Pizza and Pictures
Last night I actually didn't go with my typical Greek pizza toppings. I went for a veggie pizza topped with sauteed squash, zucchini, and onions along with roasted red bell peppers a Roma tomato from my garden (finally got one now in October jeez), and spinach. It was a nice deviation from the norm.
We only played one round of pool then ended up sitting on the couch listening to music and going through really old pictures on the computer. I swear we laughed for 2 hours straight. It was so much fun.
10 Miles and Feeling Good
This morning it was freezing out, literally. We were planning on a longer run, but we wanted to wait until it warmed up a bit (high supposed to be 55). So we piddled around, being lazy, then headed to the running store (Go! Running) and picked up some goodies. We really really love this store. It's locally owned, everyone working there is beyond nice and helpful, just a great shop. Anyway, I got my shorts and tops I had ordered the night we did the group run, plus some wool/bamboo socks and an assortment of energy snacks to test out on long runs. I've never used a gu or the shot blocks and was really hoping something like that may be the solution to me feeling so crappy after running.
We hit the river trails around 2 pm (seemed soooo late to start exercising). It was only slightly breezy, just a slight chill in the air. We were armed with our water bottles and a package of gu chomps. We chose those because the package was 2 servings so that worked out nicely since we were running together. Only meant we had to carry one package.
Jason kept us paced slower today. He was hell bent on showing me that I can finish 8+ miles with some energy left if I just slow down. We got going and both agreed on 8 miles. Today I really did mean 8 miles. Around 4.5 we both ate a couple of the blocks. It was really kind of hard trying to chew, breathe, and run. You wouldn't think that should be complicated. But, it was for me at least. We ended up running out farther than we had originally planned so that was putting us just a little over 9 miles by the time we made it back to the car. So this time, it was Jason who said, "Want to go ahead and do another one?" Meaning another mile. We were both out of water so we made a super quick stop at a water fountain to refill, ate the last of the chomps and rounded out the run for a whopping 10 miles.
So I guess he made his point about slowing down huh? My piriformis was only hurting just a little bit near the end and no other pain issues other than that. It was a really great run. To say I feel accomplished is an understatement. Oh, even better, apparently the extra energy mid-run was exactly what my body was needing. I had part of a Clif bar in the car on the way home and never ended up feeling like I wanted to throw up or that I couldn't possibly eat. I will definitely try out one of the gu packets next time though. I think that may be easier to "eat" rather than having to chew the blocks (which I mostly swallowed whole actually).
Tonight we are going to a surprise 30th birthday party (man that makes me feel old). It should be fun, but I'm not sure how long I'll be able to last. I have a feeling that exhaustion will set in and when it does, I'll be down for the count fast. That being said, I am not sure what is on tap for dinner. We may go eat out before the party, just not sure. So again, no pictures. I guess I should have taken pictures of the river trail for you guys to see where I typically run on the weekends.
I hope everyone is having a great Saturday!