Randomness

Six miles tonight at an average pace of 10:41/mile.

Then, 45 minutes of walking with Josh. He is in dire need of new shoes.

I got a big, nasty blister on my toe from the tape I was using to protect another blister.

One day I'll figure out the trick to taping existing blisters without causing new ones.

I glanced at my numbers for last week. 22.5 miles of running and walking. Jeepers, it's a wonder my legs haven't fallen off yet.

I bought two more pairs of the world's best running shorts. Bonus, they were on sale for 25% off.

I went to the dentist this morning, no cavities. Yahoo!

Garage sale is in three weeks. I have much to do.

p.s. the other night....we went to Schmidt's Corner :-D

Back in the saddle, or whatever

I planned on taking two weeks off from the half marathon before I started running again but after about four days of doing nothing, I started to get a little antsy. I stretched that out another three days of being really antsy before finally caving and going for a nice 5-mile run after work tonight. My legs were cranky and they didn't seem to settle down until around mile 3. It was 58 degrees when I took off, which meant that I was able to wear the new shorts I picked up in San Francisco. They're really comfortable, and best of all, did not ride up. At $28 they're a bit pricey, but I think I'm going to invest in a few more pairs anyway. Shorts that don't up are really hard to find. I know because it's been my quest for the past four years to find them and I have 20 or so pairs of shorts that are too annoying to run in collecting dust in my closet to prove it, too. I don't even want to think about how much money I have invested in that pile. Oy.

Next up on the race calendar is the 10k (6.2 mile) Hodag Run on June 28th. It's a small race in downtown Rhinelander sponsored by the local YMCA. Rhinelander's a fun place, especially Lurv's Kozy Korner Bar, so it should make for a really enjoyable weekend.

I'm going to try to improve on my fastest 6-mile time, which was 1:06. This means I get to start doing speed work, which basically means run really, really fast for a short period time, then rest a bit, then do it over. And try not to injure myself in the process. Sometimes I really wish I had a coach because I really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to training. Until now, I've just found some plan on the intarwebz that didn't require anything but running and followed it. That plan has worked, but now that I know that I can run HM distances, I want to start improving my times. I'd really like to be able to run a 2:15 HM some day. That would require that I shave a minute off of my pace, which I think I can do, but I'm just not sure how to go about doing it.

Speaking of training, Josh is going to walk the 10k while I run and he's going to officially train! Using a plan and everything! I'm not sure he'll be as nuts about analyzing his data as I am, but he's already asked to borrow my old Forerunner 201, so there's hope yet!

Trailer and running: check

We hauled the trailer home in a snowstorm yesterday. A snowstorm in May! Honestly.

It's pretty much ready to go. I didn't have much more to do other than put the stuff back in it. I cleaned it really well last fall before it went into storage so I didn't have much to do on that front. A big bonus was that we successfully plugged all the holes where the mice were getting in and I didn't have any mice poop to clean up this year. The only thing I really had to do was take the bedding home and wash it all, which I did last night. It's ready to go back in the trailer. There are a few things that Josh wants to do before we leave - check the wheel bearings and tire pressure, and grease the jacks and hitch. Oh, and my Tahoe needs it's oil changed and the summer tires put on. Hmm. I guess we're not doing as well as I thought we were. Oh well, still lots of time.

I got my 10-mile run in this morning. The first six miles went pretty well. Then when I turned the corner from Denton Road onto US41 toward Houghton I was met with a gale-force wind and the last four miles completely sucked. The wind relentless! I had to keep my head down to use the brim of my hat as a buffer because when I didn't, the wind made my eyes water. My legs were aching trying to keep my forward momentum and finally, with about a mile left to go and mentally and physically exhausted, I gave up and turned around and ran the last bit with the wind. I felt completely exhausted when I finished. More so than when I ran my 9-miler out to Chassell and that was completely uphill! I've decided that I'll take uphills over wind any day. That's my last long run before next weekend. I'll probably run three days next week, but only a couple of miles each time.

My hip didn't bother me too much, just enough to remind me that it was there. My blister situation is much improved, but I did get two small ones on my big toes. I'm not worried about them, I'll just tape up my toes on race day and I'll be just fine.

Six days to go!

One week to go!

The weather is not cooperating for anything I need to get done before we leave for Eagle River next week.

I need to get in a final long run this weekend but the weather has been awful. It's been cold, windy and rainy for the last two days. Tomorrow isn't looking any better. I don't want to have to run in this type of weather, but I may be forced to, I have to get those miles in.

I need to get the trailer out of storage and get it ready for the trip, which I was hoping to do last night but we decided to change our minds due to the giant thunderstorm that came through. I don't have a ton to do with the trailer because I always give it a good cleaning before I put it into storage in the fall, but there's still a lot of trailer-related things that need to get done before we take off.

Plus, now there's a chance I may need to work on Wednesday morning so our customer service department can send out the student bills. I'm the only one who can load and process the billing download into our billing system, yay. I guess it's my fault for telling them that I probably wouldn't be heading out of town until late morning/early afternoon on Wednesday. I told them that I'd come in if it was critical, but I'd prefer not to. We'll see how things go.

I've been obsessively checking the long-range forecast for Eagle River on the day of the race. There's three different weather sites I look at and each one of them has a different forecast. It'll either be sunny and in the 60s or rainy and in the 50s. This means that I have absolutely no clue what to wear on race day and I'm going to have to take all my running gear in order to be prepared to any type of weather. Bah.

I have a feeling that these next few days are going to be a crazy and I'm not going to be happy until we're settled in the campground.

Day Off

I took the day off from running today. We went out for drinks with friends instead. Tomorrow is my sports massage. I've been doing some reading on the topic and it looks like it's not advised to run after a massage. I'll see what the massage therapist says.

My hip is feeling so much better. The heating pad treatment really helped. I wish I would have thought of it two weeks ago.

The weather's not looking good for a long run on Saturday so I may postpone it until Sunday. I can't decide what mileage I should for - 8,9,10 or 11. Guess I have a few days to decide.