The week before last, my husband and I ran and saw 4 dead rats during the run.  It was weird.

Today, I ran and saw a whopping SIX dead rats!  Okay – 5 rats and 1 mouse.  Gross!  I also saw a dead squirrel and big dead grey and white bird that was easily 10 pounds! It looked like it had been run over by a car.  Can you imagine running over a big giant bird with your car?

Why focus on dead animals on the run?  It kept me from concentrating on the fact that I needed to ‘go’.  It was one of THOSE runs this morning! 

Last week I talked about how I needed to stick to my schedule, you know, make it a priority.  So, I changed my running schedule to accommodate a Saturday activity.  How’s that for sticking to it?  My original altered plan was to run two runs on Tuesday so I could be off on Wednesday, and run on Thursday and Friday.  That didn’t work out.  I was too tired on Tuesday to do another run.  Plan C was to run long on Friday and then get the last 5 miles in on Saturday.  That didn’t happen, either.  I ran long on Friday and sat on my behind most of the day on Saturday. Such is life, right?

So….  I ran 13.18 miles on Friday – alone.  ‘Alone’ meant that I didn’t have anyone to help me pace myself, so I ran slow, then not so slow, then slow again, then..  I did okay, though.  I picked a route that was a little over half of the way out in one direction, then an about face to finish up.  It’s interesting how much further a run seems when it’s mostly a straight line.  I kept thinking, “I am running to the mall….”  It was weird.  I had a lot of chances to stop at traffic lights – so that was good.  Since I was already stopping quite a bit for traffic, I didn’t really stick to the mile and a half breaks.  I carried my Gu tube with Orange flavored Accell.  It tasted like orange creme popsicle.  I drank it in two parts.  The second time, it was sort of warm – kind of gross.  I’m still not sure how much the gel is helping me, though.  I wish I could run 13 miles with it and then 13 miles WITHOUT it to compare, but clearly, that is not gonna happen!

Wrap-up of  last week:

1. Monday:  4 easy miles
2. Tuesday:  6 miles at ‘marathon’ pace
3. Wednesday:  4 miles doing intervals – 1/4 mile at marathon pace, 1/4 mile at 10:30mm until I got to 4 miles – I WAS WORN OUT!
4. Thursday:  off
5. Friday:  13 miles
6. Saturday:  off
7. Sunday:  off (mistake – see next Monday)

Here’s what’s on tap for this week:

1. Monday:  4 easy miles (not easy after two days off – i felt really sluggish and tired)
2. Tuesday:  5 miles on treadmill at marathon pace
3. Wednesday:  4 miles on treadmill at tempo pace (I will do intervals again)
4. Thursday:  off
5. Friday:  4 easy miles
6. Saturday:  FOURTEEN MILES… (will be out of town, going to a football game after running)
7. Sunday:  off

That’s it for now!  Gotta go do something productive 😉