Lake Michigan at Sunrise

Lake Michigan at Sunrise

Friday, July 26, 2013

Finally Freaking Friday

The onset of the relatively cooler weather has been great for two reasons - better runs and better eating.

The last two days my appetite has increased two fold. I had been struggling to eat enough or want to eat more. Not a problem last night. I got home, had two servings of lasagna, half of an Aldi's pizza (have you seen them? they are HUGE), a cookie monster cupcake from Molly's Cupcakes, and grazed on other snacks. There is no way this could affect my run right?

I also went to bed about half an hour early last night, which also felt great!

Home note - kiddo is under the weather, she would right before her birthday tomorrow, so party postponed for a week.

Wake up 4am today, yay Friday! Get that coffee going like Wild Turkey at a frat party. 40 minutes later, I'm good to go. I thought the temp was going to be closer to 60 when I woke up, so I put on the liquid skin and tape on the man pecks since that is tech shirt weather. Check weather... 70? Well time to rip them off... ouchies.

I decided to bring water and a power gel for the half way point. Trying to get better and downing that jelly ****.

Today's plan - 1.5 miles warm up , 7 miles marathon pace, 1.5 cool down.

Here is your daily photo at the start of the path:


As you see, it is pretty dark and this photo was taken next to a street light. Bikes on the path that didn't have their light on looked like slender man and were kinda freaky:


I didn't see another runner until the totem pole, which was also a little odd (was about 5:15am at this point).

After my warm up 1.5 miles, I put myself into gear, or at least I thought I did. I have my GPS give me lap pace every half mile. My first beep was about 7:11 then almost 7:20. I was distraught. 15-20 seconds slower than I needed to be. I immediately thought over everything to make an excuse. Too much to eat last night? Bad food choices? Did I run too fast Wednesday? Am I aiming for too fast a pace? Should I just run it and forget this run happened? I started feeling glum. Then my GPS buzzed again, 6:50. Well then. Either I just need a longer warm up period or there was a bad GPS signal for that last mile. My times evened out to a +/- 5 seconds of my marathon pace goal. Mile 5 was the turn around and where I slowed for a moment to take the power gel. Not my favorite. I don't know that I'll get that brand again. The pace felt comfortable once I warmed up, which was good to feel. First and last mile of my run below are a bit slower as I stopped for a photo and didn't pause it.

The sky was pretty cloudy this morning, which made for a sky that resembled a princess coloring book through 6am.


The gnats didn't seem as bad today, but they were still all over my torso and neck like glitter after a wild party at an arts and craft store.

Get a run in today?

How long do you give yourself to eat those gel things during a race so you don't end spilling your water in the process from taking too long?

Happy Friday!

9 comments:

  1. Molly's Cupcakes... That is a couple blocks from my place. That place is dangerous to walk into...


    Hope the kiddo feels better soon!

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  2. I find that I usually need 2-2.5 miles to warm up in the morning. If I run later in the day (rare), I can warm up in a mile but I think my legs get stiffer than normal overnight. Sometimes I'll adjust my warm up and cool down so that my warm up is .5 miles longer than my cool down (so 2 miles w/u and 1 mile c/d) which helps a lot. Great run though! My guess is that the slower first split was a GPS fluke :).



    The gels can take some time.. maybe 5-10 seconds? Sometimes I'll take half and hold on to the gel or tuck it somewhere and then take the second half a mile later. It's annoying to have to remember but if you can't get it down all at once it's a good option. Have you tried the Accel or the Clif gels yet? The Clif ones are my favorite but the Accel are also a bit more runny than GUs.

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  3. We used to go to Molly's a lot more when we had more friends in LP. But now we are rarely in that area.


    and thanks! she is doing a bit better today!

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  4. I've noticed! I may start doing at least 2 mile warm ups as well.


    I'm worried about not finishing my gel thingy in time at the water tables during a race, so trying to see if i can get it down in two pushes or something like that?


    I just ordered some cliff gels and should be in the mail room right now actually! I have yet to try accel. Gus are too thick for me.


    Thanks for commenting!

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  5. I've tried just about every gel on the market and hate them all. So I'm starting to make my own gels with chia seeds as the main ingredients. They're working out pretty well so far, I'll post my recipes soon :)

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  6. I look forward to seeing it!
    Thanks for commenting!

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  7. I did 10.5K today and never really felt like I got going...ran about a 7:30 mile pace (Canadian calculation :) )...half a bottle of Malbec last night is my excuse!
    I have tried a few gels, and Gu seems to work best for me...I down it in short gulps/bites/slurps over about a minute or so. Not too fast, not too slow.

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  8. haha thanks for the conversion! I might get a wolfram alpha app just for the rest of the world units!
    As long as we finish, our workout is valid right?

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  9. That second picture is awesome! To look at, that is. Not see in person. It kind of looks like the headless horseman.

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