Mar 13

FIT:
Originally went to do a base run on the EHS trail, but they blocked off key parts of it! I think it'll be open again for XC season, b/c that's their course, but nooo! So I managed to finish a mile by jumping a fence (this time w/o cutting up my hamstring) and then decided to drive to downtown after all. I had wanted to change up the course to keep my body on its toes, and to take advantage of a closer driving distance. Ah well.

I ended up stopping by TJX to get some dark chocolate before heading downtown. It threatened to rain, but it just barely drizzed a couple of times. OH yes, the purpose of this run was to test out a lot of my planned gear for the CM half. I wore the 4-pocket shorts, soccer sox w/ a good fit, no visor (feared wind resistance, but I'm still considering it, because the sun blocking would be good, and in the case of rain, it would be very good), shades, pton nike bra, 1224's w/ arches (b/c they're lighter and they've been working pretty well), cell phone in the back shorts pocket (ended up bouncing a lot, maybe not worth it to bring, especially if I can accurately predict when I'll be at photo op points where my dad will be), Gu in rt shorts pocket (was good, had 1/2 of it a/b 40 min in - very digestable, delicious, but makes your mouth dry, and all 3 water fountains I tried did not work!!! what's up, city?), race number belt (haha, no number on it, nothing on it... just wanted to make sure chafing wouldn't be an issue), and iPod (won't wear race day b/c there'll be many bands... may wear earplugs, though). Oh yeah... I may want to lubricate my upper arms... chafing... not noticeable during the run, but it burns a little post-run. Can't hurt, I think. If anything, it'll reduce friction/required energy for arm movements. 58 degrees, maybe 7 degrees cooler than expected race day weather.

Splits> 9:05 1-mi trail warmup then drive and shopping break, 8:15 b, 5:56 p, 7:22 c, 7:24 p, 6:04 b, 7:26 p, 7:28 c, 7:39 p (on the phone part of the time, explains slowness), 6:16 b, 8:57 c. So 1:21:58 including warmup, 1:12:53 without. Only about 15-30s slower than the past 2 times. Part of the reason: the long bike session 2 days ago. Caught up on sleep this morning (6 + 6 hours, with doing dishes and watching some tv and internet in between from about 1:30-5am). But I think an important takeaway here... don't do a taxing warmup on race-day, because just having the energy to finish 13.1 will be difficult. Usually, there's a warmup effect where my first mile is slow, but I think my knees (and probably my energy stores/endurance) are too fragile to afford a warmup.

My old iPod shuffle headphones got pretty frayed recently - still working the last time I checked, but I replaced them, just in case. My dad brought me 3 cheap headhpones from home... and they proved to be cheap. After only 3 runs (vs. who knows how many w/ the old iPod ones), the wire snapped right off. So while with some products, cheaper versions work just as well, with others, it's worth is to pay a little more to get a durable product. Any recommendations? Skullcandy seems popular and high-end. Maybe I'll go with those.

Ave pace for the 8.6 - 8:28/mi.

About 1/2way through the run, I had to massage out some small pain in my outer rt knee. Strange that that part hurts, since only a couple days ago, the insides of my knees were burning. Anyway, the massage seems to helped - I've had to do it in the past 2 LR's on mixed surfaces, about halfway through the 8.6 milers. It was probably a minute of massaging. Hopefully, I won't need to stop during the race to do it, but if I do, no biggie... doesn't take too long, and it seems to work.

My right leg is more aligned now - no nagging hamstring/ankle/knee pain - just the bit of outer knee pain, which still exists and kind of got worse post-run. Eh, we'll see.

Had protein shake postrun - tastes kind of nasty. It's funny... I instinctively say "that's gross" after drinking it most times. Haha. I think it does me good, though, and it fills me up.

I had considered doing another 2 mi to finish the double loop, but my knees were too iffy, and I had already surpassed my 2010 LR record with the added (albeit not connected) 1 mi warmup. And I may be playing ulty tomorrow - need to save something for it. If there is no ulty, I think I'll just do a strength session.

I started eating chips again the past two days. While delicious, though, kind of makes me feel blah afterwards... may be a good thing. Stick to whole foods.