Time of Day: 5:25 AM

Weather: 77*, 84% humidity

Duration:  1 hour 8 minutes 57 seconds

Distance: 8 miles

Average Pace: 8:37/mile

Notes: Yesterday I made it a whole 68 minutes on the elliptical and I went nice and fast.  I think it was a record.

Today I got up at 5 to run before work.  I love running at about 6 AM when the sky is just beginning to get a little light, but 5:25…not so much.  Makes a big difference.  Also, it makes me tired and I wish I was napping right now, but I have to wait until Milo naps and stops jumping on me.

No naps here

My run was going so well until about mile 5 when I was hit with a bathroom urge.  No bathroom to be found, so I had to hold it for 3 more miles.  That can really ruin a run.  In fact, I think it’s the most common run-ruiner for me.

Annnnd back to Thursday!  Sorry to jump around like this, but I think Milo is on the verge of napping and I need to wrap this up.  I went to a friend’s place for a hotdog bbq on Thursday.  I told him I could bring salad or cookies, and he chose salad.  This saddened MSB, so I asked him what kind of cookies I should bring.  He said to bring my three-ingredient peanut butter cookies, so I made them with M&Ms and chocolate chips and they were wonderful…but didn’t make a big batch and what if someone was allergic?  I decided to try Heidi Swanson’s chocolate chip cookies from Super Natural Cooking.  They’re called Mesquite Chocolate Chip cookies, but I have yet to be able to find that stupid mesquite flour, so I subbed whole wheat pastry flour like she suggests.  I wish I had read David Lebovitz’s post so I had known to use buckwheat flour.  He posts the recipe just slightly altered from Swanson’s cookbook.

I made them and they were decent, but mostly because I used big disks of El Rey chocolate and extra dark chocolate chips.  The cookie itself was pretty average.  Wish I had found that mesquite flour.

They lacked the lovely brown flour from the book.

The cookies still got good reviews from my friends, but I think I like the peanut butter ones better.  Also, Heidi Swanson cookies remind me that I love this recipe of hers and might need to make it again.

Time of Day: 6:00 AM

Weather: 80*, 84% humidity

Duration:  1 hour 33 minutes 32 seconds

Distance: 11 miles

Average Pace: 8:30/mile

Notes: Today I added a mile onto my “long run” that I am trying to slowly build up.  Milo woke me up at 5:30, so I got an early start.  He wakes me up every morning, but sometimes I can go back to sleep.  Good thing I got up today because the heat index was already 86*. 

It was still dark at 6 AM, and although I began sweating immediately I think it helps to run in the dark.  I don’t remember being too uncomfortable later either, so maybe I’m getting used to it.

I ran a good pace from miles 2-8, but then I started to get tired.  My body is used to quitting at 8 miles now, I guess, and I still had 3 to go.  Luckily after about 1/2 a mile I saw the girl that I passed with a purpose about a month ago cut into the trail just ahead of me.  She saw me too and kept looking back.  Again.  Clearly she did not learn her lesson the last time, but passing her again certainly helped pick up the pace on my last few miles.

Tomorrow I am doing the elliptical so that I don’t have to do it over the weekend.  West Wing doesn’t come on during the weekend.

By the way, don’t bake cookies on long run days when you are hungry.  Too many eaten today with the justification: “Well they’re best when they’re warm from the oven!”   What’s your cookie eating justification?

Make me some catnip cookies

Time of Day: 6:30 AM

Weather: 75*, 95% humidity

Duration:  1 hour 6 minutes 48 seconds

Distance: 8 miles

Average Pace: 8:21/mile

Notes: I enjoyed hearing about how you hydrate.  My method of just drinking before and after my run and then during the day works well for me.  I don’t see that many runners carrying water around here, although sometimes I see walkers with fuel belts and kind of giggle a bit.  Whatever gets them out there though, right?

Wow, only 75* this morning!  I could feel the ever-so-slight drop in temperature this morning and I liked it despite the almost 100% humidity.  Running felt easy today, and when I stopped to wait at a light during my fastest mile a guy told me I was an inspiration.  That’s a nice thing to hear in the morning, especially since I haven’t felt particularly inspirational lately.

However, sometimes I think people who struggle, yet go on, are more inspiring than good athletes.  For example, I have a client who has osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, has had two knee surgeries and a hip surgery, and has to wear braces on both ankles in order to walk.  She has difficulty supporting her weight for a sustained period of time.  We do only Pilates and stability ball work because she cannot grip weights with her hands because of the arthritis.

She used to be a dancer.  Now she just comes to me twice a week and does water aerobics with some friends in her pool 1-2x per week, which she cannot do year-round.  She is incredibly positive and one of my most dedicated clients.  Somehow she manages to teach third grade, which to me sounds incredibly exhausting. 

When I think about all she has to endure to exercise, my knee problems don’t seem bad at all.  Who inspires you?

Inspired to nap!

Some stats for a change.  All reflect my average running as of late.

Time of Day: 6:30 AM

Weather: 77*, 89% humidity, cloudy

Duration:  1 hour 8 minutes 4 seconds

Distance: 8 miles

Average Pace: 8:30/mile

I swear I come home from each run wondering if I have ever sweat so much in my life.  I don’t have a scale at home, but sometimes I wish I did purely so I could weigh myself before and after running.  High humidity means a lot of that sweat stays on my body instead of evaporating, so I’m a nasty, hot mess when I get home.

I rarely drink water on my runs.  There are water fountains along my usual routes that I can stop at if necessary, but I only use them on very long runs.  Here’s what I do:

• Drink a big glass of water before I leave
• Drink a big glass of water when I get back
• Drink coffee with breakfast (counterintuitive?)
• Continue to drink lots of water during the day, but I don’t keep track and drink only according to thirst.

After long runs I might drink a Gatorade or throw a Nuun tablet into my water, but I don’t do the Camelpaks or fuel belts, etc.  Some days I do great in the heat, others not so much.  I like to think I’m training my body to become more efficient, although I don’t even know if that’s possible. 

Also, I don’t worry about a sodium-laden meal now and then.

How do you hydrate?

Time Spent Running: 7 hours 11 minutes 27 seconds

Total Mileage: 50.5 miles

Strength Training: 3 weight sessions, plus core exercises

Elliptical: 1x, 65 minutes

Hey, remember when I used to recount my running week?  Probably not since I haven’t done it since January.  Yesterday’s 8 mile run in much less humid weather (77% instead of the usual 90% or so) put me over the 50 mpw mark.  I figured it was time for a celebratory Run Down.

I’m still slow, but I’m trucking along.  My knee has good days and bad days and sometimes other body parts hurt too, but that’s all part of increasing mileage and fixing my biomechanics.  Speaking of biomechanics, I think that’s going fairly well but my ART doctor will be watching me run again in a week and then I will know a bit more. 

Today I did elliptical for 66 minutes.  I was so into West Wing that I think I would have stayed on and watched the 8 AM episode too if I didn’t have an appointment this morning. 

Do you have a pile of running shoes by your door?  I’m so sad that this picture of Milo lounging in my shoe pile turned out so blurry.

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