February Wrap Up and then some.

Well, I guess it's time to wrap up February since it's officially March now. I started writing this post last night, but I was just too darn tired after watching Ghost Hunters International and Face Off to finish it and post. Oh well. Here we go ...

Did everyone enjoy Leap Day? Did you do anything special? I was a little nostalgic in the morning because I realized it was the first Leap Day without my grandmother (mom's mom). It would have been her 19th birthday. Yes, she was a leap day baby. All the grandkids LOVED needling her over surpassing her in both age and height (she was also a SHORT woman). The joke in our family was that you were officially allowed to sit at the "big kid table" (none of us act like adults) once you were taller than Grandma. lol. My dad and I were pulling for my cousin's baby to be born yesterday just to spite K, but no luck.

Last night, I got sucked into another race, The Quantum Leap 2.9 Miler. It was put on by the Toledo and Fremont running clubs and the store where I've been going to group runs, Second Sole. I hadn't really trained specifically for it, but I figured yesterday was a speed workout anyway (I'll make up the extra mile tonight at group) and a new distance meant an automatic PR. *grin* There was a threat of thunderstorms, but we got lucky. Actually, we got doubly lucky because the temperature was in the low 50s! Sheesh! If it hadn't been so breezy, I would have worn a tee shirt with my capris. There were actually quite a few people there in shorts and tees! In February! *shakes head* It was a really fun race, though. I got there, signed in (relatively quick for the number of people there), and started my warm up before I realized who was standing less than 10 feet from me. My friend Mike and his wife (yes, Liz, the one I ran with the night I won my Saucony Nomad jacket at group!). He made a big deal out of how surprised he was to see me and I just raised my eyebrow and laughed at him. Another friend, also Mike, from dailymile, was there too, but we didn't get to talk much until after the race since he got there so close to the start. Unoffficially, my finish time was 29:43. That's a 10:10/mi average pace. Not too shabby. I'm sure the official time will be a little different since it was a gun start and I was a little ways back in the pack. I thought I started out a little too quick, but I was able to maintain my pace pretty easily as long as I didn't over-think it. I THINK the photographer got a picture of 2 with me in it, but we'll see when they're posted on facebook. I'll be sure to update here if/when. I'll go crazy pouring over the age groups once the results are posted too, so no worries.

Some of you know I've been experimenting with my nutrition and hydration lately. Some of it has to do with knowing I need to find a better (read - healthier) system as I increase my mileage and part of it is trying to avoid the migraine-like headaches I get from being dehydrated and electrolytes being out of whack. No joke, I used to get them after EVERY run, no matter how much water or gatorade I drank before, during, and after. The only thing I could do was take painkillers and crawl in bed for a couple hours, hopefully to sleep off the prain. It was horrible. Anyway, my latest thing to try out finally came in the mail yesterday ... nuun. A smaller shop that sells through amazon had a pretty great deal on a pack of 4 tubes plus 4 individuals, so I used some of my amazon credits. So far, I like it! I have tubes of tri-berry, citrus fruit, lemon-lime and orange. The individuals are grape and fruit punch (NOT my favorite flavor, but I'll try just about anything once). I tried out the orange before the race last night and lemon-lime later. I like that the flavor isn't overpowering. More to come as I try out the other flavors and work them into my regular life.

Wheeeeee! Fizzies! Yes, I'm mature. lol :D

Since it IS the end of February, I sat down with my weekly mileage tracker (woo, more excel spreadsheets!) and figured out my monthly totals. This month, I had 9.15 miles walked (warm ups and cool downs, mostly) and 62.68 miles run (in 11:55:14). Not bad. My miles walked is down from January (mainly because I've been better at planning and mapping my runs) but my miles run is up (53.64 in January). There hasn't been a whole lot of change in my pace, but my endurance is much better. My longest run in February was my 8-miler last Saturday where my longest in January was 5.1 miles (twice). I can feel the difference in my body, but I'll address that in another post (I swear. I'm writing it bit by bit every day).

The end of February also means the end of Fab Ab February and Amanda @ RunToTheFinish's Appreciation Challenge. These were both eye-opening for me. FAF really showed me that I need to take more time to work on my core. Since I quit #plankaday (I got annoyed at being bitched at over twitter for not getting online and sharing every damn day. You don't like that my first instinct ISN'T to run online and tell you every time I do something? Too damn bad.), I need to come up with a plan of my own and stick to it. I'm working on it. The Appreciation Challenge really opened my eyes to appreciating the little things about myself and those around me. I'm really enjoying going back and re-reading some of the journal entries and thinking about WHY I was appreciating certain things and people each day. I realize how much the "little things" impact the rest of my day and my longer-term mood. I think this is another thing that I need to work on more frequently.

Alright. Lunch break over. With the University being on Spring Break next week, all the professors who do field work trips on the "week off" are in a tizzy over getting all their equipment ready to go. Which means the basement is pretty loud (even after our department chair got the construction crew to shut up during class hours) and I have to concentrate even harder to get anything done here on campus.