Friday, June 4th

Well you wouldn't have necessarily known that I took yesterday as a rest day.  I'm sure staying up late drinking beers then getting up early for work had absolutely no impact on my slow run today.  Sigh.  I shouldn't be so critical, use this as a baseline, a starting point.  See where I am so I can figure out where I'm going and how I'm going to get there.  Dragging hard with a tail wind = really long return, and I'm rather surprised at the shortage in distance by ending on the big hill rather than the same starting point.  Oh well, do an even bigger loop in the middle to even it out next time, I love ending on the downhill sprint!


Seamus should sleep really good tonight, he took off like a shot after a rabbit and his poor tongue had already been dragging along before then.  I didn't appreciate having to stop and make peace with the couple whose dogs were upset by him, but that's what I get for leaving him off his leash on the main trail.  Yet another tidbit to keep in mind for the future.


All in all, beautiful clear weather with a touch of sun even.  But somehow the slugs were still out.

Final tally: 6.79mi (out the trail to 1st, loop around the park bathroom, saved the hill for the end but extended stop for dog-talk exchange), 1:08:23.24, 10:04 pace

Wednesday, June 2nd

National Running Day!  And, in that honor, I at least dragged myself out of bed to run before work; generally not a good idea if I want to arrive anywhere near 8, but wanted to fulfill my pledge.  I wouldn't have been able to do it after work today, so that was my only option.

You know it was raining.  For this reason I was a baby about it and only did 2 miles.  I thought quite a bit about the soldiers down at Lewis; they don't get a choice to stay in if it's rainy and did I need to remind myself yet again that I had better get used to it?  At least waiting to post this until after the day had passed will ease the foul things I want to say about running in the rain.  And poor Seamus kept wanting to stop and shake out (no explaining to him how useless that is!)  I will admit that even though it was in the rain, feeling cold and wet, and with heavy, sloshy shoes, I felt better when it was over and wished I had pushed out further.

Final tally: 2.01mi (turned around at curve by the tree, saved the hill for the end), 18:28.05, 9:10 pace

Gotta start somewhere... my own personal journey towards my first(?) full marathon

Why not choose the eve of National Running Day to begin seriously contemplating my decision to run a full? I am SUCH a procrastinator. About everything. My absolute fear of hurting myself may very well be what it takes to make sure I'm not this time. So, after completing 4 half marathons in the last year, my desire to go on is finally getting the best of me, just in time to be challenged to sign up for the Phoenix Rock 'n' Roll in January. 6/1/10-rainy, of course. I don't yet hate the rain, but it's really starting to wear on me. And how does that old adage go? If it's not raining it's not training. And honestly, if I only ever waited for good weather I would have a very narrow window of opportunity each week so I had better get used to it now. So by wasting too much time on Facebook (yet again) I think I missed the part where it actually let up after I got home, so I didn't head out until after 6:30. All I ate was a granola bar, that would haunt me later. I am not good about monitoring what I eat before I run, add that to the list of things to track. I thought I would be generous and let Seamus pick the direction once we hit the intersection, so it was my own fault that he chose to go up the big hill first rather than at the end, ugh. My legs felt like lead weights, that's what I get for doing all those stairs on Sunday and boy could I feel it today. The rain never hit the torrential level, for that I am grateful. However, there was enough of it that the slugs sure came out in full force. The black ones had already grossed me out, but today's special treat was seeing my first banana slug. Puke. I just know I'm going to slip on one someday, and go flailing across the sidewalk and suffer my first broken bone. Maybe if I just don't run in the dark; I'll have to re-evaluate this when winter comes and in the meantime be grateful for all of the daylight (if not sunlight) that's here now. I ended up walking just a bit, and for that I was mad at myself, but for the life of me the stupid trail feels like it's uphill in both directions. At least I used the time to work with Seamus on following directives while off-leash, so that was encouraging. He will have forgotten by morning, but should have it down by January.
Final tally: 3.97mi (turned around once I hit the BPA trail), 37:57.77, 9:34 pace.