Distance: 5 miles
Pace: 8:11 (holy s%#&!)
Heart Rate: 159 (though my summary shows my heart rate at 227 for a few minutes at the beginning of my run, so I question this “average”)
Wine Consumption: 3 glasses of Malbec
Pace: 8:11 (holy s%#&!)
Heart Rate: 159 (though my summary shows my heart rate at 227 for a few minutes at the beginning of my run, so I question this “average”)
Wine Consumption: 3 glasses of Malbec
I do not normally run on Thursdays.
Thursday is kickboxing with a trainer who seems to take pleasure in inflicting pain. I love those
classes. And today he promised me that
we would do the noodle drill. The noodle
drill is where your partner holds a pool noodle horizontally about 1.5 feet off
the floor. You stand to one side of the
noodle, jump sideways over it and roll back under it. Then repeat over and over for a minute. It is both terrible and awesome. I love the noodle drill. Then Wednesday morning, I realized I had an
early meeting on Thursday that prevented me from attending kickboxing. FRICK!
Running it is.
You may have noticed from my intro that I drank three glass of wine . .
. on a weekday! Though I have
been abstaining during the week, I make exceptions for special events. On Wednesday I had two special events. So there.
First, I went to an early going away dinner for my friend D who is about to
leave on an extended international voyage.
I ate a salad . . . and pizza . . . and fries . . . and two glasses of
delicious malbec. Health food, y’all! Then I stopped by a happy hour for my good
friend, who I will reluctantly call Big Daddy because that’s what he calls
himself even though I find it a little creepy (see, that’s how good of friends
we are, I would not do that for a mere acquaintance). Slo Jo was there because she is also good
friends with BD, in fact, she is the one who introduced me to him. As I was at the bar ordering my third (and
final) malbec of the night, Slo Jo sidled up and ordered water. She informed me that she needed to switch to
water so she was fresh and hydrated to run hills the next morning. I followed her lead and limited myself to a
glass. We both left by 8:30, which is
sort of incredible. What has happened to
us, Slo Jo?
(Slo Jo and I must be home by 9:00 before our carriage turns into a pumpkin!)
I set my alarm for 5:00 am so I could get a run in early enough to get
to my meeting. I woke up at 4:45, no
alarm necessary. I drank a small latte
and part of my fruit and veggie smoothie (my breakfast every day). After drinking about half my smoothie, my
stomach felt uncomfortably full.
Surprisingly, pizza and fries do not digest as quickly as my normal healthy
dinners. I decided not to fill my stomach any more before running.
(One advantage to running before the sun comes up is this is my view as I finish my run. Purty.)
I figured I’d run 5 miles at an
8:30-9:00 pace. I tried this exact thing
two months ago and failed miserably. I
only made it 4.5 and struggled mightily to keep my pace below 9:00. Today was 20 degrees cooler, which made a huge
difference!
Mile 1: I feel like I’m at a good
pace. I’m breathing a little hard, but
not gasping for air. Then, MapMyRun
tells me “Distance: 1 Mile, Pace 8
minutes, 17 seconds.” So much for
starting out easy. I tell myself to slow
down before I burn out. Also, I was
making a concerted effort to keep the smoothie in my stomach. Note:
do not eat pizza and fries the night before a training run.
Mile 2: “Slow down, Tina” “Slow
down, Tina” “Slow down, Tina.” I’m pretty sure this is not what Runners
World had in mind when it told me to repeat an inspiring mantra during my
runs. Nonetheless, I’m feeling
good. Breathing is still under
control. Heart feels good. Legs feel good. Then “Distance: 2 miles, Split Pace 8 minutes, 24 seconds.” Dammit!
Still too fast.
Mile 3: I try to keep slow it
down for a half mile. Then I reach my
2.5 mile turnaround point and am like “eff it, I’m halfway done, might as well
go.” Pace: 8:11.
Mile 4: I find myself doing math
in my head, trying to figure out what my 5K time would be on this run
(25:45). Hey, this is a really good way
to zone out. Math. Who knew?
I gotta find more numbers to crunch.
Then, I realize that “Hey Ya” is playing and I am involuntarily bobbing
my head to the music. Hmmm . . . am I
having fun? While running? Is this a runner’s high? Doesn’t hold a candle to a wine buzz, but I’ll
take it. Pace: 8:07.
Mile 5: No matter how far I run,
the last mile is always the hardest. I’m
not sure why. Maybe it is because I am
so close to being done. Maybe I am
dreading the final push to finish strong.
Maybe my runners high wore off.
This mile sucked. But I ran it
fast to get it over with. Pace: 7:48.
You are FAST! I'm impressed.
ReplyDeleteOh Jeez. I have never had to tell myself to slow down. Ever. I am really glad you weren't writing this blog during the week you had to run with me...
ReplyDeleteUh, yeah, when we were running at 7500 feet, the lack of oxygen slowed me down just fine.
Delete(Also, just to be clear, I'm not slowing down because I'm some super-speedy runner. I just can't pace myself, start out too fast, then hit the wall miles before I should.)
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