Friday, August 22, 2008

154.4 - Change in Plans

Tonight at the gym the plan was to run 3 miles and take a weights class. As usual I got there later than I'd hoped, so at 4:10 I was on the treadmill and hoped to get in about 2 miles before the 4:30 class started.

But I felt so great--the first mile and a half were like butta at 10:20 min/mile--that I decided to make tonight my long run, which was 8 miles.

At 3.1 miles I realized I needed to put body glide on my feet or else I'd end up with a blister. So I took a quick break, used the bathroom, got my glide and a gu from my car, lubed my feet, and got back on the horse. I went ahead and took my gu too, even though I'd only been running for just over 32 minutes.

After another 1.2 miles (4.3 total), I'd had enough of the treadmill and was fighting the urge to walk. So I got off and ran the indoor track. A mile is 10 and 1/3 laps, so I had about 40 laps to go to get in a full 8. I have to admit I felt a little silly running around in circles for over 40 minutes, and I am oh so glad that I don't usually run with mirrors around (I learned to avert my eyes after the first few laps).

It takes just over a minute for me to run a lap, so I used my stopwatch to do the counting for me. Every minute that ticked over was the lap count, and I just ignored the seconds. I reset the stopwatch after every mile so I could keep up with the lap count easily. And I stopped after every mile or so to drink water and write down my mile times (I can't keep all that in my head at one time--not enough free brain cells to track even 4 miles of splits). I haven't figured the total time or average pace yet, but my stopwatch had me at 10:30s and 10:40s, which was awesome for an 8 mile run, for me.

So my plans changed, but for the better. Now I've got my long run for the weekend out of the way. And I feel like I accomplished something.

And I'm still on track to meet my mileage goal of 70 miles this month.

Oh! And yesterday I ran 4 miles and did a total of 17 pushups (on my toes--7, then 5, then 5. I haven't started the official push up challenge yet--I printed it today--just wanted to see how many I could do. I rested a minute between each set, and it about killed me to eek out those last 5. I was slightly sore in all the right upper body places today, so it did some good).

Now, if I can just get my night-time eating under control... that's another story.

Hope to catch up with you all this weekend.

Smooches!

7 comments:

Vickie said...

I always stay on my toes - not my knees, but . . .

After all this time -
I can get all the way down
BUT NOT all the way back up
in pushups.

So when doing push ups I only go half way down.

In yoga we do a VERY slow lower to the ground and then hover just inches above the floor many, many times in our sunset salutations.

so I KNOW how hard it is to do the number of pushups you are doing on your toes - be PROUD.

Cyndi said...

I've seen a lot of mentions of this 100 PUshup Challenge around Blogville lately. I think I will check it out this weekend! These types of challenges, like C25K, are great for people like me just starting out and provide structure and a good way to monitor progress!

Good job on the 8 mile run, that's impressive. I can't even picture myself at that point yet!

Heather said...

thats awesome, you rock!

Anonymous said...

Good job on the run! I can barely stand running around a normal track, so I can't imagine running around the little one! And you are rocking on those pushups. When I first started, I could only do 4-6 full pushups.

Keep up the awesome work!

Carly said...

Nice work! I don't know how you did it on the gym track....I can't even do my 2 mile loop twice.

Great job on the push ups too!

Cindy said...

You and me both on the night time eating!!!! Let me know how that goes! I do push ups on my toes but I think I only got to ten this morning. Still - doing any feels miraculous to me. I admire your exercise resolve so much!!!!

Anonymous said...

Push ups on your toes???? You're my hero!!!

Look at you rocking the runs and guns!! =)