Slow Down/You're Moving Too Fast

Last night I spent more time sleeping in the bathroom hallway than I did in my bed, for no reason other than what I call the 5-hour swine flu.

I woke up at 1p.m. this afternoon from the manfriend calling to ask if I was alive. (Apparently I sent a text message during the night that said I was dying?) After moping around for another two hours, I finally decided to get up and try to have a normal day.

And by my standards, you know, it's totally normal to go for a 5-mile run after puking your guts out.

I kept thinking last night, while my head was in the toilet, that I needed to run today because it was my first "pace" run for marathon training. For those who can't figure out the self-explanatory phrase, a pace run is when I run at the per-minute-mile pace in which I expect to finish the marathon. My regular pace for short- to middle-distance runs, with my regular effort, is between an 8:15- and an 8:30-minute mile in clear conditions. After talking with my fitness trainer, he has suggested I try slowing to a 9-minute mile pace since I'll be adding on considerably more miles in the coming months. Running with a slower overall pace should help conserve energy to make it through the longest runs and the race, and hopefully avoid that infamous "wall." I thought it would be fun to slow down a little bit as it means I won't get so tired, but I quickly learned it's very hard to control your natural stride.

I set Mr. Anastos to alert me when I went faster than a 9-minute mile pace and slower than an 11-minute mile pace. I never had an issue of going too slow, but he did yell at me every few seconds with his corny chime, the screen blinking, "Slow down!"

I headed down to Lake Calhoun and saw plenty of people kiteboarding, ice fishing, skiing, and playing with their dogs on the lake...
...and I thought, "What better day to run on the lake?!" So, I finally did it! I finally ran on the water. Uptown and downtown Minneapolis from the lake:
I am sure there are fish under my feet! (And my feet still stayed perfectly dry.)

I still get awestruck during a lot of my runs. There are moments of such beauty near the water in Minneapolis, even in winter, and even as the sun is going down and it's getting cold.

This was on the overpass heading to the canal between this lake and Lake of the Isles -- I liked how someone dug out the owl so he could continue to watch all the pedestrians.
Tomorrow I've got an 8-mile run in store, so I'm hoping the swiney is at bay.

5.13mi splits: 9:27, 9:52, 9:13, 9:13, 9:22, 1:15
Air Temp: 28F