Marathon time...

Well, marathon time is not for about 2 months yet! I just did the online entry into the George Washington (GW - like me!) Birthday Marathon to be held on Sunday, February 15th. If all goes well I will be participating in this event. At least I am 'on track' for it training schedule-wise. My team is doing marathons that same weekend in Myrtle Beach, SC and Austin, TX. I even got up this morning and did a little spinning - since I missed my spin last night. I did not miss it, per se, I chose not to go to/do it. I did most of my Christmas cards, instead, which was also important! I feel very good to have gotten those taken care of.

Speaking of spinning and training, this has been a pretty good week for me, training-wise, especially since I got up this morning and did a bit of spinning. This means I have done every workout or shortened version of a workout every day this week...so far! I'm completely STOKED about this. Seriously. I think it is a first! Even though I had a kind of cruddy swim practice yesterday, I'm really happy about my training week. Wheeeee!

Busy weekend: Patrick is running in his first Varsity indoor track meet in the 4x800 (the first event) and has a chance to earn a spot in the 1000 run later in the meet...it depends on his relay split. Go Patrick! Andrew has a Varsity Quad Wrestling meet at his school. Andrew is always concerned about making weight and yesterday was trying to survive on ONE PIECE OF TOAST. I made him eat pizza and explained that his body would kick into starvation mode and start conserving instead of burning... Of course, if his weight it up I will feel bad, but I am hoping that all will be well. I might need to talk to the coach and athletic trainers... I explained to him that he needs to eat for strength and of course he won't have energy to wrestling in his matches if he does not fuel his body!!! Hopefully he will weigh in just fine...

For tomorrow's wrestling meet, tonight I am cooking up some taco meat (about 5 pounds worth) for the concession stand. We also need to supply a case of soda and a case of water. Current plan for tomorrow: Go to track meet. Watch and cheer on Patrick. Leave when Patrick is done (after relay? or after 1000?). Depending on the time - run 10 miles per training schedule. Go to wrestling meet. Watch and cheer on Andrew. Run 10 miles if not done earlier. Dinner with Jeff and friends Lisa and Steve - we are taking them out as a thank you from my father for all they did for his 90th birthday celebration!

I'm looking forward to my dinner tomorrow night. We are meeting up in Old Town, Alexandria to enjoy the scenery and have a good meal. We will have a drink at an Irish place, have dinner, and have ice cream after. We are going to walk around - regardless of the weather - and enjoy the beautiful decorations that are up!

Sunday training calls for a 4 hour bike ride...this is now weather permitting due to the wintery stuff/rain that is coming into town. The coach is trying to arrange a room for spinning for 1-3 hours if weather is too bad to go out. If that is the case I might just have to do this because I need TIS! (Time in saddle!)

I'm in...

I'm in the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile race that is! Online entry opened up this morning bright and early at 8AM. I finally remembered around 9AM - I think. After a few tries I got to the registration and I am in. I noticed this year they did not ask for a Chamption Chip number...so I wonder if they are going to be using the new "D" chip thing that I got to use at the Virginia Run Turkey Trot....anything to make my feet lighter - works for me! I know a bunch of my teammates will be running there beside me... I look forward to meeting up with everyone at the race site - at least hopefully it will happen. I wonder if it will be a wet or dry day in 2009? This year it was a bit wet at times...

More slacking...

I've slacked this past recovery week. I really hurt my left ankle on Thanksgiving night - getting out of the car I caught the heel of my shoe and it jerked my foot back. Ouch. I'm still hurting. Running 11+ miles two days later probably didn't help it, either. Oh well. I only ran once last week and nothing over the weekend. I will get back on track this week and see how it feels.

On another note, I am still slated to go down to WDW for the races January 10-11, but will probably back out of being "Goofy" and just do the half for a Donald. I hope to become Goofy in the future though. With my parents' health, specifically my father's I should cancel WDW all together, but we will see...

I will concentrate on a mid-February marathon like the rest of my team and go from there. I will stay local and plan to participate in the GW Birthday Marathon. I will sign up as soon as registration opens up.

On a positive note, I signed up for the Nations' Tri on 9/13/09, which will give me something 'easy' to train for after IMUSA on 7/26/09. I think going into the fall of 2009 I am going to work on my 5K times and do some Sprint Tris in 2010. I have some 5K goals and it would be fun to see what I can do...after I get the IM but out. :)

Here's to a new week!

I trotted...

On Thanksgiving I trotted...at the 2008 Virginia Run 5K Turkey Trot that is! It was a great day for a 5K, I think. Cool and dry! I ran with my son, sort of. I mean he ran faster, and finished first. He had an OK run, I think. This was his best official road race 5K. I did OK for me - my best 5K of the year, and I've done three total, and one other as part of a sprint triathlon.

After the running was done, we got some snacks (I had a bagel) and water. One of the sponsors even had Starbuck's coffee - the Pike's Place roast. I had a cup and it was delicious! We were chilly so we headed out. On the way to the car I saw a fantastic woman runner that I had actually gone to high school with. She is so fantastic she won our age group, and she WON overall for women! I never really 'knew' her in school, but knew who she was. I see her a lots of races and finally had the nerve to say hello. She always inspires me to keep plugging along, even though I will never be as speedy as she is. Then we ran into my old boss from work and one of his two daughters that were there running with him. That was fun.

So, overall I placed 20th out of 153 women in my age group. Of course some of those 153 women were probably in the 'walking' group. Oh well. I felt good about my time: 26:08! This was probably one of my top 5 5K times. I also got to use the new "D" Chip that I've been hearing about. A disposable thingy. Pretty cool. I did not even know it was there.

Next stop: eating turkey gravey, courtesy of the friends' house we were invited to for dinner. It was delicous!!