Fitness Friday: Trial and Error

I just got finished with my long run and it was certainly interesting.

Yesterday was my rest day, so I was pretty excited to run today. On Wednesday during my lunch at work, I went to Appleton to visit Complete Nutrition. I had received a $20 off card when I registered for my Run 4 Home race. The guy was really helpful and I left with some protein powder and a sample of something I might buy in the future. I also went to Fleet Feet and picked up some Nuun and Sports Beans. Then yesterday I bought a handheld water bottle at Walmart for today. I was all set.

I woke up at 6:45 and had my pre-run sample from Complete Nutrition

Buzzerk

It sort of tasted like Kool-Aid and it’s supposed to give you endurance and energy for your work out. I gave it a go because it was free. I also had half a Clif bar and a banana.

After going to the bathroom about 3 times, I got my water bottle all ready with my Nuun and Sports Beans, checked my route again, and then I was ready.

Unfortunately, this stupid water bottle started to leak even before I got out the door. The drink spout didn’t close all the way, so when I ran, it got all over my hand. Ugh. I’m was not dealing with that for 8 miles. I debated turning back (I hadn’t even gone 1 mile yet!), but instead I just threw it away. Complete waste of money. I probably could have just set it somewhere and got it later, but I won’t use it again for running because it leaks! So, there went my beans and Nuun. And it wasn’t even a mile. 7 more to go. Error 1.

The route I had planned looked like this (sort of looks like a duck):

It wasn’t too complicated, the roads were ones I had run on before, but I just ran a bit longer on them this time. Park Road was probably the best part of my whole run. I had never ran over there and the houses are beautiful and it’s by the water. I actually thought I was lost because it was a long stretch and I thought I missed my street. Well, I did missed Bell street where I needed to turn on. Error 2. Thankfully, I caught up with a Commercial street and found Bell Street that I had missed before.

The only problem was I was on the wrong part of Bell Street! Error 3. (I only know this now by looking at my maps). So needless to say I ran out of sidewalk and I had to run on the side of the road for a little stretch. Scary stuff. And I also had to navigate around 5 round-a-bouts. But then I connected back up with Tullar Road, which runs right by Walmart, so I knew where I was.

As I’m running on Tullar, I realize that I’m farther from home than I want to be. Error 4. I had about 2 more miles from home, but I’ve already ran 7miles. Crap. Well, I will have a very long cool-down jog/walk then. And this was the part of my run where I was getting really warm.

After navigating 2 more round-a-bouts, I’ve completed 8.30 miles! I walked/jogged/stretched out my legs for the remaining .70miles until I got home. Here is the route I actually took (not a duck):

Whoops

I did some stretching and then I made up my protein powder drink with some 1% milk. I was STARVING when I got home, so I finished the rest of my Clif Bar.

Yum!

Even though there were a lot of errors during this run: bad water bottle and missing street turns, this has been my favorite run so far. I felt awesome during the whole thing. I just ran and ran and ran. The one long stretch on Park Street was just great. It was peaceful and beautiful and I couldn’t have asked for anything better than that part.

I learned a lot from this run:

–Don’t buy cheap hand held water bottles from Walmart! Haha. I saw some at Fleet Feet that will probably be better.

–Remember your route. I should have driven my route yesterday during my lunch at work (instead of going to Dicks Sporting Goods and looking at all the clothes). I probably wouldn’t have gotten lost and missed my streets.

–Don’t wear long-sleeves! When I started out this morning, it was bout 40. By the time I was done, it was almost 50. Bad news bears for Kayla wearing a long sleeve shirt. I was really warm near the end.

–Try to stay away from round-a-bouts. I actually don’t mind going through round-a-bouts because the traffic is only coming from one direction, but 5 right in a row; def not fun.

–Need more songs on my iPod. The playlist on my iPod is only an hour and I ran for about 1hr 20min. Repeats!

Here is the rest of this weeks runs:

Monday: 3.31 miles. 9:30 pace. First run with my GPS watch!

Tuesday: 4.17 miles. 8:39 pace. Down my road and back. Pace run.

Wednesday: 3.13 miles. 9:13 pace. I legs weren’t happy with this run. They seemed tired the whole time.

Thursday: Rest.

Friday: 8.30 miles. 9:19 pace.

Tomorrow we are going to the zoo, so lots of walking there. Sunday is another rest day. Next Sunday I have my next 5k in Oshkosh before my Half-Marathon in May!

Edit: Barnaby made me go get my leaky water bottle.

Thrilled

Have you had any trial and error runs?

Are you racing this weekend?

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