Saturday, March 2, 2013

Foot, Meet Pavement

Workout: 5 miles, 10:47 average

And they're off! The mushers, I mean.


And me. Off my rocker. What else is new?

We were able to skip the crowds downtown in favor of my second home.  This is where I school, work, and run every single day of the week. It was a gorgeous bluebird day here in Anchorage and the temperature was perfect for standing around outside. Not sure what full-length parka lady on the right up there was thinking. I'd be sweating my nonexistent balls off.

Watching the mushers was super fun for about forty-five minutes, but then I needed a hot dog. Costco polish sausage for the mega win! And then I went running.

I ran along the road to school and even made a stop at my old high school. I'm fortunate I brought my sunglasses. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure my retinas would have burnt off within seconds. It was bright out today. Or is that just my vampire eyes waking up?

Running's fun when you get to look at mountains.

I wore the new shoes again. So much for rotation! There were a few hilarious moments where I ran on bare pavement (something I haven't done in months), and I literally felt like I didn't know how to run. I kept waiting for my foot to shift on top of the snow, which obviously didn't happen, and it totally threw me for a loop. Somehow I think it'll all come back to me once pavement becomes a thing again.

I was slightly faster than my 10:52 goal, but I felt pretty relaxed. Even got a bit of elevation in there the first mile. I actually ran this section of road a few months ago and remember vividly thinking I was going to puke at the end, so I'd say I've made some progress.


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Wanna know a silly secret? One of my favorite things ever is finishing a run and writing it on my calendar.

Love this calendar.

Today, I finished February and had to stand back for a minute and admire it. My mileage was much lower than January (54 and 96, respectively) due to iron issues and starting a new training plan, but once I got back into it, my runs were consistent and I felt strong. I'm excited for some high numbers (for me) in the months to come!

Happy Saturday, dudes. Tell me what's happening:
  • Do you have any silly traditions like mine?
  • Do you ever run on unfamiliar surfaces? Does it freak you out as much as it did me?
  • Costco hot dogs/Polish sausage/pizza/free samples/everything: pretty awesome, right?
  • Have you had any runs recently that made you realize you're stronger than you were?

6 comments:

  1. Your views are gorgeous! I just ran 9 miles at a pretty hard pace today and I felt good about my pace and effort and my body feels recovered from the craziness I have put it through over the past few months. It made me feel strong! Nothing like that feeling.

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    1. Nice! I haven't done any hard running in ages, but my plan's got me doing intervals in a little over a week, something I haven't done in a year and a half. I can only hope it goes half as well as yours did!

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  2. Yes, gorgeous!

    But...I got distracted way up at the top, when you said you ate a Polish Sausage, THEN went for a run. I don't care how easy a run it was...I would've been re-visiting that sausage...

    I think the first few miles of last weekend's 10K were like that for me, when I saw the paces I was putting up for the apparent effort level I was feeling. Always fun to feel that way! Glad you had a good run. Way to kick off your marathon training!! :)

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    1. Ahaha oh yeah, about that... Things got a liiiittle burpy for a couple of minutes towards the end, but it was all good. All these slow runs have really been gentle on my stomach! I'm kind of worried that five weeks of slow runs are going to come back to haunt me once I start running faster, though... I find that iron stomach-ness is something that develops over many hard-effort runs and disappears pretty quickly.

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  3. ooooh how nice! I'd love to check out the start of that race!

    BTW, I've been trying to read on my IPAD but haven't been able to scroll down using it. (I'm not sure if it's just mine?!)

    I *LOVE* updating my mileage and running states on a little notebook I have - it's motivating!

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    1. Aye, not sure what's happening with the scrolling issues. I wonder if it's the template I use? I've noticed no one else really uses this one and perhaps that's one of the reasons... Maybe if I ever find myself really in need of something to do, I'll try to come up with something better ;). Sorry about that!

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