Excuse Me, I'm Tapering

Wednesday is traffic court date in my world. Not because I get so many tickets that I have to go to traffic court every week, but because I prosecute for some of our local cities and it's my job. Before afternoon court, all the prosecutees line up and wait to talk so we can try to resolve their cases. Anyhow, today I was dealing with one defendant and the next person in line kept hovering. As in two inches from my face. I snapped at him, "Could you back up and wait your turn?" His response? "Why do you have to be so mean?"

I figured I had three possible responses:
1) "Why do you have be so stupid?"

2) "I don't mean to be mean, but I'm running a marathon on Sunday, which means I've basically been doing jack-shit nothing for exercise for a week or so and I'm all twitchy and about to lose my mind."

3) Silence.

I chose silence. Probably the right choice.

Other behavioral lapses I'm blaming on tapering: giving my ice pack more loving than I've been giving my husband, and eating everything in sight. What? I have to feed my tape(r) worm.

Perfect Fall Workout

Yesterday I wanted to get out for a bike ride and a run. I managed to get a two-for-one! I picked up Jim and we took our bikes up to Hinckley to the bike trail. I hadn't ridden my new road bike since my last tri (been out on my hybrid many times with Sophie in the baby seat, though), and I was eager to take it out for a spin.

We rode 10 miles on the bike trail to the Audubon Center. There, we ditched the bikes for a little trail running.

Then it was back on the bike for 10 miles back to the trail head.

I was like the poster child for exercise-induced endorphins. I was all "the leaves are so beautiful," "the weather is so perfect," "that dead skunk smells so fresh." I'm sure Jim was ready to toss me into the completely gorgeous, crystal clear lake by which we were running. Although, it would have been nice to get in a swim . . .

Never Thought I Could

When I was in high school, I could barely run a mile. I never thought one mile would seem short.

When I started running regularly for exercise, I thought races were for fast people. I never thought I would run one.

When I started running races, I thought 10K was nearly impossible. I said, "I'll never run a marathon."

When I trained for my first marathon, I thought one would be enough. I never thought I would want to do another one (or four).

When I heard about people doing triathlons, I thought it would be fun. But I never thought I could learn to swim.

I have run farther and faster, and swam farther, and biked farther, than I ever thought I could. What are YOU doing that you once thought was impossible?

Must be Go Time

Almost out of Gu . . . must be time to run a marathon!

Thanks for all your advice about my last big long run this weekend. I listened! I scrapped the 50 mile bike ride yesterday (trading it instead for an 8 mile ride into town with Sophie on the bike) and ran 20 this morning. And I am so glad I did. It was a great run, and a nice confidence builder for the marathon. I am very grateful to my awesome running partner Jim for running the 20 with me (even though he is not running a fall marathon) and to his wife for watching Sophie so we could run.

After the run, Sophie and I headed to my mom's for apple day. You know what makes for great post-run recovery? Warm apple crisp and vanilla ice cream. Yum.

Taper? From What?

As I was flipping through my calendar this morning trying to figure out what's going on (typical Monday morning) I realized the Twin Cities marathon is only 20 days away. Less than 3 weeks. In my last two rounds of marathon training, my last three weekend long runs have been 15, 13, and 10. You know what I did this past weekend? Hint: it wasn't running 15 miles. In fact, I was at a friend's cabin, forgot my sports bras, and ended up walking two miles. Oops.

That really is in keeping with this entire marathon training cycle. I started out strong, but quickly scrapped the program. My summer training has been more of "gee I think I'll do a triathlon this weekend" than "must get in the long run." And it has made me really, really happy. I wouldn't trade it for a thing. And while I know I'm certainly not trained to go for a PR at Twin Cities, I have the fitness to finish.

So that leaves me with this weekend and where I need your help. Two weeks out from the marathon. I am wondering if I should try to do a 20 miler or do something shorter. I haven't done a 20 miler yet this cycle (I know, you're probably all un-following me now for the cardinal marathon training sin). So for confidence purposes I would really like to get one in. Oh, one other thing - I'm doing a 50 mile bike ride on Saturday. So do I do my 20 on Sunday and THEN start my taper? Or should I try to hit 13-15 Sunday and call it good?

Seeing Summer out the Door

I had a great long weekend saying goodbye to summer. I spent all Friday doing my fall cleaning (and for a few hours actually had my entire house clean at the same time!). Sunday morning, I enjoyed a beautiful, cool long run. And then it was off to the golf course for one last tournament.

Just the usual shenanigans.

Then Sunday morning Sophie and I were up bright and early to spend the day at the State Fair with my in-laws.


Bring on fall!

I was tagged by a couple of classy ladies with the Cherry on Top Award and that other happiness award that's going around. Thanks to my tri-idol, P and my fellow Packer lover, Jeri! By now I'm sure you are familiar with the rules. And while I agree with a lot of you that I wouldn't change much because even the bad stuff and mistakes brought me to where I am today, I would change lots of little things. Like my underwear. Just kidding. But I wish I would have been nicer to my siblings when we were young. And I wish I never would have gotten that Richard Simmons haircut when I was in 5th grade.

Anyhow, onto 10 things that make me happy - the fall version:
1. The whole month of October (my favorite races, Sophie's birthday, Halloween - I love it!).

2. Changing leaves.

3. Cool running temps.

4. New shows on TV.

5. Knowing that the holidays are coming, yet still being able to cling to denial about that frigid bitch winter.

6. Jeans and sweatshirts.

7. The start of my fall "sports" - bowling and book club.

8. Soup season.

9. Colder nights = dead mosquitos.

10. My one year anniversary at the kettlebell gym - I got a free shirt AND discounted class prices.

I know I'm supposed to tag people, but my keyboard is messed up and if I have to deal with it for much longer I might throw my computer out the window! So if you're reading this and you haven't done this yet, consider yourself tagged.

My Own Back to School

At the risk of revealing my true inner nerd (oh, you already knew I was a nerd?), I will confess: I am jealous of anyone who gets to go back to school. I would happily be packing my big red backpack with new spiral notebooks and shiny pink pens and heading off to some new educational adventure, but my husband thinks (for some reason) that I should pay off my law school student loans first. Whatever.

Even though I can't go back to school, I can celebrate fall as a time to get back to a schedule. What sort of schedule? Oh, how about marathon training? Seeing as how Twin Cities is only a month away, this might not be a bad idea. Although I ran several good long runs during August (inluding a half-marathon), my total running mileage was only 80 miles. Oops. A little too much vacation, golf, and triathlon.

Time to get my running legs back. I ran a great hard three miler after work today, which was equal parts looking for a good run and running away from the eight bazillion totally freaking crazy people I had to deal with at work today. AND I am working like a mad woman to schedule a 20 miler within the next 7 days (but having babysitter problems - anyone want to watch my almost-3 year old for a few hours???).

So it's back to school, running style: early morning runs, speed or hill work two nights a week after work, and long runs on the weekend. I'm not quite ready to bid farewell to my summer romance - I'll still be at the pool a couple of mornings a week and I had a great bike ride on the trail last night.