Item #177 on my list of Things That Make My Heart Leap Into My Throat:
That would be the 24th mile marker of the Rochester Marathon that is now three weeks away. THREE! WEEKS! Seeing that freshly spray painted “24” on the marathon course during a bike ride today made me gasp and cover my mouth with my hand whilst laying my other arm across my forehead before pretending to faint.
Holy. Crap. They have marked the miles for the race. We are that close.
If I could sum up in one word what I’ve learned over the course of the last couple of weeks here, that word would be:
Balance.
All our snow from yesterday is already gone. That’s just how it goes with these early snow falls I suppose. The dry roads made for a very enjoyable run this morning – I did one of my standard loops through my neighborhood – 4.19 miles 34 minutes, making my average pace about 8:06 per mile.
When I bought my black Friday sneakers last week they stuck a post card in the shoebox at check out. I didn’t even look to see what it was until a few days later.
The Flower City Challenge, a brand new half marathon in my city this spring!
Today’s day of calorie counting began with a freezing bike ride to the gym. Well, actually it was 33 degrees so I guess it wasn’t exactly freezing. I’m such an exaggerator sometimes.
30 minutes on the treadmill with some speed work intervals (4 two minute sets at 9.3) thrown in to keep things interesting – a total of about 4 miles. I noted today what the calorie total said and it was about 450.
Treadmill dues paid, followed by a Very Cold (but this time welcome!) ride home for my first calories of the day.
I’ve had one thing on the agenda for today: Recalibration.
After a week of brownie sundae’s, Halloween party goodies and Kit Kats, I channeled Brendan and Natalia today to help me fend off the sugar cravings that have started to try and sneak up to hit me on the head with a lead pipe, in the kitchen, by Colonel Mustard.
Oh no you don’t sugar. Nice try. I’ve got the dream team on my side!
I’m still smiling after yesterday’s half marathon – even waking up with sore back muscles and quads, I think this smile is permanently affixed to my face for the next few days. Thanks for all the heart warming comments and congrats yesterday!
I got up early this morning to tend to things around the house. I’m loving this new routine, it’s working so well. I’m raring to go first thing in the morning and have been very productive in the early mornings recently.
Ready for my “Brendan Says” for today?
With the girls with Aunt Ellen for the day, I spent yesterday chained to my desk. A forgotten pleasure.
I unlocked the chains long enough to make a big salad mess. A far-from-forgotten pleasure. A re-run I’ll happily enjoy day after day.
Before the girls came home last night I ran to the marathon expo with my running partner Shawn. Well, we didn’t really run, we drove. You never can tell so I figure I better clarify.
This year I took advantage of the sneaker recycling program they offer and brought my old sneakers to donate to this “Re-Runs” Program.
I’ve felt so swamped this week I keep *forgetting* that the half marathon is on Sunday. Last year at this time I was gearing up to run my first full marathon and it was of course all I could think about. I began checking the weather forecast day 10 days out. I laid out my clothes and mixed and matched outfit possibilities in my mind figuring out what would work best. I checked the race website for updates multiple times a day. Re-read emails from the race director again and again, making sure I knew every last detail and didn’t miss a thing.
I was able to make some progress with Thrive while the girls played in the water and the sand yesterday afternoon. I was excited to put a lot of his principals into practice today with a long run planned for this morning.
My friend Shawn has decided to run the half marathon (13.1 miles) with me next weekend and we made plans to run long together this morning. I set the alarm for 5:15 so I would be ready to go when he arrived at 6.
More Mama’s Weeds
