Wonton soup, a good run, and a rough run

Man it feels good to be running in shorts and a t-shirt again.  Soon enough it will be even warmer, making  a tank top mandatory to keep as cool as possible.

To be honest, I actually kind of love running in the snow.  There’s something about a blanket of snow covering everything in sight that makes running a little more exciting and intense.  But running with the sun beating on your shoulders, creating the best tan lines of your life, inevitably trumps the snow when considering the wind chill and potentially life-threatening ice patches.

Our intended 7-mile run on Saturday turned into an 8-mile run and we both felt great.  Z got his runner’s high as we were in the last couple miles of our run, making it all worth it.  He’s getting more excited about our upcoming race, especially knowing he can whip out an 8-miler after only running a few miles earlier that week.  What a stud.

In other random news, Z had an interesting craving Saturday night.  Wonton soup.  Wait, I thought he didn’t believe in cravings?!  Yeah, me too.  He lectures me on pregnant girls and their cravings being allll in their head.  I don’t plan on getting much sympathy in that department when I’m pregnant.  Unless I keep track of all of his cravings and remind him of them when he starts to roll his eyes at my cravings.  Genius.  Oh and we did end up satisfying his wonton soup craving–after calling a couple places in town to see if they had the soup and if it was ‘good’.  Of course they’ll say it’s good, they want our service.

Yesterday I went for a 5-mile run.  I wanted to keep a moderate-easy pace after our long run just two days before.  In the first mile or two I felt the tightness in my shins…wonderful.  I have this history of frequent shin splints, unfortunately.  In the last six or eight months I think I got them somewhat ‘under control’ {meaning if I feel them coming, I can do a couple stretches/massages and have it go away} and have only had a couple episodes of real shin splints that lasted for a day or two.  I especially haven’t had any issue since buying my most recent running shoes.  Anyway, I felt the tightness and it wouldn’t shake.  It makes my lower legs feel thick and heavy and it eventually makes it difficult/near-impossible to keep good form and a good stride.  This created passing thoughts of wishing there was a shortcut home because I wasn’t having fun and I just wanted to stretch for a million hours until the tightness went away.  And then another thought would pass, reminding me I couldn’t think like that.  Then another thought chimed in to tell me how lame the tightness was.  It was a constant battle.  So I did the only thing I could and kept running.  I thought, the tightness may not go away and my form may look awkwardly stiff, but I’ll get home sooner if I just buck up and get home.