Well, I survived – 3 layers of top, two on bottom, Thorlo socks and…  toe warmers.  Yes, you stick them to your socks, put on your shoes and they keep your toes warm.

I originally stuck them to the bottom of my feet and they got too warm, and potential blister creating (the friction, not heat kind).  So I stopped after 2.7 miles and move them to the top of my socks.  Voila!  Warm toes!  Seriously!  I have to buy more of these so I can use them for stuff like the Boo at the Zoo, Parade of Lights and Electric Safari (although it’s looking doubtful that we’ll make it this year).  I got them at REI, with the GC that Megan C gave me  I also bought Body Glide with SPF, 3 packs of Clif Blok Shots, Recovery drink and bar – and a bar of Dark Chocolate Toblerone as a treat.

I was actually quite warm.  On my head, a hat with built in balaclava covering my face and neck.  On top, over my jogbra, I had a long sleeve wicking shirt, another long sleeve thicker wicking shirt over that, and a nice fleece top over that.  I actually think I could have gone with just the two top layers and been fine.  On the bottom, I had my running shorts under a pair of running pants.   Nice cushiony, thick Thorlo socks with the toe warmers

I left my iPod at my parents house on Wednesday, and when I picked it up this morning, the charge was out.  I plugged it into my car charger for 15 minutes.  When I unplugged it, it showed that it was about 2/3 charged.  Good enough.  After the first mile, it was back down to the danger red zone.  I had no idea what would happen if the iPod shut down in the middle of my workout, so I did an experiment.  First I shut off the music and only used the iPod to record the workout.  7.11 miles into the run, I ended the workout and started a new workout.  That way I would at least have a partial run recorded, rather than risk none at all.  It took a few minutes for it to let me start another workout for the remaining 6 miles, all the time letting me know that it was out of battery power.  It finally accepted the workout, and actually recorded my mileage until… about 0.72 miles before the workout was supposed to end, the iPod finally gave out.  Then I thought, I probably could have recorded my entire workout if I hadn’t wasted the energy on ending the first one and starting the second one.  But I still didn’t know if the second one would be in the iPod.

Until now.  And it is!  So I have a 7.11 mile run and a 5.28 mi run recorded, and I just missed out on recording the last 0.72 miles of the workout.  Not bad for a 15 minute charge in the car.

As a side note, I tried the Pina Colada flavor of the Clif Blok Shots I’ve been using for nutrition. Yum!

Oh! And for kicks, I tried a little bit of Chi running, and it actually made me faster – I was impressed. Now I don’t want to go and make a big change before the race at this late stage, but I am definitely going to give it a try for a few miles here and there.