The Treadmill, Forgiven.

Well, I decided to forgive The Treadmill for it's deceptive ways.  We made up today, and I even admitted to The Treadmill that I may have been partly to blame.  That wasn't so easy for me...just ask my husband.  After we made up, things went just swimmingly!  Today's treadmill run went like this:

50 minutes at 8:34** pace
5.8 miles

**with a 7 minute "break" at 8:45 pace between minutes 15-22 (I know, random.  I just needed it.)

I even stuck in a couple minutes at a 3% grade.  I know, a *whole* 2 minutes of running uphill.  I had to throw in at least some sort of grade change, after belly-aching about the "deception" of the treadmill.  But, I also wanted my main focus today to be my pace.  So, I guess you would call today's run a tempo run?  I'm still learning here, people...At about 35-40 minutes in, I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep it up for the whole 50 minutes.  But, right as I was about to cave in and slow down, a girl got on the treadmill two down from mine and started running at the same pace.  Well, I couldn't very well slow down then!!  So, unknown girl two treadmills down got me through it.  I like to think of people like this as a gift from the universe.  Thanks, universe!

Some other things I took note of during my run today:

1. My hips, knees, shins and feet were all feeling pretty achy for most of my run today.  I'm wondering if I've tried to move things up too quickly, or if I'm just getting old.  Maybe both. 
2. For goodness sakes, I had my shoes tied too dang tight today!!  I don't know why I didn't stop and re-tie them at some point during my run.  I guess I was worried that if I stopped for too long, I might not be able to start again.  Maybe that's why it seemed like my feet were really slapping the treadmill today?  Seriously, it sounded like they were not a funtioning part of my body until about 4 miles in.
3. I have GOT to get me some of that Body Glide that all these running bloggers keep talking about!!  OUCH.
4. I was really happy with my heartrate today.  This hasn't been something I've closely observed in the past, and I don't have a heartrate monitor, but I noticed today that my heartrate isn't getting up as high as it used to during my runs.  I'm assuming (hoping) this means I'm getting more fit, cardiovascularly?
5. Turning the fan toward me seemed like a good idea (I don't usually bother, but thought it might help me to stay cooler.), and it did feel good.  But, good grief, it gave me the worst dry mouth.  I'm not sure it was worth it.

Overall, today's run was a good one.  I'm hoping I feel up to another one tomorrow, since I'll have time to go to the gym again tomorrow afternoon.  I'm hoping for a 60 minute run.  Maybe I should do more hills tomorrow?

Before I sign off to go pack lunches, I wanted to revisit my last post about finding inspiration.  I asked "what inspires you?" and I was humbled to hear from my aunt that I (little ol' me) actually inspire her.  Wow.  She's been working on getting back into running and has been following my blog.  I hadn't even considered that I  might inspire someone.  I was so grateful to her for saying so.  I also received a comment from another blogger.  She said:

"I'm very new to the blog world - I'm only a week old I suppose :) I am amazed by some of the accomplishments of other people. A blog I randomly came across is what inspired my husband to start blogging and then me. I know most people may not care to read my random thoughts but you never know when someone might stumble across your blog and be inspired."

Thanks for your thoughts, Michael!  You should go check out her blog, Slowly Tri-ing.

Okay, off to make the lunches...