A way for a faster marathon!

I was going to write a lot about the weekend and my run, and I still may (I tend to get on a roll writing and my "short" blog turns into a major novel)...but I'm really tired and not in the bestest of moods. Ever have one of those days??!!!??? Yeah, I'm having it.

I've decided that instead of giving myself an extra hour with daylight savings today, I'm going to bank it for later to reduce my Tucson marathon time for much faster result :). That's the way for a faster marathon!!

Back to work tomorrow - I've been off all week. It's been great! We did a lot of things such as our trip to New Mexico for a few days and the boys had a blast Trick-or-Treating with all their friends last night. I have definitely hit a new phase of life with them! Oh, can't forget the 2' of snow we got which turned old quickly! The boys had a great time playing outdoors, but I'm telling ya...what a royal pain in the butt snow clothes are. Off, in dryer, on, repeat x8! Plus, that much snow is too much snow! Abbey did come home for a night, though, so that's alway's special. I didn't get as much done around the house as I intended (do I ever???) but managed to sort through piles of mail that was sitting there which I had hoped to look at more closely (i.e. junk mail); decided to just toss it all out. That's one way to take care of it!

So where did I leave off last with the training and where to pick up....

Friday, I went to cycling class. I love cycling class. Well, let me rephrase that: I love 8:30 a.m. cycling class with my instructor friend, Jill, at the Rec Center. I don't get to go often because, well, I work that time slot! When I'm off from school, though, I try to incorporate that class into my training. I had this past Friday off work and I planned to go to her class, but waited on Brendan to get his act together (he wanted to go) and well, he had some stomach issues so we missed that class ... more stomach issues later, and he doesn't want to go to 24-hour's cycling class at 9:00. So I went by myself. That's okay...but I wish he would have gone, he needs the exercise. Anyway, that class is hard, they all are, but not quite as fun as Jill's. I sweat like crazy whenever I go; always a good sign of a good workout. I was happy I didn't have biker's butt over the weekend, which I tend to get when I haven't cycled for awhile, so yea for that. I did, though, have some more Tensor Fascia muscle soreness the remainder of the day Friday but I iced it a lot it's happy now.

Saturday, I went to the gym and did the core/strength training I was suppose to do on Friday but didn't get back to the gym after cycling class to do it. Here's my problem doing weight training/core work on my own (for those of you that know I work with trainer-man): I know what to do, I have a personal training and running coach certifications for heaven's sake. But when I'm left to my own devices, I quickly revert to the "What the hell do I do" stage. Even if I HAVE a plan from t-man, I don't put the effort in it as I should and I don't know half the names. Oh well. I got in 4 sets of 20 ab crunches on the captain's chair - those rocked!! I did a few other core things, too, followed by 4 easy miles on the treadmill. This was day 3 at the rec center. Day 1, I did 12 miles on the treadmill....cuz yeah, there was 2' of snow (in case I forgot to mention it) covering all the streets and sidewalks and well, I didn't really have a choice in that! The treadmill run wasn't too bad, actually; I like to make a game out of it (1 mile faster, 1 slower, 1 uphill, 3 downhill) and I was trying to incorporate some downhills into my run since Tucson is all downhill. So 3 days at the gym for Jill has to be a new record. Three days in row to boot!

Sunday (that'd be today) was long run: 19.13 miles. One of the guys from the Prostate running group is headed to Tucson also and he and I were talking a mt. run of 19 downhill miles. Well, in case I forgot to mention it, we had 2' of snow in Denver - which equates to about 4' in the mountains, so the mountain downhill run we had planned wasn't going to happen without snowshoes or CC skis. Both of which I own, but neither of which I was willing to do due to the proximity of Tucson and much needed running miles. But I also wanted to try to get in as much 'downhill' running as I could...which is not easy in this town. For every down, there's an up. My favorite long run tail is the Cherry Creek trail; I like it for it's diversity of environments you encounter and because I know where there are gas stations along the way to refill my water bottle. But this trail, from where I live to downtown Denver, is a gradual downhill. Thus, a gradual uphill at the turn-around back. I didn't want to run uphill on the way back; I wanted to run downhill on the way back so that I could run downhill tired, as I will be in Tucson. Sooooooo...I did the opposite today. I drove downtown, parked my car by the Aquarium, and ran uphill to where I normally start (okay, not quite), turned around and ran down. I must say...this way is MUCH easier - nothing like a little downhill momentum vs an uphill climb when your legs are tired!! I won't do this often because it takes a lot more time to drive 23 minutes each way and park to run, but I think it was the right choice for today. Long run was okay. Wasn't feeling great, but not bad either. You know that "in between" state were you just are and nothing more. A lot of personal issues going on right now, which I'm sure is affecting my running some....but never-the-less, I got the 19 in and am feeling fine right know. And let me just say that the 2' of snow we had earlier and now 64 degrees is causing a lot of melting and wow, the creek I ran alongside is FLOW-N! Pic from my cell phone.

Okay so there ya go, that's a wrap for the week. Rob just sent me my schedule for this week....I need to tweek it so I'm running more than 3 times a week. I mean, really!!! I haven't run just three days a week since like 3 years ago. Not sure what's up with that. And this timed mile I am insistent upon doing, which was suppose to be done the past two weeks, though hasn't, isn't on plan either. Err. I think it's time to go to bed!!

Hum, I managed to crank a novel after all :).

Hope everyone has happy miles this week!!