Lake Michigan at Sunrise

Lake Michigan at Sunrise

Monday, October 28, 2013

Catching Wind of Sugar (Language Warning)

Hey you..
This is how I feel I need to approach people when I want them to run with me. Okay, now that we are clear, let's start this post.

Sunday morning, my morning to catch up on some sleep, so 7:15am! I started my run about an hour later. My goal this morning was 8 miles or 1 hour, whichever happened first. Considering the entire week I haven't been able to really run faster than 8:15s, I figured 1 hour was more likely going to happen. But as I went out the door, I decided it would be 8 miles, no time constraint.

I was happy to see people again running, as the entire week consisted of 1-2 people total each morning. My first  mile was pretty normal, about 8 minute mile, I decided to try to increase my cadence a bit, just to poke at my lungs to see if they were breathing a little bitter.. I know I know, you are saying:

I hit mile two, check my watch, 14:30. I felt comfortable, I pretended I was listening to a metronome in my head and hit my pace to that. The next 6 miles I looked like this:

And I felt like this after I realized I was doing 6:45s with relatively normal effort:


Averaging in my slower first two miles, it was 8 miles in about 55 minutes. I was happy with it, but I should have done jog for a mile afterwards to cool down, but I did stretch and use the tennis ball for awhile afterwards.

In the afternoon, I went to the Andersonville Dessert Crawl with my ladies and Jeannie at I Drink Soda While I Run and her hubster Jeff (Who I just realized I never had his blog on my feed, added now!).

The theme of the afternoon was:

My plan was to take a photo of each dessert.. yea didn't happen. There were two routes to choose from, my wife got one, I got the other so that we could try everything. We took the crawl a lot slower than previous years, and shared with our toddler, so for once, we were able to finish all 11 places! Score.




I very much enjoyed it!

I need to look back at the flyer that got lost somewhere at home to recap what I even ate (TWSS). And to my stomach..

Afterwards, I still had a sweet tooth and bought:


Jeannie and I discussed getting into running and exercise while in line for one exercise, and I thought I'd share my thoughts on it as well. This focuses more on morning exercise.  I would like to say, people ask me how do I do it.. but nobody does. You have to want to do it first to be interested right?

Anywho, this isn't a capture all statement, just one argument for just doing it..I began thinking about it after seeing this:

That is half the battle, but the first half is getting out of bed. I know people love their sleep, and that  60-90 minutes of less sleep just seems like the worst thing in the world.... But you know what is wurs(t)? Spending the next 15-16 hours of the day saying you'll exercise later, or tomorrow, and it doesn't happen. Then feeling bad about yourself and starting a sedentary pattern that is hard to break. To me, that one less hour of sleep to exercise and feeling good about yourself is worth way more than a little extra sleep... Unless you are Winnie the Pooh:

And this hit me pretty strong as well, feeling like you are just never on par with your friends or other accomplished runners (in this sports arena at least)

And it is almost time for the Bull's season opener!


Need another photo of Lil Smokie? Here she is at a friend's house!




20 comments:

  1. Yes, that's exactly it! I think it goes for morning exercise, and just exercise in general - it's only an hour of your time! And it's really easy to justify NOT spending that hour, day after day. The other day I was waiting for yoga to start, and the manager at my gym was saying he was impressed that I had been there twice that day (#humblebrag). But my yoga class is an hour of stretching, which is better than, but essentially as easy as, an hour of sitting on the couch. So why not? What super important thing am I doing now that can't wait an hour? Oh, getting fatter and out of shape, I guess. I'm lucky that my schedule doesn't force me to exercise early in the morning, but it used to, and it IS hard to give up that extra sleep at first, but you do get used to it!

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  2. That last quote is great, so true. It never really does us any good to compare ourselves to others in our sport, but especially true when we compare our wurst to their best.
    We need that dessert list btw...

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  3. Pete B lakefronttrail.blogspotOctober 28, 2013 at 9:39 AM

    Damn, we both ran 8 miles in 55 minutes on Sunday! We would have been great running partners, and you could have helped me with the slow start before turning on the after-burners!

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  4. Dessert Crawl...man - more city's need to have these!!!

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  5. I've always been a morning exerciser but I've definitely taken baby steps to waking up so early! I started at 7:30 in college then it kept creeping earlier and earlier. As much as I love running, I like to get it out of the way so that I can be more spontaneous (or not) in the evenings after work. Plus, it helps wake me up and I feel so much better throughout the day.

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  6. I demand that next year's dessert crawl fall on a Sunday where I don't have to work. Given that I've had exactly one Sunday where I've ever had to work for this job, I don't think that's too high of an expectation. Also, baklava. Mmm.


    I tend to use my work schedule as my excuse for not working out in the morning (I get to work between 8:25 and 8:35, and I have an hour commute, and it takes me just under an hour to get ready WITHOUT showering [don't worry -- I shower in the evening after I work out!], so the idea of tacking on another 30-90 minutes just for a workout alone to all that is not appealing), but I do really wish I had the ability to get things done before work. I used to work out in the morning all the time in college, and I loved getting that done and out of the way.

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  7. I LOVE Sherlock Holmes! And why have I never been on a dessert crawl? My life seems emptier suddenly.

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  8. Yay for happy lungs! Hopefully you won't have any more issues with breathing, and then once you get that leg back to normal, you'll be good-to-go.


    Dessert Crawl... I need to get one of these near me ASAP. Seriously.


    The hardest thing about early morning runs is definitely the mental block. Once you get over that, it's great -- you feel awesome the rest of the day, and you don't have to worry about when you're going to squeeze in your workout. Also it's easier for me to run first thing when it's cold out since I haven't been cold all day... it's harder for me to get myself back outside later after I've been outside and I know it's freezing.

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  9. Ha, uhhhhhhhh yea, I think I'm gonna have to take the same approach to finding new running partners out west :( And your thoughts on the pre-dawn running are spot-on. Ultimately, it's an issue of choice and priorities. If you have many non-negotiable priorities in life (work, family, kids, whatever), you figure it out if you want to realize your goal(s). End of story. :) miss our pre-dawns!! xo

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  10. Lauren @ Lauren RunsOctober 28, 2013 at 9:15 PM

    We always need a photo of lil' smokie! And I agree -- I am finding (w/o child) that the only time of day I can count on for a workout is early morning. speaking of which... I got to head to bed now!

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  11. you do get used to it TWSS!
    As long as you make it part of your day, not just an option, you're good!

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  12. http://www.chicagonow.com/show-me-chicago/2013/10/andersonvilles-dessert-crawl-a-halloween-tradition-in-chicago/

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  13. Was totally unplanned! I'm hoping to do 11-13 on this Sunday!

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  14. I love knowing that my evenings are free and I already earned my good vibes for the day! Now if there was just more time to sleep!

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  15. Doesn't work understand real life priorities? Jeez! As long as you can make time sometime during the day to work out :)

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  16. You got it lady!
    I already feel like you got traded off the morning team! Winter is coming with too much gloom! So if I text you at 4am cst.. you'll totally respond right away in the west coast right?

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