Shall we back it up a bit to Friday before getting into 16.3?

My morning began with a WET 5 mile run. And cold. Yuck. Sometimes I like running in the rain, most times I don’t, especially in the morning. But I got it done. A highlight was breakfast—I was super excited to try the Siggi’s fig and lemon yogurt, and realized it would go perfectly with the copious amounts of lemon poppyseed bread in the freezer. I used the one with the slightly weird texture. I actually like the flavor of that more. Still looking for the perfect recipe!

In my morning class, I got to work with rats! Then, it was lunchtime. It was a made to order brunch, so I got eggs florentine on a gluten free english muffin.

After lunch, I went to my final class of the quarter and just got DRENCHED on the bike ride back. When I arrived at my dorm, my sister was waiting outside for me and I didn’t have time to change clothes. We were off to visit the cat she was going to adopt! I fell in love with a few others while there.

But meet Lava! My first nephew

He’s such a sweetie. He loves climbing on everyone’s lap and purring.

The rest of my wild Friday night consisted of falling asleep before 10pm. #deadweek

Saturday morning before Crossfit, I stopped by the Stanford softball game. They were playing Cal Poly, and growing up I played softball with quite a few girls who are now on Cal Poly, so it was fun to see them play!

Then, Saturday morning was 16.3! I was not really excited for it. The workout was a 7 minute AMRAP of 10 snatches at 55# and 3 muscle ups. So, muscle ups are definitely not a thing for me. I assumed I would do scaled, which was 35# snatches and jumping chest to bar pull ups, which I was not excited about. When I showed up however, out coach informed us that since any reps in Rx is ranked higher than scaled, it made sense to just do Rx and then finish the workout with pull ups, and take a score of 10. Since 55# snatches are really comfortable for me, I took this option, and scored all of a 10. Because of that limitation, there wasn’t much hoopla around the workout. The exciting thing though was that I actually did 5 pull ups between my snatch sets WITHOUT a band. WHATTT. I used the smallest band for the first set and then ditched it for the last couple. I’ve been putting in work on the pull ups lately, so I was pretty pumped to be able to break them out in a workout for the first time!

After my heat, I judged a heat and watched another. It was actually a lot of fun, and sort of amusing. Because of the way the standards for muscle ups were set, you can actually do some pretty ugly things to make it work.

After the workout, I went out to lunch with my gym-mates. We went to The Counter, which was delicious but insanely slow. We were there for over 2 hours! It was really fun getting to know everyone though. I keep saying this, but I love the Crossfit community.

My make your own burger creation went unphotographed because I was ravenous, but I did a chicken burger with gruyere, garlic aioli, avocado, mixed greens, and tomato on a GF bun. Demolished.

The rest of my day consisted of a review session, studying, and a cat bath.

Because of my vet assistant experience, I came over to bathe Lava and clean his ears. He was not amused. He’s such a sweetie and we weren’t worried about getting bitten, but he definitely did not love the water and was quite squirmy! After his bath and partial blow-dry, he would not stop cleaning himself—I don’t think he liked any part of the experience!

I think he forgave his mean old aunt though because he was curled up on my lap an spurring before I left.

Sunday morning was my 9 mile training run, which I was not looking forward to AT ALL. The weather report called for rain all day, and it did not disappoint. I was a little worried about blisters for 9 miles in the rain, but that ended up being a non issue. I was also thoroughly unprepared for this run. I don’t actually have any water bottles at school right now (right??), and forget to get some gu from home last time I went back. Luckily, I still had a few packets of chocolate, but I was worried about the caffeine in chocolate because last time I had issues with it. But sometimes you have to suck it up, get out, and get to work. Based on the route, I hit a water fountain at mile 5 so I could take my gu then. It gave me quite the energy boost! Overall, I felt pretty good, albeit wet. Myshoe came untied in the last mile, and when I bent down to tie it, and nice little puddle came out of my rain jacket. Needless to say I was DRENCHED.

I’m not really paying attention to paces right now, so I was pretty happy with this!

Lunch was super delicious. A bowl of polenta, eggs, spinach, and mozzarella.

And then I committed to not going outside the rest of the day. I’m so over being cold and wet!

I’m currently rocking my seasonably appropriate compression socks. It’s a good thing St. Patrick’s Day falls during long run season!

Aaand now it’s back to studying. ONE MORE DAY!

Running in the rain—love it or hate it?

I think I owe you all some food pictures, especially with my fantastically limited diet. As for how that’s going-I’m not ready to start adding things back yet, and I’m feeling ok. I sometimes feel bad, but it’s pretty good and lately hasn’t been a problem. So I’m feeling PRETTY good.

So-the weekend! I worked on Friday afternoon instead of Saturday because I had a recruitment workshop. I had to pick up my employee key tag from the gym I’m going to start subbing at (which looks exactly like my membership key tag from when I was a member).

And the gym was right across from Whole Foods, so I grabbed dinner there.

Turkey meatloaf, quinoa salads, and normal salad. The real highlight though was raiding the dairy free/gluten free bakery area. I picked up this AMAZING brownie which I think was made with garbanzo beans?

Saturday’s meal schedule was really strange since I had my workshop, but I had a super early dinner of sushi-type of things, which I dipped in vinaigrette. Yeah…

Then, my sister and I got full body massages! I had never had one before, and it was so nice! Although the next day I felt a little bruised. Afterwards, we went out for Pho, because rice noodles are one of the few things I can eat!

Then, I went home for Easter! Yes, we are in our 20s and still do egg hunts.

Also-know what is gluten and dairy free? Jelly beans. YUM. I had so many! Because Easter is one of the times where candy mid-morning is 100% acceptable.

After the hunt-we ended up not finding anywhere near all of them, although we found one with a giant hole far from where it started so maybe animals played a hand-we met up with my grandma and uncle for brunch at a fancy hotel.

I actually managed pretty well to avoid gluten/dairy/nuts.

I brought my own soy sauce in my purse that was gluten free. Cute. Sushi, smoked salmon, salad, chicken.

Corn taco with beans, guac, rice, and salsa. Plus more sushi and jasmine rice.

I also had some dessert. I had a few bites of gluten/dairy containing things, but I think it was ok, especially since I’m doing a full other week of total elimination. My favorite was peach crisp!

After brunch, we did some egg dying!

Which is what I will be eating for the next week straight. These are all for me:

In other news, I did my last major long run of half training yesterday. It was 9 miles, and it was a mix of great and really, really sucky. Saturday-Monday I was dealing with really bad allergies (that always occur the week of formal recruitment), so my lungs felt disgusting. My stomach was kind of off so I felt gross. And my new shoes are definitely not ready to be raced in. HOWEVER. My legs felt fantastic! They weren’t even tired, so I’m taking that as a good sign! That being said, I still have no expectations for race day. It will definitely depend on how I feel!

What did you do for Easter?

So….I have a half marathon in 3 weeks. Yeah. Originally I was gunning for a big PR in this race, but I’ve decided I’m most definitely not going to do that. Thanks to foot issues, I’m probably not going to be in the best shape. Plus I’m tired of dying at races, so I’m going to go out very conservatively. My plan is to go out around a 10:00 pace, and my goal is to run a sub-10:00 last mile. 10:00 is on the slow side for me for races, but I want to keep a steady pace and have something left at the end, which is how I know I will have paced well. On that note, after about a week off of running, my foot is feeling much better and it’s time to get back at it. Since I was in Berkeley all weekend, and another recovery day couldn’t hurt, I did a long run on Monday. Technically 3 weeks out from my race I should have done a 12 mile run, but I opted for a 10 miler instead.

I had what seems to be my current pre-long run food (I can’t believe I’m eating yogurt pre-long run…)-plain yogurt, a banana mashed with cocoa powder, and sunflower seed butter.

I was super casual about this run and didn’t head out until around 12 (definitely couldn’t have done this in DC) so it was pretty warm, but a BEAUTIFUL day. The trail I ran on offers views of what I consider one of the most beautiful parts of Northern CA.

(Old pic-it was the perfect day so it was even more beautiful!)

I ran 2 more miles into this trail than I have before, and the scenery changed completely. I reached the edge of the reservoir and then was running through a wooded forest. At the 5 mile turnaround, I was shocked when the trail opened up to a beautiful lake/other reservoir! It was amazing! I also took my gu here-I finally tried the mint chocolate I’ve had FOREVER and it was SO delicious! It was a very warm day so it was nice and melty, like peppermint hot fudge! (Note: I still don’t recommend using goo as hot fudge on a sundae-it’s not THAT good.) The only problem was it made me cough like crazy-I guess I won’t be switching over anytime soon!

This run for me was more to get the miles in than anything else, so the pace was what it was. This was hard! Why is running so hard? It’s amazing how fast you get out of shape. Between tapering and a week off after my race, my legs did not have anywhere near the volume of mileage that I would normally have at this point in training.

But I finished and then gobbled down some leftovers-a turkey burger and sweet potato.

And then made pumpkin custard.

Dinner that night was Grilled Peach and Chicken salad. One of the peaches we used was absolutely amazing.

Plus some pita chips on the side.

For dessert, I tried Pumpkin Spice english muffins! They are SOOO good! I had mine toasted with butter and cinnamon sugar. I think they’d also be fantastic with cinnamon Laughing Cow or cream cheese. Yum!

Do you find you get out of running shape quickly?

Breakfast was plain greek yogurt+sunbutter+banana mashed with cocoa powder.

As for fueling on the run, I spiked my water bottle with coconut water. Worst. Decision. Ever. First worst decision though was buying plain coconut water instead of pineapple. I actually like pineapple-can’t stand plain. I thought plain would blend better with my water (that I wouldn’t taste it as much) but boy was I wrong. I think I gagged every time I took a drink. Blech.

I actually brought my phone (in case I passed out or died midway-never know!) so I got some pictures of today’s scenic route.

I also made myself choke down some water every mile or so. It was hot and humid today so that was a priority.

At the halfway point, I ate my Cliff chocolate goo. I think this is the only brand and flavor I could ever race with. Every other type I’ve tried (even other Cliff flavors) give me coughing fits. Which is fine on a training run (well, fine-ish), attempting to choke it down without losing a lung would be difficult. I think it is because this flavor is a bit thicker and less sickly sweet. I really wanted salted caramel for this run (because electrolytes) but I didn’t make it to the store on time.

I didn’t have any expectations on this run, other than to try and finish. From the very start, my legs fell into a faster pace. My calves felt tighter running slower so that was that.

Even though I got a new audiobook last night, I ran to music because I wanted to start with something to pump me up a bit. I didn’t plan to have music the whole way, but it was working for me. Plus, my route was pretty interesting and varied. From Georgetown to the river, past Jefferson, over the river to the Mt. Vernon trail, past the airport, back, and then from Lincoln through the National Mall.

I hit Lincoln around mile 10, and it was SO awesome because those were the first working drinking fountains on my run. I only had a bit of water left, and it was the nasty coconut mix so having fresh water was heaven.

Also-funny story. At mile 11, I totally wiped out in from of the Washington Monument. Luckily the ground was smooth stone so I kind of just slid, with just a bit of a scrape and bruise on my knee. Another reason to run in pants!

I finished perfectly at my lunch location of choice.

And out of nowhere, I had just completed my best ever 12 mile training run.

I never really felt like death, and my legs just locked into a rhythm. Hopefully this bodes well for PRing my race! I finished feeling good. And hungry. Definitely an improvement from last week when I just felt kind of gross.

I finished at The Protein Bar, and got a chocolate protein shake and a BBQ chicken “bar-rito” with avocado.

It has quinoa, not rice! So delicious. I’m getting hungry again just thinking about it. Or maybe that’s because I ran 12 miles? I honestly think the 11 mile run the week prior in my training plan is one of the worst-or at least it typically has been in my training! I get locked in a bit more by the time I hit the 12 miler. Also-totally random but on the way back I ran into a friend from school on the street who lives in DC!

On my way back, I decided to check one item off my DC dessert bucket list. Chocolate cream cheese muffin from a nearby coffee shop. It was kind of like marble creed/cream cheese. My weakness. So good. I actually had a chocolate muffin the night before the big run, and I think the carb loading helped.

After cleaning myself up a lot, I met up with a friend for frozen yogurt. I wasn’t exactly feeling it after the muffin, so I just got tart with fruit.

We walked around the National Mall and Capital Building a bit, and then found the Supreme Court!

Take note of the compression socks. Those things are seriously magic.

On my way home, I stopped for a salad-the same one as the other day. It was delicious-feta, watermelon, chicken, etc.

Aaand now I know I’m going to sleep well tonight. I felt so much better all day today than after my last long run! But I am certainly going to sleep well tonight…

What is your worst run of training?

Thursday(last week)-run club workout. There was a sub leading it, and she planned out a route right through downtown. As a result, about halfway through (maybe less) we started getting stuck at every. single. light. Which I personally welcomed because I was casually dying. However, what this meant to my companions was that we should sprint the distances between the lights. Dying.

Friday-rowing workout at the gym+abs in the morning-nothing too crazy, just 4 sets of 5 minutes on the erg plus about 10 minutes of abs. To be honest it was an excuse to use the super fancy showers at my gym…seriously, they are amazing.

That evening was Crossfit-Death by Slamballs. This was a 15 minute AMRAP, with every minute starting with 3 burpees, and then 1 slam ball, then 2 slam balls,3,4,5, etc, increasing by one every minute so that the last minute you do 3 burps plus 15 slam balls. If you fail to complete the slam balls, you “die.” Somehow, I “lived.” But barely. Ugh, in the last round I sort of wished I had died earlier! I used a 30# slam ball.

Later that evening, since it was Friday night, I was asking around Georgetown and stopped by the Reebok store. They had a promotion that if you do 20 burpees, you get 20% off. Uhm, yes! I ALMOST got some beautiful turquoise Nano 4.0s but they didn’t have my size. Probably just as well though, because I think I like my 2.0s more-they just fit my feet better! I did however, get this shirt (putting burpee count for the day at 65 if you’re counting):

Saturday: Crossfit-I haven’t gone on a Saturday in forever, and I wanted to work on handstands since I”m getting close! We also did snatches. The WOD was a fun one-sprints in the form of Cops and Robbers (basically tag). It was only 10 sprints, but I definitely felt it the next day…which was…

Sunday-11 miles! This was a pretty uneventful run. I incorporated lots of hills in the first couple of miles, and the end was awful because I messed up my complicated planned route a bit so I got back to near the start at about a mile short, so I had to run in circles for a mile. Which I hate doing-I like pure out and backs. Plus I was dying at that point and contemplated finishing at 10+ but I did it. The best moment though was finishing at the Georgetown waterfront where there was this fountain/sprinkler thing that kids were playing in in their bathings suits. I stuck my head in and it was the best thing ever.

The issue was that after my run I felt really…uncomfortable. I don’t know, not bad, just weird. I walked to a cafe to get some food (and lots of water) into me. I sat at the cafe briefly contemplating whether I was going to pass out, and then realized I was being ridiculous and paranoid. Does anyone else do that-they feel slightly off and then it freaks them out? Anyways, I think the problem may have been lack of electrolytes. It was pretty warm, and while the heat didn’t really bother me, I sweated quite a bit. Given all my races are in San Francisco and I train by the bay, I’m not used to this kind of thing! I think I’m going to try and get salted goo for this week’s run, or carry coconut water or something.

Monday: Crossfit-Not ideal after a long run, but I felt decent and didn’t want to miss squat day.

Tuesday: Rest/yoga. My legs were kind of beat up, and my hamstrings were tight, so this was perfect. It was power yoga in a warm room (~80?), but it wasn’t too intense and my hamstrings got a great stretch.

Wednesday-legs felt restored for my morning 6 miler! Uneventful-I ran to the Lincoln Memorial which I can only do on longer runs now because I live further, and almost swallowed about 50 gnats at the reflecting pool.

And that’s what you missed! I promise to try and be more consistent-but after my 11 miler I lay on my bed not moving for a solid 3 hours. It knocked me out!

Also-I’ve been making an effort to tweet more, so feel free to follow me there!

How do you handle the heat?

Friday evening started with bench pressing at Crossfit and sweet potato nachos.

After staying up later than I should have, Saturday morning my friends and I met up again to visit Mount Vernon. I am seriously falling in love with the Virginia countryside. It was beautiful. And all the history was so cool! I forgot how much I love American history!

Afterwards we got froyo and it was fantastic.

On the running front, I want to give a little plantar fasciitis update. For some reason, I woke up for my 5 miler on Friday morning and I couldn’t walk it was so bad. I immediately took Advil, and hobbled along for a mile or so until it warmed up, and then had a good run. The other day though, I bought some sleeves for my feet that give me extra arch support and they are lifesaving. I’ve been on my feet all weekend, and my feet are fine. It’s amazing.

On Sunday, I had my long run in the morning. I had a great route. 3 memorials, 1 river, Mt Vernon trail, an airport….and most importantly, ending in cupcakes. The plan was to run to cupcakes, and then metro back. I saw the Lincoln, Jefferson, and FDR memorials. The FDR was on accident. I made a turn looking for a bathroom and there it was.

It ended up being a good run, although I felt like I was slugging along. I always forget how hard these first long runs are. Somehow I managed to hit a pace that was around where I should be though, which was nice.

Most importantly though, I have finally found the best cupcakes in the DC area! I had a good feeling about this place. I heard about it from my coworkers. It’s called Lavendar Moon, in Alexandria. I even ordered a cupcake that wasn’t my favorite flavor, and I’m still saying that. FINALLY a perfectly moist cupcake. I had a s’mores cupcake.

Look at that beauty. Can every run end here?

After returning home and cleaning myself up, I headed out to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It was really cool-I mostly wanted to see one of the IMAX movies, and it did not disappoint. I only got the the air part, not really the space part, before I got incredibly tired and had to call it a day. I got some books though that I’m excited to read!

And that was my weekend. The only thing I’ll add-I went to spin today without my spinning shoes. It was awful. My arches don’t like me right now. It’s amazing the difference they make!

Have you ever been to a Smithsonian? Which should I go to next?

This girl.

Guess who had zero intention of running 14 miles today?

Uhhh…yeah.

Guess who tried a new route on her long run and TOTALLY missed the major turnoff?

Ummm…are we seeing a trend here?

But let’s back up.

I want to start by saying Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I celebrated by eating almost exclusively green food. No, really. It was totally by accident-and I clearly don’t have much in my fridge!

My first final today was at 8:30, so I started my day my making a spinach, egg white, and cheese scramble in my dorm room.

Then, I picked up a cappuccino on the way to the exam.

During dead and finals week, the cappuccinos have been prettier. It’s definitely a trade off though because it makes the milk foam pretty bitter!

I got to my exam super early to top off my studying.

My only comment about the exam is that 3 hour exams are very long and I get very thirsty. And the worst thing ever is getting stuck on a renal system and urine secretion problem during this time!

I was able to get out a bit early in time to eat lunch before my next exam. My lunch ended up greener than planned-I discovered this morning that my salsa was moldy!

Sweet potato, egg whites, and spinach. Plus a slice of marble cake to celebrate the end of my Bio class of the quarter! I spent SO much time studying for this exam the last few days!

After my Nutrition final, I made the decision to to Sunday’s long run. I was still feeling pretty good, and I wasn’t super excited by tonight’s Crossfit workout, so I figured, why not? I knew I’d need more fuel though! It was-you guessed it-more egg whites with spinach and cheese, plus a kiwi!

In theory, today’s run was 12 miles. I was super excited-I had an interesting new route mapped out! I even joked to my roommate about getting lost…and then guess who missed their turn…the road was a big smaller one that expected (which I found on the way back…). And I didn’t bother to check my maps on my phone until mile 7…when there was literally nowhere to go except back where I came from! I guess I could have still taken my turn on the way back, but I didn’t really need to do 16 miles today!

Want to know the crazy part though? Check out my half marathon split.

That’s only a couple of seconds off of my first half marathon-and I wasn’t really trying! And it’s crazy to think how bad I felt after that. I couldn’t move the next day. Immediately, my legs were in so much pain. The last mile was horrible. Granted, this time I did stop the clock to stretch/be really lost, but still! It’s amazing how far I’ve come since then! This is one reason why I may PR my half coming up without trying-I’ve just gotten so much faster! I’m not sure if I WANT to PR though-I really just want to enjoy the race more than anything else. 

I think today’s run is really a testament to the training. In last week’s 11 miler, I felt like I was dying the last few miles. Today? I wasn’t even pushing the pace until the last mile, and on the way back I was easily under 10:00. (It was uphill out, and slight downhill back). More amazing? I was under 10:00 on the 14th mile. I was planning on just waling it, which I did some, but mostly I decided that since I felt ok still, and it was faster, it was worth it to run it. 

To recover from my longer than expected run, I immediately put on my holiday appropriate socks.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say that part of the reason I wanted to do my long run today was to wear these socks…

I definitely refueled well. I went to the local burger place, with full intention of getting a turkey or chicken burger, but this caught my eye and I decided I needed it NOW.

An egg salad wrap-and hey, it was green!

I also tried the Cherry Vanilla smoothie. When the nutritionist talked to my sorority, she highlighted this particular smoothie because tart cherry juice is supposed to aid in muscle recovery. The smoothie had vanilla greek yogurt, tart cherry juice, cherries, and strawberries. It was delicious!

This was the perfect post-run recovery meal! But boy oh boy am I ready for bed! 14 miles plus 2 finals?? I’m totally crazy!

Yesterday was my 10 mile training run. It actually doesn’t seem like that much anymore. 13.1? That’s a different story. 

I woke up a little bit sore in my calves from my 5k. I was a little concerned, but it ended up not really mattering. Before leaving, I rolled out really well.

My route was just around campus-my two usual runs pieced together. The first part included a giant hill. I know I’ve said I wanted to keep my paces for long runs under 10:00, but I knew that was not realistic given the giant hill. My legs definitely felt a little more tired than I was expecting! 

The good news? I only got rained on a little bit. It started raining right as I left, but didn’t last long. Also, having a giant hill at the start seemed to save my feet. 

Overall, the run went well but I was definitely feeling the impact of the distance by the end. My ankle starting really hurting, which was strange because it hasn’t bothered me in a while and the other ankle, which I rolled last week, was fine. Hmmm…I was able to keep most of the distance off the hill at my goal of under 10:00, including the last 2 miles, which always seem to be the hardest! 

By the time I got back, all the dining halls were closed from brunch. I was grateful I had food in my room, so I had a random mash of things-Amy’s Spinach and Feta wrap, cheese and crackers, fruit. I have to say though, my appetite is nothing like it would be after my long runs when I first started distance running! I guess our bodies adapt!

Also awesome: my mom got me the St. Patrick’s day compression socks! I wore them all day yesterday. I still think compression socks are magic. My calves felt less sore from wearing them, and I have no long run soreness now. I might try running in them to see if it helps my tendonitis!

And since it’s after breakfast and I have a picture, here are my microwave eggs and smoked gouda, and a grapefruit.

Also-I bought a fair amount of Quest bars last Friday. But I really should not be eating them because they have nuts and my skin is going crazy. Would anybody be interested in a giveaway if I did that?? Save me from myself!

I’ve had some delicious food in the last couple of days. You’ll notice that nothing is from Tuesday…I’m planning a day in the life post for that day! So-here we go!

A dining hall breakfast of COFFEE, plain Greek yogurt with fruit and granola, and a few bites of steel cut oats because our dining hall has them and I’ve never tried them. 

It was Parent’s Weekend last weekend. Which meant a large vegetable delivery. And a delicious lunch out.

A panini with avocado, cheese, and tomato on whole grain bread. Take a second to look at that beauty,

Lots of roasted veggies for snack/dinner. The brussels sprouts are sesame brussels from PaleOMG. They have a curry dipping sauce, which I liked the flavor of, but I think next time I’d try it with a lighter base, such as avocado, or greek yogurt.

And since I had all those veggies for snack and after Crossfit I needed to go to the store and I just HAPPENED to find a parking spot in front of my favorite ice cream place….yeah, this was necessary!

Sunday was my long run day, now that I’m officially in half training! Since I AM officially in half training, I think it’s time to take my pre run meals more seriously. I’ve kind of been just eating whatever before them…I had some banana blueberry oats with sunflower seed butter.

Which took a long time to digest….and then I got brunch….and then another snack…so I didn’t start my run until around 5. It was 8 miles, and it went surprisingly well. My feet hated me, but that’s that…I’m trying to keep my paces on my long runs below 10:00 as much as possible, unless there are crazy hills so I was right on track!

Sunday night after a long couple of hours of sorority requirements, I was talking to my sister and she said “You sound like you need a boba.” So we drove to her newest favorite place, and I had a jasmine milk tea. Sometimes you do need a late night boba!

Monday morning I thought it would be a fabulous idea to do a track workout, despite my long run being Sunday. Which is another way of saying I didn’t think. My legs were definitely a little heavy, so that schedule is going to have to change as my long runs get longer! For breakfast, I had a yogurt bowl, plus half a lemon zest pancake because I really wanted to try it. It was good! But subtle.

I had some leftover oatmeal from Sunday morning, so I brought a little with me to put on top of my yogurt bowl for some extra flavor and texture.

I must be channeling my inner Ashley– not only did I have an avocado and cheese panini, but I also made a Mexican style lunch with sweet potato, asparagus, cottage cheese, salsa, and guacamole. All in tupperware with a kiwi.

l

That’s a small step up from eating out of a plastic bag, right?

Have a great week everybody!

What’s one of your favorite food combos right now?

(NOTE-that wasn’t my pace-it was displaying the fastest pace.)

Wait…what?

I’ve been hinting to you guys that I wanted to get one last long run in before 5k training starts, but I purposely didn’t say the amount because I wasn’t sure how it would go, and I didn’t want to push through if something felt off. But let’s back up a tiny bit. 

Pre-run breakfast-eg, banana, cocoa powder. I couldn’t find my normal cocoa powder so I used the dark chocolate, which worked just fine. 

Then, I laid out my fueling-so much different than just my one packet of goo for a normal long run!

I wore my water belt, but I also carried a plastic pouch of water because I knew that wouldn’t be enough, and I didn’t think I’d have anywhere to fill it (although I did end up seeing a water fountain and public bathroom at mile 7.5-good to know!) I had so much to carry though!

I also brought my phone on this in case something went horribly wrong-it was a loop, so if I got hurt or anything, I would be far, far away from where I needed to be. 

I was planning on listening to my audiobook, but I decided to listen to just one song to get me started. But I was really enjoying the whole running to music thing, so I kind of cheated and just turned on my #werunsf race day playlist. Hey, I’m not going to be running a half for a very long time anyways! Since my route was a lot more interesting than the out and backs I do at the bay trail, the music served as the perfect amount of distraction. Plus, I was running near cars a lot, which makes my audiobook difficult to hear. 

The weather was perfect. The run route was really awesome too-I’ve biked this loop before so I knew what to expect. It took me past a pumpkin patch, many horse farms, a vineyard, a farm. There were also a ton of beautiful fall trees. 

This route definitely wasn’t flat though. There weren’t mountains, but I checked the elevation, and I think there were around 400 feet of gains. For the record-I would much rather run up these hills than bike them! The first 6 miles were uphill-slightly uphill, but fairly constant. I wasn’t worrying about pace at all, but my pace was concerning me a little in this part, just because if I kept that pace the whole way, it would take FOREVER. There was a trail/path off the road, but it had a TON of rolling hills because it followed the natural terrain and was much lower than the road, but every quarter mile or so would come back up to meet the road. I ended up running on the street quite a bit (FACING traffic-don’t worry!).

I really, really enjoyed it. I passed a million bikers, which was pretty cool. I think I had the dorkiest smile on my face. Especially around Mile 11-but that may have had something to do with the fact that it was pretty much downhill from there.

Check out this view at mile 11!

And what I just came down from. 

I loved this route because it was so varied, and I never got bored. 

But enough about the scenery. How did it feel?

My feet weren’t a non-issue. And this run really was a test for them to see if they would handle marathon training. I was able to manage them by focusing on running on a very particular part of my foot. And since I wasn’t trying to break any speed record, I’d stop as necessary to shake them out, which helped a ton. I also stretched as needed, which definitely helped. My left toe stopped hurting at the end, but I’m pretty sure that’s just because my legs starting getting super tired and I just lost track of my foot pain, because it really hurt after my run was finished. 

I realized around mile 1 that I didn’t even think about replenishing electrolytes. Whoops. None of my runs in the past were really long enough for this to be an issue, so I didn’t even think about it. During a long hill climb around mile 11, my hamstring started acting up a little (cramping), but I was able to stretch it out and carry on, although it’s a little sore today.

My biggest issue with this run? The distances didn’t quite work out, so I ended up running around my dorm area for the last mile/half mile or so. Which is the. worst. thing. ever. You can see the finish line, and you’re there, but you’re not there. Which stinks when your legs are DONE. 

As far as fueling goes, I tried the raspberry Cliff goo for the first time. I bought it when I wasn’t sure if I’d find chocolate for my race. First of all, I love Cliff goos for the ingredient list. It doesn’t have weird chemicals, so they goo just tastes like syrup, not like chemicals (like the one other brand I tried. Ick!) The raspberry was a little thinner, and maybe a little sweeter. Which normally wouldn’t be an issue, but I had a cold a week ago, and have a tiny bit of a lingering cough, especially when I eat sweet things. Add that to 10 miles of running, and you get a coughing fit while trying to eat a goo. I think the bikers thought I was crazy. It’s casual. 

I also understand why fruit is handed out on the marathon course. I would have killed for watermelon at mile 13.1 when I had to eat my bar. Next time! 

As soon as I finished, I threw on my compression socks. My calves were already getting sore!

At that point, I also would have killed for a smoothie. So I snuck into the dining hall as it was closing, and had an awesome post run breakfast. 

My legs actually did not feel bad after this. I’m a little sore today, but nothing crazy. It’s amazing how things have changed since I first started training for a half. After my first 10 miler, I could not walk. At all. Yesterday, I was fine. Although stairs still seemed a little intimidating. 

Also, while I wasn’t worrying about pace, I just stuck to what felt comfortable, I was still only a few seconds off the pace for my first ever 12 miler, which was waaaaay flatter than this hilly run. In this run, on flats, I often found myself in the 9:00s, 10, 12 miles into the run. Mile 15 was probably near a 10:00 pace, which used to be a huge push for me. 

So….my conclusion from this run? Could I run 10 more? I don’t know. Maybe with training. But I’m not going to be running a marathon in the near future. For one thing, it doesn’t really fit into my race schedule. I’m working on shorter distances until my warm up half marathon in April. I’m going to try to PR the Giant’s half marathon in the summer, since it’s a relatively flat course (for SF).

But.

The timing would set me up pretty perfectly for a fall marathon. 

So we shall see!

For now though, I’m excited to focus on shorter distances and speed. I really, really need to do a timed mile, but I’m kind of dreading it because those are painful. I want to try to do some fast 5ks in January and February as well, you know, before I move into a faster age division! 

After my run, I had a retreat for my sorority. The best part? The girl whose house it was at had 3 cats. Heaven. 

For dinner, we ordered Thai food, which was really good! And after 16 miles…I may or may not have been a bottomless pit. 

I didn’t spend the night because I’m sleep deprived and drowning in work, so I ended up getting a solid 9.5 hours of sleep last night. Oh daylight savings time, you could not have come at a better time. 

Also, congrats to Meghan for finishing a full IRONMAN. That’s insane! I was definitely thinking about her on my run yesterday!

Should I run a marathon? Am I crazy? What’s your favorite post workout food?

Biscuits were salty and amazing yesterday. OMG.