Gone with the wind

Today was a gorgeous, sunny day for a run. It was still cold, but the sun helped a lot and it was definitely warmer than last week's run. I fueled up around 9:45 with half a wheat bagel with peanut butter and half a banana - I try to eat something that will help me get through the long runs about an hour before I run.

My roommate B and I set out just after 11 a.m. for an 8-mile run along the Hudson. We were pretty ambitious last week, somehow managing to average 9:09 for our pace. This week was similar - I told B we should try to go a little slower and somehow we ended up going at a 9:07 pace! So much for slowing things down...but it was a really great run and I really like how B pushes me to go faster.

Here are our splits and course:

For the first 4.5 miles we were going with the wind and we had a pretty good pace, as you can see. We turned around and were suddenly hit with a wall of wind that slowed us down significantly (see mile 5 split). I'm not totally sure what is happening in that first mile - is it really possible we had an 8-minute mile going on? It seems like it might be off, but maybe not...oh well! It was a really good run!

I read last year that drinking chocolate milk after a hard workout is better for your muscles than plain milk or other drinks (here's a great Fitness magazine article about it). It has double the carbs and protein -- excellent for replenishing sore muscles. Plus, it's tasty! I've never been much of a Gatorade drinker (I prefer drinking SmartWater to replenish my electrolytes rather than sugary Gatorade), so when I read that chocolate milk is great after a tough workout, I knew I had a new way to replenish. Not that chocolate milk has electrolytes, but I'll take any good excuse to drink chocolate milk! I'm a big fan of the Horizon organic chocolate milk boxes (I'm like a little kid, I know), but I've recently started drinking the Trader Joe's chocolate soy milk boxes.

Did you have a good run today? How did you replenish?