Ten Things Thursday

This is a pic from my track workout today. Seeing the sky change from the dark to light is always so cool. The sky looked great today.

Workouts so far this week:

Monday- 1144 yd swim

Tuesday- 2.88 mile run (run group)- Hills

Wednesday-18 minute strength/weight workout

686 yd swim

Thursday- 3 mile run (run group)- Fartlek Track Workouts

792 yd swim

1. I was really happy with my track workout today. Out of all the group workouts so far, I think this was my 2nd favorite. (Actually getting up and having the nerve to participate in a run group was the best one as I think it marked a turning point for me). But anyways, so today we did 300 meter run at 5k pace with 100 recovery. So I walked the 100's and I ended up doing 8 laps. My workout came out to 3 miles total with my warm-up and cooldown. I just felt relieved that for once I was able to do more then the minimum amount! Yeah progress

2. I was SOOOO excited when I saw the men's 1500m and saw that Leo Manzano, who graduated from UT and lives in Austin, won silver! It's the first American win in that event since 1968! Not only do you feel the pride from an American win ( which we have plenty of this Olympics) but also an Austinite win! I wish I would have seen him on the Today Show.

Photo: Sergey Ponomarev/Associated Press

3. I was reading this thing about athletes drinking Pedialyte for the electrolytes instead of Sports Drinks. I don't know. Seems kind of weird to me. But I guess swallowing gels and eating sport Jelly Bellies seems weird to others. I am going through gels like crazy lately. I have to take one when I do run group as I half awake and don't like coffee and need the energy. When I do my long runs, I take one for every 45 minutes. If I swim, I usually take water and gatorade with me, although sometimes I have a gel. It's weird though I noticed when I swim, I usually need to eat something small right before as I am always hungry during my swim if I don't.

4. Tuesday's workout was really frustrating to me. I had some back pain and was moving very slllllowww. Even for me slow. Which is really slow. The workout itself was pretty cool. It involved going over a steep hill, with some sprints and a backwards jog. I ended up doing 5 of the hills, 2 of the sprints and 1 of the backwards jog. I know jogging backwards up a hill doesn't sound like it's that hard, but ask anyone ( I SWEAR!) who was there and they will agree with me. I don't know if this pic below really captures the true steep-ness essence of the hill, but I'll give it a shot. 

5. I've read about 3 or 4 different blog posts on the Austin Marathon. I think I am going to have a post combining all these posts so I can see what advice people have on the marathon and what parts of the course I should specifically train for. From what I gather: HILLS! and it might be cold or hot but who knows as it's texas. I did read they have a good amount of water stops, so that's good. After the difficulty on the steep hills, I hope the hills are more long and rolling then step ascent and descent but I guess I could just pull up the elevation chart. 

6. My swim today was finally, finally under a 50 min mile pace! I haven't had a swim under that pace in a while, so that really made me feel good.

7. I can't believe the women were able to swim 6.2 miles in the open-water competition. That is so impressive! The Olympics are so inspiring, I love it! 

8. I finished reading my book, WILD by Cheryl Strayed. Now I don't know what to do with my life. 

9. I'm really nervous about my long run on Sunday. Last week was recovery week so whenever I go back to long runs I don't know what to expect. My body feels more rested after not doing a long run the week before, but I also feel like I have lost some endurance. 

10. I have read/heard people rave about lulemon. So I checked out their website. They have really pretty running stuff but man it is not college budget friendly. Maybe I'll save up though or check out the clearance section. I want some new running clothes! It's been so lonngggg. I'm partial to Nike clothes for hot weather and underarmour for cold weather typically.