Speed Play

This is an old photo, but it's so cute, I had to put it up. Don't they look like they're having fun?

Today was the first official day for our half marathon training plan, and why not start right off with some speed work?

For some reason I was feeling kind of nervous about getting up early and doing speed work today, but everything just worked out perfectly! George woke up at about 5:15, a little before my alarm, so I had plenty of time to get him fed and back to bed, then have a little peanut butter banana oatmeal and get ready to go.

The only thing that didn't go smoothly was the ice on the car. It snowed yesterday, but we didn't go anywhere so the snow just melted a little then froze again onto the car. I tried to chip out off, but it was really slow going. I was standing out there in my capris and light jacket freezing so I decided to let the car warm up a little and before trying again. After about 5 minutes or so, I put some gloves and a hat on and tried again. Luckily it came off easily this time! Whew! I made it to the gym by around 6:15.

I ran for 10 minutes to warm up, then did some stretching. I paid special attention to my hip because a tight hip leads to a sore knee and I'm hoping that's why my knee was sore Saturday.

I was supposed to do 4x400, but I got mixed up and did 800s. Actually it wasn't exactly 800 because the track is 15 laps to a miles so I did 7 laps. I set my ipod to Muse and just started going. I really had no idea what time to expect so I decided to try for 5 minutes since I was averaging 12 minute miles on Saturday.

I got done with my first one in 4:19, and I wanted to do each one a little faster. I walked a lap then jogged one or two in between sets.

#2 was 4:16 and my heart rate was 197 when I stopped.

# 3 was 3:42 with my heart rate 199

what?!

I figured I must have skipped a lap so I was really careful on the next one.

#4 was 3:41 with my heart rate 196 (but I forgot to look for a minute, I was really tired!)

Hmmm, so even being extra careful with #4, I still got around the same time as #3 so does that mean I didn't skip a lap, or that I skipped laps on both of them and that I have an even harder time thinking while I run than I thought?

Who knows.

It was really fun, and I got to run fast. That's all that matters to me. I'll try to count better next time, or do it somewhere other than that little track.

When I got home I made myself my new favorite breakfast: an omelet with 2 eggs, onion flakes and spaghetti squash mixed together with cheese and spinach inside. Yum. I also made myself drink and entire coconut water with it because I was going to go donate blood and I wanted to make sure I wasn't dehydrated. Did you know that they used to use coconut water in blood transfusions when there wasn't blood available!? Crazy hu? I usually don't really like to just drink coconut water, but if it's really cold and I'm thirsty (like today) it's not bad at all and it's got a ton of natural electrolytes, but not salt so you've got to eat or take salt with it. Don't worry, I had salt in my omelet. :)

Note - I wasn't sure if it was ok for me to donate blood since I'm nursing, but I looked it up and asked the lady at the Red Cross. It's fine as long as it's been at least 6 weeks since you gave birth and you make sure to stay hydrated - which you need to do anyway if you give blood.

I've been really obsessed with food lately, and we were not very good this weekend. We were all home all weekend watching Conference and for some reason that tends to lead to treats.

There were chocolate chip cookies, M&Ms (left over from Christmas though!), pancakes and pudding. Plus I I've been eating bread and butter like crazy. Oh yum. I love butter! Then today I had some cookies at the Red Cross before and after giving blood to make sure I'd get home ok. But from now until Friday I'm going to be really good! Then it's birthday cake time again! :)

PS - having such an awesome workout this morning really made my day! And my knees don't really hurt at all! I don't know if that was from stretching before or not, but I'm going to start doing that from now on.