Getting Down to Business

Alrighty, sorry it's been awhile since my last post. I tried to blog from the train to DC on Tuesday, but my post got lost somehow.

The title of this blog is Getting Down to Business because we're now only ten days away from the Broad Street Run and just 24 days from the half marathon. Since my last post I ran 8 miles on Saturday (I tried Clif Shot Bloks and really liked them), 5.25 miles on Sunday, 3.1 on Monday and 5.25 tonight.

I'm really happy with all of my pace times. 5.25 in 51:12, 3.1 in 27:57 and 5.25 in 49:47 tonight. Since I haven't posted in awhile, I don't want to bore you with all of the details of the runs so I'll just talk about a few highlights.

I felt good during Saturday's 8-mile run. After running Julie and I were talking about distance. A few years ago when I thought about running 8 miles, I would either be like - whoa, that's so far. I can't do that. Once I finally did 8 miles it was such an awesome feeling. On Saturday we were thinking about how 8 miles is just something we do. It's tough, but the mentality is so different now. 8 miles now - no big deal. 18 miles for training in a few months - pretty big deal.

So I ran on Sunday and then on Monday I headed to White Clay Creek to do an unofficial 5k on the cross country course. I've been really curious to see what my time would be after almost two months of consistent training. When I ran cross country in high school, I was never good. I just ran for the fun of it. I remember the first time I ran that course I probably finished in 38 minutes or so. The cross country course at White Clay is well-known for "suicide" hill. I remember the first time I ran up it - I wanted to die and I probably did more walking than running. On Monday I conquered suicide - it didn't look as big as I remembered and I definitely ran up the entire hill and felt pretty good at the top. I was winded, but I didn't need to stop. I finished the course in 27:57 and I am really really really happy about that. My best 5k time is 27:50 so If I can run this hilly trail just 7 seconds slower than my best time on a flat course at the Riverfront I am definitely excited to see what my 5k time would be down on a flat course. After the run I felt the work.

I took Tuesday off to go to D.C. for work. After the conference we walked to dinner and in total we probably walked a little over 5 miles for the entire day. My feet felt it on the way back to the train station. I walked into the train station with bloody toes and heals. Nice.

Wednesday I did a Body Pump class and did 30 minutes on the elliptical at the gym.

Today was 5.25 miles and I finished in 47:57. I'm really happy about that. Especially after what I ate today.

I'm really disappointed in my eating habits. I feel like I have no self control. So I've been talking for a few weeks now about how I was going to try KFC's new Double Down. Well today at lunch I headed to KFC with two of the guys that I work with at the Food Bank. It tasted pretty good, but I would definitely not get it again. I could feel my arteries hardening as I ate it and my chest definitely felt tight afterwards! HAHA!

For the next week and a half I am going to really focus on my eating habits. I know I've talked about this before, but it's for real this time. I feel like a fatso. I need to get this shirt that says "I run so I can eat." So starting tomorrow I am going to really focus on eating healthy. (I do have to eat a piece of cake that my friend at work gave me for my birthday so that doesn't count)

Looking ahead to the weekend, tomorrow I'm planning to run an easy 3 miles and then Saturday I'm doing 9. Nine will be my longest run ever so I'm definitely looking forward to it. I will try to blog on Sunday so I can talk a bit about Saturday's run and how the new diet is going. Until then...

Peace. Love. Run.