Rambling Thoughts

I'm replying to comments today. No, I didn't get any pictures from the Half-Ass. Eric was carrying our camera - and he had trouble with the lens fogging in the cold. No, dear Olga, I won't be doing the full next year. Eric and Steve swear that they should have had ropes in one section. If it took those two speedsters just under 7 hours, then just imagine how long it would take me. I might have to carry a sleeping bag and tent! Did any of you recognize the chapter headings in my last post? They followed the format used in the original Winnie the Pooh. I was using them knowing that they came from a book I had read to the boys when they were little, but it took me a full day to remember which book. And finally, I'm not a total trail runner yet - let's not forget that of the six marathons and one 50K listed on my sidebar, only the 50K is on a trail. And, it's not the kind of trail that we were running this past weekend - although it is called Mt. Si, the race is run along the base of the mountain on a wide gravel and dirt path.

Eric announced in his blog that he is going to try to drop a few pounds. Funny, we both came to that decision on the same day, but without discussing it. I've slowly been cutting us back on foods with corn syrup - whether it's high fructose or not. Now I'm trying to reduce (but not eliminate) our sugar consumption. Eric has always been good at eating fruit, but I (the family vegetarian) have not. In the last few months I've increased from zero fruits a day to three a day. There are two things that will be difficult as we both try to drop a few pounds. First, staying properly fueled while losing weight. Always a challenge. I'm going to try to solve that by having lots of good foods available - vegetables, fruits and almonds to give us complex carbs. The other thing that will be hard is that Eric drops weight much easier than I do. I eat less, but lose slowly. He eats more and loses quickly. It's hard not to get discouraged when that occurs, but I will remind myself that it's the whole man/woman differing body kinda thing going on.

My quads were pretty sore after the Half-Ass. I took Sunday and Tuesday off in addition to my regular Monday off. I did make it to Pilates though - that always feels good after a race. I might have been able to run on Tuesday, but really needed the extra sleep - that's the hard thing about teaching a 6 am class - getting up early on my rest days. Anyway, I did run this morning. My legs felt stiff and I felt like I was lumbering along. The whole run was awkward, but I did it. I ran five miles, 12:03 pace. Tomorrow should be better. I'm planning to go easy this weekend - just five miles each day, then start building again next week. In fact, I think we have a 20 miler scheduled for a week from this Sunday. I've got four weekends between now and the Yakima marathon. I'm thinking they'll look something like this:

weekend 1: 5/5
weekend 2: 5/20
weekend 3: 5/10
weekend 4: 5/5

Midweeks should look something like this: 8-11 on Tuesdays, 6 on Wednesdays, 5-8 on Thursdays. Tuesdays and Thursdays will be dependent on a two-a-day to get the higher miles.

That's it. I've poured everything that was in my brain (at least everything running related) in to this blog today. Thanks for reading it!

MM#402