First and Ten Do It Again

Okay, the title for today's post is my lame attempt at a Superbowl (cheerleading) pun for today's ten mile run! Afterall, today was my second 10 miler for my long run since I started training in January.

I woke up around 8 AM and was pleasantly surprised to realize I didn't have any muscle soreness from yesterday's stairclimb! Once I realized my muscles weren't angry with me I decided to look outside and assess the weather. It appeared to look like a good day for an outside run. I decided to wait for the sun to come out and the temperature to go up a bit before I headed out. While waiting I enjoyed a few cups of coffee and a bagel. I headed out for my run around 11 AM.

My first mile was 9:54. This didn't surprise me at all since my development was a wet, slushy mess. Once I got onto the main roads, I was in the clear and I got into my groove.

Mile 2 9:27
Mile 3 9:26
Mile 4 9:11
Mile 5 9:17
Mile 6 9:16
Mile 7 9:33 (Spent this mile dodging snow drifts and drivers that wouldn't move over)
Mile 8 9:20
Mile 9 9:20
Mile 10 8:59 (repeat of mile one except the sun had melted the slushy mess in my development)

Time 1:33
Avg mile 9:18

The one problem I encountered today was with my hands. My hands were actually red and numb when I finished my run today. It was painful when I walked into the house and the heat hit them. I did wear my underarmour fleece gloves but I guess they didn't do the job today. Anyone have any suggestions in this area? The rest of my body was fine temperature wise.

Keep running, you're simply the best, and you inspire me!!

Tower Tackled and the Runner's Cough won't quit!!

This morning was the "Tackle the Tower" Stairclimb. I woke up to a text message from my sister-in-law saying that the snow was so bad at her apartment that she got her car stuck in her parking lot and couldn't make it to my house to watch the kids. I called Deb and we discussed the weather and what we planned to do. Thankfully her husband was kind enough to agree to watch my kids while Deb and I went and did the climb. We got there, got our bib numbers and were lined up in numerical order and started at 10 second intervals. Deb and I talked to the runner behind us and she gave us the advice to walk at first and pick up the pace since this was our first time doing the climb. I ended up starting out running. I did have to walk at different times throughout the 37 flights of stairs. When I got to the end of the climb I realized my watch hadn't started. I was convinced I did it in 9:00 or 10:00 minutes. I just checked the results and my official time was 7:35. I have to say I am very impressed by that. It was a great experience but let me tell you, my lungs have been burning since I finished and the "runner's cough" won't quit. Given the choice I would prefer to just run but the climb was a great cross training workout for today. Tomorrow's long run calls for a scale back of 10 miles. Here's hoping I can run outside and not on the treadmill in the morning.

Keep running, you're simply the best, and you inspire me!!