One contact + darkness = one pretty quick 5.75 miler?

Happy Thursday!!

Since I missed last weekend's long run, had a really crappy run on Monday, and was lazy on Tuesday, I was pretty worried that my run last night (Wednesday) wouldn't be easy. I have this theory that if I don't follow a training schedule exactly, then it's like I'm starting all over again. Which is a valid theory/worry.

So I set off last night with no goals, no certain mileage that I wanted to accomplish (after all, I said I was running 10 on Monday and ended up running 3...), no pace that I wanted to maintain or strides that I wanted to finish. All I knew is that I was NOT going to run over the bridge and back, because my shins have been bothering me and I didn't think I could handle all that downhill.

When I got home from work I set out for a run around the Peninsula (short loop is about 4.5, but I can extend it if I run in some not-so-friendly areas, which I try not to do when the sun is setting and the crazies are coming out to play) and at first I was worried that it was going to be a bad run.

My stomach was a bit too full for my liking, I had eaten a few spoonfulls too many of peanut butter around 3 PM at work, and my legs were feeling kind of heavy. But I was determined to make this a good run so I pushed on.

It was kind of windy along the waterfront (nothing unusual really) and as I was about to make the turn at the corner of the Battery something flew into my eye. As a wearer of contacts, I tried to not rub my eye and was just hoping it would slide it's way out...but it didn't. So I stopped, and was forced to remove my left contact. When I did, I immediately knew that I had corrected the problem, but now I had to put the contact back in, which rarely works the way it is supposed to outside of the bathroom.

As I was trying to gently re-insert said contact, the wind blew the tiny thing away from me to be lost forever in the ocean/on the street/somewhere NOT in my eye.

I thought, well f**k. Here it is getting darker by the second and when I looked ahead of me I could barely tell if that was a man walking his dog or a light post. But being the determined runner that I am, I kept going. This can't be too hard, right? One contact is better than none, right? Wrong, definitely wrong.

So anyways the run actually went pretty smoothly, I decided to venture off East Bay street to run closer along the water (hence, further from people and lit streets, don't tell my boyfriend he will yell) so that I could get some extra distance in, because all things considered, I was feeling pretty good.

I rounded out 4 miles and realized I was going at a pretty quick pace (I think I was racing the sunset, trying to get through the ghetto before it was too dark) but I would NOT look at my Garmin, I didn't want to ruin it.

I ended up running about 5.75 (would have been more had the crazy man on the bicycle not screamed at me forcing me to turn around and sprint in the opposite direction) in 56:18, which makes my average pace 9:47. Although that doesn't sound that quick, I spent probably about 2 minutes or so messing with my stupid contact. I even sprinted the last .75 and felt great!

Moral of the story: If you want better split times, either A) Run with one contact (why that makes one faster, no clue) or B) Run through the ghetto at night. Nothing will get you running faster than FEAR.

Here are my split times & totals:

1	00:09:53	1.00 mi	09:53 min/mi	--	--	121 C
2	00:11:05	1.00 mi	11:05 min/mi	--	--	112 C
3	00:09:59	1.00 mi	09:59 min/mi	--	--	114 C
4	00:09:34	1.00 mi	09:34 min/mi	--	--	111 C
5	00:09:23	1.00 mi	09:23 min/mi	--	--	112 C
6	00:06:21	0.75 mi	08:30min/mi	--	--	82 C

Total Time: 00:56:18

Avg Pace: 09:47 min/mi

Distance: 5.75 mi

Elevation Gain/Loss: 1,159 ft / 1,027 ft

Calories: 652 C

On a sidenote, joyRuN was kind enough to send me her training schedule (I liked the Excel layout and I really didn't want to re-invent the wheel) and since we're both running a marathon on the same weekend, I think I might change mine a bit to look more like hers. The more I was looking at mine the more convinced I was that it wasn't going to be good enough. So on the schedule for this weekend for her is 11, but I'm going to try to at least do 15 since I missed last week. Ideally I would like to do 17, but we will see how that goes.

Also, check out Julianne's exciting news at i heart running; help her spread the word to raise money for the Hope Runs 777 Challenge!