How to Run Hills Faster and 2 Confessions.

Happy Friday my friends! I hope each of had an absolutely amazing week-- three cheers for a 3-day weekend starting NOW!
This week the weather has been absolutely ideal for running! I am loving the cool early mornings- and the longer hours at night if I need to squeeze in a run after work.
I'm pretty sure you are all hoping that I spend the next seven paragraphs rambling about my ordinary run today........wish granted.

Today's run didn't happen until fairly late in the day. It was windy, and I was hoping that by waiting until later in the day, the wind would die down and it would be a bit more pleasant (read- easier) to run. It didn't, so I chalked this run up as a great training run for Relay Iowa, which starts 2 weeks from today!  I don't suppose we can custom order 70 degree weather with 5mph winds..........if it's 100 and 20-30 mph winds, we will grin and bear it. 

I really do believe that Kansas is one of the most beautiful states in the USA- and really a hidden gem. Yes, it's a fly-over State, to be sure, but if you look closely, you can find some absolutely stunning places. All of the photos in today's post are edited, but I don't think they come close to the actual beauty of Kansas in real life.
Since I was already running in some pretty serious wind, I decided to make my run even more intense by adding some hills. Actually, it wasn't my decision- it was the fact that I live in Kansas and a flat route is unheard of. I'm pretty sure the 2 bugs I inhaled helped me climb those beastly hills without slowing down.   In order to conquer hills at the maximum speed possible, I'd recommend a consumption of a minimum of 1 bug per hill you intend to run. Let me know how it works for you.......  

I was only planning a 3 miler, but I was feeling good so I extended it to 4 miles. My legs were this weird combination of dead-tired-don't-want-to-turn-over and hey-lets-just-make-this-an-all-nighter-and-run-until-the-cops-stop-us.

I've been switching up my running shoes for every run lately in an attempt to make each pair last a little bit longer. There is absolutely no logical truth to this attempt, because I will retire each pair after 300 miles, regardless of how many weeks it took to put those miles on the pair. Confession 1: I really did think I was making my shoes last longer until my sister pointed out the fault in my logic. 300 miles = 300 miles whether it takes 4 months or 8 months to run them. Oh. OH.  Don't make anything too obvious or I just might miss it. 

Tonight I ran in my Nike Dual Fusion pair. Confession #2- I bought this pair solely (pun intended- please laugh here) for the purpose of matching with my workout tanks. Yes, I'm that girl. I did try them on, and I did think they were comfortable, but it was mostly the pink that got me. It has turned out to be one of my best decisions (choosing pink has yet to ever turn out to be a bad decision for me, FYI) because they are super comfortable and I have loved having them in my running shoe rotation. I wouldn't use them for any runs that are double digits or more, but for my lower mileage runs, they are fantastic.

Have you ever bought something just because you liked the color?

What shoes are you running in right now? Same pair or you switch 'em up?

What was the best thing you ate today? pb&j oatmeal for breakfast.

P.S. CURLY PINK RUNNER is now on FACEBOOK!!!