All I do is run…

It’s been a busy week since I got my laptop on Tuesday, and I’m happy to report that I am putting it to good use by sitting on the couch, blogging, and watching Mean Girls.  Life doesn’t get much better than this!  Okay, that’s not actually true, but it’s the small things in life that are important.  Let’s get onto the running for this week!  Lots to report:

Wednesday, September 2
11.02 miles in 1:23:04, avg pace of 7:32

First of all, can we mention how fun it is to have the time of my run be 1:23:04?  1-2-3-4!  I personally think it’s awesome that my 3200 PR in high school was 12:34…while I would have liked to run faster, it’s a cool time.  :)  Nerd alert!  Anyway.  This run was…awesome!  The few days before, I was telling the Rocket Scientist how I would like to run 3:20 for Philly, but running 7:38 miles sounds intimidating!  I know I’ve been running slower because of the heat and adjusting to life/work, and at one point I even thought I could go 3:20 for the Wisconsin Marathon.  When I saw that my splits were around 7:25-7:40-ish, I felt a little more confident about possibly running 3:20.  My actual goal is up in the air, but having a great fun that didn’t feel crazy fast (the day after a tempo run!) was fantastic.

Friday, September 4
7.10 miles in 56:55, avg pace of 8:01

This run may have looked good in the numbers, but my back as been hurting me all week.  At first I thought that I might have hurt it at work (you know, lifting 250+ pound people all the time), but it doesn’t hurt when lifting people and it hurts a lot when I’m running/moving.  Luckily it loosened up after I stretched for a little while, but any sudden movements while running (such as avoiding snakes on the trail…yikes!) really hurt.  It still hurts, and I even had the Rocket Scientist’s brother stretch me out since he’s an athletic trainer in training.  Definitely need to stretch more..

Saturday, September 5
18.32 miles in 2:27:43
Splits:  8:11, 8:06, 8:11, 8:10, 8:01, 8:11, 8:14, 8:31, 7:33, 7:50, 8:09, 7:54, 7:54, 7:54, 8:07, 7:59, 8:04, 8:02, 2:34 (8:02)

Long run!  And what a long run it was…gah!  Most of my long runs have felt good, but this run went on foreverrrr.  I was dragging like crazy for the last four-five miles, and the Rocket Scientist was my personal cheerleader.  I got off work at 1 am on Friday night (I had a terrible night), so we didn’t get started until about 9:30.  Luckily it wasn’t too hot, but I was still tired.  We headed out on the trail near my house (where I do 75% of my runs…), and tons of people were out!  I don’t usually see many people since I run at an odd time, so it was fun to see other people running.  Mostly bikers were out, but plenty of runners.  Lots of them had fuel belts on, so I’m assuming that they were doing their long runs for marathon training!  I guess the Rocket Scientist and I need to get in with the cool kids and wear fuel belts.  We were old school and just carried plastic water bottles…haha.

I also think I need to carry running business cards to make running friends around here…has anyone else done this??

Anyway, the run was going great until we had about four-five miles to go.  At around mile eight, there was a huuuuge hill!  A warning sign on the trail said 12% grade, which for those of us from the Prairie State, that’s HUGE!  I made it up about 75% of the way before I had to walk, which I considered to be a victory.  Running up hill hurt my back, so that didn’t help at all.  Breaking into song helped me get through this run.  While running uphill, I sang to the tune of “We’re not going to take it.”  by singing:

I’m going to make it…Yes, I’m going to make it!  I’m going to make it…up this hill!

Then the Rocket Scientist told me random cheers that he created, “S-U-S-A-N!  Goooooo Susan!”

He’s an engineer…forgive his creativity skills.  :)  I recommend songs to get you through long runs…making them up is much more fun than any ipod would be!

Sunday, September 6
6.12 miles in 51:37, avg pace of 8:26

I’m still trying to get ahead in my runs since I’m going HOME on Friday, so we skipped the rest day and went right into running for this coming week.  My legs were tired, and we ran up some hills to mix our routes up a bit.  I’m not sure our pace would have been much faster if I had tried.  But that’s what recovery runs are for, right?  I just closed out a 50 mile week (my mileage PR!), so I feel pretty good about how I’ve done so far.  55 miles are on the list for this week, so I’m hoping my legs (and back!) will hold up.

My week has mostly been running…and working!  It’s funny when people ask me what I do for fun, and I tell them that I run.  Then they ask if I do anything else, and I’m like…I run…A LOT.  (And bake.  Details.)

Off to dinner with some of the Rocket Scientist’s friends!  Yum.  :)  I hope everyone is having an a labor-free labor day weekend!