put it up, I looked like one of those girls.  You know... those girls with full hair and make up that come to ellipticize at the gym aka turn all the men's heads.  *cough*jealous, I'm a sweaty pig*cough*. 

And then I headed out for a tempo run, that frankly scared me, 7 miles, with 5 at tempo pace.  I've realized that when I start my tempo runs at pace, my heart rate soars, and me and the ol' puke threshold get chummy reeeeeeeeeeeal fast.  With that information tucked in my brain, I opted to take the first couple of miles on the easier side of the tempo pace and then kick it up the last couple.

Which would've been fine and dandy except my garmin's battery died midway through the run.  Meh.  My legs felt like junk and my tempo pace wasn't feeling nearly as strong as it typically does so it was probably for the best.  And I got to enjoy the remaining miles with the fireflies illuminating the bike trail.

I did 7 miles in 1:01:48 (by my close approximation) for a pace of 8:49.

Tempo miles:  8:10, 8:19, 8:21, 3:57 (half mile 7:53 pace). 

Friday morning (roughly 8 hours later) I was out of bed to run again.  There was swearing (only in my head, as I live alone and don't want to be the crazy lady..... yet).  I was excited that it was around 70 degrees out so I wore a SHIRT v tank top/no shirt, in the first time in forever.  Eew, should've checked the humidity.  97%.  Might as well have been raining out there.  Sweat city!  I rewarded myself with Starbucks for my early morning running efforts, but I'm to the point where I just need a pumpkin spice latte to further spur my reason for existance.  I miss it so dearly.  PSL come back to me!  I wonder if Kyle yet knows that literally everything in the world can be fixed in my eyes with a PSL.  I should give him that memo.

And just because it's cute, I found a random flower at work (ok full disclosure, a co-worker tossed her wilting flowers, and I fished a not-so-wilting one out of the trash) and decided to make it my new accessory.  I would wear a flower in my hair everyday of my life if I somehow had access to them.  So cheery!  Hippie flower child at heart, I know.

Professional Treadmiller

Naturally last night while I was laying in bed I remembered dream #2 that I completely spaced when writing up the Dream post from yesterday.  No no.... I couldn't possibly wait to see if I could recall it, I had to post that blog ASAP.  Strike while the iron is hot! Get it while the gettin's good. Etc.

Anyway, since I know you were all on the edge of your seat in anticipation for secret dream #2, here it is.  It was May 2012.  I know this because I was arriving to take my second crack at the Green Bay Marathon.  For some reason they had swapped out the course, and it was now a point to point marathon.  We had to take school busses to the starting line.  No big deal, except that my bus was late.  As in we were all sitting on the bus begging the bus driver to leave and take us to the start.  It was raining and he was afraid to drive.

By the time we did get to the start, it was noon.  Roughly the time I'd like to be finishing up an 8am start marathon.  Swell.  I got to the starting line and realized that the race had started 10 minutes ago, so I was left all by my lonesome to run.  The rain was coming down in torrential sheets (I'm guessing similar to LA this year).  I was running with a legit stuffed backpack, because I didn't have time to check my bag.  All along the first few miles there were vendors selling items to the runnrs.  But not running related items,  persay.  Like craft fair-esque goods.  People were stopping their race to barter for goods!

When I made it to mile 3, I stopped to call Kyle and tell him what horse $#!T this race had turned in to, to realize that all the essential items I thought were packed in my backpack, were not actually there.   No GUs, no hand held water bottle.  Instead I had a never ending supply of random nicknacks and chotchkes.

So yeah, I'm already having nightmares about my marathon.... 10 months out.
[This post would've been way cooler with a J. Rose illustration of this insanity... :D]

Wednesday night I hit the treadmill for my 4th consecutive treadmill run (egads, I know!) for a tempo run.  FYI tempo runs still terrify me, however, they terrify me less since I've ran a 10k.  Since they're usually near my 10k pace, and typically not longer than 4-5 miles (as of right now anyway) I know they're doable.

I had 6 miles to do with 4 at a tempo pace of 8:01.

Helpful treadmill running tip #4 (sure, yeah, #4, we'll go with #4):
Watch the food channel.  Don't ask me why but time just FLYS when you have a good food network show on.  I'm thinking about food 99% of my runs normally anyway (really 99% of my life, who am I kidding?) so I see nothing wrong with some visual aids to assist in my food fantasies.

I did my warm up mile nice and slow and then I was off.  One thing I've learned about tempo runs is that starting mile #1 at pace causes me to lose my mind.  That immediate upswing of the HR causes me to think that I'm going to D-I-E before I make it to .75.  I've started taking my tempo runs just slightly slower than my goal pace for the first 1/2-1 mile.... only by a few seconds, and then making up the difference over the next few miles.  Helps TREMEDONSOULY.

The tempo miles actually felt really good.  During the 3rd one I almost convinced myself to stop for a breather and to take a drink of water (random fun fact:  I can read novels on the treadmill, but I can't drink water while running), until I looked at my heart rate monitor and realized my heart rate was where it typically is mid-long run (mid 150s).  the last tempo run I did I was consistently at 180 for the last mile and a half.  That helped to tell me to suck it up and keep going.

I finished 6 miles in 51:14 for an average pace of 8:34.
My tempo miles were 7:58, 8:02, 7:59, and 7:59, for an average pace of 7:59.  (I think I must've hit the autolap wrong on miles 1 & 2, because 1 was definitely slower.)

I left the gym on cloud 9!  For some reason I feel like treadmill runs are more bearable when you have a purpose to your run, specifically speedwork.  It's so hard for me to take on an easy "get in the miles" sort of run, but interval for my runs or a tempo run aren't the worst thing in the world.  Am I alone?

Finally get a break from the treadmill and the scary heat tonight. 85 degrees has never felt so cool.

P.S.  I totally stole the battered copy of Runner's World with Kara Goucher on the front.  Don't tell on me.

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!
_____________________
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?!?!?)

Running Tidbits from 2007 + Gnat Attack

Attention!  This post was "lost" on Thursday when Blogger was down.  If you've already read/seen this post, my apologies...no sense seeing my gnat covered sweaty neck more times than necessary.  :P

Saturday after the race I was bored and not feeling the greatest (I have the tendency to feel really feverish after I race), so I was just bumming around the apartment watching Project Runway and Gilmore Girls reruns.  I decided to do something productive:  manually enter my 2005-2007 running logs on to the Runners World log I've used for the past 4 years.

Here are a few gems I found in the process:

• It's very clear I did every run as a race, going as fast as I could.  
• I was a good 20 pounds heavier 4 years ago.
• My running times reflect that, at times.  Other times I'm shocked I was able to haul that quickly with that much extra weight on my frame.
• Actual comment on one of my runs: Felt like I was going to barf up my BK the whole run. saweet. I feel like I shouldn't have been that surprised.... I stopped eating fast food a couple of years ago (with the exception of DQ...mmm.... b/c it destroys my stomach.... I can only imagine how it felt to run after eating it.  Sweet Louisiana!

Also, I'm super duper bummed that the Runners World log only goes back to 2007. I guess I'll have to hold on to my paper running log, and excel spreadsheet from 2006 just a wee bit longer.
_______________

Wednesday night I went out for my last speedwork session before Fargo. I was super amped up to do a tempo run, and I wasn't really sure why. They usually freak me out! When I realized that it was 5 miles (with 3 at tempo pace) instead of 6 miles (with 4 at tempo pace), I got even more excited! Easy peasy! The first thing I noticed is that the +30 increased temperatures from Saturday's 10k made it much more difficult to breathe properly for a hard workout. Throw in some heavy humidity, and my lungs felt like they were dyyyyyyyyying. Luckily my legs felt just dandy. I cranked up my iPod so I couldn't hear my deathly gasps for air and off I went!
The hardest part about the tempo run was the cooldown mile. I could not, for the life of me, slow down to an easy pace. I know I know... waaaaaaaaah....woe is me....... etc. etc. But to go from a low 8 minute pace, a 9 minute pace (aka marathon pace) felt like I was walking! (Yes brain, drill that in.... 9 minute pace feels like walking.....)
I did 5 miles in 43:16 for a pace of 8:39. Tempo miles average: 8:13.
1. 9:30
2. 8:20
3. 8:13
4. 8:06
5. 9:09
There was much less gnat activity of the trail than Monday night, so I sucked it up and took a picture after my run. Then I immediately scrubbed the little buggies off before I stretched. Ick.

OOOH! And I also got my hairs hacked off (maybe 4") to make me super fast, and a new darkerhue to up my intimidation factor. I attempted a pre-run photo shoot in my bathroom (AR's fave!  If only I had thrown up a peace sign pose....drat!)


Attempted pose: Intimidation.
Actual pose: Someone's lost her lips.


Attempted pose: Intimidation.
Actual pose: Eating and also smelling a sour lemon.


Attempted pose: Intimidation.
Actual pose: If a rat were a human with rage.

Plus you can barely see my hair color because the lighting in my bathroom is so poor and the shower curtain seems to match my hair. Woe is me.