My wireless headphones, and oh yeah, a training MARATHON.

Seven hours and twenty minutes. Amazingly, that's how long my Thump Blu headphones lasted today. I am really impressed! I had to finish my run and let them drain out, which seemed to take forever. They should be solid for my 50k and I'm going to alternate between these and my waterproof ThumpBlu's for the 50 miler. The waterproof ones apparently last for 8 hours. I really like the price of 80.00 for the originals though, and if you aren't a super sweaty runner (I hear that they are very not-waterproof), I think it's quite ideal! You will not regret going wireless. And no, I'm not sponsored by them or anything, just a very pleasantly surprised customer. Here's a pic of me listening to podcasts trying to drain the battery in my new shirt that Jon got me.

Trying to wear out the battery on the headphones.

It's been a happy love weekend for us in our household. Our anniversary happens to be the day before Valentine's day, so we pretty much just celebrate that. We decided to attempt some recipes out of the French Laundry cookbook to celebrate. It's amazing how much work and heart is put into those recipes, and I now understand the hefty cost of the meals. Check out the parmesan crisps with truffle goat cheese mousse that we made. They were deeeelicious!

Jon was in charge of the main course, which was Salmon "chops" with Celery, sans the Black Truffles. Yeah, I kind of burnt the toast. And yeah it's missing that cool little "chops" piece of skin, but it was also delicious. I can never get enough salmon these days. We both really felt all that butter, oil, and cream though. No...more...cream.

Oh, and look what came in the mail for me yesterday! I backed this Indiegogo for the movie a year or two ago, and I'm really excited to see the finished product! Nikki Kimball is such a badass, I'm sure this documentary won't disappoint.

Now back to the whole Running thing. I ran a marathon today. An entire marathon. For a training run. And I will be running ten more tomorrow. What is wrong with ultra runners? This is not normal!!!

This whole week I had been feeling a little off. I had a bad response to some onions early in the week which kept me up all night, and really messed with my sleep and recovery. My runs were not record setting, although somehow I managed to PR on my half marathon time today (by TWO seconds). My legs have been feeling heavy and my heart rate feeling a bit jumpy and high. Kind of a bummer, but to be honest, my constant rolling successes and PR's were even annoying myself.

The 26 miles today was alright. It was on my usual trail, although I'm really trying to incorporate some hills so my body isn't thrown into complete shock race day. I did 500 feet on my 8 mile run Thursday. Today I only did 300 feet, but I'll take it. The best part for me was being able to keep my average heart rate at 150. It definitely crept up towards 160 in the last few miles, but that seems to be expected. I took it nice and slow, and drank TWO liters of water, which is a lot for me. The sun was quite unforgiving, and I'm pretty sure my already awful tan lines just got a lot worse. My ears are hot. I'm pretty sure they are burnt.

Here are my stats in case you care...

Aside from being pooped on...not once, but TWICE by these little butt-holes of birds, I also got attacked by a crow. It never touched me, but it played a mean game of chicken with me and I have never been so scared at the damage a bird can do flying directly at my face. I also got this surprisingly balloon-like blister on my pinkie toe. I had a tiny cut between my toes from earlier so I decided to wrap it in a bandaid. BIG MISTAKE. I'll spare you the graphic photos, but it's gross and really was kind of painful at the last few miles. To pop or not to pop...that is the question. (Yeah I know I should leave it alone)

I bought these VFuel gels because who doesn't want to eat fudge brownie goo on a long run. I was stupidly excited about it actually, and then sorely disappointed. It tasted both a bit sour and salty, and I have to say it reminded me of vomit. I can't say it felt great in my stomach either, but that might have just been the aftertaste in my mouth. Maybe the other flavors are better, but I think I'm going to stick with PocketFuel and Tailwind for my long runs.

I have been on a chocolate kick lately, and I need to kind of chill out with it. In result, I bought this ridiculously expensive piece of chocolate at Whole Foods to try during the long runs. I think it was $2 a piece! 

My beef with the whole thing (other than the ridiculous price tag) is that it's a rather large hunk of chocolate. I wish that it was flatter that I could break into pieces and nibble from, but instead I had to take rather large bites. The chocolate was decent, but very dry, rough, and unpleasant in texture. The taste didn't wow me enough to spend another $2 on it. I'd rather just carry some Ghiradelli 86% squares with me. My overall take: Good, but not THAT good.

On a side note, I actually took a cold bath today after my run. I think it has made a significant difference because other than this nagging blister and some fatigue, I feel fine! Going to play it safe and stay off my feet. The agenda for the rest of the day is some R&R and I'm also going to be developing a new and better logo. :) So keep your eyes open for that!