Long Fun Run

I’m going to start this off with a small lament.  I could have worked overtime on the night shift last night, however, I stupidly declined.  Now I’m kicking myself in the patootie for this.  Every now and then I have my stupid moments and this, folks, was one of them.

Okay, enough of that.  On to more important things…like running!  Today was Sunday, therefore my long run day.  In fact, around mile 5.5 I was thinking about how I see it as my long fun run.  Haha!  Anyway, I thought I’d change up how I take in fuel during my run since today marked a bump up to 11 miles (my furthest yet!).  I did my full package of Clif Shot Bloks right before setting out on my run.  Then, usually I take in a gel at mile 5, however this time I took in a gel at mile 3.5 and then a SECOND gel at mile 7.  Let’s just say this was the golden ticket.  Today’s run felt fantastic!  I felt the energy kick from the first gel around mile 5.5 and, sure enough, mile 6 was faster than the previous miles.  I was feeling really strong at a point where I’m usually lagging a little.  Then, I took in my second gel at mile 7.  I’m guessing I felt this one a little sooner than the first one because mile 8 was my fastest mile of the entire run!!!  And I finished strong, with an overall average pace of 11:18 min/mi.  I’m very happy with that pace.  In fact, I ran an extra ½ mile over what I ran last week (for a total of 11 miles today) in the EXACT SAME TIME as I ran ½ a mile less last week.  WOOT WOOT!!!  So, it’s like I got a ½ mile for free.  Hahahahaha!

And I think I found out a way to keep the boob chafing at bay.  I put fabric bandaids along the inner bottom areas of my breasts (where the Garmin heartrate thing is) and then I stuff a 4x4 gauze pad in that same area.  For the first time EVER on a long run…no boob chafing!!!  WOOHOO!!!

In other non-running/non-fitness/non-health related news, I bought a couple new furniture items for my apartment today.  The first was something I’ve been looking for over the past few months but have been unable to find for less than a ridiculous amount of money: a 3-drawer wicker cabinet thingy for my bathroom.  I’ve had this hideous plastic thing in there for 4 years and I desperately wanted to replace it.  Anyway, I was at Ross this afternoon and I found it!  And for only $35!  Score!

The other was something I’ve just been putting off buying and finally broke down and bought today.  A 9-square bookshelf for my hallway.  I went ahead and bought 2 wicker baskets to put in a couple of the squares.  I’ll buy like 2 or 3 of the baskets a payday until I have enough to fill it up because they’re like $12 each…and I need 7 more.  Anyway, doesn’t it look great?

And I finally get to display the Japanese tea set I got for Christmas years ago but have never had a place to display it.  So happy…it fits right in with this set up.

Another thing I picked up today was a great little book...looking forward to finding some great destination races in this.