November 21, 2014

A long run with extra mileage

First off, let me announce the winners of the 500 Festival Mini Marathon registration giveaway:

Kara R. and Mindy K.--Congrats! I've sent each of you an email. If you've changed your mind, or aren't able to make it to the race, please let me know so I can pick a new winner. I hope you love the race as much as I do!


This morning, I had plans to do a long run with Stephanie. I had 8 miles on the schedule, and that's what she was planning to run, too. Normally, she works on Fridays, but she happened to have today off, so it worked out well to get together. It was cold this morning, but not as cold or windy as it's been all week:


When walking the kids to their bus stops this morning, I was really second guessing whether I wanted to run outside. It felt a lot colder than 14 degrees! I put on Under Armour Cold Gear tights, and then another pair of tights over them. I wore a Cold Gear shirt and a jacket over that. I put Aquaphor on my cheeks, and then put on a hat and gloves, and I was ready.

Stephanie picked me up, and when she got here, she realized she'd forgotten her hydration belt. Since I never use my belt, I told her she could use it today. We drove to the State park to run from there. I let Stephanie set the pace--she usually runs about 11:30/mi for her long runs--and we headed out. My hands were so cold at first! I started thinking I should probably have brought warmer gloves. They eventually warmed up, of course.

I was worried about it being icy, but it wasn't--the path had a lot of snow, but it was the "sticky" kind of snow that wasn't hard to run on at all.


We took a right and went around the lake, and then headed out of the park until we reached four miles. When we hit the four mile mark to turn around, Stephanie discovered that she'd forgotten the water bottle. She had the belt on, but she had taken a drink of water in the car, and realized she must have forgotten to put it back in the belt.

We went back the way we came, but when we got to the lake, we stayed to the right and went around the opposite side of the lake. We reached 8 miles just as we got back to the car. It was a great run!



When Stephanie opened the car to get the water bottle, it wasn't there. We discovered that she must have had the water bottle in the belt, but it fell out along the route. Since the route was (mostly) out and back, we would have seen it on the way back. But since we chose to go around the lake from the other side, there was a stretch of about 1.5 miles where it could possibly be.


I hated to leave it, because the hydration belt was expensive; but on the other hand, I never use it, so it's not really a big loss. But since I knew it had to be within that 1.5 mile section, I decided to go look for it. Stephanie was going to come walk with me, but I volunteered to run it. It was too cold to walk in my sweaty clothes, so I figured running would keep me warmer.

Once I started running, I started my Garmin. If I was going to run, I wanted it to count! ;)  We had only seen two other people at the park, because it was so cold, so I was confident I'd find the bottle. I can't imagine why anyone would want to take it! I just kept hoping it would be closer to the car rather than farther. There is no road access along that whole stretch, so the only way to look is on foot.

I ran until I got to the turn that led out of the park, and there was no sign of the water bottle. So either someone had taken it, or we just didn't see it along the route on our way back. On the bright side, I got in an extra 2.6 miles, making my total run 10.6 miles today :)

This is not November weather!





I did great getting back on track today. I had plans to get together with Renee for wine, but she sent me a text to see if I'd want to go out to dinner instead. I didn't want to let that voice of "just one more day of being off track!" start playing in my head, so I looked up the menu to plan out what I was going to have. I actually decided on a Michigan salad--which is strange, because I never order salads, but it sounded really good! Once I got to the restaurant, however, I changed my mind. Renee told me that the Vegetarian Hash was really good, and I was in the mood for something warm. The hash dish was sweet potatoes, onions, and bell peppers topped with two eggs.


I ate both eggs and about 2/3 of the hash, plus half a slice of dry toast. I'm estimating what I ate to be 14 PointsPlus. Since I'd earned so many Activity PP on my run today, I had plenty for wine, too. It was really nice catching up with Renee. She's had a ton of stuff going on this year!

Now, I'm going to try and read the entire Mockingjay book this weekend. It's been a long time since I read it, but I want to read it again before watching the movie. I'm hoping to go see the movie this weekend! If not, then maybe early next week.

3 comments:

  1. I can't wait to get my long runs back up in the 10 mile range. Although I can't be sure I would attempt one in 14 degree weather! You are one tough chick.

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  2. I'm so impressed that you run in the cold weather! I live in South Dakota and I don't even want to go out and walk in it. And I'm not talking a walk for exercise, I'm talking walking to my car and back....especially when it's windy. I'm also pretty clumsy and tend to fall, just ask my left wrist - I've sprained it 5 times - all from falls. Too bad you didn't find the water bottle, but maybe it'll pop up randomly one day!

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  3. What is the aquaphor for?

    ReplyDelete

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