There's a First Time for Everything!

Yesterday I had a couple great “firsts”:

1.  I ran 9 miles – when I trained for the Surf City Half, I never did log a training run beyond a 10-K…FAIL. So outside of the half marathon itself, I hadn’t ever run longer than a 10K! Accomplishing my 9-miler yesterday felt so great and gave me a wonderful feeling of accomplishment. Yay!
2.  I ran with a water bottle – I don’t like to run with anything in my hands, let alone a water bottle. First of all, like I said above, I never had a training run longer than a 10K, and any race I’ve run (including Surf City) had a plethora of water stations for me to hydrate at. Second of all, the swishing of water in my bottle as I’m running makes me have to pee. When I ran my first 5K, I held a water bottle to share with my bro…I ended up having to stop and pee at mile 2. Yesterday’s 9-miler route didn’t offer many drinking fountains so carrying my own water was the only option and it worked out pretty well (although I did stop to pee at mile 4…cest la vie!).
3.  I took my first ice bath!!!  I have read about the benefits of ice baths in running magazines, on blogs and in tweets, and seen it plenty of times in movies. Doing some of my own research online informed me how it restricts the blood vessels and decreases metabolic activity which reduces swelling and tissue breakdown, I decided I would try it after my long run yesterday. And believe me, after the cramps I was getting at mile 8, all I could think about was getting home to stretch and ice bath. So I ran ice cold water and filled the tub with ice…and guess what…I LOVED IT!!! Crazy, I know, but it felt so good and I knew instantly I wouldn’t be sore the next day (alas, today is Monday and I’m not sore!).
I’m so happy with my run yesterday and my “firsts”. You know what they say, “There’s a first time for everything!”

After my morning run, my mom and I cooked my dad breakfast for Daddy’s Day, and then my dad, brother and I watched the US Open all day before cooking a delicious dinner. Pebble Beach is quite the killer course…if you play well, the course rewards you, but if you make a mistake, the course will eat you alive. I’m very happy Graeme McDowell won. He played very well, was consistent, and is such a personable guy you just have to love him! And it doesn’t hurt that he’s Irish with a beautiful Northern Ireland accent :)

Happy Monday!!