Is today Wednesday?

The first half of this week has seemed so much longer than three days. But I made it through my big trial* at work and now it's just coasting...I mean working very hard...for the rest of the week till the weekend and my long run, currently planned for Saturday.** (Ed. note on Thursday: I am thinking of moving the long run to Sunday, since the weather forecast is much more favorable...just playing it by ear for now, which is hard because I like to have my plans set in stone!)

My trial has wreaked havoc with my eating habits. Yesterday, when I was in the throes of final trial prep, I couldn't face my packed lunch of salad with tuna (although I am sure it will be delicious when I do eat it), and went to Taco Time for two Fresco Tacos. Which I enjoyed immensely. Much worse was the anxiety I was experiencing while trying to resist eating candy at the same time I was plowing through my trial materials. I finally relieved the pressure by throwing out my restrictions and allowing myself to dip into the bowls of Halloween candy as I wished. All the Reese's cups were gone already so that meant Starbursts, Sweet Tarts, and some real junk like Nerds and Laffy Taffy. (I actually found the strawberry Laffy Taffy quite enjoyable!)

Then I had to dip into my secretary's bags of pretzels and Dorritos to settle my stomach from the sugary stuff. Finally, I made myself a wonderful dinner/snack of open-faced peanut butter and jam sandwiches on sprouted wheat bread. Both comforting and satisfying! I liked the PB & J so much that I had the same thing for lunch today during the lunch recess in my trial. My tastes are simple. The salad and tuna will definitely be lunch tomorrow. Trial is over. No need for comfort food any more!

Despite the prospect of trial starting this morning, I still got up early for a run. That was definitely what I needed to clear my head and start the day energized. (That doesn't mean that I didn't hate getting out of bed before 6 a.m.! But I'm always glad that I've done it.)

I realized when I got up that I had forgotten to plug the Garmin in to charge overnight. Although there might still have been enough charge left on it, I ran downstairs to plug it in for a 10-minute charge while I got dressed and ready to go. It actually went from 59% charge to almost 80% during that short time!

Instead of doing speed work at the track, I decided to do some quarter-mile intervals mid-route. Grand Avenue Park, which I through regularly, is three blocks long and about a quarter mile from top to bottom. So for each interval I ran through the park in one direction, crossed the street for a very short recovery jog, then ran down the other side. I did this a total of six times, three up and three down.

Looking at my Garmin results, the distance was almost spot on—each interval was .26 mile (except for the first, which was .25). The time and pace on the first lap was a little messed up, because I wasn't sure if I pressed the start button properly, and stood around for several seconds peering at my watch till I realized it was ticking away! That quarter mile registered as an embarrassing 9:01 pace...oops!

After that I managed to get my act together and do the remaining laps at a respectable 5K-ish pace. There was still a bit of variation in the pace from one lap to the next, as the park was not flat like the track, and it seemed that the southbound laps were uphill in the first two thirds and slightly downhill in the last third, whereas going north I didn't even notice the uphill in the first part but definitely enjoyed the downhill in the remaining two thirds!

My paces for the six quarter miles were: 9:01, 7:59, 8:11, 7:40, 7:52, and 7:38.

At that point I was about five miles along. I continued running for another three miles, which brought me to QFC and Starbucks, where I bought a coffee and walked home to get ready for the day.

FINAL STATS: 8:05 miles, 1:16:50, 9:32 average pace.
VERDICT: Guilty. (I never said I thought we would win!)


*This being juvie court, the actual trial was just one day in length, that being today. "Big" trial refers to the seriousness of the case and the effort required to prepare for it.
**Also a medium length run and a massage on the schedule for Friday!