Week 4 of 2012 and Week 9 of Marathon Training
After last weeks disaster of a long run I was REALLY hoping this week would be better...and IT WAS! :)

Monday - 3 miles - 5th and King Loop - (35:12 - 11:43 pace)
Monday is usually rest day, especially after a long run, but a friend at work asked if I wanted to run and I really can't pass that up.  Especially on the short runs (which I hate for some reason) it's always better to have a running buddy.  I also knew this week was going to be super busy and had to fit the runs in wherever I could.  Since nothing was going on after work on Monday I went for it.  We ran a loop down 5th Ave and up King.  We've run this loop before but it was extra hard this time.  Our first mile went great.  We were going downhill...and also down wind, but we were loving it.  THEN, we turned up King where it is uphill most of the way and against the wind, so we were pretty much hating life for the rest of the time.  But...we did it!  We survived the loop...hills, wind, etc.  One older lady walking her dog even told us we were making good time because we passed her once on 5th and then again towards the end.  That always makes you feel a little better.  :)

On Tuesday we had a lovely fun staff meeting with HR where we were informed of the next steps in our school closing at the end of the year.  Nothing ends a day better than one of those meetings.  UGH.  As frustrated as I was and wanted to run, we went to get Mexican food instead.  :)  El Vaquero always makes you feel better...or something.

Wednesday - 7 miles - Treadmill - (1:13:29 - 10:29 pace)
After having Parent/Teacher Conferences until 6:30 the last thing I really wanted to do was run.  I was supposed to go meet up with some friends from the soccer team for wings and the Buckeye Basketball game.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, I'm not sure which)  by the time I got there only 2 teammates were left so we chatted for a bit and watched some of the game and headed home.  I got home around 8ish and still needed to run.  I wasn't about to run 7 miles in the dark, cold rain so I drug myself to the workout room at the apartment for a nice jaunt on the treadmill.
I'm not sure how much you recall of my love of the treadmill, or the apartment workout room for that matter, so I wasn't really looking forward to this.  When I got to the workout room the door lock thing was broken, so I got some instant anxiety.  I walked in the dark building and proceeded to turn on all of the lights and the TV as loud as possible.  One perk of working out late is no one else is there and you can watch whatever you want.  American Idol was on so I decided to watch that, but unfortunately it was only an hour long and I only caught the last 15 minutes.  However, afterward the new show Touch was on and it was GREAT!  I highly recommend everyone to watch it!  Apparently it doesn't start again until mid March so now you just have to wait. 
...ANYWAY...as I was running and getting sucked into this show I temporarily forgot about the fact that I was in a public place and was not able to lock the door behind me.  When I was about 5.5 miles in to my run and one of the most exciting parts of the show I look over and there i a girl STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO ME!  I screamed and almost fell off the treadmill...no joke.  She was just there to work out and getting on the elliptical but it scared me!  I was like, "Oh...sorry I didn't even hear you come in...sorry the TV is so loud."  And then I spent another 15 awkward minutes running next to her.  HAHA  Luckily I haven't had to see her since...

Parent/Teacher Conferences happened again on Thursday and I was dead to the world after work on Friday so no running happened.

Sunday - 10 miles - Olentangy Trail Out & Back - (1:51:21 - 11:08 pace)
Sadly Janene's legs are still hurting so I was on my own with this one (Get Well Soon Janene!).  I managed to get up early and went to the 1st service at churc!h (And I saw Bobby Carpenter there), so I was able to get my run in earlier than normal.  It was nice and sunny outside and I was really looking forward to spending some time outside.  At the park where I start there weren't very many people, so I made a loop around the pond before setting out on the trail.  As the day progressed more and more people started popping up on the trail.  I was doing a pretty good job of keeping my miles at a steady 11:08 pace (except for mile 5 and mile 10 when I found some bursts of energy somewhere and ran 10:39 and 10:16 respectively).  I always love when my last mile is my fastest mile!

A couple of things I learned on this run: 

1. I really enjoyed having Fruit Punch Powerade in my water bottle.  After my hands stopped freezing from holding it, I was loving it. 
2. I really do not like Mandarin Orange Gu.  Last week Janene gave me some Gu since she doesn't really like it.  The Vanilla Bean she gave me was AWESOME!  It tasted like frosting.  The Orange that I bought however...YUCK!  I'm not sure if it was the flavor or the fact that I was washing it down with my Powerade, but it was not doing it for me today.  For those of you that have never tried Gu, it's a little packet thing that is supposed to give you extra energy.  You are supposed to eat them after like 45 minutes to an hour of running.  They are the consistency of molasses and there are all kinds of interesting flavors.  You have to drink a lot of liquid with them to wash them down and then just PRAY that they don't upset your stomach...especially when you are miles from the car or a bathroom.  So yeah...of the 3 flavors I've tried I would rank them 1 - Vanilla Bean, 2 - Chocolate, 3 - Mandarin Orange.  We'll have to try some of the others and see where they fall in the ranking.
3. Some people make running look too easy and I can only wish to make it look so effortless some day.  I know I'm a hot mess when I'm running, but I just embrace it.  :)
4. I hope they find the lost dog that I saw multiple postings for along the trail :(

By the time I made it back to the park the lovely blue sky and sunshine that I started with turned into gloomy gray skies and big dark clouds.  I stopped on the deck of the pond to stretch and as I was untying my car key from my shoe it started to snow.  And not just a little bit...it was like snowing sideways blizzard-like conditions.  I was very happy that I was done and excited to get home.

So that's the recap of Week 4.  January is almost over and I'm only 62 days away from the Marathon!  AHH

Slapbet Total = 81 miles (Only 919 to go!)

Week 3 was quite the roller coaster actually.  I made it out for 3 runs this week and had to brave the wintery elements here in Ohio.

Tuesday - 3 miles - Out and Back (29:51 - 9:57 pace)
This was actually one of my best runs ever in my life for multiple reasons.
1.  I finally broke 30 minutes.  I've done that on a treadmill, but not actually on the road.
2.  My 3rd mile was in 8:35!!!  I don't think I've ever ran a mile that fast in my life.  Not even in high school.  Now, it was quite windy and the wind was at my back during this portion of the run, but I felt like I was flying! 

I had to run down the busy road by my apartment which I kind of like to do when I'm sick of the loop around here.  I normally run down on the left side of the road, touch the street pole, and then turn around and head back.  I eventually cross to the left side once traffic thins out.  Well this time there was TONS of traffic and I never got the opportunity to cross.  Maybe braving the traffic helped me run a bit faster so as to get off the busy road, but it was pretty awesome. 

**Thanks to whoever decided to chop up the fallen tree that was on the berm.  It made my life much easier.
**A big NO THANKS to the creeper that decided to honk at me 3 times.  EEK

Thursday - 6 miles - Tempo Run - Blacklick Woods (1:06:30 - 11:05)
I had the brilliant idea to bring my running gear to work and head out to Blacklick Woods.  I thought it was much closer than it actually is.  However, I did not realize that it was supposed to start snowing pretty much as soon as I was planning on running.  As I started out the trail was a bit snow covered from some early afternoon snow, but it wasn't too bad.  By mile 2 some flurries started to fall, and then mile 3 it was a snowy downpour.  I was supposed to run 3 miles at a Tempo of 10:50.  I decided I was going to do a 2 mile warm up, 3 miles a Tempo, and then a 1 mile cool down.  I managed to do the warm up pretty slow.  Tempo miles were at 10:48, 10:47, and 10:35.  Then by the cool down mile it was snowing like crazy.  Snow was in my eyes and I could barely see so I decided that the last mile I just wanted to get back to the car...so I ran it in 10:41. (OOPS!)  It was kind of fun running while it was snowing, but the black ice was hard to avoid and I'll have to find a way to keep the snow out of my eyes.  It then took me 45 minutes to get home, I took the world's fastest shower, then met Janene for dinner at Hounddogs!  I felt much less guilty eating pizza after running 6.  :)

Sunday - 13.1 miles - Long Run - Around Campus Area (2:43:53 - 12:31)
I don't know if I'm mentally prepared to talk about this run.  Janene and I were STRUGGLING!  We started out just north of campus and went down the Olentangy Trail for a while.  It was a frozen slushy mess and we were less than excited about it.  After about 2 miles we found a random parking lot that was nice and clear so we decided to take a lap around it for some solid ground.  We then decided to walk up to Olentangy Road and ran up to King.  By this point we were pretty aware that this was going to be a crazy run and once again it was Choose Your Own Adventure Sunday!  As we headed down King the path we were going to get back on was blocked off by a fence, so we scaled our way down a snowy hill and ran back up the slushy path we were on before.  (NOT FUN)  Now we found ourselves back at the car only 4 miles into the run.  We shed some layers and stretched a bit before heading back out.  This time we went North on the trail, but a detour caused us to venture off the path and onto the city streets.  The sidewalks were all slush and we were desperate for some dry land.  We had the bright idea to make our way down towards campus and run down High Street.  By this point we were just wandering aimlessly and decided to make a lap around The Ohio State University.  We were reminiscing about old times and discussing buildings that we spent many of hours in (or ones we were supposed to be in).  By the time we got to Mirror Lake (6 miles) we took a pitstop to use the bathroom and refuel with some Gu (I think Gu is growing on me, but I'm not completely convinced).  It was strange being back in there, but good memories.  We criss-crossed our way across campus and back up High Street.  At mile 10 I dropped Janene back off at her car, ditched my hat, gained my iPod and set out for the last 3 miles.  I didn't want to venture too far, so I went back on the slushy trail for another jaunt next to the semi-frozen Olentangy River.  I got honked at by some Swan-Goose Hybrid that we previously nicknamed a Swoose and I somehow made it back to the car...all in one piece...without getting attacked by the Swooses (Sweese?).  I ended up absolutely frozen and happy it was over, but glad that we did it.  There were a few walk breaks to work out some aches and pains but in the long run I guess it was good...or something

_I hope Janene's knee starts feeling better so we can keep running!  I know I wouldn't have even went on that run if I had to do it by myself.

Slapbet Total = 61 miles (Only 939 to go!)

Edit: Janene's update reminded me to post the ridiculous route we ran. :)