My Valentine’s Day date…

…was my momma! I spent today at her house, helping her out with stuff as she recovers from her surgery, and also working remotely from my work laptop.

She’s doing well, much better than I expected at this point, and we’re just really relieved this first step of treatment is over with.

My secondary Valentine’s Day date was the treadmill! I miiiiight have eaten an entire (small) box of chocolates over the course of the day, so I really needed to get a run in. My mom has a treadmill, so I didn’t have to run outside, but it also made me ridiculously sweaty.

6.2 miles, 58:52, 9:30 pace. I did four half-mile speed intervals somewhere in there, so we’ll call this a speed workout, even though it wound up being on the slower side overall.

The last time I was on a treadmill before tonight was at physical therapy in June, I think. I do not miss it one bit. Give me pavement or give me death!

Since I didn’t see Aaron today, I mischievously conspired with his friend/co-worker Holly to have an embarrassingly large Valentine’s Day balloon and oversized card delivered to him in a loud, over-the-top way in front of everyone at work.

There’s no place for subtlety on Valentine’s Day. Go big or go home.

Our real celebration is tomorrow evening at a fancy restaurant. I shall fast tomorrow afternoon in preparation for our feast. There’s no place for dainty eating on, err, the day after Valentine’s Day… or something.

My face is tired. Good night!

Run, run, drink, fail

Monday: 3 miles, 31 minutes, 10:20 pace. Big sweaty times at the gym.

Tuesday: 3.85 miles, 40 minutes, 10:23 pace. My first successful tempo run — 15 minutes at 10:42 pace, 15 minutes at 9:40 pace, 10 minutes at 10:42 pace. My right leg started to feel weird near the end, like I tied my shoe too tightly.

Wednesday: Quarterly bonus day at work! We had a party in the afternoon, and by “a party,” I mean quite a bit of food and booze at a swanky lounge downtown. Yum!

Today: 3 miles, 31 minutes, 10:20 pace. I wanted this run to be over the minute it started. My right shin and knee hurt, both legs felt like lead, etc. I blame the food. And the free booze (I had a bit).

Tomorrow: Executive decision: 5 miles (per training plan) will be postponed until Saturday; beginner yoga class will happen instead. Hopefully the shin/knee situation will resolve itself in the midst of a down dog.

On an unrelated note: Sauteed asparagus is so good. Fresh red bell pepper dipped in roasted red pepper hummus is so good. My dinner = so good.

4 miles on a Friday night

Guess what? Not a lot of people go to the gym on Friday night! It was the emptiest I’d ever seen it. Probably because, you know, people have social lives and stuff. So I hear.

4 miles on the treadmill in 39:54 (9:58 pace). I got SO HOT while running because the gym doesn’t have air conditioning, just fans, and I get overheated and red/purple-faced very easily. It’s extremely attractive.

I had to stop a few times just to cool down and drink some water, which was frustrating because endurance-wise, I felt fine. Since there weren’t many people around, I was also able to move a fan so that it pointed directly at me, and that helped a lot for the rest of the run.

Hal Higdon said to do this run “fast,” but I just went the fastest I could. It was still faster than my last “easy” run (10:37 pace), so I think it counts. Yup.

6 miles to do today. This will be the farthest I’ve EVER run. Whoa.

I may or may not have just finished crying a bit after reading a first-marathon story. I tear up every time I read one of these. Las Vegas 2011, baby.

A hasty run

I’ve heard when you really, really don’t want to run, that’s when you know you really should run.

Got home pretty late from work, but I got on the treadmill anyway (at 8:15) and was glad I did.

2.9 miles in 30 minutes (all I was willing to put on the timer):

– 1 mile – 11:40 pace
– 1.5 miles – 9:31 pace
– .4 miles – 10:00 pace 

That probably doesn’t add up correctly, but I wasn’t a math major, and those were the approximate numbers I gathered from the digital screen while (a) mopping my sweaty forehead with a sheet of Bounty, and (b) studiously ignoring Paramore on the radio because I hate Paramore, yet was concentrating on the run too much to change the station.

I really hate Paramore.

The 9:31 pace felt good. I don’t think I’ve even run that far at that pace.

Celebrated with a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup left over from Halloween. So good!

Tonight.

I decided to put 50 minutes on the treadmill and see how much of it I could run and how far I could go.

I ran the whole time. 4.8 miles!

I was doing about an 11 min pace for the first mile, 10.5 for the second, then settled in at 10 min/mile for the rest of the way. It got so much easier after the first two. And after I surpassed my previous nonstop running record of 3.76 miles… well, I don’t think I could have stopped if I tried.

My shins hurt off and on, and my right hip started hurting a bit toward the end, but the higher the mileage crept, the less I cared.

10 min/mile isn’t very fast, but for some reason the distance means more to me than the pace.

I made sure to note the time at 3.1 miles, the length of a 5K — 32:48, a new treadmill personal best.

I’m gonna crack 30 min on Saturday.

And I can’t wait to find out what the other side of 5 miles feels like.