Long runs, rain, poop

Once you start training for something, there is this natural tendency to become obsessed with your poop and your poop cycle. This is an important part of the long run since you really do need to poop before you go out for a long run since, well, there aren't always places you can go to poop, and really, do you want to while out on a run? Long run especially...though short runs you should try to poop first. Short runs in my mind are less than 5 miles, long runs are greater than 6 miles...that's just how I view them. On a short run if you have to poop you can always run home and either go back out or be done with your short run. On a long run that's not usually the case. It also depends on where you're running. If you're driving someone to run any distance, that can play a factor as well.

See, you start talking about poop and then there are all of these different factors that pop up regarding your poop! My general rule of thumb is this: long run = empty out the tank...that may mean more than one poop! So be sure to give yourself enough time before you run to empty out the tank.

Rain...rain is an interesting thing that runners deal with. I love running in the rain, but I hate getting the motivation to run in the rain. A few things about rain you should know:
1.) Rain does not soak your shoes, puddles do
2.) Once you reach a certain wetness, you no longer feel the rain
3.) Rain keeps you cool while you're running
4.) There are very few people you will run into when you're running in the rain and you all will give each other the nod, and sometimes hear the "way to go"
5.) When you're done with your run in the rain, you feel extra good
6.) Running in the rain is fun and really can just make you feel like a kid again

That's how I motivate myself to run in the rain. Once I'm out there it's fine, it's the getting out there part, but trust me, it's totally worth it!

So today's run, 8 miles. This is the first real long run I've done in this training. It felt fantastic. It's amusing how the first half of the run seems to take forever and the second half is done so fast. Even more funny when time wise my split was totally off and my second half was about a minute longer than my first half. The first 4 miles were into the rain, the second 4 miles were into the wind, but it was just awesome. I'm really looking forward to next weeks long run of 10 miles. When I used to run long distance all the time, 10 miles was my favorite distance, so this is exciting to be back in shape enough to go out for a 10 miler in one week! For now though, I will be very happy with my 8 mile run today. I came home and enjoyed a glass of dark chocolate almond milk, a wonderful recovery drink due to the mix of carbs and protein, and well chocolate almond milk is just damn tasty!

For the rest of the day, I will enjoy myself and be excited that I did more than most people in terms of working out today....well except for people running the Chicago Marathon, they ran 20 today (or tomorrow)