sweet sixteen

I ran 16 miles today! It's been a while since I've run that far.  Since Grandma's actually. Today's run went soooo much better than last week's long run. Let's see.....what was different?  Well,  I didn't eat a huge meal of oh so yummy rich food and booze it up the night before, and I also got more than 4 hours of sleep. I'm thinking that may have helped a bit. See? I ain't super stupid.

GarminElectra stayed with me for every mile. You never
know if she'll be interested enough to stick around for whole thing.

I ran the first 10 miles with the husband. He picked the route and let me go with him.  I tend to stick to the same routes and don't stray too far from what I'm familiar with (which equals boring but safe from the risk of getting lost); he's much more adventurous plus, he's not directionally challenged like I am.  It was a pretty clear cut route around a lake. It was a nice run.  It's funny how sympatico we can be - during mile five I felt the need to find a porta-potty.  PRONTO. As I was thinking that, the husband commented that he was feeling the same need. Isn't that cute how in sync we are?  And so romantic!!  And as luck would have it, we rounded a bend and - Ta Da!! - there was a porta-potty. I swear I heard angels sing when I saw it. We only got sort of lost once during mile 9 when we took a wrong turn in a neighborhood with all kinds of winding, confusing streets, but he got us back to the car safe and sound.

The place we parked the car was just over 6 miles from home. Perfect! So when we finished our 10, I walked the husband to his car and ran the remaining 6 miles home alone. Notice the final six miles are on a straight road. Keeping it simple (like me) and eliminating the risk of getting lost.  I ran with tunes for the first time in a long time (I usually only use my iPod when I'm on the TM) and I think it helped me to not have to listen to my labored breathing.  Remember when I  had a little tequila and downloaded a bunch of tunes from iTunes?  And remember my buyer's remorse and distain of "The Hustle"?  It turned out to be a good song to run to!! Who knew?? And turns out that my running app (iSmoothRun) pays attention to the songs that are played and the pace I run when each song plays.  So I learned that I ran fastest to "Push It" by Salt-n-Pepa.

Oh, and the ankle felt pretty good today!  I ran with my new inserts and they really seem to be helping. Whew!

If not for the wind, the weather would have been declared,"perfect for running," in my opinion at least. Dang, that headwind for the 6 miles home really sucked.  Other than that, the overcast sky and temps in the 40's...love it!

Here are today's splits.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	3:00:35.4	16.02	11:16
1	11:27.4	1.00	11:27
2	11:32.1	1.00	11:32
3	11:11.8	1.00	11:12
4	11:18.6	1.00	11:19
5	13:30.5	1.00	13:30
6	11:11.0	1.00	11:11
7	11:09.9	1.00	11:10
8	11:29.5	1.00	11:29
9	11:30.2	1.00	11:30
10	11:14.1	1.00	11:14
11	11:43.1	1.00	11:43
12	10:05.5	1.00	10:05
13	11:04.0	1.00	11:04
14	10:30.2	1.00	10:30
15	10:32.0	1.00	10:32
16	10:54.2	1.00	10:54
17	:11.6	0.02	10:33

Oh, and one other thing - When the husband and I got to the parking lot after the 10 miles, I REALLY needed to blow my nose.  No kleenex on either of us, of course. So the parking lot is in this little triangle between two very busy roads.... I went behind a shrub with my back to the road but facing cars in the lot and tried to discreetly blow snot rockets.  I looked up when I was all finished and in the car directly in front of me (visible through the shrub since the leaves aren't all out yet) were two people making out.  Big time.  At 11:00 in the morning.  Who does that??  Anywhoo, I don't know if they saw me or not, but I'm guessing not since they looked kind of.....busy.  Discreet snot rockets - mission accomplished!

heading to grandma's, week 6

Another week under my belt!  This week wasn't my best but it definitely reinforced things I knew (but chose to ignore), and provided some learning opportunities.  For an old broad, I sure make some dumb, non-commonsensical choices.

Here's the recap for the week.  Read and learn from my mistakes..... you know I'm here for you.

Week 6:  March 19-25

Poor colorless day 79.

Monday
Easy run of 4 miles at 11:34 min
Workout note: Felt horrible all day at work, had a low grade fever and chills.  When I got home, I went right to bed.  No workout at all for me, which means my "move 30 minutes every day" streak ended after 78 days. That was a bummer. So I'm starting over again.

Tuesday
Easy run of 5 miles at 11:34 min
Workout note: Worked from home, still not feeling too hot.  Besides being sick, I've been experiencing some heartburn along with TONS of PVCs and they are driving me crazy.  Even though I figured they're benign, the fact that I'd been having runs of them and wasn't feeling well AND had a 15 mile run coming up made me think I should talk to someone, just in case.  I was right, no heart worries, which is great!  But the PVCs are still really bugging me.  My resting heart rate is pretty slow now, so I'm likely just noticing them more.  Got out with Jane and ran 5.07 miles at 10:35 pace.  And though I still felt kind of yucky, it was a nice, easy run. Yay for that!

Wednesday
Workout note: Core work. 150 clam shells, 25 push-ups, 20 crunches, 20 hip thrusts, 20 reverse crunches, 20 bicycle crunches, 20 pendulums, 10 plank reps. Today is Sunday and I'm still feeling the effects.  Ouch.  I absolutely have to do this more often; if I don't, my core strength could end up being my achilles heel. (Get it? Hahaha!)

Remember the jacket I won from the running club? Here
it is!  Sweet, ain't it?  I photographed it in all kinds of
J. Peterman-like action poses, but then you couldn't see the logo.
So there goes my attempt at artistic expression. Dang it.

Thursday
Run 3 miles at 11:34-12:34 pace
Workout note: Met with the running group again (Shoutout to Mary!!) and did 4.02 miles (Monday's distance) at 10:59 pace.
I'm enjoying meeting new folks and seeing some old friends, too!  It was a fun, if rainy run.  We got soaked!
GarminElectra was obnoxious as could be....  beeping and chirping the whole time.  One of the women asked, "What does all that beeping mean?" I explained that GE doesn't like rain, doesn't like being called upon to work, really, and this was how she expressed it.  Oh, and GE showed her versatility, too.  This time, instead of shutting off mid-run, she wouldn't allow me to turn her off AFTER the run, so the miles kept beeping on the way home in the car.  Then, after originally denying access, for no reason all all GE finally let me get to the "Stop Workout" screen.  I have GOT to get a new running partner.  Or maybe figure out what I'm doing wrong with this one. Sigh.

Friday
Workout note: Jane and I headed out for a nice leisurely walk, stopping often so Jane could fully experience all the wonderful/nasty smells of spring. 1.21 miles.

Saturday
Long Run as Follows:
WU for 1 mile at 12:34 pace
Run 14 miles at 11:34-12:34 min
Cool down with brisk walk for 5-10 minutes
Workout note: Holy Hannah, this one was tough.  I take full responsibility.  Read about it HERE.  My biggest concern really is how much my left ankle hurt when I was done running. Feels like the tendinitis might be making a comeback.  I was hoping that switching to Brooks (from the Sauconys) meant I wouldn't need orthotics anymore, but it's feeling like I do so I headed out to get some new ones today.  Hopefully, that will help.  My old orthotics, may they rest in peace, served me well and have now gone to a better place.

Sunday
Workout note:  Walked to the Quickie-Mart with the husband and the dog.  2.64 miles.  I tried my new orthotics and though they felt great support-wise, they are only half orthotics and I'm thinking that seam might just drive me crazy, not to mention cause blisters or other mischief.  We'll see how it goes.

Miles planned: 27
Miles run: 23.97 (What the heck, let's just call it 24! Oh, and I'm including the miles I walked during yesterday's 15 miler.)
Miles walked: 3.85

Happy week to you!

stupid is as stupid does

Remember those fantastic runs I had that were easy and effortless and I got PRs and life was great?  Weren't they awesome?  I've been missing those sweet runs lately.

This book is a FABULOUS reference for
us non-runners who want to try to run a
marathon.  Lots of good advice.

I had 15 miles on the ol' training plan today. Boy, did that run SUCK.  Well, maybe not the entire run; the first 7 miles were fine and I did my best to keep it s-u-p-e-r-s-l-o-w per TenacityChris's instructions. But after mile 7, once again, the wheels fell off.  It was an absolute suckfest.  I felt like crap, my legs hurt, blah, blah, blah. I ended up walking A LOT between miles 8-12.  And I walked probably the entire last two to three miles. All I can say is wow. Just.....wow.

The only thing that kept me going was the advice from the book I leaned on heavily last year while training for my FIRST marathon. (Have I mentioned that I'm training for a marathon?  No?  Really??  I haven't mentioned that? Well, I am!) Anywhoo, the book suggests STRONGLY that you finish your run, walking, crawling, whatever, just finish the damn thing.  So that was what I did. Seriously, if you're thinking of running your first marathon but aren't sure you have the cojones (you do, by the way), check out the book shown on the right.  You won't regret it.

So, back to today's nasty-ass run.....

Transparency time: I didn't prepare for this run very well.  Last night the husband and I had date night and went out for dinner and had a great time.  I had chilean sea bass with vanilla parsnip puree, spinach  and cauliflower.  Oh, and two (yes, two) blood orange cosmos. Um, yeah, I think that may have affected my performance today.  Do ya think I should maybe prepare a little better for my long runs?  Maybe rethink my food and beverage choices the night before? ? Yeah, I think so too.

The splits of shame...... GarminElectra was as disgusted with me as I was when I started walking AGAIN after 13 miles and she just up and quit on me after 13.41 miles.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	2:35:59.8	13.41	11:38
1	10:51.6	1.00	10:52
2	10:15.3	1.00	10:15
3	10:30.7	1.00	10:31
4	10:21.9	1.00	10:22
5	10:46.2	1.00	10:46
6	10:43.6	1.00	10:44
7	10:46.8	1.00	10:47
8	11:21.6	1.00	11:22
9	13:44.0	1.00	13:44
10	14:06.6	1.00	14:07
11	11:32.2	1.00	11:32
12	12:32.9	1.00	12:33
13	11:50.0	1.00	11:50
14	6:36.5	0.41	16:09

Good thing I had my iPhone set to track my run, too. I ended up with about 12 minute miles overall what with all the walking I did. Oh well, at least I got 'er done.  Next week my long run is 16 miles. Good news!! That means I have a whole week to get my shit together!