9 ON THE 9TH.

I got it done. That's about all I can say. It wasn't pretty.

Time: 1:43:08. I think the pace was around 11:19.

Race Report: This won't be particularly exciting. I'm too tired to really think that much to make it amusing either. LOL!

I started out okay, trying to keep my pace even, yet realizing I have actually been running a little faster--and shorter--distances lately, so it was hard to get down to the pace I did the 8 on the 8th run. I also have been reading articles about not running every run at a plodding pace, so to mix it up a little I started out at 11:19 pace and every 10 minutes I threw in two minutes of surges at a 10:54 pace. Both still slow paces, but it was going to be my longest run in over a month and I just wanted to get through it. This actually went okay too, even though I was really getting tired by the time I reached 4.6 miles, but then the treadmill just decided to shut itself off. And it didn't give me the cool down 5 minutes some treadmills do, it just shut completely off. I think I wore it out. Oh great.

Fortunately no one else was at the gym, so I could freely move to another mill. This one, though, I knew would shut down at 30 minutes, but still give me another 5 minutes in cooldown, which I usually just bump the pace back up to keep the same pace instead. So I finished the next 35 minutes with the slow and then slower yet paces, but by the time I got to 7.5 miles, and the cool down was coming, I had mentally had enough. My toes were really hurting a lot, feeling numb and tingling actually, and since I have been plagued with this problem before, I knew it was best not to push it too much more. I have been doing too much treadmill running, which always leads to this problem.

So for the next 1.5 miles, I went to the elliptical. My pace on the elliptical is right about the same pace as my average run pace, but I did throw more surges in, mainly just to get done!

After that, my legs actually still felt pretty good, so I decided to trash them more by getting on the stationary bike and riding another 5.5 miles. Then I thought it might be a good idea to get in the pool, and did a half mile swim there, a reverse triathlon, for a total workout time of 2 hours 30 minutes. The pool actually felt really great by the time I got in. I did a leisurely 1/2 mile swim and still finished under 21 minutes. I think getting on the bike after the running helped too, because like I said, my legs actually don't feel too bad, just my toes.

Other than feeling like I'm in total slow motion today, I feel pretty good. Can't wait to hear how others have done today!