For the most part the first week of training has been great! With the exception of today. I understand and appreciate that real runners run rain or shine, dry or wet, cold or hot, etc. and usually I wouldn’t let the weather deter me but the lesson I learned today is that if I’m going to run in the rain I need to invest in a few more pairs of tights (fine I concede. they can be called tights rather than spandex. womp-womp).
I don’t know if you can tell from the picture or if I just can because I am still annoyed that I thought to wear these pants. The above pants are fitted sweatpants from Hollister made from a pretty thin material. I love them and have had them for a million years now, but I do not love running in the rain in them. As I jumped over and into one puddle after the next the legs of the pants started growing and the flared out bottoms of the pants started to cover my sneakers making it difficult to run without tripping. So in an effort to continue, I rolled them up into this goofy ensemble and continued until they started sliding down. I decided I’ll be a real runner on a different rainy day and maybe dress a bit more appropriately (tights don’t grow when hit with rain). I didn’t run the 5 miles that I planned- but I’m not counting this as a complete loss or detraction from my training plan. The week isn’t over and tomorrow originally called for 10 miles, but since I only ran 2.5 today I plan to run 12.5 tomorrow to make up for it. After that I’ll let you know for sure whether week 1 was a success or failure.
In better and brighter news, I’ve stuck with the other days of training and I realized a new trend. Sometimes I think it’s difficult to go running before work or immediately after work, so there have been too many times where I just decide to skip running. This week though, on days when I got out of work and didn’t feel like running I relaxed a bit and went for a late night run. I know it’s not ideal or safe to do this in all locations, but I guess that’s one of the positive sides to living in the city that never sleeps. Also, by running late night there were people out, but it was actually possible to run on the sidewalk without having to dodge pedestrians left and right. So the other night I did a late night 5 mile run and finished at what seems to have become my friends and my local favorite bar, Barfly. This sounds like it was counterproductive to end up at a bar after running, but no drinks were had on my end. I just wanted to see these friendly faces:
As well as Barfly’s festive holiday decorations:
Finally, in the best and brightest news: I GOT THE GARMIN FORERUNNER 10 ON MY LUNCH BREAK FRIDAY AS A BELATED CHRISTMAS PRESENT!!! THANK YOU MOM & DAD 🙂
I’ve been dying to get a GPS running watch so that I can track my distance, pace and progress through training. I love the Nike+ app, especially because they congratulate you at the end of almost all of your runs, but when I have used the app during races I noticed that it wasn’t as accurate as I want it to be. So after consulting my running expert friend Emily, I decided that the Forerunner 10 was a perfect fit for what I’m looking for. It provides you with your pace, distance, calories burned, and it has a sync feature so that I can review my course and progress when I plug it into my laptop. After reading through many comparisons online it seems like the Forerunner 10 may be the easiest GPS watch to use, too.
So I’ve only taken my watch on two runs so far, but since I’ve only been on two runs since getting it, this watch already has a good track record. It’s safe to say I’m falling in love.
I’m off to a low key movie/dinner date night with Eric 🙂 . We have a busy next couple of days leading up to New Years! Has anyone seen Les Miserables yet? I’ve only heard GREAT reviews and can’t wait to check it out!
I hope everyone is having a great weekend!
What I’m Running to: The City- Madeon
Fueled by Endorphins 