You know you're a runner when...

...you try and coordinate your wedding anniversary celebration and a half marathon! LOL!


Well, I managed to do it. I found a great half marathon that will segue into a nice little anniversary vacation for me and the Hubster. We're doing the Healdsburg Half Marathon this year in Sonoma County, CA. Some super cool things about the race:

1. We get to run through 22 wineries.
2. We start at the Francis Ford Coppola Winery. His claret is one of my favs!
   
3. We finish at the Wine & Music Festival near lake Sonoma.
4. It's on Halloween so there will be some crazy costumes
   
5. It will be the Hubster's first half!
6. And did I mention there will be WINE!!

I'm so stinkin' excited about this race. The Hubs is getting all into it, comparing different half training plans. I can't wait to start training with him. We're just doing an easy novice plan to get him into running consistently. He runs on occasion and works out like a crazy person - he's more of a gym rat than I am. But, we just have to work on his running consistency. We're totally going to take this race nice and easy and have fun with it. Mainly it will be a "just to finish" fun race because it's his first and I want him to enjoy it and I want to stop and take lots of pictures too.

Image of The Bitch via Snooth

So, if anyone wants to come out and join us, come on out!

In other news - it's hot, hot, hot, hot, hot. WARNING: From now until October I will continue to bitch, moan and whine about the heat. Yes, I am a high maintenance, bitchy runner and I want the weather to be 60 degrees with low humidity all the time. Is that so much to ask? So if you don't want to read about it just skip that section unless my whole post is about the heat and they very well could be. You'll just have to muddle through my whining then.

Speaking of heat: it just completely obliterated me yesterday and today. We had our usual Thursday night speed work session last night. It called for 6 x 800 repeats with one mile warm up and one mile cool down. Only three people showed up - one of which only because I guilted her into coming. :) We start at 6:00 p.m. and it's getting to where that's still too early to start in the evening. It was 95 degrees with a heat index in the 100+. We brought water knowing it was going to be bad. She made it through 2 and half 800s. I made it through 4 and we were done. It was just too damn hot and I started to get that light-headed, nauseous, over heating feeling. We just slowly jogged the last 2 800s and then took it back to the shop for 5 total miles. It was bad.

This morning I met the girls for our usual 8 mile maintenance long run. We started at 6:00 a.m. to try and beat the heat but it had different plans for us. It was already 83 degrees F when I woke up at 5:30 and the humidity was through the roof. This run was especially hard today. All three of us had to stop for the occasional walk break and that's unusual for us. We usually keep a good, steady consistent pace. We just could NOT get our bodies to cool down. There was no breeze and no relief. I felt like I hadn't run in weeks. My body was tired, my legs were lead bricks, my head was spinning. It was just awful, awful, awful. We managed to keep a 10:30 pace which is pretty good considering all the short stops and walk breaks.

I think I'm going to take tomorrow off. Either that or just head to the gym for an easy 3 or 4 and maybe some weights/elliptical work.

Today I tried some of the Carb Boom! Energy Gel on the long run. I had the apple cinnamon flavor because a few people had recommended that as one of their favs. I'm generally not a big goo or gel fan, but it's one of the necessary evils on long runs. And I've tried, but I just simply cannot do the chews. The thought of physically chewing something while running just makes me want to urp.

The apple cinnamon flavor was surprisingly refreshing and the texture wasn't as thick as some other gels I've had. The flavor wasn't overpowering and it wasn't sickeningly sweet. It also went down a lot smoother and it didn't take as much water to flush the taste out of my mouth (another thing that bothers me - gotta have a clean mouth. I told you guys I was high maintenance!) These gel packets are bigger too - 1.4 oz as compared to the normal 1.1 oz in other gels. My running shop just got these in and the flavors they had were really limited, but I'd really like to try out some of the other flavors. I may order a few more online to check them out. But, I'm giving it a thumbs up.

AND please go send out shouts of support to RBR who has the Ironman Coeur d'Alene this weekend!

Today I LOVE: That the weekend is MINE to toy with!