Three Things Thursday: Firsts Edition

Pre-workout fuel: 1/2 of a PB&J made with whole-wheat bread, reduced-fat Jiff and apricot all-fruit spread
Workout: Ran 6.67 miles in 58:27, average pace, 8:46. Walked the dog for a mile to cool down and followed it with 15 minutes of upper body strength training.

1. Week 2 of the sub-2:00 half-marathon plan from Runners World had me slated to do mile repeats - 2x1 mile at 8:25. I have never done mile repeats with any real intention, and I was a bit nervous about hitting the pace. I jogged to the middle-school track (another first), which is a bit more than a mile from my house, and I began the first repeat. 8:18. Not too shabby, Kim. A bit fast but not overly so. I took two laps around to recover and went off on the second repeat. 7:51. Uh ... where did that come from? I have never ran a sub-8:00 mile. Ever. I took another two laps to recover and decided to do a third repeat for a) the fun of it; b) to get in a solid 6 miles total; and c) because my favorite song, "Bulletproof" came on the iPod. 7:55 -- another sub-8:00 mile. Once I knew I could do it, I wanted to do it again. I only wonder what Runner's World would tell me ...

2. The middle-school track is a bit sad. Just a shabby asphalt circle in the middle of a field - no trees, no shade, no scenery. And on a day like today, it's hot. With a capital humid. I ran the first mile repeat and paused to take a sip of water when I made a decision. "To hell with decency! I'm taking off my shirt!" (No worries, I did have on a sports bra.) This move is very uncharacteristic because a) I hate my abs; b) I've never done it before; and c) I hate my abs. However, no one was around and I believe running 10K before work gives me license to do things like run without a shirt.

3. A few weeks ago, before the launch of Operation: Clean Out the Pantry, I picked up a bag of Pirate's Booty. It's sat in the cupboard, unopened, because I've been trying to eat things I had purchased earlier and things that were already open. Well, today, I finally tried it. I am glad I portioned it out and only took one serving to work. Yeah ... totally DELICIOUS. I could eat the whole dern bag. (By the way, it was Aged White Cheddar.)