4-12-2014: 166.6
So it's a push this week. Nutrition during this training is getting interesting. With the runs getting longer (I ran 36 miles in the last 6 days!) I'm definitely needing more food. This is such a foreign concept. I know I've lost some of you and you've hit that X key to close out your browser in sheer disgust that I'm mildly complaining about having to make sure I eat MORE. I am not complaining. I just have to figure it out and be smart. I had a long run of 9 in the middle of the week and I know I didn't make up all of my calories that day and probably not the next day either. Then Thursday I did yoga and Friday I didn't really exercise at all, besides running around cleaning and doing errands all day long. That day of rest and making sure I got in all of my calories on Friday is what helped have a push this week instead of a gain (that probably wouldn't have been a gain for real anyways, since I didn't make up my calories on those couple of days) On Friday I was up almost a pound. But this morning, I was back down, after a day of rest and eat right. Hmmm, who would have thought?
So I ran 18 miles this morning with the fabulous and posture-perfect, Melissa. Seriously, even after she's been running for 3+ hours, she still naturally has perfect posture. I do not know HOW she does it!
We met at Busse Woods at 7am. The preserve was already hustling and bustling with many a runner afoot and bikers apedal. We planned on doing the 7.3 miles red loop twice with an extra loop on the the black trail to make up the difference. We got started and felt pretty awesome for the more than the first half. At about 11 or 12, we started to lose a little steam. Even still, we ran to 18 at the end and didn't die. But highlights of the run include:
1) Learning way more about my awesome friend than I already knew. Our friendship is quite new, so there's a lot to learn about each other, but even still, with over 3.5 hours straight and the common experience of running this long together, you get to know things about the other that you might not have gotten to know. I can count on two hands the number of times, "Ok, T.M.I., but...." was uttered.
2) Me being a doofus and saying the wrong thing at the exact wrong time. I was explaining that I ended up transferring colleges mid-freshman year to the college that my husband (then boyfriend) was attending. Melissa asked if I left the first school soley because I wanted to be with my boyfriend. I explained that Mike being at EIU was part of it but, also because many of the people in the Music Department at the first school were kind of jerks. I look up and wouldn't you know it? The girl coming towards us, running in the opposite direction was sporting cute sweatpants with that school's name on the leg. DOH!! And then we ran into her again on the second leg! Double-DOH!
3) Doing something super challenging and having someone to high-five at the milestones. High-fives at the halfway point. High-fives after 16 (our last longest ever run) and high-fives at the end. And someone to understand when you are so tired and hungry and you stop making sense when you talk. I was pointing out when we'd stop our short walk-break and could not find the words to describe the landmark. Even through the gibberish, she knew what I meant.
Have I convinced you to run with a friend, yet? It's super fun. Sheri...we're coming for you!!! Need a friend? The Running Depot has fun runs on Wednesday nights at 6:30 and Saturday mornings at 7:00am! Show up and make a friend! It's so much more fun to go at it together!
Have a great week, friends and thanks for reading!