Bad Fuel, Good Run!

Question: Which is the best night-before meal for fueling a 6.3-mile run? (A) lasagna with a side of orange slices and pomegranate seeds, or (B) a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, a snack-sized Twizzler, an orange Airhead chew and three Krabby Patty Trees?

You're about to find out ...

Let's start at the run's beginning, though, which was a tough start following a holiday! I don't know about you, but there was nothing super-inspiring about getting out of the cozy bed this morning! After yesterday's full day of fun and big meal, I could have been under those covers for another hour or two! But, the family had some after-Christmas shopping plans (which means I need to get on with it so the whole family isn't waiting around!), and I have an end-of-year mileage goal in mind. So, this was not a day for sleeping in!

Did I say goal? Yeah, here's the deal -- my original mileage goal was 800 miles for the year (for some, random reason ... sounded good at the time), and somewhere back in late Fall (? -- I can't even remember now) I realized I needed to can the goal if I was going to have any fun because 800 miles seemed excessive. Excessive can really bring the bummer around, and I want this to remain mostly fun. Bye-bye, big, random goal!

I think it was then that I put 750 miles as my year-end target because it was reasonable, but I have no recollection of actually committing to it. I have a feeling that around the same time I revised my goal is when I also got sick for a week. I'm pretty certain I completely threw the whole goal concept aside at that time because I just wiped out 4 days of mileage, and four days is difficult enough to make up that 750 miles needed to not mean anything. Drat. My only real goal by that point was figuring out when to schedule a Rest Week (one end of the spectrum to the other, huh?) to regroup before beginning April's Half training. Suffice it to say, I never landed on a week for rest, either.

Totally together, I am!

Well, just this past Monday, I realized 750 miles was totally within reach if I worked for it because I was only 17 miles away. I admit that during a break where I was still pondering what day Rest Week should start, 17 miles seemed very, far away. But, between Monday and the 31st, there were four normal running days. Four days. Seventeen miles. Totally doable if I don't take a break. (Man! )

With the goal again in mind, I drug myself out of bed this morning, leashed up my running pal, and off we went in the very, chilly Winter wind! I'm not going to lie, I could relate to our Santa friend here in the beginning:

He looks rather sad, doesn't he?

I perked up a bit after getting our groove going and finding 2 pennies within a half mile of each other right there in the first mile!

Putting a penny in a pocket when you have gloves on is not an
easy task, so I had to stop for a second to do so. This stop gave
Elly a moment for extra sniffing. When she was finished, and
before I even told her to get back to running, she threw her head
to the left and knocked it right into that trash can. The can was
empty, so I feel no guilt in reporting that it was really funny.

I didn't map this route before heading out and, instead, went by instinct. I wanted to push for some good miles, but I didn't want to lock myself in from the beginning and get all hung up on the number. Sometimes it's inspiring knowing I'm going to accomplish a particular distance when, other times, it's a pain to think I have to go that far. I decided surprising myself in the end was today's motivation!

The run surprised Elly, too. We were about half way through when we passed a road that takes us home, and Elly has been on it many times. She's been on it so many times that she not only habitually turned toward it, but when I gave her the command to keep going forward, she kept turning her head back to let me know she was ready to go home. Over and over and over she turned, often with a desperate look in her eye, until she finally had to give in and go my way. 'Poor thing didn't know what she was in for when she signed on for this run!

Perhaps it was at this point for Elly, too, that she and I had the same realization: Last night's food was not great running fuel! You could probably guess from the intro's question that my fuel was the lasagna; I'm guessing you didn't assume Elly had the latter stash of candy. But, she did. That's what happens when a stocking stash is in her reach and she's unsupervised. What a booger. Anyway, neither of us did well with the fuel, but I suppose we had the activity reserves from which to pull to keep going! Again, I didn't know how far we were going, but the only way to finish was to commit to the end ... for both of us!

On our way up an often-dreaded hill (but the last hard push of the route! Yeah!!), we came across a fun, familiar sight! Remember this tree from last December?

Such a cute, little tree that received some love!

Here's this year's treatment:

I guess a little love is better than none?

We were well rewarded not just for getting up that hill, but at what turned out to be one mile to go, we came across 4 more pennies! I was pretty stoked and hoped finding 6 pennies was foreshadowing the distance in terms of penny-per-mile! It turns out, it was, literally, right on the money!

Hooray! We did it! We don't suggest
our pre-run meals as good ideas, but
they're nothing to keep you down, either.

With 6 more cents in pocket for the Food Bank, another BB for the stash (oh, yeah, found one of those, too!), and miles closer to the year-end goal, it will be up and at it tomorrow morning! We'll see you after!