Did I miss the memo?

About runners not being allowed on sidewalks? I'm serious, is this some sort of etiquette I missed out on? I knew cycling on the sidewalk is a big no-no, but I thought any sort of activity where feet meet the pavement (or cement in this case) was fair game. Literally every person I passed going in the opposite direction on the sidewalk today tried run me into the road. Or the wall. Families walking four across, or my favorite, a couple taking up the ENTIRE sidewalk, refusing to move closer to each other so I could run by. I even got "shouldered" into a cement wall at one point, by a man who refused to move behind or a head of the two ladies he was walking with. How's that for Southern hospitality? Or even common courtesy?

I really began to think I was doing something wrong, and am still waiting for one of you to tell me if I was. Keep in mind, we are not talking New York City or anything like that, this is Ocean Boulevard in a beach town, nothing but hotels and tourists. And at 9:00 am , it is NOT crowded.

While running, I came up with the following reasons for the pedestrian behavior:

1) people are just rude and simply do not care. This one makes me sad, which led me to come up with:

2) it's morning, and these tourists have not had their coffee and newspaper yet. Yes, they are just walking to breakfast. Who am I to judge those who have not had their morning caffeine yet?

3) Lazy people highly dislike the non lazy folk. Hence all of the stories I've heard about bikers/runners getting slurpees and soda cans chucked at their heads by passing cars.

The part of me that has a constant faith in the human race would like to believe that the reason is # 2. Still not totally acceptable, but understandable.

Meanwhile, I may need to start perfecting my shoulder check, haha

But back to the running....

This morning I didn't trick, but instead asked Rich if he minded if I left an hour early for work so I could squeeze in a run. I just wasn't feeling the jog stroller today. And as it turns out, my whole body wasn't really feeling a run today either (we'll get to that...). But anyway, Rich didn't mind, since he had fallen asleep while putting Rowen to bed last night and therefore got 11 full hours of sleep last night!

And in case anyone has been wondering, I work at an outside restaurant/bar where I will inevitably be covered in cocktail sauce, sweet tea, and sweat (since it's a million degrees out) by lunch time anyways, so it does not phase me in the slightest to show up to work covered in post run sweat. haha.

I headed into work, dropped off my stuff, and felt my tummy rumble. I ate a Luna Bar and a banana for breakfast but apparently that wasn't enough. I don't usually "gu" or anything like that before a short run (planned 5 for today). But I had one with me and thought, what the heck, let's give it a shot. BOTTOMS UP!!

Today's experiment: Power Bar Gel "refuel" Step 2 - in Strawberry Banana with 1x the caffeine (that's a lot to say). It claims to be a C2 max higher -octane carb blend, whatever that means. All I know is they had them at Walmart, so I bought a box of 6 to throw into the nutrition experiment lineup.

I opened it and took a taste. Surprisingly, didn't gag! The flavor says Strawberry Banana, but I'd rename it "Maple Syrup". Seriously, I thought it tasted like maple syrup! Almost the same consistency too, not nearly as thick as GU. So on the taste chart, it gets a passing grade. Washed it down with some water and took off out the door.

To spare you a long boring story with my splits and what not, I'll just sum it up like this: it took me about 4 miles to actually "get into" my 5 mile run, haha. Mile 0-2 were ok as I just convinced myself to keep going, but miles 2-3 I felt so lethargic. I even stopped to walk a few times (and I had been doing so well NOT walking lately!!) Ironically I had pasta for dinner last night (not carb loading, just a dinner request for "doodles" from the 2 year old) . I was hydrated, and breakfast was normal, so I don't know why I felt so sluggish. So basically not only was I not energized, but the PowerGel didn't help at all. Unless it takes 45 minutes to work (it might, again Sports Nutrition isn't until this spring semester, haha), I give the Power Bar Gel a failing grade for energy. Although the label says "for immediate energy, consume with H2O every 20-45 minutes during activity"

So that was that. Nay to the powergel , sidewalk hogging tourists, and bad run, but yeay for getting a 5 miler. My dad had this bumper sticker on his tackle box that said "A bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at work". I'd like to apply that motto here, just substitute running for fishing :)