the first of the long runs

Marathon training week: 1 of 18
Marathon plan: 8 miles

Time of departure: 2:30pm
Return: Not sure.

Temperature: 40°F(4°C)
Wind Chill: 33°F (1°C) (It was windy. And it felt cold).
Lake Temp: 47F

Route: Down past Addison and back up.
Approx Distance: 8 miles
Running buddy: Self.
Clothing: I felt under-dressed. shoes, socks, long striped pants, short sleeve t-shirt (this was the problem, I would have appreciated a long sleeve), wind breaker, hat.
The Drive Activity: busy and noisy south of montrose

Dog beach Activity: There was a big red kite flying.

What did I eat pre-run? Two tacos and guac & chips from Rocky's on Clark. This was lunch.
How did I feel? Good. Cold. Slightly bored.
What do I like about running? Today? It was all about feeling good that I had the discipline to make sure it happened today.
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My friends and I had our Traditional Vegan Thanksgiving Potluck Dinner tonight. This was quite delicious, but went rather late into the evening. It's after 1am now and I'd like to just crawl into bed, but I realize I can't get behind on these blog posts. Everyday is some day in marathon training.

My friend Sara and I went to a Mosaic workshop this morning (yay!), so finally the mystic of the mosaic has been de-mystified a bit for me. We also made plans to get together and do a little mosaic-ing together. (yay!) So, yea, maybe I'll have photos to post of my mosaics soon.

But about the run? I felt good getting out the door, good starting to run. I had a sense that it was going to be long. And it was gray and cold and windy and I have no running buddy and I lost my mp3 player at the Old Town School and...yea. I did a lot of counting (my running mantra when I'm not talking and not thinking about anything productive). I count to one hundred, and then count to one hundred again, and again, etc. I have no idea how many times I do this. I would say most of the last 5 miles involved counting. Jeez. I need to get an mp3 player working again and start listening to some philosophy lectures. Or start running 6:30 min/miles and convince Matt to run with me again.

Overall, I feel good. I did all the runs in my first week AND I even respected the rest day. Tomorrow is a scheduled cross train day, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that. Maybe I can swap it out with Monday.

Running really does tighten you up though, because of the knee jerk reflex. Did you know that?