No more tights?

Been trying some of these different gels and whatnot
to see how my body handles them. 

I'm hoping this week is the last one where I have to put the layers on before my morning runs. It'll probably be uppers 20s - low 30s tomorrow morning but then on Thursday I'm hoping for at least high 30s so I can shed some of the clothes I've been wearing.

Yesterday was my first 10-mile run -- 1:54:27 for an 11:22 pace -- and it was quite nice out. Shorts, two tech shirts and sunglasses, it was nice to get out.

There was a pretty hefty wind out of the west but it was still a good run. I was getting over the cold still and struggled the last couple of miles but in the end was pretty happy with the results. Would love to get my pace under an 11 minute mile and hopefully with the weather changing I'll be able to have one of my weekday runs be speed work to achieve that goal.

With these longer runs I'm starting to experiment with gels and other types of fuel. I've been doing a little already but yesterday was my first time taking it when I ran. I was also carrying the 20-ounce Nathan water bottle, which I thought would be perfect for the eight to 12-mile runs.

I had only used it once before in February when I ran the four miles to and from boot camp. It served it's purpose well then and I didn't have any problems. But yesterday I was struggling with it. The sloshing and holding it got to me after while and I was also done with it by mile eight. Considering it was only in the mid-40s yesterday I'm going to need something else in the summer when those 12-14-16+ mile runs come up. I'm looking at different Camelback models to see what might work best.

Tomorrow I'm aiming for a seven mile run and Thursday will be my speed work day of about four. Shamrock Shuffle is Sunday and I wish I was more excited about it but I'm kinda dreading it just because of the size. 40,000 is a lot of people and I think it's going to be miserable though I need to get use to running with that size crowd. Also, they're serving Michelob Ultra after the race and that's just a crime in a city that has so many good craft breweries.

One of the many reason I'm excited about the Lakefront 10 -- April 20 -- is that they'll be serving on the the city's newer craft breweries and I haven't had it before.