8 on the 8th Race on the 9th

I was pretty nervous about this one. It's been about 7mos since I've run this distance. I wasn't sure how my body would handle it. I had a small cup of chocolate soymilk. I waited until it worked it's way out of my system. Then I set out in yet another running dress (blue this time), a water bottle with a small sandwich bag of fruit and nut trail mix stuffed into the little zipper pouch on the side, and some tunes. I was good to go. I started out slow at 10:39 in the first mile. But after I saw that I ran 10:11 in mile 2, I began to wonder if I'd continue to have negative splits. I mean, I did have 6 miles to go. Could I keep this up? Heading into mile 3, I started to get a cramp in the left side of my stomach. Maybe the water was too much? I would take a gulp every so often. Not a big gulp but bigger than a sip. A lady I had passed a few times on the path told me that I make it look so easy. Yeah, holla at me 5 miles from now and tell me how I look then. Somewhere in mile 4 I decided it was a good idea to snack on a couple pieces of dried fruit. I did that again in mile 6. Mind you, I began to feel tired then. I was originally scheduled for 6 miles. So It would make sense that I'd get a little tired at this point I should be ending my run. Okay, so I'm in mile 7 when I damn near twist my ankle. There was a woman walking toward me wearing a sweat suit made out of what could be mistaken for a trash bag. I really think she distracted me and I ended up stepping where the asphalt met the dirt. I flexed my ankle a bit while running. By mile 8, my boo boo was long gone. At this point, I just wanted to get this over with. The good thing is that I set the display screen on my Garmin to just show my pace and the distance remaining. Really, that helps a lot. When you're busy looking at your time, you're thinking I've been out here for how long? Oh man, I've got such and such time to go. That's not a good way to be on a long run. In any case, I finished in 1:20:28 at a 10:03 pace. That just blows my mind. The first time I ran this race, I finished in 1:33:44 at an 11:43 pace. That's a huge improvement. So during the cool down, I ate the rest of my trail mix and finished my water. I'm surprised I didn't drink more during the run, but with the stomach cramping, I guess too much water or any liquid just doesn't agree with me. Remember a couple weeks ago the coconut water didn't agree with me. Anyway, I interrupted my cool down walk with a few minutes on the swings. There were a couple of kids at the playground with their dad (I think) but they were too small for the swings. So the swings were all mine. When I got home I did some yoga and completed Week 4 Day 3 of the Hundred Push Ups Challenge. Let me just say that it's not a good idea to do push ups after 8 miles of running. Yoga after running, though, I highly recommend. Now I'm just extremely thirsty. I definitely didn't have enough water. I weighed myself when I got back. Mind you, this is after I drank the water I brought and ate the trail mix. I was still down 1.2lbs. So yeah, I need to work on that. Hopefully while I'm working on that I won't be eating everything that's not nailed down. I had lunch with a friend at Baja Fresh a couple hours ago. And now I feel like I can go for another veggie combo at Norma's. But first, I need a nap. Music: 4hero Presents....Brazilika Activity Route: Park Elev. Avg: 0 ft Location: Willingboro, NJ Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 08/09/08 Up/Downhill: [+0/-0] Time: 08:45 AM Difficulty: 0 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 71 F temp; 59% humidity 71 F heat index; winds NW 8 Performance Distance: 8.00 miles Time: 1:20:28 Speed: 6.0 mph Pace: 10' 03 /mi Heart Rate: 180 bpm (Avg) Calories: 905 198 bpm (Peak) Notes Cool Down = 1.02mi At .60mi into my walk, I spent a few minutes being a big kid on the swings. Yoga: 30min Yoga For Every Body: Hip Mobility Girl Push Ups = 92 I rested in child's pose between sets. Pace (min/mile) Heart Rate (bpm) Heart Rate Zones Zone Range (bpm) Time In Zone Distance In Zone 1 93 - 111 0h 00m 0% 0.04 mi 2 111 - 130 0h 00m 0% 0.06 mi 3 130 - 148 0h 02m 2% 0.21 mi 4 148 - 167 0h 05m 7% 0.54 mi 5 167 - 185 0h 33m 41% 3.28 mi (none) out of range 0h 39m 48% 3.94 mi Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 10' 39 +0' 36 5.6 -0.4 151 -- ft 2 10' 11 +0' 08 5.9 -0.1 174 -- ft 3 10' 05 +0' 02 5.9 -0.1 177 -- ft 4 10' 05 +0' 02 5.9 -0.1 185 -- ft 5 10' 02 -0' 01 6.0 +0.0 185 -- ft 6 10' 00 -0' 03 6.0 +0.0 188 -- ft 7 9' 52 -0' 11 6.1 +0.1 191 -- ft 8 9' 31 -0' 32 6.3 +0.3 194 -- ft Versus average of 10' 03 min/mile

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