Adjusted Reality

I’m back home after 6 days out of the country, a little tanner, my belly a little jigglier, my mind a LOT more relaxed.  Day by day below…but some overall impressions of my vacay…

If I didn’t detail a time it was probably due to reading, either on the day bed letting the light come in between the leaves of the tree outside my window or on the beach, in a cabana, right by the ocean (pretty much right there where Zliten is).  I got through about 800 pages of the second George R R Martin’s book A Clash of Kings, reread one of my fave childhood books A Wrinkle in Time in one sitting, and started (and finished when I got back) a really cool campy sci fi book, A Galaxy Unknown.

I had gotten a scratchy and sore throat the day before we left, and I’m still coughing.  So yes, Mrs. Never-gets-sick has gotten sick on TWO vacations this year.  If I would have had the time to really take it easy like I normally do this would probably be gone by now but fun in Jamaica is worth a little extra recovery time.

I WAY overpacked – I brought a big suitcase and a carry on (which could be suited for a normal human 5 day vacation).  On vacation I usually bring a lot of stuff and end up with some of it unworn (but sometimes, not, and sometimes what I wear is what I don’t think I’ll touch).  The carry on came back with everything unworn.  I even made the effort to change a lot once I realized my effort, but still.  I packed for a cruise, which sees you changing multiple times a day and there is a lot of hot-to-cold due to blasting AC and changing climates.  This vacation, I spent most of it in my swimsuit and found that I needed no pants nor sweaters/wraps as the only AC was in the room at our control and the rest of the resort was open air, and that lovely air was between 75-85 degrees, so, yeah.  Perfect.  I brought dresses for dinner each night, which wasn’t needed, but they were comfortable, so I didn’t regret that.

Next resort vacay, I’ll take two swim suits, workout clothes, dresses for every night, two pairs of shorts, a handful of tank tops, one pair of pants, and ONE sweater (just in case).  I did alright on shoes, especially because one pair broke, and a new pair ended up giving me blisters.

My goal was to do as many watersports as possible since it was all included.  However, day 1 we got settled in just before sunset, and day 2 was a “danger” day (although I’m pretty sure below was the most dangerous thing in the water) so they recommended everyone stay out.  I swam the rest of the days, but only for an hour or two.  I expected to be in the water every second, and try every piece of equipment they had – but I was just not operating on 100% Quix power.

To be honest, there was nothing spectacular about the food.  They had great soups, fresh bread baked there with butter, and always had salad fixins, but to be honest, everything else was hit or miss.  Zliten noted that since the majority of the guests appeared to be from England, the food was probably styled to their tastes.  Which, to be honest, was a bit bland for my spice and heat-lovin’ self.  I became a pseudo vegetarian a lot of the time because the cuts of meat at times were just no bueno for me, or it was something like squid, or pigs feet, or weird looking fish.

I’d like to say that it kept me from being a little piggy, but sadly, I just indulged a lot on the things I liked (let’s just say that I probably had more bread last week than I have since I started low grain, if not double).  The pants, they are tight this week, but today resumes normal, healthy, sane person eating and calorie counting.  I am going to wager that I shouldn’t be incurring damage for too long.  Let’s just say since I’ve been back… uh… the remenants of Jamaica are moving through me at a much more right and proper manner.

All you can drink rum is a wonderful thing.  However, I think I’ll avoid the super molassess-y rum for a while, there is definitely too much of a good thing.  I didn’t go overboard on the sugar-y drinks, but I did indulge in a few pina coladas, and random fruity conoctgions, and had many, many, rum and diet cokes.  I’m pretty sure I ran the whole vacation just on caffiene alone, and I’m working on THAT hangover this week.

The resort itself?  Just about exactly what I expected for what I booked.  It was not luxury, the room definitely had “character” with half the bed being just about unsleepable (sadly, took me two days to realize it wasn’t just me being a princess about it and I aggravated my hip again), weird little white bugs in the open air bathroom, and a tv remote that you had to jiggle to work, the walls were impossibly thin, and there was always SOME sort of noise outside making it impossible to sleep past 8 most days.

However, I expected it all and more, so it was no big deal.  The resort was BIG, and we lucked out with a room right by the stairs to the lobby, so we were close to everything.  We had both a bedroom and a living room (with a REALLY comfortable day bed, I spent some of my nights there).  The staff was super friendly, especially the bartenders.  There was ALWAYS some sort of music going on – often Jamaican rap, sometimes the house band that played at mealtimes, sometimes a singer on the stage, but it definitely added to the atmosphere.  I also dug that Jamaica is an English speaking country.

And, uh… all you can drink rum.  QT with Zliten.  Beautiful ocean right there.  Watching the planes land during the day.  Watching the sun set over the water from the bar.  Reading from a shaded cabana hearing the harmony of random music and the waves lapping on the shore with a view of the sun, sand, boardwalk, and palm tree?  Everything I wanted in a vacation and more.

Here’s some quick day-by-day notes I took:

Tuesday:

Had to get up at 4am to get to airport (ugh), was definitely sick that day, uneventful flight, got into Jamaica, hotel was 5 mins from the airport, put stuff in room, changed into shorts, and then went to the bar.  Bartender took it upon himself to get us supremely drunk, and considering we had only a light soup and salad lunch with pretzels to snack on, it wasn’t too hard.  Dinner was hazy.  Had a fun night.  Nommed a burger and fries at the late night kitchen, it was SOOOO good. 🙂

Wednesday:

Read read read in the cabana most of the day.  Boozy banana drink was excellent (Zliten asked for something blended from the bar, bartender put some alcohol and a banana in the blender and served, and it was delicious, tasted like a milkshake).  Prime day of sickness, lots of cold medicine, cough drops, and such.  Made use of my first ever hankerchief and had to wash it out twice during the day (ewww).  Nap in the cabana was excellent.  Didn’t even get in the pool or ocean (red flag day) and it rained on and off all day – I didn’t mind, it was gorgeous and never got cold.  Walked around the whole complex exploring, we saw lots of weird stuff at the edges of the property, like a cool graveyard, a greenhouse, and a weird shed with random stuff in it.  Super mellow mellow day.

Thursday:

Spent the morning reading in the sun on a nice padded red couch/futon thing right on the ocean, got burned in the spots my running stuff doesn’t cover (apparently I need to get some more revealing running clothes…).  Spent the noon times in the ocean swimming (tried to play catch the fishies but it was way too murky in the water).  Zliten’s back lost a battle with a jellyfish (owie!).  Spent the afternoon time in the pool swimming and at the swim up bar.  We attempted to stay up to hit the disco, but my body shut down at around 10 and even a cup of coffee didn’t help, so we fell asleep before midnight.

Friday:

Read most of the day, this time we sat by the pool.  Swam, and the ocean was much clearer so we saw some fishies.  Encountered the diver man, who strapped bracelets on our wrist and then made us pay for them (we were kind of amused so we paid, but seriously, we got accosted in the WATER?)  Went kayaking, was super fun – tried to get as close to the landing strip at the airport as possible, but sadly, never caught a plane on camera while we were out there.  Decided we wanted to actually leave the resort and walked to Margaritaville and split some fish tacos as a snack and watched the sun set on their deck.  Noted it was kinda nice to hear familiar music since all we’d been hearing was Jamaican for the last 3 days.  Had a pretty mellow night.

Saturday:

Goals of the day: go for a run (no check, still felt crappy), chase the fishies (check), water trampoline bouncing (check), souvenir shopping (not check, enjoying the beach too much).  Made liberal use of the bar that day, and stayed on the beach way past sunset not wanting to give up our last day.  We said we were going to go back, but after a shower and dinner, it was definitely relax-in-the-room time.  We got one last late-night meal at the grill and I wanted to at least SEE the disco, so we walked over there – it was not really worth even staying (although there were almost exclusively single ladies there, so a dude’s dream!), so we went back upstairs and watched Christmas movies.

Sunday:

Got up, packed, had breakfast, and then went crazyfast souveneir shopping.  We were accosted on the way to go into some dude’s shop which was in the back in an alley (yikes) and he totally wouldn’t let us go.  It was creepy.  We ended up at the big souvenir shop which was advertised by the resort and got most of our stuff there for peeps.  I’m all for supporting the little people and all, but I really didn’t want to deal with haggling when we had like, 30 mins to shop.  We made it to the airport on time, and in general, it was an uneventful flight home besides WAY bad pressure in my ears because of the cold.  Still recovering from that today.  Was neat seeing Christmas lights from the plane on the way into Austin.

So all in all, just the vacation I needed.  Rest, relaxation, no email, no internet, no training, no worrying, just quality time with my Zliten, the ocean, the bar, and some books.  Part 1 of vacation complete, now moving onto part 2 (quality time at home by myself this week).

Did I like Jamaica?  To quote the locals… Yeh mon.  No problem. 🙂

My body and mind have decided for me – a bit of a break it is.

Last week, I could barely get myself to the gym to even get on the elliptical.  I did 2 40-45 min sessions, and a 30 min bike, plus crunchtime class.  I had intended to do a big swim and a big run this weekend too, but I just can’t do it.  My hip is feeling a bit better, though still a little tight (major amounts of dance party at/after the work holiday party may have been a factor), but it’s my brain.

I am so over it.  I finally hit the motivation wall.

The good news is since I ramped up the mileage so quick, I just need to do a few more long runs before Feb to really be back in business.  The bad news is it looks like I’m going to be going quite a while in between my disastrous, lots of walking 18, my hip-hurty, slowest half-marathon by 20 minutes race, and my next run.  It was supposed to be today, and my goal was to just get out and run and see what I could do.

I have a sore throat.  Right before vacation.  I seriously think I get sick with LACK of stress.  I’m hoping it’s just a fluke and I feel better tomorrow, but I think a long run outside is just asking for trouble, so instead, I’m going to lift heavy things, and if I feel better, later get on the bike or elliptical.

My body, mind, and motivation are falling apart.  I suppose it was ambitious to give myself 2 weeks off between tri season and ramping up for a marathon, but I was feeling SO DAMN GOOD.  I conquered the summer.  I ran outside.  I got amazingly comfortable with the half marathon distance.

Conquering the winter is so much harder.  Getting going in the cold is SO much harder for me.  Even getting up/out of work and to the gym is harder for me.  Some people have a summer slump.  I have a winter slump.  Usually, though, it waits until January/February.  Boo.

As much as I should probably stress out about the lack of runs, I just can’t bring myself to do it.  I’m going to give myself the time I need to mentally and physically be ready to run again, and pick up the mileage when I can muster it.  There may be something to telling 1st time marathon runners to not hit the 20s too quick, and not peak too fast.  It may just be the perfect storm of work stress, approaching my least favorite time of year, and the effects of training all summer to PR sprint tris, and in a perfect world, I’d be fine with lots of miles.  Either way, I needed to find out myself, I guess.

So, I’ll give myself one more week of healing, recovery, activity when I want and only when I want, and not worry (too much) about it.  I’m not a failure because I didn’t run 20 today.  I’m not going to gain a crap ton of weight because I took 2 weeks mellow.

Hopefully I can recenter over the next week and get back to it enthusiastically.  With my mind and body both on board.

Note: pictures are from our company party black and white ball.  We look pretty fabulous but some of our coworkers went all out.  Also, a holiday party that goes from 7-11 pm with light appetizers only is trouble, but I waited to get really obnoxious until dancing at the after party so here we learn 2 things: a) eat something before an epic night of drinking and b) 6 shots of jack daniels (gee, thank you coworker person!!!) after no dinner and you’ve been drinking fairly steadily all night is probably a bad idea even though it seems like a great idea at the time.  Have to say – I held it together pretty well though considering before passing out on the couch at home (or so I hear)!

Quick Recap of Spicewood Half:

Did my pre-race ritual (which is by rote now) of honeymilk and a gluten free breakfast bar, got packed up, got in the car, and got to the race.  Not sure if I was ready for uphill both ways in the rain, but there I was…

My goals for this one were:

A) Get to the finish line without further injury or DNF.  This wasn’t an A race, a B race, or really even a C race, so it wasn’t worth it.  The turn around for the 10k was 3.1 miles in, and unless my hip felt ok (which it did then), I was going to turn around and just finish with Zliten.  Once I started to feel pain, I liberally walked when I had to the rest of the race and though I had some mental anguish taking it so slow, but I successfully fended off megamaniachal competitive Quix.

B) Run them hills and enjoy it!  When Zliten asked me how long I would take to finish, I said 2:15? 2:30?  More?  I really had no time goal on this one (ESPECIALLY once I knew I was going in gimpy).  The first 6 miles I really attacked the hills and worked on refining my stride both up and down to fatigue my quads more and the rest of my body less.  I’m still feeling it in my quads today where my normal tight hammies and calfs are back to normal, so mission accomplished.  Geisha steps, quick little geisha steps!

The race temps were about high 50s-low 60s and spitting (not enough to be considered raining, but definitely wet).  I made the gametime call again to ditch my long sleeve and run pants and tank top, which seemed to be the right call.

Zliten and I ran the first 3.1 together uphill (seriously, some uphills were more severe than others, but this was definitely all UPUPUPUP).  My thought when seeing the elevation was “awesome, I’ll knock out the tough part at the beginning and fly down the hills at the end”.  I was feeling ok, so I left him at the turn around and picked up the pace to about 10:15-11:15s through mile 4-6.

Around 6, my hip started to go from stiff to hurty, so I started to take walk breaks.  Then the hurty stayed constant but didn’t get worse, so I definitely took liberal walk breaks and just enjoyed the scenery.  It was freaking beautiful.  The quote was, “after climbing the hills you will be rewarded with some awesome views” (paraphrased), and it was so true.  My anticipated finish time went quickly from 2:15 to 2:30 to 2:40.

I’m not sure how to put this tactfully, but I’m usually the biggest one among my finisher group.  I usually finish with the skinny folk, but not this time.  Yes, this time, I was definitely with those of my stocky stature.  I finished at 2:40 and some change, 2nd to last in my AG.

However, I did accomplish some awesome goals: a) my quads were WAY sorer than the rest of my legs the next day, which means I’m successful in trying to change my stride and b) my hip actually felt GREAT the next day.  It was not exactly the big bang I wanted to end the last race of 2011 on, but it was definitely a different, more mature, more patient Quix that day than I have ever been even if I had to fight my head the last few miles to not push through the pain.

Decision Time:

Now, I have to make some hard decisions in how I continue with my training.  I am DEFINITELY at that point of training where I just feel BLEH.  Not close enough to the race to be excited about it yet, and far enough into training that I just want some time off.  I made the decision to ramp up my long run EARLY, and I completed 18 miles 9 days ago, and have my first 20 on the schedule for this coming weekend (it will actually be Monday but close enough).

I am less broken than I thought I would be right now – I thought I’d be limping after racing injured on hills but I took it slow and cautious enough to feel better post-race than I had during any run last week.  Now that I have no scheduled races for a while, I want to be VERY careful to take care of it now.  If I slip a week of training right now it’s no big D.  I’ll take that over dealing with a nagging tight/painful hip for the next 2 months.

I’m just wondering how WISE it is now to be going out to run 20 over 2 months out from my race.  I plan to do 20, and then relax most of the week, and chase that with a 10-15 the next.  Then, over my holiday break, I plan on doing a 21 and 22.  Then probably another stepback week of 10-15, run my 23 mid-Jan, and then start tapering.  I may just have to go out on those runs and see what my body can do.  As long as I hit 20 one of those days, beginner marathon training dictates that I should be able to finish.  More than 1 is gravy.  This feels so weird to be playing it so fast and loose with my first marathon (I have a tried and true half training schedule), but there was not a plan that really felt right for me, so I had to tinker with my own concoction.

I am hanging on with the tempo/hills/speedwork during the week.  It’s not much harder than what I was doing to train for the half and though some of the runs have been tough, I’ve not felt like I’m out of my league (and I’m doing the advanced speedwork, not the beginner training). After 5 halfs now and really pushing longer distances this year, I’m very comfortable running up to about 2 hours, but doubling that is REALLY HARD.  I don’t remember going from 10k to half being this hard on my body.

I’m really not concerned about the time on my marathon, because as much as I want to earn the 26.2 sticker for my car, it’s really part of a grander plan.  It will be nice to know what 4-5 hours on my feet feels like because I predict 6-7 for a half ironman.  And that is (possibly) the goal this year.

What I did do is take this week easy.  I plan to do two elliptical sessions, 2 weights sessions, 1 bike session, and a long swim – so not sitting on my ass, but definitely ramping down the intensity.  I’ll resume the pounding on Monday and see how I hold up.  It always freaks me out during training, but I’ve learned that taking time off never hurts me if it’s to prevent an injury.

Nutritionista:

So the first calorie counting week has come and gone.  I reliably ate between 1700-1900 calories (right around 1800 most days) each day besides my long run day (2400, lots of this booze).  She asked this week for me to cut to 1600 calories except on long run days.  No problem, right?

Two challenges:

-It’s SO HARD to fill up on just a few calories without bread.  Low cal filling lunch? 2 slices sprouted grain, 4 oz turkey, mustard, veggies.  Boom, done for about 350 calories.  The legumes and oils and nuts I’m filling the carb void with have SO MANY MORE CALORIES and 1600 is so so so so so hard.

-Habit.  I wasn’t tracking calories with a goal to hit 1800, that’s just where I landed.  Every freakin’ day.  Cutting 200 calories when you’ve established a habit is HARD.  Guess it’s time to make a new habit.

This week is going to be a practice run at it, because next week I’m on vacation and while the goal is to mitigate weight gain with lots of activity and be reasonable stuffing my cakehole – I am not going to be tracking and I’m not going to be training.  The week before Christmas I’ll start for real.

I know that sounds stupid, but I’m not usually a huge OMG HOLIDAY I MUST EAT EVERYTHING person, so hopefully I can get a jump on two weeks of weight loss before Jan 1st.  I’m sick of looking like an overweight special needs kid in my race photos (let’s just say I will NOT be purchasing any of these…) and this is getting ridiculous.  150-160, I was upset with the number on the scale, but nothing else affected me.  160-170, I was upset that some things in my closet didn’t fit, but not really upset with the mirror.  At 175 I am consistently unhappy with what’s in the mirror, and I need to fix it.

So, 1600 calories.  Let’s do this…

Here is a little catch up on life, my universe, and everything going on.  I’ll try to be brief but y’all know how well that works most times.

Nov 19th: 16 mile run at Town Lake

So I got coerced to do this mud run (really, it took a lot of arm twisting… right…), and realized I had a 16 miler scheduled.  16 miler != 5k mud run, so I had few options: ditch my long run and set back my training a week (ewww), run on my coveted day off everything Sunday (double ewwww) or do double duty on Saturday.  It was the lesser of 3 evils, so about 7am we were up and out to Town Lake to try out the trail.  We did about a 7 mile loop.  Some observations:
Mile 1/8/15: this is the worst part of the trail!  I don’t know why, but it’s the part I liked least.
Mile 2.5/9.5: WTF BIG HILL!  I walked this both times.  If it was closer to my house I might come and run it for hill repeats.  Nasty…
Mile 3-7: Loved running with Joel!  It was so nice to have a buddy, especially one who understands we are both there to keep each other silent company with our respective musics unless we feel like busting out in song and/or dance.
Mile 8: Sucky mile because Joel finished his run and I had 9 more to go. 🙁
Mile 10: Had to make a pit stop for some tummy rumbles, figured I’d be sly and use the gas station bathroom.  Gas station bathroom was fully out of TP and only had a hand drier and no kleenex.  99 cent black wristband, I hardly knew ye.  Thanks for getting me out of a crappy situation (literally)!
Mile 12-ish: walk breaks start making more of an appearance (not just on hill of stupid)
Mile 13: Awesome that RunTex has water coolers out under the bridge, but disappointed when I could barely get 1/4 camelback refill since they were mostly dry by then.
Mile 15: OMG I really have to run over this bridge again (began 3rd loop)?
Every mile or so: ARGH I HAVE TOWN LAKE IN MY SHOEZZZZ!!!! (stop, shake, resume).  Seriously.  The inside of my Asics must really have a crush on the trail because they had a major love fest all day.
16.0 miles – 3:06.  Only 10 more to add before the race!

Nov 19th (later) Warrior Dash: 1 hour + for 3.2 miles…

Got home, showered and changed as quick as possible, ran out the door, grabbed some food, and met up with said arm-twisting coworker to drive to the Dash.  My legs actually felt damn decent at that point, I had re-biofreezed and stretched and showered and could actually walk normally.

We started and jogged the first half mile, and got through the obstacles, but then we got to the first mudpit.  It was a doozy.  The goal was to run through super quick and not get stuck and lose your shoe.

Guess who failed miserably.  If your answer was me, DING DING DING!

However, I am a stubborn little shit sometimes.  I spent 15 minutes digging my damn shoes out of the mixture of mud and concrete and quicksand and whatever the fuck was in that thing one at a time while Zliten and said coworker waited.  After almost 17 miles on the first day I was NOT going barefoot through trail.

What you don’t realize is that if your shoes fall off in the pit of despair, they also fill with mud.  Which made new mud-insoles in your shoes which are lumpy and hurty and make your shoes too small.  Which, on any given day, is uncomfortable as hell, but especially on longest-run-ever morning.

I also got mud splashed in my eye from falling in the mud.  It felt like a freaking boulder was on my contact.

I vetoed running, but we trudged on, with my too-small-now-10-lbs-each shoes and one eye open, other eye watering.

Have to admit, a lot of the new obstacles were a lot of fun, there was a lot of interesting single track technically challenging trail (they took a page from Hell Run and upped the difficulty), but clomping with one eye closed kinda was a buzzkill.  All in all, a blast though, I REALLY enjoyed my post race beer, and we decided to get a big big group next year.  And hopefully I’ll plan better with training.

I seriously thought I was going to do major damage to my sensitive tootsies, but they got through, minus a toenail bruise due to the toosmallness.  Very happy I didn’t!

Thanksgiving week:

Was crazypants.  Family in town.  Overtime to fix issues with a launch (normal, just poorly timed).  I actually bagged two workouts (speedwork and a x-train swim) due to extreme mental and physical done-ness.  I had taken Sunday off planned, but also Mon (worked until 11pm), Tues (worked until 7:30, then spent time with family), and Wednesday (had to pick up packet and run errands after work, gym closed before we could get there).  When I get into those situations I find it’s better just to give myself the days off and not stress because a) I’m already stressed enough and b) I rarely miss workouts and that particular week c) Zliten’s parents only come into town once a year and d) I can pretend it’s a mini-taper for the Turkey Trot.   That brings us to…

Turkey Trot 5 Miler:

After the week I had, I had no expectations for this race.  I wanted to run at least my M tempo pace (9:30), but it was pretty hilly.  I had no idea what I had in me.

Well, I thought I knew what I had in me, but I digress.

We left the house 30 mins late, but it should have, with no traffic, gotten us to the race site almost an hour early.

Enter almost an hour worth of traffic.  I really really thought I needed another potty trip, so Zliten let me out and continued to wait in line to park with about 10 mins to go to the race start.  I got my warm up run sprinting to the porta potties, and found the LINE OF DOOM.  It’s ironic listening to the national anthem, feeling thankful and patriotic, and directly facing the crappers.

It was decision time.  Do I wait, use the bathroom, and get caught in the back dodging 20,000 (literally) walkers and strollers, or do I chance it.  I had already gone that morning, so I figured it was just nerves and rolled the dice and left the potty line.  I found the 9-10 minute mile corral, and just about immediately after I got there, we were going.  Good timing!

The first mile was uphill.  I remember spending the first half hoping that I had not chosen poorly about the bathroom, and then fell into step behind girl with the cool waistband.  At mile 1, I was about 9:30-ish.  Mile 2 stabilized, then went downdowndown and upupupupup.  Going downhill, I flew into the 7s (maybe even the 6s) ’cause I hopped on the median, put my arms out, and flew.  I was a leaf on the wind.  Then, the painful uphill I just trudged as quickly as I could, concentrating on small, quick steps.  I don’t remember my split at mile 2, but I think it was around 19 mins.  Apparently there was a water stop each mile if not more often but I missed most of them due to the crowds.  I found the first one at mile 2 and sucked down some water.

Mile 3 I felt pretty strong, especially because we started the downhill portion.  Negative split, what what!  It ended just as we were going over a nice high bridge into the sun.  Temps were perfect, I was feeling good, and I could do ANYTHING for 2 more miles.  I don’t remember my exact split but I think it was 27 something, and I remember thinking for some reason that I expected to finish in the 48s.  Considering I was running about 9:30s (and just got better), that math doesn’t add up, but considering I predicted between 45 and 50 I wasn’t bummed.  Mile 4 was a gradual downhill (my FAVORITE running conditions) and I sped up even more.  When I got to mile 5, I really thought that the course might be short again, it didn’t seem like there was enough distance between where I was and the finish.

But there was.  I kept it steady until I got to the downward slope of the bridge and pushed past everyone I could, turned the corner, and looked at the clock… it was in the 47s.  Since I started at least 1 minute behind I knew I had a shot at a time in the 46s.  I thought my PR was 46:50 and I was so excited!  I crossed the finish and my garmin said 46:42 (actual finish was 46:39).  I celebrated a little and watched for Zliten (who I totally missed and came in right at 1 hour).

Then, I checked my 2009 race results and my time was actually 45:50.  So no PR, but definitely a stellar run considering the week I had and what I’m training for.

18 miler on Saturday:

I’ll cut this fairly short but explain the circumstances.

-Cycled hills the day before.

-Also shopped for 8+ hours the day before.  Let’s just say don’t be me.  I started this run in pain.

-Ran the first 8 miles with Zliten.  He punished me by taking me on his hills course.  It’s not any severe hills but it’s pretty much a constant steady uphill.

-Walked a cooldown mile with Zliten.  I wanted the company more than I wanted to go fast.

-Ran mile 10 and 11 and ran into a major fucking wall at 12.  My legs would not go.  The hurt when I walked just felt sore, the hurt when I ran threw the meter into potential injury territory, so walk it was.  You train what you have any given day, and the best I could do was time on my feet (which is actually very important, just FELT wussy).

-I walked 3 miles.  I tried to pick up and run a few times and I just couldn’t.  Right around mile 15 I noticed that if I could just hold 12s, I’d make my cut off (I gave myself 4 hours).

-I started running again and I had my legs back.  I ran all but one quick uphill walk break around 17, and finished in 4:02.  I expect 18 NEVER to go so slow again and to beat my time when I run 20 in two weeks.

Damage: oddly enough, my HIP has been sore this week.  Ankles fine, arches fine, feet fine, but that 4 hours on my feet did something to my HIP.  I feel about 70 years old complaining about my hip.  It felt better, and ran on it Monday (5 miles of speedwork).  Ow on Tuesday.  It felt better on Wednesday so I did my 2 mi EZ, 3 mi 9:15 tempo, 1 mile EZ.  Ow yesterday.  I have a race tomorrow, but I think I’ll go ahead and cross train a little more next week instead of run so I can let it heal – I would really like to not have a major injury that I exacerbate to the point of having to ditch further 26.2 training.  Tomorrow’s race is basically just a long hilly training session IMO, so if I have to take it slow or walk, I’ll be ok with it (at least that’s what I say now…).  And no matter what, I’ll have wine at the end to console me.

(Yes, btw, first day of the Christmas season – I’m wearing shorts, a tee shirt, and cowboy boots!  Go Austin! Also, don’t my legs and arms look fabulously buff in this picture? Wheee!)

This last week started my start of calorie counting again.  So far, I’m observing that I’m around 1800 calories on weekdays, 70-90g fat (which is waywayway higher than I used to, normally coming in around 30-40 before I started adding olive oil/nuts/etc), 150g carbs, and 100g protein.  Nutrition-person-lady said the fat content is fine, and not to aim for a certain number this week of anything, just gather data.  So I have.  Weightwise – I’m back to 175.0, so that’s the lowest I’ve been for a while.  Ready for onward and downward!

Somehow, my life continues to be crazy through December (but crazy awesome).  In the coming weeks I have a pinball party Yelp event, my company Holiday party, volunteering at Decker Half, my first 20 miler, Jamaica, seeing Tori Amos live (fourth row, people, I’m so stoked!!!), a wedding, and then it’s Christmas week!  I was all excited about having these 3 weeks of to laze around and now I have plans on quite a few of them.  I’m pretty sure I’ll squeeze an epic couch gaming/movie watching marathon of some sort though…

Epic update of epicness done.  I’ll be back to update soon on hilly races, pinball places, and smiling faces soon!

Leaving this up as my last post before thanksgiving isn’t working for me.  So instead let me list a small subset of the many things I’m thankful for instead of whining about…

-I am thankful for my legs.  They haven’t given up on me yet even when I ask them to do crazy things that no one should back to back.  Also?  Kinda HAWT.

-I am thankful for my awesome husband who is just awesome.  For example, one day on Facebook, he just exclaimed that he has the bestest wife ever.  When asked (because I certainly didn’t remember doing anything amazing), he just said he was thinking of how awesome I was and wanted everyone to know.  That’s only one of the myriad of ways he is wonderful, but it’s the one to comes to mind first today.

-I am thankful to have an awesome family that I get to spend all day with tomorrow, eat turkey, and play card games.

-I am thankful for my health.  I have nothing that keeps me from enjoying each and every day to the fullest and doing any damn thing I want to do.  I’m thankful for the funds to be able to continue to improve it through healthy, natural, and organic eating, athletic equipment, chiropractor, doctor, and dentist visits, nutritionist visits, gym memberships, and race fees.

-I’m thankful for the opportunity in racing to push myself to the limits.  I think it makes me a better person in my life to be able to be as mentally and physically strong and challenge those boundaries each and every time I toe the starting line.

-I’m thankful that on an average moment, the emotion I’m feeling is probably somewhere pretty close to JOY.  Through hard work and surrounding myself with awesome and amazing people, I have built a life that feels sometimes like I should pinch myself and it should go away, because it simply MUST be a dream. I’ve stopped doing that (the bruises are a bitch) but I try never to lose sight of how amazing I have it, even if I’m having a *moment*.

Happy Turkey Day everyone, and remember…

What are you most thankful for?