Yes Ma'ams and Sirs: I dutifully ran my scheduled long run this morning, and the weather was nice enough to allow me to have some scenery instead of the boring human-hamster treadmill. Goodness! I don't think I could have pushed out 12 miles on the treadmill this morning!
Today's training plan: 12 miles @ 11:23. Yet again, I ran faster than the listed pace on my training plan via RunnersWorld.com; I had already mentally decided on 11:00 miles; pretty close!
The lake pictured is the reason behind my town's name: Shell Lake. Ideally, I had set out to run the lake loop, which is a bit more than 9 miles. But... as I was in the midst of mile 5, my mind was starting to consider being satisfied with 9 miles. I had to make a "mentally tough" choice at mile 5... to turn my run into an out-n-back instead of a loop. I kinda know me by now; had I continued around the lake, I'm pretty certain I would have seen my vehicle after circling the lake... and probably would have said..."good enough" with 9 miles, instead of finding another course to push out 3 more miles.
Therefore, once I reached my half-way point of 6 miles, I turned around.
The mileage breakdown...
February summed up to 17 runs; 77.4 miles. Not too bad. 17/28 days = 61% of the month.
March is off to an okay start. I accepted a Run-a-Mile-Everyday-in-March Challenge; sadly Friday (3/1) was booked. Well......I COULD have run in the morning had I woke up earlier; NO EXCUSES, right???!! :)
From here on out, I WILL run at least one mile everyday in March.
Fellow runners who are also training for one race or another are concerned about 'over training' with this challenge. I also had that thought cross my mind, but then... it hit me! We don't need to 'train' with that mile! It could simply be a warmup or cooldown mile on the cross-training days. Makes sense!
Alright. 3:00. I have schoolwork-schmoolwork. Not really interested in doing it, so I won't. I'm thinking of heading downstairs for a little while. Hmmm......
OR, I could go in research-mode for long run nutrition. Today, I was reminded of the importance of nutrition on runs that exceed 6 miles. My breakfast before my run consisted of a cup of coffee with a tablespoon of creamer and a teaspoon of sugar. That's it. Hm... not very wise, huh? I didn't really notice any drastic depletion/energy loss during my run, but I could tell I was depleted once I came home and sat down. My husband could tell, too. I was a bit "snippy" -- and it wasn't until an hour after lunch that I REALLY could tell how empty I had been. Once the AMAZING lunch nutrients hit my system, I was better; and quite a bit less "snippy." LOL. Lunch? Paul cooked up some pork with orange slices and some kitchen sink stir fry, piled over brown rice. Really a great runner's meal! {Although, he could leave the canned peas out next time} Just sayin' :D
Happy Sunday!
