A week's worth of thoughts...

Training Recap:

Swimming and running doing well. Ran my first track workout in forever on tuesday - and my first trail run ever on wednesday. Currently running about 3 days a week with a 8-10 miler on the weekends. Going to keep doing that for a little while here - I think I am 18 weeks out from the Towpath marathon - so i need to decide what program to follow. i've done some research on the phitzinger, first, and hal higdon. Not sure what to follow - phitzinger (however you spell it) seems a bit intense, first seems not quite intense enough - any thoughts and what you guys think has worked best for you? Swimming is getting there - getting in the water 2-3 days a week - yardage is not quite what it should be yet - but i am getting better - i'm anxious to get in the open water - but am having some wetsuit issues...

A thought on wet suits

Per the sizing chart on the wet suits at 128lbs 5'6.5" I should be a medium - or maybe even a small. Well let me tell you - that is not that case - b/c apparently wet suits were not made for bodies shaped like mine! Went to bike authority to try on some of the sales rack wetsuits. I made steve come into the dressing room with me - b/c i knew i was going to need help. didn't really think the small would fit - but for 30% off - who knows it's worth a try. At the point where steve was grabbing the wetsuit to try and pull it up over my butt - but was only succeeding on picking me and the wet suit up off the ground i figured we better get the small off before i got stuck. well - onto the medium - went on much easier - steve zipped me up - and i said i'm choking - and he said no you're alright - well i turned around to look at him - and he was like oh my god - you are choking and unzipped it. I don't know what was wrong with me or the suit - but it was litterally choking me! so we got that off and tried on a large with no sleeves - which wasn't what i really wanted - and seemed like it might be a bit big. So i left the store - a bit defeated - really hot and kind of worn out. I think i can actually say that i've found something worse than trying on bathing suits... wet suits!!!

Race recaps:

I ran the eagle 5 mile race on May 24th and the Aetna Race for the kids 5k on this past sunday. I've had run the eagle run a few years ago - and the course is now in a different place - same sort of course though - winds through some pretty neighborhoods and is flat. They also do a nice job of giving you a wicking hat and long sleve tech tees. Well i knew going into the race that if i ran a decent race (sub 40 - which i've only done once before) I had a good shot at an age group award. And as age group awards are still very new to me - i get very excited at the prospect of winning one. I ran the race with my garmin for once so that i could keep track of my pace a little better - i needed to make sure that i kept my pace under 8:00 at all times. Tried to take it easy on the first two miles. mile one 7:30, mile 2 15:01 - perfect. Mile 3 23: something Mile 4 - don't remember - but i knew it was under 32 - pushed it in for a fnal time of 38:05. I almost threw up in the shute and the guy from hermes was like are you alright? i said oh i'm fine - just have a banana that wants to get out - and said oh ok - can you tear off your own number then? ha! I said it's not a good race unless you almost puke at the end! Got to the end of the shute - and they handed me 2nd place in my age group!!! yeah! It was a star shapped paper weight - one can never have too many of those! I looked up my time from the last time i ran this race - it was a 48:00 - so 10 minutes better!! woo hoo -- oh and I ran back out on the course to go get steve - he had said his legs were hurting and he was hoping to break 50.... well i came around the corner and there he was finishing in 43:59!!! that's his best time ever! So all in all it was a great day.

ok this is the longest post ever -- i'll tell you about sunday's race a day or so... i know i know - you are all very exctied - but contain yourself - you'll be ok...