152.0 - My first long run of training--DONE!

The blogger blip from Friday was a bug in the code, apparently, which blogger fixed late Saturday morning. I'm just glad it's back.

I didn't get to run Saturday afternoon. Instead I ran out of time with all the stuff we had to do that day, and by the time kids were in bed and I could go out, it was after 9 p.m.

Did I let that stop me from getting in my long run for the week? Heck no! I got up Sunday morning at 5:40 a.m. and was out the door by 5:55 a.m. The weather was as cool as you can expect for Southern Indiana in August, and I had a great 5 mile run.

I got in negative splits for the first 3 miles (mile 1: 11:14, mile 2: 10:55, mile 3: 10:33), then I started getting tired at mile 4 (10:57) and mile 5 (10:50). My average pace was 10:54, which isn't bad for an early morning run with only 6 hours sleep.

To put this pace in perspective, my Indy Half Marathon average pace was 11:04. I really really want to run the Evansville Half (which I officially registered for yesterday--it's October 12th) in 2 hours 15 minutes (about 10 minutes faster than I ran 13.1 miles in May*), which means my pace for October has to be 10:18/mile. I don't know if I can do it, but I'm going to try.

Which means speed work and sticking to my training schedule the best I can. I got in 4 of 5 runs last week, for a total of 15 miles (I'd only run 6 miles the week before).

I once read--probably on someone's blog--"If you want to run faster, run faster." Like most things worthwhile, it's simple, but not easy. So I'll be doing track repeats (although they might be on the treadmill) on Tuesday. My first repeats ever. I'll let you know how they go.

Sunday was also my 16th weight lifting class in 60 days, so I've got a free t-shirt on the way. Woohoo! I am totally addicted to free weights now. I was doing lunges like a pro yesterday. Used to hate them, now I love them. That t-shirt has seriously gotten me to the gym more times than I'd like to admit (like, yesterday, I'd have totally bagged it if it wasn't the last day I could get my 16th session in ), so I don't know how I'm going to ensure I make it to twice a week classes. Discipline, you say? Me? Oy. I need frivolous chotchkes instead.

Last night I had the munchies big time while watching Mad Men (you guys are watching this on AMC, yes? It is so very good), and I'm guessing I'm holding onto at least 2 pounds of water weight. If only I can get my "if only's" under control, I'll be heading back into the 140s in no time.

OH! And guess what? My LA Weight Loss center closed--without warning--Thursday. I noticed a news truck over by the center on Sunday afternoon when I was doing a Target run after my class, and I drove by to see what was up. Turns out, the franchisee closed the place because they weren't making money, according to the online news article I found. And they were taking people's money all the way up until they closed. I feel so bad for the people who were deep in the program and now are left with no support. I haven't been to weigh in for over a month, and they still owe me about 20 boxes of LAWL snack bars, but other than that it's no big loss for me. I've got the owner's phone number but the news article said the guy's not answering the phone. We'll all probably get shafted and won't get refunds, is my guess. Bastards. At least I got my weight off before they closed.

*Random race info for you detail people: my official half marathon time in Indy was 2:29:29. But according to Garmin, I actually ran a total of 13.37 miles. I looked at Garmin at 13.1 miles and it was around 2:25:ish. It cracks me up that I dodged and weaved around so many people that I ran over a quarter of a mile longer than I should have. Next year when I run Indy, I get to be "officially seeded" since I finished in less than 2:30:00, and will start the race with the runners instead of the walkers (which is where I was this time, way the heck back in coral U).