Friday, July 24, 2009

From One End of Iowa to the Other


My dear friend, Meg, picked me up on Omaha (the very western part of Iowa) on Wednesday morning where we headed East to Des Moines, where she lives; about 2-hours away. Along the way, we stopped at a little town called Walnut which is full of antique stores and we browsed around and had lunch of Iowa bbq pork sandwichs - which I thought I'd hate but actually was pretty good.

The drive across I-80 is actually very pretty here; hilly and full of old farm houses and barns. Very Iowa-y!!! I love it.

The weather's been incredibly nice here - which is such a rarity for late July!

Thursday morning, Meg and I ran a couple miles together in the morning then she returned home and I ventured further onto a street with gorgeous, big, old houses and trees that canopied the entire street. Even my Garmin was having problems finding a satellite; the trees were that thick. I did about 3 miles of marathon race pace here and actually ran pretty well. The street isn't too hilly and I felt I was able to maintain a good pace. It felt good to finally get in a little speed without feeling I was dying - and the change in scenery certainly helped!

A good nap Thursday afternoon and then Meg was gracious enough to keep moving me East where I met up with some other girlfriends, Karen and Kathie, in Iowa City for dinner. The 4 of us go really far back - I think Meg and I were in 3rd grade together and Kathie not too far behind that. Anyway, we laughed at old memories and spent a great couple hours together. The restaurant was really neat; very quaint. Karen's son just graduated from college and is going to medical school at Univ. of Iowa so we got a tour of his new condo they just bought for him (makes no sense to rent for 8 years).

Around 8pm last night, I moved my stuff from Meg's car to Karen's and Meg went back to Des Moines (miss ya, Meg!!) and I rode to Bettendorf, the very eastern part of Iowa, with the others. Had a quick drink with the girls at Kathie's restaurant/bar and got home about 10:45 where I just crashed hard.

Up early this morning, before a peep was stirring in the house, and went to the Bettendorf Y where I did some weights. The sweetheart at the front desk let me in for free and was generous enough to even give me a free towel so I could shower afterwards. Having packed back in Colorado quickly for this trip, I didn't really prepare enough workout clothes so wore what I grossly sweated in the day before. Ick. Weights went well but they were not exactly what was on my plan due to equipment challenges, but I compensated with what I thought would work best. Spent a great deal of time stretching my glute, which is really bothering me on this trip, and my hamstrings which seem to be OVERLY tight!!!

I'm now sitting in Karen's office while she works and I'm getting caught up on a million writing things that needed addressed and a few client emails. Off to go pick up my race packet for the bix 7-miler tomorrow. I'm excited (i.e. nervous); I have not run this race since 1997. It's hilly and normally hot and humid but tomorrow's calling for cooler temps. Let's hope. The hills though....they are still there.

6.5 miles run
1 weight training

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