Gummy bears

Once again my long run had to be changed from Saturday to Monday. On Saturday I ended up chaperoning Dallin's choir group up to the University of Utah for a choir competition. They were so amazing! I was blown away by how great they sounded. I've listened to their programs before but this time they just sang with so much feeling. I was really glad I was able to go. I've had to say no to helping out all year so I felt like I really needed to make this work. It ended up being a fun and relaxing. I almost read a whole book in one day! That hasn't happened in years!

It was Mother's Day yesterday. All of my kid's told me how much they loved me. It was a nice relaxing day. Even for family dinner at my mom's I only had to bring rolls...how easy is that?! Kim helped Leah find something for me for Mother's Day. It's funny...I don't think he likes how much I talk about running and how much time I spend at the gym or running but for my Mother's Day gift he got me this running shirt. It was one he saw at the fashion show I did last month. It has these titanium dots that help let in air...I'm not quiet sure what it does but he was fascinated and wanted to see if it really worked. So he got me a shirt. He figured I could wear it for my half and be nice and cool. It should come before my next long run on Saturday, so I'll try it out then.

My long run today was amazing! I felt great the whole way. I woke up at 5:50 am to get ready to go. By the time I'd gotten ready and walked up to the starting point it was 6:25 am. I was running into town to my car (that I had left at the gym the night before). The first mile was hard-like it usually is. I try not to gauge anything by the 1st mile. Halfway through the 2nd mile there were a couple hills I wasn't looking forward to. I just put my head down, looked at the ground and plugged on. Before I knew it I was up both hills and headed down. It felt great to be able to make it up those hills without stopping. It kind of gave me this "I can do it" feeling for the rest of my run. I ended up running the whole. All 7 miles! I know I wasn't going very fast up those hills and my first mile felt very slow so I wasn't surprised when my time was an average of 10:25 per mile. I was hoping for better but I was happier about running the whole thing. No stopping at all. Not once during all 7 miles. :-) It was a great feeling.

I tried a new snack while I was running. I really want to stay away from the Gu stuff. It makes my stomach hurt and it costs a lot. I tried taking a small thing of applesauce with me last week. While I loved the taste it didn't give me any pick me up and it was a pain to carry with me. It kept coming out of my pocket the whole time. I finally ate it just to be done. This time I decided to try gummy bears. I've been reading up on alternatives to Gu and that was one (but so was the applesauce). So I put about 20 in a baggie and stuffed them in my pocket with my phone. I brought WAY too many. Ten would have been more than enough. But I have to say they were great! I loved the taste, they did give me a little bit of energy, I didn't feel sick after eating them and they actually helped me take the dry, icky feeling I usually have in my mouth. I can drink water to make it go away but hate carrying water with me (or drinking it constantly).

So gummy bears are my new long run friends. I figured 2-3 every mile after mile 4 is what works. I'm excited to try them again on Saturday for my 8 mile run. Between today's run, the 4 miler I have to do on Thursday for my training plan and the 8 miles I have scheduled for Saturday I'm going to be running quite a bit this week! I'm feeling a lot better about my half this week. I know not to be too happy...next week's run could be terrible. You just never know.