Power Out

I figured I'd type out today's blog on my iPad then copy and paste it to my blog once we finally regain power!  My house is currently, dark, chilly, and oh so uncommonly quiet!  We should have power outages more often, it's a great time for everyone to sit with a book, relax on the sofa, and "chillax" as my 11 yr old says.  

This week has been quite a long running week, beginning with Monday's 20 mile run and ending today with what was supposed to be a "13.1 mile run turned into an 8 mile fast run" day.  This has been the biggest mileage week  in this training period and it's still climbing, coming in just shy of 50 miles.  Monday felt slow and fabulous while today felt fast and furious!  Wednesday's track workout seemed to help work out the kinks and lactic acid build up while Thursday and Friday helped smooth out the mental wrinkles that come with training.  

Though I cut my mileage short this morning, I was ecstatic with the way my legs felt on today's 8 mile run.  THANK YOU KARA!!!!   It's been a few weeks since I've been able to catch a long run with other runners, so running today with Kara was wonderful!  I think my body gets into this comfortable zone, you know the "don't push yourself too hard" zone?  Mine tends to be the same evenly paced 8:15 min/mi no matter what I do.  But, I knew that running with Kara this morning would mean a faster pace, a swift kick in the butt.  I wondered on the way to the trail this morning if I could keep up with her for 2 miles, let alone 8.  I haven't pushed a sub 8 in weeks, at least not for any length of time, so I questioned my training and abilities before I even stepped foot on the trail.  I was glad when Kara decided not to push her own pace today, that meant she was going to push mine and I think I needed that (I know I did).  Running with others forces you to push yourself physically and test your boundaries so you can grow as a runner.  Besides, chatting while running makes miles go by much faster!  So we ended our 8 miles in 1:03, a 7:52 ave pace and a feeling of overwhelming accomplishment on my end (not for her, but I'm thankful for the push!)

The funny part about our run today was that some knuckle head stole my water bottle that I had "planted" for my run!!  He/she didn't bother partaking in my chocolate flavored Accel Gel, just stealing my water.  Now who would pick up a strange, partially full water bottle that was hidden behind a sign and drink from it?   Oh brother, that person must have been desperately thirsty or just nuts.