make it a double

My strategy through getting through this step-up week is doubles. There’s no such thing as a coincidence (okay, I don’t feel strongly about that statement) and I’m taking advantage of having the mornings off to do a seven or eight mile run, work through the day, and then do a pre-dinner short run of about three miles to net about ten for the day. This gives me the bonus of running in oppressive humidity in the morning and the oppressive heat in the afternoon. I’m not sure which is worse, but at least when it’s 90 something in the evening my shorts don’t look like I sat in a puddle. Someone please reassure me that this will pay off when the weather cools down in the fall and that my atrocious paces are not entirely because I am damned to eternal slowness. This morning I retreated to the gym so I could use the shower before going into my office at school. There is just something about chugging along and watching Kelly Ripa’s moderately skeletal 90 pound body on television that makes you feel good and wholesome about having eaten three square meals in the past 24 hours. JK. Anyway, it was good that I did because my adviser came by and I was clean and didn’t look like a total slob in workout clothes, which frankly has been apt to happen.

Speaking of workout clothes, I am on the super prowl for some sports bras and unfortunately am finding half the stuff available online to be a total joke. I own about 1400 of the C9 sports bras from Target, but usually wear them with a top that has a built-in one as well (if you’ve never done that, don’t do it because you won’t go back), so sometimes I end up wearing two shirts (sports bra+”support top”+short sleeve) which is ridiculous. The items that some people consider to be sports bras are unfortunate, such as this one from Lulu Lemon or this one from Reebok. If they are not kind of a joke in terms of viable function, they are hideous (this, this, or any of these). The only sporting goods store in town sells mostly Nike stuff, which is padded up the wazoo and looks ridiculous. Also, you get the short end of the stick if you’re a smaller person. Most of the sizing is S/M/L and if you are small and busty, forget it.

new stuff old stuff

I woke up yesterday (or maybe today) thinking it was Saturday and was like, no, I’m sleeping in, will run later…realized it was yesterday, or perhaps today – apparently things are still fuzzy around here – and felt guilty for my non-consequential decision even though my long run day is not until tomorrow. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that in the AM. Data collection was canceled Thursday; I got this news at 7:30pm on Wednesday and by 8pm, I was fast asleep and didn’t get up for 13 hours. Boom. Today was a full rest day and my body is feeling achy-bored.

I was stoked to come home Wednesday and find some shiny new shoes on my doorstep from the fine people at Brooks Running.

New Adrenalines. I love my Adrenaline GTS 10s, so hopefully these Adrenalines of the future will be sweet as well. I ran an interval workout in them Thursday night. Awesome timing because my current shoes were still soaked from getting caught in a thunderstorm a few days ago and I was running in some old ones.

Speaking of futuristic, can you believe that this little guy from a few months ago:

is now this big guy?

He’s a little toughster! He’s weighing in around 17-18 pounds, but thinks he’s about 65 pounds like the rest of our dogs. No longer wall eyed, either! Snores like a monster.

tech socks and brooks ID

Of all the things that are “must-haves” for distance running (and that list seems to get longer and longer), the thing I have held out on the longest is socks. I wear some shorty cotton socks that I got at Old Navy two or three years ago. I’ve had some other socks that aren’t as good. They stretch out, bunch up, whatever. The new version of the socks I have do both of those things and thus are not useful to me at all, which is a source of major sadness as the good socks are getting kind of old and brittle by now. At any rate, I never had major problems with my feet feeling exceptionally sweaty or anything, but with all the blisters I’ve gotten in the past week I’m working on damage control. I went to my local sporting goods/hunting/camping store today and bought some legit running socks. Non-cotton and all. I used them for a short run on the treadmill (rain, you are free to leave whenever) and I think I might just be drinking the Kool-Aid on these socks. They felt pretty decent. An hourly wage per pair decent? Maybe. Wash by hand decent? I don’t know – actually, I really don’t, but I am assuming they have some kind of special washing instructions which involve me picking them out of the wet laundry before the rest goes in the dryer. I will have to wait and see how they do on a longer run, though it was hot as heck in the gym and I probably did my share of sweating. I also did some strength training today, which I haven’t done in weeks.

When I got home from North Carolina on Tuesday, I got an email from Brooks that I was accepted into their Brooks ID sponsor program, which you can read about here. I’m pretty stoked about it; pretty much you get a team uniform and a steep discount on Brooks gear, as well as being able to participate in their race series and other events. If you are interested in more info, you can apply at that link above. I’ve also found a couple of new blogs of other Brooks ID-ers to read, including a few I have added to the links on my sidebar.

twilight stroll by the granite bowl 5k

Brr. It has been really cold here for about a week. We rarely have temperatures below freezing, let alone daytime highs below freezing, so it’s been an adjustment. I knew I’d have a hard time getting up in the morning to run a race in the cold, so I opted to do this nighttime 5k instead. I ran this last year and was super cold, but I think it was around 40F that night. Last night temperatures were in the 20s and below, probably the coldest I’ve ever run in! I don’t know that I would describe it as exhilarating, but it’s better than 90F.

I set up my playlist and Garmin, then made it over to the Elberton Theater to register by around 8pm. When I went out to sit in the heat of my car, I noticed my Garmin was not responding to anything and was stuck on a time about ten minutes ago. Has this ever happened to anyone? No amount of messing with the bezel or buttons was getting a response, so I figured I was just going to have to run without a watch since my other cheapie watch wasn’t in my gym bag where I thought it was. Then I zoned out a little while jamming on both side buttons and it reset. Woop woop! The Garmin (it’s a 405) is really nice to have and I love the accuracy and feedback, which makes me all the more mad when it doesn’t function properly (IE not responding, bezel freakouts/barely being sweat resistant, taking a really long time to get a satellite signal). Also, they never sent me my $50 rebate from when I bought it at the beginning of the summer. I think I need to make some calls about that because $50 sounds pretty good right about now.

Anyway, I went inside and hung out for a while. A man played Georgia on My Mind on the piano and I noticed that pretty much every female in the room looked like she could be in my age group. However, I’m terrible at guessing ages and I think one girl was actually 15 and some others were in 35-39. Eventually it was time to go outside and start. I wore a fairly ridiculous outfit with the hopes of staying warm (full length tights with pink knee high socks over them+regular socks, hat, neckwarmer, halloween gloves, short sleeve+long sleeve+vest), but that definitely was not happening while standing around at the start. My teeth were clacking and my middle was practically convulsing. The race itself went by pretty quickly (though not really in finish time, haha) and knowing the basic layout of the course helped. You start off on a downhill, dipping and coming back up a small hill, and then turning onto a main thoroughfare which alternates between being flat and a very slight incline. That’s the first mile and a half or so and it’s pretty boring. You run in the right lane with cars going by in the left lane and the lane wasn’t actually blocked off, but there were a ton of police and firemen holding traffic. You take a right into a more residential section, run around a little town square, go back the way you came, take a right, and then you are almost done and you can see the cars by the finish line.

I ran most of the race behind this tiny master’s woman wearing shorts; at the end of the race inside the theater, she kind of said to herself, “this old gray mare ain’t what she used to be.” It was kind of awesome. Anyway, I was behind her and then there was another girl in black between us that I didn’t want to pass too soon. My legs weren’t tired, but my arms were super cold and I felt like I was carrying concrete blocks around with me. They were just dead weight and not helping me move at all. She kept shaking out her arms, so I imagine she felt the same way. With about a third of a mile to go when I could see the lights at the finish line, I decided to go for it. Then 20 seconds later, I was like, crap, I am tired and now she’s going to pass me. I managed to pass a guy and then let my legs kind of flop down the hill to the finish. You know, when you are just going, slap slap slap and not doing a whole lot of actual pushing off.

I finished in 26:21, which was slower than I would have hoped, but 42 seconds faster than last year. And it was super duper cold. I was wearing a Buff (love this thing) around my neck and had it pulled over my mouth so I would get some warmer air. I pulled it down for a minute because it was getting damp and when I tried to pull it back up, all the moisture had frozen it solid. My splits were pretty even; 8:25, 8:32, 8:27, and then 7:05 pace for the last .14. I should also mention that the volunteers/police/firemen here were all smiles and very friendly, even though they were standing out in the dark and freezing cold. The course is easy to follow and overall very flat with the exception of the hill at the very beginning.

Results:
finish time 26:21
1/6 age group
4/26 female
24/80 overall

I went to the gym this afternoon and eeked out four miles. Something in my [very bland?] lunch was making my stomach feel like it was on fire and even the promise of MTV True Life: I’m a Fanboy could not make me sweat it out any longer. Mustard, why are you going to do me like that? Lazy. So, I finished with a pretty light week both in miles and exercise time. Next week, I need to get in a long run sometime. Making statements with loose goals like “a long run … sometime” is how I end up not doing things. How about at least ten miles next Friday?

1/3 Sunday, nada
1/4 Monday 6.53 miles, 60:00
1/5 Tuesday 8.0 miles, 72:14
1/6 Wednesday 2.3 miles, 20:00 plus 45:00 spin class
1/7 Thursday, nada
1/8 Friday, Elberton 5k, 3.14 miles, 26:21
1/9 Saturday 4.0 miles, 36:47

totals for the week:
23.97 miles
3:35:22 time running
4:20:22 total workout time (cardio, not including any weights)

REI sale

REI is having a sale right now on some Garmin products, including the Forerunner 405 for $260. It also has a $50 rebate, so it is a pretty great deal at about $140 off if you are looking for one. Well, a sweet deal depending on which reviews of the product you read; they are definitely mixed.

friday night lite

Well, I was waiting for the results from the Twilight 5k to be posted so I could actually, you know, post how I did, but it’s a week later and they’re not up yet so I’ll abandon that strategy. Here’s what I ran last week, and then this week.

4/20 monday PM – 9 miles, forgot to write the time, but pace was 8:48. do the math if you want.
4/21 tuesday PM – 8.3 miles downtown/campus – 73:52, 8:54 pace?
4/22 wednesday – nada
4/23 thursday afternoon – 9.06 miles, 80 miles, 8:50 pace
4/24 friday afternoon – 4.2 miles at southeast clarke, 35:57 – this was the run I was complaining about
4/25 saturday AM – twilight 5k – 3.1 miles, 25:05
4/25 saturday PM – 7.0 miles, didn’t write the time, but 9:05 pace

total for the week: 40.66 miles

4/26 sunday – nothing
4/27 monday afternoon – 8 miles, 72:50, ~9:06 pace
4/28 tuesday afternoon – 9 miles, 79:30, 8:50 pace
4/29 wednesday – nothing
4/30 thursday PM – 8 miles, 72:50, 9:06-ish
5/1 friday afternoon – 9 miles, 80:50, 8:59 pace – biked 3 miles beforehand
5/2 projected: lake hartwell dam run 10k – 6.3 miles

projected total: 40.3 miles

I feel like I’m jinxing myself by adding that in before it happens. That would have nothing to do with the fact that I’m typing this while drinking a beer and not having eaten dinner yet. Today I took my first of a whopping seven finals. After this coming week, I’ll be done with all my undergrad nutrition courses. I have one anatomy class to take over the summer and I’ll be done with my dietetics degree. In the fall, I will probably start my MS in nutrition at UGA. I’m not sure why I say probably; I have been accepted and all that, but I am feeling wishy-washy even though I know I will almost certainly do it.

What else? I got this Nike Dri-fit Pacer tank top the other day. It is super, super light and I love it. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who lives somewhere very hot or humid. I also got two of these Dri-fit/cotton blend shirts. I am a super sweaty person, not going to lie. The blend does not work for me. My shirt was completely soaked through for most of my run today, stayed soaked while I stopped at the store on my way home, and was still pretty wet by the time I got home an hour, hour and a half later. The blend is no match for my superior sweat glands, I guess. It was comfortable, other than feeling like I looked really gross (and damp once I stopped running). These shirts seem like they would be better for someone walking or doing something a little less intense.

Hartwell isn’t too far from where I live, but I have a feeling wake up time is going to come early tomorrow!