cold snap by abby

i know a person can only complain about the weather so much before it starts to get old. luckily, today seems to have brought in a cold front that very well may be the end of the Infernal Heat Streak of 2007. It's 70 out right now, and slightly overcast, and i'm sitting in front of my computer at home, with the windows flung open and a fresh breeze whipping papers around the room. this makes me one happy gal.

actually, everyone's in a pretty good mood. my boss suggested that last night was finally cool enough for all of us to get some real sleep. that's a good point.

so i did a 15-mile road bike ride. i was going to do 20, but then it occurred to me that i should probably begin giving my legs a little rest on the day after longer runs. i think i will start swimming on mondays. i know i've said that before, but i think i mean it this time. it's just that today, with the nicest weather we've had since may, it was hard for me to justify being inside.


anyhoooooow, can you believe that i might actually have to wear long sleeves for my run tomorrow morning? and also, have i mentioned how ready i am for fall/winter???

yoga

today, for "stretch & strengthen," i took a yoga class at the gym. yoga is good. but weird. but good. but i creep myself out thinking 'namaste' all thoughout the day afterward...like maybe i'm joining a cult or something.
(i'm just kidding, by the way.)

abby - absolutely we must run when you are in town! i think you and i have kind of done the same thing, where we combined the half marathon training schedule with the marathon schedule so the whole thing is kind of janked up...BUT, according to the calendar i made for myself, i'm running 9 miles on 09/30, and then 3/5/3 on the 3rd, 4th & 5th. I guess actually it will be good to get the lazyfest run out of the way BEFORE lazyfestivities begin....

th-su by abby

where i'm at is tired of complaining about this heat. but i'm mad about it. i didn't move here to be hot All The Time. whatevs.

anyway:
TH i did the same 4.5 mile run as tues, with one mile of gravel. i felt great, way better than on tues. but i did the run in the same amount of time, just under 45 minutes. so at least i'm being consisent, whether i feel great or not.

FR i burned up and threw a temper tantrum and finally found reprieve at about 8,000 feet in a mountain stream too cold to stand in.

SA i hopped on my road bike for a 20-miler, which will probably be the 20-miler i run in december. i love my road bike. this running stuff is okay, but i'd rather ride my bike any day.

SU i was out on the road before 6 am for the 7 miles. it was nice. i felt great and got to see the sun rise and everything. i am running pretty much dead-on 10-minute miles; my time today was 1:11. i meant to wear my watch so i could clock my splits, but i forgot. so hopefully i'll remember that next week. i'm about 3 weeks ahead in training since my half marathon's not till 9/24, so i'm looking at the half schedule and the full schedule and trying to figure out what to do. i think i may just work my way up to 13 by the first week in september and move forward with the marathon training. that way the half can just be a training run.

gerlinda -- what distance will you be at the last weekend in september? maybe we can get a run or two in together while i'm out there ....

7 miles - gerlinda

where you at, abby???? i hope you haven't burned up in the great fire!

i did my 7 miles without incident this morning in 1 hour 16 minutes. my friend kathy ran with me and we chatted, which made it all go by pretty quickly. my left ankle is a bit stiff, but i'm otherwise unscathed...

next week, i start boot camp again (i'm doing my make up days through the session, so i'll be going M&F for the 1st 2 weeks, and M, W, F for the 2nd 2 weeks.) I'm substituting boot camp for crosstraining & "strength" since i seem to feel l can skimp on those...

the half marathon is only a month away!!

procrastination - gerlinda

i was totally dreading my "gruesome 4.5 miler" around grant park...maybe that's why i invited friends over wednesday night to "get the dogs together to play." i knew it would give me an excuse not to get up thursday morning!

of course, friday morning, i had no such excuse...

finally, this morning, lauren & i met @ 7am & knocked out the run. turns out it's not so terribly gruesome after all...the first 1/4 mile is downhill, the next mile or so is rolling hills - not too terrible, the next mile & 1/2 is pretty flat. then comes a leg that's all uphill...but it's only one leg. then it's flat again. then back to the rolling hills. and the last bit is actually a gruesome hill - but at that point you're a 1/4 mile from the finish so - BOOM!

i feel really good that i finally did the run.
too bad i flaked on all my crosstraining.
tomrrow is a 7 miler. a group of friends is running with me, including kathy who is actually doing 9 miles as part of her training for the Marine Corps marathon. Hoo-Rah!

la-Z by abby

monday i freaked out and decided not to go to work, so i got in a 17-mile road bike ride in the late morning, which was awesome except for the part where the road construction crew almost ran over me.

tuesday i hauled myself out of bed despite all protests from my brain, and did a 4.5-miler which included 1 mile of gravel. it was a good run. i did it in just under 45 minutes which, given the gravel section, feels like a good time. i hated the shorts i was wearing, and they are going in the goodwill bag as soon as i wash them.

today i think the weather is getting to me. it's so hot, and there's just no relief, and i'm over it. i'm ready for snow. i really really am. i've been sluggish and lazy and gross and blah all week, and the only reason i got up to run yesterday is because i've learned the importance of getting in at least the training runs. anyhoo ... i'm hoping to get in some kind of bike ride this afternoon or tonight, but who knows? i might just under a hose.

tomorrow i have another 4.5-er and i will probably do the gravel run again, because it's harder than the pavement run. gerlinda -- good luck with your gnarly course!! when i have really hilly courses (which i will starting with this weekend's 7-miler), i usually let myself walk the hills, or at least part of the hills ... so i don't kill myself too early on. since you work against gravity, your heartrate stays up and it's not really important to get up the hills fast ... just to get up them. it's kind of nice to switch to different muscles for a few minutes too.

M-T-W - gerlinda

monday - "stretch & strenghten" is just a fancy way of saying "rest".... i'm just sayin'

tuesday - i slept in & thus had to do my 4.5 @ the gym...but i was smokin'. after running in "the real world" the treadmill feels so easy... i kept adding speed and hills. i seem to get mentally tired around the 2nd mile and thoughts of 'i wish i could just stop now' cross my mind. i hope the mental stuff doesn't mess with me too much as the miles continue to increase. physically, i feel great.

wednesday - i have custody of the dog this week, so i think my "crosstraining" will include taking him on a long walk.

i've mapped out a gruesome 4.5 course from my house around Grant Park and back for tomorrow...gruesome because of the hilly terrain, and because it *feels* like a really long distance. wish me luck...or at least, wish me help in getting up at the crack of dawn so that i'll actually attempt this course...

sat-sun by abby

i got home pretty late from my show friday night, but i have these fool-proof dog alarm clocks who like to wake up with the sun, so i got up and was running by 7:00. apparently the mid-90s we were having last week were actually a cold front of blue triangles ... as it was in the 100s all weekend. so it was already hot at 7:00am, but i was grateful for a southerly breeze. i did the same run as last week and felt slightly less strong, probably due to a week of anxiety-ridden sleep. at any rate, i feel ready to move up to 7.

my hip is doing okay. it gets a little twingey every now and then, but i command it to stop with my brain and that seems to be working for now. in the past, the real test has come around 10 miles, so i guess we'll see. for blisters -- that second skin stuff is good and easy to carry for a quick fix. if you're just getting them on your ankles/heels, that should work fine. if you're getting them other places on your foot, you might consider thicker socks. i can tell you that the bottoms of my feet, right at the ball, were close to blistering at around 24 miles. they never actually blistered, but they were pretty raw and sore. so i plan for thicker socks this time around.

then i spent the rest of the day saturday and all day sunday in livingston helping my friend ashley build a fence. ashley's an architect, and she designed her fence and milled all the wood herself, which is pretty cool. we built the framing on saturday and cut and installed the boards sunday and all that was possibly the hardest manual labor i have done in ... well, pretty much ever. we rewarded ourselves with a late, lazy float and it was even hot on the river.

so my hamstrings are extra sore and tight from digging, and my arms are sore from drilling/cutting and everything else is sore too. but you know, i kinda like it. in a way, i would give up my day job in a heartbeat for the chance to be building stuff. ashley's got some wood left over, so i think i'll build a coffee table with some of that and some of our big old pieces of firewood that are aging awesomely.

the weekend - gerlinda

friday - blissful rest...

saturday - nice bike ride downtown, past the hotdog stands at underground atlanta

sunday - i crushed the trail that crushed me last week! i was out there running in the cool of 7am, rested and properly hydrated. i'm not saying it was easy - but i did it. i didn't have a watch, but i think i made good time. there are a couple fairly hellacious hills on that trail that kind of force you to slow down. but it's good training.

hey abby - been meaning to ask - how's the hip since you got the new shoes? i remain knockonwood injury free, except for some small and ignorable blisters - but i worry those will become problematic at 26.2 miles...

no off day for me ... by abby

since i had an accidental off day on wednesday, i made myself work today. i did the bike ride i've been doing lately, only instead of passing the church in churchill and riding on to amsterdam, i turned around at the church and made it an out-and-back. this means i got my 30mph downhill and then had to turn around and ride up it. which i did at about 9mph. basically it's a long, steep hill that appears to flatten out but in reality just becomes a slight but frustrating incline before going straight up again. anyway, and then it was over and the rest of the ride was just nice rolling hills.

now, i just bought a pair of running shorts which i am nerdily psyched about.

tomorrow i hope to do my long run, but i have a show in butte tonight, so it kinda depends on when i get home.

four for thursday - gerlinda

well. show went late, so i didn't make it out to the real world this morning at dawn. but, i did do a strong 4 miles in under 40 minutes at ye olde gym. still on track! and tomorrow is a day off!! yeeeeeeeehaw.

t-w-th by abby

tuesday: 4 miles. easy. felt good. stretching. weights.

wednesday: got up at 5:30 to let out the whining dogs and fully intended to go for a bike ride. but something picked me up and put me back in bed, where i slept for another 1.5 hours. figured i would get the ride in after work, but decided to paint instead. so. no cross for this sleepyhead.

today: i slept horribly last night and woke up feeling grumpy. and ... with these pains. like growing pains. remember when you got growing pains as a kid? like that. must be arthritis or something. or maybe i am actually growing. anyway, i did my 4 miles. it was a partly a new course for me, and includes 1 mile of thick gravel, which is like running on marbles. i felt okay. i guess i even felt good once i got going. then i did pushups and situps and weights and painted some more and came to work. now i'm sitting here with a grouchy stomach, dreading the day ahead.

one pussy's crosstraining - gerlinda

this morning, i hauled out the old bike, rode over to a nearby park and did a few sets of pushups, dips and core exercises.

hoo-rah.

four for tuesday - gerlinda

well. i'm proud of myself. i set my alarm for 5am...and actually got out of bed before 6. i arrived at the trail only 20 minutes later than i'd intended. the air was pearly and dewey rather than thick and wringing. it was probably in the upper 70's - perfect. the sun was just dawning as i started, and i felt really good.

it is - significantly - more difficult to run in "the real world." for one thing, there are hills. and even though i've been careful to always have *some* incline on the treadmill, actual real life hills are much more daunting. i hate them, so i try to muscle up them faster than the flats, and then i slow down until i catch my breath. also, there is a certain drag (i guess what abby calls 'resistance') in real life that doesn't exist on a treadmill. my body, overall, feels heavier and harder to pull through the air. but, i ran and ran past the first mile marker, then the second, then i turned around and before i knew it i was at the 3rd...and then there was the finish line - and i didn't die; i ran strong the whole way.

my car was parked maybe a 10th of a mile past the last mile marker - and i was interested to see what my time was, so i kept jogging, wanting to turn on the key & look at the clock on my dash (having no sports watch - alas.) It turns out, i did the run in under 40 minutes. so, i guess i go faster when i'm out in the real world. i should probably slow down a bit on the longer runs. maybe that's another reason why last week's 6-miler was so difficult.

i had a little "Chariots of Fire" moment in my head as i finished the run today. it was just so great to know that i can do it, that i can run in the real world and not loathe every second. the key, for me, is to do the runs at dawn when the world is a little quieter, a little darker, a little cooler, a little kinder.

could it be hotter here? by abby

let's just say i'm glad that the bulk of the marathon training will be over the fall/winter when the weather's a little more conducive to being outside. 'course, we'll probably have a blizzard the day before my 20-miler, but whatevs.


today i did my new favorite road bike ride -- from home to churchill and back home as a big circle with big descents. it's about 14 miles, and it takes about 50-55 minutes depending on the weather. i rode at noon. the weather channel says it's 93, but i'm sure it's more like 103 on the blacktop. i had a nice tail wind going out, which made for a nasty head wind coming home. hate wind. especially when it is a hot wind, like today. anyway, it was a good ride. it will probably become a run once i get up to that distance.

6 brutal miles - gerlinda

saturday should've been a crosstraining day, but i continue to slack on the crosstraining in favor of working on my house. saturday, i sanded all the wood putty off the floor i'm refinishing - a task i'd envisioned as quick and simple...but it ended up taking 3 bloody hours. then i had to shop vac the whole house. then i had to scub the floor by hand. blah blah blah. and it didn't end there! anyway...

today, my friend julie & i ran 6-ish miles on the freedom parkway trail. there is debate among my friends whether its 6 miles or 5.7. anyway, it was 10AM before we started - NEVER AGAIN. the heat and humidity were brutal. it was a terrible run. i had to run/walk a bunch of it. still, i made good time. i'd made an iPod mix that was exactly a 12 minute mile pace if i finished the whole thing. i finished the run in way less time, even with the walking. that could be because it wasn't really 6 miles, though!! in fact, i bet it was closer to 5. i need to track it better next time.

anyway - i've been avoiding running outside because i KNEW it would be difficult. today i discovered, it was nearly impossible. i had the juice, i had the stamina - but i lacked the mental will to push through the environmental toxins, the heat, the humidity. so...this will be a challenge. i need to change my actual lifestyle so that i can wake up early enough to knock out my runs outdoors. lately, the only time i have to myself, when i'm not slaving on the house is late at night, so i've been staying up late playing my guitar and whatnot. if these marathons are the most important thing to me right now, something's going to have to give.

thur-fri-sat by abby

thursday: 4 miles. felt good. stretching, weights, yoga.

friday: should've been a rest day, but i went for a road bike ride. i rode harder than i normally would on a rest day, because i needed to get my heart rate up over something besides my friend's dog getting killed, an icky situation at work and the little black rain cloud that's been puffing itself out inside my brain these days. thanks to the newly paved cameron bridge road, i can get in a pretty killer ride in under an hour, which includes a massive 30mph downhill that i for one am scared to try to ride up. i averaged 17mph on this ride, which is a little above what i usually average, so i know that was mostly the adrenaline of the day catching up to me.

saturday: 6! actually 6.2! a 10k! this is my longest run in over a year. it was a good run. about 63 minutes, and i stopped to walk out a cramp at mile 4.5. i started a little later than i wanted, and it was already hot, but i felt good and settled in easily. then i stretched and did some yoga. the 6-miler always feels like a big jump up to me. from 4 to 5's not so big, but from 5 to 6 has always felt like an accomplishment. maybe it's because i know i'll be out for an hour, and an hour feels like a lot time. maybe it's because it's almost 1/2 of a 1/2 marathon, and almost 1/4 of a marathon. i dunno. i did the long run today because tomorrow i hope to sleep in and then hit the river for some paddling and floating.

hey g -- the yoga could have made you a little sore before your run, w/o you knowing it, maybe. was it bikram? the first time i did that i could barely walk the next day. i don't go regularly right now (though i will start up again in the fall) but the yoga i do at home after running is of the bikram set. i like it best for the kind of deep stretching that i seem to need.

wed, thurs, friday - gerlinda

wed - supposed to be a crosstraining day, but i continued the endless painting of my house instead

thurs - supposed to be a 4-mile run, but i worked my booty off on a long-neglected project at work, and then came home and crashed early...because

friday - i have the day off today, so i gave myself (yet another) break & did the run today. but before that, i went to my first ever yoga class. i liked it! but the run afterwards, was difficult. i think it was because i forgot to eat dinner last night, and i hadn't eaten anything yet today either...so by the time i was running, around noon, i didn't have all that much energy. i mean, i felt OK. but mentally, it was just tough. i didn't feel like playing little fartleck (sp) style games with myself, and finishing the 4 miles felt like a total chore.

but i kept thinking about the sushi i was going to reward myself with afterwards, and i got through it. even better than the sushi, i came home and found a lovely housewarming gift from abby & wendy in the mail. thanks guys!! me and my new place are in much need of a smudging - that will totally come in handy. :) also, by the end of this weekend, i'm hoping the refinishing of the floor in my bedroom will be complete, and maybe i'll even have my shelves up and be able to unpack the rest of these boxes...

lack of sleep is really starting to get to me at this point...
i feel like zoning in front of the TV, but instead, i need to continue sanding the edges of my floor. ::sigh::

run, ride by abby

tues -- 4 mile run. felt great. listened to the waifs. stretched, yoga-ed, pushups, situps.

wed -- 60-minute hilly mountain bike ride. i would much rather haul my road bike up those hills, but today the mountain bikes won out.

gerlinda -- w/r/t strength and stretching: honestly, i never did it the last time around. but, i'm getting old now, and stretching's important, so i've used monday as a workout lite -- where i do a walk or easy bike ride, and then spend about half an hour really stretching and doing some lunges and weights. sometimes i through in extra stretching after other runs as well. it just depends on how much time i have.

w/r/t faster running: it's not really important for you to be faster .... unless you just want to be. i would focus on being comfortable ... settling in, finding a pace that works for you. in the case of the marathon, it's distance and not speed that really matters.

if you want to do some sprint workouts to push yourself, that might be better than trying to run a whole workout at a faster pace. so maybe you do a mile warmup at a slower pace. and then you do a half-mile on, and a half-mile off for the rest of the workout. or maybe start with quarter-miles. or whatever works. usually the "on" pace should be the pace you want to run at -- say 30 seconds to a minute faster than your regular pace. and the "off" pace would be 30 seconds to a minute slower than your normal pace. the point is to use the "off" pace to recover. you should be recovered (breathing at a regular rate, not your anaerobic threshold) before doing the next "on," even if that means you have to slow to a walk. maybe you do this for one run workout a week. an easy way to do it is at a track -- where you run the straights and then walk the curves for the sprint portion of your workout. of course you can also do it on a treadmill and just measure your distances (though i believe the treadmill gives you a bit of a push and doesn't emulate the resistance you get on the road). it's good for building up your fast-twitch muscles and also for teaching your body to recover faster. but it's not imperative for distance running. it's more important to be comfortable.

so i guess i would say that it's not important for you to be faster on the shorter runs unless you just want to be. it won't really make a difference in the end. well, it might make a very *slight* difference ... but i never did any sprint training when i ran my last marathon. for your first marathon, i figure it's just about getting through it. if you want to do more after than in an effort to improve your time, then sprint workouts might be more important for you. of course, i am also biased. i'm a lousy sprinter -- on the road, on the bike and in the pool. so. and now i will hush up.

mon & tues - gerlinda

monday was supposed to be "stretching & strenghtening" day. what does that mean? is it sort of like a rest day, with maybe some situps or something? anyway, i did NOTHING! i meant to go to bed early to recover from not sleeping all weekend; instead i played my guitar well into the night...

yesterday was a 4-mile run. i did it at the gym, after work. and just to see if i could, i set the treadmill on a 10-minute mile pace. what do you know? i can run that fast, and still have juice left over at the end. truthfully, it was more difficult. i was breathing harder and there were a couple of times i really would've liked to slow down - but i kept pushing. i'm not sure what this means. should i be trying to get faster? will going faster on the shorter runs help my stamina on the longer ones?

paddle, pedal by abby

there is this event in jackson, wy, called the pole pedal paddle. i can remember going as a kid and watching people my parents knew. it's something i'd like to do someday, though i am going to have to conquer the paddle part first. anyway, sunday was a paddle day. it was supposed to be a long run, but since i did the run on saturday instead, i planned a bike for sunday. and then ... well, the river called. so instead i spent the day floating the yellowstone with about 15 other people and a total of 5 boats. the river's slowed down a lot in the last few weeks. in late june, it took about 3 hours to go from grey owl to mallard's rest. yesterday it took more like 5 hours. it didn't seem like i was doing much work, but today my core is sore, and my left tricep, from ruddering i guess. i feel myself getting addicted to this paddling business. i am basically ready to quit my job and just become a river rat. and i have giant mosquito bite on my forehead. lovely.


this morning i got up early and did a 50-minute hilly road bike ride since yesterday was basically rest. i should be back on schedule for the rest of the week. it's a little early for my half-marathon schedule, but i think i will go ahead and up to 6 miles for the long run this week.

fri., sat & sun - gerlinda

friday - i think i just rested. i can't remember if i did anything else...

saturday - was supposed to be crosstraining, but i ended up working dawn to dusk on the new house. my friends came over and we sanded the hardwood floors in one room, repaired & skim coated a plaster wall, peeled off nasty wallpaper, sanded the walls and repainted half the interior of the house. does that count as crosstraining???

sunday - i ran my 5 miles @ the gym b/c i waited too late in the day to run outside. i was *so tired* from only getting 4 hours sleep the night before, but my Amino Vital got me through - and it actually felt really great to run. I was planning to take it easy, but I slowly increased the speed & incline on the treadmill - mostly just to play mental games with myself - and i did the 5 miles in 53 minutes. i still need to get a little faster if i want to catch abby...but, that was pretty good for me.

5 by abby

i took friday all the way off. i had a long, icky week at work and i wanted a bike ride in the afternoon but by the time i got home it was windy and threatening to storm. so that was that.

tomorrow's supposed to be 5, but i did it today because i know i'll be out late tonight. it's the wine classic -- our big major fundraiser at work -- and it's been putting a hitch in my get-along all week, so i figured i might as well get the run out of the way. and it was a great run! i got up early, so it wasn't too hot. the sky's spotless and the air's clear and i just felt great. i ran 5.2 miles in 51.5 minutes. the .2 comes because it's actually about .1 miles from my house to the road where i start my mileage counts. sometimes i run that and sometimes i don't. today i did, so it counts.

then i did some stretching and 30 pushups and some yoga stuff while watching live coverage of the tour de france.

thursday's 3.5 - gerlinda

geez abby!!! don't get killed running on your country road!!!

i did my 3.5 at the gym - and it was fantastic! i felt really, really good - and i dunno why, because i didn't eat anything special, and i didn't get extra sleep...the only thing i can figure is that taking it easy wed. maybe gave me some extra zing. in any case, the 3.5 was EASY. i was sprinting the last 10th (well, sort of. it was an under 9-minute pace.) I did the whole run in just over 35 minutes - which i think is a personal best by at least a few seconds.

then i did some pushups and dips.
then a friend and i ripped nasty wallpaper off my kitchen and bathroom walls, and we probably both contracted black lung in the process from the nasty mildew we found under there. i hope the dread disease i'm sure to contract doesn't interfere with my training...

3.5-ish by abby

i ran 3.5 or so, on the same rural road i usually run. only, this morning, it was superduper foggy. consequently, i spent most of the run jumping into the ditch to avoid oncoming cars whose drivers saw fit to drive 65 in a 45 and without lights in the fog at 6am. what gives? i get sick of the cars speeding by .... it's a county road and i guess speed limits don't matter or something ... but for pete's sake at least drive slower in the fog! there are real and actual humans and animals out and about -- like kitties and baby deer and baby horses and baby badgers and me forcyringoutloud.

geez. anyway. it was a weird and creepy run.

fun crosstraining day - gerlinda

you're so good, abby, with your hilly mountain bike riding! i had an easy cross day yesterday...a quick bikeride up to Outback Bikes, where i dropped off the bike for a tuneup. then i walked home. it was probably a 3 mile ride/3 mile walk. easy peasy, and i get the bike back next tuesday-ish. maybe i'll try to find a pool to swim in for saturday's crosstraining.

cross - by abby

50-minute hilly road bike (new paved road, hooray!), sneeze, sneeze, sneeze, sneeze.

No internet access sux! -gerlinda

i don't have internet at my new house (and probably won't for a while,) so sorry if my posting is erratic! one of my neighbors has an unsecured linksys that i can occasionally get 1 bar off of - that's what i'm trying now.

anyhoo - monday (a stretching/strengthening/rest day,) i crosstrained to make up for last week's misstep.

then, on the 4th, my friend's rama & lauren & i got up early and did "boot camp lite" - which was basically a 4.5/5 mi run, interspersed with a few core exercises (like plank and flutter kicks.) then, we hit the lake & now i'm sunburned and need a day off from my day off!

four on the fourth by abby

i finally feel like i've got my running legs back. i really hadn't been running that much (maybe once or twice a week) until signing up for the marathon. now it's been a few weeks and i've been running on schedule and i'm starting to feel like a runner again. and i like it.

have a swell fourth -- i'll be on the river!

fri/sat/sun - gerlinda

friday - rest...nerves and anxiety about moving on saturday. i drove my friend's truck up to my Mom's house in chattanooga. she's giving me a few pieces of my grandmother's excellent Lane Co. furniture from the 50's...

saturday - i'm counting my move as crosstraining since i hefted boxes all day and then peeled off gross wallpaper & pulled up carpet

sunday - i put off the run and put off the run and wallowed in depression and had terrible anxiety over the large amount of cash i had to spend at Target...and then the grocery store...and there are still so many stupid things i have to buy and do for this new house. but. then i thought of dad and all the people who've donated to my PanCAN page - and i got off my arse and did my 5 miles. and guess what? i felt better in all kinds of ways afterwards.

5 + thunder by abby

i have to say i've been thinking about how the humidity will effect me .... i'm so used to living with no humidity that it's bound to have an adverse effect. i keep hoping that training at 5000 feet will give me some advantage over it. anyway, today was ... humid. for montana. i ran my 5 around 8:00am and it was already 80 degrees and there were storms blossoming on every horizon and all this heaviness everywhere. nothing like atlanta or the midwest or anything, but still, it was humid. and i felt okay. so i guess that's a good sign.

gerlinda has disappeared. or maybe she is still washing dishes ....

fri/sat by abby

fri -- off
sat -- 60-minute mtn bike


regardless of how obsessive it might be to blog training like this, i think a person is not truly obsessed until s/he starts watching marathons or running or cycling or swimming or triathlon on tv. take me, for example. i've been watching the tour de france, which started today. and i have to say, i'm totallyfreakingexcited about it!!!!!!! and i admit to scanning channels for things like world track events or world swimming events, or basically anything swim bike run. this = true obsession. the fact that i know actual names of world-class swimmers/cyclists/triathletes (runners not so much) the way some people know football players' names .... well .... i guess this just makes me a big nerd. so. fine. i am that.