Let’s rewind to the weekend. I had originally planned on this workout schedule:
| Saturday: | Rest day | |
| Sunday: | 7 miles | |
| Monday: | Cross training | |
| Tuesday: | 4 miles | |
But sometimes life gets in the way…so here’s what I ended up doing:
| Saturday: | Rest day | |
| Sunday: | Cross training | |
| Monday: | Rest day | |
| Tuesday: | 7 miles | |
I’m not crazy about the fact that I missed my 4 miler, but it’s not going to make or break me come race day. For my cross training on Sunday I ellipticalled and read some of my notes for my test on Monday. Unfortunately I think all the studying I did over the past few weeks didn’t pay off and I’ll probably be retaking this test. Oh well…not the end of the world, just annoying.
After my test yesterday I had every intention of working out, but I was exhausted! So I took a nap instead 😉 Then I went out and bought myself a congrats-on-failing-your-CPA-exam dress to wear out to celebrate my friend’s birthday! It was the perfect post-exam night! I don’t have a picture of all of us on my camera…but here is one of some of us!
Birthday Celebration
I woke up this morning and my stomach kind of hurt. I was determined to run my 7 miles though! I usually have something small to eat just before running, but I didn’t think I could handle anything. I also usually don’t fuel during runs less than 7 miles, but I threw a small peach in my Camelbak just in case, since I was running on an empty stomach.
Then I was off! My stride felt REALLY weird at first. I felt like I was running on the outsides of my feet. I tried to concentrate on fixing this, but nothing was helping. I know enough about running injuries to know that my feet were trying to compensate for my hip issues. Around mile 1.75 I started to freak out, how was I going to run over 5 more miles?! At mile 1.83 I got stuck at a red light, and I decided to take this time to regroup. I ended up doing some IT band stretches and a few other stretches. I probably looked a little silly doing this on the corner of an intersection, but it completely helped!! When I started running again I could tell it made a huge difference. My stride felt more normal and I felt like I was going a little faster. At the time I didn’t know for sure how much faster because I didn’t look at my Garmin much on my run today. I have been putting a little too much pressure on myself with time, and I want to get back into actually enjoying running!
I ended up taking a few more stretching breaks throughout my run, I think about 5 total? Maybe 6? The breaks were probably too long, but it did help so I don’t care. Around mile 5.5 I started to feel a little drained and took one of my breaks to see if stretching would help me. Then I remember the peach in my Camelbak! I took 2 bites, because I didn’t want to upset my stomach, but they were the best 2 bites ever. It was really refreshing and I set off for the last 1.5 miles.
Peach!
I hit 7 miles just under 71 minutes…not bad, not bad at all! Then I walked a mile to cool down. I got to my favorite downhill around 7.25, and thought about running it, but then decided my IT bands had had enough for one day. Overall, I’d say it was a good run. Ideally I wouldn’t have to take any breaks, but if a little stretching means that my hips aren’t screaming at me at the end of a run, then it’s worth it! Here are today’s splits:
| Mile 1: | 10:34 |
| Mile 2: | 10:34 |
| Mile 3: | 9:53 |
| Mile 4: | 10:08 |
| Mile 5: | 9:46 |
| Mile 6: | 10:15 |
| Mile 7: | 9:41 |
| Mile 8: | 18:36 |
There were a lot of people out today–other runners and people walking to work. I didn’t want to get screamed at again. So I would call out “on your left” as I passed people. Most people smiled and waved, some said thank you…I guess cause I didn’t scare the crap out of them (although with the “swish-swish” of my Camelbak, people can hear me coming anyway). But one woman spread her arms out and wouldn’t let me pass! As I swerved around her I saw her give me a dirty look. It was so bizarre!
At one point, I cut through a parking lot which reminded me of a Dad story. The summer before my sophomore year of college my friends and I went to go see the movie Superbad out in King of Prussia. I was driving Mom’s car and we were stopped at a traffic light when someone rear-ended us. No one was hurt but something fell off the back of the car (part of the bumper…I think??) So I told the guy who hit me to pull into the parking lot (same one I ran through today). He begged me not to call the cops. My friends and I decided he was either an illegal immigrant or wanted for murder or something. Of course I called the cops, and then I did what any other 19 year old would do…I called my Daddy. He asked where we were and told us to just wait for the police. Then literally like a minute later, Dad showed up. My friends couldn’t believe how quickly Dad got there that they called him Batman–because only a superhero can get somewhere that fast. I learned today that this parking lot is only about 3 miles from our house, but it did seem freakishly fast at the time!
Looks just like Dad!
Anyway, I’m off to enjoy the rest of my day! I’m going to see Inception tonight, which I heard was awesome! And then tomorrow it’ll be time to start studying for my next section of the CPA exam (audit)…yuck.
–Melissa
Running In The Real World 