But I like wine...

I go to start parks to hike too. 

This week I figured since I'm tapering my running, I will taper my wine as well... I made it till Wednesday for the week - thats pretty good right :)?

Tuesday morning Deb came over to my house at 4:30am - we ran 6.5 miles rather slowly (somewhere around a 9m mile pace) we were both feeling a little stiff from Sunday, and my butt was KILLING me. It was alright though besides that. Wednesday we planned on going in the morning, but I woke up like I have for the last 3 Wednesdays and texted "skips?" to Deb. She texted "skips" back and I reset my alarm and happy fell back asleep. She started the skips thing - I think she was really tired once and texted me that on accident, it's stuck since then. So, we didn't run Wednesday... Oh well. It happens. For me it makes getting up the next day a sure thing - i'd feel too guilty doing it twice in a row.

See, I do things besides run & drink. I like to climb too

Oh yeah... I was supposed to cut down on the wine..

Thursday we decided to do the 8 mile loop at Debs. I got up at 4:10am YUCK! and headed over to Debs. I had dragged my winter running shirts out sadly because it was 36 degrees! Totally suckie. I was angry. It was cold. I wanted to go back to bed. I wanted hot coffee and a fuzzy blanket but instead I was driving to my sisters house to go on a STUPID run. I wore a long sleeved running shirt with a short sleeved over it, Karpis, my newton shoes which I wasn't going to wear till the marathon but I figured i deserved to because I was actually going even though it was cold... I should have added a head band for my ears and light weight gloves for my hands... Ears and hands never did warm up, but everything else was warm after 2 miles. We went at 8:40 pace. I had forgotten my flash light so all we had was Debi's little tinny one - When cars came I'd pull back and get in a line behind her while she waved her tinny little light which probably gave about as much light as a match, if that... Most cars didn't see us till the last minute and unfortunately we seemed to be running at the same time as a shift change must have been happening at the Manards warehouse. I won't be forgetting my light for a while.

Friday I didn't have to go to work :) it was AWESOME. I got up at 7 and decided to run with Jer. Headed over to his house.... He told me to bring Matilda... So I did. We ran 12.5 miles. It was nice to run over in yorkville again, it had been a while. I felt alright... not too bad not too good. don't think I drank enough water the day before. When we got back... Jers living room was covered in papers... My little doggie must have had a LOT of fun. She had shown Runners world and Men's Health who was boss.

Matilda's fun

Saturday Deb ran by my house (she's 4 miles away) and I joined up with her for 10.3 miles. She haddent run Friday so this was her long run for the week. We went to sliver springs, around, and back on river to eldamain. I wore some shoes I shouldn't have and now, today my knee hurts :(. glad I don't have to run today - i'm not too worried about it though, I have time to heal. I am looking on ebay for a new pair of Newtons. I missed 2 auctions that went for really good prices... so sad....  That's it though for the week. Next week is even less. longest run is 8 miles. kinda crazy!
With all this talk of running, I wanted to talk about the other things I enjoy as well. All the running does cut into my free time, but I have made sure to still have some fun. I love to talk my dog Matilda - she's a 15MO American Bull dog. I got her for a running partner, but she doesn't really like to run endless it's for fun around the yard. we walk all the time though. every day. She also gets up with me in the mornings, goes out side, then when I leave curls up on the couch... when I come back from running I let her outside with me and she usually stretches with me. It's cute. I also really like wine tastings, hiking, and rock climbing, among other things. I was a little nervous 2 weeks ago rock climbing. it was rough on my knees and I could have gotten hurt before the race... but I didn't and it was so worth the risk. I have to be careful with my wine because it does dehydrate me - This coming week I will defiantly not drink much. I do enjoy watching movies & eating pizza.... Their is deffantly more to my life than running - and after this race I will have more time to enjoy everything else! I'm looking forward to it, but I won't say that this will be my last marathon. Someday I want to qualify for the Boston (real original, I know:)) I also want to run the Rim Run. My sister and I decided to do it when she's 40, then after that when i'm 40 we'll do an iron man, THEN....We will quit and just both get fat and old. the end

Our 22 mile rout. 

Matilda - My Dog. She's only good for about 2 miles.

The LONG run

The 22 is over! That makes me happy.Last weeks runs went like this - Tuesday 6.6 @ 8:36 pace - Wednesday 7.05 @ 8.35pace at my parents house after work in Sandwich - Thursday was a 5 mile lunch break run - Deb texted she wasn't going so I couldn't get up, figured I'd do something productive on lunch.. Didn't really enjoy coming back all sweaty, but oh well.... it was close to the end of the day. Friday was 6.4 @ 8:36 pace. Went to run with boot camp but they didn't leave on time so we headed out... Matt caught up with us and ruined our "easy" run because of course we decided to keep up with him after that...

Foggy sun coming up (Debi Haas)

Photo by Debi Haas

Friday I was very bad. I stayed up till 4am and drank quite a lot more wine than was really necessary. I didn't feel too good Saturday - I took a nap later in the day, drank lots of water and was a little worried about my long run the next day.... Also a little upset with my self for doing that so close to the longest run...I ate a big plate of my lasagna and some french bread prepped my  running stuff and went to bed around 9pm. I was up at 4:30 - had a peanut better and jellie sandwich and headed over to Debs. It was around 54 degrees, COLD. I wanted to go back to bed SO bad. I wore my Newton shoes which now have around 100 miles on them (LOVE THOSE SHOES!!! NEED MORE!!!) We headed out from Debs house running down Eldamain road around 5:45. I was cold to start off with of course. We were at about a 10 min per mile pace which I thought was too slow, but didn't want to leave Jer yet.... We got to river road, then to Ben and left on Fox road by Silver springs. The first water stop Deb had dropped for us the night before. I didn't need much. I had my endurance fuel and gummys and one jel that I ended up not eating (or slurping... what ever you do with those things) I filled up one bottle and we headed out again. all the way to high pint, then down to Bud road to the next water stop that no one needed so we didn't stop. It was a little foggy out, but finally light.

Photo By Debi Haas

We went all the way down bud road and then through Milbook. That was a long road, my least favorite part of the run. Next water stop... Still didn't need much. Felt good so far... We picked up the pace to about 9:30's at this point. Crossed the bridge, up the hill and took the first left down a LONG gravel road. finally we got to Sheridan Black top, the home stretch. we were at mile 18, the miles started getting longer. My hip flexors started hurting, my feet arches felt like they were clasping. I had music on, but I don't remember listening to it. We had started counting cans.... I think Busch Light ended up winning for the most cans on the road. The things I thought about on those last 2 painful miles... I don't know what it was I was thinking about, but I remember thinking that it was weird I was thinking it... Finally we got to 45th road... too bad we missed a turn and still and 1.5 miles left. We had to go down a little road and come back then very sadly go past my parents house, ALL the way to the top of the hill and back... and finally my watch beeped and showed me the time for my last mile of the run.

Suns finally up - Bud road (Debi Haas)

I really enjoyed my smoothie - I had one last week and froze half for the 22 - it dethawed nicely and was quite satisfying.

My Brother In-Law drive us back to Deb and his house - THen on the way home I stopped by the gas station for coffee and ice.... When I walked in the doughnuts smelled SOOOO good I just had to buy one. After my ice bath and coffee I had plenty of energy. I decided to do laundry and clean the house....  It did catch up to me later that night after I wolfed down pizza so fast I burned the roof of my mouth - that hurt. then I was really tired and could barley keep my eyes open.

I did not feel guilty.

DONE!

The next day I felt like I had a hang over. I was so tired and pretty stiff. My

Final time

lower body felt a little like a truck had ran it over. but nothing hurt too bad, or like I pulled or strained anything, so I was happy about that.

After this run i'm feeling pretty confidant about the marathon. If the weather is good - I think i'll make it!

Sunrise from another day (Debi Haas)

4 more weeks

I can't believe that it's September already and we only have 4 weeks left to train. One hard week - this one. then we taper down to prepare for the race. Pretty exiting. I better put together a list soon!
Last week went pretty good - Monday we ran from my house at 5:30am - YUCK. It's been SOOOOO hard getting up in the morning - I just want to sleep all day, but when I have that option I don't have too much trouble getting up. Anyhow - it was pretty warm still - we did 6.5 down to Ben street past all the Super Man set security (i'm so sick of them!) then down to river, up Black hawk hill and back on hale. pace @ 8.28 - not bad for the heat - i'm glad my normal easy pace is pretty much back.

Tuesday I couldn't drag myself out of bed and then deb decided to skip too - like I said, it's just hard getting up! I did go for a 2 mile run with Matilda. She was not a fan and kept lagging farther and farther behind. I know she has plenty of energy because she had no problem running around my yard afterwards, but she just dosen't like running to just run, it has to be fun - my type of running is too much work. Lazy dog. We rounded the super man set which was quite blocked off only to find a rather large crowd of people gawking at the 3 helicopters flying around. "Wow - LOOK - what is that?!?!?!?! I think I will watch it all night because I have nothing better to do!" I don't get the fascination people have with the movie - I want to see it but spending hours standing next to a fence you can't see through hoping for a gimps of something seems a little silly.

Wednesday: Ran at 4:30 from Debs - Big loopl she was still sleeping when I came over. wanted to do speed, felt tired. and hungry. and thirsty. knee and shin hurt a little. I can just feel my knee swell - it feels "floppy" kinda. not bad. but I need to do more core work outs. I'm just so tired these days.....Pace 7 miles @ 8.44


Thursday: Knee hurts a little, shin hurts a little. no worse I don't think. did back excersises, going to do more.  it was 70 degrees and humid. very humid. I was SO sweaty it was gross. Yesterday I ate Kashi cereal for breakfast - regular snacks - sandwich for lunch, baked fries, brownies and a chicken sausage wrap for dinner. felt pretty fueled, just hot and hard to breath. 6.5 same route as Monday @ 8:44 pace

Friday I "rested" but I did mow the grass - Went to bed early :( No wine for me.

Saturday I picked deb up and we headed over to meet Jer at the Gillman trail in Sugar grove. I thought it was going to be really hot, but it was not as bad as I thought it would. we re scheduled our 22 mile run for this week because of what we thought the weather would be - as it was I think we could have done it, however I read some stuff that says that the longest run should be 3 weeks before the marathon, so this way it will be - AND we'll do it on a sunday and the marathon is on a sunday. So it'll work out just fine I think although I wish it was already done. I decided to go shirtless and my waterbelt ended up tearing me up pretty good. I dropped a bottle of water at about mile 3 - I didn't use any gummys, just endurance fuel - I felt fine. Good actually we did 15 miles @ 9:30ish pace. All of us together the whole time. That hasen't happened in a while. I think I might have been able to keep it up for 5 more miles at that pace - if the weather is good im going to try to do that for the 22. I had a PP&J sandwich before the run and I have a new running recipe for you!
Smoothie: One package of silk Tofu all blended together with milk, Cherrys, strawberrys (both frozen) Some honey, and whey protein dry mix. I put it all in 2 containers and I will have the other one this sunday - not sure how it will deThaw, but only one way to find out. I like the Slik Tofu - it added some thickness to it. The smoothies did however make my freezer not freeze, so it was on all night bowling ice all over all of my food - so I will be more careful about that.

The next day we went rock climbing for 5 hours - we were a little sore the next day.
To sum it up for this week I think I have learned not to stress about time when it's hot - or at all right now - not for this marathon. I also learned to make time for strength training - you have to do more than just run, or at least I do, to minimize the risk of injury. Make sure your not going to wear a swim suite the next day after letting your water belt tear up your skin - I wish I had wore a shirt.
I guess that's about it.
I decided I am going to bring my camera with me on the marathon run. We talked to someone else who said that the race is really beautiful with rolling hills - I think that will be perfect for me - hill make it more interesting and make it so i'm less board.