3 Runs in One Day

Oof. I'm tired.

I planned on running 9-12 miles today. I figured I'd run 6 miles before the group started, run 3 with the group and then a last 3 after the group left. I ended up doing 15.

I started at 5:15am and went 6 miles exactly (I love my Garmin). Then, I waited for the rest of the TNT group to show. The problem with waiting is that it was F**CKING COLD this morning. I love to run in cold weather, but today was just ridiculous - the wind was extremely harsh. I nearly froze in my own sweat waiting for the group run to start and indeed, I left early to warm up. I ran straight to the bathroom in the tennis club so that I could thaw my hands under the hand dryer. My fingers (gloved) were so cold that they were burning. I was running in two dri-fit shirts, a long-sleeved t-shirt and a jacket and I was STILL cold.

After running the 3 miles with the group (total mileage: 9), I immediately changed clothes so that my sweat wouldn't freeze anymore. I then went to breakfast with the group and went to a TNT meeting at the Leukemia-Lymphoma Society office. Afterwards, still feeling pretty good, I decided to go for another jog. I did two more laps at Memorial, ending with an exact 15 mile count for the day. By the end of my last lap, I was pretty tired but if I didn't have to be somewhere, I might've gone another 3 miles.

Where did this random motivation come from? 2 sources: my new Garmin and the "Ultramarathon Man" book that I'm reading. I did find one problem, however, with the Garmin. I run in intervals (run 4-5, walk 1). I set up my Garmin for intervals, but when it came time to walk, it was treated as a rest. Everything stopped: my pace, my time, my distance. When I started running the third time, I solved the problem by strapping the Garmin onto my right wrist and my regular running watch on my left. My left beeped when it was time to run (or walk) and my right beeped every mile I finished, plus told me my pace and time and calories.

I feel fine now, a little tired but not bad. Tomorrow I am going to wake up extremely early so that I can finally finish all of my grades and then go running around 2pm. I'm going to bring the Garmin, of course, and I'm going to just run the streets and let my Garmin tell me how far I've gone. I want to go 6 miles, so I'm going to go three and come back. I love this adventure - going new places and knowing the distance!

Andy and I were discussing our mileage, and here's mine...

Total this week: 36 miles! This is the most I've done in one non-marathon week.

Speaking of marathon... I was thinking about doing Dallas on April 2, but now I'm thinking about doing the Country Music Marathon in Nashville. It's April 29, so I have an extra month to train. Seeing how I'm already up to 15 miles, I can easily boost up my training to a 21-miler by the beginning of April. I'll get a new state, and run my first full marathon of 2006. I know I said I wasn't going to train for one until I drop 25 more pounds, but I can drop the 25 pounds in the next three months AND train. Plus, I really don't want to wait until October to do my next full. I want to do one before the weather gets really bad.

Cheers!