A post run treat that's NOT food

In my usual fashion of terrible decision making, I signed up for CPR training. Sure, sounds like a good idea right? It's possible it was, but as soon as I forked over my money I realized it was 3 hours after work the day after the SuperBowl. Mondays are already horrible, as we all know, and for me it's the only day of the work week that I don't have class or my second job in the evening.  Major fail.

The practice dummy had no pity for me.

Before we proceed, I want to reiterate that I'm not trying to be all "look at how busy and important I am!". I'm lamenting because I'm lazy and the only thing I want to do after work is "couch" and I don't like doing all these other things.

So this week has been pretty busy, to the point where one day I just entered my distance into DailyMile with no commentary whatsoever, not even my time. Yeah. It was that serious.

The good news is that it was a stepback week in my training plan. The bad news is that the stepback week still adds up to 47 miles. So here's where we are with that so far.

Shockingly good picture from my recent half marathon PR (2 years in the making means heck yes I'm still mentioning it).

Monday: rest day (again, it was the day after the SuperBowl, so obviously no running was happening)
Tuesday: easy 6 miles - I was still a little sore from Sunday's trail run. 
Wednesday: 10 miles that I can only describe as "sleep running". I wanted to lay down on the side of the road and take a nap, sub freezing temperatures and all.
Thursday: The schedule called for another 10k at 10k pace. The last time I did that, it basically broke me. I conferred with my friend Matt (training plan creator) about modifying it. If I reacted the way I did last time, there's no way I could go to work. I'd like to think I'm dedicated to my training, but taking a sick day for speed work is a little ludicrous. He gave me a pass to only do a fast 5k instead, and said having a job and not being an elite runner that can devote my life to training was an acceptable excuse. I'm really hoping that they expand the definition of elite runner significantly in the near future so this won't be a problem going forward.

That was a really long build up to share that I did 3.1 miles at a 7:50 pace and then 3.1 at about a 9:15 pace.   I'm able to blog now instead of cry so it seems the modification was successful.

I really sometimes feel like I'm in that movie The Truman Show because once again, things were just that perfect. Not one, but two packages can in the mail for me today. 

I couldn't be bothered to get up for the picture so the background is my robe and fluffy blanket.

One was a giveaway that I won from Kasha at Not Insane....Promise - a bunch of cool beauty samples!

And the second was something I had been eagerly awaiting - the new Aspaeris Pivot shorts! Kari is such a good friend that she sent me a gift on her birthday!

I am obsessed with my pivot shorts and they are just as essential to marathon training as ice cream is. They magically heal sore muscles without having to do all that time consuming stuff like foam rolling and stretching and resting. Back in the summer I was a tester for the new line, which was pretty awesome, so I knew this was going to be good. Other than that time I ran 19 miles in the rain and came home to find out my dad had mailed me a cheesecake sampler platter, new compression shorts after speedwork is probably the best post run treat ever. 

The new shorts are super soft and feel wonderful on my thighs and whooty. Even better, they match my compression socks. I needed to take a picture so I felt this was the perfect time to show off my Christmas gift from Eric, a customized medal holder. He even put it up and arranged it by race type for me.

Go ahead, just try not to laugh at my shirt.

Side note - the cheesecake sampler post is from two years ago? I've been blogging for longer than I thought!

Who was your favorite Saved by the Bell character? I always liked AC, and then I married a guy who was captain of the football and wrestling team in high school, so I guess that worked out pretty well for me.