8 Miles (!!) and a Short Hiatus

Hi friends! How is everyone doing? Apparently I decided to take a blogging hiatus for bit. I have been in wedding invitation hell but if all goes as planned, they should be ready for mailing tomorrow! That will be a huge weight off of the shoulders. I've also determined my least favorite part of wedding planning- the invitation process. Corralling the addresses, labeling, tying bows... good times! If you're married, what was your least favorite part of wedding planning?

This past weekend was great. I hit up Chowderfest in Saratoga on Saturday with my co-worker Jennifer and her family and had the most amazing chowder at The Parting Glass. It was something along the lines of lobster crab chowder with sweetened corn bread in it. Amaze! After that, my co-worker, her four year old daughter and my stepmom and I went over to the dress shop for my fitting. The little one was in awe of my dress- it was so cute! I purchased a fun accessory that I won't describe in case Bri is reading this but it is realllly awesome :)

Okay, let's get to running! On Thursday I had a four miler on tap. I woke up early before work (again, yay!!) and hit the treadmill at the gym. I generally start at 5.6 for the first minute or two and then complete the run at 6.0. That was getting boring so I decided to mix it up with high intensity interval training (HIIT). I pumped up the speed to 7.5 and did that for about a minute and half, and then slowed down to 3.2 for two minutes. I did this for a majority of the run for a grand total of 4 miles at 10:30/miles. Sweet! Do you incorporate HIIT into your runs? I am going to incorporate HIIT into my workouts more after the race this Saturday (!).

On Friday I left work because I was having kidney issues. Apparently I may have a kidney stone or something. I'm heading back to the doc for my yearly physical so I'll find out then, but my back pain has gone away so hopefully it was nothing! When I left the doctor, it was too late to make the drive back down to Albany, so I headed home and decided to bang out my long run. The results:

I did it! 8 miles in 1:24:48, which I think worked out to 10:36/mi, which is right where I wanted to be. The splits were fairly good. I had some issues during mile 3 and 4 that left me wishing for a bathroom (tmi!) but I ignored it and it went away. I took three clif shotblocks in wildberry during the course of the run- at miles 4.1, 5.1 and 6.5. My stomach felt weird after taking the third shotblock, but I don't think the shotblock was the cause. I think I like the Gu Chomps better. The flavor of the clif wildberry was good, but the blocks were slightly larger and stickier, making them harder for me to chew. I may or may not have almost choked on the last shotblock ;). The shotblocks are organic though whereas the gus are not... so I haven't made a final decision as to my preference. The weather was chilly but I felt great.

Here I am after the run:



Exhausted, red from the cold and my eyes are black hollow holes but hey, I ran eight miles!!!! I haven't run since Friday. Saturday evening I started feeling a slight pain between the ball and the arch on my left foot. It still hasn't gone away. I can walk on it fine but I am a little concerned, as the race is this Saturday. Eep! I am going to try to run 4 miles on it tomorrow to see how it feels, and then rest on Thursday and Friday.

I am sooo excited for the race! Bri told me that I won't need my gu or anything because they hand out cupcakes at mile 6! Crazy right? I am even more excited to see Bri this weekend :) What is the craziest thing you have ever gotten at a race?

In between stuffing envelopes last night I decided to get some strength training in. There are a ton of weights and a pullup bar in the basement, so I did 25 "jumping pullups" (read: Jump, grab bar, lower self down. Chin is nowhere near the bar.), chest press and flys with 12#, bicep curls and tricep kickbacks with 10#, renegade rows with 10# and a boat pose. Wow. Let's just say I was trying to wash my face afterwards and couldn't even bring my hands to my face. Water was all over my shirt because I was basically throwing the water at my face. It was so foolish that I was laughing at myself. Gotta love it!

After the race this weekend I won't be following any sort of training plan. It will be six weeks from the wedding and I need a training plan to follow! I was looking at my copy of Jillian's Making the Cut last night and I think I may follow her workouts four days a week and work on my 5k speed two days of the week. Do you guys have any suggestions or thoughts?

What's new with everyone? I feel so out of the loop with all of the wedding planning going on! Let me know how you are doing, and I promise that even if I'm not commenting, I'm still reading your wonderful blogs :) Have a great Tuesday!