monday runday and track tuesday

Congrats, everyone, on a great weekend of racing and training! I see a lot of PRs were set, I am so proud of you all! Thanks to my laziness you now get the pleasure of two posts in one.  I got in my 20 miler on Saturday, hell yeah!  I am really pleased with how it went.  I broke it down mentally into 5 mile segments, which were also the locations of the water stations on the route.  And within those 5 mile segments I also blocked out when I was taking a gel, so at no point did I really feel overwhelmed with the distance as a whole.  At most I all had to think about were the next 3 miles. I was even able, unintentionally, to throw in a few consecutive miles at race pace. There were a few casualties, however. One was a very bloody toe that messed up my new shoes (my fault) and the other was a blister (totally blaming the shoes). Overall it went much better than the 18 miler did. I was definitely sore by the end but I felt like I had more miles in me, thank goodness. It was a confidence boosting run. MCM is only 39 days away and I am really starting to believe that I can do it! PS this was my first long run in the Saucony Kinvara 2s, and I think they are going to work out perfectly. If you're looking to start transitioning to a more minimal shoe, I highly recommend them!

Yesterday I did a quick and dirty four miles during my lunch break, just to shake out my legs and see how I felt.  It went really well.  I didn't have any lingering soreness or stiffness from Saturday. Must have been all the sleeping I did on Sunday. Legit, between Saturday night and Sunday afternoon I probably slept for 15 hours. Oops. The only issue I had on my run was totally operator error.  I forgot to throw socks in my work bag.  It was okay for the first two miles but my feet felt like they were sliding around in my shoes for the last two. Ew. Then for the sheer irony of it, I was cleaning out my cubicle this morning and found a spare pair of running socks tucked in the back of a drawer. Figures.

This is normally where I would start telling you about my latest track workout, but I have a confession to make. I blew it off this morning.  I know, bad runner.  The alarm went off and I just couldn't make myself care. I woke up feeling down for no reason, which is really frustrating. I slept horribly and that extra hour I had by skipping the workout was spent tossing and turning. I packed my bag (with socks!) so I can theoretically get in another lunch break run today instead.  It won't make up for missing speedwork but it will be better than nothing.  Right now the motivation is just not there.  It is dreary out and I feel depressed. All the more reason to run, right? Get those endorphins going. At the very least it gets me away from my desk. I'll have to follow up with the CAR mafia later today to find out what I missed. I could attempt to atone for my sins by showing up for the tempo run on Friday morning. I don't usually do them because I think that they are too close to my Saturday long runs. The first (and only) time I did do the tempo run I ended up being pretty sore for the next day's long run.  I suppose that is something that could change in time, if I make tempo runs a regular part of my routine.  It is definitely part of my post-MCM master plan. Thoughts?

Only 5 more days until my birthday and I am starting to get excited. A little nervous too, knowing that so many familiar faces will be at my gig. I am much more comfortable singing in front of total strangers, odd as that may seem. Hopefully everyone will have a good buzz on by the time we start. Before I wrap this up, I thought I'd throw you all a bone and let you know part of why I've been so annoying happy these past few days.  Drum please.......

I GOT A NEW JOB! Yup, it is true. I've been seriously looking since March, and cultivating this particular opportunity since June.  I won't have to commute into DC anymore, or ride the Metro at all.  Adios, bus! I'll have a 20 minute drive, give or take traffic, and I'm pretty happy about it. It will be interesting to see what the difference is in paying for gas compared to what I've been paying for the Metro. I'll still be working in the field of grants management, but in a different capacity.  If you're at all interested, I'd be happy to go into more detail.  For now it means more money, a shorter commute, the potential for travel, new responsibilities, and great opportunities for upward movement within the company. Pretty much everything I was looking for when I made the decision to leave my current position. Between that news, my birthday, and other goodness I'm a pretty happy camper.