A Blog About Nothing

Kind of like Seinfeld, except not nearly as funny. I have had a bad week. I think that is putting it mildly, but I am still standing, and I guess that says something, though I am not sure what. Probably that I am either too stubborn or too stupid to just give up. I hate when my life gets this way because my running inevitably suffers for it. I ran a little on Sunday, I did a good workout on Tuesday and last night I ran and I swear my legs felt like they were made of lead. So I walked today at lunch and had hoped to do a run tonight, but as usual the fates conspired against me and I found myself on the side of the road with a flat tire and so I had to go and buy two new tires and suddenly my evening was all gone. I am hoping that the little I have done (with speedwork...extra hope there) is enough to get me through what feels like my billionth 5K this weekend.

Seriously, at first I was really fired up about this summer series thing. Now I am just burning out. It is keeping me from doing the long runs that I so deperately need to do- not only for training, but for my mental health! I have gotten to the point where I feel like a fraud somehow if my mileage for the week is too low. I make myself crazy obsessing over numbers ALL the time.

But one good thing that my race schedule has done for me as of late is to help me make much better food choices. I use the Weight Watchers points system and the whole time I have done it, it has always been about how much food I can get for the least amount of points, but now the focus has shifted to what foods will better feed my body, thereby helping me run better. This can't be a bad thing.

Well, I have to cut this short. Duty calls. Duty always calls. That was supposed to be a part of the ramblings, but...

Before and after...

Just an explanation

The pics are in reverse order... you can see from the one on top how WIPED I was after the race. The next one is me coming down the third base line headed for home (the race ended at home plate of the Tulane baseball field). the next is the sart of the race. I am the little pink dot. And finally, me with Riptide before I started.

Roll Wave!

Well, I am home from New Orleans. I love it there. I really do. Jackson Square is officially my "Happy Place". However, I think if I lived there, my running habit would get kicked in short order. It was tough. There is too much food, too much drink, not enough sleep and WAY too much humidity. Seriously. My har was in a ponytail the entire time I was there, because I couldn't do anything else with it. I gave up makeup because it melted off the second I left the hotel. But it is wonderful there, nonetheless.

So, in a moment of rare self discipline, I got my dead butt out of bed at 6:30 on Thursday morning and went for a little 3 mile run. Now, anyone reading this needs to understand that I live in the sticks. I mean it. I can run around and seldom see cars on the routes that I run. The town I run in has 1 stoplight and that is my biggest obstacle. Needless to say, running in the city was a whole different ball game. It took me 31 minutes to run 3 miles because I had to keep stopping at stoplights ar on cross streets. There were people running where the street cars run, but I didn't DARE do that for fear of being smushed by one. Note to self...Self: you are NOT a city girl, no matter how badly you want to believe otherwise. At any rate, this Thursday morning run then made Friday a "rest" day prior to my race on Saturday. I put "rest" in quotes because God only knows how many miles I WALKED on Friday...but I didn't run! I also didn't drink anything alcoholic on Friday and tried to eat stuff that might not be the worst stuff ever before a race. I still didn't sleep much and it was still HOT!

Saturday morning I got up, got ready and took a taxi to Tulane University to do the Tulane 5K for 4K fun run. I was really proud of myself for doing a race on my little vacation, too. It was probably about 85 degrees out when the race started at 8:00am. Prior to running, I got a great Nike Tulane T-shirt and got my picture taken with Riptide, Tulane's Pelican mascot.

I ran with everything I had and still managed only a 26:59. I was so hot that I had to wait to drink water because I thought I might throw up. Seriously. I was sweating so badly that I nearly slid off of a toilet! You could see my bra because that was the only place on me that was dry (only because the sweat hadn't seeped through it. Ugh. So, yeah, it was a somewhat miserable experience, but one I wouldn't trade for the world. Roll Wave!

It's Been FOREVER

Okay, so I kind of skipped something like the last 2 months. Sad, really because there was so much to blog about during that time. Like my 15 mile run with no socks, my puppy pal "Rex", my run to the falls with my sweet 4 year old who kept insisting "we were BORN to run, weren't we mama?!", and my recent run with rescued kitten on my arm (for over 2 miles!). There have also been races. Race season started and so far I have done 3. The first one was a 26:39 PR and a first place in my age group in the rain. The second was a 27:04, tough, hilly run that made me want to DIE. I still managed 2nd in my age group and 4th female overall. The third was a tough course where I had to stop and tie my shoe and STILL managed a 25:41 PR, albeit 2nd in my age group by about 6 seconds...darn shoelace! I am running another in the morning. We will see how it goes. I am also scheduled to run one in New Orleans on June 13. I am really excited about that one!

My half marathon training has taken a hit with all the 5K races, though. I haven't run more than 9 miles in 6 weeks. I hate that. I really want my long run back.

My daughter has graduated from high wchool with honors. My littlest graduated from Pre-school last night. My middle one has barely survived his first year of middle school, but he DID survive. I am proud of them all.

So, that is the catch up. I am going to try to do better, I swear.