Random post-marathon thoughts.

• Why does my piriformis actually feel better after I ran 26.2 miles?
• Speaking of all things butt and lower, none of my lower leg issues (Achilles, extensor tendinitis, shin splints) bothered me during the marathon or afterwards.  That week off during training worked wonders.
• After looking at how I placed in my age group and gender, I am stupidly feeling bad about how I finished.
• As bad as I feel about how I placed, I am still stoked I ran the whole damn thing.
• I am having training withdrawal.  I wander the grocery store aimlessly in search of energy gels I no longer need and check the weather for runs I will not do. (for now)
• I have to get back on the eating right wagon.  Two days of post-marathon celebratory eating is enough.
• I am deathly afraid of getting a stress fracture or injuring myself by running too soon.  
• I am ecstatic that I am going bike riding for tomorrow's workout, albeit very slowly.
• I can't wait for my first Ragnar.  I am going to reverse taper up to it.
• I am glad I went to work the day after my marathon; today my muscles are only a little tired rather than a lot tired.
• Walking down steps is still a challenge sometimes.  Note for Twin Cities:  Do uphill AND downhill training.
• The only way to get the BO smell out of my trusty white base layer I wore for the marathon is to burn it, so then it smells like smoke.  Well, what's left of it will smell like smoke.

Most of all, I am sad that I can't run right now.  

Thursday is my first post-marathon jog.  I can't wait.

I promise after this post I'll shut-up about my first marathon. Maybe.

Note:  If you are tired of hearing me blather on about my first marathon, please stop reading and go about your regularly scheduled life (if you even bothered to click on the link to this post, that is).  Consider yourself warned.

So I ran my first marathon yesterday.  It rained the entire time I was on the course.

I'm a little tired today.  But my race made every frozen-water-bottle-banging-on-the-concrete pepper-spraying-myself-up-the-nose getting-all-wind-ragey wishing-it-wasn't-so-damn-cold-I-have-to-wear-4-layers I-just-gave-myself-tendinitis-with-tight-shoelaces long run worth it.

I drove to Toledo, Ohio, on Saturday morning/afternoon to run the Glass City Marathon yesterday, which is the flattest marathon I know about.  Toledo is also home to my unofficial official sponsors Jackie & Beth, who put me up in their house for the weekend, transport me to the race in the wee hours of the morning, haul my tired butt home afterwards, and must suffer through my endless running talk.  Jackie is also to thank for most of the pictures you'll see in this post, because she kicks ass with a camera.

Let's start with the play-by-play, shall we?

The race started at 7 A.M., so we got there (wisely) at 6:15.  The sun wasn't even up, and the traffic was already crowded.  Luckily Beth is a smart cookie and we parked on a deserted (at the time) side street and walked over to the start.

I give this marathon two thumbs up.

Unlike last year when I ran the half, I got there in enough time to use the bathroom and warm up properly.  I was strangely not very nervous while waiting for the gun to go off, probably because I have started this race there 2 times already as a half-marathon participant.  Which, you see, became a problem in my first few miles.

See how I kept speeding up and then slowing down?  I had to remember I WASN'T RUNNING THE HALF MARATHON.  It was hard to do when you were swarmed with people running the half all around you until mile 8, where the marathoners and half marathoners split and go in different directions.

My splits were all over the place, and it was driving me nuts.  Also, even though I went to the bathroom 3 bajillion times before the race, I really had to go at the end of mile 4.  As I waited in the port-a-john line, I decided to just scrap everything regarding a time goal and just run how I felt.  I was scared of bonking.  I was scared I would have to do you-know-what during the race in a spot where no port-a-johns were in sight.  I was scared of being one of those runners that is there but not there at the end of a race and has to be gently guided to the medical tent.

I was scared of failing.  So I decided to just run it how I felt and see what happened.  Actually, I decided to run it according to how my quads felt, since that is primarily how I gauge my level of fatigue.  Along with my Garmin, my quads are the boss of me.

Anyhoo, after the call of the wild port-a-john was answered, I dashed off at a slower pace, but worried I would soon take off again too fast for me and my quads.

And that's when I saw the 4:40 pacers ahead of me (who had passed me whilst I was relieving myself):

David & Chase, my awesome 4:40 pacer buddies.  They're in orange in the middle.

As I approached them, I decided to catch up and hang with them for a while, making sure they would slow me down so I would have enough energy to finish.  And hang with them I did--from a little after mile 8 all the way until mile 21 thereabouts.  As you can see below, we weren't exactly maintaining our 4:40 pace the entire time (10:40 min/miles):

I feel a little to blame for that.  Sometimes I was out in the lead, and, with my legs wanting to go faster, I think I may have accidentally pulled the group along.  But David, wise pacer that he is, pulled us back every now and then, which gave us some much-needed breaks.  

By mile 13 my quads were a-hurtin'.  But running with that little band of people clustered around Chase and David--about 5 of us, all first-time marathoners--helped pull me along and forget about my whining quads.  I didn't want to be the one who fell behind.  I didn't want to look like a wimp.

I didn't want to fail.

Mile 20 and onward was uncharted territory to me; I had never done one continuous long run longer than 20 miles during training.  But the group was there, pulling me and all us first-timers along.  David and Chase were cracking jokes, giving us mini-sight-seeing tours, everyone talking about the steepest hill they'd ever tackled.  They even let one of us (I think her name was Janet) hold the pace sign so her family could get a picture of her with it.

It was just after mile 21 that I started to pick up the pace and move past my beloved 4:40 pacers, my running security blanket.  There was a water stop around that time (there were water stations about every two miles, almost all of which had the most delicious oranges at them; between the oranges and me eating my gels just like I had during my long runs, I didn't bonk, thankfully), which I ran through.  I ran through all of the water stations, because I learned during my first half that if I stop and walk, my quads will take over and remind me just how tired I am, which makes it hard to get going again.  If I do that at every water station, then I am doomed--I keep slowing down until I am doing more walking than running. 

Anyway, I ran through the water station after mile 21, and this time didn't slow down to let everyone in the pacing group catch up to me.  I was tired, but feeling good.  Not super-fantastic, but good enough to start picking up the pace and getting into the finishing groove.  From this point forward, it was just me and the music, focusing on finishing, running the mile I was in, and spotting landmarks that told me I was getting closer to the University of Toledo campus--closer to the end.

When I hit mile 26 my quads were no longer speaking to me.  But I was elated.  I was going to finish.

I wasn't going to fail.  And I had run the entire damn thing.  After I crossed the finish line and got all my bling, I turned around to look at the finish line and started to tear up a little.

And then my quads started to seize and I had to keep moving before they locked up like engines without oil. So much for having a reflective, poignant moment at the finish line of my first marathon.  I was also soaked to the bone and went in search of all things dry and warm.

As you can see from the last two miles, I had some gas left in the tank I didn't know I had.  I think I could have pushed the pace a bit more, but, really, I just wanted to have fun.  I didn't want my first marathon to become a vicious, agonizing memory that needed to be excised like a boil.  Don't get me wrong--it was no picnic in those last 4 miles.  But I finished strong, with the Jackie and Beth cheering section the best sight I had seen in 26.2 miles:

Busting out a 9:45 pace in the 26th mile.

I even managed to keep smiling right after my finish....

...until my quads started seizing.

Just kidding-it wasn't that bad. But I was hurting.

I had a very hard time getting in and out of cars yesterday.  I had a hard time going up and down stairs yesterday and today.  Today I even went to work, and am feeling much better just because I moved around.  My quads are on the mend, and my IT bands are as taut as they can be.  The blisters that formed between the toes on my left foot are subsiding.

But it was all worth it.  I ran the entire time.  I finished strong and to the cheers of friends.  I didn't hit the wall.  I didn't have to do you-know-what on the course or in a port-a-john.

I proved to myself I could do it.  It was a great first marathon.  

My Marathon Goals. Or Contingency Plans. Or Whatever.

I ran a 2 mile run on Tuesday and a 3 mile run today.  Both were at pace.  Both were very short and very weird.  Weird because they were so short, but also weird because I don't have to dress up in all sorts of blinking lights and reflective vest-ages anymore due to this whole "where Earth is in its revolution around the Sun and that 23 degree axial tilt as the Earth rotates on said axis" thing making the sun appear to rise above the horizon earlier than usual.

But I scientifically digress.

My marathon is looming.  Loom loom loom.  Sunday Sunday Sunday.  I keep trying to sabotage myself, like buying multiple pieces of new training gear this week such as shoes and running capris and skirts and crazily thinking, "MAYBE I SHOULD WEAR THIS FOR MY MARATHON!"  I am also driving my husband bonkers, waking him up at 4:45 AM just to talk because, for once, I'm not busy running in the dark and have nothing better to do but because my alarm went off at the regular time I am wide awake. My taper madness knows no bounds, it seems.

When I'm not busy being tapering madly, I am thinking about my goal for this marathon.  Actually, I have several marathon goals:

• Try to maintain my time goal. (10:00/mile)
• Try to not think about my time goal when I realize I probably started too fast and this is my first marathon and I shouldn't really have a time goal anyway, unless that time goal is specifically for former fat chicks who smoked 2 packs a day for 16 years.
• To cross the finish line without suffering a crippling horrific injury.

• To hang out with the 4:30 pacers and then try and gradually pass them if my legs are feeling good.
• To stay behind the 4:30 pacers if I am not feeling strong and make friends with my fellow back-of-the-packers until we reach a point of friendliness that we leave the course and hang out at the first bar we pass.
• To wear my Camelbak and look like a total nerd (or draw other running nerds to me as they ask where I got my SWEET backpack).
• To not lace my shoes so tightly that I give myself another case of tendinitis by mile 19.
• Not to cry.
• Not to walk.
• To try and get a few molecules of water in my mouth as I try to drink and run through water stations.
• Not to sit down in the middle of the course and beg for my mother (who would just tell me to suck it up, buttercup).
• To remember to eat the gels I bring with me before they start handing them out at mile 17.
• Not to snot rocket until I get onto the bike path.
• To set my Garmin to show me my pace after each lap rather than my instantaneous pace so I don't get all kooky over numbers.

So some of those goals are really contingency plans in disguise; at least I'm preparing for contingencies.  But my main goal, as trite and overused as it sounds, is to have fun and enjoy the experience.  I will be stopping to take pictures.  I will crack jokes with other runners.  I will try and remember to shut off all the annoying beeps on my Garmin.  (That reminds me of one more goal--actually bring and wear my Garmin.  Remember, it is the boss of me.)

But I will mostly try and remember that I can do this.  I can finish.  Dammit, if Oprah can do it, so can I.

Sometimes long runs are great except for clothing.

I ran my last long run yesterday.  Well, the last one before my marathon, which is exactly a week from today.

Now, I've run 10 mile races much faster.  But never have I run a training run that fast.  I felt strong throughout, especially when I realized that one of the houses along this route had gotten a new Jack Russell Terrier-type dog that had not been trained to stay on the correct side of the street.  I even felt strong running the last three miles into the winds, which were MUCH stronger than 6 mph, by the way.  

I just kept telling myself the pace was challenging, but doable.  I must remember this a week from today when I am suffering in mile 19 and want to lay down and cry in the middle of the course.

What was difficult about this run was my clothing.  I normally just go out in running capris and a base layer in 40 degree temps, but the wind was pretty cold, so I wore a windbreaker as well.  However, because the wind was at my back for the first 2 miles, I took it off and tied it around my waist. Then the gels I had put in one of the pockets kept slapping me in the leg, and the whole jacket kept sliding over to the right and I had to readjust it every 5 minutes.  I finally gave up in mile 6 and put the jacket back on, taking off the detachable hood so it wouldn't be flapping around wildly behind me in the wind.  Then I took my gloves off.  Then I put them back on.  Then I took them off.  And put them back on again.

Irritating.  But it was so sunny and I was happy I didn't have to wear 4 layers of clothing that I wasn't letting it get me all irritated and cranky.  I let the wind do that.

Anyhoo, this next week the taper will smack me full on in the face.  Take a look at the last week on my training schedule:

I don't know what I will do with all of my free time.  Maybe I will have more than 10 minutes in the morning to get dressed, do my makeup and hair, and leave for work--and I may even actually arrive more than 2 minutes before I'm actually supposed to get there.  But hopefully I can keep it together mentally this week not to do more than what's on the schedule.

Now I can blog again.

Now that I have fully recovered my composure after Monday's display of idiocy in Boston (and now that I know they caught the idiots), I can blog again.

My taper officially started on Monday, where I did some cross-training with Cathe's Athletic Training DVD, which promptly kicked my ass.  I love that this video has cardio and light weights--I was aiming for light weights rather than heavy ones during the taper--but man, the moves she chooses are super effective.  My pecs, I fear, will never be the same.

Tuesday was some speed work, the last speed work session I will do before my marathon.  I had to do 5 x 1000m, and I was stoked that I got to do these outside.  I am also stoked that the sun comes up now during my run so I don't have to wear all my blinking lights all the time.  I still wear my reflective vest just in case.

But mainly I was just happy to be running after what happened on Monday.  It may have just been my imagination, but the cars on the roads seemed to slow down a little bit more and give me a little more room to run when they passed me that morning.

Wednesday was an awesome slow 5 mile run, again done outside and watching the sun rise in one direction...

..and the start of the torrential rains in the other direction:

I got back from the run just as the rain started, and it never stopped...it went on until Thursday evening, flooding the crap out of my and everyone else's basements along with a lot of roads the closer you got towards Chicago.  This effectively cancelled my tempo run on Thursday because it was just too windy; I tried to do it on the treadmill Friday morning but my legs were tired and my mind just wasn't into it.

I am tired.  My body is tired.  I am welcoming this taper.

When I saw "10 miles" on my schedule for today's run, I was giddy.  "Only 10 miles!" I thought.  "That's only 5 miles out and 5 miles back!"  Yes, I am really glad I am into the taper.

But I am also a little frightened about the marathon, which is a little over a week away as I write this.  I am afraid I won't be able to pull out another 10K after 20 miles.  I am afraid I will run out of food.  I am afraid I will look like a huge dork if I wear my Camelbak during the race.  I am afraid I might break down in tears after I cross the finish line, amazed at what I will have done.

But I am not afraid some idiot will bomb it.  I refuse to be terrorized.

Bastards.

My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.

And so is my outrage and anger.

Running and Traveling and Really Bad Hotel Rooms.

Due to circumstances beyond my control resulting in the fact that my oldest sister owes me big time, I ended up having to drive my mother back to Alabama this weekend.  Now, I think we all realize that going to Alabama and back isn't exactly pleasant a weekend trip.  I drove my mother to her house, stayed for 10 minutes, and then turned around and came back.

My sister owes me a pedicure for every state through which I had to drive (of which there were 5).

Anyway, all this driving put a serious crimp in my running plans.  I had to rearrange some things, doing my 14 mile long run during the week rather than on the weekend.  Since our Illinois spring has been locked in a box and nailed shut so it cannot spring forth, the weather for that run was rather crappy.  Cold, wet, and...like a winter run.  I was dressed for winter, even--balaclava, hat, gloves, and two layers of clothes.

It sucked.  But my splits didn't (well, they did at the start but not at the beginning):

Those winds were cold and a LOT stronger than 8 mph.  Try more like 12-14 mph.  I had wind rage something fierce.

I was pleasantly surprised by that 9:40 split at the end.  I was feeling pretty good, even though I realized later that night that I had a nice blister between my last two toes on my left foot.  Looks like I'll have to bust out the Vaseline if I wear my Brooks Glycerins on my next long run (or go buy a size 9.5). 

On the first day of my trip down south I cross-trained and hit the bike for 45 minutes at our hotel in Clarksville, TN.  We stayed at the Quality Inn Exit 4, and it should be sued for false advertising--it was far from "quality."  About the only thing that was quality was the exercise bike I was on and the fact that the bed didn't have bedbugs.  It should be called the "Waiting Inn," because that's what we did a lot of--waited to check in, waited to be seated in the restaurant, waited for the food, waited for 10 minutes to check out (at the end of which I just slammed down the keys on the counter and walked out because I was fed up with 3 people behind the counter and only one person checking people out).  And you have to love a hotel that makes the safety of its guests its lowest priority:

Loose and missing two screws, which pretty much describes the entire place.

The above picture was why, on my drive back through, I drive an extra hour to stay at the Drury Inn in Paducah, KY.  Clean, safe, and has an awesome fitness center.  I used the treadmill there, which was all sorts of awesome, to do some mile repeats with a 200m recovery between each because I simply cannot do an 8.5 mile tempo any longer.  Thankfully Law & Order (which is the only thing on at 6 AM on a Sunday on TV that interests me) was on, so my mind was preoccupied from the suffering.  Afterwards I enjoyed some awesome post-run oatmeal from the breakfast bar, which kept me full for my 6 hour drive back to my own home which contains my own oatmeal.

Tomorrow is the official start to my taper, and it starts with some cross-training.  Hopefully I will be able to keep the decreasing mileage (and decreasing food intake) under control.  What will be the hardest for me these last two weeks?  Not doing any heavy weight training.  I guess I'll  just have to punch the husband instead to keep the ol' arms in shape.

I sat on a ball all day and now my butt feels better.

I am really falling apart now that I'm at the end of my marathon training.  Achilles tendons a-twanging, IT bands strumming, and now my right piriformis is getting in on the act.

For those of you that don't know, the piriformis is in your butt.  Actually you have two, one on each side.

photo credit: Rob Swatski via photopin cc

It's an itty bitty sucker.  But when it gets overused like mine is, it becomes a true pain in the butt.  So I did some Googling and found this article on how to get rid of your pain with a tennis ball.  I know, I know, it's from eHow, which isn't the best source in the world.  But right now I'm not in the mood to debate reliable sources of how to rub your butt so the pain goes away.  Adhering to the advice I found in the article, I found a tennis ball and sat on it all day.

And I'll be damned if my butt isn't better now.  How did we ever learn anything before the internetz?!

Anyway.  On to what really matters most to a woman--her shoes. I told you yesterday I was trying out my new shoes again for my easy run this morning, some Brooks Glycerin 10s:

Shoes plus bonus dog who hates having her picture taken.

These shoes are a pretty smooth ride.  I had to get a size 10 (I am usually a 9.5), but I put different shoe inserts inside that take up a little more space.  The 9.5s just didn't have enough room; my toes were a little boxed in and I didn't want any more toe or foot issues, so I went with a larger size.  I was in Dick's at the time with a friend, and yes-I did run around the little track they have in the shoe section.  That's what it's there for!  (I think.)

I'm glad I purchased them, even if they are in the oh-bleep-they're-HOW MUCH price range.  I have run about 10 miles (not including my distance on the Dick's shoe section track) total in these shoes, and man, they are COMFY.  And smooth.  And fit perfectly.  They feel like my Asics Nimbus 14s, only more responsive (but that may be just because these shoes aren't already more than a year old like my Nimbuses.  Nimbi.  Whatever the plural is of that word).  I haven't settled on a marathon shoe yet, but, if these hold up in a longer run, these are a serious contender.

As far as my training for the rest of this week goes, it's getting modified because I get to drive to Alabama and back in one weekend (FUN).  I am moving my tempo run to the weekend and taking a rest day tomorrow so I can do my long run (only 14 miles!) on Friday.  Sometimes life gets in the way of your schedule--so you just reschedule. However, I do have some high hopes for that 14 mile run: I want to do it at race pace for most of the run.  Remind me to let you all know how it goes.

More awesome race photos. And by awesome I mean horrible.

I collect my own bad race photos, of which I have quite the collection. I have some beauties from my half marathon this weekend for your perusal:

I can run half-marathons with my eyes closed!

Heh.

Nice face.

After running this half, a 5 mile slow run the next day, and some speed work this morning, now both of my Achilles tendons are twanging when I walk up a flight of stairs.  Great.  The only time they don't do that weird twang is if I am walking up the stairs in heels.  I can't figure out this weirdness.  Again, there's no pain....just weirdness.

But my speed work session went fantastic this morning (6 x 800m).  I was forced to treadmill it due to high winds and thunderstorms, but thankfully the Science channel had some awesome engineering disaster shows on this AM, so I was pretty engrossed in the ol' boob tube. I was also pretty comfortable at my 10K pace for all the repeats except for the last two, where I started to feel them, but I wasn't sucking air or wishing the little dot thing would move faster around the treadmill screen before I collapsed and died or anything.  I was pretty impressed with myself, actually, for keeping it together mentally.  This may have been because of my new running mantra:

"Suffering is optional.  It's all in your mind."

It's working for me for now.  One of these days I will have to do a post about all the mantras I've come up with over my running years.  I go through them like sports bras.  But not tonight; it's late and I have an easy 6 miler in the morning, which I shall be running in my new Brooks Glycerin 10s.  Maybe new shoes will stop my Achilles tendons from twanging away.

Abe's for babes. He told me so.

I have done a little running this week. This running has been done all outside because spring has finally decided to get its arse here, so I have been pretty happy. I managed to do some speed work on Tuesday (some 1000 m and 400 m repeats), and was looking forward to doing my easy run the next day somewhere other than the treadmill. Other than a gastrointestinal mishap (I faced a decision to either mess myself or use nature's facilities in a rather busy area. I chose the latter.) it was a nice easy run.

My Thursday tempo run got all screwed up again and didn't actually happen on Thursday. Instead of a 6 miler 8 I got up on Friday and ran a 3 miler instead because I did recognize the fact that I had to run a half marathon the next day-the Lincoln Presidential Half Marathon in Springfield, IL.

This is my first time running this race, and my first impression is that it is a well-run one. It's basically a running tour of all of the Lincoln historic sites. It starts at the Lincoln Presidential Library, where Abraham Lincoln himself says a few words to get everyone going (you also get emails from Abe himself if you sign up for this race! Exciting!). The race starts with some musket fire, and off you go, through the historic buildings and by the old and new state capitols. You weave your way through two parks, some residential neighborhoods, the cemetery where Lincoln's tomb is, and then finally back to the Prairie Heart Institute for the big finish. Afterwards you can enjoy some nice post-race snacks and get your sweaty picture taken with Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln. Results were handed out quickly and on their website a few hours after the race. The weather was awesome if a bit windy, but it was a fine day for a race.

Nicely done, Mr. Lincoln. Nicely done.

I didn't really race this race. I used this race as a training race, and tried to practice my 10:00 pace so I could get a good feel for the effort I would need to maintain for 26.2 miles. After looking at my results, my average pace was a 10:01. However, I was running much slower at the start of the race because I was running with a slower buddy of mine. After he decided to walk at about mile 6, I ran on ahead and was actually keeping a nice 9:30 pace for the last half of the race, so it all evened out. I was just impressed that I didn't kick it into high gear and try to run an 8:30 for the last half. I am still learning self-control.

To end this post, please enjoy some random pictures I took while at my half marathon this weekend (especially the one of the finisher's medal-very cool). And have a good long look at the last one of my brownish/blackish toenail, a runner's rite of passage. Have fun!

A post full of numbered random stuff.

I can't think of a theme for today's post, so I'm just going to pour out some random stuff on the page for you all to soak in and enjoy.  I have numbered them for your convenience.  You're welcome.


Random stuff #1: I'm sore.

I'll be honest--I've been slacking on the weight work for the past few weeks.  It's not like I meant to or anything.  Like dog hair on my floor and in my food, it just...happens.  It especially happens after the dogs get groomed:

Please notice that she refuses to sit on the towel I placed on the seat to catch any extraneous hair.  It's her little spiteful Sheltie way.  That, and she's almost 12 years old and pretty much does whatever she wants.

Anyway, I've not been doing my weight workouts as often as I usually do because I have been--are you ready for this--actually taking a full rest day.  Because I keep bumping my Thursday morning tempo run to Fridays, I have been taking Thursdays off completely.  While this is probably a good thing for my legs, it has allowed some of the gains I've made upper-body-wise to falter a bit.  That's why I chose to do Cathe's Upper Body Pyramid workout yesterday (that and because it is one of my fave all-time weight workouts ever.  Ever ever.)

And that's also why I can't lift my arms above my head today and have a band of soreness that starts at my pectorals and extends in a ring from them around to my back.  But it's a good sore, until you have to lift a dog into the back seat of your car.


Random stuff #2: Oooo colors.

Because the time it takes for my dogs to get groomed can be more easily measured in eons and epochs rather than hours or minutes, I had plenty of time to be-bop around the shops today killing time.  I was looking for an outfit for an important meeting I have tomorrow at my new job (I'm not technically employed there yet, but I'm already getting invited to meetings and want to show them I can dress professionally and not like a sweaty runner all the time), but I came across this little number at Kohl's that I had to have:

This is a Fila runnng jacket (looks like a rain jacket as well).  It has two pockets and thumbholes, but those are only small bonuses compared to the color cornucopia that is this running jacket.  Now I wish it would rain so I can scamper around in it being all colorful.  Scamper scamper scamper.


Random stuff #3:  My tempo runs are driving me bonkers with boredom.

I'm bored with them.  Boooooooooooooored.  It's not because I can't do them; I think it's because I have the same mileage for each tempo every Thursday for 16 weeks...that gets a little (a lot) repetitive.  In my old half marathon training plan, every Thursday was something different.  It was all tempo work, but it was all DIFFERENT tempo work.  It was like a different small challenge every Thursday, and mixed up the week quite nicely.  I know, I know--tempos are good for training you to run long distances at higher speeds, but I'm sure that that's not the only workout that will do that for you.  Maybe.

So, I think for the few weeks I have left until my marathon, I'm going to mix it up myself every Thursday.  This week I'm probably going to fartlek (heh) because of my half-marathon on Saturday, but after that I will have to do some Googling to see how others have made tempos less boring gotten creative with their tempo runs.

All I know is that I can't do 4 more weeks of the same old tempo.  Nope.


Random stuff #4:  I really like wheat banana cinnamon pancakes.

Yes.  Yes I do.  I've had them for dinner for the past week.  Yummo.



So that's all my random stuff for today.  Maybe tomorrow I'll get my blogging act together to write coherently about one topic.