catherine's running efforts

My left achilles area is still tight, so I wore my launches and took it a bit easy. And it looks like we're heading for the ending I fear the most on The Bachelor.

I ate three meals today. We're trying to set an example of normal eating for Elliott. It was weird to feel less snacky. 

Also did 20 fake pullups and 20 fake dips (70 on the orange machine).  

In general I don't eat well and I don't get very much sleep (6 (interrupted) hours is a good night), so it's no surprise that sometimes I don't feel like running. Tonight was one of those times. I had eaten pretty recently and so felt a little sickish, and my legs just felt tired and heavy. After the first mile I slowed the pace down, and then after two more miles I was ready to call it quits. I was off the treadmill and ready to walk out, but then I thought, "Self, you're a pansy butt if you can't get back up there and do 2 more miles." Madonna's "Vogue" came on Pandora and saved me for almost a mile, and by then I was able to stick it out until the end. 

Guess what? I didn't run yesterday. It was the first time since the first week of the year that I missed a day (that wasn't Sunday). But after not feeling so hot during my runs on Monday or Tuesday I was feeling kind of burned out, and I decided that it would be better to take a mini-break and get to bed a little earlier (I usually run at 8 or 9 or 10). But I didn't get to bed earlier, and once I was in bed I felt all sorts of antsy and so didn't really fall asleep for a couple of hours. 

But tonight I was happy about running again. My tummy was still full of yummy dinner, so after a couple of miles at my normal-for-now pace I slowed things down. On Tuesday my Launches hit 600 miles and my achilles is all better from Saturday, so I'm officially into the Altras as my everyday shoe. I still like them - they're not magic, but they're very comfortable and they stay out of my way. 

Songs that made my run happier: Madonna's Vogue (again) and that "Like a G6" song. I feel like a dork about it sometimes, but there are some songs that just make me want to dance and that make me feel like I can do anything. Those songs can turn any frowny run upside down.   

Also did 20 fake pullups/dips at 70 on the orange machine.  

My plan was for 3 miles, but I only made it to our super-early-closing gym with enough time to do 2.5. They were fine. 

I finally made myself do a legitimate "long" run. (The quotation marks are because 12.5 miles isn't a long run to a lot of people, and even though it feels like a long run to me right now I feel like it's still just not that long.) *And* I didn't wait until the last minute before the last gym closed (it was the last minute before *our* gym closed, but our gym closes stupidly early). 

Even though it was a nice day it was still colder than I'd prefer, so I watched parts of Good Will Hunting, Sliding Doors, and Footloose (the old one...I guess there's a new one?) as I trudged along on the treadmill. Things didn't get uncomfortable until after about 8 miles. After that my legs and feet started to be a bit achy, and I was afraid I'd be sore later. But I told myself that if I kept going I'd be better able to stick other runs out, and it didn't ever get too bad. 

When I was done I was glad I had run what I had planned, but it made me realize that I don't think I like running for longer than about 2 hours. Sometime I'm going to do a marathon because it's something I'd like to do at least once, but really I think half marathons are the perfect Catherine distance. 

Later Eric and I dropped Elliott off at Eric's sister's house and we went to the Orem gym to chillax in the hot tub. It wasn't very hot. We also tried the hot room and the steam room. The steam room scares the bejeebees out of me. I'm pretty sure that if I don't suffocate in there I'm going to get gutted by some crazy hiding in the corner with one of those big fish hook stabber things.