My shoes after the run. They don't look too bad but they were!
What a hard run Saturday was. 8 miles was on tap, the first week of my marathon training.
I came down to southern Illinois in hopes of getting away from the cold weather and snow. Alas, it was not meant to happen. Ended up snowing quite a bit on Friday night. Started when I was 6 miles from my brother's house. Overnight it was just a dusting at his place but further south it was 5+ inches. And this is where I planned on taking Luke.
We bundled up and heading south to Rend Lake. Luckily the sun was out but the wind was also up. Come to find out, we were the first people at the majority of the paths. I totally forgot my camera and really didn't want to bring my cell phone with me on the run so I didn't get any pictures. But I took plenty of mental images.
Luke was nice enough to run with me the entire 8 miles. It was so much of a joke of a run for him. Running HALF his speed. He said he didn't get bored cause he has an active imagination. But he barely worked up a sweat I bet. Me, on the other hand. Yea, I wanted to call it quits about mile 6. I was so sick of the snow. Now I know how my friend Joe felt when I was pacing him for the 10k back in October.
The snow was up to our ankles so it took quite a bit of effort to dredge our own path. At some points, I was actually following in Luke's footsteps. On the way back, he was still making his own way down in the snow. I was stepping in my footprints instead.
Luke's sweat pants got all wet but he said he didn't feel it while running
If it wasn't for Luke, I would have walked around mile 6 or so. Mile 7, we hit the pavement with no snow so I was able to pick up pace. It was a nice break and a good pick me up. It was the only time I was able to go the pace that I was hoping to without the snow. The only good news is that according to Runner's World Smart Coach, I am supposed to go 10:43 min/mi. And that's exactly what I did on this run. Only because the snow slowed me down. :-)
Oh and we saw a Bald Eagle while out running. My first time seeing that in southern Illinois. No river, just a man made lake with a dam so it was a surprise to see it. Saw it around mile 4 and then again around the end of the run back near the dam. Not sure if it's the same one or if we saw two but it was quite a sight especially when we just went Eagle watching a few weekends ago!
My hips & thighs hurt after the 45 minute drive back to my brother's house. Ouch! So what did I do on today's "easy" run? I ran at 1.0 incline. Luke suggested it and figured I might as well since it's just a 3 miler.
In other news:
I think I decided not to do the triathlon this year. I decided this a couple weeks ago.
Today I decided that I am going to cancel my YMCA membership. I had thought about joining up with Luke's gym membership but a couples membership is $20 a month more than what I am paying for YMCA. And I would probably go there with Luke just as much as I do the YMCA now. Maybe even more. But now that I have my workout partner in my co-worker, I can just go down to my work gym. The only reason I was keeping the YMCA was because of the pool & classes. I hardly went to any classes and the pool, well, that was if I wanted to do a triathlon. Obviously, I canceled that plan for this year. And if I REALLY wanted to swim, again, I can go to Luke's gym pool and pay the $15 a day fee. We'll see. I have until the 15th of this month to really decide then they take out another $34.
Also, will probably not really plan on doing the 50 states thing. That was such a lofty goal. I should get rid of it from my mind in case I fail. I mean, really, me travelling to random places by myself and run marathons? Yea, I really don't see that happening. I had thought for a fleeting few days of running the Richmond Marathon in November with Runner's World. It would be so much fun! I get a running plan from Bart Yasso, access to VIP areas and a massage after the marathon. Only will take a 14 hour drive down there. So yea, I'm tempted but we'll see. I've got time to decide. Maybe I should go with more local races first; Iowa & Indiana & Kentucky really only ones left.
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