Days Go By....

Week 4:
Week’s Running totals: 50.08
Running Total for 2010: 189.45
Weight training: 2
Swim: a little

Whew, week #13 to Boston is complete and I’m glad that’s a wrap. Along with January. Not sure about the rest of y’all in frozen tundra’s (that’s not you, Megsie – brat!) but January was one long and cold month! I’m glad to turn the calendar on my bulletin board (yep, still have one of those old fashioned puppies, along with a bunch of other misc papers of school schedules and upcoming meetings. I'm a visual kinda of girl and need to "see" a large calendar, despite how cluttery it looks) and see February. I know I’m jumping ahead a day but I’m more than ready! My legs are feeling good and my running's going well. I need to get a handle on my diet but feeling better about that. As Katie told me the other day, "Control the things you can - your running and your eating." I thought about this a lot on my run yesterday...

Yesterday I got my first 20-miler in for the 2010 (20.08 to be precise. And I’ll all about perfectionism). Woohooo! I know all y’all pay close attention to my training calendar below and saw that I only had 18 on the schedule. Yeah, well, I love to live a little crazy and adventurous sometimes. Hahah. Not really. I’m kind of a planner and organizer so a bit of excitement in Jill land to get an extra couple miles! Yeah, I know how to live!!! Aaaaaacuuuuuallly, I got in 18.89 miles at “pace” but some new Denver transplant stopped me on my run at that mileage point and asked me a gazillion questions about the trail we were currently sharing, a trail that fingered off of this trail, about mile markers, or lack thereof, how far this trail went, and about 50 other trail related questions……10 minutes later, back to wrap up my run and my legs were officially “done” and running strongwas NOT going to happen. I mean, lactic acid was thick as mud, no way I could do anything but shuffle through the last 1.19 miles to my car; I’m more than happy to help out a fellow runner but geez, my legs were just cramping up fast! So though I technically ran 20.08 miles, I’m only using the pace up to the point of question- woman-extraordinaire - which was, I’m happy to report, exactly 9:00 on the dot! This is a bit faster than where my long run pace should be, but on my plan I had a progression of each mile getting faster after mile 9 and since the last half of my run yesterday was uphill (yes, you read “half” ), I was just happy to just maintain a bit faster than normal long run pace.

Today my legs are not as sore as they can be with a long run – YES! Stiff but not sore at all. I met Tara at the gym this morning (Yea again!!) and we did a quad-athelon of sorts: 1 mile warm up on the elliptical trainer, stretching, a quasi ab and glute weight training (quasi because we did a lot of talking and just a bit of this and that; it was just a get together day and show each a few things – actually, while I think of it, we did do quite a bit of many things), followed by some pool time. 4 fun-filled exercised related things at the gym! Tara hasn’t done a lot of swimming lately so this was a big leap for her. We shared a lane and we just swam. And kicked with the kickboard, and talked about the guy next to us who told Tara he was a runner (who looked more like a body builder) training for a triathlon …. and thought Tara and I were Olympic swimmers. Um, yeah, Too funny. Tara did great in the pool on her first getting-back-in-pool shape and I think she’s going to do awesome in her triathlon this summer. Swim Tara, Swim!

I’ve got some squirrely insomnia something or another going on and am irritated beyond belief that I can’t keep my body asleep past some ungodly hours of the morning. Grrrrrrr! I’m sure it's some crappy combo of age, female-ness, and stress…but come on!!! I stress enough during the day while I’m awake, must I also stress when I should be asleep??!!!! Soooo frustrating. I’m certain it’s affecting my running and training; gotta look into a solution somewhere! Sometime around 4a.m. this morning, when I was wide awake, I heard this ruckus outside my bedroom window. I got up and looked and saw a car but it was squealing out of sight quick and I thought it was probably just the paperboy/person on drugs or something and went back to my land of insomnia. This morning, I saw my neighbor’s fence all smashed in - probably a bunch of nuttsy kids with nothing to do out vandalizing property. I’d beat the crap out of my kids if they did something like that and I found out (jk. sorta. they're all bigger than me these days. Punishment would have to involve money, somehow)I guess I’ll make myself “neighborhood watch person” since I’m up and all anyway. Maybe my lack of sleep has one positive perk.

Here's my newest get-my-lazy-butt-moving song: "Days Go By" by Dirty Vegas. I have to say that I am already sick of my Boston playlist I've started compiling. As one who cannot run more than 3 steps without something to distract the task at hand, the music on my iPod is quickly making me manic. Any suggestions of something upbeat and fast, let me know.

That’s about all the home-front and running news. Time to clean the pit…er, house!

Registration opens tomorrow for anyone interested in running the Chicago Marathon. Maybe it’s me but I think there’s something alluring about running a race on 10/10/10 – so come on and join in!

Week’s End Gratitude:
Tomorrow is February (one month closer to warmth)
Bananas with peanut butter
My really warm, fuzzy slippers
Tara meeting me at the gym today
Afternoon weekend naps