Running with Pixie Dust

This shall be a quick, boring post.  I am lame, and am completely drained at 9:30 pm.  I'm not sure I even have the energy to brush my teeth before I pass out.  Delicious.

Yesterday's run:

Half Marathon Training Week Three, Day Two (30 minute tempo run)

3.18 miles/40:00

For my first official "tempo" run, this went pretty darn well!  After sleeping too late on Thursday and realizing how absurdly hot it got right away, I got up extra early for this one - my alarm went off at 6 am.  I remember that I was dreaming about trying to get several slices of pizza in a Chinese takeout box... who knows what goes on in my brain?!

I somehow dragged my pizza-less self out of bed and got going, and I was immediately grateful that I'd gotten up so early because it was actually cool outside!  I didn't feel like I was running through the depths of hell!  That was a nice change, and I have a feeling it helped me keep up a faster pace throughout the run.  I was really pleased with my pace on this run... I wanted to stay between a 10:00 and 11:00 mile for much of the run, and I was actually able to maintain a 9:00 mile for a while!  I kept telling myself that since I went on an easy run on Tuesday, I needed to give myself a hard run.  And it was hard.  I was running my neighborhood again (thanks, rain, for making the trail inaccessible) so there were lots of hills.  In fact, I actually decided partway through the run that I would end early (run for 28 minutes instead of 30) and just walk up the hill I really hate as a cooldown.  But when I started walking up the hill, I thought to myself, "You have 2 minutes left to run and then you can walk for 5 minutes and go inside and stretch.  Do you really want to walk all the way up this hill or do you want to run and make it go faster?"  And I am proud to report that I ran those last 2 minutes, uphill, and still kept my faster pace.  But I can't keep bragging... the whole internet isn't big enough for my head.

I also took a new pair of shoes out for a spin on this run.  Actually, I took a different new pair of shoes out on Tuesday as well... see, when I got a blister doing the Liberty Run 4 Miler in my Asics Gel-Phoenix, I took this as a sign from the universe that I needed to take advantage of the 4th of July sale at Road Runner Sports and buy new shoes.  Four pairs of new shoes, to be exact.  On Tuesday, I tried out the Brooks Ravenna 2 - they felt more lightweight than my Gel-Phoenix, which I loved, but they ate my sock!  No kidding, 2 minutes into my walking, the heel of my right sock had slipped completely into the shoe and under my foot.  I tried to fix it, but it wouldn't take, so I spent most of the run with the shoe rubbing against my heel and Achilles.  It wasn't awful, but it's a problem I need to figure out.  Obviously the solution is to buy awesome knee high socks and rock those on my runs.  

Friday's new shoes were the Asics Gel-DS Trainer 16.  Please take a moment to admire how subtle these babies are.  Especially with my massive feet - I was wearing clown shoes.