Ok, so I’ve ignored my blog long enough, has it been two weeks now… or three. Oh my goodness! I think I’ll try break it down, hope it's not too long and boring.

3/23 – 3/29

Let’s see on 3/21 we ran the Cherry Blossom 15K (10.25 or so…hahaha) and after that race I was sore sore sore sore. My right hip was mad at me and it simply took me longer to recover from that run than I wanted it to. Even though it was the furthest distance I’d ever run, and I did it at an avg. 9 min/mi. I took it easy the following week, just a few easy runs… mileage for week ending 3/29 totaled 16. So nothing major.

The COOLEST part of this week was on Friday! After some research Chuck and I went to Bike Tech and got mountain bikes! We ended up getting the low end of a good brand name bike. We got the Specialized Hard Rock Sport. We weren’t quite ready to spend mega bucks on bikes but we didn’t want to get something that was going to fall apart after only a few trail rides. So, that’s what we ended up doing. Chuck’s bike is bright blue and mine is black with goldish trim. We both love them. We took them out for their first outing on Sunday evening (since it rained all day Friday and Saturday). We rode 9.25 miles total around a few subdivisions.

It felt so good to ride! It’s so different from running. But I do believe I can love both. I guess the running is my first true love, but being on the bike has it’s own draw on me. I just can’t wait to take it off road for REAL! Let’s just hope I don’t kill myself it.

3/30 – 4/5

On Monday of this week, while I was entering my mileage into breakingthetape.com I realized, Hey… I only have to run 7 more miles and I can get 100 miles in this month. Which would give me 2 days to run 7 miles, easy right? So of course, I made sure that happened, and I achieved a training record for myself. I ended the month of March with exactly 100.14 miles.


I finished off this week with a total of 18. Nothing amazing.

I ran the treadmill on Tuesday.
Friday afternoon we ran 6 miles and my time was pretty good (55:46). After our run we took the bikes out and ended up with 13.25 miles. Part of the ride was off road. We went down the dirt roads along the outskirts of some cotton fields, rode to my mom’s house, met her and rode around the subdivisions… then rode the cotton fields back home. Due to all of the rain we’ve been having we got very muddy and got stuck a few times. I didn’t mind so much, but I had a good laugh at Chuck when he got all pissy about his mountain bike being dirty. We rinsed them off real good when we got back to the apt. and they were as good as new.

Saturday me, Mom & Chuck drove up to Stone Mountain. I had never been up there before. I didn’t grow up in GA so that isn’t as weird as it might sound. The plan was to climb the mountain and then run the Cherokee Trail that winds around the perimeter of the mountain. We got up there at about 11AM. It was a beautiful day. As soon as we got to the park there were road bikes EVERYWHERE! I was so jealous. I wanted to ride a bike! I don’t even have a road bike, but still, there were so many of them and the weather was perfect. There were runners everywhere. It was neat to see so many people outdoors enjoying the springtime and getting some exercise. Not something we see a whole lot of here in Middle GA.

We started off climbing the mountain. We attempted to RUN up the darn thing. Hahaha… Mom & I wimped out first. Chuck eventually stopped running. When we got almost to the top, I realized suddenly that I was scared and I hunkered down and climbed a few feet with my hands on the rock too! What a dork I am, I made myself chill out because there were little kids everywhere running up and down the mountain, they weren’t falling and dying, I knew I’d be ok. We got to the top and it sure was pretty up there. We stayed a few minutes and took some pics then made our way back down.

We found the Cherokee trail and started run/hiking around the mountain. We went for awhile until I started whining because I was SO THIRSTY and my feet were really bothering me. It felt like my shoes were too tight and the top of my feet were killing me. We ended up stopping at the bottom of the sky lift thing and got some Vitamin Water. That was the best tasting beverage EVER due to the fact I had gotten so thirsty! We headed back out and ran/hiked some more until I kept whining and complaining about how bad feet were killing me. So we headed back to the car. By the time we got back in the car it was 3:30PM. We had been out and about for 4 hours! The time went by so fast… I still find it hard to believe that we did that much exercise.

Afterwards was the reward – OUTBACK. I had a frozen cocktail, a juicy steak, a loaded baked potato, and best of all… the Nutter Butter Peanut Butter Pie! That thing was HUGE and tasted like heaven. Oh, I do love my desserts.

With full bellies and tired legs, we went and checked into a (crappy) motel. It didn’t seem so crappy to start with, and I won’t go into details, but it was pretty crappy! We took showers, cleaned up, got pajamas on, and watched T.V. I didn’t really sleep that night. In the morning the plan was to go back to the park and run the 5 mile perimeter road around the mountain. But, the three of us agreed that with the night of not much sleep and the amount of walking we did the previous day… let’s just rest. We ended up going to IHOP for breakfast, yum again! Then headed back to Byron. The rest of the day was spent chillin’ out and watching TV. It rained off and on and we were too tired to go out for a run or ride.



4/6 – 4/12

This week started off with the same ole routine. Monday, I did some weight training and taught spin class. Tuesday, I ran a 4 mile tempo run on the treadmill. Wednesday, I was GOING to run 6 miles around Mom’s neighborhood with Chuck. I think Wednesday’s run was one of the most horrible runs I have ever experienced. SUPER SUCK RUN!!! My feet were absolutely KILLING ME. It felt like someone was hammering the top of my feet with every step and my toes were very sore. I kept stopping and walking (I NEVER do that). I was mentally and physically not feeling the run. It was frustrating me to no end. I felt like a big Loser. I hate to quit. But Chuck told me I was just going to make it worse by keeping on… we stopped right at 4 miles and I walked back to Mom’s house, all pissy and mad about it. We got back to the apt. and Chuck fixed dinner for the kids and made us a protein shake. I just sat on the couch and soaked my feet in ice water, and pouted of course.

I was still beating myself up about it the next day. I went to the gym Thur. evening and got on a spin bike and just did 30 minutes of cardio and then worked back & abs. Friday is my day off. I did some grocery shopping and took my daughter to see the new Hannah Montana movie. Hey, it was much better than I thought it would be! I didn’t do any running, just a rest day. I was going to take her to the track, and let her run a little (yeah, my punkin wants to start running!) and I was going to do intervals. But I was advised by my mom and Chuck to NOT run and REST for an extra day. Grrrrr.

Saturday we got up early and headed to Athens to watch the G-Day spring training football game. It was fun! It was my first time to see a college football game and Chuck is a huge UGA fan. It was us, mom, and all three kids. Everyone had a good time! I didn’t run today, obviously… no time to do that. I did manage to eat a blizzard for dessert, Reeses Cup no less. Sinfully amazing.

Are you ready for this? Here comes the coolest part. We had planned a long run today. Since I was forced to rest 3 days in a row, GRRRRRR… I was ready for action. All carb'd up from that big ole blizzard. We were originally planning on running 9 miles. Chuck decides that we’re going to go the full 12 (a loop in Byron from a friend’s house). I’m like, ok, sure, that will help with my mileage for the week. We tried to hide it from my mom, who joined us. She found out we were planning on doing the 12 and was game. We headed out and our goal was to keep a 10:00 – 10:30 mi/mile pace. In the first 2 miles of the route there are 3 major hills. We tackled them with flying colors. The rest of the run was just a matter of time, and not stopping. It really went by fast. It was one of those runs where the miles just kinda tick by. We just got in a good rhythm. One of those days that reminds you why you really love to run. It was definitely what I needed to snap me out of my funk from the crappy run on Wed. night. We finished in 2:05:21, an avg. of 10:26 min/mi. Exactly what we were hoping for. I had never run that far before!

We went home and I soaked my feet twice. Mom took us to eat Mexican for Easter dinner! I had fajitas and fried ice cream. Now that I’m writing it all down, dang I ate bad this weekend. Oh well, I burned lots of calories on Sunday right?

Okie Dokie. I’m all caught up now! There are a few adventures I’m looking into participating in. I’m going to write about all that later. I need to get some pics of my new bike on here too. I wish I had more time to ride my bike & run as much as I wanted to. I’ll be working on that one!!!