Thursday, June 9, 2011

Saved by the Tween

These last few days in MA have felt like being home in Florida; the heat is supposed to break tonight. There was a crazy thunderstorm so I decided to get a one day pass at a local, all woman's gym. I blogged about it the last time I went, back in February, and I enjoyed it just as much this time. One downside was I had been charged the wrong rate last time, as the day pass is actually $20 not $15. Ouch! They do have huge fans, lots of space and wonderful slogans on the wall. The atmosphere of all woman is great too.

I wasn't decided on whether I would do a distance run or try for sprints. I started with a quick warm-up and started at my 4.0 pace, which at that point could have meant sprints or distance. I opted for distance. When I packed all of my stuff last week I forgot my iPod and my new headphones. I was really bummed out, and did my best last week with the crummy headphones from the airplane and my Ipod that is meant for books on tape. (Yes, I have 2 iPods. I have a shuffle for my workouts and a larger one for books on tape, podcasts etc. Go, go gadget economic privilege thanks to my wonderful husband). Then it dawned on me that my 11 year old niece has an iPod and that it must be filled with all kinds of music that I would love to run to! I mean there is little difference between my 13 year old taste and her 11 year old taste. Score.

I did skip over songs like 'Whip My Hair' by Willow Smith, but found enough Beyonce, Pink and Kesha to keep me moving. I didn't drink any water during my run as my belly was feeling a little upset, but I did take in 3 Shot Bloks. I decided the Shot Bloks were more important, and I think I was right. I had also wet my hair, which is my new favorite trick to staying cool!

I was hoping to get through 7 miles, but that just didn't happen. For one thing, the treadmill will only let you go for 99 minutes and that's not enough for me to do 7 miles. I could have restarted, but that would have thrown off my mojo. I also found around the 75 minute mark that my cramps were getting more intense and I could feel them further up me left side. I slowed down from 4.0mph to 3.8mph, which helped keep me going. I had done a 4 minute warm-up and made it to the 6 mile mark in just shy of 90 minutes. I slowed down to walk and spent the last 5 minutes walking sloooowly. Much stretching and hydrating ensued and I had 3 Protein Bites to recover.

I feel great! I know to expect that I will be ravenous tomorrow and will have a protein dense snack before bed to try and stave that off. Tomorrow will be strength training and stretching. If I can do my 2 shorter runs between tomorrow and Sunday I won't have missed any training this week. Wahoo! *I do need to work on my consistency to get faster and stronger.*

6.24 miles, 95 minutes, average pace: just over 15 minutes per mile

7 comments:

  1. Kudos to you for getting a good workout in while being out of town!

    And the two iPod idea- genius!

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  2. Good idea on the wet hair and getting in the workout on the road, that's such a challenge.

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  3. Pretty sure I'm the ONLY person that doesn't know this Willow Smith song. I was going to youtube it, but you know what, no! I'm not!

    Great workout. You've made me want to get out of work and go bust out a few miles!

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  4. I have never hear of Willow Smith so I probably would have skipped the song too, but yay for the ipod with the music

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  5. I'm glad to hear you won't be finding the song; it's really obnoxious. The wet hair makes all the difference, and is something I will definitely be doing for my long runs and in the heat. I'm glad it motivated you FruitFly, today was one of those days were I was able to keep going and it felt great. I'm going to think a bit about what I ate yesterday and this morning that might have made it such a great run.

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  6. Go Katie!! I'm also impressed you stuck it out that long on the treadmill. I have trouble running for longer than an hour on the treadmill, which was a problem last winter when I was training for my half. At least here in Nebraska I don't have to worry about humidity, just heat in the summer.

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  7. Thanks Maggie! :) How is Nebraska?!

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