Out of town long run

Long runs when away from home are always interesting. The last long run I did was in Michigan during Sandeep's cousins wedding, it was supposed to be 6 miles so I mapped my run out and went for it. I realized too late I didn't have any gu on me so I took some jelly beans with a little salt sprinkled on. Disgusting! But it worked and the run went off without a hitch.

This time, I planned for the gel, post run banana and the map of where to run. But this time, I wasn't alone. My brother-in-law needed to be back sooner than me so we tried to stick close to home. I figured, I would run with him, drop him off at home and get the rest of the remainder of the 7 miles on my own. But by the time we were done with the first part, I felt empty. So I stopped. I hate running in those subdivisions. It's all concrete on the roads.

Well it turns out, that may have been the way to go. Gilbert said, running on roads is really not good for you. Good thing I stopped at 4.5 miles even though I still feel so guilty about not getting my entire distance in.

But can it be cured?

I think I might have body dysmorphic disorder

While I was in physical therapy today my therapist had me do lunges for 12 minutes. It's a long time and your mind seems to wander. So I was thinking about how tiring this was the last time I did it and how much better I felt today.

So while I was in PT for for my weak hip and tender patella and weak hamstring and weak back and weak abs; I was congratulating myself on being strong!

That god, she is on my side today

Went to get a salad from chick-fil-a. Decided to get four nuggets as well (eat two today, two tomorrow). But they had only packets of 8 and 12, so didn't get any.

Went to the store to get some milk for tea. Saw what I thought was carrot cake w/ cream cheese frosting.
Crap, can't resist carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

But it was actually banana cake with cream cheese frosting.

Phew.

Crises averted.

p.s.
The salad is delicious with sunflower seeds on it. Cheese on salads is overrated unless it's something like feta or gorgonzola.

I'm just sayin'

Runtex 10Miler recap

Now that the week of hell that lasted 10 days is over. I can post about the EAS/Runtex run for the water 10miler benefitting the gazelle's foundation.

The day started off great. We took off on the race with me running with Carol and Staley but I realized quickly that I wouldn't be able to hang with these guys so I slowed down (that's a good thing since Carol finished at a 8:30 pace and Staley at 9 min). Jessica (who had started out with Sarah and Allison, who were running the 5k) met up with me and we ran together from the half mile point.

It was humid but we started off feeling pretty good. But things went a little downhill from that point. Jess realized that she had been on her feet the entire day before the race (volunteering for the race) and then ate badly because she waited too long. So around mile 2 or 3, it became a very real possibility that she might throw up. I was just trying not to push myself because I still had most of my presentation for a class to work on for the rest of the day (~75 pages in all). So we ran, trying to remember that this was supposed to be a training run and not pushing ourselves. We talked the entire way to try and keep each other entertained/distracted.

Miles 8-10 were probably the most painful. The hills were done. We had successfully avoided pushing ourselves or throwing up but we were just exhausted and wanted to be done. We even took a walk break around mile 9.5 but we seemed to just be sick of it. I think we just wanted to be done.

The volunteers were amazing. They cheered us, directed us and some that we knew even ran with us. I'm not sure if we would have made it if it hadn't been for the familiar faces and encouraging yells and hoots.

It felt good to be done but I'm not sure I felt happy to have run it, just happy to be finished.

So, it turns out Decker 20M will not be happening. I can't deal with these baby hills. Decker's hills would make me cry for my mama.

I think that a hilly race may not be the best way to motivate yourself to run a longer race. During the second half of the race a question kept popping up in my mind: If I'm not doing so well with this mileage, how am I going to keep going for three more miles? But I need to remember that the half I'm running is qualitatively different. It's flat. In fact, some people tell me it's downhill a large part of the way. Supposed to be among the fastest races around.

I'm still in training. I just need to get stronger around hills and not plan to race during hell weeks.

OMG

It's tomorrow. So much hard work and it doesn't really end tomorrow, it just begins. The first race of the season, the EAS 10miler is tomorrow.

After that there might be a very scary (read: hilly) 20K (~12 miles) in our near future called the decker 20K. We'll see, I'm not supposed to know about it since Jessica has only started thinking about it.
And to end it all, the 3M half at the end of december.

But for tonight, I working on my presentation for monday (which is sucky BTW, thanks for asking) and really excited about the race tomorrow. I think sometimes, my need for speed (and I use the term "speed" very loosely here) might be the only thing that keeps me going through 70 pages of dry, inane reading that I need to talk about for 2 hours.

It's tomorrow. I can't wait/I'm petrified of those hills on pecos and scenic drive. But I have a mango flavoured clif shot that deserves to be tried in the field.

Breathe

1st year research presentation in 1.5 hours. So pucky. Need to lay down. Or just throw up and get it over and done with.

Eight days a week...

I don't need a whole extra day, just an extra hour a day would be helpful. Although, I'd probably just use it for sleeping. Also, on a related note. Sandeep and I are having a really hard time adjusting to the daylight savings change. It seems that it takes the body up to six weeks to adjust to the fall change and up to four weeks to adjust to the spring daylight savings change.

JP's irish breakfast at 2 in the afternoon really does make things a little more bearable. It also helps when cute UPS men stop by. Ooh, caffeine and eye candy. Excellent!

The EAS 10Miler race is this sunday and for a brief period of time this morning I considered not running it so that I have more time to prepare for my presentation on Monday. Then I remembered just how much time I've put into training and that it's the only thing I'm looking forward to. Also, I think Ms. "I don't like road races" would kill me after I used what she called my puppy dog eyes to get her to run with me for the race.

Must post

But school demands attention. Will post on Friday.