A Plague on My House (RNSHM - Week 11)

Just what I didn't need: The Plague has descended upon the Rabbits and Runs house.  

Monday was a fun day, or at least a fun night.  Mr. R&R and I attended the Food Truck Safari at The Zoo. We arrived at The Zoo around 6:30pm and did a quick cruise by the handful of food trucks before deciding where to start.  There were only about 6 trucks (all with hideously long lines) but we eventually settled on the Five Star Nachos truck.   I tried the bbq pork nachos which weren't terribly impressive, especially given the $8 price tag! 

 As neat as the concept was, I think they needed a few more trucks.  Once we finished our "dinner" we were free to roam through The Zoo.   Usually The Zoo closes at 4:30pm, so this was a unique opportunity to see the animals after hours and most of them were much more active than they are during the day, and since this was a members only event, there weren't very many people around either!

Tuesday, however, brought a text from Mr. R&R that he had suddenly been struck by chills, horrible body aches, and a stuffy head.  Uh oh...that sounds a whole lot like the flu to me.  By the time I got home from work he was curled up on the couch in a heap and pretty much didn't move for the next 48 hours.  I did my best to take care of him while trying to keep my distance as well.  

I was kind of excited to run on Tuesday night as I had new goodies from REI waiting in my mailbox when I got home.  I threw on my new tri shorts (Zoot Performance 6 inch), sports bra (Moving Comfort Vero), and sunglasses (Smith Parallel) and headed out the door.  The first 3 miles were interesting.  I took a slightly different route than usual and discovered a new-to-me long, nasty hill to run up.  I'm almost looking forward to using it for hill training in the future. 

I'd been running pretty hard for those 3 miles, so for the last mile I decided to: reset my watch, find a comfortable pace, and run the last mile without looking at my watch.  Not bad!

Wednesday was a rest day since I had a much needed appointment with The Mane Wrangler.  

I had planned on running or riding on Thursday, but I ended up falling asleep on the couch instead.  Ooops!

Friday was awesome.  It was my first week for summer hours at the office and despite having a minor crisis crop up, I managed to leave by 1:30pm and by 2:30pm my bike and I were on the Rail Trail.  I wasn't too worried about riding fast since I had plans for a brick-ish workout later in the day.  It was pretty much me and the geezer contingent on the trail and everyone seemed to be in a pretty good mood - except for one dude I can only describe as "A Raging @$$ Monkey".  I passed this guy on a beach cruiser shortly before the first road crossing.  No big deal, right? That's just riding. You pass. You get passed. You go about your business.  Apparently this guy didn't like getting chicked since he caught up to me while I was waiting for a break in traffic and proceeded to ride straight across, causing several cars to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting him!  I waited for a suitable opportunity to cross and passed the guy again.  He caught up to me at the second crossing and rode straight into traffic again!  I was was willing to chalk the first one up to inattentive riding.  The second one cemented my opinion of him as a Raging @$$ Monkey.  I was done watching him be stupid, so I upped the speed, passed him again, and made damn sure that there was no way I'd have to see him again.  I hit the turnaround point and headed home - with no Raging @$$ Monkey sightings.  I did, however, come upon an older man pulled off to the side of the trail, looking at the shrubbery with a great deal of concern.  I stopped to make sure he was okay and was informed that he'd seen a kitten dart into the bushes.  We spent a few minutes looking for the kitten (no luck) and when I took off, the guy asked if he could ride with me. Holy crap...for an older dude on a 3 speed, I had to work to keep up with him! I was running through my gears and pedaling my booty off!  We chatted for the remaining 6 or so miles until I turned off to go back to my car.  Gotta love when random people surprise you - in a good way - and I had my fastest outdoor ride of the year!

I got home, hauled my bike back downstairs, took a short nap, and then headed to the pool.  Okay, it doesn't qualify as an official brick workout since I got a nap in the middle, but still...  I planned on swimming 1000 yards and surprised myself by sticking around for an extra 200.  I'm still slower than most of the grannies at the pool, but I'm okay with that.  I've accepted that the swim will never be my strength, but hopefully I can find a way to enjoy it.

Mr. R&R and I went for a short run on Saturday to see if he was going to be able to hack his way through our planned 12 miler (last long run before Rock 'n Sole) on Sunday.  We didn't even make it a full 3 miles before he was completely toasted, so we called it a day and walked home.

I woke up on Sunday morning, prepared to slog through 12 miles on my own, only to discover that my throat felt like it was filled with rocks and dust.  Damn! Just when I thought I'd escaped Mr. R&R's plague.  I didn't have the fever and body aches, but I sure got all the respiratory symptoms.  And just like that...I knew I was going to be dealing with an unplanned taper leading up to Rock 'n Sole and likely having to revise every single plan/goal I had for this race.

I closed out week 11 with:

Swim: 1200 yards (40 minutes)

Bike: 14 miles (52 minutes)

Run: 6.76 miles (1 hour, 4 minutes)

Strength: 0

Total: 21.53 miles (2 hours, 37 minutes)

Sangria, Slurpees, and the Stupid Tax (RNSHM - Week 10)

RNSHM? What?  I'm no longer training for the Hartfest Half Marathon as of this past Friday.  I'll explain more below.

Monday was Memorial Day, and a very welcome extra day of the weekend.  Mr. R&R and I got a few things done around the house and then I took to the kitchen to stock the freezer with healthy heat and eat foods.  We've been so crazy trying to fit in training, working, etc., that we found ourselves going out for dinner far too much, so we decided to give this a try.  In the course of the afternoon, I managed to make and freeze 8 black bean burgers, 32 baked falafel patties, 3 meals worth of snobby joes, and 52 individually frozen balls of chocolate chip cookie dough.  Somewhere in middle of all of this, Little Brother stopped by to drop off a whole bunch of old albums for us to peruse.  Recently, my mom gave me her old record collection and Mr. R&R and I purchased a record player online and have become totally enamored with vinyl.  Favorites so far include The Beatles Sargent Pepper and Miles Davis' Kind of Blue.  He hung around for about an hour and a half, eyeing the things being loaded into the freezer with suspicion (if it's not processed to death, he won't eat it), before heading off to a Memorial Day barbecue.

I should have run 5 miles on Tuesday, but I'd slept like crap on Monday night and couldn't keep my eyes open when I got home.  I wasn't happy about it, but I took another rest day.

On Wednesday night, Mr. R&R and I went for a speedy 3 miles together.  I guess the extra rest day was worth it because those 3 miles freakin' flew by.   The pace was tough, but I had control of my breathing the whole time and I never had an "I can't do this" moment. It was glorious - and really couldn't have come at a better time since I've been a little down on myself about my inability to run fast lately.

5 seconds/mile FASTER than my 5k PR pace!

When we got home, I threw a couple of those baked falafel patties in the oven and within 20 minutes we were chowing down on delicious salads and watching Deadliest Catch.  That's my kind of fast food!

Thursday night was another ride on the Rail Trail.  I think the traffic gods were in a good mood or something because we barely had to wait at any of the road crossings!  I also started feeling comfortable on my bike again - and my speed showed it.  I'm slowly, but surely getting my bike speed back with every ride and rides like this one make me want to do nothing more than ride my bike for hours!

Friday night was another Swim Night.  I was in no mood to swim whatsoever, but I bribed myself with the promise of only swimming for 30 minutes and dinner out when I got home.  I was 5 kinds of train wreck in the pool - at one point I stopped my watch instead of hitting the lap button, so it never recorded the most comfortable 100 yards I've ever swam!  I dragged myself through the rest of the time and was more than happy to head home and de-chlorinate.

And as promised, I was rewarded with dinner at Habanero's - and 2 sangrias that immediately transported me back to Puerto Rico when I tasted them.

Friday night was also D-Day for me - Decision Day.  I'd emailed the race director of the Hartfest Half Marathon prior to Memorial Day inquiring about a course map, race day details, etc. - basically the standard stuff that's usually available on the race website, but wasn't in this case.  I'd heard nothing for over a week and was becoming quite concerned that a) the race was going to be cancelled altogether since I hadn't heard a peep from them since I'd registered months ago and/or b) that this race was going to be a total cluster$%&#.  The way I was seeing it was that it was either going to be a complete waste of some very hard training or possibly dangerous.  I wasn't pleased, but for a $28 registration fee, maybe I was expecting too much.  Earlier in the week I'd received an email about another half marathon happening in the area on the same day - with a 7am start time!  However, the fees for this race are much more expensive.  At this stage of the game, the price tag was $85 and would be going up to $95 the next day.  After much discussion with Mr. R&R, I decided that $28 was my Stupid Tax for not pursuing answers a lot sooner and we both registered for the 4th Annual Rock 'n Sole half marathon - thus the change to RNSHM!  

For my $85 I get a tech tshirt, finisher's medal, a free Summerfest ticket (which is worth $20 anyway), free admission to Polish Fest after the race, and something even more valuable in my opinion - a chance to run over the Hoan Bridge.  This bridge is normally part of a freeway, and thus closed to pedestrians, but they're shutting down one side for the race and they're doing it again in August for the USAT Sprint Nationals.  Essentially, this is my one and only chance to preview this part of the USAT bike course without zipping over it in a car.  Two birds. One stone.  Awesome.  

Saturday was "get stuff done" day at Casa R&R.  We started out a day that was mostly full of unpleasant tasks, like running errands and shopping for tile, with a little trip to the Zoo.  Since we're annual members, it was no big deal to wander around for an hour and a half before getting on with our day.  The animals, especially the ones from Africa, were quite active!

Pretty Birdie

Mr. R&R making new friends

And on a totally random note, the flowers we planted are not only not dead - they're actually blooming! 

Sunday was long run day and we had 11 miles on tap.  We were out the door by 10:30 and that wasn't a moment too soon since it got really hot and then poured later in the day. The first half was great!  We hit 5.5 miles and I felt like I'd only been running for 3 or 4.  Inevitably, we did slow down and have some rough miles toward the end, but all in all, it was a good run day - even if we did cut it a little short since it was getting so hot.  Oh, and after last week's near religious slurpee experience, I had taken to Facebook to proclaim that all long runs will now be followed by a ginormous slurpee.  I made good on that proclamation on the cool down walk home.

Mmmm....Slurpee

I closed out Week 10 with:

Swim: 800 yards (34 minutes)

Bike: 14 miles (51 minutes)

Run: 13.61 miles (2 hours, 23 minutes)

Strength: 0

Total: 28.11 miles (2 hours, 48 minutes)

My May Totals Were:

Swim: 1.66 miles (1 hour, 38 minutes)

Bike: 42.08 miles (2 hours, 39 minutes)

Run: 57.49 miles (9 hours, 41 minutes)

Strength: 0

Total: 101.23 miles (13 hours, 58 minutes)

Less than 2 full weeks to go! 

What was the highlight of your Memorial Day weekend?  

I Like My New Toys (HFHM - Week 9)

Well...I had a whole long post written for Week 9 - and then Blogger ate it!  Needless to say, I'm not happy about having to re-write a full post, so I think for this attempt, I'm just going to go with a summary.

Monday night was my cleat fitting appointment at Emery's.  I loaded up my bike over lunch and hauled it back to the office with me so I could go straight to my appointment after work.  When I got to the shop, I ended up having to pick out different shoes since the first pair I picked out didn't accept the kind of cleats that fit my pedals.  After trying on what felt like every other shoe in the place, I settled on the Pearl Izumi Tri Fly IV and they got the cleats bolted on and had me spin on a trainer while they made some minor adjustments.  After that, I headed home looking forward to trying out all my new toys!

Tuesday night was 5 miles with Mr. R&R.  The two miles and the last two miles were decent, but the one in the middle was a beast. I got an ugly side stitch and had to walk it off, which kind of wrecked my whole average.  On a positive note, at least I was able to get rid of the darn thing!

I finally got to take all my new bike toys out to play on Wednesday night.  Mr. R&R and I drove our bikes over to the Rail Trail for 14 easy miles.  The new helmet and shoes were everything I'd hoped they'd be and more.  Lots of nice ventilation in both.  The best part of the whole ride was that Mr. R&R's knee didn't hurt afterward!  That knee kept him off the bike most of last season, so let's hope that this is a sign of things to come.

I also did something else on Wednesday night. I registered for the USAT Sprint National Championships in August.  I have no illusions of earning a spot on Team USA that day, but it will be fun to compete in a national championship race in my city!  Now I just need to get cracking on the training.

Thursday was a rest day.  My legs felt like lead after the bike ride on Wednesday and I don't want to take any chances right now.

Friday night was Swim Night.  I drove myself out to the pool, swam just over 1000 yards (including testing myself for 400 nonstop yards), and was pretty pleased with how it went.  Open water swims are starting soon and my choices there are 400 yards without stopping - or looking like a complete idiot.

Saturday was spent dividing my time between the couch and a lawn chair in the back yard.  I really needed a "do nothing" day - and I got it.  The only useful thing I did was snuggle with Walter for an hour or so after his bath.

You'd think that by now I would have learned to do my long runs early in the day, but no.  The Hartfest Half doesn't start until 1pm (still not sure what the race director's logic is on this one), so that's about the time Mr. R&R and I set out to tackle 10 miles.  I have two words to describe that run: Slow and Miserable.  It was so hot out that our pace was reduced to a "slog" (one of my tri teammate's words to describe a slow job).  The best part of that run, other than being done with it, was the near religious experience I had while consuming a cherry slurpee on our walk home!

Since we already reeked, we decided it was a good excuse to fire up the grill and cook up some spicy italian sausages for our post race feast.  While they were cooking away, I hung out in my lawn chair reading and admiring our curious little visitor.

I closed out Week 9 with:

Swim: 1050 yards (31 minutes)
Bike: 14 miles (54 minutes)
Run: 15 miles (2 hours, 49 minutes)
Strength: 0
Totals: 29.71 miles (4 hours, 9 minutes)

9 weeks down. 3 to go!

Family, Friends, and Flowers (HFHM Week 8)

So, it's been 2 weeks since I've posted.  Sorry about that, but life has been one big blur of sorts lately between training, working, and general living and blogging sort of got pushed to the sidelines.  Here's my attempt at a recap of Week 8.  Hopefully I'll be able to catch you up on Week 9 later this week (before my recap of Week 10 is due if I'm lucky)!

Training Week 8:

After my 10 mile run with Mr. R&R the day before, I spent Monday night foam rolling my legs, doing dishes, and generally recovering.  By Tuesday I felt good enough to do the 4.5 miles my training plan prescribed.  I felt good enough to run negative splits!

Wednesday night was another Strider Fun Run at the same park as the last one I attended.  Once again it was chilly and windy when we started running, but that didn't really bother me much since I actually prefer cooler weather when attempting to run my ass off.  I took off like a bat out of hell and found myself as the 2nd place female at the one mile mark.  Unfortunately, I think the real speed demons showed up and I was passed shortly after Mile 1.  I really didn't mind getting passed by that woman - she was obviously having a better night than I was.  What did bother me was the woman who popped out of a side trail and pushed me into 4th. Yes, I know it wasn't a real race, so it's technically not cheating, but COME ON!!!!  The turn into the wind didn't help matters any since I didn't have my two human windshields this time.  I admit fully that the bullshit voice started whispering at that point and a few more women slipped past me.  The monster hill allowed a few more to get in front of me.  Grrr.  I tried to put the irritation out of my mind as I looped around the pond (the goslings are growing fast!) and pushed up the final hill.  As I came down the last hill, I was the 11th place female from what I could tell.  I saw one girl not too far in front of me, so I sucked it up, started running faster, and sprinted past her for 10th place.  That is why you never slow down as you approach a finish - someone might be gaining on you.

Afterward I was discussing the whole "woman who popped in off a side trail" with Mr. R&R and he said that another woman did the same thing later in the course.  For almost 2 miles there were no females in front of him and then all of a sudden, one popped in off a side trail!  What the heck!

Thursday of that week was my Friday since I'd decided to give myself a 3 day weekend.  After work, I had the opportunity to act as a running coach to two of my co-workers.  I took them out for 3 miles after work and it was a very different experience for me.  They're both very new to running and both run at very different paces, so the majority of the miles were spent running back and forth between them and motivating them.  I give them both credit...they were both struggling, but they kept going and when we finished they both said they wanted to do it again soon.  No bullshit voices there! It also made me incredibly grateful to the people who have coached me (namely Mr. R&R and the Iron Cheerleader) - this coaching stuff is tough stuff! I had originally planned to use the run with them as a warm up before hitting the bike when I got home, but when I walked in the door I found Mr. R&R all suited up in his running clothes and decided to join him for a couple easy miles.  My legs felt light and springy, and it felt good to run at my normal pace.  Afterward, we hit up a nearby Mexican restaurant where I may have had one more mango margarita than I should have - but it was my Friday!

Friday was a fun day for me.  I slept in, took my time getting a few things done, and then got to join Little Sister and Tiny (but growing like a weed) Nephew at the zoo!  We only spent about two hours at the zoo, but my nephew really seemed to like it. According to Little Sis, he really likes watching the fish.  I have to say, I was really skeptical about this claim, but as soon as we entered the fish building he was straining to get out of his stroller and Little Sis happily obliged.

He was mildly amused by this wily looking fellow

but as soon as she held him in front of one of the giant fish tanks, his little arms and legs began flailing everywhere and he was all smiles.  Once he grew bored (and Little Sis and I had enough of the shrieking school groups surrounding us) we moved on to the aviary with one purpose in mind: penguins.  We sped through the stinky, open aviary and headed straight for Little Sis' favorite animal.

Watching Little Sister show her son her favorite animal was really cool.  Actually, just watching her with him in general...well...let's just say it made me a little misty-eyed.

And the penguins put on quite a show for them.  One kept swimming back and forth in front of them, making Tiny Nephew shriek with laughter.

After the penguin show, we stopped out for a quick lunch before Little Sis had to take Tiny Nephew to his Grandma's and herself off to work.

My next stop on Friday afternoon was Emery's (aka: The Toy Store for Triathletes). After last summer's spectacular wipe out at the Shoreline Duathlon I had some doubts about the state of my helmet.  There are no visible cracks in it, but the general rule of thumb is that if you crash in a helmet, it's time to replace it.  I also wanted to replace my shoes since I've never been able to get rid of the annoying clicking noise under the right cleat.  When I walked in, the store was completely quiet and Brent Emery himself was available to help me out.  We discussed what I was looking for in a helmet as well as my price point and I soon found myself having Brent fit multiple helmets on my head.  Eventually, I settled on this:

Bontrager Circuit

Next up was new shoes.  Brent brought out several styles and helped me figure out what was best suited to my needs.  I originally wanted a triathlon specific shoe, but he helped me find one that was good for both road and triathlon riding - and made sure that I wouldn't bang my toes against the ends while I'm riding.  We figured out which cleat type I have (he had to look it up since I suck at remembering these things) and set up a cleat fitting appointment for Monday evening.

I drove home with plans to drive out to the pool and spend some quality time soaking up chlorine, but no sooner had I walked in the door than Mr. R&R called to let me know that his plans for drinks with his friend from out of town (The Groom from the wedding in Puerto Rico) had turned into a full on Usual Suspects reunion.  My pool plans were quickly abandoned and I spent the rest of Friday night catching up with The Groom (and getting to know his absolutely lovely wife, The Bride), Mr. Fix-It, Nacho Nurse (and their little girl), Dancing Queen, Maverick, and Who-Ha.  The only ones missing were Goose, Miss Placed, and Black Betty.  We've all kind of moved on to different places in our lives, so we don't get to see each other much any more.

I probably should have gone for a long run on Saturday or Sunday, but since we were a week ahead on long run mileage, Mr. R&R and I opted to spend the weekend ripping out the rotted old boards and railroad ties that surrounded the flower beds along the side of our house and replacing them with a new, brick border.  Sounds easy, right?  Let's just say that ripping out the old border was the easy part.  Next came leveling, re-leveling, and figuring out how to make a clean break in a brick in order to fit the allotted space.  By Sunday afternoon, we'd finally gotten both flower beds edged and popped in a few plants.  It's amazing how big of a difference a little change can make!

Let's Hope I Don't Kill Them All!

We also managed to find time to fire up the grill on Sunday afternoon in order to make a beer can chicken.  If you've never tried it, I highly recommend this method of cooking a whole chicken.  The meat was super moist and so tender that it was almost falling off the bones!

Looks obscene. Tastes Divine.

I closed out week 9 with:

Swim: 0 yards
Bike: 0 miles
Run: 12.95 miles
Strength: 0
Total Miles: 12.95
Total Time: 2 hours, 9 minutes

Nailed It! (HFHM-Week6)

I know it's no secret around here that one of my favorite tv shows is Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch, but I also really, really loved How I Met Your Mother...especially Barney Stinson. And this week deserves a classic Barney-ism:

I nailed all my key workouts, managed to eat pretty well, and generally just felt great about the week.

Monday:
Monday started off with a the usual bowl of cereal at my desk, but was made extra delicious with the addition of fresh strawberries and raspberries. I'm ridiculously happy that good produce is slowly coming into season again.  Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against apples and bananas, but after eating them nonstop all winter, I'm ready for berry/peach/melon season.

I also took the chance of offending my coworkers at lunch time by scarfing down this protein-packed tuna sandwich!  The whole sandwich was pretty good, but swapping baby arugula in place of plain old romaine took it to a whole other level.

After work it was off to The Cave for 20 minutes of core strength and 40 minutes on the bike, followed by 10 minutes of foam rolling my legs.

 On Tuesday evening, Mr. R&R and I ran 4 miles together.  No leg cramps. No side stitches. Just pure, running fun...complete with negative splits!

The run was followed by pita pizza and more foam rolling.  The foam roller seems to be both my best friend (since it helps loosen up the tight spots in my legs) and my worst enemy (since it hurts like a mofo) these days.

I ran my first Badgerland Striders Fun Run of the season on Wednesday night. Mr. R&R and I met up with the group (including The Iron Cheerleader) at a local park and commiserated about the unseasonably cold weather as we stretched and prepared to run.  The Strider Fun Runs are a near-weekly occurrence from May to September that moves around a handful of local parks.  There's no chip timing, it's just you vs. the finish clock for 3-ish miles. 

Everyone slowly shuffled toward the starting area and as soon as everyone was in place, someone shouted "GO!" and we were off.  I've run this particular course before (same course as the Hot Dog Run from last summer), so I knew that the first mile was a slight downhill through one of my favorite places to run, followed by a steep, nasty, long (over a 1/4 mile long) hill around the 1.5 mile mark, and then mostly flat with a fast downhill finish.  To give you a better idea, here's the elevation chart from my Garmin that night:

I took advantage of the slight downhill for the first mile and clocked a 8:39.  This was also useful in escaping the chatter of some ladies who were behind me for a bit.  I tucked myself in behind two guys just past Mile 1 and used them as human windshields as we turned West and into a strong headwind.  I lost them on the giant hill since I slowed significantly on it. I hit Mile 2 in 9:02.  As I started my lap around the pond, I became aware of a guy running just off my shoulder and it was enough to make me speed up a little in an attempt to shake him.  For a while it seemed to work, but as soon as I slowed down a little, there he was, right off my shoulder again.  I pushed the pace a little more, since I hadn't been passed since before Mile 1.  I made it up the last little hill and kicked it into high gear coming down the hill...sprinting for the finish clock.  I made to the finish in 26:27 (avg. 8:56/mile).  Afterward, the guy who'd been hot on my heels for the last mile found me and I thanked him since he made me run harder. Funny enough, he said that I'd made him run harder than he'd planned because he was trying to chase me down!  I located Mr. R&R and the Iron Cheerleader and we chatted for a bit before making our way through the food line.  Oh yeah...Strider Fun Runs come complete with a weekly food theme and beer after the run.  As Mr. R&R and I were eating, he mentioned that he was pretty sure that I was the first female to finish that night.  I know it was only because most of the real speed demons weren't there, but it still blew my mind. Me? First? Really?

My legs were killing me on Thursday, so I did absolutely nothing other than foam rolling my legs.

Friday was a rough one at the office.  I'm trying to get through a massive project and it seems that for every step I take forward, I take 2 steps back. Fortunately I had a fantastic snack to power me through the afternoon:

Mozzarella, Tomatoes, Baby Arugula w/ Balsamic

After work, I stopped home to change and headed to the pool for the first time in far too long.  I had no goals other than 'Swim for 30 Minutes'.  I surprised myself and swam 1000yds in that time.  I was also pleased to discover that I can actually breathe on my right side without swallowing half a gallon of chlorinated water...which is something I couldn't do at this point a year ago.  WIN!

When I got home, I ended up meeting Mr. R&R and some friends at the bar...and having at least one more beer than I should have.  Needless to say, that cemented a decision I'd made earlier in the week: I wasn't going to race the Trail Assail 5k on Saturday.  That decision was made partly due to the crappy, rainy weather we'd had all week.  I don't mind getting a little dirty, but all the rain lead me to believe that the trail would be more like a mud pit, which greatly increased the odds of getting hurt.  The other part of that decision came from I needed to run 8 miles at some point in the weekend and I was supposed to meet some of my teammates for a bike ride on Sunday morning.  Something had to give, and it was Trail Assail.

I ended up sleeping right up until gun time on Saturday morning!  After some discussion, I used Saturday as a Rest/Run Errands/Get Stuff Done day and let my friends know that I wouldn't be able to meet them on Sunday morning. 

Sunday was long run day.  Mr. R&R and I set out to run 8 relatively easy-paced miles.  It was breezy, sunny, and all around perfect running weather.  When we got to the 4 Mile mark, Mr. R&R asked me the same question that he asks me at the half way point every week: "Do you feel like you're half way done." Surprisingly, my answer was 'No'.  We were both feeling pretty good, so we ended up running an extra mile.  There were a couple of steep hills between Miles 6 and 7, which kind of tanked the pace, but we recovered and finished strong.  I'm starting to believe that something good might be brewing for the Hartfest Half !

I closed out Week 6 with:

Swim: 1000 yards (32 minutes)
Bike: 11.64 miles (40 minutes)
Run: 16 miles (2 hours, 34 minutes)
Strength: 20 minutes
Total Miles: 28.21
Total Time: 4 hours, 6 minutes

Where Did The Week Go? (HFHM - Week 5)

Seriously...the last week passed by in a the blink of an eye.  One minute I was sitting in the living room watching Walter and Spot play with their Grandma Naner and the next minute I was sitting in my in-laws living room celebrating Easter #2.

It was absolutely beautiful out on Monday - 70 degrees, sunny, light breeze - the whole 9 yards.  Mr. R&R and I set out for a nice 3.5 mile run IN SHORTS!!!!!  It's a good thing that the weather was fantastic, because the run was not.  The first mile was pretty uneventful aside from both of my shoes coming untied despite having been double knotted.  About a quarter of the way through the second mile, my left calf started to cramp a little.  It was annoying, but I tried to push it out of my mind and keep running.  I think I must have subconsciously adjusted the way I was running to compensate for the calf cramps because a quarter mile later I ended up with a miserable cramp under the right side of my ribcage.  I caved and stopped to stretch.  We got moving again and half a mile later I was forced to stop again to stretch out my various aches and pains.  Fortunately, that seemed to do the trick and we were able to run the rest without much incident. Of course my dumb self didn't look at my training calendar before we headed out - it was supposed to be a 4 mile run!

Tuesday was a quick trip to The Cave for 40 minutes of Pump and Shred (I skipped the lunge track since my right knee is being a bit tweaky).

Wednesday was a chilly one, but Mr. R&R and I bundled up and hit the local outdoor track for a brutal Groundhog workout (7x400).  The first few repeats felt good, and then I think I had a few brain lapses when my Garmin beeped for the rest periods, because I ended up running 3 speed laps in a row instead of sticking a slow lap in the middle!  By the time it was over, I was worn out and starving!

Neither of us felt like cooking, so we swung by a new-ish burger/custard place (the place that provided the bananas and chicken soup after Gary's Gallop) to pick up dinner.  I had no intention of ordering custard, but when I saw that the flavor of the day was sangria, I had to try it.  Verdict: Yum!  The rest of the night was spent on the couch watching the first episode of Deadliest Catch: Season 10.

Further proof that I've never met a sangria I didn't like

Thursday was supposed to be a bike ride, but my legs were killing me, so I took an unscheduled rest day.  Friday was a scheduled rest day, so Mr. R&R and I took advantage of it by going out to our favorite running store on a quiet night so Mr. R&R could pick up a new pair of running shoes since his current pair had hit their maximum mileage - and I got a sneak peek at what my next pair of shoes will look like when the current pair hit their limit.  I'm a fan!

Saturday was long run day and it. was. awesome.  Mr. R&R ran with me again and it was the best long run I've ever had.  7 miles flew by - and felt more like 3 miles than 7.  I'm hoping this is a good omen of things to come over the next 7 weeks. 

The long run was followed by a quick lunch, a shower, and 80 minutes on my new massage therapist's table.  Once again, she managed to work out all the knots in my back and she released a lot of tight spots in my legs.

Sunday was a belated Easter celebration at my in-laws house.  I think the highlight of the event for me was when I took the funky socks out of my Easter basket (my mother in-law likes to give everyone novelty socks for holidays) and put them on my in-laws very tolerant (and somewhat indignant) Australian Shepherd.

Oh, the indignity!

When we got home, Walter had to up the Cute Factor by 1000 while Mr. R&R was cuddling him.

He scooted up that far on his own!

And on that note...I'm out. Monday morning is going to come way too fast!

The Bull$#!^ Voice (HFHM - Week 2)

Monday: I should know better than to run the day after my long run.  Actually, I do know better than to do that, but it was warm and sunny out and the forecast called for cold/rain/wind the rest of the week, so I couldn't pass up the chance to run outside again. And fortunately, neither could Mr. R&R.  We headed out on tired legs for a very easy 3 miles.  I really love running with him because he has absolutely no interest in listening to what I've started referring to as "the bullshit voice".  The bullshit voice is that little voice inside my head that is always saying things like: 'This pace is too fast.' 'It's okay to walk for a little while.' and 'I can't do this.'  It's quite simple: If I want Mr. R&R to run with me, I have to tell the bullshit voice to shut. the. %@#!. up - or at least do my best to ignore it.

The first 2 miles were run at a really easy pace, which was a very good thing since my legs were still sore from the previous day's 5 miler and we were running into a pretty strong headwind.  I consoled myself in the last quarter mile leading up to the 2 mile mark that all I had to do was make it up the hill to the turnaround and then the last mile would be mostly downhill/flat and there'd be a nice tailwind.  No sooner did we turn around than the wind switched directions and that tailwind I'd been anticipating became a headwind and Mr. R&R picked up the pace!  Let me tell you - the bullshit voice, which had been pretty quiet, started shouting.  It was saying things like: 'I really need to walk a little.' and 'This is miserable. I don't want to be doing this.'  I could have whined at Mr. R&R and he'd probably have slowed down a little, but I didn't want to do it. I wanted to prove that I could suck it up and hang in there - after all, a big part of racing (especially short distances like the 5k) is learning to suffer because it's over so fast - so I sucked it up and stayed on his shoulder as the pace on my Garmin continued to drop.  By the end of the last mile, I was gasping for air, holding on for dear life, and doing my best to ignore the bullshit voice.  The last mile was a 9:03!  Take that bullshit voice!

Tuesday: My legs were a little creaky this morning, but that was to be expected after running 8 miles in two days after barely running at all in the last 6 months.  It was also rainy and crappy out, so I hit the trainer for a 30 minute spin (while Mr. R&R did his workout) followed by 20 minutes of HardCore Abs.  I learned a little lesson: Do the ab workout before the bike workout!

Wednesday: Rest Day.  I spent my night off from running parked in The Mane Wrangler's chair, sipping red wine, and discussing the best way to keep my highlights from turning 'chlorine green'

Thursday: It was cold. It was windy. I ran anyway.  Mr. R&R agreed to pace me through my first tempo run of the season (my least favorite form of speed work on the planet) so we set off at an almost too easy pace - and every so often, he'd pick up the pace a little.  Around the 2 mile mark we reached the peak of the tempo (2 minutes at under race pace) and then slowly began backing the pace back down.  By the time we were finished, I was pouring sweat and had the bullshit voice pouting in a corner.

Friday: I had dinner with Little Sister - just the two of us.  We met up at a new-to-me restaurant called CoopersHawk Winery around 6pm. The wine was good, the food was average, the company was outstanding!  I had initially planned on hitting The Cave when I got home, but that plan was made under the assumption that I would be home by 8pm.  I didn't roll in the door until close to 9:30 and I was nearly asleep on my feet.  Workout plans were scrapped and I hit the couch and fell asleep shortly thereafter.

Saturday: Um...yeah. Life happened, so not only did I not go to the pool, but I also skipped making up my missed time in The Cave.  On a positive note, Mr. R&R and I had lunch at Ono Kine Grindz...and that never makes me unhappy.

Aloha!

Sunday: It was a warm(ish), sunny, beautiful day and I had 6 miles on tap.  Mr. R&R joined me again (really liking this trend) and we took the first few miles easy, which is what you want to do on a long run, slowed down a little more for the fourth mile, and then cranked it up for Mile 5.  That mile was tough on my body, but Mile 6 was just brutal on my mind.  The bullshit voice was screaming at me.  My body ached, my heart was pounding, and I gave in.  I begged for a 30-45 second walk break to catch my breath/slow my heart rate - and then got really pissed off that I let that happen.  When I started running again, I still felt like crap. My hip was getting sore, I felt like I was fighting for every breathe, and every time I looked at my Garmin, I could have sworn I was running much harder than I was.  The bullshit voice flared up again and I actually started saying "shut up. shut up. shut up." out loud trying to beat it at its own game.  It's probably a good thing Mr. R&R was with me, or I would have looked like a raving lunatic!  The last mile was a fight, but I finished it...running.  I know, intellectually, that not all runs go well, but I really hate when they feel harder than they should!

I closed out Week 2 with:

Swim: 0 yards
Bike: 9 miles (30 minutes)
Run: 12.12 miles (1 hour, 59 minutes)
Strength: 20 minutes
Total Miles: 21.17 miles
Total Time: 2 hours, 49 minutes

 Next week will bring my first "tune up" race of the year.  Now the burning question is: Race with music or without?  What do you think?