that was fun?

Today was my first attempt at running in the early AM before work. I tried to start on Tuesday, but I woke up to a DOWNPOUR. It was going to be miserable enough running at 6am, so I skipped it. I did do 45 minutes on the elliptical and a short arms & ab workout. Take that, rain.

Anyway, I headed out this morning right before 6am. And aside from the fact that it was 6am, it was not that bad. It was a welcome change to be running on the asphalt BEFORE the sun had cooked it for 12+ hours. It was still uber-humid though, even that early in the morning. I wore a short sleeved wicking shirt thinking that I might need the extra coverage of sleeves. Ha! It will be tank tops from now on.

All in all, it was a good run. I even had some company. I saw one walker and another runner out there with me! I run in a pretty small neighborhood and I've never seen anyone else out "exercising" so that was good to see. I'm not the only crazy person out there :-) In fact, the other runner was crazier than me because she kept going through the brief, but heavy, rainshower that hit me around mile 4. I hid out in my car for a couple of minutes until it passed and then I got back out there again for the last mile. I don't mind getting wet, but my Garmin and iPod do. Weak sauces.

I worried that when I got home this evening, I wouldn't know what to do with all the extra time I had. Never fear, I found plenty to do. I rounded out my long day with shopping for running shorts (more on that later), doing a new Jillian Michaels workout DVD (that was almost an hour long), cleaning the living room (dog hair galore), doing a couple nights' worth of dishes (with no help from D), and writing this blog entry (superb, isn't it?) And now I'm drinking some wine. I think I deserve it.

tuesday already?

I did not want to go out and run tonight. I haven't felt like that in a long time, especially not when the weather was freaking gorgeous. I don't know what my problem was tonight, but I just felt so sluggish and unmotivated. I am wondering if I overdid it this past weekend after my long run. I had actually been thinking that staying more active than usual after my long run was a good idea because I haven't felt as sore or as stiff as usual. I think I need to combine that theory with a little bit of rest as well. Live and learn.

I usually do a ballet workout on the day after my long runs. I did most of the workout yesterday, but sadly I had a skip some of the grand plies and the jumps because that shit is hard on the knees. It's so funny to think back to all of the YEARS I spent in dance class hoping that we wouldn't have to do jumps in the center or that the plies would be replaced by floor work. Now I am actually sad that my knees won't allow me to do them? I guess it really is true that you don't know what you really have until it's gone. I know that's cliche and I didn't mean to spin off into a post about dancing, but I really miss it and I'm sorry I didn't appreciate it more when I had the chance. Makes you think, doesn't it?

It took me a good 2-3 miles before I was really into my run tonight. I'm usually in a pretty good rhythm after 1 mile, so I was really stuggling. I even gave myself permission to take it easy since I've trained pretty hard the past 2 weeks. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE my Garmin, but damn that thing makes it hard to back off my pace. I look at it way too much and I speed up if my pace is not what it was the previous time I ran. Which meant that tonight I finished 5 miles in 45 minutes. While I am of course thrilled with that pace, I have got to give my body some sort of rest or I'm afraid I'll be looking at an injury. To top it all off, I have no appetite, which also happened last fall towards the end of my training. Whine, bitch, moan, I know. I'm sorry. I'll do better tomorrow :-)

why am i doing this again?

I spent three hours trying to take a nap today in three different places - on the couch, in the bed, and then finally in the guest room bed. I didn't sleep a bit, although I did get to watch Obama's first press conference - he looks exhausted. His speech today wasn't as powerful as what we're used to, but I am still excited for him to take office.

I'm sorry, this is not meant to be a political post. This is meant to be a post about ME. Me being tired, me being stressed, me being this close to faking an injury to get out of this whole weekend. Dramatic? Yes. But it's how I feel. I hate that I get stressed out so easily over the littlest things. It's not that I like being that way, I just am.

I've calmed down a bit since those thoughts went through my head earlier. I've gotten almost everything packed and I'm finally sitting on the couch with my laptop, my wine, and What Not to Wear on TV. Ahhhhh. A little time to relax before the weekend begins.

too tired

I am too tired to blog well, so here is a quick recap. I tried to write a post about my 10 mile run last Sunday, but it just ended up sounding stupid. It was a good run, the last long run before the half, and I finished strong. Second breakfast afterwards was great! Either Perkins has really great food or I was starving.

Tuesday was a nice, easy four miler. Although there is not much nice or easy to say about running in the cold, rain, and dark. I take that back, it was very nice to be running it with my group. I don't think I could've (or would've) done that one on my own. We are hardcore!

Wednesday = three miles. Alone, ugh. I went home after work, let the dogs out, changed into my running gear, brought the dogs back in, and drove over to the neighborhood. In the dark. Luckily there were streetlights, so it wasn't pitch black out. I was in hurry to get it over with I guess, because my pace was under a 10 minute mile! I felt like I had a good pace going, but I did not expect the 9:48 that my ipod reported when I was done :-) That really made it worth it, considering that I almost skipped the run because I am so exhausted.

That leads me to the whiney part of my post. D left Sunday afternoon to go to FL for work. I felt like such a bad wife because I didn't even make it home from my long run/breakfast on Sunday before he left. We met up at Starbucks (when did I turn into such a yuppie?) for a quick goodbye. I know that he had to go for work, but it just really sucks that is was this week before the half-marathon. It has left the the house and the animals solely under my care, which I can handle, of course, but it would have been nice to take it easy this week. I'm also not very good at cooking and/or eating dinner when it's just myself at night. That has stressed me out trying to find the time to plan meals and cook. I've done just OK with that this week. I had second breakfast leftovers on Sunday night, soup and cheese toast on Monday night, Twizzlers on Tuesday night (um yeah, Twizzlers the candy), and a shrimp, veggie, & brown rice stir fry last night. I have leftovers from that for dinner tonight so at least that's covered. D gets back Friday night so maybe I'll ask him to pick up some dinner on his way home from the airport. I am thinking of taking a half-day tomorrow to give myself a little time to rest, I think I'm going to need it.

For being too tired to blog, I sure wrote a lot! One more run before the race, a big two-miler tonight, then book club, then driving home, then handling the animals, then doing laundry, and then...........sigh. I think I'll have more time to relax while I'm running the half than I've had all week!