Quick training update- As the mileage for the weeks slowly creeps up, I've been noticing that I've been able to have a quicker pace during my short conditioning runs. Last week, I ran at an average pace of 11:18! While that may not be impressive, it's crazy fast for me and much quicker than where I was a year ago. So yay :-) I ran 39.32 miles in July and I'm already up to 40.98 for August.
As the weekly mileage is ticking up, my biggest concern is injury. Building from 12-15 miles per week to 40 miles per week is challenging enough and with my nagging plantar fasciitis, it could be potentially very painful. BUT, I've been doing everything the doctor recommends- stretching, icing, strengthening. I have also switched from a stability shoe (Brooks Adrenaline) to a neutral shoe (Brooks Ghost) so I can wear my orthotic inserts while I run. The Ghosts took a few weeks to break-in and get used to. I'm still not sure if I can wear them over 7 miles- I'm going to try out some new shoes here in the next few weeks and hopefully find a pair that will work for the marathon in January.
Also, the boyfriend and I got a pretty neat package in the mail this week. As a surprise for me, Matthew ordered some new medal racks- and they are simply awesome. He also ordered some motivation for the Dopey Challenge- a 48.6 medal rack! He's the greatest. For real.
Shout out to HeavyMetalz for such cool products!
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| Our wall of awesome :-) |
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| New motivation to kick ass in Dumbo and Dopey |
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| "Once Upon A Run" |
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| Love this Minnie inspired one! |
Switching gears...
Why temporary hair dye is a bad idea- Because it's Disney and because I'll use any reason to dress-up, I'm running the Disneyland Half as Ariel. I've already made the green tutu, picked out the flowers for my hair, etc. The one missing piece- the trademark red Ariel hair! Because I won't do anything on race day that I haven't tried out on a long run, I decided to try out a temporary red hair dye this past Saturday for a 7 mile run.
I found this brand, "Splat," at Walmart. $5.00 for about a three ounce tube. The instructions said to put it on your hair, blow dry, and then use hairspray to set the color. The color should last until you wash it out. Seeing as how I only want to be red for a day, I figured this would work.
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| As you can see, it's pretty darn red. |
Using this was sort of like painting your hair. Once it was applied, I dried my hair with a blow dryer and then decided to braid it. Now, my hair at this point was really, really stiff- kind of like I had just put paste in my hair- not fun or easy to braid. But, I managed a somewhat decent braid and went out for a run.
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| The sort-of finished product. |
The good- the color actually didn't run! I was worried it would run once I started sweating but surprisingly, it stayed in my hair.
The bad- It didn't look that red once my hair was braided.
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| After the run. Not quite Ariel red. Boo. |
The ugly- It literally felt like I had paste in my hair. Once I finally got the braid out, it actually looked pretty cool. But not cool enough for me to actually replicate it on race day.
It looks like a regular braid for me for the half. On the plus side, running with my hair braided was AMAZING! I have a thing about hair touching my neck when I'm running- I hate it. As my hair gets longer, it gets more challenging to find ways to pull it up. This braid was fantastic! I may start running with a braid more often :-)
Ok, that's the end of my scatter-brained post. Next post- packing for a destination race! Happy Monday!
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