‘Cause We’ll Put A Boot…

In Your Ass, It’s The American Way! (Full song at the end of the post. Amazingness and it may be my favorite song of all time)

Wow.  I can’t believe it’s been almost a week since my race. Crazy how time flies! It’s weird to be like, hey I *just* ran a wicked awesome race.  And then be like, oh wait that was a week ago.

I guess it helps that I’ve been WAY busy at the clinic.  And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  We had 3 days of clinic this week so there were lots of providers there and lots of patients and thus lots of work to do.  But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love my job.  Part of my job is being the master of medical recording (aka putting the hand-written notes the doctors take and put them into the computer.  Some doctors can do this themselves but the older and retired ones need help sometimes) Usually there are medical student volunteers who do this but on Wednesday afternoon there weren’t any (they tend to come at night) so I got to go into the rooms to do the recording.

WAY fun.  And totally reinforces that I MUST go to into the medical field.

Anyway enough work talk.  It’s the weekend and a much needed one at that! Despite loving work this week (and the 4 day work week HOLLER) being busy = being exhausted.  My boss on Friday at our staff meeting even asked me if I was okay this week because I looked drained.  Oops.  And I’ve even been getting full nights of sleep this week!

So I took the opportunity on Friday night to SLEEP.  Actually sleep kind of took me because I put on a movie after dinner just to unwind (and instead of milk in my beer mug I put wine.  I am a class act. It also should be noted that earlier in the afternoon I was reading HP in French.  I am such a nerd!) before heading out and I fell asleep.  Embarrassingly early too. And I was watching a current favorite movie too

I know who I am: I’m the dude playing the dude disguised as another dude

RDJ please marry me?

But I fell asleep just the same.

It probably was for the best just because I probably am still sleep deprived from, oh say, my life? And I had a long run on tap this morning. But let me back up a bit and pick up where we last left off, shall we?

So on Thursday I had a, apparently kick ass, speed workout according to you guys.  Thanks for saying that.  It really does boost my mentality and confidence to hear (or read) rather all the nice things you say and write! And the incredibly helpful suggestions you guys have given me regarding both this upcoming week (with the possible race being next weekend) and for the rest of the fall if I decide to do more.  Although, in the back of my mind, I’m still kicking myself for not signing up for a fall marathon.   I suppose, however, that if I had I’d be overtraining right now.  Because that’s my MO.  Instead I get to run fast.  Silver lining 😀

Anyway, I expected to be much more sore than I was when I woke up on Friday morning.  Because of the staff meeting at work I actually had to set an alarm *gaspthehorror*.  It was only for 0600 which, despite being only a half hour later than a typical office hour day, felt SO MUCH NICER and not as early.

I think part of the reason I wasn’t sore is because I’ve been wearing my “compression socks” (in quotes because they really are diabetic stockings.  Don’t judge or laugh because they were $3.  And they do the same thing) every moment I’m in my apartment.  Granted I did this after the race too and I was sore.  So maybe I went too easy on my workout? Who knows.

But the Friday run was pretty great.  Relatively speaking in terms of an easy run.  It was nice and cool and not as humid as it has been.  So I *finally* broke out my Boston long sleeve shirt that I got at the race.  I felt like such a pretentious ass wearing it though.  Like, I’m WAY proud that I earned it but I’m not the kind of chick who revels in the spot light or likes to truly bask in the glory of things.  I kind of get embarrassed really easily.

Something I need to get over and so I wore the effing shirt anyway 8)

Here is the data from that run

• 1st loop: 4.1 miles @ 8:54
• 2nd loop: 4.1 miles @ 8:27
• Add-on:       1.1 miles @ 8:10
• Total               9.3 miles @ 8:37

So overall a solid effort.  It never once felt hard and, I’ve said this before I believe, each segment felt the same.  So weird and irritating! If I’m running at 8:10 pace I don’t want it to feel like my first loop at 8:54.  In some ways it’s probably good because the whole run is at an even and easy effort but I’m a numbers junkie so my brain doesn’t like it.

And then, of course, I went to work to catch up on paperwork and the meeting, came home around 1300, read HP, ate dinner, fell asleep.  Who doesn’t want to be me right now?

Thank you google images for summing up my life so eloquently

I woke up feeling WAY groggy on Saturday morning.  But it’s okay because I didn’t have to work so I could putz about for a bit before heading out on the long run.   Now, just to note, I may be trying my hand at short fast races (or rather thinking about it because I haven’t actually signed up for any!) but I still love the long run.  There’s just something about it.  Sure my LRs aren’t in the 16+ range anymore but running for 11-14 miles is still awesome in my book.  And that’s not going to change, even with a possible 5k next weekend and 10k next month 🙂

Therefore I went out for a planned 11.2 that turned into 13.6. Oops.  But it felt good and I’m really pleased with how it went.

The original goal was 2 X 5.6 miles.  Both loops being easy as opposed to trying to negative split it.  This happens normally but wasn’t the goal. I was just too lazy to come up with a big 11 mile loop.  Here’s the data, followed by the analysis:

• 2 X 5.6 miles (1st loop @ 8:19, 2nd @ 8:16)
• 1 X 1.1 miles @ 8:02
• 1 X 1.3 miles @ 8:33

Total: 13.6 miles @ 8:19

Once I finished up my 2 X 5.6 and felt good I wanted to do at least one lap of my 1.1 mile loop because it’s a nice loop. I felt pretty good after that too and decided to tack on another one to end it. Well I missed a turn because I wasn’t paying attention on the second loop (I blame it on running that one in reverse) which tacked on about a quarter of a mile.  No biggie as I love it.  My pace on that last loop was faltering so maybe I shouldn’t have done it.  Oh well.  Gotta push through those miles to become stronger, right?

The run itself was pretty non-descript.  The weather made it really nice and I got to see lots of runners.  Not that I don’t when I run so early in the mornings but it’s a different crowd on the weekends.  The pace was great from the get-go and, not including the first mile which is always junk, the first loop felt really good and “on” which is surprising because there’s usually a big discrepancy from my first and second loops of any run.  Not a bad thing but a bit out of the ordinary.  Still negative splits, like usual, and of course, I put the hammer down on my first 1.1 mile loop.  The second one? I guess my legs were a bit tired.

Silly legs 😉

The weather was darn near perfect for a run too which made running even nicer.  As much as I love being able to say I pounded out XX hardcore miles in the 100*/-10*/hurricane/nor’easter/97% humidity and whatnot in order to proclaim how bamf I am (oh wait did I say earlier that I don’t like to brag and that I get embarrassed easily? Oops.), good and nice weather is always appreciated.

So before I go and *attempt* to be productive (aka go outside and sit on my deck pretending to do work!), I want to say check out the giveaways from Matt and Tricia and Mel

And to honor those fallen 9 years ago (again, where does time go?! I can’t believe that was 9 years ago!) here’s a song to rally up some ass kicking 😀

Never Forget