Training Tips & Sunday Specials...

Today's Training Tip: Do not eat a pint of ice cream and go to bed late the night before a long run. 

I was exhausted and sluggish for this morning's long run. I can deal with "running while tired" (I've done that before) but running while tired and loaded with 720 unnecessary sugar calories was not the best idea. In any event I got it done. I still can't figure out how to turn off the auto save feature on my Garmin vivoactive (if you happen to know please tell me because it's the most annoying thing) so my run was saved in two segments: 3.77 miles "before the restroom break" and 6.45 miles "after the restroom break" for a total of 10.22 miles:

(average pace: ~ 12:00 minutes/mile)

Overall it was a decent run (even though I felt like I was slowing Mimi down)...

And after the run I went home, took a shower, and went back to sleep for a few hours. I gave Kai strict instructions to wake me up again at 11:45am so that I didn't sleep the entire day; and when I finally got up we went for a special Mother-Daughter lunch date at one of my favorite restaurants...

(@JAlexander's)

Fatal Attraction...

I broke up my 10 miles into two runs today. Mainly because my running group was only doing 7 miles and also because I wanted to start my run earlier than my group was starting...

(first 3.1 miles solo)

After the 5K portion I drove to the meet up spot for the group run and waited for my running buddies to arrive. Then we set out on my second (their first) run of the day...

(second 7 (.09) miles with my group)

By the time we were done it was way too hot and way too sunny outside...

However You Choose to Celebrate Today...

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!! (for all those who celebrate it) and Happy Thursday!!!!!! (for all those who don't). I'm off from work today so I'm having the best Thanksgiving/Thursday :)

A lot of my friends ran Turkey Trots this morning but I wanted to stay close to home so I started off the morning with a 10 mile run instead...

I didn't do anything profound during my run like spend it thinking about all the things I'm thankful for. It would have been fitting for the holiday I guess, but I was too busy trying to figure out what was happening with my ear buds and why I couldn't hear the podcast I was trying to listen to. 

Once I finished my run I video tapped my stride for a bit. I like to do that after I run because that's when I'm most likely to have poor horrible running form...

(need to work on my arm movement as well as my gait... but my gait is getting better)

A Colorful Saturday...

I got up this morning and completed 10 miles...

[current run:walk intervals - 2min: 30sec]

The weather was pretty nice this morning...

There was still a little humidity in the air, but it wasn't nearly as humid as it has been in the past few weeks...

After the 10 mile run I took a quick shower and got ready for the Color Run 5K. Kai was already dressed (shocking) so I got ready quickly and we headed to the race. Once we got there people were already lining up at the Start...

There were no colors at the start but I SAW BUBBLES!!!!!

The Long Run I'm Not Calling A "Long Run"...

So technically 10 miles could be considered a long run. Technically. But since I stopped several times to stretch and hydrate I didn't feel too bad about ignoring my doctor's "no long run" orders. Overall the run was great (only a little painful), but I think my endurance level for time on my feet has really suffered because of all the reduced mileage weeks. I hope I will be able to build up enough endurance with swimming to help off-set the decreased running endurance in time for Chicago (which is in 35 days)...

I also think the fatigue I felt was exacerbated by the humidity...

I was silently complaining about the humidity during my run this morning because my running singlet was drenched and sticking to my stomach. Which, while great for highlighting my 2-pack abs, was really annoying. But, although running in humid Summer weather mostly sucks, there are a few things that could possibly be seen as positives: