It was windy today! Jerry was off work, so I wanted to get my run done early to hang out with him. We got the kids ready for school and sent them off on the bus, and then I drove to the high school track to do speed work.
On my schedule: 6x400 at 7:51 (ish) pace. That means I would run six repeats of 400 meters (one lap around the inside of the track, or 1/4 mile) at a 7:51 ish pace. In between repeats, I can do whatever form of recovery I want, so I decided to do 200 meters of walking (half of the track).
I could feel the wind pushing on my car, which made me really want to skip my run, but I was kind of excited to do speed work. Once I got to the school, and stepped outside, I was freezing! The wind was really strong, and there was a mist in the air, making it even colder. I considered going home and doing the intervals on the treadmill, but since I was already there, decided to just get 'er done.
I started with a lap of easy running to warm-up. Then I picked up the speed for my first repeat. I had no clue what my pace was, since this was the first time I'd done speed work in a really long time, so I decided just to run really hard.
"Hard" is an understatement! Track workouts are supposed to be hard, and make you feel like you're going to puke afterward, so I knew I was on track (haha) for a good workout. When I was running into the wind, it was hard to even breathe--it was like the wind just whipped the air right out of my lungs.
I was very tempted to call it quits after just three repeats, because it was tough and not "fun" anymore ;) But again, I was already there and halfway done, so I told myself, "Just one more, then you can quit." I kept going, and finally finished all six 400-meter repeats. I was kind of surprised to see that I was pretty close to my goal pace! Here are my splits for each interval (the first number is the min:sec to circle the track, second number is the pace)
Lap 1- 1:53 (7:34/mi pace)
Lap 2- 1:55 (7:40/mi pace)
Lap 3- 1:58 (7:53/mi pace)
Lap 4- 1:57 (7:52/mi pace)
Lap 5- 1:59 (7:56/mi pace)
Lap 6- 1:56 (7:44/mi pace)
I was so glad when it was over! Even though track intervals feel like torture, they are still kind of fun to me. It's not very often (like, never) that I see a 7 in front of my pace!
When I got home and showered, Jerry and I decided to watch a movie--and I chose The Day After Tomorrow, because I've been consumed with Hurricane Sandy. After the movie, we went to a few stores where I had things to return. At Hobby Lobby, I heard an employee say, "There's an alarm going off at Wal-Mart, and they evacuated the building." That was our next stop, so I was wondering what it was all about.
When we got there, tons of people were leaving the parking lot. I was confused, because there were still people going inside the store. So we parked and went in, and up to the service desk for our return. There, we learned that some guy got mad at the employee working there, so he ran and pulled the fire alarm on the wall, then ran out of the store. So that's why everyone was leaving.
We picked up a few groceries that we needed, and I noticed this:
Let me tell you, that stuff is SO good--but extremely caloric. I, however, cannot drink it anymore, because I associate it with a bad memory. After I had broken my jaw and was on a pure liquid diet (my jaws were wired shut), I had to get a lot of calories somehow. And when I saw this stuff at the store, I bought it. It was insanely good, and I pretty much lived off of it for a week or so. I can't even tell you how many cartons I went through!
Then I noticed that my tongue was feeling fuzzy and weird. Since I couldn't open my mouth, I had no idea what was going on. But it turns out that I had thrush from all the antibiotics I was taking! Thrush was not fun. And since I was drinking tons of this pumpkin spice eggnog at the time I got it, I associate the two, and this eggnog is forever ruined for me :( Just as well, because it has a million calories per serving.
I have been craving rigatoni for some really strange reason (not any old pasta--it was specifically rigatoni), so I picked up the stuff to make it for dinner. My Ragnar team got into a discussion on Facebook about cottage cheese, and Mary and I both mentioned that we like cottage cheese with pasta sauce. So for dinner, I cooked rigatoni, and topped it with cottage cheese, spaghetti sauce, parmesan cheese, and a ton of fresh basil (I adore fresh basil). It was heavenly!
After taking the pic, I stirred it all together, and it looked really gross after that. But if you've never tried cottage cheese on your pasta, definitely give it a try.
I've been watching the news all afternoon, keeping tabs on the hurricane. It's kind of unbelievable how bad it's supposed to get. I just hope they're wrong. Stay safe, everyone!
On my schedule: 6x400 at 7:51 (ish) pace. That means I would run six repeats of 400 meters (one lap around the inside of the track, or 1/4 mile) at a 7:51 ish pace. In between repeats, I can do whatever form of recovery I want, so I decided to do 200 meters of walking (half of the track).
I could feel the wind pushing on my car, which made me really want to skip my run, but I was kind of excited to do speed work. Once I got to the school, and stepped outside, I was freezing! The wind was really strong, and there was a mist in the air, making it even colder. I considered going home and doing the intervals on the treadmill, but since I was already there, decided to just get 'er done.
I started with a lap of easy running to warm-up. Then I picked up the speed for my first repeat. I had no clue what my pace was, since this was the first time I'd done speed work in a really long time, so I decided just to run really hard.
"Hard" is an understatement! Track workouts are supposed to be hard, and make you feel like you're going to puke afterward, so I knew I was on track (haha) for a good workout. When I was running into the wind, it was hard to even breathe--it was like the wind just whipped the air right out of my lungs.
I was very tempted to call it quits after just three repeats, because it was tough and not "fun" anymore ;) But again, I was already there and halfway done, so I told myself, "Just one more, then you can quit." I kept going, and finally finished all six 400-meter repeats. I was kind of surprised to see that I was pretty close to my goal pace! Here are my splits for each interval (the first number is the min:sec to circle the track, second number is the pace)
Lap 1- 1:53 (7:34/mi pace)
Lap 2- 1:55 (7:40/mi pace)
Lap 3- 1:58 (7:53/mi pace)
Lap 4- 1:57 (7:52/mi pace)
Lap 5- 1:59 (7:56/mi pace)
Lap 6- 1:56 (7:44/mi pace)
I was so glad when it was over! Even though track intervals feel like torture, they are still kind of fun to me. It's not very often (like, never) that I see a 7 in front of my pace!
When I got home and showered, Jerry and I decided to watch a movie--and I chose The Day After Tomorrow, because I've been consumed with Hurricane Sandy. After the movie, we went to a few stores where I had things to return. At Hobby Lobby, I heard an employee say, "There's an alarm going off at Wal-Mart, and they evacuated the building." That was our next stop, so I was wondering what it was all about.
When we got there, tons of people were leaving the parking lot. I was confused, because there were still people going inside the store. So we parked and went in, and up to the service desk for our return. There, we learned that some guy got mad at the employee working there, so he ran and pulled the fire alarm on the wall, then ran out of the store. So that's why everyone was leaving.
We picked up a few groceries that we needed, and I noticed this:
Then I noticed that my tongue was feeling fuzzy and weird. Since I couldn't open my mouth, I had no idea what was going on. But it turns out that I had thrush from all the antibiotics I was taking! Thrush was not fun. And since I was drinking tons of this pumpkin spice eggnog at the time I got it, I associate the two, and this eggnog is forever ruined for me :( Just as well, because it has a million calories per serving.
I have been craving rigatoni for some really strange reason (not any old pasta--it was specifically rigatoni), so I picked up the stuff to make it for dinner. My Ragnar team got into a discussion on Facebook about cottage cheese, and Mary and I both mentioned that we like cottage cheese with pasta sauce. So for dinner, I cooked rigatoni, and topped it with cottage cheese, spaghetti sauce, parmesan cheese, and a ton of fresh basil (I adore fresh basil). It was heavenly!
I've been watching the news all afternoon, keeping tabs on the hurricane. It's kind of unbelievable how bad it's supposed to get. I just hope they're wrong. Stay safe, everyone!
