Friday Favorites

 

I haven’t done a favorites post on a Friday in gosh, I don’t even know how long, but I have some good things to share with you so let’s get to it!

Tuesday’s 8 Mile Run:

I wanted to talk about Tuesday’s run in advance of Sunday’s workout recap post because it was one of my favorites this week and we need to discuss why in detail.

My plan was to follow my new favorite running workout which meant two sets of negative splits. If you take a look at the splits above, you will see that I didn’t go negative as planned at mile 3.

I felt as though I did but I actually missed it by a few seconds. This just goes to show you that this workout is challenging and you will not always achieve what you are looking for even when you are working for it!

What made this run a favorite for me was the second set of negative splits. After the recovery mile at mile 4, I was a little in shock that I dropped from a 9:02 mile down to 8:05.

While it may sound great like– oh wow look how fast I got in that mile, go me! — it made things a little more challenging because hitting 8:05 so quickly meant I still had to go faster and then faster again.

I was nervous because I wasn’t sure I could sustain that pace and exceed it twice but take a look!  I did it!

It was a great run and great feeling to know I was able to push myself faster than I thought I was capable of at the time.

I really hope you try this workout if you haven’t already. I do love it!

Peanut Butter:

So the weirdest thing happened. Remember when I won the Peanut Butter & Co. giveaway on instagram? They sent me my favorite jar of Mighty Maple peanut butter as my prize.

But it’s suddenly not my favorite! I don’t know what happened?!

Wait. Yes I do. You see, when I ran out of Mighty Maple a while back, I didn’t replace it.

I started eating more of the Trader Joe’s Flax & Chia Seeds Peanut Butter which has now become my favorite.

My tastebuds have so adjusted to the taste of this Trader Joe’s peanut butter and lack of added sugar that the Mighty Maple just doesn’t taste right to me.

I almost thought there was something wrong with it until I realized, I am just not used to the sweetness. Funny how that happens.

Hair Ties:

When I had my hair cut and highlighted last week, my stylist told me to make sure I am avoiding all hair bands and ties that may break the hair.

She also told me to avoid pony tails at which point I informed her I am a runner with long hair which makes that absolutely impossible.

I picked up this pack of Scunci hair bands because they looked cute and claimed to be comfortable without inflicting damage to the hair.

I love them! They hold the pony tail real tight without slowly falling out like some bands tend to do. I am able to wear them while I run and can even keep one on my wrist without leaving a mark.

The hair ties I had been using were the “ouchless” kind but I needed some new ones because I am forever losing my collection, not to mention, some held the hair better than others.

Remember when we wore the big scunci’s back in the day (as in, the 90’s)? Those were so fun!

Speaking of fun, it’s time for the weekend! Have a great one 🙂

[bctt tweet=”Friday Favorites! #running #peanutbutter #traderjoes #scunci #happyfriday”]

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Favorite nut butter at the moment?

How do you wear your hair when you run?

One thing you are excited for this weekend?

 

Runner’s World Half & Festival And New Trader Joe’s Peanut Butter

 

Not a cloud in the sky over the weekend.

Or an open spot in the sand on the beach to be found.

Morning people sometimes wake up tired, did you know that? It doesn’t happen often to me but Saturday was one of those days.

The box of Benedryl claims that each dose will last four hours but I remain convinced that the drowsy effects will linger. My food allergy reaction is definitely better but I was still taking Benedryl at night to minimize the leftover itchy feeling.

Despite being tired Saturday morning when I woke up, I still set out for my run.

I wasn’t quite sure how long the run would be but I knew the minimum was ten miles and based upon my mood, maybe I would go to thirteen or fourteen.

I never run more than that. My weekly mileage has increased to average forty miles mainly because my routine daily runs have been increasing steadily but my long runs? They remain pretty consistent.

Maybe one day I will bump them up but for now, my mind and body function real well with the amount of miles I run and I really don’t want to mess with that, especially since I am really satisfied with my routine.

My first mile was at a 9:30 min/mile pace which is on the slow side for me and at the same time, I was shocked since I thought I was going even slower.

I was awake at this point, awake enough to see someone running on my path about a quarter-mile in front of me.

If you pay attention, you know I have a running path inside of my community which I really only share with dog walkers and on rare occasion, other people who randomly decide to run.

Obviously we don’t know for sure if he was actually ahead of me since we don’t know when or where he started in the loop but I always feel the need to kick it into high gear and pass whoever else I encounter.

It always makes me smile as if I have some Inspector Gadget type of ability to whip out my speed gadget whenever I need it.

Here I was, tired and feeling slow yet when called upon, I can get my pace under 8:00 min/mile and really, if you want to know the truth, it didn’t even feel hard.

In that moment I realized that as satisfied as I am with my running routine, lately I find I am running way too comfortable.

Even though I think it mainly to do with the heat and humidity, the more runs I run at a slower pace, the more I adjust to running slower.

I need to pay more attention to what I am doing out there and push it a bit more often to the point where my “comfortable” runs are in a faster comfortable zone because I am more than capable of running a bit faster on average without it really being too challenging.

After I had this realization about bumping up my comfortable pace, the rest of the run hovered in the 8’s without much added effort.

I felt great but decided to cap Saturday’s run at ten miles and run another ten Sunday morning for back-to-back ten-mile runs.

I figured it would be good training for the Runner’s World Half Marathon and Festival coming up in October.

You didn’t miss anything; I just decided Friday afternoon that I wanted to attend this weekend long event full of races.

There are multiple race options; a 5K and 10K on October 18th and a half marathon on October 19th.

I decided to go for the Hat Trick which consists of completing all three races.

I never thought I would run three races in a weekend but once again, I am acknowledging what I am capable of and I am more than capable of running all three distances in one weekend.

I can’t race them all, but I sure can run them all.

Anyway, aside from running a lot (yesterday’s ten-mile run was fabulous actually!) I never got around to restocking my pantry with The Mighty Maple peanut butter.

I did find this though:

Do you remember when Trader Joe’s sold a flax peanut butter like this a few years ago before it was recalled? I guess they brought it back with chia seeds now thrown into the mix.

I also have a new K-Cup coffee flavor in my rotation.

Doesn’t taste like a donut but the box looking like donuts does the marketing trick for my mind to believe it is somehow a donut in a cup.

Either way it tastes real nice.

Last night’s pizza tasted real nice too.

I just didn’t feel like cooking so two of these slices did the trick.

I will cook tonight, I swear it.

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Do you ever find you run too comfortable?

How often to do bump up your long run distance?

Who else is attending the Runner’s World Half & Festival?

Best thing you ate all weekend?