Random ramblings

Total writer's block when it comes to blogging lately...every time I sit down to write thing I just stare at the screen for awhile and then forget what I was going to write about in the first place...since in all honestly my life really isn't THAT entertaining, or blog-worthy...but I'm trying to think of some random thoughts to spew onto the page this evening...

Random things that I'm really enjoying this week
-vanilla soy milk...where have you been all my life??? I was randomly at Whole Foods buying coffee and I saw the 365 soy milk cartons on sale for like, $1.60 or something - of course I had to buy it.  I don't like regular milk - something about the flavor? consistency? fact that it comes from an udder? just turns me off.  I think mostly it's the flavor.  Vanilla soy milk tastes like deliciousness and is really creamy and wonderful.  For some reason I always thought it was like twice the price of regular milk though, so if this isn't just a passing sale [and maybe even if it is] I think soy milk might be making its way into my daily life.

-NEW RUNNING SHOES!!  I've been totally in love with Mizuno Wave Inspires ever since I randomly picked up a pair off the shelf at a Dunham's 3 years ago.  Thankfully, when they "upgraded" their lines, they didn't completely change the fit/add tons of weight/do weird things with the laces [ahem, I'm talking to YOU, Asics] and so I've happily stuck with them.  My most recent pair had 544 miles on them and yeah...on a shoe that's a lightweight trainer to begin with, that pretty much equals death. So I hopped on my favorite site EVER - www.runningwarehouse.com - and got myself a pair of the 6's - and oh, have they delivered.  The Inspire 6's are not only lighter [HOW?? seriously, the previous version was ridiculously light to begin with] but have a women's-specific fit and come in black/silver/hot pink...I'm not really a pink kind of girl, but badass, neon pink? Heck yes, I'll take it. So after slogging around in my squashed up, dead shoes, running in these babies feels like running on comfy cushions of heaven.  Excellent.

-hammering out a workout on the treadmill while the other gym patrons look on in fear.  So the majority of people who belong to my gym are more along the lines of working out to stay in shape/lose weight/not gain weight/socialize/plod on the treadmill while talking on a cell phone [my FAVORITE people, obvi :)]. Working out for the sake of working out, as opposed to training. I am still trying to figure out my relationship with the treadmill, but since I'm paying for this gym membership I feel obligated to go at least a couple times a week, and occasionally a speed workout comes a long that seems kind of conducive to doing on a treadmill, where I can see my pace, instead of outside, where I have no effing clue. Yesterday was one of those days - I had a minute run ladder of 1-2-3-2-1-2-3 minutes at 3K-5K pace with equal recovery.  I picked somewhere between 8.7mph [6:53 pace] and 8.9 [6:44 pace] as my interval pace since I was honestly afraid that if I went down to my last known 5K pace of 6:24, I would go flying off the treadmill and go slamming into the elliptical behind me...yeah.  When I started my first interval, the girl on the TM next to me looked at me nervously as if there was a chance that my flying off the treadmill was still a definite possibility.  She left like 5 minutes later, and was replaced by a guy who kept looking at my pace and speeding up his treadmill, only to slow it down a couple minutes later. Seriously boys? It's okay to get beat by a girl. I was on the mill for a little over an hour and it was kind of fun to watch people cycling through the machines while I just kept going in my little corner.

So what's the point of this? In running, I feel like everybody needs to feel badass sometimes.  Whether it's you running a PR, breaking your best time on a certain route, busting out an incredible workout...whatever.  And in some small way, knowing that I'm Doing A Workout while the people around me are just Working Out makes me feel badass, and in turn makes me run the workout harder, because it reminds me that there IS a reason for all this madness - to be fast.  And fierce, and strong, and powerful, and awesome, and come race day, run harder and faster and better than I ever have before. Without the constant stimulus of racing every single weekend like I have the past few years, it's sometimes too easy to forget why I'm doing all this craziness because I'm not getting those instant gratification results. But I really am loving that this training program has a decent amount of speedwork, because it's incredible to remember that I can be FAST - and that all of this hard work is going to pay off come race day.

Now really, what would a Run Like A Llama post be without a little running rambling, right? :)

And finally to wrap things up, and in the spirit of running hard and running fast, I give you my favorite speed workout/pump up song EVER. I first heard it on a quite addicting online game called Ski Runner, and once I finally figured out the name of the song and downloaded it....life changing, I tell you. Especially if you enjoy the occasional techno song as much as I do...enjoy :)