Runs for Cookies

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 06:00 PM PDT

It was another early morning for me today. Yesterday was pretty hot--hot enough that my boys' baseball games were canceled last night! So I wanted to make sure and get my 10-mile run out of the way early today to avoid a heat stroke ;)

Ty was coming to meet me from Ann Arbor (about a 45 minute drive) at 6:30. So I got up at 5:00 to get ready for our run. We met at a gas station, and then I drove from there to the park that Jessica and I used to park at for our long runs. I had mapped out a 10-mile out-and-back route that went to the tip of the Metropark and back.

It was pretty hot outside. At just 6:30 AM, it was already in the 70's, and it was 81 when we finished. It was extremely humid--the air felt really thick, which made it harder to breathe. We saw quite a few people out running, though, which was really surprising. I never see other runners! But I counted at least 6 or 7 today.

My knee was holding up pretty well, but at mile 4, we decided to do a short walk break every mile (the 9:1 thing Jess and I did). Ty is coming off of a hip injury, so we took it easy. When we got to the bridge at the Metropark, we stopped for a quick picture:

My knee pain got worse at around mile 9, and I decided to listen to my body (like my doctor told me) and walk the rest of the way back to the car. I stopped my Garmin, of course ;) Ty said that taking a week off of running really helped a lot with her hip injury, and I think she has me convinced to take a FULL week off of running. If I'm going to do it, the best time would be NOW. I don't have any races lined up until September 1, when I'm running a half-marathon in Minnesota.

I don't think that taking a full week off will harm my fitness level, so I am going to try it. My next run won't be until a week from Monday--so I'll be skipping all three scheduled runs next week. I'm going to go for walks instead, as long as my knee feels good about it, and I will continue my strength training, stretching, and foam rolling. Let's hope that the time off helps my knee!

Anyway, we got back to the car, and I was drenched in sweat. When it's that humid outside, the sweat is just ridiculous. ~~But here are our splits~~:
Stupid Garmin is all screwed up. I just spent about an hour trying to upload our run, and it wouldn't work. It STILL won't work. And even when I look at the Garmin itself, it's only showing one lap (the first mile). Oh well, at least I can get the final stats of the run:

My iPhone takes terrible pics of my Garmin,
but I'm too lazy to get my real camera.

After the run, we headed to breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Ever since I had the pecan pancakes when Jennifer and Angela were in town for the documentary, I've been craving them again. They are probably going to be my go-to meal after my long runs during marathon training. They did not disappoint me today:

I ate all three pancakes, but I really wish I'd just had two. I felt comfortably full after two, but they were just so good I couldn't stop! Then Ty headed back to Ann Arbor, and I went home to shower. I've been extremely stressed and anxious for the last couple of weeks, and it's causing physical symptoms that are really bothersome (lump in my throat, eyelid twitching, etc). So I took a Xanax to relax a little. I don't take it very often, but when my anxiety and stress gets really bad, I might take one.

Then Jerry and I took the boys to the creek to catch crawfish again, since he was off work today. He waded through the creek with the boys.

I was really starting to feel the Xanax, which was making me incredibly tired. That's why I don't take it very often, because it puts me to sleep. Jerry took a picture of me, which looks really pathetic:

When we got home, my kids called my parents to ask if they could spend the night over there, and of course my mom said yes. I was excited to be able to hang out with Jerry, and possibly even go out somewhere. I wanted to lie down for just a couple of minutes, so I laid on the couch and watched Tosh.0 with Jerry... and I actually fell asleep! I never, ever take naps--I was willing myself to keep my eyes open, but I just couldn't. Jerry thought it was funny, and actually took a picture of me sleeping. I can't believe I was so out of it that I had no idea he took this:

I am so not attractive when I sleep, haha! Anyway, I didn't sleep very long--just a few minutes--but then my eyes shot open and I panicked that I had fallen asleep. I know a lot of people like naps, but I hate them--I feel like it's such a waste of my day.

So now Jerry and I are trying to figure out what to do tonight--whether we should go out or stay in. I'm leaning toward staying in. ;)