21 Miles and 3 Hour Drives

Well, after a long week last week I am planning a cutback week in mileage and workouts for this week. I might do a couple of a little bit harder workouts (we have a tempo/threshold run tomorrow with my training group and I think I might do some cruise intervals in a shorter workout on Thursday) but for the most part this will be a much lighter week. Last week I topped at 59 miles for the week. We had a 20 miler on Saturday that by the time we were done was 21 miles. The pace was slower than I would’ve liked (9:17 is what we averaged by the end) but I felt good the whole way, could’ve run further (5 more miles would’ve been easy and under 4 hours as we were picking up the pace at the end) and had sub 9, including an 8:15 or so mile in the last 4-5. There wasn’t anyone willing to run a faster pace up at the front it didn’t seem, but having more energy in the legs at the end I guess is a good thing.

Friday night I met up with my friend who is getting married in January, her sister and sister-in-law, the three of us make up the wedding party, and we went bridesmaid dress shopping. Her dress was picked and purchased a few weeks ago, and ours ended up being bought on Friday. It was basically the dress we had already been shown that was made to match up with one of her top two dresses. It wasn’t the dress she ended up getting, but this dress will still work fine and it’s a cute dress that I could see wearing again. We went for yummy dinner after at a good Italian place (I said I wanted pasta no one else cared and I was running 21 the next morning) and I tried lasagna even thinking it wasn’t a good idea day before a long run, but it was fine (have always avoided heavy cheese things but now I know it works!!). We went shoe shopping after, just to see if there was a chance we’d find something and amazingly we did…they were more than I’d maybe have wanted to spend, but the shoe was very cute and I’m fine with it because I’ll wear them again and often and they were comfy, at least to me!!

So after all the gallivanting went home and watched Phelps win gold number 7, then went to bed, did the run the next morning, then drove 3 hours to my parents. Not fun after 21 miles but oh well…what do you do? I visited at home, then went to my grandma’s for a visit, then to have a beer with mom and dad and saw my aunt and other grandma and some family friends…then went back and got other grandma to bring her down for dinner…we had yummy ribs, sweet corn and baked beans and some really good bread and then watched more Olympics and saw Phelps get 8 and saw marathon through Paula getting finished. Maybe it wasn’t a good run for her, but at least she was able to struggle through and finish. Went out for a while with my aunt later than night and then was home and spent the night with fuzzy nephew Beaux…got up the next morning and visited with mom and dad, went for a walk with mom and Beaux and we pooped him out, it’s been a while since tubby walked 2 miles! Then dinner and a nap and last visit with grandma, stocked up on sweet corn and came back up…was later than I normally come back but since I went down later figured I better stay a little longer. Got back in time though for a quick run to loosen up the legs and managed a nice 5 miler averaging 8:30s which isn’t bad considering the 21 the day before. Now I need weekend to recover from the weekend!!

Shoes for PF

Oh what a week. TGIF!!

So, I saw my chiropractor twice this week (I had a lot of tension in my shoulders that I wasn’t even noticing) and she also adjusted my foot/ankle and I had some massage and ultrasound done on my left foot/heel. It’s still sore, seems more sore this week, but then last week I put it through a very rigorous workout in anticipation of my relay (my team officially starts 2 weeks from today although I won’t be starting for a few hours yet, being runner 12). I’m prepared, or as prepared as I’m going to be for it. I’m just looking forward to the fun of meeting a bunch of new people and getting this experience!! Anyway, my chiro did get on my case about the shoes I was wearing, and I said I like barefoot and she said my foot won’t heal without proper care. She told me I should get some Chaco sandals…although on looking, I didn’t find many that were work appropriate. They had the sport/casual sandals, but nothing for work, or the ones that they used to have for work related have been discontinued and/or are only available in not so great colors. I did find a pair on Amazon I could live with though and ordered them (the blue pair). Set to arrive next week. On my second visit to the chiro this week I mentioned ordering the one pair but that they didn’t have good work shoes, she then told me about Dansko brand which I looked at and found a number that I like…and ordered the brown pair with the buckle to start and have these two I’m considering (I really like the brown but since I have the other style ordered in brown, I SHOULD just order the black and call 3 new shoes in a supportive style good for now…do I really need to spending this money?? No…especially when there are other things I want too!! But then this is for my foot, which I need to have healthy right?).

This weeks running. Ran with my running group on Tuesday and did 7 miles at an 8:34 pace. Not stellar but OK. Legs have been feeling kind of tired this week, and not sure why. I’ve been good about building up mileage slowly, but Tuesday’s wasn’t great, heel hurt but I ran an easy 4 on Wednesday and then Thursday got up for a tempo run that didn’t go nearly as well as last week’s. Last week I hit 7:55 pace for the 7 miles when that was supposed to be pace for the tempo miles. This week I did 8, managed 8:20 pace and only a 7:58 (due to a very close 8:30 pace for the 1st tempo mile). It also felt really difficult. I’m not sure if it’s because it was a morning run (haven’t been doing this and it could be I was sluggish and not ready for it), my legs were tired from the later night run the night before, or if there was some other factor…I think my eating was OK from the night before and I’ve done 10-12 before a meal before with no problem. Anyway, it’s something to think about (mainly I did the morning run because we were due to have storms and it was going to be warm and sticky last night, which it was, we had storms come through that had alarms going off in the building and we were supposed to go to sheltered areas, I was on a phone call that I couldn’t end because I needed some answers, a tree ended up going over on a couple of cars in the parking lot even, thankfully mine was not in that lot, it’s the executive/visitor’s lot). This morning I got up and did an easy paced 6 and will do the gym (strength and maybe bike) this afternoon due to more potential storms tonight. Tomorrow is a 14 or so miler with my running group. I have to be up early for it, but oh well. No real plans for the weekend which is good. I had almost forgotten a friend is on layover here for about an hour and a half tomorrow afternoon so I’m heading out to the airport to see him (have a few errands I can run around the area anyway so works nice) and have a coffee or something before he continues on. Then not sure about the rest of the day. I might keep the miles lower, even though I wanted to maintain same as last week (43) or more for this week…guess heel will dictate that. OK, the new shoes have to come soon!!

Weekend Shopping

Ah…what a weekend. Busy, but a fun one none the less. Friday ended up going out to the local place with my roommate and a friend. It was a fun girls’ night and the bar was hopping so talked to lots of people. Was a later night than planned and then roommate and I sat up talking till later still…ah well. I just can’t sleep in either, so was awake mostly by 8, out of bed around 9 but didn’t go to bed till 3…and I could’ve been up earlier!! I went for a 10 mile run that felt good, even managed a 9:12 pace (and it was finally some double digit temps, in the 20s even!) in some places that were a bit slippery in a few spots. I got home, took a bath and then a nap and thought about going shopping…but instead was lazy and did some cleaning and just vegged around the house…till about 8 when roommate and I decided to head out for a bite to eat…after we ate, she suggested we weren’t far from the hangout, so we went down there to see who was around. It was a bit more quiet, but we chatted with a friend for a while and then headed home…

Again I was not able to really sleep in, and then tried to do the Sunday call to mom and dad and THEY WEREN’T THERE! Ended up talking to a friend about the shopping we had discussed and agreed to meet around 1:30…I stopped at Marathon Sports first, and bought some new shoes!! And a couple of tops, some sports wash and yaktrax (I had a 25% off thing and decided to splurge). Then at the mall I found 3 tops for work at one store, then two pairs of shoes that I just had to have cause they were cute AND on a good sale…OK, I might return the pewter ones because the bronze was the one I really wanted but at first they didn’t have it in my size, but the guy looked and happy day, he found them…I also got some new jeans (Lucky brand cause they were on a good sale) and a new casual top…plan had been a new winter coat too, but by this point I was tired and just couldn’t focus…too many to choose from and I’m not sure anymore what I want!! But I figure I did my part to help “stimulate the economy” by pre-spending the tax rebate that we probably won’t get (and really shouldn’t be getting since we are in a deficit anyway, but that’s a whole other can of worms). I got home from shopping and had just poured a glass of wine when a friend called about going for a margarita (for her and a Dos Equis for me) and some aps at a good nearby Mexican place…so we did that. It was a later night than normal for me and pretty busy for a Sunday, but oh well.