Feathers and Lead

I’m a simple girl (those who know me, please stop laughing…I can hear you!) and it’s the little things in life that make me happy – crisp clean sheets on my bed, a new book from my favorite author, a phone call from a friend who is far away and a good run top the list.  The storms from Monday ushered in some cooler weather so I had tucked my visor and some sunscreen in my gym bag and made a plan to run at lunch. 

After “locating the satellites” (for all the non-runners, that’s the irritating period before a run when you wear a Garmin GPS running watch and are waiting for the satellites to align with your watch) I started out along the waterfront for a slow 3 miles.  The temperature was perfect, the breeze cool enough to be refreshing yet not provide resistance and the miles flew by.  There are piers along the waterfront that I usually run out and back to increase my mileage and I decided to sprint them, bumping up from a 11:45mm to a 10mm with relative ease.  It was just one of those days and had I not been on my lunch break, I would have kept going until my legs gave out.  It’s runs like this that make me excited for the marathon and I finished up with a nice 3.5miles in about 40 minutes.

The view from the pier at 14th - not too shabby!

 

The view from Hoboken of the skyline on a clear night is something I will never tire of.  Eager to take advantage of the nice weather, I decided to go out for a 4 mile walk last night.  Well…I also really wanted some frozen yogurt so that might have motivated me a bit too.  I swear, they must be putting crack in the frozen yogurt because I have developed a serious addiction!  After a little bit of yogurt I made sure I was in bed early so I could be up with the birds (or in my case, the delivery men at the CVS next door) for a run.

One thing I struggle with is what to eat before I run.  I have low blood sugar so I definitely need something in my stomach, especially in the warmer months.  After poring through various articles on the subject, I settled on toast in the mornings since I would be eating within 30 minutes of my run and they recommend you have quick-digesting carbohydrates.  I overslept a bit but had my toast at 7 and was out the door at 7:30.  Yesterday my legs felt like they were filled with feathers – today, it was like two lead poles.  It was a bright, sunny morning and the 3 miles were definitely invigorating but I can’t say I enjoyed myself like the day before.  Did I not have the right fuel in my stomach or did I overdo it with the walk?  I will give the toast another shot and scale back my walks in the evening.  Maybe I will replace it with a drink at the rooftop bar in town? Plenty of other ways to enjoy the nice weather!

Tomorrow I will be taking a hard bodies class (I missed the class today so I will try to make it tomorrow!) and doing some speed training at the track in the evening.  Looking forward to my day of rest on Friday!