Hello, hello!
It’s been a great Saturday so far here in Chapel Hill. First things first — I ran 11 miles with my friend Lauren!
Lauren is also training for the DC National Half Marathon, and she mapped out a big loop all around the greater Chapel Hill area for us to do today. It was perfect! Rather hilly, but the country scenery kept us entertained 🙂 It’s been nice to mix it up from out-and-back trail runs!
We ran the 11 miles in 1:42:50, for an average pace of 9:21 min/mile. Not too shabby considering all the hills (and the distance)!
Splits:
- Mile 1: 8:30
- Mile 2: 9:02
- Mile 3: 9:06
- Mile 4: 9:17
- Mile 5: 9:06
- Mile 6: 9:37
- Mile 7: 9:52 (intense hills and eating first half of fuel)
- Mile 8: 9:25
- Mile 9: 9:22
- Mile 10: 10:02 (more intense hills and eating second half of fuel)
- Mile 11: 9:35
It was a great run! The miles went by really quickly and I felt good the whole time thanks to the great company and entertaining route 🙂 Here we are after our run celebrating with our new friend:
Heh. We’re weird. 🙂
Anyway! As you saw in the mileage time breakdown, after getting all your great recommendations earlier this week I decided to test out fueling during a run! I tried this Hammer Gel my friend Stephanie recommended, in the espresso flavor.
I ended up eating half of it at mile 6 and the other half at mile 9 (I stored it in a little ziplock baggie in my shorts). When I was training for my first half marathon, I remember trying jelly beans during a run, but found them really hard to chew/breathe at the same time while I was running. I really liked the Hammer Gel — it was SO much easier to eat and went down very easily! Tasted pretty good, too. I was worried it would hurt my stomach since I’m usually kind of sensitive to stuff like that (especially since there was caffeine in the gel), but I had no problem at all. I don’t know if it was just a placebo effect or not, but I definitely felt more energized at the end of our run than I have in a while!
When I arrived home, I found Matt getting ready to whip up some omelettes for us in the kitchen!
He played a couple hours of pickup soccer this morning and was also ravenous 🙂
By the time I was out of the shower, I found this awesome omelette waiting for me and Matt on the porch taking some photos of it! Hehe.
It was a 3-egg omelette stuffed with fresh spinach, mushrooms, zucchini, avocado (yum! I never would have thought to add that to an omelette), chopped chicken sausage, and grated cheddar cheese. So delicious.
Plus some grapes, photograph also courtesy of Matt. I was impressed with his creative eye 😉
His own omelette was covered in spicy chili sauce!
What is it with boys and spicy food? 🙂
I’ve been spending the rest of today lounging around — running that far makes me SO tired! We’re finally mobilizing now to head out and run some errands. We’re meeting Matt’s brother Chris for sushi tonight for dinner and then heading to see a concert afterward — should be fun!
Hope you’re all enjoying your Saturday!
