Early to Rise

If you had told me, even two years ago, that I would be happy to wake up at 4:30 to exercise, I would have laughed heartily: "Hahaha!" 

But it turns out that it is actually quite nice! 

There was a girl in my high school chemistry class who came to school with damp (sometimes greenish) hair after waking at 4 to go swimming. - she was at Olympic trial level. I asked her how she could do that and she said she didn't mind. 

I didn't get it but now I understand. When your body gets to a certain level of conditioning the exertion becomes pleasant, the high addicting. And what a great antidepressant!

So here I am at the gym, having woken up at 4:30 and having ran 9 miles by 6:50- yes, A..M. It may rain today and my husband can't watch the baby later (and I don't want to miss Yoga).

Too bad my rest day was yesterday, but it was one that I couldn't rearrange even though the weather was nice, having run 22 miles and 10 miles the two days before. Don't want to break this body that has let me accomplish so much!

Anyway, it's 7:30 and I'm on my way home, already done with my run for the day! How cool is that!

22 Miles in the Rain

Last week it was ice. This week it was rain. Once again I had a great run set up with friends and I thought the weather would squash my plans.

BUT! When I asked my friends from my running group, they all still wanted to come! 6 people willing to join me at 5:30 in the rain! And one at 6:45 to run 10 more miles with me! 22 miles in all and I only had to do the last 4.5 miles by myself!

I love Mom's Run This Town! What a great running group! If you are interested, chances are there is a chapter near you! Find out at Momsrunthistown.com.

I'm not going into a mile by mile recap today. Lets just talk about some differences from previous runs:

Today, I took my Powergel every 5 miles as usual but felt a little wonky (tired and hungry) at mile 18.5. So I took my last gel early and felt better. I kept thinking of a friend who told me that in the Marine Corps Marathon there were big chocolate chip cookies at Mile 20. I was seriously craving one :)!

Other than that, after doing 20 miles twice, 22 didn't seem much harder and I'm feeling good now!

I got a chance to wear my Knuckle Lights for the first time and I love them!

They provide a steady bright stream of light that seriously illuminates the trail and they are very comfortable to wear, even for me and I do not like carrying anything when I run. In fact, they were so comfortable that when it got light out I didn't bother to take them off or run them to my car when I passed by it!

They are also safe to use in the rain.

Thanks to my friends and knuckle lights, I could safely start at 5:30 and be done before 9:30. Then home to my family and some Talenti Tahitian Vanilla Gelato!

Running Long - on the Treadmill . . . And Turkey Hill Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream!!!

I was so excited (I get that way before my long runs). I had a great event lined up for this morning with my running group "Mom's Run This Town." 3 people were going to meet me on the Mount Vernon Trail at 5:30 to run until 6:30. Then we would get back to the start to pick up the second leg-at least one more person who would run 12-15 more miles with me. 

Then it snowed . . . and temps plummeted to the single digits. The trail, the sidewalks, the sides of the road, all covered in a sheet of ice. There was truly no where to run safely. So, off to the gym (that place I go to maybe once a month on average but it is so worth it for these instances).

I started my morning at 6:45 at Starbucks for a Gingerbread Latte. A froufrou coffee drink is part of my long run ritual. The shopping center parking lot was a sheet of black (and some white) ice. But I made it in and out.

Then on to Golds, where happily, their snow plow company had done a bang up job.

Once on the treadmill, the mental games began. I was nervous. Could I REALLY get through 16-18 miles on a treadmill by myself?!? (Somewhere in my head, I knew I was actually going to do 20 miles but I tried not to admit it to myself yet.)

I started at a 9:40 pace with a 2.0 incline. I have read that using that incline helps compensate for the treadmill being slightly easier than road running. I cued up the second half of The Hunger Games on my IPad and away I went.

At mile 4, I switched to a 9:30 pace and continued that until mile 15, taking gels at mile 5, 10, and 15. Always with water!

When that movie was over, I switched to Into The Wild. Then, at mile 15 I switched to music and alternated my pace between 9:30 and 8:00 because the music and runners high gave me a "pick me up." I knew I had this then. I would do 20 miles and love it!

At mile 18.5 I started to feel a cramp in the top of my right foot, so I lowered the incline to 1.0 and slowed down to a 10 min mile. No help. 

I paused the treadmill and retied my shoe looser, shaking out my foot. BETTER!

Back on the treadmill- pace up to 9:15. Then up to a 7:56 minute mile for one final mile at 19 miles and then DONE! 20 miles complete!

189:10 (9.27 minute mile average)

I did it! I doubted it could be done but I did it and am relieved to know that no weather can keep me from my training :)

I had to walk for about 10 minutes afterwards. I stopped for a sec and felt a little woozy. Walking is always recommended post long run because the muscle movement of walking helps pump the blood and prevent blood pooling and dizziness.

Properly cooled down, I headed for home. I wa feeling happy and goofy though and couldn't resist the urge to announce to the recruiters in the gym office that I just ran 20 miles on the treadmill. High fives all around - then home to my ice cream recovery.

Today's treat was Turkey Hill Homemade Vanilla mixed with Plain Greek yogurt in about a 2:1 ice cream:yogurt ratio.

The Greek yogurt adds healthy protein and live active cultures. Also, when the two are soft and stirred together, the ice cream gets a delicious icy consistency much like when it is added to root beer. Also, there seems like there is more ice cream!!! It's delicious. Try it!!!

The vanilla ice cream itself was . . . Fine. Not the best and not the worst. (I highly recommend Talenti Vanilla- by the way.)

But mixed with the yogurt it was delish!

Recovery done right once again.