Running: June 6-12

[OakLeaf]

Ugh ... it's the first nice day in weeks and I have a horrible cold. I'm so anxious to get out for a run!

[Bike Chick]

Hope you get to feeling better, Oak. That's miserable this time of year.

[indigoiis]

Feel better, Oak! I hate summer colds. Bleh!

I am in week 1 of my 18 week marathon training. 1st marathon this Fall. Yay!

Since I have been doing mad cycling I had neglected some of my running, so this week has been a re-awakening of sorts for my poor calves and achilles. For some reason, these muscles and tendons remain under-utilized. I don't know, I probably could be pulling up more on the pedals when I ride. Anyhow, it's resulted in my feeling sort of fatigued on hills. But not in the same way I used to be fatigued on hills - now it's not my breathing, it's the back of my legs. They don't feel like pain, exactly, more like that feeling - you know how you feel when it's that time of the month and you have that low, dull discomfort at the base of your spine? It's like that, but behind my knees.
So I guess I need to STRETCH and work them.

Anyhow, so this week so far I did 3.4, 3.3, and 3.5 (Monday, Wed. and today) and I rode 30 Tuesday... tomorrow I want to ride at least a half commute, and Saturday I will run 6.

[kacie tri-ing]

Yeah for the first marathon week! Which race is it?

So I have a little catching up to do Let's see...I ran this half marathon (after swimming 1.2 miles and riding a hot and hilly 56). I managed 2:00:50 as colby posted. Good gosh, it was H-O-T hot. And there was this GIANT (or maybe it just seemed that way!) hill that we had to run twice. On the second time, I saw it coming, and I just kept saying "two scoops of icecream" over and over and over so that I felt like I could conquer anything (I did get the two scoops and they were insanely decadent!

So the race went really well..PR by 21 minutes.

THEN--we went to boulder, co for the week (and really really loved it!).
The day after the race, I swam and did a 2 hour hike. My body was a little upset, but it was good for it!
I did a run through a prairie dog colony last wednesday. They were SO cute. It was about 4 miles, and 2 miles in the altitude got me, and I was sick the whole way back.

BUT THEN I came back and conquered the prairie dog run. I brought my camera too! This is certainly the fastest that I have recovered from a HIM(knocks on wood)

Back home again, and yesterday I managed through a 6 mile trail run. Another one this weekend. This is a re-build week, and then I have until August 29th to pull everything together for my IM.

I am attaching a couple of race pictures and a couple of prairie dog pictures. I know that for some of you they are not that unique, but they are for me!!!

[Jolt]

35-minute trail run for me today. It felt good to run trails again after so many road runs lately--I always seem to run better on the trails.

[indigoiis]

Kacie - you look so incredibly fit! Wow! When you say you got sick on your high altitude trail run, did you get like, really sick (bolting) or were you just nauseous? I am traveling out West, and being from sea level, want to do some trail runs while on vacation. I think the town we are staying in is base 2,500 ft. and some of the trails are up in the 5 - 7s. Do you think that will affect me?

Anyhow, the marathon I am training for is the Amica in Newport, RI. It is where I grew up and is particularly meaningful to me. I did my first half last year there.

I heart trail running, too. Something about it makes one feel faster.

[colby]

I did 400m/.25mi repeats last night. This week at work was rough. Several days of late nights (we're talking 12:30-3:30AM) starting Tuesday through Thursday. I got Monday and Tuesday's workouts in, then it fell apart, so I had to pick back up. Only got in a short bike ride this morning but I might ride again tonight.

This weekend I'm not sure what's in store, I think it's a brick and a dedicated swim day. I will be going out to try on new full-sleeved wetsuits (which I intended to do a couple weeks ago, but I'm not really worried) and riding some hills when I ride.

9 days - #2185 - all the money's in the bank, now it's time to write the big check and have some left over for a nice dessert!