Gearing up for 9 miles

I'm going to Miami...bienvenido a Miami...

Yes, I'm headed to Miami for a spring break with my family in just two days! I'm so excited to finally feel a warm sun and not feel a chill off of the lakes that just recently melted. We're going for 6 days of beach fun--well, probably more pool fun. I'm not a big fan of getting sand all over, but with enough persuasion I can eventually spend all day in the ocean. It's just that sand in between the pool and ocean that are the problem.

This trip challenged me, though, to rethink my training schedule. If I follow it strictly, I'd have a 9 mile run on Easter Sunday. And that's not going to happen. First, hello, it's Easter; I plan on eating good food and candy all day. Second, it's supposed to be in the high 70's down there and my body hasn't adjusted to warm weather running yet. And third, um, did I mention that I'm on vacation? Although running and I have definitely formed a closer relationship in the past few months, I don't want to spend over an hour and a half with it.

So, I looked at my schedule for this week and decided I'd just move the 9 mile run up to today. Probably start running in a little over an hour from now. After getting the 8 miler done a couple weeks ago, 9 doesn't seem as scary. It's only one more mile than last time and although I was hurting a bit at the end of the run, I feel like I had another mile in me (or have I just forgotten the pain after 2 weeks? maybe running is like childbirth.). In any case, I'll find out soon. I bought a big bag of ice during my grocery shopping yesterday and I'm not going to be a pansy again--there's going to be some freezing water in that tub and at least 3 pounds of ice.

Also...I have a delivery coming (hopefully) today! After my 8 mile run, I could literally feel my IT band stretching with every step (and every move you make...creepy stalker song). So I ordered a foam roller, conveniently profiled in a Real Simple article I had read in their April issue. I'm looking forward to using that baby a little bit tomorrow.

Maybe I've been watching too many true life crime shows lately (they make great Sunday afternoon TV watching), but a lot of them seem to have been about runners going missing. Madison isn't an especially high crime area and I make sure to run in areas with lots of other people around, but you never know. So, today I e-mailed my route to Jason (the boyfriend) with a planned call time. Probably not a bad idea to do this more often in for future runs.

Hopefully this oatmeal will finish being digested and leave my stomach in the next 45 minutes. Otherwise, at least it was just oatmeal and strawberries...that won't taste so bad again...

~eca.