9/16 - 9/22

M: 6-miles
T: 4x1200m; "4min" (20sec hard / 10sec easy)
W: 6-miles (chased girl down on Ridge Rd.)
R: 6-miles (ran out with RRO peeps who were doing 8-miles), 5 strides
F: 2-miles, stretching
S: Midtown Half Marathon
S: Recovery Run
Total: 50 miles

We ran 15-miles for the first time in some bit last Sunday (I might have bonked the last 2.5-miles). This really should not have taken that much out of me (especially because it was a beautiful morning), but my legs have felt kind of dead all week. Tuesday's track workout went ok. I didn't really have anyone to run with, so I tried to keep people from pulling away too much. I was right around my ideal 5k pace for the 1200's, which is probably a little faster than they were intended to be at (the instructions were "5k tempo pace", whatever that means). My legs were still pretty tight though, so the "4min" thing was more of a stride on the 20sec hard sections.
 
Matt and I decided to jump in the Midtown Half Marathon on Wed. night. Literally. I need to start doing longer tempo runs, and what better way to make myself do one than to sign up for a race?! That and I wanted to do a longer, easier run on Sunday... and some of my friends were doing the race (one of whom had a discount code)... and I didn't want to run alone on Saturday. Ok, I know only one of those really makes sense, but I don't care, maybe I'll race myself into shape.

The race actually went a lot better than I was expecting. Matt ran with me, which was nice because it got kind of spread out. Especially in the beginning. It was weird. It was so quiet once we got on the greenway, and it was still kind of dark. Anyways, I fell on one of the bridges. One second I was running, the next second I was on the ground. I was fine though, just a little startled and one breath was knocked out of me (actually, my breathing was really really good this race). I felt strong for over half of the race (my intention had been to race the first half and jog it in, but since I was feeling good, I kept going). I only started to feel tired around 9 or 10, and probably didn't shut it down until 11 or so. I had psyched myself to run up Lassiter Mill, then we turned the wrong way first to make up distance, and then I said eh! There was no girl reasonably close to me in either direction, so I took the hill easy. I didn't want to get sick because I had to work after (and I've felt awful and barely been able to stand up an hour after any race over 10-miles for the past year). I finished up in 1:36:31, which was good enough for 5th female.

As for the whole not getting sick after the race. Well, I didn't get as sick as I did for the Umstead Marathon and NCRC Half Marathon. My stomach didn't feel so great from about 10:30 until noon. Then I threw up and was fine after. I have no idea why this keeps happening. I drank water at every aid station, and I'm pretty sure I was not dehydrated. I drank a protein drink within an hour of finishing (as not eating and eating solid food had not worked well in races past). I took 2 ibuprofen as soon as my stomach started hurting (which has helped in the past). So, I give up. At least I could keep working. This happened about a month or go after a long run with some MP effort miles (total: 14-miles), and again I was fine after I threw up. Weird.

In other news, I finally broke down and got a Sweaty Band because (1) I want to be able to personally tell people that they really do work when they ask, (2) they look cool, (3) RRO had one in multiple shades of neon that reminded me of Lisa Franks. And, I must say, they work and I like it.

My new purple Adios also came in, and I love them. The Adios really is my favorite running shoe and my pink pair had many more miles on them than they are rated for.