Saturday August 8

Yesterday was my day off of training so I went to the Running Co. and bought a little gel container/dispenser. It's to hold several packets of the snot gel...that way I don't have to mess around with tearing the top of the packet off and squeezing and trying to get it all in my mouth (you sort of have to treat it like eating artichokes...using your teeth to squeeze it into your mouth). So this little bottle sits in a holster-like thing that clips to my water belt. It will be easier to show you a picture:

It holds 4 packs of snot gel... but here's what I did today: I put 3 packs in and then added some water to dilute it down...and it worked fantastic! I don't even need to call it snot gel now! It's actually tolerable! Understand, it's no treat, but it's tolerable...a huge improvement!
So I left for our team run this morning at about 6:00 AM and it was already hot and humid...ugh! We started about 6:30 and it was fairly miserable the whole time. At about the 4 mile point I started internally whining...it was going to be a very long 12 miles I could tell! I also had gotten some new insoles for my shoes yesterday and my feet started sliding and hurting around the 5 or 6 mile point...again, not so good. I didn't think I needed to break in insoles but apparantly I should have. It was so hot today...I don't know what it got up to...maybe 95. Rachel was so nice to have 2 buckets of ice water and sponges at 2 different points so I stopped twice to sponge myself with the cold water. The second time I just stuck the cold, wet sponge down my back and wedged it into my sports bra and just ran with it.
I tried to keep up a good pace but I could tell I wasn't going as fast as usual, but the good part is that I finished....or came close. I borrowed Rachel's GPS watch and when we got back to the cars it was only 11.4 miles, but Rachel and I agreed that that was enough...with the heat and all. I did the 11.4 in 3 hrs. and 18 minutes...well actually it was 4 minutes more...but those minutes were for sponging...and so I didn't count them. So it came out to an average of 16.8 min/mile...not great, but I was just thankful that it was over! My feet were killing me...and my two big toes were really sore...they were jamming against the toes of my shoes the whole time...ouch! I came home and Leo had bought me a bag of ice and this time I actually welcomed the ice bath!! I had my recovery drink on the way home again (that works so good) and also a protein drink. I was thinking it would be nice to take a nap today (Rachel and Laura, another person who is training said they take naps after early morning runs) but the day managed to slip by without me taking one (something is wrong with this picture...when I think of how much older I am than them!!)