Tatt It Up

So, this is a first for the year. Guess how many miles I logged last week. ZERO. And guess what else, I'm not even mad about it.

Monday I taught spin, Wednesday I swam 600 meters (may not be a big deal to you, but oh my!) Sat and Sun I rode my mountain bike on the road for a total of 17 miles between the two days. So, it's not like I sat on my butt doing nothing. Oh, and I worked a part time job on Tuesday night, so I couldn't run that night.

Wednesday I got a new Tattoo! It's my 3rd one. I think it's my favorite. I'll try to post a pic of it sometime this week. It put a damper on my running cause my sports bra would rub on it and it was very sore for a few days.

This week I'm going to try to ramp up the miles to make up for what I didn't do last week.

I'm sure I'll be just fine though!

Plans... dreams.... TRAIN

Not much new has been going on as far as my training goes. I’ve been back in the groove of things for the last two weeks, that I’m happy about.

Right now my training goal is the USMC ½ Marathon in Jax. So, my simplistic plan is to do my long runs on the weekend. Increasing my mileage by 1 mile per week, then dropping back down every 3rd week for a rest. I’m working on a tempo in the middle of the long run at my “1/2 pace”. The long run we are doing also consists of a few monster hills on the way out, and the monster hills on the way back again. So, I think that’ll have me ready for anything. By the time Labor Day gets here the hill going up past the interstate won’t be anything!

My running during the week has consited of treadmill (It's HOT outside) and trail runs on Sunday if our schedule permits.

This week I plan on doing 10 miles on Sat. morning. I’ll try to get a tempo in at a 9:15min/mi for at least 3 miles. We’ll see how that goes. We will probably have to get up at 5:30AM to get out there early enough before it gets too hot. Our 9 mile run last week ended at about 9:15AM and we were MELTING!

I’m going to the pool to swim for the first time “for real” today. I say “for real” because I have been swimming in my apartment’s pool for the last few weeks. I have never been taught to swim… I took a swimming class at MSC back in 2000 and I don’t think I fully got the hang of it back then! So, my form started out HORRIBLE and I felt like I was going to die while swimming… I couldn’t understand how I can run for 2 hours, but not even swim for an entire minute!!!!! But, I’ve looked online and gotten some tips on technique and tried to apply them the best I can without a “coach”. I can already feel some improvement with not getting tired as quickly. Oh, and yest I must admit that a good pair of googles makes all the difference in the world!

Back to my swim plans for today…. We are going to a REAL 25 meter lap pool today and I can’t wait. I even had a dream about it last night. My mom had on a clear swim cap and I was all mad because I didn’t have a swim cap. How dare she show up more prepared than I was… Hahaha… I’m nervous about the swimming because I still don’t think I totally know what I’m doing. But, there is only one way to figure it out right?

My ultimate goal is to do a tri next spring. I am taking baby steps. The running section will be the easy part hands down. As for biking… I’ve been riding my mountain bike on the trails, which has got to be building “biking” muscles…. But I know it’ll be different on the road. We are probably going to get road bikes at Christmas time… I hope. Then swimming. Well, I guess my goal is to start off slow now. See if I even think I can really do it. Then at least try to swim once a week to keep up a base of training. Maybe up the training more when I get into a serious 16 week out training for the tri. Also, there’s the “open water” thing that I’ll have to learn how to do once I really figure out how to swim. Oh My! But I really really want to do this.

I want to actually BE the BEAST I dream of being!!!!

XTERRA DEEP SOUTH 15K

This weekend ended up quite nicely!

I took Friday and Saturday as rest days. Since I’m still not so much in the groove of things, I wasn’t resisting the rest like I normally would. Chuck and I had all three kids at the house this weekend. We took them to the pool most of the morning on Saturday. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon watching rented movies.

Sunday was THE day. We had been training for the XTERRA Dauset Trails Deep South 15K. It’s been our goal race since the Gate River Run in March. I was putting a lot of stock into this run. BUT, who am I to decide when I get sick, and when I lose my magic running mojo?

We got up at 5:30 AM and went through our normal race morning routine. Shower, coffee, bagel with peanut butter…. We filled up the Camel back and packed up the running gear and headed to Dauset Trails.

I wasn’t nervous about the run at all. I guess because at this point I hadn’t properly trained in my mind, so if I totally screwed up, I would certainly know why. I had only run a total of about 15 miles in 2 weeks, as opposed to my normal 20ish each week. Also, looking back we didn’t run on the trails to “practice” nearly as much as we would have liked.

We arrived right at 8AM. Picked up our packets, visited the potties, got geared up and pinned on the bibs, then stood around for about 15 minutes until the start. At 8:30 we began around the parking lot about a half a mile and finally into the woods. It was pretty, as usual. I was feeling OK, I was telling myself “this isn’t so bad” “I can do this” “It’s JUST 9 miles”… This worked for about the first 4 miles. Then I started to lose some wind. We went up a big hill that I normally probably would have been fine running up. Not this time. I just let the fatigue set in and I started walking. Mom was feeling her fire, so she took off. Chuck, being my sweetheart, stayed back with me and walked and encouraged me to keep on going. I started jogging again. The whole time not wanting to get too fast and trip and bust my face open.

I had my Garmin on. I know it’s not totally accurate in the woods, but it’s usually pretty good. It was showing right past 7.5 miles. I was thinking, less than 2 to go, I can SO do this. THEN… we got to the last water stop. The guy at the stop told us we were at 6.5. WHAT???? Your telling me I have 3 more miles to run??? WHAT? I stopped running and walked and I must admit, whined about it. I really didn’t think I had it in me to run 3 more miles on that trail. But Chuck reminded me that I either had to run it or walk it. There were no short cuts… so step step. I did start running again. Not happy about it. I kept repeating how I was going to finish this race… trying to be positive.

Then right at about 9 miles (according to my Garmin)… the clearing popped up ahead to the finish line. WHAT? The Garmin was right? I had done all that whining for nothing. Apparently the guy was at 7.5, not 6.5. We ran into the finish holding hands. Yeah, mushy! Our time was right at 1:50:59. Did we kick butt & take names. Nah. Did we do our best considering and did we finish! Heck Yeah!

We loaded up in the car and drove back home with the top down. NICE!

Got home, showered, changed into DRY clothes, rested for a bit, and got a sandwich for lunch.

Next Stop…. Bike Clinic 4PM at the Pig Trail. We loaded up the bikes and all our bike gear and headed back up to Macon. The clinic was designed for beginners. Which, I consider myself to be due to the fact that I’ve taken my bike off road only about 5 times. The OMBA put on the clinic, and they did a great job. We went over some routine bike info and then practiced a few skills. After that we were off to the trails for a ride. I really enjoyed the ride, less having to stop one time and being scared to go down the next hill. There were two experienced riders behind me that stopped to help. I felt like a big goober, but they were nice and didn’t make me feel bad. I ended up getting down the hill without planting my face into the side of a pine tree. So mission accomplished as far as I’m concerned. I think we ended up riding for about an hour. We all got back to the cars and packed up once again.

Next Stop…. Wild Wings Café. Yes, we went and indulged. We treated ourselves to Hot Wings and Nachos. It was great. We got a sweet tooth after dinner so we had to stop at the DQ in Byron on the way home and get Blizzards.

Once we got back to the house and showered AGAIN… and got the bikes and gear put up then cleaned up the apt. a little, we were spent.

Off to bed we went, only to start another work week.

I hope this week I am more focused on my training. I guess it’s only a matter of what I have time for right? Hopefully I’ll have more to report soon.

Chin Up, Chin Up.. Everybody loves a happy face.

TGIT! Yes, it’s Thursday again.

I’ve done a little attitude adjustment on myself. A little self positive thinking I guess you could say. Went over all of the things in my life I have to be happy for. Then made myself admit that whatever I seem to feel is so bad, really isn’t so bad. Is it that easy? I don’t know. All I can do is try it!

Last night I went straight to my Mom’s house after work. We all had yummy tacos for dinner (she cooked them healthy style). After we ate we just sat around and talked. It was nice to not go straight to the gym after work. I had gotten into a rut. We were going straight to the gym Mon – Thursday. That really gets old after a few months. I think I really needed a little break. I just have to keep reminding myself not to beat myself up about it though!

Chuck has been such a sweetheart. He knows I've been down and has let me slide with not cooking dinner (ok, so it's going on two weeks now). But I can whip up a mean protien shake so he's not complaining. He just keeps reminding me that I'm a beast...(at least he thinks so) and "ain't nothing gonna hold me down, oh no, I got to keep on movin"... So, I also wanna perk up and get back to my normal self for him.

I couldn’t help it… I packed my gym bag this morning. I still have yet to have a GOOD run in my new shoes. And they fit so good and are so soft and comfy. I want to get back in the groove of running so bad. I’m worried about running the 15K on Sunday. I’m just going to go with the intention of enjoying the beautiful scenery and moving my body for 9.3 miles. Even if I have to take walk breaks… I’m going to finish it. Plus the T-shirts are supposed to be really neat! Hahahaha.

Alright, so I have a good attitude about the work day… a good attitude about my running. I am off tomorrow and I plan on spending the whole day with my little Shybug. She wants to go shopping and spend her Birthday money.

Hopefully, the next time I blog I will have some GOOD running news…. And more miles to log : )

Will I Get Better?

It’s Wednesday, so I have to work today and tomorrow then it’s the weekend. I should be happy right? Not so much.

I am down in the dumps and I am not liking myself for it!

It all started last Tuesday. I woke up feeling horrible. Just aches all over and a sore throat. I worked all day (all 10 hours of the work day)… every hour passing thankful that I survived it! I got home and had tomato soup and cheezit’s for dinner (not a normal food I eat). Then I went to bed early. At about midnight I woke up with a high fever, in a lot of pain, and talking craziness (as Chuck later informed me, once I was sane again). I took ibuprofen and sweated like crazy and broke the fever around two, not sleeping well in my wet sheets. Gross.

Wednesday morning, going to work was not an option. I called in sick and stayed in bed till 10 AM sleeping on and off. I watched the Heroes series back to back on Netflix on my computer and just laid in the bed. I didn’t have an appetite at all (VERY UNLIKE ME!) and felt horrible. At about 2 I called Chuck, I was running a fever again and wanting to be shot to be put out of my misery. He claimed that he was coming home and taking me to the MedStop. Grrrrr… I protested, but he wasn’t hearing it. I was like… what’s the point of going to the Dr. when you have the flu, they just say get rest and drink fluids…blah blah blah. So, I went against my will. Turns out it’s strep throat. I got an antibiotic and went on my way back home to rest.

Thursday I was still tired, but feeling normal enough to move around, shower, and eat something. Still not up to normal by any means.

Friday, rested again. Watched THE ENTIRE 1st season of Heroes. By the way… that show is wonderful for anyone interested. If you have Netflix you can watch it instantly. It was so well written and interesting. I can’t wait to watch the next two seasons.

Saturday, I decided, darnit I’ve been resting for 3 days, I am going to run. I intended on running 8 miles. HA… double fat HA HA. Not happening. I run/walked 5. I was quite pissed with the fact that I didn’t get my 8 miles in. Mom and Chuck proceeded to pep talk me and encourage me and remind me that I was sick and such. Still, I wasn’t happy.

Sunday, we went to the Pig Trail with the intentions of running about 6 and then riding our bikes. I think I ran for 6 minutes and quit. Everything hurt… my stomach, my head, my body. I got mad and walked. Then we didn’t even ride. I was so mad for stopping, I was mad for not feeling good. I was mad that we put the bikes on the car and didn’t even ride them. I was mad that we drove to Macon and wasted gas for nothing. I was just plain MAD. I spent most of the rest of the day sulking. We went to the pool for a few hours later in the afternoon. That was alright, but I was still not happy.

Monday I felt much better being back at a work. Like a normal human again! I had to teach spin after work. I had NO energy to do it. Luckily I only had one woman in my class and my mom in there. So we took it very easy and I didn’t even break a sweat.

Last night, I attempted to run. What do you know, about .75 into my intended 3 mile treadmill jog. I stopped. As soon as I start sweating I start feeling miserable. Like I want to tear my skin off. It is very uncomfortable. And my legs burn. And my feet hurt. All of these things that are usually normal for me are almost hypersensitive. I can’t stand it. And I’m a very heavy sweater. (Can I say sweater like that?) Anyway, I’m used to sweating, I’m not a girly girl, I don’t mind getting sweaty and dirty… But for some reason I just can’t tolerate it right now.
I quit and got off the #$*!@ treadmill and took my sorry @$$ home. I was not happy. Not at all.

I did not even pack my gym bag today. So, I guess that means I’m not even going to try to go to the gym and run. I suck. Then I’ve got the XTerra 15K trail race to do this Sunday. I have absolutely no desire to even do that race that I was looking so forward to. I have no desire to run, ride, or even eat right. I am in a BLAH. What a whiney butt I am being, I really don’t like being like this.

I’m having some job issues and that have me down as well.

I’m trying to be positive. But right now I’m am happy thowing my little pitty party I guess. Maybe I’ll snap out of it soon.