Filet mignon and a baked potato are not fuel for a long run

Monday night, my garmin started freaking out in the middle of the night. Beeping, turning off, turning back on, beeping again, turning off again and so forth until I died. The next day I googled ideas on how to fix it. I ended up plugging it in for 30 minutes and trying to reset it (interpret pushing a bunch of buttons that really did nothing) only to discover that the batter was dead. My mom blamed the solar flares and I have to agree with her. Only because I had fully charged it a day before. Suffice to say, that I somehow turned off the mile lap statistics so I do not have any of my mile splits from my long run. The whole run was one lap. I think (hope) I fixed it and will be able to tell my mile splits on tomorrow's run. Otherwise I'm up a crick!

Wednesday was hubby's birthday so we all piled into the car to go down to hubby's restaurant to eat our once a month free meal. We splurged on filet mignon and baked potatoes. I started with a Manhattan and finished with some wine. It was a fabulous meal all around and I was curious as to how well a baked potato (or half of one) would fuel me for my 9 miles the next day. I can say that it wasn't the best fuel; my first two miles were craptastic and I struggled in the energy department the whole run, but I've definitely had worse runs. The good 'ol standby of spaghetti and meat sauce with french bread is definitely the best for me! Lesson learned. There was no way I was going to pass on that yummy dinner!

Thursday's run was nice and cool. I started off at 7 am. It was 61 degrees, 93% humidity and a 59 degree dew point. Cool and thick. I loved the temperature and the humidity didn't really zap me like it usually does. Maybe because it was below 94%? The first two miles were really hard, then my legs woke up. I ran 4 minutes and walked every 1 minute. I took gels at miles 4 and 7.5. I struggled with filling my lungs, I think it was the weed pollen levels combined with the humidity. It was nice to not have to run with my reflective vest, I really hate that thing! The traffic was low because the local school district is on their fall break. Overall, it was a good run. Not as epic as my last long run, but not as hard as it could have been.

Next Thursday I'll be doing 8x400 repeats on the treadmill.

It's a great day for running y'all!

6x400

Today I ran 6x400 on the treadmill. Wishing I had a track closer, but knowing that it would be on high school property and they don't like people using their track during school hours. I slept like crap last night. I blame the pizza and the bourbon. Woke up before my alarm (as usual on a running day) and hit the treadmill at 7. 1 mile warmup at a slow pace, which felt abnormally hard. I think my legs were still waking up. 6x400 at 8 min pace with 90 sec rest in between. I kept paperclips in the cup holder so I could keep track of how many I had completed. 1 mile cool down and my workout was in the books. Nothing too exciting to report. I hope this is making me faster and stronger.

Next Thursday is 9 miles. I hope this humidity drops by then.

It's a great day for running y'all!

Two Week Catch Up

So the 4x400 intervals on the treadmill at 8:30 pace worked out well. It was challenging, but not impossible. I will repeat that strategy for 6x400 next Thursday. I did a mile warmup, 4x400, 1 mile cool down. I will repeat whilst increasing the interval quantity. It did require a bit of time calculation in my head which is never easy while running, but success! I had a 90 second rest between each interval and ended up stretching that a tad to make the distances even since I can't program my treadmill to do 1 mi w/u, 4x400 at 8:30 pace with 90 sec rest, 1 mi c/d. That would be awesome if I could!

Yesterday, I ran 7.5 miles. It was 71 degrees, 97% humidity (yuck) and the dew point was at 70 degrees. I had zero expectations given this weather other than finishing standing up. I was surprised at how well this run went! I had a pre-run banana and some water. I took two flasks of water and two flasks of nuun in my fuel belt and one gel in my skirt pocket. I set my timer and ran. Since it was pitch black out when I started, I was wearing my much hated but much needed reflective vest. I had no idea what my splits were until mile 3 which was probably a good thing. I ran on feel other than the watch.

The humidity did get to me, but I was able to clear my head and push on through. This was good training for race day. While the weather won't be as brutal on Thanksgiving day, the second half of the race will be hard and I will feel similar to how I did yesterday.

I took my gel at the half way point, turned around and headed home. I did hit quite a few stop lights; one of the many drawbacks of running during the morning commute. Overall, it was a fabulous long run!

It's a great day for running y'all!