Forever in Wonderland: Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day everyone! Enjoy your day off and do something relaxing!

I'm definitely planning on taking today easy because I've been busy busy busy this past week. I've been working like crazy which is awesome - I love being busy and I love my jobs! It's a win win! :)

Weekend recap:

Saturday - I worked a little bit early Sunday, then the bf and I went to the beach to enjoy the sunshine. It was surprisingly un-crowded for the weekend and super relaxing.

The sky was stunning.

That evening we went to The Troubadour to see a band - Sad Robot - perform.

Yesterday we got up, headed back to the beach, and ran 11 miles! 11! I hadn't run that far since high school, and when I hit 10 miles I literally cheered. It was definitely not the easiest run I've ever done; by the time I hit 9 miles the bottoms of my feet were aching, my calves were burning and I was way over-heated (it's been so hot here lately). It's been a long time since running physically hurt like that; my cardio was great, but my legs were not used to so much distance. I finished in an hour and 24 minutes (about 7:45 per mile average) which is faster than I intended to go. I definitely need to work on making my long runs easy runs. The point of a long run isn't to totally wear yourself out, it's to build up distance so that, later on in your training, you can start going faster.

There are a lot of things I've sort of forgotten when running longer distances. First and foremost, I forgot how important it is to hydrate. And I paid the price. Almost immediately after finishing the run yesterday my head starting pounding. I had the worst migraine ALL day/night (and my head is still kind of achy today).

Another thing I didn't consider? Running when it's cool. We didn't start running until 10 a.m. and by then the sun was blazing and the temperature was climbing. I was squinting against the sun the whole run (despite wearing sunglasses), and all day following the run my skin was hot to the touch. I didn't get burned, but I could definitely tell I spent too much time in the sun and heat (I'm very sensitive to hot weather and sunlight - the perks of being a ridiculously pale person).

Yesterday's run was a wake-up call. If I want to run a marathon, I have to take better care of my body and make sure to take the proper precautions and steps when preparing for/running anything over 9 miles.