My favorite thing and dinos running.

Luckily, my favorite thing ever--chocolate milk following a run--is back. I enjoyed a glass of Trader Joe's finest Swiss Chocolate Milk after my run today.

Today I truly "ran happy," as Brooks likes to say. I ran in the rain, which 90% of the time inspires a good run for me (and a not-so-good rest of the day mood-wise, but a good run always is a great start!). I've been sort of struggling to find an inner push lately, and have been nervous for my upcoming half-marathon, which is hitting me exactly one month after the Cleveland Half-Marathon. However, today I struck out and just pounded all of stresses and anxieties into the pavement (and mud). It was like there was a torch under me, each of my mile-splits for the four miles that I was running were at least 70 seconds faster than my normal training mile-splits...And it felt good. Perhaps I had the right combination of cookies and yogurt for breakfast this morning (usually I do not advocate eating cookies for breakfast but on the occasional gloomy days it's okay) or something because I felt great. If there was pain, I could push through it. I didn't think about my hips or knee and they didn't hurt. It felt great. I was actually shocked when I got home and saw my overall summary of my run from my Garmin--I was flying without even realizing it for most of my run!

When I was almost home, I had to pause to cross an intersection and a man with two beautiful dogs asked me about my run and then asked if I was training for anything as he walked by. We got into a conversation as I played with the dogs and it turned out he was quite the running veteran. He didn't say much about himself but he stressed the importance of rest days and eating a banana everyday to prevent cramping. I've not put a lot of thought into my potassium intake but I guess it's something I should consider, because I never eat bananas so I guess that's something I should think about. He also suggested epsom-salt baths...which I've never heard of doing--just ice baths--and I think I should consider it! I should've iced after today's wild run but it slipped my mind...luckily it can still be beneficial within 24 hours so I can get on that and hopefully it'll help my recovery!

After today, though, I think I really need to cool it and focus on my taper. Soooo I'll be trying not to run over 4 miles and keeping it nice and easy between now and the big day!

In honor of running happy, Brooks's run happy image of today :)