Run, Eat, Sleep

Run, eat, sleep. Do I even do anything else any more? Oh, wait, I guess I also blog about running, eating and sleeping. I really enjoyed the race yesterday and I still can't believe how easy that 10:17 pace felt, but thanks to Daylight Savings Time kicking in, 6:00 came reeeeeally early this morning.

Having gotten at least some sleep, it was time to get out of bed and run, no, wait, I mean eat. I was too flippin' tired to manage breakfast at home and I really needed a coffee jumpstart today (despite all the bad stuff I just wrote about caffeine before exercise), so off I went to Bob Evans. If you eat at the counter, you can get in and out of there in about 20 minutes, which is all the time I had.

I was still a bit late getting to the trailhead, and I pulled in to see a big circle of runners listening intently to Coach Rob. In yet another fun twist on the "How many ways can you cancel a group run?" game, we soon learned that this one was being canceled because the trail along the river--the one we were supposed to run on--was flooded. And after I dragged my tired butt out of bed and actually managed to get there! Grf! Apparently the water had come up a lot just within the last few hours, so there wasn't enough time to warn us while we were still at home.

This left us in a bit of a quandary, as we were literally all dressed up with no place to run.

Lindsey, Angela, Brittany, and Elizabeth all managed to get their tired Daylight-Savings-ravaged butts up to the trailhead too! (And Lindsey ran the five-mile race yesterday just like I did. Yay, Lindsey!) We discussed possible running options for a while before going with Coach Rob's recommendation, namely to run on the trail heading west, away from the river. We weren't sure about mileage, but figured we could just run 35 minutes out and 35 minutes back to get our six miles. Lindsey and I both started our watches, and off we went.

The first few tenths were nice, winding past a meadow and over a bridge that was safely out of reach of the raging river water. THEN, however, things got ugly. The trail went up. And up. And up. And up some more. And holy cow, still more up?

"This is worse than the race course yesterday!" Lindsey panted.
"Owwww," I agreed. "Let's walk."

The giant hill brought out every half-hidden ache and complaint from the race. Oddly enough, the outsides of my quads hurt the most. But we ran more than we walked up that gigantic, seemingly endless hill, and when we finally crested it at a bunch of picnic shelters, I suddenly recognized where we were: I'd had a couple of picnics for work here.

We kept running down to where the trail ended at a major roadway. Markers along the side helpfully told us we'd covered 2 miles from where we'd started. I'm not going to tell you what my watch said because it was embarrassing.

We stretched a bit, drank a little water, and pondered how to get the other 2 miles in that we needed to make six (just going back would only give us 4). In the end, Liz just started jogging off and we all followed her--too tired to attempt independent thought--and she went straight back to the parking lot.

By the time I made it back to my car, I was incredibly sore and didn't want to go another step. This is when I decided four miles was perfectly okay, and I did an extra mile yesterday, so I was really only one mile "behind." Liz decided to do another out-and-back to get eight miles, but I just went to get my mat out of the trunk so I could stretch. Except there was no mat because I'd forgotten it at home. D'oh!

Fortunately, Cathy gave me a mat and towel, and I once again ducked under a picnic shelter to get on a dry surface and do my stretches. They hurt. A lot. But I would have locked up completely if I hadn't done them and I felt much better afterward. She and another team member named Kate proposed going for a post-run snack, so Lindsey, Angela, Brittany, Cathy, Kate, and I all piled into our cars and went to Panera. Having run, it was now time to...EAT, of course.

I tried a strawberry smoothie. It was actually very tasty and probably an excellent glycogen-replacement option, with 59 grams of carbohydrates, 260 calories, and only 1.5 grams of fat. And it came with a nice purple Team-in-Training-color straw!

Look, a shot of runners doing something other than standing around in a parking lot somewhere! That's Cathy, Kate, and Angela on the left and Brittany, moi, and Lindsey on the right.

The six of us ate and chatted for an hour or so before I realized my husband was still waiting at home for me so we could...you guessed it...go out and eat brunch! I had gingerbread pancakes, so I'm sure my carb stores were full to overflowing after that!

After going grocery shopping (because you have to have food in the house if you want to eat anything at home), I was so tired I had to...

...yup, SLEEP. My original thought had been to finish up a work project and then take my dog to agility class, but I just didn't have the wherewithal to drive an hour each way and then run around with my dog for an hour. So after calling the instructor to let her know I wasn't coming, I curled up and had a nice nap on the couch.

And then it was time to walk the dogs, which isn't quite running--more of a brisk walk. And then I was hungry, so I had a snack when I got back and then sat down at the computer to get my project done.

Which was followed by cooking and eating dinner (very healthy--fish, couscous, and broccoli), finishing my project and sending it off, and then checking in with you guys.

I am absolutely whipped. I have run, and I have eaten, so it must be time to go SLEEP again. Good night!