Fish Fry Friday & Warm(er) Weather Long Run

What better way to celebrate getting my cholesterol re-checked after a 3.5 month low-fat, low-cholesterol diet than heading to a fish fry full of fried fish, french fries, and mac & cheese? Well, that's exactly what I did. Last night, Todd & I went to the fish fry with my parents at the church my family belongs to, St. Joan of Arc. It's probably one of the best fish frys in the Diocese of Columbus. It's $8 for all you can eat fried fish, baked fish, mac & cheese, french fries, green beans, coleslaw, and rolls. But all kidding aside, I really am going to maintain my diet especially if it helped lower my cholesterol. I should find out next week. Plus, my stomach usually hates me for eating a lot of fried food so all the more reason to eat healthy.

Lots of fried food at the Fish Fry

I got up this morning to get in my 16 mi long run and it was about 30 degrees! Woo!! Since it's been warmer outside this week, a lot of the snow has melted so Todd was able to bike alongside me while I ran. We left from my apartment and ran about 4 mi to the Olentangy Trail along the Olentangy River. I love this bike path because it's almost 14 mi long and I can run to it from my apartment. I prefer to just leave my apartment and run instead of having to drive somewhere to run. The bike path also brings back many memories because I used to run on parts of it for cross country & track practice in high school as well as running on parts of it near Ohio State when I was in grad school and with some of my running friends when we were training for Boston last year.

My sherpa, Todd, getting ready to ride with me

Ready run with my 2009 Boston jacket & capris tights....yay for warmer weather!

The plan was to run 16 mi around 8:20 pace. Like I've mentioned, I wear my garmin but I'm not constantly looking at it to keep my pace. I just try to run based on how I feel that day. Well, I must have been having an awesome day because I ran 16 mi in 2:12:51 (8:18 pace). I got to the trail about 4 mi into my run and happened to run into Eric, a friend of a friend who is also running Boston (he's friends with Jay & Sara and I hung out with him in Boston last year). Anyways, Eric is super fast. His goal for Boston this year is to run around 2:44-2:45. He just ran Columbus this past October in 2:49. He was at the end of running 20 mi and did a couple cooldown miles with me but his cooldown miles were still pretty fast so for about 2-3 mi I was running about 7:50-7:55 pace just so I didn't slow him down too much. It was nice to randomly run into someone you know & be able to run with them for a few miles. It made those few miles fly by. I also ran passed one of the sexy 7's brothers, Mark. For those newer readers, the sexy 7 are my best girl friends from high school. Anyways, I swear, I run into Mark any time I'm on the trail.

Todd was wonderful riding next to me and even riding ahead to stop and get my gatorade & sport beans ready for me as I ran by. The bike path (or trail) I run along is pretty flat but getting to the path from my apartment is perfect for Boston training. From about mi 2-3.5, there's a long steady decline (similar to the first part of Boston) which means running back home from about mi 12.5-14, there's a long steady incline. The last mile I also have to run over a steep quarter mile long overpass which is tough. I killed the last mile though and ran it in 7:47! Awesome run all the way around. Now it's time to enjoy some pancakes and a nap.