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Today I was supposed to cross train.  I intended to, kind of.  I wanted to run a hard 3 miles and do some weight lifting at a gym.  But silly me forgot to check with the gym that I had never been to before.  It's one of those lame members only gigs, and it's not even staffed.  The only way in is with a code you punch in.  Which I guess you have to call and give a credit card over the phone?  I don't know.  Whatever.  Bottom line, the gym didn't happen for me today.  So I ran a hard 3 miles instead (in 28 minutes) and did a handful of pushups. 

I feel like I should do workouts like that every Friday, which I usually call a rest day.  It was really nice today to do an easier workout than a 5-mile run or dumb Jillian's DVD.  I'm thinking about doing a 5K on Saturday, but then I'd still have to get in 7 more miles.  It likely depends on how tomorrow night goes as to whether I'll get up bright and early and run a race.  I haven't ran a race in Quite Some Time.  I don't like to be compared to a pile of other runners, most of who enjoy it and do it religiously.  I'd just assume compare myself to myself.  However, distance-wise, 5Ks are looking even more tempting than the 10Ks I said I should stick to earlier this week!

Bambie

I saw Bambie today.  I mean, *The*Real* Bambie.  Poooooor Bambie :(  She was sooo tiny and soooooo cute.  She was standing on the trail with a bicycler coming at her from one direction and me coming from the other.  Ohhh goodness, she was just so precious.  When the bicycler continued to charge at her and scare her off, my eyes followed her up into the woods.  And there she stood, all alone.  :(  Her poor momma was nowhere in sight.  She was looking for her momma and appeared very confused.  Poooor Bambie.  Breaks my heart.  I hope Bambie's momma was just off munching on the golf greens.  Mommas, Don't Leave Your Babies Without A Sitter!  You see, our cows keep nursery.  It's rather quite cute.  The cows alternate and while one momma sits with the group of napping calves, the other cows wander off and eat.  So when you see all the cows, but no babies, you're missing the cow that's keeping nursery.  Take note Deer!

Anyhow, I ran 5 miles today in 48 minutes.  I wanted to run hard today and I started out that way.  The way back just Always kills me.  I had so much on my mind today I didn't even bother to take Pandora.  I didn't need Beyonce to help me pound out my emotions during the run today.  I was scatter brained today.  I thought of everything from having my pseudo-sis Dana running with me to dressing up like a pirate (you can read more about that Friday).

On last Friday's awful, horrible, painful run, my running shorts started to chafe my legs a bit.  Yesterday and today they continued.  This chafing of the legs is very painful.  Once your skin gets rubbed raw, the sweat infiltrates your raw skin and *owie*owie*owie*.  Trust me.  It's awful.  So I remembered that I should have some Body Glide somewhere, which, contrary to the thoughts of the Wal-Mart pharmacy clerk (while shopping with my mother) is Not a personal lubricant.  :)  It's stuff that helps prevent and ease chafing you big ignoramous.  Yes, that incident was much like the time I asked a pharmacy clerk where I could find the Emergen-C (a vitamin drink mix) and he tried to give me the morning-after pill.  Yes, that happened too.  I went in with a cold and he tried to treat me for pregnancy.  No wonder health care is so expensive.

Ahh, I've spent one more lovely evening blogging in my hammock.  It's getting colder and darker earlier and I haven't had much time to spend in my hammock lately.  I refuse to put the hammock up until the first snow.

Sweet dreams friends.

Patiently Waiting

I'm patiently waiting on this process to get easier!  Good gracious.  Unfortunately, it's not any easier.  I suppose I do slowly get somewhat better at it, but it's *never* easier.  At least not yet.  My cousin and I were talking about how we have our good days and we have our bad days.  It seems that since week 2, I have had an unfair share of bad days.  O.K., maybe that's not a fair statement.  I've probably had an equal share of good and bad runs.  But good, bad, or average, none of its easy.

Today I ran 5 miles in 47 minutes.  I wanted to run faster today than I did yesterday.  Because I know I can.  I kept telling myself that the faster I run, the sooner I can get home and do nothing.  On the last half of my run my quads were killling me.  They are Still sore from Friday's 9-miler.  Which makes me really nervous about this weekend's long run.  I'm starting to doubt my capabilities.  :(  I finished my run and thought to myself, "I should definitely stick to 10Ks."  Today's 5-mile run Really put 13.1 miles into perspective. 

I wanted to do some weight lifting this week, since I haven't done any since I started my training.  But with my quads so sore, I'm not sure that's advisable this week.  I don't know what to do.  Other than to keep on keep'n on.  My old soccer coach used to say, "Just keep shooting.  One of them has to get in the net eventually."  For now I'll equate that to my running.  Just keep running, something has to click eventually.

I had a REALLY great photo I wanted to take and share with you this evening.  Sadly, I never got the opportunity to take the photo without looking like a lunatic.  There was a mini-van parked next to me when I got back to my car with a magnet on the back of the van of a cat's face.  It was so strange.  It looked like a magnet made at Wal-Mart, you know where they'll make your picture into anything... blankets, puzzles, coffee mugs, slippers, etc.  This was a large face shot of a cat.  That's all.  So strange.  Sorry Lassie Cat, I will not honor or memorialize you on a magnet on the back of my mini-van, station wagon, refrigerator, or even water heater. 

Another Monday

Mondays really aren't ever that much fun.  But we survive them.  I survived today's 5 mile run.  I didn't do much more than survive it, however.  It took me 50 minutes.  I wasn't really feeling it today.  I took Pandora with me but shut it off about 15 minutes into my run.  I just wanted to hear myself today.  I had a bit on my mind and I suppose I just wanted to think.  Unfortunately, it didn't make the run much easier.  Just about 3/4ths of a mile into my run my deep quad muscles that ached all weekend started screaming at me.  I didn't really know what was going on and thought for a split second I might not finish today's run. But I ignored them and carried on. 

I've decided that I need to start eating better.  My dinners usually consist of raw veggies, hummus and tortilla chips.  Not necessarily bad, other than the tortilla chips, but not very substantial either.  I can't really cook, but can't never could do noth'n.  So tonight I cooked roasted butternut squash sprinkled with the squash seeds that I also toasted, sugar snap pees and basil chicken.  It was purrrrrty good, if I must say so myself.

Nine Eleven

Today was a hard day for a lot of people.  I was especially anxious and emotional over this 9/11, party in part because of the new threats to D.C. and thinking about all my friends there.  Church was simply amazing this morning with a thought provoking sermon about 9/11, communion, and the ending hymn was "Let Peace Begin With Me."  It was so touching I wanted to burst into tears.  But I didn't.  Whew.

After church I went hiking and it was sooo lovely.  I've missed hiking dearly.  I took a TON of pictures to show you all and was so excited to post them.  But my computer and camera aren't cooperating at the moment :(  So I have just two I took with my phone that I will post.  I hiked 3 or 4 miles today.  Not exactly the rest and recovery I had planned which included an afternoon lounging in my hammock but it was just such a nice day I had to get out. 

At the top off that mess of wood and cable is a swinging bridge and the trailhead.  Luckily, a pretty steady swinging bridge.

This is one of the views from Copper Ridge Lookout.  Not even the best view, that one's on my camera :(

It Is A Laughing Matter

Today, I rested.  Well, I rested from running but there was no real rest in my day.  We were up and at 'em early to get to Knoxville with all the tailgating goodies in tow.  We had a fabulous day.  Who could not when it's beautiful weather and UT pulls off a great win in a Very Exciting game? 

I had many good laughs today with my dear cuz about our running experiences.  We reminisced about how hard running can be and how much it can hurt!  And about how we love to eat junk food and say, "we just ran."  Which is exactly what I did today.  :)  And we laughed, a lot.  Because my cuz has an amazing laugh and even being 20-somethings, we still giggle like little girls together. 

And now I'm completely exhausted, again.  My legs are still a bit sore today, but it's that really deep sore.  The kind of sore that you get when you have really worked your muscles.  The kind of sore that lingers when the generic soreness has worn off.  Yep, that's the one that stayed with me today.

Time to go rinse the ballgame grit off and hit the hay.  I just Looove ballgame days :)

Learning to Adjust

Today was frustrating.  I screwed with my training plan so that I can focus on *Tailgating* tomorrow.  Actually, I screwed with my training plan so that I could get in the three things I previously had scheduled for tomorrow:  running, working cows, and tailgating.  Something had to give. 

It was suggested by Herdmother that we work cows this evening.  I told Herdmother that that wouldn't be a problem, so long as she talked it over with the cows first.  You see, the cows have their schedule.  In the mornings, they're usually down by the corral checking out the fishermen on the lake.  By mid-morning, they've mosied on back to the hollar next to the old barn built with wood pegs that is lucky to still be standing.  By afternoon they're in the back 40 splashing in the mud pit they've meticulously created and lounging in their hammocks in the shade.  And up until this point in the day, they pretty much all stick together.  But after they've taken their stroll from the front of the property all the way to back of the property they divide and conquer.  By conquer I mean spread themselves out from here to yonder so that herding them is completely not feasible.  But so long as they're hungry, they'll usually come running from all corners when they hear the diesel truck.  But if they're not hungry, good luck cowgirl. 

So I decided that the best thing to do was to alter my running schedule and run this evening so that we could work cows tomorrow morning in accordance with their normal schedule, just in case the girls weren't hungry this evening.  Fridays are usually off days for me.  And after the very hard week of training I had this week, I Really needed that rest day today.  But alas, for the sake of cows and my beloved UT football, I convinced myself that I could do my long run this evening and then I'd have two days of rest.  Remember, Monday I did that horrid Jillian Michaels workout, Tuesday I ran 7 miles, Wednesday I ran a fast 5 miles and Thursday I ran an even faster 5 miles.  I needed to run 8 today.

My legs were tired.  I knew this before I started running.  I got to the 4 mile turn-around and was hanging in there.  I knew the way back was going to be hard, but so far, so good.  You know that saying "curiosity killed the cat"?  Yeah.  I was really curious what was around the next corner of the trail because I have never ran that far on this trail before.  So I kept going and convinced myself that I could do 9 miles today.  On very.tired.legs.

Wa-la!  This is what was around the next corner. 

A very lovely little trail-side store. 

And ohhh how the way back was very difficult.  I did okay but was really feeling it at mile 6.  I kept pushing.  Around mile 7 my body just temporarily shut down.  Out of nowhere I just stopped.  Just seconds before I was telling myself, "just keep pushing, just 2 more miles."  And then I just stopped.  I think I saw the guy running in front of me stop and walk and subconsciously, without consulting my committed mind, my body just stopped.  I was *SOOoooooo* disappointed!  I didn't WaNt to walk!  I wanted to run all 9 without stopping, regardless of how fast.  I walked for about 100 yards, saying not nice things under my breath and then finished my run in 1 hour and 35 minutes.

Complete failure.  Or was it?  I ran 9 miles less 100 yards.  When I ran that full marathon a million years ago, my coach told us all the time that if we had to walk it was fine.  What really mattered was getting the miles on our feet, even if some of it was walking.  Just go the distance and worry about the pace later.  I reminded myself today that I must stop beating myself up over little things.  There are a gazillion little things in life and in running that aren't always going to go just right.  I'm typically one of those people that wants Everything *just*right*.  Well guess what sister?  It ain't always going to go just right but the run goes on.  You pick back up and you finish and you don't dwell on the 100 yards that went wrong.  Remember sis, you're supposed to enjoy this too.  Don't beat yourself up.  It was a hard week of training but you finished it.

I know that if I would have rested today, my legs would have gotten me through 9 miles tomorrow without stopping.  But sometimes, we just have to adjust and go on.  I'll be running many more painful miles in the next two months and I just ought to get used to it.  

Then I crawled into my car after begging the sweet girls at Ellis's Soda Shop for two bags of ice to ice my burning quads, which they graciously gave me and wished me well.  I called our Herdsman (that'd be Daddy) and he said, "I'm over here getting the cows up."  Oh geeez.  Isn't that why I adjusted my training schedule to begin with?  Why, yes it was.  And so I adjusted again, stopped at the farmhouse for my boots and worked cattle.  I shall rest well tonight loved ones.