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September 29, 2005
What a Strange Day
At least the weather today was very strange. There was a little bit of everything. Well, not quite everything-there wasn't any snow! It was warm, muggy and windy this morning when I got up. Around lunch time it was rainy and windy (but there really wasn't much rain). Finally, later on this afternoon it was sunny, coolish, and breezy. What a mixed bag of weather conditions.
I thought that it was going to be much cooler this morning when I went for my morning run. I had on a short sleeve shirt, but I wanted to take it off the whole time because it was warmer and more humid than I thought. As usual, my body just did not feel awake. It takes me about an hour to wake up and feel good to run in the morning, but on Thursdays when I do a short run before going to the track, I do it as soon as I roll out of bed. It took the first half of the run to get all the cobwebs out.
During the day I made a fresh tomato-basil soup that was quite yummy. I used a trick that I'd seen many times but never actually done. If you cut an X on the bottom of a tomato and put it in boiling water for about 30 seconds and then plunge it into ice water, the skin peels off so easily. I just thought that I would share that with all of you, in case you were interested.
Tonight's workout was 4-5 x 1,200 with a 600 jog. I was really apprehensive about this workout because of the wind. J called me earlier in the day and said not to worry about the time on the intervals because it was windy. His suggestion was to just let my watch run and push and cruise by feeling. I got some grief earlier as a result of Monday and not wanting to always be drafted off of, but it does get annoying to do all of the work. The wind was not quite as bad, but it was by no means a still night. I ended up running with two other J's (I swear that the men in our group have to be named with a J or an M, and most of them have the same names to boot). The wind seemed to be tougher on the odd numbered 1200s, they were all slower with what felt to be equal effort. We did our 1200s in 4:33, 4:30, 4:30, 4:29, and 4:33. Our recoveries were around 7:20 pace, so it was a pretty good workout. I wasn't that happy that the last one was slower, but it was the same as the first so it wasn't like we really fell off the pace. This was a longer workout than we have been doing, but it is also the kind that I really excel at.
Yesterday I did something that I have never done before, I washed a pair of my running shoes. The fact that running shoes are dirty usually does not bother me, but this pair was particularly offensive. This pair has been worn off road for almost every run and in the wetter conditions, so they are just foul. I scrubbed them with Woolite because after all, running shoes do need a gentle soap! I had them stuffed with newspaper to dry them out. They look about a million times better than they did yesterday. Watch them get sudsy the next time I wear them out in some rain.
My mom isn't on my list of favorite people at the moment. She brought home a bag of candy corn for me because she knows that I like it. The problem is that I was going to try to avoid it this year because I have a hard time exercising self-control around it. It is something that I just don't need to have around me. I'll just have this one bag and not buy any more. I have to find a nice way to tell her thanks but no thanks for the candy corn.
Posted by Blondie at September 29, 2005 08:28 PM
Comments
For me, it's Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I know it's loaded with fat; I know it won't help me run faster; I know it clogs my arteries. But man does it taste good! As long as I don't have it in the house, I am fine. But if my wife - J - buys it at the grocery store, I am totally out of control.
Posted by: Barry at September 30, 2005 03:46 PM
It's that time again: CANDY CORN and Autumn Mix. Try my excuse and justification for eating it (or rather, generously over-indulging on it): PRE-RACE ritual. Before I ran my fastest marathon, my pre-race dinner consisted of a SH*T load of candy corn! I swear by it now . . . but I am only allowed to eat it around Sept/Oct/Nov. That means 9 months of deprivation . . . maybe that is why we have such a hard time exercising self-control! I am totally rambling, but candy corn is my favorite subject.
By the way, you are awesome . . . thank you for all of the good luck wishes!
Posted by: bridget at September 30, 2005 07:00 PM