Watermelon Chomps!, 4:54 in a Skirt :), Triple Sports + 8x1 mile

I received my GU Watermelon Chomps in the mail yesterday and I can't rave about these enough! My excitement literally made me rip open a bag right after UPS delivered them, and I ate a few while sitting in my freezing cold ice bath. They are so delicious and I enjoyed the rest of the bag this morning before my hard workout. As soon as they are available (I believe Oct. 1st), go get yourself some and I promise you will love them! :)-

Tuesday night I raced a mile on the track at Scottsdale Community College and I had a lot of fun! I raced in my blue Brooks skirt too, and finished 2nd overall and 1st female, in 4:54.8. I arrived at the track early after doing some fun shopping at Triple Sports and I decided to do my 8x200 before the race, and it felt good to run in my spikes and get my legs turned over. I think they all were 37 or faster so nothing crazy but a good pace, with 200 jog in between. However lesson learned: Don't drink an iced vanilla latte from Coffee Bean at 5 pm and go do a workout and race a little bit later...you won't feel very good LOL!

I walked out of Triple Sports with a big bag full of awesome goodies and of course another moment where I felt extremely grateful for everything my sponsors do for me. I got some soy protein, insulated water bottles, Triple Sports logo water bottles, socks, goggles and a case (since I seem to always scratch mine up and ruin them!). Polar insulated water bottles are my savior here in Phoenix. They really work wonders and definitely keep your drinks frozen or colder, for longer. Now they are making them with cool designs on the outside or funky patterns, so when they come out with leopard maybe someday???...I'll have to buy every single one I can find :) Whenever I am in Triple Sports I always get excited to race and inspired to be a better athlete. Therefore going before my mile race got me in the right mindset to go run fast!

My body feels very tired these days and last night I started to debate my planned workout for this morning, kinda trying to create excuses why I should change it or just run easy. I talked myself into a better mindset and planned to just "try" what I had planned and see how it would go. I instantly felt better this morning when I opened the back door to a nice chilly breeze outside, instead of the thick warm air we had for a couple days. I drove a few miles out to where I knew I'd have a one mile, flat, well-paved stretch to do my mile repeats. I knew there would be a decent amount of traffic with people going to work but overall it wasn't too bad. The semis were nice and moved over a ton for me and the 25-30 feet high tractor type things driving by didn't run me over, LOL...(I've never seen something so big driving on a regular road hahaha!)

Anyway, I did the most mile repeats I've ever done in my life (8) and ran them all right near where I wanted to (starting at 5:38 and getting down to 5:24) I had two minutes rest between each and I'm really proud of myself for not only doing this workout in the first place, but also doing it on the road, because doing something like this on the track definitely helps with pace a little bit, because you can check at every 400, etc. I knew I needed to do it on surfaces similar to my racing environment and this morning it was great to practice that, especially with the headwind heading north right at me for every other one! Each time I finished two of them, I had my water bottle with GU Raspberry electrolyte brew and after 6 of them I ate a Vanilla Gingerbread (YUM) gel, and I think it helped me for the last two I had to do! All in all, I'm extremely happy about doing this workout and I know my fitness is finally coming along. However I wouldn't have had the confidence boost and happiness I have right now if I had bailed on the workout. Sometimes you have to do what you DON'T want to do to really see where you are fitness-wise.

Pic: My little baby boys with my new Watermelon Chomps! HAHAHAHA..they always want to attack the UPS guy when he delivers my GU boxes :)

Quote for today: "You can’t fly a kite unless you go against the wind and have a weight to keep it from turning a somersault. The same with man. No man will succeed unless he is ready to face and overcome difficulties and is prepared to assume responsibilities."- William J.H. Boetcker