Deer suck

Welcome back Lukas, soups, the end of Paula Radcliffe?, London Games learnings, award winning commercial, best running tips, Haile running marathon this weekend, Jeffrey Eggleston, and Kelly Calway.

Thank you Bambi

So I was a little behind on updates, but for good reason - on my way home on Monday night, my car met a deer which jumped directly into my path on Glen Carbon Road by the post office.  No one was hurt (yes the deer survived and scampered off), and this accident was the best case scenario accident I could ask for considering I hit a deer, but my car is a mess and now I don't have one until it gets fixed.  When I called Enterprise, they were completely out of rentals (holiday week), so I am trying to make due sans car.  Was a complete pain in the @ss to deal with insurance/police/auto body shop/rental car/etc., and the $1000 deductible isn't much of a consolation either.  Anyways, enough with my rant - please be careful driving at night, and deer suck.

Monday, November 19th - 8 miles (3 up, 4x400, 3x800, 2x400, 2 down).  Weird workout, I know.  Met up at SLU track with Crystal, John, and Colby, and worked with almost everybody at some point to get in this tiring workout.  Another perfect night to be outside.  Forgot watch so ended up using my Iphone as my watch.  Started out with 400's, but couldn't run a slow pace for the life of me (not to mention tired of holding a damn phone) so worked with John for a few 800 reps.  Did a 400 with Colby, then one solo to finish out the workout.  Legs were pretty tired by the end of the workout - hard to change up the distances like that.  400 splits were: 1:22, 1:20, 1:21, 1:18, 1:15, 1:17? (no watch).  800 splits were: 2:55, 2:53, 2:51.

Tuesday, November 20th - 8 miles solo.  Glen Carbon run around town, and looped all around trying to keep an easy pace.  Stomach was in knots towards the end, and Culvers ended up saving the day for me (TMI, I'm sure).  I don't know what my deal is, but I need to regulate what the heck I eat before runs - worst feeling in the world when your stomach is about to explode, and you're miles away from home.  8:15ish average pace.

Wednesday, November 21st - 6 miles.  1 up to Crystal's, 4 miles with her, 1 down back home.  Nice and easy on the trail was the plan, but we (meaning Crystal and I was forced to follow) picked it up and it was painful.  Still feeling the remnants of Monday's workout, methinks.  7:45ish average sounds about right, but I know we dropped it pretty hard the last couple miles.

Thursday, November 22nd - 8 miles.  4 miles in Peoria, 4 miles at night at home.  Happy Thanksgiving!  Great to be home, albeit for one day, but got in a late morning run solo.  Eventually made it home, then hammered out an easy 4 miler late at night, but the 8 miles weren't enough to offset the damage from the day (thousands of calories from turkey, ham, stuffing, cornbread, you get the picture).  4 miles in Peoria was 31:34 (8:03, 8:17, 7:57, 7:17), 4 miles at home were slow.

Friday, November 23rd - 6.5 miles.  Glen Carbon loop on a cold, windy night.  Did 270 loop, then ran through Edwardsville and looped back.  Wasn't feeling the best, and had crapped out on hills this week, so felt somewhat motivated to push it towards the end after I saw I was dropping pace pretty quickly after the first few miles.  Picked up the pace pretty good, and ended up doing a fat negative split on this run where I dropped almost 20 seconds per mile.  Was definitely working pretty hard at the end and although the splits weren't great, the effort was there so I'll take it for an impromptu fast finish.  Slow jog/cooldown home to finish it out.  6 mile splits were: 8:04, 7:40, 7:16, 6:54, 6:39, 6:22.

At night, ended up doing some massive cleaning around my place and hung up all my running posters and plaques.  I had bought a running medal and bib holder earlier this year, so decided to finally hang them up since my lamp (previously holding the medals) was starting to bend over from the sheer weight of 7 years worth of medals.  So here is the end result - pretty cool looking might I add.  For the bibs, I have saved almost every race I have ever done, so ended up separating by year and tying to a loop, then hanging by hook.  Picture to come.  Pretty awesome to look back at the races I have done and what I've accomplished - it's been a long ride, but I definitely appreciate everything that has happened and don't regret 1 single step!

Saturday, November 24th - 8 miles.  Troy route on the trail.  Felt poopish, but forced myself outdoors for the workout.  Meant to keep it nice and slow, but failed in that endeavor.  Didn't feel like I was going very fast, but the pace was good.  On the last mile, realized I was flying so kicked the last minute to try to break 7 minutes for fun (on the last mile).  Sunny outside, and deceptively warmer than I thought despite the winds.  1:01 and change total (~7:30ish pace).

Sunday, November 25th - 12 miles.  Waited till the last possible second to do this death run late at night.  Procrastination wins, but I still managed this run around town.  On top of it all, Megan made rice krispie treats which is my kryptonite.  So after eating half the pan, I made myself hit this long run as punishment.  I am absolutely disgusted with myself.  No idea on pace, was slow.  56.5 miles this week, 184.5 miles in November, 1716.5 miles in 2012.  Very nice week, but the eating was completely out of control and offset everything!!!

Monday, November 26th - ~5.5 miles.  2 solo before group run, then 3ish miles with Crystal plus a few drills.  Nothing special to report - pretty standard run.  Pretty damn cold outside.  Low 8 minute pace average, although we threw a 7:40 in the middle.

Tuesday, November 27th - ~4.5 miles.  Lucky I even got this in, quite honestly.  GO! St. Louis Happy Hour in conjunction with Movember (growing moustaches for prostate cancer awareness).  Crashed at Tim's place afterwards because of my damn car situation, and ended up getting a late run around South City.  I am not a big fan of running around that area late at night because of the crappy uneven sidewalks, but was able to run the streets without any issues since it was late.  Nice run, nothing crazy to report.  Averaged right at 8 minute miles while dropping pace hard every mile (8:39, 8:19, 7:45, 7:19), and added on a little extra because of a wrong turn.  Cold outside, but virtually no wind which makes it sooo much better.  Hill work moved to later in the week.

We're sexy and we know it