9 Miles

Today was a good day.  I got to sleep in and get some apparently much needed sleep.  I woke up refreshed and fully awake.  I had my coffee and lounged around for a little bit, scrolling through Facebook and Tumblr.  Just before 1pm, I got my running gear on and got myself ready.  I was feeling somewhat intimidated by the miles I had planned for today: 9 miles.  I checked the temperature, almost 20º cooler than when I went out for the 8.5 miles last Sunday.  Good.  I filled my water bottle with Gatorade and stashed a PowerBar gel in the pocket on the holder for my water bottle.  I made the first just over 5 miles without stopping, but had to stop at that point so I could eat the gel and chug some plain water with it, then refill my water bottle.  Shortly after that pit stop there is an intersection with traffic lights.  As I was running up to the intersection, thinking that I was going to make it through on the light, however it changed just as I was running up, so I stopped and hit the crossing button.  However…I forgot to pause my watch.  Soooo…the minute to minute and a half I stood there waiting for the light got added to my overall time.  Oh well.  I finished the 9 miles and it felt great.  And I sported my Boston remembrance bib the whole way!

I stopped a second time, at mile 7.65, my turn around point on the final lap.  I checked my pulse and it was in the 180’s…no wonder I was feeling it.  I like to keep it around 165-170.  Again, I believe it was due to the temperature.  I should have gotten up earlier and ran before mid-morning instead of in the early afternoon. 

So, because of working a couple shifts of overtime at work last week, I missed my usual Friday run.  This time it was scheduled as a 5 miler.  I figured I would just do it yesterday (Saturday).  However, thanks to my allergies, I felt horrible yesterday and ended up sleeping most of the day, and then, I had an appointment to get tattooed at 7pm, so when I did feel up to going for the run, it was too late and I didn’t have time to run and shower and make it to my appointment on time.  I finally decided that I will just tack it on to my run schedule for this week.  I will run this Friday’s mileage on Thursday and then run last Friday’s 5 miles this coming Saturday.  I’m running the Schlotzsky’s Bun Run 10K next Sunday (so excited!!!)…I don’t think that running the 5 miles the day before will mess me up for the 10K.

Got my new tattoo last night and it looks AMAZING!!!  He did a fantastic job.  It’s worth more than he charged me for it, hands down.  And the next time I get a tattoo from him, I fully plan on tipping him as much as I can afford.  My next ink will be the start of a re-do of my chest tattoos.  He’s going to do the line work first.  Then, about a month later, we’ll re-do all of the color.  And it will look a million times better than it does now when he’s finished.