I have a yin yoga DVD that's 70-minutes of hard core hip stretching. You hold the poses for several minutes each. It's intense, and I feel like it helps my recovery after a long run, but... it's kind of boring after you do it a few times. So yesterday I turned it on with the volume on just high enough that I knew when to change the poses and did the routine while reading a book and drinking a Diet Mt. Dew. I actually liked it a lot better that way.
I'm also trying to ignore the fact that the weather has gone all winter on us again. That rain I was complaining about on Wednesday? That turned out to be a mini ice storm. And yesterday there was the following exchange at the computer science welcome weekend pizza party I crashed:
Prospective Student: So is there anything bad about Wisconsin?
Me: Um... the fact that it's snowing on March 26...
Despite the fact that it was 10 degrees with the wind chill when I left for my long run yesterday, it went really well. I upped the intensity by running 10 minutes easy and then picking up the pace for 20 minutes and repeating until I was done. I finished 12 miles (including the long hill up to my apartment complex) in 1:47:27, which was an 8:57min/mile overall pace and may be the fastest I've ever done a long run. All the "fast" portions were done between 8:30 and 8:40 min/mile pace.
The weather should be much less craptacular for the next week. We're climbing back up to highs in the 40s (and 50s!!!), and there's not too much rain on the horizon. I'm excited for next Saturday when I'll be running the Black Earth 10-miler for the first time. Should be a beautiful day.
Time to get off the computer and get ready for church. Hope you have a relaxing Sunday!
