Working the night runs

Kate Beckinsale. Katie Holmes. Princess of Pavement. All Katies. All beautiful brunettes.

Those of you who read Sunday’s blog post, and looked closely at the photo, past the disgusting toenail, will have noticed a change. Gone is the frustrating blonde and in its stead, a rich brunette. I’d been struggling trying to achieve the perfect blonde for months, a blonde I’ve had before, a blonde that never used to give me hassles, a blonde that was my dear, dear friend, but this time around, from June to January, that Kaley Cuoco blonde was nowhere to be found. Oh but there was the blinding, glow-in-the-dark Marilyn Monroe blonde, which freaked Mario out in the middle of the night (and rightfully so!) and the various shades of dirty blonde which I had been avoiding for almost 20 years now.

So I when I sat down in the hairdresser’s chair on Saturday afternoon, I told her I needed a change, a drastic change. We talked. We flipped through magazines. We fingered colour swatches. We decided. And no moms I did not dye my hair black (apparently Sunday’s photo didn’t do the hair justice). It’s just a dark, dark, dark brown with mahogany tones and strips of violet selectively interspersed throughout. The verdict: Love!

Tonight’s run was supposed to be a tempo run, but things got switched up a bit. Following last week’s rant about having to run by myself in the dark, a couple of my favourite running chicks flat out told me they’d be joining me this week. However, while two of us are training for a marathon and one a half marathon, we’ve all got different training plans. And so, for my fearless leader (who keeps trying to tell me she’s not my leader this time around, but she so is) tonight’s run was a 45-minute, non-stop, hilly route, but my run was supposed to be a 10 km tempo pace. And I initially thought I’d switch my Wednesdays with my Friday runs, but then that would just mean I’d be running by myself in the dark on Fridays, which wouldn’t be cool, because, well, I’m scared of the dark. So you do what you’ve got to do to get your training done. And for me, that was running two back-to-back runs today; one where I went hard for 4 km before the lights went out and one where I worked the hills for 6 km.

TODAY’S RUN(1)

• 5 p.m. BG before: 8.9
• Temp basal: -50 per cent (set an hour before the run)
• Distance: 4.07 km
• Average pace: 5:36 min/km
  
• Time: 22:48
• 5:30 p.m. BG after: 6.6 (1/2 orange)

It’s actually kind of difficult planning for two runs in a day. I couldn’t just pack for one run, because I knew I’d be going out hard on the first run, and I knew I’d be sweating through my clothes like water through a sieve. And so I had to pack two running outfits … which caused me to forget my fuel belt at home. Oops.

TODAY’S RUN(2)

• 6 p.m. BG before: 5.1 (granola bar)
• Temp basal: -50 per cent (continued from previous run)
• Distance: 6:04
• Average pace: 6:56 min/km
  
• Time: 42:46
  
• 7:30 p.m. BG after: 9.9

I actually didn’t mind the split, it was a nice change to the routine. However, I think I would have liked to have gone a bit quicker, but there’s always room for improvements right. I’m not sure how it will affect my training, but for now, it’s good. Have you ever split runs up in a day?