Day 150!

150 days of training, and another milestone ~ reaching the double digits on my long run!  10 mile run today.  I woke up super early, around 4:30, and couldn't get back to sleep.  I ate a mini-Clif bar, got my stuff ready for my run, then did 25 minutes of Pilates.  I was actually biding my time until it got closer to daylight, because I don't particularly like to run when it's too dark and early...too many critters out there.  I left the house around 5:30.  I felt really good on my run, especially considering I had been having some hip pain earlier this week on my shorter runs.  I was a little worried about how it would feel today, but it was fine.  I would have felt even better if I didn't feel like I needed to pee, starting at around mile 3.  Despite the fact that I went to the bathroom 3 times before leaving the house, my hydration belt was sitting right on my bladder, no matter how I adjusted it, it made me feel like I needed to go!  I need to do something about that for next week...

I also saw another moose on my run this morning, only this time it was a little too close for comfort.  I was just coming to the road I would be turning on to start my loop back towards home, so I was around mile 5.  The road I run on has lots of farms and I always see animals, like cows, horses, goats, sheep, there are even some llamas.  In fact, I had just passed the property where the llamas are when I saw the moose, a female, not 50 feet away, looking like she had intended to cross the road right in front of me.  I think I spooked her, because she started to run, and for a split second, I thought she was running towards me, but she took off down the road, alongside the railroad tracks.  Those animals are HUGE when you're that close to them.  Anyway, I turned onto the road, went up a hill and my heart had just started to get back to normal rhythm when a fox ran out across the road in front of me.  At least I can say that every run is an adventure around here!

Before I left on my run, I set my Garmin to beep an alarm when I hit 10 miles, so I avoided looking at it because I didn't want to "watch the clock" as I ran.  The first time I finally did  check it, I was at 8.7 miles, and still feeling really good.  From that point on, though, I started to feel very tired in my legs.  Aerobically, once again, I was doing great, even after going up and down several decent sized hills.  But I can always tell each time I'm going farther than my previous long run, because I can feel my leg muscles being pushed to their limits.  When I got home, I did Yoga Meltdown level 2, then I had a protein smoothie with banana, carrots, skim milk, reduced fat peanut butter, and chocolate protein powder.

I hope you're all not sick of the pictures I post of my Garmin after my long runs.  I do it for myself as much as anyone, because it's proof that I actually accomplished my goal, and I'm not sure I'd even believe it if I didn't see the numbers right in front of me! :)