Sunday morning runs

Have I mentioned yet that I am training for Ragnar?  The Great River Ragnar is 8 weeks from yesterday and I am co-captain of the Pavement Pirates, a team of 11 Ragnar Rookies and one novice.  We've got a nice spectrum of runners, and I am admittedly in the bottom fourth of experience.  But I am super stoked about the challenge and have taken my training pretty seriously.  To get ready for this I have altered a Higdon marathon plan with the Ragnar training plan available on their website.  I'm pretty impressed with my training schedule-it's ambitious, especially for me, and includes endurance and strength work along with some cross training and the ever important rest days.

This week's training schedule looks like this:

Sunday: 60 minutes (ran 6.34 miles in 1:00:42.  Go me!)
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Short-3 miles
Wednesday: Fartleks-30 minutes (ugh)
Thursday-Short, 3 miles
Friday-Rest (travel day for the holiday weekend)
Saturday-4-5 miles on gravel roads.  Welcome to South Dakota!
Sunday-80 minutes
Monday-4 miles-then in the car to head home.

So pretty ambitious for a girl running not quite a year.  But the pace is good for me and reminds me of why I am doing this.  I have 11 other people depending on me to get this event put together and be a good time.  I certainly don't want to be the one to bring the team down b/c I couldn't do my mileage.  But I also realize that rest and recovery is important.  So I'm doing a good, conscious job at listening to my body and resting when it says we need to, or altering my pace as needed.

Today I woke up at 5:45 and lay in bed for 45 minutes before swinging my legs out to get dressed and head outside.  It was a glorious day in Minnesota this morning-sun was up, partly cloudy, a cool 62 degrees with a slight breeze.  Knowing I was going to put in some longer miles, I left the dog at home to his dismay.  He gets a little naughty after 3 miles and is ready to head home.  Put in the iPod, set the Garmin and I was off.

I've switched up my route a little which is admittedly out of my comfort zone.  I headed out on a country road that I usually bike on, heading east.  No traffic today, just a few walkers out and a LOT of baby bunnies.  The first mile was rough, as it always is for me, but then I found my pace and settled into my stride.  The humidity was hiding in the cooler air but still the run was pretty fabulous.  I"ve been floating along all morning since then, just happy with how my day started.

Some problem areas: how do you handle these?

1.  My sunglasses fogged up and finally I just took them off and carried them.  I need to invest in something else.  Should I spend the $$ on new glasses for running/biking, or a wicking visor?  What do you prefer?

2.  Water.  Now that I am heading out of town on runs and doing more than 4 miles, I need to take water with me.  I am too lazy to drive my course and leave out bottles, so I need to carry it with me.  Today I just carried a 12 ounce bottle of water.  Do you prefer a fuel belt or a hand held bottle?  Why?  Any other tips?  A camelback just seems like it would be too hot, but I like the thought of sipping the water as needed, as I tend to throw up once I have water sloshing in my stomach.  Maybe I should look into one of those beer helmuts instead....would settle the question of the visor issue as well. 

What are your favorite go-to items on your runs?