Crazy Eights

Well, I've officially completed my first week back on the let's-train-for-a-marathon-won't-that-be-fun?!?!?! schedule. I have to say, it went pretty much the way I expected. There were some really good days and there were some challenging days. Overall, I'm feeling pretty good so far, just nervous about the training plan.

Let's start with Saturday's run, shall we? In all of my past training programs, I've done my long runs on Saturdays and have had Sundays completely off. This schedule has me running on Saturday and Sunday. Mica was once again awesome enough to run with me on Saturday. All I had scheduled was six miles. Sadly, it was snowing and the sidewalks were pretty crappy. You know how the snow becomes compacted, yet slippery? Yeah, that's what it was like. I spent so much energy and effort trying to stabilize that just about three miles into the run, I felt completely spent. When Mica and I parted ways at mile 5.24 for me, I needed to walk for about 3 minutes just to compose myself. I made it the whole way, but my splits had decreased from a 10:00 minute mile average to around a 10:15 minute mile average.

All was made well when Mica and I went shopping and had an enormous lunch. More on the shopping later, but let's talk about lunch. I probably should have planned better and either packed a lunch or had an early lunch. Both Mica and I had to go into work on Saturday and judge the foreign students. True story.

When we finished, we went shopping, and then decided to get food. it was after 2 PM and we were both starving. As our efforts to get tacos on Friday night were thwarted, we decided on Mexican food. Ohhhhhhhhhh burritos...how you call to me! My burrito was massive and full of awesomeness. I ate the whole thing, along with countless chips and salsa. By the time I returned home, it was nearly 5 PM.

And I was still full. So I skipped dinner.

Fast forward to Sunday. Long run day. I was all sorts of concerned that I hadn't eaten the right things the day before and that somewhere out on the run, I'd hit a wall and end up walking home. And in the process, freezing to death.

I figured that I would follow the same route as Saturday with a few modifications. This proved to be a good idea. The routes on campus were a lot clearer than those off campus. I was also able to experience the "farm smell". As I was heading down First Street towards Windsor, I caught a whiff of the cow. Oh yeah, we're in farm country now.

The wind was a bit of a problem in certain directions. At some points, I couldn't feel my lips. Must remember to bring chapstick on my runs from now on....

Another difficulty was keeping the correct pace. It's so counter-intuitive to run slower than your goal pace for long runs. But I'm trying to trust in the Hansons plan, so I did my best to remain around a 10:30 or 10:40 pace.

Either way, the run was a success and having more stable footing definitely helped.

Now I can talk about shopping. Don't worry, it's running related! Mica and I decided to reward ourselves after conquering a week of getting up early and training. I needed a pair of compression socks, so off we went to Body 'n Sole. Mica recommended the Recovery Socks brand and I've been wearing them since I finished my run. As of right now, I can't really tell if they are working or not. I suppose I'll find out tomorrow. I also bought two pairs of smart wool socks. Reviews of those, still to come.


Please note the messy room and the glittery toe nails


I was a little sad that all the size medium fluorescent green Recovery Socks had been taken. I settled with silver.

...and I'm pointing my toes like a good Irish dancer


The requisite propping-up-of-the-feet shot. I'm trying to be good. Really.

Well this has dragged on for a bit longer than I'd intended. I'll be trying out a new group fitness class at the gym this week, so I'll be sure to let all of you know how it goes!