A running machine!

This week I feel like I have been eating, breathing, living for running. I'm sure that this honeymoon period is short lived, but I'm going to live this as long as humanly possible!

So to catch up where I left off- I had a GREAT run on Wednesday!!  The night before the weather report informed me that Independence day was no day to run outside.  6am forecast: 84 deg, 90% humidity. NO WAY!  I wanted to tough it out but that irking voice in my head (namely Emily) that keeps reminding me there's a reason I have a gym membership, that includes many state of the art treadmills.....

So I slept in Wednesday morning and dragged my feet for what was basically forever but finally drug my butt into my new gym for a workout.  I was going to warm up on their indoor jogging track then hit the treadmill for the bulk of my miles.  Then I started running on the track....

And ran 7 miles.  It just felt sooo awesome to be inside but still be able to have complete control of your run without having to push buttons or run on the treadmill.  The only sucky thing- you have to count laps.  1 mile= 13 laps (I later learned 1 mile= 13.25 laps but close enough).  It's kind of a pain to count but I would keep each lap I was in at the forefront of my brain until I crossed my imaginary "start/finish line."

After the first mile, I look down at my watch and see a magic number: 11 minutes even.  I've run sub 11 min miles before but I typically don't go that "fast" naturally, even on flat for multiple miles.  And I was feeling GOOD.  Like this pace feels very natural.  It wasn't until about mile 5 that the pace started to feel too hard to keep up so I slowed down to whatever felt good.  Gotta listen to your body.  According to my garmin (I had it running but no splits because it had no satellite reception inside) I finished the 7 miles in 1:17:34.  That works out to an 11:04 pace.  Speaking of Garmin, I think not seeing it helped me because I just let my body run what it felt natural running.

So...reality sunk in later.  I probably miscounted or had in issue with my time keeping because that really doesn't seem like a real time- for me at least.  I was probably running 11 min/miles pretty steady until about mile 5- they were ticking off easily and felt awesome, but I KNOW I slowed down to at least a 12 for mile 6, maybe 12:30 min/mile for the last mile.  Also there is the little quarter lap thing I learned today, so technically, if I counted correctly, I only ran 6.86 miles or something like that.

But....

That's right!! I am so proud of my run.  Yeah, I shouldn't do long runs on this track because I can't switch directions which could cause injuries.  I'm glad Emily reaffirmed that in my head, because I was thinking it, too afterwards.  But....I kicked this run's BUTT and it felt good to run that long straight.  My previous longest distance had been 6 miles but I had several walking breaks in there, some pretty long- so this is by far my longest consecutive run. :)

I took Thursday off completely from exercise- it felt like my body needed it after that run especially with how exhausted I was Wednesday afternoon.  I checked out a new WW meeting in White Marsh, and it was really nice with some very friendly and nice people! I love WW!! :D

Friday I bit the bullet and got my already hot from the heat body on the treadmill and ran a very solid 3 miles at 12 min/mile pace.  I've struggled in the past keeping this pace up on the treadmill for some reason- it just feels easier to keep up on the road, but it felt great that day.  Also was able to read on my kindle which was sweet.

Friday was an awesome day for many reasons but the most important- Adrian got the job he wanted!!! So proud of my husband!!  So rightfully so, we celebrated at Macaroni Grill.  Although my entree was a great choice, we split a delicious appetizer of shrimp and avocado on crostini....it was almost as many points as my entree!! Luckily, it was delicious so I have no regrets.  I tracked it and moved on. We joined some friends in Trolly Square for drinks and dancing so I just had one beer given I had to drive all the way back to Middle River afterwards.  :)

So feeling like I needed to beat myself a bit today, I was in the gym for 2 hours which included a treadmill speed workout and strength training.....will share that workout with y'all later because I need to meet up with some friends to see...



I can hardly wait!! :)