A little running, a little biking

As I write this post, I am 2 hours into my recovery from a long run. I headed out late morning ready to rock a 2hr 15min run. It was hard to get myself out the door given the severe storm that was rolling through the area making it look more like 10pm than 8am. I waited out the storm by falling asleep on the couch while watching the news and when I woke at 9am the sun was shining. When I stepped out the door at 9:45am it was hot and humid – ugh. I tucked my shirt up, pressed play on the shuffle and started the watch to count me down to my turnaround. I ran around the Mall, over the Memorial Bridge and down the Mt. Vernon trail until I hit 1h 7m 30s. I back tracked the same route home. My purpose of doing the Mall twice is 1) the high activity of tourist keeps me preoccupied from my actual run, 2) there are water fountains so I can refill the needed 2 times throughout the run, and 3) there are bathrooms in case of emergency. I did a total of just under 16 miles, running 3 mins longer than planned, coming out to an 8:46 min/mile pace. Not too shabby, I must say! Let your mind wonder and your legs do the work and you’ll be running faster than you actually think you are.

Speaking of which, Justin read an article in Men’s Journal about a new sports mix that is getting signed into the market. It’s called the Sims drink. A woman has researched the most ideal sports drink for over 8 years and has finally come up with the formula. Through her test, she found that runners who drank her formula ran 15-20% faster. We decided to give the formula a try and have been drinking it for a couple weeks now. I haven’t done any self-tests as to if it’s actually making me faster, but I def. haven’t felt fatigue on any of my runs and given today’s pace, I have to say that maybe it’s working. Here’s the formula if you want to try it out:

32 oz. water
¼ cup sugar
¼ tsp salt
2 sachs of Emergen-C
½ packet of unsweetened Kool-Aid powder for flavoring

Fruit Punch is good – but really fruity. Lemonade is DISTGUSTING. Orange is superb and our favorite so far. Here's a pic of the special brew:

Onto other news, last week, we were up in CT for a visit. On Saturday morning, Justin and I left for a 60 mile ride. I mapped the ride out myself and purposely went out of my way to find hill after hill to make up the ride. YIKES! I didn’t know it would be as hilly as it actually was. We started with Hilltop, of course, and then continued onto the Hilly 100 ride. We cut off the route near Sherman for our turnaround but not without doing the hill that makes me want to cry from pain. Joey took me up this hill last year (I think it’s Kirby Hill Rd) and I didn’t realize I had included it in last weeks ride.  When we approached the hill, I said “what is this?!” and not far after I realized, “oh god, this is THE hill”. We were both out of the saddle just trying to pump the pedals as fast as possible. I was gasping for air as my legs were shaking, certain I’d fall over at any point. Well, we both made it up! There is no better feeling than completing a hard hill with a nice downhill on the other side. Near the end of the ride we took Joes Hill Rd then Dingle Ridge Rd, both of which are NOT easy. We ended up climbing about 6K ft total. It was a tough ride but I certainly don’t regret it :-D When I got home, my sister’s dogs, Reese and Bailey attacked me with kisses in an attempt to lick up all the salt!

I’ll leave today’s post by showing off a bowl that my nieces, Jillian and Haley made for Justin and I. They asked us for our favorite colors a few weeks back and this weekend we received this adorable, and my most favorite, bowl!!