Not Swell

Today, was not so swell.  From.the.getgo.  I woke up, and was woken up numerous times through the night, to the *ding*ding* of my Blackberry.  You see, between midnight and 7:30 this morning I had 90 (yes, 90!) emails come to my work account.  No, these weren't "things I need to take care of" emails, but rather, repeat emails.  One email sent to me 50 times, another 20, another 10, you get the picture.  And this continued throught the day.  Until I finally removed that email account from my Blackberry.  I will re-add it when the !$%#$#(#$%#%(! server "engineers" get their act together.

My day continued with one internet or wireless issue after another and consisted of hateful phone calls to the !$##%%$%!#$%! sever "engineers."  I hate being hateful, I Really Do!

And to top it off, I feel like crum crimminy cricket today.  I ran 4 miles today and my nose was running faster than I was.  I finished in 38 minutes and 20 seconds (less than 10 minute miles, which I was pleasantly surprised with considering how I felt).  I was going to run 5, and even wanted to run 6, but once I got going, I knew there was little hope of that. 

My legs are not too impressed with this new goal of mine.  They were so heavy.  I'm pretty sure I heard them say, "Excuse me, but WhO authorized this goal??  Cause it wasn't us!"  My legs felt heavy the entire run.  There was no easing off. 

I really think my bed needs me right now.  And I'm anxious to go comfort it.  But first I have dinner with lovely Herdmother and a shopping list to cover.  You probably won't hear much from me through the weekend.  I know, don't all cry at once.  Superwoman is coming to see me.  And we will be busy.  The good news, however, is that I should return with lots of *pretty*pretty* pictures for you.

I would like to get up and run 3 miles in the morning, since my long run this week probably won't be until Sunday.  But, those of you who think I will actually do that please raise your hand.  Now slap your silly self with it.

I Have A Goooooooal!!!!

After Weeks and Weeks of training without much focus, I have Finally realized a *Goal!*  One of my first posts was about finding a goal.  FInally, I have one.  Granted, it's not a goal that's going to change my life or push me to extremes that I've never been to before, BUT it's a *Goal!*

I Must have a goal.  I Must have focus.  Now, I Do!  You see, yesterday's run gave me something to think about.  It was hard and I pushed myself really hard and it paid off.  I ran the fastest I've ran 5 miles in potentially-ever.  I surprised myself.  So I said, "self, you should push yourself more everyday because you know you can."  So now that I know I can run 5 miles in 45 and a half minutes, I know that I Should be running faster and pushing myself everyday.

So here it is folks, my *Goal* for now is to STOP running 10-minutes miles.  I know I can run faster, so therefore, I Should run faster.  Now I don't expect or necessarily desire to run 9-minute miles consistently.  But I do know that I should Not be running 10-minute miles consistently.  Perhaps with the exceptions of my long runs and really bad days.

I'm still a little miffed over last week's long run.  I want to think I miscalculated the miles because I can't Believe I ran near 11-minute miles.  I sure wasn't anywhere near 9-minutes miles, but I am surprised that I ran 11-minute miles.  Oh well.  Regardless, moving on and moving forward.  With my new *Goal!*  :)

Today I ran 5 miles in just over 47 minutes.  And it was comfortable.  I wasn't killing it like yesterday but I was pushing myself a little more than I have in the past.  I think goals make things more fun.  Don't settle for status quo.  Don't just maintain.  Always aim to improve.  I Have A Gooooooal!!!

Gosh Golly Wilikers!!

I ran 5 miles tonight in..... wait for it....... !!!!!!

*Forty-Five*minutes and *thirty seconds!*  !!!!!!!!!!  If my math is correct (and it's probably not), that's 9 minute and six second miles!  That's 54 seconds per mile faster than my usual!  WoW! 

I saw the Cutest sight on the trail ever.  There was this SUpeR cute fella, MaYbe 4 years old in a polo shirt and his hair flopping in the wind as he Very Seriously ran down the trail.  Behind him was his Papa jogging with the lil' fella's younger sibling in the jogging stroller, And behind them was the AboutAgeSeven Sister jogging behind, also Very Serious.  When we passed she puffed up her cheeks like any exhausted jogger would, yet in a very dramatic and childlike way.  SoooOoooo darn adorable!  Way to go Papa, start them early!

My collar bones hurt me for a bit while running today.  They hurt bad!  Luckily, it went away after a few minutes.  All else went pretty well.  I wanted to drop down on my knees and crawl after I finished running my super hard run today.  And then I planned to throw up.  See, I had it all planned out.  The last 1/4th mile I wasn't sure I could keep up the pace.  I was Secretly hoping I could finish in 45 flat.  But I'm not complaining!

Who would have thunk it?  Don't expect any repeat performances people.

I Rested

Today, I was lazy.  I did A Lot of physical activity this weekend, so today I just felt like resting.  I wanted to give my body a good break before I aim to have another good training week.  I kicked back, feet up, nearly all day and nearly all night.  It was nice and much needed.  Last night I was soooo tired I couldn't even comprehend how tired I was.  Yeah, that's tired. 

No excuses tomorrow!

I Biked

Today I biked 17 miles of the Virginia Creeper Trail.  Before you act real impressed, consider that its nearly all downhill.  I will add more photos later if the trail czars e-mail me theirs.

I Hiked

Today I hiked.  And saw *Beautiful* things.  The fall colors are out *Bright* and *Early!*  We hiked 10 miles through the beautiful Grayson Highlands State Park on an absolutely beautiful day.

Meet Megan and Steve.  Hiking extraordinaires.

 AT crossing a creek.

They were prettier in person.

Megan, approving of the colors.

Double white blazes, right turn on the AT!

HeLLo bRiGht green catipilar with a stinger/thorn thingy on your tail!

We decided that this is what Ireland looks like.  No, silly, none of us have ever been to Ireland of course!

The lame Blackberry pictures don't do it justice.

This girl had the Prettiest lil' face!

She's working on her camouflage skills. 

They really think they're hiding.

And the sweet ponies topped it all off.

The Most WOnderful tiiiiime of the Year!

It's Fall!  Today was the 1st day of Fall!  The leaves are starting to turn and you can smell fall in the air.  Temperatures are lovely for running!  I will spare you of my rant about how incredible football season is.  While also being the first day of fall, today was Friday!  Oh how I love my Fridays. 

I was dreading my long run today.  Truly.  It was raining off and on and I was not looking forward to the 10 miles of torture.  So I whipped out my handy dandy book by the Marathon CEO and ooooh, how I needed his thoughts today.  By the time I got through reading the next chapter mile, I was ready to run.  And I just wanted to have fun with my run today. 

And for the first four miles, I did just that.  I just had a good time.  i enjoyed the beauty of the trail, the fall weather, the leaves on the trail, the blessings in my life and I just smiled.  At mile 4 I checked my watch and realized I was running very slowly.  Like, realllll slow.  So I tried to conscious of my lolly-gagging and direct more attention to my running.  Yeah, that didn't work out very well.

About 6.5 miles in, I started feeling it.  My knees were a bit achey, my hamstrings were a little tight, but I still had a ways to go.  And I thought, "self, I really wouldn't mind if the clouds opened up and it started raining.  I am a bit thirsty after all."  .........  ............................................  Ohhhhh yeah, mile 7.  The clouds indeed opened up and let it fall.  It wasn't so bad.  It didn't really make me any less thirsty or ease the pain any, but it changed things up a bit. 

Do to my miscalculation (which if you know me and my numbers skills is no surprise), I had an extra half mile to get back to my starting point that I hadn't planned on.  I finally figured this out while trying to figure out why my watch said I was running crazy ridiculously slow, not just Really slow like I actually was. I was soooo looking forward to stopping at 10 miles even.  But then I tossed around the benefits and consequences of running an extra half mile or mile versus walking the same in the rain.  So I split the baby and ran 10.5 miles and walked half a mile to cool down.  It took me one hour and 53 minutes to run 10.5 miles.  Which is Crazy slow!  I blame it on the cookies.

I did it.  And at least part of it was fun.  But now I can't walk.  Eah, walking is overrated.