1. Thanksgiving Thursday
I already wrote about the Berbee Derby Thursday morning. The rest of the day was pretty quiet. We had McDonald's for lunch (yeah, yeah- Daniel wanted to get out of the house for a little bit) and were served by the most charismatic human being to ever work at a McDonald's. That young man is either going to be a senator or a serial killer some day.
We made a real meal for dinner. Here's Chelsea and Daniel's version of a two-person 90% paleo Thanksgiving Dinner:
Trader Joe's pre-marinaded lamb tips and green salad.
And roasted acorn squash with cinnamon, sugar and butter for desert.
Followed by some post-dinner productivity. I finally finished the afghan I've been making for a co-worker. She is a fellow and will be leaving us this summer, but she's been like a big sister to me in many ways, and I wanted to give her something special. I also wanted to give myself 1.5 years to actually finish it. I'm kind of a one-trick pony when it comes to crochet, and there are some of you out there who have seen more than one of these around, but it does make a nice finished project that is warm and holds up well. We use ours all the time (though I've never actually washed it!).
2. Black Friday
The only running I did on Black Friday was the normal kind. It got much colder here overnight and even though I was pretty tired from the race, I wanted to do a test of concept for my clothing so I didn't get 1/2 way through my long run today and realize I was going to freeze to death. So here's me wearing (for "feels like 8F"): a Bondi band, a fleece ear warmer, my fall 15k thermal hat, a t-shirt, a thermal long sleeved shirt, a fleece vest, and a fleece jacket, fleece-lined tights, wool socks, shoes, a pair of light gloves, and a pair of mittens (not shown because I can't work the camera or the door with those on). My torso was kind of hot when I was running on the sunny, non-windy part of my route but was perfect for the cold windy part by the lake.
Friday night we went out for dinner at L'Etoille for our official Thanksgiving (or whatever) celebration. We went all out. This was one of the top 10 meals of my life. I tested the limits of how much food could actually fit in my stomach and enjoyed every bit of it. Fortunately I was still able to walk to the car afterward.
3. No excuses Saturday
I did my first "FIRST" long run today. I'm practice-starting the official training plan on Monday (I have 15 weeks before my race but it's a 12-week program), but I thought I'd go ahead and do the first long run this week and then repeat it again next week. The "hard part" of the workout was doing 6mi at an 8:11 pace. I was pretty sure that was not going to happen- especially 2 days after a 10k when I ran 6mi at 7:45 min/mile pace (granted on a hillier course). But I got out there and warmed up for a mile. The temperature was a little milder than yesterday ("feels like 11F" vs "feels like 8F"- and I put more stock in the "feels like" temperature because the wind coming of the lake is COLD). Then I turned on the fast (haha, fast for me). Basically I tried to pace myself by hearing my breathing be fairly labored and feeling like I was going fast but not fast enough that the yak feeling was building up.
I hit the first mile split at 7:50 - a little fast but that's kind of a weird mile where there's a big uphill but also a big downhill where I can really get going if there's no traffic. Second mile- 7:50 again. Too fast- and definitely too fast for the 8 miler and 10 miler to come in the next few weeks. I wanted to slow down a little but I was afraid I'd slow down too much. Pacing is hard! The next mile was at 8:00 and the next at 8:03- better on the pacing, but at this point I was going into the wind so I'm not sure if I was actually running slower. Next 8:20- not sure what happened here. Maybe I just took a mental break. And finally - 7:59. I was pretty impressed with the fact that I was able to hang in there for the whole run, and actually, it wasn't that tough. Whenever I look at the FIRST book I'm always super intimidated by the paces laid out for each workout, but now I think maybe I've been selling myself short. I really can run faster than I think I can.
I finished up the run with 3 miles of cool down to bring the grand total to 11mi in 1:37 - an 8:51 min/mile average pace. Although the workout itself was tougher (and shorter), I think this was a better and more pleasant use of my long run time than doing a 14-mile slog through the arb at 9:3X pace. I only got a tiny bit cold in the face at the very end of the run, and not being cold is a HUGE plus for me.
And that's about it. I'm planning to spend the rest of the day making Christmas ornaments and weeping or cheering over the Gator Game this afternoon.
In summary: Running, running, blah blah blah, cold, picture of food.
