Everybody's Kung Fu...Running

Lawdy, Running is getting into everybody's pants lately. Guess my Secret Lover is out ho-ing around...(you know that only makes him more attractive to me, though). Every which way I turn, folks is hot-and-heavy with Running.

It all started in January when we got the letter from hubs' friends who proclaimed they were a Team in Training for the Lincoln Half. Then a couple more friends joined them to do the Lincoln Full...then Cross Country Squared nudged me over the edge and I officially decided I was in for a half and full this year...I started hearing about coworkers who run, and recruited them for a "corporate" running group....and yesterday I learned about two other gals at work who have taken up the affair--one doing Team in Training for the Nike Women's Marathon in October and one just in the early "make-out" stage with Dear Running (and now I'm going to have to worry about being faster than all of those other suckers, great).

In all the years I've been with Running, I have never found this many people lusting after my man. Oh sure, he was obviously out there cavorting, getting nasty with girls and guys (he's an equal opportunity kind of soul) near and far...but always he had the good sense to keep it on the sly. I don't know if it's the economy or global warming or the Brooks Running Superfan commercials getting folks all hot-and-bothered, but something is going on out there. Running has obviously joined match.com and found some takers. Anybody else noticed this in your community?

As for last night's HR running club group workout, we did:
1 mile warmup - 9:00 pace
2x1600 repeats - 8:45, 8:15 paces
800 recovery jog after each - 9:35 pace
1 mile cooldown - 9:00 pace

Grand total: 5 miles but I didn't keep track of the total time. I should have done one more 16oo/800 repeat with the A group, but didn't since technically I am still in "race recovery" mode. Next week.

More Vile Snow

So all weekend I was all, "Yeah hahaha I totally missed the blizzard by going out of town hahaha, no snow for me, it will probably be all melted by the time I get back, Colorado sun-n-all hahaha, back to nice spring runs outside in the hilly goodness, hahaha..." ah, not so much laughing and gloating now. More snow this morning completely destroyed the lovely outdoor Birthday Run I had planned for 5:30 this morning. I am tough, but I am not running-in-the-falling-snow-at-dark-thirty-tough, apparently. So now I have to either bundle up and slog in the slush or buck up and go over to the rec center for like 3,000 laps around the tiny little track. Either way, it WILL be followed with some sort of birthday confectionary tonight. There has to be something to look forward to.

**Update: I decided to bundle up and go outside.
Did my 6-mile neighborhood street out & back, plus added a little for good measure. Evidently the cold kept me moving and I ended up at 6.8 miles in 48:09. So I guess we'll call that a tempo run. And there was devil's food cake with funfetti frosting for reward.

Tempo: Moderato

Last night was my first Official Tempo Run, where I was actively trying to do a tempo run and following the little Runner's World article I found on how to do so. Result: moderate success.

The run:
10 min warmup - 10:00/mi pace
4 miles - 8:00-8:30/mi pace
5 min cool down

I basically spent the whole time reciting this in my head, over and over and over, "'comfortably hard'...you know you're working, but you're not racing. At the same time, you'd be happy if you could slow down," and tried to keep myself in that zone. Unfortunately, the iPod was not on my side yesterday and kept shuffling all this really great, mellow, cool, long-easy-run type music. That is, until the last few minutes...then it kicked in with the stuff I downloaded specifically for the days when I need a fast beat to keep my legs moving or to pick up the pace. The ultimate slap in the face? As I was just finishing my cool down, Madonna's "Give It 2 Me" came on. And I wanted to give it to her, I wanted to keep going...but had to go pick up the kids. Damn you Shuffle!

PS: I would like to thank Vanilla over at Half Fast for giving me the new excuse that I'm not slow just because I'm slow...I'm slow because I'm training for a marathon. Duh.