Hotter Than a Pepper Sprout

Just a few days ago I achieved another personal record and did a training run of (slightly more than) 21 miles. Yes, I'm a little stunned. I did a run that was long enough to be old enough to drink. (Okay, that may not make any sense but that joke is a classic so it's staying). A collection of Touchy-Feely running photos And I still don't think I've ever experienced the fabled "Runner's High." Mostly, during a run, especially a long run, I'm likely to just feel bored, or annoyed, or even a little panicky (as in, "Am I really going to survive this?") At some point it does start to feel surreal (around 2.5 hours) as I lose sense of time and think "My God, how long have I been doing this? What day did I start this? What day is it now?" So I don't think I've experienced euphoria while running, but post-run, I'm prone to feeling many of the feels. As I wrote in my July 14, 2015 post after my first Half Marathon rac...

Last Saturday, I ran 20 miles — 20.32 actually. This is a milestone (unintentional wordplay, honestly) that I never thought I'd achieve, or even want to. So I want to take a little time to savor and reflect on this achievement. And of course, the best way that I know how to do that is by blogging about it, so I can share on Facebook. I think I look super white because of the sunscreen. Yes, there were the "Day Of" posts on Facebook, both to my whole Facebook universe and just to my first time Marathon runners group. It was hard to decide what to post to what audience —a ll of Facebook got my sweaty selfie (see above), while the runners group was treated to a link to my running stats (Average pace: 10:20 min/mile). And yes, there was also contemplative, celebratory drinking. Surprisingly, the drinking didn't commence until several hours after my run. I knew that once the libations began flowing, my day would be pretty much done, so I took a nap instead. Wh...

It's week 9. I AM OFFICIALLY OVER HALF-WAY THROUGH MY TRAINING PLAN, PEOPLE. This makes me proud (I've run my longest distance ever, 16.5 miles), scared (this means the marathon is looming, plus I still have to run 20+miles training runs to do), confused and annoyed (how can I be gaining weight? yeah, I know I'm thin but still, GAINING?!) and obsessed and TIRED. Actually, I totally know what to do. Eat. Drink. Bitch. Repeat.  It's hard to imagine that I could be more excited that tomorrow is a "Rest Day" in my marathon training plan. That means NO running!!! (Also, for me, no exercise beyond walking). The plan I'm following allocates two rest days a week. It's also hard for me to imagine that when Chad and I started our 16-week training plan, we thought that I would resist taking rest days and that we would end up fighting about that. Well, we've certainly had our fights in the last 5 weeks, but not about me skipping rest days. Ah, i...