New Personal Best

First off, I'd like to thank Blogger for crashing when I hit the "save" button and losing this entire post. Now I get to re-write the whole thing!



Today started like every Saturday- with a pain inducing long training run. Today's 20 miles is the longest in the training program shy of the entire marathon, and it takes 2 full laps on the base's long loop. Now, I don't know if you've been watching the weather for the mid-atlantic region, but it is crappy here. It poured all yesterday and today is cold with a constant drizzle (forcing me to break out the tights for the first time this season). The main problem was the gale force winds- it was directly against me the entire close side of the loop. And it never let up! It was like running in a wind tunnel. On the next side my sweat was dripping off at a 90 degree angle. I took a little comfort in thinking that the wind would help me out on the far side, but no. By the time I was on my way back it was virtually still. So for lap two I had a couple options: Assume the wind is gone for good and keep running counter-clockwise, or switch directions in case the wind comes back on the near side. Well, I chose inaction and kept going. Of course, the wind in my face was just as strong for lap two, illustrating how sometimes I just don't learn (also evidenced by the way I keep going to Wal-mart on Saturday, even though every time I swear I'm switching to Target). When all was said and done, I averaged 8:38 minutes per mile. No matter how far I run, how many bathroom or drink breaks, it's almost always 8:38. Freaky.

There was almost no one else out because the weather scared off the less dedicated/smarter joggers, but I did run into a few women. They asked how far I was going, and I told them 20. They said "Oh, is this your second lap?" I said "No, first. I slept in." What I should've said was "No, I just always look like hell." They were on their second lap, so I asked in they were training for the Marine Corps Marathon as well. One said "No, but I am working the Tylenol tent for it." So I replied "In that case, I'll see you there."

I always weigh myself when I get back from a long run, just so I can get a good feel for dehydration. On a normal day, I weigh about 165. Today? 154. Mind you, I'm not trying to lose weight- if anything I eat way more than I used to. For lunch I had two double decker tacos and a burrito and didn't even feel bad about it.

I got home in time to listen to Iowa destroy Purdue on XM. On the plus side, they beat us much more soundly that Notre Dame did, so maybe that'll hurt the Irish in the rankings.

FYI: The Blogger spell-check doesn't know "burrito." Burrito! I'm not sure what's wierder- that it doesn't know that word, or that it took me this many posts to find out.