I've solved your hunger problems

Getting up on Thursday at 3 am to run was rough. But I think it was worth it. Because it means that while all my blog and real life friends are pushing through their long runs right now, I'm doing this.

Self timer picture of me blogging right now. This is where the magic happens.

I made my amazing iced coffee again last night. I discovered a much easier way to do it.

 Just put it in regular pitchers instead of using every giant bowl you own and spilling it everywhere. Genius. I found out on facebook that I also got Amanda addicted. Mission accomplished.

Possibly even tougher than getting up to run 17 miles at 3am on Thursday, was getting up to do long run #2, 11 miles, at 4:30 am on Friday. I rearranged my schedule this week, but it seems like the point of the dual long runs is do have them back to back, so your legs get used to running for a really long freakin time. So another early morning for me. 

Eric and I went to a crab feast Thursday night. I would have taken pictures, but my fingers were consistently covered in old bay. Crabs are delicious, but they take forever to eat, so it's impossible to get full. 15 minutes of hard work = 3 or 4 decent sized bites. I thought it was weird before I lived in MD, but now I love it. The point of this is I wasn't sure how to adequately fuel for Friday's long run when it was taking me an hour of hard work to consume about 100 calories. Luckily, I had made my red velvet cookies, my friend Deidre had made a delicious chocolate pie with a million types of candy and an oreo crust, and our team captain introduced me to the joys of s'mores made with Reese's, instead of plain chocolate. I think I've discovered the secret to 50 Mile training. If you don't feel full, eat a dessert. Or three. Actually, three is really the way to go. I further tested this theory last night. Two slices of homemade veggie pizza = not full. Huge cup of red velvet frozen yogurt at Mr. Yogato with brownie and reeses - FULL.

I was pretty nervous about how I would feel on Friday after eating nothing but sugar and crabs for dinner, and the whole back to back long run thing, but actually I really enjoyed the run. It did feel tough, but it was a beautiful morning and I had fun. 

I've been so concerned about the pace of my runs, especially long and easy runs, lately. I'm on the roads thinking "pick it up! you don't want to be embarrassed on daily mile!". Dumb. I need to get over this. Yes, most of my friends are faster than me. But I'm not racing them. Actually, most of them live in different states and I've never technically even met them. And, I'm guessing they don't even care what the pace of my long runs are. Kim's post on her blog Book Worm Runs about Daily Mile really inspired me to GET OVER MYSELF and run however I want to run. I also read this post by Janae, who we all know and love, about long run pacing.  It basically says don't waste your energy trying to go fast on long runs, save your speed for your speedwork days. It's called long SLOW distance for a reason.

And that's my rant. I'm running slow on long runs. The end.

I didn't JUST get up ridiculously early on Thursday so I could sleep in and lay around drinking iced coffee and laugh at people doing long runs today. My friend Nicole (who I visited in NC last weekend) drove up to visit me this weekend. While we are obsessed with each other and have considered leaving our husbands for a life of reading books and loving chocolate together, there is another reason. Today we are driving up to Queens, NY, to see our friend Nikki, from college.  She's my first long time friend to have a baby, so we are going to meet her daughter Fiona this weekend. I don't normally love babies, but when I love their mothers, it's usually cool.

And don't worry, I have some pictures for this post that are not of me being a weirdo or cold coffee grounds. I made S'mores Pie for the new parents (and Nicole and I) to enjoy.

 I felt terrible making such a delicious dessert and not being able to give Eric any, but luckily I had some leftover chocolate filling so I made him a little baby mini pie.

It was amazing.

I hope everyone had good long runs this week!