Ending the year right.......

Hey guys! I hope you all had fantastic and safe New Year's. I'm thinking the fantastic is correct since there hasn't been much blogging going on today and I FINALLY caught up on all the posts waiting for me in my Google Reader account. I think I have just about everyone I regularly read set up in there, and it's much easier than going down a list of favorites looking for new posts. I try to employ the FIFO method (first in, first out) but at times the forever long list can really overwhelm me and I just jump around.

Anywho, we finished the week/year in fabulous fashion. After forever-long/boring work on Thursday we headed over to the company gym. In true, annoying corporate fashion the gym closed early all week at 6 instead of 8. Was my work day cut two hours short last week? Not a chance. The gym was really crowded, too. Most people live fairly close to work so even though they were on vacation a lot of them were still coming in at their usual times to workout. I threw on my clothes, and grabbed my favorite treadmill (treadmill #4). I was a cotton headed ninny muggins and had completely forgotten to pack my ipod, bottled water and underpants comfortable for running. Oh well, the only one we could remedy was the water so I bought a bottle from the sloth-like gym attendant and got to booking it. I wanted to get 6 miles in on the treadmill before they closed & the gym's radio was playing Tears for Fears (for God's sake!) so I increased the speed on the 'mill to end the misery sooner. Before long enough people were slogging away and I could no longer hear the "music". Our new controller came in and started running on the 'mill next to me so we ended up talking about various races coming up and the time passed fairly quickly. I just got my 6 miles + a short cooldown in as the gym Nazi came around (early, as always) telling everyone the gym was closing.

Friday was a long, dull day at work that seemed like it would NEVER end!! Brent was off but most of his time was spent hassling with the incompetent people over at TEAM CHEVROLET in SMYRNA, TN because they are completely incapable of doing anything right. I swear, they are the biggest morons in the world. It's not that they have poor quality control, they have NO quality control. I will never, ever use them again and so far I've been able to keep a few people from taking business to them. One of my 2006 goals is to keep even more business from them! They totally suck, seriously. THIS time they made a scratch look worse and managed to put a new part on a seat with no bolt, like we wouldn't notice???? So, of course they have to order that and we'll have to go back into their hell pit yet again. They said it will be here Wednesday which means around Valentine's Day. (Their original estimate for our car was 3-4 weeks which became 7-8 weeks, for round two on a part it was 3 days and that became 25 days, and then they would have round two completed within a day which became 4 days. It seems Math and Body work are two things they are terrible at.) So anyway, don't go there, EVER!! Don't say I didn't warn you......

Friday night I was CRAVING Indian food so we went to our fave Indian place over near Vandy. I know spicy Indian food is never mentioned in any pre-long run recommendations, but I just had to have it. The rice is a carb, right? It was totally worth it. After that we came home and watched Kicking and Screaming with Will Ferrell. It was HILARIOUS! He has THE best sense of humor, Old School is one of the best movies ever made. And hey, he's a marathon runner so that can't be bad!

I set my alarm to get 8 full hours of sleep Friday night and I felt really refreshed Saturday am and ready to run! (I normally average 6.5 hours of sleep). I had my oatmeal + bananas and headed out to the Greenway. Brent decided he would join me 1 hour later, and run the rest of the way with me. It was a beautiful day, right at 40 to start and the forecast was for a high of mid-50s. I wore capri running pants with a short sleeve tech shirt and a light jacket - no gloves required! I also had my new 6 bottle Fuel Belt. I have become a total running pack mule. Between the Dazer, pepper spray, cell phone and Clif Shot Blocks I had no place left in or on me to store my running camera!! I left it in the car and decided when Brent got there I'd make him carry it. I headed out and did two one mile loops around the park before I headed out on the greenway. There were quite a few walkers and runners out, so there was always some sort of activity. I was in a GREAT mood and had to constantly keep my pace in check not to burn up too much energy. I usually do this by singing/dancing (with my hands mostly). I had some great new tunes on my Nano so there was a lot to sing about. At one point I was really going with Pretty Vegas (INXS) and rounded a curve to see there was a guy running not too far behind me. I think he was probably getting quite a free show!

I picked my turn around spot and headed back to pick up Brent. He had just pulled in and was getting some bottles from my car so we headed back out. This was right around 6.6 miles, and my goal was 21. It was getting warm but I decided against dropping off my jacket because the 2 uphill miles back from the lake are always chilly and I'm trying to overdress a tad because Miami will likely be quite a bit warmer than here. We did 2 warm-up laps around the park and then headed towards the new Greenway section that takes you to the boat dock. Brent hasn't run that piece before, so it was new and exciting for him. On the way out there was an older guy standing by the road for whatever reason and he yelled out "How many miles are you running" I yelled back "21!" and pumped my fist in the air! He had a shocked look on his face and told us we might as well run to Murfreesboro then. Too funny! But, the 'boro is only 13 miles from our house so that wouldn't be far enough. Everyone we passed was in a great mood and I just wanted to give them all high fives but I thought that might be frightening for them so I settled for a smile and the "hand tip". We circled the lake and pondered why it's so dry. There is a series of dams involved with this lake so we guessed it had something to do with that.









We turned to head back to the main park and endure the toughest part of this path. It's a series of long, slow inclines/hills for the first two miles back. And for whatever reason the wind is always working against you. You may not feel a draft of wind whatsoever on a particular day, but running that strip of trail is ALWAYS windy! Yesterday I didn't let it bother me in the least. I focused on my music and just let my feet handle the pavement. They know what they need to do. We passed "Wind Alley" and headed back to the main park. There are two miserable hills there as well, but I just ran them and moved on. Finally, we were back and up to 18.6 miles, just a couple of the 1 mile loops and we were done, already!! On the first lap I was taking it fairly easy and then once I got to the flat portion I decided I was feeling great and it was time to kick it in. It was a fantastic day, and so the annoying baseball losers were out. These guys are in their 20's/30's and it seems one of their main goals in life is to wait until runners/walkers are near them and then hit a baseball over the 3 foot fence and see if they hit them. Perhaps if the fence was not the size of a small child this might impress me, but it doesn't. I guess they're trying to compensate for having small winkies because they hit grounders all day until someone comes near the outer edge of the ballfield. We headed past and of course here come a ball! (I'm at 19.5 miles here.) I turned to say something mean about them to Brent and I noticed he was tailing behind me. Huh? I knew I had picked up the speed and all.....shortly thereafter he gave me the "Go on" hands and I really kicked it in. I couldn't even believe I had the energy to have a "kick" but I did. I ran and ran and ran.....when I came through the parking lot Brent jumped back in for the last .4 miles. When we stopped he told me I had become a total rocket ship and he couldn't keep up at the end! Insane!! It was an absolutely rewarding run, I was so happy with it that I actually started crying a little. I felt great, like I could easily go another 5.2 miles, no problemo! Hopefully marathon day will be much the same.

Here are the stats:
Distance: 21 miles, 3:28.47, avg pace 9:57 (INSANE!!)

Mile 1: 9.48
Mile 2: 10.13 (trying to slow myself down....)
Mile 3: 9.46
Mile 4: 9.54
Mile 5: 9.50
Mile 6: 9.47
Mile 7: 10.12 (warming back up after Brent joins me....)
Mile 8: 10.13
Mile 9: 9.59
Mile 10: 10.17
Mile 11: 10.05
Mile 12: 10.06
Mile 13: 9.51
Mile 14: 9.30 (flat lake loop!)
Mile 15: 10.41 (all uphill, ugh!)
Mile 16: 10.21 (still uphill - mostly)
Mile 17: 9.59
Mile 18: 9.53
Mile 19: 10.28 (gross hills back into the park)
Mile 20: 9.19
Mile 21: 8.29

How about mile 21? I knew I really picked it up and all, but WOW! Insane. I tried to keep myself between 10-10.30 (which is what I think I should do in Miami), but a lot of times today I was just feeling faster. Luckily I was able to keep the pace and not tire out (this time!)

We came home, showered, and went out to Chili's for some fajitas!! Normally I crash for a little while but nothing was sore and for whatever reason I had a ton of energy to spare. After a couple of tough long runs I guess I was due for an "easy" one. I guess that's it for now. I hear a ton of firecrackers going off outside so it may be a treadmill night. It was 68 today! Thunderstorms are supposed to move in soon and chill it back down, but it was another great day to be outside!

Happy New Years's everyone!!

Rachel