Twelve and a half miles.

(Is 1.5 miles farther than 11 miles.) :-)

Today was my last long training run before the March 27th half marathon. And it went pretty well! All of the stats are up on the Garmin site. My average time was 11:19 minutes per mile and I'm pretty pleased with that because on my last long run (11 miles), I averaged 11:49 minutes per mile (on roughly the same course). My overall time today was 2:21:32.

I'm know now that (barring an injury) I won't have any issues finishing the half. I'm also incredibly stoked because I've finally found the perfect pre-run breakfast to give me sufficient energy without upsetting my stomach. (I won't go into detail, but it's fairly common for endurance runners to have intestinal issues if they don't have the perfect food combos because you're bouncing around your insides for so long.)

Brian and I slept in today until 11 (which was GLORIOUS). So right after I got up, I had breakfast. I had a banana, fat free greek yogurt (with honey on the bottom) (incredible protein source!), 24 (yes I counted!) Cinnamon Streusel Frosted Mini-Wheats (dry), and a bottle of Propel. I watched Friday's Young & The Restless while I ate and afterward went upstairs for a quick bath to shave my legs! (COMPLETELY LOVING non-long-pants season!) Afterwards, I got dressed in the new running outfit I bought last weekend (black Nike capri-length running tights and blue short sleeved Reebok shirt [I can't find a picture online of the shirt!]) and then headed downstairs to mix up some Crystal Light into my water bottles for the Amphipod hydration belt. I also took a Vanilla Bean GU gel.

GU gels are my new favorite thing! In addition to tasting delicious, they really do work! You take one 15 minutes before you start running and then every 45 minutes while you run. They're basically just 100 calories of carbs and sodium to help you sustain energy and replace your electrolytes (if you're sweating like crazy and only drinking water, then your salt balance can get way off). It's amazing how you can feel your body change after taking one. You can also take one at the end of your run to help with recovery. (Sports nutrition science is so interesting!)

I started running at Shelley Lake and then headed south (hoping to end up somewhere around Anderson Drive for my turnaround). This was also my previous plan for my 11 miles; however, I got "lost" on that run and ended up not where I wanted. Well, today, I followed the signs and still wasn't exactly sure where to go and didn't want to waste a lot of time figuring it out (although I did take one spur that ended up being STRAIGHT UP HILL to end up in a damn parking lot!) So I turned around, flew down the hill, and then ran down the Crabtree Creek trail down behind the mall. It was a really good trail and I was able to turn around at 7.5 miles and distanced-it perfectly to finish up right back where I started at Shelley Lake. (GO ME! Completely lucky!)

The weather today was great! Lots of cloud cover and a slight breeze and I felt great all run. At the very end, my butt was a little sore and a few times my toes felt weird, but, all-in-all, I felt fantastic. The hilarious part of the run was the last 1.5 miles back around Shelley Lake. I ended up with these two teenage boys in front of me who would run as fast as they could for  a minute and then end up completely out of breath and walk. They repeated this over and over and would start running right as I was catching up to them. It was clear they weren't doing intervals; they just couldn't pace themselves at all. (I was thinking, "look dudes, I'm at 11.8 miles, I could care less what you're doing.") So anyway, toward the end, they were completely gassed out and then I blew right past them. It was fairly awesome...pretty much like something out of a movie. My motivation song, "Don't Stop Believin'," was blasting on my iPOD and as I was running by, I so, SO, SO wanted to say "ahaha suckers, you got chicked by a slightly overweight 27 year old who just ran 12.5 miles." But I didn't, because I didn't want them to kick my ass. ;-)

So, after I finished running, I found a picnic table and did my cool down stretches and then hopped in the car and drove straight to the Subway in Knightdale for a turkey sub. It was so delicious!

I've pretty much just spent the rest of the day hanging out around the house watching TV. I cooked some whole wheat penne with peppers, mushrooms, and turkey sausage in a balsamic glaze sauce for supper. It was super good.

Oh yeah, and then I made some granola.

A really fantastic day!