Today I did my run for Nancy’s 8 on the 8th virtual race.  Since my training plan called for 9 on the 9th I used that in place of the 8 on the 8th.

I headed out the door to meet my running club.  I continue to be the only Trail Snail that is even remotely snail like.  I was lapped by several people that were running longer distances than I was.  That’s okay.  I don’t mind being slow as long as I cross the finish line.

Today almost perfect for running.  The trail I run is tree lined with occassional breaks where the sun was streaming through.  When I headed out I almost felt cold and found myself sporting some goosebumps, but once the blood got pumping I was nice and comfortable. 

This is the first time I have finished a run with the exact pace that was asked for by my training plan: 13:19 min/mile.  My splits were as follows:
1 12:24.74
2 13:19.39
3 13:50.76
4 13:51.53
5 14:12:82 (water and shot blox break)
6 13:11.94
7 12:56.11
8 13:13.97
9 12:47.60

I am very pleased with the fact that the second half of my run was faster than the first.  I know that technically isn’t a negative split, but it is close enough.  I think it had something to do with telling myself I could get a Panera Bread Cinnamon Crunch bagel with Hazelnut cream cheese if I made it through the rest of my run without a walk break.  That bagel was damn good even though I am pretty sure everyone around me in line was thinking to theirselves “Damn this girl needs to shower!”

So for my 8 on the 8th finish time I am posting 1:47:01. Not half bad for someone who hasn’t run a long run in almost a month!

No, not the kind where you throw your arms up in the air and scream as you go barrelling down a hill, though I have felt like doing that many times this week. Everything has been all over the place. I had two dogs then I didn’t have two dogs…I had a crazy unreacheable deadline then I didn’t have a crazy unreachable deadline…I couldn’t run more than 2 miles and then I pulled of a great 7 mile mid-week run. I am really hoping next week is on the boring side of life.

Tomorrow I am going for my first long run in 3 weeks I think? Ugh! My lower back problems were successfully treated by stretching the hips as often as I could (thanks Nat) so I was able to start running again. With my yoga I didn’t think my hips could possibly be tight, but I guess I pushed myself a little too hard in a class or two and instead of opening them up I sent them in reverse. Lesson learned, moving on!

I had been out of the loop just long enough that I knew I didn’t lose any endurance, but my legs were going to be tight trying to get my mileage back up. My plans for tomorrow are 9 miles and since I already did a 7-miler this week it should be a piece of cake. Might be cake made with rocks and cement, but it will still be cake. My run will be part of Nancy’s 8 on the 8th, even though technically it will be 9 on the 9th. But we have been there done that already.

Oh and the olympics start tonight! *commencing happy dance* However *finishes happy dance* I can’t help but have flashbacks to a documentary I saw on Gretel Bergmann when I see some of the ways that the host country is behaving.

I have been having some trouble with mine. Our yoga instructor told us to take our practice to the edge, but not past it. I think I went past it a couple classes ago. It has been effecting my running this week. I missed a second long run which makes me really disappointed. I am now within a month of my Disneyland Half and I had high hopes for getting back to a near PR time this year. I am hoping to get out for a longer easy run tomorrow. Maybe around 7 or 8 miles. I will need to get up early tomorrow to fit it in because I have a meeting at 9:30. Wish me luck.

If you been a reader of my blog you might have noticed I NEVER do back-to-back runs unless they are only like a 1 mile run.   I have only made 2 exceptions and they involved Disney races, so of course I just had to!  In the past I did it because I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my FIRMs for back-to-back runs and I wanted to conserve the extra wear and tear on my joints caused by back-to-back runs. 

Runner’s World Smart Coach had me add back-to-back runs starting this week.  On Wednesday I have my speed or tempo run followed by a 2 mile easy run on Thursday.  In the psat I would have ignoed this and moved on, but I am following through with it this time.  I am considering it the beginning of my training for the American Odyssey Relay.   I figure Step 1 - runs on back-to-back days.  Step 2 - more than one run on the same day.  Of course Step 2 doesn’t have to occur for some time.  I figure I will start throwing in 2 runs on the same day every other week starting some time in February.  I have plenty of time to plan that out though since it is only…what…July?  I will probably start working on the training rotation that takes me from October through the WDW Half Marathon the WDW Princess Half Marathon and the American Odyssey relay at the end of September. 

In just 2 hours I will be sitting on my mat in the yoga studio preparing for my first regular yoga class.  Up to now I have only been doing the Beginner Yoga classes.  The biggest reason for the change is scheduling.  The Beginner classes are at 8 AM or 8 PM.  8 AM gets knocked out because of that whole work thing getting in the way.  The evening classes set me up for getting home around 10 o’clock and with needing to take a shower I don’t make it to bed till almost 11.  After the shower I am wide awake so I lay there staring at the ceiling for almost an hour before nodding off to sleep.  For the record, this granny-like-20-something (4 more months till I have to call myself a 30 something o_O) likes to have her head hit the pillow between 9:30 and 10 o’clock.  If I don’t I have a somewhat zombie appeal to me the next day. 

I have to remember this evening that I need to keep my yoga practice within the limitations of my own body.  Yoga practice is a very personal thing and everyone has different capabilities restrained within their own body structure.  Just because the teacher is the crazy-bendy-woman that was the assistant instructor from the Beginner Yoga series I took doesn’t mean I have to be crazy-bendy too. 

When I got home from work yesterday I kept hearing strange noises. First I heard what sounded like a siren when I turned on the fossit in the kitchen. Then I heard extra voices when I was watching TV. I hit mute thinking my cell phone may have been ringing, but it stopped. I just shrugged it off and went about my business.

I walked over and grabbed yet another 100 calorie box from the stash I picked up at Target. On the way back to the couch I noticed a large water bottle in my trash can. Oh the horror! I picked it up out of the trash can to move it to the recycle bin and I noticed a cell phone was hiding underneath it. I called my dog walker’s mother right away to tell her what I found. So my total obsession with Recycling saved the day.

Finding the cell phone did resolve the extra voices I was hearing…well at least those that aren’t in my head. I did however notice the siren noise again later when I filled the dog’s water bowl. I am going to need to have a plumber come out because I also noticed that that nice clicky noise that I have associated with the pressure regulator in my plumbing has stopped. Luckily it is just me and I won’t be flushing the toilet on myself while I am in the shower anytime soon, so I shouldn’t have to worry about having any water pressure issues.