So I got coerced to do this mud run (really, it took a lot of arm twisting… right…), and realized I had a 16 miler scheduled.\u00a0 16 miler != 5k mud run, so I had few options: ditch my long run and set back my training a week (ewww), run on my coveted day off everything Sunday (double ewwww) or do double duty on Saturday.\u00a0 It was the lesser of 3 evils, so about 7am we were up and out to Town Lake to try out the trail.\u00a0 We did about a 7 mile loop.\u00a0 Some observations:
\nMile 1\/8\/15: this is the worst part of the trail!\u00a0 I don’t know why, but it’s the part I liked least.
\nMile 2.5\/9.5: WTF BIG HILL!\u00a0 I walked this both times.\u00a0 If it was closer to my house I might come and run it for hill repeats.\u00a0 Nasty…
\nMile 3-7: Loved running with Joel!\u00a0 It was so nice to have a buddy, especially one who understands we are both there to keep each other silent company with our respective musics unless we feel like busting out in song and\/or dance.
\nMile 8: Sucky mile because Joel finished his run and I had 9 more to go. \ud83d\ude41
\nMile 10: Had to make a pit stop for some tummy rumbles, figured I’d be sly and use the gas station bathroom.\u00a0 Gas station bathroom was fully out of TP and only had a hand drier and no kleenex.\u00a0 99 cent black wristband, I hardly knew ye.\u00a0 Thanks for getting me out of a crappy situation (literally)!
\nMile 12-ish: walk breaks start making more of an appearance (not just on hill of stupid)
\nMile 13: Awesome that RunTex has water coolers out under the bridge, but disappointed when I could barely get 1\/4 camelback refill since they were mostly dry by then.
\nMile 15: OMG I really have to run over this bridge again (began 3rd loop)?
\nEvery mile or so: ARGH I HAVE TOWN LAKE IN MY SHOEZZZZ!!!! (stop, shake, resume).\u00a0 Seriously.\u00a0 The inside of my Asics must really have a crush on the trail because they had a major love fest all day.
\n16.0 miles – 3:06.\u00a0 Only 10 more to add before the race!<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net\/hphotos-ak-ash4\/311862_10150408688519450_789139449_8138838_171017920_n.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Nov 19th (later) Warrior Dash: 1 hour + for 3.2 miles…<\/strong><\/p>\n Got home, showered and changed as quick as possible, ran out the door, grabbed some food, and met up with said arm-twisting coworker to drive to the Dash.\u00a0 My legs actually felt damn decent at that point, I had re-biofreezed and stretched and showered and could actually walk normally.<\/p>\n We started and jogged the first half mile, and got through the obstacles, but then we got to the first mudpit.\u00a0 It was a doozy.\u00a0 The goal was to run through super quick and not get stuck and lose your shoe.<\/p>\n Guess who failed miserably.\u00a0 If your answer was me, DING DING DING!<\/p>\n However, I am a stubborn little shit sometimes.\u00a0 I spent 15 minutes digging my damn shoes out of the mixture of mud and concrete and quicksand and whatever the fuck was in that thing one at a time while Zliten and said coworker waited.\u00a0 After almost 17 miles on the first day I was NOT going barefoot through trail.<\/p>\n What you don’t realize is that if your shoes fall off in the pit of despair, they also fill with mud.\u00a0 Which made new mud-insoles in your shoes which are lumpy and hurty and make your shoes too small.\u00a0 Which, on any given day, is uncomfortable as hell, but especially on longest-run-ever morning.<\/p>\n I also got mud splashed in my eye from falling in the mud.\u00a0 It felt like a freaking boulder was on my contact.<\/p>\n I vetoed running, but we trudged on, with my too-small-now-10-lbs-each shoes and one eye open, other eye watering.<\/p>\n Have to admit, a lot of the new obstacles were a lot of fun, there was a lot of interesting single track technically challenging trail (they took a page from Hell Run and upped the difficulty), but clomping with one eye closed kinda was a buzzkill.\u00a0 All in all, a blast though, I REALLY enjoyed my post race beer, and we decided to get a big big group next year.\u00a0 And hopefully I’ll plan better with training.<\/p>\n I seriously thought I was going to do major damage to my sensitive tootsies, but they got through, minus a toenail bruise due to the toosmallness.\u00a0 Very happy I didn’t!<\/p>\n Thanksgiving week:<\/strong><\/p>\n Was crazypants.\u00a0 Family in town.\u00a0 Overtime to fix issues with a launch (normal, just poorly timed).\u00a0 I actually bagged two workouts (speedwork and a x-train swim) due to extreme mental and physical done-ness.\u00a0 I had taken Sunday off planned, but also Mon (worked until 11pm), Tues (worked until 7:30, then spent time with family), and Wednesday (had to pick up packet and run errands after work, gym closed before we could get there).\u00a0 When I get into those situations I find it’s better just to give myself the days off and not stress because a) I’m already stressed enough and b) I rarely miss workouts and that particular week c) Zliten’s parents only come into town once a year and d) I can pretend it’s a mini-taper for the Turkey Trot.\u00a0\u00a0 That brings us to…<\/p>\n Turkey Trot 5 Miler:<\/strong><\/p>\n After the week I had, I had no expectations for this race.\u00a0 I wanted to run at least my M tempo pace (9:30), but it was pretty hilly.\u00a0 I had no idea what I had in me.<\/p>\n Well, I thought I knew what I had in me, but I digress.<\/p>\n We left the house 30 mins late, but it should have, with no traffic, gotten us to the race site almost an hour early.<\/p>\n Enter almost an hour worth of traffic.\u00a0 I really really thought I needed another potty trip, so Zliten let me out and continued to wait in line to park with about 10 mins to go to the race start.\u00a0 I got my warm up run sprinting to the porta potties, and found the LINE OF DOOM.\u00a0 It’s ironic listening to the national anthem, feeling thankful and patriotic, and directly facing the crappers.<\/p>\n It was decision time.\u00a0 Do I wait, use the bathroom, and get caught in the back dodging 20,000 (literally) walkers and strollers, or do I chance it.\u00a0 I had already gone that morning, so I figured it was just nerves and rolled the dice and left the potty line.\u00a0 I found the 9-10 minute mile corral, and just about immediately after I got there, we were going.\u00a0 Good timing!<\/p>\n The first mile was uphill.\u00a0 I remember spending the first half hoping that I had not chosen poorly about the bathroom, and then fell into step behind girl with the cool waistband.\u00a0 At mile 1, I was about 9:30-ish.\u00a0 Mile 2 stabilized, then went downdowndown and upupupupup.\u00a0 Going downhill, I flew into the 7s (maybe even the 6s) ’cause I hopped on the median, put my arms out, and flew.\u00a0 I was a leaf on the wind.\u00a0 Then, the painful uphill I just trudged as quickly as I could, concentrating on small, quick steps.\u00a0 I don’t remember my split at mile 2, but I think it was around 19 mins.\u00a0 Apparently there was a water stop each mile if not more often but I missed most of them due to the crowds.\u00a0 I found the first one at mile 2 and sucked down some water.<\/p>\n Mile 3 I felt pretty strong, especially because we started the downhill portion.\u00a0 Negative split, what what!\u00a0 It ended just as we were going over a nice high bridge into the sun.\u00a0 Temps were perfect, I was feeling good, and I could do ANYTHING for 2 more miles.\u00a0 I don’t remember my exact split but I think it was 27 something, and I remember thinking for some reason that I expected to finish in the 48s.\u00a0 Considering I was running about 9:30s (and just got better), that math doesn’t add up, but considering I predicted between 45 and 50 I wasn’t bummed.\u00a0 Mile 4 was a gradual downhill (my FAVORITE running conditions) and I sped up even more.\u00a0 When I got to mile 5, I really thought that the course might be short again, it didn’t seem like there was enough distance between where I was and the finish.<\/p>\n But there was.\u00a0 I kept it steady until I got to the downward slope of the bridge and pushed past everyone I could, turned the corner, and looked at the clock… it was in the 47s.\u00a0 Since I started at least 1 minute behind I knew I had a shot at a time in the 46s.\u00a0 I thought my PR was 46:50 and I was so excited!\u00a0 I crossed the finish and my garmin said 46:42 (actual finish was 46:39).\u00a0 I celebrated a little and watched for Zliten (who I totally missed and came in right at 1 hour).<\/p>\n Then, I checked my 2009 race results and my time was actually 45:50.\u00a0 So no PR, but definitely a stellar run considering the week I had and what I’m training for.<\/p>\n 18 miler on Saturday:<\/strong><\/p>\n I’ll cut this fairly short but explain the circumstances.<\/p>\n -Cycled hills the day before.<\/p>\n -Also shopped for 8+ hours the day before.\u00a0 Let’s just say don’t be me.\u00a0 I started this run in pain.<\/p>\n -Ran the first 8 miles with Zliten.\u00a0 He punished me by taking me on his hills course.\u00a0 It’s not any severe hills but it’s pretty much a constant steady uphill.<\/p>\n -Walked a cooldown mile with Zliten.\u00a0 I wanted the company more than I wanted to go fast.<\/p>\n -Ran mile 10 and 11 and ran into a major fucking wall at 12.\u00a0 My legs would not go.\u00a0 The hurt when I walked just felt sore, the hurt when I ran threw the meter into potential injury territory, so walk it was.\u00a0 You train what you have any given day, and the best I could do was time on my feet (which is actually very important, just FELT wussy).<\/p>\n -I walked 3 miles.\u00a0 I tried to pick up and run a few times and I just couldn’t.\u00a0 Right around mile 15 I noticed that if I could just hold 12s, I’d make my cut off (I gave myself 4 hours).<\/p>\n -I started running again and I had my legs back.\u00a0 I ran all but one quick uphill walk break around 17, and finished in 4:02.\u00a0 I expect 18 NEVER to go so slow again and to beat my time when I run 20 in two weeks.<\/p>\n Damage: oddly enough, my HIP has been sore this week.\u00a0 Ankles fine, arches fine, feet fine, but that 4 hours on my feet did something to my HIP.\u00a0 I feel about 70 years old complaining about my hip.\u00a0 It felt better, and ran on it Monday (5 miles of speedwork).\u00a0 Ow on Tuesday.\u00a0 It felt better on Wednesday so I did my 2 mi EZ, 3 mi 9:15 tempo, 1 mile EZ.\u00a0 Ow yesterday.\u00a0 I have a race tomorrow, but I think I’ll go ahead and cross train a little more next week instead of run so I can let it heal – I would really like to not have a major injury that I exacerbate to the point of having to ditch further 26.2 training.\u00a0 Tomorrow’s race is basically just a long hilly training session IMO, so if I have to take it slow or walk, I’ll be ok with it (at least that’s what I say now…).\u00a0 And no matter what, I’ll have wine at the end to console me.<\/p>\n (Yes, btw, first day of the Christmas season – I’m wearing shorts, a tee shirt, and cowboy boots!\u00a0 Go Austin! Also, don’t my legs and arms look fabulously buff in this picture? Wheee!)<\/p>\n This last week started my start of calorie counting again.\u00a0 So far, I’m observing that I’m around 1800 calories on weekdays, 70-90g fat (which is waywayway higher than I used to, normally coming in around 30-40 before I started adding olive oil\/nuts\/etc), 150g carbs, and 100g protein.\u00a0 Nutrition-person-lady said the fat content is fine, and not to aim for a certain number this week of anything, just gather data.\u00a0 So I have.\u00a0 Weightwise – I’m back to 175.0, so that’s the lowest I’ve been for a while.\u00a0 Ready for onward and downward!<\/p>\n Somehow, my life continues to be crazy through December (but crazy awesome).\u00a0 In the coming weeks I have a pinball party Yelp event, my company Holiday party, volunteering at Decker Half, my first 20 miler, Jamaica, seeing Tori Amos live (fourth row, people, I’m so stoked!!!), a wedding, and then it’s Christmas week!\u00a0 I was all excited about having these 3 weeks of to laze around and now I have plans on quite a few of them.\u00a0 I’m pretty sure I’ll squeeze an epic couch gaming\/movie watching marathon of some sort though…<\/p>\n Epic update of epicness done.\u00a0 I’ll be back to update soon on hilly races, pinball places, and smiling faces soon!<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net\/hphotos-ak-ash4\/381719_10150435757139450_789139449_8223316_1615662716_n.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net\/hphotos-ak-snc7\/378874_10150473035102603_699762602_10389846_2054814386_n.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net\/hphotos-ak-ash4\/373860_10150417939104450_789139449_8168437_589500290_n.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net\/hphotos-ak-ash4\/313293_289578281083112_100000928274974_850210_1388768659_n.jpg\")
<\/p>\n