67 days.....

Why do we second guess ourselves? I really hate when my mind goes to those places. Live with the decision and get going! I think I must have gone there since my activity over the weekend was totally NOT running related and no real training occurred. Thus I have been having those what am I doing moments and saying things like You can't run a marathon. I DON'T LIKE THAT!!! I don't say can't! The hike on Saturday was good, but being the sweep is a test in patience. I had some women who were painfully slow that I had to prod a few times to pick up the pace. Thus rather than getting the 9 miles I wanted done, I ended up just shy of 7. ARRRRRRRRHGGGGGGGGGHHHH. But it was a beautiful day and all hikers had a great time.

Sunday, I was up at 4:30 am to go get donuts and coffee to take to my tri club's tent at the IronGirl Tri in Columbia. It was great to watch an all women's event. I got to see some friends who were racing finish. I saw the first and second place para triathletes finish - INSPIRING. The weather was a good temp, but it rained off and on all morning. One of my friends said at one point during the bike she couldn't even see because it was raining so hard. KUDOS to all that raced in the pouring rain.

After I left the triathlon, I got home showered and had to run to the fairgrounds to pick up my daughter's art work that she had entered in the fair (she won a couple ribbons too) then off to meet up with 3 friends for a late brunch and some spa time. We were celebrating my friend Katie's birthday. Brunch was awesome and then we hit the Red Door. It was a great afternoon. Very relaxing. I actually began to doze off while I was getting my facial. LOL I was so tired. I was in bed by 8:30 - 9:00 on Sunday night.

Monday - I was going to get up to run, but I got up to a stuffy nose and just felt gross. I think the grass and weeds are getting to me. Time to get the allergy meds rolling again. Last night I went to a stride clinic at my local Fleet Feet. I got some great information from this session and will work on getting my running form better. I got told I run like a cyclist with strong quads. LOL I need to focus on my glutes and hammies doing more work when I run - like a runner. Good to know as I am now in the moving all the miles up and up and up. I want to get through this !!

AND I HAVE TO BEAT THE BRIDGE!
Beat the Bridge: Runners must maintain the 14 minute per mile pace to reach the 14th Street Bridge and successfully "Beat the Bridge" just after mile marker 20. The 14th Street Bridge will reopen to vehicular traffic making it unavailable to runners after 1:15 p.m. Any runners unable to "Beat the Bridge" will be required to board the straggler buses and be driven to the event finish area.

If I can keep my LSD pace of 12:30 from miles 1- 20 this won't be a problem. YIKES! I guess I will see how things go in the next few weeks with my long runs. Sept 18 will be a good test as that is a 20 miler Saturday for me.

Friday Five

1. I had a good conversation with my coach yesterday. I like the way he thinks.

2. Work is making me a bit crazy. Too many women/estrogen/something. Can we please have a bit of testosterone added into the mix???

3. The hike I am co-leading Saturday is a go. As of right now I have 33 people signed up. That is a good bit! The bus will hold 47. While I was secretly wishing it wasn't a go earlier this week, I am now happy to be doing it. I realized yesterday, that I really need to do an activity I haven't done in a while. Since we have 12, 9, and 7 mile options and I am the sweep, I am hoping that all coming are will be keeping a good pace so that perhaps I can get at least the 9 miles done. Good cross training with all the elevation gain too. I will add a run on Sunday to make sure I get a total of 16 miles in over the weekend since that was my schedule long run distance this weekend.

4. Sunday morning I will be up before dawn to go get donuts and coffee and meet my other tri-club peeps at the Iron Girl event in Columbia MD. We have some members racing. I have some friends racing. Also, the club is trying to generate interest and new members in our fledgling tri-club. I am looking forward to it. I also just found out that one of my relay teammates for the Half Full Tri in October is racing, so I hope to meet her too.

5. What does it say that while I miss my daughter (who is away until Aug 30) that I am not missing any of my parental responsibilities that come with her being home with me? LOL I am going to enjoy it all I can until then... once she returns school starts and then schedules of her activities and my activities have to be coordinated. It is good that I can ride and run just about anywhere.

Consistent pace?

Why are my running numbers all over the place? I cannot seem to keep a consistent pace rolling when running. Now I do live in an area that is filled with rolling hills, thus where ever I run outside (unless it is on a track) it is constantly changing. I feel like my run pace has just been crap lately. For my long runs, my LSD pace should be 12 to 12:30 min/mile. During last Saturday's run I was all over the place - 9:43 min /mile at some point and then the low point (that last really crappy mile) was 15 min/mile - I think I walked a good bit of that one. And in the end I was off of the 12 to 12:30 min/mile pace overall. Ugh. Need to work on this. I will discuss this with my coach this week. We are scheduled to chat.

I have 16 on the schedule this week - and coach is mandating NO IPOD - just run what your legs want to do. Uh oh. I am not sure where I am going to fit it in. I am co-leading a hike on Saturday and sadly I am secretly hoping it gets cancelled so that I can do my long run on Saturday. If not I may be up early on Friday morning plodding out 16 miles before work. YIKES. I will definitely only being doing the short hike on Saturday if that is the case. Signed up to co-lead back in the Spring before fully realizing that I would be in the middle of marathon training. DOH!

Sunday I am volunteering at the IronGirl Tri in Columbia. My tri club wanted to set up a tent as we have members who are racing. It will be fun to cheer for everyone. This is one of those races that fills up the moment it opens for registration, so I missed the boat to race it this year.

Insominia post

Things I have done since my last post

1. Spent a weekend with old friends, one I had not seen since I was 16. Which is a long time ago!! I haven't laughed so much in a long time. It was rejuvenating. I miss that I don 't have friends like that here.

2. Did some training. Thunderstorms and killer headache thwarted me a bit last week, but I managed one bike/run brick, some speed work on the treadmill, and Saturday's long run was 13.1 miles. It was a fine run until mile 9 or 10 when my knees started getting cranky. The last 2 miles really sucked. Today was swim practice. It felt good to be back in the pool after two weeks of no swimming.

3. Re-dyed my daughter's hair pink. She looks good with pink hair. So much fun. If they had made pink hair dye when I was her age I would have been all-over that, but I am certain my parents would not have allowed it. LOL. I am lenient when it comes to hair and as long as she does what she is supposed to do.

4. I can't believe that I am wide awake at 1:45 am. I am not prone to insomnia. Oh well. I guess I will read, since I have now posted.

Happy Monday to all. Hope you all got some sleep!!

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Where did the week go?

Busy here. Will post my stuff from the Catoctin Challenge next week. It was a blast and we had awesome weather.
Heading out to meet up with some people from my way back past this weekend in a place I haven't been to since 1981. It is going to be lots of fun. I cannot wait.

Training is all over the place this week, but happening some and I added the 100 pushup and 200 squat challenge to the mix this week just for fun.
Happy Weekend All!!