PowerGel 2008--the vintage version

I went out on my long run today with PowerGels from 2008. Well, they expired in 2008. So that probably means that they were made in 2006. For some reason, this doesn't bother me. Odd because I won't eat most food that is a single day past its expiration date. My friend got this great deal at a discount store on boxes of gels, and I have been carting them around ever since. I'm not training enough, clearly. They should be gone by now. I even swore I'd throw them all away after the marathon last May and start fresh. But I'm cheap. They are my everyday gels. And then, on race day, I get to have my dress-up gel that I buy at the race expo. I will never eat Strawberry Banana anything again. Ever.

The school year started. My schedule got out of control. Blah, blah, blah. No posting here. So what did I need gels for today? A 10 mile long run. And what was I doing a ten-mile long run for? The Indianapolis half marathon that is happening in about a month. And at what point in my adulthood did I stop understanding when to hyphenate and to stop asking questions that I was going to immediately answer in my writing?

On to the running. I feel like the kid in class who works really, really, really hard but is still going to be a "C" student no matter what. You know the kid. There are a couple of pieces to kill the metaphor, though. I only have been working sorta really hard on my running (I actually started doing "speed" workouts, for crying out loud). And if my performance is anything like it was at the Flying Pig, then I'm really more of a "D" student.

So I'll throw this out there. Last year, my goal at the Indianapolis half was to go sub 2:30. I think my official time was a 2:29 something. So I did it. And I set out at the start of my training to train for a pace that would put me closer to 2:20 (I think that's 10:40 miles or so). I successfully ran a solid 5-miler at race pace on Tuesday of this week. On my long run today, though, I didn't even come close to that pace. I know I wasn't supposed to. But sometimes it's kinda nice when the pace just magically comes together. Today wasn't so magical. Still, I've got a super-secret time goal of 2:20 for this race. A not-so-secret time goal of 2:25.

What I'd really like, though, is to be running the times that I was pulling off in 2008 when my vintage Powergels weren't yet expired. We'll get there. I posted this quote this week on my facebook page because of last week's long run: "Of course it's hard. The hard is what makes it great. If it weren't hard, everyone would be doing it." Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own. The hard really is what makes it great.