Half Marathon Week 3 - 10K Plus Some

Woohoo!  Hubs is off his Saturday rotations, so we finally got a chance to sleep in a bit this morning.  Soooo nice.  We lazed around until about 10:30, and got our butts on the road at around 11am - pretty late for us, but we didn't have anything planned today so it was all good.  We had 10K on the schedule to do, but because we were thwarted last week by the snow, we decided to do 12K for a bit extra mileage.

Off we went...because I'm actually trying to go for a time goal at the Oak Bay Half, I said to Hubs that I was going to run ahead as I wanted to make sure I kept up a 6:00/km pace or less, and Hubs runs around a 6:15 - 6:30.  I felt awesome out there today, and kicked some major ass...here are my splits for today:

1K:  6:01
2K:  6:02
3K:  5:45
4K:  5:41
5K:  5:46
6K:  5:51
7K:  5:46
8K:  5:37
9K:  5:37
10K:  5:35
11K:  5:46
12K:  5:33  (woohoo, where did that come from?)

Average pace, 5:45 mins/km, 1:09:05!!  Wooohoo!!!  I'm trying to push myself on my long runs to get my legs used to running faster for longer periods - I'm hoping that in combination with speedwork, hills and tempo runs will finally get me my sub-2 hour half marathon goal.  The only bad thing is that I could feel my foot bugging me today - I've been doing my exercises diligently and have an appointment with my physio on Monday so we'll see what she says.  When I start getting tired I do this weird thing with my right foot where I curl my toes under, so I'm thinking I'm going to have to really consciously stop myself from doing it and maintain my form, even when I'm really tired.

I also wanted to update how my food was this week - while I cut back on the snacking (yay!), there were a few eating out opps and I wasn't that good.  Boo.  Hubs has not been feeling particularly svelte lately either, so we've committed that we're going to clean up our eating starting tomorrow and get back to how we were eating when I was doing the 10 pound challenge.  I think that I'm finding it easier to run at a faster pace because of losing the weight, so I want to make sure I keep it off so I can reach the half marathon goal that keeps eluding me.

Oh yeah - Day 3 of the 30 Day Challenge - describe your views on drugs and alcohol.  Hmmm...I'm pretty polarized on the view of drugs - don't do them, and never have.  OK...I  did try pot once when I was in junior high, but that was the extent of my experimentation.  My parents were extremely strict, so I think the fear of them ever finding out was enough to keep me straight...that plus the fact that I find my brain to be a pretty valuable commodity, so didn't want to fry it using drugs. 

Now alcohol - my interactions with that one have been a little more tumultuous.  Ha ha!  I do admit to a few memorable drunk incidents in my teenage years (just thinking about them make me cringe with embarassment!), but on the whole I didn't drink a whole lot through my teens and twenties.  Most of the friends I grew up with were pretty straight-laced, so besides maybe having a beer or two every so often...we really didn't drink much, and my parents didn't drink much either so I wasn't really all that exposed to it.

Fast forward to my late thirties, and to the horrible few years around my TSN turning point time.  I was pretty unhappy and didn't care that much about myself or what I did to my body.  At the time when it was the worst, I was going out and getting hammered about once a month.  Now once a month might not sound too bad by a lot of people's standards, but considering I'd barely drank at all the years prior, it was definitely a change. It was over about a year period, and since I started running more seriously in the last couple of years I've occasionally tippled a bit too much but nothing like during that time...it wasn't unusual for me to pound back seven or eight triple martinis on a night out - can we say sloppy?  While I do have some really fun memories from that time (what I can remember anyways!), it's not something I'm really into anymore...this forty year old body can't take that kinda abuse!

Nowadays, I like to have a drink if I'm out with friends and I love a good scotch or port because I enjoy the taste.  It's nice to have a drink or two as a social lubricant, and maybe a bit more once in a blue moon for special occasions (martinis and girls' night out are a must, no?) but overall I hate how I feel physically when I overindulge so I try to keep that kind of activity to a minimum.  I think maybe because before I always felt like crap mentally and physically, so feeling slightly crappier was not that much different....but after finally getting my act together a few years ago with running and eating better, the feeling of being hung over seems to be amplified somehow...the last few times I was hung over I felt like I was going to die!  The one thing about alcohol that I do absolutely detest is anyone who drinks and drives - I have no tolerance for that.  If you choose to be stupid and drink and drive and then wrap yourself around a telephone pole - whatever.  Drink and drive and kill a family or something, then that's a whole other ball of wax.

So in short - my views?  Drugs suck ass, but alcohol is fine in moderation...as long as there's no drinking and driving. 

PS.  I feel DOMS setting in already, especially in my calves.  Owwie.